I was going to post about this on Twitter, but as I pondered how to put it I decided it might be too gross for some people, so instead I'm putting it on my Google-indexed blog.
:>
The other day I thought I had a bleeding rash from riding my bicycle two days in a row. I treated the area with care and didn't go biking for awhile. But it seemed to not want to heal. Sean took a look and said he couldn't find anything wrong. I checked myself and couldn't figure out where the blood was coming from.
It occurred to me that it might be a period. Several years ago when I first started biking and getting back into shape, before the whole heart failure thing, I got a period for the first time in five years. That was when I went to my first Augusta endocrinologist to get put on hormone treatments. After that, when I was on hormones I got regular periods, and when I was off I didn't.
This time, I figured maybe, since I was getting back into shape again, my body would behave as it did before. But I couldn't find any blood when I went looking. It only appeared every now and then when I wasn't thinking about it.
This morning, though, it was confirmed. It's definitely a period. It was just so light at first that it was hardly detectable. (And it's still really light...wonder how long it's going to last.)
This means nothing in terms of my fertility. Nothing. I'd like to believe that as I lose more weight, I'll be healthier and my body will feel younger and stronger. But I refuse to get my hopes up about having kids. It's just too painful when I'm disappointed.
Besides, I wasn't magically fertile again the last time this happened. I had some random periods without hormones last year. And it's happened before, too--just sporadically.
The only way this would be different would be if I got another period next month. But I probably won't. This is probably just another menopausal dump. That's what they all probably are. Here's what Sean wrote about it back in the beginning.
But despite the fact that every time this happens I resolve to be logical, I can't help but feel a little happy.
Sigh.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
An appeal to programmers
Please minimize the use of database calls and dynamic content. If you have a page that's going to be loaded often but only changed frequently, only update that page when it's changed...not every time it's loaded.
Dynamic pages are nifty because changes are instantaneous...but that's really the only good thing about them. They will drive up users' load times and your bandwidth costs, and they're completely unnecessary. A nice static page that gets updated whenever there's a change is all you need.
Your website, or software, or whatever, should not check the database for changes to every element every time a page or screen with calls to those elements is pulled up. That's just ridiculous.
Would you like it if you had to rebuild an entire house every time you wanted to add, say, new windows?
You'd think this would be one of the things programmers learn. It's just common sense.
Dynamic pages are nifty because changes are instantaneous...but that's really the only good thing about them. They will drive up users' load times and your bandwidth costs, and they're completely unnecessary. A nice static page that gets updated whenever there's a change is all you need.
Your website, or software, or whatever, should not check the database for changes to every element every time a page or screen with calls to those elements is pulled up. That's just ridiculous.
Would you like it if you had to rebuild an entire house every time you wanted to add, say, new windows?
You'd think this would be one of the things programmers learn. It's just common sense.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Fat-Free Blueberry Smoothie
At-home smoothies are ridiculously easy. We had strawberry-banana smoothies at work recently, with a 1-1-1 ratio recipe of strawberries, bananas, and skim milk. Today I decided to try it with yogurt.
I used one cup frozen blueberries,
one cup Activia Fat-Free Vanilla Yogurt,
and one quite ripe banana.
Put everything into the blender (or Magic Bullet, as the case may be).
Blend.
Enjoy!
Here's the nutritional info.
As you can see, this wouldn't be great for someone on Atkins. Even though it's almost completely fat-free, it's high enough in calories and carbs that the points are a little higher than I usually like to have for breakfast. I'd suggest halving the recipe, or making one recipe for two people.
I used one cup frozen blueberries,
one cup Activia Fat-Free Vanilla Yogurt,
and one quite ripe banana.
Put everything into the blender (or Magic Bullet, as the case may be).
Blend.
Enjoy!
Here's the nutritional info.
| Item | Calories | Fat | Carbs | Fiber | WW Points|
| Blueberries | 106 | 0 | 25 | 7 | 1.5 |
| Yogurt | 150 | 0 | 27 | 6 | 2 |
| Banana | 121 | 0.4 | 31.1 | 3.5 | 2 |
| TOTAL | 366 | 0 | 81 | 17 | 7 |
As you can see, this wouldn't be great for someone on Atkins. Even though it's almost completely fat-free, it's high enough in calories and carbs that the points are a little higher than I usually like to have for breakfast. I'd suggest halving the recipe, or making one recipe for two people.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Email can travel through time
Ever have that experience where you see an old email you'd forgotten about, and it's like it's brand new? It's odd, realizing that you can't write back as though the person had just sent it.
Well, I can do you one better. For you see, my friends, I have not only received email from the past, but I have replied, and received replies in return!
Let me explain. Today on Twitter, tgpo linked to some amazing surveillance video. Curious to learn if the driver survived, I checked the comments, which linked to a page that at the time was filled with pictures from the accident. The pictures showed that the structure fell down alongside the truck, not crushing the entire cab, but there was no text, so I wasn't sure why the commenter was so sure the driver survived. I did a little googling and found the original article, on the same site as the pictures, in Google cache.
Try as I might, I could not find a live link to the story, so I hit up the site's contact information and asked if there was a permalink, or if I could reproduce the story here for you. It's a great story, after all; definitely worth sharing.
I received a one-line response:
Wow. Who'd've thunk it? Email can travel through time.
I thought about letting it drop, but ultimately I decided to catch the guy up to the 21st century.
Well, I can do you one better. For you see, my friends, I have not only received email from the past, but I have replied, and received replies in return!
Let me explain. Today on Twitter, tgpo linked to some amazing surveillance video. Curious to learn if the driver survived, I checked the comments, which linked to a page that at the time was filled with pictures from the accident. The pictures showed that the structure fell down alongside the truck, not crushing the entire cab, but there was no text, so I wasn't sure why the commenter was so sure the driver survived. I did a little googling and found the original article, on the same site as the pictures, in Google cache.
Try as I might, I could not find a live link to the story, so I hit up the site's contact information and asked if there was a permalink, or if I could reproduce the story here for you. It's a great story, after all; definitely worth sharing.
I received a one-line response:
How did you hear about my site and the article?Well, that was odd, I thought, but I answered:
A friend of mine linked me to surveillance video of the accident, and someone had linked to your pictures in the comments. From there I googled to find the original story.And soon enough, another one-line response arrived:
Here's the link my friend sent: http://wtfurls.com/videos/488/how-not-to-use-the-drive-through-atm
I am sorry but we do not share our stories for free.It was then that I knew I was speaking to someone from 1996.
Wow. Who'd've thunk it? Email can travel through time.
I thought about letting it drop, but ultimately I decided to catch the guy up to the 21st century.
If that's the case, you may want to know that someone has copied your work onto a forum...
http://forums.beyond.ca/st/225751/travel-trailer-takes-out-gas-station/
This story is a real talker; if I were you I'd create a permanent page for it on your site and load that page up with advertising. If you just remove everything, you're going to lose all that traffic and potential profit. It's harder to stop the millions of people on the internet from copying your story than it is to give them something they can link to.
Just some friendly advice. I of course won't be using your story.
Have a good one,
Heather
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Lifestyle changes
My attitude towards health and weight loss changed drastically after I was encouraged to get an ICD. Part of it was that I hadn't yet found the right tools, but I also don't think I had been taking my health nearly as seriously as I should.
It's been over a month since I committed myself to a healthier lifestyle. I joined Weight Watchers, I bought exercise videos that I actually enjoy doing, and I started forming better habits.
Here, in list format, are some of my achievements.
Good Things I've Been Doing
My most immediate goal is to avoid the ICD. I'm hoping by the end of August my heart will have recovered enough that my doctor won't think it's necessary anymore. This may not be possible. If I have to have an ICD, I have to have an ICD. But I'm going to do whatever I can do to avoid it before I have to make that decision.
My long-term goal is, of course, to get down to a healthy weight. I'm not ruling out any options. Obesity runs in my family, and it may very well be that I can't beat this without surgical assistance. But I am not going to have my intestines rerouted without doing everything I can do first.
This month has been a great start. It's going to get harder from here, and down the road. But I refuse to give up.
It's not "I'm not giving up this time". There hasn't actually been a time when I have been this motivated. In the past when I've tried to lose weight I've always lacked a true commitment, always let either my eating habits or my exercise--or both!--slide. So this is really the first time I've ever made a concerted effort to be healthy.
It's going to be the last time, too, because I'm going to stay this way for the rest of my life.
It's been over a month since I committed myself to a healthier lifestyle. I joined Weight Watchers, I bought exercise videos that I actually enjoy doing, and I started forming better habits.
Here, in list format, are some of my achievements.
Good Things I've Been Doing
- Following a morning routine.
- Working out each and every day.
- Not splurging on food, but not denying myself what I want, either.
- Eating out less.
- Packing lunches more.
- Weighing myself every day.
- Going to bed at the same time every night.
- Give up on my quest for better health.
- Lose the ability to squat.
- Eat whatever I want, whenever I want.
- Not work out because I don't "feel like it".
- Have to size up my wedding ring.
- Lose flexibility.
- Be down on myself.
- Focus more on the past than on my current achievements.
My most immediate goal is to avoid the ICD. I'm hoping by the end of August my heart will have recovered enough that my doctor won't think it's necessary anymore. This may not be possible. If I have to have an ICD, I have to have an ICD. But I'm going to do whatever I can do to avoid it before I have to make that decision.
My long-term goal is, of course, to get down to a healthy weight. I'm not ruling out any options. Obesity runs in my family, and it may very well be that I can't beat this without surgical assistance. But I am not going to have my intestines rerouted without doing everything I can do first.
This month has been a great start. It's going to get harder from here, and down the road. But I refuse to give up.
It's not "I'm not giving up this time". There hasn't actually been a time when I have been this motivated. In the past when I've tried to lose weight I've always lacked a true commitment, always let either my eating habits or my exercise--or both!--slide. So this is really the first time I've ever made a concerted effort to be healthy.
It's going to be the last time, too, because I'm going to stay this way for the rest of my life.
Revelation
Did I ever tell you I hate web design?
It's probably obvious to those of you who've noticed I never change my blog template. Most designers change their templates all the time, trying new things. I've mentioned several times that I want to make some changes, but for the most part I've left it alone...not because I think it's perfect like it is, but because I dread going into the code. It's horribly out of date--it uses tables, for goodness' sake--and if I ever get into a serious redesign, I know I'm going to want to start over from scratch.
I'm not the type of person who can just use a WYSIWYG editor and be content. I have to mess with the underpinnings, make them the best that I know they can be.
That perfectionism makes me despise web design, because nothing is ever perfect. What works in one browser doesn't work in another. I can't always do what I want, either because I lack the coding ability, because it's unsupported by major browsers, or because it's simply impossible with the tools we currently have. To get certain effects I have to cheat and then be annoyed that the site doesn't live up to standards. I use JavaScript to do certain things, for example, and I just have to hope that the majority of site visitors won't have it disabled. There are so many factors to take into account, when all I really want to do is make a nice, pretty design.
Despite all this, for some inexplicable reason I keep taking on web design projects. What's wrong with me?
It's probably obvious to those of you who've noticed I never change my blog template. Most designers change their templates all the time, trying new things. I've mentioned several times that I want to make some changes, but for the most part I've left it alone...not because I think it's perfect like it is, but because I dread going into the code. It's horribly out of date--it uses tables, for goodness' sake--and if I ever get into a serious redesign, I know I'm going to want to start over from scratch.
I'm not the type of person who can just use a WYSIWYG editor and be content. I have to mess with the underpinnings, make them the best that I know they can be.
That perfectionism makes me despise web design, because nothing is ever perfect. What works in one browser doesn't work in another. I can't always do what I want, either because I lack the coding ability, because it's unsupported by major browsers, or because it's simply impossible with the tools we currently have. To get certain effects I have to cheat and then be annoyed that the site doesn't live up to standards. I use JavaScript to do certain things, for example, and I just have to hope that the majority of site visitors won't have it disabled. There are so many factors to take into account, when all I really want to do is make a nice, pretty design.
Despite all this, for some inexplicable reason I keep taking on web design projects. What's wrong with me?
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