Last night I was chasing people who were putting bombs in buildings and flying shape-shifters (who I would later realize were on my side). When I started to catch up to them I’d find myself yelling, “please comply.” I give a “thumbs up” for the action/adventure part of the dream, but the writing and line delivery were just horrible.
~ a dream from April 8, 2017
Doctors have been treating me for “suspicion of mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS)” since 2016, and I recently got my first Covid vaccination shot. Here’s a quick summary of the experience.
Before the shot I took one Allegra pill, as usual, and then two Xyzal pills (where I normally take one a day, but as many as four).
I got the Pfizer vaccine shot, and quickly developed these symptoms:
“In enlightenment, death has no relevance to one’s state of being.”
As I reflected on the meaning of Easter this morning, I remembered this quote from Tibetan lama, teacher, physician, sculptor, and painter, Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. The quote is from his book, Life in Relation to Death.
I got vaccinated this past week at Boulder Community Hospital, in Boulder, Colorado.
If you struggle to learn new things, check out this podcast interview with Barbara Oakley. A few years ago I read her book, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra), and it was helpful to me, and even influenced my book, Functional Programming, Simplified.
When I edit my own text, I make comments like those shown in the images. A few of my own:
When I write books I try to complete a chapter, then get away from it for at least a month, then come back and edit it like this.
The images here are from the excellent movie, Finding Forrester.
When I was very sick in 2015-2016, I used to tell my doctors it felt like I had been “drugged.” When I could see that they couldn’t understand or believe that, I’d tell them that it felt the way you feel after surgery, groggy and woozy.
For the most of this year I’ve been eating very well, but yesterday I went to see a movie (Logan) and had some popcorn. Shortly after eating the popcorn I started to feel sick, and today I feel like I’ve been drugged.
This — as I have learned — is life with mast cell activation disease, known as MCAD or MCAS.
Quick note: Since The Mood Cure helped me so much with my thyroid problems last year, I bought The Diet Cure, and have been reading through it. In short, the power of amino acids blows me away. While I've never felt any different after taking any other "supplements", the difference I've felt by taking amino acids has been amazing.
Today I just want to make a note about the differences between DL-Phenylalanine, L-Phenylalanine, and D-Phenylalanine. Here's a description of Phenylalanine, courtesy of this website:
This is the amino acids supplement chart from the excellent book by Julia Ross, The Diet Cure. With this chart you look at the first two columns to find whatever “deficiency” problems you may be having, then look for the amino acid supplement(s) that are known to help with those problems.
I originally learned about this when my thyroid was failing in 2011. A nutritionist told me about this book, and I quickly found out that L-tyrosine was a major help in living through a failing thyroid. Ten years later I still take L-tyrosine after losing my thyroid to cancer, for me it’s a basic supplemental requirement that helps with focus on concentration.
“I’ve seen a lot of my friends lose their passion and end up in a rut, afraid to take a chance. ‘Night Moves’ is about romantic passion, but ‘Ship of Fools’ is about passion for life. Maybe a guy’s working a job he doesn’t like, and he sees an ad about the Alaska pipeline or something that excites him. But there are problems. His family says it’s too cold in Alaska or whatever. So he passes it up and just keeps on with something he hates.”
~ From Bob Seger, about his song, Ship of Fools
“Good things happen if you show up.” I’m pretty sure Glenn Frey said this on The History of the Eagles. If you haven’t seen it, and you like their music, it’s a great video/biography.
If I remember it right, the context was about work, and essentially that you can’t win if you don’t play the game, or in this case, you can’t be successful if you don’t show up and put in the hard work.
A cartoonized bearded version of me, circa 2021.
This is me with a mustache, circa early 2021. I had this mustache for a few minutes when I shaved off my beard. Hopefully I look like a cowboy, lol. :)
Today (February 19th) is an anniversary for me. After knowing “something” was wrong for a long time — I used to tell doctors it felt like I had been poisoned or was experiencing the symptoms of anaphylaxis or sepsis — I went unconscious for the first time on this date in 2014.
While that in many ways was a horrible event — if I had fallen to the right instead of the left when I blacked out, I probably would have cracked my head on the bathtub and died right then — in the end it was necessary for doctors (and I) to take things more seriously, which resulted in seeing a total of 26 doctors to learn that I have MCAS, a rare but treatable non-contagious blood disease (something I was born with).
Last week I was trying to remember the name of a hotel in Wyoming that has/had a big boot in front of it. Then Google came up with an interesting suggestion. :)
During a dream this morning, I was going off to college and my wife’s grandparents gave us a stack of papers, thinking I could use them at school. The papers were all like plain printing paper, and most were clean, but some of them had things written or printed on the back side. They were big on using everything, so the implication was that I could use the blank side for my needs.
When I flipped one of the pages over I saw that there was writing in my grandfather’s handwriting. It was like a diary page, with today’s date on it (with a different year), and it had two notes about his wife. The first was, “Take care of you Dilly,” meaning that he would take care of her. The second was, “Seriously, I think that was the best meal you have ever made.”
~ February 16, 2021
Traditionally I’ve spent a number of springs in Virginia Beach.
#MeepMeep
This photo is from the Cubs Facebook page back in 2015. It’s relevant again in 2021, because Jake Arrieta is back with the Cubs.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
In a way I know my heart is waking up
As all the walls come tumbling down
Closer than I’ve ever felt before
And I know, and you know
There’s no need for words right now
~ from the song Breathe, by Faith Hill
