DIY Pant Leg Chalk Bag: 6 Months Later

I've been using my DIY Denim Pant Leg Chalk Bag for about 6 months and I thought I'd share some of my revisions to my pretty-flawed original design. In hindsight, the safety pins and carabiner were really, really silly. My bag is much simpler now.

I ditched the carabiner I was using to attach it to my harness and threaded the shoelace through the holes instead. I can just barely tie it around my waist, which is good enough for me. It ends up being pretty high, but I haven't had any trouble so far. It's much nicer than having to reach down low for it as I did when it was to my harness.

There was really no point in cinching it closed rather than just tying it closed. Like most chalkbags, a little chalk puffs out no matter how well it seems closed.

Some Facebook Musings & First Reading of the Year

Taking my lunch break to share that Patty Chung, the composer/singer of the TWSS opening theme song, is having a dual show with her friend Nadia, and graciously invited me to read. (If you're curious, here's what I sound like.

HELLO 2012

Do you need a break from work? School? Internship?
Do you like a nice hot, pressed panini?
Looking for a deviation from the clubbing/pounding drinks, and feel like you may want to spend Fri night in a quiet, cozy cafe, engaging in only legal activities (watching music, drinking lattes)? Don't feel like taking a chance on an open mic, only to be trapped into many, many Eagles and "Stairway to Heaven" covers? That's what I thought.
Then come join us as we share our original tunes and poems for a night @ The Spot Cafe in Culver City. 

7:15 - 7:30 Narinda Heng, reading
7:30 - 8:00 Patty Chung, music
8:00 - 8:15 Nina Ki, reading
8:15 - 8:45 Nadia Kent, music 

Cost: No cover charge, but the owner is asking each person for $7 worth of food/coffee purchase.... which is good news because the drinks and sandwiches are a delight!
Parking: There is limited parking in the back; street parking also is available. 

DIRECTIONS - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
The place can be easy to miss, it's quite tiny. Driving south on Overland, the cafe will be on your right hand side, just after Farragut Dr. You will be able to tell where the cafe is because there are white benches and large umbrellas outside.

Preview the tunes:
www.thesixtyone.com/only1patty
www.thesixtyone.com/nadiakent

I'm amused that Facebook is still a part of my life even though I deactivated my account last summer (read an interesting article about the deactivation page here). Sometimes I don't know about events to which I'm supposedly invited, and people exclaim "You're not on Facebook!" like an accusation, like I've done something terribly wrong.

There are a few reasons I deactivated. One was that I just couldn't deal with managing my own life in real time and managing it on Facebook any more-- not saying that everyone goes through this, but that's what it felt like for me. The whole mix of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances and wondering what to post and when to post was so much to manage. Just not posting or doing anything with the site was an option, rather than deactivating, but if I weren't planning to use it, then why leave my profile detritus on the internet?

Being "deactivated" means that I've probably dropped off the radar for some people I'd rather still be in touch with, and some have dropped off my radar, but I have faith that we'll cross paths again. And when we do, we'll re-exchange phone numbers and email addresses and hopefully still remember each other.

I recently talked with a friend about the way Facebook tricks us into thinking that we're keeping in touch with people when we don't even interact with them. I told her that I found myself browsing friends' profiles, finding out what was going on in their lives... and never actually talking to them. I got uncomfortable with that. Now that I'm off Facebook, I still don't catch up with anywhere near all the people that I'd like to catch up with because I'm a homebody hermit, but at least I'm not spending time pretending to catch up with them.

If you're reading this and we're out of touch and we once kept in touch via Facebook, drop me a line. I'd like that.

DIY Denim Pant Leg Chalk Bag

[Edit 2012-04-16: I simplified this bag a lot over the next six months.]

The original plan was to use an old Crown Royale bag, but I left the bag at a friend's house, so I went searching around the internet for other ideas.

I ended up combining these tutorials:
Donn Morrison - How to make a chalk bag

UC Davis Textstyles - DIY Chalk Bag

The denim's great because the seams help keep the bag stiff and open. The problem is it doesn't cinch very tightly. I should probably make a lining out of an old t-shirt or fleece or something, but, eh. My sewing ambition only comes in small bursts, and this bag works just fine. Yay DIY!

(Note: The safety pins popped out when I fell and skidded on the mat. Oops. I knotted the string and put the carabiner through that instead. To be real, I'm probably never going to make legit straps for it. Shrug.)

Gratuitous link (like Groupon for outdoor rec gear):

Tofu & Cookie at Tuesday Night Cafe // Free Public Art

I help curate the performers for TNC and I'm excited that we were finally able to get Audrey Kuo on the bill! But the fates toy with me, and I'm not sure whether I'll be able to make it. It's going to be such a good show, and with Mista Cookie Jar, it'll be extra kid-friendly, too. 

LGBTQ Youth of Color Events This Weekend

Last night I went to the opening of Barangay's Tulay event. The work of fellow TWSSter, heart-friend, and talented artist Allison Santos is featured in the art exhibit, and she'll be speaking tomorrow on a panel of community leaders from 2-5pm. 

Two of the most memorable performances of last night's opening were Kay Barrett's exuberant spoken word and Dom Magwili's performance art piece, in which Dom sat on a sofa surrounded by brightly colored tsinelas and conversed one-on-one with people as an older, Filipino-accented man whose daughter had just come out to him, trying to understand queerness.

Get Free Mulch! // LA Urban Gardening

Do you garden? Do you want to start one but find that your soil is mostly clay and dries up and cracks? Mulch is the answer. 

And you can get it for free in ten different locations in LA on Fridays! AND you can get free compost on Thursdays. 

The City of Los Angeles Sanitation Bureau runs a program that's Closing The Loop, taking green waste and turning it into mulch and compost which can be picked up at these locations: