Hawks

How often do you usually shower? Once a day, before I go to bed usually but if I've sweat a lot sometimes twice. What sort of personal care products do you use (shampoos, conditioners, deodorants, colognes/perfumes, hair products, soaps/bodywash, toothpaste, aftershave, etc...)? Shampoo and conditioner are Garnier fructis, been using that for a while as it seems to work decently on my hair. Deodorant is something from Amway, works really well but doesn't really smell. I use random body wash from Bath & Bodyworks... Colgate whitening toothpaste. Amway 'Pure White' facewash, stuff that you can't normally get in the US unless you work for them. Really awesome stuff though, great for acne. I'm a big fan of aloe vera for acne treatment too. Do you exercise regularly? If so, how long/often? At the moment I do just over an hour of ice hockey once a week. When I get up to college hopefully that will continue or increase. Do you work out (whether at a gym or at home)? Nope.

Pretty excited about random $5 albums that Amazon has... Getting Showbiz and A Fever You Can't Sweat Out plus a couple of Muse singles, I love having random Amazon gift cards! I did an experiment last night with lavender essential oil and buckwheat - made a heat/cold therapy pillow for my grandma. I used a bit too much lavender, so now my goalie gloves are sitting next to me to try to overcome some of the stink...

I wanted to watch field hockey but I don't get the channel that it's on. It's like the only channel we don't get. So now I'm mad b/c I have to watch UK/UAE soccer, women's beach volleyball or boxing... But the interactive thingy on the Dish is pretty cool, it counts the medals each country has, US has 8 as of a few minutes ago, second to China with 11.

Would you mind documenting the process you use? I'm trying to learn Inkscape and it would be really helpful.

Did not see it, not planning on it [American and idiotic NBC tape delay cabbage] but I was pleasantly surprised with the tribute to Harry Potter (in the form of Voldemort, of course). Thought that making NHS look so great and wonderful was a poor idea on their fault, enjoyed the general silliness and clever stuff throughout though. No TARDIS was an absolute fail. Final torchbearer [close enough] was a type 1 diabetic and Olympian, Sir Steve Redgrave, so my day has been fulfilled.

Day-um! Haven't read any of those that I can see.

My mom's recently taken to screaming at telemarketers when they call here. It's just one place that keeps calling... She's screamed twice and they haven't called again, at least while we were at home... Went to Five Below and came home with a sweet lego DSi case [has evolution of a lego guy on the front] toy story squinkies [woody and hamm], and a nice dry erase board for cheap. Going to be obsessed with that store now...

My turn for that on Friday. Any ideas on if you can play an instrument soon thereafter?

Now and I'm messing around with what many on what you want some really about one well as in such a much more understand why it more Ores and create the law Mkay that was supposed to say I'm messing around with the voice recognition on my computer and it basically generated complete gibberish. This was in an attempt to help my grandma out; she had a stroke and can't type anymore because her left arm is not very useful. She can use the computer still but it would be a lot faster if she could dictate emails to her friends with her voice. I found out Win7 has this built in and decided to try it out b/c of a Dragon review on Amazon that said the Win7 was just as good. Her current computer can't run Dragon though and doesn't have this built in [it's XP] so I need to decide if it's worth it for them to buy another computer [ie how to convince them it's worth it to spend <$500 on something super useful when they spend tons on pointless junk] And I found out they can get 3Mbs internet for $50 a month with phone included, which they already pay $50 for. My grandma is concerned because she just paid her $120 for the year for her NetOne dial-up... omfg. Get over it, I'll give you $50 to do it, then I'll come over and download anything I ever need to download... Mine is only 1Mbs at best... and we pay the same amount plus like $50 for the phone.

I was told it was all week until Wednesday the 25th... Last week I had flag duty on Mackinac Island and we had to run to put them all at half-staff in the middle of the day when we found out; scouts that are up there now have to do it until Wednesday per the scout coordinator's door. My mom just answered the phone screaming... Apparently that's her new defense against the telemarketers who keep calling here.

that 3d view thing is the craziest ever.

Details would be helpful, such as an image that you want on the sig, a color scheme, etc.

At this point, I think I'm planning on making a poster collage thing with lots of stuff about his favorite tank (Tiger I) and getting a poster printed. The sculpture idea sounds like a plan though... He has no favorite MTG card or monster, and I'm not about to make a tank out of Sculpey.

Stalking Red Wings development camp, so jealous that I'm not in Traverse. Smith is definitely starting the season with the Wings, and we've still got Lashoff and a couple other good dmen we could see finish the year with the Wings... I'm pretty happy with the way things are going.

Good crop of articles this week; I really enjoyed Croce's Ali the Poet, although I haven't been keeping up with the storyline, it was just a fantastic bit of writing. Randox's guest article was everything you'd want as an explanation of how mods work, and Alg's Hilarity Ensues was right up with 'why we can't have nice things'. EDIT: completely unrelated attempt at awesomeness: Hawks sadface. How does that username magic work? [mouseover popup in posts]

My brother will be turning 16 in a couple of weeks. Normally I give him a drawing I've done based off of a little questioniare I give him, resulting in a random but totally awesome fantasy character [there have been gnome wizards and dwarf fighters, etc]. I kind of want to mix it up this year though, and have him actually be surprised by it. Still in the general vein of 'doesn't cost me anything' - so art of some sort is the most likely. I'm up for suggestions, though [why else would I have made the topic?] He's an avid Magic: The Gathering player, likes Lego, general fantasy stuff, tanks, aircraft, most things to do with World War II (plays Axis & Allies)... He likes elephants [i've made him a papercraft Phanphy in the past]. At the moment I'm leaning toward a big version of his favorite MTG card art. I've been sketching them lately, though, so it wouldn't be much of a surprise. Plus, I'd have to ask him what it is. Any suggestions or comments would be really helpful! Thanks!

Yes. This is the only thing that I have a problem with now. The divider needs to come back or stickys need a different background color.

One other question- is it now possible to display gender in the sidebar for user posts?

No warnings here. Not much to do today, so probably going to sit around and complain about life.

Can we unblock deviantart.com please? My sig is failing me. And is there a way to turn off the graphical editor back to the text & code one? Going to take a bit of getting used to but it looks great. Edit: and stickys a different color in tip.it theme or get the divider back please.

Wings fan so I have to be disappointed but I'm not really. I'm more excited about our new guys and our guys that have been in the AHL for a while taking a step up and proving themselves in the NHL. I know Smith will do well, but that's only five d-men total at this point... I want to know why we're dropping Pyett, Ernhart, and Minard; they're all good quality guys, get them to stay because you're not spending millions on Parise/Suter. That said, I'd like to see Semin in a Winged Wheel.

The reason the company switched plans is because they'd be taxed ridiculously if they kept the plan that we were happy with:

Could you back this up with some sources? See my post on the previous page. Not all of the legislation has come into effect, but some of it has and it has already had a profound impact on my healthcare costs. Contrary to what Obama said, the plan I had last year (a 'Cadillac' group plan given by a multinational corporation that I'm lucky enough to have my dad work for) is no longer, because it costs the company too much. Instead, we were given an option of a more expensive PPO or a high-deductible plan. We chose the high deductible because we knew it would work out better for us because I'm constantly racking up costs [type 1 diabetes - chronic illness]. Our [family? not 100% sure] deductible is $6,000. Last year's was $100 per person - I met it and my brother did due to an ankle injury; sure, we had a $20 copay at most appointments, but much less opportunity for a huge and horrible accident to throw our finances down the toilet. Sure, we don't have to pay for preventative care, but under this definition, the only prescriptions covered are those that directly prevent death - diabetes and asthma/breathing meds for the most part. Things like antidepressants are not covered and have a higher copay than they had on my previous plan (when everything had a copay). Direct example: My DexCom system needs to be replaced once a year. Last year our copay was $600. This year we had to buy the thing outright due to the deductible, $1300; even without the deductible insurance would have covered less of it, even though it's the same company (different policy). Definitely resulting in more money spent by my family and by the company on the insurance all to cater to some stupid legislation that really doesn't make sense when you look at the results. Imo the only country that has a functional national healthcare system is Germany, and they have a sliding scale and options for companies to buy to provide insurance, much better and different than the Canada/UK thing that leaves holes for many people [i know of at least 3 people who had to fight to get an insulin pump, something that is basically given with most US insurance companies]. I don't live in Germany so I haven't experienced it but I've heard the fewest complaints about it and the structure is sound.

Thank you! Already with the garbage healthcare system we have had to pay $4,000 out of pocket for my medical stuffs. A DexCom Seven Plus system, which only lasts for one year, cost us $600 last year and cost us $1,300 this year. I can't get my test strips mailed to me anymore and have to go to the annoyance of getting them from my local pharmacy, and they cost way more than last year (for the same items). Plus my anti-depressant isn't directly covered (only preventative stuff is - ie things that prevent death [like insulin]) so we pay god knows what for that when last year it was $20 copay per prescription.

not unless they've got leftovers [which they've had in the past plenty]. they're selling candy bars right now that are girl scout cookie flavored.