Forget the Dow; Read About my Boring Life
March 2nd, 2009My Ears are Fascinating
First off, please say a fresh prayer for Mish Weiss. She got a look at her prognosis, and she has been very down.
Now for a painstaking discussion of my own trivial concerns.
I am feeling much better. I’m pretty sure the giant dose of MSG I got on Saturday is what kept me awake Saturday night. Something to think about in the future. I am also starting to wonder how safe aspartame is. I looked at the list of things it’s suspected of causing, and a fair number hit home. I have concerns about my short-term memory, for example.
When you consume aspartame, you eventually end up with a certain amount of methyl alcohol in your blood. This is a poison. It can damage your vision and so on. Defenders of aspartame point out that things like tomato juice contain a certain amount of methyl alcohol. Anti-aspartame do-gooders claim there is some difference–I forget what–that makes the alcohol found in juices harmless. I’ve also read that aspartame eventually turns into formaldehyde, which is not a great thing to have in your body. I’m sure some Google cowboy will post the whole story in comments.
Like I said yesterday, I avoid artificial sweeteners. Not because I have solid evidence that they are bad, but because the general rule is that when you cheat nature, something bad happens. I’m not referring to things like building houses or bathing, which arguably defeat nature’s efforts to mess with us. I mean things like taking drugs to enhance performance, or doing weird things to try to halt the aging process, or other efforts that are clearly unnatural. It’s hard to define the difference, but I know it when I see it.
The most disturbing example I can think of is killing unborn babies to steal their cells to help people who have already been born. What could be more warped and unnatural? The natural order works like this: one generation sacrifices itself for the benefit of the succeeding generation. When you do it the other way around, it’s as perverse as cannibalism.
I identified one reason for the sounds I heard. While I tried to sleep, I heard blood pumping in my ears. Looks like I have swimmer’s ear on one side. I know exactly how I got it. I have a neighbor who is a real mess; there are junk cars in the front yard, the backyard used to be a bona-fide jungle (not nearly as nice as it sounds), the house is run-down, and he can’t control his dog. It’s really sad, listening to a grown man walk around his yard, pleading with a standard poodle which has no idea what he’s saying, because it hasn’t been trained.
Anyway, his dogs bark a lot, so I wear ear plugs to bed. Now I pay the price. I am taking appropriate measures, and my ear is getting better.
In the past, I used to call the cops when he had a loud party late at night, or his dogs yapped. Then I decided to be a Christian about it and try to attack the situation on my own end, and of course, I threw in prayer. So far, these efforts have yielded an earache. But I really prefer to do it this way. I believe interpersonal relations are very hard to fix without God’s help.
Also, there must be reasons why I’m such a light sleeper. If I can figure those out, I’ll be a lot better off than I would be if I merely silenced one source of aggravation. Why swat flies? That’s how George Bush puts it. Go for the broad solution.
I don’t get much caffeine, and I haven’t had nicotine since God knows when. I have laid off the aspartame. Maybe things will improve. I wonder if there is a way to soundproof a window, or at least reduce the sound, without replacing it.
I stole more garbage last night, and I’m proud of it. Proud, I tell you. A neighbor had a couple of non-rotten mahogany logs in his trash pile, and one was suitable for sawing up, so I nailed it. I think it’s time to start making mahogany bird toys for Maynard and Marvin.
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:43 PM
Methyl alcohol is a by product of a number of different consumable items. One interesting thing about methyl alcohol is that poisoning is treated by ingesting ethyl alcohol. The ethyl alcohol bonds with, then flushes out the methyl alcohol.
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Just so you know. I didn’t google this. Alcohol is part of our business down here. However, there is an interesting pdf document on the web titled, Artisan Distilling by Kris Berglund PhD, which has a lot of interesting information about the chemical changes which happen during distillation.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:37 PM
Antibiotics are “cheating nature”, too, as are all the means by which we’ve made food abundant and cheap and reduced starvation to something caused by governments rather than happenstance.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the naturalistic fallacy (which I submit the “cheating nature leads to bad things” claim falls under).
(For that matter, Christianity arguably is also defying – if not “cheating” – nature; by which I mean the entire mode of action required by God is contrary to that “mere nature” would encourage and reward.
That is not meant nor expected to be taken as a slight towards Christianity, of course, but as a further reason to divorce “natural” and “good”. History suggests that “natural” man dies young and lives a life fitting with Hobbes’ description thereof.)
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:01 PM
I don’t see Christianity as cheating nature, because I believe man and God are separate from nature.
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One of the odd things about liberalism is that liberals insist that we are just animals and part of the food chain, yet everything we do is considered unnatural. If I’m really just a monkey’s cousin, then nuclear energy is as natural as using a stick to pick tasty termites out of a mound.
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I wouldn’t compare antibiotics to artificial sweeteners, which exist purely to help us avoid having character.
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:56 PM
My wife is epileptic. When we married she had as many as 2 seizures a day.
A friend of mine told me of his wife. She started having tunnel vision and mild blackouts. Many tests. Then he saw her drinking her 5th diet Pepsi of the day and asked her to stop. She resisted, but gave in. All symptoms went away.
I told my wife. She resisted, but gave in. Went to 3 or 4 seizures a month.
Aspartame is Nutrasweet, just so other readers will know.
On another note. please hold me in prayer. I’ve been seeing a doctor for some lower G.I. issues with little results. Thank God x-rays and ultrasound came back good Friday. But I’m in pain. Thanks.
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:55 PM
I feel so bad for poor Mish.
One hopes this is one of those ‘od proving Himself to us by the occurence of the unlikely (if not the imposible)’ things
March 2nd, 2009 at 10:24 PM
While you’re digging around in trash piles, see if you can find some melaleuca. It’s considered a trash tree in South Florida. One time I cut a small plank from a large branch and when it dried it had a very interesting grain pattern.
March 2nd, 2009 at 10:28 PM
Another wood that shows up in Coral Gables trash piles is palm wood. You wouldn’t think that palm trees could be turned into useful lumber but at the recent Miami International Boat show there was a company selling high end furnature made from palm wood.
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:50 AM
I once had a problem with a neighbor’s dog barking at heathen (ungodly) hours of the night and early morning.
A wrist rocket and a few marbles changed his tune. I flicked on the porch light about 11:50 PM one night when he was in full voice, he saw me, I saw him. I dropped a marble in the sling, full draw, THEEE-WACK! He yelped and high-tailed it for the barn. I didn’t see him for three days. I felt really bad; I thought I’d killed him!
Eventually he showed back up. Finally about two weeks later he started barking again. I got up, wrist rocket in hand, and flipped on the porch light. He took off like a bat outta you know where. Funniest dang thing. All it took was the porch light coming on. Pavlov was right.
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:51 AM
Yes, aspartame is very bad berries and can do a number of rotten things. Splenda is even worse, but you wouldn’t believe the way people defend it. Mercola.com has a lot of information if anyone is interested.
May the Lord bless and keep Mish.
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:55 AM
Actually any alcohol you ingest is oxidized in the liver by the alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme system. Methanol goes to formaldehyde, ethanol goes to acetaldehyde, etc. By the way, the acetaldehyde is what actually intoxicates you. The body doesn’t know where the methanol comes from (i.e.- “Natural ” or “artificial”. Aspartic acid and phenylalanine are
“naturally” occuring amino acid found in many foods.
Not to say that you may not have a problem with aspartame (nutrasweet) or phenylalanine (there is an inherited condition known as phenylketonuria where one can’t metabolize phenylalanine properly). The human body is complicated and everyone is slightly different.
If you think that something bothers you, quit using it. If you feel better, it may be becasue 1) you quit using something that bothered you or 2) you quit using something that didn’t really bother you, but was preying on your mind. In any event, you feel better, so what’s the difference?
MSG? Sure- some folks are sensitive to it, just like some folks are sensitive to sulfites. Avoid it if you think it is a problem, just don’t go around denouncing things that other folks don’t have a problem with.
Finally- I don’t understand why you think God and man are separate from nature. God created “nature” (by which I mean the natural world). Man has to interact with it on every level. Man is different in that he has free will and can disregard and overcome or moderate his natural urges, but he is still part of the natural world.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:12 AM
Harry, thanks for reminding me of something I forgot to say: I DENOUNCE MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE.
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I don’t believe man is part of the natural world. We are visitors here, temporarily inhabiting natural bodies.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:13 AM
Dang, Bill, I had no idea there was wood inside a melaleuca. I thought it was just 9,000 layers of paper.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:57 AM
Interesting slant. I obviously don’t agree, but WTH we’ll find out eventually.
In any event- I rather like MSG. It doesn’t bother me one bit and does seem to enhance flavor in salty stuff like Chinese food.
My $0.02
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:20 AM
I had a problem with a neighbor’s dog barking at peri-heathen hours (i.e about an hour before I had to get up for work), back when the kids we little and still waking during the night. I think the nighbor got up, tossed tohe dog out, and then got into the shower, letting the dog howl until he was done getting ready for work himself.
I addressed it by finding out the neighbor’s phone number, and on the night following being awakened unduly early by the dog, I would call in the middle of the night (while tending to the crying baby) and ask him not to leave the dog howling in the yard again today.
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Giving up aspartame is nothing. Giving up MSG is pretty scary, given all the good stuff they put it in. I think they overloaded me on Sunday, because the MSG taste was very obvious.