I keep getting spam messages with this title:

Are You Lonely or Horney?

Uhhhh, are these my only options?

We contacted some Hotel Californias around the world to see if the Seventies spirit lives on in the not-so naughty Noughties. Could we order pink champagne? Would there be mirrors on the ceiling? Can you check out anytime you like — but never leave? Some saw the joke, others didn’t. And some proprietors simply didn’t realise that, ultimately, we are all just prisoners here, of our own device.

Apparently, Julia Roberts has named her newborn daughter Hazel Patricia, and her newborn son, Phinnaeus Walter.

Well, I've been taking spirulina for a week now and while I can't say if there's much improvement in my FMS symptoms, I can say that it seems to have had a positive effect on my appetite. I'd read that it can act as a natural appetite suppressant, and by golly, it is. I'm not starving myself or anything (yeah, like that's going to happen, uh-huh), and I'm not actively "dieting", but my appetite does seem to be decreasing, and that's a good thing, as I certainly tend to overeat. I must say, losing a few kilos would do some good with some of the body aches, if nothing else (particularly the lower back pain, I think).

So there you go. More on the subject of bluegreen algae (which is what spirulina is, after all) when/if I've got anything more to say.

Ohhh, now Flash can read your mind! (Actually, it's a trick, and I got Andrew to tell me how it works, but I won't say to spoil the fun.)

Yeah, I know it was Thanksgiving in the States a couple days ago, but we're having a family get-together here this evening for Thanksgiving. Just family members and some elderly family friends who have been ill, nothing fancy. All the food will be cold except for the pumpkin soup we'll have as the first course. Not exactly traditional (though we do have turkey and cranberry sauce), but it's too hot to do all that roasting and stuff.

Anyway, Happy (belated) Thanksgiving. I'll be thinking about how cold it probably is in the northern part of the U.S. while I eat my potato salad and cold turkey and ham and pumpkin soup, okay? (Don't worry, when I'm complaining about the cold on the 4th of July, y'all up there can be having a barbeque).

Just found this site through GoogleAds (not directly, but it was just one additional click): HealingWell Fibromyalgia Resource Center. Interesting articles there about using Cognitive Therapy and self-hypnosis/meditation to cope with the symptoms. I already do the hypnosis thing to deal with other issues (the Anxiety/Panic Disorder and PTSD). I don't see why I can't learn to apply it in other ways (I probably already do on some level, to cope with the pain; I wonder what I can do about the fatigue... Hmmm...).

I noticed today (and I'm not sure how long it'll last) that all the Google Ads (wayyyy down at the bottom of the page) are showing stuff to do with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, no doubt because I mentioned it not too long ago.

The thing is, I probably don't have CFS. I mean, CFS and Fibromyalgia/a> have lots in common, and I've heard it said that if your primary complain is fatigue you get the CFS diagnosis but if your primary complaint is pain you get an FMS diagnosis, but they're not really the same thing. CFS is viral. Nobody knows (yet) what causes FMS, although some research points to misbalanced neurotransmitters, i.e., serotonin, the root of so many other problems and mental illnesses (misbalanced serotonin causes all kinds of havoc in the brain and sometimes body, and I've got a very long history of problems regulating it).

When ferrets watch the mind-bending movie The Matrix, brain activity is only slightly higher than when they stare at nothing. Scientists say this might mean something about how much of your brain is in use.
 
Ferret brain activity increased just 20 percent when looking at Keanu Reeves compared to looking at darkness, the study found.

Well, since I'm no longer in denial about my chronic pain and frequent fatigue (note: not just "tiredness'", but real medical fatigue, like in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, although that's not what I have), I've decided to occasionally comment on matters medical here. Don't worry, this won't turn into a "Bonni's Aches and Pains" blog or anything, but I figure other chronic pain sufferers or Fibromyalgia folks might get something useful from it, and, hey, maybe ordinary people who just have a minor problem with, say, headaches might learn something. Or not.

ANYway, Andrew just passed on a link to me that frightens me a bit. It seems that Chronic Pain Shrinks People's Brains. Eeek. That's not comforting...

Trying something new, to see if it helps. I've found that taking magnesium and calcium supplements helps a lot with the pain management, and that taking acidophilus helps with, errr... let's just say I take a lot of codeine to manage the pain and codeine can have a particular side effect that taking acidophilus helps.

I've experimented with various supplements, stopping them to see if they're really helping, etc., and I'm absolutely convinced that the calcium and magnesium is necessary and helpful, so I always make sure to take it, and I try to remember to take a multi-vitamin, as well, because I tend to get iron-depleted fairly easily.

I also take ginkgo biloba and find it's very helpful for dealing with the "brain fog" I sometimes get (and which drives me mad, I HATE it).

Well, today I was in a health food shop and I decided to try spirulina supplements to see if it helps. So far, all it's doing is making me kinda gassy (I know, I know, too much information), but I expect that's something you get used to as you take it. I don't believe for a minute that it's the "miracle supplement" that some people claim it is, but I did a fair bit of research on it and overall it seems like it might be helpful. And, well, if it's not, I just won't take it any more, right?

I just figure that if ginkgo and magnesium can have a profound positive effect, there are probably other things that will, as well, and I want to find them. The condition I have is chronic, and it doesn't go away and there's no cure or treatment, only "management". I may as well accept that and get on with the mangement/coping part of the process. Heaven knows I stayed in denial long enough. Bleah.

Marine commander says insurgency is 'broken' (For the sake of the world and especially the people of Iraq, I hope that this is true.)

Do you have NT? Visit the NT information site and find out. After all, tragically, as many as 9625 out of every 10,000 individuals may be neurotypical.

Zoë has gone out for the day with her grandparents, so it's just Miranda and me here today. All the morning "kid shows" are over and I decided to put on some music instead of a kid movie or other such fare.

And what did I choose? Well, The Eagles, of course, I've got it on the brain at the moment, heh. But it's one of their much older albums, way back in their original configuration, quite country-western in a lot of places (that was partly due to the fact that one of the original band members played both the pedal steel guitar and the banjo and, I believe, mandolin). The album is their second, Desperado.

It's actually a kind of cool theme album, IMHO. Then again, I've always had a thing for cowboys and suchlike (you kinda get that growing up in the American Southwest, though).

So anyway, I'm happily listening to very old Eagles songs, most of which would be unknown to any but the most dedicated Eagles fan. Like, say, me.

Okay, it's not a great picture, and it's slightly blurry because I had to set the exposure up rather high and I didn't have any way to set up a tripod, but it's not too awful as pictures go: The Eagles on stage.

I found this review of The Eagles first Melbourne concert and thought I might pass on the link to anyone who might be curious.

I do disagree that the new song Hole in the World isn't good. Well, he doesn't say it's not good, only that it pales in comparison to some of their older songs, but I thought it was actually quite a good take on the events on and following the WTC tragedies in 2001. And the five-part vocal harmony was beautiful. They're at their best when they go for the harmonies, something this reviewer said and with which I wholeheartedly agree.

Anyway, read the review for yourself what Andrew Murfett of The Age had to say.

We went to see The Eagles last night, as I mentioned we would. I also got a tooth removed today (also mentioned).

As luck would have it, my dentist was at the concert last night, too. I didn't see her there, but I mentioned that we'd gone, and she said they had, as well. More on that in a moment, though...

Continue reading "Eagles (and teeth)"…

In just a couple of hours I'm going to hop on a train to the city and meet Andrew at Young & Jackson's (the pub/bistro which is home to Australia's most famous painting, Chloë). We haven't been there in years, but since it's right across the street from Flinders Station (where my train will come in), it seems a good place to meet. I hope to get some decent photos of St. Paul's Cathedral and Flinders Street Station, which is one of those oh-so-very-Melbourne type landmarks, and I'll see if they let people take pictures of Chloë.

Anyway, pictures aside, after dinner we'll wander over toward the Rod Laver Arena because tonight we're going to see my favorite band of all time (and regular readers know who it is, I'm sure), The Eagles.

I'm very excited. I've wanted to see them in concert since I was a teenager, and I thought I never would because, well, they broke up and said that hell would freeze over before they reunited, and then came the Hell Freezes Over tour (and album, which I have), but I wasn't in a position to go see them at the time because aside from being broke, it was at least a two hour drive to where they were playing.

So I had pretty much thought I'd never see them live, but they're here and we've got tickets (there's an entry here about how that came about, but I'm too lazy to look for it, so you can search for yourself if you care, which you probably don't), and tonight, I'm going to see my favorite band of all time, live, in the company of my favorite husband of all time (I have had several, after all, and not all of them were even my own).

So, just... YAY! I'm pretty buzzed. I'll write about the concert tomorrow at some point. I'm so excited and happy that I'm not even stressing about having to visit the dentist tomorrow (although tomorrow I'll probably need the valium, heh).

And I'll leave you with a little bit of Andrew's wit (he's got lots, he won't mind me sharing). When he got the tickets, he was talking to someone his own age on ICQ (i.e., ten years younger than me, more or less). Neither of them were particular fans. The other guy also commented that he wasn't that keen on concerts in large stadium type venues because you could never hear. Andrew replied, "That's all right. Just about everyone in the audience will know all the words, anyway."

And so I do.

The older I get, the more misanthropic I become. I still have select persons that I like and whose company I enjoy, but really, I'm getting a lower and lower tolerence for humanity every day.

I'm not sure if this is a bad thing or not...

Server was down for a couple of days. We knew something weird was happening to it on Friday evening, but the physical location of the machine was inaccessible for a couple of days due to circumstances beyond our control. Happily, it was a minor issue and easy to fix. It was one of those "somebody accidently bumped a cable" things. Once the cable was re-seated and the machine rebooted, it was fine. Whew.

I hate when that happens.

There are a couple new images at elizabyte digital art.

Domain names could become easier to hijack as a change in domain transfer rules takes effect Friday. Under new rules set by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), domain transfer requests will be automatically approved in five days unless they are explicitly denied by the account owner. This is a change from current procedure, in which a domain's ownership and nameservers remain unchanged if there is no response to a transfer request.

"If we want to have a hopeful and decent society, we ought to aim for the ideal, and the ideal is that marriage ought to be, and should be, a union of a man and a woman," Bush political aide Karl Rove told "Fox News Sunday."
 
Rove said Bush would "absolutely" push the Republican-controlled Congress for a constitutional amendment, which he said was needed to avert the aims of "activist judges" who would permit gay marriages.

A Japanese scientist has developed a coat which appears to make the wearer invisible.

Just got this spam:

D'oh!

Just got this spam title (unedited; hope you're not too offended by the profanity):

A Canadian man, angry that he was refused a plane ticket to Australia at Los Angeles International Airport, stripped naked, sprinted across the tarmac and climbed into the wheel well of a moving jumbo jet, officials said on Wednesday.

Freedom President Jacques Chirac (who's country "France" was officially renamed "Freedom" in response to Bush's recent win), a strong opponent of the US-led war in Iraq, expressed hope that Bush's second term "will provide an opportunity to reinforce Freedom-American friendship" and the transatlantic partnership.

"On behalf of Freedom, and on my personal behalf, I would like to express to you my most sincere congratulations for your re-election to the presidency of the United States of America," Chirac wrote in a letter to Bush. "I hope that your second term will provide an opportunity to reinforce the Freedom-American friendship. And rest assured, exportations of Freedom Fries, Freedom Toast, Freedom Kissing, Freedom Onion Soup, and Freedom's Golden Mustard will continue on, without interruption."

If you have Flash, you can try to put a brain in the president's head. Took me a while, but I did manage to get a couple of brains into his head.

What an interesting weblog. Well, it is if you're interested by word origins and other bits of linguistic legerdemain and suchlike. I came across it via Google, looking to see what's up with people writing "next store" when they really mean "next door" and was hooked on the content there.

Then again, I'm a bit of a language nerd, at least when the language is English.

Okay, well. I haven't wanted to say anything in public about this, but I think I'm finally ready to do so. I still need to have a few tests done to rule out some other possibilities, but it seems that my medical condition has all the signs, patterns, and symptoms of Fibromyalgia. Follow the link for more information, but in a nutshell, think Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with slightly less fatigue (although that's a factor) and considerably more pain, but it fluctuates.

Sometimes the pain is easy to manage, sometimes it requires very strong pain reliever, and even that doesn't totally get rid of it. Some days I'm so tired I feel like I can hardly walk, some days I can do exercise and go out and run errands and do stuff and feel just a little tired at the end of the day. Some days my back hurts so much I can barely find a comfortable sitting position, some days it doesn't bother me at all. This is a very strange and potentially debilitating condition, and it's chronic, with no cure (only management).

So there you go. Next time I mention my medical condition, that's what I'm on about. Leave it to me to develop something chronic and incurable, but which will just make me miserable and degrade the quality of my life without actually killing me...

Observers from around the world report that they were inspired and moved by America's most recent attempt to hold a public election in accordance with the standards of a democratic republic.
 
"After all of the recriminations, infighting, and general madness before the election, the people of this fractured nation still found the courage to show up at the polls," said Anas Salman, an Afghan U.N. official who was in New York during the American electoral experiment. "More than half of America's citizens—a large portion of them women—made a valiant attempt to choose their own leader, even though there was no guarantee their votes would be counted. It was truly inspirational."

Welcome back to Interior Desecrations, a brutal examination of the unlovely, unattractive, unlivable and unforgivable homes of the 1970s. All eras have some bad taste, of course – but it took the 70s to make bad taste triumphant and universal. It took the 70s to convince everyone to stick foil wallpaper on the wall, paint the bathtub purple, smother the floors in shag so deep it tickled the tops of your ankles, and hang art that managed to clash with everything, including itself.

If I say very much on the topic of the U.S. election, I'll break my promise to myself to try to avoid unnecessary negativity. Therefore, I'll just note that what's done is done, and let's hope it won't be as bad as some people fear it might be.

I am, just for the record, watching the election results closely. Very closely. Just in case you wondered.

Well, it seems that the tooth can't be saved. I went to the dentist today and had a cleaning and got a referral for a periodontist who can see me in less than half a year (I've got an appointment in mid-December). I also had that molar examined and while I did think it might need a root canal or something, it turns out that the best course of action is going to be to just pull the sucker.

I'm not exactly happy about it, but if that's what it takes to get rid of the frequent infections and other crap I've suffered from this tooth, well, so be it. It's a molar, so it's not like it'll show. I'll just have a slightly harder time chewing steak...

One of my front top incisors is also rather troubled (no surprise there; I've known that for a while), but if I can get to the periodontist in a few weeks and get the deep cleaning process started, it should be okay. The rest of my teeth are sound.

And, yes, I had to take valium before I went to the dentist. I can't cope at all if I don't take one (but only one, and only when I have to go to the dentist, as I'm afraid it could be highly addictive if I start using it for anything else). I slept really badly last night (anxiety in preparation of a dentist's visit), though, so maybe a valium might have been in order then, too...

So anyway, losing one's teeth is the price you pay when you have irrational fears of going to the dentist, although I don't really think it's all that irrational. I mean, don't all sensible people fear having sharp instruments poked into the tender places of their mouth?!

I just have to quote this comment from an email correspondant regarding Melbourne and its, errr, interesting weather....

I've recently moved to Melbourne from
Brisbane. They told it was 4 seasons in one day but what they didn't tell me
was that that's an average - you get 2 seasons one day and 6 the next.

New evidence has emerged in the United States to contradict President George Walker Bush’s claim that 380 tons of explosives from Iraq were looted before the US troops occupied the country.

State [of Wisconsin] Republicans filed a last-minute complaint Wednesday with the Milwaukee Election Commission claiming that 5,600 city addresses on the voter rolls may not exist.

In what would be her last conscious act, 90-year-old Trixie Porter gripped a pen in her weak, trembling hand, checked the candidates of her choice and scrawled a squiggled signature on her absentee ballot.
 
Within an hour, the petite woman who had been suffering from heart problems lay back in her hospital bed, closed her eyes and never woke up. Her ballot arrived at her local elections board two days later, Oct. 5 - the day she died.