The Great Shingles Outbreak of 2010

So I thought it would be fun to track my shingles episode.  But first, a bit of background.  Like, wth is shingles?

Most of us know what chicken pox is.  We all had it as a child.  Lots of bumps, scabs and itching.  Here and gone within a week usually.  But what they don’t tell you is that after the external symptoms are gone, the virus responsible finds a nice quiet spot somewhere near the base of your brain and takes a long nap.  Hibernation, if you will.

Later in life, a small percentage of the population experiences a reawakening of the virus.  But this time it causes a secondary result, shingles.  The virus wakes up, travels down a nerve and inflames the nerve endings causing blisters to erupt on the skin.  There is an accompanying pain.  Eventually these blisters break open, then scab over.  This process causes a strong itching sensation which tends to drive the host a bit crazy.  The most common outbreak area is a band from the back to the chest, about midway.  For women this is an area generally covered by a bra, so they suffer twice.

Me, I seem to have a mild outbreak, and my shingles virus decided to be special and travel down my arm to my hand.  So I’m a minority of a minority.  Additionally, it seems to be a mild case and my doctor thinks the anti-viral medicine will knock it back down without ever getting to the whole weeping blister/scab stage.  I can only hope that he is right about that.

In the meantime, I’m tracking the progress.  It is somewhat fascinating to watch these blisters pop up each day.  I’m also tracking things so that I can determine if the antiviral drugs are doing any good.  Here is what I have so far:

Day 1 – Aug. 25 – Wednesday – Irritation and pain at the outside edge of the heel of my palm, right hand.  I initially conclude that this is from putting too much weight on that arm while using a mouse at work.  Bad posture, etc.

Day 2 – Aug. 26 – Thursday – Redness goes away, areas of skin on right arm experience burning sensation (like a sunburn) – but with no visible redness.  Sore back and knot in muscle lead me to believe this may be related to a pinched nerve or something like that.  At home I hit the tip of my middle finger against something and it feels like a paper cut.  No noticeable cut or bleeding, I conclude it was just hitting a nerve.

Day 3 – Aug. 27 – Friday – Blister begins to form on heel of palm, source of original irritation.  Conclude that the blister is from friction.

Day 4 – Aug. 28 – Saturday – Two small blisters on forearm, additional blister on heel of palm, blister near the pad of the middle finger.  Begin researching and first read about shingles.  Still not convinced.

Day 5 – Aug. 29 – Sunday – Blister near pad of ring finger, on inside edge of index finger.  Possible blisters on outside of forearm.  Determine that pain on end of middle finger from Thursday was, in fact, a blister under the edge of my fingernail.

Day 6 – Aug. 30 – Monday – New blister on back of pinky.  Doctor confirms diagnosis, prescribes antiviral.  Begin taking pills.

Day 7 – Aug. 31 – Tuesday – Two new blisters at base of pinky.  One on knuckle of thumb.

Day 8 – Sept. 1 – Wednesday – Two or three new blisters forming on outside edge of palm.  One new blister near pad of pinky.  One new blister at base of pinky between it and the ring finger.  Additional blister on tip of middle finger.  Small blister forming on ring finger below fingernail.

More in a future post…

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Origins of the Invisible Government

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”

Edward Bernays, “Propaganda” 1928

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The Future of Print Media (update)

I previously mused on the future of print media, mainly comparing the e-ink reader Skiff to the just-announced iPad.  Many things have happened since then, and as I was going back over this previous article (as part of a site move) I discovered that the Skiff.com website is gone.  Only one page remains, and that is a press release announcing the sale of their company to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp!

Evidently Murdoch wants the software, not the hardware, and he still talks about the iPad all the time.  So, Skiff is basically dead.  Not sure what News Corp wants to do here, guess they don’t want all their eggs in the iPad basket?

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al Qaeda Iraq Never Linked

We could never verify that there was any Iraqi authority, direction and control, complicity with al-Qaeda for 9/11 or any operational act against America, period.

George Tenet on 60 Minutes, 4/29/07

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Dixie Says

Don’t cook unfamiliar shit when you’re drunk

Dixie

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California Bikers

caligurls:

California Bikers

c’mon, click it – you KNOW you want to!

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Twelve Years of Stock Market Misery

If you invested in an Index Fund based on the S&P 500 Index on May 1 of 1998, congratulations.  Your portfolio has neither lost nor gained a penny — of course if you factor in inflation, you’ve actually lost a lot of money.  Twelve years, nothing but losses.  Whether you were just getting started investing or you were entering your golden retirement years, that is one helluva plateau for the markets!  Let’s look at the numbers across the major indices during the last twelve years:

S&P 500 – 1121 to 1117

Dow Jones-  9147 to 10450

Nasdaq – 1873 to 2309

Do the calculations and you will get anywhere from a very slight loss to a 1.9% annual gain, assuming you invested on May 1, 1998 in a lump sum and neither added nor subtracted.  It’s even worse if you made regular contributions!  For 9-10 of those years you bought in at levels higher than the current level, so you are actually looking at quite a loss.  Factor in an average inflation rate of 2.7% and it gets even worse.

I really don’t see how this is any better than gambling, and I definitely don’t see why I should do anything other than fixed interest investing.

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Leaving Oil Behind

People had ideas, innovations, technology and the Stone Age ended. And not because we ran out of stones.

Richard Sears on planning for the end of oil (via TED.com) (via devinreams)

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Trip recap

Just some factoids

8 days – 2969 miles

Average miles per day – 371

Acres of wheat in Kansas – 8.6 Million

Nights in Motel 6 – six out of seven

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Android’s Nearly Impossible Obstacles

I’m so tired of hearing everyone refer to Android as an ‘iPhone Killer’ – I sincerely doubt I would ever leave my iPhones behind for a linux-based phone OS.  Here are the reasons why I, as an end-user, see no appeal in an Android phone:

1 – Head start – the iPhone was two years old by the time the first Android phones hit the market.  Android will be playing catch-up for a long time.  I don’t want to go backwards in time.

2 – App Store – I love the App Store concept so much, I wish I had one for my Mac and for my work PC’s -who will set up and maintain dominance in an open-source environment?

3 – iTunes – apps, music, video – it’s all right there, accessible from desktop or mobile device – dead-simple, fast, mature

4 – iPad – all my apps, music, video are shared with my phone – one purchase, multiple platforms -

5 – Design and Usability – mature and professionally designed UI and hardware – many patented features that will never be duplicated in other platforms – Version 4 rolling out while Android is barely out of beta

Now those are *my* reasons, but many of them apply to the big picture as well.  Android is competing with a worldwide user base approaching 100,000,000 — all using one-click features to purchase items with their credit cards.  There is no single ‘Android’ entity behind the platform, although Google is spearheading efforts.  They have an app store, there are at least two others.  They seem to be available only through the phones.

But the app stores have bigger problems.  Developers that are making big money with iPhone apps make almost nothing when porting a version to Android.  Without well-paid developers, Android will be a flash-in-the-pan.

And the truly big issue is this:  Android is open source software, and must be customized for each hardware handset it runs on.  The hardware manufacturers are often the ones doing the customization, but this fractures the market.  Apple controls both OS and hardware in the iPod/iPhone/iPad universe.  Android can, by design, *never* achieve that level of integration.  On top of that, each hardware manufacturer is free to use whatever technology they desire for their touchscreen material, further fracturing the user experience.

So sure, if you live in NY or San Francisco and have horrible AT&T reception, or if you are unable or unwilling to leave Verizon, or if you are an open-source loving Apple hater — sure, get an Android phone, enjoy it.  But don’t be surprised if Android ends up going the way of Windows Mobile…

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