Health 4-4-2012

It is time to write one of those posts I hate to write. Part of keeping a journal here is keeping track of my health and I am doing a poor job of it.

For the past week or so, pinched nerves in the back have been worse than usual. The lower area has finally loosened up and than has been an immense relief. But the upper area took a strange turn for the worse and has been mostly immune to the stretching exercises learned over a decade ago. For several days it was so bad that I was loosing control of the right arm due to pain flaring and the arm refusing to accept commands.

Things have improved with a rearrangement of pillows when sleeping and trying to stay flat on my back. Still twitchy, though. The worst of it coincided with the cold suffered during the weekend.

Today started fairly well with crossword puzzle and Audiosurf going well. But mid afternoon I felt extremely tired and took a short nap. It should have been short, that is. Forcing myself up at 9:00 PM I found the rest of daylight lost, which is very annoying. So much for getting the new floor lamp (one has to love clearance sales) assembled and in place.

Insert Title Here

Pick a title, any title, my creativity is not flowing today. While I have more energy than I did over the weekend, yesterday was a busier than usual Monday and so today is already dragging and it is not even 10:00 am yet.

One thing worked on yesterday was revamping and partially rewriting an old movie review. While I have done this to a minor degree before, this is a much more comprehensive overhaul which makes it a learning experience. Today it should get finished and it is about time I figured out how to bump a post to the front page. If I remember to, that is.

It is spring, so thoughts of maybe following baseball have emerged again. I find it ridiculous that streaming MLBTV online costs $20.00 a month. How sports fans can continue to fork out insane sums of money for PPV, tickets, and merchandise is beyond me. All I can surmise is that it is the latest form of idolatry to afflict the masses and there isn’t even a dollop of spiritual rewards promised.

I am not pleased with the Supreme Court ruling on strip searches. While it is a sad testament to the decay of society that such searches are often needed, the ability to force them on a person if they are arrested for anything is way over the line. The argument that ruling against them would have a “chilling effect” on law enforcement is somewhat legitimate, but when are we going to stop ceding all our civil liberties to the government?

Meanwhile, President Obama took another step toward tinpot dictatorship by threatening the Supreme Court over Obamacare. Why he thinks this will work when even Franklin Delano Roosevelt could not pull it off? FDR was far more popular and had much broader support, but the public completely rejected his attempts to bully and replace that branch of government. Rallying the base is one thing, but when it alienates everyone else it is not even a zero sum gain. It is a loss.

That is a lesson that seems to have been forgotten by a lot of politicians across the spectrum of late.

The wrong hood was ordered for the car and a new one has been placed. Hopefully a sunny day will arrive soon (forecast says tomorrow) to continue work on straightening metal. There is still a radiator attachment made of plastic that I have not figured out how to repair. Since the only other option is replacing the entire radiator, it has to be solved. Normally, a pin could be inserted into a drilled out hole, but I am afraid of leaks from the area if I do drill. Sigh. I probably could seal it well enough if that happens.

I am puzzled how people think that increased manufacturing with decreased demand is a positive sign, even in the short term. All it means is inventory will increase, which is not a good thing in a “just in time” economy. But if there is one thing I have learned about economic experts and investors is that anything can be tortured into becoming good news when desperate.

My growing suspicion is that the US stock markets will become the last haven for money for the wealthy before that wealth is permanently destroyed. Metals and real estate are the best places to sink money into, because the value of both will never reach zero. You will not be able to avoid losing money so it is all about having something rather than nothing in the end.

On that subject, the single most awesome thing I have seen on the Web so far this year. See, the Canadians are good for something!

Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999) Review

aka Awakening of Iris aka Gamera 1999: Absolute Guardian of the Universe

The final installment of Shuseke Kaneko’s trilogy of Gamera films aspires to be more than a giant monster movie when the giant flying turtle faces multiple foes – with the most deadly being a teenage girl. An unrelenting rollercoaster of a ride, Gamera 3 achieves the feat of becoming the most serious kaiju movie since the original Gojira stomped onto the screen. Combining an emotional plot, terrific pacing, and high attention to detail makes for a memorable movie whose images linger on well after the end credits roll.

Opening with haunting and evocative music, Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris presents us with an unidentified location on the Ecuator in 1999. Doctor Mayumi Nagamine (Shinabu Nakayama) from Gamera: Guardian of the Universe has been called out to a remote jungle village where the body of a young Gyaos lays decomposing.  Absent from the second movie, the ornithologist has been spending her time researching the bird like monsters and now their return adds an ominous air to the proceedings.

Health 3-31-2012

Here it is General Conference again and I have a mild cold. It seems like this happens a lot for the April sessions. So I will not be making it in for Priesthood tonight.

Just looked at bread purchased earlier in the week and it has all gone moldy. This is getting to be quite a problem in this house for it is too humid in the kitchen once warm weather begins. There is no way the two of us can eat a loaf quickly enough, it seems.

At least I am more alert today. Since Wednesday, I have been completely thrashed from a trip to the capitol in St. Paul. Time to get some writing done!

F-35A Tests Its Wing Pylons

It is odd, but I think the bird looks better with things hanging under the wings. While it kills the stealth, the idea is that after the enemy air defenses are taken care of more weapons can be hauled for close air support and interdiction. The big question is whether the coming economic collapse kills the expensive program before it reaches service.

The End of Bleach: 2004-2012

There seem to be a lot of things ending for me of late and the as of today the Bleach anime is no more. After 366 episodes and four movies, it ended due to a collapse in ratings and declining DVD sales in Japan. The cancellation was rather sudden, but the show managed to conclude the most recent story arc without throwing too much out.

While not popular with a lot of the fans, the Fullbringer arc adaptation was actually superior to the original manga and showed a great deal of creativity was still left in the staff after all these years. My suspicion is that showing the main character, Ichigo, go through an emotional wringer and having to grow up is the last thing the target demographic wanted to see. But it did appeal to an old timer like me, for character development is what made me like the silly series.

Though rushed, the final episode shows how much Ichigo Kurosaki has grown since the first season that made such a splash worldwide. Not only does he look older, the decisions he made at the end were much more mature and a conversation by two characters about him highlighted it. He has become a man and a good one at that.

All the familiar faces from Soul Society and the real world have cameo appearances and the final minutes of the show end on a nice note filled with a sweetness – something it needed to after the very grim arc. No longer the angry loner, Ichigo has more friends and loved ones than he can count. When he tells Rukia, “Seeya around” the message is aimed at the viewers as much as at the diminutive Soul Reaper.

Ending on a truly warm moment was a nice way to finish the series and I will miss the silly thing.

Tools of the Faith

When it comes to technology, I believe that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are more geeky than a lot of the population at large in the United States. That is a bold claim in the era of iPads, iPods, and Facebook, but I notice we tend to be early adopters of technology and love to incorporate it into church wide usage. Now that I have moved over to an Android platform for my portable assistant needs, I am finding my suspicions are correct.

The last revamp to LDS.org has made it a more useful tool for individual members, whether they be leaders or the average person. While the updated profile information and access to online versions of manuals/teaching tools impressed me, it was not until recently that I began to really appreciate what can be done with them.

Both  iOS and Android devices have free apps that allow you to sync up all your highlights, annotations, and bookmarks from your scriptures, magazines, and manuals with your LDS.org account. This is tremendously handy for me, since I try to keep my electronic and hard copy scriptures in sync. Making sure to highlight or note something in my Holy Bible or Book of Mormon that I did with my tablet is not easy simply because my memory is not that good. But if I synch my tablet to the account, all I have to do is look under “My Study Notebook” and voila, there it is. Then I crack open the books and get my highlighting pencils out to manually sync the paper editions. The ease of that made me very happy.

Search for “Gospel Library” in Google Play, Amazon Kindle, or iTunes app stores for the very well done app from the Church. If you have a lot of space on your tablet or smart phone, I advise downloading all the conference talks available. So far everything back to 1974 has been issued in electronic format for the app. I also suggest exploring all the lesser pamphlets and manuals, for there is a lot of good information there.

But wait, there is more out there!

I highly recommend Stake Central for Android. While some may be content with the lesser Ward Central app, this has your local leadership and stake calendar included. Both are very handy for active families looking to keep up with local events and contacting people for information. It is the same data you can access on your LDS.org membership account, but downloaded for when you have no Web access.

Another useful tool for digging into scripture is “LDS Citation Index”, which allows you to find conference talks, books, and manuals that reference a specific verse of scripture. This is great for preparing lessons and talks when you are on the road or cannot get to a PC. Look for it in Android markets.

There are other apps available, but those are the ones I am using currently. Now to get the stray annotations out of my old Dell Axim…