Peggy & Justin Hawkwood

All Remodel Pictures

In 2006 We played three-card-monte with the office, kitchen, and guest room.

Oregon Primary Election 2008 Guide: Candidates

Afraid of Heights?

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1438490562

(there is sound, but you don’t technically need it- about 6 min. long)

this is a climbing spot- you have a something around your wasit with two clips, and you clip yourself to the cable along the side of the wall…. or that’s what you’re SUPPOSED to do…

unlike this guy, who just Walks.

EEeeekkkkk!!

Oregon Primary Election 2008 Guide: Measures

The Oregon Primaries are coming up in a few weeks, and there is actually more to vote on than just Hillary or Barrack.  Following is my take on several of the measures for this election:

Oregon Measure 51: NO

This measure, which amends Section 42 of the Oregon Constitution, is called a “house-keeping measure” since it helps solidify laws that have already been passed, but are they good ones?  Since our legal system is based off the concept ”innocent until proven guilty”, isn’t that how it should be? The defendant, until proven or plead guilty, should be treated as innocent, and therefore their rights, and not the victim’s should be more important.  The “victim’s rights” from that section include, among others, the right to refuse being interviewed by the defendant’s lawyer, which could seriously impact the defendant’s case, especially for someone wrongfully accused of a crime.  This measure strengthen laws that should not have been passed in the first place. 

It is also worth noting that the ACLU (www.aclu-or.org) is “neutral” on this measure.

Oregon Measure 52: YES

This measure, which amends Section 43 of the Oregon Constitution, is also a ”house-keeping measure”, but unlike section 42, the “victim’s rights” in this section are reasonable; the right to be reasonably protected from the criminal defendant, and the right to have decisions for pretrial and/or bail based on that reasonable protection and likelihood to appear for trial.  Strengthening these rights, which do not infringe on the defendant’s rights, is a good idea.

The ACLU (www.aclu-or.org) is “neutral” on this measure also, but I believe that to be because they lumped the two measures together.

Oregon Measure 53: (tentative) YES

Reading the text of this measure, I am not entirely convinced that the benefits outweigh the risks of abuse, but I try to have faith in humanity.  The sections that concern me are in regards to forfeiture without conviction.  One section allows forfeiture of property for “crimes similar to the crime for which the claimant was convicted.”  If the claimant committed these similar crimes, then why aren’t they being prosecuted for them?  Another allows that “property of a claimant who has not been convicted of a crime may be forfeited in a civil forfeiture proceeding only if the claimant consents to the forfeiture…”  This is where I see a large chance of abuse; if people don’t know that it’s okay to say “No, you can’t take that” to the police (I’m assuming that the police would be the agents of the “forfeiting agency”) and not have criminal repercussions, then there could be a situation of amoral, but not illegal, “forfeitures”.  Again, I say YES to this measure because I have faith that there are more moral officers than there are amoral ones.

Low-Score Yahztee

Peggy and I came up with an interesting variation of the Yahtzee card game, try to get the lowest score. In order to keep from just burning (taking a 0) every score we made some additional rules:

1. Unless required to play a hand by following rules, you must use all three rolls.
2. If a hand meets the minimum requirements for a score in the Lower Section (3 or 4 of-a-kind, or Small Straight) that has not been filled yet, than those dice must be held.
3. If you roll a Full House, Large Straight, or a Yahtzee, you must place the score accordingly, if you can.
4. You must place a hand where it gives you the highest score, except for Chance.
5. If your final roll in a hand cannot be played for any points, then you burn from the top down: Upper section - Aces, Twos, Threes, etc. then Lower Section - 3-of-a-kind, 4-of-a-kind, etc.
6. Chance is the last hand played.

Give it a go, and let me know if you can think of additional rules. 

(This is a re-post from my old blogspot account)

The Movie Game

The Movie Game is something that my friends and I play to pass the time, and test our knowledge of movies and actors. It works by making links between actors using movies they were in, as follows:
The first player states two actors and the movie they were in together, “Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford in ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’”.
The next player states the second actor, names a new actor and the movie they were in together, “Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman in ‘Air Force One’”.
Repeat without reusing actors or movies.
PASSING: If a player can’t make a link, (s)he passes (and drinks if you’re playing it as a drinking game).
WINNING: If every other player passes and the stating player can make a link, the game is over and (s)he wins.
DEAD-END: If that player also cannot make a link, then (s)he must make a different link from the original actor given to them (and drink), “Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones in ‘The Fugitive’”.

Variations:
ELIMINATION: Instead of passing, if a player (named C) cannot make a link, (s)he can issue a “Challenge” to the previous player (B) to prove that player B can make a link. If (s)he proves it, then player C is eliminated and the actor from the challenge link goes to the next player. If player B cannot prove it, the (s)he is eliminated and the actor given to her/him from the previous player (A) goes to the next player (C).
KEVIN BACON: In homage to the basis for the game (The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon) you cannot pass or challenge if you are given Kevin Bacon as your actor.
POLITE START: In the first time around, a player can force the previous player to give them a different actor to link off of instead of passing/challenging.

Sources: The sources used for links can be a contentious subject. How do you define a “movie”? Does it have to have been a nation-wide release? Do TV-movies count? What about mini-series and TV shows? We play that if you can rent it at the video store (or Netflix), it’s fair game. You could also use IMDB (maybe we should call this “The Actor Game” since the term “movie” is being used so loosely).

Additional suggestions welcome.

(This is a re-post from my old blogspot account)

Recent By Author

This Wordpress plugin is an amalgam of two other plugins, WP-Authors and Recent Posts.  It shows a list of authors with options to show their total number of posts, and their most recent posts.

Installation is pretty straight forward:  Make sure your theme is widget-ready, upload “recent-by-author.php” to the “/wp-content/plugins/” directory, activate in Plugins menu, and the add it to your sidebar in Design>Widgets menu 

Here is the admin box:

Title: - Like most widgets, there is an option for a custom title.

Show post counts - Shows the total post count next to the authors name.

Number of recent posts to show: - When greater than 0, a sublist is displayed under an author’s name with up to the set number of posts.

Show full names - Displays the authors first and last name instead of their chosen public name.

Hide empty authors - If an author has no posts, then they are not shown in the sidebar.

Exclude admin - Hides the admin from being shown in the sidebar.

Plugin’s Wordpress Page | Download plugin

Spiky Land

How to Hem Pants - 101

Hemming Pants:

ok- the main problem is that people make them too short- if you do this, you’re screwed. So- here is my basic hemming 101:

Plug in the iron- set it to cotton. Ironing makes hemming tremendously easier.

Put the pants on with the shoes that you think you’d wear with them. Roll them up to where you want the actual final hem to be- mark it with chalk or a pin. You only need to do this on one leg.

Take pants off and lay flat- both legs together, flat; one on top of the other. From where the Mark is, take a ruler and draw a straight line AT THE SAME PARALLEL ANGLE AS THE CURRENT HEM. This may not look straight to you, but the pants are cut a certain way– keep the angle, whatever it is.

Ok- the math part.

You’ll add 1.5″ for a 1″ hem. Here’s my reason:

an average hem is 1/2″. But, a good hem is rolled twice, so that there is no raw edge of fabic on the inside of the hem. So, you need to add 1″. But, you don’t want your pants to be too short, and do you really trust where you put the Mark on the pants when you tried them on? so add another 1/2″. Ok- now you have your math: 1.5″ (If you’re really unsure, make it 2″ down)

So you measure down, towards the current hem, 1.5″ and make new marks- make about 3 or 4 of them, and then draw a new Line, Still Parallel to other Line and Current Hem- hitting as many of the 3 to 4 new marks as you can.

This New Line is where you Cut. If your scissors are good enough, cut both legs at the same time- that way if they get all funky-like, at least both legs will be that way. If your scissors aren’t good enough, then cut the leg with the line, then use the scrap you just cut off as a guide on the other leg.

Now you have unhemmed pants that are 1.5″ too long. yey.

You take your ruler or Hem Guide (black and silver measurer thing with a sliding blue triangle?) and with the pants inside out, fold hem at 1/2″, pinning every 2 or 3 inches along. You will be pinning to the inside (wrong side) of fabric, so, folding fabric towards you. USING ALL METAL PINS IS EASIER!

Do that to both legs, and lay pant leg flat and iron directly over hem. DO NOT “run” iron along fabric- the pins *will* scratch iron’s surface. Lift and Press. Lots of steam helps. If you are using pins with plastic balls, don’t iron over them- the plastic *will* melt and get very icky. Iron until hem is creased to the point where it will stay without the pins in place.

Remove pins.

Fold over hem one time, and pin again. You shouldn’t need to measure again- you know it’s a 1/2″. Folding up one more time now means you have your 1″ of fabric folded up in the hem.

Iron the new folded hem. If it will not stay in place without pins, leave them in- but make sure they are PERPENDICULAR to hem-line-to-be, so, running up and down the length of the pantleg.

Ok- Sewing time!!!

You will need a needle of at least a 90 strength (the equivelant is, I think, a 14 in euro sizes). The thread doesn’t really make that much of a difference. You can buy Denim thread- the yellowy-gold stuff- but you can use any threat which is hard to break between your hands when pulling. Poly-cotton threads are good.

Put the needle in. Thread the Machine.

Put the setting to a straight-basic stitch, not too short, not too long– mid-range. If your machine can, put it so that the needle is not centered in the hole in the foot, but off to the left.

Ok- visualize with me: machine in front of you. Pants laying on table to your Left. Put pants in machine, so that pantleg is to LEFT, and future hem is to your RIGHT. You want to position the pants so that the stitch is going to be on the LEFT edge of the hem. This ensures that the hem doesn’t unfold.

Now sew! It’s best not to sew over pins, but if you do, do it slowly. Removing them right before you go over them works well, too.

When you get to the seams in the pantleg, they will be thicker and the machine may not like them. So, when you get to that, you can either advance the stitch by hand, turning the wheel towards you- or you can stop the stitch WITH THE NEEDLE IN THE FABRIC raise the foot, and kida wiggle the fabric a bit- or you can combine the two. Just make sure you put the foot back down before you start to sew again.

Remove all pins, clip off excess thread, and iron again.

Try them on:

- if they’re too long– repeat whole damn process.

- if they’re too short– call me- it *can* be fixed, but it’s tricky

- if they’re perfect, you’re perfect & you’re done!!

tra la la la la!

Rubber Stamps?

Here’s Peggy’s Idea: just give her a small cut of it should you every make any money using her idea.