In what appears to be...

A continuing series on how the internet has changed everyday life (big surprise huh?), charitable giving has been changed as well. In terms of large charities there are now sites like Charity Navigator that let you find out how efficient, focused, reliable, etc. the charities are before giving. I consider this to be a great benefit both to stewardship of my personal finances and an encouragement to transparency and integrity on the part of the charities.

In terms of small, directed charitable efforts (which is what led me to write this) there are now sites for that as well. I suppose it probably started with KickStarter for businesses but now there are sites that are much more open-ended. The one in question is GoFundMe which I became aware of when a commenter at my favorite blog was unfairly (his boss admitted as much) suspended from work with no pay and another commenter created a funding drive to provide a month's living expenses for him and his family.  After that, another commenter created a drive to get a book published.

Which leads me to my point, which is that I have started my first GoFundMe drive. It is for another commenter at the same blog who has been there for a couple of years and whose comments I've appreciated. He is a divorced single dad with one son a little older than my oldest and due to a job/state change has been unable to get insurance because of pre-existing diabetes and heart condition. On Monday, at the urging of other commenters, he went into the ER even though he was hesitant to due so because of finances. It's good he did since he is scheduled for a triple-bypass this coming Monday. The fund is to help him with the medical expenses associated with the surgery as well as helping him retire the debt from his *last* medical problem. The commenters at the blog we mutually read have already been very generous. 

The nice thing about having a third-party site (even though they do take a small fee) is that a lot of the organizational aspects are taken care of and it greatly simplifies communication and expands awareness of the giving opportunity while adding legitimacy to the campaign.. Beyond the actual site though, I used Twitter both to contact the person who had first made me aware of GoFundMe and the recipient since I don't have phone numbers or even emails for them. I used the mutual blog (and Twitter again)  to let people all over the country know of the need and chance to do something so that we are already 10% of the way to our goal. And I did it all starting yesterday afternoon. The quick response time may well be the single greatest change in private, small charitable giving. Combined with the wider reach offered by social media, it is a change that has potential for a lot of good.

Lol

I mentioned recently that I had ordered two dead-tree figure drawing books and was waiting for snail-mail to deliver them so I could find out if they were what I needed. Well, they came. Aaaaand, one is a shorter version of the other.  *Exact* same photos. Now, that's not all bad. The other book had a very large section of nudes (pretty much unavoidable I guess) which is the main thing the smaller book is missing. Although there are still "cheesecake" models I can at least let the kids use the condensed version without having *a lot* of very awkward conversations.

Speaking of...

The way the internet has changed stuff, I am currently listening to a YouTube playlist of "Hindi non-stop Christian worship songs" on another tab. I also found a playlist of Mongolian praise music. It's only 15 videos long, but the fact that there is any is impressive. Of course, if I leave YouTube and go to the Antioch Mongolia site I can listen to about that number of tracks that are bilingual (another huge change). Back on YouTube, for over a month I've been listening to "177 Messianic songs, mostly in Hebrew" many of which I'd never heard before because my personal playlist is 20 years old (and on cassette tapes) from when John was dancing with ICD.

Another lovely thing is that there are comments on *each* of those playlists from other countries and other languages thanking G-d for the music and how it brings the hearts of all believers together even if the words are unknown.

Something else...

That has changed in the last twenty years is that not only has there been an explosion in instruction books for manga drawing (something that pretty much didn't exist 25 years ago, I was certainly looking) but due to e-books they have gotten to be fairly inexpensive.  This week I've purchased four drawing books. Two were e-books, cost a total of $4.00 (plus tax now, boo!) and I had them to use immediately. In fairness, it takes *both* of them to do what I need but $4.00 make it worth it. The other two are reference manuals of figure drawing models. Together they cost about $20.00 used, which isn't bad, but I am still waiting to find out if they are as useful as I hope.

The internet is also helping here. All it took was a search for "manga" on Pinterest to easily fill a board with references for hands, hairstyles, poses, etc. It is truly a whole new world of self-teaching from that in which I struggled to find *anything* on manga and general instruction books were often expensive.

I said...

Yesterday that I didn't mind doing *studies* as somehow random drawings seem more useful if they fall under the heading of "practice".  This is an area that has been *really* changed by the internet. Specifically the Google and Bing "image (whatever you want images of)" searches. Hands, faces, traditional clothing, all of these are only a click away. In fact, I found so many wonderful photos of people in traditional clothing from around the world that I started a new Pinterest page just of people I want to draw. Even better, on my Kindle Fire I can even change the size of the photos so as to get a really good look at some portion of a given photo.

Another internet tool I found (because I went looking for it due to my certainty it would exist) was the Challenge List.  I found 365 day versions because that was what I was looking for, but it looks like there are one week and one month versions as well. The prompts provided by the originator easily provide a reason for drawing and at least a starting point of *what* to draw which helps me overcome the two greatest difficulties I was facing.

As I mentioned yesterday...

 Although a decent number of my drawings in the past were of reasonable quality, I had pretty much no control over what (or generally "who" since I tend to draw humans) they turned out to be. At this point I'm not really satisfied to draw like that. I feel that drawings should express more than just that I wanted to draw, but I don't really have anything I'm trying to say with them. I don't mind doing hand studies or other practice things but what are essentially random imaginary people seems pointless for the amount of time it takes to do well.

Another thing....

That is frustrating about manga, not just Shoujo in this case, and really anime as well, is that it makes me want to draw. 

It's been like that since I was about 12 and saw Robotech on summer morning cartoons while my mom was sleeping from having worked nights and my dad was at work.  It was like a revelation and I was almost literally entranced by the completely different style of art which I immediately set out to copy to the best of my ability. 

In high school and attending community college (so, over 20 years ago) since I was sitting at a desk pretty much all day, every day, I was actually pretty good at drawing. I even still have the partially filled sketchbooks to prove it.  I found it difficult to *sketch* since my lines tended to be overly dark and solid but other than that I had gotten to the point that what I drew was interesting and generally in correct perspective. What I *couldn't* manage was to decide ahead of time what to draw and then have that appear on the paper. I sort of had to just go with whatever showed up.  

Now though, I am very much out of practice and have no desire to spend hours every day practicing my drawing, especially since I *need* to spend a fair amount of time on various needlework projects if I'm going to have anything to sell. Which is where the frustration comes in, since the desire is very strong but the ability to do much about it is distinctly lacking.

I should know better....

Than to read Shoujo manga. Since The advice in Song of Solomon to not awaken desire too soon works just as well for widows as the "maidens" it was intended for.  In fact, I generally stay away from even Christian-themed romance novels (much less the nearly pornographic standard variety) because frustrated physical or and/or emotional desire isn't going to make life better for me *or* the kids who would have to deal with me being cranky.

Unfortunately, I wasn't really thinking about that when Eldest Kidlet offered me the first volume of Skip-Beat since I usually stick to Shonen manga and had read no Shoujo in several years. Surprise, surprise, given that I found the relationships in such Shonen as Inu Yasha and Rurouni Kenshin to be extremely romantic, Skip-Beat is nearly unbearably so.  It doesn't help that the artist did a very good job of catching the sort of tender, amused, or intense looks that are something I definitely miss.

"Before"

This is one of two live oaks in the front yard.

Son (with Littlest Kidlet as spotter and assistant and all of us on straps to guide each branch as it came down) has been working away at it because it is unattractive, full of galls (which I'm keeping for dyeing) full of spiders in the fall, and trying to grow an oak forest in our lawn. Any two or so of those would be grounds for termination in my universe (besides, we need the room for fruit trees) so it is going away.

Once the branches are cut we drag them to the back yard 

Where it is (mostly) my job to cut them up as much as I can without sawing so that the bits can go in the chiminea. I'm considering renting a wood chipper so that we can mulch up at least some of it and speed up the process at the same time.

My intention was to replace this tree with a 'Dolgo' crabapple which has large, useful fruit but I'll need Eldest Kidlet to get pictures to show why the plan was changed. 

Happy birthday to me!

The six cubic yards of mulch that I ordered Friday was delivered this morning as scheduled. Son, Littlest Kidlet and I have moved a decent amount of it so far but need to finish getting it spread as the pile is blocking the garage. It's important to do this quickly since a large portion of my nursery order showed up on Saturday. I now have almost two dozen fruit trees (hurrah for dwarf varieties) and berry bushes either soaking or just plain waiting to get planted.

This is actually phase two since "phase one" was clearing the front flower beds of the dark, heavy, mosquito havens that passed for bushes there. Son and I planted a number of yellow "Knock-out" roses as well as some herbs and other edible flowers.

There are some more flowers scheduled to go in once the rest of my order gets here (and of course the beds got mulched today while this picture is a little older) but I'm generally very satisfied with the results.

Been awhile

In the meantime (in between the second -to-last post and the one before this) We've moved to the Houston area, Eldest Kidlet is attending the local high school as a freshman, and I'm waiting on a massive nursery order that the other kids and I have been prepping the yard for.

Also, the oldest two and I will be going with a church group to Mongolia for a short-term missions trip (the first for any of us) in July. I've created a Facebook Page so that supporters can follow the process and know what the current prayer needs are.

Test

I'm trying to get Ravelry to look to my new needlework/business specific blog Knit'n Kitten Fiberarts Studio but so far have had no luck. This is an attempt to see if this blog is still linked to Ravelry instead.

I'm finally posting this

Here is the picture of the scarf I was working on that suddenly caused me to wax poetic a couple of weeks ago.

It is made from hand-spun wool yarn in rather circus-like colors and the hook is actually plated in 14kt gold (which I think was a gift-with-purchase since I wouldn't actually pay for such a thing).

The photo was taken by the Eldest Kidlet, who is working on her photography as well as several other projects for school.

A Poem

Arachne's magic, without the frame

Circus colors flow through my fingers and over the golden hook

Building warmth, the joy of creation.


What happens when the world is so heavy I can't breathe and this small shaping has been taken from me?

I don't know other's nightmares, but this is mine.

Already my hands stiffen quickly and the world seems dimmer,

And I'm still young.


For now though, the color still flows,

The warmth still builds,

And the world is not (yet) too heavy.

John would have been proud

This last weekend Middlest and Littlest Kidlets opened a lemonade stand.  It was entirely their own idea and I was very impressed at how they did their best to go about it in a business-like manner, such as paying Eldest Kidlet to track which flavor of drink was most popular and how much of the money they made was in tips.

John was always having entrepreneurial ideas and I'm very sure he would have been very supportive of the Kidlet's efforts.  I think he also would have been amused when, on the first day, Eldest Kidlet hired herself out to them as security for an equal share of the money saying she was sure I demanded she be there.  I have to admit that I was a little amused myself, but still made her give back some of the money as she'd attempted to use my authority without actually having it which is something I don't want to encourage at all.

Thank You

I want to extend  heartfelt thanks for those who gave their all, and those who continue knowing they may be called upon to do so, so that I have the liberty to go about my life in the way that I see fit.  I also want to thank all the Gold Star families who must continue to carry on after a loss. I am truly grateful that I and my children are free and safe.

Freedom of Speech post

Typically I keep my "political" blog stuff and "personal" blog stuff separate, although not very well if someone actually wanted to find me.  This is one of the rare times that I'm going to link to my other blog since being able to retain "internet anonymity" is the very issue that has brought a great deal of harassment and actual danger to several bloggers and journalists, not even just conservative ones, and the legal systems of their home states of CA and MD have refused to do anything to help.

There's this bird

And it keeps starting to sing after midnight.   It's a highly varied call and the tone is very clear and would probably be quite nice if  I weren't trying to get to sleep.  Eldest Kidlet swears it keeps waking her up as well and isn't amused at all.  I'd love to know what sort of bird it is, since we didn't have night-singing birds in CO.

Kitten Supposes...

Her toeses are roses?  No, Kitten supposes her roses are extracts (or at least getting close).  I traded out the older rose petals for a large number of fresh and topped of the vodka today.  Although the color is a very pretty pink, the scent is not nearly as strong as I'd hoped.  Part of this is that, although I've been putting in some fresh petals every day, the first big batch of petals went into the vodka in the late afternoon.  It turns out that there really is a big difference in scent strength between the morning and afternoon.

I'll try to get a picture posted later.

That wasn't so bad.

This weekend I received the replacement plants (fruit bushes and lilies mostly) for all the ones I managed to kill after last year's order.  I felt horrible sending the packing slips back to the nurseries, particularly the one where I had to write that all the plants from that order had died.  It wasn't really the nurserys' fault either, although a couple of the berry bushes do appear to have been dead on arrival.  The combination of alternating very wet and very dry weather combined with my own gardening ineptitude was just more than the plants could take.

I finally got up the nerve to plant the bushes this morning, that and I'd been soaking them since yesterday which didn't leave me a lot of choice.  I say I had to get up the nerve to do it because I vividly remember how much work it was last year getting the holes dug, after tearing out a bunch of gloomy insect-infested shrubs that the former owner had planted.  That hard work, much of it done by Son and Eldest Kidlet as well as myself, made the fact that so much died all the more disheartening and the thought of needing to repeat it was quite daunting.  Much to my surprise, and maybe if I had more gardening experience it wouldn't have been, planting was immensely easier this time.  I was very happy to be able to tell the kids that all their work last year meant that digging the holes this year was simple.  Now I have a lot more hope for planting the strawberries and lilies.