Today I have a little bit of disposable income. So today I will be buying patterns on Ravelry**. Specifically I’ll be buying patterns in which either a portion or all of the proceeds will be going to help with Haiti fund raising organizations.

This ends up being a 3- (or even 4-) fold benefit to all.

First, there’s the obviously selfish one in which I get a pattern out of it. Sure.
Second, I’m supporting indie designers by buying their patterns.
Third, The obvious one is that whatever amount of money I spend, there’s a portion of it going to help with the relief efforts.
Fourth, It gives me more patterns to make for others! (this one is a stretch, I know).

I could easily just donate some money, sure. And I’d feel good about being able to do that, without a doubt. But it’s really the support of the designers that I’m interested in as well. These people are giving up a portion of their livelihood. There’s always a bigger picture, I swear.

As I browse there are 77 pages worth of projects. That’s a lot of stuff and a lot of patterns to choose from. So I encourage the handful of crafty folks who might be reading to go take a look. Even if you get only one pattern, it’ll still be helping.

** When you’re logged into Ravelry, click on Pattern. In the upper right hand corner there’s a link for Haiti donation patterns.

EDIT: For those curious, I’ll link the patterns that I went ahead and purchased today, not in any particular order. These are all Ravelry links (which means it requires an account to be able to access them).
A Little Something by Samantha Roshak
Argus Shawlette by Wendy Johnson
Lasa Set by Jenna H.
Varese Hoodie by Connie Chang Chinchio
Heirloom Treasure Baby Blanket by PurpleSage

It’s a buzz all over twitter with a hashtag all it’s very own.

For those who don’t want to be bothered doing google searches and clicking around all over the place… here’s the gist of what went down.

Author Mark Probst noticed that he no longer had a ranking in the amazing system, meaning that his books would nto be found were an amazon search performed on it. Upon investigation, it seemed as though other GLBTO titles were being removed from the ranking list… again, making it harder to find via search.

Amazon’s response said something to the effect of “adult content” blah blah blah. But you can still search for very adult material despite their excuse.

Meta Writer has been keeping tabs on what is being censored and what is not. While not overtly horrible, it seems just 10 steps too far over the “not doing the right thing.”

While it’s not enough to keep me from using Amazon’s resources (not yet at least) it’s enough to wonder who got a hair up their ass to even think that something like this would go unnoticed.

Far too often the internet and social networks have shows the awesome powers they have to get information out there and quickly. I mean, it’s to the point that Neil Gaiman’s posting about it as well. Among others. Friends have tweeted and plurked about it. I’m pretty sure I saw Wil Wheaton tweet an #amazonfail somewhere.

Please note this particularly amusing blog post. My favorite bit: “Alternate usage: “My girlfriend wanted to preserve her virginity, and I was happy to respect that, then she amazon ranked and decided anal sex was okay.””

Chalk up another epic fail on the part of the internet moguls. They’ll learn eventually… right… right??

I just finished listening to Neil Gaiman‘s interview with his daughter Maddy.

Quite possibly the cutest thing in the whole world. And informative too.

1. Lee needs more support.
2. Lee needs to leave.
3. Lee needs to do more for Korea’s upgrades.
4. Lee needs love.
5. Lee needs your help to make cameraphone film.
6. Lee needs to fine tune herself.
7. Lee needs your camera!
8. Lee needs to elevate.
9. Lee needs just $3 million.
10. Lee needs to get nasty… and quick.

So I got rid of a handful of responses. Not because they weren’t funny, but mostly because they were repeats or ended with “Lee needs.” and nothing followed. The last one amuses me greatly. I might have to actually click that link and go read the article.

Totally stolen/borrowed from Jason.

Facebook has turned into the next myspace, only worse. Myspace wasn’t so bad because a lot of work people didn’t bother. Not that it matters because I don’t (and won’t) use myspace for anything. Ever. I had to change my profile to remove my domains from my facebook profile. Why? Because there are a billion work people running around on facebook now and it’s starting to border on being rather silly. I mean, I’m feeling like my mom is reading my diary type of thing. I’m not sure how I feel about this.

I guess so long as they don’t follow me on twitter or plurk, I’ll be alright. When that day comes, I think I’m taking a sabatical from the internet. No. Really.

I’m nearly finished with my first pair of knit socks. They’re not the best, but at least I can say I made them. And then I get to work on trying to make more socks… only better.

School is whooping my ass, and I’m ready for it to be done. I’m ready to sit on my ass and do nothing for a little bit when it’s all over. Well, there’s work, but I mean, I don’t have to spend nearly every waking moment reading, or writing, or reading and writing, and studying. I’m pretty burned out.