Dots, as in pictures, tell stories that you have to learn to see. They are minimalist drawings of freedom and wind and rain and everything you ever need to know.

My favorite meditation recently has just been simple breathing. No visualization, no words, no music. Just breath. Yesterday I added a dot to the picture.

It’s like flavors in tea.

J. hurt his back after we got home. It’s pretty bad but he says it’s bit better. The stress worry is getting to me.

I’ll post more in a bit…I have three go-lives with a dead line of next week and a chapter to finish. Busy me.

But then the universe right itself.

This tale of going home was a lot of fun to read. I really loved the theme…and now I’m gushing over stuff I can’t say cause it’ll ruin it.

Go read the damn book already.

Frightening and fun this spooky bedtime story was fun to read both for myself and by daughter. Fully imagined, the world of Holiday House has its delights and it’s nightmares. I love exploring it.

I got a google phone. Between being able spread out the cost of the phone over several, no interest payments and a HUGE discount, I have a phone that is exactly like the iphone except it has a real and a virtual keyboard, can sync with google calendar and has a built in camcorder….oh and the space is upgradable xd cards and…

Call it blasphemy but it’s totally better than the iphone.

I still love my itouch, and it shall still play my music. But dang this phone is fun and the notifications are great as are the themes.

I welcome and bow to out Google, not so evil, Overlords.

I am one of them.

Frankly IE6 is broken and old and should be tossed with the bath water. I am less and less inclined to bother checking my sites in them unless a client requests it. Why? Because there is less need. Lets go over the arguments for supporting IE6:

Most People Use It

While not only debatable it’s silly. First of all, just in case you had no idea (don’t worry most don’t), you can see who’s visiting your site with what. Most sites I develop have seen a serious down path in IE6 users over the last 7 years since IE6 release. Most sites don’t even garner 1%. Now if you want to say most people use IE as a whole you’d be right. But developing for IE7 is much easier and only needed a few tweaks and hacks…while so far IE8 needs NO tweaks or hacks. It’s a beautiful thing.

No one wants to spend the money to upgrade

Dude it’s free. Even MS isn’t that stupid. IE8 works on XP and Vista. If you don’t think it will run on 98 or Me (I’m sorry you’re still running that) get 7.

We are limited to IE6 at work because of proprietary software the company uses

Besides the fact they should upgrade for security reasons; you shouldn’t be surfing at work. I know we all do it, but you can’t cater to those who are doing something they shouldn’t. If, by chance, your job IS surfing the web you should be making a case for updating. Hammers aren’t screwdrivers. Get the right tools for your job, especially when free.

Websites shouldn’t limit the latest bling and I don’t need to see new bling on websites

IE6 not only doesn’t see the latest bling, it’s also 8 years behind STANDARDS. That’s right, it’s not to code. Things that IE6 can’t support have been around longer than IE6 and are no longer fads. Png, CSS, fricking padding are here to stay folks. MS upgraded the browers twice now. Even they know.

You can’t upgrade without a valid copy of windows

Dude pony up or get Firefox. FTL.

It’s time to drop IE6. Drop the support and you’ll have much saner webmasters.

Norton writes in a much more accessible form for this novel similar to the original Witch World. However what sounded like an exciting story of power struggles and betrayal described in the Sorceress of Witch World was far from that.

The story was actually Kemoc as he, against wishes of everyone else, goes after Kaththea who he believes is in danger. Everyone else either feels she’s useless or nothing to worry about. The majority of this book is about his travels. It’s not till the end when he finds Kaththea, deformed and about as useless as everyone says she is. Before any resolution happens (according to Sorceress, she’s fully on the side of evil) the book ends with her only slightly healed.

While I enjoyed Kemoc’s adventure, I expected to learn more of what Kaththea was doing. Kemoc didn’t defeat Dinzil in this book as I expected him to. I’m not sure how this set back the fighters at all except for in Sorceress where they take off to get Kaththea’s powers back.

The novel was much more lackluster than other Andre Norton book. Not my favorite by any means.

This week has been hell. Aia woke up Monday morning with a fever and her entire face swollen. Naturally I panicked, called the dentist (who didn’t answer the phone) and the doctor. The doctor thought it was the mumps (back up, I gave her pink children’s Tylenol before all this. Not stupid.).

Crap I thought…mumps aren’t too bad…we totally have two weeks before Disney World, so she could still go and maybe I could work from home.

But then she couldn’t move and the doctor had me feel around her face. It’s not mumps, they told me to head to the nearest children’s hospital cause it could be meningitis. (For those that wonder there’s a children’s hospital still at St. Jospehs).

So after wandering around construction at about 80mph downtown while on the phone with work (they were having a mild panick attach because the realized (again) that they can’t do the website without me and they need training) we found St. Jo’s. It took another half hour to find parking. I finally found a $3.00 a day emergency lot.

We get her inside and through triage. I spent most of the time explaining what all the equipment was for (thank you birthing and kidney stones) so that she’d stop being scared of it all. The doctor comes in (no random nurse to do things, nice!) and declares it multiple abcess teeth that need to be taken care of today. They give her children’s Motrin and a perscription for pencillian and off we go.

Have I mentioned the dentist still hasn’t answered the phone at this point?

I started out of the lot to find out they only take cash or check, no credit (Who does that?) But the gate guard just lets us go. So we drive to Golden, which I70 midday traffic is pretty good, just so you know.

So I show up at the dentist office, explain the details and that they should answer their phone or at least check messages. They take Aia right away and take pictures. They decide to pull the teeth the next day. And we are sent home to eat, do mold, and keep the fever down.

Cue about 8:30am on Tuesday with me driving pell-mell late to the appointment because I took I-119 cause H56 was closed the day before and on Tuesday they close I-119 and opened H56 (Signs,people, SIGNS) instead so I had to go around the mesa to get to Golden. Good thing I lived in that neighborhood as a child and knew how to get around it. We get there late, but they still take her right away (love that dentist!).

So the shots begin (which go much better than the last time). However they can’t get her numb and have to stop. They send me with xrays down the street to the pediadontist. They take use right away, pull the teeth, give Aia a fudgecycle, and tell me that she has to come back for spaces (think braces that push instead of pull) and that she has to more teeth on the verge of bad but they think they can save them next week.

So after I feint from brokeness all is well. I’m not a fan of broke (especially when I finally had replenished savings a bit, all gone now.) But at least Aia’s okay. Now I just need to figure out how to pay for braces right now. Crap.

Aia got a cute haircut by me last week.

This week she had two abscessed teeth and it’s a been a mess.

Then crap began happening. Half bad luck and half crappy car making. Let me just give you a list: 2 golf balls hit my windshield while driving on separate occasions, a crazy woman tried to run me off the road then blamed me for the damage to my car after pleading guilty and getting a plea deal, 4 CO2 censor replacements, 6 tire replacements, 4 flat tires (on top of replacements), broken windshield wipers, broken traction control, the driver’s side visor has fallen off twice, since I’ve had this car I’ve gone through five insurance reps, the current one is named Ackbar and he won’t pick up his phone, trunk lock broke, needed a new battery and the carpet under the mats I had to buy has worn out.

So far the warranty has covered the half crappy car problems. But now the news gets worse.

Before I continue I need to point out that I think the government should have let the car companies fail. I still believe that. Had they done so (and they still might), my warranty and service options would be gone now, and I would have dealt. But this prolonged crap has begun to piss me off.

You see, as a Saturn owner, I can’t seem to find anyone who will work on my car and not fuck it up besides a dealership. About a month ago, I got a letter stating that Saturn was going to start it’s own car company and we would all be fine.

GM isn’t co-operating. They plan to close all Saturn dealerships by 2011. This week I got a notice in the mail stating that they would no longer be honoring my warranty (expected) but that I had to buy a new one (uh…I’m still paying on the one you aren’t going to honor).

So I have lemon I owe money on and when it breaks down I’m probably going to still owe money on it and they want me to owe more money on it? Hell no.

I am never buying American again. I’m feeling the panic as I need to get ride of this car, but can’t with a loan still on it. This is really going to be irritating.

Finally I’ve given in to the 3rd person and have begun switching my novel’s voice.  I expected to get a lot of writing done in the last week, but it hasn’t happened at all.  I’ll get there soon but I have two webpages to get up asap and then there’s Tacticon.

I’m feeling very overwhelmed right now.

Oh and I saw Star Trek.  It was teh awesome.

Lets try this again.

If you see magic in a novel do you then expect magic to be able to do anything and render technology usless?

Ragnar

He’s cute. Whinnie isn’t too sure what to do as she’s no longer the youngest in the house. She’s still a happy snuggler though.

This means several things:

I’m behind on posting.

I’m behind on writing.

I’m feeling a little frazzled.

After an awesome girls night, Aia woke up sick. Fever, cough and throat. She’s better now but it knackered my Monday. I don’t feel so well but I’m very behind in work and one of my web design obligations. And Tacticon is coming up. Crap. I’m feeling very frazzled.

So I spent a lot of the last weekend cleaning. My gods the snow was crazy. I’ve been bad about pictures. Here’s one from the last storm.

I got them out and came back to sit on the couch while I talked to my sister. That’s when I saw the blood, covering the carpet, on the tile and soaking the couch. I called J. then went outside to check on Dagny. She was laying on the porch on in the shade look much as she had for the last month, tumor up and ears back, with the thumpy tail.

Except for the very bloody nose. I tried to get her to come back inside but she refused. I petted her for a bit and checked her water, which she was drinking.

Then I started tearing apart the living room trying not to think of the inevitable. I threw out the rug and one of the couch pillows; I got the couched soaked in peroxide and started wiping up the mess over the tile, her blanket, through the kitchen. I left all the doors open in case she decided to come back in. J. came home, sat with her and fed her a last meal of hamburger and cheese.

At 6:10 that evening after enough tranquilizers to fell three men, Dagny passed from the world while J. held and petted her head.

This morning, as I woke up my first thought was I should see if Dagny would go outside with Whinnie. She’s left a very large waggy hole.

The engine light has been on constantly despite claims nothing’s wrong.

It’s been in three times for factory recall of parts.

It attracts people who want to kill me.

It attracts golf balls and so I’ve only had a not cracked windshield for 5 months of the two years I’ve owned it.

I’ve had to replace the rims twice. The tires three times.

The paint is pealing. Considering I had to get a new paint job due to a psychopath I am not happy.

The brakes squeal and Saturn swears they can’t hear it.

Finally GM announce that they would be getting rid of Saturn. Saturday I got letter in the mail from the CEO of Saturn stating that they would be trying to start an independent car company as long as they could suckle from the teat of GM for another two years, it should work. And the warranty might still be good. Sorry, I am not a “hang on until he comes back” type of girl anymore.

If I didn’t still have three years left in paying off this car…I’d be buy Japanese or Korean right now. Any one want to pay off my loan so I can get a new one?

I blended the hell out of my latest mini…and it’s looking good…but now that I’m down to the eyes I’m more than frustrated. It’s hit or miss with the eyes right now, But a few things have really helped me along with the rest of the process.

If you’re gonna blend you should have a wet palette. I’ve been using ceramic palettes for a long time but I might have just weaned myself from them. You can buy premade wet palettes. These are usually plastic (I’ve seen wood) containers with foam in the paint slots. A lid is provided to cover the palette so that the paint doesn’t dry.

I just bought a paint bin…it was a dollar at hobby lobby. Basically it’s a plastic bin which has holes for brushes around it’s rim, a side for water with a corragated bottom, and a side to lay brush in either just cause or to soak them. It has an inset lit which opens into a palette. I took some of the multitude of foam that comes with mini’s, cut a large piece to fit and I have a great wet palette. I have a handy water bottle for wetting it.

Next I squirt a bit of paint in strategic places on the foam. I think drop some water on that. Suddenly I can save my paints till the next session, get dry brushing and washes from the same palette and blend on the palette without the paint drying. When I’m done I either wash the foam out, or put a drop of water on each paint splotch and close the lid. The paint is ready for the next time. Isn’t that cool?

This doesn’t help the eye situation though.

I’ve been playing in Vue more and I actually finished an image!

Funny thing is…I had all kinds of weird dreams last night about heart disease.

People pick up this book for one of two reasons. They either are a fan of Ms. Auerbach’s work or they are into tarot. I fall into the latter category. I found the reading in context interesting, though she does not come off as the expert she claims to be in her caveat chapter. It was a great characterization though.

Overall, it’s a great memoir. Interesting and little depressing, it focuses on Ms. Auerbach’s relationships.