Stan Taylor

Here’s a fact about me that you may not know: I do needlepoint. I’ve been doing it since high school. You can see some of my designs and projects on my needlework page.
In the last few years, crafting has enjoyed a renaissance among younger people, fueled by the Internet. Etsy, for instance, has been both a cause and a result of this newfound interest in crafting. And for me, nothing epitomizes this renaissance better than Julie Jackson’s Subversive Cross Stitch.
Last week, my friend and coworker Tracey Kirk invited me to do cross stitch with her at lunchtime while she knitted (my wife thinks this is a scream). While we did our respective crafts, we discussed this crafting renaissance. Tracey agreed with me that some crafts have enjoyed more new-found attention than others: knitting and cross stitch have certainly ridden the wave, but needlepoint has been left primarily in the hands of old ladies.
I got to thinking about why needlepoint hasn’t ridden the wave of gen x or y (or whatever) crafters. Let’s think about why cross stitch, on the other hand, has made the generational leap.

• It’s easy to learn and do: there’s only one stitch.
• It is, or can be, fast to complete a simple project: since you only stitch the parts of the canvas that have a design, you leave most of the canvas blank (though there certainly are cross stitch designs that call for stitching the entire surface)
• It’s cheap: the supplies for a small project should only cost a few dollars
• It’s easy to get supplies: every craft store carries cross stitch supplies
• It’s portable: you can easily carry a small project around with you

With Subversive Cross Stitch, Julie Jackson has capitalized on these features and added a big dose of irony.
So, how does needlepoint compare to cross stitch?
Complexity: There are many needlepoint stitches, though I only do one simple stitch (the equivalent of half a cross stitch stitch), so I think the general perception is that needlepoint is relatively hard to do.
Speed: Unlike many cross stitch designs, with needlepoint the entire surface of the design is stitched. If you do the math, that makes it several times more time consuming than many cross stitch designs.
Cost: Needlepoint canvas and thread tend to be pretty pricey. The materials for one of the pillow-sized projects that I do (though they are not by any means small beginner projects) probably costs me upwards of $75.
Availability of supplies: In my experience, the big chain craft stores carry needlepoint kits, but not the materials for doing other designs (and the kits tend not to appeal to the hip young crowd, in my opinion). I get my supplies from an awesome local shop, The Needle Works, that sells only needlepoint supplies–but of course, I have to make a special trip halfway across town for supplies.
Portability: As far as I know, all needlepoint uses a frame or hoop. Small projects might be easy to carry,but mine certainly aren’t: I staple my canvas to a 24-inch long wooden frame. It’s certainly not something I can just carry with me in case I have a few spare moments; and I certainly can’t just whip it out on a bus or airplane, for instance.
If you compare needlepoint to cross stitch based on the criteria above, it’s clear why needlepoint hasn’t ridden the wave of twenty-first century crafting. Now, I’m trying to figure out ways to change the business of needlepoint to make it easier for poor young people to get started in it.

This weekend we celebrated my mother-in-law’s 79th birthday at Lake Buchanan. On Saturday, we all went on the Vanishing Texas River Cruise, and then we spent the night at the lodge at Canyon of the Eagles. We had a really good time. 
As we walked around the Canyon of the Eagles park, we discovered that it was lousy with armadillos. I lost count at ten. For years, I’ve regaled the kids with stories of my childhood armadillo chasing and catching. This weekend was my first opportunity in over 25 years to relive those good times. To my surprise, it was much easier to catch an armadillo than I remembered.

Samuel would not get near the first one that I caught; but he was willing to hold the second one. By the time we went hiking on Sunday morning, he was ready to try to catch one for himself. Fortunately, he got the chance.

He’s very proud of his accomplishment; he asked me to print out a photo of him holding the armadillo so he could take it to school on Monday.

News headline: Job searches fastest-growing Internet category

“This image is 100 meters long. There are 178 people in the picture, all shot in the course of 20 days from the same spot on a railroad bridge on Warshauer Strasse in Berlin in the summer of 2007. Only a few of the people in the photograph seemed to know I was taking their picture.”
I find the people in this photo amazingly compelling. I want to know each one’s story: why are you carrying a large empty picture frame? What happened that both of you are wearing a patch on your right eye? What are you listening to? What are you two talking about so animatedly? Where are you going?
Close to the right side of the photo, you find one gentleman who definitely noticed he was being photographed. Nice reward for scrolling all the way across.

I’m home today nursing a bad cold. Here’s what I’ve learned: our dogs’ dinner time is about 5:00 p.m. Tippie starts pacing nervously at around 2:00 p.m.
I knew already that Tippie gets nervous before dinner time, but on other days when I’m home, there’s enough going on that I didn’t notice that it starts this early. Today, it’s pretty much just me on the couch with the dogs.
Considering Tippie’s advanced age and decrepitude, I guess I should be glad to see that she still has enough life in her to pace all afternoon.

In this NYT article, David D. Kirkpatrick, expresses surprise that President Obama has been talking to John McCain about a variety of issues.
This type of article really bugs me. It seems to me that a lot of people assume that since politicians said nasty things about each other in the campaign, they somehow take it personally.
Come on, folks; the campaign rhetoric is all part of the job. They’re professionals; they don’t take it personally. Obama is consulting with McCain because Obama recognizes him as a powerful potential ally in the Senate.

We had the inauguration projected here in the office, and I caught the swearing-in and Obama’s inaugural address (transcript here).
The first half of the inaugural address is a pretty damning indictment of Bush. When I got to the end of the passage below, I was just shaking my head:

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

This line really got my attention: “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers.” I was very happy to hear him include non-believers in there.

I took this photo of my mother-in-law when we were on vacation in 2004. We were waiting for our food in a restaurant in Red River, New Mexico. We were all really hungry, but our food was slow in coming. I was playing with my point-and-shoot camera to pass the time. I put my tabletop tripod on the table for this photo. As you can guess, Kathy wasn’t happy about having her picture taken.
I love this photo due to its expressiveness, but Kathy has never liked it.

This list of mostly anonymous quotes from college admissions officers is pretty depressing. For instance:

“All in all, we’re less selective than some of the elite schools or the Ivy League. But there are still some factors out of an applicant’s hands. One night, I got food poisoning at a restaurant in Buffalo. The next day, I rejected all the Buffalo applications. I couldn’t stomach reading them.”

(via Rafe Colburn)

Apparently, Internet dating site eHarmony monitors the text that its users input and filters out terms such as “get[ting] laid”. Unfortunately, for this user, the filter wasn’t smart enough to understand his answer to the prompt “What are you thankful for?” His answer, “Having a job, given the way I watch a friend get laid off nearly every week lately,” earned him a terms of service violation notice.
(via Consumerist)