June 23, 2007

Believe it or not, how you manage your health has a lot related to the video game of Tetris! We are all born with roughly the same health quotient of 1, what we do from this point on determines whether that quotient goes up or down.

Level 1: Start off slow
Slowly the stacks come onto one another, each successive level, the flow of new puzzle pieces speeds up. As things are still moving pretty slow at the start, you have plenty of time to fix mistakes, build up some positive traps and get ready for the oncoming onslaught that life throws at you.

Level 2: Getting Interesting
You begin to notice subtle changes, if your lucky, you still have plenty of time to make further changes in your game pieces for optimal positioning. You begin to get a flow going, expectations and instinct begin to show their face. The other puzzle pieces begin to make sense.

Level 3: All There
Hopefully the positioning you did earlier in the game begin to pay dividends, you can produce line after line, exponentially increasing your score. What once made little to no sense all begins to come together. You have done well grasshopper!

Level 4: Things are Speeding Up!
What was once a leisurely pace is starting to speed up, puzzle piece after puzzle piece fall, most of the time you can fix previous errors but you now have less time to think in between each puzzle piece coming down. You begin to rely more and more on instinct, trying to stay ahead of the game.

Level 5: Realizations are made
If you where smart in the past few levels and built up a bank of easy line formations, level 5 is no big deal, you have made provisions for what was about to come up in the next few levels just incase. You are benefiting greatly now from those decisions. If you didn’t think ahead, mistakes begin to occur, some you can fix, others permanent with little you can do about it other then hope you don’t make anymore.

Level 6-8: Drop off
Here is where most people begin to fall off the track, the puzzle pieces are falling too quickly and lack of foresight has taken its toll.

Level 9-11: Drop off 2
Those who get to this level where either very lucky or planned well along ahead to get to this point, regardless, the stacks usually end up too high and the game is over for most of them.

Level 12-13: Drop off 3
Maybe 0.5% of people playing this game will get to this level of game play, the puzzle pieces are falling incredibly fast but with proper planning and a honed instinct, you may proceed to the next level or perish in this one.

Level 14: The End
The puzzle pieces are simply falling too fast to keep up, one after another after another, instinct simply isn’t good enough anymore. The pace you where able to maintain before is simply too much, as the puzzle pieces build up to the top, you quickly see a GAME OVER. Nobody has achieved this level of success, it’s like the 5 minute mile, my goal is to break this milestone so that others know it IS possible!

Conclusion
Multiply each level by 10, this will give you something to think about as this number will represent AGE, the game represents your health. My goal in life is to get to level 14, it will take a lifetime of habits, lots of luck and an incredibly amazing desire to beat all the odds.

The Bottom Line
Tetris is a great analogy not only for health but for life in general… play it often to gain new insights!

It’s no secret that people who are able have a tough time dealing with those who are not so much in public settings. How do you react to a request or begin a conversation? Who do you look at, the caretaker or the person with a disability? Well, thanks to wheelchairnet.org, a few of those questions where answered.

15 Points to Keep in Mind

1. only because a person is disabled, it doesn’t mean they aren’t a person, treat them with the same dignity and respect you would an able person
2. shaking hands, even an artificial or malformed one is acceptable
3. if you wish to help a person in a wheelchair, ask first
4. don’t screw around or play games with the persons wheelchair, it’s an extension of their body, treat it as such
5. speak directly to the person in a wheelchair
6. put yourself down to eye level by sitting somewhere if you wish to strike up a conversation
7. don’t pat a person in a wheelchair on the head or hand, they aren’t a dog
8. if you are giving directions, consider their disability as there may be routes that are longer but more accessible
9. let a child ask all the questions they want, they are great ice breakers
10. when a person goes from a wheelchair to a chair, don’t put the wheelchair out of reach
11. saying words like walk, run or expressions like running around isn’t an insult
12. only because somebody is in a wheelchair, it doesn’t mean they are disabled mentally or physically
13. wheelchair bound people are not sick nor contagious
14. only because somebody is in a wheelchair, it doesn’t mean they are bad, want your pity nor have tragic life, they are people just like the abled ones
15. guide dogs are on duty, don’t pet them unless you ask for permission first

The Bottom Line

Disabilities suck but for many, the only way of life they know, they deserve to be treated like anybody else. Look beyond the disability and into the person.

References
http://www.wheelchairnet.org/WCN_TownHall/Docs/etiquette.html

What happens when chopsticks dates a spoon? Well, the kid ends up becoming a Froggetmee. Chopsticks are actually very easy to use once you get the hang of it, they are a eating utensil that has distinct advantages over the western spoon, fork and knife routine. They are easier to clean, easier to eat with (even rice) and far cheaper. The disadvantages of chopsticks is that unless you enjoy slurping your food, forget about soup or foods laden with sauce. The favorite of camping enthusiasts, the spork has been on the marketplace since the wheel was invented, I suspect that it’s the same with the froggetmee… the only difference is somebody finally decided to make a business out of them.

Features

The Froggetmee is made out of plastic, although it isn’t hard to imagine a day when they are made of wood and other materials. They measure 11 inches long and where awarded “good design 2006” by the Chicago Athenaeum (Museum of Architecture and Design). The only problem I can see with the Froggetmee is if you alternate between using the spoon section and the chopsticks section, you will end up with dirty and unhygienic hands indeed. I think I will stick to my western eating utensils for western food and eastern eating utensils for, well, eastern food!

The Bottom Line

The Froggetmee is a nice idea whose practicability is somewhat dubious.

Buzzvia http://www.uberreview.com/2007/06/froggetmee-eating-with-chopsticks-made-easier.htm

Haven lost both of my sisters to drug use, I try to keep up to date with what is going on in the drug world for my own personal knowledge. Let me be clear though, I consider addicts to be their own victim, I have no pity for them what-so-ever. They have made decisions for their own selfish reasons, day after day, week after week and year after yet to continue using their drugs of choice. They are no longer a fellow human being in my mind but empty shells of who they once where. They are the closest thing to a zombie, or a walking dead as you can get in the real world, nothing more, hence, deserve everything that happens to them.

Background

Methamphetamine (also known as meth) is a psychostimulant drug that works by causing those to take it to feel extreme euphoria and excitement. It can be smoked, injected, snorted or ingested and the highs can last up to a day. Unlike Cocaine and Heroin, traditional hard drugs, meth is relatively cheap and its key ingredients, ephedrine or pseudoephedrins can only be produced by highly sophisticated manufacturing techniques that are only possible by nine companies worldwide. Hence, meth can be easily controlled off the marketplace if there was a global will and desire to do so.

Summary

I encourage you to view this video but here is a summary in the meantime:

• key ingredient in meth (ephedrine) is also key ingredient in cold medicines, hence freely available for easy production
• feel happy and euphoric when on but people loose themselves when they come back down after the drug effects have worn off
• meth has a distinct effect on the physical appearance of addicts, teeth go missing, open sores on the face as the toxins get released by the body
• meth turns people into a shell of what they once where
• leading cause of property crime and child welfare cases in Oregon
• epidemic has spread west from Oregon towards New York (East cost to West coast)
• meth addicts are responsible for 85% of the crime rate in Oregon
• meth is ultra-stimulant whose effects can last for up to a day
• 50% of children in foster care are due to meth addicted parents, sometimes referred to as meth orphans as a result
• dopamine release into the brain due to meth use leads to 12x increase, brain changes as a result of this extreme release, hence everything seems blah when not on, very difficult to get any type of euphoric or happy feelings
• thought to be the most addictive drug in its class
• crystal meth is considered a super-amphetamine, is cheap and easy to cook
• Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) tries to go after key ingredients instead of cook labs but pharmaceutical industry so far have resisted due to the impact it may have on their profits
• meth labs come in all sizes, from one bedroom trailers to highly automated and advanced factories (superlabs)
• batches take 48 hours to produce and lead up to 100 pounds of meth which equals 4 million dollars of net profit
• you cannot grow meth, unlike marijuana, heroin and cocaine, hence its easily susceptible to enforcement measures as only nine factories in the world produce they key ingredient (ephedrine)
• as meth purity declines, so does meth use and ability for addicts to kick the habit
• pseudoephedrine and ephedrine are interchangeable, when the United States banned ephedrine sales over the counter, labs simply changed key ingredients but this lead to explosions and toxic materials being used as the recipe had to change
• smurfing is how many labs got their key ingredient after the DEA kept taking their key ingredient away, basically, go to pharmacy and buy 3 packs of cold medicine and then repeat until you have the necessary supply
• meth now using Mexican connections after the United States clamped down on supply of ephedrine / pseudoephedrine due to lack of regulation and enforcement
• meth is the most abused drug in the world, there are more addicts of meth then cocaine and heroin combined

The Bottom Line

Drug addiction is a choice, directly or indirectly, the addicts only have themselves to blame for their circumstances.

Reference
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/
http://myfoodcount.com/healthylife/drugskilled/drugs/amphetamines.html