I worked mostly on my Donna Dewberry Grapevine Wreath, but still have a lot of work to go before it’s finished.  So, for now I wanted to just share a few pics of something that I did finish the week. . . another pin cushion.  This is what it looked like just before I assembled it.

This is what it looked like completed.

I found this pattern for free online.  It’s called a biscornu.  I used Christmas colors because I thought it would be small enough to use as a Christmas ornament.  Ordinarily both the front and back are stitched with designs, but I only did the top side because I didn’t know if I was going to be able to assemble it properly and didn’t want to waste more stitching time.  I’m happy that I was able to assemble it okay, so I plan to do more varieties of these.  Here’s what it looks like from the side.

And here’s another angle of it.

I definitely want to try more of these and use other fabrics as well such as linen and even felt.  We’ll see how they go and maybe I’ll post pics of them if I can get to them.

Marlakins

As an example of what I mean about men clashing and being competitive (to a fault, in my opinion), comes from some of the books I’ve read like Atomic America.  Todd Tucker writes about the rivalry between the Air Force and the Navy (to the point the Air Force tried to render the Navy obsolete), as well as the personality clashes and discontent among the men within the Navy such as what transpired between Admiral Rickover and his peers and subordinates.  Barbara Moran wrote in her book, The Day We Lost the H-Bomb, that there was conflict between the military leaders and the civilian scientists brought aboard to help locate the broken arrows.  Apparently, there was competition, and what I found interesting was that (according to Moran) the military brass tended to look down upon those who have not served in the military.  Now the reason that struck me as odd, and perhaps a bit hypocritical, is that we are constantly being indoctrinated to think that our military is there to protect us civilians.  You know, “They fight for our freedom” and all.  So why would military look down upon us civilians just because we haven’t served in the military?  I mean their whole purpose  for being is to protect us, yet they look down on us?  Odd, I thought, but I guess that comes with pride. I was reminded of this when I read about McChrystal’s comment that, “McChrystal thought Obama looked “uncomfortable and intimidated” by the roomful of military brass.  It does give me the feeling that he thinks in a “them vs us” sort of way (that is, non-military vs military).

I used to have a different outlook of our military when I read books about war veterans such as those who survived the Bataan Death March in WWII or watched movies like Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers.  I felt I got a glimpse of why some military men are so close to one another and keep in touch after so many years.  They experience somethings together that are so strong that they can’t help but bind their lives together to some degree (after all, fighting for your life is pretty intense).   They develop a brotherhood that I thought was really neat.  But then there were other books that brought the other, not so pleasant side, to the surface.  Those books such as Dark Sun, the Making of the Hydrogen Bomb revealed animosity, mistrust, jealousies, etc. amongst various leaders, politicians, military personnel, etc.  All these men who I thought were “level” or at least more level than women turned out to be only human after all– susceptible to jealousies and other frailties of emotions. . . and the unsettling thing about it is that these are the men who lead our country and make crucial decisions for all of us spending trillions of our tax dollars and deciding the fate of untold numbers of foreigners.   I think about all the “secret” programs that the military has carried out and likely still carries out.  Given that so much power is afforded to a relatively few men, those few are essentially allowed to make decisions that are, at times, affected by jealousies, insecurities, mistrust, the need to dominate, etc.  An example are the decisions made during WWII to make nuclear weapons and even use the atom bombs on Japan, while at the same time keeping secrets from our then ally, Russia.  Those actions, which I think in part was a result of insecurities, the need to be superior, and mistrust, resulted in the cold war and the nuclear arms race that we are still struggling to control to this day.  Certainly, I’m not implying this only applies to Americans, but to “all” leaders of the world.  Prime examples are Stalin, Hitler, Mao, etc.  The fate of millions were in their hands, and many died because of the fears, mistrust, need for control, and insecurities of these few men.

Now I realize the argument that there’s a lot more behind political  and military decisions than just human emotions.  Or is there?  What else is there when it comes down to motivation?  I mean if we were to say that many of our wars have the underlying goal of attaining wealth (oil, minerals, drugs, etc) and prestige, then in essence that goal was chosen because of human emotions such as greed and/or the need for power.  If we say that we went to war to save the inhabitants from their dictatorial leaders, then again, the motivation would have come from compassion or concern for fellow mankind, which again is a result of human emotion.  If we say we fight in wars to protect our citizens, again, it would be based on the human emotion of the need to protect the family or loved ones.

It seems to me that much of our politics runs on emotions.  People strive for political and military positions based on their emotions, and others vote for them also based on their emotions.  Then everyone proceeds to operate from those grounds.  McChrystal, just like all the others before him and those who will come after him are only acting on their emotions.  So why should I be surprised when I see top military brass acting inappropriately towards others, including their superiors?  I shouldn’t be.  It’s just business as usual here on planet earth.

Marlakins

~Matthew 5:9

It’s a relief at times to listen to Paul during these sad and crazy times.

Marlakins

~Jerry Garcia

The claim Israel is making that they wanted to inspect the ship cargo doesn’t explain their aggressive actions.  Even if the flotilla refused to stop at Israeli requests, once the ship reached dock, it could have been inspected “before” anything was unloaded.  It’s not like they could “sneak” 10,000 tonnes of materials in to Gaza without anyone noticing what they were unloading.

I didn’t want to comment right away about the incident because I didn’t feel that the full details were in, yet.  As of last night the numbers believed dead fluctuated from 2 to 20 people and the numbers of  injured were listed as dozens to 60.  This morning more information has been trickling in, which has included video footage from a few angles and comments from peoples around the world.  I still want to await more information, and in particular, I am interested to see how the U.S. reacts.  I still feel sick with this news, but will reserve more comments as more info trickles in.  One thing I do know is that now the memory of the Freedom Flotilla will be etched in my memory with the anniversary of every Memorial Day.

Marlakins

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Well, I suppose I jumped the gun a bit.  I should probably explain what the Wende Museum is.  According to their webpage, “The Los Angeles-based Wende Museum is a non-profit organization dedicated to acquiring, preserving, and enabling access to materials of Cold War-era Eastern Europe. The collection encompasses artifacts and archives from all former Warsaw Pact states and emphasizes life in the Soviet Union and East Germany.   So while the curator was very informative, my lack of German vocabulary made it such that I had a hard time following along with who was who and what things were called.  For instance this is a picture of a type of horn that was played in East Germany.  She said that if you popped in the name of this instrument on YouTube there will be some examples of how this instrument sounds.  But do I remember the name of this instrument?  Sadly, no. . .

Pretty wild looking, huh?  But then again, some trumpets and horns do tend to look pretty intricate, anyway.

Then there were statues and busts of people, again, the names of who I didn’t catch. . . (I’m starting to feel like an idiot here, and see that I really need to brush up on my East German history, which was pretty much nil from my school days).  As the wall came down and society was being restructured, many icons, statues, and other symbols that represented their government were taken down, such as this statuette.

Okay, so I actually know who this statuette represents. . . Sergi Kirov, a prominent Bolshevik from the Soviet Union.   Kirov opposed some of Stalin’s more extreme policies and was eventually shot and killed by a gunman.

The museum was quite small, but was stuffed with lots of items which included paintings, propaganda posters, sports memorabilia, etc.  Here’s a picture of a sports locker complete with uniforms, medals and awards, news clippings, etc.  Sports events were important in history because they help to place times and dates of events as they tend to be recorded in newspapers and share global connections through competitions.

And speaking of propaganda, there were several posters on display that were used as propaganda tools for their masses such as pictures of their “happy workers”.  One particular one that was “ironic” was this one, which claimed that the West spent more money on their military than on education.

Heheheh,  in light of our current military budget, I’d say that “propaganda” was more fact than otherwise.  I know that billions and even trillions of  U.S. dollars have been spent on our military.  I read an article recently that just for the Iraq war alone the U.S. has spent about 550 billion dollars.  That doesn’t include all the other military expenses we have that are likely extremely costly such as research and development, etc.   I’m sure there are varying figures, but here’s one example from About.com:  US Government Info

Summary of Iraq War Cost Estimates

CBO estimated the following costs for an Iraq war:

• Initial deployment of troops: $9 billion to $13 billion
• Conducting the war: $6 billion to $9 billion per month
• Returning forces to US: $5 billion to $7 billion
• Temporary occupation of Iraq: $1 billion to $4 billion per
  month

The US budget for education is about $70 billion for a year. Basically, “one” war, *not* including all the other U.S. military expenses for bases all over the world and research and development, etc., currently costs more than what the U.S. spends on education. The rest of the U.S. military expenses dwarfs what we spend on education. Apparently Soviet propaganda regarding our military vs education expenditures wasn’t too far from the truth.  I find that a sad commentary.

Anyway, moving right along we passed the Wende Museum’s library.  There were a couple researchers in there, so we didn’t go in and bother them, heh.  Instead we headed down to their vault or archive department.  I had no idea what to expect, and found that it was quite large and stuffed with more Eastern Bloc artifacts.

There were all sorts of items boxed and organized such as paintings, sculptures, flags, tapestries, books, record albums, uniforms, etc.  Here are some of the busts.

Documentation regarding face recognition and passport information.

Files of border forms.

And passport stamps.

Various gift items from different countries.  The pearl inlaid, rectangular box in the center of the table was a gift from Gaddafi, if I recall correctly.  Or was it Sadat?  Oye. . .

There was so much in there, and too many pictures to add here that won’t fit.  They also had pieces of the Berlin Wall on their shelves, which I did take pictures of, but since there’s a more complete section of the wall displayed near my house, I thought I’d add that picture here instead.

Okay, so I think that’s all the pics that will fit on this one post.  I got a few shots of Brian on the other side of this wall trying to climb over, ha!  The side I’m standing on obviously is the side that faced the West.  The Eastern facing side didn’t have all the artwork on it.  This portion of the wall is currently being displayed right across the street from the LACMA.

For anyone interested in Eastern Bloc history, I recommend checking out the Wende Museum in  Culver City.

Marlakins

Marlakins

I went with Andrew to receive his Dean’s List certificate at his previous school, but this time I brought his two younger brothers to watch the ceremony,too.  They were able to see the wind ensemble and the school choir perform.

Then the processional began with all their pomp, heheh.

Then the students entered.

And there he is!!!  My baby boy (shown circled and under the arrow in the picture below, hehehe).  He’s standing because they call out the specific schools where the students belong and request that they stand.  Andrew was among the students at the top 5 percent of their class.

And here he is with his brother, Matty, and me after he received his certificate.  Andrew is in the middle holding his cert.

After the ceremony they served cupcakes and drinks.

Some of the cupcakes looked yummy, but since none of them were organic, we passed up on them and instead headed out to Whole Foods to get our own celebratory grub.

Andrew had his appointment with his counselor this past week and found that he still needs four more classes to take before he can graduate with a BA.  I thought he was a little closer than that to the finish line, but it’s still not bad, and if all goes well he should finish by the end of this year.  Wow, I can’t believe my baby boy is all growd up!  I was so happy for him last night and even felt at moments a bit teary for him.   So much has happened since the day he was born, even the scare that I might not see him finish high school.  But not only has he finished high school level, he is close to finishing his BA and even got on the Dean’s List two times.  I thanked God for that nice, nice moment.  I have been blessed.

Marlakins