Spring Cleaning.

Spring started at 7h44 yesterday. I am largely dedicating my weekend to spring cleaning. It isn't garguantuan. I live in a one bedroom apartment and I try not to accumulate things (books excepted) — I try to keep the place in pretty good order. I try to have a place for everything and everything in its place.

Where I went wrong...

I have been planning Spring Cleaning all week. Thus on tuesday, when I made bread and got flour all over the place, I didn't clean up. When I showered on friday I didn't rinse the tub. When I finished knitting my sweater, I didn't pick up all the snips of wool or put away all the sodding notions. Because I was going to do a Serious Clean on the weekend.

Blurgh.

Now not only oo I have 6 months of accumulated grime and maintenance to address. But a weeks worth of chores.

The right to bare arms

It has been a strange week for Women's history. The Vatican declared the washing machine the single most important development in Women's lib. Meanwhile Michelle Obama, one of most accomplished First Ladies in American history, is making headlines as a fashion plate and advocate of healthy cooking.

The washing machine... The argument has been made that the mechanisation and industrialisation of Clean actually increased the burden on women. Instead of liberating women to take on work outside the home, things like washing machines and vacuums just raised the standard, the amount of house work always increased to the point where it exceeded the time available to do it.

But I suppose the Vatican is not in a position to acknowledge the role of the birth control pill, the vote or the legalization of abortions in liberating women.

Michelle Obama... Went to Princeton and graduated from Harvard Law yet we are talking about her workout regime and what she feeds her daughters.

Food, not to mention what we do with it, is an important part of national discourse in any country. The thing is that having healthy rich people — of any colour — talking about what we should be doing to stay healthy and clean smacks of Progressivism, not education or policy change.

Actually this wouldn't bother me accept the conversation ends up being about how she talks her kids in to eating vegetables. It's too kitchen sink on one hand and aristocratic on the other. I mean she does have an army of chefs to prepare meals to tempt her kids.

And a Harvard Law degree. Someone should ask her about tortes. hehe.

Periodic Table of Typefaces

I while back I gave up on times new roman. Times new roman is dear to me. I just needed a change. What shocked me was that people noticed. People cared. People came to times new roman's defense. Others recommended alternatives. I have since gone back. I didn't find anything in the mac Microsoft Office catalogue that really got my blood flowing. Well some did get my blood pumping but not in a good way.

I hate courier. There's no excuse. It's not 1944, and we aren't making carbon copies.

Anything written in comic sans looks like grade 2 reading material. And on it goes.

Someone has put together a periodic table of typefaces. Helvetica is ranked one (where Hydrogen would go) and Times is number 7... nitrogen... any how I was thrilled. Courier is number 63 — the Europium, of the Lanthanides of the typesetters universe. Take that 1944.

Also discovered a webspread movement to ban comic sans at bancomicsans.com.

Still Breathing

I do still like the concept — choose folly — which I laid out in my first post but I am finding that I really am no longer married the topic of productivity. I was spending more time on being productive than on actually being creative. Out of frustration I ended up doing neither. As nobody was reading the blog, I don't have to worry about alienating the readership, I'll write whatever tickles my fancy.

I have been knitting instead of reading and writing lately. On that note the "norwegian purl" was brought to my attention — it is a neat little way for continental knitters to change from knit to purl without moving the working yarn from back to front, something I would categorize as folly. I am knitting up a k2p2 cowl onto a sweater just now and taking the opportunity to practice this new technique. I'm getting to like it quite a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DkwcejowiI