American Politics and reproduction

Okay, something is up on the other side of the world. Politicians in Texas want a law that will force women wanting to have an abortion to have an ultrasound. Various states want to cut funding for contraception, family planning clinics, and sex education in schools. And yet, they say it is to "protect the unborn" - like the women don't know what they are doing.

Do they really doubt the man's involvement, here? In cutting sex education in schools, they are preventing both sexes from realising precisely what happens when they put Tab A into Slot B. They are preventing both sexes from learning about methods of preventing pregnancy.

Yet, there seems to be a spot of fuss about bringing in similar laws for men to get viagra in the USA. The men seem to take offense at having to go to the doctor every few months to get viagra, but they expect women to in order to get the pill - oh, no, wait! They want to make that more difficult to get! They also seem to protest against getting a signed statement from "at least one" of their lovers to get viagra. That seems to make sense. Get someone to agree that your pecker isn't pecking makes sense. Also, having a heart scan to make sure you can survive such things? That also seems to be a sticking point. I'm pretty sure that if a man doesn't want to show his chest to a doctor, why would he want to show it to his amour? And I'm also pretty sure that a man having a heart scan isn't nearly as embarrassing as it is for a woman. And yes, I've had a few myself.

Also, for all the Americans who keep saying that it's a part of their religion? Might I ask that you check your constitution? It seems to say that yes, you can say and do as your religion pleases - but so can everybody else. Please remember that.

AMENDMENT I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

cough cough hack - oh! beach!

Thankfully, I seem to be recovering (slowly) from my slight fit of asthma. It started with coughing on Wednesday last week, was complicated by a cold on Saturday, and now I'm back to just coughing. It may also have involved an emergency trip to a pharmacy to get a puffer (apparently I was the fourth asthmatic in search of ventolin that pharmacist had seen that day), and a trip to the GP to get an upgraded script for seretide.

 But despite my coughing (which wasn't contagious anyway), I still insisted on going out on Friday. I went to the beach with some of my friends, and although it was a bit cold for swimming (for us, anyway), we sat on the beach, walked along it, dipped out feet in the water, etc. It was a great deal of fun. and it ended like this:

I think we were a bit tired at the end, there!

Note to self...

Note to self: If you are a block student for one of the courses you are doing, and you know that you have to be at uni 3 Saturdays in a semester, please check the dates. Otherwise, you may be thinking about going to a lovely yarn/fibre store when you have to be at uni all day.

Dammit!

More Knitting!

Well, I have certainly been knitting a fair bit. I have finished my lace shawl for the Easter Show next year! Yay! I will not be posting a photo of that, though. Not until after the Show, at least. This is due to the fuss that cropped up last year about "you never know who might be a judge! And if they see it, it might cause bias! Waaaah!" issue. I can't be bothered causing panic, it's not yet blocked, and I'd prefer to keep it close to home until March next year.

I have yet to find some good silk yarn to do my next shawl in, though. I'd like to do it in a lovely silk laceweight, but the best place I've found for that in Virginia Farm - and some of my knitting friends have mentioned the words "take" and "me" when I've spoken about it. So I'm thinking maybe next Saturday for that, but in the meantime...?

I've been doing hexes. Not the witchcraft variety (although that might be fun ;-) ), but I'm now working on The Beekeepers Quilt and it's going quite nicely. I just got some more yarn for it, although it is supposed to be made of sock yarn left-overs. I have all this yarn for the hexapuffs now:

Actually, on the subject of more yarn, I also got some to make myself another pair of gloves. I made this pair...

but I have discovered something. This yarn would make good socks, but not so good with gloves. My delicate skin finds it a wee bit prickly on my hands, thus leading to uncomfy gloves. So I got some yarn to make more!

Two balls of this, in fact :-D

And a ball of this:

for the trim (not shown in photo), and maybe for the over-gloves. But then again, it doesn't quite get cold enough around here for over-gloves. So those are still an option only, rather than a necessity.

Now... continuing the knitting... ;-)

Wishful thinking coming true?

A month ago, I was saying that I intended to finish my shawl while I was staying at a house in another suburb. I did think it was just wishful thinking, but... I'm 4 rows from starting the border. I'm now wondering if I could, in fact finish it before I head home. This would be quite a surprise!

It's not as good as, say, wishing I could go overseas, but I'm happy with this. ...for now ;-)

Recently

Since the earthquake/tsumani hit Japan, I've been speechless about it. Largely because it seems that it just keeps getting worse. First the earthquake. It was first put forward as a 7.9 Magnitude, and then it was changed to an 8.9 Magnitude. Then a 10m tsunami hit, followed by a 4m wave of mud. Now they have found several hundred bodies, expect fatalities to reach 1000, and the Fukushima nuclear power plant has exploded. It has been a scary event for all involved.

I have one friend living in Tokyo at the moment. I have been in contact with him, and he's fine. His main whinge was the 16km walk home he had from his office, because all the trains and buses were shut down by the earthquake. Considering he's about 250km from Fukushima, he also won't be affected by the nuclear explosion. I know they wanted anyone within 10km of the plant to get out.

Really wishing good luck to the people of Japan to recover. This has been absolutely dreadful.

Good luck, Japan!

Year of the Rabbit

I just checked what was in store for me in the Year of the Rabbit as an Oxen. Apparently Oxen should avoid avoid overspending and definitely avoid gambling (oh, like I gamble my life away :-P ). Oh, and avoid hospitals and funerals. In matters of the heart, Oxen should be careful to avoid any misunderstandings to avoid festering harm (I'll need to find a partner before I have to worry about that). Health-wise, I need to worry about my joints and mental fatigue (but I already do that?)

On top of all that, Oxen should also seriously consider developing the habit of saving.

Pretty much, life as normal for me!

Meanwhile, Dragons get good fortune! Please tell me Oxen get a good year soon?

More info to be found at http://www.wayangtimes.com/2011-year-of-the-rabbit-chinese-zodiac-horoscope-forecast.html