5.9 gram electrum, made from eBay nuggets

4+ grams, Alaskan gold nugget set

20x15mm Gem Silica Chrysocolla ring

Hi Journal, 's me again. Pics of the color-change garnet rings in incandescent light.

Color-change and Tsavorite garnet ring

My sister's ring

My ring

Color's still not right, sorry. It's close.

Last night's jewelry.

Color-change and Tsavorite garnet ring

Gem silica pendant

Siberian jadeite pendant
 

Finally, pix of my latest jewelry. Two rings - rubellite with blue to red color-change garnets - with a rubellite pendant and earrings.

Ring 1

Ring 2

Earrings and pendant

Hi Journal, 's me again. Yule brought me a Graves preformer, so tonight I'm working on my third stone. My first was a quartz crystal, then some gem silica chrysocolla, and now, Ellensburg blue agate - a 14x10mm high-domed cab. I can only hold the dop stick well enough after midnight, but by the Goddess, I'm back doing what I love, making beautiful, unique jewelry. MS cannot stop me!

Hi Journal, 's me again. Pulse 17, end of day 5. Feeling only crummy, so I'm going to extend it by another day, to kill off even more of the bugs that are causing my MS. I'm impatient; I want to play with my Yule gift - a Graves preformer. Die, bugs, die! I have rocks to cut.

Hi Journal, 's me again. Things are looking for buying a home, possibly within 4 months. Yay! I feel like a real adult now :^)

Mom, I need help with the down payment :-/

Pulse 15 is now done. Thanks to charcoal and B12, it went well. Feeling a bit spacey, but mostly ok. I hope all y'all are safe and happy.

http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/ :)

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/20/uk.komodo.reut/index.html?section=cnn_latest

SMILE

Hi Journal, 's me again. I'm fast heading towards the 12th anniversary of day when I refused ever again to be what I knew I wasn't - a boy named John. Halloween of 1994, it was either be myself - Jeannette - or be dead. Tho it's been one hella hard road to here-and-now, on the whole I still think that I made the right choice.

I need to get access to my facetor soon, to start a handful of jewelry projects. Among them are a jade rainbow wheel, and a gem silica chrysocolla, pink opal and ?sugilite? ?lavender chalcedony? triangle. Add the Sun, Moon and Stars pendant, a mokume gane garnet pendant, a garnet ring for myself, a "Mother's ring" with alexandrite, garnet and opal for my Mom, and a pink tourmaline set for my sister, and I'll be pretty busy, if my body will behave.

Each year they parade her about ... the traditional Halloween witch.

Misshapen green face, stringy scraps of hair, and a toothless mouth beneath her disfigured nose. Gnarled, knobby fingers twisted into a claw, protracting from a bent and twisted torso that lurches about on wobbly legs.

Most think this abject image to be the creation of a prejudiced mind, or merely a Halloween caricature.

I disagree. I believe this to be how witches were really seen.

Consider that most witches: were women, were abducted in the night, and smuggled into dungeons or prisons under the secrecy of darkness, to be presented by the light of day as a confessed witch.

Few, if any, saw a frightened, normal looking woman being dragged into a secret room filled with instruments of torture. To be questioned until she confessed to anything that was suggested to her, and to give names or whatever would stop the questions. Crowds saw the aberration denounced to the world as a self-proclaimed witch.

As the witch was paraded through the town, en route to be burned, hanged, drowned, stoned, or disposed of in various other forms of Christian love ... all created to free and save her soul from her depraved body. The jeering crowds viewed the results of hours of torture. The face, bruised and broken by countless blows, bore a hue of sickly green. The once warm and loving smile gone.

Replaced by a grimace of broken teeth and torn gums that leers beneath a battered, disfigured nose. The disheveled hair conceals bleeding gaps of torn scalp from whence cruel hands had torn away the lovely tresses. Broken, twisted
hands clutched the wagon for support. Fractured fingers locked like groping claws to steady her broken body. All semblance of humanity gone. This was truly a demon, a bride of Satan, a witch.

I revere this Halloween crone and hold her sacred above all. I honor her courage and listen to her warnings of the dark side of humanity.

Each year I shed tears of respect.

Link, quoted below.

"A 40-year-old Korean man presented with painful swelling and tenderness of both ankle joints as well as the plantar surfaces of both feet, along with inflammatory back pain, and a purulent discharge from the urethral orifice. The patient also complained of sicca-like symptoms including dry eyes and dry mouth. An immunological analysis revealed a high titer of rheumatoid factor, positive results for antinuclear antibody and anti-Ro antibody, and a positive result for HLA-B27. An antibody titer for Chlamydia was also significantly increased. Positive results of the Schirmer's test and for keratoconjunctivitis sicca were confirmed by an ophthalmologist. These clinical manifestations were compatible with Chlamydia-induced reactive arthritis (ReA) accompanied by Sjogren's syndrome (SS)."

Hi Journal, 's me again ... or is it? All y'all know that I'm combatting multiple sclerosis with a combination of antibiotics. Each "pulse" kills off more of the bacteria. These critters are keeping the infected cells alive far past their normal lifespan, so once the bugs die off, the infected cells soon follow.

While the infection has spread throughout my body, in my brain it has led to lesions - scar tissue - that's what MS is. Each pulse kills off more of these critters, and more host cells too.

My brain is dying off. Oh, it's being rebuilt as fast as the supply of stem cells will allow, but my concern is, as this process continues, am I still me? How could I tell?

Scary, isn't it?

Welcome to my world.