I've mentioned before that I go through phases with gemstones. Years ago, I had a big thing for emeralds. Not that I had a lot of them, mind you, as emeralds tend to be expensive, but I had a great passion for them nonetheless.

Then I kinda went off emeralds and started to be into amethysts. Then for a while it was diamonds (okay, I still love diamonds, I admit it, because square cut or pear shape these rocks won't lose their shape and diamonds are a girl's best friend). Then I got over the amethysts and became enamoured of garnets.

Well, I still like the garnets, but now I'm onto something new: carnelian.

Why carnelian? I dunno. Probably because it's orange. Well, it can range from a sort of pale goldeny orangy color through a really rich, deep orange-red. I tend to prefer the latter.

I wear a lot of orange (and do my blog in that color, ha), and so I got interested in orange gemstones and it just sort of developed into one of my gemstone kicks, fascinated with a particular gemstone.

I reckon that folks who are into the crystals and spirituality related to them would tell me that I go on these gemstone kicks because it's something I need or crave in my life, that the stone channels or directs or otherwise affects me in ways I subconsiously know I need. And that'd be really interesting if it were true (and I'm not putting down peoples' beliefs, either).

Mostly, I think I'm just weird. Okay, well, I know I'm weird. But if wearing garnets or carnelian or diamonds or whatever will make me feel better, hey, I'm all for that! And thankfully, other than the diamonds (and emeralds, though I do know now how to get genuine emeralds that won't break the bank), most of my gemstone fetishes have been for relatively inexpensive stones (note: relatively; the value of gemstones is alway relative and varies hugely).

Anyway. Carnelian. And I'm wearing some right now (a chip-bead bracelet; I love chip-beads and have loads of chip-bead bracelets), and have some more on order... (And another interesting thing is that Andrew NEVER notices when I've got new jewellery OR new perfume, but, as usual, I digress...)

Again, I saw someone make a reference to me as trying to convince people I'm an expert "on everything". I'm sure this is from the same person who has been dogging me for a while, mind you. But it still makes me wonder WTF?

There are far more things in the world that I don't know about than things that I do. Of the few specialised things that I know a fair bit about, I can speak with moderate authority on many of them, yes. I am confident in my knowledge of some areas of interest, why wouldn't I be?

The thing is, when it's something I don't know anything about, I keep my trap shut, or I only ask questions of someone who clearly understands the topic better than I. You'll never, ever see me blathering on about, say, nuclear fission. It's just not gonna happen. I know what I don't know as well as knowing what I do know.

And I also have to think that anyone who honestly thinks I claim to be an expert in everything must be an expert in NOTHING. Seriously. If I can intimidate someone by knowing a great deal about the internet or Tudor history or the obscure topic of American vs. Australian dialect, then they're pretty easily intimidated, intellectually.

This, by the way, is why I prefer to hang around with smart, technically adept people. They're not threatened by me - ohmighod - knowing things and being willing to share them. They actually want to learn stuff, and I want to learn stuff from them.

I guess it's just a geek thing. I've known for some years that most people don't actually want to know any more than they do, don't want to learn any new way of doing things, and can't stand to be around people who might know something they don't.

It's actually pretty pitiful, when you come to think about it...

Today I fulfilled my civic duty and went and voted. It was a state election. Looks like our local member (Heather McTaggart) is out of office now, and the premier (Steve Bracks) was re-elected.

Not really all that exciting, from a voter's point of view. I wasn't that vested in the election, particularly, didn't care much about Heather one way or the other, not a fan of Steve Bracks but have seen and can imagine worse, so, eh, politics as usual. It does please me to be voting in Australian elections, though. Reminds me that I'm a fair dinkum Aussie.

On a side note, Andrew, his father, one of his brothers, and that brother's wife were all working the election as election officials. My father-in-law has been doing it for a while and is well-trained and can do managerial type things, and this was Greg and Robyn's second year, but it was the first year Andrew did it. The pay's not bad for a (long) day's work, and I think Andrew kinda had fun at it. I expect him to do it again next time around, as a matter of fact.

Voting is, in fact, mandatory, although they can't control what you write on the ballot papers, obviously (so, really, showing up to vote is mandatory). Apparently, a few people drew some attractive doodles (and didn't tick any of the boxes) and a few told the election officials off in rude ways (one even wrote the letters in the boxes where you're supposed to number your choices).

So, well, everyone here did their civic duty today. Next time I vote, I think I might draw a smiley face somewhere on the ballot (once I make sure that it won't invalidate the thing).

Okay. I got my bifocals Thursday. Taking some time to get used to them, though. Yikes. Lots of distortion on the outer edges, and my habit of tipping my head back when I look at something has to go, for sure.

I am getting used to them, slowly but surely, and I'm past the "new glasses headache" stage, thankfully, though I still can't read quite yet (haven't worked out where to hold the page/book/whatever).

I can, however, read my watch, which, if you'll recall, was one of the things that prompted me to finally go get the bifocals to begin with.

And... this is really interesting.... I can see the monitor fine with these glasses. I'm wondering if my old monitor was in worse shape than I thought... I mean, I knew it was a little blurry, but maybe it was worse than I reckoned? But then again, the computer glasses fixed the problem (more or less) so it couldn't have been just that. But in any event, I'm not wearing the computer glasses now, as I don't appear to need them now. Cool.

The new glasses even look reasonably cool. They're square. Very trendy. Woohoo.

So anyway, that's the deal. I can see. Mostly. I mean, I'll be able to once I figure out how to. Heh.

Spammers seem to be having little luck pushing up prices of thinly traded stocks.
 
The idea of so-called "pump and dump" scams is to buy stock at low prices and then try to drum up excitement in order to inflate the price.
 
Penny stock promotions have tripled in the last few months, according to estimates. One internet security firm says stock-related spam already accounts for 15 per cent of all junk email, compared to less than one per cent two years ago.

(I've always wondered who is stupid enough to buy stocks recommended to them by random anonymous spammers...)

Okay, it's really mostly Oztion sellers, but it's searchable, and it's pretty cool (and I promised the site admin that I'd give them a link, so there it is, go check it out, okay?).

Dr Kissinger, who's been offering President Bush informal advice on the war, believes it's now time to start engaging Iran and Syria to find a solution.
 
Mr Bush remains strongly opposed to talking with countries he believes are responsible for a lot of the violence in Iraq...

Well, my monitor, a quite expensive Sony Trinitron, lost about half of the green gun. That is, everything was decidedly pinky-purple, because there wasn't enough green in the mix. It's been wonky for a while, in minor ways. Most recently, it was getting really fuzzy in places, so it was quite hard to read text in many cases. In any event, no matter how expensive it was, it wasn't economical to have it fixed, because you can get a new monitor for far less than the cost of repairing the old one.

So that's what we did. I now have a widescreen LCD monitor, and it's pretty amazing. I can actually read the text! Since this is much smaller than the older one, I can also move the monitor farther away from my face, which aids in reading (I have special computer glasses, you see, for mid-range viewing, and the old monitor was so close it was sometimes too close to focus properly). But the display on this new one is really crisp, amazing definition.

It's not so long ago that I got a new computer system (but not a new monitor) because the old one was just getting ready to give up the ghost in various ways, and now I've got a new monitor because the old one DID give up the ghost all of a sudden.

So there you go. New computer, new monitor, crisp display that I can actually read, perhaps I'll have fewer headaches now. (I can hope, anyway.)

As of yesterdayish, the WomenBloggers ring appears to have been restored. However, it's a couple hundred sites down, as far as I can tell (maybe not; I could be delusional as to how many sites were in the ring). Anyway, if your site was in the ring and it's not now and it should be, please resubmit.

Well, you knew you were going to hear my review of the latest Dixie Chicks album (because I warned you, and if you didn't read that, well, I'm warning you now). Here it is.

I've listened to this album numerous times, and it's damned good. I mean, it's SERIOUSLY good. It reminds me a lot of the 70s California style rock done to such perfection by The Eagles (my favorite band of all time, for those not keeping score), Dan Fogleberg, J.D. Souther, maybe a bit of Fleetwood Mac, you get the vibe here?

Musically, it's just damned good. Lyrically, it's pretty powerful. Lyrics range from love songs to lullabies to songs of defiance (something I can always identify with). I'm telling you, this is a really good album, particularly if you like 70s style California rock with that comfortable but not overpowering country influence.

Mmmmmm. Gooooood music.

The Dixie Chicks' Martie Maguire has been quoted as saying, "I'd rather have a smaller following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith. We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."

Well, I don't have a five disc changer (okay, I do, but I never use it), and I don't own any Reba... no, wait... yes, I do have a couple Reba McEntire albums, and I own NO Toby Keith and wouldn't if someone gave it to me for free, but I'm pretty sure that I "get it" and if the Dixie Chicks keep making albums of this quality, I'll be a fan for life. I promise not to put them in the disc changer with Reba.

Very entertaining animation to Weird Al's Do I Creep You Out. And while you're there at JibJab, check out some of their other originals. Some of their political ones are quite funny (even after the fact).

Okay, I've been running the WomenBloggers webring for a while now, and it's been a tremendous success, hugely busy, hundreds of active sites, etc.

Today I went to do some routine ring business and guess what? No sites in it. Not one. All gone. Poof.

I've written to my account rep at webrng.org to ask what happened and if it can be restored. I hope that it can. If it can't, I don't know what I'm going to do, because I have no means of contacting those hundreds of members to even let them know there's a problem.

This is bad. Very bad. Here's hoping thye have proper backups and can restore the ring. I'm actually a paid member there now, so I'm going to be extremely cross if this turns out to be something that can't be fixed.

Some Criticism of the Dixie Chicks is Misplaced, Ignorant, and Deceptive is a well-written article looking at the whole concept of free speech.

Yesterday morning, I saw an interview with the Dixie Chicks, and I was impressed by how smart they are. Then I saw the video for "Not Ready to Back Down" and was impressed yet again. Then I was cruising around YouTube and saw another interview with them, particularly with regard to The Incident, and you know what I did? I bought all their albums. All in one go. It's my Christmas present to me, and to them. Talk about some courageous women!

It's almost unbelievable that a flippant comment that should have gone more or less unnoticed turned into death threats. DEATH THREATS! Can you believe that? How "free" can America possibly be when an American voices an opinion in a lighthearted quip and gets death threats for daring to speak at all? I mean, the hate campaign that was waged against them was astounding, and very, very scary. What is wrong with Americans when they seem to be perfectly content to watch a group of musicians essentially be blacklisted and threatened because they excercised their right to free speech. You know that saying, "only in America"...

Oh, and don't worry, I like country music. Haven't bought a lot lately (been thinking about picking up some Keith Urban, though), but I definitely do enjoy it, and I'm certainly familiar with the Dixie Chicks (very talented women), so I'm sure I won't regret buying all their albums. Don't worry. You'll be hearing about it in this blog, I'm sure, the same way you hear about the Eagles and Weird Al Yankovic and Green Day.

Hey, someone on YouTube compared Green Day with the Dixie Chicks (apparently, musicians are all too stupid to have any valid opinions on politics, go figure). And I like both. Oh, no, does this make me a radical?!

I don't think I'm a radical. I am quite defiant, though, when I feel the need to be, and I'm willing to pay the price for speaking my mind. I guess that makes me unamerican. Which is okay, because these days, I'm Australian.

Today at the shopping centre, Zoë was wearing a pair of OshKosh overalls, an orange tshirt, and a pair of very pink, girly sneakers with sparklies on them. Her hair is currently about shoulder length, and she's got a fringe (bangs). While going up one escalator, a man coming down the other side asked, "Is that a boy or a girl?" When told it was a girl, he remarked, "Looks like a boy."

Uhm, okay. Whatever. But this makes me wonder a lot of stuff....

First, to what benefit is it for us to know that this bloke's opinion is that a girl in unisex clothing and pink sneakers looks like a boy? Is it to encourage us to dress her in pink tshirts when she wears the overalls? Or to grow her hair longer and tie it up with ribbons? Is it to persuade us to dress her up in something appropriately frilly so that random strangers can instantly guess her gender at a glance? And why is it important for random strangers on the escalator to know her gender, anyway?

Secondly, why on earth should I care what Random Escalator Man thinks? I don't think she looks like a boy, especially, but then, I'm not into the whole "girls have to wear pink" thing (though my girls do wear pink sometimes).

Thirdly, why did Random Escalator Man feel the need to blurt out his opinion on my daughter's apparent gender as he saw it? I have a theory on this one.... He was momentarily confused by her mostly unisex appearance, and had to say it out loud to make himself feel better. Like, by saying she looked like a boy, he could sort it all out in his little mind and it excused his incorrect guess as to her correct gender. Or something.

I dunno. It was all pretty weird. Which is why I was thinking about it. I don't sit and think about normal stuff (not that interesting, really). And by the way, I've no intention of always dressing her to the expectations of random strangers. I know she's a girl, she knows she's a girl, everyone who matters knows she's a girl, and the very pink, very sparkly, very girly sneakers and shiny painted fingernails are a dead giveaway, in any case.

So I went to the after-hours doctor last night, and we ended up getting the bumper ripped off one side (freak accident; Andrew ran over a small stump and it just... like I said, freak accident).

Anyway, The swelling in my throat was getting extremely noticible and very painful, pressure was all the way up into my ear on one side, very swollen glands, etc. Doctor said my throat didn't look red, but he was giving me a prescription for quite strong antibiotics anyway, because every symptom said "strep throat" and when I said I'd had strep quite frequently when I was younger and it felt exactly like that, it just clinched the deal.

So we got the script and went to get the prescription filled and the shopping centre area was really jumping, because Friday is a late night shopping night and right near there is a fairly cool area with a cinema and lots of restaurants, etc. We found a parking place and went inside only to find that the pharmacy I intended to use was already closed, and then we went to go upstairs to KMart to look for something to hold the bumper on (remember the bumper? mentioned that already...), but KMart was also closed. So we came back down a non-working escalator and Andrew went into the grocery store (which was open, obviously) and came out with some clear duct tape. So now our front bumper is held on with sticky tape. Yeehaw.

And did I mention that during all of this mucking around I was dressed in ridiculous clothes because I hadn't really figured on being seen by anyone except the doctor and staff? So I looked like a dork in addition to being in considerable pain and being exhausted and sick, or, if you prefer, sick and tired.

We did eventually find the late-night pharmacy, which had a twenty minute wait on prescriptions. I sat in the car. Andrew came out after a few minutes with some pain reliever and throat lozenges (I asked for the pain relief, he volunteered the lozenges), and that's how I knew there'd be another fifteen minutes' wait.

By the time we got home, I was tired, annoyed, and in pain (slightly less pain, as I'd had some pain relief). And I'm still kinda cranky and tired, though the phenoxymethylpenicillin (just happen to have the box sitting on my desk; its not like I know this word normally) does seem to be helping the swelling, anyway.

Being sick sucks.

I felt much better yesterday, and I did what stupid people do. That is, I did too much when I was, in reality, still sick. And today I feel like crap again. Not that I felt great yesterday, but I felt less crappy.

I'm going to the after-hours doctor in a little while to see about this. I've got suspiciously swollen glands in my neck and throat, and it's getting worse. Reminds me all too much of the many times I've had strep throat...

So I'm sick. I think it's probably some kind of flu, it's pretty awful. Started out Monday night with chills and shivering so severe it felt like I was having a seizure (well, it felt like what I would imagine a seizure would feel like, anyway). I was shivering for ages. I got into bed with a bunch of blankets and a hot water bottle and a bunch of heat packs and I was still shivering all over for hours. Eventually, I fell asleep and then woke up covered in sweat and I had to throw all the heat things out of bed. Then, after a few more hours, I woke up and my mouth was really dry and so I had a drink from the bottle of water I had by the bed. Bad idea, because I threw up. I did have a bucket handy, but it was still a bit of a mess, yuck.

So I've been mostly sleeping for the past couple of days. I got up yesterday briefly to watch the Melbourne Cup (that was coincidence, but it's kinda funny; I'm such a Melburnian I get out of my sick bed to watch the Cup!) and I had a cup of soup and then went back to bed. I got up again around dinner time and had a bit of soup and a half a cracker, but I mostly just felt like I wanted to sleep, so I did. I got up every six hours or so to take more pain reliever, get a drink of water, and go to the restroom, but mostly, I've just slept.

Had to arrange for someone else to take Miranda to and from pre-school (her grandfather was helpful in that regard), and I just slept all day, pretty much. Got up around 2:30 in the afternoon and decided I'd stay up for a while. All that sleeping has given me a backache and the bed needs to be remade, anyway (it's not very comfortable at the moment).

I did manage to get down a slice of toast with peanut butter. I figured it's got protein, fat, and carbohydrates, so that's a good start. It's stayed down, but I've got absolutely wicked heartburn now, ugh!

I do feel like I'm getting better, though. I hope by the end of the week I'll be back to my usual self. So, well, if I seem unusually quiet, that's why. I'm sick. I'm only writing this to keep myself a bit occupied so I don't fall asleep in a chair or something...

It is one thing for the majority of Americans to think Rumsfeld has failed. But when the nation's current military leaders start to break publicly with their defense secretary, then it is clear that he is losing control of the institution he ostensibly leads."
 
This is not about the midterm elections," continued the editorial, which will appear in the Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times, and Marine Corps Times on Monday. "Regardless of which party wins Nov. 7, the time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard bruising truth: Donald Rumsfeld must go.

Well, I've previously gone on about how much I like Weird Al Yankovic (been a fan for many years). Geeky, smart, funny, hey, it works for me... (On a side note, there's a good interview with Weird Al in Rolling Stone.)

Anyway, yesterday we were out I picked up my very own copy of Straight Outta Lynwood. Pretty good stuff, and I hear it's doing extremely well for Al, being his first Top 10 album.

My favorite is, of course, White & Nerdy, but the whole album is amusing. I got several laugh out loud moments when I was first giving a listen-through. I specifically got a huge laugh from this bit (from Close But No Cigar), about a reason for breaking up with a girlfriend:

Except she was always using the word "infer" When she obviously meant "imply" And I know some guys would put up with that kind of thing But frankly, I can't imagine why

(Because, I will admit, the infer/imply thing really annoys me when people do it, argh.)

Anyway, the lyrics of Don't Download This Song (which, of course, I did download from the official Don't Download This Song site), worked:

So don't download this song Don't go pirating music all day long Go and buy the CD like you know that you should Oh, don't download this song

So, I've known for a while that I need bifocals. I already have to have computer glasses (mid-range), and for a while I could get by with just taking off my glasses to read, but it's getting to where it's not really workable any more. I really need the bifocals. I mean, I can't read my watch, for heaven's sake, it's absurd.

I went to the eyeglass place that I've been going to for years and said I wanted bifocals. They got out my history and it seems I haven't had an eye exam since 2005 (I thought I'd had one more recently). As it happened, the eye doctor on the premises was free so I got a checkup on the spot (and it was bulk billed so I didn't pay anything out of pocket), and then went on to the fun task of picking new frames.

Finally settled on some, and they were in the least expensive range of price, amazingly. I say "amazingly" because I have a knack for usually picking the most expensive item in any given collection. It's a talent of mine. Not that the frames I chose were inexpensive, mind you, they were just the least expensive of the ones I'd picked that worked well for me.

Then I had to get my eyes measured for the bifocals, and then.... the price.... Yikes.

We do have private health insurance that covers optometry, so that's good, and they kick in $250 per calender year (so I tend to get new glasses frequently; next year I'll get new computer glasses, I think, as these are starting to show a fair bit of wear). Until now, that $250 per person has been enough to pay for the complete cost or nearly the complete cost of new glasses.

Except that bifocals are bloody expensive, it turns out. Yikes. Well over $500 for the new glasses, even with the less expensive frames. Like I said, $250 of that was covered, but I had to cover the rest, myself.

The good thing is, I'll be able to see again, and that's very comforting. It sucks not to be able to read music while singing (I don't think I've mentioned it, but I'm singing in a choir now, just for the Christmas programme at the church where my mother-in-law is choir director; she needed more altos), and I'd really like to be able to read my watch without taking off my glasses...

So that's my big exciting day. Whee. Who says I have no life?

(Really amazing, well worth it.)

An explosive device has blown out a thick, plate-glass window at the Silicon Valley headquarters of PayPal, the online payments unit of eBay.
 
No injuries resulted when what local fire officials said was an explosive device shattered a 6-foot-square window on the ground floor of the four-story building in San Jose, California. The explosion occurred outside a building exit.

(Gee, I guess they ticked off someone who wasn't happy just putting up websites about PayPal, but really wanted to get their attention, eh?)

Recently, a large corporation hired several cannibals to increase their diversity.

"You are all part of our team now," said the Human Resources rep during the welcoming briefing. "You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don't eat any employees."

The cannibals promised they would not.

Four weeks later their boss remarked, "You're all working very hard. However, one of our secretaries has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to her?"

The cannibals all shook their heads, "No."

After the boss had left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others, "All right, which one of you idiots ate the secretary?" A hand rose hesitantly.

Continue reading "Mmmm, cow-orkers"…