You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Off Topic Chat
>
Watcha Doin' - 2019
Great to see you back Laura! I'm very sorry to hear about the hard times you had. Good that you've found a new job!
So sorry you've had such a terrible time, Laura. Hopefully, it's all behind you now and everything starts looking up. Congrats on the new job! I hope it's a much better fit for you. Glad to have you back!Thank you! Sorry you missed it too, but hopefully you'll be available when we have the next one. Those topplers just keep coming!
That sounds like a lot of stress to deal with Laura. I'm glad you've found your way back to the group and I hope we can help you destress. The dinosaur theme for the monthly challenge is a fun one.
Hi, Laura! Glad to see you around.
That's a lot of life all at once Laura
Good to see back, Laura, and sorry to hear that you have had to deal with so much stress in recent months.
You've had a run of it Laura. Sorry to hear that. Glad to have you back.
Welcome back Laura, lovely to see you. Sorry you've had such a hard time the past year and a bit. Hope the new job keeps going well, I know how energy sucking a terrible one is, so great you found a new one!
Thank you all! It feels good to be back to reading and audio books again!Travis - I love the way you worded that. It's very accurate. All part of life, but so much at once is hard to process. Also, I'm very glad your kids are alright!
I just read about the terrorist attacks in New Zealand. 40 people were killed in shootings in two mosques in Christchurch. The shooter streamed the attack live on social media. Awful :(
Also NZ is one of the last places where I would expect something like this to happen.
I saw it too, Peggy. Very sad. I also thought NZ to be an unlikely place for this, but I guess there are intolerant people everywhere.
49 now. I am so so so so so angry about it. And I am even more angry as this totally glossed over the fact that thousands and thousands of kids from so many backgrounds wagged school today together to protest something that affects us all, climate change, and some selfish, racist, hateful, violent white supremacists decided to do this instead and completely overwrite the unity the rest of us were experiencing when it happened. How. Dare. They.
And I'm even more annoyed as we just saw Tim Minchin live tonight which was great, but it was 2 hours out of a horrible day. And I feel I've been ripped off of riding the post show high.
All because at least 4 people decided they have the right to kill and maim people who they deem inferior to them by some arbitrary definition. To terrorise an entire city. To have kids in lock down in schools until 6pm at night. To lock down hospitals. To tell people not to go outside. How. Dare. They.
Get in the fricking bin.
It's devastating, and so heartbreaking. Why is it that there are so many people filled with hate, that they could even conceive of such a thing?
It is horrible. Just awful. I was so shocked when I read about it. As you say, NQ is not somewhere you'd expect something like this to happen.
I've had sciatica for the past 24 hours and it's driving me nuts already. I did some yoga this morning which helped. I really need to be a bit more active - get back on swimming, yoga and running. Otherwise, I'm going to be a stiff old woman! It has been so windy here this last week. Loads of trees have come down and our solar box broke last night. The wind was so loud last night that we got no sleep. It's quietened down a bit now but it's supposed to pick up again tomorrow. I really need some sleep.
Sound bad, Sarah. Sciatica is not fun. At all. I hope you sleep better tonight.
I just skimmed the posts from last 2 weeks. Sorry for whatever I missed. Welcome back Laura. that was a rough beginning. Hopefully things will get better from now on.
Take care Sarah. Hope it does not last.
I was pretty much offline for the last 2 weeks as Sock Madness began. I finished knitting my qualifying pair, so I am back on normal schedule for a bit until the real competition begins. So expect me on and off (Do not send a St Bernard although the Brandy is welcome!) until I get kicked off. This was mid April last year. I will be surprise if I make it that far this year.
Peggy wrote: "I need to know! What is Sock Madness?"Same here! Enquiring minds need to know.
Esther, is that a sock knitting competition?!
Glad to see I am not the only one who never heard about Sock Madness!
Esther wrote: "I just skimmed the posts from last 2 weeks. Sorry for whatever I missed. Welcome back Laura. that was a rough beginning. Hopefully things will get better from now on.
Take care Sarah. Hope it do..."
What round did you get to? I've made a couple of pairs of socks but nothing competition worthy. Good luck. Keep us posted on far you get this year.
Yes sock Madness is a sock competition on Ravelry. I'd say it is insane, but so are topplers. :)Some knitters in my knitting circle were doing it and, last year, I jumped in.,,,.I had way to much fun. One of the goals of this is to challenge knitters and put them out of their comfort zone. I did learned a lot. (and seriously, would I have a pair of socks with dragons otherwise?)
Long story short, you have two weeks to do your qualifying pair of socks. If you do, you are put in a team. Then we have rounds where only an allotted number of slots are available for the next round, so the teams get smaller until only one member per team is left.
I made it to round 4 last year. Knitting a dragon in colorwork on a plane is not something I recommend. I did not make it. :)
For the curious, this is what I knit last year (including 2 bonus/warm up patterns)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlyJonynA...
Oh wow! Dragon knitted socks sound amazing! That's pretty impressive, Esther. We're rooting for you this time.
The socks look amazing, and nothing like what my grandmother knit. There were no dragons in her repertoire.
Those socks look awesome, Esther, very cozy.
Wow, Esther. Those socks look great. Good luck this year!
Esther wrote: "Yes sock Madness is a sock competition on Ravelry. I'd say it is insane, but so are topplers. :)Some knitters in my knitting circle were doing it and, last year, I jumped in.,,,.I had way to much ..."
Sounds great! Best of luck for this year!
Those socks always look so comfy, even when I haven't worn socks for months. Good luck!!
I am still having huge issues at the moment with this massacre. The main gunman was an Australian. We don't have these very frequently in Aus and NZ so this is actually momentous. I wrote this last night trying to make sense of my head:
"I'm tired. And angry. And so sad. But so so so SO incredibly angry.
We knew this was coming. We knew that the anti-Islamic sentiment and bile we have been spewing in this country since 9/11 would result in this.
Oh, one woman's hijab being ripped off on the train, or a group of people screaming "go back to were you came from" to someone who isn't Anglo doesn't mean anything. It's one person.
Senators or Ministers in government spurting bullshit about the final solution in regards to Muslims, or stirring up anti-Islamic sentiment to win an election or several, or when that wears thin, lets move to "African gangs" (ignoring there are 54-6 different countries in Africa, and many many more ethic groups and religions. Fear-mongering doesn't need your facts!).
The constant hatred that our Governments have tried to instill in us about brown people in boats trying to come to Australia from war zones, when willfully ignoring the amount of Brits and Irish overstaying their tourist visas in Australia.
I'm not surprised. I am disgusted. I've felt physically sick for a day now. My heart actually aches with all of this.
The lives lost are heartbreaking. And they are so familiar. The welcoming grandfather at the door to the mosque for example, reminds me of all the beautiful welcomers at the doors of church when I was so involved. Those wonderful people who were there to make you feel safe at a place of worship.
Yet I feel we let a lot of these particular people in NZ down, as what did we welcome them in to? They should have been as safe as they made us feel in these places.
I love Australia, and I love New Zealand. We've often talked about moving across the ditch. And we say this isn't us.
But I know how we got to this state of white supremacy. We let this happen on our watch. We let things run for too long. We are complicit. We are willful bystanders of this racism. We don't and didn't stand up to our media, our politicians. And they converted people to this way of thinking. Our rationalisation that people were smart enough to see through this crap is wrong, as if you repeat things often enough they become true as people start to believe it.
We can't hand wring about this. We have the federal election soon, those of you in NSW have an election on the weekend. We need to send a message we don't condone this shit any more through our voting. We need to make our workplaces and companies we associate with turn off Sky News, buying the Australian, and it's ilk. We need to actively and physically stand with marginalised communities and say we don't accept your narrative of division anymore. We are better than this, and we are only better than this when we stand together. And that is the only thing keeping me together over this.
We are better together, and we can fight the doctrine of hate.
So please, channel your inner Sarah and repeat with me: You have no power over me."
We're going to head to the local mosque tomorrow for a prayer service and vigil. While I am lapsed religious, Lexx is very much not and a person of science. So the fact when I mentioned it to him he was all "Yup, let's go!" shows how much this has rocked the Antipodes. We are all gagging to jump up and down and say this is completely f**ked up.
Happy St Pats Day to those of you who celebrate it!
Happy St. Patrick's Day to all those celebrating today!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this horrible situation, Rusalka. I can't even articulate how I feel. I fear for this world and yet I cannot allow myself to become overwhelmed by that fear. The amount of melatonin one has in their skin shouldn't matter. The religion a person follows shouldn't matter. We are all human beings with the same needs.
Happy Paddies Day all! It is a public holiday here so we tomorrow off :-D
I've been in a bit of a funk. You had the NZ thing. Then I saw a pic from 1929 of the KKK marching through. Shouldn't have shocked me but in my whole life I've never heard a mention of a klan presence in this area. Then there's a viral video of a school teacher in Connecticut going crazy racist on a black guy or couple in like a Walmart or something. Sometimes all the hate in the world just weighs on me and I get into a funk. We all bleed red. On the inside it's just blood bones muscles and organs and to me it's as simple as that. People is people.
And let's not forget Nebraska. Not sure if anyone is from there but this flooding is crazy. Bridges washed away. Land covered in ice chunks the size of glaciers. People using helicopters to feed their cattle. Whole herds if cattle washed away with no trace. It's insane. Then blizzards in Dakota's with guys out shoveling cattle out of snow Banks. It's crazy
That is crazy, Travis. Poor cows.
Rusalka I think you said it exactly right...we can no longer assume hateful speech will be seen for what it is and discounted. Silence makes us complicit and it’s up to all of us to decide what that means. How best to use our voices.I did celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day but a day early. I was in a parade on a float called The Sirens of the a Sea ( an all female krewe.) I’ve been recovering ever since. Plus two separate groups of houseguests have brought my reading to a screeching halt. This week will be better, hopefully.
Well said Rusalka. Great that you're going to the mosque. We might have had a terrorist attack this morning. Nothing the size of NZ and not many details have come out yet. Someone started shooting in a tram in Utrecht (second largest city), and according to the police it has many characteristics of a terrorist attack (but they don't say what exactly). They also haven't given any information about victims, but according to witnesses one person is dead and several others are injured. Schools and universities have closed their doors, no one can get in or out. Trains don't stop in the city. There's a press conference in 10 minutes.
Travis wrote: "We all bleed red. On the inside it's just blood bones muscles and organs and to me it's as simple as that. People is people."Totally agree. It does my head in. And I understand about the funk feeling.
Travis wrote: "Whole herds if cattle washed away with no trace. It's insane. Then blizzards in Dakota's with guys out shoveling cattle out of snow Banks. It's crazy "Jeez that is. We haven't heard about it hear as everyone is banging on about how we aren't racist. So therefore real news is getting forfeited. That's pretty horrific!
Marnie wrote: "I did celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day but a day early. I was in a parade on a float called The Sirens of the a Sea ( an all female krewe.) I’ve been recovering ever since. Can I just say this sounds like the awesomest party I was not at and I am very jealous.
Peggy wrote: "Well said Rusalka. Great that you're going to the mosque."I actually got sick, so didn't go. And feel like a fraud. "People got shot and died, and I have a sniffle and didn't go to a mosque" is my thinking tonight. Yet I also think that infecting 50 people with my head cold is also a shitty thing to do.
What I am thinking of doing, is setting up introduction to Islam courses if the Centres or Mosques are up for it. I know a little of Islam from a uni course I did, but most of my friends know nothing. I've been thinking for years of a 1001 intro course of what Islam is and what they believe would be super useful for dealing with the narrative of what the right wing media says. Here is what you've heard, and here are the facts, kind of thing.
Peggy wrote: "Someone started shooting in a tram in Utrecht"This literally popped up on my screen while i was typing the above. Glad you're okay Peggy.
Jeez I am sick of these arseholes...
The shooting in Utrecht was on my news feed here this morning. It's really heartbreaking.
The world is a sad place right now. So much hatred of anyone considered different. It breaks my heart.
I just heard about the shooting on the tram in Utrecht. They haven't caught the gunman yet. Apparently there was also a mass shooting in a church in Nigeria last week. I think either 39 or 40 people were killed. The media didn't really cover it though which is odd. I'm literally sickened by all this senseless violence. When is it going to end?
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
The Rithmatist (other topics)The Starless Sea (other topics)
The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire (other topics)
The Doll Factory (other topics)
The Binding (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Jamie Ford (other topics)Madeline Miller (other topics)
Jamie Ford (other topics)
Madeline Miller (other topics)
Ruta Sepetys (other topics)
More...
On top of that, I had been dealing with a very negative work environment and a boss that was never pleased with anything I did. I'm no longer in that job, had a month home with family to try to deal and help them deal and am now at a new job I'm very hopefully about!
I've missed this group and having time and motivation to read! Hopefully I can catch up on comments and maybe read a book or two before the month ends. I hope you all are doing well and I'm excited to get back into the discussions!
Oh and I can't believe I missed the Harry Potter toppler! Kristie that was such a cool toppler idea!