Yes, that sums it up really - there has been a distinct lack of posting over the festive season. Partly because I've had the cold from hell, and partly because I haven't been in the country - so I can be excused, really I can.
Anyway - I'm about to make up for it, working chronologically backwards until I've caught up with myself.
p.s. To the person who put "i wank with my mate" into a search engine and got our site….jolly well done to you.
On the ghost hunting nonsense t’other day, (of which I will tell all, soon-ish) several times various peeps were convinced they could periodically smell a floral scent in a few rooms, nothing specific apart from one person who smelt lily of the valley. I may have been quiet throughout the night, but I was busy keeping my eyes open and having a good look around me, even in the dark. I noticed many of these plug air fresheners, I’m guessing no one else did, and that perhaps the owner, who nodding and agreed with every “paranormal” sensation experience, had also forgotten what was in her own house.
What is with these horrible things? Why does everyone have to make their homes smell like something else? Ok, so wet dog or eau du fag end aren’t appalling aromas to hit you as you walk into your own or someone else’s home, but is pumping nasty chemicals of artificial scent really the best way of dealing with the situation? What about throwing away one’s hard earned, or not so hard earned, cash on fresh flowers? They look really nice and smell wonderful too, if you pick the right sort*. Far more cheering and environmentally friendly than electricity-sapping plug-ins, whether they puff or not, or sprays.
Air fresheners work in one of, or in a combination of, the following four ways:
1) by killing your ability to smell by way of a nerve-deadening chemical
2) by coating your nasal passages with an undetectable oily film
3) by covering up one smell with another
4) (rarely) by breaking down the offensive odor.
Ewww, this is just nasty:
Benzyl Alcohol — “…upper respiratory tract irritation, headaches, nausea and vomiting, a depressed central nervous system and a drop in blood pressure.”
Camphor— “On EPA’s Hazardous Waste List… readily absorbed through the body tissues…irritation of eyes, skin, nose, and throat…dizziness, confusion, nausea, twitching muscles and convulsions…avoid inhalation of vapors.”
Dichlorobenzene– “extremely toxic, a central nervous system depressant, kidney and liver poison. One of the chlorinated hydrocarbons that is long-lasting in the environment and is stored in body fat. Vapor irritating to skin, eyes and throat. Banned in California.”
Ethanol– “… derived from petroleum and is carcinogenic… toxic to the skin, respiratory, cardiovascular, developmental, endocrine, neurological, and gastrointestinal systems.”
Formaldehyde– “…toxic if inhaled, poisonous if swallowed, skin and eye irritant, carcinogenic…”
Limonene—“ …Carcinogenic, prevent its’ contact with skin or eyes because it is an irritant and sensitizer …always wash thoroughly after using this material and before eating or drinking…do not inhale limonene vapor”.
Naphthalene– “… a carcinogen that accumulates in our waters and marine life. It can be irritating to the skin, alter kidney function, cause cataracts, and is toxic (cardiovascular and developmental), especially to children. It can be poisonous if inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the skin.
Phenol– “…can cause skin to swell, burn, peel, and break out in hives … cold sweats, convulsions, circulatory collapse, coma and even death.
Pinene– “…Flammable. Incompatible with strong oxidizing agents. Eye, skin, & respiratory irritant. May be absorbed through skin…very destructive of mucous membranes.
both extracts from: http://www.mcs-global.org/Documents/PDFs/AirFreshenersAndPlug-Ins.pdf
*Course they’re not so great if they’ve travelled many, many miles to get to you, nor so if they’ve been produced in a way that is detrimental to the local environment, workers, etc, as is the case with the vast majority of cut flowers in this country.
But then there are problems with the “better” alternative, as the above linked article goes on to explain. Clearly the best way is to grow your own flowers for cutting and enjoying inside your own home. Right, that’s just another ideal I’ve set for myself, another that will be procrastinated about. And now I’ve got another excuse to add to my list as to why I won’t buy flowers for those “special occasions” that are merely a marketing scam, i.e. Valentine’s/Mothers/Fathers/Grandparents/My Best Friend Day.
I had perfectly good intentions to write more especially today, as I got up early. OK, so eight o’clock isn’t early in a real world sense, but it’s early enough for me.
WordPress seems to having a funny turn over the last few days - strange, I left Blogger because of it’s temperamental ways; seems I’ve brought those ways to WordPress - the rich text thingy has walked off, probably in a huff because no one paid it any compliments. I can cope without the bold, italic and such buttons, I can just about manage to put in the correct HTML for that, but I’m a little lost without the excellent spellchecker. I know, it’s a lazy way to rely on accurate spelling, but that says a lot about me. So, if there are glaring errors, I’m sorry.
With my giant mug of tea, I was all set for some proper typing, which I did indeed do, just not for the blog. I may have only been an active Skyper for a mere few days but I’m a little hooked. I haven’t participated in many vocal conversations; it’s mostly been through typed chat, which means I’m using it in exactly the same way as MSN Messenger or Yahoo’s IM. Why am I bothering with Skype when I don’t much care for those others? Is it simply because it’s a bit new? Maybe. The one time I did put the effort into plugging in my headphone/mic set, I was mightily impressed with the clarity of the line. I made a point saying so to the other person, and spent vital seconds of brain power in trying to think about how much clearer it sounded than something else of a similar service. I couldn’t think of another VoIP I’d used, so that train of thought wandered of into the deep, dark woods of my head. (Those woods are scary places!) Only when I was alone in my bed, trying against all hope to fall asleep that the thought returned and waved the answer at me - the telephone. The line was clearer then the good old phone. I wonder if the quality is the same when connected from pc to landline though.
So, sat in front of the pc, chatting to various strangers, slightly panicking over the number of windows popping up, I’ve managed to lose most of the morning. When I switched to just online instead of Skype Me! I decided to do a bit of proper typing. Except I couldn’t. In being downstairs and on this machine, my brother had been forced upstairs, which makes a change, it’s usually the other way round. But he then turned on his Xbox 360, and drank up virtually all the internet connection. Everything was working lovely over the home network, until he did that. I couldn’t load any page, nevermind WordPress’s dashboard. I could have written something up in Word, but instead I swapped the Skype status again. The whole router/modem setup still is bollocksed, and probably will be all afternoon now. More unplugging, rebooting and resetting looks to be how the next few hours will be spent. I’m not sure if this post will even get posted right now.
*Depressed at the general crapness of wifi.*
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