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Spotlight: Formal Gardens Mosaic

By Liss | August 27, 2008

Formal Gardens Mosaic
Originally uploaded by dreamingcrow

Carl S. English, Jr. Botanical Gardens
Hiram M. Chittenden (Ballard) Locks
Seattle, WA, USA

August 19, 2008

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Please remember that these are not the full photos! The individual photos are much better. Click the links below to see the whole photo or you can find the whole set here.

1. 20080819_008781-1, 2. 20080819_008745-1, 3. 20080819_008750-1, 4. 20080819_008751-1, 5. 20080819_008753-1, 6. 20080819_008755-1, 7. 20080819_008760-1, 8. 20080819_008761-1, 9. 20080819_008773-1, 10. 20080819_008764-1, 11. 20080819_008770-1, 12. 20080819_008763-1, 13. 20080819_008771-1

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

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Now playing: Da Vinci’s Notebook - EP
via FoxyTunes

Topics: Photography, Spotlight Photo | No Comments »

Celtic Hearts Shawl in Progress, Near Finish

By Liss | August 27, 2008

Celtic Hearts Shawl in Progress, Near Finish
Originally uploaded by pixysticks

Pattern: Celtic Hearts Shawl by Vicki Mikulak

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Luscious Single Silk in the colorway Valkyrie

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No, I haven’t forgotten about this project. I was just so busy planning to hike that I didn’t knit much!

I am on my last pattern repeat before starting the border. I’d really like to do one more pattern repeat, as it’s not quite as long as I’d like, but if I did, I would run out of yarn. As it is, I’m likely going to be pushing it.

I really love this delicious yarn, the pattern is knitting up easily, and this should be a great every day shawl. It’s totally snuggle-licious.

Link to the project on Ravelry

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Now playing: Barenaked Ladies - Grade 9
via FoxyTunes

Topics: Knitting | 3 Comments »

A Rare Political Break

By Liss | August 24, 2008

So, I’ve been trying to think of something to say about this for months, as it has winded its way through processes and modifications, but I haven’t found it. (This is the actual rule wording - PDF.)

[Please note: I am aware that this rule will codify and define laws that are already in place. I have serious issues with the language, the widening of who can refuse, the lack of definition of sterilization and abortion, and much more of the wording. Read the actual rule to understand what I’m discussing.]

It makes me so incoherent with rage that I can’t even stutter. Apparently, it did the same for a friend and she linked to a good post on LiveJournal.

Even better than the post itself are some of the comments. Yeah, there’s a lot of knee jerk responses as well, but if you’re a woman who keeps getting told this crap, you get frustrated and don’t care to be nice anymore.

From seferin in the linked post:

This isn’t an issue of doctor’s not performing abortions, it is an issue of someone other than the patient deciding on their own moral code, what care a patient receives. It is further an issue of people entering a profession specifically to deny care. This issue affects women, and only women directly, as men can not get pregnant, and do not need birth control for mood alteration or to deal with cysts on their ovaries, or to abort a pregnancy which could kill the woman or render her infertile. It is about control women’s bodies, free will, and sexuality by force (That makes it rape) because those women dare to believe something other than the person denying care.

Imagine if a Christian Scientist became a Doctor, and denied medical care to everyone. Is that permitted in your world?

Medical professionals who do not want to perform or assist with procedures or medications that they cannot morally support have many options. Don’t go into the field. Work for an organization that doesn’t do or use these things. If you insist on continuing to move forward, then you are trying to be a martyr for your religion. Except, martyrs have to SUFFER. If you want to have your cake and eat it too, denying a woman care AND not get in trouble for it, then you’re not a martyr, you’re an idiot. If you have moral issues that do not allow you to perform your job to description, then leave the position or be prepared to be fired. Allowing you to deny care based on your religious tenets is NOT a reasonable accommodation. (See this comment about reasonable accommodations.)

Please note that this proposed rule does not just cover doctors, but all people involved in the patient’s care and it is worded in a way that can affect birth control and various other procedures and medications, not just abortion.

For those who may not be aware, I am a damn near perfect example of a someone who can be adversely affected by this. I take teratogenic medications on a constant basis. They are the only things that keep me mobile. Hell, one of my medications is used to assist in medicinal abortions. I take birth control pills to control my gynecological issues and to keep me from getting pregnant. My body could not physically handle a pregnancy and any pregnancy could not be healthy or likely carried to term. In the one known case where my birth control failed, I had to schedule an abortion, though my body completed the process before I could proceed. Over a year later, it still haunts me.

From branna in the linked post:

Except that yes, there is, because the impact of this sort of protection is never that narrow.

Imagine you are a married woman with a medical condition that requires you to take a teratogenic drug to control it. Now imagine you have a doctor that a) knows you are married and expects, according to his/her convictions, that this = you are having sex with your husband b) that believes that birth control, let alone abortion, is wrong and c) therefore won’t prescribe the teratogenic drug because of course you might get pregnant because of a) & b).

Imagine you are a teenage girl with endometriosis who needs birth control pills to help control the condition (which is not only horribly painful but can threaten future fertility). But you can’t get your local pharmacist to fill the prescription even if your doctor will prescribe it.

Imagine you’re a married women who will die if she gets pregnant again, who is allergic to hormonal birth control, who desperately needs an IUD because it is really the only safe option available to her.

What about the woman who comes in with an ectopic pregnancy? The child will die anyway; she will die if the pregnancy isn’t terminated, but we’ve got a physician whose wacky “convictions” say terminating even a non-viable pregnancy is unacceptable.

Doctors should not have the right to privilege their personal convictions over the life and health of their existing, living patients just because they are female. “Do no harm” should not be abused to cover harming the _patient_ by inaction because she is female and therefore a walking womb.

I do not want to live in The Handmaid’s Tale. As a matter of fact, I refuse to do so. Fight this people. Do not let it go. The only thing that can stop this insanity is enough people standing up to be counted and refusing to back down.

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Now playing: Billy Joel - Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
via FoxyTunes

Topics: politics | No Comments »

Spotlight: Stormy

By Liss | August 23, 2008

Stormy
Originally uploaded by dreamingcrow

Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, Ballard neighborhood, Seattle, WA, USA

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

File #20080819_008825-1

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This was taken during a trip to the Locks with the children. The photos aren’t all that great, perhaps, but I found them interesting. The full set can be found here.

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Now playing: Delerium - Truly
via FoxyTunes

Topics: Seattle, Photography, Spotlight Photo | No Comments »