Boris Yelstin

Boris Yeltsin died Monday.

I remember back to the end of the Reagan years when all the neocons thought that the end of the Soviet Union heralded "the end of history"; there wouldn't be anything more to get excited about. The cold war was ending and the world was entering a period of democratic capitalist utopia.

Yeltsin to me was emblematic of that naivete. He tore down the Soviet system and replaced with a free-wheeling (and free-drinking) openness. The childlike belief was that destruction of the old world was all that was necessary to create a new world. (Sound familiar Mr Rumsfeld?)

What actually occurred in Russia was the dawn of a chaos that fostered a environment of criminality and corruption.

So twenty-odd years on from the Reagan era and where are we?
Russia has veered off into semi-authoritarianism; the radicalized Muslim world is making us nostalgic for an enemy we could understand; China hasn't exactly eaten our lunch yet, but they are setting the table...

Beadie's Beadwork just added a selection of 3mm and 4mm Miyuki cubes this weekend.
These are great quality cube beads with a small diameter hole, perfect for stringing and bracelet making.

Check it out at: www.beadiesbeadwork.com/miyukicubes1.shtml

Dell just announced they would resume offering Windows XP as an operating system for new computer buyers. Previously they were offering Vista only.

Apparently consumer response was less than enthusiastic.

I had some experience with this. My mother recently bought her first laptop from Dell. She didn't ask for my help in picking it out. I was surprised when the laptop arrived with Vista pre-installed. She lives far away and helping her out over the phone has been difficult, as I do not have any machines with Vista installed.

I really wish they had done this a few months ago. It's probably too late to install XP on her computer now. Too bad (for me).

Delica charts

Beadie's Beadwork has some great high quality Delica Charts. They have ultra high quality images of all 800 plus Delica colors, and are printed on HP Premium plus Photo glossy paper.
Size 8 charts available too!
http://www.beadiesbeadwork.com/delicaChart.htm

Welcome

This is the introductory posting to the Beadie's Blog, hosted on blogger.com

I will be posting all sorts of stuff here, some related to the world of seed beads and delica beads, some not.