Monthly Archives: August 2010

narrangasset bay socks

I’ve never really understood the appeal of knitting socks. Why knit something so utilitarian? You can buy them for 2 or 3 bucks, and people don’t really see them because they’re covered by your shoe. And, you’ll probably damage them wearing them. Finally, you have to knit two, and I generally don’t enjoy knitting multiple copies. (Sleeves kill me.)

However, recently I’ve come to appreciate the upsides. They’re quick. They don’t require much yarn or time. Next, there’s a certain art and skill required to shape a sock. It’s not as simple as knitting a scarf. Generally, socks are knit in the round or 4 or 5 tiny needles with sock yarn. This is much different than the Aran knitting I’m used to on relatively large straight needles. Finally, you can knit some interesting patterns without committing to a sweater.

Hence, I decided to give the Narragansett Bay Socks from A Fine Fleece a go. I’ve only knit one so far, and I think I’ll wait on the second (as I’m nearly out of yarn and had to order more), but it was kind of entertaining.

kagan confirmed

The following was said about Kagan, per the Seattle Times:

“While she is truly intelligent, the exceptional qualities of her mind may be better suited to dealing with students and unruly faculty than with the daily hard work of deciding tough cases before the Supreme Court,” said Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the committee’s top Republican.

Ouch. Sexist undertones, anyone? Perhaps the quote is taken out of context.

I found the rest of it:

“[Chief Justice John] Roberts and [Justice Samuel] Alito, on the other hand, were steeped in the law over many years as lawyers and judges. That’s who they were. That’s their skill. That was their craft. That was their business. They understood it. It showed. Ms. Kagan did not show that,” said Sessions, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.



It is impressive when a congressman is willing to belittle a future supreme court justice, but Dems do the same thing when they have the opportunity.

prying eyes

I read an article about how advertisers are stalking us across the web, here. It’s kind of disturbing. Basically, the number of cookies used has really multiplied. You can’t just disable cookies, because then you won’t be able to access most sites.

However, on Google Chrome, it’s really easy to just set things up to block a lot of cookies.
Go the wrench -> Options -> Under the Hood -> Content Settings -> Ask me when a site tries to set data. Then just close everything. When you go to a site, it’ll notify you when it tries to set cookies. You can enable the ones that look reasonable, like mail.google.com, and disable the ones that look invasive, like ad.doubleclick.net. It’ll remember your preferences and always allow the cookies you say to allow and vice versa. After you visit a site, you shouldn’t be bothered by new cookies very often.