Monday, December 21, 2009

Christmas Carols for You!

See if you can guess the names of Christmas songs I've parodied? :D

[title]
We wish you a healthy Christmas!
No headaches upon this Christmas!
A warm, understanding Christmas,
And a pain-free New Year!

Less Migraines we bring, for you and your friends,
Less Migraines for Christmas and a pain-free New Year!

[title]
There we went a-vomiting
Before we gained control!
There we went a wand’ring
Such foggy brain’d trolls!

Love and joy come to you!
May your health get better too!
May God bless you and send you
A year of better health,
May God send you a year of better health!

[title]
I’m dreaming of a white ice pack,
Just like the ones my mother knows,
Where the cold spots freeze you,
And warm spots fail you,
Like men, watching TV sports!

I’m dreaming of a cold ice pack,
With every pounding pain I feel,
May your days be dark, quiet dreams,
Close the door to soften touchdown screams.

[title]
The Cluster and the Migraine,
When they are both full-blown,
Of all the curses that man may know,
It’s the combo that’s the crown.

[title]
In the bleak mid-Migraine,
Dreadful aches and moans,
Right behind the eyeball,
Underneath a stone.

Rocks were piled up, rock on rock,
Rock on rock,
In the bleak mid-Migraine,
Not so long ago.


[title]
Toradol, toradol, toradol rocks!
Toradol eases, toradol stops!
No wracking aching
Dependency free!
I’ll take an IV, if you please!

Toradol, toradol, toradol rocks!
Toradol ‘round the clock!
Toradol is wonderful
An IV heaven sent!
Doesn’t Toradol rock!  :D

Merry Christmas if that's your holiday.  It's mine.  Warm love and wishes for health and happiness!



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Holiday Cheer - Sharethis: Dark chocolate prevents wrinkles, skin cancer

Just in time for Christmas...MORE GOOD NEWS FROM THE CHOCOLATE FRONT!

Fear not that high quality, high cocoa solids chocolate is nowhere to be found. World Wide Chocolate is one online purveyor who will bring such Elysian delights to your house, your very abode as it were. They are an online business I recommend. I do business with them and have been very pleased with all transactions.

Right now, yea at this very moment, Callebaut Belgian dark chocolate batons boulangers are melting in my mouth, smooth as liquid black gold.  This particular baking formulation has only 44% cocoa solids but I've got chocolate with 80% cocoa solids in the cabinet.  HELL yeah I eat baking chocolate!  And every sort of bonbon and confection, bakery item and savory dish containing Theobroma cacao that I can think up or find.

There may be some who consume greater quantities of chocolate than I do but I'll put my Theobroma cacao tastes up there with the biggest eaters any day.

Want to know why I don't eat Hershey's kisses?  Scroll down to the blog entitled "The Sweet Life" and look for the entry dated Friday June 5, 2009.  Read the comments.  Yep, there's one from ME.  I recommend The Bee Folks.  They carry bulk and varietal honey, some nice beeswax products, and Lori had TRIPLET BOYS last Spring.  They're good people to do business with.  I go through a lot of honey.  Lori sells half gallons, gallons, and even larger sizes as well as 8 oz and a couple of 4 oz sizes of premium honeys.

I hope to pull together some Theobroma cacao recipes and projects for the next article.  Preview:  That last swallow of sediment coffee in the pot that no one wants?  Add cocoa powder and another couple of ingredients to make a nice scrub for stretch marks that will tickle your spouse's tongue as well.  Ohhhh...yeah...

Chocolate is a Migraine trigger for some people.  It appears it may have something to do with endothelial function and production of nitric oxide, which expands blood vessels.  [Disclaimer:  I have carefully recorded my physical responses to chocolate over the many years I've dealt with Migraine and found one correlation:  The craving for chocolate is a sure sign that Migraine attacks are imminent.  Eat chocolate, don't eat chocolate, no effect on whether attacks occur in me or their intensity.]  Read this interesting article from--Hershey's--about some of the nice things chocolate does for people.  The article includes citations but frankly, I'd consider Hershey's Chocolate an expert in chocolate in their own right.  They're not my chocolatiers but I'll count on their information any day.

Eat high quality, high cocoa solids chocolate.  And honey.  Every day.  The Sparkling Mother is glad it's good for you.  :D
 

Dark chocolate prevents wrinkles, skin cancer
Dark chocolate prevents wrinkles, skin cancer
Source: presstv.ir


 
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Monday, November 23, 2009

Sharethis: Migraine Increases Likelihood of Stroke - US News and World Report

Heeheehee! Oh heck yeah, I'm a spoil-sport! An article about STROKE RISK on Thanksgiving!

Yeeebuddy, you got that right. When you're a walking stroke waiting to happen like I am, you don't get time off for holidays from vigilance.

The study appears to have missed the two most crucial bits of information that could have been gleaned had anyone thought to look for them: whether the stroke sufferers had taken any triptan therapy in the preceding 48 hours, and whether any were on Migraine prevention medication (or medication with Migraine preventative effects). I believe triptans may contribute to Migraine progression (including contributing to strokes) but without tracking it or mining it out of previous studies we won't know. All we'll have are the prescribing information warnings and contraindications from the drug manufacturers.

Hmmm...that might be a good project: to put links to all the triptan prescribing information here on this blog.

Full disclosure: I have prescribed for me a triptan called Axert, but not for Migraine. Triptans do not provide any Migraine relief for me. I've been diagnosed with cluster headaches for which Axert is a miracle and they're what the doc prescribed Axert for. I've needed fewer than 12 doses in the last 18 months, one of which I took this week. One Axert and the cluster cycle is busted. That is utterly amazing. Cluster headaches are also called "suicide headaches" because that's an apt description of how they affect some of us. I have no other triptans and they are not in the Migraine portion of my doctor-and-me-drawn-up management plan.

I'm not totally opposed to triptan usage. I believe it should not be the first rescue medication a person reaches for in an attack and I believe it should not be written into Migraine management plans that way. The much-maligned health insurance industry frequently limits the number of doses of triptans that they'll pay for in a month's time. I can't help but wonder if that's because triptans are not harmless.

Anyhow...eat turkey, or tofurduken if you're Weird Al, rest after dessert, take a nice long walk in the fresh air, and know that the Sparkling One is thankful that you read her thoughts.

Wait...that doesn't sound exactly the way I mean it...some people do read thoughts...never mind, the dressing's getting cold. XD



[Article at least number 1,801 Editorial note] Migraine Increases Likelihood of Stroke
Migraine Increases Likelihood of Stroke - US News and World Report
Source: health.usnews.com



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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Sharethis: Justice Department "Ten Employment Myths" video

This should be excellent.

I thought about waiting until the video was up on the U. S. government's website www.ada.gov but I still don't see it. If it's available now please somebody holler.

If your employer needs educating about YOUR rights and responsibilities as an employee with a disabling condition, don't wait. Find out on your own like I did and pass along what you learn!


Justice Department Releases ADA Employment Video: Ten Employment Myths: Information about the Americans with Disabilities Act
Welcome to the United States Department of Justice
Source: justice.gov



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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Sharethis: Spirit Daily - Nun Who Attacked Vaccine...Raises Questions

Simul-posting

********************************************************************

The author of the attached article, Michael H. Brown, is an investigative journalist. Until a rather dramatic personal experience at Medjugorje, Ukraine (where the Blessed Virgin Mary is said to have been appearing daily to certain seers since 1981) which moved him to return to the Catholic Church, he was best known for the intense investigative work in which he exposed the Love Canal environmental contamination disaster. He wrote a best-selling book about Love Canal and the human misery and deaths directly attributed the still-unresolved disaster. He is reliable, thorough, non-sensational, and trustworthy in his investigative reporting. His opinion about the nun (about whose video I blogged myself), as he explains in the article, refers to her personal opinions on certain women's issues and not her credibility.

Please read the article. Please take your time. It is tedious in places and took all the concentration my poor disabled foggy brain could gin up to get through it once. Be aware that the article is deeply steeped in belief-system references. None of the belief system references has anything to do with the specific issues around the safety of the H1N1 vaccine.

Navigating through and fully understanding everything he has to say will have to come another day for me when my eyes can focus and my brain can line up thoughts orderly. This blog column has taken me two hours to write. I'm out of useful minutes for today.

To anyone who so desires to comment, I certainly would appreciate the discussion. This is an extremely important subject and the work on it absolutely must continue.


Nun-Physician Who Attacked Vaccine has Controversial Past but Raises Questions
Spirit Daily - Daily spiritual news from around the world
Source: spiritdaily.com



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Friday, November 6, 2009

Sharethis: Flu vaccine questions linger | The Citizen Online

Simul-posting. And taking a few days off.

********************************************************************

The article's author, Ben Nelms, says later on not to take anything in his piece as "gospel truth". I make the same recommendation.

I too spent a while yesterday, time I should have been resting my left arm (connected to that displaced C-6 vertebra), coming to the same conclusions that Ben Nelms did.

When I had read through many articles including a monastery website in Spanish, comparing English subtitles to audio on an hour-long Spanish video made by an M.D. & PhD Benedictine nun and attempting to locate documents many documents including on the World Health Organization's website (which would not load), I had to stop.

I was too horrified to go further.

Ben Nelms wrote the attached Sharethis article that the section below is quoted from. I did not write it.

"...All this brings up another point. Respected medical researcher Len Horowitz along with Austrian journalist Jane Burgermeister (you won’t find any reference to these folks in the major U.S. media) have recently filed lengthy affidavits claiming a conscious effort by the U.N., World Health Organization, some international bankers, the U.S. government and some big pharma companies to intentionally corrupt the novel H1N1 vaccine with components that would have killed untold millions of people worldwide.

As outrageous as this sounds, the claims by Burgermeister and Horowitz came after it was verified earlier this year that a shipment of 72 kilograms (158.4 pounds) of vaccine component material sent by a Baxter lab in Austria to a lab in the Czech Republic for inclusion in the H1N1 vaccine contained live H5N1 avian flu virus (H5N1 has a current death rate of 63.5 percent, as opposed to the less than one-half of one percent rate from H1N1).

Fortunately the “mistake” was caught by a Czech lab technician. This potentially catastrophic “mistake” was covered extensively by the European media, but not here. Fox and CNN were virtually silent. Naturally.

So, Baxter potentially contaminates the vaccine, WHO a couple of months later turns around and gives the company manufacturing rights, then issues a Level 6 pandemic that triggers law-enforceable protocols with nearly every nation on the planet (including the U.S.)..."

According to the video made by the Benedictine nun, it was an absolute quirk of fate that the Czech lab even double-checked the vaccine. There was no requirement nor even a standard practice for the double-check to be done. She explained the testing that was done and why the results were astounding.

It appears that the pharmaceutical company Baxter says that the 72 kilograms of vaccine shipped from a Baxter facility in Austria to the Czech Republic were not intended for human consumption. But the shipment was for HN1N human vaccine. The nun carefully explains what the contamination was and why it would have created the world-wide catastrophe that we now do not have in November 2009 had it been injected into people as it was labled. The shipment-testing event occurred in February of this year.

Yeah, an hour long video of a nun giving a class, in effect.

Would that I was qualified to get the New England Journal of Medicine so I could read their articles about the flu vaccine contamination situation. That publication has done reputable reporting, according to what I was able to find.

My biggest problem with Jane Burgermeister is her website. Nothing wrong with wanting help to carry forward her lawsuits. Many posted articles are full of numbered foot- or end-notes but there is no way to determine foot or end because the notes are nowhere to be found. The feeling I got from her site was that it had been designed for maximum sensation. That's perplexing because she apparently has evidence on her side anyway.

I plan to write to my Congresspersons. I want to know what they have to say about all this.

And yeah, I'll pay a fine or go to prison if necessary because I will not take this H1N1 flu vaccine. I may never take another vaccine again.

My mother and I were discussing this. She put it succinctly: "Who can you trust anymore?"

I now must crash with Mineral Ice on my neck and back.

Flu vaccine questions linger
Flu vaccine questions linger | The Citizen Online
Source: thecitizen.com



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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

11/4 Edit - Sharethis: Thimerosal Suspension for H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccine - Immunization Program - Washington State Department of Health

11/4 Edit: Here's a link to another good discussion of the thimerosal issue in the H1N1 vaccine.

10/13 Edit: Good discussion going in the Comments.

********************************************************************

This is troubling news. The U. S. Department of Health has suspended the allowable level of thimerosal for the H1N1 vaccine. Troubling because thimerosal is a mercury substance.

Generally, I'm in favor of vaccinations and inoculations. I'm in the age group with scars on our shoulders from smallpox inoculations. Down here in Alabama, tetanus is a problem. Inoculations and vaccinations are important for public health.

I am NOT in favor of unrestricted thimerosal levels in anything. Pregnant women are advised to avoid fish so they (and their babies) won't be exposed to mercury--yet pregnant women have been labeled as high-risk for H1N1 problems and should be amongst the first to get the unrestricted thimerosal vaccine? What's wrong with this picture??

I do not plan to get the H1N1 vaccine. There is simply no good reason to do so.

Please read the article listed on the U. S. Department of Health website. Read all you can from sources you trust so that you can make an informed decision.

Consider not getting the H1N1 vaccine. To suspend the restrictions on thimerosal levels is insane, in my opinion.


Thimerosal [mercury level] Suspension for H1N1 Vaccine
Thimerosal Suspension for H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccine - Immunization Program - Washington State Department of Health
Source: doh.wa.gov



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Sunday, November 1, 2009

Pruning social networking friends/follower/following lists again. Don't take it personally. Gotta keep the bigotry out.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Taking a break

Gonna grab a break before observing the Vigil of All Saint's Day. See y'all soon!



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Sharethis: Cancer Society, in Shift, Has Concerns on Screenings - NYTimes.com

It appears that a major, major shift in general public recommendations is ahead.


Cancer screenings "overpromised"
Cancer Society, in Shift, Has Concerns on Screenings - NYTimes.com
Source: nytimes.com



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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Egads, world, I just joined ping.fm
But that may be the limit of my useful brain power for today. Natural gas oven, Windex=Migraine & asthma

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Sharethis: FTC: Bloggers must disclose payments for reviews - EarthLink - Technology News

And...there's another issue to consider: are remunerated bloggers correctly reporting this on their income tax returns? None of my business and I couldn't care less but it did cross my mind.

I do not and have never received any remuneration for either of my blogs--nope, not even an single penny or item. I have no financial interest in anything that's not in the Thrift Savings Plan (about whose investments I have no information nor could get any). Certainly nothing wrong with remuneration for blogging mentions, nothing at all. Sort of like personal testimonials and probably should be given the same weight.

I would be extremely interested in knowing whether doctors, therapists, advocates, bloggers--anyone from whom I receive information--have financial interests in anything they prescribe, mention, or recommend. My now-famously-former-not-to-be-mentioned Migraine speck told me, during an office visit, that he had not made enough money from his work on a med that he had shared with me in a prior office visit he had invented. He said this in the context of an attempt to persuade me to accept a prescription for it, as he was noting a contraindication for the med in my chart.

So no, he's not my doc anymore; however, the parting of ways wasn't until after I was "outed" to his staff. The parting letter was just as it should be, not a thing untoward about me or him either, nothing that would prejudice anyone who read it. No need for me to reproduce it here.

Other than my two most Excellent Assistant Offspring (who dealt with my disability issues and who still drive me and help me), only one person in the world knew his identity and my connection to him. I did not volunteer to tell this person his name. It was requested of me in an email. Very shortly thereafter, he and I were individually living happily ever after.

Be aware that NOTHING YOU PUT ON THE INTERNET IS PRIVATE, EVEN INFORMATION IN AN EMAIL. Nothing you tell anyone, no matter who you tell what to, will be kept private. Don't trust anyone asking for information who swears to have disinterest in anyone or anything: that person has his or her own best interest in mind, only and always. And perhaps a vested interest at that and man, wouldn't I like to know...

I have absolutely no concerns about sharing the boorish behaviour of this doctor. I will most assuredly never again share his identity with anyone.

You never know anyone that you don't know. And unless you travel with the unknown person, you won't truly know him or her as the old advice goes.

For another story of how the internet can work, check out this story. No joke, to me this doctor is yellow-bellied for not commenting on the post she didn't like. Of course, this is just from my point of view: I love a good argument even if I don't win.

FTC: Bloggers, disclose remuneration for reviews
FTC: Bloggers must disclose payments for reviews - EarthLink - Technology News
Source: enews.earthlink.net



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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

When You Have Only Two Pennies Left

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. -Chinese Proverb


Grow lilies. Bake bread. :)

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Sharethis: Cocoa May be Beneficial for Migraines , Headache & Migraine

What marvelous news for Migraineurs!

Some years ago I discovered that neither chocolate nor cocoa were Migraine triggers for me; however, craving chocolate was invariably a signal of impending Migraine attack. Whether I indulged my craving and ate any chocolate or not, it had no effect on the timing, frequency, or intensity of the attack.

Glad to see good news on the chocolate front.

Here's a very nice chocolate sauce that does have plenty of cocoa solids.


Rich Chocolate Sauce


2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
6 tbs water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
dash salt (important for flavor)
1/4 tsp vanilla
4 tbs butter

Heat chocolate and water over low heat, or microwave on high for 30-60 seconds at a time, whisking until smooth.

Add sugar and salt. Continue heating and whisking until sugar is dissolved and sauce is slightly thickened.

Stir in vanilla and butter. Serve any way you like including in a dish by itself. Makes 1 cup.




Theobroma cacao good for Migraine pain
Cocoa May be Beneficial for Migraines , Headache & Migraine
Source: emaxhealth.com



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Thursday, September 17, 2009

IMPORTANT Sharethis: FDA requires strong amputation warning on sedative - EarthLink - Health News

9/21 Edit: for tyops. I shouldn't try to write when I can't.


***Simulposting***

I imagine this will be of interest to people who need emergency room and urgent care for situations such as, say, Migraine attacks.

This story is full of emotion for me. I'm a musician, was professional for a number of years. To lose one of my arms would have been the end of my career, as it was for the woman here.

This med is one I have had prescribed off and on in oral capsules for years with success. There is no amputation warning for oral administration, the way I read the article.

Phenergan is also a component of oral combination drugs such as Mepergan which I've also taken with success. Those of us who take it by mouth are not the people this new labeling requirement will affect, it appears.

PLEASE read the article. If your doctor administers Phenergan by injection (or directs that you receive it by that route) then you need to know this information.



Phenergan "amputation" warning now required labeling
FDA requires strong amputation warning on sedative - EarthLink - Health News
Source: enews.earthlink.net



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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Parin Stormlaughter has shared: Studies: Swine flu spreads long after fever stops - EarthLink - Health News

Explains why the doctor told Aikichik and Libchik to isolate themselves through Saturday. Their fevers are gone but they're still coughing like sixty.

Read the good article.


Coughing is better sign that you can still spread H1N1 than fever
Studies: Swine flu spreads long after fever stops - EarthLink - Health News
Source: enews.earthlink.net



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Sharethis: Early flu season _ what you need to know - EarthLink - Health News

Good article from Lauran Neergaard of the Associated Press.


Lauran Neergaard's good reporting
Early flu season _ what you need to know - EarthLink - Health News
Source: enews.earthlink.net


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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

H1N1 is here...I mean, right here

Libchik and Aikichik both tested positive for influenza at the doctor's office yesterday. The doc said it meant that they both had H1N1. They're both taking Tamiflu now and were given strong cough medicine.

They're so feverish that the ambient temperature goes up tremendously when they're in the same room.

H1N1 is overwhelming the university they attend. No doubt that's where they were exposed.

Take care, everybody.



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Update: Squirrely Hit Counter

Sick threat of harm from some demented mind or another. No more hit counter.

********************************************************************

Please disregard the hit counter. It jumped more than 8,000 hits in about 36 hours. That's got to be a mistake. I'll reset once I talk things over with someone who can explain how this happened.

Thank you. Carry on.



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Friday, September 4, 2009

When Enjoyment is Nowhere on the List

"Yes Mother, but how will you benefit from all this?"
Recent observation by Libchik


Happy Full Corn Moon! I'm full of Migraine meds and about to get horizontal but I wanted to share some thoughts first. Once I hit the sheets I might not get back up until Sunday.

The other day, Libchik and I were making some plans. She and I worked and talked, planned and compromised, and reached a viable solution.

At the end of our discussion, she commented that everyone would be pleased with the solution we reached--except me! She said that I had not included myself and my own needs anywhere in the complex. She also scolded me for never including myself. It's nothing new.

I'm hearing this EVERYWHERE. People keep telling me that I should begin to consider myself before I consider others. It is foreign to my nature though. And that self-denial is my nature is borne out through my birth chart. I was born so "others oriented" that I have no internal mechanism for self-promotion even when I need it.

The ability to deny myself serves me well in my belief system. I was a Secular Discalced (meaning Barefoot) Carmelite for some years, and Discalced Carmelites are a penitential order. We thrive on penance. A Carmelite who doesn't might reconsider his or her vocation.

But a prime directive for us is to never take on penance of our own volition in the absence of approval by a spiritual director who understands the penitential vocation. I haven't had a dedicated spiritual director since my friend and formation director died. I was so crushed by her death that I voluntarily withdrew from Carmel.

All that to say: I should probably listen to all the people in the last 3 or 4 years who have told me that I should loosen up and get my mojo back. It was surreal to hear my adult daughter adjuring me to think of myself, when I know I've spent the last 42 years thinking of her and her sister, and my parents and ex-husband, and the job I retired from on disability pension, and the showbiz public, above all else.

I've said this several times over the last 8 or 9 months, that I must learn how to relax and let my hair down. And for sure it will be a learning event because I don't know what I like to do. I have no idea what I enjoy. Not a clue of what's fun to me.

Well, I know I feel gratified by a number of things but Libchik told me that gratification wasn't the point of pleasure. Experiencing enjoyment is the objective of pleasure. If I'm knocking myself out to solve problems and plan events for others, it's nonsensical to omit myself but I do it anyhow.

Baking that poppy seed cake and feeling the satisfaction after so many years of not having the capability to cook triggered a confusing cascade in me. Honestly, I believe I did feel pleasure. I was proud that I had come far enough to make the attempt to bake again. The cake turned out just fine and it was delicious. My mother enjoyed it. I was gratified that I could accomplish it but there was more to how I felt. I may have--enjoyed it?

What else does one do to figure out what's fun? I won't be climbing aboard the Great American Scream Machine roller coaster at Six Flags, that much is certain. But what other things are fun for a person with no vestibular function whose chronic illnesses are triggered by so many things she can't keep up with them all?

Growing mushrooms? Reading a sensual piece of fiction (or non-fiction for that matter)? Getting hot and sweaty with an agreeable guy? Where do I find an agreeable guy who is ok with my chronic crap?

I'm so trained to perform music that I never learned to play for fun. I was quite glad to find that I could still knock out songs on my new guitar but I can't say it was entertaining to me. My mother asked me to plan a time to play the piano for her sometime soon. It will certainly be gratifying to see her enjoy it but it won't be anyone's idea of fun but hers.

I'm going to cry now. I have to find pleasure but I don't know where to look. Actual me-oriented pleasure and not gratification from service. Maybe that's a start--have I been substituting gratification from service for self-indulgent pleasure?

I wonder if anyone has published a workbook to guide the servile back into the real world? How would I even look that up on Amazon?

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Parin Stormlaughter has shared: Five Minute Global Prayer: Send and Receive Healing Energy this Friday | Dancing with Pain(R)

Five Minute Global Prayer - Send and Receive Healing Energy
Five Minute Global Prayer: Send and Receive Healing Energy this Friday | Dancing with Pain®
Source: dancingwithpain.com


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Venusian Pleasures - Poppy Seed Cake

stormlaughterIcon_lock "Oh help me. I'm floating in cinnamon, nutmeg, almond, & poppy seed pleasure. I should say "join me". :)"
Me on Twitter


Never mind Neptune. More delicious delights have my attention right now.

My mouth is numb, comfortably numb. I just consumed half my daily calories with Neufchatel. Then I had another piece.

I'm drying petals from a blossom of Ryan's Rose so the kitchen is filled with the rosy fragrance. Couple that with this cake's sweet cinnamon heat from the oven and this domestic goddess is reborn.

This is where my Venus finds her voice.

Poppy Seed Cake
Inspired by a recipe from Gail Gand

1 1/4 ozs culinary poppy seeds
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/8 cup corn oil
1/2 tsp vanilla flavoring
couple of drops of almond flavoring
1 cup self-rising flour
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch grated nutmeg

Soak poppy seeds in milk for 1 hour. Set aside. Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside.

Whip egg and sugar until fluffy. Drizzle in vegetable oil, vanilla, and almond flavorings. Sift together flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add to batter alternately with the poppy seeds and milk.

Pour batter into loaf pan. Bake at 325o for 45 minutes to an hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Top warm with cream cheese, butter, honey, or ice cream.


Notes: Oh heavens, what pleasure. Use evaporated milk in this recipe if you wish and you can save your regular milk for drinking. Consider trying Homemade Vanilla Flavoring and Vanilla Sugar for desserts like this. Be sure not to use more than a couple of drops of almond flavoring because it can easily overpower this delicate cake. Original recipe made 2 cakes and this recipe doubles flawlessly. Fill the room with the fragrance of roses (or if you're adventuresome, serve with tangy, fragrant rose conserve) to go along with this delight. The cake is moderately sweet and always unfrosted.

Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Venusian Pleasures - Homemade Vanilla Sugar and Vanilla Flavoring


Vanilla Sugar


Place 2 lbs granulated sugar in an airtight canister and label with ingredients and date. Bury a whole vanilla bean pod in the sugar. Shake the container every few days. Let steep for 2 months. Use in any recipe calling for granulated sugar as well as in coffee and tea. One pod will flavor three changes of sugar (6 pounds in all) but use only 2 lbs at a time or it'll be a year before the sugar gets flavored. You can then use the pod for things like puddings and mead.


Bourbon Vanilla Flavoring

Split 2 vanilla bean pods and scrape the seeds into a pint of a bourbon that you like to drink, then add the pod halves. Cap tightly. Shake bottle every month or so. Let steep in the back of a dark cabinet for about a year before use. Marvelous in things like eggnog, hot toddies, and bourbon-soaked cakes. Two pods will flavor 2 pints of bourbon. Just refill the original bottle once you've emptied it. Discard the pods after the second batch. Very nice gift.



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Hades Neptune

I've written ad nauseum about my doubly Hades Moon: the Moon in my birth chart is in the sign of Scorpio and is sextile Pluto in Virgo.

I've now found, reflected in my birth chart, a good explanation of my astronomical, comical, and utterly stupid sensitivity to life. In the course of reading up on the various subjects I'll be working on in Transpersonal Studies, I've found that analyzing my own birth chart is providing me with some insight into how others with some of my problems have coped with them. At the end of the day, the things I've found in my birth chart back up my and my docs' beliefs that I'm not making up my health problems. My spine issues are there too and an astrologer commented that skeletal things should very gradually increase for me as I finish growing up.

The term Hades Moon comes from a book of that title by Judy Hall. She should write about all the planets that aspect a Hades Moon. My Neptune is also in Scorpio and it conjuncts my Moon in Scorpio and both are sextile Pluto, god of the underworld. Neptune conjuncts my Descendant axis giving it substantial "weight" in chart synthesis.

Here's a swatch from the Karmic Insight Report (available from www.cafeastrology.com). Unfortunately, it's up to me to synthesize how this sensitivity manifests itself through the deep, dark, and secret Scorpio. This swatch just talks about Moons and Neptunes in a very general way:
The ability to empathize is a soul quality you have developed through many past experiences. Your psychic openness and capacity to "tune in" to what others are feeling is certainly a talent and a gift, but it can also make you vulnerable to your environment in many ways. You unconsciously absorb the psychic atmosphere and feelings of the people around you, so much so that you may be unable to separate yourself and distinguish your own emotions from other people's. You are thus susceptible to being manipulated, especially through pity. Allowing others to leech off of you emotionally, financially, or even psychically can be a problem for you. On another level, when you are not in balance you may manifest an over sensitivity toward chemicals, pollutants in your surroundings, or even prescription drugs, and an intolerance for any sort of noise, stress, or dissonance. You tend to take it all in, rather than resist or maintain firm limits. You have rather soft, permeable boundaries. When you get out of balance, however, you respond well to subtle therapies which affect primarily the emotional or subtle energies and thereby bring you into harmony. Beautiful music has a healing affect upon you, color therapy, aromatherapy, or simply being in or around water can all be very effective for you.

It is also beneficial for you to periodically withdraw for renewal. Going on spiritual retreats or visiting sanctuaries, even just being out in the wilderness, are quite necessary for you at times. You have a pronounced desire to escape or leave the world.

Night before last I had a dream that a man was leading an exploratory expedition to Neptune. I was following them psychically because in the dream, that was what I did for a living: psychic monitoring for NASA (don't fret--the Migraine attack that generated this weirdness stopped hurting last night). The most significant part of the dream was that I looked up into the sky and, in daylight, "saw" Neptune as the dot portion of an exclamation point formed by clouds also.

Dreams speak the symbolic language of the subconscious mind. Guess my subconscious is telling me to forget Venus & fix the Hades Moon/Hades Neptune conjunction Descendant first.

*sigh* I doubt that will be nearly as much fun as helping Venus have a good time. I've been recording my dreams since high school psychology class. Once I start dreaming about something, it's time to address it.

Balance...balance...Neptunium balance...water...wilderness...

Or I could just forget it and pull the covers back over my head. :)

Check out my "Reading Now" list. I'm about finished with The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine Aron, PhD, (c) 1996 Broadway Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036. I checked out both it and her The Highly Sensitive Person in Love from the library. Haven't read The Highly Sensitive Person in Love yet but I know for sure that I want to own The Highly Sensitive Person. There are a number of books addressing this trait and I've read several of them. Dr. Aron is Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) herself and has worked hard in this book to reassure us HSPs of our worthiness. Only a couple of problems with this book but the two primary ones are: she clearly states that Migraine is one result of not properly caring for your highly-sensitive self (Migraine is genetic--all the self-help books in the world won't make that gene go away). Second is her science on the physiological effects of long-term high cortisol levels and how to handle those effects; otherwise, one great book all in all. I recommend it. She and her husband crafted the studies that she conducted and she designed a questionnaire included in the book to help the reader get an idea of high sensitivity. Can't wait to start The HSP in Love even though Venus and I won't be bar-crawling as long as her father Neptune is standing in the doorway.

Libchik and I had a discussion about the differences between using psychological terms to describe a character trait and using astrological terms for the same trait. She's not sold on astrological birth chart information yet. Six of one, half a dozen of the other for my part. Psychological astrology (practiced by such luminaries as Liz Greene PhD. and Robert Hand) has already made the connection. Now we who come afterwards get to reap the benefits. :)

And I'm now at the end of my useful minutes. Gonna stretch out with rose quartz, idocrase, and Brandberg amethyst.


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Venus in Aquarius in 10th House

Not back from break yet.

I need to do something about my poor, highly afflicted Venus. I'll never solve my 8th House Sun and Hades/Scorpio Moon unless I do, I'm about of the opinion.

A terrible rhyming couplet popped into my brain just then, but I won't share it. XD

Back soon. :-*


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Short break!

Short break during the Cat Nights of Summer...yeah, Cat nights come after the Dog Days. :)

See you all soon.



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Sharethis: Tool helps avoid seizure-inducing content on Web - EarthLink - Technology News

On Twitter, follow @namralkeeg to geek out with a true Migraineur.

And read this interesting article if you've got geekiness in you.



Tool for software developers that measures seizure-inducing flashing lights & color changes
Tool helps avoid seizure-inducing content on Web - EarthLink - Technology News
Source: enews.earthlink.net



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Thursday, August 13, 2009

New interpretation of my Sun in the 8th House of Death and Sex

Edit: unreal--I just discovered that my Venus conjuncts my Mars today. No WONDER! XD
********************************************************************

Heeheehee! This is funny! And accurate too!

There are men out there doing gymnastics to get my attention. In vain, and I'm sorry. That's not what's funny or accurate. It touches my heart. Men touch my heart. Men, touch my heart. Or my hands. Or my ...oh never mind... XD

I recently received a new interpretation of my Sun in the 8th House of Death, Taxes, Sex, and other Metamorphic Processes. In my birth chart, that's the House where my Sun appears with my correct birth time. With the wrong birth time it was in my 7th House (and I believe I've figured out where the wrong time of 3:15PM instead of the correct 2:18PM may have come from--my dad the Navy CPO and our resident timekeeper. He always considered Daylight Savings Time to be the more accurate method of timekeeping--he called it "sun time"--and would frequently comment on things happening in "sun time" compared to Standard Time. He would have thought nothing of telling me that I was born at 3:15PM because it would have been what he considered accurate "sun time". Just a thought but I'll bet that's why. Of course, the 3-minute difference is another mystery. Maybe it was 3 minutes before I started breathing?).

Anyway...

I have recommendations now in the astrology department: Book called The Inner Sky by Steven Forrest, copyright 1988 Seven Paws Press, PO Box 82, Borrego Springs, CA 92004 (yeah, ninth printing!), and his online mostly computer-generated "The Sky Within" report. Get the report directly from his website www.stevenforrest.com. It's available other places but for more money ($20 at his website) and you'll get it by email much more quickly from his website.

I've ordered it twice, once when I thought 3:15PM was correct and now with the correct 2:18PM time. Some of the information didn't change (outer planet houses weren't affected by the time change). The most interesting change was how Venus, my correct "chart ruler", affects my 8th House Sagittarius Sun (before with the wrong time, my chart ruler was Mercury since I had Gemini Ascendant. Now, correctly, I'm Taurus Ascendant).

Steven Forrest's report suggests that sex is more important to me than perhaps I ever knew. Well, no one knows how important sex is to someone who has been a sworn celibate since March 15, 1991, at 7:00PM [but who's keeping up, right? ;) ].

Here's a quote from his report:

You have lessons here. Let's consider them.

With the Sun in the Eighth House, you can't learn what you've come into the world to learn without the catalytic effect of a lover upon you... and whether or not you and that lover are married is irrelevant. The point is that many of your deepest lessons lie in the steamy realm of committed sexual intimacy.

Hmmm...really?

Somebody else has been trying to convince me of that for not quite 2 years. Have I really got a "Somebody screw me PLEASE!! Right now!!" sign on my back?

I've indeed defined myself by sexual boundaries, but by being a sworn celibate. I've got a civil divorce (man, what an oxymoron) but in my belief system, I would need a Church annulment before I'd be free to present myself as "available".

I know I've been hiding behind that need for an annulment all these years. I wonder if I'm ready to look into it now?

What a scary thing to look into, getting back into the dating game. Can't think about it right now. Head is hurting way, way too bad.

There was a thread on a bulletin board about how a person "cured" his/her Migraine Disease by "getting laid regular". Sheesh. If that's all there was to it, no married folks would have Migraine. My ex and I were three-times-a-day folks and it didn't cure our Migraine--we're both Migraineurs.

If you have any interest in astrology and how your birth chart might shed light on your life situation, consider checking The Inner Sky out at the public library. Heck, public libraries are free. Free is good.

I'm not free. But I'm worth it. ;-*


Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Sharethis: Big decision? You may think best on sunny days - Behavior- msnbc.com

Interesting article about super weather-sensitive people like me. Migraineurs and Meniere's-y sorts are sensitive to quite a number of things.

Here's an unattributed quote from The Old Farmer's Almanac for Friday August 14, 2009:

When you shut out the sun from the window,
The doctor comes in at the door.

My mother always opens every blind and drape in the house every day. I go behind her and close them if the sunlight shines in because it's usually too bright for my eyes. She and I have been battling about open/closed drapes for many years, and I imagine we will for years to come. :)



Exquisitely weather-sensitive people more mentally "dull" on cloudy days - data mining
Big decision? You may think best on sunny days - Behavior- msnbc.com
Source: msnbc.msn.com



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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Horrifying Sharethis: What This Means For You - Physicians for Healthcare Reform

If you just must call me a roadblock to progress, go ahead. Give me the courtesy to do so straight-up so we can have at it.

No mistaking what's going on here. This woman was not denied life-extending treatment for cancer by her state-run health care system because of questionable effectiveness or unacceptable side effects or any medical reason. She was denied because it cost too much in the opinion of the officials that run the state agency, and she was offered hospice or physician-assisted suicide instead. I am not making this up.

Read the article. I invite comments if anyone is so inclined.

Anyone already enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, or other collective systems is already aware of the problems with covered procedures, treatments, and medications. Anyone who isn't and isn't familiar would be mind-boggled by it, completely mind-boggled.

If anyone is of the belief that state- or federally-administered health care is the answer, please tell me so I may disabuse you of that incorrect assumption.

Absolutely horrifying.


Oregon state-run health care offers patient "assisted suicide" instead of care
What This Means For You - Physicians for Healthcare Reform
Source: physiciansforreform.org



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Sunday, August 2, 2009

Editorial: "Healing" and "Management" of Migraine and Meniere's

I am such a permeable person that I commit osmosis against my will. I felt the recent world-impacting events in my physical and energy bodies before I ever found out what had happened. I absorb other people's states of being too, their emotions, their physical symptoms, brain waves, thoughts, impulses, desires....ok, maybe not everybody's and I promise I don't pay attention to them except to try to get them out of my own system.

The state of my energy body is my biggest problem, I am about of the conclusion. Energy bodies are like physical bodies: A person doesn't eat "once and for all" for example, nor wear a crystal for a time and fix an offending problem for good. Taking care of myself has become a consuming, irritating, boring chore that hasn't fixed a thing about me. I don't think I'm alone in how I feel about chronic illness and I don't see any brightness in tomorrow.

My energy body simply doesn't function properly and in that I'm including my entire system of nerves, spinal problems and nerve damage. Things that disrupt my energy system cause certain things to happen to me to which I'm genetically predisposed, like Migraine. Disruptions also trigger functional things that are intensely nerve-driven, like Meniere's Syndrome and Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

The disruptions that cause problems for me seem to be energy-related themselves, like EMF waves, weather and other nature changes, astronomical events like normal Moon and Sun things, solar flares and such, and strange as it may sound, negative people and their own disrupted, scrambled energy systems. I don't generate energy properly. I absorb disrupted human and non-human energy sometimes without being aware of it--I've even pulled energy out of electrical outlets in an arc and no, not mistaking this for a discharge of static electricity (which isn't very useful to me, no idea why).

I feel the urge for a blog editorial coming on...about the difference between "managing" a chronic illness and "healing" the condition.

Medicine can only cure a few things. Most things that happen to people are defined as "self-limiting": Eventually, they go away by themselves (by way of death of the person at times). Medicine can improve the self-healing process by setting bones or performing surgery or prescribing drugs to accomplish various things and thanks be to God for modern medicine! But the human body is designed to heal itself when at all possible. Might not be possible to restore a body to its pre-injury or pre-illness state, but a human body is designed to fix itself up as best it can.

I'm going to state my opinion here: Chronic illness is a compromise between the illness and a body, to me. The body doesn't die right away but it doesn't heal itself either. The body exists in a state of semi-functioning, neither getting better nor expiring. Is it because the body doesn't know how to get well? No one knows. Is it because the body is doing something (maybe in normal homeostasis with no intent to stay sick) to exacerbate the chronic situation? Maybe in some instances. Is it because the chronic compromise is the furthest extent that the body can go in healing itself alone or with medical treatment? That very well may be.

My current energy body functioning seem to me, at this time in my learning curve, to be the best compromise that my body can devise to cope with onslaughts of skewed energy in order to keep me going.

I don't believe Meniere's or Migraine either one are self-limiting. I know that at this time no cure for Migraine exists. We have symptom relief, prevention, and management techniques. Meniere's may be the same but there is too little research for Meniere's out there for me to feel as certain as I do about Migraine.

Right now, we can alleviate symptoms, work on prevention (which I intend to also include both lifestyle/trigger management and prophylactic measures), and work for awareness and more and better research, data mining, things of that nature. Not much more can be done. Until and unless I can figure out a way to develop energy boundaries, I don't foresee that I will make progress in increasing my daily functioning. Symptom relief, prevention, personal self expression through awareness--none of those things are improving my functioning.

I have worked LIKE A DOG for years, and yeah call them decades, to try to find a way to live so that I'm not at the mercy of other people--their energies, their egos, their disrupted, scrambled selves--made great progress in staying right where I was and even reducing prescription medicine usage (and I credit crystal therapy and energy medicine), but my functioning is absolutely no better. None. Zero. Zilch.

I am so very pessimistic right now, and it feels unnatural and discouraging. But the more time I spend in the awareness and advocacy world, the more certain I feel that such industry-wide slogans as "working toward a cure" and "raising awareness" promote an illusion of virtually impossible outcomes. I'm just about to decide that concentrating on management techniques and self-help methods would be both more cost-effective and measurably more successful in reducing disability and restoring functioning than funding attempts to achieve things that medicine can barely do for any condition or any disease, dis-ease, injury, or malfunction regardless of the time, effort, awareness, research, and prayer.

Medicine has developed so few cures, no one ever talks about them. If someone will share with me a reason to work for a cure instead of working for better management, I'll most assuredly listen.

I want to be wrong on this. But I just don't think I am.

And this is the end of this Editorial.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Sharethis: Frustrated by 'Intervention' Episode Featuring Migraineur, Addict ~ Somebody Heal Me by Diana Lee

Simul-posting here and at The Carmelite's Habit.

I cannot believe that the state of Migraine has come to this. The day has arrived when the media capitalized on the plight of a person with multiple health problems as well as addiction, picked out Migraine to emphasize, and made it into "good television".

I won't be able to watch the episode itself. Movement on television screens triggers vertigo; however, Diana Lee's word on this is enough for me.

Diana Lee is inviting comments from people who have watched the episode.

I'm going to be sure to tell EVERYONE I KNOW that Intervention may be reality TV, but it isn't real life.

Addiction and Migraine: both are treatable illnesses but they are not co-morbid.


"Intervention" episode with Migraineur
Frustrated by 'Intervention' Episode Featuring Migraineur, Addict ~ Somebody Heal Me by Diana Lee
Source: somebodyhealme.dianalee.net



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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Sarcasm Ahead - Sharethis: New Space Headache Category Proposed Following Astronauts' Survey

The Space Program has given us wonderful things like Tang and freeze-dried ice cream. Ok, Velcro is useful. :)

If anyone can show me widespread benefit to Migraineurs and headachers to come from diverting research dollars to study a new Space-travel Secondary Headache Category that occurs only in astronauts, I'll stop with the sarcasm.

To spend time and money on this seems almost as out-of-this-world as would some hypothetical make-believe pork-barrel project to study ways to reduce homicide rates within the world of organized crime.

They should do what we Earthlings have to do: Take a triptan and shut up about it. Astronauts are always making excuses for botched space projects--and now, they can blame headaches with the full approval of the United States Government.

Nope, not fair until we can too. Nope, they're not entitled to better care for their spaceman head woes than we are.

This is as ridiculous as someone adopting a baby animal to keep it from being put down but who wouldn't imagine adopting a child to prevent it from being aborted. Study spaceman headaches when the funding for Migraine and Earthling headaches is so underfunded it barely shows up on the National Institute of Health budget radar?

Oh whaaaa....me BITTER???

The government actually did this. They did.



Research $ for astronaut headaches
New Space Headache Category Proposed Following Astronauts' Survey
Source: sciencedaily.com



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Monday, July 13, 2009

Sharethis: 9 Unhealthy High Calorie, Fat and Salty Meals at Chili's, Applebee's, Uno, Olive Garden and Cheesecake Factory - ABC News

I'm just saying...


Bad restaurant ordering choices
9 Unhealthy High Calorie, Fat and Salty Meals at Chili's, Applebee's, Uno, Olive Garden and Cheesecake Factory - ABC News
http://shar.es/b7gw


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Thursday, July 9, 2009

Sharethis: Family Says Doctors Tried to 'Euthanize' Stroke Victim - Heart Disease - FOXNews.com

Horrifying story, even for this doubly Hades Moon. Where was the Living Will or Advance Directive?

I can't picture a more important topic to cover with a local attorney who fully understands the laws of the state, province, prefecture, county, country, land, or planet on which you reside than Living Wills and Advance Directives. Everyone of majority age needs one or the other, and deserves to be informed about each one. Review the document and reasons for the choices periodically the way you'd review a Last Will and Testament.

Here where I live, Living Wills are NOT the same as Advance Directives. Here, Living Wills put end-of-life decisions such as the timing of "the end of life" in the hands of medical professionals. Here, Advance Directives put decisions about heroic measures and such things as continuation of food and hydration in the hands of whoever the patient designates. Here, a Living Will won't give a dying patient even the most basic things all living beings need: food and water. Or things to allow for the most basic comfort for humane death.

Here, Living Wills give discretion into the hands of medical professionals. Advance Directives can be written to provide for virtually anything one would wish when one is unable to decide for oneself.

It's an extremely personal decision.

I have an Advance Directive. I will never have a Living Will. The way I see it, Living Wills allow doctors to end your life. To me Advance Directives allow whomever you designate to require that you have whatever will allow for the continuance of your life, or to require that you be given simple, non-heroic measures such as food, hydration, and palliative care without heroic measures. That's just my own extremely personal decision.

Read the article, then make plans for one or the other if you don't already have one or the other. Tell your family and friends about your decisions and give copies to those people who'll be legally allowed to speak for you, should the time come.


Advance Directive vs Living Will??
Family Says Doctors Tried to 'Euthanize' Stroke Victim - Heart Disease - FOXNews.com
Source: foxnews.com



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Thursday, July 2, 2009

Sharethis: Music may have a future role in heart and stroke patient rehab

Good start in beginning to understand how and why music is so influential to health. When I converted to Roman Catholicism, I learned that my sponsor's daughter had a degree in Music Therapy. I had never heard of such a magnificent route for healing.

The subject really, really needs much more research and the world deserves to understand it better. The article does mention this. With better understanding comes better utilization.

To add to the discussion from the transpersonal side, certain notes on the Western musical scale have been associated with human chakras. Chakras, whatever your belief system, do have measurable parallels in Western medicine: Endocrine glands, organs, and nerve plexus centers identified so far and a human body has many chakra spots. There's a whole field of alternative medicine that uses tuning forks, bowls constructed of of certain metals and crystals, and other sounding devices for therapeutic effects on chakra spots.

Here is a list of notes on the Western music scale associated with various chakras:

Root - C
Sexual - C#
Sacral - D
Solar Plexus - E
Heart - F
Thymus - F#
Throat - G
Zeal Point - G#
Third Eye - A
Pineal - A#
Crown - B
Above Crown - C




Music for cardiovascular therapy
Music may have a future role in heart and stroke patient rehab
Source: americanheart.mediaroom.com



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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

3rd Annual Month of the Self

July 2009 starts in just a little while. I say this every year but man, what a year.

Traditionally, the Sparkling One has taken the month of July to herself. She will do so again this year. And now I'll stop referring to myself in third person. XD

I was a Secular Carmelite for some years, as many of you may have read in these columns. Once a Carmelite, always a Carmelite. In July I celebrate a Solemnity, a Feast, 2 Memorials, and an optional memorial each of which call for spiritual preparation.

I also bring all my mourning into July: The anniversary I would have celebrated had I not sued to end the marriage, my four babies who were never born because they died in miscarriage, family and friends who have died, every now and then a friendship that may have ended during the year, all the things needing emotional attention that haven't gotten it yet. I take care of myself during July.

So, utilizing Blogger scheduling technology, I've got a month's worth of (mostly) Sharethis news articles with a few comments and a couple of "Best of" columns, plus one serious Editorial for the end of the month. This Editorial has taken me 11 months to write--yep, I started on it in August of 2008. I don't do anything with any great speed, I'm afraid.

Enjoy the month, Happy Independence Day! August will mark one year for this blog.

Thank you all for reading. Love you all, and please pray for me as I pray for everyone who reads this little work of mine.

Take care of yourselves, and the Sparkling One will see you all in August. :)




Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Monday, June 29, 2009

New data-mining study - Sharethis: Women's migraines linked to higher stroke, heart attack risk - CNN.com

Interesting article. Do read, everybody, because even if you don't have Migraine, odds are you know someone who does.

Others have opined on the results of this data-mining study so I'll refrain except to say this: Anyone who tells you, "These results are nothing to worry about" should always add "unless they apply to YOU."

To recall a parallel situation:

Thalidomide was only a birth-defect problem for an extremely limited demographic group:
  • Women who were pregnant and who took thalidomide
Now that's a small group of people. Nonetheless, thalidomide-related birth defects were, are, and will continue to be extremely serious and worthy of the most stringent prescribing restrictions (after being removed from the market for years, thalidomide is being researched once again for issues unrelated to pregnancy).

This article is clear about the small group of people who should be concerned about the conclusions from the data mining. But, if you're a woman who sustains attacks of Migraine with aura once a week or more often, you're one of those women.

I am one of those women.

Data mining: frequency of Migraine with aura attacks connected to cardiovascular events
Women's migraines linked to higher stroke, heart attack risk - CNN.com
Source: cnn.com



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Monday, June 22, 2009

Diclofenac Potassium Oral Solution now FDA Approved for Migraine Treatment

New NSAID for Migraine treatment. Trade name will be Cambia but if you do searches for that word, be sure to search in English. The Spanish language articles you may get may not have anything to do with Diclofenac.

TO SAVE YOU THE TROUBLE of searching the FDA website, here is the Cambia prescribing information (.pdf).

Heeeee! This explains the flurry of anti-tylenol and anti-NSAID commercials over the last couple of months!

"One man's meat is another man's poison". Be aware that anything you put into your body--food, medicine, somebody else--can be dangerous.

But, this is good news on the Migraine front. Indocin, an NSAID used frequently for chronic daily headache and hemicrainia continua, does an excellent job for me (although I feel quite certain its effects would be less pronounced if I were not on a good preventative program of Effexor XR, Keppra, and verapamil as well as the energy and rock medicine things I do too). If it ever stops being effective, I'll consider Cambia.

Slept all night, woke feeling dreadful, then slept 9 more hours. Back to sleep--this is a combination Migraine/Meniere's attack and they're, well, dreadful.



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Envy Me, or Hades Moons Attract: Sharethis

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"...but the thrill we've never known
Is the thrill that'll getcha when you get your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone."
artist Dr. Hook


Ah, envy me gals: A Rolling Stone magazine subscription promo consisting of a trial subscription that includes--a handbag with Johnny Depp on the cover of the Rolling Stone.

And the bag is mine, all mine! Well, it's really Aikichik's (thanks for modeling honey!) but we live in Castle Anthrax and have raised sharing our stuff to a sacred state.

And speaking of Hades Moons...Johnny Depp has a Hades Moon. Here's a link to his chart in the Astro-Databank maintained by Astro.com. Johnny Depp is only 3 years younger than I am so outer planet signs aren't as significant as House placements. His Capricorn Hades Moon is in his 6th house and his Jupiter is in his 9th house, like both of mine are, and he has the Taurus/Scorpio axis on his angles (his is the IC/MC angle and mine is Asc/Desc).

IMDB has an in development page for a movie version of the 1960s TV soap opera show Dark Shadows. On behalf of those of us who ran home from school as fast as we could to catch Dark Shadows every day, you're welcome for the link to Wiki.

So what has this to do with Johnny Depp? Rumor has it that he is more than interested in playing Barnabas Collins in the Dark Shadows movie, scheduled for 2011 according to IMDB. According to the Wiki article, Johnny Depp was so obsessed with Barnabas Collins that he wanted to be him. I understand. I wanted to be Doctor Julia Hoffman. There's a reason that Wiki deems Dark Shadows to be a cult series. To me Johnny Depp certainly exhibits Hades Moon characteristics. It's said he has a working electric chair in his living room.

That's one Hades Moon trait--our obsession with obsessions, frequently Dark ones. Birth charts do not make us what we are, but they certainly provide a convenient way to understand ourselves.

There's another person in the Dark with whom I share some natal chart similarities: Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the exorcist for Rome who has written the new top two books on my Amazon "Important" list (on left). No matter who you are, if you work with demons or have never dealt with them in your life that you're aware of, everyone should read those two books. People who work with demons frequently have little factual knowledge of how the Church sees the subject, people with Hades Moons who are just curious about exorcisms will appreciate Fr. Amorth's straightforward, non-superstitious information, and every Christian needs reminding. All good, the way I see it. And go disinter a life, anyone who thinks I'm picking a fight. Sheesh. Just move on.

One of Fr. Amorth's favorite movies? The original The Exorcist. True. He says it's quite accurate although the special effects are a bit exaggerated.

Fr. Amorth does not have a Hades Moon (link to his Astro-Databank chart here); however, he and I both have our Suns in the 8th House of death, sex, and the occult (and inheritances, legacies, taxes, and things of metamorphic processes of all sorts) which is ruled by--Pluto of Hades Moon fame. He and I have the Cancer/Capricorn axis on our angles (his is MC/IC and mine is IC/MC). His 8th House cusp is Taurus so he's "right at home" in the Dark. It's where he "lives" one might say. My 8th House cusp is Sagittarius so I've got a more philosophical interest in sharing about it. His Pluto is conjunction his MC and opposition his IC. My Pluto is 115o (not too far from 120o trine) my Scorpio Desc and trine my MC.

The Vatican couldn't have picked a person with a better natal chart for his job than Fr. Amorth, at least as I see it from my kindergarten perspective.

Oh, and so everything is clear: I don't talk to demons or work with them at all and I'm not really in any sort of deliverance ministry. If you need help in this area, I recommend making an appointment with your pastor or priest.

WHAT I'M SAYING IS that we Hades Moon and others with Pluto-Scorpio-related connections live in the Dark. We're all in an eternal embrace of sorts whichever your side.


Barbossa: "So what now, Jack Sparrow? Are we to be two immortals, locked in an epic battle until Judgment Day and trumpets sound, hmmm?"
Jack Sparrow: "Or you could surrender."
POTC: The Curse of the Black Pearl

"Ophiuchus means 'he who holds the serpent' and that is how he is depicted. The struggle will last forever, since they wage it on equal terms with equal powers". [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD, book 1, p.31]


Fr. Amorth in Messenger of Saint Anthony-please note that article content is highly belief-system intensive
Messenger of Saint Anthony - The Exorcist
Source: messengersaintanthony.com



Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.