I have updated the homage to Watson with new (and better) pics. Just so you know, Meredith. ;)

Since I got another bookcase, I've decided to devote the one in my room to housing random things, but mostly stuff for crocheting (read: YARN). So, here's the latest scheme in managing my yarn stash so that I can a) see what I've got, and b) fit it all in there somehow. This is just a small bit of my current yarn stash, but it's a start.



Sometimes one can find various uses for the boxes in which bookshelves came, and sometimes that use is an improptu shelf insert. :) Honestly, if I could, I would just take this summer off and learn to knit decently, crochet a ton of stuff I've been holding off on, and get a sewing machine and get some mad sewing skills. Lately, I've become enamoured with Craftster and the wonderful things people on there make, like powerbook laptop cases, a knitted banana vibrator cozy, frosted glassware, and the Amelia Earhart aviator cap.

The most recent thing I've made (tonight!) is a cat toy for Watson, a mouse (Crochet Me pattern) with pennies in it instead of stuffing, because that cat LOVES small change. It's pretty fun, it jingles when you throw it and when he attacks it, which inspires more play. :)



I'd also like to give my friend Frances a shout-out for her excellent article in York's Excalibur newspaper on various things found in sex-toy shops: Dolls, Toys and Lubricants—Oh My! I'd especially like to highlight these two paragraphs:

"There are also products that you're better off not using at all. ... Pam emphasizes a warning against spermicide, otherwise known as Nonoxynol-9, which "burns the sperm like pouring salt onto a slug" whether you feel it or not. It eats away at vaginal walls and can cause itching, drying, or burning sensations.

According to a 2002 research study by the Lancet Infectious Diseases Medical Journal and a 2001 report by the World Health Organization, "primary outcomes [of spermicide] were new HIV infection, new episodes of various STIs and genital lesions," and only kills less than ten percent of sperm in the process. The main way to avoid internal cuts (which lead to STIs) is by also avoiding the following: Oil-based products coming into contact with the condom; dry sex by using condoms without lubricant; and spermicide."

So... spermicide doesn't just kill sperm, it also causes STIs by eating through everything else, including condoms and vaginal walls. Awesome. Seriously, what are the manufacturers and marketers of spermicide thinking? They're certainly not thinking about women or disease-prevention. Spermicide is also listed as increasing the risk of urinary tract infections in women. Honestly, why is this stuff on the market AT ALL? Between this and the speculum issue, I'm starting to turn into a raging women's rights activist just by trying to have a normal sex life. Seriously, I would not put something that "burns the sperm like pouring salt onto a slug" into my vagina if it were advertised that way, so why isn't it? Whoever is making it doesn't really give a shit, I must assume, because I hope that they do know how their product works and where its intended usage would happen. This stuff makes me so angry. Why does it seem that the people who design pap smears and condoms and various non-pill/injection/patch birth control methods know NOTHING about female anatomy? Spermicide causes urinary tract infections because it doesn't just kill sperm, it kills the bacteria that live in the vagina and prevent UTIs. It destroys the pH balance. It causes genital lesions. And yet my mother recommends that I use it, because this is not publicized.

It is so frustrating. All I'm trying to do is have a normal life, where I don't get a sexually transmitted disease or infection or pregnant, and I'd like to have a yearly physical so that I know that everything's cool, and I'd like to be comfortable and safe while doing all of the above. Yet the speculum is designed in a very cold uncomfortable way and doctors only use lube with the damn things about half the time, and spermicide is basically poison to my body, and what the hell is that? And if your suggestion is abstinence, well... you get to deal with it when you get married, I suppose. It's still an issue.