Amici et Amicae

I read somewhere that there is going to be a new math section with a fill-in the blank and a new text completion question (my 2010 Princeton Review book.) When will that be? I am taking the test on October 2009.

Hey all,

I've begun experimenting with coconut flour, so far just little cakes/muffins. I've got some pork cutlets to use, and I was going to bread and pan fry them. I'm still confused on what sort of ratios to use with the coconut flour as it gets sort of gummy so easily.

What might be a good basic breading using coconut flour to use on my pork cutlets?

Okay I know there is varying views on vaccinations, but I wanted to pass this along and get your opinion:

(never mind that the link talks about the mother who died, they've updated the article and the first part has to do with the vaccine)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1200297/Swine-flu-mother-dies-giving-birth-leaving-premature-baby-fighting-life.html?ITO=1490

The first swine flu vaccine will be given to the public before full clinical data about its safety is available, it has been revealed.
The first samples of the pandemic vaccine will arrive at the end of this month and a decision whether to approve it would then be taken within five days.
But a spokesman for the European Medicines Agency has confirmed that no clinical trial data from human volunteers on the vaccines will be available until September at the earliest.....


A friend of mine sent me a link a few days ago about a program in Florida for a swine flu shot program. It came from the Miami Herald so I will give you the link to the original(MH) article than the article he gave me:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1134995.html

Florida’s surgeon general says the state is preparing for massive swine flu immunizations, starting with schoolchildren, as the Obama administration urges states to prepare for the likelihood that the virus might worsen in the fall.....

Now I'm reading that our government is waiting to see how the experimental batches do in August ( http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1133866.html ), but how long should these last before they start giving them to children? I ask here because I know there are people here more knowledgeable on the vaccination issue. All I know is that I do NOT want them to give my child something they really don't know how its going to affect people.I'm scared enough to take my child out of school if they end up with it being manditory. AND I know that I probably shouldn't, but I keep thinking about the swine flu issue in the 70s and how more people were affected by the vaccination than the virus.
Actually its from the Miami Herald.

When my natural laundry detergent wasn't seeming to cut it (thanks to exceedingly hard water), I added borax to the wash cycle.  It worked great, but my husband happened to come down with a case of psoriasis shortly after starting it, and I thought maybe he was allergic to borax.  So I switched to washing soda.

More and more often, however, my clothes are coming out with a grainy, almost waxy gray residue that seems like washing soda.  It is different from the detergent build-up that caused me to start using laundry boosters in the first place.  I always always always use at least 1/4c white vinegar in the final rinse cycle, but it doesn't seem to be helping in this case.

Have you ever experienced this problem?  The tragic thing is that sometimes it seems to pull dye out of clothes in spots.  And where it doesn't pull out dye, it just leaves a filmy residue that dulls the color.  I have not been successful in rinsing it out.  I tried filling up a washtub with water and vinegar and agitating the ruined clothes, but once they dried they were still the same.  I thought the problem was that the rinse cycle of the cheap laundromat machines wasn't rinsing well enough, but this time we used a side-load machine that had 3 rinse cycles, and it still happened.

The water in the town I recently moved to is much softer.  It's not soft water, but it's not hard as rock like our last place.  Do you think that washing soda should not be used in situations where the water is not terribly hard?  Or am I doing something wrong?  Adding too much?  (I add less than the box recommends.  It recommends 1/2c, but I don't fill the measuring cup full.)

I can't wait to get back to washing my clothes by hand.  When I was washing everything by hand, our clothes were always rinsed well enough and always felt and smelled clean.  But the wringer ruined our knit clothes (and most of our clothes are knit), so I am thinking about buying a little spin dryer.  Until then, we're at the laundromat.  Dealing with alternating problems of detergent build up and washing soda buildup.  And paying for it!

I want to do an experiment on the feasibility of eating sustainable, organic, local ethical foods on a typical time and money budget when you don't live in southern California, but I don't really know how to evaluate my food sources.  Local and ethical are fairly obvious and easy to evaluate, but I sustainable and organic are pretty nebulous terms with variable definitions.  I know I should start with local farmers and ask about how they raise their critters or crops, but what should I ask or be looking for?

Also, how do you prioritize the different characteristics of the food?  Is it better to buy non-organic stuff from the guy 10 miles up the road, or organic stuff from a couple states over?  I think this is going to be a pretty major issue, given that I live in the mountains of eastern Kentucky and there are many things that either aren't grown at all or aren't grown organically/sustainably in our region. 

I really want to do this, but getting started just seems really overwhelming.

I like to snack on this delicious "7th Heaven" trail mix that a store in the town I live in sells in its bulk bins. However:

• It's expensive.
  
• I'd like something more cohesive, even a crumbly sort of bar.
  
• I'd like to take out some of the dried fruit and reduce the choc. chips to make it lower glycemic, and increase the almonds for more protein and calories.
  
• I just moved, and now instead of living less than 1/4 of a mile away from this store, I now live what I would call a not walkable distance from this place.
  

The ingredients I particularly enjoy in this are the almonds, the coconut shreds, the dried cranberries, and the teeny chocolate chips, so I'm looking for those to be the main, if not the only, ingredients, with as few other ingredients as possible.
Most "health bar" "energy bar" "meal bar" "granola bar" or "snack bar" recipes I see either have far too much sugar or other sweetener, are basically a slightly less sweetened cookie bar with some healthy stuff in it which is gonna mess up my blood sugar, use a TON of dried fruit which again jacks up the glycemic index, etc. Not enough protein w/o protein powders or unfermented soy of some kind that my body hates, or they're just plain too low calorie. I'm trying to sustain myself, not lose weight!
I am thinking to maybe coarsely grind some almonds in my heavy ass meat grinder (should work well), make it into a paste with coconut milk, knead in lots of dried cranberries and a few dark chocolate bits, and press it into a pan and bake it into a bar like format. Does anyone have any experience with this and think it would work, not work, suggest a starting point for ratios or baking temp and time?
Nutritionwise, do you think that if I go easy on the cranberries and dark chocolate bits and heavy on the almond and coconut milk, this will be a food that won't give me blood sugar spikes and resultant crashes?

ETA
I should mention that I'm really not looking for a granola bar type food... honestly looking for something grainless, with as few ingredients as possible, preferably no added sweetener, esp. not honey, to which I have an allergic reaction to 2/3 of the time. :/ I'm looking for a HIGH protein and fat to carbohydrate ratio, with no restrictions on fat content, because this is what makes me feel healthiest as a general diet.

I've been told by yoga and meditation instructors and naturopathic doctors that inhalation is controlled by sympathetic innervation, and exhalation is parasympathetic. Based in this, we are taught to change our meditation breathing based on whether we desire to emphasize activation or calming. The idea is that by extending the inhale and shortening the exhale, you increase your sympathetic activity. More often the idea of extending the exhale to double or more the length of the inhale is used, to help us release the stresses of modern life.

My question is this: It seems reasonable to me and I do believe that the autonomic innervation of breathing is as they say. My issue comes with the fact that by intentionally altering our breathing pattern, we are no longer breathing autonomically, or automatically. We have shifted over to another pathway for governing breathing, that starts at the frontal cortex with our will, instead of in the medullary (brainstem) breathing center. Are these new pathways also sympa/parasympathetic? Or not?

Based on my own experience (I breathe a lot) I would say that exhalation is only parasympathetic when you release and let the body do it autonomically. When I intentionally extend my exhale it no longer feels as relaxing to me. Anybody have more knowledge or experience with this???

(x-posted)

Hello everyone!

Well, I just wanted to peep in and say that I've been washing my face with the OCM method for the past three days and my skin really really likes it. I have sensitive/oily skin and I'm extremely prone to break-outs, and I'm using a 50-50 combination of EVOO and CO. I want to throw in tea tree oil, but the stuff is a BITCH to find around here (I live in Bogota, Colombia) and I haven't had enough time to look. Anyhow... yeah, I'm happy. I use it in the morning and apply rosewater to my face before the sunscreen, then I use my regular make-up remover at night. I guess it's too soon to notice any improvement on my acne, but my skin sure feels MUCH softer than usual, and it doesn't get oily in the course of the day, which is pretty amazing in itself.

Well, now for the fun fact: I'm kind of slow when it comes to beauty products, and I could not for the love of me figure out what I was supposed to remove the oil from my face with (a towel? a cloth? made of what? where can I get one?), so I decided to use gauze.

BAD. NO, HORRIBLE IDEA. I went through at least two feet of gauze only to remove like 50% of the oil. I would have felt no difference if I had chosen to use sandpaper. Desperate, worried that I was going to get oil in my eyes (oh, shampoo...) I went for the toilet paper. Wet toilet paper only shifted the oil around, so I used it dry and it did the trick. I don't want to resort to wiping my face with toilet paper (I mean, c'mon!), so I must dilligently ask of all of you gorgeous people to tell me exactly what you rinse your face with. Post pictures of your cloths, towels, whatever it is that you use, and tell me how to actually use them... please!

Wow, that was long. Haha.

Kind of an odd question - but do any of you ever get cold feet?


Not the hypothetical cold feet, but really. At night, my feet get ridiculously cold. Especially my toes. Uncomfortably - sometimes verging on painfully - cold. I have to wear socks to bed even in the heat of summer. My feet warm up by early morning, and I have to wake up around six or seven in the morning to yank the socks off.

To give you some background, I am by nature a cold person. My mother is the same way. I can't tolerate being cold very well - I get really uncomfortable and can get sick from it pretty easily. It always seems that I need it a few degrees warmer than everyone else.

That, in general, is not too much of a problem (except in winter). But my feet have been making me crazy! I've been told that it's bad circulation - but don't find that incredibly logical, since I practice Bikram Yoga avidly, ride my bike everywhere & stretch my feet PLENTY. I've also been told it could have something to do with low iron (my mother is supposedly slightly anemic, and believes that's why she has trouble tolerating cold). Or perhaps my diet? I don't eat wheat, dairy or red meat - and I do take vitamins.



Any ideas?

I had a question a couple weeks ago about my ocm going terribly wrong, and here's where I'm at now.  To start though, i had pretty bad acne to start with (bad enough that i used to use proatciv) and then after switching to natural face wash when I went vegan, I started using ocm. it went really, really well for awhile. then i don't know if my castor oil was too high, but my entire chin was just horrendous breakouts. Extremely painful (which was bad cause I work with kids and they always like touching people's faces), and never going away and just everyhwere.  worse than i have ever had in my life. no idea what caused it. I tried using a new washcloth every day, I even tried going back to the soap I used to use.  And then one day I was just so frustrated that i basically just stopped washing my face. i get a washcloth wet with hot water, let that sit on my face for 10 seconds or so (depending on how quickly i get bored) and then rub. i try to just get most of the dirt off my face (and i work at a preschool, so there's a good deal of dirt there). once i feel that it's all clean, and nice and exfoliated, i get the washcloth hot again and put it back on my face, especially pressing it against my chin. i hold it there for a few seconds again, and if any zits are bleeding when i take the washcloth off, i rinse the washcloth off and put it back on. i let my face dry a few seconds and then i put a couple drops of tea tree oil on my face and rub it all in. if i have any scabs from zits, i rub a tiny bit of vitamin e oil on it. my face has cleared up unbelievably in the past couple days. i don't know how i feel about not washing my face, but it sure does seem to be working extremely well.  Thoughts on not washing with soap?  it just seems so weird to me.

Second, thank you all for shower advice.  I no longer wash with soap in the shower.  I do the no poo on my body every few days, and then just rinse off the other days.  I am thinking about using the washcloth from washing my face the night before though.  except that it's got my face dirt on it. . . .  I also loved the idea of doing a sugar scrub once a week.  I used some brown sugar, olive oil and tea tree oil.  I did it wrong though.  Way too much olive oil apparently.  the water was just rolling off my skin.  I tried to rub it all off as well as possible, but when i dried myself it was all over the towel.  now, it made my leg hair much softer, which was wonderful (if i'm not going to shave, i would like it to be somewhat soft), but what ratio's do you use?  or completely different scrubs?  And can I get a big container and just make up a big batch so i don't have to make it every sunday?

And lastly, tile grout.  Just baking soda, a little water, and a little vinegar to clean it?  it's not uber-dirty grout, and i have what looks to be an awesome scrub brush, but I would like to clean my bathroom floor and the tile in the tub.  suggestions?  and it seems like i will need an awful lot of baking soda.

Edit: and, now that I don't use soap in the shower, I don't sweat nearly as much, which is fantastic cause I was really sweaty.  I had heard that this might happen, but i totally didn't believe it. even though it's wicked hot outside, i'm only sweating like it's winter!  between that and the crystal deodorant, i'm only a little stinky now!  thank you all so much!!!!!!

I've been using a combo of Dr. Bronners, water, and tea tree oil to clean the mold out of our shower. We bought a rather old house that's got lots of quirks--like the foundation has settled greatly and most of the windows (leaded) won't open because the previous owners didn't open them once during the 50 years they lived here. Let me tell you, it's awesome having to use the AC when the weather is gorgeous outside. :-\

Anyway, we also don't have an exhaust fan yet, and our shower is a big tile alcove that gets very little ventilation. I leave the curtain and bathroom door open when no one is in there, but black mold keeps making its presence known every couple of weeks. I was wondering if anyone knew how to make a gel cleaner as opposed to something runny? I'd like to let the stuff soak into the grout a bit to see if that helps at all, but the cleaners I've been trying to make aren't quite cutting it. Any ideas??

I just wanted to update the community on what's happened with me and also ask a couple quick questions (at the end).

I posted about three months ago with the "dilemma" of choosing between 1) being a full-time middle school English teacher while doing my M.A. program on a part-time evening basis, or 2) doing graduate school full time and being a teaching assistant at the university.  I'd say 75% of the people who responded said "don't miss out on the chance to be fully immersed in your program and teach at the college level."

Well, at the time, I had neither a full-time teaching job fully secured nor the actual teaching assistantship offer.  However, in the months since, I got job offers, and, as of two weeks ago, was also offered a teaching assistantship at my school.  I'm taking the latter.  I am so excited.  It wasn't a hard choice, really, but I did feel a tinge of remorse, as I did really like being a "school teacher" a lot too.  But I can't pass up this opportunity to get a tuition-free M.A. degree and get a chance to teach at the college level.

So, what were your experiences as a teaching assistant?  (I know for sure that at my school, teaching assistants actually teach a class as the main teacher; it's not pure grading or pure "assisting" a professor).  If you taught, how much did you love it or hate it?  Tell me anything you want about it.

Also, since I am going to have an M.A. in English in two years time, I am now open to the possibility of teaching community college.  My one concern is that it seems like most community colleges just hire a bunch of part-time people to teach certain classes, i.e. tons of "adjuncts".  I really would like a full time job.  Do you happen to know if community colleges do have more full-time positions than I am thinking?

Just wanted to let everyone know, that a new version of MemcacheD has been released. We will be rolling this out to the memcache nodes during the week of July 20th to 24th. This should have very little impact on the stability of the website; however users may see a slight increase in load times as the cache is re-populated with entries.

The software has been tested and verified to be working just fine with the application; so we perceive this to be a very minimal risk in regards to updating, and the stability of the website.

Thanks...

I have been drinking ginger tea daily for nausea related to fibromyalgia, and I'm looking for a natural solution to the gas/bloating/flatulence of IBS as well. It seems that fennel tea should help a great deal, only I can't stand that strong taste of licorice. Anyone have a good recipe/tea mix that can provide a nice counterbalance to that licorice flavor?

xposted to naturalliving and fibromyalgia

i bought some melatonin today to help with my sleep problems (i tend to stay up later and later unless i have a reason to go to bed, and i sort of blame this on working third shift for 6 months a while ago). i've been reading the sleep issues tag, but do you have any other general tips or anything to give me? how much to take, when to take it, anything like that.

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I realize there are folks in this community that have many reasons for not eating meat and I don't wish to turn this into a debate over why one "ism" is preferred over another. But for those who do eat meat or who don't eat it based mostly on concern about the impact of meat-eating on the environment, I think this article is interesting and definitely positive.

Please refrain from the "Just don't eat meat." comments-- we're all aware of this option. ;-)

http://www.utne.com/Environment/Eating-Meat-for-the-Environment.aspx

Hi all,

Been a lurker here for a while, but I'm getting my stuff together to apply for graduate school at long last (graduated Emory University with a B.A. in Sociology/emphasis on Medical Sociology in 2007). Anyway, I have a few questions here, and was wondering if anyone would be able to if not help me out, at least point me in the right direction. Any and all help is appreciated!

In my undergraduate studies, I took very few math/science courses. I took a couple research statistics courses in my junior and senior year, and of course had an intro to statistics course early on, as well as a couple geology courses, but that's the extent of my math/science interaction in my undergraduate education. For the past couple years, I've been thinking of applying for medical sociology oriented programs (think a more sociological view of public health), but lately, I've been really itching to nix that and just go full in for an Epidemiology graduate program. My worry, though, is that I don't have enough of a math/science background. A lot of the programs I'm looking at are vague in their math/science requirements, and I e-mailed some last week and have yet to get a response (I'll probably call them by the end of the week if I still don't hear anything). I guess I'm wondering if anyone has run into anything similar? They found a program they liked but didn't have a vast background in the field? My undergraduate studies definitely ventured into epidemiology, but left out a lot of the math/science portion. My GRE score was decent enough, as was my GPA. If I apply to an epidemiology program, will I be outright rejected by looking at my transcript and not seeing enough math/science on there?

Thanks for any help!

Hello everyone, newbie reporting :)

As of my last shower, I'm washing my hair water-only (yep, cold turkey), hoping I won't be swimming in grease as I only shampooed my hair once or twice a week anyway. My hair is "bra strap length" and very thick. I'm buying new brushes and combs from Denman, and have a question. They have a BBB-only brush, and one with nylon quills as well, to better penetrate thick hair. As I said, my hair is thick. But I understand that the point of a brush like that isn't to detangle (am getting a comb for that), so it doesn't really need to penetrate the hair, yes? So, which brush do you think is best for me? Should I go for the one with the quills, or not? If anyone knows another place to buy brushes, feel free to recommend. I'm a student so I can't afford something wildly expensive, and I prefer someone shipping from Europe as I don't have the patience to wait a month ;) Getting one offline, so to speak, will be difficult where I live.

I want to apologize in advance for the poor grammar and rambling nature of this post.

Lately, I've been trying to keep a food journal, and I've decided that in addition, I would like to keep a sleep, pain, activity, and psychological/emotional journal. I would like to do this for myself in order to get a more accurate and general idea concerning all of these things. And also feel it would be a good thing to have for future doctors, specialists etc.

I want to keep track of things like how often I am eating, whether I'm getting enough calories and nutrients and the proportions of where they are coming from.
The frequency, intensity, duration, and type of physical pain I experience.
What my general moods are from day to day, how often I experience depression, social anxiety, general anxiety, panic attacks, happiness, contentment...
How often I experience nightmares and sleep paralysis, how many hours of sleep I'm getting, when I feel tired or fatigue.
Levels and types of physical activity...
What I'm spending my time doing, socializing, gardening, cooking, reading, making art, sitting on the computer etc.

So far with the food journal, I've just been using notepad on the computer and typing up everything I've consumed that day. I haven't even been including times and portion sizes. I'm not very satisfied with this method. It's not fun to do, it doesn't look nice, and it's already difficult to read. I want to include all of the above mentioned things so that I can potentially find patterns and connections, and this method does not seem like it would be very conducive for this.

Basically I guess I am looking for suggestions as to a creative method I can use to compile all of this information in a way that is easy to read and cross-reference.

I assumed that many of you may currently have some kind of system like this that works for you.

I hope this makes sense!

Cross posted to naturalliving and fibromyalgia