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I have previously written about beliefs and belief systems. The short version was something like this: 1. A belief is both a thought and a feeling, or a link between thought and feeling. It is a Thought that you Feel is true. 2. Beliefs influence our behavior. We get into a situation, we decide based on our beliefs (or other factors), and we act. 3. The consequences of our actions, in turn, serve to reinforce our beliefs or break them down. If a belief leads to a decision with good consequences, it gets strengthened. If the belief that leads to a decision with bad consequences, it will be weakened. ...

My company is seeking some DNS advice. This will probably be of the “consulting service” type of arrangement, where the consultants prepare a quote, work on a specific task, and bill by invoice. (If we can’t find a consulting service we like, we may also consider hiring an hourly contractor for a short period of time, probably 3-6 weeks). Approximate prerequisites are: Knows more about DNS than I do Exposure to multiple (at least 5) corporate IT environments with a role in managing or advising DNS infrastructure, preferably multiple “mixed” (unix/windows) shops Familiar with recent trends in DNS (such as dynamic updates, Active Directory, etc) and familiar with DNS best practices. Able to intelligently discuss choices that most IT organizations make with regard to DNS and articulate the pros and cons (i.e. don’t say “this is the only way”, rather say “here are the tradeoffs”) ...

I spent some time last night looking at my Tarot deck and the book that goes with it. I really really like this deck, (I lost my deck when I lost my game bag with books, dice, etc. in it, but luckily I had a second copy of the same deck.) The deck is The Witches Tarot. The four suits are already well known for how they integrate with elements, and states of existence/awareness… Pentacles - Earth - Physical Cups - Water - Emotional Wands - Air - Mental Swords - Fire - Spiritual ...

There really should be a journal for: Worldbuilding. This would be a place to post ideas for worlds, where people would ask questions and offer suggestions to help flesh it out. A world starts with a “concept” - usually the concept is “What makes this world different from the world we live in?” Some examples might be: “There are three genders, and mating is by groups of three.” “The cost of magic is pain.” “The American Civil War led to the formation of two separate nations.” The concept is then fleshed out by asking “Why?” and “Therefore?” These questions lead to investigation of cause and effect, to see what unfolds. “If the cost of magic is pain, some might choose to suffer pain themselves, and do positive magic, and others may choose to cause pain to others so they can do dark magic.” The cause and effect chain leads the writer to visualize some of the aspects of this particular world. For the purposes of checking out the prototype, keep other important aspects of the world as similar to ours as possible – i.e., fully explore the effect of making one important change, but only one, before changing something else that is unrelated. ...

Minutes of Eurythmics in our collection: 398.1 Minutes of Pink Floyd: 326.9 Minutes of The Bobs: 319.2 Loreena McKennitt: 235.1 Queen: 202.3 Enya: 192.7 Billy Joel: 189.9 Peter Gabriel: 181.2 All others: Less than three hours each Total running time of entire collection: 7 days, 1 hr, 52 min That is all.

I am officially off the low-carb diet, due to the attack of gout and other concerns. It did what it was supposed to do, though… I lost 9 pounds on it in 3 weeks. That rate is probably too aggressive, though. The directions from my doctor(*) are to follow a low-calorie, low-fat diet. Which sort of leaves the door open to any number of diets. The deciding factor for me is that I want something that’s easy to figure out. That is, I want to be able to eat a sensible breakfast and lunch, and then instantly (or at least quickly) figure out what would be best for dinner in order to balance things out. ...

OK, there is now no doubt in my mind that what’s happening to my toe is gout. Last night, the pain was bad enough to wake me up, so I took more advil and went back to sleep. Today I took some alleve, which really did work for about 12 hours, and is now starting to wear off so I took another. I’m going in to the doctor tomorrow morning at 9:45 (yes, saturday) so we’ll see what he has to say. He will probably say to keep taking the alleve and change my diet. Apparently, burning fat on the low-carb diet also contributes to uric acid in the blood, so that compounds the effect of eating more meats. I have been making sure to drink lots of water. ...

Good news… I have lost about 8 or 9 pounds, after being on the low-carb diet for a little over 3 weeks. Bad news… I developed some excruciating pain in my big toe. I can’t think what I might have done to bruise or strain it. What does a painful toe have to do with my diet? Hopefully nothing, but it could be gout. According to wikipedia: Gout is a form of arthritis caused by the accumulation of uric acid crystals in joints. It is an immensely painful disease, which in most cases affects only one joint, most commonly the big toe. ...

Taxes are finally done. I am getting a huge refund, mostly because 1. working for two employers, I overpaid social security tax, and 2. getting a lump sum from the Y! and having it taxed like a single period’s paycheck meant that the deductions for the lump sum were set on “insane!!!”. Anyway, the returns are done and sent electronically. 12 days ahead of schedule too! The only things I was moderately confused by were 1. why I didn’t get a mortgage interest statement from the finance company that held my loan for 1 month before selling it to a bank, and 2. how much that check for car tax refund was, that I got in Feb. because I deducted the whole amount last year, so the refund reduces the amount I can claim this year. ...

Tonight we had esmerel, merlinofchaos, and da_zhuang around for dinner. Everything turned out well, I think. And, I think just about everything was low-carb, which was good for my diet. I probably had more food than I planned to, but I think I’ve done reasonably well the last week or so, so I’m not going to feel guilty. Salad with arugulla, butter lettuce, radicchio, cucumbers, tomato, avocado, green onion. Two salad dressings (soy-mayo and honey mustard) made with the homemade mayo. Merlin made the honey mustard… turned out good Artichokes, a little tiny bit overdone but I don’t think anyone noticed. Dipping sauce, about 3 parts mayo to 1 part vietnamese “chili garlic sauce” - this was a hit I think. Meat, which I thought was filet mignon, but was probably some other loin cut. Salt, garlic, pepper. Broiled 5 min each side. (Supermarkets don’t seem to sell filet much anymore.) Broccoli, steamed, which was probably overkill but I wanted something else in case the ‘chokes didn’t work. ...