Oh! I missed the Sparky news but am wishing good things to come from it!!

I am lisah in this one!

And I am Kat!

I want Jilli to teach me to sew.

If you were only in the PNW, you could be part of the Great Jam Economy, where we barter skills. I'm serious. I do alterations for other people, they make me jam. Or pressure can chicken broth and tomato sauce. Or come over and make me food.

because I know many a time I've had to not buy something that would have looked great if I could have taken the waist from one size, the arms from the next size up, and let the hem down about an inch.

My default for most jackets is to buy a size 14, and then tailor it down to a busty size 12.

I've been fascinated by some "extra petite" blogs that talk about and show alterations (my current fave is "Alterations Needed"). And it's got me thinking about getting more of my stuff tailored. But yes, that's expensive. And I change sizes.

I totally want "casual enthusiast" classes! Home maintenance and auto and sewing would be spiffy.

I find being forced to take an Armed Service Aptitude test very uncool. WTF?? On the other hand, I would support required service (military or opt into Americorps type thing) like they have in some countries. I think it would be good for people.

Erin, have you done media training? Your post to Sparky was right on!

Nope, but I read a lot of weird shit, and was a makeup-artist in grad school, did some freelance gigs for photographers, and my friend owns a photo studio/business.

If you were only in the PNW, you could be part of the Great Jam Economy, where we barter skills.

I received a painting in return for a lighting design once. Your examples are a little more practical though.

I can sew, and probably could do lots of my own alterations. The problem is that I hate to sew.

I can sew, but I'm lazy about it. I'm bringing some pants to be shortened to a tailor, even though hemming is certainly within my skill set, because the pants have been sitting on my "stuff to be sewn" pile for over a year, and I've just accepted that I'm not going to do it.

I can do basic hemming, sew on a button, or sew a straight seam. I keep thinking of learning how to make quilts, and then actually doing something else.

What is wrong with my education? I know my grammar is horrible. And I have come to realize that I was taught to spell UK/Canadian by whatever Christian Academy I was in when learning to spell was the thing to do (and have been driving my beta nuts until she caught on) (and I will probably drive readers nuts).

I'm typing an email to my insurance company and end up with angst over the red dots underlining "spelt".

Who the fuck taught me English and why does Firefox and Word not agree with it? I actually spent fifth grade (my first year in public school) thinking I was the dumbest creature to ever exist because the teachers failed me hard in my writing class (and in later years, would be confused that I apparently didn't know how to spell a lot of words correctly, with access to Microsoft and spellcheck). And I can't knock it off (and I refuse to, because of childhood trauma, being made to feel dumb when it was all perfectly acceptable).

Why do I have to keep being made aware that I'm off-kilter with my spelling because of where I live? F*** you Firefox and Microsoft Office!

I think, in the end, this is the real reason that I hate Christianity.

And most thing I wear cost less than $50, and usually more like $20, because I am a broke ass bitch, and spending more money to tailor something than it cost seems like insane troll logic.

Except! If you can spend $40-$70 to end up with something that looks custom, you are way ahead of the game! Especially considering that even the $200 whatever would need the same alterations.

Note that I don't actually follow this, but it does make total sense to me.

Oh wait! Not beginner... it should be tyro, dilettante and enthusiast.

YES! I would totally take those.

Juliebird, you just made me laugh, though that may not have been your intention! I went to a small-town Christian Academy too, and my education is woefully incomplete. My biggest complaint is not English - although I taught *myself* that - it's math. I learned *nothing* of mathematics past algebra. I truly believe that I would not have failed calculus and I would be an astrophysicist now if I had gone off to college with either a college-prep background in math, or the awareness that I simply didn't know what I needed to know and I needed a tutor, stat. Instead I thought my sudden shocking failure in all my math classes meant I was really not all that smart after all.

I know the Bible, though! I won the Bible study awards every single year, marinating in the irony of being the only atheist in the school.