…must I be such a social misfit? You’d think I’d never talked to a guy I was interested in, the way I run off at the mouth, or in this case, at the fingers. ARGH, does anyone have a spare rock I can crawl under? ...

wortcunning (n) - The art of using herbs in healing and in magic. My dedication to the Craft goes in situation-dependent cycles something like this: first, a need manifests itself, whether it be for myself or for a loved one. While physical solutions certainly aren’t eschewed, more often than not I come to the conclusion that a magical boost of some sort would probably be warranted. Then comes the research (usually digging into my Witches’ Bible or some such thing) and the materials gathering (ordering stuff online, or an infrequent trip to some store in Little 5 Points). Spellwriting and crafting ...

…I totally fail at hormonal detox. I’m not fooling anyone else, and I’m sure as hell not fooling myself. Frankly, I don’t think I care, either. ...

When I got home, the first thing Mike did was hand the crimson Crackberry over to me. I have to say that, after using it for a few hours, it feels so much better in my hands than the Trēo. Texting is easier, navigation between menus is easier, and the themes…oh, the themes. Hello Kitty is residing on my phone right now, and I’ve never been happier about such a trivial fact. I am a girly gadget girl in a mobile wonderland, and it’s absolutely spectabulous. Mike, in the meantime, is unleashing the power of the Trēo in ways that I ...

Warning: this post is likely to be a bit rambly. Hormones, to my way of thinking, aren’t all that different from certain types of drugs. Depending on the drug, some level of addiction is almost a foregone conclusion. In a similar fashion, I think…I think that it is possible to become addicted to the hormones that are produced in certain situations, When a smoker stops smoking, their body goes through a short, sometimes uncomfortable detox process, as the last of the nicotine is processed and leaves their body. Thoughts are, at their core, driven by hormones…it seems reasonable, in that case, ...

It started with my sister, who gave me two tomato plants. Neither were in great shape, and with my habit for inadvertently killing plants, I didn’t expect them to last the week, let alone the end of the month. I think they’re looking pretty good, yeah? When I was shopping at Wal-Mart for gardening implements, I picked up some extra pots. I’ve wanted to grow herbs for a while, and my acquiring tomato plants had successfully given me the excuse I needed to do so. Unfortunately, I don’t exactly remember what I planted where…I know parsley is in there, as well ...

I ran across this nugget on Best Parent Ever yesterday, and I just had to share. Work safe, but…well…kind of disgusting, in my opinion. http://bestparentever.com/2008/06/16/41-the-all-purpose-placenta/ After reading that post, I just *had* to do a Google search. “placenta” and “recipes” were my search terms, and oh dear spirits…there’s this gem, a page composed of recipes taken from a 1983 issue of Mothering magazine. Oddly comforting to know that the existence of the crunchy mama isn’t a recent phenomenon…my personal favourite from that page is the Placenta Lasagna…I make a damn good lasagna, and honestly, I think it could do with ...

First, they rule that the death penalty is not a suitable punishment for child rapists, and then they strike down DC’s handgun ban. Those justices have had a most excellent few days. Incidentally, I’ve never found the law too terribly interesting, but these two rulings have kindled a spark of curiosity in me concerning the high Court. The first ruling I mentioned…that one has been on my mind since I heard about it yesterday afternoon. Of course I agree, but (and this is me beginning to psychoanalyse myself) I was really curious as to *why* I agreed with the ...

I was never really a device-crazy person before I met Mike. Not that I’m necessarily blaming him for the fact that I want hardware that can do it all and then some, but I just really love gadgets. The expression “boys and their toys” is often bandied about as a commentary on how men love their tech gadgets…well, you can number me among the boys on this one. When I switched from Sprint to T-Mobile with Mike and Leesa, I was really sad about the loss of a) Sprint’s kick-ass mobile internet/radio/TV, and b) the GPS software that they pushed to ...

The tasks that I set for myself to do today have been mostly of the brainless variety, and so I’ve had a lot of time to think about stuff. It’s mostly been mundane stuff, like why the Nugget refuses to start. I’ve been trying to avoid thinking about the upcoming GACE Parapro test, but given the fact that I paid $50 to sit for it on little more than a whim, that particular thought keeps intruding. I’ve never had a problem with standardised testing, aside from the slightly more complicated math portions of whatever exam has been placed in front ...

My poor little Trēo has a nasty little problem: the headphone jack port is slowly degrading. The problem first manifested itself at the Detroit airport, but I didn’t realise it then. This morning, the sound disappeared on my phone again, after I got to work. This time, repeatedly plugging and unplugging a 2.5mm adapter did the trick (whoopee), but it also raises an issue, to wit: how can I continue to use my phone as a media device without damaging the jack port anymore than it already is? The answer, apparently, is lots of Bluetooth devices. I found myself a nifty ...

…because Saffron works again. I don’t understand how or why, but I can make calls again. When I got home, I handed the phone to Mike in exasperation, because I didn’t expect much of anything from his efforts. Not ten minutes later, Mike the Magic Man interrupted my shower to tell me that my phone was fine. Bloody technology…well, aside from not being able to restore my backups, I’m fairly pleased, mostly because I can now buy the GPS receiver I wanted for this thing. I swear to god, though…if this thing takes a dump one more time, Mike will not get ...

(5:32:14 PM) Mike: I need to get you a book on interfacing with programmers (5:32:15 PM) Mike: lol (5:32:28 PM) Erica: Step 1: kick programmer in the nuts. (5:32:34 PM) Mike: Step 1a: get killed (5:32:36 PM) Erica: Step 2: walk away and eat a taquito. (5:32:48 PM) Mike: Step 2 is impossible; see Step 1a. (5:32:56 PM) Erica: You’d be doubled over. (5:33:01 PM) Erica: And thus unfit to kill anyone. (5:33:08 PM) Erica: So I’d have time for a few taquitos. (5:33:12 PM) Mike: lol I do so love taquitos… ...

Oh, the weird things I come up with when I can’t sleep… Our leader, who art at Canonical, Shuttleworth be thy name. Thy kingdom come, the community’s will be done, Worldwide as it is in the UK. Give us this day our daily .deb And forgive us our oopses As we forgive kernels that oops against us. Lead us not into infighting and forking But deliver us from Microsoft For thine is the power, the open source, and the glory, Forever and ever. Amen. ...

When Palm released the Centro a little while back, I had just purchased my Trēo from eBay. I was satisfied with my purchase, but certainly not thrilled, in part because it looked like Palm had just let their OS languish. It did what I needed it to do (sometimes well, sometimes badly), and no more. Granted, I pushed the device, but only because I expect a lot out of my hardware. When the Trēo crapped out, I started looking at purchasing the Nokia N810 internet tablet. It’s an attractive little piece of hardware, to be sure, but upwards of $400 is ...

George Carlin dies of heart failure at 71 Oh, what the hell…71 is not that old. What’s he doing, dropping dead like that? :-( I think it’s safe to say that the world is definitely a little less jolly today. ...

I got it into my head to change my login and logout sounds this evening. It really ought to have been a simple enough exercise: install Audacity, chop the sound clips to my liking, save as WAV files, drop in /usr/share/sounds, select in preferences, and enjoy aural happiness every time Sage reboots. However, I’ve been plugging away at this for a little over an hour now, and aural ecstasy is still eluding me. The specific problem, stated simply is this: something, for some reason, doesn’t like the file I created with Audacity. I love Audacity to death…it is the most powerful ...

E-A-D-G-B-E. E-A-D-G-B-E. That can’t be so difficult to remember, right? I mean, I took piano lessons when I was younger, so I really *ought* to be able to learn how to play the guitar, yeah? But, anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes later (depending on how committed I am to learning the guitar this time), my fingers start getting uncomfortable. Gosh, pressing on those strings sort of cuts into your fingers a little bit, doesn’t it. Shouldn’t people wear leather gloves when they play these things? It’s normally the combination of discomfort and remembering what fingers are supposed to go where when ...