Stephanie Briggs - Handmade Knitting My Way Through Chronic Pain

Knitting by hand, owned by three cats and a manbeast

What Does “Don’t Judge Me!” Really Mean?

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The new obsession online these days is the idea/phrase “Don’t judge me.” I don’t think the adults who use it so liberally even understand what it means any more. Is it one of these? “Don’t have an opinion about what I tell you.”? “Don’t be angry with me.”? “I am perpetually psychologically in the third […]

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Myth and Reality in “House M.D.”

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Everybody lies…even the producers of the hit series House MD. Dr Gregory House, like his namesake, Sherlock Holmes, is “addicted” to Vicodin. But not without cause: he has legitimate severe, chronic pain in his leg from an infarction that has left him permanently lame. They do not differentiate, in this series, between “addiction” (they love […]

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Chemistry FAIL

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Hospitals get patients from outside of their country all the time. They should be prepared for alternate names of a medication, especially a very common over-the-counter one like acetaminophen, that can easily kill you if overdosed. In fact, overdosing is so easy that the number of packets that, in the UK, you can buy in […]

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My Homemade Chicken Soup – Just Like Baba Used to Make

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I posted this on Facebook the other day, so I figured I should put it here, in case I ever need it again. Sure beats searching through posts there! This is recipe my Grandma Dena made, and I like to make it because it reminds me of her, and how much I loved her. You […]

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On Wild Orcas, “Blackfish” and SeaWorld

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I’m watching the documentary Blackfish on Netflix as I knit. Lots of movies are sad, but this is very close to making me cry. Poor Tillikum. He’s the current “star” of Seaworld Orlando, but is rarely used for anything except breeding. He spends most of his time in a tank too small for him, and […]

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Rainbow Pride Blanket – New Project?

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In honour of the last year’s achievement of legalizing gay marriage, I’m ever so tempted to knit a big rainbow pride blanket!!! I had some success with this bi-pride blanket in 2011 (knitted in panels and hand-stitched together, using Lion Brand Homespun), but now that I know more about knitting with cables, I can make […]

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Russia’s Anti-Gay Laws and the 2014 Olympics – A Personal Clarification

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Please take careful note of what I am about to say. If I am unclear, please read it again, or ask questions. Russia’s attitude towards the LGBT community, the recently-enacted laws prohibiting adoption, and the banning of LGBT athletes from the upcoming Olympic Games in Sochi are all deplorable to me. However, this has no […]

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Snack Toys, Louis Theroux and “America’s Medicated Kids”

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Have you heard of the recent parenting trend of snack toys? Keeping a child amused for hours on end isn’t the only aim of toy makers. They are increasingly creating playthings aimed at busy kids who only have bite-size bits of time to play—a trend some in the industry are calling “snack toys.” School-age children […]

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No Adoption in Australia or Russia?

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I’ve just learned than in Australia, it is virtually impossible to adopt a child. This article points out the governmental blocks against inter-country adoptions: cost, lengthy process and bureaucracy. Prospective adoptive parents must meet many more requirements than biological parents considering having a child. How is this fair to either qualified infertile people and the orphaned […]

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