2398 It's a Miracle!

Friday, May 15, 2009

I saw following ad in a site sidebar, and it cracked me up.

Yeah, I can believe she reduced her wrinkles in days. In fact, I'll bet it was done in minutes!

All they did was blur the "after" photo. Note that the strands of hair are in exactly the same position. Just blurred a bit.

How stupid do these people think we are?
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2397 Hot off the presses!

Friday, May 15, 2009

This describes an invention that might do away with shelves in bookstores: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/24/espresso-book-machine-launches.

It looks like a humongous photocopy machine. You feed it a digital book. Within a few minutes (at 100 pages per minute) it prints the book, binds it, and applies the cover. You get a toasty warm real book (with a temporarily tacky cover).

I can see a job opportunity for a shoemaker-like guy in the corner who'll put a hardcover on it for a few dollars.

Pretty cool.

(I hope that no one sees this as doing away with publishing companies. We still need editing and advertising, and centralized distribution. Especially editing. By expert editors. Editors who know how to spell and the difference between "lose" and "loose".)

2396 Sugar

Thursday, May 14, 2009

I've been off sugar for a week.

I'm having chocolate fudge fantasies.

I hate chocolate fudge.
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2395 Hormones

Thursday, May 14, 2009

The blood test last week showed "something off with the thyroid". I didn't ask what (whether up or down or what), because they intend to repeat the panel later next month. But, of course, I'm wondering.

I did a little research, and I'm not experiencing any of the symptoms of high or low function, so whatever it is, it's minor. Then I thought about the problem I'd had with the breast, and some things that are still happening breast-wise off and on, and I began to wonder if it wasn't maybe actually a pituitary problem. That fits better with some other stuff that's been going on.

I had an epiphany this morning. I do crossword problems in bed, and I use a tiny high intensity light on a gooseneck, focused on the wall just above the page, and one night out of every three or four I fall asleep with my nose in the crossword and the light still on.

This morning I woke up with the light on my face, and my first thought was "Bingo! Pineal!"

The pineal gland regulates other hormones, and requires regular periods of darkness. It senses light through the eyes (even when the eyes are closed, enough light comes through the eyelids to matter).

I'm older, less resilient. I'll bet the crossword light is screwing up my pineal.

There's one way to find out. I've got a month to experiment.
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2394 Bullies 3

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

A few bloggers have been having problems with trolls leaving nasty comments. I don't mind comments that express an opinion contrary to mine, even when they imply that I'm stupid, or morally lacking, when that implication comes out of the commenter's passion for the topic. But I won't accept comments that are obviously just personal attacks with the intent of hurting me. I won't allow trolls.

Trolls attack people on blogs or forums or in chat rooms for the sole purpose of getting a reaction. They are experts at finding your soft spots. When you give them an outraged reaction, it thrills them, they know they got to you, and they'll come back for more.

The thing to do is to ignore them. Take control. Delete the comment. (On Blogger, delete the comment twice, so no one is even aware there ever was a comment.) If any of your regular readers responded to the troll, delete their comments, too. There must be no record of the troll ever having visited.

Do not, under any circumstances, give a troll the satisfaction of your response in a post. That's the worst thing you can do. It's exactly what they want.

If they decide to barrage your blog with their garbage, turn comment moderation on. And if your blog host allows it, bar anonymous comments for a while. It doesn't take more than a week or so before they get the idea that you won't put up with them and won't respond to them.

The goal is to avoid giving them a billboard. When they get no satisfaction, if they are completely ignored, they'll move on to greener (or bloodier) pastures.

(Um, this assumes you don't enjoy the drama. Some people like it. They like blasting back. They like being defended by others. If that's the case, "Ne'mind". Have at it.)
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2393 Beautiful day.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Driving back from New Jersey this afternoon, I went through at least five road construction areas. Stimulus dollars at work?

I drove relatively slowly the whole way. There was little traffic, the sky was clear blue with a few round cloud puffs, and the sun shone through the fresh, clean, new tree leaves.

We fell asleep last night with my head on his arm, my back against his chest, and his other arm across my middle. I was surprised and pleased when I woke briefly six hours later and we were still in the exact same position.

I do enjoy my time with him. It's the time not with him that causes all the problems.
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2392 Fire alarm jam

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

From the video description: "One Friday afternoon at an innocent band practice, fire alarm tests are being conducted. What to do now? Jam with it of course! "

I like this.


[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vXBY6c_oBE]
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2391 Hair Saga, Plus

Monday, May 11, 2009

(Why does this date seem significant to me? Am I missing someone's birthday?)

On the hair - To review, about a week and a half ago I tried a 6-12 shampoo temporary hair coloring. I was after a sort of medium beige blond. I got light brown with pink highlights. Two shampoos later it was pink. After the third shampoo, Daughter told me on Sunday that it was purple. Well, maybe fuschia.

I didn't expect to see The Man until this Thursday or later, so I thought I would be able to squeeze in four more shampoos before he saw it (I normally wash my hair every three days or so), but he said today he'd like to get together tomorrow. Ack!

I gave up and dyed it. I used the same stuff I usually use on just the dark patch above my forehead (L'Oreal les Blondissimes, color LB01), but this time all over. LB01 matches the natural color. I'm not happy doing it all over, but the fuscia was all over, so I have to. I'll deal with dry ends later.

The mirror says it looks fine, even pretty, but mirrors lie! I'm desperate for someone who is not colorblind (thanks Piper, but no), and who won't lie to be nice (thanks post office lady, but no). Someone who will say "It's pink!" or "It's green now!" if it is. (Gypsy? Daughter?) I'm freaking out here.

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I spent the day with Daughter in NJ yesterday. We went walking in Cheesequake State Park (that name always brings up a mildly unpleasant visual image). She likes to walk, and I need to walk, but I always think the subtext is that she's checking my heart and lung function. I can't keep up with her on speed, but I can do the distance, and that seems to satisfy her.

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Ex#2 has suddenly got on a genealogy kick. He's doing trees for Daughter and SIL Hercules, and he's starting to really annoy me. He keeps pushing for information from me that I've already told him three times I don't have.

I did tell him that 30 years ago Gramma had sent a newspaper clipping mentioning the village her people had come from, but I wasn't sure where the clipping was now. I couldn't find the clipping, but I did remember the name (Trefeglwys-Llandinam, Wales), so I sent him that information. Now he wants me to "look harder", find the clipping, and send him a scan of it.

Sheesh. Uh, no.

I'm sorry I mentioned it.

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A while back I mentioned an increase in eBay spoof emails. This is the pitiful text of the latest:

Dear member,
Due to the last changes apperead on eBay platform we need your assistance one more time for your security.
It appears that your eBay account was inactive in the last week. You will have to confirm your informations once again so we can update our databases.
All these measures are made concerning your security. Also there are inactive users wich doesn't use their eBay accounts anymore and we need an active marketplace.
You have 24 hours, 11/05/2009 to confirm your informations.

https;//signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SignIn2A2ConfirmAccount.dll.html
Regards,
eBay International AG

That's so sad, I almost feel sorry for the scammers.

(For safety, I broke the link. The actual, hidden, link is "http://signin-ebay-com-ws-ebayisapi-dll-signind.221.pl/". They used HTML to make it look like it's a link to eBay.)

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Listening to BBC news. What we call a brush fire, they call a bush fire. Actually, that makes more sense.

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On The View today, a man, asked why men cheat, answered that it's because there are so many women who are quite willing to help him cheat. Interesting thought.
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