Halloween & Voting!

Happy Halloween everyone!

I'm almost done making my costume, this year I'm going as Princess Leia! Yay sci-fi geekiness! : ) I'll post a pic of my outfit later, when my camera's finally fixed.

And on another note, I was looking up info about Tuesday's election. Usually I have no idea what's going on for the Senate and House of Reps races so I end up doing eeny meeny miny mo for everything besides the presidency. : P This year I can actually make a somewhat informed decision on the local stuff. If you're in NY you can find good links about who's running in your district ect here.

Also, I found this site courtesy of No Impact Man's blog, it's the League of Conservation Voter's site. You can find out about candidates' positions on environmental issues there.

The Latest on The Atlantic Yards Proposal

The Atlantic Yards Proposal is this crazy idea developer Bruce Ratner has been trying to push through for years now. It's a huge stadium/shopping complex that he wants to plop down in the middle of one of the most traffic-heavy neighborhoods in Brooklyn. It's nuts! The pic above shows a computer rendering of what it would look like.

The following is the latest from www.developedontdestroy.org

Atlantic Yards: A Lot of Changing Facts

The facts have been changing a lot with respect to Atlantic Yards. But our “dogmatic” Mayor hasn’t wanted to change his mind and leave the mistake behind.

Our economy changed; not the Mayor’s mind. . . . The megadevelopment’s schedule changed by decades: The Mayor seems to like parking lots which might conceivably be there until he is six feet under. . . . . The project’s cost is up (Beyond what the New York State PACB approved.); by more than 50%. . .. . We’ve gone from a hypocritical Governor Spitzer to Governor Paterson, who has a history of opposing eminent domain abuse. . . . .The flimsy theory of the arena’s tax-exemption was blown.- But the Mayor is willing to embarrassingly have the city unconscionably lobby the IRS to grandfather loopholes and fake real estate tax appraisal figures to try to salvage it. .. Remember: There is no legal or binding obligation for the city or the Mayor to go through relentless gyrations to prop up the project against the public’s interest.

What does it take to change the Mayor’s mind about an acknowledged mistake? Is there no line that the Mayor would not cross in pursuing such a mistake?

Is the Mayor’s inflexible conduct in the face of change what the Mayor means when he talks about `dogmatism’ that makes a person “not very practical or effective”?
...

sign the petition! Visit http://dddb.net/php/petiton.php

DIY Friday- Fused Plastic Bags!

So after a good couple years of having a blast playing with plastic bags I finally got around to fusing them! I don't know what took me so long I guess just having too much fun weaving them. The tutorial on the etsy blog is great, you hafta check that out.














This time around I tried a super simple coin purse. It's convenient to use the plastic sleeves newspapers come in if you're making a teeny little bag like this.














Once you cut the sleeves open and lay them flat you can fold it into little rectangles 8 layers of plastic thick. I tried using less layers like 3 or 4 and it ended up shriveling up and getting holes in it so I'd say go with the 6-8 layers they recommend in the etsy labs how-to.















Another possible reason why my first one shriveled up is I had the iron set too high. I changed the setting to nylon, folded it a few more times and voila success! : )