Mystical Mundane

Markdown is a simple way to spiff up your text. It's great to use at Diaspora for adding photos you find online, linking sites or just to be irritating by posting big words. Here is a simple list, followed by a screen shot of how it should look, in the order given. I will add, that currently, if you don't want markdown to appear accidentally in your statuses, simply use ``` on the line before your post and again, ``` at the end of your post. This little symbol is to the left hand side of your 1 on your keyboard, under that little squiggly line.  to post a link use [link name](linkurl) to post an image, use  - be sure to include the exclamation mark to use italics, use *yourtext* to use bold, use **yourtext** to use bold AND italics, use ***yourtext*** to post big headings, use ##  your text or # your text- leave space between # and your text. Not neccesary to repeat the # sign on the right side of your text.  

I've decided to start keeping track of what I'm eating, as my esophagus, acidic stomach issues have been getting a bit worse. I've never really had heart burn. I get that weird gurgly acidic feeling in my upper stomach. Often it feels as though I'm hungry, and recently I have been having a more difficult time swallowing food. So, before I start eliminating things, I'm going to take a look at what I'm eating. The amount I eat isn't usually too bad, but I will make a mental note to keep meals smaller. Last night, bad stomach acid. Not a huge surprise, I had a salad at about 6:00 with grated cheese and a balsamic vinegar dressing. Bagged salad with grated carrot and purple cabbage. Not a lot. I also had coffee. Woke up this morning feeling not too bad. Did not notice the acidity until I had a cup of weak tea. It had cream but no sugar or sweetner. Went for a 3.4km walk, pushing the stroller with the two kids in it. Brisk walk. Came home feeling hungry, ...

We went on a drive through the rural, mountainous region near our home. Drove along the Columbia Valley road. We found ourselves driving along with the Us to our side. I didn't realize hiw close we are to the states. Cascade mountain region. This is a pic of America. A foot and a half away from me. ;)

Well, it was too hot for me, and for the little ones, so we didn't stay long. Seems like everyone in this town was there. Eek. I'm mildly (severely) claustrophobic when being touched, pushed and squished by large crowds of very warm people... blech. Anyhow, the cars that were there as part of the car show were gorgeous though. A BEAUTIFUL 1967 Toronado! Oh my. Orange and shiny and just plain lovely. See the full gallery on Posterous

Well, I've been pulling out of google services to the best of my ability. Been feeling strangled by google lately, and I'm just not cool with that. I like freedom to have different email addresses for different services, not being obligated to HAVE to have a google account linking me all over the place. I'm not cool with the ethics either. Enough has been said re: #nymwars elsewhere, it doesn't need to be re-said here. However I realized just how intertwined I had allowed myself to become in a monopoly, and that has pushed me out of my comfort zone. So, photos coming out of Picasa and into photobucket/flickr. Documents will be shared on ZumoDrive, blogging will be via Posterous at Wordpress & Tumblr (check those Terms of Service), I don't really use Gmail anyhow... and duckduckgo.com for a browser. Find me back at Facebook http://www.facebook.com/birchwind ... I HATE facebook, but the groups I participate are there, my business page is there. Google...

Yeah, that's about it. I feel like crap. No idea why. Started with a kinked neck a week ago. Nothing new there however, as I've had neck pain off and on, just like the majority of the population. I think it's been made worse by the fact that I prop myself up when I sleep. I started doing this a few months ago when I had a bad laryngospasm brought on by what I think was an aspiration on stomache fluid in my sleep. I had gone to bed with a bit of reflux-ish heartburn sort of thing... not uncommon, but never particularly bothersome. I eat alot of salad and always make a vinegar/garlic dressing and sometimes I eat this late, so often I'm a wee bit burpy before bed. Well, this night, I woke up about 3 or 4 am... coughing up a bit of fluid that tasted like bile, suddenly, my throat closed up and I could not draw in breath. Have you ever heard someone with stridor? Let me tell you, being the one having a fit like that and hearing the horrible sound I was making while trying t...

I finally determined which was which in my last batch of infused oils. One was equal parts plantain and calendula, with a half oz (volume) of goldenseal and myrrh. The other salve was a general all purpose, not for selling however as it was an extra strong version of the Diaper Salve, it's not listed on my website, I just wanted something for home use. So, the trick was to search dilligently through the cheesecloth and try to find the goldenseal, because I had only put it in the one salve and not the other. I found the goldenseal, it sticks out rather easily, as it is hard and round, a golden root. Though the colour is no longer golden of course because it has been steeped in olive oil with numerous other herbs for 6 weeks.  I heated it all up, added the beeswax, and now it is sitting happily in tins, waiting for labels. Tonight I made a few more salves and this time each has all the ing listed on each jar.  One jar of Comfrey and St.John's Wort for bruises, sprains etc....

http://cityofnidus.blogspot.com/2011/07/diaspora.html

Yes, it IS up and running. Unless you've been following the blog, and/or checking their github link from their main page, it's very possible you've missed this information. Especially with the big news of Googles answer to a social networking system , Google+ being released. One thing that needs to be remembered is that the official site of joindiaspora.com was not intended to be THE main Diaspora site. In fact, there IS no main Diaspora site. This is because Diaspora is decentralized. You can run it on your own server, or join one of the many pods already up and running. Some of the most popular community run Diaspora pods are listed here: http://podupti.me/ and http://podup.sargodarya.de/ . I use diasp.org, but all of the pods are interconnected and you can communicate back and forth regardless of which pod you use. Why is this still relevant, now that Facebook already has its new rival Google+? Well, at Diaspora, we are people and not ad targets. We can use whateve...

See the full gallery on Posterous It's amazing really, to look around the yard and see all the things that insist on growing there. Many of these things are considered irritating weeds by the dilligent yard warden. When coming across these varieties of greenery in the yard, I always feel amazed at how lucky we are to have such awesomeness forcing it's way into our little manicured parcels. In today's world, we are greatly dependant on the stores to supply us our daily sustenance. There is also a great reliance on the drug stores for our medications. Now, I am not going to get into a big argument about pharmaceuticals here. They have their place, and many of those things originated from a natural growing source at one point . Think of foxglove, " The entire plant is toxic (including the roots and seeds), although the leaves of the upper stem are particularly potent, with just a nibble, being enough to potentially cause death."  http://en.wikipedia.org/w...

Well, it was a lovely trip. We left on Saturday morning, bright and early to catch the 8:40am ferry. We arrived in Galiano by about 10am. Once on the ferry, we sat outside, the best place to sit in my opinion. The boys examined belly buttons for some reason, lol. Early morning sails are the best. Rising sun in the east, sparkling on the water. Very nice. The first day we just lounged about, explored round the property a bit. The kids LOVED the big deck and the great outdoors. We had beer in the evening and watched some DVDs.  The next day we went to Morning Beach for a few hours. Not only was the beach easily accessible through a beautiful trail, but it was wonderfully sandy and a great place to lounge.  My only complaint is with whomever resides in the cabin right along the beach to the left of the stairwell when one emerges from the trees. They had numerous dogs, and one particularly irritating Jack Russel terrier that barked at everyone, took other dog's sti...

Our group has set up a Donate page via the Humanitarian Coalition at: https://www.helpforcharities.com/humanitarian/group/profile.php?profile_id=775594941311977501 They are completely on the up and up, and well respected. The goal is to raise 100.00 for Drought Relief Aid (if we can raise more, even better!) Taken from The Montreal Gazette: The Horn of Africa needs the world's help. The international community cannot stand by while millions of people die of starvation. In Canada, the federal government has pledged to match charitable donations from Canadians to Canadian agencies providing aid to drought and famine relief in the region. The federal government has also committed $50 million in emergency aid. The immediate suffering of starving people is the first order of business. Donors can't let the prospect of militias' profiteering from aid to stop them. It is hard to see what other option there is than to try to get as much food in as possible. © Copyr...