In the style of a friend of a friend, I have decided to loose the mono-topical posting coil and instead write about some of the many things that were interesting to me today.
Thing 1: I am suffering from knitting paralysis, and boy is it unpleasant. Because I arrived at the end of my Christmas gift to-do list Friday night, I am now free from constraints, other than that I really need something simple and portable so that I can take it to SD with me tomorrow.
Saturday I started my new felted laptop sleeve. As far as that goes, I am very pleased with the design so far (details and photos eventually), but my unwillingness to compromise my design has led to a very high-maintenance sort of knitting. Lots of color changes means that this is not an ideal project for travel and visiting. Sunday I started another project (gift for friend–no details until completion), and it turns out that the pattern is just not as cool as I thought it was, so it has been abandoned.
I could start the brown socks, but I’m terrified that cables and lace will get all screwed up in the face of a cocktail or an engaging conversation. I’ll have to check my queue again for something more straightforward. Or, maybe I’ll just hit the yarn store. 
Thing 2: Today in my travels around the internets I encountered a fantastic little clip from a fantastic little show you might have heard of, probably from me:
JFK said something similar (and stunningly timeless) in his Don’t-be-concerned-that-I’m-Catholic Speech:
I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation, or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding office.
I guess my point is that there are lots of reasons to be afraid of candidates like Huckabee and Romney, and them downplaying the way their faith will inform their actions, should they be elected, is really just the tip of the melting iceberg.
Thing 3: I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I found this pretty fantastic feature on MSN Live Search today that needs to be shared: one-click directions. Essentially, rather than waste your time typing in your starting address, it accounts for the general direction or approach you would take from any of the four cardinal directions, and tells you the end of your route only. Brilliant! Don’t waste my time telling me how to get TO the freeway, I’ve done that a few billion times, just tell me what I need to know.
An example for getting to Cafe Ladro from four likely starting points:
MSN LiveSearch…who knew?
Thing 4: I will definitely post more about this when it starts to be a real thing, but for now, I’m just really excited and wanted to share. Matt and I have signed up for Seattle Startup Weekend in January. Basically, by signing up you are agreeing to become a founding member of a brand-new startup. The entire group works from 6pm Friday to 11:55pm Sunday to create, plan, and implement a new web-based business. All participants are given an equity stake. First of all, this idea excites me because I hear that lots of smart, energetic, motivated individuals hang out at events like this and I could always use more of them in my life. Second, I’m excited for the opportunity to take my learning in my new job and field-test it somewhere else.
