08
Mar
2010

How to help a fuzzy brain.

By Kaessa

I posted this on one of the forums I frequent, one for people with chronic pain.  I was curious what other people use to overcome “fibro fog”, the cognitive/memory problems that come along with fibromyalgia.  I also shared my list of helpful items and software. No, I don’t get paid by any of these people, these are genuine endorsements of stuff I use every day.

It’s been really hard for me when I can’t remember anything on my grocery list, or forget to pay bills. I spend a lot of time on my computer, and I’ve found a few tools that really help.

  1. A smartphone: I have an Android phone (HTC Eris), but an iPhone will work for these tools as well. Cost: Depends on your carrier, but I pay $30 extra a month for the data service. Worth. Every. Penny.
  2. Evernote: I have this on my computer, AND on my phone. I can keep notes, grocery lists, take pictures of things I need to remember or describe, and then I can access them from anywhere I have access to a computer. Must have. Free, unless you need more storage. I don’t need more yet.
  3. PageOne Personal Productivity Assistant: This is a website that you can go to, as well as an app for your phone. Set up all your billing sites on one site, and it tracks bills, due dates, payments and spending. It will send you alerts when bills are due. I only have 3 accounts it doesn’t have, and two of those are my local small town water and trash (the other is Newegg). Free for the website. The app is free unless you want to track more than 10 accounts on your phone, then it’s only $7. I bought it just for the ability to quickly check my bank account without going through all the hassle to log in to my bank site from my phone.
  4. Patients Like Me: Website. Track your symptoms, side effects, and medications. Lovely graphs and charting, and they’ll send you an email once a week to remind you to check in. You can also print out a nice chart to bring to your doc. Free.
  5. LastPass: Password keeper. I like this one better than any one I’ve ever tried. It stores your passwords on it’s server, so you can access them from anywhere, but they’re encrypted, so they’re secure. They decrypt them on your computer, so they never have access to your passwords. Free. If you want the app for your phone, Premium is $1 a month. I use the free version at this time.

These are the things I currently use on a daily basis. Does anyone else have suggestions or questions? :)

Category: life  Tags: health, life, technology  Leave a Comment
23
Feb
2010

Memories

By Kaessa

I was going through a box of pictures my mom sent to me, and found this:

On my way to boot camp

This is me, 17 years old, on my way to boot camp for the Navy. Was I ever this young? Or this thin? Almost 30 years have gone by, and I wonder where the hell the time has gone. I can remember this day like it was yesterday.

I would give anything to be able to go back, with the knowledge I have now, and be that person I was. I was so young, and so scared, and so naive. There is so much I would change… and yet I don’t know if I would change anything. If I did, I wouldn’t have my kids, or the wonderful person I’m with now. If I could just give that younger me some confidence, some self-esteem, it would have made so much difference.

I sometimes wish I could have spared myself the pain of all that I have been through… but at the same time, that’s what made me who I am.  I like who I am… and I suppose that’s a good thing. :)

Category: life  Tags: life, pictures, random  Leave a Comment
19
Feb
2010

Snow and stuff

By Kaessa

I’m sitting here in my living room this morning, trying to blog, but nothing is coming to mind. What to talk about? Those of you who blog, how do you decide your subject matter? I’ve just been staring out the window, watching big fat flakes of snow falling out of a grey sky… and that’s all that I can think about.

It’s been a good morning so far. The dogs and I went to the open space park on the other side of the river, and they got to chase the ball until they were exhausted. We have a Chuckit! Ball Launcher (shameless plug, this is the best $15 I ever spent on a dog toy), and I can throw the ball 50 yards without hurting myself, so they get a real workout. I couldn’t keep up with them otherwise. After they were exhausted, I went to the grocery store and bought a few things. Is it just me, or is toilet paper getting really freaking expensive? Probably because I don’t buy the cheap stuff. I’m spoiled. Then we came home. This is my life. Boring, slow, and we don’t get much done, but it is what it is.

The dogs have collapsed on the floor since we’ve been home; Ares is back in the bedroom in his “spot”, and Apollo is laying right next to my computer chair having happy doggy dreams.

Apollo

Some days I really envy the animals in this house.

Category: life, pets  Tags: blog, dogs, home, pets, pictures, random, weather  2 Comments
17
Feb
2010

Posting from my phone.

By Kaessa

If you know me at all, you know that at this moment I am practically giddy at the thought of this. Here I am, laying in bed, tapping out a blog post from my freaking telephone.

I remember when I was little… we had a phone. It was an ordinary phone, connected to the wall, with a rotary dial. I remember hoping the number didn’t have too many zeros or nines because they took too long to dial.

Then, they had touch-tone, and phones were so much easier. I think not long after this was when they would actually let you buy phones, because I remember going to the phone store to look at all the cool phones you could buy. Then came cordless, then pagers, then the first carphones. Hardly anyone had one, but they were awesome. They got smaller and cooler and lighter. Everyone was getting one. I got my first cell phone about 12ish years ago, and thought it was great.

Then? They started to make cell phones smart. Internet. Email. Facebook. Twitter. Everything you can think of, “there’s an app for that”. GPS driving directions.

And just now, I discovered the app that lets my update my blog from anywhere. From my phone.

I think I’m in love.

Category: Uncategorized  Tags: random, technology  2 Comments
16
Feb
2010

Actual Knitting Content

By Kaessa

Yes, I’ve actually been knitting lately! I’ve made a couple of hats.. one for William, and one for Brian. Will promptly lost his after having it for less than a month. I’ve told him if he wants me to knit him another, he’s going to have to buy the yarn himself, and it’s NOT allowed to be acrylic. Knitting that hat with acrylic really hurt my hands a lot. I think I can possibly convince him to buy a skein of some nice baby alpaca or some ultra soft cotton or something. Baby alpaca would be awesome, but I think I would covet it for myself and not let him have it once I was finished.

Speaking of coveting… I have finally started a project with some of the yummy Malabrigo that I have been saving for a few years. I really liked the hat pattern (Woolly Wormhead’s Ribbed Beanie), so I made one for myself out of the Dark Earth Malabrigo worsted from my stash. I finished it last night.

The first picture is almost exactly the color of the yarn. The second picture came out much lighter because of the flash. It is a wonderfully warm hat, and it fits beautifully.

I made this with two strands of worsted held together so I could approximate a bulky yarn. I think it worked out well. I changed the patterne from a 6×2 rib to a 5×3 rib, and I changed the crown shaping so it would be “rounder” instead of decreasing so quickly. Details on my project page, if you have a Ravelry account. I basically added a “plain” round, knit in pattern, in between decreases.

Now that I’m done with that, I have two half-balls of yarn left over to play with. I started a new project this morning with the leftovers; the Single Cable Scarf from One Skein by Leigh Radford. I took a picture this morning when it was really short:

I’ve done about 8 more inches on it since then, though. I shall have to take another picture later.

On the down side of life, Will has a cold with a nasty cough… and of course I’m in the process of getting it. I suppose I can use it as a good excuse to stay in bed and knit. Thanks, public schools, for being such wonderful source of entertainment for my immune system.

Category: knitting, life  Tags: family, health, knitting, life, yarn  Leave a Comment
15
Feb
2010

Update complete

By Kaessa

Not only is the update complete, but it went silky smooth.  I love it when that happens. I also did a bit of hunting around, and found out why I haven’t been able to auto-update any of my plugins.  It was a simple change, just one line (AddType x-mapp-php5 .php) to the top of  my .htaccess file and poof everything works now.  I was finally able to get in and clean up all of my tags, too, so I don’t have 18 bajillion tags that I’ve only used once. Next, categories.

Now I just need to come up with something to blog about besides my blog.

Category: blog  Tags: blog, technology  Leave a Comment
15
Feb
2010

Site upgrade

By Kaessa

I’m upgrading to the latest version of Wordpress, the site may be up/down/have some general wonkiness today. Bear with me!

Category: blog  Leave a Comment
15
Feb
2010

Monday Happy List

By Kaessa

I keep trying, and I keep failing, to keep the blog updated. I think I need to decide what I want to write about.  I’ve notice that I have a tendency to wander from topic to topic, and really haven’t pinned down any specific thing I want to talk about. If you read the blog (I know there’s a FEW of you out there!) let me know if there’s one topic that interests you more than others.  Until that point, I’m going to ramble on. :)

Anyway.. in no particular order, here are five things that make me happy.

  • My husband. Every day, in every way, he reminds me why I fell in love with him.
  • Coffee in the mornings.
  • Warm sunshine on a cold winter’s day. Yesterday was beautiful, and the first time I’ve gone without a coat since November.
  • Snow. Specifically, a soft, heavy snow when I’m warm inside and don’t have to go anywhere. I may gripe about it, but I love it when it snows.
  • My new phone, a Droid Eris. I can now talk on the phone, listen to music, get driving directions, AND follow Twitter and Facebook all on the same device. I am addicted.

Once again, I will TRY to update more frequently. I’ve been feeling less “bleh” and have a bit more energy, so I just may be able to manage it.

Category: blog, life  Leave a Comment
08
Jan
2010

Not Perfect

By Kaessa

Have I mentioned that I adore Tim Minchin? I love this song.

Category: other stuff  Tags: fun, internet, life, random  Comments off
01
Jan
2010

Happy New Year 2010!

By Kaessa

Yes, we’ve survived another year. This one was interesting, and sometimes difficult, but it was a good year. We stayed up until midnight watching movies, and popped open a bottle of sparkling cider to celebrate. I would have preferred a bottle of champagne, but Brian was on call, I can’t drink because of my meds, and Will is still too young. So, sparkling cider it was. At least I woke up this morning sans hangover.

Hope your new year is great!

Category: life, other stuff  Tags: life, random  2 Comments
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