ajerabek's Xombytes

Do you want to create chic, boutique-worthy sweaters, head-turning scarves, and other marvelous knitwear without having to buy boutique-priced patterns? Fear not. You can have several excellent resources for free knitting patterns at your fingertips as easily and quickly as you are reading this article, without paying a cent.

Often found in cottage and English-themed gardens, the delicate fragrance and aura of old-fashioned romance that emanates from sweet peas sweetly entices any hopeful gardener caught in the throes of winter. There are many varieties of this popular flower to choose from, both annual and perennial, depending on your growing zone.

By Alison Jerabek

An outcast girl-woman with no place in the world, I have always been lonely. Not alone, just lonely. Like a solo oboe left playing a haunted melody that no one wants to hear, I was trapped in a soundproof room while the rest of symphony ignored me. The people around were ghosts, nothing but faces on the cover of a rich story they would never share, prepackaged humans freeze-dried in memory. All I wanted was to be heard, to fit, to belong to those called my peers, but I had become a nothing, a no one. I was a devilishly wicked girl who was a bound and gagged puritan. "Good" people were floating on meringue-y fluff leagues above me and "bad" people felt the simmer of the molten lava pits of eternal fire just from looking at me.

By Alison Jerabek

The military draft is a highly debated and hotly protested subject in a country whose military strength relies on a strictly volunteer force. In our culture of fierce individualism and self government, the right to choose what we will do with our bodies and our lives is an essential, tightly held principle. The very concept of a draft grates on the freedom we hold dear, yet, we know that in extreme circumstances where a threat to our security and our way of life cannot be dealt with our current military, a draft maybe a necessary measure, if not the only way, to secure our future. Traditionally, a military draft consists of all eligible young male citizens of a country being called to serve. However, due to our current culture of gender equality and equal standing of men and women in our society, a pressing question has arose. If a draft were invoked, should our young women be required to serve as well?

By Alison Jerabek

A little boy is throwing various objects-paper, pens, anything he can get his hands on-across the long brown table. His Sunday school teacher is frantically trying to calm him while he yowls several unintelligible words. To an outsider who doesn't know Alex,* this episode just looks like an oversized temper tantrum. But Alex has a form of PPD, Pervasive Development Disorder, a broad spectrum disease 'umbrella' that includes severe cases of non-verbal autism (where the person affected cannot vocalize) as well as more mild cases like Asperger's Syndrome.

By Alison Jerabek

Wobbly, unstable heels will be tossed aside this spring in favor of ballet flats in provocative colors and gladiator sandals in dark leather and metallic tones, whose down-to-earth proportions any mom will appreciate. Feeling a little tipsy from that seventh-month watermelon you're smuggling? A swanky flat keeps you close to the ground without sacrificing style. Baby in one arm, groceries in the other? The slip-on style of a ballet flat will have you covered. Chasing after your toddler in the playground? Check. Mothers' aching, overworked feet will love this season's shoe trend.

Accessories will be the key to give your "mommy style" that added punch this spring.

Channel your inner goddess with an armful of bangles this season. Want an inexpensive way to beef up your style quota without spending a fortune in time and money? Grab a few vibrant wooden bead bracelets or a carved resin cuff and go 70's bohemian. Or add instant glam with a glossy cuff in a neon to a t-shirt and jeans. The hottest trends can be fabulously adapted with this accessory.

The reckoning of the Internet age is looming.

Growth of the World Wide Web may become strangulated and grind to a halt as soon as 2011. The culprit? I.P. addresses. Part of the mysterious, interconnecting underworld of codes and formulas that lurk under basic domain names, unique I.P. addresses are rapidly running out. When the current internet protocol was designed in 1981, the internet only had 4 billion potential I.P. addresses. New I.P. addresses are shelled out every time a new mobile device or web server hits the great 'net. Due to the explosion of new web technologies and the popularity of the internet in most developed countries, the IPv4 address report suggests that our 4 billion supply could run out in 1236 days.