Brainstorm

I ask you, how hard would it be for email applications to run a check on your email before you send for the words "attachement," "attaching," or "attach." I have sent so many emails in which I say I'm attaching something and then forget to do it, and then look like an idiot.

It seems like it should be possible to catch errors that you make over and over again with your computer.

Please send your licensing checks for this idea directly to me.

Gmail problem solved

despite google's blithe assurances that i would never need to delete messages from my gmail account, i have in fact, had to do just that. i get a lot of mail. a lot of mail with attachments. for months i've been hovering at just a few bytes away from having an entirely full gmail account. today my problem was solved. w00t!

Zwinky!

Look at all this not-food!

visual dna

Scrapblog is amazing!

My friend Darren told me I should check out Scrapblog the other night. I did, and let me tell you -- this is some cool technology!

In about 30 minutes, I made a page that looks it is right out of a scrapbook. A good scrapbook, mind you! I uploaded photos, chose a background, stickers, text, shapes, all without reading a single Help file. People who aren't as heavy into graphic applications as I am might need a little assistance, but it's a fairly intuitive application. It wasn't troublefree, however. I had some trouble signing up for an account, and there are some glitches around the profile editing area. Nonetheless, this takes things to a whole different level if you have photos you want to share in more than a photo gallery way.

It's not easy being green

Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Mad-houses are large and only too numerous; yet surely it is strange they are not larger, when we think of how many helpless wretches must beat their brains against this hopeless persistency of the orderly outward world, as compared with the storm and the tempest, the riot and confusion within: -- when we remember how many minds must tremble upon the narrow boundary between reason and unreason, mad to-day and sane to-morrow, mad yesterday and sane to-day.

My Name Is Red, Orhan Pamuk

As I stare at people's faces, I realize that many of them believe they're innocent because they haven't yet had the opportunity to snuff out a life. It's hard to believe that most men are more moral or better than me simply on account of some minor twist of fate.

The New Regimen

Here at chez headache, we're instituting a new schedule: regular hours!

I know this unorthodox approach will concern, even frighten some of you, but frankly, I'm getting pretty desperate. The headaches that have plagued me for years are here in force in the past couple of months, appearing nearly every day and resisting most pain medications. (They do seem susceptible to a combo of pain medication and alcohol, but that's hardly a good coping strategy at 10 in the morning.) In an effort to bring these things back into some kind of control, I'm doing the unthinkable: turning the lights off at midnight and getting up at 8:30. For those of you unfamiliar with the Gardner/Smith schedule, this is a big shift. Travis, horrified, has agreed to live by this schedule for a week so that I can get used to the hours, but makes no promises after that. This has put a real crimp in his usual 4 a.m. work time!

I've been seeing an acupuncturist for more than a year for these headaches, but we haven't managed to really touch them. As well as acupuncture, though, she has me doing a number of other things to try to control the situation. Many of these fall in the category of "detoxing." Frankly, a lot of this seems like so much mumbo-jumbo to me, but I'm pretty much willing to try anything. Here's what I'm supposed to be doing everyday:

• Taking GI Flora at waking and going to bed
  
• Taking a multi-vitamin and vitamin B at breakfast
  
• Taking three magnesium pills a day, with food
  
• Taking three vitamin c pills a day, with food
  
• Not eating cottage cheese, milk, grapes, or tomatoes
  
• Eating more of cruciferous vegetables: cauliflower, kale, bok choy, broccoli, etc. Steamed, preferably.
  
• Using organic meat and vegetables
  
• Eating more soy. (Soy is a food?! Go figure.)
  
• Having 1 tablespoon of ground flax and pumpkin seeds on some days, and ground sesame and sunflower seeds on others
  
• Using castor oil packs every night
  
• Ending my showers by standing in cool/cold water (This one is sooo hard.)
  
• Starting tomorrow, taking various liquids under the tongue three times a day

Needless to say, I'm supposed to be exercising, drinking lots of water, etc.

Can I just say how much fun all of this is? Whoo!