LIVING WITH MCL

I've always thought of him [and still do] as nothing more than a shill for the vitamin and supplement industry, promoting products that do nothing more than line the pockets of himself, and the industry that produces the products he is constantly touting. I'm not even sure why I bother watching him, but I did so yesterday, and it just further solidified my position. His first guest was a self appointed diet guru. He was providing information on how to eat healthier, and while some of the info may have had some merit, two bits of information stood out that I had a great deal of trouble with. The first was adding sugar to vegetables, supposedly to make vegetables taste better, encouraging people to eat them more. While eating more vegetables is certainly good advice, I'm not so sure adding sugar is such a good idea. Sure it will make your vegetables taste better, but adding sugar to anything will make it taste better. And how much sugar is enough or too much? Where do you dra...

Right about now you're probably thinking, here we go again, more complaining. You might have been right too, if it weren't for the following post I received the other day. the next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you coul... What's interesting about this comment, besides the fact there is some truth to it, it was spam. I know it was spam because it came from someone with a "buy ambien" website, and some other drug links. Spam posts aren't unusual, I get lots of them, but they're usually accompanied by a comment praising my blog, and noting how informative it is. So it was a surprise when I read it, something I don't usually do. It was as if actual [living] person, not a computer, was behind this post, issuing me a wake up call. The only question is, wil...

I'd bet if you took a survey in the US, you'd find most people are pretty happy with their current health care provider(s). Let's face it, most people aren't sick, and even when they do get sick, their own immune systems can fix most anything on its own. For most other ailments a visit to a primary care physician can easily diagnose and prescribe the necessary action to resolve the matter quickly. So why do we even try to rate health care providers? I for one have never been a fan of health care provider ratings, because it can't be done reliably. Health care is not an exact science. It is an art [of sorts], and trying to apply statistical measures to it are at best suspect. Even trying to track the things that could be measured objectively, such as in patient infection rates, readmissions, etc. can't be relied upon, because in a for-profit health care system, absent of regulation (like in the US), the incentive is to skew the data to produce positive results. ...

For starters, I hate people who refuse to get a flu shot, or other vaccinations for that matter. Some people think they are a conspiracy to make us sick. Others just think they don't work. That's one reason I stopped working. Two people in the office didn't believe they worked. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, they think they can get the flu from a flu shot. And this is despite the fact they always got the flu (and still came to work). I get one ever year even though most medical experts don't believe they work on the immune compromised. Mostly I depend on others getting their flu shot to protect me. Fortunately I managed to avoid the flu this past season, and I'm hoping for the same again this flu season. So everyone PLEASE get your flu shot! If not for yourself, then for me. :) I also hate riding my bike in the rain. That happened yesterday, and I was not a happy camper. It wasn't raining when I started out, and I didn't think it was supposed to r...

Are you as perturbed about junk mail as me? It seems that's all I get any more in the mail. I would even include it as another one of those pet peeves of mine. I especially hate it when my credit card companies sends me checks to use instead of my credit card, which I have to waste time shredding. And what's the point of that anyways? The reason I have a credit card is so I don't have to use checks. Well, if you are as aggravated as me about junk mail, then have I got a plan. It's actually not my plan. I got it from a friend, but that doesn't make it any less of a good idea. Now, whenever I get an offer for something in the mail, instead of throwing it directly in the trash, I take any documents which don't contain my name, and return them to that company in the prepaid envelope. [note]Obviously this won't work if there's not a prepaid envelope included. I'm not about to waste any money doing this, but it seems quite a bit of junk mail does include a...

But then I cried! Proposition 20, removes elected representatives from the process of establishing congressional districts and transfers that authority to the recently-authorized 14-member redistricting commission comprised of Democrats, Republicans, and representatives of neither party. Not necessarily a bad idea, but Proposition 27 eliminates the [recently-authorized] 14-member redistricting commission and consolidates the authority for establishing state Assembly, Senate and Board of Equalization districts with elected representatives who draw congressional districts. That is just getting ridiculous! What happens if both propositions pass? What California really needs is a proposition to end all propositions, or if we don't want elected representatives to run the state, then how about a proposition to disband the legislature, and put everything up for a vote of the people [letting the special interests run the state]?

Since it's raining today, I didn't have much to do [I couldn't ride my bike], so I thought I'd complain about some of the little things that bug me. I know I'm not supposed to sweat the little things, which I don't [for the most part], but these are so minuscule, I figure they don't really count. One of my biggest complaints are walnuts, or any kind of nuts, in chocolate chip cookies. Nuts have no business in chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate chip cookies are sweet. They're a dessert, and nuts provide an unwanted texture, and flavor that takes away from that. Nuts don't belong in chocolate chip cookies. And come to think about it, nuts don't belong in brownies either, but I don't usually eat brownies (I don't particularly like them), so I don't really care. Still they don't belong. They're OK in Snickers, but that's about it. Another complaint is with people who buy [or rent] a convertible, and then drive around in it with...

I haven't been very philosophical in a great awhile, but a recent conversation with one of my wine drinking buddies has compelled me to do so now. We were discussing a recent 60 Minutes segment about people choosing to walk away from their mortgages , and allowing their homes to fall into foreclosure, because the value of their homes had fallen well below the amount they currently owed, despite the fact, in many cases, they could still afford the monthly mortgage payment. The conversation got a little heated, when I said I could understand the reasoning behind the decision. It's purely a financial one. Why continue to pay [and pay] for something that's no longer worth what you paid for it, or even what you owe? Why keep throwing good money after bad, especially when it's cheaper to just stop paying? There has to be a time when it's best to just cut your losses and run [so to speak]. But my buddy felt, if you could afford it, you were morally obligated to continue ...

At least today I gave the young kid who came to the door the opportunity to tell me he was with some "jobs program" before telling him I wasn't feeling well and didn't have the time. Plus I even managed a good deed yesterday, when I noticed the clerk at the Japanese supermarket, where I purchase my green tea, only charged my credit card $8.99. I knew that wasn't right, as I bought 4 bags of tea, and one of the bags of green teas alone (the Gyokura), I knew cost more than that. He was very appreciative, and I felt good about it as well. Who knows, maybe I'm not as jaded as I thought. It's just I believe in the golden rule, Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you and I would never go to someone's door at any time, nor call them on the phone, trying to sell them something. If you want to sell me something, send me an email. You've got a better chance that way than coming to my door, especially if my email filter doesn't catch it.

It doesn't happen all that often, but it does happen often enough, when someone comes to my door that I don't know, I assume they're trying to sell me something, and immediately turn them away. I try not to even listen to their opening salvo. I just say "not interested", and shut the door. Edie's not as jaded as me, as she will always "give someone the time of day", but not me. The other night some girl came to the door around 6 PM just as we were sitting down to dinner. The door was closed, so I was able to ignore it, and she went away. But about 2 hours later she returned. This time I answered the door with my usual cynical, pissed off attitude, stating we're having dinner, and I wasn't going to buy anything. She tried to tell me she wasn't trying to sell me anything (at least now that I think back I believe maybe she was trying to tell me that), and she asked if I were Eddie. Well, obviously I wasn't, so I said no, shut the door, a...

Don't you find it ironic, when our elected representatives say "we just don't have the money to provide universal health care to everyone in this country", they don't have any trouble finding enough tax dollars to pay for their own health care, and the health care of millions of government employees. Don't you find it ironic, when our elected representatives say "we just don't have the money to provide universal health care to everyone in this country", they can manage to find 100's of billions of tax dollars to fund two wars [Iraq and Afghanistan], and provide those citizens with health care. And don't you find it ironic, when our elected representatives say "we just don't have the money to extend unemployment benefits any longer", they don't have any trouble finding plenty of tax dollars to fund salary increases for themselves, and for millions of government employees. It just seems when it's of benefit to our elec...