Posts in the “personal” category

“When it’s grim, be the Grim Reaper.”

~ Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid to Patrick Mahomes (Chiefs v Bills, Jan., 2022)

Two “inspirational quotes” that I saw today:

• “If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will”, Steve Jobs
• “What can a poor boy do but sing in a rock and roll band?” (from a Rolling Stones song, as discussed by Bruce Springsteen here)

A good scene from The Wedding Singer:

Julia: I feel like I’m doomed to wander the planet alone forever.

Robbie: Oh, no. Kind of like the Incredible Hulk, huh?

Julia: Yeah ... only I’m not helping people.

Robbie: Now that’s not true, because I saw inside, you were helping people. You were giving them fish and coffee and forks; people can’t eat without forks.

Julia: And they can’t drink without a fish.

Robbie: That’s right ... I think. What does that mean?

Julia: I don’t know, you lost me back at The Hulk.

It looks like I have notifications working in the iOS version of my Back To Now app, so I’ll be releasing that during this coming week.

“The ego is frightened of death, because ego is part of the incarnation and ends with it. For the soul, death is just another moment.”

~ Ram Dass, be love now

As kind of a crazy thing, I haven’t given a live presentation in fifteen years. But last week I was asked to give a two-hour talk about writing and editing, and after that I decided to create this video presentation on YouTube, titled, Almost Everything I Know About Writing. It’s a 33-minute long presentation that’s based on the introduction to the original presentation, and if you’re interested in technical writing, I hope it’s helpful.

In case this might help anyone else, I thought I’d share this information. I was having a weird problem where some mornings when I woke up my blood pressure would be really high, so long story short, I did an at-home sleep study a few weeks ago, and went over the results with a doctor this morning. I’ll include the doctor’s notes with each image.

Image 1: The “A+H” metric

In the first image, “A+H” is the main metric they use. It measures the average number of apnea events that occur per hour while you’re sleeping.

In my case, a 19.4 overall average means, “Yes, you have apnea.” The 36.8 value means, “you have really bad apnea on your back, don't sleep there.” Interestingly, 0.7 means “you have no apnea when sleeping on your left side, so sleep there as much as possible.” I’ve known for years that I sleep better on the left side, so the doctor encouraged me to sleep on that side as much as possible.

“Do that thing that will charm you, that will make you say, ‘Yes, it’s the real me.’ Do that, and you’re alive.”

(I don’t remember where that quote comes from,
but I like it.)

“Remember, remember, the fifth of November.”

~ from the movie, V for Vendetta

Coach Billy Donovan called Dosunmu “fearless’’ once again.

“My motto is just fear God, so I don’t fear anything but God,’’ Dosunmu said. “When I go out there and compete, I trust in what I can do.”

~ a quote from this page

After several days of intense programming, I thought I'd take a break for something much less serious: Funny bumper sticker quotes and sayings. :) 

These are a variety of funny/joke bumper stickers quotes/sayings that I've seen over the last year or two. A few others were sent to me by friends who know I like a good bumper sticker ... well, as long as it's not on my car.

Continuing along with my great diverticulitis adventure (or, “How I spent the Spring of 2015“), yesterday I took another trip to the ER, had another CT scan, and to my great surprise I found out that I don’t have diverticulitis, but instead I have something called Epiploic appendagitis:

A note from June 7, 2015:

“So, you want to go out with me, right?”

“I have to be honest with you,” she said, suddenly looking serious.

“Uh-oh. I’ve heard that before.”

“No, not that,” she said, with a little smile.

“Okay ...”

“I have MS.” Long pause. “Do you know what that means?”

“Yes, yes I do.”

“In order to understand a man, you have to understand his past.”

~ Columbo

It’s noon. There’s a knock on the door. I open the door.

UPS guy: “Hi, I have a package for you.”

Me: “Um, hi. Gosh, sorry I’m still in my pajamas, and I haven’t shaved in a few days, and don’t look at the apartment, it’s a real mess. It’s because blah blah blah ...”

“We don’t judge, sir. We just deliver. Have a nice day.”

“When you practice as though this were your last moment, you will have freedom from everything.”

Shunryu Suzuki, not always so

June 13, 2016: The possibility that I have a tumor that could kill me any day has made many relationships different. Some people check in daily, “How you doing?” Other people have disappeared almost completely. I guess everyone has to deal with it in their own way. I just try to follow the Shawshank advice: “Get busy living or get busy dying.”

Possibly because of the mast cell disease, I have had a Vitamin D deficiency on and off for many years. Per the latest blood work it’s really low right now, which may be why I have been having muscular weakness, bone pain, and difficulties concentrating. This list of symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency comes from this healthline.com page.

This nih.gov article states that Vitamin D helps to stabilize mast cells. I always thought my Vitamin D levels were very low because of mast cell disease, but maybe something else caused the Vitamin D problem which made the mast cell problem worse,  dunno.

“Man is drawn between two paths: One drags him downwards towards fulfillment of desires and sense gratifications, leading to bondage and destruction; the other guides him upwards towards purity and realization of his inner Self. Desires fog his mind and veil his true Self. It is the mind alone which leads to bondage or to liberation. It is his reason which either controls his mind or allows itself to be dominated.”

~ from the book, Light on Pranayama