Update:

My father's surgery is on Tuesday the 12th of November.

Two alternate versions of the "Footprints in the Sand" story...

( Discordian )

( Link to a Wiccan version )

Mixed Drinks

The combination of Brainwash soda with rum is ... interesting. Brainwash soda, for those who don't know, contains ingredients including cayenne pepper. Mmm. I think my mouth is scorched now.

Shawn & Rocki the Red combined the two at my small, very low-key private viewing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. When the nasty stuff spilled on the carpet, I tried using 7-up to remove the stain. Worked fairly well. Used the rest of the soda to mix with the rest of the stuff, and it wound up tasting much better than it had, much smoother and less potentially destructive.

I hear that vanilla vodka and ginger ale are next up on my "try this!" list.

Eeewww.

Brainwash + tequila? Eeew.

Pouncer's Butterbug Song (archived from the list, 15 June 1999)

( Scientific/word mutterings )

For the time being...


If the butterbugs are bottled
and the bottles are all stoppered
then the stoppers stop the butterbugs
from leaving all their bottles.

But, are the stoppers made of rubber?
Or all the bottles stopped with cork?
And would cork or natural rubber
(Earth-descended) stoppers work?

Would they? Could they? Would they stop
the butterbugs in Enrique's shop?

The butterbugs may linger
in their bottles on the table
until they feel some hunger,
then, I'd bet that they'd be able
to attack the bottle stoppers
with their buggy mandibles and
open up the bottle tops for
a full butterbug rebellion.

If bottle ONE's unstoppered top lets a few
hungry butterbugs out of their bottle, then you
should know that the stopper of bugbottle TWO
will be, soon, bottle-one butterbug fodder, too.

And so the bottle-one butterbugs might
get into a bottle-two butterbug fight.

(Now I'm starting to get very badly confused
with bottle-one /bottle-two names being used
We could call the bottle-one bugs butterBEETLES
and this might avoid some confusion -- a little --
if the bugs at the bottom of bottle two
are just butterBUGS. Does this bother you? )

So the butterbeetles battle
in the butterbug's home bottle
They battle for the butter,
all the butter in the bottle.
'Cause the butterbeetles think
the butterbugs' butter is better.
And even though the butterbugs
think the butter battle's bitter
they won't let the butterbeetles
steal one bite of buggy butter.
And from clear across the table
you can hear the bottle rattle
from the clash of buggy mandibles
when butterbugs do battle.

--Pouncer (altpouncer@yahoo.com)

Simple questions, big debates

OKAY. I've got a simple question: What color is Darth Vader's lightsaber?

Before you go thinking this is a simple, easy question, let me give you a bit of history. My idiot of an ex-boyfriend and his fiancee (now wife) watched the trilogy together.

He claims the lightsaber is red.

She, citing years of art classes, says it's pink.

They had their first major fight about anything over this. Now, whenever they have a serious fight, Darth Vader's lightsaber gets dragged into it. I decided to do some research, because obviously, opinions varied.

I say that technically, it verges towards the orange.

My high school best chickfriend DC: "Lightsaber? Oh, lightsaber. I dunno; I was too busy watching to see if his cloak would swing out of the way so I could see his ass. ...It didn't. But I looked on the doll, and I was right to be watching, 'cause he's got a *really* *nice* ass!" (Which is funnier because DC is the one who says "Oooh. Sharp!" and drools over weapons catalogues.


Soo...poll.

[Poll #74145]

Mentos & Dr Pepper (archived from SA-talk mutterings)

Darth Everheart says:

ingredients:

1. 2-litre bottle of Diet Doctor Pepper*
2. 1 roll mint Mentos. Actually you only need 1 Mento, but they come in a roll.

procedure:

1. Take your bottle of soda, Mentos, and any spectators to an isolated area such as a parking lot, sidewalk, vacant lot, driveway, etc. Avoid using someone else's private property - or at least make sure it isn't surveilled by security video. Avoid automobiles or anything else that you don't want to clean up.

2. Open the soda bottle. Place it on the ground.

3. Everybody step back a few feet, except for the Mentos volunteer.

4. Said volunteer must remove one Mento from the roll, drop it into the soda bottle, and step back very very quickly.

5. Hilarity ensues!

(*We also successfully used regular Doctor Pepper as a control. I can think of no reason why this wouldn't work with a litre bottle or smaller, though the list's science geeks may know if this would present any obvious safety hazard. I'd be cautious about using a can, however.)

Science fans can, I am sure, devise any number of variations on type of soda and Mentos flavor to determine the most and least effective combinations.

Conservative/Liberal, parents. (originally posted to SA-talk)

For the record, the definitions of conservative and liberal that I learned in my high school psych and history classes (can't separate the two in my head, as it was the same teacher in the same room with pretty much the same students) was this:

Conservative: "We can make things work with pretty much what we're doing now or have done in the past."

Liberal: "Since it's not working now, something must be wrong with it/it must be obsolete. We need to change things."

They corresponded pretty well to reactionary/revolutionary, IIRC.

My mother is avoidant of change, but with the values that one normally associates with liberals (school, choice, art, etc.) and my father seeks out change, and has a more conservative set of values. It's an interesting combination, and life is peaceful, but never boring, around them, unless my father is upgrading a computer or fixing something, in which case it's no longer peaceful...

Sex and religion are two of the things that Weren't Talked About in my household, perhaps out of lack of interest, or perhaps to avoid starting fights, but at one point it became necessary for me to bring the topic up. Indirectly, of course, because I needed a
ride, and I had no car of my own at this point.

My boyfriend and I had agreed that it would be a good idea if I could spend the night at his house on his birthday, as his mother wasn't going to be there for a week. I needed a ride, though, so I chose a time carefully, and asked my parents in general: "I would like a ride to River's house at some time in the evening of the 20th, and I would like to be picked up around 10 am on the 21st."

My mother blew up, and started ranting that she could not *believe* that I had just asked her *permission* to spend the *night* with a *boy*, and what kind of *mother* would she *be* -- (sounding very much like a hen who does not find the provided nest to be to her satisfaction)

--and I smiled sweetly and pointed out that as River was going to be twenty and I was nineteen, it was neither my place to ask for permission nor her place to grant it, and if she'd notice, I didn't ask for permission, I just asked for a ride.

My father, in the rather confused and deflated silence that followed, quietly (and cheerfully) offered me the ride.


They started treating me more like an adult, after that.

Whee, social life.

Going to the movies tomorrow with Dawn. Should be much fun.

I should probably work on cleaning out the refrigerator and organizing the stuff inside. Votania already wiped it down and tossed any non-good stuff; I should go through, and see what can be turned into lunch.

Cleaning the fridge:

Leftover jello shots. The three that looked good had diminished in volume by 50%, and did not taste particularly alcoholic, though I am picking up the effects now. The rest got tossed out, of course.

Stuffing will be yummy. Having that, and some of the leftover pasta salad stuff for lunch, plus whatever else looks good. I'm thinking carrots. Oh, and to be sorting through the fruit bowl for apples, to see where they're at, and what I might need to throw out.

Will be needing to get tomatoes; I think I've discovered the right size purchasing of tomatoes to keep them fresh and around the house: four at a time, or maybe five. Not many more than that.

Fruit update: Two apples not quite bad yet, but too mushy to eat. One apple still yummy, but wrinkled. All other apples: already eaten. Threw out the little bell peppers that were not good anymore; put the one remaining and the little eggplant in the refrigerator. I should probably make sure to eat the watermelon.

Yep:

I've got the cold that's going around.

I'm going to go lie down, and take a nap.

Cold Update:

Bleaugh.

I feel sick, though I don't have the complete stuffy nose yet. I have a neck-ache, a sore throat, and a general tiredness. I get exhausted from sitting up, and walking around the house.

I have commandeered the big green cappucino cup for my chicken broth. I take the water, take the little glass jar of chicken-flavored crud, and boil the water in the microwave before adding the chicken flavor and the parsley, the comfrey, the dill, the sage, and whatever else looks good in the spice rack and goes well with garlic.

I have the bowl of popcorn, with garlic salt and lemon pepper, and parmesan.

I have the water.

I have the vitamin C and echenacia.

I have the peace, and the quiet.

Schoolwork

Taking the opportunity to lie down in bed and read. Got the reading for next week in English done; I'll try and wade through the two chapters of Management, so when I'm feeling better I can do the homework thing.

Next up: reading the first three chapters of the Systems Analysis book, after the Management.

School, continued

It is a little jarring, however, to note that the author of the management book is named Daft.

According to my self-knowledge and what the Management teacher says, and how the two line up, I am an excellent candidate for management. I should highlight my experience on the Safety Team, and my role in the bakery, on my resumé.

Plots for future, cunning:

Because I like the structure so much, implement a company LJ server for any business I manage, to supplement the existing e-mail or other internal communication system.

*giggles* (see what you find when you clean out your junk folders?)

This is just too good.

Organizing...

I have found that almost everything in the Needed Fayoumis Writings folder can either be deleted, moved to the Memberships folder, moved to the Links folder, posted amusingly in LJ, put in a Quotes memo on my palmtop, put in my palmtop's address book or to-do list, or something of the like.

My email box is down to 74% full, rather than the 76-8 it's been running at.

...

I intend, of course, to take the links folder and transfer it to my favorites file in my browser, and then take that and transfer it to my website, and then organize that by subject, and make sure all the links are active thereafter.

Yep.

I was able to reduce the number of messages in a 50-message folder to 6, by shuffling the Memberships to Memberships, the links to Links, the computer stuff to Computer Parts (including my hilarious commentary about the performance of my Pablo drawing pad to the manufacturers, upon testing their W2k drivers for them), putting the quotes...

...Well, you get the picture.

I seem to have been more organized of late. Not sure what that means for me. Immenent adulthood, surely. I have the stereo in the living room hooked up to both my sets of computer speakers with the jacks that are unreliable when in a situation when bumped often, and I finally have the subwoofer operational. Whoo!

This is also my chance to indulge myself in the balancing music that I don't get to hear quite as often as I might like due to playing well with others issues. There are certain songs, certain disks, that put me back on track, and this is one of them. Ahh, the music that is heard throughout the house without need to crank it to a painful level... I must have my bass.

Now, I must have my bath. Nice and warm, and possibly with my management book. I like the quirk in my special schedule that gives me the management course at the same time as the Business Communication release of English. It gives me a nice perspective on things. After that, I may finally be feeling strong enough to do homework, or compile a list of the things the household's missing (tomatoes, apples) and hike to the store.

Whee!! Operation update!

My father doesn't need an operation after all. They ran some tests, and he doesn't need an operation.

Self-pampering

Today is my day for self-pampering happiness. To that end:

Windows open and breeze blowing through
R.E.M. just as loud as I want it
A long hot bath with delightful homemade bathsalts, and a decent book, and excellent music
Shaving legs, et cetera
Soaking and sanding the excess callus off my heels with the pumice stone
A mud mask, followed by lotion
lotion on legs and feet
lotion on hands
long phone call to my sister Narcissa
glass of surprisingly good passionfruit/lemon sparkling stuff
homework (and making it fun)