Three week’s progress: 86 fish for a total of 176 fish completed at this time.

Fish Joining the Fishbowl
3 chocolate brown, 6 grape, 6 dark country blue, 6country blue, 6 gray heather, 6 berry blue, 6 violet, 6 blue mint, 6 autumn red, 6 pink, 6 orchid, 6 iris, 6 sundrop, 6 sping (green), 6 aqua mist

Previous Fish
90 fish: 2 red from stash, 6 orange from stash, 5 yellow from stash, 1 chocolate brown from stash, 1 purple from stash, 6 cream/off-white from stash, 6 watermelon pink, 6 limelight green, 6 lemonade yellow, 6 dark sage green, 6 forest floor green, 6 mango orange-yellow, 6 truffle heather (brownish-purple), 7 soft blue, 5 red, 6 light country peach, 6 bone (khaki), 3 chocolate brown

This post was supposed to appear December 4th, but I was too busy knitting fish, laying them out and knitting more fish. I have pictures, but again, I need to finish this by Saturday, ACK!

when public add tags: tessellate, fish, blanket

I’ve been enjoying Little Women as a part of a podcast I’ve been listening to recently. Some of the chapters are read by LibriVox volunteers and some are read by listeners of the podcast. I used to own a copy of this book, I still may. It was part of a collector’s set with other books in the series and a few of something else. I know, not real descriptive but it’s all I’ve got. I tried to read the book when it was given to me, but I’m afraid that at the age of nine it didn’t seem all that interesting.

Because I went back to chapter one, I’m only through chapter eight or so. While I’m listened to Amy throw a tantrum because she can’t have her way and then her retaliation, I have to admit that I was thinking horrible thoughts much like Jo was probably thinking. When Amy retaliated, I wasn’t a bit surprised. Jo then threw a colossal tantrum in retribution. Amy destroyed Jo’s book of stories she had been working on for two years. Jo decided to punish Amy by not forgiving her, not speaking to her and making family live extremely uncomfortable for everyone. I felt saddened for the family harmony that was broken as a result of the girls not getting along. When Jo had a heart-to-heart with Mother I found it rather refreshing that Mother was honest about her own struggles with anger and that that could talk about it. I’m still figuring out how to respond appropriately to a variety of situations without resorting to anger as the best possible reaction.

You may recall that I signed up to proofread scanned pages from Project Gutenburg last week. I believe I have received most if not all of the feedback for the pages I read last week. I am encouraged that it was presented in a friendly manner, lots of helpful advice and invitations to continue to participate. I’m not sure quite sure why I received from of the corrections, but there are methods for comparing my changes to the changes the second level proofreaders made. It’s difficult for me to take criticism, but I am learning so I will not quit. I will visit the site later today or possible Monday to better understand the proper methods of correcting scans.

One of the online communities I visit frequent has a book club forum or two. I haven’t participated in a book discussion yet because I’m not always proactive about finding the book. This time I found the book and requested it from the library hoping it would be in by mid-December in time for the discussion. It came in two weeks ago and I finally picked it up from the library this week. I meant to read a chapter or two a day, in between Christmas knitting. Well, there aren’t defined chapters and it was a quick read. I am planning on reading it again as I have the book until Dec. 9 but so far I’m rather impressed.

The subtitle is A fable about following your dream and is written by Paulo Coelho, translated by Alan R. Clarke. It is a quick read under 200 pages with large print on smallish pages. The illustrations on the copy I borrowed are absolutely wonderful. The entire story is told in a series of overlapping pictures. The meanings of which are a mystery until the book is completed. Without getting into the author’s head as to deeper meanings, we follow a shepherd boy named Santiago as he makes life altering choices. He is in the dark about some choices and has unique guidance for others. Santiago is promised a great treasure if he goes to Egypt, which seems like a far-fetched idea. While he attempts to reach Egypt he learns life lessons that many of us fail to learn until we have a great many more years under our belts. In life, should a person follow a dream, a passion, a heart’s desire even if the obstacles seems insurmountable? Should a person take the first easy path that crosses the difficult one? What about the third easiest path that crosses the increasingly difficult one? Should a person listen to counsel from strangers, friends, family?

In my opinion, I have never written a book report that would cause another person to pick up the book and read it. I hesitate to tell too much and ruin the adventure to the point where I don’t tell enough. Let this little paragraph serve as an invitation to read a book that may not change your life, but will certainly entertain you and possibly steal a piece of your heart.

(a la Laura Numeroff style)

If you give a girl some yarn, she might stare at you questioningly, then ask for a pattern to make.
If you give a girl a pattern, she will most definitely ask for needles or a hook.
If you give a girl some needles or a hook, she might need instructions (to learn how to knit/crochet).
If you give a girl instructions, she may ask about videos to better understand the technique.
If you give a girl the url to videos, she’ll see others working on interesting projects and will ask if there are free patterns online.
If you give a girl pattern urls, she’s bound to discover a podcast or two about yarn and ask for an mp3 player.
If you give a girl an mp3 player, she’ll download podcasts and is bound to learn about Ravelry. She’ll ask for an invite.
If you give a girl a Ravelry invite, she’ll probably ask for more yarn.
If you give a girl some yarn . . .

I have started listening to CraftLit podcast. Crafts are spoken of and stores are read to us. Currently, we are listening to Little women, I still own it, I just don’t know where it is exactly. I only started listening a month ago but felt that I should at least start at the beginning of Little women to see if I liked the reading style or even the book. I am getting into the book, but I was under the impression that the podcast author was reading the story, not so. It is the version posted at Librivox. There are pros and cons about that. The easiest two are free and it’s already in electronic format. The con, it’s free, no one was paid to record it, nor was quality proofed. There are some chapters that are redone as the CraftLit author determines it’s necessary, I think that’s an interesting idea. I am getting a sense for “voice” readings, where each character needs a unique way of reading. I need to listen faster as new episodes are rolling in and I’m still on the older ones.

I also started reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The story is a “fable about following your dreams”.

Seven Minute Saturday
To prevent rambling on and on and on, Seven Minute Saturday limits me to typing/writing for seven minutes before correcting mistakes(editing), adding links, or images. I’ll allow myself a few extra minutes when the post needs those.

I seem to be blogging my 101 things in 1001 days for NaBloPoMo. One of my goals is to read two selections for LibriVox, but I’m not ready to do that. I just finished a proof-listening project there, fun, but difficult. There are guidelines for listening, I can’t correct pronunciation, which makes me a bit crazy. If the mispronounced word is pronounced as another word, I marked it for correction anyway. Noises are supposed to be removed if they are distracting, but my partner didn’t hear half of the background noises I could. So, I’m taking a break from LibriVox volunteering until I’m ready to record my voice for a project. Until then, I’ve decided to word at Project Gutenburg proofing text. As a proofreader, I am presented with a scanned image and the OCR text from the scan. The list of things to look for while reading is rather lengthy, but easy pages are offered to newcomers only. There are also pages per project limits so one person can’t proof the entire book. I “read” 14 pages, but want to wait for some feedback from other proofreaders before reading more. After 21 days and 300 pages I can move up to a different level of proofing. When reading the information on the site, there seems to be a lack of proofreaders for some of the upper level proofing. If my math is correct, that’s 14 pages a day until I can help with second and third level proofreading, which I have met for today. I think I’ll read again on Monday or Tuesday.

WARNING: My opinion is expressed in this post quite strongly. If you are hoping for a glowing review, navigate away quickly.

A friend and I have been reading Captivating by Eldredge’s and working through the guided journal of the same title. I have seen mixed reviews, those in support strongly support and the critical reviews are divisively so. I will admit to clouding my judgment by reading reviews on both sides and deciding that I may not agree with many of the ideas presented, but I am trying to be humble enough to allow God to show me truths despite my preconceived notions. How’s that for a disclaimer?

Chapters one and two have made my brain hurt. I must report that if I hadn’t spent good money on these books, the first two chapters would have caused me to burn the books. I’m not a fan of censorship, usually. The small fire from the books could have kept me entertained for a while, especially if I tore out pages on and a time. I am thankful that I waited, not because the book has magically turned wonderful, but rather because chapter three has visibly more truth than the first two.

I should point out what little information I could learn of John Eldredge was discouraging. I wondered if he had special training to allow him to interpret the Bible, maybe he is a theologian, a scholar, something, anything, a Phd. in something worthwhile, alas. It turns out he attend a Christian college of sorts and majored in counseling. Where on the website of said college, one reads that it is the Christian’s responsibility to spread the truth of the free market system. No wonder the world despises Christians.

So, his vast amount of experience on how God designed women to be is as a result of counseling women, women who feel they are somehow broken. Women who pay a man to tell them how they are broken and how to be less broken. I’m sure he knows a thing or two about identifying behaviors that are emotionally/physically unhealthy, but really, how ignorant do I look? Why are women, intelligent women, falling for this nonsense from him and his wife? Are we that fallen that we need a stranger to stroke our ego and tell us that our desires are valid and right? If so, Christianity many not be the theology for you. God, by means of the Bible and Holy Spirit, tells us quite clearly we are sinful and fallen. His thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways. His desire for us is to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, not the emotional need to be beautiful or participate in a grand adventure. He provides a way for us to be right, but it is not declaring that we are beautiful and must participate in a grand adventure to be validated. With the exception of a pithy prayer at the beginning of the guided journal, Jesus the Messiah is not mentioned and God only slightly. It’s all about the woman’s emotional experience. And how about open ended questions, ever hear of them? Yes or no questions do not stimulate discussion or thought. Grrr. Stay tuned for more in subsequent weeks.

Aug. 28-30:
After visiting GR and purchasing books at a sale, I remembered that Big Rapids Public Library was having a sale on Labor Day weekend, Friday and Saturday. Of course, I had to go Friday and Saturday. I again purchased a few books, but I have a plan. When I read a book, if it’s not absolutely wonderful, I will either donate it back to the library sale or put it in a pile to sell or trade. Among my finds, several C.S. Lewis non-fiction titles, a nice Reader’s Digest book of making things by hand including canning, and a Wallace & Grommit book.

for cheap. Yes, yes, the correct word is inexpensive, but it doesn’t make sense in context. One of my favorite new/used bookstores was having a great sale today. At first Patty and I thought maybe we would share a bag, the sale was fill a bag for $5. After about 30 minutes, we realized we were each going to need a bag. I found many interesting treasures. In the daylight tomorrow, I am going to try to remember to artfully arrange my books and grab a photo. In another area I found and turned down The Scarlet Letter, Wuthering Heights (I think I may already have this one), a very cool NIV Study Bible (but if it’s still there next time) and a really old and worn Bible that would have made some great scanned textures-the end pages showed interesting wear, as did several pages but $60 seriously? for a water-damaged, mold infested, well worn book. A few finds that I have been looking for and managed to make it into my bag: a book of Henrik Ibsen plays, some silly little books with pithy sayings that may be useful in scrapbooks, and a few catechism books. I also found a book that apparently will guide me in using Harry Potter to teach young adult fiction. I will most likely never need to do that, but the book screamed to be placed in the bag, as one of the last books before the bag was impossibly full.