Kickstarter and Kindle

Now I guess Kickstarter has been around a little while, but I find this website the coolest!  You can donate to help creative people with their projects.  If they don't get the full amount, they don't get any money - so that you can be sure the money is actually going to help their project and not just get them half-way.

I just donated to the Zombie version of the Night before Christmas.  Its a poem that someone has already written but is trying to get money to get art and make it into a proper book (at the moment it is a e-book, offered here).

I also just got my birthday present in the post.  I didn't know I even got a birthday present this year, but once in a while (despite my non-stop questions regarding any gift) my husband manages to surprise even me.  So this year I got just what I wanted - a new mini-kindle  Since I am soo very excited about this new toy, this blog won't be long. Here is a picture so you can drool (and don't get near my new kindle if you are).

One final photo, which is of my first crochet project from the book First Crochet.  Its a cute bag, and I love it (going to put my kindle in it later :-)

Who is Writing For

I was going through my e-mails this morning before starting school work and saw that Goodreads sent me an update stating that the writers I am following posted new blog entries.  I found this one by Trudi Canavan very interesting especially at the moment.  


I especially like the quote:  "Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money" – Moliere*


In modernism class we are covering Virginia Woolf and T S Eliot who both had very different ideas about writing.  To some extent Woolf believed that anyone who wishes to write should.  That writing is not something limited to a certain class of people, or sex even.  But she did believe to write well a writer would need a room of their own and a little money a year.  This is so they could write in a quiet place, and not be disturbed.  The money was so that they could afford that quiet place.  She also said that having a little more money would be better, because it would mean that you don't have to write for money, so you could be a perfect writer - one that only writes truth (not non-fiction, but universal truth that writers often try to reach).  Lastly she did compare a prostitute to a person who writes for money, which Eliot did as well.


T S Eliot, however, thought that writing literature should be done by only an elite few.  Writers should be very educated (and probably male though he doesn't state as far as I am aware).  This is because the writing he wanted produced would all be literature, and would be absorbed into the greater "Tradition" of the literary canon.  


I can't say that I am certain on either of these points, and if I am wrong about either Woolf of Eliot I apologies.  This is just my understanding from readings in class.  And I will point out that Woolf never saw one side of an argument, so there is probably and essay by her about how writing for money is fantastic, and liberating.  


But read what Trudi Canavan writes in her blog- it shows that the same argument is just as important today as it was with early novel writers.  Trudi Canavan is a most excellent fantasy writer - one of my favourite books is by her:

* possibly not Moliere - see link here.

Scarf

So I have completed my first crochet project from a real book of patterns!  Somehow my scarf looks a bit like a banana i.e. it curves slightly to one side, but its finished and it can be worn.

The original pattern had the scarf with purple, pink and one stripe of orange, but I have to say that I like my colour scheme much better.  Lastly, the tassels were even fun to make.

Just bought a pattern book online that is for easy afghans, wraps and ponchos....which will probably be my gifts for everyone this christmas :-)

Next project here I come which will either be another scarf (pattern here) that I would do without the cupcake, or even a bag from my pattern book - exciting exciting.

Hand Warmers and Fried Noodles

So after practicing and practicing crochet- I have managed to make one pair of crooked hand warmers.  I have very proud of them, so no making fun!  I wore them today on my Hong Kong Dolphin Watch trip, and they kept my hands/arm toasty warm.  It was so nice out I didn't need to wear a jacket, but when the wind is bad my hands get cold - so they are the perfect solution.  I am now going to use them as much as is physically possible in Hong Kong (which is probably for like another two days :-( )

Here is one

Also I have been trying to diet recently.  I call it the "d" word since its the worst word in the english language.  It is not that I want to diet, or even that I am cutting out loads of food, it is more that I am reducing the bad food I have been eating in Hong Kong, as well as terrible food I have been eating since I started back as a student.  But tonight as a treat I made myself some friend ramen noodles- and they are delicious.  My husband says though - that I can't eat all of them - yeah right....watch me!

yummy!