Three skills I am learning now that many others have learned before me

[flexagon]

Today I held a slightly split handstand against the wall for 2 minutes. That's a new record, breaking yesterday's new record of 1:45. 30 more seconds and I might actually catch up to nevers on this one. :)

I bought round-nose pliers so that I could turn the pieces of a very old, expensive, smashed-up pair of earrings into a new, smaller pair. It was surprisingly easy. The jasper and gold beads were just fine once I got them off the crumpled old wire. And I am now feeling oddly empowered, realizing that I might also be able to replace my favorite pearl earrings, one of which I lost a few weeks ago, for just the cost of a couple of pearls and some wire...

Hey, I even just figured out how to implement OR using only NAND gates. How many computer science freshmen have sat on the couch glaring at the same problem? I'm reinventing the wheel like crazy this weekend. I should be annoyed as hell, but I have two pairs of new earrings that probably are unique even if the skills I used to make them aren't.

Comments

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

Oh, forget the wheel, there's barely anything new in the world. How awesome is it to know you can fix your own jewelry?

[flexagon]

Considering that last time I lost one of these earrings I paid over $200 to get them made again? Plenty awesome.

[nevers.livejournal.com]

oh dear, and i haven't done a good handstand hold in a while! you are totally going to catch me! :). 2:30 was REALLY HARD for me so i have been avoiding them. till then i always knew i could stay up for longer if i really wanted to. maybe i'll do two holds today.

congrats on the 2 mins! that is really impressive. most people i train with don't even hold them that long.

the jewelry fixing sounds very exciting.

[flexagon]

squee, thank you! Before this weekend my record was 100 seconds, so I don't know how repeatable the 2 minutes will be. Yesterday I was definitely shaking & about to fall down, so you are not in immediate danger of being caught just yet. :)

Interested in your Essure Procedure Status to date.

[(Anonymous)]

I saw you had the procedure when it was very new. I am seriously considering this procedure, my only concern after reading tons of posts is long term safety and effectiveness. Can you respond and let me know of any issues you or anyone you know has had. Or any sites I should read, all I am finding is everything good! That's good but I want to make sure...guess I am toooo careful. Thanks so much.

Re: Interested in your Essure Procedure Status to date.

[flexagon]

I love the results of my Essure procedure! I mean, I never think about it anymore, even while having sex. I'm just... safe... forever... and never have to do anything about birth control again. Seriously, there's nothing not to love about that. There's the fact of the springs permanently inserted inside me, but we can at least hope that any danger from them is very low. They've been using the same stuff in heart surgeries for years, I guess.

I don't know how you found me -- the memories on vaginapagina perhaps? I suggest you read childfree_zone for a while, starting in Sept '04 and going forward, since it seems like a lot of people there got Essure within a few months after I did, and a lot of people there have asked and answered questions too. Most people had quite good experiences. One woman, who I'm 98% sure is kiwihunter8, found that her tubes had not fully closed at 3 months, or at 6 months, but they did finally close at the 1-year checkup. She's the only person I know who has had any problem -- really just a delay. (I know the Essure site says that in like 15% of cases it might take a couple of tries to get both springs in or something, but according to the stories I've heard myself, trouble is pretty uncommon).

I hope this is the kind of thing you wanted to know. I honestly don't know of a real downside to the procedure yet. It seems like a huge improvement over tubal ligation to me -- the mere fact of not needing general anesthetic or incisions cuts the risk by a lot.

[jg26.livejournal.com]

It's funny. I also had to implement the different logical gates using only NAND gates. The weird thing is, I didn't do it in a CS class, I did it in a philosophy class. I took a BU philosophy class called "Reasoning & Argumentation", which focused much of its focus on boolean logic & theorem proving. NAND, and one other operation (NOR?) have the property that you can build all 15 other logical gates from it. NAND is preferred because it takes the least # of transistors to implement.

[jg26.livejournal.com]

...which focused much of its focus on ...

Nice, J. Try reading your comments before posting them. :P

[flexagon]

Yes, Nand and Nor are the ones. I read that you can implement the regular 2-input Nand with only three transistors, but the Best CMOS page I've found so far shows it using four (and Nor also uses four), so I guess I'm not sure.