Sample knitters needed.

I plan on updating my Yarns list on Ravelry, Facebook EIM Page, and EIM Inspired Fibers website. I am also going to start posting blogs about each individual new yarn with pictures of samples. If anyone wants to volunteer to make a sample please feel free to raise your hand (or message me too lol) and let me know. It would be great if you could critique the yarn as well. I would like to know your thoughts on what you liked about it, not so much or outright disliked. I will need the samples back for photos to put on my blog and website.

In exchange for doing a sample, you will also receive a free yarn of your choice from my new list. Thank you to all volunteers in advance. You can message me here by adding a comment, or on any of my group pages. Thank you.
Johanna

The Blindness We Have as a People

What is there but we choose not see

   It amazes me to this day how blind we as a people can be. We walk down the streets and we don’t even see the homeless, the suffering. We hear the yells and screams at times but somehow they just mean nothing. We don’t get involved. It is not our place to interfere so we have told ourselves so often that nothing affects us at all anymore. We have become blind.

   The problem with being blind is atrocities are still happening all around us. They could even happen to us. Then we would truly understand what it means to have no one see when you need them. It is time we open our eyes and start seeing what is actually there. Notice the man who lays by wall shivering with the sign. See the lady in complex who always wears sunglasses and is “clumsy” getting bruised often. See the kids who look half starved. See people, see your world and then decide if you still want to pretend you see nothing.

   We can pretend it’s not a problem. At least it is not your problem because surely someone else will fix it. You can believe that if you need to hold onto that belief in order to sleep comfortably in your bed at night. In reality you know that no one is going to do anything differently. Tomorrow everything will just be just the same as it was today. People as a whole like to believe that someone else will fix it. Most people are walking around with this belief.  If everyone believes someone else will fix the the problem, then who is left to fix anything? You can choose to continue to be blind to the world or you can choose to act.

   You can talk to the lady about domestic violence. You can offer to go with her to places for help. You can call the police when you hear the screams. You can give the man on the street a blanket. You can volunteer to provide breakfast for those kids you see always hungry. You have a lot of choices. The choices are all around you, all you have to do is pick one.

   Once you have decided to see the world, you can choose to help in any way that suits you best. One person can not fix everything themselves. Trying to take it all on would be too much; that is the truth. For every one person who chooses to do something to help, you are at least making a difference in a way that was possible for you. You can advocate for more people to look around at this world we live in, in our very own neighborhoods. We can choose to lose our blindness as people. We can choose to stop walking around as if nothing was wrong, the world is perfect place. We can choose to open our eyes. Once your eyes are open, the rest is up to you.

Does the idea of a child being lost, hurt, scared & alone on the streets scare you?

For years I have wanted to help kids in distress. Gradually my focus started to find a focal point in the homeless, transient, and at risk youth, primarily LGBT youth but I am not excluding any kids here. I believe even one child out there alone, afraid, hungry, scared and hurt is too many. I know you agree with me. It is time to stop waiting for someone else to fix the problem and realize this is our problem, my problem and your problem. I know there are some groups, and organizations that already have some Safe House programs in place. My goal is to form a Web. This web  will reach out and link any Safe House program out there already around the world. This web will work to find new Safe Houses where there are none, helping to get more kids off the streets in every city. I know Have a Gay Day talked a bit about this. I believe we can expand on it.

If you know of a Safe House, a Safe House Organization, a safe local of any type please let me know at EverImprovingMeAdviceVlog@gmail.com. Eventually I hope to have some special Safe Houses set up that are working farms both in the country and in urban areas to help kids gain a bit of life skills as well as a sense of accomplishment and pride. That is a far end goal that would take a lot of funding, land, places, people, so right now I am focusing on what I can do. Together we can start this network. Right now I am working on the beginning stages, the framework. We need the foundation to help keep the kids safe and I need all the help I can get.

I need volunteers to help me pour over the internet to find all the networks already established and to check them to make sure they are legitimate. We can’t send kids into a place that is not verified and potentially worse than where they are coming from. We need legal advice to keep it above board. We need a board of directors. We need a mission statement. We need a website. We need a programer. We need funding: donations, grant writing, etc. We need volunteers for every step of the way, in every city. I need help forming this Non-Profit. I need to know where I go wrong and where I am right. I need to get this off the ground yesterday. So who’s in? I am personally asking Mr. George Takei, Pink, and Felicia Day for help with this project as well because all 3 are personal heroes of mine and I believe their voices would be heard much clearer than mine and carry further. Please help as the homeless epidemic in just this country is so vast it is going to take all of us caring and giving something. What can you spare?

The time is now! We have to do something about the suffering happening right here in our home!

I mean we as a people have some serious work to do in this country. Every day there are kids, the elderly, single mothers/fathers, lower class families, middle-class families, college students, drop-outs, minimum wage workers.. the list goes on and on.  They are all colors, sexes, religions, abilities, sexual preferences, politics, eating habits... differences as far as the eye can see but they are all suffering. Some are hungry; some are depressed, some are in jail, some are dying, some are being murdered, some are being hit, some are having such horrid tortures happening to them. There are so many ways that people are suffering it is easy to turn a blind eye to it.

It is time that we stop ignoring the things that make us uncomfortable. It is time to start healing by stopping this suffering as we can. Start volunteering. Start helping the kids in your neighborhood. Start helping that single mom/dad who works 2-3 jobs to try to keep food on the table and a roof over her/his kids' head. Stop the loudmouths who think it's ok to use words of hate as jokes or insults. Give a homeless man huddled against the wall a bottle of water and something to eat. It is easy to think well someone else can do it, but that is a cowardly way out. Maybe you think, I have nothing I can do. I have no time, money, skills, etc.. That is simply not true. The need for volunteers is growing every day.


I know you are afraid, and that is ok. Fear is natural, and I am telling you a big scary thing. I am not asking you to fix it all. I am just asking you to do what you can. Very small steps can accomplish wonders. Maybe take a look at yourself and be realistic. If you find that you have 1 hour a month that you could volunteer, and you realize, it is flexible as to when you use an hour. That right there is something amazing. You could spend that hour at school, nursing home, hospital, homeless shelter, animal shelter, donation location, going through your closet for anything that no longer fits, online finding a volunteer group that can use your hour.


Trust me You Can Do This! I believe in YOU! It is time to believe in yourself! Whatever you do, Just Do Something. The time is now. This place is your home. This is your town. This planet is your world.

I am getting tired of all the Political Whining I read and hear.

If more people who cared about the country would actually do something in politics rather than whine and bitch on the side lines  maybe more would be possible. From what I tend to see though most people seem to be perfectly happy either voting in those in power or choosing not to vote at all and then just bitching from the sidelines while really doing nothing productive to actually put their words into actions.  I think people just like a reason to bitch. Maybe deep down bitching makes people happy and if there was nothing to bitch about everyone would actually be truly miserable.

If you really want things to change you have to get involved in making changes happen. you can't sit around waiting for someone else to make them happen. That is not how it works. Get off your ASSES and get work. I am not supporting any particular political belief or ideology here. I am just saying that if you are truly tired of how things are going maybe the real problem is YOU! YOU did this. All of the YOUS out there, including me. We all voted or didn't this country to the place that it is today. We as a group voted in everyone from the President all the way down to the town Mayors. That is a lot of people. 

Its very hard to effect change from the top. Its like Jinga. Have you ever tried to topple the tower of blocks by pulling one of the top blocks out? NO, you pull out a strategic bottom few until the tower collapses. That is a very very simplified look at how you can change the government of this country. 

You start by getting involved in your local area and government. Start VOLUNTEERING in your Community, and effect immediate positive change in your local community. Figure out what needs to be done in your community. See what jobs are available in your city. Run for one of them. Gather support for it. Run a good campaign, a clean campaign and try to get to know the community. WIN! Do a great job! While you are in office spend this time really getting to know the town and the town people. Learn it from the inside out. Make your face know. Keep up your VOLUNTEER WORK.

 At the end of the term you decide what to run for next. It all depends on how competent you feel about knowing, not only your current job, but also what need accomplished in the town. If you feel pretty confident that you can do the job then RUN FOR MAYOR! Do the same stuff you did to win the other office. If you do not win, DON'T BE A DOUCHE. No one likes a sore loser. Be graceful. Congratulate the winner, but keep working towards your goal. Keep running for office, keep working in the town. Keep doing what needs doing. STAY INVOLVED IN YOUR COMMUNITY! Keep volunteering. Keep effecting change. Keep your eye on the goal. 

You become Mayor, your work on the town. You get the town all squared away no matter how long this takes. If its more than one term you run again. YOU DO NOT QUIT. You do not resume your bitching. You focus on what you can do and what needs done. You pull out the bottom blocks to eventually topple the tower. Once you feel you have done all you can as Mayor and you have a great community backing you run for the next level up in Government, and repeat and repeat and repeat. The trick is not to rush ahead, not to get frustrated, and to be willing to work with others doing the same thing. That is just my advice though.