Once again, I’m so damned good that I practically make myself sick (and probably do make other people sick, bragging about it :lol:) After running Feisty from the LiveCD for a couple of tries, I decided it was mature enough (it’s Herd 4) that it was usable. I loooove new software, but I’m certainly not going to fuck up my main system. The laptop, however, is a perfect place to put it through its paces. Also a good place to test drive the latest T-bird beta (don’t want to fuck that up on my main system, either). So far, everything seems to be working well; the install went fine, and I even found instructions to force Easy Ubuntu (no Automatix for Feisty yet, and it’s very release-specific) to work with Feisty. Time will tell, but I already like it because it’s all shiny and pretty and new (and very glossy blue, too–still can’t get into that sepia stuff). I should wait for final release, but I just couldn’t. Heh. I could never go back to kludgy old Windows with its “new release, maybe in two years, maybe four, maybe…oh…eventually” schedule! 🙂

Jesus Christ. Why do people insist upon slinging this shite around the Internet, and specifically to MY email Inbox (in HTML format, forwarded seventeen times with a list of 300 addresses, and full of remote images…which I block automatically)?

Did You Know That? Drinking two glasses of Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost immediately — without the unpleasant side effects caused by traditional “pain relievers.”

Sure! Assuming that your headache is caused by dehydration or the fact that you need electrolytes, or that you’re susceptible to placebo effect. Otherwise, aspirin or acetominophen might be a better idea.

Did you know that Colgate toothpaste makes an excellent salve for burns?

Strangely, medical practitioners still recommend cool water and a light covering to reduce the risk of infection. What’s next–gonna tell me that butter is a remedy?

Before you head to the drugstore for a high-priced inhaler filled with mysterious chemicals, try chewing on a couple of curiously strong Altoids peppermints. They’ll clear up your stuffed nose.

Uh-huh…unless my stuffy nose is caused by my allergy to idiots like you. A Vick’s inhaler costs about two bucks, and so does a tin of Altoids. Your choice.

Achy muscles from a bout of the flu? Mix 1 Tablespoon of horseradish in 1 cup of olive oil. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes, then apply it as a massage oil, for instant relief for aching muscles.

If this is your idea of a treatment for aching muscles, please sit downwind of me at all times. Aspercreme doesn’t smell like anything at all; I’ll be using that, thanks.

Sore throat? Just mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1/4 cup of honey and take 1 tablespoon six times a day. The vinegar kills the bacteria.

No, it doesn’t. Honey is a decent antibacterial, but vinegar is not. If you want to scarf sour vinegar mixed with super-sweet honey, you go right ahead. Pass me the Mentho-lyptus, please!

Cure urinary tract infections with Alka-Seltzer. Just dissolve two tablets in a glass of water and drink it at the onset of the symptoms. Alka-Seltzer begins eliminating urinary tract infections almost instantly — even though the product was never been advertised for this use.

OR…it isn’t advertised for that use because it doesn’t work! When you get your degree in medicine and have practiced for a few years, I’ll give this a shot. Until then, I think I’ll stick with antibiotics for bacterial infections, and my own immune system for viral ones.

More uses for Alka-Seltzer are; To clean a toilet, drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets, wait 20 minutes, then brush and flush! (the toilet) The citric acid and effervescent action also cleans vitreous china. In water it also cleans jewelry. To unclog drains, use three tablets in water with some white vinegar. Two tablets will clean gooey flower vases, and a tablet wrapped in a moist cloth will soothe insect bites.

Whatever. Spare me the household tips, Heloise–I know ’em all. BTW, bleach does a passable job of cleaning and disinfecting toilets, and plain baking soda will fizz with vinegar…did you know that?

Honey remedy for skin blemishes… Cover the blemish with a dab of honey and place a Band-Aid over it. Honey kills the bacteria, keeps the skin sterile, and speeds healing. Works overnight.

Overnight? Meh, not likely. Honey does have antibacterial properties, though. Then again, so do lots of other things that are much less sticky and don’t involve band aids on your face. Oh, and you know what really works well to reduce the redness and swelling when you’ve got a pimple? A little trick for you that most models know…Preparation H. The same ingredient that reduces the swelling of haemorrhoids works on the other end of you, too, and it isn’t even sticky! No band aid required.

Listerine therapy for toenail fungus… Get rid of unsightly toenail fungus by soaking your toes in Listerine mouthwash. The powerful antiseptic leaves your! toenails looking healthy again.

You’d do as well with rubbing alcohol. The alcohol in Listerine is no more useful against fungus than isopropyl. Better yet, take your fungal feet to a podiatrist–they’re disgusting.

Easy eyeglass protection… To prevent the screws in eyeglasses from loosening, apply a small drop of Maybelline Crystal Clear nail polish to the threads of the screws before tightening them.

Known in the mechanical world as “put some Loctite on it.” Any nail polish will dry with exposure to air; it need not be Maybelline, nor even clear if you don’t mind a brilliant bit of red on your frames.

Coca-Cola cure for rust… Forget those expensive rust removers Just saturate an abrasive sponge with Coca Cola and scrub the rust stain. The phosphoric acid in the coke is what gets the job done.

I take it you don’t watch Mythbusters? Coke does have some use in rust removal, but so does the very act of scrubbing. CLR will probably save you some time and effort.

Cleaning liquid that doubles as bug killer… If menacing bees, wasps, hornets, or yellow jackets get in your home and you can’t find the insecticide, try a spray of Formula 409. Insects drop to the ground instantly.

Or hair spray, or air freshener, or bleach cleaner, or Tilex Fresh Shower, or… Spraying an insect in flight is gonna fuck up his day no matter what you use.

Smart splinter remover…just pour a drop of Elmer’s Glue-All over the splinter, let dry, and peel the dried glue off the skin. The splinter sticks to the dried glue.

Sure, but if the splinter sticks out from your skin far enough to get tightly caught in the dried glue, you’d do just as well with a steady hand and a pair of tweezers. Or did you just miss playing in the paste?

Hunt’s tomato paste boil cure…cover the boil with Hunt’s tomato paste as a compress. The acids from! the tomatoes soothe the pain and bring the boil to a head.

So will hot compresses, and without the glob of red gunk. Tomatoes are acidic, but a boil is infection, not an alkali that reacts with acid.


Balm for broken blisters…To disinfect a broken blister, dab on a few drops of Listerine… a powerful antiseptic.

Or rubbing alcohol. Fifty-nine cents a pint, too! Listerine isn’t a fucking balm, moron–it BURNS. Did you never see the commercials?

Heinz vinegar to heal bruises… Soak a cotton ball in white vinegar and apply it to the bruise for 1 hour. The vinegar reduces the blueness and speeds up the healing process.

Unless vinegar somehow drives coagulated blood from beneath the surface of the skin (it doesn’t) and repairs broken blood vessels (it doesn’t), it doesn’t heal bruises. Time heals bruises, not Heinz.

Kills fleas instantly. Dawn dish washing liquid does the trick. Add a few drops to your dog’s bath and shampoo the animal thoroughly. Rinse well to avoid skin irritations. Goodbye fleas.

Funny…in all those years I owned dogs, the vet never once mentioned that one to me.

Rainy day cure for dog odor… Next time your dog comes in from the rain, simply wipe down the animal with Bounce or any dryer sheet, instantly making your dog smell springtime fresh.

OR…like springtime fresh wet dog. I can’t think of a more revolting combination that doesn’t involve rotting seafood.

Eliminate ear mites… All it takes is a few drops of Wesson corn oil in your cat’s ear. Massage it in, then clean with a cotton ball. Repeat daily for 3 days. The oil soothes the cat’s skin, smothers the mites, and accelerates healing.

Only WESSON corn oil, of course, and no other vegetable-based oil will do. Hell, my mother uses baby oil on her cat (Johnson’s, of course!)

Quaker Oats for fast pain relief….It’s not for breakfast anymore! Mix 2 cups of Quaker Oats and 1 cup of water in a bowl and warm in the microwave for 1 minute, cool slightly, and apply the mixture to your hands for soothing relief from arthritis pain.

This just in! Heat helps relieve the pain of arthritis! Dumbass, the oatmeal isn’t doing anything for the arthritis, the heat is. Oatmeal can help soothe irritated skin, but it won’t soothe your joint pain. Don’t believe me? Try cold oatmeal. 😉

Jeezus, people. Grandma wasn’t right about everything. Half-arsed remedies offer half-arsed results.

Jesus wept. What did you do–blow somebody to get where you are? You’re supposed to be in charge, and yet you don’t even know that fancy goldfish are not tropical fish. They’re exactly the same damned species as the most common feeder, they just have such horribly misshapen bodies that their intestinal workings are squished up into a spot nature never intended, so they benefit from slightly warmer water to increase their metabolic rate and help keep them from having problems with SBD and constipation. That doesn’t make them tropical, it makes them deformed coldwater fish. Oh, and dumbass, ich is not ubiquitous, and it certainly isn’t in chlorinated tap water, even after it’s dechlorinated. Without fish for a period of a few days, ich dies because it’s a parasite, and the whole fucking point of being a parasite is…to live off a host. No host, dead parasite. In chlorine, ich dies. If fish get ich, it came from somewhere, and that somewhere was other affected fish, or contact with water/equipment that had been in recent contact with affected fish. Bacteria are ubiquitous and so are fungal spores–indeed, the air is fair floating with them–but ich is not. Neither is velvet, nor is any other fish parasite. If you’d earned your position fairly, you’d know this. Now, turn him loose, get up off your knees and go learn something useful.

Oh…fan mail! I took out the watermark because the horrid green bothered me and I didn’t care whence it came, just thought it was cool. (If I forget that I did this…clicking the small image goes to the full size.)
Science v.s. Faith

P.S. Very rarely does one find much intelligence on social networking sites, but once in a while…

US flag

Red = Completely clueless republican politicians who agree or disagree with any concept, idea, or proposed legislation that could actually make our nation better for everybody – based solely where their political diametric opposition find themselves.

White = Completely clueless democrat politicians who agree or disagree with any concept, idea, or proposed legislation that could actually make our nation better for everybody – based solely where their political diametric opposition find themselves.

Stars = The amount of states who want them to get their god-damned heads out of their asses, quit bickering like little girls, and actually represent us with the intention of actually making us a better nation – NOT filling their greedy little pockets and increasing their power over us while slowly taking away our general rights and liberties.

Blue = Sadly, a rapidly increasing amount of Americans who, themselves, don’t give a rats ass hair any longer because they are sick and tired of the colors Red and White.

Here’s a hint. When you’re the moderator of the damned forum, it’s considered bad form to start threads where the topic of discussion is your latest “toy” purchase. So you finally broke down and bought a half-decent set of computer speakers. Whoop-de-doo. I’ve been using my computer as my sole high quality music player for the last seven years. You know–about the time really good speaker systems for computers started to get popular. ATM, I have 310w 5.1 surround; I didn’t bother with 7.1 because the room isn’t large enough to hear any difference. Welcome to 2000…dumbass. Nobody cares what you do with your disposable income. Actually, let me amend that statement. Nobody cares what you do.

Our Pasta, who art in colander,
Draining be your noodles.
Thy noodle come, thy sauce be yum,
On top some grated parmesan.
Give us this day our garlic bread,
Forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trample our lawns.
And lead us not into vegetarianism,
But deliver us some pizza,
For thine is the meatball, the noodle,
And the sauce, forever and ever.

Ramen.

I AM NOT FUCKING TELLING YOU AGAIN. I AM NOT YOUR PERSONAL FISH CARE CONSULTANT. IF IT’S NOT A PRIVATE MESSAGE, THEN DON’T SEND IT TO ME AS ONE. THEY ARE CALLED “PRIVATE MESSAGES” BECAUSE THEY’RE…PRIVATE. IF IT’S ON-TOPIC ON THE BOARD, THEN DON’T EMAIL IT TO ME. POST ON THE GODDAMNED BOARD–WHAT DO YOU THINK IT’S THERE FOR? YOU ARE AN IDIOT AND THE NEXT REPLY YOU GET WILL NOT BE A GENTLE REMINDER THAT WE CAN HELP MORE PEOPLE IF YOU USE THE BOARD LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. YOU MAY THINK YOU’RE SPECIAL, BUT I DON’T.

Argh. Please, please, please get a new hobby that doesn’t involve any living creature. If you don’t somehow manage to kill your fish (or end up with some virulent strain of bacteria to do it for you), then you “lose” them. Unless the last time you fed them was a month ago, two amano shrimp did not kill and eat a betta in two days, period. Maybe ID could eat a whole betta–bones and all–in two days, but that would be a lot to expect from even his 4.5″ (plus chelae) self, and unless he was half-starved, forget it. Two shrimp pellets and his tummy is quite completely full for a day.

Get a new hobby. Collect stamps, or some kind of anime trading cards, or take up bicycle repair, or start a mould colony. Nobody cares if mould dies. Anything…just stop the fish-killing! Some people are meant to keep live animals and some are not. You are not.

I’m in; I’m just one of them now. 🙂 Ten guys (plus P) yesterday and five today, and they’ve finally stopped “tidying up” their language because of me. I don’t want them thinking, “Can’t say ‘shit’ or ‘goddammit’ if I make a bad shot because some guy’s wife comes with him every time”. I don’t want to listen to someone like that pottymouthed boy who came to the tournament with JD (soft-spoken, ever the gentleman JD, of all people) because that was like being back in the army, or at the prison where they could give me (on my most frustrated day) a run for my profanity money, even if they’re just engaged in casual conversation. Fuck this, fuck that, he fuckin’ said, I fuckin’ went, this shit, that shit the other goddamned shit…it gets old, fast. I don’t think anyone really wants to hear people talk like that all of the time. If I was pissed off because I’d whacked a tree on my drive (or pleased because made a difficult shot), I’d want to say so in no uncertain terms and that’s what I want them to do, too. If I wanted to make a risqué joke about “getting wood”, I wouldn’t want to start the sentence, then realise there was one person who might be offended. I want them to just do what they’d do if I was another guy. Dan, Bob, Larry and Dave still step aside and let me go ahead if we get to a spot where we can go only single file, but that’s the way they were raised and if that’s what they want to do, it’s okay with me–I’ll just say, “Thank you!” and get my arse in gear so I’m not holding up the line. They’re decent, average guys and I think they’ve finally accepted that I am, too. I just happen to be one incapable of “getting wood” in any sense other than smacking a tree with a disc. 😉

MUAHAHA! Sometimes I’m so goddamned awesome that I make myself SICK! They fixed the repos so I could get the kernel update, and a kernel update means reinstalling the video driver, because the driver is compiled against the existing kernel, not the new one. There’s never a matching kernel module on nVidia’s site, so I always have to build a module myself. Since I’d never known how the hell I managed to get a driver installed in the first place, it was hard to reproduce after updating a kernel. This time, Geek Girl was at the ready…

Kernel headers? Check! make? Check! gcc? Check! pkg-config? Check! xserver-xorg-dev? Check! No nvidia-glx installed and /etc/init.d/nvidia-glx does not exist. No linux-restricted-modules. Driver install file waiting patiently in /home/lisa, and I know that sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop is the way to make GDM go away so I’m in a “true” terminal. From there it was only a cd to home, then sudo sh and the name of the nVidia install file, then “Enter” my way through the install. Nothing to it, took less than five minutes, which is a VAST improvement over my usual, “break X and spend the next hour or two figuring out what I did to break it and how to fix it”.

I fair OOZE uber-geekiness! Okay, I don’t, but this is the first time I’ve done the video driver and actually understood what I was doing, so it’s still an accomplishment. 😉

Hahahaha! The award for best application name goes to….

The Rasterbator!

I don’t print pictures, much less posters, but I would still use this, just for the fucking name! 😆