The Dino-Aspie Ex-Café (for Those 40+... or feeling creaky)

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you are telling me distroying by fire the whole south coast of Australia won't cause a climate change? At least for that area? Climate change is part human doing, too and doesn't have to be by natural means only, Richiell unless you consider arsonists unnatural. . which they may be.. . .

Merle

ummm, i think it's a combination of 117F heat (ours was only 112F the last bad one) and 75mph winds, plus very, very, VERY dry fuel. You take one of those three away, and you get an ordinary fire. all three are there and you get the kind of hell they've gotten.

it's been pouring rain, on and off, here for the weekend and i'm thrilled to death. it's supposed to do it again next weekend, too. on the good side, things are green. on the bad side, things are growing that will become dry and brown and flamable by the fall. again. it won't rain anymore once it stops, later in the spring. it's already rained more this year than last, so maybe we'll be lucky. maybe not too many santa anas.

i'm glad nanarob is ok. i've stopped watching the news, i don't need the stress thing right now. i got a $50 gift card for filling out a health-care survey and spent it on the dvds for the third season of Dr. Who - we just finished the last of the box of them last night. i have to say that david tennant has done very well - my favorite used to be tom baker but i think tennant is as good if not just a smidge better in the role. plays a nice, maniacal, transcendent sort of doctor. ending of the last one was very, very sad, though. and now, i have to buy the next season's as soon as i find it on sale somewhere. (anybody got a spare set hanging around?, we hacked our dvd player so it's all region!)

the kid's interview is tomorrow.

and we've been fighting the hmo again - the geneticist has spotted some articles in the literature that were written by a doctor at the university where i work and has referred us to see him! unfortunately, the insurance at the university will not pay for the kid to see him - he's "out of network" for the hmo that they've contracted with for our care. so, the person most likely to be able to tell us what is going on is a half-mile away and we can't even get in his door.

it so figures.

ok, geneticist just emailed and suggested kid try "coenzyme Q10" which you can get at costco (?) - supposedly a dietary supplement. says that it sometimes helps, in some studies, people with mitochondrial disease.

have also just read that statins (for high blood pressure) cause drops in coenzyme Q10 in the bloodstream, and that they think it might have something to do with memory losses/impairment in people on statins. so, since the kid's mind is a sieve lately, she's on statins, since the latest suspicion is mitochondrial disease, and since they say it can't hurt anything, we'll try coenzyme Q10. anybody ever heard anything about it from reputable sources? i'm seeing some minor studies at reputable places, but nothing massive or truly impressive yet.

Australian Aborigines have been using fire as a land-management technique since the Dreamtime. Whitefellas, by contrast, have a zero-tolerance approach to fire. In consequence, fuel loads have built up to the point where, if the weather conditions reach a certain point, and a firebug drops a lit match into it... well, we are seeing the results of that now.

Not all the currently-burning fires were deliberately lit. Some occurred by lightning strike, and at least one from an electrical short in dust buildup on high-tension power lines.

Hazard-reduction burning could reduce the severity of bushfire emergencies, but carries some risk itself. Weather conditions have to be right, neighbouring fire brigades have to be placed on standby, and public health and safety need to be taken into account.

How climate change fits into this picture, either as a contributing factor or as an outcome, is debatable.

Wildlife in bushfire-affected areas cops a hiding along with the humans. This koala, who in normal circumstances would shun human contact and obtain all its water from eating leaves, accepts a drink and a helping hand from a firey:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25038828-1243,00.html

Awwwww!
Koala and possum cutie pies! Hope all goes well for the animals.
(and the people affected as well).

Nan, I'm on the run and don't have time to reference Co-Q 10 right now, but I've read many articles professing its good effects on health. I tried one cap once - and could not sleep for 48 hours. I didn't get hyper - I just could not fall asleep. My sleep pattern is no pattern however, so I am not sure if Co-Q 10 was the culprit or not. I never took another dose.

Fingers are crossed, and I'm on pins-and-needles here.... I think it's the placebo effect, but the kid says she can feel a difference, a very definite one - like the "cotton wool brain fuzz" lifted. Told me that about 2 hours after her first dose. That can't be right? She's only had the one dose and for it to work so quickly? Will have to watch her carefully over the next few days, very carefully. If this stuff works, it means a whole, whole, whole lot.

Wait till Chuck comes back for an informed opinion. If you will be content with mine until then, 2 hours doesn't seem that long for something to get from the digestive system through the blood stream into the brain (if it crosses the blood brain barrier). And if there is an acute shortage of a co-factor, which you supply, the effect should be fast. It's not a long lasting adjustment of metabolism, nothing needs to grow, no gene expression is needed, you just supply something that's needed for a reaction.

If you want to find out, try a double blind experiment. First, find out how long the effect seems to last. Then find some other pill that looks or at least feels the same. Make a few small paper envelopes, each holding one pill. Number them. Toss a coin to decide whether the allegedly active pill or the placebo goes into an envelope, make a note. Kid takes the pills in order of the numbers (not in your presence, so that you can't accidentally give away what she's taking), and notes the effect. Once she's gone through the lot, compare the kid's notes to your list of which envelopes contained the active pill and which the placebo. 20-30 pills,about equal numbers of each type, should be enough for the statistics. Use a binomial test. I can do the data analysis for you, if you like.

The PDR Health site seems good for checking up on drugs and supplements (Chuck, could you comment on whether that is so?), but it doesn't have a lot to say about coenzyme Q10.

Going through what I think they're going call a hyper manic,not sure exactly that's the right term either. Let's say I have never ever felt anything like it and I can back track Bipolar back at least as far as my Army days, which is what my current Doc think was the trigger to set it off, big time, no really big time. The trigger, was a calm experience, but the horror of seeing two dead pilots whose body parts were detached in such a manner that it just felt like you could walk over and put the parts back on and everything would be ok, due to the sudden force impact and them being harnesses in. So very grey, no blood and I suddenly knew the battle ground description of, the streams ran red with blood. It was almost an out of body experience, me, looking at me, looking at them. It was an accidental seeing I wasn't prepared for. That most likely she thinks was the catalyst that sent me into my own twilight zone hell and that is an understatement. I could have sworn I had told people, people in the need to know about it and all that followed and some I have, but only the "good" parts, because after months of it, I started to study it, observe the madness and something about it still mystify me and even the docs. Umm where was I? And that is the current problem, series problem. When Nan said "Brain like a sieve" I thought umm that might be an understatement in my case. I needed a translator, damn near wordless when I put in the hot line call to my therapist. She could pull the strings and has to get things moving and moving fast, but first I needed someone to get it into some form of order that someone could try and understand. I have taken the car keys away from myself.

I don't multitask and have routines and have things for the normal routines in set places. Move them and expect emotional expressions from me. This morning I tried to make coffee. Figured I had, only to go to get some and see both lids up, no water in it, no coffee in the right place and not turned on. Ok, this is my morning fog, not uncommon to do funny things when just waking up. So I set it up right, pushed the button and went on my merry way, because I felt a huge Whew, memory seems to be back, focus seemed to be relatively good, didn't get upset, no cuss words and heap more of expressive things, when a routine has been interrupted. Eventually I wondered back out to pour a cup and noticed the pot said two cups left and I checked to make sure the damn machine hadn't finished cycling the water, it had and i thought the god damned coffee maker had eaten my sock. So I added more, went back out all is reading correctly and poured a cup. I walked back in and then I saw I had already poured a cup and didn't remember it. It was funny and when I told the wife she laughed too. I went to get heating fuel last night, another routine, opened the back of the station wagon, put in the liner so the fuel doesn't spill onto the carpet, realized i didn't have my fuel handling gloves on and went back in the house to get them and got in the car, started it up and the damn ringing warning lights just started blaring at me and I had put on my seat belt, I mean wtf is going on here. The back was still open and I had not put the containers in. Ok drive time, I'm fully aware I've lost it and I'm concentrating as hard as I can to get to the pl;ace to get the fuel, only 2 miles away. I made it, not many mistakes and as I got out of the car, I made double sure I hadn't locked myself out and it dawned on me, about the only thing I haven't done is lock my self in the car and chuckled to myself. Going back I got home and realized I had gone big deal of the trip not even aware of the road, until I got home, I mean a big part of the small travel was a huge blank. But I did and could remember what I was thinking about, fixated on, but couldn't by the time I had gotten back in the house. And yet I was trying so hard to stay focused on the road.

Sometimes I find myself just standing in the middle of a room and don't know wtf is going on, what was i doing to get to that point of just staring into space. Many other examples of what this is doing to me.

I have ADHD as well, which has or at least in me, kept me thinking about other things when in school, Day dreaming kind of thing. I have that as memory way further back then i can track anything even remotely bipolar. It is for a real lack of a good term, lack of focus. and yet it isn't really that at all. They've known about my ADHD for a long time at the vets Admin, well over 10 years and have done nothing for it except once. All I can remember from the drug was I said it helped, they stopped due to some circumstances that happened and then it was just totally ignored, for 10 f*****g years.

What this current nightmare and god is it, had allowed me to see, during brief moments of cohesive thought was, my emotions, how they were being expressed. And I though omg I have been doing this for a very long time, even during the old days of the month/s long depressions. And I can now seeing where they're mistaking some of the manics as something totally else. I will be on the ADHD, make no mistake and I will nail to the wall anybody in that vets Admin hell hole that even attempts to stand in my way.

When you live in your head, sometimes your only friend and ye sometimes enemy is you and you suddenly find him gone out into the where ever, no longer with you it is so over whelming, a huge melt down and adjitives (can't get that word close enough for spell check to do it, I know it wrong, but I can't fix it), expressions my head still isn't allowing me to get out. I can deal with a hyper manic, with the hope that the reverse Ritalin effect can lessen it and there is some relief in just knowing what the hell it is. But the important thing to me is, this ADHD not having been addressed is seen as something else, when I kept telling them over and over and over it isn't the bipolar at work. At one point someone said you drink too much coffee and I said like hell I do, I know the coffee high, the shakes the jitters, the overload and what I drink would be looked at by some as a lot, it is not to me.

I know this was long and I'm actually even surprised i could keep my focus long enough to do it and yeah it's going read badly to many. It's just the best i cam do right now. But when Nan said that last night or when ever (time? WTF is that?) I thought omg do I know that one right now, at least it might be close. I don't know, but this seemed like a good time to bring up my story and maybe someone else might be able to get a glimpse of perhaps "The Kids" feelings and a little bit of what a Bipolar might go through at times.

The long depressions have yet to appear on this med and they will not move me from this dose and I know how they will view that Belligerence. Sometimes when they attempt to adjust a dose and it was worse, you go back on the one that did and it doesn't work anymore. I do not want to ever go back the hell hole world of depression.

Funny though, when I was in the middle of it or part of the really intensity of it, I would find myself in repeat music mode for long periods, rocking back and forth with my fists clenched.

And yeah I know I tried to end this back a ways, I guess i can't really explain what it's like to anybody and I know it's misinterepted, even here. I'm not going even reread that, I just can't, but will probabaly find myself doing it, later.

Body language.

Forget the topic and the politics, if you want. But listen to the tone of his voice, certainly excited and on the street that can be viewed as anger and get you into all kinds of s**t. And yeah there is frustration a touch of anger as well. But watch his hands, that is body language, so on the street no matter what the voice tone is, there is not mistaking the real intent. His hand motions emphasize his intent and Obama knows it and reads it and he says that he can express himself very well and he can, but most might view him as being not a good candidate for his present course in education. This is also thought to be why some regions in the South have the long drawl, so no mistake was made and interpreted wrongly, dueling was often the results if the intent and words were taken wrongly.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1m_k2dCj0M&eurl=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/02/62687523/1?se=yahoorefer&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Body language can be very subtle too, but it can be learned and I taught it to myself very early. I did not understand what some peoples intentions were and when you really get into it, you can tell all sorts of things they say, but don't mean. My last (well, my only ) private therapist, I told, I read body language well and she said, good, we won't have to go through that part then. And yet she used it on me and I couldn't help my reaction to it. She knew it and I knew it. She could intimidate the hell out of me, she knew it and i can do it to others, just to get them to pull away from me and give me some damn space. But she did it with good intent and i can do it, consciously, with good intent. It is not a mystery and there are, now, some very good books on it.

The young man asking the last question: I might have been a little fearful if I'd been standing near him, but onscreen, he just seems to radiate joy.

The media here, and everybody else as well, continues to delight in the story of Sam the koala and David the firefighter. Sam is finding the media scrutiny intimidating, but is otherwise well.

Aborigines did their fire-setting just before the rainy season so there would be regrowth after.
Proper time and place for everything.

yea! for sam the koala.

postie. no coffee. n-o c-o-f-f-e-e for a while.

dunno about the Q-10, it's supposed to hit the bloodstream in about 2 hours. coulda just been a fluke. but then, we do tend to metabolize things very, very oddly. will give this a while, then see about doing a doubleblind. thanks, but i can do the numbers (survived data analysis in grad school). with a sample so small, it should show if there's any major response. if it's minor, well, the stuff is $8 a bottle and that's less than a pizza, so we can just go with it for a while. if it does any good at all, it will only be counteracting the statins. which will put her back where she was before the diabetes/seizure/statins. but if the effect is large, as in disproportionately, when she stops taking the statins (she's going to do a trial run without them when her prescription runs out next), well, it does hint at mitochondrial disease. which is where the geneticist is saying the scent is leading....

probably won't do a damned thing, or she won't think to write down anything if she's feeling ok. which is the absence of brain-fog. if she's fogged, she can't remember to write it down. if she's not, she just goes merrily on with life and doesn't think about it. she said the interview went well. has no idea if they're interested in her or not.

oy.

no more coffee, postie.

Nan, I once ate two large, noooo really really large as in big giant candy bars, washed it down with 2 big, nooo reeealy big mugs of coffee and fell fast asleep. Like instant zonk. And I had only been up for maybe 5 hours or so.

On one job I had to do, I lived on the stuff, 3 pots of coffee was a norm, day after day, now that IS too much coffee and I know the difference. I drink 6 cups, which is actually just 2 cups in my mug in the morning and even that is spread out for very extended period, maybe a soda in between the nightly repeat of the morning. More often then not, my coffee is cold and my soda is warm. In its own way it is soothing to me. Right now, for what ever reason, I feel ok. Although it does seem like an optical migraine would like to make an appearance. It may or may not and that just means take a vitamin B, small one, to stop them from occurring for a few days after. They sometimes come in groups. I can time them almost to the minute and can expect another at almost the same time the next day, but what ever reason B seems to break it up.

Anyway, not to worry. Plans are in place and they have kicked their asses into high gear at the VA. No I mean a severe kick and about damn time. I am a survivor. And just like not knowing what was going on when I started getting the optical migraines, it was a real calmer just to know what they are, at least in mind that's what this is, hyper manic. Same thing now when I compare the two. But know they're talking about things that they have never bothered to do, that should have been done in the first place. It's also like being told you have hepatitis C, at first it's a bit'o shock, but you know what it is and as odd as this is going to sound you look at things differently and you know it's going to be ok, no matter what the outcome. So I don't care what they find or don't *snicker* if they figure scans are in order.

I just will insist on doubles of brain pictures. I want to put one up on the wall, just to prove to myself I have one or to others. It might not work, but I won't tell them that.

Damn it no coffee near me or soda. Humm wonder where the hell I hid it this time. Might take me an hour or two to find it, but I will. But don't be surprised if I end up at your front door and ask if you've seen my flashlight, I won't know how I got there or why I need it. Just go with the flow and point a finger in a direction and I'll go the other way.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/ ... inenetwork

hope people out of The States get the video feed!

Merle

Native Americans did it as well. I'm rusty on my dates, but I seem to recall even before farming. But that was more in line with hunting. But now I'm going to be thinking more about the gathering part of that statement, which defines the Archaic time frame, hunter/gather..although they all did it. On one dig we pushed back the time frame for farming in Pennsylvainia, I think it's goes back way further then that.

I had never heard of the DreamTime before, interesting, very much so.

In the 6 Nations, more commonly thought of as the Iroquois Confederacy, dreams were of huge importance. If someone had a dream that the rest of a group thought important, they would do near anything to to accomplish what might be needed to fulfill the dream, to the point they would impoverish themselves to complete it. Gads!! that was very bad wordage.