Comments on: Things I do when I’m not here

By: oniana

oniana — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 06:07:11 +0000

i want those headphones but they are very expensive. i used to get lice very often when i was young because i had very long hair and spent a great deal of time with a huge variety of other children. once i got lice that were resistant to the NIX shampoos and other treatments, and my mom let me dye my hair purple with a permanent dye and it killed the lice. and kicked off my on-going and long-lived hair-dye addiction.

By: toast

toast — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:03:36 +0000

My first lathe was a cordless drill wit5h a razorblade as a gouge, my second was a cordless drill with two vices & a nail for a tailstock, and a Surform plane! That second one actually succeeded in making an ebony walking cane (with a lot of patience & finishing sanding).

There are some halfway reasonable drill lathe kits out there for very little money indeed, but I can’t begin to describe how much better even a cheap proper lathe works. I’d only used machine lathes previous to getting mine, & had no idea how fast hand turning could be for prototyping stages before the hundredths of millimeters start to count ;)

Turning wax blanks to be cast in metal was interesting as well.

It’s an addictive process, mind you.

By: Libs

Libs — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:37:14 +0000

I’m no expert in painkillers but I CAN tell you that I love Whack-A-Mole. I got it for Declan at Christmas because I knew it would hold his attention. What 3 year old boy doesn’t want to hit stuff that lights up?
I played Rummicube once in L.A. and lost to a 7 year old. It was a great game, despite the loss. I’ll have to pick it up and improve my skills.

By: chris

chris — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:28:36 +0000

Hey, Shannon. I know 100% how you feel as far as chronic pain and pain killers. I’ve been living with dgenerative disk, joint and bone disease as well as spinal stenosis. I’e been seeing a pain clnic for almost four years. They have refused to up my doses for almost two years, saying I’m at a very high dose as it is. Currently I’m on 160 mg of Oxycontin and 120mg of Roxycodone a day. That barely puts a dent in the cripling pain I go through. Like you, if I take my meds as I need them I run out almost a week early, and if I take them as prescribed, I spend the day in utter agony. It really is unfair the stigma that’s put on people who truly need large doses of opiates to function. I have a wife and four boys and there are days it takes all I have to get out of bed and make brakfast for them without collapsing under the pain.

By: Ed

Ed — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:03:49 +0000

Shannon,

Here is a dremel lathe link for you:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1570

Good Luck!
Ed

By: Indigo

Indigo — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:54:35 +0000

The painkiller situation is truly horrific. My pain is due to extreme endometriosis and a few autoimmune disorders that all feed off of each other, and it’s like pulling teeth to get anything. My prescriptions never last nearly long enough; doctors seem to fail to realize that people with chronic pain often build up a pretty good pain tolerance compared to other people, so when we’re in our usual amount of pain, we’re talking about pain that would knock a person flat out. It’s not just built-up drug tolerance, it’s a prescription that’s entirely too weak to manage what we’re suffering, if I’ve worded that to make sense. Like giving a baby aspirin to a wounded tiger, that’s about the best I can compare it to. Of course, the pill seeking “patients” and doctors splitting scripts etc. round it off really well. I’ve found that THC seems to worsen my pain among other things; people (esp. doctors) can’t, or refuse to, believe that I function perfectly and normally with opiates. My apologies for the rant, but to put it plainly, the majority of docs just suck in this area.

On another note – how loud is the Whack-a-Mole game? My son wants one, but I’ve hidden too many toys that proved to be hideously loud upon opening.

By: STARBADGER

STARBADGER — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:35:59 +0000

I love you.

By: Mr.E

Mr.E — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:29:15 +0000

time trav: https://discovermagazine.com/2010/mar/02-the-real-rules-for-time-travelers/

By: Shannon

Shannon — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:38:42 +0000

MissJanet, as well as my regular (and MD specialist) doctors I’m being seen by a dedicated pain clinic, yes, but to be honest, it really feels like a dead end. It’s been a really disappointing uphill battle.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:36:10 +0000

Thanks for that keyboard link, that thing looks like a ton of fun!

By: MissJanet

MissJanet — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:24:38 +0000

Shannon, have you tried to contact a Hospice or pain-clinic to get a medication “costum made” for you? Over here in germany, we have the same problems with description of pain medications, to the most part due to doctors who simply don’t understand the issue. Hospices do not only offer palliative care but also medical help for chronic pain.

By: L-Ron

L-Ron — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:59:43 +0000

keyboard solution:

https://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/keyboards-mice/cb22/

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:46:23 +0000

P.s. Shannon,
You forgot to mention in time travel, “The Butterfly effect”, in which the person slips back and forth in his own timeline.
(and don’t forget Stephen’s “A Brief History Of time” ) :)

Have a great Day Shannon!

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:37:11 +0000

Shannon,

RE: Pain — Have you thought of getting a TENS unit (or even a muscle stimulator unit) and see if you can cancel out the pain reception with the current? I have heard that it’s possible to use current to cancel out the pain receptors.
And, as far as your lathe/ drill issue…. I am in a similar boat and so I can give some suggestions to you.
If I remember correctly, you know Bre Pettis. You might want to check in with him on his Makerbot (makerbot.com) because he has (as a kit – or prints) a personal 3D model printer. It uses different types of plastic and an extrusion unit to create the modesl. And– you can adapt it to be your own personal CNC machine using a dremel I think.
And with your skills, I’d suggest you look into it– and probably get a drill or dremel unit- make the cnc unit and install a seperate drill/dremel unit and use the X/Y/Z coordinates as a “lathe” – which should make any item you want – very precise. And – in case you were wondering …. the Makerbot uses open source porgramming/software — so you could have a field day with your programming abiliites.
(For me, I am trying to get the money up for one of the Makerbot kits- so I can build it — and then I’m going to see about making one from scratch (and fashion it as a cnc machine) ) — If I succeed, it will definitely be a feather on my resume` (which I could definitely use)

Have a great day Shannon, and Good Luck!!

By: wlfdrgn

wlfdrgn — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:35:11 +0000

The real problem with most drug dosing is that it’s not based on reality. Most drugs, other than those given via IV, are dosed as XX mg/day for all patients. The problem is, that’s not the way your body uses them. The standard dosages are based on a 120 pound adult. While 120 pound adults do exist, the vast majority of people weigh more. If you weigh 180, you’re only getting 2/3 of the dosage you need. At 240, you’re only getting half. If you talk to your doctor about this, and ideally go in with some studies that show it happens, you might be able to get more.

I just read on CNN.com (I think) about a study about overweight breast cancer patients. They have a much lower success rate with chemo. Doctors had always just assume it was due to the fact that they were overweight and therefore defined as less healthy. This study increased dosage proportional to body mass and, very unsurprisingly, the success rate became the same as non-overweight patients.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:46:49 +0000

No. If I smoke pot I’m totally useless. I’m not there for Nefarious or Caitlin or even myself — that is, I can’t write, program, nothing — if I’m high. That’s not where I want to be in my life, even if it is a relatively effective painkiller. The baggage it comes with is not worth it to me. One of the reasons I like opiates is that they don’t affect me mentally and I keep a completely clear head.

By: Travis

Travis — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:29:11 +0000

I was going to venture the same question/suggestion as LOTN. But care must be taken to find the right strain. I have only used cannabis twice, both times to combat nausea and back pain. The two strains that I tried were definitely different; one was miraculous, the other I wouldn’t try agian. Though, with your level of pain I wonder how effective…

And Rummikub, my aunt has played the game constantly for years and she is nearly impossible to beat. When she finishes a turn, the ‘board’ looks none the same – she’s savage when it comes to shifting and rearranging tiles, bending them to her will. It’s like a puzzle.

By: LotN

LotN — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:25:33 +0000

Would you reconsider cannabis as a pain killer? I know you’re not fond of the changes it makes in you, but the pain must be causing its own changes…

By: Isabel

Isabel — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:53:02 +0000

I used to get lice allllll the time in elementary school. ALL of the floors were carpeted, except of course the gym. The library had a giant stuffed turtle in the middle of the room and big pillows for kids to lay against. Wanna know how often they sprayed the school for pests? ONCE! a year, during the summer. My mother checked.

I spent my years there with short, boyish hair. D:

By: Hamsandawich

Hamsandawich — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:12:28 +0000

I just wanted to say the headphones you have our a good investment, I sell them at a retail store I work at and their amazing, but be warned we have them on display at our listening stations and they tend to crack not super easy but easy enough that I make sure you didn’t drop them often, or at all really.