Rediscover Stitch 'n bitch : the Knitter's Handbook

It has been exactly a decade since I purchased Stitch 'n bitch : the knitter's handbook for the collection of Applied Arts at SCPL. Being a selector, I was too busy buying and weeding books to enjoy Deborah Stoller's true talents.

It was not to happen until a couple of months ago, when my expectant great niece was looking for someone to knit Big Bad Baby Blanket for her new baby. Since I am a knitter of some sort in the family, I was awarded the glory. The recommended web site offered free advice on yarn selections, but not the knitting pattern which was copyrighted by Stitch 'n bitch : the knitter's handbook. Thus I was forced to be personally encountered with the book. Needless to say, the blanket was well received later by my grateful great niece.

My latest encounter was Cat bed in Miscellaneous section. I always wanted to give Chippy a bed, but nothing really took my fancy until I saw Princess Snowball Cat Bed. After assembling the bed this afternoon, I put Chippy next to it. Without any coaxing, or catnip, she sniffed it twice and immediately climbed into her new bed and slept from early evening through night.

I am truly glad that our library has 6 titles by Deborah Stoller, which is a great resource for serious as well as weekend knitters. Unlike other knitting/crocheting books skimping with instructions, her selections are excellent and classic, peppered with good and timely advice before readers have any doubts or questions.

New Knits for a New Baby

Thanks to Paul, the Afghans site has been updated and seven new baby knits, uploaded to the bottom of page 4. As a knitter, I have to admit again that his photo representations are so much better than my original pieces, with brighter colors, crispier designs and so much more details. The following is but a example

Thank you for viewing and enjoying!

Tuesday Evening with Rosie's Author

Yesterday evening, my former boss came to pick me up. Together we drove over the hill to attend "Book talk and signing with the author of the Rosie project" at Orchard City Banquet Hall, Campbell Community Center.

It was an eye-opening experience for me on many levels. First of all, my former colleague is doing really well at Santa Clara County Library. She organized the book talk event, which was so successful with the fully packed hall that Graeme Simsion, the author, could not help recalling his first Rosie project signing in an Australian rural library. His independent book seller took only ten copies for the event, but was still unsure if he could sell them all.

Secondly, the Rosie project (and its sequel the Rosie effect) is the first book to be officially acknowledged by the Asperger's syndrome community, due to the author's accurate and sympathetic approach towards people who suffer from the disorder. He never laughs at them, but with them, making them proud enough to come out of closet. The author draws his sympathy largely from his background and interaction with fellow programers, a code name for people with Asperger's syndrome in the late 70s, when there were no official courses for computer science.

Born in New Zealand, Graeme was told that he had written the best essay at age of 13, but disillusioned soon after that he was not smart enough to be a physicist, especially not in the field of quantum physics. Working as a computer programer in Australia, he was soon approached by Don who wanted to do a MBA with him, for they had shared "the same problem." Although Don never earned his MBA degree as the author did, they had been staying in touch. The author witnessed Don's troubled marriage, but dedication to the same woman after she was sick for more than two decades. Care-taking made Don's life worth living. Through Don's life, he also saw the unhelpful labeling of Asperger's when psychologists mislabeled their patients in the early days.

Thirdly, the author, Graeme Simsio, delivered his book talk like a real comedian. He thinks that the key to a good story is that it can make you cry, make you laugh and make you think. During his writing, he likes to plan by writing on cards. His advice on overcoming writer's block: lower one's standards, and write anyway. 

Last but not least, I had a peasant reunion with my former boss and colleague. I even got a nice gift pin of three girls to remember the occasion with.

Out of Comfort Zone

For some time, I had been lapsed into a mode of reading and viewing only mysteries, or rather, British or Scandinavian mysteries. Uncomplainingly, Paul would watch with me, but quickly drift into a dreamland, instead of experiencing the entire story unfold on the screen. 

During our latest trip in New York, I went through a rebirth process of sorts, and found myself turning into a reasonably flexible viewer. My platter became as wide as a feline’s, too.

To recall, I have not found it particularly painful to take myself out of my comfort zone. But two elements are critical: mental preparation and determination to have a good time. The following are some movies/TV programs we enjoyed during and after our trip:

DURING THE TRIP August Osage County (2013)

Car of the Future (2008)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Draft Day (2014)

Grand Hotel Budapest (2014)
Her (2013)
Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2014)
Luther (2010) 
Noah (2014)
Pitch Perfect (2012)
Reykjavik Rotterdam (2008)
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011)

Simple Plan, A (1998) Under the Skin (2013)

We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004)  AFTER THE TRIP Captain Phillips (2013) Chef (2014)

Interstellar (2014)
The Lunchbox (2013)
Looper (2012) 
A Most Wanted Man (2014)  
My Brother is an Only Child (2007)

Ray (2004)
The Roosevelts: an Intimate History(2014)

Theory of Everything (2014)
Zero Dark Thirty (2012) 
 

A Mother Teresa Break: Rain Held for Jack O'Lantern Blaze

Paul and I went to 2014 Jack O'Lantern Blaze. The blaze site was left behind Shop Rite of Croton-on-Hudson. One could either park on the shopping center site or go through the arch entrance. The lot was full.

Never in our entire life did we see so many pumpkins, and so many creative ways to present pumpkins. Five thousand pumpkins were employed to be gravesides, building or wall decorations, flora and fauna, animals, etc. we especially liked the use of accompanying lighting, sound and other special effects, plus a whole spectrum of Jurassic park families, and Chinese dragon.

Little did we realize that we stayed there for more than two long hours until Paul's camera chip was almost full and our feet went frozen. But there were still more things to see.

All in all, we loved our experience, it was very rich visually and culturally. We now knew a lot about Croton's local history and colorful local characters. The event was well manned with tight security and friendly staff, fit for all ages, particularly in earlier time slots.

We had been worried about the weather ever since we booked the only available tickets for the night of 11/6/2014 alerted by our niece Wendy. But we were blessed with a Mother Teresa break: it rained all day Thursday 11/6 until 7 pm. The full moon even popped out to join us.  

Watching The Hunger Games

Paul and I finally watched the long delayed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013).

It was a tense movie: characters, like in any sci-fi film, are always on the run, hunted and haunted by their hellish worlds. Because of her sympathetic tendency towards the downtrodden, Katniss and her partner were thrown into a demonic forest, attacked by burning clouds, fictitious animals and countless sufferings to stay alive until she shot into and broke the artificial dome of sky (reminding us of scenes in The Truman Show).

It is also an extremely successful movie. The two and a half hour running time did not seem long at all. When the end came, it was almost a relief, as one would wake up from a torturous nightmare, to know that the revolution had earnestly begun, and District 12 no longer existed. Probably this is where the attraction of the sci-fi genre lies. The mashup of spectacular Roman chariots and the Third Reich's Nuremberg rallies flanked by those vertical banners designed by Albert Speer, plus District 9's story, have totally dazzled newer generations born and living in cyberspace. The eternal worship for love and youth have also captured older generations nostalgic for their fleeting days. No wonder by the end of October 2012, 327,000 visitors had flocked to Hendersonville, NC to experience Hunger Game's forest and DuPont's High Falls after the first Hunger Games came out.

Where Was I on October 17, 1989, 5:04 PM?

Every time when I say that I came to Santa Cruz in 1989, I will inevitably be asked where I was on October 17, 5:04 pm, when 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred in northern California, the same way people born before November 1963 will be questioned where they were on 12:30 pm, when JFK was assassinated.

Unlike many locals who performed extraordinarily heroic feats by rescuing earthquake victims, or properties that day, I had a very ordinary experience, watching Stanley Kubrick's 2001: a Space Odyssey, as one of the Film Experience Class students at the Science Building of University of California, Santa Cruz. The film was not finished until months later. At 5:04 p.m., the earthquake struck the moment a scientist from the film started to speak: his voice not only boomed through the whole building, but shook the cement ground under our feet and broke many window glasses.

I had just started my American college life then and ignorantly skipped many extracurricular activities, such as group discussions and evaluations. When gathered on the lawn opposite to Porter College, I made a special effort to turn over a new leaf by asking my TA (Teaching Assistant) if we should go back to our classroom to evaluate the film. "Absolutely yes," she replied and told me and the rest of class to wait for the shaking to pass.

We never resumed our post-film discussion that evening as my TA estimated. Very soon we realized that the shaking was more serious than she expected: we lost electricity, saw smoke and fire down in the city, and chaotic traffic on Bay Avenue.

There was no city or school bus for me to leave the university to return to my home at Live Oak Avenue. For the first (and last) time in my life, I learned to hitchhike, and a passenger car transported me to downtown Santa Cruz, not far from where Paul lived. On seeing him standing at the back of the house on Clay Street, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

Travel Photographers' Forum with Wallace

On September 26, 2014, I attended Paul's Travel Photographers' Forum, with a digital slide show and discussion moderated by Wallace Baine. It was a collaboration with Cabrillo College Photography Department, Parojo Valley Arts Council (PVAC) and Santa Cruz Sentinel.

It was a well-attended event, room 1001 was packed with students, teachers and photography enthusiasts. There were five photographers whose works are still being exhibited at PVAC and the five Santa Cruz County Banks. Paul is one of the five presenters. The following notes were taken at the event.

Wallace: Travel photography is a way to capture one's experience. Travel to capture sounds (for Wallace).

Presenter 1: Shmuel Thaler
A photographer since 1987 Sentinel
As a conversation
Two parts
1. Personal Favorites. No difference. Composition and content together. Connecting people with what they do, as a geometry, landscape, color. Putting people in a place. Things just happened. Always be prepared. Context

2. Seeing things in a different way. Some kind of perspective, with landscape. We are doing things entirely new. Eye and brain, not really equipment. Highlights universality of human beings. Being aware of what is going on.

Likes to shoot with his iPhone, seeing what is going on. Going to some place entirely new. Through light, about seeing and feeling. Not let equipment get in the way.

Never shot B&W, unable to put colors in.

Presenter 2: Mary Aliter
For the last 35 years, Been to over 100 countries. Interested in tribes
Wants a flow of things. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Has covered
SE China
Colorful opportunities. Egypt. Try to see a personal in a background. Synchronicity of background. Pageantry of colors.
Her favorite places:
Bali,
Papa New Guinea,
Dead Sea, Jordan,
Masks,  India, Peru
Vietnam,
Mali,
Morocco,
South America,
Bhutan,
Ethiopia,
India.

Presenter 3: Elyse Destout
People are very important
Show fun with the people you love
Been to China 2010 and 2012
Learn about china, rich in color and culture
Solemn moments in front of temples
Flea markets
Beauty in little things
Drawn to people as a portrait photographer
Sounds, smell in 老北京爆肚味 (Old Beijing's deep fried foods)
Night scene in forbidden city.

Presenter 4: Paul Titangos
Has covered
Paris
Romania
Greece
Poland
Sudan south, north photography permits
New York
Forth Worth
Santa Cruz
Shanghai
Beijing
South West of China
Howra
Calcutta

Presenter 5: Carol Trengove
Has covered
Death series
Maui
Hellhole
Nevada
Africa
Lighthouses along the coast
Grand Canyon
Yellowstone

Q&A
1. Criteria for the images you took?
Variety
Different images say different things, broader spectrum, scattering

2. Shooting people the protocol
How to approach?

Digital makes it very easy. Showing people what you have shot. Asking or being aware of
Asking for permission, as an exchange or communication
Shmuel: catching the moment, esp. With the long lenses
Paul: agrees

3. Transition from Film and Digital Photography?
Elyse: Very reluctant to switch from film to digital so does Mary
Shmuel loves digital: speed, noiseless, transmission

Hassle with film photography
B&W not ready in digital?

4. Double exposure with Mother Teresa?

5. Vellum photograph
Shades of grey, and light

6. Shooting more or less
Your confidence to catch the moment before and after for Shmulel

7. Film makes a better photographer
Digital makes a different photographer

8. Prepare for a  trip
Three bodies, card readers,