FancyPants

I've had a brief look in the search here and other places on the net and can't really find what I want to know. So I've frozen some cactus and as I would thaw to remove the skin more easily, there's a helluva lot of juice runoff. As you would all know very well. It seems like a bit of a waste to just throw it away or down the sink, so does anyone know if there's any good uses for it? I've seen on the net they've made insect repellant out of the juice but I don't particularly want to slather it - with the consistency of snot - all over my body for that purpose. Is it good for watering other live cactus or other potted plants? What do you all do with it? I've kept what has runoff so far in a container in the fridge and it's a very light green. I hope there's none of the good stuff in there though, but can't see how there would be.

Perhaps it's better to keep the masses mostly uninformed about certain trees unless they feel like it's something they would like to research better? *shrug* I love Dr Karl though

I'll swap your legs? I have to warn you that mine don't work very well and you'll have to sit in a damn wheelchair all friggin day ;) I've been going through on and off codeine addiction for around two years now. I always extract the codeine from various sources, though of course there's always the remainder ibuprofen/paracetamol. I personally don't blame the pharma companies (well, not for my problem anyway, but I sure blame them for being greedy carrrnts). Half the problem is that my pain from kidney stones and urological infections is always going to be an issue - whether the pain is bad or OK. I've quit for months on end at a time but then the pain comes back and codeine is the best thing. When I start taking it again I try my damndest to keep the doses as low as possible, and try to stave off taking a dose until I defecate. TMI? Well, I managed to keep my tolerance quite low for about 6 months by making sure I didn't take a dose until I'd had a poo, because when I started taking them sooner, the constipation started, the tolerance skyrocketed (to around 1gram of codeine - no ibu/para - per day) which is quite expensive too. Then because the constipation got worse, the pain from constipation was really bloody bad and then just took more codeine because I was mistaking the const pain from the stone pain. By taking something like Avil or Avomine with my dose I could also lower the dose and it would help with the nausea. When I needed to quit, I would generally wean off it, but a couple of times had to go cold turkey and it was as bad as the oxy WD I experienced though the oxy dependance was nowhere near as bad as the codeine. Someone mentioned Tramadol, well it might be alright for easing WD symptoms relating to the opiate receptors, but tramadol can be nasty. If you've got an addictive personality I would recommend staying away from it. It has it's own addictiveness from very nice effects (you can make it have opiate or ecstasy-type effects), but if you abuse tramadol you risk lowering your seizure threshold. I was using the Rx amount of tramadol when the pain was quite bad, and the dose was high, after a little while I started getting tremors in my jaw and limbs! Scary as hell. Made worse when I needed codeine on top of tram or was just really tired as well. I'm saying I would prefer a codeine addiction than a tram one. I'm not a fan of alcohol anymore, so I'm biased in not recommended it. I guess keeping your alcy intake low while experiencing WDs would be OK but meh, not for me personally. I know what you mean about worrying about codeine while you're out on weekends. I would pre-prepare enough doses for a whole weekend and put it in an empty softdrink bottle with warning labels all over it and the content percentage per ml, since it would usually vary greatly depending in how much of a hurry I was in while preparing. I would also take my syringe(needleless) and small bottle of lube in a plastic bag and take it wherever I went. It's a massive pain in the arse (occassionally literally ;) ) It doesn't feel nice to know you have a habit of this sort, I know. I don't even think I have an addictive personality, but opiates sure seem to be my weak spot. I didn't hide what I was doing from close friends. In fact while my addiction was at its worst and particularly when I was also using tram and oxy in alternation or concurrence with code, I would write down all the doses of whatever I'd taken, and whatever other drugs I'd taken at the time... just in case something happened I didn't want anyone thinking I offed myself on purpose, or someone else did it. I didn't want to die (still don't) and was still very careful. I was going to write a lot more, but I think I'll just stop now I know I didn't really answer your question about help quitting, sorry, but I wanted you to know you weren't the only one here with a similar problem. After reading some of the other replies I see I'm not the only other one either.

Bump... Holy shit no kidding. I only got my first cactus a few months ago, from my growing interest in the "medicinal" values of cacti. I figured I should buy a grown plant before I just start buying cuttings to eat. So I got a peruvianus because blue/green is one of my favourite colours :D Unfortunately my flatmate's dog ate the poor little thing so I got another one to replace it and now sitting on the hot water system he's doing great I then got a cutting to give the tip to a friend to start his mescal collection (he's had other cacti for years now though). Now I have a small bridgesii cutting which I need to pot asap. And the other day I bought two bridgesii x scopulicolus to add. I really want to start growing some loph seeds but I know they're going to be difficult to maintain. Already I want more and more plants (to grow not eat), but I figure I should take it slow and take care of the ones I have first.

Sorry Hunab, I'm completely useless as far as organisational and help goes - I still haven't even done my tax and I pay someone else to do it! As just a suggestion, maybe somewhere on the mid-north NSW coast might be alright? Not Byron (too obvious hehe), maybe near Coffs Harbour or Bellingen? So it's halfway along the east coast. I'm definitely good with Sydney though, then I don't have to travel anywhere

Tool is my favourite band but I'm not a huge fan of really hardcore metal, but I do love my hardalternative/softer metal. I'll try not to repeat any bands that anyone's already mentioned... some of them are a bit on the soft side... Alice In Chains, The Butterfly Effect (first album), Dead Letter Circus (first album), Fantomas, Grinspoon (first album), Heifer, Helmet, Mr Bungle, Pantera, A Perfect Circle (DON'T EVER BUY "EMOTIVE" IT BLOWS), Skunk Anansie, Tomahawk. Simply Complicated - local sort of prog/psyche alternametal. They've broken up. Ex-members are my friends. Nucleus - local alternametal. My friends too Blind The Iris - local alternative. They haven't been around long so they're still getting their live shit together. Also mostly my friends. Did you mean to say "Rook"? Rook is great anyway. Seen them live a couple of times and they really go off! Seen GD live a few times too and their fanbase (including my flatmate) are pretty rabid punker/metalheads. Woohoo! DEP are playing Big Day Out! I really really REALLY hope Mike Patton joins them for some songs too. A couple of my mates have seen them and said their first Aus show was one of the best gigs they've ever been to, and they're musos who've been to LOTS of gigs.

Bugger, I missed the loph seeds :D Please count me in for the draw

I'm only new, but I'd love to meet a lot of people here I could donate a 62" rear projection TV?... sorry it's all I have of use. (In fact if anyone wants to buy it I'll sell for $500) Edit: Actually if anyone wanted to buy that telly - around 5 years old - I'll donate the entirety of the sale to the SAB get together. Edit2: VVV I wish I could go to EGA, it sounds fascinating

Can't believe I forgot Miles Davis Bitches Brew and Maggot Brain by Funkadelic.

Bloody amazing! As usual when I'm tripping on whatever I had a neverending stream of thoughts, and all of them benevolent. I wondered how much better the world would be if instead of seeing other people as strangers, we saw ourselves. Instead of getting enraged at someone who just cut you off while driving, you imagine it is YOU driving the other car and you just made a simple mistake; nothing to get upset about. Least of all you don't want to get violent because you wouldn't want to accidently harm the other driver because it's YOU and you don't want to hurt yourself. You don't want to tease that person eating lunch by themself because it's YOU eating lunch by yourself. As I described it to a friend - who will soon be knowing it for herself - it's like eccies and cid only a whole lot more physical and thus feels more real. Given a choice I do prefer natural substances. My $0.02 anyway I just can't wait until my cactus garden is established, and I will be tasting the fruits of my own labour

I tried the final product juice in one of my earlier tests, and just didn't get the results. I was most likely doing something wrong But the last time I got it right and didn't bother making into a tea which I couldn't drink anyway. Just chopped it all into little chips, dried them, and blended the dried chips so it was all a light green/brown powder and stuffed it into 00 size capsules. 7 capsules was definitely enough to contain 10gs dried weight Bridge cactus to have a good time for the first mes time. So yeah I've found my prep method so I'm sticking to it. but that leaves the residual juice... I think I'll look into the shampoo. And won't bother deskinning most of it hehe. I never bothered removing the spines since I was blending it all anyway. Thanks, people

Bugger. Damn inconsistencies. I've read quite a few times that the skin can make the nausea worse. Obviously not the only reason for the nausea, since I get the cramping on cid anyway. Have you personally - or anyone else here - noticed any difference? ROFL.

^^^ I just had to look that up on youtube and I kind of wish I hadn't now... Apparently drug addicts shouldn't be allowed to vote. I'm more of the opinion that if they're not allowed to vote, then all the far right-wing Christian fundamentalists in America shouldn't be allowed to vote either. Those people are addicted to God, at least those people outside the detox place are willing to give being sober a shot; fundies remain addicted until they die.

Porcupine Tree, Air, Tool, Pink Floyd, QOTSA, Kyuss, Alice In Chains, The Doors, Miles Davis, The Beatles, Ween (Quebec is a great tripchillout cd), Radiohead (particularly Kid A and The Bends), Portishead, Oceansize, Jeff Buckley, Gomez, Dub Side Of The Moon... Obviously some of them aren't exactly ambient, but if the volume is put low, there's something definitely comforting about old favourite albums that you can just slip into a very calm and relaxed state of mind. If I feel myself getting road rage, or I've just got the mega-shits and I'm driving, I'll put Tool on to sing along to and I suddenly don't feel like driving up the kerb and mowing crunts down. Especially useful when driving through Sydney CBD.

When I first saw it a few months ago I could only see clockwise, and thought people were pulling my leg that she went the other direction. Now I can see her go CW, then ACW, then back and forth doing the mash potato. Next time I have some T bridge I have to remember to look at it again and see what kind of crazy shit she pulls out then.

Darwinism at its best. Too bad the parents (or whoever was responsible for letting an 8 year old handle an Uzi) weren't cleaned out of the ol' gene pool instead. Parents are probably brother and sister.

I didn't think they said anything terribly new or interesting. For a "final verdict" on such a complex subject it was ridiculously short and concise, covering nowhere near enough of the many aspects of cannabis use and/or abuse. I think it deserved at least an hour, not the piddling ten/fifteen minutes it did get. So they found the gene that predisposes some to be at higher risk, they didn't even say if it was dominant or recessive! I would assume (naturally a silly thing to do considering I'm no scientist) it's recessive though which would greatly influence the final verdict one would think. They said the correlation between schizophrenia rises and cannabis use rise is conclusive that cannabis is to blame. WTF??? What about all the other environmental and societal factors that have increased on the same par as cannabis? No mention of alcohol or other substance use increase. They made no mention of how many cases of schizophrenia were conclusively shown to be cannabis as the causative factor or if other drugs were used concurrently or if cannabis was used as self-medication. They made no mention of the rates of schizophrenia between cannabis users, abusers, and those who have never even used once. I fully agree that those people who know they have a big history of serious mental health issues in their family should be extremely wary about any psychoactive substance, alcohol included. And we all know that growing brains really don't need anything jeopardising the natural development and young kids should always be discouraged. In all I was extremely disappointed and found the entire thing to have a propaganda-type (don't know the word) vibe about it. I can't stand it too when they keep using stupid terms like "dope" because we've all known people who say "hurr hurr dope is for dopes!" and think it's the most clever and innovative thing to say in the entire history of the world. People like that are asking for a kick in the crunt. Sorry, it's a pet peeve...

I've found shafting crushed up endone 5mgs (with a Rx and low tolerance obviously) mixed with some water to do the job nicely and you don't have to worry about being anal (omg shoot me pun was NOT intended) with the coating on oxycontins frigging up your veins, just as long as you get most of it off. And having an antihistamine like phenergen or pheniramine about 15-30minutes before will help the pruritis and emesis. I do this with codeine too. A comment about if heroin were more readily available would make use rise considerably; well heroin still has quite a big stigma attached to it, and if not use at all, then a lot of people would balk at IV. Probably more would chase or snort it. I think even if someone were vaguely interested in trying it, if they had to go to their GP and go through some routine questionnaire or physical or something to be approved for a limited script would probably not want to go through all that.

I've only recently heard of dubstep and not a lot of it. Dub Side Of The Moon is one of my favourite smoking albums. Hell, put that on after some HBWR seeds and through time and space I fly. Never heard of Hardstyle though.

Thebaine's a pretty good one, considering the painkiller-addicts' love for oxycodone and hydrocodone. Sorry I have nothing constructive to add...

The breeding pair of rainbow loris who come to my back verandah for some nectar feed. They brought this winter's hatchling down to feed and in practically no time he was flying straight at my hand when I went out the back door. I don't have them trained; they totally have ME trained to go feed them when they screech and squawk sitting on the flyscreen door. I have other pictures on my phone, and a video of all three of them sitting on my hand to eat. This guy lived in the second toilet so I banned people from using it because I was afraid he would be flushed away. He was there around 2 or 3 months before I think my old flatmate flushed him My dad removing a python from their old Tweed Valley house. He didn't kill it, just moved it back into the bush. From their house again, one of the many green tree snakes.

It's not so bad once it's in my stomache, it's the swallowing revolting shit SWIM can't stand SWIM can put up with other stuff like HBWR cramps (once the brown stuff is scraped off) especially with a buscopan pill. But thanks so much, next time it will be put in the fridge

I've been collecting my fallen p viridis leaves and putting them in the freezer wrapped in aluminium foil as well. I'm hoping I'm not just wasting my time because it just seems like a waste to throw them away, especially when I have so little anyway. Seems disrepectful to the plant or something...

Macro lenses are amazing. Even the seemingly boring back yard is a phenomenally interesting place when looking at it from the perspective of a curious lizard. I've lent my dslr camera to a friend for Uni and I can't wait to get it back; I think I'm getting withdrawals. Awesome photos btw! I highly recommend you get a macro lens

OMG you lot weren't kidding about the juice/tea tasting bad! From half a mug (must have been around 200mls) of San Pedro (300x50) prepped for the tea *SWIM managed only 3 small gulps before the rest was shafted. Shafted to no effect (or minimal) which is a total BUMmer. Perhaps the alkaloids weren't properly able to be absorbed in tea form. Perhaps next time it shall have to be evapped off from the chlorophyll (it was still fairly green more than brown)? Is acetone or methylated spirits suitable? Should SWIM perhaps have left the mug in the fridge overnight and removed the green gunk leaving brownish water as the Peru Brew tek stated? Or should SWIM next time just dry out chips from the dark green material under the skin and just eat those? Are those dried-out chips better tasting than the horrid tea? *naturally, by "SWIM" I mean my friend in Argentina where these are perfectly legal