These are my results from the Belief-O-Matic quiz at Beliefnet, hat tip to Spirit Blooms.

1. Neo-Pagan (100%)
2. Mahayana Buddhism (95%)
3. Unitarian Universalism (91%)
4. New Age (90%)
5. Liberal Quakers (79%) (read more . . . )

There was a time in my life many years ago when I wanted to be a mechanic, but for a variety of complex reasons, that dream was never realized to its full extent. I spent most of my late teenage years taking cars apart, and usually putting them back together: I loved it. I even had a mobile mechanic business for a short while in later years, but couldn’t make it profitable enough to live in the rising real estate of Southern California, and that’s when the “love” of working on cars passed. I remember this one guy who’d called me, asking for an over the phone quote for something specific. After giving him the quote, in oblivion he asked, “Will you do it for $5.00 less than ______ down the street?” There’s a definite downside to empathy, and I was already near the end of that business endeavor. Anyway, I still work on my own vehicles exclusively, but now that’s quite infrequent.

Coldforged.org tells us a story of his recent car troubles, which inspired this short and generalized post you’re now reading.

Why won’t a car start?
(Please keep in mind my explanation is inherently simplified) (read more . . . )

My dear spouse just mentioned to me that we could get ‘deep vein thrombosis’ from sitting at the computer for too long. Now we’re both laughing; I’m laughing while I type.

I guess you had to be there. We really don’t have lives anymore, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is an e-life. Okay, it’s somewhat of an exaggeration.

To think, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the dilemma.

Adam Shostack wrote:

“I have to say, I love getting real trackbacks. I like it when people take what I’ve said and expand on it. I hate getting semi-trackbacks, where a poster sort-of refers to what I’ve said, doesn’t link to me, and throws in a trackback. I hate, hate, hate, spam trackbacks.”

Every weblogger with trackbacks turned on is currently burdened with trackback spam, but this is the first I’ve read of “semi-trackbacks” being a construct of malcontent; in fact it’s the first I’ve read of semi-trackbacks at all, perhaps I’m ignorant on the issue.

It appears the use of trackbacks is to build on others’ existing conversations at close to the same time as adding content to one’s own weblog. This is trackback’s advantage over comments, where content is placed in only a single place. It’s important that “at close to the same time” is understood as not precisely simultaneous. Further, a trackback request can be placed at the time of publishing one’s own writings, or it can be added later to existing postings. This latter type appears to be one of Adam’s objections, where the content may not be strictly personalized.

Is the only appropriate use of trackbacks to request them at the time of one’s own original writing? Should we attach stigma to trackbacking of older articles in a newer conversation? (read more . . . )

So what’s your opinion of the USDA’s new food pyramids? I note that all twelve listed pyramid versions contain large amounts of “milk.”

As a human, I’d like to know what grocery store has ‘human milk’ priced competitively to cow’s milk? It’s curious that the pyramid itself doesn’t specify the type of milk, leading me to wonder if it’s an implicit form of the advertizing slogan from the 70s, “Milk is Good for EveryBody”, and which is not true for about 75% of the world’s population when considering the milk commonly found in U.S. grocery stores. Furthermore, nature doesn’t appear to prescribe human milk for more than the first few years of human life. (read more . . . )