2010
04.11
I’ve returned to my gardening project, and returned to my blogging. Mr. Intensity is absolutely right in that I need to actually keep a log of what I’m doing with the plants. As for the topic of the day, though… The fucking aphids are back. I loathe these things. So far, I’ve only found them in Plum2′s pot, and they’re mostly on the mint–but there’s serious damage to the plum’s leaves. They killed one of my plum saplings last year–along with three morning glories, easily HALF of my mint and an assortment of other veggies. The little bastards have gone to work on one of the plums that survived last year’s debacle, and I’m just furious! I did some research online, and I seem to have three options: Attract ladybugs to the garden, hose them with a mix of household goods and suffocate them over a couple of weeks, or bring in some hardcore pesticides and get all genocidal with them. While my natural inclination involves the genocide option, with a side helping of flamethrower, that DOES present problems for my plants, and I can’t have that! Looking into the ladybug option reveals problems with that plan. In addition to finding it hard to attract ladybugs up to a 3rd floor balcony, if I DO manage to get them coming up here, there are just so many aphids that the ladybug population may get out of hand, not to mention the damage already being done while I get new flowers planted to attract them to begin with–although this might be a good plan for next year… That said, I’m going to have to go with the home-brew solution. I have a spray bottle filled with 1c vegetable oil, 1c water, 2tbsp dish soap. I’m supposed to spray this on the plants daily for 2 weeks, according to the guide I found online. I just got done spraying, and I’d already dislodged a handful of the little bastards, and the spray is supposed to suffocate them, killing off the colony. I’ll see how this goes for the next week. That failing, I’m ripping all of the mint out of plum2′s pot, and getting the heavy-duty insecticide. We’ll see how that goes. Now, without any further ado, I’ll get right into today’s report:
This morning I went out at midday to check on the garden, as I wasn’t home long enough yesterday to do so, and things are looking good. The grass looked great, the flowers are starting to bloom, and all of the veggies are looking pretty solid–I DID notice today that the strawberries are starting to do their thing; I got pretty excited about that. Doing a left to right:
Morning Glories have gained another inch this weekend and all four vines are now climbing the lattice.
Plum 1 is looking good with two new branches spreading out from the main plant.
The mystery plant inside Plum1′s pot has started flowering and looks very nice. I’ve no remote idea what it is, but I have two of them and they’re quite pretty.
Five of the six snapdragons are looking good, while one is rather stunted in its growth. Despite taking a massive beating in the windstorms, the taller ones are holding on and getting a little more stiffness back in their stems.
Chives look great, taste great–need to bake more potatoes.
Potatoes are just… being potatoes. They’re in the ground and growin’. I’m just kinda going to let them do their thing.
Strawberries are spreading out and filling in their new pot nicely. I’ve got 3 new blooms, and several baby berries starting to weigh their leaves down. I might get a pint or a half pint out of them–should make for a couple of nights of very nice dessert.
Grasspot 1 is cruising along and looks like a little miniature jungle. I love it, and it’s attracting some bugs to come along and eat up some of the pests, but the aphids are breeding WAY too fast for this to matter much.
The catnip was completely wilted and hanging limply out of its planter when I got outside, but after some water and about an hour or two of sunlight, it perked right back up and is looking smashing.
The rosemary looks and SMELLS awesome. Doing great there. I actually used a few leaves in some spaghetti that the girl and I made the other night. It was faaaantastic.
Much to my chagrin, I noticed that Plum2 isn’t looking so hot. The storms whipped him around pretty badly and he’s got a pot buddy, so I thought that he’d just need a couple of days of water and sun after the storms to perk back up. Not so–the aphids have jacked him up. The aforementioned spray has been applied, and I’ll keep watching for results. We’ll see how that goes…
Blackberry1 is still completely dormant. No sign of activity from the sunflowers planted around it. The grass is looking good, but was planted sparse to avoid competition with the blackberries. As the plant has made no signs of life, I’ve gone ahead and seeded the whole pot to be another grass pot, with the possibility of the sunflowers coming up, in time.
Blackberry2 is looking great! Lots of fresh growth, no aphids. Just looking good.
Grasspot 2 is full, healthy, and feels GREAT between my toes… Makes a GREAT footstool.
Grasspot 3 is just like Grasspot 2, but smaller.
Grasspot 4 is still sparse, and there’s some kind of weird, tiny red plant growing in there. I’ll post pictures and see if I can’t get some identification on that bad boy soon…
So, yeah–we’ll see how things go, and I’ll return in a couple of days with more.
2010
01.08
I’m so excited! This morning I woke up to find that enough money has been donated to keep ars-insolitus.com 
alive for another year! This is some of the best news I can imagine waking up to, and SUCH a relief! I’m going to update/change our donation page, but I’ll keep it up and running, so people can drop in a penny here and there for future years’ subscriptions.
If you should decide that you have a use for a personalized blog, want a website that’s 100% customizable, rather than going through some script- or advertisement-ridden service, need to park your domain somewhere with unlimited storage and bandwidth, want to host a voice server, get a more personable blog, forum, et cetera, ad infinitum, drop me a line! I’ll be glad to provide whatever online services you decide you need!
2010
01.07
Well, being laid off is really starting to take a toll… I’m about to lose my website/hosting/blog service, and I can’t pay it–so I’m reaching out to any who see this, asking for any help, any kind of a lifeline.
While I’m horrid at drawing and painting and cannot offer any kind of commission work, if you have any web hosting needs–a blog, forums, somewhere to host your own site, chatrooms, ventrillo/teamspeak servers–whatever–I would be honored to host that service for you, for your donation. Right now, we need $137.40 to get the site up and running through the end of 2010. If you can help–please do, even if it’s just words of support. The donation page is available at Ars Insolitus and thank you for your support!
2009
12.30
My new roomie is a bigger warhammer 40k fan than I am. She plays WoW more religiously than some people practice religion. It’s been a while since I had someone to play 40k with. I’ve been without WoW since September. This situation has A) made me REALLY want to play a LOT of World of Warcraft and B) REALLY, REALLY makes me want to replay Dawn of War.
I have purchased DoW and Winter Assault twice. I purchased all of the expansions. I played the HELL out of those games… and now I can’t farkin’ FIND THEM! I’m losing my goddamned mind. Much like surprise buttsecks, this is the most unexpected thing that I didn’t know I needed, though… (wait, what?)
So far, I’ve found my Jonathan Coulton CD, both of my cloaks, all of my Ren Faire clothes, Elder Scrolls IV, Bioshock, Sins of a Solar Empire, Civiilization IV, Assassin Creed, the King’s Quest collection, and Boondock Saints…
I’ve gone nuts at different times, looking for each of these things. Now, I have them all–and NO DAWN OF FREAKIN’ WAR OMGRAGEWTFI’MFROTHINGATTHE MOUTHRABIESMYNEIGHBORSNEEDTORUNFORITSTABBYSTABBYBITETHEFACETAZERTHEBABY
…I really hope I can find Dawn of War. I needs it, Precious.
Update 1:
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!111one
Update 2:
All discs located. Beginning the longest. Install process. Evrar.
2009
12.30
As some of you know, I’ve found myself in quite the pickle. Back in September, I was laid off and have since been living on a combination of Washington State Unemployment, and my savings from the last couple of years of working. As of last week, the savings account reached zero, and keeping the apartment warm for the winter time is proving more costly than I had anticipated. I tried skipping on Christmas, buying only a single real gift, and doing cards for other folks. I’ve tried picking up an additional roomie. I’ve cut pretty much every corner that I can.
Simply put, the money’s fast running out. I anticipate warmer months bringing less heating costs, and things reaching some form of equilibrium. Until then, though, I’m going to have to do everything I can to draw in extra dollars here and there. I’ve started flagging my photography work over at Deviant Art as purchasable in their prints shop. I tend to have a fairly keen eye for some nice little gems out of nature, and invite you to take a look. Grab a puzzle for yourself or a loved one. Pick up some greeting or post cards. Some of the profits of everything purchased from my DA shop gets routed back to me. To be fair, though–those items CAN be somewhat overpriced, and aren’t really the best source of income. If you have other pictures that you like, I’ll start working on putting more of my untouched pieces here. You’re welcome to snag any of them as downloads, or let me know your favorites, and I can get them touched up and ready for actual consumption.
Finally, I’ve done one of those things I hate to do–I’ve added a donation button, over there on the right. If you can find it in yourself or can afford to do so, please toss a buck or two this way–whatever you can spare. Anything that can help ease up the groceries a bit will give me more room to get bills paid closer to on time, and if I can get THAT mess caught up and untangled, I’m sure that I can get things back in check as the spring warms things up.
I know this is kinda long-winded and meandering–but thanks for taking time to read, and thanks for those who contribute in any way. I really appreciate your generosity, and hope that every kindness in the world is visited on you for your help.
2009
12.25
So, yeah–the streaming service is looking pretty awesome. I’ve gotten things stabilized, but DAMN, it’s a bandwidth hog. No surprise, I know, but it was a little bit of a shock at just HOW MUCH.
That’s all good, though. Now, I just need to work out a regular schedule and keep at it. Things to figure out now are how to get some publicity, so I can get people to actually give me feedback on stuff.
Things that I intend to show will be streams of gaming, so’s I can get feedback on games, performance, and whatnot. I also aim to sit down and watch the occasional movie with friends and family–but given the nature of the internet, I’ll need to look into the legality, ramifications, and so on. More to come, soon… but until then, kick back and enjoy!
2009
12.24
I’m battling with the livestream feed. It seems to be choking on…. I dunno. Something. For now, we’re still limping along with the Christmas Action Movie thing, but I’m going to have to restart the computer soon. Stay tuned! We’ll get it runnin’, again!
