My Own Thoughts

Autumn Crocus, as per Scribal Terror In the first century Dioscorides (fl. ca. A.D. 50-79) employed a drug made from autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale L.), the very plant investigated by A/ P. Dustin in 1938 as an antitumor agent. Dioscorides recommended that the plant (kolchikon) be “soaked in wine and administered to dissolve tumors (oidemata) [...]

Congressman Ramstad comes out in opposition to the Flight 93 memorial Congressman Jim Ramstad (R-MN) gave a House speech this month, supporting Mr. Burnett’s opposition to the crescent design. The speech is entered in the Congressional Record here, along with supporting statements from Tom Burnett Sr. (father of murdered Flight 93 hero Tom Burnett Jr.). [...]

My husband showed me “Twitter in Plain English” from Common Craft, but I liked this as well. Hmmm. I might use the Twitter video as a “other things to think about” on the last day of class.

I want to submit four proposals to four different conferences in the next year. I will submit the first to CCCC (disadvantaged students and the internet). The second to TYCA-SW (introducing politics). The third… I don’t know. And I will submit one to CCTE (how to use a blog in the classroom). I’d really like [...]

I want to weigh 145 again this year and maintain that weight for the next twenty years, with twenty to twenty-five percent body fat. What resources do I have now? I have used three good eating plans and lost weight on them. I have just lost 12 pounds. I am still eating well on that [...]

Happy Catholic tagged me. Well, sort of. She said I could answer if I wanted to. That’s almost the same as tagging me. What was I doing ten years ago? Living in Austin. Just bought a house. Planting a garden with my dad. Going to a non-denominational church that actually, really, had no politics. Watching [...]

I prayed that God would put me where I most needed to be. So I’m staying home.

I interviewed yesterday for six and a half hours. There was no scheduled time for lunch, so I brought a bar and peanuts, thinking that I could eat them on the run. That wasn’t as necessary as it looked, since I had 15 minutes between each part of the interview. The president mostly asked me [...]

About three weeks ago I went through my closet and pared down. I took the clothes to our old church’s garage sale. But today R and I were talking about keeping the 20% of clothes you wear all the time and getting rid of (most of) the rest. So we stopped talking about it and [...]

Those 7000 statues in the Terracotta army were apparently lacquered and then painted and then covered in egg. Or it might have been egg paint. Depends on which sentence I understood correctly. The most interesting part for me were the colors and how they got them: The researchers thought animal glue might have served as [...]

Updated. A Yale student, the valedictorian of her high school class, has claimed to have artificially inseminated herself and taken natural abortificants and kept the results of the self-induced abortions, which she uses as art. Update: But now she may be saying she didn’t do it at all. At least that is what Yale says. [...]

This book was recommended to me by my brother. He said it is a light read, fun, and she has a bunch of books in the series if you like it. The POV is first person. The main character is a semi-legal elf who does seeking/finding. Sometimes she finds things that were stolen. Sometimes she [...]

What does Divorce cost? Apparently the financial cost is $112 million a year. A question I’ve been asking myself gets asked on the blogs. How can we have a discussion on race without mentioning race? And why, when Ferraro did it, did she take a nosedive in popularity? The first glimpse of the pied piper [...]

Ouch. I gained over four pounds this week, after losing four pounds two weeks ago (down to 169) and then going back up. March 17- Happy St. Patrick’s day to ya’, darlin’. 176.8 43.9% fat (78 lbs) I need to go get my measurements. 43-34-43 My waist is bigger than my ribs. th 23.5 calf [...]

Bones began its new season tonight. It was great. The lines were so funny, so strong, so perfect… We had to stop the TV and rewind at least twice because we all burst out laughing. Great show.

I wasn’t going to post this quiz, but the answer is sooo me. And with only a few questions. You Are Apple Pie You’re the perfect combo of comforting and traditional. You prefer things the way you’ve always known them. You’ll admit that you’re old fashioned, and you don’t see anything wrong with that. Your [...]

by Don Piper is a very hard book to read. The author tells of debilitating depression, horrifying physical pain, and terrible injuries. But it is also a fascinating book to read. The author tells of his time in heaven, after he was dead for 90 minutes. “People in heaven don’t have an awareness of who [...]

As one of those flyover conservatives who supports the Second Amendment, believes strongly in an active God, and wants a strong immigration policy to protect our country and keep us safe, I resent Obama’s articulation of my beliefs as something I cling to from bitterness. It could well be that, as he said eventually, he [...]

ZombieTime found out when the Getty party was ($2300 a head) and staked it out, got great pictures, and added thoughtful commentary. From this you can tell that Obama is about the little people.

From Tom Burnett Sr: A petition to stop the Flight 93 Memorial Dear Fellow Americans: The planned Flight 93 Memorial contains extensive Islamic symbolism. It is an insult to my son Tom, and to the other murdered heroes of Flight 93 who stopped Islamic terrorists from destroying the White House or the Capitol that terrible [...]