WIP Wednesday and a declaration of intent

Although I write this on Thursday Melbourne time, I am calling it WIP Wednesday because it is still Wednesday in parts of the world and because I like the symmetry of balancing the middle of my week with an update on my knitting. I have been working on the socks and this is where I am up to now:

Once these are compared to the picture from last week, you can see I've done quite a lot of knitting, which is surprising because I've also done a lot of writing, thanks to the inspiration from How to Write a Lot.

I suspect a weekly update of these socks will soon (already?) become incredibly boring! Especially since the photos are so crap (thanks, winter light and terrible photography skills). I shall give it another week and, if I start to bore even myself, consider changing my weekly routine.

In non-knitting news, I am a bit upset today. I am a St Kilda football club member who regularly goes to the footy and I hate what is happening to Adam Goodes at the moment. I absolutely boo on occasion - like if I disagree with a free kick or (more frequently) misunderstand something that's happened on the field but I would never boo a player or hurl abuse at someone. I actually don't understand the thought process of someone who goes out of their way to yell terrible things at someone else (ditto those who send abusive tweets - what is wrong with your life that you feel that being awful to someone is the correct action to take? I think people like Rita Panahi and Andrew Bolt are reprehensible hatemongers who should stop inciting anger and fear but I have never, ever, wanted to send them a message telling them to fuck off and die*). I said the same thing when Milne revealed how much abuse he copped each week - these players are doing their job and should absolutely not have to put up with that kind of crap. It's worse with Goodes, though, because of the ugly undercurrent of racism accompanying his treatment.

I can't take it anymore. Previously, when someone near me would say something awful in the interest of not causing conflict I'd let it slide, but no more. It's got to stop. When my mother forwarded me a hateful meme telling Goodes to fuck off, I called her on it (unsurprisingly, the conversation went badly. Apparently some racists don't like having their racism called out). When St Kilda play Sydney, I will go and cheer Goodes. A lot of people who I previously respected have really disappointed me this week with either their denial of the racism or explicitly racist attitudes. So, I will unfollow anyone on Twitter who doesn't condemn in absolute and uncompromising terms the way Goodes has been and is being treated. I want to live in an Australia where an indigenous man is not vilified for standing up for himself and his people. I want to be an agent of positive change. We don't have to accept the racism in Australia and I am not prepared to anymore.

*Interestingly, now that Rita has left SEN it's been interesting to see how little respect her former colleagues have for her. I always wondered what was going on there because she seemed so out of step with the rest of the personalities at the station.