When Taking Care of Yourself Goes Wrong

We all want to be in Hollywood beach body shape whether we say it or not. Everyone wants to look young and attractive, it's basic human nature for the attraction of a partner, or partners. For argument sake I'm going to direct this article towards the men, women tend to have more common sense in the issues I'll be addressing later, not that they're immune to them either.

Nature wants us to 'get in there' and 'mix it up' with our opposites, until we can no longer do it. When we can't do it we seek ways to force it and that usually means a gym membership, personal trainer, BOTOX, plastic surgery, new bicycle, or even a fancy expensive exercise machine guaranteed to make you young again, so long as you do exactly what they say regardless of your abilities. A lot of people actually get results they're looking for, albeit less than someone years younger could accomplish within the same parameters. Many don't and never will. Some go too far for social acceptance and pay the ultimate price. There are many reasons why people try to be something they are not and for men I believe that's where the mid life crisis comes into it. Men don't want to be looked at as that 'fat guy' sitting by the window, they want to be the 'hot guy' that works in that department over there. Ego, pure and simple!

There are medical reasons for losing and toning such as obesity, diabetes, heart problems, and blood pressure to name but a few. That's where talking to your doctor comes into it. If you have a wife, kids, other people dependent on your income in the picture you need to consider a life insurance quote as well. Life has no guarantees and exercise kills quite a few people every year whether from accidents or health related issues. Seemingly healthy people have died due to underlying conditions even their doctor never saw. It can happen, we don't have Star Trek medical scanners that see everything yet! When it comes to the actual exercising, take your time and let your body tell you what it can do, not what you expect it to do. Your body can say NO many ways!

Very High Tech Work-outs for All

I've been going through many sporting goods store ads trying to find some exercise equipment that I can use in between my hectic work schedule and sleep time. I'll work on meal time later, that's why I'm looking at exercise equipment! To say the least, it's mind boggling! I never knew there was so much out there for people to use to lose weight and tone up with. I know there's a lot of junk for sale as well and if your not an intelligent consumer, and at least common sense smart, your going to waste a lot of hard earned money. I see one of the hottest items out there right now are the Kettle balls. I guess they're called that because when it's positioned just right it looks like a round tea kettle, but weighs far more than a tea kettle. I was looking for an adapter for my bike that will allow me to ride my bike in the garage during the cold and/or inclement days and give me a work-out as well. I know what your going to say, why not buy an exercycle? Waste of money for a part time piece of equipment that'll get dusty when the weather is good, and in Florida it's mostly good except in the dead of winter where I live. What I was most impressed with is the extensive types of monitoring devices that are available to consumers. You can ride, walk, whatever and check your blood pressure with a tiny blood pressure cuff, check your heart rate with a strap on heart monitor and even check your oxygen level and pulse with a finger pulse oximeter. Did I mention the high tech pedometers that accurately gauge your walking distance? Beats the old click, click pedometers that needed a decent down step to click to the next number. I think it's getting to the point where you could go out an exercise while your doctor monitors your progress from their office. Does that constitute a house call?

What About In-Between Insurance Coverage?

What do you do if you have no insurance? That's one scenario. What do you do when you get a place with some friends and your now out on your own and your no longer covered by your parents health insurance and you haven't landed that job yet? Used to be you were scre.....stuck! I never heard of in-between health insurance and never knew it existed. I think it's a great idea, especially nowadays when you don't know how long it may be between long term coverages for you with an employer. There are a lot of people getting stuck where Cobra just isn't an option due to it's high cost(you basically pay what you paid PLUS what your former company paid for your premiums). This alone could be catastrophic economically for you if your in-between funds are less that expected. Not many insurance companies would even think about offering, a life preserver we'll say, to anyone in the event of unforeseen health issues with the subscriber. I also don't know how long temporary insurance will cover you once you have it. I guess they can tell you that themselves. I know in NC short term health insurance is available and as to what other states have it I don't know. I'm sure if North Carolina has it other states will to. I would personally look for this option before I elected a COBRA Plan from my past employer as well as compare the services they both offer and what's right for you and your wallet, in that order.

Trying to Zap the Zits? Research Before You Buy!

I went through it along with millions of others across the globe, teenage acne. Acne isn't just a physical issue, it's also a psychological one as well. I know when I had 'zits' I just wanted to hide them or make them go away and I spent a lot of money that I couldn't really afford buying so called 'acne cures'. This was, for me, in the 1970's and sure enough the ads are still playing in print, on the radio and television, as well as 2 vending machines selling a well advertised product line in my local mall. Acne medicine in a vending machine? It's not cheap either! I never saw a $20 vending machine for a small bottle of 'stuff' that a ditsy actress say's cured her acne and how she still uses it. If she's still using this stuff she needs to see a Dermatologist to find out what's wrong instead of smearing on more of this stuff that makes her 'zit out' if she stops. I was reading exposed acne treatment and it explained in the first paragraph why she would be breaking out when she would try to stop, and issue I never knew when I was younger or I would have looked for an alternative then because the same thing happened to me way back then. No, I stopped using that stuff before I hit 20. The site was very informative, gave reasons for why things happen, and does product reviews and comparisons for anyone about to invest hard earned money into something they expect to be effective, not habit forming.

Is Page Rank Impossible?

Is Page Rank impossible? I don't think so. I think that many people get too wrapped up in putting advertising all over their web pages in the belief that 'if you build it they will come' will actually work. That worked in Field of Dreams and that's not the Internet! I built a web page almost completely free of advertising and it's the highest ranking site I own. I speak my mind on issues and talk about things I believe to be relevant in the world today and I comment on other peoples blogs as well. I found that if I got my sites listed in web directories that helped even more as the site got circulated to a larger audience. I just didn't try to rank it, it just happened. The site I thought would have grown in rank and status with all its' ads and banners just got dusty and wouldn't get repeat visitors. I looked at my sites as a visitor and saw what was wrong and I fixed it. I slashed the ads, kept friends links and information links, simplifies the visuals from flash to modest and now it works. Nobody wants to wait for a site to load a ton of ads and special effects, especially me.

Eddie Murphy is Still Funny!

I was watching television the other day and a movie came on that I hadn't seen in a lot of years, Beverly Hills Cop (the original). This movie was so funny at the time it came out and I found most of the movie still funny today. Axel the Detroit cop coming to Beverly Hills CA to find a cop killer, and we laughed about it! This was the highest grossing R rated film in the US until The Passion of the Christ (2004) came out 20 years later. It took another 20 years to beat that with The Hangover in 2009. This was 26 years ago and it held a 20 year record it was so good! I think the funniest part of the movie was when Murphy was pretending to be the gay lover of Stephen Berkoff at the restaurant and told the maitre 'd that he need to talk to Victor Maitland because he found out he had herpes simplex 10. The maitre 'd got flustered and allowed Murphy to go to the table unannounced. That was a hoot, and kind of creepy too! I think I'll rent it and watch it again this weekend.

The Effects of Schedule Changes.

I had a long talk with one of my coworkers today about our new hours at work. We went to the graveyard shift, 11p.m.-7:30a.m., and she's having a very hard time with it. I've been trying to give her some advice on how to cope with the sudden switch but she's trying too hard to manage it all. She was telling me she's been having a hard time setting up new eating habits because she hasn't had a decent meal it a couple of weeks because she hasn't been sleeping and that's made her appetite wain away. She told me she needed to take sleeping pills a couple of times because the warm milk didn't work and darkening her bedroom at 2p.m. was getting 'just too weird' for her because she knew it was sunny out and she wanted to be out in it, not sleeping or worse, trying unsuccessfully to sleep! I told her the best advice I could give her is to eat when she's hungry, sleep when she's tired, and get out for awhile in the sun to keep her internal clock in sync as well as to get the healthful benefits of the sun. We'll see if she can last by fighting herself all the way instead of compromising for what she needs.

Painless Facelifts? Not Hardly!

I've been seeing ads for a particular 'life changing' face lift procedure that takes years away and makes you look young again. What a bunch of hooey! Have you seen Joan Rivers lately? How about Marie Osmond (her eyebrows are more dramatic than Mr. Spock on Star Trek now!). I used to think she was cute but not anymore! Geez! I know she lost a chunk of weight and all but she could have used a wrinkle fillers or one of those regeneration creams or something else that's safe but she decided to put her eyebrows up on her forehead instead. I mean, just because you have the money to get the surgery doesn't mean it's what's right for you. Like I said before, look at Joan Rivers and what she's done to herself in the quest for "beauty" and "youth". She had so much Botox that she couldn't close her eyes for 2 weeks. Seriously! There are so many non invasive products out there that can help with the effects of aging but after all, what's wrong with getting older, we all do it if we're lucky enough to get old! Just be graceful and you'll get better attention than becoming a freak. Keep the knife and pass the cream. Oh yes, the procedure I mentioned earlier. If you read the fine print on the ad you'll see there is down time for the surgical recovery you need because it is a knife procedure. It's a funny thing that. You have to read the fine print to find that out but the ad sounds like a non-invasive procedure. It's not!

Ruined Clothing at Work.

I'm starting to get a bit put off by my equipment at work. The one particular piece I'm having issues with has an active ink supply that seems to thinks it's made of iron and my arms and hands are magnets! It would be nice if we had a clothing allowance or even work clothes we could take home and launder ourselves. I mean, clothes aren't cheap and I'd like to keep the clothes I have at home for 'at home' and have work clothing at home for 'at work'. I lost track of how many shirts I've replaced in the past 4 years.

I thought I hit the solution when I started wearing Nitrile gloves because my hands were staying 'ink free' but they got hot after awhile and, of course, your hands will sweat and get 'pruney' and pasty white. Ugh! Lab coats didn't work as they invariably always got in the way and pulled you back when you'd sit down on them. I thought the Nitrile gloves would have been a better idea because they're not latex or vinyl. It wasn't better, except for the fit. They were very comfortable and didn't feel like surgical cloves or cheap painters gloves. I know the lab coat would count as work wear clothing but it's not functional work wear for what I need to do in a given day.

I'm at a dead end with this and the only thing I've been able to do is to strategically place rubber bands on the offending instrument component which will force inky surfaces to retract completely out of the way and thereby reduce the transfer of ink to myself and my clothing. We'll see what happens next!

Some People are Funny, Not Smart, But Funny!

I have a friend in Connecticut who seems to think that because he owns a home there that it will always be a hot item on the real estate market. What a tool! I asked him if he really believed that he could get top dollar during this 'economic twister' we're going through and he said he could. Winter time has an interesting effect on home buyers in cold climates when it comes to feeling cozy enough while looking at a property. They like to feel 'at home' in a house on a cold day or they just don't feel 'at home' with the house. It's not like you're driving along in the snow and see this house with a beautiful green lawn and palm trees with a sign the says Palm Springs Homes for sale and you just have to stop and look further. It doesn't happen like that and potential buyers are holding on tight to their home buying capital, waiting for that 'home sweet home' to jump out and say here I am! I don't know if I got through to him or not but he's decided to 'hold off for now' because he doesn't want wet, snowy, salty boots ruining his wood floors while strangers walk through his house. What a tool!

The Cat's at the Vet $$$

I brought my cat to the vet this morning because she wouldn't stop crying and she couldn't jump up onto the bed. I finally coaxed her out from under the bed and she wasn't walking normally and was still crying. The last time this happened it was the other cat and $500 dollars later his near fatal bladder infection was finally under control. The $500 was for the emergency room, not the followup fays at the vet! I wish there was an affordable option for pets that was widely acceptable with vet's around the country but I haven't found it yet. I was thinking about it while I was looking through the paper at ads for term life insurance rates. I once bought a whole life policy and that was the worst mistake I ever made. It's pure profit for the insurance company and the salesman(person), not for the consumer. Getting back to the cat today. I had to sign an authorization saying the bill may reach $372 if the cat is badly impacted and has to be put under to get cleaned out. If it's not hairballs coming out one end it's nothing coming out the other, no happy medium for the weary I guess.