(no subject)

Strained a muscel in my back just sitting in my armchair reading a fanfic yesterday. Who knew reading fanfic could be dangerous to one's health? Anyhow, have done stretching exercises and applied cold and heat - which appear to be working.

Oh for the insominacs on my flist, I found a cure for my bouts with insomina, which is to not fight being awake. To just let myself fall there. You can't force yourself to sleep. If you have an alarm clock, turn the face of it away from your bed, so you can't see the time. If you can - don't have a clock at all in your bedroom. Put electronic equipment far far away from your bed - such as stereo soundsystems, tv sets, computers. Anything with magnetized energy should not be near you. If you need music to sleep, get a small CD player or radio.
And push it to the far end of your nightstand. Do not work in your bedroom if you can help it. Don't eat there. Only sleep or do bed related activities (ie. sex) there. When you are struggling with sleep, take deep breaths. Slow deep breaths. Let your mind wander. And don't count how many hours you slept. Also do not use sleep aids if possible - they are addictive and after a while, stop working. Sleep aids is how both Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson died.
Vitamin D aids in sleep - a deficiency in vitamin D could be affecting your sleep cycle.
Vitamin D - we get from sunlight, milk, fatty fish such as Salmon and Tuna.

I actually found a decent, non-religious/non-new age, CD on sleep dysfunction which I have been using and has been helping - it is "Healthy Sleep by Dr's Andrew Weil, M.D, and Rubin Naiman, Ph.D" - The CD provides exercises on getting to sleep as well as information on insomina and sleep dysfunction and how to combat it by two sleep specialists. I bought it after I went about 7 days without sleep, tried every remedy I could think of, and thought I was losing my mind. This CD and the advice within it remedied the problem. The longest I've gone without sleep since buying that CD has been maybe one night if that.

Thought I'd share - since I know there's others who suffer from the same malady.

Vengeance - BTVS meta on episodes Beneath You and Selfless

In 1994, I had an interesting experience in the Kansas State Senate that not many people get to witness. I stood on the floor, trying not to look uncomfortable, listening for two, possibly three hours as the Senate debated the re-instatement of the death penalty in Kansas.
Kansas had not had the death penalty since around the 1960s - in which a moratorium had been placed on it. Below is a link to a site that tells you in depth about Kansas and the death penalty.

http://www.aclu.org/capital/moratorium/10620prs20041221.html

The argument I heard on that Senate Floor was in some respects similar to the arguments posed in the Buffy episodes Beneath You and Selfless, as well as the argument posed in the BattleStar Galatica mini-film RAZOR. It was also similar in some respects to the arguments I heard in my own country and had inside my own head, and with my friends online and off after the events of 9/11.
( Meta on BTVS S7: Selfless and Beneath You )

Your Mileage May Vary

Several years ago on the All Things Philosophical About BTVS and ATS Board, a poster used to finish all of his posts with the sign-off : YMMV of course. or just YMMV.

I finally asked him - what does YMMV mean?

He responded: Your Mileage May Vary. Then explained that it was car speedometer term, how mileage varies per car and while we're all on the same highway so to speak, our car speedometers will have completely different mileage based on fuel consumption, make of the car, who is driving it, etc. He stated it was used here - because we are metaphorically speaking corresponding on the information superhighway but with completely different takes on the topic. Often contradictory ones.

Today, well not just today, but the past few days reading posts on my live journal correspondence list and responses...this statement "your mileage may vary" seems fitting. One responder even used it.

My hands shake. Every time someone sees them shake - they ask if I am nervous, is there something wrong, am I okay. If their hands shook - it is because they are nervous or low blood sugar, or upset, or sick. Mine shake because it is hereditary. It is caused by something deep inside my brain and I take medication for it. A tick if you will. It's not harmful. Quite a few other people have it. And doctors call it an essential tremor - meaning as one doctor explained, they have no better word for it. Each person who sees the tremor responds differently - based on their own speedometer, or what that speedometer states.
( Read more... )

[Edited for clarity - 8/30/09]