Sew much fun!

Well, I inherited a sewing machine over the weekend. My mom's friend had gotten it in high school years back, and was getting rid of it, so my mom took it in from her friend, tested it out, and deemed it ME-worthy! Not that I know how to sew. Oh no. But apparently I should learn. I had a lot of trouble focusing when my mom was trying to show me how to use it when I was still in Fargo, but then last night, I decided to get it out on the kitchen table and try to figure it out again.

Well! Let me just tell you RIGHT NOW that I am SUPER proud, becuase I finally figured out how to make a blind (invisible) hem!! Sure, it took probably about an hour and a half from the time I started searching online to the point where I actually found the manual for my machine (it was a $7 download of a pdf file - normally I'd complain, but hey, I got a free sewing machine), and then figured out how to get all the switches and dials and the right presser foot all set up on the machine, and then I had to figure out how to get the bobbin threaded back to the OUTSIDE from the INSIDE, but THEN I did it! It took me probably 10 minutes just to figure out all the weird folds and stuff that you have to do to the fabric, but I DID it! An invisible hem!

For those of you who don't know what this is, I'll try to explain it. Look at the bottom of a pair of jeans. You can see that the fabric was folded up towards the inside of the leg and then stitched all the way around. You can see the line of stitching on the outside of the pant leg. That's the hem. (duh! hee hee)

An invisible hem is used on nicer slacks and/or finer fabrics... stuff like that. The fabric is still folded up to the inside of the pant leg, but then it is only attached to the inside of the fabric with teeny tiny little stitches, about an inch apart, and you can't even see them. What happens is that the very edge of the fabric, the part you folded inside, gets all nice and sealed up all by itself with stitches, and then every 5 stitches or so, the needle goes thru the OUTSIDE of the fabric to attach that folded inside piece.... Gosh I don't think I'm describing it very well... ( Here are some helpful pictures! )

Chinese Buffet near my house

( Do these make anyone besides me laugh? )

Shhh...

This site is unnerving and amazing and touching and creepy and makes me want to laugh and cry and scream... it makes me feel both trapped and free, simultaneously. Looks like it was only started in January, but it's been mentioned in national media, and of course you can see for yourself how many submissions there are.

Some of it is pretty heavy stuff. Take your time.

PostSecret

Two aerial photos

Pretty sure I posted this before, but I wanted to post with some statistics.
Black Rock City, 2003

In the image, you can see that the semi-circular city is enclosed by a 7.5-mile pentagononal fence. Each side of that pentagon is 1.5 miles long, and the area inside the fence is about 4.5 square miles. At the very center of the area is where The Man will be. Further out, where the circle would complete itself, is the Temple site. If you follow a straight line from the Temple to the Man and then into that inner edge of the semi-circle, you will see a smaller, crowded circular area. That's Center Camp.

That picture was from 2003, several weeks before the week of Burning Man, so things are still being set up. When everyone arrives, it's super crowded. Here is a picture from last year: Clicky for aerial photo. Looks like it's VERY early in the week, because The Man isn't even up yet, and I remember it getting way more crowded. In 2004, there were 35,664 participants living in Black Rock City. It's kind of hard to capture the scope of the whole thing in just these aerial images, but I hope it gives some of you a better idea of what it looks like, as far as size and numbers.

It's really different... When you are in the streets, among the camps, it's crowded like any other city. But then you can go out into the open desert, and it's just barren, except every now and then you will notice some crazy sculpture or something out in the middle of nowhere. Really different. Last year, my first year, there didn't seem to be a lot of really GOOD art, and according to my friends who had gone in years past, this was true. I really hope that this year is better... it sounds like there are some amazing projects being prepared, but last year apparently a lot of the cool ones were cancelled for one reason or another. I wouldn't be surprised if the bad weather was a big part of it... those winds.... *shudder* ... ugh. Well, I guess we'll see!

Mug shot goodness

This dumb kid got arrested for underage drinking and The Smoking Gun posted his lame-ass mug shot. Check it out!!