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oda
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02/04/2007 10:47 #38006

yogic cleansing
Category: yoga
i ended up getting the winter sickness that hits people generally around the end of january. it is mostly gone except that i still have a slight stuffy nose and a bit of a cough.

so the other day, i noticed that i had a pretty thick film on my tongue. and i remembered to use my tongue scraper. it was pretty gross scraping all that stuff off. i am not normally a person who produces a lot of mucus, but because i was sick, my body was producing more.


image


well, directly after i finished scraping my tongue, i could suddenly taste my food and my entire mouth felt much cleaner. and, as an added benefit, i noticed that my nostrils were way less clogged, too.

another technique that is extremely helpful to most people is using the neti pot. you pour a salt water solution (the same temperature as your body temp and the same saltiness as your tears) through your nostrils. it goes in one nostril and out the other and then you blow the excess mucus out. it really gets rid of any clogs.

image

i get allergies at the end of august ever year (ragweed). during that time, i use the neti pot several times a day. it honestly made me not even notice any effects of my allergies.


these techniques are designed to get rid of ama, which are the toxins that accumulate in your body when it's not running in tip-top shape. we have ama even when our body is healthy, it's produced from incomplete digestion, whether physical or emotional. ama accumulates much more when we are imbalanced physically or spiritually.

i should probably get myself to a yoga class soon, too. ama, be gone!

paul - 02/05/07 20:26
A spoon is metal, just like surgical instruments that are used on various people in a hospital. They are sterilized in a hot dish washer with soap.

Spoons often are in people's mouths. In fact they are designed for it.
libertad - 02/05/07 20:09
I'm sorry but if I ever need to use a spoon at paul's house i'm going to think about him scraping his tongue with it.
jenks - 02/05/07 14:07
A toothbrush works just fine for me. It's meant to go in my mouth, already has my germs all over it, and I don't even have to go to the kitchen (or the store) for it.

Neti pots just make me think of Six Feet Under and I can't stop laughing.
kookcity2000 - 02/05/07 12:38
best semi-argument EVER
oda - 02/05/07 11:58
i was trying to point out that i don't think that toungue scrapers were originally made in our super-materialistic culture. i don't see anything wrong with using a spoon to scrape your toungue. but some people might not want to eat off of that spoon later.
i have used other things besides tongue scrapers to scrape my tongue, too. and i have used other things to pour salt water through my nose, but i have found that the tongue scrapers and neti pots work better than anything else i have tried.
paul - 02/05/07 10:49
Considering I am a logical person who was cleaning my tongue for physical reasons and not some voodoo bullshit, it seemed quite appropriate to use any tool that worked to scrape the matter off my tongue. Do you really believe the spoon contains spiritual contaminate when washed?

If so, you are letting your spiritual beliefs affect the environment. Just think of all the plastic and packaging and metal that goes into tongue scraper production when just about everyone has spoons.
oda - 02/04/07 20:26
most people i know who use a tongue scraper are from india. ama is seen as spiritual as well as physical toxins that accumulate all over our body. because it is a waste product, a spoon would not be used to scrape ama. i think, in a way of looking at it, it would be the equivalent of "don't shit where you eat, my friend."
paul - 02/04/07 15:57
I used to have a tongue scraper. One time when I was on vacation I forgot it and tried using a spoon upside down. The spoon worked so well I never used a tongue scraper and again and spoons are everywhere. It made me think the whole tongue scraper as a separate instrument was a scam.
boxerboi - 02/04/07 15:37
I'll vouch for the sinus rinses. Ayr makes good mixture packets if you don't have time to mix up your own solution.
vycious - 02/04/07 12:44
i couldnt tell you the saltiness of my tears, for they have all been shed. just kidding, i couldnt resist.

02/03/2007 19:18 #37991

it got to me
Category: ranting & raving
so, my first two weeks of school, i was proud of how well i handled the enormous transition i just went through. i was not getting stressed at all about the fact that i suddenly was extremely busy all the time. i just moved in to a new house and greeted everyone (even the cat i caught peeing on my bed) with a smile. i even tricked my roommate in to thinking that i was a morning person because i would have a happy thought as i walked in to the kitchen and would come in every morning smiling.

well, yesterday, the last day of my third week, it got to me. i found myself in the computer lab at ub getting frustrated because i have to learn a whole new email program that is not user friendly in the slightest. i was emailing my pharmacology professor who i cannot stand. it takes a LOT for me to not like someone. i don't care who you are or how you express yourself, as long as you are a good person. if i can find some sliver of good in you, if i know that you live your life in a way that expressed that you are trying to identify with that part of you that is good.

it's hard for me to find the goodness in this professor. he has done all of these things:

1. came in to class around fifteen minutes late on the first day of class, which doesn't start until 6:45 pm. he said he got stuck at an intersection at ub for all that time. yes, it was snowing, but you are the professor. you make it a point to leave earlier to get to class on time.

2. spends the entire time READING the power point notes he made for the class. really, he doesn't explain anything, and the slides that he created have a ton of vocabulary that only someone who had taken a number of courses that were not even prerequesites for the class would know.

3. tells jokes. if you are a good teacher and you tell jokes, i will appreciate them. if you are doing it as a way to trick students in to liking you, i do not appreciate it at all. i was pretty much growling each time he wasted our time telling us something that did not pertain to the class.

4. lies. yes. in one of his "jokes," he gave us medical misinformation. he was describing the way an epidural is done and he pantomimed a needle that was over twice the size of the size that is really used. he continued his joke for dramatic effect, raised an eyebrow, and said in a scary voice, "does that scare you, punk?"
i was very, very glad to see that one of the students in class called him on how he exaggerated the size of the needle. the teacher then demonstrated the correct needle size.

5. on the second night he was lecturing, he stopped mid sentence to completely embarass this korean girl who was videotaping his lecture. i mean, he was RUDE in a bad way. i know the other students in class feel like i do about this as well.
i know my lecture is recorded on the ub website, and if i were computer literate, i would find that clip and post it here. i cannot describe how horrible he was to this girl. i really think he should be fired or at least be given a severe warning for what he did.

so,

i did all these things i'm not proud of yesterday at the ub library:

--i said and/or muttered "fuck" aloud at least six times in the computer lab.

--i wrote "fucking asshole professor" on the quiz i just took when the teacher i just described put a trick question on the quiz.

--i was unpleasant to the librarians when they couldn't find a book on reserve.

---i sent a theatening email to the company that i ordered my book from on amazon.com because it was supposedly delivered 10 days ago and i never got it. they had not responded to my previous request to contact UPS about this. (the bad news is that they responded within 10 minutes of recieving my threatening email, when they did not respond to the kind email i had sent them four days earlier.)

--when i was trying to figure out how to do something on my ub email, i sent myself a test email, in which i wrote "grrr."

i was so disappointed in myself.


i decided to remedy all of that by drinking a lot of beer and smoking SO MUCH pot and more cigarettes than i had smoked during the last week combined. at least i had a very, very fun night partying with all the people i used to live with next to pano's. i got to hang out with at least 10 people during the night and it was fun. i guess everyone's gotta let off some steam sometimes, right?

01/31/2007 21:45 #37945

co-op housing
i just read that some peeps might be looking for housing.

i am living in a new coop on the west side, and we will be looking for some new people to move in withing the next few months.

we share vegan meals a few times a week and share all our food. we all take turns cooking and cleaning. when all the rooms are finished, we will have 11 good people in our house.

if you might be interested, give us a call at 881-7843

02/02/2007 10:50 #37965

brand new STD
Category: health
i learned yesterday in my microbiology class that there is a brand-new STD called MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). it is caused by a superbug. it's a kind of staph infection, which is a really gross kind of infection. i've seen what it does to people's skin, i'd hate for that to affect my love hole.

from wikipedia:
Recently, due to overuse of antibiotics, strains of S. aureus have evolved to become resistant to certain drugs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methicillin-resistant_Staphylococcus_aureus


if we didn't overuse antibiotics, we could still treat this infection.
there are antibiotics in our animal feed and water supply and there's not a whole lot we can do about that. this is really sad and upsetting and will lead to more and more diseases that are resistant to antibiotics.

if you like to buy antibiotic soaps, you may be helping yourself a tiny bit (not really, because you are also killing the millions of good bacteria that we have that protect us), but you are hurting everyone else and harming our earth.


i must say that I am completely impressed with ECC. i decided to take microbiology there instead of ub because i figured it would be cheaper and easier. and it turns out that i keep hearing the students at ub complaining about how hard their microbiology class is, while my teacher at ecc is straightforward and and wonderful. he is so excited about microorganisms and we actually learn about what's new in the world of microbiology. (when i went to look up MRSA on the internet, i found that it was released yesterday that it is transmitted sexually.) he really keeps on top of things. microbiology was the class i was dreading the most this semester, because i really don't have a huge interest in bacteria and the like. but because my teacher is so great, it will end up being the class that i remember the most from.

also, the class size at ecc is great. there are only 8 people in my class. in the three science classes i'm taking at ub, there are between 200-300 people in each class. i really like to ask questions in class, but when there are hundreds of other studens, i feel that my questions should not be asked because if everyone asked the same amount of questions as me, there would be no time for the lecture.

anyway, i heart ecc. it is the most convenient location that anyone could ever dream of for a college (across the street from the bus station). everyone there is helpful (it seems i often need help with random things as school). and the veggie burgers only cost $2.06 in their cafeteria.

jenks - 02/02/07 23:04
Yeah, MRSA is scary, and it's on the rise. But it's been around for a while, and there ARE antibiotics that can kill it. Never heard of MRSA STD's though- that's scary. I wonder what type of infection they mean.

But you're absolutely right. We need to stop abusing antibiotics. And it's up to the doctors- but patients can help too. Like don't ask doctors to give you antibiotics for a cold. A cold is a virus and antibiotics won't help. Even most sinus infections don't need abx. And doctors need to grow spines and not cave in when patients INSIST on antibiotics. I've had a few friends ask me for z-paks and get all pissed when I say no. 1- I don't prescribe meds for people that aren't my patients
2- my license doesn't let me (since it's a hospital license)
3- you don't take a z-pak for a cold.

And last point- antibacterial soap shouldn't really contribute to resistance since most of them don't have actual antibiotics in them- just chemicals (like alcohol) that kill the bacteria.

Glad you like your classes. Micro can be kind of cool. Especially the lab. We got to swab each other's throats and grow it in petri dishes and be amazed and how many bugs grew.
libertad - 02/02/07 21:58
I also love ECC. So many people talk shit about it, but I think it is interesting that we both appreciate it.

My mother is always talking about that disease. She told me that athletes are getting it from gyms. That freaks me out that healthy athletic people are getting this disease. So is it sexually and casually transmitted? Is it true about getting it from the gym equipment? Should I really yell and scream when someone doesn't wipe up there nasty sweat?

01/25/2007 18:35 #37859

ancestors
Category: cold
i love our ancestors an immense amount. i know we have incredible wisdom that came from all their experiences.

yet i have no idea why on earth any of our ancesters would have ever decided to move to an icebox. it seems near impossible that (relatively) hairless mammals would have evolved in such a cold climate. so, the nomadic peoples MUST have come here and to other cold places. but i can't understand why. i guess there must have been more food, but the earth was not yet full enough of humans to make this necessary.

actually, when the europeans came over, why didn't they all just move to the south? most of the old school colonies were in the north. it really baffles me.

it's 7 degrees right now. feels like -9. that is way, way colder than anyone keeps their freezers. i'd stay inside if i could.

carolinian - 01/25/07 19:44
Just a few theories.

For starters, southern climates tend to have malaria, which is far more deadly than any cold spell. Also, the whole cold thing was kind of forced on the human race already. There was that ice age about 10,000 years ago which we as a species couldn't avoid; the humans that survived probably weren't bothered by Buffalo-like temperatures after enduring such a large freeze.

As for the south (U.S.-wise) they did come to the south. The first English colonies were in NC and Virginia in the late 1500's during the time of Queen Elizabeth.
imk2 - 01/25/07 19:30
i think the british settled further north than you'd like because the south was already taken, no? most of south and central america belonged to the spaniards. i think they controlled florida at that time as well.

because humans are capable of manipulating their environments very well, they are able to adapt to the most extreme environments such the arctic or in modernity, poverty. and because they migrated through from asia to north america via the baring straight, it's only natural that they would settle on the northern most parts of the continent first.

but to put it more simply, "man does because he can". why else would we put people in space?

metalpeter - 01/25/07 19:21
My guess would be that when they got here it was a forgein land. I'm also guessing it wasn't winter yet so they had no idea about it. They didn't know how to survive the winter with out fresh food with out the help of the indians. If that where true then would they really want to take a chance and move down south where there might not be anyone to help them, plus they had homes established. I'm just guessing really. But if you know you are safe here why move. Yeah eventully people did take trips out west but it wasn't easy. Or maybe there where hot sexy little indian girls to keep them warm all winter and they didn't want to give that up.