Another Infection

Back in February of 2013, I suffered from an e.coli infection that turned into an abscess. A recent bout of sinusitis has been brutal enough on its own and decided to morph into another abscess in the making in a peculiar turn of events. With my immune system abdicating all its responsibilities, the last few weeks have been miserable.

Currently on antibiotics for the throat closing sinus infection, so nothing new needs be proscribed. All that can be done is too apply hot compresses in the hopes of making the abscess form faster. Fun and games.

I still hope to post more often with actual content, yet life is not being very helpful toward that end.

AdSense is Nonsense

As part of trying to understand how the Web works, I have experimented with enabling ads on the site to see how they affect its presence in search engines or if they do at all. Making things easy for Google I opted to use their AdSense program and in the latest experiment tried one ad on the right hand sidebar. That way everything involved, Blogger, Google Search, and AdSense, would all be Google products.

So after a year of no profit with the latest attempt (due to the fact it will take around a decade to hit the cash out threshold), they send me a nastygram informing I’m in violation of AdSense:

Hello,

This is a warning message to alert you that there is action required to bring your AdSense account into compliance with our AdSense program policies. We’ve provided additional details below, along with the actions to be taken on your part.

Affected website: from-the-sidelines.blogspot.com

Example page where violation occurred: http://from-the-sidelines.blogspot.com/2011/11/few-war-movies-are-as-rousing-and.html?m=1

Action required: Please make changes immediately to your site to follow AdSense program policies.

Current account status: Active

My immediate reaction was wondering what in the world they were talking about. After visiting the page and seeing it renders as a mobile version with multiple ads, I rolled my eyes since I had no control over where the ads are placed with Bloggers default mobile version. In fact, I was astounded to see two ads, one each placed at the top and bottom of the post instead of only one as set.

Why is this annoying?

Violation explanation

​
AD MISLABELING: Publishers may not implement Google ads in a manner that disguises the ads in any way. For instance, publishers may not place ads under misleading headers or titles as this may confuse users into thinking the ads are actually site links related to that header. To avoid this issue, we ask that publishers use only "sponsored links" or "advertisements" to label ads. More information about this policy can be found in our help center at https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/1346295?utm_source=crs&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=notification#Placing_ads_under_a_misleading_heading=en&answer=1346295#Placing_ads_under_a_misleading_heading

There was no header labeling of the ads they inserted on their own into the automatically generated conversion of the page to a mobile friendly format. It is sheer idiocy to trust Google’s services working properly with one another which reminds me of the bad old days of IBM where divisions would war with each other. It is one thing to have one hand not know what the other is doing, but neighboring fingers?

I’ve removed AdSense from the site and doubt I’ll experiment with it again. After removing the ad block on the side no ads render on the mobile version too. I pity anyone who tries to make money off of webpage ads these days if penalties are handed out so capriciously.

Somehow I don’t think the whopping $5 and odd cents theoretically earned by the site will be missed.

Spring Surprise

The surprise being that this post is actually going up.

Though the fact that I’m wearing a T-shirt today is surprising after last week’s snow storm that dumped more than eight inches on the property.

Last time I posted was nearly a month ago. How time flies when you aren’t having fun. While February was tough on my health, March pushed me to my limits with no spare energy for anything constructive. That, of course, includes writing.

Spring Is Coming…

…Or so the weather forecasters claim.

Temperatures are finally supposed to go above freezing for the highs this weekend and I desperately need them to. It has been a cold, harsh winter making my bones ache constantly. Thankfully, things have been rather busy the past month thereby causing time to fly and writing to fall by the wayside.

Lately we have been traveling to Gunderson Clinic quite a bit due to testing being performed on Dad to see if something can be done so he’ll be able to eat food again. So far we know that liquids pass through but not solids, so nothing has changed there except for the fluids transiting more easily than last year.

The Sound of Spam

More referral spam from Russia and the Netherlands cluttered my Blogger stats in Fevruary. Adding to the mess is the loud blast of spam from http: // ranksonic . info / krawler . pho?refToken threatening to blow the doors down on my blog for the past month. Join me as I explore the links you should never click on…

Let’s start with spam from RanKSonic since it is clogging up Statcounter as well as Blogger’s stats. Of course, it is SEO spam claiming to be able to boost traffic to your website. Hey, if they were that good at it, would they be spamming blogs to get business? Of course not.

Scrolling down to the bottom of the page, I tried several links since there was no way I would sign up for the shady service. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy produced 404 errors like the one above, while About Us just took me back to the top of the home page.

Inspires great confidence in their understanding of webpage design, doesn’t it?

Definitions Matter: IOM Report on ME/CFS

Being a sufferer of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) means dealing with skeptical doctors, a lack of public awareness, and a very confusing diagnostic process. The last is a much bigger problem than even sufferers understand for it is the doctors being confused as well.

So I applaud the new diagnosis method proposed by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies here in the United States. While I haven’t read the full report yet, the outlines and video presentation depict a much more streamlined (and dare I say it, more accurate) list of symptoms for diagnosis.

Quoting from the Key Facts PDF:

There are five main symptoms of ME/CFS:

1. Reduction or impairment in ability to carry out normal daily activities, accompanied by profound fatigue;
2. Post-exertional malaise (worsening of symptoms after physical, cognitive, or emotional effort);
3. Unrefreshing sleep;
4. Cognitive impairment; and
5. Orthostatic intolerance (symptoms that worsen when a person stands upright and improve when the person lies back down).

The first three are mandatory and one of the latter two is needed to fulfill the criteria for diagnosis.

I suffer harshly from the first four and haven’t been tested for orthostatic intolerance. Lately, number four has been particularly bad, hence my not posting much. The last few days have been especially challenging making coherent sentences a challenge even when speaking. Today is better, thankfully.

Also in the report is a proposal to rename the disease to Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease or SEID. Doesn’t roll off the tip of the tongue, does it? However, it is bang on what the illness is really about and, most importantly, replaces “syndrome” with “disease” which is important in the medical world.

Note that this report has nothing on treatment and is confined to diagnostics for doctors and researchers, so please don’t get your hopes up on a treatment being developed quickly or even at all. What this report does is add legitimacy to the illness which is vital for extensive research to be done like Stanford’s findings last year of physical abnormalities in CFS patients’ brains.

After over 25 years of having this miserable illness, I’d given up any hope of advancement in any way or form from the medical community. This may be more than a glimmer.

February Already?

“Tempus fugit,” said the Romans and indeed that observation still applies two millennia later. January turned out to be a bear of a month to get through, so next to nothing got done other than what was required. Hopefully, things will get easier as the temperatures warm and winter weather slowly departs.

That may be awhile, as I was snowed in yesterday and didn’t make it to church. Great irony could be found in the fact that I had asked to be covered for my Sunday school lesson the week before due to a forecast of snow that didn’t arrive. So of course the boy that cried wolf (NOAA) wasn’t listened to this time and I awakened to heavy drifting across our steep drive.