Here's my horoscope for the week talking about how mercury retrogrades are a good time to start "new things".

Weekly Indepth Horoscope
AQUARIUS
April 24-30
© 2003 Linda Rankin

Forecast
Mercury adds another retrograde period to the scenery this week, Aquarius, and brings your intellectual focus into your home. Conversations can suddenly shift to the past, your thoughts can be inundated with nostalgia and important others can show up at your door with tales and stories to tell. Keep your mind open...and be willing to hear someone out.

With plenty of incentive to talk matters over you can reach mutually agreeable understanding around partnerships and important life commitments. While many astrologers advise avoiding important contracts and commitments during a Mercury retrograde I have always used them to initiate new things..."new" things that are built on a thorough understanding of the past. Work with "what was"....it will enhance "what can be."

A strong focus on your home should be met with as little resistance as possible. Refuse to hold a static mindset and don't fall into stubbornness as a line of defense. Stay flexible and eager to explore unusual options. Don't make your mind up until you've seen every side of the picture.

I got sucked into watching "Helen of Troy". It was filmed in Malta, which looks like a such a great place to visit.

The show reminded me I've had a hankering to restudy the greek dramas for about three years now. I read them all in college, but that was so long ago that I've forgotten most of them. A screenwriting book I read said that if you want to write a good screenplay, you should first study greek plays.

I'm not taking any classes this summer, so maybe I could do a self study of all the greek plays, all the other greek books I've never read like Herodotus, Cicero, Virgil, Ovid and Plutarch, and review the ones I've read like Homer and Plato.

It will be fun to be immersed in ancient greek literature for the summer. Then maybe I'll be inspired to read a book I've always wanted to read, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".

I get the keys to my new place tomorrow. I'm excited. It feels like my life is just zipping by with all these changes I'm making in my life.

Most astrologers are saying that a Mercury Retrograde is starting on Saturday April 26, and you're not supposed to sign contracts or move. Mercury retrogrades mess everything up and it's retrogarding till May 20. I did read a site where the astrologer said a mercury retrogrades is also a good time to start new things, and that's what I'll definitely be doing with my move to a new place and starting to work home.

There are so many things involved with moving, that I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. I'm almost done with telling all the people you're supposed to inform about my move, so at least this phase of my move is out of the way. Now I just need to keep going through my stuff and decide what to keep and thrown out. I have so many books!

I'm not only moving my apartment, I'm moving my office stuff to my new apartment. There are so many tasks involved with this move as well.

Then there's the stuff to do with the car accident like getting my car fixed, going to the chiropractor twice a week for ultrasound treatment. And on top of all this, add this to my list of bad things happening to me this year, one of my fillings is cracked.

The tooth was starting to hurt, and I had a feeling there was something wrong with. I told my dentist, and he said it needed to be capped. My dentist was concerned about my gums, so he sent to me a dental surgeon and she recommended lifting the gum line on the tooth before he puts the cap on. I finally received the approvol for the procedure from my dental insurance a couple of weeks ago, but I was going to put off the dental surgery till June. With my tooth starting to separate from my filling, I'm not sure I can wait that long.

OY!!! It's just one more thing to deal with. I see my dentist on Saturday to see what he wants to do. I've already told him I'm moving and too busy for any serious dental work until after May 17. There are way too many things going on with my life right now.

And what's interesting is, I'm finally feeling in the mood to write again. I can't wait to set up my computer and my desk at my new apartment so I can write. I want to finish my screenplay, finish that short story I started rewriting, and begin work again on my two half completed novels. And, I want to be done with it all of it by the end of the year.

Being in the mood to write is kind of exciting, because I haven't been in the mood to write since I started that fantasy novel in November. I've had such a long dry spell, five months, of absolutely no creative writing. It's like the creativity spark just dried up, but I think I was so stressed about my job, my health and my apartment that I couldn't even think about writing.

Maybe that the job is set, my health is better, and I have a new apartment, the stress that I've been under is lifting and my creativity is flowing again. I hope so. I miss writing, but it's hard to write when you're constantly freaking out and worried about your life.

Wow, who knows. Maybe I'll even be relaxed enough to think about having a relationship. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

I miss my car. The rental they gave me is a Mazda four-door protege. It's a decent car, but it's not as luxurious as my little VW Golf. The ride isn't as smooth and the engine isn't as powerful either.

I always thought Mazdas were great cars, but when compared to my car it doesn't compare.

I know my little car Siegfried misses me. I can tell he's scared because he's in the car hospital, and that he misses his mommy. The autobody repair guy told me my car would be ready sometime onFriday. I can't wait. I so miss my little car.

So I went to my chiropractor today and I told him about my car accident. He doesn't think I have any serious injuries, but he wants to do a full exam and give some ultrasound treatment. I just have to call my insurance agency to find out if they're going to pay for it.

He adjusted my neck, and my neck pain went away. But when he touched my right shoulder, it was very painful and bruised.

The funny thing is I wanted to quit going to my chiropractor and try another person. My other chiropractor, who is the only person I would drive all to Berkeley to see, told me that he didn't think my San Francisco chiropractor was very good. The SF chiropractor has never been able to release my hips, and I know it can be done because my former chiropractor used to do it. I wish I had kept on with him.

I was going to use the excuse of moving to stop seeing the SF chiropractor, but when I told him he got kind of upset. I chickened out and told him I would keep seeing him, especially now that he's treating me because of the car accident. He said I would only need a few treatments.

I'm such a wimp, but I didn't have the heart to just tell him he's not doing a good job. What could I say? My other chiropractor in Berkeley who has a posh office across from the Claremont Hotel thinks you suck rocks.

I rationalized my behaviour by telling myself that I get what I pay for, and since my SF chiropractor's services is contracted through my HMO I only pay $10. My Berkeley chiropractor costs about 10 times more that, so of course Mitchell is like 10 times better right? My Berkeley guy is also a kinesiologist, and his skill set is very different and more expensive.

I think just to be safe, I'll see my Berkeley chiropractor after I finish the car accident treatment with my SF chiropractor. I have money set aside in a pre-tax flexible spending medical account, and that money pays for dental and medical services not covered by my insurance.

I guess the good news is my body wasn't seriously injured by the car accident, which I kind of knew but was worried about anyway. Everyone I know who has been in a car accident, has had their bodies seriously messed up for life. I have a friend who was in a car accident when she was little, and she swears to me that her body is still messed up because of it. Another friend was in a serious car accident in high school, and he throws out his back constantly.

I guess only time will tell. I was in a playground merry go round accident when I was around 10 years old, and I swear my left hip still hurts to this day. I was playing chase master on the merry go around with friends, while it was spinning. I fell and my left leg got caught underneath it and all I remember is being dragged round and round, and feeling like my left leg was being pulled out of its socket. I think the accident permanently lengthened my left leg and I've had hip pains ever since. I definitely don't need another nagging little pain in my body.

Here's a strange coincidence. I called my HMO to change my address, and when the operator asked me for my birthday she said that she and I share the same birthday, which is January 24.

That's unusual isn't it? Is this a sign of something? How weird is that to talk to a total stranger and to find out you share the same birthday. TRIPPY!!!

Things are humming along. The autorepair body guy called, and he was able to get the parts needed to repair my car. I'm dropping off my car this afternoon, getting a rental, and hopefully my car will be finished by the weekend.

YIPPEE!!! Such good news, yes?

The car insurance adjuster and I finally connected, and I decided to go through one of their repair shops instead of my car dealer. The car insurance company guarantees the work for as long as I own the car, and that seemed like a good deal plus there is less paperwork to deal with if I go through one of their authorized repair shops.

I was going to go through my car dealer, but their service is bad and they charge alot for their work, so better to go the no paperwork route.

I picked a place near my office, drove over to the repair shop, and the man was so sweet and nice. There was a silver BMW in the shop in for repair for being hit by a big rig, and somehow that made me feel better, like I wasn't the only one getting dinged by big trucks. The autobody man said he would prepare an estimate, and give me a call tomorrow. He said he would also arrange for my rental car. In short, he told me he would take care of everything, order a new door which should hopefully take a couple of days, and after that he would need 3 or 4 days to fix my car.

I was so happy to hear the autobody repairman say that. I think by the middle of next week, I'll have my car back and fixed. I'm so impressed by his customer service, that if he follows through I will definitely tip him. He even thanked me for choosing his garage. How cool is that.

Of course, my more cynical side is saying he's probably suffering economically like all other businesses, so of course he's happy to have my business, but even so, he treated me very well and I got a good feeling about him and his work ethic. I'll find out for sure when I finally get my car back, but I think it's going to work out.

Of course, I'll be out $500 which is upsetting, but for what happened to me and my car, that's probably a small price to pay. Once again, thank god for car insurance. I looked up my car insurance policy documents, and I'm not covered for All Risks. When my renewal comes up in July, I'l have to ask about what that covers. I so want as much insurance for my car as I can get now, and I don't mind paying for it.

The car insurance adjuster was so nice and easy to work with. He didn't hassle me, and he called back right away. I thought he wouldn't call me till Wednesday, but he called me Monday morning. I will have to write a nice thank you note to him and copy his boss, and if the autobody repair guy does a great job, I'll write a thank you note to him as well and copy my car insurance company so they know he's doing a good job.

My car insurance company, California Triple A, has really been great so far. When my old car got broken into in 1999, they arranged for me to go to a window repair place and my car was fixed by the next afternoon. I was expected to be hassled about my car accident, because of stories people have told me about their car insurance experiences, but so far no hassles and good customer service.

I felt blessed and relieved for once, instead of damned and punished. I needed a good experience after my horrible Good Friday. I keep thinking that if I hadn't skipped Good Friday service, I wouldn't have had the accident. That if I wasn't so not into being part of worship service, I wouldn't be out $500 dollars with my car all damaged.

I should feel grateful that people ask me to be part of the church service. But I'm just so not into it and I don't know why. This is the second time in a month I've turned down being part of a service. My pastor asked me to do Prayers for the People, and I turned him down. I write really good prayers too, but I just wasn't feeling up to to it.

Truthfully, I wasn't into it because I was afraid that I would say the wrong things because of the war. My church was split down the middle on the war, and since I was pro-war, I knew I would pray for the troops and their safett and I knew that would be such a touchy issue among some of the anti-war members of my congregation.

And yes, it has upset me that we didn't pray for the troops at every service like I think we should have. No matter what your feeling was about the war, we should always pray for the safety of our troops. But that didn't happen, and when that didn't happen I knew that the person praying was vehemently anti-war, and couldn't even bring themselves to pray for our soldiers. Like how un-christian is that or what?

Hearing the Prayers of the People by various members was so revealing to me, because it really told you alot about the individual member, maybe a little too much. I think I was embarrassed a little to be so pro-war myself, because I've been a peace dove for all of my life. But 9/11 really profoundly affected my view of the world, and it's something that I think will continue to influence me whether I want it to or not.

I get tears in my eyes when I think about the events of 9/11, I think because I have such good memories of the World Trade Center. I visited there, listened to lunch time concerts during the summer in the plaza at the very bottom, and I even still own clothes that I bought in the shops there. I spent so much in New York City for awhile, and was practically living there three months out of every year.

I even for a time paid my friend a rental fee for a room she had in her house, so I wouldn't have to worry about not having a place to stay whenever I visited New York. That was cool, paying for an apartment in San Francisco and at the same time paying for a space in New York City. My friend needed the money and I needed a place to crash.

What a life I lived back then. I thought nothing of flying to New York City for the weekend to hangout with friends and enjoy the city. New York City has always felt like home to me, from the first time I went there. That's strange coming from a girl who grew up on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but it's true. I'm not sure if NYC is familiar to me because of all the movies, tv shows and books that have taken place there, but for whatever reason, I've always felt the city was my home.

I had to get used to living in San Francisco, and after all these years it now feels like home, but I instantly felt so at home in New York. I never get lost in New York, and I still get lost here in San Francisco all the time.

I know I need to rethink why I'm so shy with my fellow church members. I know I shouldn't be but I am. I'm even thinking of joining a small bible study group, something I've resisted since I first joined. I tried to join a bible study group when I first joined, but the people just freaked me out. They were so ignorant about other religions, and I think thought anyone who wasn't christian as damned to hell. I'm way too universalist for that.

I've been studying other religions since junior high, and I'm one of those who thinks as long as a person who believes in some form of god, what does it matter what religion it is. However, I don't think my view as far as I can tell is that accepted in any american mainstream denomination church.

I've had such an interesting spiritual journey myself, and have such a hodge podge of beliefs that I feel incapable of judging a person's route to god. Who cares how you get to God, as long as you're interested in wanting to meet him. Radical view for a supposed christian, I know.

So I guess I'm still in shock. I stepped on the scale this morning, and I've lost four pounds since Friday. I must be really be stressed out to lose weight like that. I just don't feel like eating, or when I do eat, I can't eat very much.

At work today, I bought a cup of soup with crackers and I had to force myself to finish it. My stomach is churning so wildly. I haven't felt this uneasy since I ran my first marathon and couldn't stomach the smell of grease or eggs.

I went to the CHP this morning, and it wasn't as dreadful at all. A nice CHP officer helped me to fill out my claim, and the whole process took about 20 minutes. I don't know why I was so worried.

The insurance adjustor has already called me this morning to ask me where I want to get my car fixed, but I was away from my office, and now I'm just waiting for him to call back.

I still feel so uneasy though. Maybe I'm going through some major post traumatic stress disorder or something. I don't know. I usually have such a healthy appetite, but I just can't eat anything right now. My stomach feels so jumpy, and sometimes I still break into tears and I want my mommy.

I'm so used to thinking of myself as an independent person, and now I feel like such a wimpy weakling female. It's an odd feeling. I really want my mommy, and I haven't had this feeling since high school. I hate it. I know if I told my mom she's be her usual brusque self and say something like I should have waited in my car, or why didn't I get the license plate of the truck down.

My mom is like a super practical cold Virgo, and she has really bad bedside manner. I know if I called her, I doubt I'd get much sympathy. It's what mommies are for, but not my mom. If I wanted cash, she'd write a check in a second, but love, sympathy and care, she's the wrong person. My mom just doesn't have a mommy nature, and I don't think she got any training from my grandmother, who she never got along with anyway.

But I want my mommy anyway, and it's a very, very strange feeling.

The member of my church whose son was sent to Iraq attended Easter service today. It was nice to see my fellow church member happy to be sitting with his young 21 year old son. Ever since his son was sent to Iraq, I watched the poor man cry during every service. He was so heart broken. Now today he was all smiles.

What a trippy thing though to see the young man who had been in the war with Iraq, the war I watched every night on CNN, to see him sitting in a pew, knowing he had been fighting in Iraq. He looked very young, and yet very soldierly with his military buzz cut. The person who did the prayers today, had us pray for the the troops and for their protection in Iraq, and to pray for the families of service people.

The Iraq war was fought by our nation's young men and women, as has happened in all our wars. They are not fought by the old or the sick. Wars are fought by the youth of our nation, the best, brightest and certainly the strongest. Perhaps that's what makes war so tragic, that it is fought by people in the full bloom and power of their youth, and that such a loss of someone so young is so wrong.

I'm still tripping out. I kept looking at him thinking, wow, that kid was just over there fighting in Iraq, and now he's here sitting a few pews away from me. His presence made the war seem so real for me. I prayed for him and his fellow soldiers who were still there, and I thanked them inwardly for their service to our country.

It's times like these, I wish I was part of a couple, part of a stable and happy relationship. It's hard to bear the hard times alone. I have a good support group of friends, so it's not like I'm totally alone, but it's not the same as being part of a couple.

The sermon today was how people are like children playing a chase game with their parents or other adults, except as adults we're running from death or fear of death and all the little deaths that come in between. Then the minister said just like children we turn around and charge towards death in the form of addictions or anything that numbs us from the fear of death, but these addicitons and numbers are just like death.

The sermon was apt for me. I was running from a Good Friday service, the service of Christ's death where he dies on the cross and they him in the tomb, and I encountered a near death experience on the Bay Bridge.

Now I'm freaking out again that I didn't die on the Bridge or have a more serious injury. These are the times I wish I had someone who would put their arms around me and tell me over and over again that everything is going to all right. It's been my fantasy and dream to have this kind of person in my life for a long time.

Only one person in my life ever understood I needed this, but we were just friends and he was very unavailable. And even if he were available, it wouldn't have worked because he would have been very hard to live with. Still, I really appreciated that he would always tell me soothingly that everything would be okay. I miss this guy, but he said he couldn't be friends with me without wanting something more, so we parted.

I went through my life since January and I was wrong. Since my bathroom sink got plugged up, I'm on bad incident number 9. But since bad things come in threes, and I've had 3 bad incidents times 3, I think I'm due for a bad incident free next few months.

Thanks for all the words of encourage everyone. It's very highly appreciated!

I know I'm pretty lucky that I've gotten to the age I have, and having never been in an accident with another car until now. It's so shocking when it happens. There I was driving along, when I all of a sudden I felt another car hit mine. It felt like just a bump, but my passenger door got scraped and dinged up badly.

I didn't think I was hurt, but now the left side of my neck is hurting and my right arm is a little tingly. I think I have a pinched nerve. It just so happens I have a chiropractor appointment on Monday, so maybe he can fix it. I can still move my arm, it just feels tingly, like I slept on it or something. My health plan offers self referral chiropractic care, so now's the time I guess to use up those visits.

The car accident feels like the way I get half flus. I get the symptoms, but I never get sick. Bad things seem to happen to me, like they do to everyone else, but then when I look back at the incident I think to myself things could have been alot worse.

Okay, but now I have catholic/presybeterian guilt because I skipped Good Friday service to go shopping at Ikea. Someone at church even asked to be part of the service on April 9, but I wasn't into it so I said now. Now I'm thinking if only I'd said yes, I wouldn't have been in my accident. How weird though isn't it? Like maybe I was meant to be on the bridge and to have an accident, but why? What was the point of that?

My friend who met me at Ikea told me it meant to be because now I can't buy the desk at Ikea that I wanted. I wanted this closed workstation at Ikea, but now with having to pay the car deductible, I don't think I want to spend the money. I just hate having to tap my savings, even though I know it's for emergencies like this.

My friend hated the desk anyway, and said it looked like a coffin. Now I'll just buy some cheap desk and hide it away with a screen. I'll save $200 this way, and my friend said I won't have a coffin in my apartment.

I'm one of those types who think that everything that happens in my life happens for a reason, so of course now I'll spend a considerable amount of time trying to figure out why I had to have an accident on the Bay Bridge on Good Friday during rush hour.

I got into a fender bender on the Bay Bridge last night driving to Ikea in Emeryville. It was a frightening experience, and my passenger door on the driver's side got scraped and dinged. I'd go into it it more, but it's a long story and I think I'm still in shock and trauma. This is my first car accident, and I wish someone would put out a manual on what you're supposed to do, because obviously I'm stupid and clueless. Thank god for car insurance.

I have to go down the CHP on Monday because the driver who hit me didn't get off the freeway with me. Isn't that what you're supposed to do? Pull over to the side of the road when you can to exchange insurance company info and names. There was no place to pull over on the bridge, and I was so freaked out that by the time I was looking for a place to pull over, I was already on the 80 split heading towards Berkeley. I pulled over at the nearest exit thinking the driver who hit me would follow me, but he didn't. It was a big semitruck hauling something so maybe he couldn't do it. I called my insurance company and waited for the guy to show up, but he never did.

Then my car insurance company told me to call 911, so I did that. I was so shocked, I didn't even think to write the license plate of the vehicle down before I drove off the bridge. I just thought the guy would follow me off. Now I'm thinking I should have just stayed in my car and waited for the CHP to show up, and cause on hell of a traffic jam on the bridge. I didn't because the truck driver guy, who didn't even get out of his truck to talk to me, waved me off and I automatically assumed he was telling me to drive off the bridge so we could pull over and talk. It was so all so confusing, and it was Friday rush hour traffic.

The 911 operator said I was a victim of a hit and run, since the truck hit me and I have to file a counter report. I wanted to wait for the police to come and talk to me, but she said there were already so many other accidents already that I might have to wait two hours before the police showed up. I was so unnerved I think I started freaking out on the phone, and the 911 operator tried to calm me down and told me that the best thing was to file a claim on Monday.

I went to Ikea, where I was supposed to meet my friend. She came and we ate in the Ikea cafeteria and I told her my story. I was in shock and babbling, and she just listened me me and let me talk. She said she had had a bad day at work, so she could only listen and I was fine with that. I just needed someone to listen to me. She shopped and I whined and babbled on for two hours.

I was so afraid to get back on the freeway, that my friend suggested I come over and have a drink with her to her house. I went to her house, but decided I couldn't even have half a beer if I was going to drive, so I just drank some juice and we talked some more, or rather I whined some more.

I wanted to spend the night at my friend's house because I was so afraid of gettting back on the freeway, but I made myself leave and somehow I drove home, parked my car and went home. As soon as entered my apartment, the tears fell. I just felt so sorry for myself, and so stupid like I did the wrong thing getting myself into an accident.

I think what happened is the truck driver and I were trying to get into the same lane from opposite sides. My car is so small, he probably didn't see mes so he ended up hitting me. I like to think of myself as a very careful driver, but I guess accident happens.

My friends say it could have been worse. My car could have been totalled instead of just dinged and scraped. The truck could have hit and my car could have swerved and smashed into the car in the other lane, or I could have been seriously injured or killed. Instead, I'm just out $500 for the deductible on my car insurance and freaked out. I wonder if my insurance will go up. Probably. I wonder what the CHP will say on Monday. I am in such unfamiliar territory because this is my first accident.

I'm trying to look on the bright side, but it's hard. I have so many expenses from moving, that I didn't need one more. And to make it worse, my bathroom sink blocked up this morning and won't drain, and who knows when that will get fixed.

Bad things come in threes, and I think I'm up to number six since the year started. What a life huh?

So I had this thing in my head that since I will be working at home, I didn't want my home computer in the same room as my work computer. My home computer would be in my bedroom, because after all I don't need the distraction of TV when I write, and my work computer would be in the corner of my living room.

Now that I'm getting DSL though, it's all become complicated. The easiest thing to do would be to have my home and work computer in the same room, so I could share my DSL modem/router/hub. I could connect my home computer via a USB port to the hub and connect my work computer via ethernet connection to the hub. But I wasn't planning on this configuration.

I wanted to buy one of those computer desks where you can close the door, so at 5 pm at home I could literally close up my office and be at home. I wouldn't have to look at my work stuff or my work computer or even my work phone.

I don't know. I think having two computers side by side just doesn't look that good. How geeky is that?

One alternative is to keep the home computer in the bedroom, and either drill a hole in the wall and run an ethernet cable along the wall and under the rug in the living room to the work computer.

The other alternative is to buy an HPNA adapter, which costs about $50, to plug into the laptop's USB Port and then plug the laptop in the phone line. The home portal device I'm buying from SBC Pacific Bell turns your existing phone jacks into a home based LAN network. The only drawback with this method according to other users, is a loss in a download speed. Like I would even notice, since I've been accessing the Net with my 56K modem for years now.

I have no idea what I'm going to do. The cable under the rug solution is starting to look really attractive, and probably cheaper. All I'd have to do is buy a very long ethernet cable. How much can an ethernet cable cost? I might be able to even take one from work.

I'm very intrigued by the HPNA solution and being able to use an existing phone line as a home LAN idea though, but I'm not in the mood to spend the money to get the HPNA adapter.

It's just one more thing to think about.

A friend called today and wants to go to IKEA tomorrow night. God, I love IKEA but so does everyone else in the SF Bay Area. On the weekends, it's like everyone is there. The parking is horrendous, and it's wall to wall people. IKEA had to build more parking structures to accomodate the hordes of people who shop there. Like who knew people had to buy so much cheap scandanavian furniture. I think I even read once that the IKEA store in Emeryville is one of the best performing stores in the chain. I believe it.

My friend thinks Friday nights are the best night to go, since Ikea won't be so crowded. It's an idea, but then I'd have to drive over the Bay Bridge on a Friday night during the evening commute and I hate doing that. It's not a bad commute if there are no accidents, and I even drove from San Bruno to Vine Street in Berkeley in an hour once starting at 5 pm. But I think that trip time was an exception. There are always accidents during the evening commute.

There's a scene from the movie "Fight Club", one of my favorite scenes from a movie, where Edward Norton's character talks about decorating his apartment. He decorate his apartment with what looks like IKEA furniture, which he said he orderd all through a catalog. That scene makes me laugh everytime.

It's like the time I went to a baby shower at a friend's brother's house. The brother's wife was a Pottery Barn fiend, and the whole place looked like it came out of a Pottery Barn catalog. What looked great in the Pottery Barn catalog, looked sadly stark and unimaginative in someone's home. The house was in a good part of Berkeley as well, which was even more ironic, since I think Pottery Barn to so antithetical to the stereotypical left wing Berkeley life style. Pottery Barn? How consumer nation can you get?

Now IKEA, that's a different story.

Who is the Elfman that keeps commenting? Are you really an elf? There are no elves left. They were all imprisoned during the time of Atlantis, and made into slaves. We were a slave people, and when we died we were cursed and could no longer reincarnate (our light body template was destroyed) as elves but only as humans. We lost our 12-strand DNA, and all our powers since humans only have 2-strand DNA.

But in 2002, elfen souls who were banned from heaven for centuries were allowed to move into the light and rest in peace and be with god. If there are any of us left, we are now humans with health problems related to being elfen first. But we remember, we remember our elfen life when we had our own land, our own culture, our own society, before the great wars, before we were betrayed, destroyed, systemically hunted down and killed. Those who survived were enslaved, cursed for centuries, cursed for all time, with no hope until 2002 when a liberator by the grace of the god freed the elfen people, freed them from centuries of not being able to move into the light and be with the one who created us all.

So I ordered the SBC Yahoo DSL. My local phone company, Pacific Bell is now SBC, so the dsl bill will be part of my phone bill. I also ordered the home portal device. It's a combination dsl modem and router/hub. You can hook up 10 computers to it. Since I'm a new customer, I'm getting a $99 rebate, so it's only costing $60, which is the price someone at the office paid for their router/hub last week.

The order person on the phone said the best thing about the home portal device, is I can get a dsl connection at any phone line and I don't have to worry about physically cabling the other computers to my main computer. Now I'm going to pay Pacific Bell a ton of money to put a phone jack in every room in my new apartment so I can get a dsl connection no matter what room I'm in. Oh boy!

This is a strange experience. I have an office with a window on the second floor of a building, and there are trees outside. I heard a thump on the window, and when I looked over I saw a robin bird sitting in the tree. About a minute later, the robin bird flies into my window. I've been in this office for a long time, and robin bird or any bird for that matter has never done that before.

Then, another robin bird came over and sat next to the first robin bird. The first robin bird takes off and flies into my window again. The other robin bird just watches. The first robin bird does this a couple more times, then they both fly off.

What is going on? It's a cold foggy day here, so it's not like this is spring weather. Why would a robin bird try to fly into my window over and over again?

Been spending the last two hours searching for this totally hot song I heard on the radio this week. It combines an indian man singing with rap music. It's like so cool! Indian music and rap, what a great combo.

The song is called "Beware of the Boys" by Punjabi MC featuring Jay Z. It's just so great! I just downloaded it from Kazaa and I'm listening to it now. I don't have the version they play on the radio, but I still like the song.

From the MTV website, here's the scoop on my favorite new song.

Jay-Z has broken his silence about the U.S.-led coalition's war with Iraq. In the remix of European artist Panjabi MC's overseas hit "Beware of the Boys," Jay mixes his Brooklyn braggadocio with anti-war sentiments.

"We rebellious, we back home/ Screamin' 'Leave Iraq alone,' " Young Hova rhymes over a sample of the theme from the "Knight Rider" TV show. "For all my soldiers in the field/ I will wish you safe return/ But only love kills war/ When will they learn?"

Jay, who is part of the Musicians United to Win Without War coalition along with Russell Simmons, Outkast, Zap Mama, R.E.M. and Sheryl Crow, had been relatively quiet about the war until now.

"It's all good," Panjabi MC said Tuesday from London about Jay's flavoring of the remix. "Originally this track was about something [different]. The track has become more of symbolic vibe of how it's crossed over to the East and West markets."

Translated, Panjabi MC's lyrics, which are sung in Punjabi, are a warning to a 16-year-old girl to be leery of guys who are trying to take her innocence. "Be careful of the boys/ You've only just grown up./ It's not your fault that you've got beautiful eyes/ Once you've realized this, you will become shy/ Look after your youth/ This time won't come again."

Jay and Panjabi were hooked up through their managers after Jay became aware of the track on a recent trip to Switzerland. "He heard the song three or four months ago when this thing started blowing up in Europe," Panjabi MC remembered. "On the radio, in the clubs [and] even on the underground out here, it's been blowing up. He seen the reaction to it and wanted to get involved. He jumped on, basically."

The original and the Jay-Z remix of "Beware of the Boys" will be sold in U.S. stores as a single on April 15. A week prior, Jay-Z will put out The Blueprint 2.1, setting off a bevy of Roc-a-Fella releases that will carry on through the summer (see "Jay-Z Cutting Away The Fat And Releasing Blueprint 2.1").

Today I'm shopping for a DSL service.

My current ISP, AT&T offers DSL service and I am tempted to get their service so I don't lose my email addresses. It pays to research though. I was reading through this website called broadbandreports.com, and a user posted a message saying that if subscribe to AT&T DSL you have to switch to AT&T local phone service. I hate this! What freaks! I've never had a problem with my local phone service, and now I'm supposed to switch.

My other option, SBC Yahoo, isn't that great either. If you subscribe to SBC Yahoo DSL, and you have another long distance carrier, you have to switch.

What a royal pain!

AT&T DSL service, I found out, entered into a contract with Covad for DSL service. AOL Broadband has the same contract with Covad. I hate having to go through a third party.

These are my issues:

1) I don't want to switch email addresses again. I just switched in May 2002, and I hate having to swtich email addresses again.
2) My windows ce laptop won't work with SBC Yahoo DSL dial up, so when I travel, I won't be able to get internet access service. If I get around to getting a laptop, this problem is solved, but until then I'm stuck.
3) AT&T just rolled out their Covad contract in January 2003, and from what user groups are saying they are having a ton of problems.
4) From user forums, Covad has a bad reputation for being an unreliable DSL service. SBC Yahoo DSL, which most of my friends have, seems to work fine.
5) Covad as a company, seems on shakey grounds financially. They were almost bankrupt, until they swung these deals with AT&T and AOL. Companies in an iffy financial situation probably have reduced staff, which translates into bad customer service and network upgrades being put off.

Problems, problems, problems.

I really need to have a reliable DSL service, since I'm going to start working at home in May. I can't afford to have any down time. It's so strange that SBC Yahoo dial up service doesn't work with windows CE. I ran across another person commenting on this issue. Supposedly handheld devices are the way of the future, and since many handheld devices run off the windows ce platform, one would think that SBC Yahoo dial up would want a piece of that future pie. I guess not.

What I'll probably end up doing is geting SBC Yahoo DSL, and keeping my AT&T dial up service for when I travel. SBC Yahoo DSL is offering a good one-year deal, so over all I'll end up spending only about $80 more to have both services. In a year, I'll have to revist this issue.

I'm thinking a lot of stuff can happen in a year. Maybe I'll buy a regular laptop, so I won't have the windows ce problem. Or, maybe SBC Yahoo will realize that they need to have their dial up work with windows CE service. A year will have passed, and maybe I won't feel so bad about changing my email address again.

Either way, I can see myself giving my AT&T account, which is too bad. I never had a significant problem and it works fine for a dial up.

Switch to SBC long distance isn't a problem. It's only 5 cents per minute. Besides, I use my wireless phone for all my long distance calls. I get 450 minutes per month on my cell phone, which includes roaming and long distance, so I haven't had long distance charges on my phone bill since I bought my cell phone. Using the cell phone for long distance calls works out well for me, since I pay for my cell phone minutes every month whether I use them or not. I even use my cell phone to call out of my local calling area, which is anything out of the 415 area code.

What a royal pain in the wazo the phone and DSL issue is!

From Gordon Zaft, yet another Blog Quiz.


You are Dilbert.
You're hard-working, missunderstood, used and
abused, ... well to be brief : You're an
engineer.


Which Dilbert character are you ?
brought to you by Quizilla

I love Dilbert!!!