Not much new to report. Had a phone interview with the Sac Business Resource Center and he seemed excited about my qualifications and experience and said he'd be calling on Friday for one-on-one personal interviews. Never got a call or "screw you." I have a feeling he didn't want to pay as much as I was wanting (which was barely enough to cover my basic living expenses).

This week, I received an email invite to apply for a customer service analyst at Sage Corporation, the makers of Peachtree software. Did so, but haven't had any kind of response yet. Will call them on Tuesday if no word.

Got a notice for jury duty next month at Superior Court so I'll have a few dollars coming in if I get picked for a jury.

We got a break in the heatwave for a few days with temps down into the low 90's. The Delta breeze is just about gone though so temps are going back up into the 100's next week. The plants on my balcony are relieved. They were getting tired of wilting in the afternoons inspite of early morning watering. Haven't seen any birds at my feeders for a few weeks now. West Nile virus has really taken a toll on the bird population in the area. I don't even hear birds chirping in the mornings like I used to. Usually their noise and songs provide a great wake up call.

Looking forward to autumn. Maybe a change in seasons will bring better news.

Found this in email this morning and thought I'd share. Warning, this is painfully hysterical and graphic. Not for the faint of heart. So, put down those drinks before reading.

The perils of bikini-line hair removal:


All hair removal methods have tricked us with their promises of easy, painless removal - The Epilady, scissors, razors, Nair and now...

My night began as any other normal weekday night. Come home, fix dinner, played with the kids. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next few hours. Maybe I should get the wax out of the medicine cabinet. So I headed to the site of my demise; the bathroom.

It was one of those cold wax kits. No melting a clump of hot wax, you just rub the strips together in your hand and then they get warm and you peel them apart press it to your leg (or wherever else) and hair comes right off.

No muss, no fuss. How hard can it be? I mean I'm no girly girl, I am mechanically inclined enough that I can figure it out.

YA THINK?

So I pull one of the thin strips out. It's two strips facing each other stuck together. Instead of rubbing them together I get out the hair dryer and heat it to 1000 degrees. (smart!) Cold wax my rear end. (Oh how this phrase haunts me.) I lay the strip across my thigh. Hold the skin around it tight and pull.

OK, so it wasn't the best feeling, but it wasn't too bad. WOW! I can do this. Hair removal no longer eludes me! I am She-ra, fighter of all wayward body hair and smooth skin extraordinaire.

With my next wax strip I move north. After checking on the kids I sneak back into the bathroom, for for the ultimate hair fighting championship. I drop my panties and place one foot on the toilet. Using the same procedure I apply the wax strip across the right side of bikini line, covering the right half of my vagina and stretching down to the inside of my butt cheek (Yes, it was a long strip) I inhale deeply and brace myself. RRRRIIIPPP! I'm blind! Blinded from pain!....OH MY GAWD!

Vision returning, I notice that I've only managed to pull off half of the strip. S&%T! Another deep breath and RRIIPP!!! Everything is swirly and spotted. Do I hear crashing drums? OK, back to normal. I want to see my trophy - A wax covered strip with my hairy pelt, that has caused me so much pain, sticking to it. I want to revel in the glory that is my triumph over body hair.

I hold up the strip. There's no hair on it. Where is the hair? WHERE IS THE WAX? Slowly I ease my head down, foot still perched on the toilet. I see the hair...The hair that should be on the strip. I touch. I am touching wax. Sh*T! I run my fingers over the most sensitive part of my body, which is now covered in cold wax and matted hair.

Then I make the next BIG mistake....remember my foot is still propped up on the toilet. I know I need to do something. So I put my foot down. DAMN! I hear the slamming of the cell door.

Vagina? Sealed shut. Butt? Sealed shut. I penguin walk around the bathroom trying to figure out what to do and think to myself, "Please don't let me get the urge to poop. My head may pop off."

"Hot water!! Hot water melts wax!! I'll run the hottest water I can stand into the bathtub, get in immerse the wax covered bits and the wax should melt and I can gently wipe it off right? WRONG!

I get in the tub - the water is slightly hotter than then that used to torture prisoners of war or sterilize surgical equipment - I sit. Now, the only thing worse that having your nether businesses glued together is having them glued together and then glued to the bottom of the tub in scalding hot water! Which, by the way, DOES NOT melt cold wax!

So now I am stuck to the bottom of the tub!

God bless the man that convinced me I should have a phone in the bathroom! I call my friend thinking surely she's waxed before and has some secret of how to get me undone. It's a very good conversation starter. "So, my butt and who-ha are stuck to the bottom of the tub!" There is a slight pause. She doesn't have a secret trick but does try to hide the laughter from me. (that b&*#h!) She wants to know exactly where the wax is located on bottom. "Are we talking cheeks or hole or what?" She's laughing out loud by now...I can hear her. I give her the rundown and she suggests I call the number on the side of the side of the box and ruin someone else's night while we go through various solutions. I resort to scraping the wax off with a razor. Nothing feels better then to have your girlie goodies covered in hot wax, glued shut, stuck to the tub in boiling hot water and then dry shaving the sticky wax off!

By now the brain is not working, dignity has taken a major hike and I slip into glazed donut land.

My friend is still talking with me and my hand reaches towards the saving grace....the lotion they give you to remove the excess wax. What do I really have to lose at this point? I rub some on and OH MY GAWD! The scream probably woke the kids, scared the dickens out of my friend, but I really don't care. "IT WORKS! It works! I get a hearty congratulation from my friend and she hangs up. I successfully remove the remainder of the wax and then notice to my grief and despair....THE HAIR IS STILL THERE!....ALL OF IT!

So I shaved it off. Heck, I'm numb at this point.

Next week I'm going to try hair color.

In Sac Valley, the number of cases of West Nile virus in humans is growing exponentially and percentages of trapped, infected mosquitoes have grown beyond epidemic proportions. The county is starting aerial spraying tonight and for the next three nights to try and kill off a generation of adult skeeters. So, for the next three nights when we've had 100+ degree days, we get to choose between keeping windows closed and air conditioning off or insecticide poisoning and breathing problems. I'm doing a little of both by keeping window shut but also keeping the air conditioning on. If I feel like I'm getting gassed by aerial spraying, I'll turn it off.

Aerial Spraying to Fight West Nile Virus Begins

We broke a record in July and will break August's record at the end of this week. In July we had 26 days of 97 degrees or above, 16 of which were over 100. In August, we've already had 4 days of 100 degrees and are forecasted for the next 4 to be 104 or higher. Good thing we had all that rain and snow during the winter or we'd be growing cacti instead of veggies in the Valley.

Got my electric bill which covered half of June and half of July. Wasn't too bad, only $25 more then usual. The worst is yet to come though. Next bill will include a full month of A/C use. The sad thing is I have it set at 85 degrees and it only runs from around 2pm until 8pm, and have the windows open with fans running the rest of the night. I don't see how folks are affording to have their A/C at comfort levels below 80 degrees 24/7. They must be paying through the nose.

http://www.planarity.net/#

How to Play
Click on the little blue dots, which we call vertices, and then drag them to a new position. Try to arrange the vertices so none of the lines intersect. These lines are also called edges. When none of the lines intersect, then click on the "Check Solution" button. If your solution is correct, you will go to the next level. We call this kind of graph planar because it can be drawn (embedded) on the surface of a plane or sphere with no edges intersecting.

Oh great, psychologists are now taking queues from political spin doctors. Fake some evidence, lie to people and tell the folk it's evil and they must conquer it at all costs.

Isn't it bad enough that many of us are already emotional overeaters with lots of real childhood baggage to overcome? Why pile on more fake crap?

Aug. 2, 2005, 8:44PM

Researchers play mind tricks to help dieters lose weight
Psychologists use fake memories of fatty foods to steer people away from eating them
By ROSIE MESTEL
Los Angeles Times

In their battle against the bulge, desperate dieters have tried drugs, surgery, exercise, counseling, creams and even electrical fat-burning belts.


Now some psychologists have a new idea: Lying.

A team led by psychologist Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, found that it could persuade people to avoid fattening foods by implanting unpleasant childhood memories about the food — even though the event never happened.

In a paper published in Tuesday's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team said it successfully turned people off strawberry ice cream and, in earlier studies, it has done the same with pickles and hard-boiled eggs — in each case, by manipulating the subjects to believe the foods made them sick when they were children.

The scientists say they also have successfully implanted positive opinions about asparagus by convincing subjects that they once loved the vegetable.

The method, if perfected, could induce people to eat less of what they shouldn't and more of what they should, Loftus said.

In the ice cream experiment, Loftus and her team asked 131 students to fill out forms about food experiences and preferences, including questions about experiences with strawberry ice cream. The subjects were then given an analysis of their responses that was supposed to indicate their "true" likes and dislikes.

Forty-seven students, however, were inaccurately told that the analysis made it clear they had gotten sick from eating strawberry ice cream as a child. Of these, almost 20 percent later agreed that they had been sickened by the treat and that they intended to avoid it.

The findings were stronger in a second experiment where students were asked to provide details about the imaginary strawberry ice cream episode. In that case, 41 percent of the subjects given erroneous information later believed the tale and said they intended to avoid the food.

Weight-control experts expressed interest in the study, but were skeptical about using implanted memories as a dieting technique.

Deliberately implanting memories "raises profound ethical questions," said Stephen Behnke, director of the ethics office of the American Psychological Association.

The food studies are the latest in a string of memory experiments by Loftus, a professor of psychology and criminology at UC Irvine.

Loftus is most famous for her position on recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Based on her work, she has suggested that most of these memories were probably false.

Btw, my webhost agreed to bill me month-to-month rather then annually so my vanity will be intact for a few more months at least.

West Nile Virus is here! Wondered what had happened to all my birdie friends. Not as many are visiting my feeders this summer. I get bit a lot from skeeters that sneak into the house when doors are opened. Guess I need to go purchase some citranella candles and some Off!



http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/ongoing/west_nile/story/13322946p-14164952c.html

West Nile warning in Citrus Heights
Residents are being urged to 'fight the bite' of infected mosquitoes, but City Council members downplay the risk.
By Edgar Sanchez -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, July 30, 2005


An alert has been issued in Citrus Heights in response to what an official called a "significant outbreak" of West Nile virus found in mosquitoes.
The alert was announced at Thursday night's City Council meeting by David Brown, manager of the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District, who said evidence indicates the disease has shown up "specifically in Citrus Heights."

With the alert, district officials are asking residents to make a greater effort to eliminate places for mosquitoes to breed and to take precautions against being bitten by the insects.



The development occurred amid the district's intensified efforts to educate Galt and Citrus Heights residents about how to protect themselves from the virus, which is mostly a disease of birds that is spread by mosquitoes.

A few days ago, a crew from the California Conservation Corps began going door-to-door in both cities, delivering pamphlets explaining how residents can "fight the bite."

Although both cities have a significant number of infected mosquitoes, the crisis is greater in Citrus Heights. Brown said the number of infected mosquitoes is "nearing epidemic proportions."

"We saw a significant die-off of crows, magpies and ... jays" in Citrus Heights, he told the City Council.

Crews have been working to eradicate mosquitoes in the city's creeks and drainage ditches and place mosquitofish in local streams and ponds. The fish also are free to any homeowner requesting them.

Brown advised residents to eliminate sources of standing water. Waterfalls and other features, including the fountains around the Citrus Heights city offices, should be run because moving water inhibits mosquito breeding, he said.

On Friday, Mayor Bret Daniels described the alert as "a serious issue, no doubt about it."

But he said Brown's comments to the council had more of "an informational" quality than that of a "high alert."

"I think Mr. Brown came to let us know that there's a problem," Daniels said, insisting that the mosquito problem is no worse in Citrus Heights than it is "in any other part of the county or California."

Brown's alert, Daniels added, simply means that people must "take precautions and get some information as to what they can do to control this as much as possible."

Councilwoman Jayna Karpinski-Costa said she doesn't recall Brown having announced any kind of alert.

"I didn't hear him say anything like that," she said. "If he did, I would have asked him what an alert was.

"Maybe I was asleep when he said it," Karpinski-Costa continued, "but if there was an alert, he (Brown) would have been serious instead of smiling."

Writing about an alert in Citrus Heights would have lasting repercussions, she said, because it would be erroneous. (Yes, we have idiots in government here too.--Lynn)

Jennifer Benito, spokeswoman for the mosquito control district, confirmed Friday night that Brown had issued an alert for Citrus Heights.

At least 5,000 "Fight the Bite" pamphlets have been distributed in and around Galt and Citrus Heights since Monday, Brown said in a phone interview Friday.

They were delivered by a crew of 12 to 16 California Conservation Corps members after the CCC and the mosquito control district formed a partnership.

"We're targeting areas where we see a significant increase in West Nile activity," Brown said. "This is an effective means of getting information out, door to door, as soon as possible."

The pamphlet distribution, costing about $30,000 a month, will continue in selected areas for the next couple of months.

The CCC is pleased to be helping the district, said spokeswoman Susanne Levitsky. "We're basically the labor force for the district," she said, noting that corps members normally do other chores ranging from fighting fires to helping with flood control.

At least one Californian, an elderly man from Kings County, has died this year as a result of West Nile virus. Several Sacramento County residents have been infected, Brown said.