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The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
I needed a pit of a pick-me-up after the nightmare that was American Psycho, so I cracked open Bill Bryson’s latest book, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. It was just what I needed. (Not quite a unicorn chaser, but pretty close.) It’s basically just Bryson talking about his childhood growing up in the 50’s in Des Moines, Iowa, a place and time that are now so remote to us that Bryson can approach it like one of his other travel books. Since we saw the author in person earlier this year, it was as if I could hear his actual voice reading this one out loud. My favorite part was his several-years-long struggle to get into the “stripper tent” at the Iowa State Fair. His friend Stephen Katz (from A Walk in the Woods) makes an appearance towards the end. Overall it was a quick and pleasant read, though I’d still rank Down Under (known as In a Sunburned Country in the US) as his funniest. (And that’s not because I live here; I read it while we were still back in England.) If you’re the type of person that enjoys the gentle, nostalgic humor of A Christmas Story, then you’ll like this book.

DUDE! I was just googling for a particular knitting book online, and I found a UK shop called HCS Crafts. Um, notice anything familiar about that site? They completely ripped us off. (I saved a screenshot for posterity.) As you might imagine, I immediately fired off a rather terse e-mail.

As I see it, there are three main problems here. The first is website design theft. They’ve copied the way part of our site looks in a really obvious way. (Also, RANDOM. They’re in the UK but there’s an embroidery of the Sydney Opera House? Did they even look at what they were doing?) This isn’t really a “crime” that you can do anything about, other than naming and shaming. (Hence this post.) The second and third issues are a bit more serious. That header with the embroidery and the wool and the red rick-rack? That actually comes from a printed advertisement that we’ve been running in Sydney hotels for a number of years. A printed advertisement that is copyrighted and which we never gave any permission for anyone else to use. Lastly we have the fact that they’ve taken our shop logo, the actual trademarked image that we have on a sign in front of the shop, and simply replaced the words “Tapestry Craft” with their own. Yeah. You’re really not allowed to do that.

So of course this is all very flattering, especially since I’m the crappiest website designer ever. But hey! Now that I’ve been ripped off, I’ve got industry cred!

Update: They seem to have taken it down now. Evidently naming-and-shaming works!

Mary-Helen asks: “How hard is knitting, really?” I agree with a lot of what she says, even as someone who teaches the occasional knitting class. When I teach, one of the biggest messages I try to get across to my students is This is easy. You can do this. It seems that a lot of women* I meet don’t rate themselves very highly. They think that because I’m knitting socks, I must be cleverer or more talented than they are. This is bullshit. It’s all in the level of self-confidence. For better or worse, when I try to pick up a new skill, I usually start with the expectation that I’m going to be good at it. Otherwise why bother? And people were knitting long before there were knitting books and podcasts and Ravelry and all that other junk. It’s just sticks and string. How hard can that be? If you can follow directions and pay attention for more than ten minutes at a time, you can learn it.

* Possibly Sexist Digression: Sadly, it really does seem to be mostly women that have this attitude. I’ve never once heard a guy – whether a knitter or not – express a belief that knitting is hard. They may think it’s girly or beneath them, but they’d never say they weren’t smart enough to do it. Guys seem to figure that if other people have worked it out, they can too. WOMEN NEED TO ADOPT THIS ATTITUDE.

Just to keep you posted (and so people don’t keep asking me): Things are progressing on the job front. As you might guess, this company puts prospective hires through a pretty rigorous vetting process. So far I’ve cleared three hurdles and I’m still in the running. Hopefully I’ll have news next week!

Is it real or Photoshop? I scored 6 out of 10, but I have an issue with one of the questions. (Link courtesy of Eileen.)See, I think the Oprah Winfrey question is problematic. I answered that it was Real, simply because I sorta remembered that that had been an actual cover. And it was an actual cover. But the picture of Oprah herself was Photoshopped. I don’t think the question is clear whether you’re judging that this was an actual TV Guide cover, or whether TV Guide was guilty of Photoshop. So really, I should have one more point.

Deathly Hollows Wristband. Pretty neat! (Link courtesy of miftik.)

By Popular Demand: More Tales from Retail Hell
Look, I like to help people. And I get that some people need a little hand-holding with their knitting. But jeez, it drives me up the wall when someone wastes fifteen minutes of my time simply because they cannot be BOTHERED reading the pattern that’s in front of them. They see something new, and they just immediately shut down without even following the instructions. I just had my second person in here in as many weeks trying to do short rows, and they both had the same problem: They’re functionally illiterate. I get that short rows are a little weird to get your head around, which is why most patterns (especially easier ones like Patons and Cleckheaton) spell out exactly what you have to do in excruciating detail. “Note: When turning, move yarn to front between needles, slip next stitch from left-hand needle to right-hand needle, move yarn to back between needles, slip stitch back from right-hand needle to left-hand needle.” Yeah, it’s wordy, but it’s all RIGHT THERE. You can give it a try. With this woman just now, I ended up having to stand over her shoulder and read it out to her while she did exactly what I said. “Oh, so that’s how you do it.” Yeah, you just DO EXACTLY WHAT IT SAYS. What’s so freaking difficult about that? Harrumph.

A woman got hit by a bus at the corner of Druitt and Sussex last night. I crossed that intersection four times yesterday on my way to and from my interviews. I even went through during rush hour last night. I must’ve just missed it.

Thanks!
Thanks to everyone for their interview help yesterday. It went really well. I’m not at liberty to discuss it right now – as I’m sure you’ll understand! – but things are looking really good. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!