There’s a long list of t-shirt photos, along with some hilarious translations of what they say, in this Livejournal Post.  I know when we watched Firefly, we wondered where we could get those awesome t-shirts.

Be ready for some serious Jayne-love and drooling in the post. 

Additionally, discussion on Jayne’s cowboy hat .

Once upon a time, I used SBCglobal (a Yahoo company) for my phone and internet services.  That was around 3 years ago.

A couple days ago, when visiting with a friend, she indicated that she had found a strange charge on her account for $2.99 for Yahoo voice.  She called and disputed it with them.  However, before she could fully dispute it, they requested so much information from her that she was very uncomfortable - passwords, addresses, phone numbers, and the number of the debit card that the erroneous charge was on.

Once they had all the information, they told her that someone had used her information to purchase the item, and they would refund the money.  They recommended that she call her bank and get a new debit card.

My friend was a little surprised that someone would steal her card number to buy yahoo voice services. It seemed also sort of odd that they needed so much information to cancel an erroneous charge. She immediately ordered a new card from her bank.

Today the same exact thing happened to me.  I found a charge to my bank account for $2.99 from Yahoo voice.  My story mirrors hers exactly, except that the woman on the phone said, “Oh, yes.  We can see that you did not make this charge.”  Which seemed, to me, odd.  I’ve also ordered another card. 

Given the recent nature of these events, we wondered if other people hadn’t had this happen to them and they didn’t notice the purchase on their bank account.  I’d recommend that you check your account.  Whether the debit card numbers are being mined somethow, or if Yahoo has set this up on purpose (or at least made a huge mistake they aren’t admitting to), with all the purchases being done this week, who would notice an extra $2.99?

You might say that you’ve never used Yahoo.  However, my friend never used Yahoo/SBCGlobal for anything - but used to use Flickr as a professional account, and Flickr was purchased by Yahoo.

Goes to show you that information never gets truly wiped away.

I did a search today and there isn’t much out there yet about others having this same issue.  However, I found one other person  had the same exact issue in the last week, and then I found another who had an issue with a different aspect of Yahoo in early November.  Apparently, Yahoo charges accounts at their whim.

Just another reason why I’m no longer with them. 

So the White House has received a court order from the Supreme Court saying that they have to preserve ALL their emails.  Because, well, they just misplaced 5 million emails, according to an NPR Story. 

Oh wait, let me be clear.  When asked for these emails, at first the White House said they were lost.  Then the White House claimed that those emails are actually priviledged.  Now the White House has indicated that the emails have “gone missing”.

These 5 million emails are all from the time between March 2003 and October 2005.  You know, periods in time when the White House was dealing with things such as Hurricane Katrina, the US Attorney Firings, and the Ideological Prosecutions occuring nationwide. 

Even more incriminating is that most of these emails were purportedly sent on private Republican National Committee (RNC) email accounts, which many individuals in the White House were conducting White House business over.  Not a pretty picture.

It’s also been said that the RNC  was using Blackberries to avoid Federal archiving laws. 

It isn’t just Republicans who have managed to subvert the public disemmination of email.  The Clintons requested that this information remain private as well.  However, they did not delete the information - merely requested that emails between Bill and Hilary are not made public.  I certainly hope that doesn’t amount to 5 million emails.

Now they have a court order to save them.  Will that make a difference?

Incredulity #2.

I hate having such negative information to give out.  I really do.  I don’t want to  spend my blog posts writing about items that I feel people should know.  Well, I DO want to, because I want you to know.  But I’d much rather have a healthy mix of good and bad.

I really have been feeling lately like I’m in the Twillight Zone and this cannot be the world I’m supposed to exist in.  The slam of the recent jaw-dropping topics (plastic in the ocean, mercury in vaccines, the San Fran oil spill, and my next blog post topic - 5M emails ‘missing’ from the White House) just have made my brain spin, wondering if I really am seeing all of this happen. 

Let’s not forget that China has had numerous exports pulled because of lead contamination, and one toy pulled because the chemicals in it become a date-rape drug when ingested.  From a NY Daily News article about the guy they executed (let me say that again - that they EXECUTED) who was the head of their food and drug administration -

 China is caught in a PR catastrophe after a series of export scandals: toothpaste tainted with antifreeze; contaminated pet food that killed as many as 4,000 American dogs and cats; lead paint on Thomas the Tank Engine toys; eggs colored with a carcinogenic industrial dye and frozen fish laden with pesticides.

Honestly, I can’t decide if I think it’s an effective retribution for potentially poisoning millions of people or human rights issue.  I’m leaning towards the former.  Perhaps fewer things like this would happen worldwide if your life was on the line.

Is this the world I really live in?  Has this sort of thing always been happening?  Or are we at some tipping point where I feel like the whole world has gone NUTS?! 

Anyway…back to my topic…the oil spill in lovely San Francisco Bay.  Yes, 58,000 gallons of oil is washing up on the beaches, spreading around the Pacific.  Probably going to join some of the plastic in the Pacific Trash Patch and have a little toxic get together shindig. 

This is me, holding my head in my hands.

And someone on NPR said something I’d not yet voiced.  How do these things HAPPEN?  Seriously - everytime I turn around there’s some oil spill endangering wildlife and ecosystems and I always think - Why?  Why does this have to happen?  It almost always ends up in some idiot who was being lazy or confused or drunk (in the case of the Exxon Valdez).  And I have to wonder - is this how we do business?  Is this who we have behind the wheels of our cars and our planes and our ships? 

This became something of a rant.  I’m sorry.  I’m just beside myself.  Onto the next incredulity.

Today, I was beset by moments of incredulity.  Three to be exact.  I’ll write about the other two in a moment.

The first was shared with me through an email reposting of an article that came out in the Journal Sentinel today.

Apparently, when you get a flu shot, you also getting a dose of mercury through a preservative that is used to create cost-savings for the corporations that are making them.  Thimerosal has been used as a preservative in vaccines since the 1930s. It is 49.6% mercury by weight and is metabolized into ethyl mercury and thiosalicylate. 

The negative effects of mercury have been known for some time.  Here is the EPA’s website on the effects of mercury.

The EPA classifies a liquid with 200 parts per billion of mercury as hazardous waste. The limit for drinking water is 2 parts per billion.

A typical 0.5 milliliter flu shot contains 25 micrograms — or 50,000 parts per billion — of mercury.

There has even been some conjecture that mercury is connected with autism.  It does make you wonder.  Babies and children are recommended to get flu shots - this year, according to the article, they are recommending that babies get TWO flu shots.  So, 100,000 parts per billion of mercury. 

The thing is that you don’t have to have a vaccine with mercury.  You can request one without.  But no one knows about this because - well - no one knows that there is mercury in the vaccines.

It’s not only Flu vaccines that have mercury.  Check out the table here with information about which vaccines have thimerosal.

Groups that are keeping abreast of the issues with thimerosal and mercury include the website Thimerosal News.

 Incredulity #1 done.  Onto #2 in the next post.

It’s based on 2000 census data, but still very revealing.  Type in your zip code and it will show you the demographical information for where you live, what type of people are there, their education…etc.  And then it also compares it with the rest of your state and the rest of the country.

http://zipskinny.com/

 This could be helpful to get a sense of where you might want to move to, or why the neighborhood seems to be changing its feeling (perhaps more singles are moving in?  Perhaps individuals who work more service jobs live there, therefore creating traffic at odd hours.)  There’s so much that could be interpreted from the restults.

I thought this simple article about not only how they did the makeup for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, but also the historical methods of doing makeup during that era, was interesting. 

Plus, I love it when they give me the tips and tricks to accomplish a look using current tools that I have! 

(That ruff is drool-worthy, as were most of the ruffs in the movie.  I understand that a lot of the costuming was not spot on accurate, but it was BEAUTIFUL.)

 Link to makeup site gathered through Costumer’s Guide.

Those of you who know me personally won’t be surprised by this, but I’ve decided to add costuming to one of my categories.  I’ve had DeMode on my Blogroll for a little while, and my recent fascination with watching everything Elizabeth I has got me totally wrapped up in costuming heaven again.

I really tried to avoid it.  Really I did.  I didn’t want to fall into that bellydancer/rennie/pennsic/larper/roleplayer pit of chatting about costumes and movies with costumes, and this or that era.  This blog was going to be beyond that, above that - more “intellectual” and less drool. 

And frankly, I was pretty sure if I came out about all the above things, I might be immediately deemed an eccentric and relegated to ignominy in the blog world.   

But I keep wanting to tell you all things I’m finding about costumes (and movies coming out with great costumes) and etc!  I wanted to show you all the hard work I’ve done over the years with costuming, whether through a difficult purchase *ahem* or whether I actually crafted something myself.

I say crafted because, well…I don’t sew.  Not yet.  Not really, at least.  I have a sewing machine, and it can sew on fabric.  But whether it makes anything for real is another thing.  I can’t read patterns, and I chose to take shop class instead of home economics.  My mother refused to teach me how to sew because she was certain it would end up in one of our deaths (she might have been right on that, but I don’t think she realized it might have been me dying from the stifling superiority she emanates while telling me how to sew.  Love you mom.)  I did crossstitch and needlepoint and even a hook rug and none of them ever had the perfect back structure.  I’m sort of a free spirit when it comes to needle and thread.

This has not, however, stopped me from creating items.   So I call it crafting since the purists would surely not call what I do “sewing”.  Most of the time, I manage to get by with the strategic positioning of safety pins, tucks, and confidence.

There’s also the issue of historical accuracy.  I know enough to be dangerous and delighted, but not enough to really go into depth.  I know enough to understand that I should use wool in that garb (see, I’m even embracing the jargon…coming out is SO HARD!) but I will still buy it in acrylic, because it has a more pleasing pattern.  And no, I don’t (yet) dye all my own fabric or handspin or handstitch or whatever else is inauthentic about my costuming projects or purchases. 

But I love costuming, of almost all eras.  I have lots of Renaissance costumes, a Victorian costume, Bond-girl costumes.  I want more.  I want to make some of it, and I’m content to buy most of it. And I’m extra content to let others do the accuracy and researching of it - and post it here for you. 

In my “costuming”, I include hairstyles, headcovering, makeup, and footwear.  Be ready!

It’s my Blog, I’ll post if I want to! 

Kenosha furniture salesman pummels robber with his product.

 Good ol’ Midwestern Values in action.  And a nice sales pitch included! 

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/11123306.html?video=YHI&t=a

 Just a short post here about a snack I’ve found that I really really like.

I was looking for a bar/snack/something that was not a meal, but was filling enough to keep me going during a long workshop weekend.  I ran to my local Outpost thinking, “I GUESS I could get a CliffBar…but perhaps there’s something else.”

Nothing against CliffBars - but they really are like sweet, chewy patties that all vaguely resemble each other in flavor.  Some even have icing.

My issue is that I’m gluten-intolerant and I like to eat organically.  And I hate nuts unless they are nicely complimenting something they are in.  So most trailmixes are nixed because they have wheat in them, along with all granola bars, graham crackers (not good for you, but yummy) and most snacky, crunchy things with texture.

Lo and behold, I see ALPSNACKs.  Something my Outpost is trying out and had on sale.  Gluten Free.  Wheat Free. Vegan.  Organic.  Fair-trade.  Combination of fruits and some nuts, but mostly not nuts.  They have hemp nuts.  Now, I am not a “hemp nut” and didn’t know that hemp had nuts.  Apparently, Hemp Seed/Hemp Nut/Hemp Protein are all the same thing - and it is supposedly super good for you.

Whether they are good for you or not, I really enjoyed the snack.  I bought three. It was nicely textured, perfect amount of dried fruits of good flavor, not overly nutty or fruity, and it really lasted a long time energy-wise. 180 calories - less than a Powerbar - and 5g of protein.  It does have 9g of fat, 1.5 of which is saturated.  But I’m not a huge anti-fat person, where all the Omega 3/6 is.   And what with all the fish ingesting plastic chemicals, I’m not sure where to get my Omegas these days.

And I didn’t even know it was part of the Bronner’s group of products.  Yay for a great product that is made by a business connected with my local community, has great business practices, and an example of how business and people should be involved in the community.