Saturday, November 28, 2009

Movember - facial hair for a cause

Lance Armstrong Foundation (laf.org) and Prostate Cancer Foundation (pcf.org) have an event each November (or Movember, mo being short for mustache or in French and in the Queen's English moustache).

According to the wikipedia article (linked above), Movember has been around since 2004.

The idea is to start November cleanly shaven and grow a moustache during the month. Friends and colleagues will likely ask if you're growing one, why, etc. which is a good way to bring up the event and raise awareness. The official site logs donations and there are prizes for the most donations. I have no fear of coming close to prizes but I wanted to participate.

I let my moustache grow in and didn't shave it until I was 33. So knowing I can grow one (and also having grown a full grizzly beard in 5 weeks in 2006 pretending to be Iraqi Police in a Marine training exercise) I thought maybe if just a couple of people hear about it, think about the problem, tell a friend or two, then the snowball effect begins.

There will also be events and local competitions. Some with the chance to go to an event where Lance Armstrong will be.

Here's my profile page on the US site http://us.movember.com/mospace/346240.

There's an app on facebook to help make a time-lapse of the moustache growth. The intro video wasn't working until the day before so I didn't try to use it, plus my laptop isn't stationary (for once). I've taken webcam pics and posted some progress on my profile. I've taken pics with a tripod camera but they will likely be too dissimilar to make a time lapse.

If you can grow facial hair, or think you might be able to by next November (or Movember) we need all the help we can get "to change the face of men's health."

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Black Friday

Fewer than 32 shopping days until Christmas.

The day after Thanksgiving is now known as Black Friday and has been the top selling day in retail. (The day after Christmas has also claimed that spot.)

Safety is a concern as stores open earlier and earlier, as early as 4am (JC Penney) and even 12am (Toys 'r Us). Some 24-hour Wal-Mart stores might also be open Thursday or at least at 12am as well. Some Wal-Mart stores will allow "camping out" next to items that will be on sale but not available to cart until the sale begins.

The stores create safety concern by making huge savings on a seriously limited quantity of items and/or limited time of the savings.

Car dealers are getting in on the Black Friday buzz. I saw a news bit about it and it was never mentioned that maybe instead of a TV you could put a down payment on a better than average car deal. They talked about clearance of 2009 models but I've seen commercials for deals on 2010 models.

Verizon is advertising a netbook for about $30 online starting Thursday evening (two-year contract I'm sure). The service is where they make their money anyway, but almost full function laptop with small screen but bigger than smartphone, carry anywhere and go online. Try to find a deal that is not $60 for unlimited net access on top of $30-$40 phone plan.

walmart.com already lists sales for their 5-11am door-buster sale. I doubt they will refer to it as "door-buster" anymore since the tragic incident 2008 at a Wal-Mart in Long Island, NY. They make such limited great savings and there are only 2 stores close to Long Island (at least as of 2006). You enter your zipcode because the prices will vary.

Wal-Mart commercials already boast Emerson 32" LCD flatscreen TV 720p for only $248. This is good enough for most people, especially those still viewing standard definition. Make sure you don't want full 1080p before spending the money and end up wanting a new one again right away. Emerson 42" PLASMA 720p is $448 (locally anyway) and Sony Bravia 1080p 46" LCD is $798. Magnavox BlueRay player only $78. Nintendo DS Lite $98. They have an eMachine laptop for $198. Wireless Kodak ESP all-in-one printer that uses less expensive ink for only $98. iPod Touch $195 with $50 iTunes gift card. A Miley Cyrus Wal-Mart exclusive CD for $5. Over 100 DVD titles at $2 and over 30 Blu-Ray titles at $10. Will this be the last Christmas of the DVD? There's too much stuff to list it all, just go to their website to look at the actual print ad that will come in the Thanksgiving newspaper.

KMart seems to have online-only specials in the spotlight and not their black friday deals. I'm sure they can be found elsewhere online though.

Facebook has fan pages for Black Friday deals:

http://www.facebook.com/blackfridayinfo
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Friday
http://www.facebook.com/BFAds

Happy searching, be safe, find deals (without the crowd mobs if you can).

Monday, November 23, 2009

Too Good at Internet Searching

I'm way too good at internet searching for my own good. Quickly weeding out the chaff and finding what is appropriate to the context.

This seems to apply to medical and technical subjects (only?). Maybe it's because I know enough about what I'm looking for to narrow down key words to get better results.

I searched some more and found that Cervical Vertebrae (neck bones) play a role in the vestibular problems. UGGH! My 1st and 2nd or 2nd and 3rd are fused, presumably congenitally.

Anyway I was searching for Stevia news in soft drinks to see if they are still being made, better formulations in the works, etc.

Blog stolen and hacked content fills the search with pure garbage. A bit or two from some unnamed source to actually get some real info.

Of course 99.9% of the population has ADD or ADHD and cannot read more than one sentence at a time. (So you twitters who send 60 tweets per hour -- they aren't being read.)

BTW Truvia and PureVia both use a sugar alcohol with stevia. Sun Crystals uses a small amount of sugar cane with stevia.

Plan to try Zevia soda soon and see how horrible it is. :)

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Facebook Viral SPAM

I got a notification on FaceBook today that someone had sent me a MultiMedia Message.

As usual, some crApp had to be loaded so somebody can get some advertisement money.

After adding the app, a notice says that I have to click the link. Since I already play MafiaWars I clicked the link. Then it says my message moved and to install another app that was very similar.

The first app sent 1 friend a notice, the same one I had received.

The second app sent about 6 friends the same notice. One friend also had the app installed, not the one who "sent" it to me.

HERE's WHAT TO DO:

1) If you get a notice like this, ask your friend if they sent something before clicking.

2) If you do click and it sends friends a notice:

--------Open the small Notifications tab on the bottom right.
--------Click "See All"
--------Hover over Notice you did not send.
--------Click the X to close/delete.
--------Select I DID NOT PERFORM THE ACTION THAT SENT...
--------Click Report and Delete app.

Hopefully reporting SPAMmers will help keep them off.

Does FaceBook not have an approval process for apps???

Sadly these SPAMmers will make ad money from doing this.




Also DON'T click on advertisements (which might look like a legitimate Windows notice) reporting that you need AntiVirus. These are Virus and Malware programs themselves. Only load authenticated security programs.

Microsoft's website even recommends some free versions. Watch those because it might be a trial period. Most security programs act a bit like viruses monitoring system level actions. (I currently use Commodo's free version for what that's worth.)

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Sucralose and why Natural is Important

First of all, is "sucralose" just a made-up word? I know scientific words are technically made up whether for natural things or synthetic.

Sucralose as it is branded and sold as a 0-calorie sweetener is NOT really a sugar (despite the sugar-sounding name ending in -ose).

Instead it's a chlorocarbon. Three OH ions in the sugar molecule are replaced with three Cl¯ ions. The resulting chlorocarbon is in the same family as carbon tetrachloride (carbon tet used to be used in dry cleaning but wasn't safe) and DDT. The current PERC (perchloroethylene) C2Cl4 would also be a chlorocarbon. This family of chemicals are known to be carcinogens.

I don't know which is worse, aspartame or sucralose.

There is a sweetener from a plant called stevia. The sweetener comes from the leaves and is processed similar to making tea with leaves.

I don't know the extraction process. I'm hoping it is nothing like the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) process which reused fungi until they stop "processing." HFCS starts as mostly glucose and is concentrated into fructose. I wonder if this causes much more incidence of diabetes than sucralose ("table sugar").

Even natural things in excess can be bad, but when you start messing with nature, you just have to wait and see what happens, and disturbance is usually not karmically so good.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Overactive Nerves

When I was listing all of the factors that play into the Meniere's, I forgot TMJ (jaw misalignment, popping, etc.). Of course I have that one too.

I searched to see if there were any new info in the last 5+ years and there isn't much. There's a distinction of Vestibular Hyperacusis where sound causes dizziness. (Ding, Ding, Ding. we have a winner.) Most VH patients have little or no tinnitus (yup). I have some symptoms of the other, Cochlear Hyperacusis, but that can probably mostly be attributed to any hereditary irregularity and the blood pressure problems added to all the other crap.

Anyway my last post mentioned other conditions that have similar sensitivities to sound: migraine and autism, but epilepsy also, in addition to light sensitivity.

Isn't it strange how in a few short years we've discovered all sorts of new conditions with overactive nerves: Fibromyalgia, Restless Leg Syndrome, what about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Attention Deficit Disorder, ADHD, PMDD, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, numerous anxiety disorders. There are probably dozens I don't even know about.

What happens to nerves from ingesting chemicals in odd combinations? The movie "The Incredible Shrinking Woman" (with Lily Tomlin) comes to mind.

Aspartame is 10% methanol (wood alcohol) which is a poison regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Consuming 3 - 20 oz. bottles of a soda sweetened with aspartame is more methanol than the EPA warrants as safe.

All politics aside, from the way it was approved and those who became filthy rich from it, what is it doing to our bodies? It's playing out right in front of us.

Then enter politics again as the government tries to regulate healthcare. I don't see how they could possibly manage that when we see what they allow in food, and we see how pitifully they monitor things they do not allow in food.

When they won't bother to put enough research on things that are killing us, and allow things in or food that might be doing just that, how can we expect research on quality of life for those of us who are not yet dying.

CEOs of charitable organizations make millions. Don't we wish we all could make millions helping people? Or are we then helping ourselves more? Every member of congress and the house should be asking themselves the same questions, as well as agencies and committees who ultimately answer to no one.

Are all the overactive nerve diseases just too much caffeine and sugar? Not likely as these have been around in high consumption for much longer. Of course most of our "sugar" is overprocessed corn.

Are 5th graders conducting the experiments that claim that something is safe or harmful? (assuming they are ever done) Vitamin A has toxic levels (as do many other vitamins). So that means Vitamin A is toxic. Uh, no it doesn't. Humans can drink formaldehyde and methanol in small quantities and not show immediate effects, so these must be safe for consumption. I must appologize to 5th graders because they are smarter than this.

I think I'm going in circles and not addressing the matter that all the overactive nervous disorders might be related.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Hyperacusis: Wishing you were deaf?

I don't know how many people suffer from hyperacusis, or an abnormal sensitivity to sound. So I don't know how many people can even relate to this.

I know of other similar conditions "noise recruitment" which involves hearing loss and overcompensation at extreme ranges adjacent to the loss to try and accommodate it.

I know migraine sufferers and autistic children also suffer from similar issues. I don't know how closely all of the above are related but I'm willing to bet (don't take it literally, nothing to bet with) that there are links so close it would be eye-opening.

(I dare say all the chemicals we intake and mix as "food" have nerve damaging effects we may never know the extent of.)

I always wish I had normal hearing again, assuming it was ever normal, and since it likely wasn't then just back to normal enough.

A lot of the time I just wish I couldn't hear because I'm sure there are good statistics on the number of deaf people, causes, treatments when applicable, known untreatable or only by surgery. There are people who could help cope with being deaf and teach me how to function.

Hyperacusis offers none of this. You might think ear protection is good, but not all the time or too much. I did that and it became more sensitive the longer and more protection I added. I later learned from an audiologist that this is pretty much always the case.

Realizing myself that by definition only that my problem was hyperacusis and not recruitment, the ear doctor recommended TRT (tinnitus retraining therapy). Primarily used to treat tinnitus (ringing of the ears) it was also being considered for hyperacusis. My tinnitus is minimal.

Insurance didn't cover $1400 devices and $1000 treatment visits, but luckily I had some savings left from the job I could no longer do.

The devices are similar to hearing aids but produce a white noise. Setting the volume not to totally mask noise and being vented to allow noise in make it a retraining tool for the overactive nerves. I wore the devices for two years and they made a huge difference. Worth every penny I would have to say.

But now what. I've been mostly off of them for almost five years to the date. They seem to slowly be getting worse instead of maintaining. One of the devices had a piece break off but should still function. I guess I'll start getting hearing aid batteries and wearing the devices all the time for months to years and see if it helps again.

If I had to go deaf instead (and I knew a nurse who has one of the conditions I have but more severe who had total nerve deafness in one ear) then I would not be able to listen to music anymore. I wouldn't be able to sing (alone where no one can hear me).

I guess I should be thankful that I have hearing, even if it prevents me from doing some things, it allows so much more.



Well, even as I was about ready to post, glass and silverware bang some 40+ feet away and I wish yet again that it was the last time I would even hear that at all.

So I've spent about 30 minutes finding the devices and the decision is made, 2 years more, or whatever it takes.

Having found the devices, putting in new short life batteries, the broken one will have to be superglued to function completely but is doable until then. They can be worn all day or even while sleeping but must be out for at least 4 hours a day to keep from getting an ear infection. My wax is "wet wax" as we found out from the non-custom devices shorting out every couple of months and contact with the manufacturer, so maybe more than 4 for me.

Mind you I already have an air cleaner running and have had the TV blaring over it before and STILL heard the piercing sound of metal and glass banging together from some 40+ feet way.

Living where people need hearing aids and won't do others the courtesy of having their hearing tested is not so good.

Meniere's Disease (or Syndrome in my case) has factors such as the anatomy of the inner ear, element makeup of the fluid there, blood pressure, allergies, heredity. Luck me I get them all. Oh I forgot, barometric pressure and heat and humidity (and I've moved back from dry LA to hot and humid Alabama).

So hears/here's to being thankful for some possible relief.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Mustaches for Prostate Cancer Awareness

Movember, or Mustache November, is underway.

I am growing a mustache this year to raise awareness for Prostate Cancer. I have a donation page us.movember.com/mospace/346240.

If you would rather start your own page or team from their main page, all the better.

LiveStrong foundation is involved, Lance Armstrong's foundation.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation will use the money raised by Movember to fund research to find better treatments and a cure for prostate cancer.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

My Domain

I canceled my local IPS account where my webpage was hosted.

My domain registration was separate. It had 15GB storage space but they closed that in October. You now "can" pay a monthly fee for storage.

I made a blog for a lot of the content from my old webpage. channing-humphries.com now redirects to that blog.

I'd like to add stuff without deleting posts to get the main post on top. (11-7-09 case in point, cool flashy ads for movies were showing but disappeared when I deleted main post to put one after it and re-added main post.)

I didn't put all of the photography. Blogspot is a real pain for adding photos. Maybe other settings than the ones I wanted work as expected and don't require a ton of copy/paste/edit text for EACH photo.

Most of the webpage/blog is my extra work. I edit out principal actors where applicable. Many you would have to freeze, knowing exactly where it is to catch me. A few aren't good enough to be there and some others I could ad. I thought about adding a still from a 10-second foreign commercial spot but actors aren't supposed to list commercial involvement (could be an issue, can be checked out or possibly negotiated later).

I kind of wanted to post the NYFA short but want the director's permission. Technically this is required even though it is my image (and others are in it too). She's from France. I got in touch with her online from Qatar I think, working on a reality show. She had worked with the people from Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" but I don't know how long.

So-Called "Credit Reporting Agencies"

Something has to be done about these “Credit Reporting Agencies.” From the days of paying a few cents extra for gas to use a credit card, to today where EVERYONE pays these fees which are much greater now.

The concept of “Instant Credit” where people are made to believe that they have to have it. The status Metric of “credit scores” and how it is all to easy for thieves to apply for credit in someone else’s name with a little information via “Credit Score” and “Instant Credit.”

The “Credit Reporting Agencies” are assisting the banks with predatory lending and Identity Thieves. Then they SELL all these “Products and Services” to allow access to the information. How is the information not your own??? Now they sell “Products and Services” to guard the info to prevent Identity Theft.

IF THEY OPERATED AS A RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS, THE INFORMATION WOULD BE GUARDED AND IDENTITY THEFT WOULD NOT BE SUCH A CRIME WAVE THAT IT IS, but what extra money would be able to be charged that way (rhetorical).