Thursday, May 31, 2012

MY RANT OF THE DAY - Bath Salts



So dude in Miami eats 80% of homeless man's face off due to doing a drug called "Bath Salts". Bath Salts are NOT the lovely things you buy in the stores. This is a nickname or moniker for something more sinister and is not regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration.

To make matters worse, dude in Maryland eats the heart and brain of another man. Unknown if it was caused by Bath Salts.

Here are two videos discussing this rising epidemic

ABC Nightline from May 30, 2012

Check out this great MSN video: 'The Hansen Files': Bath Salts

Here is my RANT

Idiots who make these drugs did not take much organic chemistry and are pre-med flunkies. It is my understanding, that hardcore chemistry is no longer taught in pre-med or medical school. So there is complete glossing over the seriousness of medicinal chemistry. All the information is online, so why think about how much is needed to be known. Besides, ignoramous mentality is: "Get some Chinese Post Doc to do the slave labor"...

Here is what is wrong with that scenario - a base drug component - say like the active ingredient in coffee - caffeine is rearranged at the atomic level with a series of reactions requiring a salt, an acid, something to make it a solid form, then dries it out, then allows it to be baked.

Issue is this not kitchen cooking although it sounds similar. There are issues of  MOLARITY AND pH involved here. I doubt these "drug manufacturer's" comprehend the necessary chemistry required to calculate  nmol concentrations from a pipetman. Or how much diluent is needed to tritrate into the necessary pH range. In fact, I'd venture that they don't give a $@%&.

And most of these fools are pre-med or pre-pharm flunkies. I know, because I have had to teach CLINICIANS how to calculate a concentration of drugs based on the molecular weight.

NO that is not to say the standards should be increased for illegal drugs! That is NOT what I am saying. What I am saying is to compound the issue of illegal drug use, there is also, people who are making bad drugs that have probably no substance that makes one euphoric and only toxic chemicals left in them that no wonder we have Zombie Apocalypse happening.

Anyone who wants to do bath salts versus getting help and treated, here. Give me your brain and I'll stick it in CH3CN, with Chromic Acid pH 1, titrate some KOH in there to emulsify it, the extract every thinking molecule with Tritrol reagent mixed in the Hexanes:Isopropanol. I'll rearrange it with beta-mercaptoethanol mixture, add some TEMED and complete mini to freeze up your proteins and add some BIS-acrylamide without crosslinking. There! No functional brain!  Good for you!


Friday, May 25, 2012

STAR WARS FANDOM - Channeling Princess Leia







Friends, if you are my friend, you know I am a NERDY GEEK for Star Wars. Have been ALL MY LIFE - since I was 11 years old watching Episode 4 to today. 



I GAVE UP my life as a serious scientist who published 5 research articles in cardiology to pursue my fandom in Star Wars to a monetizing level. My group, SWAG 77 is so close to seeing the light of day in 2.5 years of HARD WORK that we are doing some AMAZING things. 


  
I have a young man with his own productions company doing the SWAG 77 Podcast under JDMaul Productions. I have other elites helping use do voiceovers and mix music. I want writers, editors, concept artists and actors. This would be for Star Wars Celebration 6 in Orlando, FL this August, 2012.


We are embarking in a new form of entertainment that fully envelops a social media component. It is exciting, it is fun and it is worth EVERYTHING to my life to make that difference.



I will be calling on your support as my friends. Thanks!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Blog Series: "Crying Over Spilt Milk" - One Crazy Black Woman's Guide Through Bipolar Disorder

I HATE anecdotal stories on my life. I feel like others have suffered worse. My life has not been bad. I come from a loving two parent home. My father is a dentist, my mother is an educator. My grandfather was the president of Bethune-Cookman University for 28 years! My grandmother was an educator, herself.  To say, I came from a crime-ridden, gang-infested, destituted as a Black child growing up in Southern California in the 1970's and 1980's, would be a lie. I grew up well. I attended the best schools, I graduated from them. I had the best education and excelled at it.

But this is not a story about how well I grew up and all the opportunities my family afforded me. No. This story is no matter what, of all the external things my parents could afford to give to me, I suffer from Bipolar Disorder - Manic-Depression. I wanted to kill myself and I attempted several times as a teenager, before I was caught...

However, I am getting ahead of myself...

Most of my young adult life was spent... "Crying Over Spilt Milk"... I am a crier. I am a crybaby. I cry. My tears could feed a river. I have such powerful emotions when I feel bad, when I hurt, when I have hurt others, when a sad part of a movie shows--or even a less than 5 minute Youtube clip appears like this one below, that I WILL CRY--the waterworks are on! I AM A CRIER!



Needless to say, I have learned with my condition, that I am probably an empath that is secretly sent down here to Earth to help those make life-transitions to better place -- oh wait, that's my Star Wars addiction feeding in...

But let's go back to my youth and not rehash the bad thing of considering suicide, but when I decided on my own at 18 years old, that it is time to incorporate professionally licensed healthcare providers into my lifestyle.

Back in the late 1980's, young people did not suffer from bipolar - manic depression. That everyone who was "mentally ill" was crazy. Those who were hospitalized in a mental institution would have a lobotomy and come out an invalid in a straight-jacket. Those were the GROSS stereotypes rampant in my community at the time - many still are today!

But I decided to seek help anyway.

Why?

Because of her:

Mama Lucy


My grandmother, my mother's mother, Mama Lucy. In the early 1980's, my mother had to make the VERY HARD DECISION to take my grandmother and relocate her to San Diego to take care of her. My grandmother was SERIOUSLY ILL. She had atherosclerosis, breast cancer, thyroid problems and was in an out of hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia. Then... She had Alzheimer's... In 1983, the understanding of what Alzheimer's was and the devastation of how it impacted everyone, was ABSENT! There were ZERO support groups, ZERO trained medical professionals and caregiving-attendants...WHATEVER!

My grandmother lived a VERY HARD LIFE! She was poor, uneducated, had way too many kids, with no male-fathers present...but she LOVED! That's ALL SHE HAD WAS LOVE! In the segregated South, impoverished, with no one but her children, in the midst of it all, she had my mother who learned from her love how to love...

Once my grandmother got to San Diego, California, it was my first exposure to what health disparities look like and the inhumanity of it. Not only that, my watching my mom learn on her own how to best navigate a piss-poor medical system, I learned that I would NEVER EVER WANT TO BE IN MY END DAYS LIVING LIKE THAT if I could help it.

My grandmother had to be placed in a nursing home because...my mother is NOT a healthcare provider -- it was too much for her, with a full-time job, two children, doing what she had to do, and then my grandmother was sleepwalking, doing strange activities by herself, yelling at objects my brother and I left in our pool, it was too much! My family watched the slow death of a fully-functional human being dwindle to a catatonic state in her last days. NO ONE SHOULD EVER LIVE LIKE THAT! IT IS INHUMANE!

Don't ask about hospice care because in 1987, that did not exist or was not fully functional in San Diego.

Some of what happened to my grandmother is due to substance abuse due to stresses in her life. Let us be real, several kids at a young age with different fathers - with what child support exactly in the segregated South? Because one of the fathers was not Black... Poverty. Sicknesses and diseases. What healthcare, exactly? Abusing substances took the pain away from a bad life. Unfortunately, it also causes several serious chronic conditions that made the end of her life painful.

The sad part is these were all spoken in whispers to me because I was young. I could see the stress it caused my mother because well, what support did she have back then? And no, let me be clear, this story is NOT about my parent's fault for my issues. This story is why I decided to get help for my mental health condition.

My grandmother died at the same time I had tried to kill myself in college. I took close to 60-tabs of something. Then my heart started palpitating and I got scared. I called my aunt from my father's side, who called my dad and my dad told my mother. My dad said that my mother walked upstairs into her room and cried...I hurt my mother.

Then my parents tried to get me professional help, because they were trying so hard to understand.

I remember the psychiatrist asking me, "If you wanted to kill yourself, why did you ask for help?"

I said, "Because I thought I might die this time..."

A few days later, Mama Lucy, died. 

The funeral was lovely, all my mother's brothers and sisters showed up in support. One brother, my uncle to this day, was the greatest supporter. And I think it was the fact that the entire community came in support of my mother by sending so many flowers that the funeral home needed another room. My mother broke down again, and just cried. 

I VOWED TO NEVER HURT MY MOTHER LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN!

That meant, I needed a professionally licensed healthcare provider. But where do I start?

That is the subject of the next chapter.


Friday, May 18, 2012

I got the magic stick! WHOA! Man fathers 30 children

I got the magic stick! Whoa! Desmond Hatchett, 33 years old in Knoxville, TN, has asked to state to help him with child support for his 30 children from 11 different "baby's mamas".




He oldest is 14 years old and his youngest is a toddler. The State of Tennessee cannot force him to stop having sex and impregnating women. But they can take half his minimum wage job which amounts $1.49 per month for some mothers. The state takes his check and divides among the women.

What say you about his sexual addiction disorder? BONUS: Does he have a magic stick that's worth it?




Thursday, May 17, 2012

Episode Alert: APPLIANCE REPAIRS YUCK! And who needs a social media campaign!

In life, the equipment and appliances we use in this day and age breakdown. At the moment, economic tough times require us to fix our broken equipment and appliances or to live without.  For someone like me, dealing with a chronic mental health issue, finding a way to wrap my mind around getting appliances fixed causes me great anxiety and leaves me feeling exhausted just figuring out what the process it to get it fixed.

The appliance in MY house that requires repair is my General Electric Dryer: DBXR453ET5WW and looks like this one:

What my family wants is a NEW dryer AND washer. But we cannot afford one since I do not have gainful employment and am working very hard to build and grow my business in social media.

The dryer has served us well but now it "sings" to us as the "drum" rolls around. It is getting louder and louder. My family and I are worried that at any moment, that singing will stop, and then our dryer is dead.

Interestingly, our dryer still dries the clothes fairly decently. We may have to use a longer time without heat, but it fairs rather well. Do not ask us about our energy consumption.

NEVERTHELESS, WE NEED A NEW WASHER AND DRYER!!!


But for now, we will try - APPLIANCE REPAIR and in my area, Redmond, WA a cursory Google search has found the following:



Reviewing their website, it is old template from the early 2000s of a mish-mash PS images to make it look bigger than what they really are. They only have one other jump page that lists nothing. No other social media connections. There are serious misspellings in the copy and word spacing was done by a child. When I called the number, I got a cell phone to a guy who was RUDE!  First asking me where I found their information like I am bothering them, and then telling me, "If you read on our website, we only repair refrigerators and freezers!"

That just tells me their SEO was poorly executed and in this day and age of social media. Moreover, it is not explicit with this less than 5 second interpretation of what this company is all about based on a random Google Search. This is a poor business execution that probably needs to be reported to the BBB, anyway.

All City Repair - 425-894-0414
Reviewing their website, another template probably from the mid-late 2000s which has levels of  "grainery" with pages to search and understand your needs. There is a sleekness to the design. It makes them appear like a professional organization and they have a 1-877 number, so the immediate neurocommercial response to me was, "Hmm? I'm getting somewhere!" Then I called the "425" number since it is in my area and I got a recorded message by a "Greg" routing me to do all these tasks, i.e. name, phone number, etc. and they will get back to me. Sorry, but this is not good. You put all this energy and effort on a templated webdesign and then you give me a "voicemail"? No. Not going to do that. Goodbye!


Sears Home Services – 1-800-424-2047
I grew up on Sears Home Services, and I know if you have a warranty contract with them, Sears is very nice to you. When you don't, they could care less about you and treat you like the bottom of the barrel. It is very sterile if you are not in their "appliance game". Which is good when you just know you are going against their "machine", but not good when you have a huge repair issue. So, yes, they can afford the hot new website, with all the bells and whistles, but they immediately route you in to make an appointment without finding out your needs. By the time the service person arrives, they might say I need a new dryer that I cannot afford and I still have to pay them! Of course, I do not expect any diagnosis on the phone and yes, the do need to come to my house, but you know how that feels to someone like me? I fall for the "gank move"! So mentally, I have to prepare to deal with these people or I will curse everyone out! That's not good. What I need is my dryer fixed, not placed into the "Hopper"



Then I called their number and I was routed to an "Auto Call" to route in to forced service. Makes it hard to ask questions. It felt impersonal and I want more! I hung up.


Last I tried First Appliance Service Team – 425.883.6881 - KIRKLAND / REDMOND
Reviewing their website, their template is early 2000s though the copyright says 2009. They list several numbers to call based on the area that probably can be logistically built through the "Google Maps" linkages with a Skype. Immediately, you know what their business is about and what brands they serve. None of this hard to identify what it is they do. 

The only thing I did not like is the "red flashing" coupon discount. The reason is, some people suffer from epilepsy and I may be one of them and flashing red anything can aggravate it. Other sites like Sears puts their distinctly on the left side simply because people like to see "right sided" pictures more than left-sides activities. Go figure.

But for a small operation like this one, a humungous site would not serve them well. What would serve them well is a good social media campaign based on this observation: 

When I called, I spoke to a live person! His name is Daniel and he listened to me, and then stated it would be best to have a service person to come to my home. He said that I would have to pay for them to show up at a minimum $89.50 (must be paid) and that does not include the estimate cost. But he went through with what they would do, look over my dryer, see if there was anything else beyond repair and do some other basic service stuff. 

He seemed to know what he was talking about while he could not really give me specifics. I think that was more of a level of what persons in the repair business have to consider with exasperated people. Some people just want the "brass tax" - i.e. what will it cost me to get this done? Some people, like me, want some kind of reassurance that our repairs can be fixed and I think, First Appliance got that. It is like they said in so many words:

Yes, it can be fixed, and here is our "reality" as a business, but let me add why this may be of value to you....

This is why I would recommend First Appliance seek a Facebook, Twitter and Google+ social media campaign because at least they tried to educate and encourage me without pressure to get my "singing dryer" fixed.

Also, they properly did their SEO, they were at the top of the Google search list.


I like to thank Accurate Electric for some educational discussion they gave to me, too.



Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Superstars Writing Seminars

I was at this wonderful workshop for the past 4 days, entitled "Superstars Writing Seminars" presented by the bestseller authors in science fiction and fantasy fiction. It was an investment into my next career that has something to do with novel writing. I suggest anyone who wants to be a major popular fiction author to attend this event. EXCELLENT information is presented and implemented. Everyone was great at this event.

But...

Aside from the cost, African American women and women of color were missing from this event. I was the only "obvious" woman of color.

That can be intimidating to a budding novelist. However, since I am use to being "only one", I got over it and learned. It is disheartening that as many young women I know who are talented writers were just NOT HERE! Many reasons: unawareness, not many Sistahs are Science Fiction Fans - though I know a lot of Sistahs that are Fantasy Fiction fans. Perhaps, inability to relate due to the "color shock", which is like "sticker shock" of knowing you are the only one there. It is the only representation to the rest of the group what you are capable of as the full representation of the entire ethnic group. Though, that is not how people think, it happens.

How I found out, was through social media. I liked the author, asked a few questions, developed a rapport and saw the notice and applied after I watched the Youtube presentation - it convinced me.

Now that I am here, like I said, you just need to be here to really get the gist of being a novelist... Want to know more:

SISTAHS!!! BE HERE! I know it will cost you a "pretty penny", but it is WELL WORTH IT TO MEET THESE PEOPLE!


Careful, or you'll end up in my novel.


The Panel of Best Selling Authors
in Science Fiction and Fantasy Fiction

James A. Owen - Just takes lines and where they need to go.
There may be dragons - will be a movie soon