Back to the basics

A friend told me this story about how he had a sty in his eyelid that had hardened in to a tiny pebble.  He wasn't sure what he considered a growth and had gone to see a doctor who said that it needs to be removed surgically and a biopsy done.  It was going to cost him an equivalent of $80.  Being from Sri Lanka and this was about two month's salary for him.  He had mentioned this to his mother who told him to go out to the garden and pull up a stem of the weed 'Thuththiri" and apply the liquid in the stem on the growth for a couple of days.  He had done so and one morning that same week, when he was washing his face, the this had just dropped off. 

To me this highlights the easy non invasive herbal remedies that are available for small issues instead of which we seem to seek the most technology concentrated alternative.  Part of the issue is that dazzled by the success of Penicillin we slowly gave up our interest in the more holistic but sometimes tedious remedies in favour of the ease of using a tablet to take care of a symptom.  Now some of this knowledge is dying with the transitional generation that is in their 70s and 80s as the next generation was the one that grew up with drugs for all maladies.

What we give up for convenience is:

•  addressing the core issue which may or may not be taken care of by taking care of the symptom,
• increase chance of having more problems from side affects of the drugs,
• higher cost to consumer = higher profits for the drug companies.

Take for example something simple like a hangover, while suffering through it does not feel simple, you know what causes it - dehydration due to sweating, alcohol blocking the hormone that gets body to hold fluids thereby increasing urination and also the because alcohol dilates blood vessels of the brain.

Key is hydration which most of the old fashioned remedies are about - hot water with honey and lemon, chicken soup, fruit juice, apple cider vinegar. 

What not to do is to have Tylenol.  At the best of times, Tylenol or any other acetaminophen is toxic for the liver.  This is multiplied when there is alcohol in the system.  Easy remedy of the symptom that invites much more serious issues down the line. 

Smart TV

Ok got a Samsung Smart TV UND7000.  I have a habit, after I buy an electronic equipment, I go online and look for user reviews and look for all the piddly little negative comments to worry about.  So I have and it got me thinking what a fantastically small world it has become.  Now I get the opinion of a guy in UK, New Zealand and Korea about their experience with the same model as mine and get the calibration details from east coast in US and South America to avoid the problems with picture quality (too dark in the dark scenes) they had talk about.  The really cool thing about this TV is that it is stepping on to the other side - as in internet side.  It has a smart hub to access Netflicks and other movie streaming sites as well as it's own app store including most important for me the BBC app.  I was paying an addtional $5 for the news channels to get BBC on TV but now I don't need it anymore.  It looks like Samsung has the intent to keep the app store rolling out and current and if so, it would down the line make a lot of the TV subscription redundent. 

Anyone knows about TVs

The big time sapper over the last few days has been shopping for a TV.  It is time to replace the 1990s CRT tube with one of those slick thin LCD or plasma TVs.  I know that plasma is supposed to be better but there is a premium attached.  There is vote for a 55 inch TV and Samsung UE55d7000 but there is a question of it is backlit.  We are also looking at Sony somethingsomething 929.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

The intentions so far are working out as scheduled.  Yesterday, Saturday we were out shopping but I took my camera with me and converted it into TV shopping plus photography day.  Cranked up ISO all the way to 6400 for some shots and on camera review showed little noise.  I will find out tonight what the 100% looks like.  I am going for yoga today.  Thursday was an interesting experience but more importantly controlling the judgemental aspect means that I am perfectly happy with my performance and am really looking forward to today.

I have been strangely sleepy this weekend and I don't know if it is due to the weather which is basically pure grey skies with mild variations of grey.  I can imagaine that for someone who is so inclined can get easily depressed. 

Heard yesterday that Whitney Houston is dead at 48 years.  What a waste?  Even with so much talent, beauty and success, she couldn't find anything to appreciate and love about herself so went looking for it in all the wrong places - that is externally from other people or by means of mind altering substances. 

Good intentions

I don't know why I named this post good intentions but since this is stream of conciousness, I don't need to go too much in to the analysis. 

I am trying to lose weight.  I have been following my own diet which is a combination of low carb/low cal/exercise/indulge and recover.  So far it is working and this morning I am down another 1.3lbs from yesterday.  That is a good intention that is working.  One thing I am also acknowledging is that I am greatful for this body and who I am right now without any future enhancements.  I am happy as I am.  My weightloss is for continued good health and further enhanced looks, not to achieve the body image that I will one day love.

The second good intention to write more to write this blog is also there.  Out of four days I have written three and that brings me to the one day that I missed.  The name of the post came about because the way the mind works, it will mainly focus on what is not achieved rather than what is achieved. So that the one day I missed writing it within the first week was upmost in my mind. 

I am reading the Power of Now and there is a comment there that one has to learn to watch one's ego (also what we call mind - the incessent inner voice that judges or tries to live in the past or future rather than focusing on the present), like watching a small child and wag one's finger at it when caught being judgmental.  This analysis is really a wag of my finger with a grin to day Gottcha!

Here again

So I am here again on day 2.  The glorious sunny weather we had the last couple of days had given way to high clouds.  It is going to be raining pretty soon.  It was full moon yesterday and I wanted to take a photo of the rising moon but the clouds started coming in and when I got home I used that as an excuse for not going out because I was feeling lazy (recognizing reality no judgement - but...this reality also means that I can work on firming up my will power a tad). 
Wednesday is writing day.  I was talking to my parents this morning and my mother's friend from high school had called her.  I have never met her but she sounds really interesting.  She is re-reading her old Western Civilization and Philosophy books it seems and some of her comments my mother repeated brought to mind a plotline for writing.
Back to will power - what this means is that I need to write it down put it aside and keep my focus on the current project.
Well time to get ready for work.  I am already boarderline late....

Today - A new beginning

It is a new beginning and this is stream of consciousness writing.  Why am I putting it out on a blog?  I don't know but I feel that I can keep the writing coming this way.  Right Now it is dark outside at 6am.  The sound of passing cars is clear as there are only few cars at this time of the morning and few ambient noises to merge and muffle the individual sounds.  The sound is soothing.  I can close my eyes and pretend that I am at the beach listening to the sound of the surf.  The lights that are on based on the angle I look out at some times take on shapes like light writing, distorted by multiple glass I am looking through.  The fire glows in the fire place and the double light beside gives out a soft halo that shows off the stack of books below.  I have the extremely bad (here my mind is being judgemental - strike) habit of buying books as a collector of titles rather than a reader.  I used to be an avid reader (mind going to the past rather than staying in the present but for context), but lately I have been more of a collector than a reader.  Primary reason for this is a time wasting activity have picked up (again judgemental - strike), surfing the net.  On the face of it it is all for value added reasons - Face Book to keep up with friends' checking email - which has become time consuming as I seem to have subscribed to numerous valueble resources that send numerous info. laden emails that I barely read but still need to go through; looking up articles related to my profession for professional development, reading business articles for work, reading articles on latest health news, tech news, learning photography and writing related articles as well as keeping up with new music.  But now the activity takes approximately 3-4 hours of my after work time leaving little time for other things like working out.  Perhaps I need to allocate each day for one activity (mind in future rather than present but will continue in this thought process for value to be derived).  I like to keep the middle day Wednesday for writing and Sunday for photography and writing.  Monday should be the miscellaneous (tech, health, music day) and Tuesday Pro-D.  This leaves Thursday and Friday for dedication to any of the activities that requires priority that week.  This will help me contain the online activity to just 2 hours.
It is 6:30am and I am off to do my Nike routine.  If anyone is reading and doing know what that is, check out the free Nike Training app.  It's my day 2 using it for a half hour cross training in the morning and it is awesome.