ozoneocean wrote:
Seems pretty heroic and adventurous to me.

It's scary as hell not knowing where or if you're going to have a job. It's getting less uncertain now, though. The RV helps a lot. It's a source of stability. (Although these coastal jobs make hurricane season nerve-wracking.)

Also, I don't think anyone has ever called me adventurous. Lol. Thanks for that.

Too bad there are no RV's made of concrete. Most houses here on Guam are built from concrete. You can tell how long ago they were built… the oldest ones look more like concrete bunkers than houses. Even better… you don't have to get typhoon insurance if you live in one.


Took a look at CN's “We Bare Bears”. Hard to believe it came from a webcomic. You'd think the series would be totally filled with happiness and madcap comedy. Then there's this…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zsSBjq1Sxc

I wonder if what some commenters are saying is true… that if there's danger about, the mother grizzly will have her cub climb a tree for safety. If that's the case, that makes the seen even more sad to me… :(

At least it explains his personality… and his love for burritos…

I try most shows on CN. That one is cute. I can't get super into it, but it's cute.

My RV weathered Arthur okay in 2014. It made landfall as a category 2. My first hurricane. I did not like it. I was evacuated inland and spent the entire time worried that I wouldn't have a home to go back to. There were a lot of storms and flooding in that area (all summer long) too. I once drove home through standing water that reached the bottom of my car. Plus, I have a lightning phobia. The weird thing is, as a science geek, I feel safer in the RV during a thunderstorm than in a traditional house. I live in an aluminum can. Faraday cage ftw.

Last year was much less stressful (Petersburg, VA), but I had to learn how to deal with traffic and city driving. I ended up getting my first speeding ticket. I also got to educate people about all kinds of Civil War era flags.


Btw, my mom watches those “Tiny Homes” shows and this couple were saying they wanted something really mobile and also hurricane-safe. I was yelling at the screen, “You can't have both, Stupid! Mobile means it MOVES!”

Well… they CAN have both. They're just gonna have to buy it from the military… unless a hurricane can blow over an M1 Abrams battle tank. Or the German Mouse tank (which was so heavy they couldn't drive it anywhere)…

True. The couple eventually bought a converted shipping crate. Technically it was mobile, but they had to use a crane.

With all the shipping containerso piling up at ports, they are not a bad solution for mobile housing. It'seems about as easy to move one as a standard parked house trailer from a trailer park.


And yes strong enough winds will blow over 70 ton steel things. Didn't you read about that cruise ship in the squall recently? Those ships are bigger than a World War II aircraft carrier but still get tossed around like a tin can in heavy seas. Though of course as a “tin can” sailor (destroyer ) will tell you those same seas could swamp and sink a destroyer.

@Bravo, we need plymayer for that.

Living in an RV sounds quite fun, but the uncertainly if work and income would be worrying. My life is due for some changes, after a long time of work sick I need to find work and new place to live. It's a little worrying, but something will come along soon enough.

Though of course as a “tin can” sailor (destroyer ) will tell you those same seas could swamp and sink a destroyer.

When I was much younger, on a sail training voyage, I asked a former RAN sailor why you never hear about modern navy ships sinking in storms. Was it because they're overpowered and well designed?
-Nope. They don't sail through storms, they just go around.
Commercial shipping hasn't got that luxury.

——-

Good luck on the house hunt GJ!

Sail around? Don't tell Admiral Halsey that. The US Navy sails through storms. ^-^


As for plymayer he was a submariner. They sail under storms.:-)

ozoneocean wrote:

. . .

It's really, really interesting to know a bit about brain function and why we think the way we do. AMAZINGLY interesting.
Did you know if if you shut of a process in the brain that you stop knowing were “YOU” begins and ends and you start thinking everything is part of you? You can do that with time sense as well so that a person is in a constant state of deja vu “this has already happened before!”, you can a make a person think they're floating outside themselves, witnessing everything as an outsider… and that's just scratching the surface.

Agreed!
Has anyone else read about the new screening for Alzheimer's? Research has identified the first brain areas to be affected by the disorder, which correlate to the ability to detect scent with the left nostril.

So the test is simple: a dollop of peanut butter at the end of a ruler. If you can smell the PB, continue (if you can't, you've got other concerns). Hold your right nostril closed with one hand and hold the clean end of the ruler to your open left nostril. Can you smell the PB? If not, rut roh.

The test is still being evaluated as a diagnostic for early onset of the disease, but it has a very good rate for confirming known cases (although it doesn't differentiate among the various dementia disorders).

So, yeah, I got rut roh. But I've also had a stuffy nose. Or I may just not recall this post after I hit submit. :/

I'd rather have Alzheimer's than smell peanut butter :(
Maybe peanut butter causes it? The neurons on the part of the brain that's around the nasal cavity start to die and transmit the apocalypse all the way to the rest of the brain. D:

I hate that stuff so much. Peanut butter is the devil.

ozoneocean wrote:
I'd rather have Alzheimer's than smell peanut butter :(
Maybe peanut butter causes it? The neurons on the part of the brain that's around the nasal cavity start to die and transmit the apocalypse all the way to the rest of the brain. D:

I hate that stuff so much. Peanut butter is the devil.

Eureka. You may be on to something. It's why the Alzheimer numbers are way up; too many lunchboxes for too many years filled with way too much peanut butter.

And what does baloney (other than Trump) cause?

Well… I finally did it. I have a game up on the Google Play store (and hopefully the Amazon store). It's not much, but at least it's complete. With ads from FGL (because the Standard version of ClickTeam Fusion only supports them while more expensive developer version supports the more popular monetization methods of Admob and Chartboost).


Still, I learned about how a game is put up (it's pretty complicated) and that there's a LOT of questionnaires to fill out and personal certification keys to generate. Putting up my next game will be much easier with that knowledge.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.BSAR.Kalisona&hl=en

ayesinback wrote:

ozoneocean wrote:
I'd rather have Alzheimer's than smell peanut butter :(
Maybe peanut butter causes it? The neurons on the part of the brain that's around the nasal cavity start to die and transmit the apocalypse all the way to the rest of the brain. D:

I hate that stuff so much. Peanut butter is the devil.

Eureka. You may be on to something. It's why the Alzheimer numbers are way up; too many lunchboxes for too many years filled with way too much peanut butter.

And what does baloney (other than Trump) cause?

I read they also did the experiment with chili peppers so you'd be safe from the evil peanut butter. And so much hatred of peanut butter from someone who eats vegetable paste.


Actually it wasn't the peanut butter it was the white bread the peanut butter was on. Those who had whole wheat avoid any degradation of the old gray matter with age.

Alzheimer's or not, as people get older any lack of smell results in being unable to taste food. The day my tastebuds cease to enjoy food will be a sad day.

Cheers on the new job offer, usedbooks! The RV life sounds pretty rad, you are not locked down to one location and you get to take your bare necessities with you wherever you go. I usually see RV parking and storage lots around trailer communities.

==

I do not know what pulled me to the water last Friday. I drove down to a hidden part of the beach, parked my car, and tip-toed around the rock covered jetty before picking the perfect rock to sit on. It had been a long week, too long. The class for the non-verbal students with autism had called me back to sub for all five days and on that last day, asked if I could return for another week after the break. I agreed without hesitation because I adore the students in that class, but the emotional drain takes a heavy toll on my weary soul. The ocean must have been calling me.

I am an introvert, so alone time is the only way I am able to recharge. I sat on the jetty for ten minutes, then twenty-five, and finally one hour with the afternoon sun slowly hovering above the horizon. The sound of the ocean waves filled my ears as they crashed into the shore and retreated backwards. I inhaled deeply and concentrated on my breathing and that was when my eyes started to well up with tears and I began to cry, it was the first real cry I had since I started working three jobs with unending days and seven day work weeks. There are no deadlines, no managers, no loud televisions, and no stress at the ocean.

Over the last month, there have been three managers who have wanted to work with me that it had been getting out of control. At first it was split between my original manager and another manager with seniority. Then at the last minute, a third manager arranged a private meeting with the general manager prepared with a list of reasons of how my relocation would benefit the company, so without any advanced notice, I had to say goodbye to my amazing coworkers and wonderful manager and start fresh at a new location with a whole new group of personalities. It was heartbreaking and emotional, but I bought my original team of coworkers a mini fridge to show that I really did care. Feeling loved and appreciated at a workplace setting is very uplifting and special. I am very fortunate to have found it at multiple workplaces

I am a water sign, which means that I need to learn how to be more fluid like water and less rigid with change. I need to stay flexible and keep moving because I do not know where things may lead.

There has to be a reason for the stack of Condé Nast Traveler magazines by my bedside. Lately, a solo trip to the Rocky Mountains and Glacier National Park in Montana has been my mental escape. Maybe I'll go there in the Summer.

Some studies of seniors have shown that with all that additional nostril hair comes a more acute sense of smell. That everything seniors eat is bland is because for the first time in their lives they have to forego salt.

Alzheimer's is such a tragic thing. Went with a friend and her father to visit her mother in a nursing home once. The mother didn't know who they were, and she introduced them to her new boyfriend (a man at the home)! The father took it well - I almost cried, for both of them!

KimLuster wrote:
Alzheimer's is such a tragic thing. Went with a friend and her father to visit her mother in a nursing home once. The mother didn't know who they were, and she introduced them to her new boyfriend (a man at the home)! The father took it well - I almost cried, for both of them!

@Kim – You're right. It is heartbreaking. A friend's father just recently passed after several years living with Altheimers. I don't know if one can say battle because at this point the disease is always going to win. But I have read some promising news about “breakthroughs”

@bravo – Yup, processed carbs will keel. But salt, not as much as all the hoopla would make one think–another one of those things that are actually healthful in moderation. Like fats. Gotta have those fats :)

@kawaii – As an air sign I find that getting out in nature is the best medicine for me. I'm also a “social introvert” (according to some Facebook quiz). It means I enjoy being with people, but they can sap every bit of energy I have if I don't break soon enough. But since I enjoy it, I'll push it too far – it's like I'm addicted to my own brand of poison.

I also have a son who is high-functioning autistic. The adage, God gives only what we can handle, makes some sense to me because I've spent time with high-needs autistic over the years and I couldn't handle it. My son is so close to independent in many ways that I count my lucky stars, but even so, I worry. And worry. And it doesn't take too much to transform into a Mama Grizzly if I see he's being threatened.

Most parents of special needs children, when asked “How do you do it?” reply “you just do. Do what you can.” But every parent has fears for their child no matter how well equipped they are. The fears for ones who are severely challenged, who are entirely unlikely to ever be independent in any way, can be crippling.

A severely autistic person. A person with Altheimers. I think of a God visiting these challenges on families, and marvel at the strength these families must have to live their lives.

But there's also this – and I am ONLY speaking about my personal situation: if someone told me when my son was 5 yrs old that one day I would be grateful that he was autistic, I would have thought they were cruel, at best. But I've realized there is a silver lining. Caring for my son, getting to know him over the years – it's made me a better person. I would have gone through life veiled in an egocentricity with the character depth of a puddle if I hadn't been forced to get outside of myself. Many people know how to do that from the moment they were born, but I wasn't one of them. I'm a better person than I would have been because of my son. And my daughter, but they are very different people.

I wish I could believe that every parent/caregiver had a similar silver lining. Sometimes it's just too exhausting to even consider such things.

Well it was that time of year again, yes my turn for mandatory training! I can now legally continue working in the hospital!

Did you know that americans get exposed to three times the amount of radition a year than than us in the UK (except cornwall)!?

I'm not surprised at all Tom!

usedbooks wrote:

ozoneocean wrote:
Seems pretty heroic and adventurous to me.

It's scary as hell not knowing where or if you're going to have a job. It's getting less uncertain now, though. The RV helps a lot. It's a source of stability. (Although these coastal jobs make hurricane season nerve-wracking.)

Also, I don't think anyone has ever called me adventurous. Lol. Thanks for that.

You're in a much better position than me right now! I'm currently in the process of trying to finagle my way into a summer job that I'm totally underqualified for (but that I think I could do well).

I called my favourite board member at this museum and told him I'd like the job and he didn't laugh in my face, so that's a good sign. I have no idea how the rest of the board will react, but I'm quite proud of myself for making that phone call in any case so I don't think I'll be too upset if I don't get it.

—

I have gotten so little done over reading week. :( It's tough just keeping up with regular readings and smaller assignments, nevermind student group/friend things - it's so hard finding time to also do research for my final papers.

–

I'm feeling way more stressed than I should about this bug fixing thing.

It's good that food begins to taste bland when you get old, because doctors start telling you not to eat most of it.

So far my doctor has not told me to stop drinking coffee. And my A1C is finally back down to 7.1 (the goal is below 7). A lot of the things he worried about in my last exam are also down. So at the moment I'm not in any danger of gout attacks (I guess double boiling chicken then compensating the loss of flavor with seasonings works). He also warned me about other people trying to advise me on how to diet as they apparently have no idea what they're talking about (I thought so too when certain people kept telling me that water has carbs).


I hope I last longer than my parents AND my grandparents (my grandmother lasted the longest at 82), but if my health and the family curse is any indication, I probably won't make it to 60…

Cutting out coffee is good for you Lonne because you have that narcolepsy issue!
Coffee is the best thing for making people MORE tired (due to the body's adaptation and reaction to caffeine). It's shit in the long term.

ozoneocean wrote:
Cutting out coffee is good for you Lonne because you have that narcolepsy issue!
Coffee is the best thing for making people MORE tired (due to the body's adaptation and reaction to caffeine). It's shit in the long term.

I hope you're aware of the “/quote” error when quoting a post (for some reason it's mispelled so anyone quoting a post check on that first as it should not read “/qoute”).


Anyways, coffee doesn't seem to affect me. I've always been able to sleep immediately after having a cup or two. I don't get the jitters or sweats like I've seen with other people and it has never helped me stay awake.


As for the narcalepsy, it only seems to happen at random. Right now I'm not having issues with it. It's something that comes and goes. Kinda like the migranes you've been getting.

When “coffee doesn't seem to affect” you, that's exactly when it's affecting you more than those people with the jitters and sweats.
People with jitters and alertness aren't being affected that much, people with no reaction or who get tired anyway are being affected hugely.

That's the irony of the body's adaptation to caffeine:
Caffeine doesn't really stimulate you, it just stops your body slowing down when it needs to.
Think of your body as a car, caffeine blocks the brakes- the car is the thing speeding itself up, all the caffeine is doing is just stopping it from slowing down.
- So your body reacts by pushing down WAY, way harder on the breaks till it seems to run normal again.

So if you want the “coffee effect” you have to increase the dose- which the body will then adapt to as well.
If you take less coffee or stop all together then you'll crash down harder and get way tierder than normal because the body is still forcing down the brakes just as hard.

You have to quit it for a while till your body goes back to normal.

Some parents deal with hyperactivity in their school aged children by giving them a cup of coffee in the morning. Caffeinated drinks are nicknamed “the poor man's ritalin” because it has the reverse effect by slowing kids down and not giving them a caffeine high. I once knew a kid whose parents would buy cases of Redbull for him because it was the only thing that calmed him down in the morning.

==

Just went to a late night showing of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi and it was a stressful two hours of my life. I was covering my face, screaming, and reacting at several scenes. It was kinda cool to see it in a theatre filled with Marines. It was also nice to see a buff Jim Halpert in a Michael Bay film without transformers.

ozoneocean wrote:
When “coffee doesn't seem to affect” you, that's exactly when it's affecting you more than those people with the jitters and sweats.
People with jitters and alertness aren't being affected that much, people with no reaction or who get tired anyway are being affected hugely.

That's the irony of the body's adaptation to caffeine:
Caffeine doesn't really stimulate you, it just stops your body slowing down when it needs to.
Think of your body as a car, caffeine blocks the brakes- the car is the thing speeding itself up, all the caffeine is doing is just stopping it from slowing down.
- So your body reacts by pushing down WAY, way harder on the breaks till it seems to run normal again.

So if you want the “coffee effect” you have to increase the dose- which the body will then adapt to as well.
If you take less coffee or stop all together then you'll crash down harder and get way tierder than normal because the body is still forcing down the brakes just as hard.

You have to quit it for a while till your body goes back to normal.

I had that, now I cannot drink more than one coffee a day and if I have it late in the day I won't sleep. Going without coffee hasn't helped though, but I think it might take more time. I need to change my diet to take all the unhealthy shit out and get used to eating healthy again.

@Lonnehart, I downloaded your game. seems to work well enough, simple thing to pass the time. My game has hit a standstill as I set my sights a little too high. Still I will finish it within a few months.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
Some parents deal with hyperactivity in their school aged children by giving them a cup of coffee in the morning. Caffeinated drinks are nicknamed “the poor man's ritalin” because it has the reverse effect by slowing kids down and not giving them a caffeine high. I once knew a kid whose parents would buy cases of Redbull for him because it was the only thing that calmed him down in the morning.

And some special education schools form morning coffee clubs. The kids want to be like adults more than they care about the slowing down. It's also a great thing for International Day activities. Introducing hyperactive kids to all kinds of caffeinated beverages and having an easy day of it for once. Brazilian soft drinks are the best. All kinds of heavily caffeinated coffee colas that taste way better than Red Bull with even more caffeine. At times I really miss Jolt! cola. Twice the sugar and twice the caffeine as the leading cola. Great stuff. My friend who was later diagnosed with adult ADHD lived on the stuff.

I never touch coffee, unless it's in a cake.