Cardboard steals skin from my hands

[pharminatrix]

According to the trusty time stamp, it's been about a year since my last confession. Which is weird because it used to be rare to let a day go by without a peep. Lately, it's most often a post by yuki-onna or bombasticus that brings me back to the fold.

Actually, this time I'm back in a research capacity. Livejournal is a wonderful thing insofar as it never lets go.

Comments

[anaisdjuna]

Always good to see your light shine on the switchboard, Pharmdarling. I await the hugs with open arms.

Switching to what spot?

Did you get my mail?

Dentist to the Ancients

[pharminatrix]

I did! Thank you so much! When I first saw your wonderful postcard (before the article) I thought "so that's what I look like reincarnated as a dentist! Then I found the article and it aaaall made sense.

As far as host-switching goes, I'm still shopping. I'm looking for shared Linux with Wordpress installation, MySQL 5 and PHP 5. I've been reading the hosting forums over at Sitepoint. Any recommendations/stay-aways?

[azurelunatic]

Hallo!

And oh *god*, at least you weren't using WebSite Tonight? Pre-emptive congratulations on the move away from the orange and green.

[pharminatrix]

Phew is right. Any recommendations? You do sysadminny type work, yes?

Considering Liquidweb but still shopping around.

[azurelunatic]

Less than sysadmin, more front lines tech support grunt. Guess where I used to work? (hint, I already hated green and orange to start with; now I'm *really* averse.)

iPower kept hiring away the people who left in a huff, but I don't know how their hosting actually is.

Edit: I've raised the flag on Twitter; we'll see if anyone who knows more about this shows up with commentary.

[azurelunatic]

One of my peeps recommends Dreamhost: http://twitter.com/kirilith/statuses/25723829782

[sandalfon]

Glad you are back again.

[pharminatrix]

Thank you!

[tilfinningunni]

it has indeed been a while.

[stronae]

Well, welcome back! Even if only temporarily.

[pharminatrix]

Thanks. I plan to be around - just a little more split in the broadcast than before.

Apparently, I have a knack for CSS. Not like "Move over, Eric Meyer, and take Dan Cederholm with you" knack for CSS, but somewhere in the middle.

[ashliana]

Yay -- miss your entries! Though this update hardly counts as an update... :p

[pharminatrix]

This doesn't count as an update? Crap! Wait, what counts as an update?

[ashliana]

Oh, I don't know... at this point, I feel like there's this huge backstory missing -- what the hell have you been doing for ages, why'd you move to Portland, how is it going there, etc., etc....

PS - Website looks great. Nice to see some of your new artwork, too.

You asked for it!

[pharminatrix]

Thanks! I haven't officially unveiled because I'm amidst various microtweaks. Things will change before they stay the same.

As for what I've been up to:
I was working for a cabinet designer/custom home theater designer/installer since April 2008. Quit Aug 1 in anticipation of the move, which has been simmering as a possibility for a while now. When I wasn't working, I was spiritually, psychically, and physically exhausted. Which means I'd come home and work on my own projects:
Such as the website. I may have learned some php by accident but I'm still n00b enough to think preg_replace is hilarious. Fetus-Switch!
Such as washing linseed oil and mixing chalk grounds and applying them to panels.
Such as seasoning oil on lead to polymerize the oil for more effective paint handling.
Such as learning to grind pigments on glass. (Started with aqua pastes which can be ground with egg yolk to make tempera.)
Such as learning how to paint with encaustics and deciding it wasn't my bag. salimondo/bombasticus has been freelancing since Sept 2009 so we can really live