Keep Calm and Cast On

We take a break from our regularly scheduled knitting time to bring you this blog post

My knitting

It's under control. Really.

Awesome adventures

Fast boat gliding over the fjords of Norway. Philosophical post about the beauty of nature coming soon...

Scotland!!

We are currently in Scotland, with free wifi at our lunch stop. This whole country seems very Scottish, from whatever the non ironic kilts to this entire lunch menu.

I believe my exact words upon stepping out of the car were: 

"Ew. Bagpipes." 

And I do not even want to know what this dish consists of...

Ay, Welcome to Scotland!

With love from Scotland,

Rebecca "Rivi" Dollinger

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay (Book Recommendation)

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Currently, I’ve been reading Roxane Gay’s essay collection, Bad Feminist, and I must say, it is incredible. She is a very talented writer and somehow has the language and skill to articulate a lot of points that I had trouble understanding, as well as bringing up some fascinating new perspectives on pop culture and feminism in writing and literature. My copy of the book, which I bought at the airport before my spring break trip to Costa Rica, is now covered in highlights and underlines and notes at the beginning and end of each chapter. And I’m not even halfway finished!

Bad Feminist conquers issues of race, class, and gender, as well as pop culture, teaching, being a writer, representation, gender expectations, and more. You don’t have to agree with her arguments—there were certainly essays I read that I disliked or found points that I disagreed with, but even with those essays there were perspectives that opened up a new way of thinking about an issue.

A great example of mine for this dynamic is her essay “Not Here to Make Friends”. (You can read it online here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/roxanegay/not-here-to-make-friends-unlikable) This was the first essay of hers I ever read. I also read it during my senior year of high school, while studying Post Modernism, so it had a nice correlation.

“Not Here to Make Friends” examines the issues surrounding unlikeable female protagonists. I went into the essay expecting it to be mainly about gender, which it did examine quite a bit, but it had a strong undertone about what it is like to be a writer and create characters. I will admit I was a little disappointed that it was not more of what I was expecting, but the essay was very powerful nonetheless.  

The essay begins with a personal story of how the author experienced the issues around likeability, and then continues to discuss the popular reality show trope, where a woman on some kind of competition show will declare, “I’m not here to make friends,” as a way of somehow justifying the means she will take to win the prize or competition.

She continues to define what it means to be “unlikeable”, and why we strive for it in our social world. Bringing in multiple examples from popular culture and literature, Roxane Gay examines why we want the characters we read to be likeable. She discusses what it means to be a writer and what readers expect from characters and their development. You should most definitely read the essay on your own, as it has much more depth than I should give here.

This essay is just one example of the kind of writing I found in Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist. It’s introspective, thoughtful, thought provoking, and sometimes aggravating. I don’t agree that our protagonists should be unlikable. The characters we read should be human, but should also represent some kind of ideal. Of course, this rule can and should be broken; for example, in a book that is proving some kind of theory or greater meaning about life (The Stranger, Atonement). The idea that characters on the verge of psychopathic should be taken as a literary norm concerns me a bit. Our literature is an extension of our social world. It is both in a separate universe where everything can be altered for the purpose of a story while also representing the very core of everything universal in our modern culture.

Still, the essay was well-written and intriguing, and carried on it some unique takes on the process of writing characters as well as what literature means through the lens of a (bad) feminist author.

I encourage you all to read this essay and the book in general. We could have a little digital book club! If you can, comment your thoughts on this essay or any of the other essays in the book (up to page 96). Or you can email me/help me figure out how Google hangout works at riviwriter@gmail.com

Happy reading!

Dolphin sighting

True story: While riding in our speed boat, someone spotted an animal in the water. We stopped the boat to take a closer look. It's a member of the dolphin family, quite beautiful. Unfortunately, our boat scared them away. So I guess you could say, the boat trip lost its...

Porpoise 

I think these are slimming

P.S. I mentioned my blog tag line so watch out for Marci's Facebook post because I'm 99.99% sure she is stealing it right as I am typing this post

Shayna...Shayna...Shayna...

I need your photos from your camera. Just the SD chip will do. But I need it.

Basically, please blame my little sister for my lack of posting. And the pathetic Internet. But mostly my younger sister. (Who is not, contrary to popular cruise passenger belief, my twin. Nor is she the college student.) 

Floating in the sea

Floating in the Sea

(To the tune of “Blowin in the Wind” by Bob Dylan)

How many hats must a young Rivi knit,

Before she can call it a trip?

And how many attempts must she fail to complete,

Before she can give up and rip?

How many seas must the cruise ship sail,

Before it can pause for the night?

And how many gauge swatches must she knit,

Before the hat is too tight?

The answer my friend,

Is floating in the sea,

The answer in floating in the sea.

So many hats!

So far I think I have made six hats in the past two weeks. I'm on a knitting streak! I'm very proud.

Question: has anyone had luck selling handmade goods on etsy? What seems to be the going rate for hand knit hats?

The orange one is for Shayna 

With love from the Ocean Princess Cruise Ship,

Rebecca "Rivi" Dollinger

Hello from (insert unpronounceable name here)

Seydisfjordur, apparently.

We're having a lot of fun trying to read the street signs

With love from Seydisfjordur,

Rebecca "Rivi" Dollinger 

Hello from the Faroe Islands!

That is all.

(We have limited time with the wifi before Shayna starts complaining about our electronic overuse. Not all of us get the luxury of online capabilities most all the time hint hint Shayna)

Arrived at our first port: Lerwick

Yarn capital of the Shetland islands. I have been directed to the best wool store in the area, somewhere called Jamieson & Smith: the hub of Shetland's wool industry. More on this story as it unfolds.

Shayna's Snapchats

Shayna has the luxury of having data of her phone while we travel around Europe (she'll regret it later with the kind of service she'll be getting in Marin).

I would just to take a moment and to point out how she chooses to spend her gift of data. She spends her phone time of snapchat, sending me photos of me. Just of me, just to me. And she livens them up a bit with some scribbles. I do not know why she does this.

She sends me pictures. Of me. That she takes. Without my knowledge. And scribbles on. In an app. And proceeds to send them to me and only me. 

I really don't know why...

Long Car Day

We take a break from our regularly scheduled knitting to bring you this blog post

Most of the day today will be spent in the car. 

I’m excited.

We’re driving now from Dormy House to Gravetye Manor in Sussex. Saturday afternoon (July 4), we board the cruise ship for our Icelandic cruising adventure. It’s going to be amazing. 

Warning: Video uses a very generous amount of profanity. Watch at your own discretion.

To sum it up without the expletives:

That being said, I’m not sure about the Internet availability (if it exists, which it probably doesn’t), so you may only receive shortly worded one-liners typed on an iPhone keyboard written in line at the only coffee shop that has free Wi-fi in a Icelandic town with no vowels in its name. But that’s just a guess.

With love from the UK roads,

Rebecca "Rivi" Dollinger

My Alternate Ancient Roman Identity

If I had to live in this ancient time, I do believe this magical water pool would be a lovely location to spend my mornings, bathing in the sunlight and warm water. I must say, I think I would make a lovely Roman Empress. Empress of Everything—that would be my title. My official Roman title, perhaps completed with a flower crown made of gold leaves. I suppose I could enchant that life.

The Roman City of Bath

Summary of the Day

The family took a day trip visiting and exploring around the City of Bath. It was about an hour and a half drive from our hotel, which meant a lot of knitting time of me, homework time for Shayna, podcast time for dad, and sleeping for Ima. Luckily, we have a driver here (Ryan "the magnificent"), so none of the drivers of the family-- okay, so dad-- have to navigate British driving and navigation. 

The ancient Roman city Bath is an ancient bathing place where hot water rises from the ground to create a warm bathing pool. This was considered unexplainable to the Romans, who declared it a home of the god Suris Minerva, and continued on to worship their gods by these magical healing waters and present sacrifices to the divine powers. They then built temples and structures surrounding the bath to formally honor this hot ground water. 

#100Things that Make Me Happy List

About the summer trip so far,

In no particular order:

1. Ima/Mom/Marci and her celebration of 50 years since being born.

2. Shayna

3. Dad

4. England

5. Getting the chance to visit Iceland, a place that has been on our dream destinations list for a while now

#100Things that make me happy

#100Things that make me Happy (about this trip so far)

I got this idea from a YouTube video and I thought it was really great. 

My Day in Lists: Windsor Castle

June 28, 2015

Top Ten Reasons Windsor Castle Would Make a Great Location for my Future Destination Wedding:

1. It’s a castle.