Mistakes have been made

RIP Waving Lace Socks

Once upon a time, I knit myself a pair of Waving Lace Socks (it's an Evelyn Clark pattern from an IK a couple of years ago). They were made of Elann baby alpaca, with heels and toes of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed. And I looked upon them and saw that they were good.

Last time I wore the socks, I noticed that they had developed a small hole in the sole and set them aside for darning after I washed them. Sadly, there's no special "to be mended" location in my house, so they drifted from dresser to dresser and somehow, sometime, made their way into the laundry pile. But not the special hand washing/special care laundry pile. No, they fell in with the jeans and sweatshirts.

When I unloaded the dryer last night, I found them. I couldn't really face it until this morning. They're...


Yup, felted. (I'm really impressed with how well the waving lace continues to wave after a vigorous fulling. That could be useful knowledge for an on-purpose felting project, after this festering wound has healed.)

Students are shiftless

In one of my classes, students are required to read Brave New World. I warn them that there will be a quiz to determine if they've read it. Despite this (and despite the fact that plot summaries are readily available on the internet), there are always a couple of students who don't prepare. Most of the 'fess up. But there's always someone who tries a BS approach. This one was really a masterpiece of using words from the question and not actually saying anything.

Question: What do you believe Huxley's purpose was for this novel? Defend your answer with examples of specific incidents or comments from the novel.

I believe that the purpose of Huxley's novel is for us to see what the different situations would be like, like John and how he felt about the society [there was an earlier question about John's reaction to the society] and how that played a role in what eventually happened [there's also a question about what ultimately happens to John]. There are two sides to everything [the other essay question asks about advantages and disadvantages of the World State] and there are some advantages in the new world and also some disadvantages at the same time. He's trying to put a picture in your head about what society could change to and a glimpse of what happens to some individuals through this process.

Awww, aren't they cute when they're floundering?

Bad management

Thanks for your sympathy about work. I made it through the entire hour of conference call without even feeling strongly compelled to scream at anyone. The head of our division seems to have adopted the position that we'll be able to influence the ultimate form of The Plan so that it will be warm and friendly. Of course, there's absolutely no process in place to accomplish this.

During dinner with some of Trent's colleagues, one of them related a great anecdote. He saw an interview with a solider who had been in Iraq. The interviewer asked if the solider was hopeful that the plans for stabilizing the region would work. The soldier replied "Hope is not a method." I'm now officially in love with that phrase, and plan to use it when the Corpbots come to talk to us in person about The Plan.