Want to Find a Brand New Planet? You Can!

My daughter sent me this link in an email today!

A group called Planethunters.org is giving the chance to find a new planet to anyone who wants to try!

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There will be a Burn Notice Marathon on Sunday, culminating in a new Burn Notice movie: The Fall of Sam Axe! Check your local listings.

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In the meantime, tree pollen season (please notice that the season most people call Spring is officially tree pollen season at my place) has been knocking me out. Runny, swollen eyes (only because I haven't gotten any actual pollen in them, otherwise, I'd be temporarily effectively blind), post nasal drip (my sinuses are trying to drown me) and total exhaustion. I can barely stay awake.

This is why you haven't been hearing much from me, and probably won't for a while.

In the meantime, have fun, and happy weekend!

Catching Up

As you know, I've been having internet problems, which has been discouraging me from blogging as frequently. By the way, they're not over. There are so many things that could be wrong, and I've been working through them one by one, and haven't found a definitive fix yet. All that troubleshooting has been using up time that I could be blogging, too. Or doing other things.

So, I'm going to catch you up on all the stuff that's been happening. A lot of people have been commenting on a hat I made on another website, and I've referred them here, so there may be a lot more people reading this blog.

To them, I'd like to say "Hello!" and say again that I cover many topics in a typical post, and separate them with some asterisks, so if you're not interested in a topic, skip down to the next break.

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On Wednesday, Holly and I went over to the VA Hospital in DC, and picked up my new hearing aids. This sounds quick and simple, but wasn't. They had to be fitted, and I had to learn how to insert batteries, turn them on and off, clean them and take care of them, and use the bluetooth aspect. They can also be plugged in to things like my home phone so that I can make and get phone calls without having to hold the phone up to my ear.

I have a loop which uses bluetooth or can be plugged into something, but they didn't send the cord to connect it to something else that way. I bought a cord on Thursday, but the connector is big and chunky, and the jack in my phone is in a little dimple with a rubber cover, and I can't plug the cable in all the way because the end of the cable has that big, clunky plug, so I'll have to get something else.

First of all, they work so much better than the ones I had before! Some high sounds and sibilant sounds cause a tiny feedback squeal, but they make human speech so much more easy to understand. Part of this may be that I went through part of the learning curve with the earlier aids.

One of the neat things about these is the way they look. My old aids were skin-colored hard plastic, and if you happened to see them in my ear, looked more like a malignant growth.

The new ones look more like jewelry!

The aids themselves are a metallic navy blue, and are very pretty! They don't look as good in this photo as they do in real life. The connection between the aids and the earmolds, and the earmolds themselves is a translucent soft plastic.

Here's a photo of the earmolds in their soft, clear plastic. You can see a bit of how pretty the blue metallic finish is, just above the earmold.

Isn't that close up photo amazing? It's all thanks to the wonderful camera that my sister gave me for my birthday! Thanks, again, Lynn. I find the camera doing something wonderful that most cameras have trouble doing and it just amazes me almost every week.

The best part is that I can hear so much better, though. These are an amazing experience!

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And now, to the knitting content!

I put up a photo of the Mobius hat that I made for Kyle two Christmases ago on a knitting website connected with facebook, and I've been getting many comments on it.

Everyone wants the pattern, and I never wrote one out. I've decided that I'm going to do it, but since the original is in Wisconsin somewhere, and I don't have it to photograph, and I'll want more photos for the instructions, that I'm going to knit a new one and write up the instructions and report on my progress here.

Just so we're all on the same page, here's a photo of the hat I'm talking about.

I also did a simpler version of this hat for the daughter of a friend the same Christmas, and I think I made a similar one for Holly, too. I plan to write the directions for the simpler one as a different pattern, and I'll write a pattern for a scarf and cowl to go with each of them. Here's the other hat. Both had scarves, but I didn't take a photo of the scarf for the hat with the cable, so I'll have to make a new one in order to take photos and show the construction as I go.

This hat (unlike the other) has a cuff that's actually a true mobius strip. The one with the cable has a fake mobius.

I plan to have several lines of knitting patterns, and this second, easier, mobius hat will be part of my Screaming KnitFit patterns. These will be a group of patterns set up by a lazy knitter (me) to be really easy to knit. They'll have unconventional construction meant to minimize finishing (I don't like to have to sew things together), and, best of all, you'll be able to knit them using any weight yarn. Most of them will let you start knitting, and check a little while after starting for gauge. If it's good, you can just keep knitting. If not, you can consider it a gauge swatch and rip it out and start over again. And by gauge, I usually don't mean "16 stitches to 4 inches" I mean "Is it too stiff or too loose?" They will mostly let you ignore gauge and just start knitting, have minimal finishing, and will actually fit.

I chose the name because I used to love Screaming Yellow Zonkers, and loved the name even more. I also wanted to give the idea that these were easy knits that fit, and while I was in Basic Training, I had a barracks-mate who used to talk (all the time) about her mother having screaming knit fits, and I always thought that was an amusing way to express it.

I've already written three Screaming KnitFit patterns (although I didn't call them that then) that are available in printed form, but I plan to republish them as PDFs since I'm getting more and more requests for them. You can see the current printed patterns here. There's a listing for a Christmas stocking that I haven't taken down yet, and I'll write a pattern for that, too, soon.

The hat with the cable on the cuff will be one of my Unconventional Knits line. They'll be things that for one reason or another will actually need to be knitted in a particular weight yarn at a particular gauge. Sorry, guys. No getting around gauge swatches here!

They'll also be things that are knitted in a more conventional way, frequently with separate pieces knitted flat and sewn together, although this particular hat will need no sewing. When you're done knitting, you're done! That covers the "conventional" part of the name, but these will be special in some way, which is why I added the "un" at the beginning of conventional.

Stay tuned for more information!

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I went over to the library yesterday, and noticed that the ice on the lake is starting to break up. It looks like Spring may still be far off, but it's on it's way!

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There's a Burn Notice marathon on USA today! In honor of Valentine's Day (which is tomorrow, by the way, happy Valentine's Day!) they're calling it a Heart Burn marathon!

If you're into a Valentine frame of mind, there are a lot of that type of movie on today and tonight. Check your local listings.

Next Saturday, the original Being Human will be all new on BBC in America as part of their Supernatural Saturday.

I've got to go now, or this post will never get up on the internet.

I hope your weekend has been wonderful, and wish you a fabulous week!

Miscellaneous Thursday

Yesterday I walked over to the library to get some books that were in for me. It turns out they were comic books!

Excuse me, graphic novels.

I saw Avalon High on the Disney channel over the weekend, and back when they were just showing trailers for it, I found out that it was written by Meg Cabot, one of my favorite authors! Which immediately drove me to the library website, and an order for the books. It turns out that you can get it either as a book, or as three graphic novels, and the listing on the library website didn't tell me that! And, since I ordered them (because they didn't have them at that branch of the library), I had to wait for them. It turns out that the had the book in the library all the time!

So, I went back today, returned the graphic novels, and got the book.

Meg Cabot writes most of her stories about kids in high school, but she's a writer who really tells a good story. I love her Mediator series, about a girl who can see and talk to ghosts. In fact, I looked to see if they had the beginning books of the series to borrow, but they're out at the moment.

So, I've finally got the book in my hands, ready to read!

But I won't be reading it immediately.

Two things I ordered from Amazon showed up today. The first is a book by Jim Butcher, full of short stories and one novella about Harry Dresden. It's called Side Jobs.

In the last full book of the regular series (Changes), it ends with an outrageous cliffhanger, and the sequel to that is the novella in Side Jobs called Aftermath. So, I'm going to read that first.

I have to find out what happened to Harry!

The other thing that arrived is something that I've been wanting to see in it's entirety ever since it aired on ABC Family and was broadcast without the closed captioning by Comcast. Since I have hearing problems, and Comcast also broadcast it with the sound going off and on, I missed a lot. So did people who can hear just fine! I can't wait to see the whole thing! Comcast has a lot to answer for!

If you're a science fiction fan, you'll probably love The Middleman! It pokes fun at other SF programs, and has a comic book flair that so absurd it's truly lovable! Holly, if you're reading this, the DVDs would be a great gift for Malaia and John. It's nearly as funny as Red Dwarf!

The package comes with a sticker on it that says "Sands of Zanzibar! The cult hit on 4 DVDs. Packed with Extras! As serious as a garbage bag full of rottweilers!" And it is, indeed, that serious!

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So, naturally, instead of arriving on Tuesday or Wednesday, when there is almost nothing on TV, it had to arrive tonight, when I expect to be recording two programs at once for at least three hours, and then more after that.

Tonight, we have Vampire Diaries, Bones, and The Big Bang Theory, although they're on at the same time, so you'll have to choose what you want to watch. I expect to record Bones and Big Bang, and then switch to Diaries for the last half hour. There's a new Fringe tonight, too, and The Mentalist!

And, as if that weren't enough, there's a new episode of Burn Notice on tonight called Hot Property! An embarrassment of riches! I'm so thankful I have TiVo!

Bones just came on, which means that Big Bang is on, too, and I'm missing it! I have to go!

But I'll leave you with a photo of the yarn that arrived yesterday:

The white Fun Fur and white yarn for the heels and toes hasn't arrived yet. I'm hoping it'll be here tomorrow. Doesn't that look like it will be perfect for some Christmas stockings?

Have a great evening!

TV Tonight

New Burn Notice on USA tonight!

On SyFy, we have two premiers, Mary Knows Best, and The Paranormal Files. If Mary Knows Best is really a reality show, I suspect it's going to be as boring as 99% of the other reality shows. It might not be, though, because I saw the actor who portrays Mary on another show, so it may not really be a reality show. As for The Paranormal Files, you wouldn't think that ghosts could possibly be boring, but SyFy made Ghost Hunters about as fun as watching paint dry. I have very low expectations for both of these. Ghost Hunters, in fact, went to a place that I've been and saw some exciting paranormal activity,  but they found nothing, so I have some serious doubts about them.

Other than that, there's not much going on here. I just mainly wanted to let you know about Burn Notice.

Have a great evening!

There's a Crack in the Universe!

If you've been watching the new season of Doctor Who, you know that the little girl, Amelia Pond, is worried about a crack in her wall, which, it turns out is actually a crack in the universe.

Suddenly, everywhere the Doctor goes, he finds the crack.

Well, guess what? NASA has found a crack in our galaxy! And it has an eerie resemblance to the Doctor's crack!

Read more about it here, and here! All this lends an bizarre dimension to the current Doctor Who story arc! If anyone from England is reading this, please don't tell me how it turns out! Although I can't wait to see, I do want to see it for myself. No spoilers!

Don't forget to check out BBC in America on Saturday evenings to catch the rest of Doctor Who!

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I have lots to do today. I've decided to get serious about a business, and I'm busy setting things up. Up real soon now on my to-do list are a whole lot of paperwork, a revamped logo, a new website, and patterns that will be available in PDF format. What that means is lots of work! Plus, I'm investigating some fun knitting accessories for you!

So, you may be hearing from me a little less often, but keep in touch, because there will be new stuff for you, some of it really spectacular!

Hope you're having a fun week!

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Addition:

I forgot to mention that there will be a new Burn Notice on tonight.

I also just found out why it's been so warm in my apartment. The air conditioning in the whole apartment building is not functioning. They're aware of the problem and working on it, and they're advising residents to find another place to stay. If necessary, they may evacuate. I'm on the evacuation list.

I hope it doesn't come to that, but if you don't see any posts on this blog for a while, don't worry about me. That means you, Lynn.

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Another addition:

The apartment people just called to evacuate me because it's 80 degrees in here! They said it may be a couple of weeks before the air conditioning is fixed.

So where was the help in the Spring and Fall when it was regularly 110 degrees and over in here and I was getting NO sympathy at all? All they would say was "Open a window!" It was 110 degrees with the window open! Not to mention the allergy problems from having the window open!

I told them I thought I'd survive 80 degrees, and would be more comfortable here.

If the situation changes drastically, I'll go, but in spite of the fact that I'd rather have it a bit cooler than 80 degrees, I think I'll survive.

I may eventually have to open a window for a while, though, because it's not just warm, but stuffy in here. There hasn't been much, if any air circulation in the last few days.

Stay cool!

Salt!

Salt is a healthy, and, if it's natural sea salt, nutritious part of any diet. It's essential to good health, and, in fact, to the continuation of life, itself!

Somewhere along the line, there was a clinical trial of various factors that might affect blood pressure, and two of the factors tested were salt and sugar.

Sugar raised blood pressure. More sugar raised it even more. And the more sugar you eat, the more it raises your blood pressure. The media was ready to report that until TV and radio stations and newspapers got phone calls from the sugar groups threatening lawsuits to any company that reported that news. Of course, the threatened companies said that it was true and they could report it, and the sugar people said, that's right, but it'll cost you lots of time and money to win that victory. The media didn't report that part of the study.

They reported the results on salt a little backward. Phrased more understandably, salt deprivation lowers your blood pressure slightly right before you DIE from it!

So, if your doctor tells you to cut back on salt in order to lower your blood pressure, he's really saying "I get my medical information from confused sources on TV, NOT from actual medical literature!" If he had read the actual trial, he would know better than to tell you that!

As of about five years ago, doctors in hospitals had killed at least eight people by denying them salt. That total may be higher now. They were unable to kill anyone outside of a hospital because studies found that when people approach death from lack of salt, they will crave it so much that they will eat it no matter what the doctors say.

In fact, the health benefits of salt are extraordinary, and exactly backwards from what doctors usually tell us.

So, I was appalled today to read this article in the New York Sun. It seems that the NY Department of Health and Mental Hygiene wants to kill the citizens of NY by depriving them of salt!

For an article that's actually based on facts about salt, check out this article. Here's some more basic information about salt. This second article is really interesting, especially about the different kinds of salt.

Gourmet cooks delight in the different kinds of edible salt available, and the best restaurants serve dishes with dividers filled with different varieties of salt so that you can salt your own food with the type of salt you prefer or wish to try.

I've been so interested in this because salt is one of my favorite things, and I'm starting to talk about health things here, that I'm starting my own Amazon store. It's definitely under construction at this point, but I'm starting to add salt products. This is a part of a healthy diet, and you might as well enjoy it!

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If you catch this post right away and tune in, you might catch the daytime rotation of Jake 2.0 on SyFy!

There's a new Mentalist on tonight as well as the season finale of Burn Notice!

Have a wonderful day!

Brain Fog!

I still haven't recovered from the hypothyroid fog I've been in lately, and really can't think of much to say.

I just wanted to check in and let people know that I'm still here, I'm OK, or will be real soon now, and give you more information about the bill that Senator McCain has introduced.

There was apparently a lot of protest heard about the bill, and McCain made a statement defending himself and the bill. Here's a rebuttal, repeating McCain's statements, and translating them into reality. If you haven't written a letter to your legislators, there's a link to a prewritten letter which you can amend near the end of the article. If you've already done so, there's a link right after that to a letter protesting McCain's statement, and again urging your legislator to not support the bill. You have to fill in your address information, and when you do, the form will automatically be sent to the correct legislators for you. It's quick and easy to let your viewpoint be known!

I'm giving you that link because a friend insisted that my writing on the subject is inflammatory, and deliberately manipulative. He's right, so read the more unbiased and factual report there.

The FDA has been trying for a while to get effective supplements off the market so that people have to buy drugs instead and have lots of side effects rather than take supplements that are far safer. And, incidentally, put lots more money in the pockets of drug manufacturers! The FDA is, of course, looking out for our safety when it wants to ban natural supplements that are inexpensive, effective and have few if any side effects so that we can take expensive drugs that are only somewhat effective and have lots of bad, sometimes life-threatening side effects.

There are several supplements that I take that are keeping me healthy. If this bill is passed, my health will suffer a huge blow, and the only workable alternatives for me will make me run a much higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and several other serious or life threatening problems. You can see why I'm biased, here. But here's another view on this.

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On the subject of nutritional supplements, When I saw the doctor last month, she suggested that I might have a vitamin D deficiency. She gave me a battery of tests, and I waited for my appointment this month to find out. Due to snow and emergencies that she was helping out with, she wasn't able to keep the appointment, and I won't be able to see her until early March.

So, I looked up vitamin D on the internet, and started realizing a lot of things. I read the list of symptoms of D deficiency, and it sounded really familiar. Plus, I've noticed that around November or so, I get worse, and don't really recover from it until well into the Spring. I looked up some information on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and discovered that taking extra vitamin D is even more effective at combating SAD than extra light is.

So, I went out yesterday and bought a bottle of vitamin D perles, and I'm trying it out. The initial dose made me feel really bad, but the bone remodeling process tends to feel bad when it goes into overdrive. It's probably why a broken bone hurts while it heals (over and above the initial trauma). Taking a dose of D means that the calcium and other minerals from the supplements I'm taking will go out of my blood and into my bones, helping make them strong and pain-free. Getting over it seems to hurt, although I have to say that I'm feeling much better 12 hours later. Better than I did before taking the D! We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, I have high hopes for all this.

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In knitting news, I still haven't even started my Knitting Olympics project. The combination of the late arrival of the yarn for it, my hypothyroid brain fog that hasn't lifted yet and is preventing me from designing it, and the extra sleep and rest I've been getting since my fall last week has left me hopelessly behind on all this.

But yesterday, I discovered I have a few extra dollars, and when I went out to get the vitamin D and some food supplies, I bought a copy of the Winter issue of Vogue Knitting. I've been looking through it, and maybe I'll get some ideas. Right now, I'm thinking that maybe I'm not in shape to design this, and an actual pattern written by someone else might be a good idea. Maybe I'll check Ravelry.

By the way, the Spring and Summer issue of Vogue Knitting looks like it's going to be really good. I can't wait! I think it's out the second week in March.

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There's a new episode of Burn Notice on USA tonight! Everything else is reruns.

I hope you've been having a great week!

The World Has Turned to Crud!

As some of you may know, I have an underactive thyroid, and have been talking about it lately. Partly because January was Thyroid Awareness Month, and partly because the FDA and the drug companies have been having a fight over a lot of things that seem to be headed toward harming patients with hypothyroidism, while making more money for the drug companies.

The formulation of my medicine (Armor Thyroid) was changed at the beginning of last year, and although it still has the same amount of active drug, the filler hinders absorption rather than aiding it like the previous formulation did. They also added a thin film covering each individual tablet, rendering it even more difficult to absorb (I think--the coating makes it almost impossible to crush, so I think it hinders digestion and absorption).

So, anyway, for more than a year, I've effectively been taking less of the medicine that I need, and more and more hypothyroid symptoms have appeared. Here's the list so far:

• Often cold
• Cold hands and feet
• Rising Cholesterol
• Bizarre & debilitating reaction to exercise
• Thinning outer edges of eyebrows
• Ridged fingernails
• Dry hair
• Hair loss
• Weight gain
• Air hunger (gasping for air)
• Swelling/edema/puffiness
• Internal ear itching
• Ringing in ears
• Joint pain
• Tightness and soreness of throat
• Muscle pain
• Allergies
• Low energy/stamina
• Long recovery after activity
• Brain fog

And last night, I finally slid into depression.

To be fair, I had a lot of things go wrong, both for me and for friends, but I suspect that I'd be dealing with it all in a much more constructive way without the under controlled hypothyroidism.

First of all, I recounted an experience on my blog, and a family member seems to have misunderstood what I wrote, and has become upset with me. I think I've been forgiven, but now I'm upset about it anyway. I never meant this blog to harm anyone, even if it was just to upset them.

I paid my Comcast bill on the 4th of this month. I had spoken to a supervisor there, who said that the bill was $58 (I'm rounding off) and because of my complaint, he was taking off $15. 98, for a total of about for about $42. I actually paid more than that, but that's not the problem.

Last night, I was watching TV, and the screen suddenly went black, there was a long pause, and the screen said that my DVR was NOT AUTHORIZED, and told me to call a number to get service. I did call the number, and by the time I got someone on the phone, the picture had come back on. Just another of the dozens of malfunctions this piece of junk they gave me has done. I complained (again) and insisted that they make a note of the complaint. I was told that I could make an appointment and have a repairman come out and swap my DVR for a new one. They like this because they normally charge a hefty fee to do that, although because of the agreement the apartment place has with them they can't do that with me. I explained that because the box was such a piece of crud that I had bought a TiVo and was expecting delivery any day.

But before I got a chance to speak to someone, the automated system informed me that I was overdue on my payment, and that I owe them $168 and change.

The payment to them hasn't posted to my checking account, at least not yet, but for some reason there are a lot of payments and charges to my debit card that haven't posted, and I don't know why.

Comcast has done this to me at least twice before. If you make a payment and they don't collect it or post it to your account, they can charge a late fee, and if they can keep you from noticing that they have prevented you from paying it, they can turn off your service and then charge a lot of money to restore service. It's a dishonest way of making more money for them.

I hate Comcast!

So, now I have to figure out what happened, and get that straightened out.

While I was checking my checking account, I found out that a lot of charges to my account haven't been made yet, and I really have to spend some time and balance my checkbook and double check everything. Until I do that, I won't know for sure, but it looks like I'm going to be out of money before I'm out of month.

Then I got a phone call from a friend who was telling me about someone else I know who is ill, and unable to work (mostly because of doctors). This person had a treatment that worked well for them and made it possible for them to work, but the doctors are now refusing to prescribe what works and are now prescribing "new" and "better" drugs that don't work. My guess is that they're doing this to help the drug companies even though it's severely harmed my friend, and on one occasion, nearly killed her. Because of it, my friend can no longer work and had applied for disability. They just found out that the disability has been denied because there are now "new" and "better" drugs that the people who evaluated the case are sure will solve all the problems. The "new" and "better" drugs are the cause of not being able to work.

I hate the American medical system!

The other news is that a friend owns the copyright to a creative work that he just learned someone else has published in Germany. And guess what? You can buy it through an American distributor on Amazon!

He knows this because the distributer called the copyright holder to ask if it was possible to dub the film in English so the distributer could make money selling it in the US! The film was originally in English.

There are lots of complicated legal issues, so I really can't talk about it here, but I'm really upset about it! A lot of money and effort went into this work, and the people involved should be getting money back on it's publication, and instead, they're being asked to help someone rob them of potential profits!

And I had a doctors appointment this morning for which I overslept, and woke up in time to pull on some clothes and rush to keep the appointment in time. I sat there for more than an hour before I was able to find out that the doctor was needed at the hospital for some kind of emergency, and had supposedly called all the patients with appointments this morning to cancel and reschedule. I wasn't one of the people called.

I really wanted to see her to get a written prescription for the thyroid medicine. I only have enough medicine to last until Monday, and I really need to get some more. I already am not taking enough, and it's bad. Taking none is not a good option!

CVS hasn't had it for two months, and I wanted the option to get it from another pharmacy, or to order it from Canada if all else fails.

The drug companies and the FDA have been staging a Chinese fire drill to try to get patients to take a more expensive medicine. The medicine I take has been on the market since 50 years before there was an FDA with no side effects or problems. It's much safer, having been proved in use for over 100 years than the new drugs, which I've tried and don't work. The manufacturers have taken it off the market for a while, and they're insisting it's because of the FDA, who are insisting that the drug companies go through testing as if it were a new drug! FDA says that, yes, they do want all this testing, but that the drug companies are just making all these problems and it's their fault!

The medicine they're trying to get people to switch to (Synthroid, etc) is really ineffective at doing anything other than making the blood tests come out right, but not really solving any symptoms! So they can claim they fixed the problem, but leave you still sick, and in need of other (expensive) medicines to fix all the problems that Synthroid doesn't fix, but natural desiccated thyroid does.

I hate the American medical system!

Because of the phone calls last night and checking my Comcast account and checking account online last night, I didn't get to sleep until 4 am, plus I was up and out by 10 am, so I'm really short on sleep.

I'm also really disgusted with everyone and everything, I feel bad, and don't seem to be able to do anything to straighten things out. So, you can officially add depression to the list of symptoms that the hypothyroidism is causing.

Maybe I'll try to catch up on my sleep. Now there's an "I'm depressed" statement if I ever heard one.

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There's a new Burn Notice on USA tonight! I'll be lucky if I can see it on my malfunctioning DVR.

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For all you knitters out there, The Yarn Harlot has put up a post with a link to a sign-up sheet for the Knitting Olympics. Check it out!

I hope you're having a better week than I am! Don't worry if you don't hear from me in a while.

It's Wednesday! Also Known as "Guess the TV Show" Day!

I'm currently playing "Guess the TV show" due to the fact that there is no digital TV guide data being displayed by Comcast today!

After three phone calls, the best they can do is blame it on my DVR (that they just gave me--brand new), and send someone out on Monday. That someone will probably decide that the only way to fix it will be to take away all my recorded programming and give me a completely different defective DVR.

All this past week, it hasn't been displaying any programming for Wednesday. I unplugged it and restarted it after I got tired of this, and after the fifth or sixth attempt, it did display information for Wednesday, briefly. But now that Wednesday's here, it's not displaying any information for any channel or day. At all!

So, here's some information I found for you when companies do this to you and won't give you satisfaction:

You can complain about it to the FTC here. Once you're at that page, there's a big brown box on the upper right side of the page to click for the actual complaint form.

It probably won't do much good in a case like this, but if everybody complains about bad service, sooner or later the numbers of complaints may get them to do something about it. We can only hope!

After the third call I made to them about this (to get their email address because the FTC form asked for it and it's not available anywhere, not even if you call them and ask for it), the person I spoke to promised me that they'd have a supervisor call me. That was several hours ago. I'm not holding my breath. And the typical response for a really severe and repeated complaint is for Comcast to classify it as the "highest priority." Please notice that that classification doesn't entail actually doing anything about it. It's just changing the priority to make you feel like it's important to them, even though they couldn't care less.

Regardless of what happens, I plan to get a TiVo if I can ever save the money for it.

After looking for TiVos on Amazon, I found this DVD-R/RW Recorder/TiVo Series2 DVR Combo for significantly less than those available from TiVo. Yes, I know it's used and not ATSC, but it represents a significant improvement over the piece of junk that came from Comcast.

And you can get two weeks of digital TV guide with TiVo! And with that box, I'll be able to watch my DVDs again (if I can ever get them back from Holly).

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I'm sorry. It's almost 5:30, and I'm just now recovering from waking up and finding my TV service only semi-operational! Sorry to be so cranky.

I had planned to talk about something else, but I can't think what it was at this point.

Tomorrow three programs start their new seasons: Burn Notice (USA), and Vampire Diaries and Supernatural, both on the CW (?). I know that because I marked it on a calendar, not because I could get any TV programming information on cable! I know Burn Notice is on USA, and I think the other two are on CW, but I can't verify that because my digital TV guide doesn't work!

Yes, it's on the CW. I checked online!

On Friday, we'll have the premier of Caprica on SyFy! And, if memory serves, Dollhouse and Ghost Whisperer will be preempted. Fox is really leaving us in suspense on Dollhouse!

I hope you're having a better day than I am!

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Addition:

I take back some of what I said. Maybe complaining to the FTC does do some good.

I got a call back from one of the supervisors at Comcast, and he apologized for the problem and took $15 off of this month's bill! That's the first time I've ever had them do something like that!

It was probably the fact that I called them to ask for their email address and explained it was to fill in the complaint form for the FTC.

I'd rather just have good service from them, but the money off does make me feel better because if they do that with everyone who has complaints that they can't solve, it's going to affect their bottom line, and I don't think there's any better leverage to get a corporation to shape up.

Oracular Orb

I don't know if any of you know about Neil Gaiman, but he's a fabulous, award winning writer.

He first came to my attention for writing the Sandman comic books. These are fabulous stories with a mythical quality that are top-notch writing. I love them. He's written way too much for me to go into it all here, so click the link to find out more.

Anyway, He has a blog, and on that blog is his Oracular Orb, which is a "serious instrument of divination."

Click the link above to experience the orb yourself. Instructions (which are hilarious) are included. Make sure you follow the directions, or it will tell you you're doing it wrong! I'm going to put a link to it in the sidebar so that you can find it in the future.

If you happen to have a G1 phone through T-mobile, you can get this as an app for your phone. If you install it on the phone, you have to actually shake the phone to make it work. I love it on my G1!

If you follow the tweets in the sidebar, or follow me on twitter, I frequently retweet things that he's put up there, or you can use it find him on there and follow him directly.

Whatever you do, find out more about him if you don't know about him already.

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Tonight, Children of Earth continues with the excitement unabated! Don't miss it on BBC in America.

Oh, and there's a new Burn Notice on tonight as well.

They're both scheduled at the same time, but they both repeat later, so you don't have to miss one or the other. If you don't want to stay up late, choose Children of Earth to watch, and catch Burn Notice sometime later in the week.

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I spent most of the time that I usually do on a post by typing up the instructions to my comfortable socks. I want to wait until tomorrow to proof it, and it still needs photos. But it will be up soon.

In the meantime, have fun!

The Netbook Jones

Within the space of this week so far, several things have changed for me.

These things have only changed in my head so far, but that's the most important place to start.

The first of those things is that I was reading the Drex Files, which is a science fiction blog (see my post from earlier in the week). Anyway, he did a blog post about the Steve Canyon DVDs I've been working on. I made a comment on a later post about something in a Steve Canyon strip, and he asked me to write about myself for his blog: my experiences in the Air Force, and also my experiences with science fiction fandom and friend of John Ellis. What that means is that there's a lot to write about.

I told him that he wouldn't get it all at once.

Anyway, earlier this week I sent him some photos: two newspaper articles about me, two sketches that I did, and a photo of John and Holly and I. Then, I sent the text for the "Adventures of Jo in the Air Force" article. It was rather long, and I told him he could cut whatever he wanted.

It was still long, even though I left out the time I was back late from leave during basic training and wound up climbing over the fence and getting back on base illegally so that I wouldn't be late, and a lot of other amusing stories, such as stopping the stock car races at the airport at Walterborough Airport so we could land and watch the races.

I still have to write the story of my misadventures with John.

And all this got me thinking about the next article and writing in general. About a year and a half ago, I decided to write a book. Actually, I decided to write several books. I even started writing them. But somewhere along the way, I stopped.

I think it's time to get back to writing.

In the meantime, earlier this week, my poor old original iMac (you remember the big old original ones?) started telling me it can't contact some internet sites. It still works well for editing photos, page layout, drawing, doing Steve Canyon DVD covers, etc. I don't have to upgrade it to have it be a very useful tool.

But I can see that it's the beginning of the end for it on the internet.

Yes, I upgraded my browser. I can't upgrade my operating system, because a newer OS just won't work with the processor in the Mac. And the newer browser is the newest that will work with my OS.

So, it's about to become obsolete for anything on the internet. Not now, not tomorrow, but real soon now.

I had been thinking I'd like to have a small notebook computer for writing and accessing the internet.

Then yesterday I read Crazy Aunt Purl's blog.

Crazy Aunt Purl is Laurie Perry, who has a wildly popular and usually very funny blog. She also wrote Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair. And one of her favorite things to do is travel. She most recently went to Ireland. She also sometimes posts about really neat products that she's found.

Anyway, yesterday, she put up this post. If you scroll partway down, you'll see the cutest little computer ever. There's a link to Amazon in her post. You can also see it here, and there's an upgraded version with more features for not much more money here. And if you plan to travel anytime soon, she has a batch of tips in this post.

When I first looked at it, I didn't think it was real. I thought "Wow! That's a really BIG glass of whatever she's drinking!" Then I looked at the passport in the photo, and decided that it is really that tiny. And when I checked on Amazon, I found out that I could actually get one for about $250, including shipping! The upgraded version is better, and is available for more like $300.

I'm in love!

I wrote to Laurie, and she was nice enough to write back with a long, detailed letter about netbook computers, which is a whole different thing from laptops. She recommended a Mac Book. Well, I'd like one, too, but the netbooks are about a third the price. The difference in price is the difference in getting one in the foreseeable future, and getting one someday, maybe.

She pointed out the keyboard is really small and that she wouldn't like to do a lot of typing on it, and maybe I'd like one of the newer, slightly larger netbooks better, and sent me a link to this Acer netbook. I have to say (from the standpoint of an artist) that the fact that it's blue is a big emotional factor in it's favor. Scroll down in the description and see how pretty it is.

The theory that the keyboard is larger may not be completely true, though. It's about an inch wider, but the Eee has a keyboard that goes as close to the edge as possible. The Acer has at least a half inch on either side of the keyboard, so I don't think the keyboard is really noticeably bigger. And I'm really biased toward the Eee because the buttons next to the touchpad wrap around the front and are intended to be hit with your thumbs, which is how I always try to use a touchpad. But a review of the Acer says that you can tap the touchpad instead of using the buttons which is probably how I would wind up using it. Decisions, decisions.

I'll keep you up to date on further developments.

I'll quit boring you with this now, and we can get back to our regularly scheduled post.

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I'm so sorry about saying that Eureka was on the other day. It was actually Warehouse 13, which is good enough that John said he hoped it would remain on the air. I was in the middle of writing my Air Force article, and wrote "Warehouse 13" and then turned on the digital TV guide, and it said Eureka (they were rerunning the last two week's episodes right before the new Warehouse 13), and thought "Eureka is on Tuesdays. What's wrong with me?" Well, it was on Tuesdays, but it just changed to Friday the week before, and my subconscious hadn't caught up. Anyway mea culpa.

Anyway, and all-new Leverage was on last night on TNT, and it was wonderful! I hope you caught it, but if you didn't, it'll be on again sometime before next week.

Tonight, we have The Listener, and The Mentalist, a new Burn Notice, and later, Doctor Who on SyFy, this week, The Stolen Earth, the second part of the three-part finale from last season. Check it out, its so good!

I have a lot to do, so I'll see you tomorrow! Have fun!

The New Doctor Who Will be on Saturday!

On Saturday evening, the BBC in America will be showing the first special of the new season of Doctor Who, The Next Doctor! That was the Christmas special for the series this past year. I was hoping that there would be some information on their website about the future schedule of the Doctor, but all they're giving away is the schedule for Saturday (and Sunday morning). I eventually did find out that the next episode of the Doctor will be on July 26th. These will be separate stories, and they appear to be spreading them out more.

Instead of doing a whole season, the budget crunch prompted the BBC to do several specials rather than a whole season for both Doctor Who and Torchwood this year. The Torchwood specials will be in the form of a mini-series, called Children of Earth, and will be coming up in July, starting on the 20th. They'll be shown on five consecutive nights and form one whole story.

After all the nothing we've been experiencing on TV for the last month, the summer season will be starting real soon, now. Burn Notice is back, and Leverage is back in reruns, with the new season starting on the 15th of July. Neither of those is science fiction, but they both have brilliant concepts for this bleak economy. Each week, somebody with a lot of money and power gets his/her comeuppance due to the brilliance and hard work of someone who makes things as right as they can be after the bad guy messes things up. Action/adventure shows off it's best!

We have a bit more to look forward to, though. On the 7th of July, the SciFi Channel will cease to be, and it will emerge under it's new name, SyFy. They seem to think that the concept of science fiction is too confining, and want to introduce a broader concept. I think there is a lot of SF and fantasy that they could be showing on their network, but they're not doing it. Instead, they seem to be dedicated to showing Chupacabra, Dark Seas, Grendel and Beowulf a mind-numbing number of times. Actually, the first time was too much for these clunkers. No, I'm being too kind. They are some of the worst movies ever made!

I got off the subject, which was stuff to look forward to on TV. SyFy will be kicking off their new name with Warehouse 13. 

Remember at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the crate holding the Ark is wheeled into a warehouse and stored? Well, the place it would have been stored is Warehouse 13. I sense that the name of this show will slide into American slang as almost a synonym for The Twilight Zone. Unless SyFy has managed to mess this up, too. But the concept is great, and I have high hopes for it.

And the following Friday (the 10th), Eureka will be back with more of the same, if we're lucky.

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Yesterday, I went to the library, and thought you'd like to see the work they're doing on the small bridge that I usually cross to get there. It's closed at this point, and this was taken a few days ago, but I was unloading photos from my small camera and thought you'd enjoy it.

You may notice that although they are making it safe, it still sags in the middle. It's still very pretty, though.

Yesterday, on my walk, I saw something that looked just a little like a stork. But not quite. It was some kind of wading bird, and I wanted to take a photo, and even still had my camera out, but before I could get it up in position, the bird took off. It was beautiful, and I enjoyed it, though.

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Earlier today, I finished mitt part of the Ravenclaw "Wristwarmers" I'm knitting for the Harry Potter House Cup KAL/CAL. There are three because the mitts work fine on either hand, so I make an extra so I'll still have a pair when I lose one.

When I knit, I usually put my yarn in a large plastic bowl that I got at the dollar store. It keeps the yarn from rolling away, picking up lint from the floor, and generally getting dirty. But after knitting these three mitts, the bowl had lots of navy blue lint in the bottom of it. I plan to be adding silver stars to the mitts, and all that lint got me thinking that I might want to wash the mitts themselves before attaching the stars to see if the color is going to run. So, these are finished and ready to wash.

Here's a photo of the yarn I bought on Saturday. It's the new brand of yarn that Michaels is carrying. 

I love the  colors in it, and I originally thought I'd make a scarf out of it, but while I was at the library, I checked out a copy of Sally Melville's third book in the Knitting Experience Series. This one is the color book.

She has a beautiful sweater made in tweed stitch out of variegated yarn like this and a solid. It's beautiful, and I've been thinking that I need a new vest. I've been wearing my navy one (which I love) for more than ten years. The best thing about the vest is it's pockets! I really love pockets!

I can't recommend the books in The Knitting Experience series enough. I'm a very experienced knitter, and I found lots of really neat ideas, techniques, and tips in all of the books. This third one includes instructions for grafting in garter stitch, and it's the only place I've found real instructions for knitting back backwards, and purling back backwards. Those last two are techniques I've wanted to learn for a while. I think I'm going to have to buy a copy of this for myself!

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While I was taking photos yesterday, the camera told me the memory card is full, so I was going through all the photos while unloading it today to either archive or trash them, and I found this photo of John and Holly and I from a couple of years ago, when John was out here to work on Fade Out (which eventually got in the middle of a power struggle because everyone wanted it, and then everyone just seemed to forget it existed, and it faded out).

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I'm sure there's more I wanted to say, but I can't think of it at the moment, and it'll be nice to still have something to talk about tomorrow.

I had a fabulous sunset out my window yesterday. The photo doesn't do it justice, but here it is.


Have a great evening!

Depression

No, this time I'm not talking about a financial depression such as the great depression, although I'm sure that there are a lot of you out there that are feeling bad because of it.

This time I'm talking about being bummed out.

I haven't got a reason in the world to be so down, but I am for no reason at all. And the fact that I know there's nothing wrong and I'm still bummed only makes it worse.

Maybe it's due to the prevalence of rain ever since the middle of April that's got something to do with it.

It started yesterday, and might have had something to do with the fact that I was thinking about going to see a doctor. 

Yes, my sinuses are still doing their absolute best to drown me. 

Yes, my ear is still clogged up, and I suspect that anything that will unclog it will also unclog the other ear, too. 

Yes, my bones and joints hurt all over every time I move. 

And yes, I've gone to see doctors many, many times about all this in the last 35 years, and usually those doctors tell me (in spite of obvious, visible evidence to the contrary) that there's nothing wrong with me. 

Except for one doctor, who seemed to have it in for me, and refused to prescribe anything that wasn't harmful, and the thing he really wanted me to do would have been lethal! And telling him that I'd already tried it and nearly died from it seemed to make him even more excited, and anxious to try it again right away!

I really don't understand doctors in the United States. They seem to have lost all contact with the idea that they're trying to promote the idea that they'll do something good for your health. 

Most of them are obviously not doing anything good for your health, but at least they used to pretend they were.

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I've been meaning to go to JoAnn Fabrics all this week, and it's been raining all this week. Today, I thought I might have a chance, but it's been cloudy, overcast and rainy all day. Now that it's too late to go, the sun has come out, of course.

JoAnn is having some great sales today. If there's one near you, look up some great coupons on the internet, plus a list of sale items (scroll down for yarn, etc), and get on over there on or before Saturday!

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There's a new Burn Notice on tonight! That link will take you to info on tonight's episode, plus games and other neat stuff.

Merlin will be premiering in the US on NBC on Sunday. This is a show that was on in England a while ago, and is finally coming to the US. I don't know what the quality is like, but it's got a lot of potential, so I want to at least check it out. The NBC link is here. It has some fun games, too! Check it out!

And BBC in America has released some more information about Children of Earth, the new season of Torchwood. The whole season consists of one big story which will be shown over five evenings, starting on July 20th! I, for one, am very excited! Check out the Children of Earth link. There's a sweepstakes for a trip to Wales!

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I was distracted by finishing other projects, but I'm back to working on the purple beaded lace shawl. There's a lot of it to work on, too. After all the frogging I did, I'm back to where I was before I went berserk, and just a  little further.

You know, the sun has come out, and I'm starting to feel a bit better. Maybe it's just all the gloom and rain we've been having that's got me down.

I hope you're feeling better than I am!

Good Deal

I got my Comcast bill, and it didn't have the discount I applied for (which you're supposed to be able to get on your internet service if you have income under $18,000 per year), so I called them. 

I called them, and got to talk to someone at their main office, who had no idea of what I was talking about. But she said that there is currently a promotion for Comcast internet customers, and if you call up and ask for it, they'll charge half price for six months! I said to sign me up, so my current bill is suddenly substantially reduced!

If you have Comcast internet, call them up right away!

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Not a whole lot is happening around here. The biggest news seems to be that they're forecasting rain for the whole of the upcoming week.

Oh, joy!

It's been pretty much steady rain with only occasional sun ever since the middle of April. Bummer!

I would be glad for the plants (which are thriving) if I didn't know that all this rain is guaranteeing a bumper crop of ragweed this Fall.

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There's a rerun of The Mentalist and Burn Notice tonight, plus a new episode of Mental.

Have a great evening!

I'm Excited About the Celtic Festival!

After all that, Holly got an email back saying that Everett was all excited about the Celtic Festival and couldn't wait to go on Saturday! It's going to be a full car, and lots of fun! I can't wait!

I've been trying to get geared up for it. Yesterday, I had some errands to run, and combined them with a trip to the WalMart down in Dumfries, which isn't as bad a ride on the buses as I was afraid it would be.

I found the right size sandals in the color I had previously wanted and bought them. The part that left me sad was that they also had them in navy blue, which I would have rather had. The problem was that they didn't have navy ones anywhere near my size. But at least I did get a pair. Now I have to go and return the ones I bought the other day. I'm thinking I should wear the new ones when I go and do that. Then I'll see if there will be any problems with them during the first extended wearing. I don't want to turn up there and limp around with a batch of blisters. I don't think I will. The sandals are pretty comfortable, but it would be nice to know.

I'd also like to get some new (lighter weight, cooler) pants. Some new T-shirts wouldn't hurt, either.

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Monday night, the SciFi Channel showed some episodes of Star Trek, the Next Generation, and they had the Tin Man episode on. This was written my my friend, Dave Bishoff, and I remembered how excited I was to see it the first time.

After Dave wrote it, they made some changes to it, and the credits only reflect the names of the people who worked on it most recently, so Dave's name doesn't appear on the credits, but he wrote the original story.

To find out more about how this works, you can read Trouble with Tribbles by David Gerrold. In fact, if you want to write for TV, this is a must-have book. It follows everything that David Gerrold did to get this episode written and sold, the whole long, strange trip.

Anyway, I enjoyed it all over again.

When I first met John Ellis, he had just moved up from Florida, and was sharing an apartment in Adelphi, Maryland with two others, one of whom was Dave Bishoff. Later, John moved out, and he and I shared an apartment right around the corner from Dave's place.

This time around, I noticed that they referred to one of the other ships, and the other ship's name was the Adelphi. I thought that was neat.

Oh, well, you're probably bored with this by now.

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I hope you got to see the rerun of the first episode of Leverage last night. It was as good as it was the first time. If you missed it, the DVD will be out three days from now, so you can catch up on the whole season all at once, if you want.

There's a brand new Burn Notice on tonight! Check it out on USA.

I have to go!

Have a great day, and if you read this early enough, enjoy Tru Calling on SciFi!

Burn Notice!

The USA Network has turned into the "all Burn Notice, all the time" channel, at least for today. They will be showing Burn Notice all day, and premiering the new season later tonight, followed by a premier of their new program, Royal Pains.

I know very little about the new show, but Burn Notice has become one of my favorites. I suspect that shows like this, that show people who take advantage of others getting what they deserve should be very popular about now. The tendency of a lot of people and especially companies to take advantage of people around them/their customers should make this kind of show very popular. You may not actually be able to get rid of Comcast, for example, and the ways they find to take advantage of you (including not giving the service you're paying for), but these shows give the illusion that there might be a way to get back at them.

Tonight is a great night for TV! A rerun of Supernatural will be on, and at the same time, the premier of The Listener, which will be followed by the another episode. Or possibly the first episode will be on at 10, according to the link. It's a little hard to tell from what they said.

So, here's the problem, and the solution. Burn Notice, Supernatural, and The Listener are all on at 9 (at least here). Tune your TIVOs/DVRs to Supernatural and The Listener at 9, then catch the rerun of the Burn Notice premier at 12:17.

The Mentalist, although not strictly SF, will have a rerun of an episode at 10, too. Simon Baker is always worth watching.

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I looked over my progress so far on the purple beaded shawl, and found a lot of mistakes. I really didn't like that many mistakes, so I frogged most of it. The very beginning of the shawl was a royal pain, and didn't have any errors, so I didn't frog the first 3 or four pattern repeats. I was amazed at how many beads came out of it, though. And how long it took just to rip!

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My old spinning group on Ravelry, Fluff and Nonsense, (the one I haven't been able to attend for a while due to lack of transportation) got together and bought all the fleeces in a particular flock in Iceland, and I got one of the fleeces. Now I have to arrange to pick it up and pay for it. It's a grey Icelandic fleece, and I can't wait to see it! I'll have more news on this as it develops.

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It's a grey, overcast day here, very dreary. It makes me thankful that Holly said she's coming to visit on Saturday, and I can do all my WalMart shopping then rather than going out today when it might rain.

It's June!

This "It's June!" thing would have been far more effective if I'd done it on the first day of the month rather than on the second. Oh, well, I think we'll all survive.

But the fact that it's June means several things: the Virginia Renfair is in full swing, but will have it's last day on the 14th; the 9th is election day here in Virginia; and The Potomac Celtic Festival will be happening on the 13th and 14th!

There will also be a lot of summer series coming back this month or next. The ones that are coming back in June include The Next Doctor, which is the Doctor Who Christmas special (on BBC in America on the 27th), and Burn Notice on USA on the 4th. Burn Notice isn't science fiction, but some of the tech they use might as well be. It is action/adventure, and lots of fun. Most of the new/returning series won't be starting until next month.

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Fibermom mentioned something on her blog that made me think of one of my favorite books. It's called Mathemagics by Margaret Ball, and I just love it! I lost my copy in one of the many moves of this decade, and I really want to order another. It's a book about a character that was in the Chicks in Chainmail series, so be forewarned. I love the chicks series! It's totally outrageous and fun, as is Mathemagics. It's about a woman who has found a way to travel between her home dimension, where she is a warrior, and the "planet of the paper pushers," in other words, earth.

I may have a busy day tomorrow, so don't worry if I don't post.

Have a great evening!

Dollhouse to Get Second Season!

I just caught a Twitter from Eliza Dusku, and she thanked Fox for something. 

I checked it out and found this. Apparently, they'll be showing the episode that's really last, in addition to including it on just the DVD and they've renewed it for a second season! The Fox channel's Dollhouse site doesn't seem to have mentioned anything about it, though. You can find more information about it here and news about Chuck and Dollhouse being renewed here. I couldn't be more happy about this! They also mentioned that Heroes will also be back.

In the meantime, despite May sweeps month being almost over, there is a whole new summer season to look forward to. Burn Notice will have a marathon on USA on June second, third, and fourth, and will be back with new episodes on the fourth of June at a very early hour (1:15 am)! Another USA show that's already back on is In Plain Sight on Sunday evenings. Neither is SF, but they're action/adventure, and lots of fun.

In July, we have tons of great shows coming back! They include: Torchwood with Children of Earth, and I think I'm becoming brain dead because I can't think of any more of them at the moment. As soon as I publish this, I'll think of ten others.

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There's a new post up on the Steve Canyon blog, and if you have red/blue 3D glasses, you can see some photos in 3D. It looks to me like you'd need red/green glasses, but John says not. I tried it with the amber/blue glasses I scored to watch Chuck the day after the Super Bowl (which is what the glasses were intended for), and they don't work. But if you have the right glasses, I think you'll be impressed to see three dimensional photos right on your own computer!

John is so creative!

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I hope you got to watch Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy over the weekend. It's sitting on my DVR, waiting for me to watch it. I think I like the original version better, though.

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I actually have the new chair for my computer, but have to track down a phillips head screwdriver to finish assembling it. In the meantime, I don't like sitting here. It makes my back hurt (although that's gradually going away). So I'm going to quit writing now.

Have a great Monday!

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Addition!

Warehouse 13 is one of those great shows starting in July. So is Eureka.