THE LITTLE BLACK DRESS

HELL EXPLAINED BY A
CHEMISTRY STUDENT





The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid term.



The answer by one student was so 'profound' that the professor shared it with colleagues,

via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :


Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it

expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.


One student, however, wrote the following:

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Here it is finally, still in progress, actually, as can be seen from the dangling wires, my first attempt following the magnificent Magdalena's tutorial re my last post. The whole thing measures 1-1/4" across. I had "issues", of course, which i will be covering up with more pearls :). But i'm happy with the learning experience. I questioned some things about her construction methods, and thought i would do them differently if it were me, but decided to follow her instructions closely instead the first time to see how things worked, and i'm glad
i did it that way. In the future i will incorporate some of my own prefered methods and it should go a lot more quickly. This piece is one i will be keeping for myself, and I'll post a picture when it is completely done.

My last act of 2008 was to purchase two jewelry tutorials on etsy, from the amazing Magdalena.
Her work is so damn precise! The little bit I've done so far with wrapping fine silver wire has been an eye opener, because it is nothing like a fibrous filament (thread, yarn, string) as far as how you have to handle it, you can't pull and tug on it to straighten it out, you have to be careful to handle it as little as possible so it doesn't get work hardened and kinked. I used to wonder why people didn't crochet with wire the way they do with thread - the little flowers and that sort of thing. Now i know why!

http://www.MagdalenasAtelier.etsy.com
this one, the Almond Layered pendant:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=18101453
and this one, the Spring Vine Pendant

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17786071

or, you can see them here below ~ they are the top and bottom ones in the left column

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade Baffona.etsy.com

I'm thinking about also getting one or two of julidadesigns tutorials ~ this one anyway, the Woven Teardrop Pendant
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=18717803&ref=em
because I love the weaving kind of thing she does.

I spent about three hours today just photographing and editing pictures for just two pairs of earrings, but they are rather fabulous earrings. They will be the next things to go up on etsy, but probably not tonight, because i really should get off the computer and let Husband have a turn, and anyway, my eyes got all burny and hurty from being so close to bright lights, I should give them a rest.

I was looking forward to getting this partial denture and having teeth again, where there's just been space in my mouth. But it's not like having new teeth at all. I've decided what it's like, is wearing an underwire bra, in my mouth. And food gets stuck in it, more than usually gets stuck in my bra. I have also decided I'm re-thinking this whole boycotting of LJ thing. I'm not giving them any money, but I do seem to connect with more people over there. So, just to confuse things more, I changed my username when i came over here. Anyone reading this here who wants to friend me on LJ, I am katholicgrrl over there.

I'm sure it will come as no surprise, online business sucks, not in the fun way. The co-pay for my stupid partial was $750.00, which of course went on the credit card. Which means, less to spend on presents. Yes, I can make all sorts of things, but sometimes it's nice to be able to pick up something special for someone, that they've been wanting.

Sheeping various people, yeah, i know i said i wasn't going to do memes anymore but...










so i'm a mostly gay juvenile feline, like i needed a couple of memes to tell me that...

My cunning plan is unfolding according to - uh, plan. The afforementioned Plan being to make some money this Retail Holiday Season with a little line of earrings that hopefully will tempt people to snatch them up for gifts. $35.00 which includes Priority shipping and gift wrapping on request seems reasonable without seeming too cheap for a nice little stocking stuffer. I have 14 pairs so far scheduled to start on ebay tomorrow at 7:00 Pacific time. So I guess it's in one sense actually premature to say the Plan is unfolding until i've actually sold some, but just the fact that I've done this - actually started in September making stuff, and making a plan, and carrying it out, that's pretty cool, for me. I actually made two pair of each, and am listing the same earrings on etsy for $25.00, shipping not included, as etsy's fees are so cheap compared to feebay. The earrings also are designed to match the bracelets I have on etsy. So, i'm busy, busy! I have bracelets that need matching earrings, and earrings that need matching bracelets, but my time seems to get eaten up just taking pictures. i think it takes me longer sometimes to get pictures i'm satisfied with than it does to make the items. Note that i said satisfied with, not happy. it's surprisingly difficult to get good pictures of jewelry.

On another note, i have discovered a new hot drink treat - Earl Gray Cocoa! I discoverd it at a little bagel shop that serves it, tried it, and it's good! So i've been making it at home thusly: make a cup of cocoa however you do it, and pour it into a cup with an Earl Gray teabag. I know Earl Gray isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if you like it, you should try this. I like how it cuts the sometimes too much sweetness of the cocoa and makes it something more subtle.

Copy this sentence into your LiveJournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage (or have been or will be in a heterosexual marriage), and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

I have things in my etsy store now!

http://www.baffona.etsy.com

Yay! I have to laboriously de-list them from ebay, one by one, and then i get to raise the prices! Yay! Seriously, a lot of my things were listed on ebay for essentially wholesale prices, and still weren't selling, because of all the $.99 imports. So i can raise the prices, and they're still quite reasonable, when compared to what they would be in a gallery in L.A. or New York City.

So we're all moved in, and mostly unpacked (except, of course, for the three boxes of Star Trek paperbacks that have moved three times and haven't been unpacked for - what- ten years?),( Read more... )

I opened an account on etsy! I'm really excited about that, but i don't have anything listed yet. I'll post on that when i do. :)

Moooving! It looks like there's lovely and interesting thing to read and look at on my list today, and i can't take the time to, because we are seriously moving today, as in sleeping at the new house tonight. as soon as i post this i have to roust the man out of bed and get coffee into him, so he can disassemble the bed to put in his truck. we are taking just the bedroom furniture over today, so we can move Baxter over there and sleep there and he will have a place to feel safe and cozy, when tomorrow, we get the Big Truck and move all the rest of the Big Stuff. Yesterday we moved everything having to do with the business, except the computer, and almost every small thing we could move, we have done over the past week. So this is it, for me and the internet, for a couple or three days. :( See you on the other side (of town)!

I'd love to contribute some meta, but I need to work on packing. We took the first two loads over to the new place today, and i spent the afternoon unpacking and putting things away in the kitchen cupboards. It felt good! And now I'm a little more excited and motivated to get the rest packed, so that's what I'll be doing this evening. It's a duplex and it turns out that the people in the other half have a litter of kittens! They're not quite weaned, but this could be where our next cat will come from. I want a sweet little girl with a loud purr!

=^oo^=

I've been so absent from here, because of annoying RL situations, and a a rather large and bothersome Situation, and all sort of complicated by problems with our dial up connection. Yeah , I know ! And it's something we're gonna deal with, soon, honest... just as soon as, well, to recap:

Last month, on my birthday, we had to euthanize my kitty ( my beautiful so-soft Chloe girl).
to say nothing of a $500.00 vet bill.

This month(right around the time it was almost time to get another cat to keep Baxter company), on my husband's birthday, we found out we have to move. The couple we rent from is splitting up and one of them needs to move in here. So we have about three weeks now to find a place and get moved.

I am wondering if cosmically-ironically we will end up officially moving on our wedding anniversary, which is April 4, to continue the pattern of life changing incidents happening on significant dates.

This has been a great time for our connection to the internet to be wonky, too, because of the need to use craigslist and other online classified ads to look for places to live, and the fact that we derive income from eBay, and we have a hugely increased need for cashflow right now, what with moving costs, the vet bill, and paying off what we spent on our credit card in Tucson, which ended up being a good trip, and a good haul, BTW.

I never did a follow-up post on my husband's Tucson trip, because of the cat situation taking precedence, so in short: he didn't drive off any snowy mountain roads; he didn't get robbed or mugged; the truck didn't break down or get broken into or stolen. He did overspend the budget the first three days, and he did buy me Italian red coral beads , yay! and some more beads, especially lots of rose quartz, and my birthday present, a really nice strand of 10 mm. Chinese turquoise with a Tibetan silver pendant, which is set with turquoise and "red coral" (probably glass)and is actually a box. I would so have had pictures of all these things up by now if life were not so annoying.

Oh well, someday...

And we are getting a new cat after we move, so there's something to look forward to, after all this! =^oo^=

This sort of feedback from an ebay customer always sort of bemuses me:

"Cute little rock - Was expecting bigger, will read next time! Thanks anyway!!"

Thanks anyway!!??? Like "you did your best - it doesn't really meet my expectations, but thanks anyway!"?

Was expecting bigger, will read next time!???

Okaay... so there are people who actually buy things without reading descriptions first, or even looking at the very first picture which has the specimen sitting right next to a ruler, clearly showing the exact size?? and then they admit to this sort of lapse, by stating it in feedback, which is public, and permanent?

I'm not complaining, it was a positive feedback. I guess i just don't understand people. I should have an icon for 'bemusement'.

Cut for maudlin blather

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Here's Chloe being all mysterious

More pictures behind cut

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On Friday the vet told me Chloe probably had two weeks to two months, and what we had was a situation of hospice care, just making her as comfortable and happy as we can in the time left. She gave me a card for a vet who makes house calls to euthanize. i think i will actually be calling him today, because Chloe rallied quite a bit over the last couple of days, and spent time hanging out with us and the other cat, and eating a bit, but this morning has shown no interest in anything whatsoever.

I just looked at the astrological aspects for the day i met Chloe at the shelter, and the Moon was conjunct Pluto, and retrograde Neptune was conjunct my natal Sun. So that does seem to suggest that my role in her life is to surrender to the task of helping her and nurturing her on her journey to the other side.

Chloe is home now. Her little tummy is shaved, and she's lying next to the heater keeping warm, and she's not wanting to be petted much or fussed over, understandable with the day she's had.

Cut for more medical stuff

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Chloe

Cut for length, cat poop, angst, medical squick

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