One day this will become my Welcome post. But not this day. It's a work in progress, like me.

Looking for rock posts and pictures? Here they are.

Or buy them at http://stephbg.redbubble.com



Looking for cat posts and pictures? See Pumpkin. | Princess. | Cally.

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I took Cally to the vet this morning to take a look at her tail and the news is not nearly as bad as it might have been.

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I am becoming more and more concerned about Cally, and just saw something that has taken things up a notch.

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::This started in a rambly fashion but quickly became a post about the current state of the pretty rock pictures. I've left in the rambly bits Because I Can.::

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I am way behind in blogging. Take away the odd pretty rock post and I've been very quiet here indeed. Not that I've been short of material, but I have been thoroughly seduced by the low cost of entry and responsive audiences over at Twitter and Facebook. I'm here now because I have a cold that only increases in ferocity and irritability when I attempt to sleep, so I decided to make blog while the nose runs.

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Today's pretty rock was brought in from the cold (well, the nice sunshine actually) where it normally resides as one of the outside rocks on the edifice formerly known as the barbeque.

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This slab of Orbicular Ocean Jasper from Madagascar is a lovely subtle rock, so it may take a bit of time to get my eye in to appreciate the subtle colours and patterns. A couple of shots struck me as instantly interesting so they went straight up to redbubble.

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Stringy Moss Agate from Lake Bonneville Idaho is odd-looking stuff. Definitely a candidate for weird microscopic life, or perhaps something you'd find around a geothermal vent deep in the ocean.

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Strictly speaking it's now after midnight so it's a whole new day to post about pretty rocks. This one is Pink/Lavender Dumortierite from Nevada.

Help me!

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Pretty rocks, can't stop at one. Introducing another fossil-turned-agate: Agatized Petrified Palm Wood (Nevada).

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I bring you Rainforest Jasper from Australia. Where in Australia? I hear you ask. It's a pretty big place. Well, I don't know officially, but I have a sneaking suspicion this comes from Queensland.

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Just home now from Mum's place where today she held another garage sale for Dad's radio gear.

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Slideshow thingie linked to RedBubble where I'm now selling prints of pretty rock picture.

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Originally posted by bunny_m at Livejournal, come on.

My mattress is trying to kill me. I've suspected it for some time now, but having made the decision to do something about it I must have aroused its suspicions and now it's engaging in all-out war.

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As of tonight I've now uploaded 20 images to my Redbubble account, which was the (most recent) minimum limit I set for myself before I started promoting my work to the Redbubble community. If you're not familiar with Redbubble, it's an online service providing print and e-commerce services to artists. Artists provide the artwork, they manage the orders and printing. Artists get cash.

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Today I did something I should have done a long time ago. It reminded me a bit of formally quitting my gym membership after I realised that it was just becoming a huge expense.

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It's quite a while since I've posted actual life updatery here, so I'll see what comes of a ramble.

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Sometimes the rock pictures do a pretty good job of looking like other things.

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You'd think with a name like Galaxy Porcelain Jasper (Nevada) this slice of rock would be a certainty for deep space images. The naked eye can see pale blobs on a darker, slightly messy background, and to me it looks a bit like a monochromatic deep field Hubble image full of clusters of galaxies. But nothing is certain until the microscope is switched on, and I confess it took several views before I warmed to this one. I'd say part of the problem was that I've been working with such vivid colours these seemed a little flat. But I persevered until it began to give up its secrets, and I'm sure space fans will enjoy this set.

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Late afternoon Perth 24 April 2012. The sunset colours kicked up several gears after I took these but my batteries had gone flat by then. I chose to stay outside and enjoy the show as it changed from moment to moment. I'm surprised there aren't more sunset time lapses out there. I'd probably be less surprised if I actually bothered to go looking.

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Sometimes a rock makes me giggle. That first look with the microscope under bright lights can reveal incredible surprises, and this piece of Carrisite Jasper from Oregon did just that. Teehee. I bought it mainly for its potential for fire, but what I got was an entire rainbow and even more deep space. Enjoy.

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Seraphinite is beautiful stuff. It was discovered relatively recently so it's not all that common in shops, but it makes beautifully patterned polished stones for jewellry. The reason it's called Seraphinite is because the patterns resemble wings, in gloriously gleaming shades of green and silver. Yes, like recent features pietersite and chaoite it's another chatoyant rock, and a complete bitch. Satan was a fallen angel; I think this is his favourite stone.

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Charoite--like pietersite--is another lovely chatoyant rock that is sadly hydrophobic. I know, I say that all the time, but this time I really mean it. I already had a contact sheet of images I was quite happy with, but I couldn't resist having a bit of a play to see if I can get a bit more focus here and there out of my new glass slide covers.

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Pietersite, oh pietersite, what heartache you've caused me. Since my first look at a piece of tumbled pietersite I've wanted to get in and take a closer look, but it's really resisted my efforts to capture its beauty. I've made some pretty pictures, but it's been frustrating knowing how much better they could be. But gradually I've come closer and closer, and today made another advance.

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What rock do you pick when you can't decide on a colour? Rainbow petrified wood from Arizona, that's what. Photograph ALL the colours! This will need a spot of tinkering to bring out its best, but it's got great potential for animal prints, aurorae, and snow-clad forest. I love rocks. But you probably noticed that.

ETA +1 image

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This piece of Mariposite (otherwise known as Emerald Quartz) hails from California. Good for it.

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I sense a theme - it looks like you're only going to get pretty rock teasers in the form of unprocessed contact sheets for a while, but at least you can get an idea of what's coming up. This one is Yellowstone Ash Flow Jasper from Wyoming (USA), which was presumably formed by layers of volcanic ash. Apologies for lack of science content.

I have tinkered a little bit with one or two of these but most are raw off the microscope. Enjoy.

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As per yesterday just a quick contact sheet of happy snaps of this dreamily beautiful slab of Brekian Jasper from Brazil. Fabulous palette; can't wait to do it justice. Also enormous potential for finding shapes and scenes.

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Neuralgia is flaring up pretty suddenly and intensely tonight, but hardly out of the blue since I've been feeling so virusy and generally unable to cope the last few days. So I expect another no-fun zombie week is on the cards. Either that or screaming. Or I try to stay drunk for a week. Hmmm. I apologise in advance for my behaviour, and if you follow me on Twitter and/or FB, I apologise for all that too.

Just another contact sheet of some happy snaps of a recent acquisition that looks to be very promising indeed.

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Just a very quick, random, unprocessed, incorrectly lit, and oh too small sampling of a couple of my lovely new big batch of rocks that arrived today. As is the way with these things some I had high hopes for probably won't work out with the equipment I have, but there looks to be some pleasant surprises amongst them to even things out.

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Delighted though I would be to embroider a tale of adventure and excitement of the events of this evening, I am stuffed (yet grateful) after waiting 2 hours for the RAC to come rescue The Catmobile. Home now. The problem? A little bit of rubber fell off a clutch switch. Car she no go. Home now, and cursing the bad mobile reception that follows everywhere I go and which forbade me from live Tweeting the whole experience to fill in time and loneliness.

Perfect Swancon spoon prep :-(

Last Thursday I dropped off a dress at the local dressmaker's to repair a split seam. I hasten to note that it was not a load-bearing seam, but the interface between two fabrics of dissimilar tensile strengths. Said breech occurred sometime during either its first wash or its first wearing, but being an inexpensive Internet purchase it was just not worth the bother of sending it back.

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Today I went to the shrink for my usual 6 monthly review. I go more often if I feel it will be helpful. Once I didn't go for about 8 years. That was stupid. Although it's been a Rough(tm) six months I never really felt that an extra visit would be to my advantage.

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Lots of interesting goings-on in the sky this afternoon. I missed out on some of the more delicate formations (I chose not to attempt to capture them from a moving car with a phone camera) but there were still interesting things going on by the time I got home. Enjoy.

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Really starting to feel the rollercoaster side effects of using amitriptyline as pain relief. Yesterday got hit by depression (as anticipated - I was actually pleased it held off as long as it did) and then had a sleepless night last night/this morning with gradually increasing all-over jitters. Pain isn't a problem though so I hope to work out those jitters with a bit of a walk, always assuming I survive the strenuous business of showering and dressing. But by way of compensation I was rewarded with another gorgeous sunrise. Didn't catch this one early, but still got the business end and some very nice shots of both colour and form. And powerlines. I might start giving them names.

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I should have done this yesterday, but in the tradition of Interesting Medical Conditions I was in no condition yesterday to report on my Interesting Medical Condition. So this is a bit of a catchup.

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Originally posted by drhoz at For Aussies - House of Reps marriage equality survey

For those who came in late, in 2005/2006 (I think - I'm a bit vague about dates) I had shingles in one of the major nerves down my right leg. Unfortunately it was diagnosed late and treated improperly for a few days so it ended up being a bad case that left me with especially stubborn chronic illness and posthepetic neuralgia. But while I get pain in all sorts of places from the fibromyalgia (which I've had for much longer) fortunately the neuralgia is mostly dormant.

Mostly.

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About 4 months ago I had my first B12 shot in ages. I'm supposed to have them every three months (about the only concrete advice I've ever been given by the medical profession) but I had to stop because I was having such bad reactions.

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