Category Archives: Life In General

Unsolicitations

January 31, 2014 6:57 AM , 2 Comments ,

“Hello, this is your last notice.  We have been trying to reach you about lowering your interest rates on your credit cards.  Press 1 to listen how you can lower your interest rates” – Automated telemarketing call

I get about 2 or 3 of these a month.  Some have options to get off the phone list.  Most don’t.  Once they have your number they will usually nag at you for months.  Trying to talk to an operator is usually fruitless as the “operators” are just sales people trying to get new business in the door.  If you’re really unlucky they’re scam artists trying to get your credit information.

I usually hang up on these but sometimes I answer and give the sales rep a memorable call.

Operator:  “Hello, you pressed 1 and indicated you wanted to lower your interes…”

Me:  “Mom, is that you mom?  When are you coming home?”

<click>

 

Operator:  “Hello, you pressed 1 and indicated you wanted to lower your interes…”

Me: “you give credit card now? Please yes?

operator: “sir we are not offering a credit card we are offering to lower your…”

Me: “I want much credit now, very muchly.  yes , thank you”

<click>

 

Operator:  “Hello, you pressed 1 and indicated you wanted to lower your interes…”

Me: “mamej ghuS DeQ wabmey toy’wI”a’ jatlh HInob..”

(which is Klingon and roughly translates to “give me much lower credit terms, speaking slave (I don’t think that Klingons have telemarketers)”.  I will be embarrassed beyond measure if I ever run into a Klingon speaking operator)

<click>

 

Of course it’s not all fun and games.  Last year I had a call for my dad.  They asked for my dad by his full name including middle initial so I knew that it wasn’t anyone that he knew.  I played along and found that they pretended to be a credit monitoring agency and wanted his bank account number, his social security number, and birth date.  I replied as my dad and said “I don’t have those with me but if you will give me your phone number I will call you back.”

Someone in the background realized that I was trying to trace them and yelled at the operator “Get off the phone! get off the phone!”

<click>

 
Posted in: life in general

Underneath the skin

January 19, 2014 9:13 AM , 2 Comments ,

I came out of the Alamo drafthouse last night around 9:30 and walked to my car when I heard the familiar whistle of my Gmail account.  Something had come in.  Wireless signals inside the movie house are terrible and this email had just now caught up with me.  To my surprise it was an email from 23andme.com.

My results were in.

Back in late October I had heard about this service that was offering low-cost genetic testing.  After a couple of weeks of vacillating I finally decided to try it.  They sent me a testing kit by mail.  I had to fill up a small tube full of saliva and I mailed it back.  I had begun to give up hope of hearing back from these folks and I certainly didn’t expect it on a Saturday night.  I rushed home and logged in and spent the next 2 hours reviewing the results.

I should add a little background here.  23andme provides several different types of genetic tests.  They can test for inherited diseases, traits, genetic ancestry, probable blood type.  Just all sorts of things that your DNA can reveal about you.  For somewhat debatable reasons the FDA claims that this type of genetic testing of your health risks is “dangerous to the public”. I feel that this has more to do with vested interests in the health industry not wanting people to take charge of their own health but that’s a subject for another blog.

They threatened to drag the company into court if they did not stop providing this service.  As a consequence of this 23andme no longer does health screenings by genetic testing.  They only provide testing for ancestry now.  I bought my testing kit just before the FDA restraining order came into effect so I still get my health screening.

So onto what you guys are looking for, the results.  So obviously we are going into the health risks first. I will say up front that I am not going to post my entire health report online.  Firstly it’s private and I don’t feel like I want to share it all.  Secondly the results do not tell me that I have a certain condition, they only give me the probability that I may develop a condition.  I see it not as a definitive test but as something to be on the lookout for.  Lastly, it’s pretty dull.

The results are not too surprising to me given my family history.  I have a slightly higher risk for heart disease and diabetes.  Nothing new to me.  What was surprising was that I am at a higher risk for celiac disease.  To me this just reinforces my belief that I need to exercise more and watch my diet closer, specially as I become older.

higher risk for Asthma.  I did have some childhood asthma

slightly higher risk for Alopecia.  dodged that bullet.

Two things that worried me were actually lower risks.  Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.  Now, you can certainly develop Parkinson’s from environmental factors and the test makes it clear that this does not mean I won’t develop these but it does mean that I am at less of a risk for these.

Lower risk of Melanoma.  I am darker skinned after all but I’m not going to lay out in the sun all day long.

Lower risk of multiple sclerosis.

Lower risk of colorectal cancer.  That doesn’t mean I can go out and party though.  Of course there’s many other results.

Onto traits. One of the more interesting results is something that I have suspected for a while.  My body is less responsive to exercise than the average person.  This means I derive less benefit from the same workout that others are doing.  I need to increase my workout to get the same benefit.

Based on my genetics my muscle response is more similar to a sprinter than a long distance runner.  So while I can do long distance races I would probably do better in the short track events.  So much for my 2016 Olympics marathon aspirations.

Male pattern baldness?  typical odds.  I would have thought higher odds.

Longevity?  Higher than normal odds of living to 100 years.  True, specially in my father’s side.

Freckling. typical

eye color. tends to brown

hair. tends to curlier

food tendency.  more towards sweet foods.  Need to watch that.

Blood type,  A+

Dozens of other traits here.

Moving onto ancestry.

I was somewhat disappointed that I only carry 2.6% neanderthal ancestry.  Actually slightly lower than the average 2.7%

In molecular evolution, a haplogroup is a group of similar haplotype that share a common ancestor having the same single nucleotide polymorphism mutation in all haplotypes.

On my mother’s side I come from the B2b sub group, a subset of the B4’5 haplogroup,  This is an older group that originated in Asia about 50,000 years ago and migrated across the Pacific to the west coast of the Americas.

On my father’s side I come from the J2b2* subgroup, a subset of the J2 haplogroup.  This group originated in Anatolia and the Caucasus mountains around 18,000 years ago.

My complete ancestry composition is not ready yet so I don’t have all that ready to review but it’s not that consequential to me.  I’m here already after all.

So what does it all mean?  Mainly that I am a pretty average American suburbanite.  Not specially gifted in any significant way but then again not too burdened either.  I need to keep a close eye on my health and become more regimented in my lifestyle choices but odds are that I will live a fairly full and long life.

Was it a worthwhile exercise?  I think so.  If nothing else it opens up my eyes to what’s going on inside of me and gives me a better handle of what I can do to improve my life.

 

 

 

 

Posted in: family, genetics, health, life in general

The barren landscape

January 1, 2014 12:01 AM , 1 Comment ,

I stand on a desolate windswept shore.  Life hasn’t had a chance to change or alter this place.  As I look from horizon to horizon I see nothing but a dull grey panorama.  Not even the sky looks that much different as it matches the land in color and somber attitude.  Behind me the sea is dark and unwelcoming.  I cannot go back.

I take a step and I alter this land permanently, my feet scratching the ground and sending up a small cloud of dust.  The alteration having a ripple effect as I move across this alien expanse.

Little mounds of dust piling up, then dunes and hills.  Seeds borne on the wind settling into the new shelters for life and setting up shop.  Green sprouting as my heavy thread continues changing the topography.

A panoply of colors as flowers bloom.  The din of noise as bees and other insects are drawn to the new life.  Birds chirp in the branches of the leafy tall trees that have recently taken root.  Foxes, rabbits, and other animals shyly watching me from the dark undergrowth.

I continue down what appears to be a country lane and top a hill to see a shining city in the horizon.

Life has come to this alien world and it is due to my efforts and my imagination.  My personality, my ideas, my spirit will populate this place.

We have to remember this when we think of the future.  This new year that is coming up, it is our barren landscape.  Or perhaps it’s a blank canvas calling for us to fill it.  However you choose to think of it, please remember that you are the architect of your future and yours will be the decision and the responsibility as to how it turns out.

Make it the future that you want it to be.

Posted in: life in general, motivation, prose

The year in review

December 22, 2013 8:52 PM , 2 Comments ,

Facebook put out a “year in review” feature.  Anything to generate hits I suppose.

But it is appropriate given the time of year to reflect.  As I’m December born it’s one of the things I always do at this time of year anyways.

I would call the theme of this year “waking up”.  So many things that I’ve held in check for one reason or another have happened this year and are continuing to happen.  I think in some ways the year has forced me to step up and be more proactive.

My father had serious health problems in the Spring and that made me confront the fact that I really couldn’t put off life any longer.  Those plans, ideas, projects that I kept putting off for “one of these days” had to start happening now.

Despite my added responsibilities I have found time to explore the arts and some of my interests.  I’ve found that Houston has a lot to offer and that I can still enjoy it.  I have places and events that I am looking forward to this next year.

I planned and made some home improvements that were desperately needed.  I have others that I hope to execute this coming year and it excites me to think that I am crafting this space to suit my needs and tastes.

I took a vacation that was long overdue and for the most part it went off as planned.  I just don’t have any words as to how much it was needed after the stresses and strains of the last few years.  The time off has given me much-needed relaxation and a chance to reassess my life for the long-term.  I am fervently hoping for another vacation this year.

Of course it wasn’t all good news.  My father’s illness was troubling, I had some health and financial issues of my own.  But I have to take the long-term view about these things.  I can despair and not get anything done or I can meet these challenges head on and do my best.

I feel guardedly optimistic about this coming year.  Being proactive and not waiting for things to happen and instead orchestrating events feels good.  This is the person that I want to be.  This is how life should be.

Posted in: current events, life in general, motivation

sick

December 21, 2013 8:41 AM , 2 Comments ,

Who likes being sick?

Don’t answer that.  I don’t want to know.

In a sense I am fortunate that I don’t get sick that often.  I have escaped the flu season without taking shots for so long that I don’t even remember my last flu vaccination.  I can weather most colds at work and soldier on without a pause in my work rhythm.

But when some malady grabs hold of me, it really knocks me down.  I get listless and dull.  I get apathetic and nothing seems to matter much.  These last few days I’ve been down with some sort of food poisoning and haven’t wanted to do a thing.  Luckily most of our clients have the “Christmas disease” and I haven’t had much to do so it hasn’t affected my work performance that much.

Earlier this Summer though I came down with something much worse.  Triggered by insect bites, poison spray, and too much stress I came down with a case of hives.  This is a severe skin allergy with no specific cause.  The skin turns a bright red like a bad sunburn and It is itchy to the point of being painful.

I went to see my regular doctor and skin doctor and got conflicting medical advice.  One said I should cut down all my activities and avoid irritating the skin by overheating or sweating, the other said go on with my life as normal.  They both prescribed immune suppressant drugs and sedatives which forced me to go with the former advice rather than the latter.

This inactivity just raised my stress as I worried about my physical state more and more as I was laid up doing nothing.

Finally after almost 2 months, the tie was broken by a third doctor.  An allergy specialist said to go on with my physical activities and prescribed heavier sedatives.  Although I was groggy I returned to my physical activities.  In time the hives subsided.

But I have to admit the damage has been done.  Before the illness I was doing 6 to 7 days a week of running or exercise.  I had a good rhythm going.  My weight goals were progressing on schedule in a predictable manner.

Since the illness I regularly miss 1 or 2 days at a time.  This causes me a lot of worry.  I have been able to arrest any weight gain resulting from my inactivity and stabilized my condition but I have to admit I’m stuck.

The holidays haven’t helped things either.  My time isn’t always my own.  When I think I am getting into my routine again I suddenly have to do some holiday related chore and exercise time has to be put on hold for “another day”.

I am hoping that with this new year I can wipe the slate clean and really refocus my efforts.  I so need to do this for myself.  Apart from the physical benefit to be gained are the mental benefits or disciplining my mind and body to a regime of actions which will benefit me in many other fields.

I’ve made too much progress now to slip.  My goals are so damn close that I can taste them and that makes this endeavor that much more important.

Posted in: holidays, illness, life in general, motivation

Omens and symbols

December 16, 2013 9:03 PM , Leave a Comment ,

I suppose that in some ways I am superstitious.  But only because these things really happen to me.

I’m a precog, someone who can see into the future, but like most precogs it’s a fairly useless power and not at all reliable.  I will get an image in my mind.  Something pops up for no reason at all.  No trigger mechanism, no casual mention by anyone, just appears in my head.  Within a week an event relating to that image will occur.

In the past this mostly this took the form of predicting TV show reruns.  I would see a scene or character from a TV show and sure enough within a week, there’s the episode.  Now that I have for the most part abandoned TV watching this type of precognition has for the most part faded.

Now it takes the form of omens in my life.  Good example, this week.  I thought about my car’s extended warranty less than a week ago.  No reason at all.  My car’s in the shop right now for transmission work.  Hopefully the warranty will cover it.

Not at all a useful power.  It’s hard to sift between the real omens and the random thoughts and it’s not something that can be accessed at will.  I’ve discussed this phenomena with some of my more philosophically and metaphysically minded friends and acquaintances.  Their thinking points mainly to the writings of Jung and his concept of synchronicity and meaningful causality.  That these are not just random events but an expression of some sort of deeper organized pattern.  I just try to ignore it as best as possible.

Symbols are another matter.  I suppose they’re an expression of those things in life that I’ve come to sort internally as good/bad, better/worse, positive/negative.  They can range from the rather inane and pedestrian to esoteric and deeply personal.

Take some of the more banal symbols out there.  Coca cola for instance, not the drink but the logo, the colors, the font.  Comparing that to the Pepsi symbol.  When I was growing up the Coke symbol was good and Pepsi was bad just based on the logos.  Bizarre I know but that’s how a kid thinks.  My universe was sorted along strict lines and things like coke and pepsi were well and truly separated by an unbridgeable gap.  Of course now that I am free from my cola and fructose addictions I see all of these as “bad” symbols.

Over time I have added and disregarded symbols as time passed and as situations changed.  As much as I try to disregard these symbols and keep an open mind about things I find that they do sneak in and flavor my thinking about some things.  All I can do is to try to remain vigilant and keep my mind as open as possible.

 

 

Posted in: ideas, life in general, myths, psychology, thought

The passage of time

December 15, 2013 8:22 AM , Leave a Comment ,

Pad, pad, pad, pad

It’s 4:45 on a Sunday.  I’m running along a dark street without a trace of traffic and I pretty much have the world to myself.  It’s bitterly cold and every bit of exposed skin is pleading to go back inside but I keep going anyways.

Nothing for my mind to do but engage in contemplation.

I turned 43 recently.  A fairly meaningless number really.  It’s not a significant age in our culture.  Just a place holder between 40 and 45 really.  I stopped caring about my age years ago.  But I do sometimes marvel at where time has gone.

I went to my brother’s place for Thanksgiving.  All the family was gathered and my nephew, just graduated from college, was there with his girlfriend.  They announced that they were expecting their first child.  How is that possible?  He was just playing with pogs and insisting I watch pokemon with him just the other day.

Oh right….  that was 15 years ago….

I look at my old man carefully shuffling along with his cane.  He’s wearing a coat indoors because despite the heater he still feels cold.  I still see him as the guy that would be taking long work assignments in Chile or Guatemala or a half-dozen other places.  Working from a field camp in the jungle or in the desert or in the mountains.  The guy who could fix anything round the house or on the car, the one who made all the important decisions for the family.

But that was ages ago.

I’ve done a couple of miles and I’m freely sweating and breathing hard.  Time for a short walking break.  My knee and my hip ache a bit.  A temporary thing, it will pass.

I reflect that not so long ago I would have been arriving home at this hour from a Saturday night out on the Richmond strip.  Sleep till 11 or so and then do little to nothing for the rest of Sunday but play video games and watch TV.  Just waiting for Monday to roll around to start the cycle all over again.

But that too was ages ago.

Normally I would bemoan all the time lost in the past but I know that all of that time has been spent and can’t be retrieved.  Instead I think of the coming year and think of each month and what I want to achieve in that time.

The last couple of years have been about atoning for past sins and beginning to correct the damage that neglect has caused.  43 will be about pushing forward with my life and plotting a new course for my life.

43 will not be just another number.

Posted in: aging, birthdays, life in general

She’s pretty but…

December 12, 2013 8:53 PM , Leave a Comment ,

I have a younger friend on a social network that sends me links of various pop culture stars and attractive women that he has contact with.

For a time I thought that he was trying to set me up with some of them but later on I think he just wanted to get my opinion on the various women that he liked.  Specially since later on he started sending me links to women in their twenties.

The thing is that yes these women were physically attractive and all but I guess over time I have learned the lesson that looks are not everything.  I have lived long enough to know that a pretty face can hide some ugly thoughts and that when it comes down to it that looks don’t last forever and really aren’t all that important when it comes to finding a mate.

Ideally you want to wake up to a partner that you can share your life with everyday and that you can be comfortable with.  Not necessarily someone who shares all your interests and points of view but someone who is similar to you in some respects but can still surprise you from time to time.

I’ve thought about sharing this bit of wisdom with my young friend but I have refrained for two reasons.  Firstly, I’ll be honest,  some of these women are very attractive.  But mostly I think that this is a lesson that he has to learn on his own.  Sure, I can relate this wisdom to him but I’m sure he will either not listen to me or he will feel that he’s still young and has a right to experience life on his own terms.  In that respect and as long as he understands the consequences, I fully support him.

Posted in: life in general, relationships

Withdrawing or engaging life

December 10, 2013 7:50 AM , Leave a Comment ,

It’s easy to get disheartened these days.  We hear so much bad news coming at us from every angle that I don’t wonder when people tell me that they’re distressed or depressed.

It seems that we can’t trust our government or big business.  They seem to be out to spy on you or “get you” and many of the institutions that we have come to rely upon seem to be turning against us in every conceivable way.  If they’re not turning against us they seem to be failing and disappointing us.

One solution is of course to pull into ourselves like turtles and try to block out the world as much as possible.  We can throw up our arms in despair and say that there’s nothing to be done and we have no choice in the matter.  We might as well just go along with whatever life has in store for us.  It’s a very seductive path in that you don’t have to expend any effort to follow this path and you get a moderate reward for following along dutifully.  Not everything that you want but at least enough or almost enough.

The other path is much harder of course.  You can choose to engage life and try to shape it in the ways that you want it to go.  You can look at the inequities of life and try to redress the balance in your favor.  You can plan and work towards that economic status that you want by seizing every opportunity and not squandering your resources on petty things.  You can affect change by supporting those causes that you believe in.  You can talk and try to persuade people to your point of view.

It’s a much tougher path to follow and it doesn’t always lead to success.  Indeed you stand a decent chance of failing if you follow that course.  But let me ask you, even if you fail don’t you think that this is going to be a more interesting path to follow?

Would you rather be bored out of your mind waiting for something to be handed to you, waiting for life to happen to you at its own pace or would you rather go out and make life happen?  Find out how things work, how those people who you read about in newspapers, magazines, and on websites make their lives into what they want them to be.

Which type of life would you rather have?

Posted in: future, ideas, life in general, motivation, thought

the meaning of junk

November 30, 2013 3:06 PM , Leave a Comment ,
My "electronic junk" closet.

My “electronic junk” closet.

Inspired to action by a recent post I read.  I decided to haul off and take a turn cleaning out some of the detritus out of my life.  I decided to tackle the electronic junk closet.  If you’ve ever lived with one or are a computer person then you know what this is.  That closet crammed with stuff that any other sane person would label as junk but a computerphile knows is more precious than gold.

So I start tossing stuff but inevitably though I begin going through things and reminiscing.

  • Where did I get this?
  • How did I use that?
  • Why did I put this away and why was I saving that?

Mostly it’s old power cables from computers you no longer own, digital cameras that are laughable now, USB cables, Cat 5 cables, power cables for other devices that are totally unmarked. An old printer with dried out printer cartridges, A CRT monitor that must weigh at least 30 pounds.

Most of it goes into a box that will go to goodwill.

The problem area are the hard drives.  I have this ridiculous fear about my data going out there into the world uncontrolled.  I have long since wiped the memories of these drives and transferred the important things to newer bigger drives.

But, even after erasing, a hard drive’s data can be resurrected.  I know it’s silly but these have to stay.  My plan is to save several of these together and hire a shredding company to crush and destroy these one day.

The closet is pretty clean now but I can already tell that I will have plenty of stuff in here by this time next year.  Technology keeps moving on and I will most certainly be discarding some old devices and adding to my hard drive collection by this time next year.

Posted in: computers, life in general