Ivan's Ramblings...

EoE: Eosinophilic esophagitis... and other big words I cannot pronounce.

2019-04-29T17:12:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer

I'm not a doctor, although I did play one in the TV pilot for Gideon's Crossing

If you don't understand something google it.

If you know more than me about this then say something (please support your statements with links so I can learn more).

If you are having a medical emergency, hang up and dial 911

Back Story

You know when you take too big of a bite or you swallow something without chewing it up well enough and it gets stuck like half way down? Well, this use to happen to my mom all the time, she hypothesized that there was some kind of deformity she must have, like a sink trap, where food would get stuck. Once at Disneyland she regurgitated food onto the floor near Star Tours. As a young kid I was pretty stunned since she would also fear monger us away from touching anything because "some one might have vomited there" .. and now I'm kinda watching it! Well, she passed this on to me so thank you for that... so into my adulthood I had just sorta accepted this as a genetic abnormality that I was meant to suffer from and there was no cure and, if I were anything like my folks, I would die from heart disease long before this really became a worse issue.

So I'm sitting, enjoying an expensive dinner and BAM, no food will pass. I sip some water to kinda force things down and its not passing, and now I have another problem, food tube is filling up with water and spit and starting to drip over into the air tube... thats not gonna end well...

You know how people say, their whole life has led them to this one moment? Well this is not like that, but kinda is. I got into SCUBA diving and loved it, so I had worked on staying calm under pressure (pun intended) and specifically keeping calm when it came to not being able to breath. Don't panic goes a long way! I also LOVED watching magicians and even learned some tricks as a youth. One that was always interesting were Circus Freaks and Regurgitateors (people that would swallow stuff and bring it back up but not in a vomit kinda way).

So I'm staying calm as best I can as I'm getting ready to start drowning in my own food and saliva when I think, well, gravity still works, maybe I can kinda rattle and "hork" some of this out. So I head to the restroom, lean over so my head is far down hill, and start kinda thinking about swallowing but in reverse and out comes some water, saliva, and small bits of food. Huh, I've not "cleared a whole" but I sure bought my self some time before I drown! So I keep going and before I knew it I had moved enough material that the next sip of water got the rest to pass down!

Now with my new found trick I felt empowered and in much less fear of someday dying from this abnormality that only my family suffer from. Its like being a Teenwolf but with no cool moves or soundtrack.

In fact, I learned some other great tricks too, ever taken soda water and made dancing beans well, it seems the same thing kinda helps inflate the esophagus when you are trying to swallow, or helps dislodge things that are kinda stuck in there.

If you stick to foods that soften up when they get wet (like tortilla chips, and pasta) then you can also kinda slowly sip water to get it to kinda slide on down.

Use super cold liquid since cold can get things to shrink a little (probably just a placebo but whatever)

Diagnosis

So I go to get an endoscopy since I'm an adult with health insurance. I'm thinking we will finally see this "sink trap" thing. Come to find out there is not a "sink trap", but rather a swelling in the lining of the esophagus! This restricts the diameter so food just won't pass to the stomach. It also means the endoscopy scope they use for adults wont fit and they have to switch to the kiddy one, hense my nickname "baby throat".

They say they want me to go for allergy tests and do some other stuff and I'm like "sure, we will get around to it, for now I just want to rub this into the face of my friend, my best friend, that had always teased me about getting food stuck!" BAM, I have a medical condition you insensitive jerk!

So I did what normal adult males do, I ignored it for like 10yrs.

Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) was not well known and is now known to affect about 1 in every 2,000 people. So about 10yrs ago info was still lacking so I didn't really bother looking to hard for details.

Food started to get stuck a lot more often so I go in and ask my General Practitioner if I could have a referral to get a blood test for some potential food allergies that are making my throat swell shut. She reviewed my old file and refers me to a GI for the expert opinion.

New GI is very kind and wants to scope me. I don't wanna get scoped but she basically won't take no for an answer. She uses the fear mongering I had grown up with to "encourage" me to let her get a biopsy and confirm the diagnosis of Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). She also wants to check to see if there is a permanent obstruction that has formed because of EoE which will require surgery. Yikes, I wanna get ahead of surgery so fine, lets check... oh, and since its probably EoE which is probably caused by a food allergy, she wanted me to cut out dairy products.

Going the extra mile

I decide to google "EoE elimination diet" and find a nice little PDF I can work from as a guide. It outlines the top 6 food allergies: Milk, eggs, wheat, soy, nuts / tree nuts, sea food / shellfish.

This is basically a list of the foods I eat everyday. Basically all the best foods somehow fall into this category. So I jump in with both feet since I know I'm gonna have to do this soon anyway when they confirm diagnosis, and I'm gonna start now because I'm gonna mess it up so I need some practice.

Reading Food Labels

So it seems that basically everything is made with either wheat, milk, or soy. I really do mean everything. So if you are gonna skip those things you basically are eating whole fruits and veggies. Salad dressings got it in there, chocolate, oatmeal! The worst is to find something that seems to fit then to see the warning: "produced on shared machinery that also produces the list of things you cannot eat". Seriously.

So here I am thinking to myself, I need to eat something, and all the food I normally eat is something I need to avoid, at least for now, so I'll go buy some apples or something? But there is a factor that you might not be considering in a diet change like this... teeth. I kinda have bad teeth, well, to be fair, I think the issue is the gums (mine are soft and receding). So eating a lot of hard crunchy veggies and fruits is now making my teeth hurt! So eating, one of my favorite past times, is gone.

Hopefully Optimistic

Well, if I can identify things I must avoid, maybe there are things I'm okay having (maybe I can get chocolate back?) and this should generally improve my life/health which can extend your life. But do I really want to live in this new hell even longer than I had previously anticipated?

I'm thinking this will probably all be a good thing, and I guess I can always reserve the option of hastening my end by getting a double grilled cheese with a giant chocolate malt... but for now, I guess I'll keep fighting.

I've been better: toof if-use

2017-04-29T17:33:00.001-07:00

So there I am, minding my own business, doing what I'm told is ones of the most important things for my overall health, and BLAM! My tooth falls out!

Now before we get to far you should know oral hygiene was not really something that was instilled in me as a child... In fact, personal hygiene in general was rather sparse for me as a child. My sister in law can still remember while we were in line at magic mountain and I was scathing at my neck complaining of being itchy, then bragging that it had been two weeks without a bath... But this story is about teeth.

Growing up we would spend our summers in McCall Idaho, then a small sleepy little mountain paradise, now a more popular mountain paradise. It was here where we were transported back in time for about 3mos and did just about nothing modern. This is also where we would see the town dentist who was also the mayor. He had one of these old school dentist chairs with pulley arm driven drill. If you didn't cooperate he wouldn't use Novocaine, if you did you got a shined dime at the end of your visit.

Well once a year visits to the dentist isn't all that bad... The problem comes when you stop visiting the town with you're dentist and no one thinks about getting a new one. So fast forward to high school, maybe 4yrs after the last time at the dentist and you're sitting down to breakfast. A big bowl of generic brand corn flakes with granulated sugar sprinkled on (because just buying frosted flakes was unhealthy). You take a bite and something feels different. You tounge your back tooth to feel something that must be stuck to the back. Maybe one of the corn flakes was somehow stuck to your teeth and was poking your tounge... Then you realize it's your tooth. Your tooth is some how poking your tounge. Then you realize your tooth has cracked open and the hollowed out cavernous canyon edge is poking you.

I remember that next trip to the dentist. Everything was shiny and new, almost space aged! They had a TV in the ceiling you could watch cable while having work done! That wasn't the reason I remember those dentist visits... And it wasn't that I spent days in his chair during the subsequent trips, it was the first time I had seen that kind of look on someone's face caused by me.

The dentist peered into my mouth as everything seemed to start out normal. Then he looked up at my eyes, then to his assistant, then back in my mouth, then he excused himself to go "talk" to my mother. I can only imagine the thoughts that went through his mind, neglect, abuse, astonishment, anger... I remember because that's what his face portrayed to me. I don't remember being in pain, and I don't remember much detail, just that I spent many hours in that chair watching music videos in VH1 and MTV, Whilst this dentist worked on my teeth in blocks.

So now it's 20yrs later, I've been taking care of my own teeth for a while now, and one of the best dentists in the world now "owns" my mouth! Anything that needed to be redone had been redone and things are great! The last few cleanings had gone so well I didn't even get there usual "you should floss more". So while I'm at home, getting ready for bed, got an early morning but I deceased to stay up a little later watching a movie with the wife. Finally getting to my oral hygiene routine when "pop... Clank" my crown just feel off!

Mind you, by this time the back four teeth on each side have been crowned and some even root canaled. What the what?!? There was no pain so I thought maybe it just fell off... Then there was pain. Not one of these root canal teeth. Maybe it just had bad cement... For the past few years... Well I'll just take a look:

Crown seems okay, a little corrosion or decay maybe... Looks like rust. Well let's take a look at this tooth:

What the... I know I have a dental mirror around her somewhere:

Oh Frosted Flakes that doesn't look good.

I make the appointment for the dentist, who recently broker his hand snowboarding, and see his colleague. I begin with letting him know that anything that ends in there word "implant" will be a little upsetting. He takes one quick look and chooses his words carefully. I guessed it... Implant.

As he explained, Dental implants can take about 9mos from start to finish, think of it like having a baby he says. Oh kill me now...

The oral surgeon is super nice and has been doing this for years. The tooth cracks into there prices:

He tells me all about the cadaver bone they will be using as bone graft to build up my jaw to accept the implant in another few months. Sounds good. Then he tells me to get some rest and to not blow my nose or snort for a few weeks... Say what?

When I got my wisdoms teeth out the focus was on no straws so you didn't make a dry socket. But if your tooth roots are long enough on the uppers they will grow into your sinuses... What the?!?! So if I blow my nose or snort or really even sneeze hard I'm gonna perforated my sinus and blow out a bunch of dead person bone shards into my mouth!!! How did I get so lucky?!?

But the good news is it seens like it's healing normally... Save for the massive headache and general feeling of wishing I was dead:

Now off for my antibiotics, analgesics, decongestant, and baby food.

EL Wire Stroller (or TRON Stroller)

2015-01-17T01:11:00.001-08:00

I got this clearly genius idea the other day... Why not outline our stroller with elwire so we can't lose it and so people will see it when we are out and about?!? So I got a multi pack of battery powered el wire and duct taped it to the stroller! I used clear duct tape and clear packing tape depending on what surface I was attaching it too (the clear duct tape held surprisingly well to the cloth of the stroller)

Behold: (http://youtu.be/-zBAyL5z0rw)

My wife only allowed this to happen because it was my birthday, however, for the record, we were constantly complimented! Most people were indirect, simply walking by and commenting amongst themselves. We did bump into another elwire stroller that even had a magnetized headlight! (Our el wire was cooler though)

I think the next version will either be all one color, two colors like highlights, or "animated" / "chase" elwire!!! In all reality, it will probably never happen again... But at least I had my day!

I guess I AM an expert...

2013-11-15T10:34:00.002-08:00

As I fight through life I am often referred to as an expert in the field of computers. This has never held much water for me because they were not comments from nerd peers... until now.

I was wondering during my morning commute (which allows for a LOT of wondering) how one can be considered an expert. Would one need to be published? Would one need to be granted something from some accredited authority?

Some googling resulted in http://expertenough.com/1276/how-do-you-know-when-youre-expert-enough

It points out:

ex·pert

ˈekˌspərt/

noun

1.

a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area.

"experts in child development"

synonyms: specialist, authority, pundit; More

adjective

1.

having or involving authoritative knowledge.

"he had received expert academic advice"

synonyms: skillful, skilled, adept, accomplished, talented, fine; More

Which means to some I am above an expert, however, to others I am merely a novice. I feel funny asking people if I am an expert in something or if they think I'm good enough at a particular task. And when people refer to me as a guru I feel embarrassed and dismiss it quickly.

I have recently become aware that I am an expert in my profession, at least to the people that I support. The customers I deal with are the top in their fields, they are seasoned professionals with years (decades) of experience with computer systems. When they say things to me like, "thats genius" or, "I would not have thought of that" I feel accomplished. But that I don't think about is even if they are not complementing me they are still coming to me for help. In fact, I have some customers that seek me out over other techs! I've asked why and have been told it is because they know I will do a thorough job and that it will be done correctly.

So if you are someone who is working toward an educational or professional goal and are wanting to know if you are an expert you can ask around to peers and see if they think you are or just think about how many of your peers come to you with questions.

For the sake of the children!

2013-09-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

I just read (most of) an article (Rolling Stone: Sexting, Shame and Suicide) about how a 15yr old girl committed suicide after being embarrassed by people who sexually assaulted her! Wait, what? Thankfully none of these things were even close to the reality I was exposed to!

I'm not sure where to attribute my successfully navigating the harsh reality of life to. I was teased a lot as a kid [insert childhood video that I never want to see again] and rightly so since I was on basically the lowest rung you can get to socially. I was a redheaded 200lbs 10yrs old and was at least a year younger than most of my classmates. Most people, at least when I grew up, would not tease a "differently abled" (retarded) child, since I was just a fat redhead it was open season! I have no memory of how I was able to deal with the shaming and bullying. I don't recall ever being beaten up, I was punched in the throat once, leaned that lesson pretty quickly.

So when I read an article about some teen girl who killed herself after being bullied I first think, thats sad but sheesh, suck it up, it couldn't have been that bad. Then I keep reading and see it was because someone raped her and published the pictures of it to their peer group at school... WTF? You have got to be kidding me! Okay, she was dressing sexy (short shorts, thong pulled out the top, skimpy tops showing her boobs off, etc.) so there is a moment where you could think "she was asking for it dressed that way"... then you realize she was getting really drunk and "making out" with a a couple of the boys at the part so you might think "well theres your problem"... then you find out she passed out drunk and the boys dragged her into a room where they assaulted her (details withheld) and took pictures of themselves doing it.

At this point I shift focus away from this poor young girl's bad decisions and think about what kind of degenerates the boys in this story are!

I am a youth leader for a large group of boy ages 12yrs - 18yrs. I "teach" a sunday church "class" of 8yrs - 11yrs old boys every sunday. I have two boys of my own now. I was once a boy between the ages of 8yrs - 18yrs old. I feel that these boys could have been helped some how to keep themselves doing this!

I'm not one to blame the alcohol, I don't think its a great idea to get all sloppy drunk at that age, but it is not like alcohol causes you to become a pervert! It lowers your inhibitions which means you have to have been broken in the first place!

I would like all boys within the reach of this message to know that you are the ones in control! You choose to be a pervert or not! You can choose to bully others or not! You choose to be affected by bullying! You choose to allow others to bully others while you do nothing!

You kids these days need to look out for each other. Your presence at a party where something like this happens can implicate you or your innocent friends in a crime! Who is to say someone doesn't blame you for what happened?!

My friends in high school use to tell raunchy jokes and use foul language. We decided girls didn't want to be around that kind of person so we decided to help each other out. We chose to punch anyone of us that was being offensive. This worked well!

By policing yourself and your friends you are keeping the problems to a minimum and you might save a life! That life you save might be your own!

Oh how the mighty have fallen! [UPDATE]

2013-07-31T09:29:00.001-07:00

BlendTech sent me out a replacement and made the process simple and easy. I have been reducing the amount of frozen fruit I am putting in. I have also upped the kale volume a little. The most common mix is:

approx. 3C Kale
a layer of frozen mango
a layer of frozen fruit mix
approx. 12OZ of Orang Juice
fill to cover with water

With this mix I hit the "whole juice" button and it ends up thin like juice not thick like a smoothie... and I hafta say, I kinda like that better.

No smoke so far so I'm gonna say this situation is fixed... I'll let you know if that changes.

Oh how the mighty have fallen!

2013-07-11T08:26:00.001-07:00

This post is being brought to you by Siri...

So I decided to see if I can blog via phone via Siri. So far so good to sentences down the rest to go...

I love my blend tech blender. Now when I say this I don't mean it in a creepy sort of have the blender next to me on my night stand. Or have to take it with me when I go on vacation. What I mean is I use my blend tech blender every morning cycling through it's preprogrammed cycles three or four times. If you're wondering why so many cycles I: a. want my food completely silky smooth and b. I run at two or three times with food and then once with soap for cleaning.

Imagine my surprise when this morning after filling the blender container with the normal complement of food it errored and stopped blend. Errored you ask yes I have a touchscreen blend tech design Series blender. I filled it with my normal complement of fruits and vegetables: some kale, carrots, mangoes, berries, peaches, and topped it off with some orange juice for liquid.

I loaded it, up hit go, and it spun up for just a few seconds then stopped. It displayed some sort of error code I of course ignored it and just powered off and powered on the blender. After hitting go again I let it run for a few seconds and realized it was making kind of a funny sound. Because any of the high-priced high-powered blenders are allowed to keep my blender behind a cupboard door. Once I opened the cupboard I noticed there was a thick black smoke inside the cabinet. I immediately powered the blender off and ran it outside in case it was going to burst into flames. Fortunately there was no continued drama just continued smoking. I brought it back inside plugged it in and it displayed an "I'm overheated symbol"... Yeah thanks.

I called blend tech customer service who said we need to do some further troubleshooting to figure out the cause. I'm confident we will find a solution. I might need a new blender which I'm also confident they will supply for free with no hassle. But my goodness I've seen on the Wille blend YouTube channel a blend tech blender chop up a broom handle! Again oh how the mighty have fallen.

Green Smoothie - Reloaded

2013-05-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

First of all, I have a few people to apologize to... you know who you are.

Second of all, remember, the right tool for the right job.

When I started doing my green smoothies I would have people tell me about their blender and how it would liquefy the food... I was like, sure. I finally caved in a bought a BlendTec Blender from Bed Bath and Beyond because they said if I didn't like it I could return it at any time... no time limit!

Last night was the sound test (to be sure I wouldn't wake up the house) and found that it is totally doable if you close the thing in a cupboard. I opted for under the sink since there is already an outlet for power thanks to the insinkerator and I might gain super powers from all the chemicals down there... well 50% isn't bad right.

I went with the more expensive BlendTec, not because of the fancy tough screen, but because it comes with the larger container. The larger container costs $90 so I thought it would be worth the extra $50 to get the big container and fancy touch screen.

I put all the ingredients into this thing and was VERY glad I bought the bigger one. I didn't have enough room for everything so I was planning on running it all twice. Good thing too because the kale got all stuck at the top of the container.

Contents for Round One:

2 medium carrots
4 stocks of kale (two dino and two regular)
a few oz lemonade
an orange peeled with a potato peeler and quartered
some strawberries with tops on (the green bits left on)

I could tell it kinda spun up and was not hitting the rest of the food so I stopped it early and packed the kale down a little and added some ice. That ran a full cycle of "Whole Juice" setting... by then end of the cycle it had killed most of it but there were still some big pieces that had been on the top.

Contents for Round two:

mostly blended stuff from round one
ice
a banana

I hit the same setting and shut the door. After a it was over I kinda thought I would have to run it again since it sounded like it was gonna topple over as if there were a baseball bouncing around in there (remember, its behind a closed cupboard door so all I get is the sound and my minds eye.)

When I opened the lid it was liquefied... my jaw hit the floor. And why I say liquid I mean almost watery. I drank some to see if I should add more fruit or something. The taste was not that great, a little bitter, but the texture was silky and smooth. I was dumbfounded.

I pored the contents into a Nalgene bottle and was happy to see it filled with extra left over (32+oz). I was a little annoyed I did not have a straw to drink it from.

I assume the order of how I fill the blender container will make the difference. I will experiment and maybe update things.

Now that I have jumped back in with both feet I need to find more recipes to try... thanks to google I found the following posts:

to be continued...

Eagle Scout Project (2013-05-16 @ 6:30p)

2013-05-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

Aaron Camiling’s Eagle Scout Project

> What: Talent Show and Blanket Making Live Event!

> When: Thursday May 16th @ 6:30p

> Where: 5520 Topeka Dr, Tarzana, CA 91356

> Why: (From the Scout Project Proposal paperwork)

My name is Aaron Camiling. For my Eagle Project, I propose to design and deliver a project that will serve the San Fernando Rescue Mission. This is a nondenominational outreach Christian Ministry that helps to provide refuge, recovery, and restoration for the homeless in our local community. They provide refuge specifically by providing food, clothing, and shelter for 30 homeless families for up to six months, while helping them recover spiritually and socially. Fifty percent of the guests who stay at the mission center are twelve years and younger. The Mission’s goal is to help these families get back on their feet and able to have independence again and they assist in finding these families longer-term living situations. The Mission also goes out in trucks daily and offers a shower, clothing, and food for the homeless that they are unable to provide shelter for that are actually on the street. In order for this charity to continue to operate, they need donations and help from the donors and volunteers in the community. They are dependent on any assistance they can get. I found this to be a worthy cause.

My plan is to hold a canned food and hygiene drive in the community over the course of the next two and a half weeks, culminating on Thursday, May 16th, where I will organize and host a dinner and Talent show at the Tarzana Ward building for the community as a way to bring people together to help donate towards this cause. The talent will be from among the community from various wards and my school, and the dinner will be open to the community via an open Facebook event, phone calls, personal invites, and flyers. On the night of the dinner, we will additionally be making forty no sew double thick fleece blankets to donate to the San Fernando Rescue Mission for the families that stay there. I expect about 100 people to attend.

> How: Admission to the tallent show requiers a donation of either your assistance in blanket making at the event or a donation of food or hygiene item.

Items that will be accepted for this project:
All donations listed below Must be undamaged, unopened, and in the manufacturers original packaging.

Personal Items:

Razors (men & women)
Socks Men’s/Women's/Kid's
Toothbrushes
Deodorant
New men’s underwear (boxers 34, 36, 40)
New women’s underwear (Sizes 5 & 6 or XS & Small)
Women’s bras (34B, 34C, 36B)
Diapers (sizes 4 & 5) & Baby wipes
Baby Shampoo
Shower Gel/Foam
Sunblock
Lotion
Umbrellas / Panchos

Food:

Cooking / Vegetable / Olive Oil
Barbecue Sauce
Pasta Noodles / Sauce
Garlic Salt
Tomato Sauce
Italian Seasoning
Canned Raviolis
Salt / Pepper
Soy Sauce
Canned Meats (Chicken / Beef / Tuna)
Cream Soup
Pinto Beans
Refried Beans
Fruit Juice
Baby Formula
Granola Bars
Canned Fruit
Whole Grain Crackers
Healthy Cereal
Salad Dressing
Peanut Butter
Jelly

Also remember that you can make monetary donations to the San Fernando Rescue Mission site directly.

To Vaccinate or not to Vaccinate...

2013-03-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

A friend posted an interesting photo on Facebook:

Caption:

CDC Vaccine Schedule.
What do you guys think about this?

This lead to my post:

Ivan Lawrence What are the dates that each of the vaccines became available? And to people who don't vaccinate, please don't fill up the hospital I only go to for non preventable emergencies... (Yes this is a low blow)

Which was met with the response:

Everyone needs to do their own research and not just blindly listen to what their pediatrician tells them. I have done a lot of research on them and decided that I did not want that poison in my child's body. I spoke to our pediatrician, and he too, does not believe in the new vaccine schedule. He said that the child's immune system CANNOT process it all. Some of the dosages that they give are enough for 2 GROWN men. and yet you want to inject that into a small child; no thanks. So, say what you will about me (low blow and all) but I would rather have my children the way that God made them then with out the crap the scientists make. And I have seen 1st hand a completely normal child become autistic after receiving their MMR vaccine.

Which lead to my rebuttal:

Ivan Lawrence I agree that we should all do our own research... Well, I think we should research the plethora of information that exists from reputable scientists whom have documented and reproducible findings.
For example, I saw a Penn & Teller show where they covered Vaccines, that lead me to ScienceBlogs.com's verification of most of what they said (http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/08/16/penn-teller-deconstruct-the-anti-vaccine/) and ScienceBlogs.com came from a group of experts to help us average joes learn more science (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ScienceBlogs).
I also looked into the answer of my question about when the different vaccines were released thinking that most of the new vaccines since the 80's were new since the 80's (http://www.immunize.org/timeline/).
And this all comes full circle for me when I see the old guy at church who has walked with a limp most of his life after winning his childhood fight with polio, a fight that people who are vaccinated don't have to fight. Remember, because of vaccines there are some diseases that no longer exist, they are just gone!
I agree somewhat with your statement about wanting kids to be "as God made them" but I also believe that science is a blessing from God and not using it is like not looking at the serpent on Moses's staff (http://goo.gl/pKQbR). We do not have a full understanding of all things, and I am not a scientist or biologist, but I do try to observe and think for myself.
Prior to the 1900's life expectancy was 30's, now its 60's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy) which correlates to a bunch of things (science advances, religion restoration, etc.) but remember correlation does not equal causation... if correlation DID equal causation then we should all begin to pray to the great FSM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster) as the creator and begin to wear full Pirate Regalia.
These are my opinions, you are allowed to have your own. Please don't take things too personally... You think you're right and I think I'm right, but mostly I hope that all of our kids remain heathy and live long lives regardless of their parents opinions.

As I hope I am accurate in my data and conclusions I also feel very strongly that both parents (me and the other poster) are just trying to do what we think and feel is best for our kids. And if we feel that one way is best we would then feel we need to share these opinions with others to help their kids. So really I think we should just all focus on the greater concept of helping our children be strong, healthy, and enjoy long lives! I hope the decisions I make are right just like others hope their decisions are right... and I am glad that we can all freely share our opinions with each other!

UPDATE:
There is more info and opinions:

With a link: www.regardingcaroline.com/pubmed

My thoughts:

Ivan Lawrence Did you read through any of these studies? I just read through some and have to say I am VERY glad I am not a research scientist Also, almost everything is a non committal conclusion "May cause", "sugests a link", etc. Additionally, some of those paper were written in the 90's, where is the followup?

The main problem: there is no hard data in either direction! Meaning, it is a gamble, your kid might get a debilitating desease that kills them or causes extra chalenges throughout their life... or... they might have a debilitating metal desease that can cause extra chalenges throughout their life. Or your child might be like the vast majority and have no negative effects. One real tough part about being a parent seems to be making the call and having no regrets, even if you made the wrong choice, did you make the best choice you could with the info you had at the time?
What about other factors like technology. The advent of cell phones or WiFi and the increased amount of radio waves penetrating our bodies? Air pollution, for example, has recently been proved to cause heart desease... what are the odds that vaccines either have nothing to do with it or are simply a catalyst?

Science is hard...

Are You Tough Enough for Whitsett?

2013-03-04T07:47:00.001-08:00

Are YOU Tougher Than a Boy Scout?

Make sure you tune in this Monday, March 4th at 8PM to watch the new National Geographic realityseries in which adults who never reached the rank of Eagle test their mettle against young Eagle Scouts at the top of their game. In the show, contestants compete in challenges drawn from Merit Badges and outdoor Boy Scout skills to see if the adults can match the skills and traits required to be an Eagle Scout. Producers of the show, who are also behind Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers, had to find a location to host the show for activities such as Whitewater rafting, rappelling, wilderness navigation and canoe jousting (admittedly a new addition to the Boy Scout skill set). They chose our own Camp Whitsett, which rests in the heights of the Sequoia National Monument near Lake Ida and the mighty Kern River, because its traditional Mountain Camp ambiance and rugged terrain could challenge even the most practiced outdoorsman.

Test Your Mettle This Summer at Camp Whitsett!

Campers at Whitsett this summer will get to see if they are tough enough for Are You Tougher Than a Boy Scout by taking on the Tough Enough Challenge. In order to earn the Tough Enough patch, campers will have to complete several challenges from Are You Tougher Than a Boy Scout. These events will pair skills tested on the show such as Climbing, Shooting, natural navigation, obstacle courses, and pioneering. Make sure you take advantage of this opportunity to take the challenge in the very same location where the show was filmed!

Eagle Scout Project (2013-02-23 @ 8a)

2013-02-20T09:26:00.000-08:00

William Ducourant's Eagle Scout Project

Please join us in serving our community:

United Cerebral Palsy of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties

and helping William Ducourant earn his Eagle Scout Rank.

When: Saturday February 23rd @ 8:30am - 1pm

Where: 11051 Old Susana Pass Road, Chatsworth, CA 91311

What to bring: work gloves, clothes to paint in, safety glasses, hat, sun screen, and a friend.

Weather should be mid 40s to mid 60s so dress in layers.

PDF

Before Pictures

DOCX

A view from the yard of the patio that will be updated.

The shed in need of repair.

The fence needing paint and sealant to protect from environment.

More of the fence needing protection from the environment.

My Dead Relative

2013-02-14T09:05:00.004-08:00

This is kinda cool, some ancestor of mine who did some important Mormon stuff is being remembered with a blog... and a big family reunion which all seems kinda cool! Check it out:
http://www.alfredcordon.org/

Green Smoothie - Day 15

2013-02-13T10:39:00.002-08:00

I found that using Limeade and Orange Juice was very convenient, it added zing and liquid all at the same time. The down side was the sugar. So I decided to ditch the limeade and use an actual lime. I also changed to Organic apples to skip the waxy feeling left in my mouth after eating/drinking the apple. I've added carrots to the mix, and I love adding blueberries. The fun got punched up a notch by freezing the blueberries which makes it much easier to deal with and makes it more smoothie like because of the cold.

All said, I think removing limeade was a big fail! This was the most gross smoothie I have made yet!

The other down side to all this is it is taking me twice as long as usual to prep my "food" as it did when making oatmeal. That means instead of 10mins for cooking, eating, and cleaning up my oatmeal it now takes me 20mins to wash, blend, and cleanup... then I drink it in the car on the way to work. Maybe if I got a bigger blender (BlendTec) it would be faster.

For the time being, I will be moving back to limeade and embracing the sugar!

Green Smoothie - Day 8

2013-02-08T09:22:00.002-08:00

The pounds are just melting off... no, not really. In fact, there has been no change to my waist line. I do feel better all around though! Both Heather and Connor got sick and I was left relatively unscathed so that's something too. I'm not sure if I will begin to see weight loss since I might be eating more at other times to "make up" for eating lawn trimmings.

I've tracked my nutrition and am surprised at the results. By the time I eat my peanut butter oatmeal lunch I will have 50% or more of my RDI of most nutrients! I'm still way light on some items like B12. Sardines seem to be a good source of B12, but yard clippings, oatmeal, peanut butter, and sardines hardly sounds appetizing. Don't get me wrong, I like sardines when prepared like tuna, otherwise, crunching through bones and guts are not a great prospect. And no, I will not be adding sardines to my blender!

Most people I've talked to have asked why I don't just take a multi vitamin or eat some nice cooked veggies... I don't like to take pills and I don't like all the chewing required for veggies. I guess it doesn't make sense to some, but the best part is, it doesn't have to make sense! I am increasing my nutrition and thats not a bad thing! Now, where are those sardines...

Green Smoothie - Day 2

2013-01-30T09:47:00.000-08:00

Day two of Yard Clipping breakfast has turned out well. I still have a bit of a headache but I think it might be unrelated... or its all the free radical toxins leaving my body*

I upped the kale by an additional stalk and added berries:

5 stalks of kale

4oz of Limeade

4oz Orange Juice

1 Gala Apple

~ 1 Cup of Blueberries

I'm thinking I might invest in a BlendTec (http://www.willitblend.com/) but I'm not sure if I really wanna spend $400 on a blender that will probably wake up the neighbors let alone my family. I was thinking of dedicating a cupboard to the blender, but in a kitchen that is smaller than most prison cells I'm not sure the wife will be on board... unless the blender can guarantee me washboard abs, I think she would be fine with that.

---- notes ----
*Like Cartman, "I hate hippies! I mean, the way they always talk about "protectin' the earth" and then drive around in cars that get poor gas mileage and wear those stupid bracelets - I hate 'em! I wanna kick 'em in the nuts!"

Green Smoothie - Day 1

2013-01-29T07:10:00.001-08:00

Last night I made my first "green smoothie" consisting of four stalks of kale, two apples, some limeade, and ice. It looked like vomit and smelled like lawn clippings. It taste okay but had a sandy texture since there was so much fiber. It seemed healthy though, and I was hopping it would keep me feeling full... It sorta did.

About three hours later I found myself in the restroom cursing them what thought up green smoothies! It was powering trough me with the force of nutrients and the biting pain of fiber. I fully expected to see my actual stomach.

After some forty-five minutes or so I felt like I might as well just go to sleep since this was probably gonna get worse before it got better. It is now the morning (four hours after I got to sleep again) and I am committed to eating another one of these gut busting yard waste soups. The up shot is I didn't have to buy anything but the "edibles" since my lovely wife has an awesome mixer.

As I choke down another slurry of green slop I repeat to myself a often missed phrase from an Pink's music video "Stupid Girls"; "[vomit sound] I wanna be skinny" (http://youtu.be/BR4yQFZK9YM?t=2m12s)

Hate the person, Love the Righteous Intent.

2013-01-21T11:19:00.003-08:00

A friend of mine posted something about too many crying babies at church. Some comments that followed took the thread to a totally different place. I didn't see the pivotal post because it had been deleted by the time I got around to it. It did bring up an opinion I have about people at church that I would like to share in case it can help someone else.

So many people feel they need to walk around "on egg shells" so they do not offend others at church. This is something that never made sense to me. I've heard of people leaving the church because someone didn't return a Tupperware dish or similarly lame thing. I've also heard of the more understandable scenario of "the bishop punished me more harshly than someone else who did the same thing I did". I am NOT saying that the people who leave the church are not totally and utterly offended by the actions of ward members or leaders. I am also NOT saying that people who are offended are some lesser person than I am (I've left for other reasons). I AM saying that you should not leave the church, or more accurately, allow your salvation to be impacted negatively by anyone!

I left, then came back to the church after thinking the rules were so restrictive and the clergy were such pompous A-Holes, I wanted to go at life my own way. Upon my return I had to deal with some disciplinary actions that were relatively "light" but at the counsel of those people I still identified as selfish A-Holes. It took many years of up and down attendance before I made worse choices which ended in disfellowshipment (not quite an excommunication so I can't speak to that level of feeling) again, at the hands of some people that I hated.

Throughout the times I had to deal with council from those I hated I could not doubt my own testimony, nor the new found testimony that these people, although pompous and sometimes unintelligent, were indeed in touch with the same spirit that was strengthening me. I would think to myself, "how does this terrible person, so cocky and pompous, know exactly what topic needs to be discussed" (their words were still their own but the topic and reason they brought the subject up was inspired).

It was during these years that I formulated the opinion that we are all different and that is a good thing. I might hate you personally, your way of communicating, your attitude, your face, and you might hate me for the same reasons, however, we can both move toward the shared divine goal or task set before us. Much like "hate the sin not the sinner" I decided to "love the progression and not the person."
If someone offends you and you are thinking "that person is a leader in the church and so if they are full of 'it then the church must be too" then I implore you to hit your knees and talk to the Lord about it. This might be what was meant by "pray for your enemy" but whatever you do, don't get frustrated and leave because some A-Hole said or did something stupid... those other people are not worth your eternal salvation!

*Feel free to share your comments, I hope this can help someone. Also, if I've offended you with what I have said, I am sorry. You are entitled to your own opinion, as am I. You did not live my life just like I did not live yours and we have arrived at our own respective places based on our experiences. If I offended you then please try and take my advice and do not let what I've said negatively impact you at all.

-- Ivan Eugene Lawrence II

Nerd Stuff I always forget:

2012-10-02T14:02:00.001-07:00

I always seem to be forgetting stuff. My Sister uses recall as her benchmark of how our aging mother is "doing" brain wise. When hearing some of the stuff she expects Mom to remember I think I must be loosing it too, and I'm 45yrs younger than my Mom!

>Rsync

rsync is a cool little app that has been around for ages, it allows you to copy stuff from one system to another using ssh.

rsync -avhPn --del -e 'ssh -p xxxxx' --exclude 'Dir_of_BigFiles' ~/Personal/ user@remote_host:Personal/

the -n means "dry-run" so it pretends to copy stuff but doesn't. -a means archive (most likely what you want for files like personal photos), -v for verbose incase something goes wrong, -h for human readable sizes, -P for progress, and --del for delete stuff on the destination that is not on the source (so be careful with paths, hence -n).

I run this on my work laptop to sync the personal files (mostly pictures of my kid) from there to my home server. My home server is allowing ssh incoming on a high port (to keep the script kiddies away) and I keep forgetting the syntax to rsync over ssh on a non standard port. Oh, I also exclude the directory with big files (movies) since my bandwidth at home is kinda limited.

>SSH tricks

ssh is one of the best nerd tools around! I use it for connecting to my home when on the road and as a poor mans vpn to my home for web browsing:

ssh -DN 8080 user@host -p xxxxx

The -D dynamically links the local port 8080 (this is on my laptop) through ssh to the host (my home server). The I configure my browser to use a SOCKS proxy on 8080 and BLAM, I'm on my local network surfing the internet or any other web based service I have at my home (XBMC, DD-WRT, development web pages, etc)
The -N means don't bother giving me an interactive shell, meaning, the terminal prompt on my laptop can't use the ssh connection through the terminal (ie, although I have an ssh connection open I can't do normal ssh stuff through this window) which is nice because it keeps the tunnel from closing because of a time-out.

This also works for connecting any to any TCP port within the network of the host (home) so if I want to use VNC I can

ssh user@host -NL 5900:additional_host:5900

The -L is for linking a single port, this passes traffic from my laptop port 5900 through "host" into "additional_host" port 5900 allowing my laptop to VNC to localhost 5900 (screen 0) and see the remote system behind the network accessible via "host".

Another common use is to remotely connect and use screen for continued administration/development

ssh -t user@host -p xxxxx screen -dR Ivan

This tells ssh to make a connection to the host system (home) as "user" (me) on port xxxxxx and launch screen connecting to or creating a session called Ivan. The -t forces the creation of a "terminal" which means, if you do not have -t having ssh launch some applications fail. Lots of awesome tricks with ssh, I'll put more in the future.
If you are in need of sending command substitution variables to get the remote system to add the current time to the name of a file that you are creating so need to put an escape character before the $ or you will get the command substitution of the local system. [ex: ssh root@ "zip -r /path/to/dir/\$(date +%F-%H_%M)-\$(hostname | grep -i something | awk '{print \$2;}')-logs.zip /path/to/things/to/zip"] [hint: notice the \ in front of all the $'s]

>GNU Screen

GNU screen gives a server admin the ability to connect to a multi-user terminal/shell or just a persistent shell session that can be disconnected from and re connected to later without interrupting the commands being run. Lets say I am going to parse a bunch of files looking for duplicates and I'm working on bonding a few NICs together for additional functionality, and I have a little loop running to monitor uptime on a switch, etc, etc, all within a network I access through a ssh server. I connect and launch screen session and use a bunch of screen windows (or multiple session) to manage all those tasks... then, when I'm heading home and want to pick it all up once I'm there, I disconnect before I leave and reconnect to that same screen session(s) later as if I never left!

Of course screen is all configurable with options for making life a little easier:

   #All single lines

   #shutoff the start up message
startup_message off
   #allow a big scroll back buffer so you don't "loose" anything
defscrollback 5000
   #allows screen redraw for some apps like VIM or LESS
altscreen on
   #give me my normal prompt
shell -/bin/bash
   #give me some "tabs" at the bottom of the screen to help me visualize where I am
caption splitonly "%{= wK}%-w%?%F%{= bw}%:%{= Wk}%? %n %t %{-}%+w %-= "
   #same but not just when split

hardstatus alwayslastline "%{= B}%H (ctl-a) %{= r}[ %{= d}%Y-%m-%d %c:%s %{= r}]%{= d} - %{= wk}%-Lw%{= Bw} %n$f*  %t %{-}%+Lw %-= :)"
   #pre-launch screen windows with different options#
   #ssh to my home and launch screen there
screen -t ssh-home 0 ssh -t -D 8080 user@host -p xxxxxx screen -dR Ivan
   #ssh to a VM on my laptop
screen -t ssh-VM 1 ssh -t user@192.168.10.101 screen -dR Ivan
   #ssh to a work system in the lab as a comon host but use my .screenrc config
screen -t ssh-lab 2 ssh -t user@host screen -dR Ivan -c .screenrc.Ivan
   #ssh to a freelance location to work on their systems
screen -t freelance 4 ssh -t user@host screen -dR Service
   #give me a normal shell prompt
screen -t bash 5

So I can just launch screen and let it connect to all the places I "usually" go via ssh. It could also be running scripts or other apps so learn about the .screenrc file.

>Read a text file in a zip without extracting

use less to read a text file in a zip:

unzip -p [archive.zip] [inner/zip/path/to/file.txt] | less

unzip -c [archive.zip] [inner/zip/path/to/file.txt] | less

I think this is a good nerd start! I'm gonna try and keep this up to date to concatenate all the useful nerd info I find out there.

Back from Vacation

2012-08-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

I was just on vacation with my wife's family in Idaho/Montana/Wyoming (Yellowstone, etc). Upon reflection of the trip I have to admit (and I hope this doesn't hurt anyones feelings) what I enjoyed most was the constant company of my little boy Connor and relaxing with my lovely wife!

I spent a week getting to follow/chase my little 1.5yr old around nature! He and I saw new bugs he has not ever seen before, we found new stuff to jump from and climb, and he reminded me that just about anything can be wildly entertaining! We through rocks into the creek and at nothing, we found flowers and plants, we were covered in dirt, and basically had an awesome time being boys... I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the company of all the other people there, I'm just so glad I had so much time to spend with my Connor. And to you stay at home parents, although you have the most difficult job, you should count yourselves lucky to spend so much time with your kids, they are a gift!

Also, another treat was seeing Heather playing with Connor! Usually, by the time I get home from work all of us are tired and cranky, and Sat/Sun are usually packed with activities so having time to play while we're all rested with no agenda... priceless!

Oh, and sorry to my family, I did not think of taking many pictures, we were mostly just playing.

Why is there no RDA or DV % for Sugars on food Nutrition Labels?

2011-09-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

I made the statement "The recommended daily allowance of sugar is 0%", however, when asked why that was I couldn't knowledgeably answer...

USDA.gov outlines daily nutrient recommendations: (from Dietary Reference Intakes: Recommended Intakes for Individuals)

Men's Age - H2O - Carbs - Fiber - Fats - Linoleic Acid - Linolenic Acid - Protein
14–18 y - 3.3L - 130g - 38g - ND - 16g - 1.6g - 52g
19–30 y - 3.7L - 130g - 38g - ND - 17g - 1.6g - 56g
ND = Not Determined

and

Dietary cholesterol = As low as possible while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet
Trans fatty Acids = As low as possible while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet
Saturated fatty acids = As low as possible while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet
Added sugars* = Limit to no more than 25 % of total energy
*Not a recommended intake. A daily intake of added sugars that individuals should aim for to achieve a healthful diet was not set

Although the government does not come out a say the daily recommend amount of added sugar is 0% there is no "Daily Value" percentage for Sugars on the Nutrition Labels** required on all food labeled for resale in the US. That paired with the aforementioned USDA statement, "Not a recommended intake. A daily intake of added sugars that individuals should aim for to achieve a healthful diet was not set" lends to the seemingly wise notion to remove added sugars from one's diet.

**Nutrition Labels are based on the 1960's RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) which has been replaced with DRI (Dietary Reference Intake)

Another interesting tidbit via LiveStrong.com:

Too much sugar can also contribute to heart disease, warns the Cleveland Clinic. A diet high in sugar contributes to weight gain, diabetes and high blood pressure, all of which raise the risk of heart disease. Any sugar consumed, that is not immediately used for energy, is converted into triglycerides. High triglyceride levels can increase the risk of heart disease. To reduce the risk of disease, women should eat no more than 25 grams or 6 teaspoons of sugar a day. Men should limit intake to 37.5 grams or 9 teaspoons a day. Children should also keep sugar intake to 6 grams or less per day. Those with known health problems may need to go even lower.
Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/351487-what-is-the-rda-for-sugar/#ixzz1XFG6sTCy

This lends to the idea that you should eat a large breakfast with a higher % of carbs, a medium sized more balanced lunch, then a smaller more protein rich dinner.

Additionally, one of the most important parts of good diet and exercise is sleep! Everyone NEEDS 7-9hr of sleep per night (based on age it could be more) and less will lead to obesity, I should know!

Why would you jump off a building?!

2011-08-04T01:15:00.000-07:00

A few years ago (May 18, 2002) I broke my first bone. It was my collar bone. Let me tell you how.

Since I was a little kid I've wanted to be a high fall stuntman. My inspiration was the "father" of high fall, Dar Robinson (Video). I had been jumping off of everything from chairs to tables to beds. And I don't mean just standing on the item and jumping down, I mean setting up pads/pillows on the ground and hurling myself off. I wouldn't say my mother encouraged it but she didn't actively discourage it either, that is, until I broke one of the dinning room chairs.

As I grew older I became more aware of the reason I enjoyed jumping off of things. It wasn't until I was an adult and saw this part of myself reflected in my nephew that he was able to adequately and succinctly describe why we jump from everything. From the mouth of babes (in this case a 6yr old), "It makes my hair go up!"

I learned to rock climb and rappel (abseil) falling in love with Aussie Style (Rap Jumping) which was a more controlled way to descend long distances than just jumping. I then moved to bungee jumping which turned out to be more of a thrill than rap jumping! The next step was skydiving, however, it turned out to be a step backward. I had thought if falling was fun then floating would be even more fun. The thrill is from the sense of falling and skydiving doesn't cut it. My next thought was to work through skydiving to become a BASE Jumper however, they recommend at least 100+ skydives before attempting BASE Jumping... that's a lot of time and money!

I then moved back to Utah and began Snowboarding for my "fix" and got quite good at jumps, rails, boxes, etc. I also had a street motorcycle as my primary mode of transport keeping me pumped with adrenaline. I'm not sure what triggered the need for movie style high fall stunts but I felt I needed the experience.

Stuntmen primarily use one of three things to break a fall, either a big brick of foam (PortaPit), cardboard boxes, or a stunt airbag. I saved a bunch of cardboard boxes from work and tested falling from one story. It worked like a charm! I calculated the price for enough boxes to jump from the roof of my apartment building which was a total of 3.5 stories (approximately 35 feet). The main problem with boxes is the price (considering they are single use). The next option was a foam brick, however, the cost and storage once used was prohibitive since I lived in a small apartment. I settled on a stunt airbag because it would store small and be reusable, however, they were still expensive and only sold to certified stuntmen. I decided to take matters into my own hands and just build one myself!

I went to WalMart's cloth section and bought a small amount of ripstop nylon to build a scale model. I sewed it together (a simple box) and jumped from my couch... success! For the full scale version I bought the entire stock of nylon from the same WalMart (50 total yrds) and began a day of sewing. Once complete I needed some way to fill it with air so I went back to WalMart for the largest fan they sold. All and all it was about $150 in product and 15 hrs of sewing.

I took my first full scale test jump from the balcony of my 2nd floor apartment. This sounds dangerous, however, the airbag is 10ft x 12ft square and 6 ft tall so I only fell a few feet to the bag. With the 1st floor test a success I had nowhere to go but up!

I moved up to the roof of the same building for the next part of the test. Once on the roof I seemed to be the most entertaining thing going on in the neighborhood because a crowd of about 100 people formed to watch.

One of the onlookers was nice enough to snap a photo of me.

Finally the goal of being able to do a high fall was within my reach! The next day after some planning I drove with a small group of friends to the building I had selected for the jump. My old apartment building had no padlock on their roof access door :)

I set the bag based on my feeling of how far from the wall it needed to be... it was right next to a pole which added some anxiety to the jump, however, I was confident that I would miss the pole and hit the bag easily.

When I finally got in place on the roof (approx. 40 ft from the grass to my eyeballs) I started having second thoughts. At 35+ ft the 10ft x 12ft bag seemed a bit too small, not to mention a bit too close to the building. I had set the bag based on the distance from the edge of the building as opposed to the edge of the roof... classic rookie mistake. No time to fix it since I had made my friends all wait for me to set up everything and clime to the roof. I figured I would be fine simply taking a step back, then jumping up slightly to get myself over the "lip".

As I stood on the edge of the roof I realized there was yet another issue I had not counted on... the rain gutter. The rain gutter added a possibility of catching my foot causing me to tumble and fall short (onto a cement walkway). But again, confidence in my ability told me I would be fine.

With the help of my friend on the ground I decided a "faceoff" jump would be the way to keep me closer to the building allowing me to land on the bag. Moments before I actually jumping my friend yelled, "You have nothing to live for!"

...

When you land on the air bag you hear a distinctive THWACK sound... I did not hear that sound. I could tell that something was different because instead of being on my back as expected I felt like I was on my face... and it felt like grass was in my mouth and eyes. Well, I landed off to the edge of the bag, and with the simplistic box design if you don't land right on center you slide off onto the ground. In fact, this is the primary cause of death when doing high fall stunts.

One of the people watching had called 911 and paramedics were arriving as I regained consciousness. The emergency room doctors couldn't grasp that I had willfully jumped from the roof of a three story building but that I was not suicidal.

I did make the evening news that night and am currently in search of the video clip. A friend of mine did find a link to it the story:

JUMPING INJURY -- A 21-year-old man suffered injuries to his ribs, shoulders and right leg while jumping from the roof of an apartment complex Saturday onto an airbag.

The man was jumping for recreational purposes, according to a fire department spokesman, when he missed the airbag and injured himself. The incident happened at about 11 a.m. near 350 North and Belmont Drive in Provo.

The victim was transported to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center by ambulance. No further details on his condition were available.

The accident taught me to take my time, I have a lot to live for, and slow down a bit or else I might do something dumb and miss out on life. And, use a bigger air bag.

Bedtime

2011-06-15T00:47:00.001-07:00

So far we're bad parents... it doesn't seem possible to get to bed before midnight. Getting the baby to bed before 9p is a joke too. He either is up to eat or just wants to play... this is problematic because I only see him before or after work (when he's usually asleep) so if he stays up I enjoy holding or playing with him. Hopefully we will figure this bedtime thing out soon!

Mobile blogging...

2011-06-04T01:25:00.001-07:00

This is my first blog from a phone... and this is the first actual "smart" phone that is exclusively mine. Its not bad, it does have a qwerty keyboard that slides out. What is that all about!? Who wants that? Morons, that's who. Oh well, we will see how this turns out.

Waking up is hard to do...

2011-04-05T23:48:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This has always been an issue for me, not just now my wife and I have a new baby.

We've all been there: Wake-up glad to have slept in till 10am on a Saturday only to realize it's Tuesday and you're late! Or, after waking up, showering, eating, and commuting to work you wake-up and realize you have over slept and are not only late but now have to do all that stuff for real! All this despite your alarm diligently blaring for the past half hour!

Why can't I hear my alarm? Do any of you have these problems too? If my Sis-in-Law is able to wake up without an alarm at 4-5am then why can't I hear my alarm at 7-8am?!?! My wife will tell you its cuz I'm such a deep sleeper, she has had to kick me sometimes to wake me up...

Here is the paradox: Bedtime is such a dirty word however, sleeping feels soooo good. Is this nature or nurture? Is this an effect of being told to go to bed as a child, being forced into a dark empty lonely room expected to lay quietly until sleep overtakes us? I've stayed up for hours on end, dorking around on the internet, writing something to get it out of my head, or even just stayed up to watch my fish swim around in their fish tank. I was tired, yet I still fought sleeping... On the flip side, I've gone on vacation (Disney Cruse) and basically slept, ate, and slept. Besides being one of the most expensive vacations I've ever been on this vacation taught me something important about myself, it taught me that I LOVE to sleep. Knowing I love to sleep enough to "squander" my vacation sleeping why then do I stay up until 2am just to sleep for a few hours, wake up, and face the grind five days a week? I've analyzed this time and time again, still, nothing solid.

Probably the most assured way to get a good night sleep is to exercise and burn up more than your daily intake of calories. Think about how good it feels to sleep after a hard days work, and more importantly, how much better you feel in the morning. It can be argued that this effect is caused by the contrast of pain to joy, in other words, you feel so beat before you fall asleep that almost any amount of recharge makes you feel better than you did before. Not sure if this is the real reason it works but shoot, who cares why as long as it works, right? Oh, and another side effect is you lose weight which is important if you're an American.

I'm willing to bet there are a lot of people who, like my Sis-in-Law, can wake up before their alarm, do those people sleep a "full" night sleep of 8-10hrs? 8-10hrs being a "full nights sleep" has always seemed odd since I've read sleep cycles are approx 1.5hrs in length... If that's true then it should be 6hrs/7.5hrs/9hrs/10.5hrs not just 8-10hrs. I assume it is just a general rule, after all 8-10 has some multiples of 1.5. I've also seen a watch (Sleeptracker Wake Up Monitor) and iOS (iPod/iPad/iPhone) apps designed to track one's sleep cycle and wake you up at the end of a cycle when you'll feel most rested.

What about drugs to get or stay asleep? Most people have a favorable reaction to Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) as either an allergy medicine or a sleep aid. As with any sleep aid, you should only use it if you know how you will react to it and when you can devote a good 10hrs to sleep. If you don't get enough sleep while using a sleep drug you will have to fight the chemical induced sleepiness, and guess what, the drugs will win and you'll drive off a cliff or into an oncoming car.

So what if you don't get enough sleep... then what? Well the usual suspect Caffeine will become your new friend. Some people go for "energy" drinks which are a cornucopia of chemicals that can stress out your body, liver, and heart. Caffeine is a goto since it has been around for so long in coffee and green tea. Caffeine has been found to artificially prolong the life cycle of cells which could propagate the development or spread of cancer. Don't like coffee, caffeinated sodas, or other "ingestables" but still need your fix... "wake up" while you bathe with Shower Shock Caffeinated Soap or Caffeinated Soap Peppermint Scent 4.5oz letting the drug absorb into the skin... Think of it as two birds with one stone.

No matter how you slice it there is no replacement for good old fashioned sleep.