Paint Tomorrow Blue

I found my webcam, so we all know what that means!

The present stars are Campbell’s dwarf roommates, Erica Cartman and Kylie Broflovski. Familiarly, Cartman and Kylie.

Behold: my first ever completed pair of adult-size socks. I’ve made one pair of baby socks, but this was more ambitious. I think they turned out acceptable. I wouldn’t inflict them on anyone else, but I will wear them with pride and snuggles.

For the knitters in the crowd: this is all Lion Wool-Ease worsted (80% acrylic/20% wool), from the Blueberry Waffle Socks pattern.

I’d like to congratulate AJ and her Last.fm account on an impressive milestone. Back when we were roommates, she dragged me into using it too. I’m at 72,017, so I’m getting there. I’ll catch up yet.

I really like Firefox. Mostly, I like it because there are some add-ons I’ve come to depend on. I can install them and have identical tools across platforms for work and recreational web use. Since I switch between Mac OS, Linux, and Windows (sometimes in the same day) that’s important to me.

So here are my add-ons. I don’t use as many as I used to. I’ve lost a few of my favorites in various Firefox major upgrades, which makes me sad.

I’m posting this partly to have a list I can go back to and download them, and partly to share what I use.

Clippings – I mostly use this in answering e-mail for Consumerist. Though just because I use pre-set responses doesn’t mean I don’t read and think about every e-mail that comes across my screen. I really do!

CoLT – This add-on lets you right click on a link and copy the text and hyperlink as HTML. (Or BBCode, or Wikipedia formatting, etc.) There are a few different add-ons that do this. I like this one.

ModPlugin – This is a very specific add-on, and maybe soon to be obsolete, but it’s absolutely essential for Freecycle moderators.

RECAP – Now that I’m a researcher for hire, I use PACER very rarely. But when I do, I contribute to RECAP’s rogue attempt to bring PACER into the 21st century.

This post on Albany Craigslist got yanked down, but it stayed on my RSS reader. It was from a few weeks ago, but the situation is getting even more ridiculous as Christmas nears.

“It would be nice to be rich,” my dad mused. “I would buy all of the robot hamsters available and then donate them to Toys For Tots.” They could distribute them…or sell them for a 600% markup as a fundraiser. Either way.

Here’s the Craigslist post:

Obviously not many of you Zhu Zhu highway robbers are parents. Rationalize what you are doing any way you want but it’s flat out wrong. The major thing you are not taking into account is that it’s a CHILDS TOY! These are not concert or sporting event tickets. Yes, I understand the concept of supply and demand but my 6 year old does not. If I can’t afford play-off tickets scalped on-line that’s fine, I can’t complain. But taking advantage of children’s toys is disgusting.

Marking up an $8 item to unaffordable prices in an economy where lots of us parents are not doing well is flat out repulsive. I could have easily bought my child an $8 item from the store but now because of you people I can’t. They were priced that way for a reason. I could give a crap about some electronic hamster but it’s important to kids. An item becomes popular with kids and all the vultures sweep in and this kind of crap ensues. You people are Losers! Get real jobs and stop praying on children!

Don’t lecture us on capitalism you scum sucking high school dropouts! Eat shit and die.

My phone battery died before the actual meetup started, partly because of some entertaining all-day e-mail exchanges. So enjoy random things that I thought needed to have pictures taken of them over the course of the day while I was traveling down to New York, and looking for sweaters.

Don’t ask. I need sweaters.

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It’s nice to be able to talk knitting with my mom. (She’ll start listing on Etsy soon.) I made a few Unoriginal Hats because hat season is coming soon, and Mom liked mine so much that she decided to buy the needles and yarn to make her own. So far, it isn’t going well.

She mostly works from patterns that she has memorized, and that are measured in inches rather than rows. I tend to agree, but I also like challenges. And she has many decades of knitting on me and a lot more patterns memorized.

The following IM conversation transpired:

Mom: I am not sure I like this
Mom: I have only done 2 rows
Me:  Quit whining
Mom:  NO
Mom: I keep dropping my [cable] hook
Mom: and I keep having to look back at the pattern
Mom: it is not very fast knitting right now
Mom: now I got to keep track what row I am on boooooooooo
Me: That is my least favorite part
Me: You need one of those counters

Lots of knitting, not much traveling this week.