I'm sure that as usual us plebs are going to end up paying the highest price for the meltdown on Wall Street, but for a few brief moments today we experienced a bit of schadenfreude when the greedy traders all of a sudden realised that the US taxpayer wasn't going to bail them out after all. It was a close call and possibly by the time this post appears on my blog the Republican Party machine will have arm-twisted a dozen of their members into voting for the bailout. Will the world really end tomorrow if this doesn't happen? Will we experience the horrors of the Great Depression as some fear? Will unemployment rise to 60%, will people be dying of starvation in the streets? Or will we regroup and go on, poorer but a bit wiser and not quite so confident that our superannuation will carry us in our retirement years.
Will Monday 29 September 2008 (US time) go down as the day capitalism collapsed? I seriously doubt it. Anyone who thinks that capitalism is dead should go along to any left-wing gathering and observe the all-pervasive low-level capitalism in action as aging hippies try and flog badges and bumper stickers and newspapers to all and sundry.
And it is too much to hope that the seriously immoral will pay for their crimes. At the age of 37 I have a strange sense of deja vue; in the 1980s we had Michael Milken and co. with their junk bonds; today it's subprime lending. Gordon Gecko and the Greed is Good mantra and the immorality and lack of social responsibility have always been around in the past and will still exist tomorrow. And the world somehow survives to the next day.
It's days like today where it is good to be a non-materialist.
So can someone please explain why I felt compelled to spend money I didn't have on a fresh collection of knitting paraphanalia?
Photos to follow.
On the needles:
At work - Baby blanket in Peaches 'n' Cream double-worsted cotton (Springtime colourway)
At home - Veronik Avery's Short-Row Hat (in Noro) for 100g swap
At Home - Forest Canopy Shoulders Shawl
(The last two are from patterns I actually bought as PDFs off the net. So far, they have been worthwhile.)
Lost in the wild
A Magic Yarn Ball I made up for a fellow Aussie Raveller using two skeins of Nor Kureyon (argh!), buttons, a bar of soap, lollies and a crochet needle.
I stupidly neither took a photo of it nor sent it registered post, so I have already made up another (with a different pure wool 12-ply yarn which is nice but no Noro), expecting to have to send it (probably by registered post this time). I've already taken a photo.
I also haven't yet received my stashbuster swap parcel :(
Will Monday 29 September 2008 (US time) go down as the day capitalism collapsed? I seriously doubt it. Anyone who thinks that capitalism is dead should go along to any left-wing gathering and observe the all-pervasive low-level capitalism in action as aging hippies try and flog badges and bumper stickers and newspapers to all and sundry.
And it is too much to hope that the seriously immoral will pay for their crimes. At the age of 37 I have a strange sense of deja vue; in the 1980s we had Michael Milken and co. with their junk bonds; today it's subprime lending. Gordon Gecko and the Greed is Good mantra and the immorality and lack of social responsibility have always been around in the past and will still exist tomorrow. And the world somehow survives to the next day.
It's days like today where it is good to be a non-materialist.
So can someone please explain why I felt compelled to spend money I didn't have on a fresh collection of knitting paraphanalia?
Photos to follow.
On the needles:
At work - Baby blanket in Peaches 'n' Cream double-worsted cotton (Springtime colourway)
At home - Veronik Avery's Short-Row Hat (in Noro) for 100g swap
At Home - Forest Canopy Shoulders Shawl
(The last two are from patterns I actually bought as PDFs off the net. So far, they have been worthwhile.)
Lost in the wild
A Magic Yarn Ball I made up for a fellow Aussie Raveller using two skeins of Nor Kureyon (argh!), buttons, a bar of soap, lollies and a crochet needle.
I stupidly neither took a photo of it nor sent it registered post, so I have already made up another (with a different pure wool 12-ply yarn which is nice but no Noro), expecting to have to send it (probably by registered post this time). I've already taken a photo.
I also haven't yet received my stashbuster swap parcel :(
Recently received
At least I have already received my own Aussie Magic Yarn Ball, made out of the softest wine-coloured merino yarn, containing lindt chocolates, tea, candies, embellishments and a giant 12 mm crochet hook.
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