Yasss

Ravelry Ban

Hey guys, I know a lot of you may not be crafty people, but please listen.

Ravelry, the largest online crafting community (of several million people), just banned all Trump support on it’s platform claiming that he is a white supremacist and all of his supporters must be the same.   Let’s start:  First off, Trump isn’t a white supremacist.  Thought I should get that out of the way.  

Secondly, you just banned the political opinion of HALF OF AMERICA.  You are saying that HALF OF THE COUNTRY are racist.  Even the ones that don’t happen to be white.  You are saying that anyone can say anything politically, except for the Trump supporters, who we say are second-class intellectual citizens based on a lie that they aren’t allowed to refute.

Thirdly, Oh Yeah!  If you complain about this, they will delete your comment.  You can’t protest, you can’t get mad, all disagreement is hate speech.  

Fourthly, Ravelry is a HUGE source of income to crafters!  It is where you buy and sell patterns, yarn, and other yarn crafting supplies.  Ravelry is also where crafting events are organized.  They are essentially saying that you can’t make income unless you agree with their false claim.  

Fifthly, this is a precedent for other sites.  After doing some research, ravelry followed in the footsteps of rpg.com, who did the same thing.  If we let Ravelry sweep people they disagree with to the side, and essentially gag a whole spectrum of viewpoints on a false claim, then where do they stop?  Other social media has tried to take down conservative viewpoints, and said the same vile things, calling people racist, bigoted, homophobic, and essentially sub-human, as if saying those things without evidence and shouting them louder when they are refuted makes you cozy and inclusive.  It’s a very us vs. them mentality, and I have to wonder if the people who make these rules are ever around people who disagree with them, or if they realized that people they knew did disagree with them would they turn them out in an instant or see common humanity? 

Again, I know this isn’t everyone’s thing, but if you could reblog or make your own post, I would be eternally grateful:  I am trying to use the hashtag notokayravelry to get things going.  Crazy knitter types can’t let injustice stand!

On this day...18 years ago...

246 people went to sleep in preparation for their morning flights. 2,606 people went to sleep in preparation for work in the morning, 343 firefighters went to sleep in preparation for their morning shift. 60 police officers went to sleep in preparation for morning patrol. 8 paramedics went to sleep in preparation for their morning shift. None of them saw past 10am on Sept. 11, 2001.

In one single moment life may never be the same. As you live and enjoy the breaths you take tonight before you go to sleep in preparation for tomorrow, kiss the ones you love, snuggle a little tighter, and never take one second of your life for granted. ~Kathleen Donohue, via Facebook.

"No actually, I delight in being soaked in a torrental downpour whilst leaning against my car in an existential crisis"

Perhaps insane or simply shocked with odd cop in mechanisms, the stranger let out a bubbly, real laugh. Not a nervous, awkward one, just an unhinged laugh full of amusement and emotion.

"Well then-" They tipped an old fashioned top hat out of nowhere, pivoted on thier heel, and flashed a charismatic wink. "-call me if you go back on that statement"

I felt a slight pressure on my nose, and gazed upon a card resting upon its bridge, somehow balancing. It held a jumble of letter and number, and the blacks of the font seemed to shift as I blinked. The background was a shimmering fold with a pristine white outline. By the time I looked up they were gone, the rain slowing to a drizzle, then halting completely. The card was still dry, my sanity most likely un intact.

"Fuckin hell mate it was sarcasm."

Maybe stating the obvious would be better than staring at the cursed card, and maybe I need more sleep.

Everything had gone wrong today. First your microwave had almost blown up on you, shorting out the electricity in your home and leaving you without breakfast, then you had been early to work for once, only to find that the company had folded, and you had lost your job with no notice or lick of compassion. After that you had come home, only to find your partner cheating on you with someone else, in YOUR home, on YOUR bed, and it was only after two hours of emotional arguments and shouting, that you had managed to eject them from your home, and call someone to change the locks immediately. 

Overwhelmed and exhausted, you had decided to take a drive to clear your head, knowing of a small beach a couple of hours away. Now here you were, engine having failed in the middle of nowhere, keys accidentally locked in the car when you had gotten out to check, and trapped in a very sudden downpour. 

Completely drained, you slowly sank down onto the wet ground, folding your knees up to your chest as you tried to blank it all out and not break down completely.

Thunder rumbled ominously overhead, as if to remind you that things could in fact get worse, and you grimaced, resigned to whatever fate had in store next. Distracted by the weather and your own misery, you didn’t even hear or see the stranger approach until you found a jacket being held above you, shielding you from the increasingly harsh rain. 

Startled, you looked up to find the stranger smiling down at you awkwardly, their beauty surreal, and their strange eyes seeming almost inhuman with their shade and sharpness.

“Need some help?”

Ah, to be a sleepy prison guard on the way to a chair by the cell of an adventurer… Maybe I will wear my oversize ring of keys extra loose tonight.. who knows what could happen if I were to uh… doze off.. ;)

¡Corre a por ella!

DELETE THIS POST

After two long nights, it’s finally finished

I’m only accepting criticism in the form of Barenaked Ladies merchandise.

Notes to Thirteen Year Old Girls

When your best friend tells you all she had for breakfast Was a packet of Splenda and a Diet Coke, And she tells you that she’ll stop after she loses five more pounds, Do not believe her. Tell her mother. It does not matter how angry your friend gets. The pain of that will always be preferable to the pain Of seeing your best friend in four years Weighing as much as she does now Half-dead in the hospital.

When your father sneaks into your bed in the dead of the night, And he tells you that this is how fathers love their daughters, Do not believe him. Tell your English teacher. She will have read millions of stories of girls like you. There is a one in six chance that she will be a girl like you. There is a five in six chance that she will know what to say to you. There is a six in six chance that she will help you.

When your veins whisper to you in the moonlight And say that there are so many nightmares inside you That could be free If you would just open your arms, Do not believe them. Tell your school’s guidance counselor, No matter how scared you are Because whispers are liars, And opening your arms will only open the passage For more nightmares to climb in.

And when the therapists say that you are better, Totally better, And you don’t need to worry about the sadness again, Do not believe them. Always be cautious, because sadness has a way Of sneaking up on you When you’re not looking. Be careful. Be careful.