The Mono

Posted here to keep it handy.

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Londo: "I was... never a child. I had responsibilies. I've had responsibilities for
as long as I can remember. Duty. Honor. Family."

G'Kar: "Ah. That explains a great deal."

Londo: "Really. And what exactly does it explain, G'Kar?"

G'Kar: "I spent my years in one shelter after another, but sooner or later I was able
to leave the shelter, and walk out into the daylight. You do not have that
luxury; you carry your shelter with you, every day. You did not grow up.
You grew old."

-- Babylon 5: "A View from the Gallery"

Since I have become increasingly frustrated with people who dump a couple of spoonfuls of salsa and an avocado into a bowl, mash it up, and call it guacamole (no, I'm looking mostly at restaurants here), I have decided to strike back by telling people exactly how easy it is to make The Good Stuff. Once you know, you have no excuse for making bland, gluey guacamole.

( recipe and commentary follow. )

Water flow: 2
Reservoir size: 6
Crack severity: 1

I'm not sure I ever actually explained this one. Each category is out of 10. "Water flow" is how fast my energy replenishes after doing something; high is good. "Reservoir size" reflects my overall stamina: ignoring refill rate, how many things can I do in a short period before I run out of energy? Again, high is good. "Crack severity" takes into account anything which is sabotaging me at the moment -- inflammation, stress, hormones, being sick, and so on. The lower the better, as the more severe the crack in the reservoir, the fewer things I can do before it all runs dry. A higher crack severity than water flow means I'm rapidly headed for a crash, even if I'm not doing much.

So today is... slow. I have a decent amount of stamina, but I'd better not do things too quickly or I'll run out my energy before it has a chance to replenish. Nothing is really putting a drain on me at the moment, fortunately, so I'm just taking my time and being careful. The main thing is to take my activity level down to something my "water flow" level can handle.

Sleep resets the values, but obviously there are factors that influence it from day to day. There are too many variables for prediction, sadly.

Happy birthday to the one who knows me best.

It's been interesting so far. Best wishes for another solar circumnavigation.

Caught up on LJ (I hit "skip=120"). Whew.

Lots of stuff brewing up for a thought-provoking post... hopefully later.

Today I baked rolls -- the usual little cheese rolls for school mornings, plus big fat Lunch Rolls as an experiment. One set has canadian bacon and American cheese (the cheese escaped wherever it could, but came out well otherwise) and the other has deli turkey, dill havarti, and a squirt of pesto added after they had cooled down a bit. All of them are now in the freezer; I'll test-drive them next week.

That was all the energy I had, sadly. I really need to plant stuff out, but simply walking around the house has been exhausting me this weekend. Sigh.

By the way: my PDA died (it's not sure it wants to turn the screen on when it wakes up anymore). I'm in the market for a used one that runs PalmOS 3.5 or later, preferably for less than $100. Anyone looking to upgrade?

It's been a long week... I gave myself permission to veg today.

I did drive into Pleasant Hill after breakfast, to check out the Master Gardener Help Desk... the schedule said that it had two MGs on duty, which is a full set, but I figured I could at least check out what was in the "pending" file. I ended up helping with the currently open cases as well, chatting with the MGs (we're always so social, I tend to forget that) and closing three cases by the end. I hadn't worked the desk for about a year, and every time I do it I remember how much I like it. I'm hoping to do it just about every other Friday until the end of term, then maybe more often in summer. They have three stations now, and the warm weather has brought enough work for three people, at least by the end of the week.

The interesting thing was when I overheard one of the other MGs fielding a call about a possible brown recluse spider. I told her afterward that it would be pretty funny if that call was from a friend of mine who had found it in the bathroom a day or two ago.... sure enough, around 11:30 or so pure_agnostic and hopeforyou walk in with a glass jar. At least I had some warning that I might see them; they hadn't known I'm a Master Gardener, I think, so they really hadn't expected to see me. :)

In case anyone else has occasion to use the information: the Master Gardener program is collecting specimens of suspected brown recluse spiders for a project at U.C. Riverside. They'll be shipped to an entomologist for identification, and the people who found them will be told what the spider was. I can't recall how long this is going on for, but I seem to recall it's all summer... since brown recluses are not known to haunt Central or Northern California (their territory tends toward the Southwest) I'm personally interested in whether people are finding them here. I keep being told we don't have them, other than the odd individual, and if they manage to establish a hold here that's something we all need to know about.

I haven't done much of anything for the rest of the day, but since walking the length of the yard and back wore me out, I think that's a good thing. At least I watered the fruit trees, and thinned the tiny nectarines.

( nothing of substance )

I made a dorodango.

It's not mirror-smooth, which may be due to my inexpert technique, the soil (Concord heavy clay makes it tricky to handle and causes things to go rather differently than either set of instructions), or both. It's getting pretty darn shiny despite the little pits and bumps, though, and as it gets more dry it may surprise me.

I plan to make two more, so far: one from Davis near the Student Farm, where they have limestone just under the soil which should make it quite pale, and one from the sandstone hills of Pleasant Hill. I expect that sandier soil will be easier to work with, as it sets harder and the fine particles make a better polish. Clay tends to stay wet longer, deform or scratch easily, and slough off under indelicate treatment.

Greg thinks I'm crazy. That's fine. I like my dorodango. :)

It's been a tiring week.

( Monday )

( Tuesday )

I have planted cucumbers and melons, sowed popcorn, and dug another tomato bed today.

For the rest of the weekend, ( these need my attention: )

What do these things have in common?

Gaskell Ball
Davis Picnic Day
The one-year anniversary of a friend's hospitality business (big party)
A birthday gathering for another friend
The second-to-last day of the Cherry Blossom Festival
silverkun's moving day

That's right! They all fall on April 19th.




I'm doing two of them. I regret having to miss the others, but god damn, people.

I'm doing pretty well (beyond having a cough because, surprise, my tonsils are swollen again). I've hit a few snags this week -- namely that the pack of yeast I used for the root beer last weekend was dead (the sarsaparilla is doing a little better), and apparently Yahoo!IM has changed its protocols yet again, so that I can't log on this morning. I'll deal with the root beer next week, and try to carve out a little time to look at IM clients (I have my eye on Freehoo for my text-based client, which is the hardest thing to find... no idea whether Gaim will still work this time).

In the meantime, I've collected a few ( observations on this quarter's classes. )

Most things have gone well today. Everything that has gone wrong has involved a piece of electronic equipment. ( To wit: )

My Meizu is fine, though I can't listen to it without headphones, and my watch hasn't rebelled. I'm praying that my laptop doesn't decide to chip in once I get home.

I just wanted to let people know that I am thoroughly, ecstatically, boundlessly happy.

Even when school starts again, the multiple reasons for that happiness will still be there, and under the "aaargh" of school stress will still be the kernel of glowy contentment. I see no date of termination for it.

I thought you'd like to know. :)

Since vim doesn't have the satisfying feature of strikeout, ( I'll put my to-do list here. )

to shadowwalkyr!

Enjoy your early birthday present: a miniature human!

and have him read Shrine of the Mall-Ninja. firestrike, have a look when you're back online.

Anyone who has run a White Wolf LARP will find this guy all too familiar.



I've been having to read it a little at a time, because it makes my head hurt. You think the first part is funny? Wait until you get to halfway down... and it just keeps getting worse.

I am not responsible for any keyboards you may have to clean/replace, so watch what you're drinking when you read it.

I will never have to deal with that rather pathetic history teacher ever again.

I will not have to do another idiotic in-class essay.

I will no longer have a class where they treat us like naughty cheating sixth-graders.

I won't have to wrestle with the TA of plant biotech over how a journal abstract should be written.

I won't have to read that really horrible Crop Ecology book again. (I sold it today.)

I (presumably) won't have to deal with calculating root and soil water potentials after this. Hallelujah!

I won't have to struggle through that painfully disorganized book about Canudos anymore.


Here's to next quarter being a little more interesting (in a good way).

It's flu.

It's been so long since I've had a lingering bout of it that I couldn't tell for sure... besides, I didn't get the usual signs of onset. Given that my tonsils sat it out until yesterday, then turned into raw meat again, I suspect the lack of warning was a sign of my currently dysfunctional immune system. Sigh. I also don't remember hurting this badly.

( My day wasn't entirely wasted )


Whether I'll make it to class tomorrow is anyone's guess. I'm almost tempted to say "in for a penny" and write off the rest of the week, since I need to catch up anyway. Biotech's final review is Monday, and I need to do my own in the other two classes... and I need to rest in so many ways. Not sure I could justify going out to the Exploratorium for Pi day on Friday if I skive off, though. :)

I'll be going up Tuesday afternoon, I think, to catch the history TA's office hours and talk to a prospective advisor. No classes that day.