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Nov. 12th, 2009

  • 9:27 AM
I am looking for a BPA-Free water filtering pitcher (think Brita). Not too sure what the best brand is out there for your buck. I know filters get expensive so how do the ones that attach to the faucet work?? I was also thinking of just getting one installed for my whole house. I heard after a while it pays off.

Anyone tried this one??

http://www.amazon.com/Seychelle-FAmily-Water-Pitcher/dp/B0019AK4II/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258036016&sr=8-1

No news is no news.

  • Nov. 12th, 2009 at 12:10 AM
Nothing new on the TIC. Work was dull. So were the books I bruoght. :P At least I got dinner. :P

Heading to SFX Weekender, it looks like. :) Tonight, I've got to finish my notes for my AMPAL paper (just to read from; I'm not doing a handout as I can't afford to print one) and then make sure I've got everythign packed properly. I've done Greek and Latin for tomorrow-- annoyingly, a workshop on transposing TW from visual to audio-only is goign on when I'll be teaching Latin. My usual luck. :P

So very tired.

ETA: And only eps 1-4 of Our Friends in the North are on youtube. I'll have to wait for the rest. *pout* Perhaps I'll get some sleep...

Nov. 11th, 2009

  • 3:34 PM
"Bisphenol-A, a chemical found in hard, clear plastic used to make everything from baby bottles to food packaging, may increase the risk of erectile dysfunction and other sexual problems in male factory workers exposed to large amounts of the substance, according to a study conducted in China.

The health effects of BPA have been hotly debated; although some studies have linked BPA to a risk of brain damage, birth defects, hyperactivity, heart disease, early puberty, obesity, and prostate cancer, other research suggests that the low level of exposure from plastics doesn't pose a health risk to adults. (The picture is less clear for children.)

The news article can be found here..


Well. Anybody still want to drink bottled water? (I don't imagine many of us do but this is a good reminder to buy a proper water bottle)

My all-in-one HP is again all-, more or less, in-one, it having decided, once again, that it really didn't want to go out with Vista anymore. In between waiting for THAT complete un-and-re-install for much of yesterday and most of this morning, I've worked my way through all make and manner of bad puns:

* To the grrls, in the kitchen, after Eleanor commented that a rather out-of-touch customer came into the store looking for Kellogg's Product 19 cereal:
I never understood the name of that cereal anyway. How can it be "Product" ANYTHING when 19 is a prime number?

(Em got the joke before Eleanor did. Math geek just like me, that one....)

* In a comment, just now, on the Mock potential of the current series of commercials for the new Droid phone:

What I want to know is, does the Droid come with a Data plan, and if so, does it allow you to use contractions? Also, I want to be the first to walk into a Verizon store, look at all the available products, and tell the salesperson, "These are not the Droids I am looking for."

(That phrase, used with the word Verizon, is completely Google-free, so I hereby pwn it.)

* In response to a Facebook poll about the Oh No Here We Go Again Another Urban Legend about Obama changing the name of the White House Christmas tree to a "holiday tree" and banning religious symbols from it (ppl, ALWAYS check with Snopes before spreading this kind of crap), I figured I'd post my own:



(After looking at some of the other nutjob posts created through that app, though, I cheekened out, figuring that the ones who saw the satire would put out a fatwa on me, and the ones who didn't would probably start sending me invites to join them in their ongoing Facebook game of Klanville.)

----

Next week's been shaping up as one of those Week From Hell deals I get all too often, but already the two conflicting appointments have been de-conflicted and one of them may wind up put off indefinitely. Tomorrow's my only travel day of this week, and may be well worth it, for I'm hoping to come home with two relatively new off-lease Thinkpads for the grrls. The way things go around here, their finest feature may be that they are, in my guru's word, "indestructable."

(Don't tempt us, Vinny.)

The Long and Winding Day

  • Nov. 10th, 2009 at 9:33 PM
Thanks to all, here and elsewhere, who sent birthday greetings yesterday. All were appreciated and treasured. The greetings that you sent, as well.

And if you forgot? Well, maybe you're just getting to that stage where you need brain surgery to help remember things:




As always, the Spanish subtitles make it even more surreal than it was to begin with.
----

My wife and sister had surprisingly similar Senior Moments in their grocery-getting travels yesterday: Eleanor, leaving a bunch of stuff at a register, Donna getting all the way home before realizing she'd done the same thing 200 miles away.

At least my memory's not getting THAT.... um, it's not as...., urrr, what was I saying?

----

Zoey gets fixed on Monday. She passed five months old last Monday, and has definitely matured at least in the grownup teeth department, but she's not all that much bigger now compared to a month or even two months ago. She may just wind up being a tall, kinda kompakt kitty with a bigass tail.

----

The kid has tomorrow off, so she had her posse over from 4:00 until a few minutes ago. The missus and I just got home ourselves from something kinda sad with a lining of sweet, which I won't go into because there's been quite enough of That Sort Of Thing on this journal in recent weeks. 

On the other hand, in honor of Veterans Day, I will be working tomorrow, like most veterans, unfortunately, will also be doing.

I will also be feeding aminals in about eight hours, so gnight one and all:)

*sigh*

  • Nov. 11th, 2009 at 1:05 AM
Found at least some of Our Friends in the North on youtube. Am now on ep 4, and may be up most of the night watching it. Curse Christopher Eccleston's hotness! *shakes fist*

Cleaning out my Body

  • Nov. 10th, 2009 at 5:29 PM
Hi. I was hoping someone could give me some advice. I am new to trying to live a more natural life. Currently I am in a transitional period where I am changing the food I put into my body. I live in a dorm and do not have a fridge. My meal plan isn't so great - not a lot of nutritious options. I don't feel well a lot of the time and I'm convinced it's because of the food I have been eating (classic dorm room food, all highly processed). I want to cleanse my body - kind of like a complete overhaul. But I have two questions about it:
1. Is a complete overhaul a good idea?
2. How can I go about doing it?
Is it as simple as cutting out all of the crap or should I go through some sort of detoxification process to get a clean start? I've been reading up on it but I thought it would be a good idea to hear from personal experiences with lifestyle changes.

Thanks for your help.

Tags:

Thermos suggestions

  • Nov. 10th, 2009 at 4:34 PM
I just acquired a night job and I'm going to be making the transition to being a night owl instead of a day person. I've worked nights before, so that's not really a horrible thing.

I have really good coffee at home and would like to take it to work with me and keep it warm for about 5 hours at least, along with green teas, etc.

I have been looking at this http://mysigg.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=628

My partner has one of the older style thermos and loves it, it keeps coffee hot for 6-7 hours.

I know Sigg is backed up right now due to the recall, since I'm waiting on my cold Sigg to be delivered.

Does anyone have other recommendations for really good thermoses that are not plastic?

I'm mostly looking for a thermos, not really a travel mug because those tend to be harder to wash.

*tempted*

  • Nov. 10th, 2009 at 7:51 PM
There are a bunch of talks at Royal Holloway on 'Radical Television'-- the one on 11 December is on Our Friends in the North which I've heard of (but not yet seen) and think could probably help me in the regional/national identity issues of my proposed diss.

(Oh, and one of the speakers at this discussion/lecture will be Christopher Eccleston).

Hell, I need to research again one last time before the Xmas holidays...heading into London to research 2 birds with one stone...

ETA: And, dammit, the cheapest DVD version is £77. I could afford the VHS, apart from not having a VHS player. *pout* I don't suppose anyone has the DVDs they'd be willing to loan me?

Vessel Drinkware-Part Deux

  • Nov. 10th, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Ok, since my last post got nailed by a bot, let me try this again, but in a shorter form.

I saw these at my co-op yesterday and two of the employees could not say enough good things about them. Does anyone on this community have them and if so, what are your thoughts?

Natural Dishwasher Detergent?

  • Nov. 10th, 2009 at 7:32 AM
Any suggestions for a good, natural-type dishwasher detergent that actually works??

I currently have Seventh Generation and it's AWFUL. I rinse my dishes really well, and it won't even clean my rinsed coffee mugs properly. Being that it's more expensive than the regular stuff, I'm pretty disappointed.

I'm also open to suggestions for less-natural brands that don't test on animals.

Thanks!! (my dishes thank you, too. And my water bill, since now I have to run the dishwasher on longer settings to get stuff cleanish!)

Tags:

Hopefully this link will work...

  • Nov. 10th, 2009 at 1:25 PM
Brain surgery in Ireland AD 800: http://bit.ly/1Lh8qe (The link is off a Tweet, so I'm not sure it'll work in LJ).

Meanwhile, my nose can stop with the bleeding any time it likes. :P

Right-- to the library with me to examine the urban defence possibilities of the organic growth patterns of Mesopotamian cities. (Yes, it's relevant! :P)

ETA: And it's one of those adys-- I just bought an mp3 from amazon...which refused to download. *sigh*

Vessel

  • Nov. 10th, 2009 at 6:28 AM
Hey Folks,

I was at my co-op this morning and I noticed some real cool bottles from Vessel. The buyer told me he stopped carrying SIGGS due to the company's erratic deliveries and they were having a lot of problems with leaking. Some of their designs are real cool and according to another employee, these things are the Cadillac of water bottles and insulated drink ware. He went on to tell me that he would fill it up with scalding hot coffee, throw it in his backpack and bike home...his coffee is still hot and no drips to be found. I need to retire my Sbux travel mug (which is going to my BF's work), and I was wondering if anyone here has one of these and if they are worth the hype. I have a SIGG insulated bottle, but it is a pain in the @#$&^% to clean.

Dry eyes

  • Nov. 9th, 2009 at 7:53 PM
I have a question for ya'll! Since the end of September I have been experiencing some dryness around my eyes. The skin is raw and peeling and even just water hurts. I've tried using oil and hydricortizone cream and it seems to help a little but the dryness always comes back. I'm almost ready to go to the doctor with this but want to give a few natural remedies a try first. My skin doesn't respond well to chemicals and I really don't want to pay the outrageous visit fee for my doctor to see me for 5 minutes and just prescribe a prescription dose of hydricortizone cream. So any suggestions? I just tried some cucumber tonight and the skin around my eyes is feeling pretty good but who knows what it will be like in the morning? Oh just as a side note I've tried Vitamin E as well as Olive oil. The skin around my eyes really didn't like the E and the olive only worked so-so.
I had been using Aveda's acne face wash, for about 9 months. It worked great but didn't want to dish out the money for the refills every month. Whole Foods sells a brand called Collective Wellbeing ($12), and I decided to check out the Oatmeal & Raspberry cleansing paste a week ago. This is the best face wash I've ever used. It smells nice, cleanses really well, and doesn't have acne medicine in it. I have eczema so I've always been a fan of oats in the bath & the occasional face mask. For my budget, I'm super happy with it. So far it's keeping my skin clean, clear, and more moisturized. I still use a small amount of EveryDay Shea lotion on the super dry areas of my face, but overall it does not dry out my skin.

x-posted to naturalskin

Two questions

  • Nov. 9th, 2009 at 12:30 PM
1. So many people rave about the Desert Essence Natural Tea Tree Oil Facial Cleansing pads, but I don't think my skin likes them. :( Any insight/tips?

2. Why do people say dairy is bad for the skin? Is there evidence for this? I worry that if I cut it out, even if my skin clears up a bit, my bones will resent me later on...

Thanks!

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*cough*

  • Nov. 9th, 2009 at 4:45 PM
Picked up cough meds and a new shirt on the way back from the TIC. 2 new items up, one expressing the hope that Ianto will 'do a Jesus' and return. *shakes head* Everybody's a Christ analogue!

Apart from that, I feel terrible, and I think the infection is rallying. *sigh* It's a tradition-- this week, I'm always sick. The conference was a year ago this week, and I was so ill I've lost most of the memory. (This is probably good).

So, after the lecture this evening (on Pompeii-- here's hoping for at least a small DW shout-out) I'm going home, eating the leftover pizza from last night (okay, 0100 this morning, but at least I remembered eventually) watching a DVD and then working on the MPhil some more. Tomorrow will be writing up my notes to print for AMPAL, more MPhil, and anything else I need to do. :P

In other news, I'm entertained by Twitter, which is all I require of it, really. :)
When I turned on the telly the other morning (to watch the rerun of the Daily Show destruction of Glenn Beck that no fewer than three Friends had recommended almost speechlessly), it was set to Skiffy, and there was an old friend I'd not seen in months.

I'd never quite warmed to Ten after rather finding Nine to be, pretty much, all I needed in a Doctor except for a public option to pay for him, but those few minutes of interaction with Martha were enough to get me wanting to catch back up.

God bless 'em, Netflix actually remembered where I'd left off months ago, and moments later I was watching the end of the Torchwood Estate episode and listening to the Princess Anne jokes about there being werewolves in the Royal Fam.  By midweek, I'll be done with S2, and then who knows where we'll go?

Moisturizer

  • Nov. 8th, 2009 at 6:47 PM
I've been trying to switch to only natural bath products. So far, I've gone no-poo (baking soda & ACV), have continued using Tom's of Maine toothpaste, and have gotten adjusted to using Tom's of Maine deodorant.

However, my face is and has always been a huge problem.

I tried OCM, but it made my face break out like crazy. I tried getting off the topical prescription medication I have, but my face looked awful.

Right now I'm using Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap at night, prescription cream overnight, and Aveeno natural moisturizing bar in the morning.

My question is: What kind of moisturizer do you guys recommend? I tried using a bit of OCM oil, but it didn't work. All the Burt's Bees stuff at my Walmart costs upwards of 15 dollars. I'm definitely not willing to pay more than 10 dollars for moisturizer. Have any of you tried pure Vitamin E? Before I started trying to go natural, I was using Dove moisturizer, and that worked wonderfully.

This is unrelated: I mentioned Tom's of Maine deodorant. This stuff is wonderful. I've been on prescription antiperspirant for a while, so I was really wary about going off it in favour of a deodorant. I think that since my body isn't having to deal with toxic aluminum, I'm not sweating as much. It's wonderful. My dad even uses it now, and he's always had excessive sweating. Highly recommend it!