A Journey in Little Trees

idiotbonsaist @ 2009-11-20T01:08:00

2009-11-20T06:08:16Z

I... guess this is a good thing to know.

Created by Oatmeal

Dunno 'bout that snake oil...

2009-10-16T02:13:35Z

You are The Magician

Skill, wisdom, adaptation. Craft, cunning, depending on dignity.

Eleoquent and charismatic both verbally and in writing,
you are clever, witty, inventive and persuasive.

The Magician is the male power of creation, creation by willpower and desire. In that ancient sense, it is the ability to make things so just by speaking them aloud. Reflecting this is the fact that the Magician is represented by Mercury. He represents the gift of tongues, a smooth talker, a salesman. Also clever with the slight of hand and a medicine man - either a real doctor or someone trying to sell you snake oil.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Math will end us all

2009-09-25T04:08:34Z

I came across this randomly and had to share.

Writer's Block: Most inspiring teacher

2009-09-23T22:04:43Z

Who is the most inspiring teacher you ever had and why? How often do you think about what they taught you? How has it changed your life?

View 926 Answers

Mr. Painter, my 11th grade English teacher and high school forensics coach, would have to be my choice. He was a major part of my life in high school, primarily because of forensics (I was pretty apathetic towards his English class).

It was during a walk from the bus to a forensics competition at another school when he said to me something that changed my life. He said: "You are the worst procrastinator I have ever met." I chuckled, thinking he was poking fun at me (he had a very wry sense of humor).

But he didn't smile, like he usually would**. "No, really," he said. "You are."

I stopped chuckling. I mean, we're talking about a career 11th-grade college level (not AP) English teacher. He had dealt with decades of bad students. And when it came to procrastination, I was the worst.

It was a sobering moment and I fully believe it changed my life. I've worked hard over the past 8 years to change that, though, and hopefully when I meet Mr. Painter again his opinion of me will change.

**Though honestly it was more of a leer. The hungry wolf kind, not the dirty old man kind. Well, maybe that too. I was suffering from self-inflicted obliviousness those days, so I'm sure there's a lotthat I missed.

Damn my neutral good alignment!

2009-09-23T19:18:24Z

Our new magic cards arrived today in a box about 4x larger than it should be. It turns out that instead of sending us one booster box (that's 36 booster packs), Troll and Toad sent us SIX. It was SOOOOOO temping to keep them, but no, we're sending them back. So I'm trading in about $500 worth of cards for $15 of store credit. Le Sigh.

You just know if we didn't send them back, though, they would figure it out and ask us to pay for it all. Karma is a bitch... best to stay on her good side I guess.

<cries quietly while he counts his mere 270 brand new cards></sarcasm>

knowledge (legal) +5 amendment

2009-09-10T05:31:13Z

It's actually a +3, but you get an additional synergy bonus from the second speaker.

This is a video about why you should never, under any circumstances, talk to the police. Whether you ultimately agree with that sentiment or not, it's still a very fun and VERY educational video regarding the 5th Amendment. Be warned, it's an hour long!

http://www.regent.edu/admin/media/schlaw/LawPreview/

Yar!

Excuses for apathy

2009-09-10T00:53:05Z

So on the drive home from the grocery store today, I saw a bumber sticker that sayd "Why Worry? God's In Control". And I'll admit, I got a little miffed.

Never mind that I feel such a statement is incorrect. If God was in control, then we'd have no free will. Maybe a theologian would argue the opposite, but that's not the issue here.

The issue is apathy. Whether you believe in God or not, how can you just sit back and assume the problems will solve themselves? I'm not saying you should worry all the time, but to do the opposite is worse. Rather, I'm fine with apathy presuming you're okay with everything falling apart and going to hell. But if you expect everything to be OK... better do something more than have faith.

Is it broken? Maybe.

2009-09-04T15:29:29Z

"Maybe" is not what I was expecting to hear when I went to the podiatrist today. He agreed 100% that I probably have a stress fracture just above two of my toes, but the x-rays don't show a break. Unfortunately, that's how it's supposed to be at this point in time: the break won't be visible on an x-ray for a few more weeks. So in the mean time? I have to reduce my activity and wear a surgical sandal (a step down from the "gimp boot" as Bran so wonderfully put it last night). In two weeks I get to go back and find out if my foot really is broken, but that wouldn't really mean anything except as confirmation of what I already believe.

At least the surgical sandal isn't uncomfortable, and I keep misreading the brand name as "Draco" instead of "Darco," which amuses me.

On the downside, no stage combat or SCA for another month or so. I'm very bummed about that.

My foot and grape jam: they're not related

2009-09-03T19:33:01Z

I have an appointment tomorrow to have my foot looked at. Here's hoping it's not as bad as I think.

In other news, to further my efforts to not eat HFCS, I aquired a jar of home-made grape jam off of Esty. It arrived yesterday and I'm looking forward to having some. Our bread has HFCS in it too though, so at the moment it's an empty victory... at the moment!

I need to get ketchup too. I will miss Heinz ketchup, but not much. I've always preferred the home-made stuff. I'd already be making my own except I don't have any of the stuff I need for canning.

I would be getting a lot of this stuff from the East End Co-op if I could just get there. I know where it is, but it's too far away. It's hard enough getting to Giant Eagle, which is a mere 15 minute drive. The Co-op on the other hand is almost 40 minutes from us. I'm talking one-way, too. I admit, this is one of the major reasons why we've been seriously discussing a move. Ditto about the Strip District. I miss shopping at Lotus every week. I want my veggie rice buns & chocolate pandas. And ginger cakes! *sigh*

Me life's updates... Arrr....

2009-09-03T02:04:23Z

Let's see...

I think my foot's broken.

I can't breath through my nose. It's been this way for almost a week. I'm really thirsty. And yes, I've tried that, whatever you were going to suggest.

I finally joined Facebook. I think that's one of the signs of the end times, isn't it?

I'm working hard to cut HFCS out of my diet. I'm already noticing things like less heart burn, even though my diet and habits remain mostly the same.

Things are looking up for my game club. That's exciting, after about a year of doing stuff nobody really enjoyed.

I'm discovering just how few places take PayPal.

Speaking of which, I have a bunch of Magic cards now, but I STILL haven't made a deck.

I'm discovering all sorts of new Robotech and Macross stuff that's just hitting the market here in the U.S.... Oh, how I want it :-(

I feel like we're rediscovering Netflicks right as we're downgrading our subscription to 1 DVD at a time.

Meow.

Writer's Block: A Bitter Pill to Swallow?

2009-08-21T02:00:27Z

If you could get your exercise by taking a pill, would you? Why or why not?

Presented by Intel, Sponsors of Tomorrow.

View 512 Answers

If you had to get electricity, would you crank a generator?

If you had to get to the other side of the country, would you walk?

If you weren't getting enough of the right vitamins, would you eat better?

The ONLY thing that separates us from our ancestors is technology. Humans are the same creates now than they were a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand years ago. A "make you fit" pill would be just another advancement in technology that makes our lives better, no different from anything else.

"But just because a 'get fit' pill is technology doesn't mean we should use it" you cry?

There's SO much technology that we use even though we probably shouldn't. It's all a matter of perspective. I mean, the internal combustion engine has damn near destroyed our planet while simultaneously depleting its resources. Nuclear technology could potentially KILL US ALL if some whack-job finally decides he's had enough . But those technologies have done good things for us too.

Oh, and if you would like to disagree, feel free to say so. But you can't use the internet; that's just a magic pill for communication. Real communication has to be face-to-face. And it can't be easy, you have to work at building a mutual understanding.

EDIT:
Upon reading some other answers, it occurred to me that the question was "would you" not "should you".

That isn't a question I think I can answer as a hypothetical. Ask me again when such a pill actually exists.

I can breath!

2009-08-19T16:29:23Z

It's figurative breathing, although literal breathing is nice too.

Yesterday I finished a stint of articles that I was writing for my new job. These articles were terrible. Basically, I had to write 2.5K word ad copy for not-quite-a-scam kind of products. I wrote something like 8 of them in about a week. It seriously sucked, but there's an upside: I got to write A LOT! Woo! And besides, I think I really accomplished something. I mean, 20K words in a week is no small feat--especially if it's using material that is pseudo-ethical at best--and especially if you're the kid who never finished his English final in 12th grade.

Damn I have come a long way. But am I still a procrastinator? Yup. Well, every day is a new day...

On another note, we're trying to teach Lemony to sleep. Yeah, crazy isn't it? I mean, she'll pass out from time to time, especially at night. But we need to get her to intentionally fall asleep on a regular schedule. It's just not something that babies come with, and the alternative has stopped working. The past several nights we've been up to 6am trying to get her to stop crying and pass out. It's really not fun, but we're learning fast. We think we have a method that is working and we're going to try that for a few days to see if there's any improvement.

OK, time to go to work. I may not love my job, but it has some nice perks *he says as the clock strikes 12:30*

The Future

2009-07-24T06:13:47Z

Some years from now, Bran, Lemony and I will be sitting in a large building. We'll be surrounded by people dear to us and we're all watching as the wisest man of the group stands up in front of us. He is behind a large pulpit and on the pulpit in front of him is a book. After a moment, he speaks.

"Will the congregation please stand," he says solemnly. Everyone stands up, their faces reverent. "I will now read from the Third Book of Rich, Page 12, Panels 3 through 6. 'And Elan saith: I am invisible! And then the dragon did eat him. Roy doth sigh.' Amen."

Another podcast episode (four!)

2009-04-29T08:02:51Z

Got the fourth episode online tonight. It's a few days late, but that's still a heck of a lot better than last time. I'm definitely improving though, not just in timing but also the quality of the episodes. Although soon that might be moot, since I'm planning on re-recording them all in a week or two depending on what kind of access I might have to a sound booth.

This is a lot of work for a hobby, but damn I'm enjoying myself =)

Podcast & business stuffs

2009-04-24T17:00:30Z

Yikes! I forgot to post here that episodes 2 and 3 are online! In a few days, so will episode 4 =D

It's getting super crazy busy though. Kid's on the way, comicbook prequel to the podcast is in the works, busy at work making games, bonsai need repotting... indeed, this is an enchanted life.

BTW, I have several rose bushes that I need to get rid of. Unless somebody would like to claim them, I think I'll post on freecycle or craigslist.

Episode 1 online!

2009-03-30T09:45:30Z

The first episode of The Horrible Plan of Horice Pickle is online at http://horicepickle.com/?p=55

It's not terribly long but I hope it's entertaining. Plenty more episodes coming up! Let me know what you think :)

spring is here, officially... unofficially

2009-03-17T16:58:14Z

I put all my bonsai and all my carnivores outside today and on their benches. The spruce forest is going to be taken out and put in the ground this year though. Pretty much all the other trees not in bonsai pots are going to have to be done, which means a fortune in bonsai pots (unless I manage to make my own this year)

The venus flytraps were getting some mold on them from being in storage too long, but I cleaned them up real good. I only lost one, thankfully, but the rest are doing great. They only cost $1 each, so it's not such a terrible loss. WANT MORE CARNIVORES T_T

Also, my pymies are doing great. I lost pretty much all of last season, but this year I'm keeping them inside. I /thought/ I only had three in the pot this year, but I discovered a fourth! Considering they're about 1cm across, this is very exciting to me.

stage combat w/ knives

2009-03-16T03:21:30Z

So, we started doing knife fighting in my stage combat class tonight. I've known a bit about knife fighting for a while, but mostly if was either with a sword in the other hand or how to disarm somebody with a knife. So it was very refreshing to have a knife in my hand and actually talk about how you would fight with it. Obviously the stuff we were doing isn't real... In fact, if you tried any of that stuff in a real knife fight you'd be dead in a few seconds.

But it's still fun and that's really the goal.

podcast progress

2009-03-05T05:58:11Z

I'm now the proud owner of www.horicepickle.com

Uploading a basic Wordpress template tonight & will be shaping it over the next week or two. I'm not sure I can finish revising the book in time, but I've got enough of it done to at least start recording.

Also have a Twitter feed now. http://www.twitter.com/windsmith

watchmen

2009-02-23T20:50:59Z

I finished reading Watchmen yesterday. I can see why it's considered one of the top graphic novels ever, and why it challenged the graphic novel medium.

I'm also pretty sure the movie is going to get poor reception in the theaters. Not because of unfaithfulness to the book (I think it MIGHT be very faithful, we'll find out). Rather, I suspect poor reception will be the effect of bad advertising. I'll grant you, I haven't seen much advertising at all for the movie, but what I had seen gave me a completely different idea of what Watchmen was going to be, as opposed to what it turned out to be when I read the book.

On the other hand, the advertising might be totally representative of the movie, which I really doubt since the book was almost a full 180 from what I was anticipating.

I'll say this, which may be spoilers to some, so beware, but here's my opinion:

Jon is True Neutral (duh)
Veidt is Chaotic Good
Laurie and Dan are Neutral Good
Blake is Chaotic Neutral
Rorschach is Lawful Evil

Thoughts?

EDIT:

On a slightly different note, I think Veidt is what you get when you have an Intelligence of 30 and a Wisdom of 5...

beards

2009-02-18T08:02:45Z

http://wondermark.com/beards-on-the-rise/
A wonderful tale of nonconformity and beards.

Though I would just like to say that I grow mine because I think it looks good.

spring & lawn work

2009-02-09T23:31:43Z

It's not here yet. It wants us to think it is, but ohhh it's not. Silly weather.

But I can't help that it's nice outside! So this evening I spent some time looking over what I need to do in the lawn this year. When we bought the place I knew the sloping ground was going to be a problem and I hate being right. The dogwood in our lawn has moved a full foot over the winter, and the stones lining our center flower garden is visibly leaning and many have fallen in... tonight I picked out 47 toppled stones and there will be more before March.

The only option seems to be to tier the lawn. I'm not that upset with the idea; I like tiered lawns. And this'll give me the opportunity to build a nice rock garden like I've always wanted. But ohhhh it's going to be a lot of work. I suppose that's just as well... my doctor tells me I need to lose at least ten pounds, even though I'm already a skinny bastard.

Also, I've just put up a ton of VHS movies on Freecycle. It'll be my first foray into freecycle. Yay!

EDIT: My freecycle post went up at 6:09... at 6:11 I got the FIRST email asking for the tapes. He said he'd take all of them. I'm not quite sure if he groks what 136 movies is. I told him he'd need to bring an extra box...

Sick

2009-02-02T00:20:55Z

One of the occupational hazards of being a teacher: illness. God only knows which student gave me this, but wow it bites.

We got home last night around 6pm and I just crashed on the sofa under some super warm blankets. When I woke up around midnight, I was shivering so bad I could hardly move. A super hot shower and some dinner went a long way and by 2am I was back asleep on the sofa with the three warmest blankets in the house over me. Then I slept for 12 hours!

Luckily now I'm feeling much better. Not enough to have company over (we were hoping to host a not-a-super-bowl party) but I can at least be out from under the blankets. I even made it to the grocery store to pick up lettuce for the bunnies.

I did have some interesting dreams, probably fever-induced. One of the more compelling ones was about my plants... I saw all of them in a basement & many were in a cold room so they would stay dormant during the winter. In my dream, I moved all the plants from the cold room to sit with the rest and they were all so happy for it. It makes me want to repot all those venus flytraps I have downstairs and get them someplace a little nicer where they won't be enduring the cold nights. I has been a couple of months & I'm wondering if it will be OK for me to take the out of dormancy. Anyway, the dream made me feel good because I had done something nice for the plants. I don't see why I shouldn't feel that way awake.

Kitties!

2009-01-26T18:13:18Z

http://www.x-top.org/prikol/53317/

Coolest photos of two cats fighting, нет?
They totally go home and curl up together, though. You can tell.

Legend of the Concussed Duck

2009-01-26T01:44:20Z

Once upon a time there was a duck.

He was in a graveyard. The duck looked around the graveyard, but couldn't remember why he was there. His head hurt, so he walked out of the graveyard and there upon the ground the duck found a large stone.

"Ah-ha!" said the duck. "Here, this stone I feel is important and holds the reason to why I was in the graveyard and why my head hurts!" To test his theory, the duck hit his head upon the stone and then walked back into the graveyard, where, once upon a time there was a duck.

He was in a graveyard...