that pic over there [there oughta be a pic, at least] is of an IKEA® BATALJ can opener... the spiffy kind of opener that cuts into the side of the rim instead of punching down beside it from the top, gives you a cleaner safer edge, yadda yadda...

well, i've used a good dozen of those types of opener, ranging from promo freebies to gifts in the $20 range, and none of them work! they'll maybe let you do two or three slow arduous turns, but then they jam up solid and won't budge. but the IKEA® one was only $3.50 CAN [that's about $2.50 US], making it one of the cheapest ones ever... and i mean it's an IKEA®, fer crine out loud... so on a whim i gambled and picked one up...

the thing works like a frickin dream.

the easiest-turning, cleanest-cutting opener i have ever used. it was like the filet mignon of can-opening. and so once again, IKEA® sutff works exactly the way the sutff is supposed to!

book me on the first flight to IKEA® Planet, bay-beh....

---

my massage therapist christal [Not Her Real Name®] has been training in "energy work", involving chakras and crystal pendants and coloured auras and all that... so today, besides my usual physio treatment, she decides she's gonna investigate my energy and see what's what... my jury is out on what i think of all this, but i don't see any harm in letting her take a crack at it, so i go ahead with her... she never said anything about what she was gonna do, what to expect, what might happen, nuthin

anyhoo, nothing touched me at any point during the proceedings... but after she'd been at it for a few minutes, i felt a distinct sense of awakening and lightness, as if i was more conscious and more "present in the moment"... quite distinct from the dullness that has filled my brain for yonks now... and at the same time i was washed over by calm... i've been feeling very agitated for the last few weeks but suddenly that all drained away and i felt peace... nothing happened to explain it but i could feel it, no mistake...

and afterwards, christal tells me that after manipulating one of my energy fields [or sumthin like that], that she could feel an "uplifting" and "lightening" in me so she knew that she had accomplished some benefit... so we both got the same message from whatever was going on, without comparing notes beforehand

and all thru today, i have maintained that sense of peace and awareness and presence... this is the best i have felt in i dunno how long. am i saying i believe in chakras etc. now? or that you should? no. am i offering any other explanation for what happened then? nope, ain't got one. i'm just saying that, whether or not i understand why it worked, it worked so i ain't gonna knock that. relief is where you find it.

and i'm gonna keep my jury out for a while longer while i gather more data...