Scala, Java, Unix, MacOS tutorials (page 185)

Mindfulness in baseball (Joe Maddon, Cubs)

From time to time Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon stresses mindfulness in sports. He may not refer to it as mindfulness, but he certainly refers to staying in the present moment, which is the same thing.

In terms of sports and winning, I like his quote at the end of the clip I’m showing: “It comes down to what team competes better in the moment.” It may not be as obvious in baseball as it is with sports like football, basketball, and tennis, but as I’ve gotten older it’s become very clear that a lot of close games are won and lost in just a few key plays.

(The image comes from this espn.com page.)

Mindfulness in baseball (Joe Maddon, Cubs)

Triggers for mast cell diseases (and histamine intolerance)

patient.info has some good information on triggers for mast cell diseases, including mastocytosis and mast cell activation syndrome (and histamine intolerance).

Low-histamine diet infomation

histamine-intolerance.info has some good low-histamine diet information. If you suffer from allergies, mast cell disease (including mastocytosis and mast cell activation syndrome), and possibly other illnesses like chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, this is worth learning about.

Sometimes, the elegant implementation is just a function

“Sometimes, the elegant implementation is just a function. Not a method. Not a class. Not a framework. Just a function.”

~ John Carmack

Song of the Day: Coming Out of the Dark, by Gloria Estefan

I like listen to Eye of the Tiger as I am able to start practicing yoga again, but Coming Out of the Dark by Gloria Estefan is another great “comeback” song for the rest of the day:

A concise, practical guide to diagnostic assessment for mast cell activation disease

This article, A concise, practical guide to diagnostic assessment for mast cell activation disease (MCAD), pretty much describes what I have been going through for the last several years.

An RSS Reader written with Scala and JavaFX (the beginning)

I just started writing an RSS Reader application using JavaFX and Scala, and I thought I’d post the initial code here. This code shows several advanced Scala techniques that Scala developers might need to use when writing Scala code to interact with Java, and in this case, JavaFX.

God and Noah discussing parks and arks

God: You built a park? I asked for an ark. (From this twitter page.)

Mast cell activation syndrome (or mastocytosis) explains many mysterious health problems

In retrospect, mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) (or mastocytosis) explains many mysterious health problems. For example, six years ago I took a routine blood test and my doctor found that my Vitamin D level was extremely low, even though I was out in the Sun every day and took a multivitamin supplement, in addition to drinking milk and eating a lot of cheese. Then last year I told my doctor that on four occasions it felt like bones in my feet, hands, and arm had broken spontaneously, but she just looked at me like I was crazy.

“Loaded accusatory silence”

A friend wrote these words today:

“Loaded accusatory silence”

It’s a beautiful phrase, and it refers to people making assumptions about what other people are thinking or doing. Rather than talk to those people to find out what’s really going on, they accuse them in their own minds (and also judge them to be guilty).

(The word “judgmental” comes to mind.)

My heart, dancing to the beat of a different drummer

Facebook tells me that I was having health problems three years ago, when I posted the attached image, and this text: “My heart has been dancing to the beat of its own drummer again lately, so rather than sleep at night I've been listening to the coyotes and watching movies. These were all good. You Kill Me cracks me up.”

Mastocytosis, mast cell disease, and thinking (“brain fog”)

One way to describe what I was going through was “brain fog,” or having difficulty thinking clearly, articulating my thoughts, and remembering anything. This quote comes from the mastocytosis.ca web page:

“When the symptoms occur, it is common for patients to have difficulty thinking clearly ... mast cells are in every organ including the brain.”

“Nonimmunologic histamine releasers other degranulation triggers” (mast cell diseases)

This is a list of “Nonimmunologic histamine releasers other degranulation triggers” from the Mastocytosis Society of Canada. Please see their website for more information about Mastocytosis triggers.

I just read that mast cell diseases are inherited, and this list makes me wonder if this comes from my dad’s side of the family. I know that he was allergic to quinine, which is on this list, and if I remember the story right, one of his brothers died when given a radioactive dye during an MRI or CT Scan. I got very sick the last time I was given dye during an MRI, and immediately broke out in hives.

Mastocytosis - Histamine releasers, triggers

A short description of “Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS/MCAD)”

This MastAttack.org page may describe what I have been doing through:

“Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) (also known as ‘Mast cell activation disorder, or MCAD’) is when a normal amount of mast cells behave badly. It is clinically similar to indolent systemic mastocytosis; life span is normal; biopsies are negative.”

Wikipedia also has a good mast cell activation syndrome page. Both pages cover the MCAS/MCAD symptoms very well.

The iPhone 7 is pretty fast

The information about the iPhone 7 performance in this image comes from this post by Jon Gruber. The mind-blowing stats are in the two updates at the end of the image.

Sports psychology becoming popular

This espn.com article on having a sports psychologist isn’t very deep, but the paragraph shown in this image reminds me of Tiger Woods “Standard Operating Procedures” (SOP) he used to use in golfing. His father was in the military, and as I remember it, he taught Tiger to have SOP routines for approaching every ball.

I can’t remember the person’s name right now, but there’s a popular sports psychologist in Colorado who works with Adam Gase, some of the Broncos players, and the University of Alabama football program.

Acceptable thinking: A monk recalling previous lives

“Even when I was just three years old, I could recall many previous lives. But to many people this sort of thinking isn’t acceptable, so now when I’m asked what I can remember, I just say, ‘I remember when I was three years old.’”

~ a monk

(a facebook post from this date in 2010)

Java int, double, float, and mixed-type arithmetic rules

Java FAQ: What are the rules about Java arithmetic (multiplication, division) involving mixed data types?

While working on a math problem in Java just a little while ago, I realized that I wasn’t comfortable with the Java mixed-type division rules. That is, I wondered if the result of this equation:

3 / 2

the same as the result of this equation:

3 / 2.0

or this equation:

3.0 / 2.0

Mast Cell Activation Disease (Syndrome)

Over the last few days I have been feeling about 98% better than I have in several years, and I now know that most of the problems I was having were related to histamines and mast cell disorders. This book, Never Bet Against Occam (i.e., Occam’s Razor), covers the symptoms and problem(s) of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) from a medical perspective.

“A Humorous Guide to Understanding Mast Cell Disorders”

As someone who is dealing with something like Mastocytosis or histamine intolerance, this book, “My Crazy Life: A Humorous Guide to Understanding Mast Cell Disorders,” strikes a chord with me. For a long time you walk around going “WTF?,” and during that entire process you find that American doctors are no help at all.