(no subject)

[lady_karelia]

Sheesh, looks like I haven't been here in ages!

First of all, a very belated, but heartfelt birthday wish to firefly124! I'm so sorry I wasn't around on the day! Still, I hope you had a brilliant birthday and may this year be the best yet!

Another, only slightly, belated birthday wish to droxy! Hope you had a fab day, dear darque mod!

My two monsters just sat on me, and even though they're both skinny, I now feel I've expanded one way and decreased the other way! I probably look really slim from the side right now. Should take a pic quickly, lol.

Anton the iguana has figured out how to make himself slim and slide underneath the door, clever sod. It means he hides in LM's room, which is full of Bionicles, Bionicle parts, books and some cuddly toys. As long as he hides amongst the cuddly toys, he's okay. But when he finds a green Bionicle part, we have to get worried as it's not warm enough for him. *sigh* We found him on the book-shelf. For the umpteeth time. What an intellectual lizard!

Cloud the tortoise likes to run five yard marathons. He speeds for five yards, then he falls asleep in the middle of running, naps for a few hours and runs another few yards. Both critters like dandelion and not much else. *sigh* It's not yet the season for dandelions! Silly reptiles *mutters*

And I can't help but comment about the current sshg_exchange. Some people, have you been taught common courtesies? You know, like saying "please" and "thank you"? Especially the thank you bit? No? Okay, here we go: If you receive a gift, say thank you. Whether or not the gift was up to your requirements is secondary here! The gift was most likely made with a lot of effort, so have the courtesy to say thank you, even if all you can appreciate or not is the hard work the gifter put into his/her work. It comes under common or basic courtesies. Nobody is asking you to be polite here, just, you know, courtesy! Honestly, in addition to the flame of doom I find it absolutely audacious that so many of you have not thanked your gifter! If you can't be arsed to read or look at your gift, why on earth did you bother to participate? And just to clarify, I'm one of the lucky ones whose recipient squeed over every tiny chapter. So, no, this is not about me, this is about the general state of this part of the fandom.

And whilst I don't think this kind of poor behaviour is limited to fandom -

8-yr-old-kid at self defence class: "What you doing?"

Me: "knitting sox"

kid: "Why?"

me: "Cuz I like it"

kid: "Oh, they're pretty!"

me: "thanks"

kid: "Can you knit a pair for me?"

me: "Well, no. See, I have to knit them for S, for LM, for DB, and myself. Why don't you ask your mom to knit some for you?"

kid: "Oh, you're lame. I don't like you."

me: "That's okay. No problem."

Sigh.

- I'd like to think that we can do our part to make sure basic courtesies are preserved in real life.

There are quite a few good fics and art out there on the exchange, so even if you're not participating in it, go read it, look at the art, and leave some love. Cuz, you know what'll happen if you don't? We'll all go off and write our original fics and bother lit agents and do art to tempt artistic publishers rather than the moderated archives! And that'll mean you won't have anything to read or look at for free!

And finally

Done!


First of the pair for DB

Comments

[firefly-124.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I did indeed have a great birthday. And belated wishes are great, they mean it just keeps going. :-)

Speaking of belated, and in a much less good way, I've (obviously) given up trying to record a voice demo. Either age and lack of practice have thoroughly rusted my vocal cords or digital recording highlights flaws in a way analog didn't used to do, so I never did manage to produce something I thought was good enough to send along. I should've emailed you on that ages ago, and I apologize for not doing so.

Agreed on the comments/thank yous bit. It should be easier to do the "smile and say thank you" thing online than in person, even if it's something you don't like. Especially in a case like the exchange where it's a gift someone put the effort in to make.

Pretty socks!

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about the singing; I'm hopelessly behind with everything at the moment, including my musical adventures.

I absolutely agree - it is much easier to say thanks online! Absolutely no excuse for not saying it...

[a-bees-buzz.livejournal.com]

Amen on the thanking issue. My recipient was generous, but I feel terrible for anyone who went to all that effort and didn't get anything feedback from the one person they did it for.

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

Yup, my recipient was generous, too. I was just totally surprised how many people haven't thanked their gifters. They should be banned from any future exchanges me thinks.

[southernwitch69.livejournal.com]

Well done on the socks!

But what a brat. You're nicer than I am. Teehee

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :-)

Yes, a brat. The only reason I bit my tongue in reply is his parents. I didn't know humans of such vagueness existed *snerk*

[queenp71.livejournal.com]

I didn't know humans of such vagueness existed

Welcome to my world. This is what I deal with on a regular basis. *sigh*

[mundungus42.livejournal.com]

My response would have been either "Oh yeah?" or "YOU'RE lame!" And then brandishing the needles in a vaguely threatening way. Of course, parents might complain, but it's a small price to pay.

You really do make splendid sox! ~admires~

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

Normally, I would have done exactly that. But I realise that in this little guy's case, nobody but the parents are to blame. So sad.

Thank you! *grins* They're so much fun to knit!

[ariadne1.livejournal.com]

Lovin' the sox, concurrin' on the manners, and wonderin' why you didn't say, "And you're a rude little bugger who doesn't deserve handknit socks"? *smiles sweetly*

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

I only refrained from saying such because the parents are beyond vague. Every time I see them, I think people like that really shouldn't be allowed to breed. Both their kids are heavy-duty, high maintenance, keep interrupting the class, and the parents just sit there, with positively blank stares on their faces, without ever correcting their behavior. *shakes_head*

[apisa-b.livejournal.com]

Oh wow!
I always struggle with multicolored patterns.
But watch me knit plait patterns!

You are ablsolutely right. Common courtesy shouldn't be too much to ask in a gift exchange.

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

It took me some getting used to, but I absolutely love it now. I got kinda bored with self-striping yarn after three pairs, so had to try out something new. Plait patterns sound interesting! Do you have a picture? *wants to learn more knitting*

I think common courtesy nowadays has become sorely lacking.

[apisa-b.livejournal.com]

I always knitted during revising in preparation for my exams at university - and everyone considered me really weird for it. Until I learned in a seminar that knitting stimulates the part of the brain that is relevant for storing information. Ha!
In that time I knitted for everyone. Drone, my mum, MIL and of course for me. But the sweaters I knitted are mostly all worn down by now.

Larva has not requested plaid patterns of me so far. The patterns she wanted were mostly just alternations of left and right stitches, or, of course, the famous pink Ravenclaw sweater.



But I have just started a jacket for me in plait pattern. I will post a picture as soon as the pattern is recognisable.

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I didn't know that!

That is one adorable sweater!!! I'm working on my first, but it won't have anything fancy on it, just plain rechts hin und links zurueck. :-)

[apisa-b.livejournal.com]

I promised you a picture of the pattern I'm working at the moment:

[queenp71.livejournal.com]

1. sox are gorgeous. wish I could knit. I can barely crochet--using 1 hooks. knitting with 2 hooks/needles--I don't think I'm coordinated enough.

2. Are you sure you didn't come to my part of the world for that little conversation? I think you must have spoken to one of my students. *snerk*

3. courtesy is no longer required, didn't ya know? *rolls eyes* Again, a battle I'm fighting at work b/c the students are so blatantly rude.

4. I think I should have stopped at 3.

=P