'In the West, there's a myth that freedom means free expression - that to follow all desires wherever they take one is true freedom.  In fact, as one observes the mind, one sees that following desires, attractions, repulsions is not at all freedom, but is a kind of bondage.  A mind filled with desires and graspings inevitably entails great suffering.  Freedom is not to be gained through the ability to perform certain external actions.  True freedom is an inward state of...

Me and my mom are making a volcano. It looks like a whole lot of nothing right now: My mom says that this is the 'bones' of the volcano.  Tomorrow we are going to paste paper mache on it and hopefully paint it if it's dry enough. I know why vinegar and baking soda cause a chemical reaction, because they create carbon dixoide, and it starts to bubble up, and that's what makes the lava come out of the top of my volcano.  Next installement: what our volcano l...

This time last year, (October 30th to be exact) I had an accident in my Jeep.  I was driving on the interstate, and it had just started to snow.  I had slowed down to about 60 mph, and as I was going over an overpass I hit a patch of black ice and the rear end started to slide.  I tried to control the skid and ended up sliding across the median, ending up facing oncoming traffic...where I got nailed head on by a semi.  This is what my truck looked like afterwards: ...

Everyone has a signature recipe, and I'm sharing mine with you...   6-8 apples, peeled, cored and sliced. 1 cup pecan pieces 28 Kraft caramels 2tbsp water 1 9" pie crust (preferably deep dish) For the topping: 1 stick butter, sofetened. 3/4 cup all purpose flour 1/2 cup sugar (white or brown - I prefer brown) 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Placed sliced apples in pie crust.  Sprinkle pecan pieces over apples.  Melt caramels and water over very low heat - ...

I'm inspired to recount this tale by Myrrander's article about people smelling..... I read this in a British magazine's 'Agony Aunt' column a few years ago, but it has stuck with me ever since - you'll see why. As some of you may know, the British have a reputation for having horrible personal hygeine and bad teeth.  The following will only reinforce that reputation.  'Dear Deirdre, I am a 42 year old man who has had a lady-friend for the last year and a half.&nb...

A 'friend' of ours (I use the term very loosely, you'll see why in a bit) is going through a mid-life crisis.  I swear, this guy's losing his freakin' mind! 'F' is a detective.  He's been a detective for 6 years.  As a detective, you would think that he would have learned from his subject's mistakes - first of all, to not be decepetive, but secondly to cover your tracks and to not get caught.  F and I have never really done well together.  We kept eah other at arm...

In my local newspaper there is a section entitled 'Sound Off'.  People get to call in and 'sound odd' about news stories and public affairs. In this morning's paper, I found this little gem: It always amazes me how many retired military are political conservatives.  They have spent 20 years or more in the service with free food, clothing, housing, unlimited medical care and a pension after 20 years - all provided by government tax-payers.  Other Americans have to struggle an...

There was a fire on my street tonight.  Someone's central AC unit started smoulder...produced a lot of smoke, but that was about it. But the fire department came.  And members of said fire department were very....yummylicious.  I had quite a pleasant time outside, watching them unroll their big hoses and run around in their bunkers. The best part, though, was when they got done and had to roll the hoses back up, because they took off their bunker shirts and were working in ...

For no particular reason (other than I was thinking about it), and in no particular order (just as they come to me) I proudly present my list of books and authors I highly recommend you read.  These are all things I have read or am reading: Anything by Jack Kerouac, but particularly 'The Dharma Bums' and 'On The Road'. 'Slaughterhouse 5' - Kurt Vonnegut 'Plainsong' - Kent Haruf 'The Reader' - Bernhardt Schlink 'She's Come Undone' and 'I Know This Much Is True'  - &n...

The military has successfully screwed up Dave's pay again. We went to check his pay statement online, and there's almost $1100 more in there than there's supposed to be. We were entitled to more money this month because we moved, and weren't living in military housing for 2 weeks - therefore we get housing allowance for those 2 weeks.  I looked to see how much it was based on his rank, and it's around $800 amonth.  Divide that by 2, and you get $400.  Not $1100.  ...

Yes, I did....I made a pie. This is newsworthy because, as anyone who knows me can tell you, I have horrible pastry making skills.  My pasty has always resembled concrete, and hasn't tasted much better.  No-one would eat it - and I don't blame them. I bought an Amish recipe book when we were in Indiana recently, and decided I'd have another go at pastry making using a recipe I found in it for pie dough. It worked!!!  I made a blackberry pie today that has a pastry crust l...

I've been meaning to recount this little tale for a while now, but I kept forgetting.  As many of you knew, my neighbors in South Dakota were...well, they were bitches, to be blunt.  What I'm about to tell you will reinforce that... It was moving day, and the truck pulled up.  Because we had a double-wide driveway, the truck would have been blocking the neighbor's car in.  Dave being the decent person that he is, went over to see if Bitch-Next-Door wanted to move her c...

I'm in the market for a babydoll.  My friend's little girl is turning 5 and she wants a babydoll for her birthday. Babydolls have changed a lot recently, it seems.  When I was a kid, we had the stiff-limbed, hard plastic variety with the frizzy nylon hair, eyes that rolled shut whenever you laid them on their backs and the straight-pipe digestive tract...a hole for her mouth, and a hole in her crotch so that whatever you put in her mouth dribbled almost immediately out the othe...

As you may know, I'm in the market to become a US citizen.  I was looking at the citizenship sample test on the INS web site this evening, and I decided that just for fun I'd take it to see how much I really know.   I got most of the answers right...but it made me wonder how many born and bred American citizens would know the answers to the questions asked? Here's the link to the test - I kept going and did quite a few pages before questions got repeated.  H...

Gideon, as you may already know, is in a bit of a fix at the moment.  I'm trying to help, and I know a few others are as well. Gid himself has come up with an idea, a very good idea, and I want to give it as much publicity as I can.  Please link to this article: Link and either email gid or myself ( dharmagirl69@yahoo.com ) for a more detailed explanation.  it may seem a little surreptitious, but Gid's afraid of getting his idea snatched out from under him (and rightly so) ...