About five years ago I had an attack of Kidney stones. It wasn’t my first and it probably won’t be my last. At the time, a friend on mine suggested drinking cranberry juice each day. “it will help with your kidney problems”, I was told.
Not long after that, my mother was hospitalized with urinary tract infection and while visiting her, I found that the hospital was giving her cranberry juice. Hmm, might be something to this cranberry juice.
I began drinking a half a glass of cranberry juice cocktail each morning. Since then, I have had three kidney stone attacks. None of them were painful. Just aggravating. I captured the stones and compare them to my last painful attack. The painful stones were jagged with spikes. The non painful ones were very smooth.
I continued to drink cranberry juice each morning, but was “disturb” to find that a group of researchers did a test that seemed to indicate that cranberry juice didn’t help with kidney stones.
See http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/news-ng.asp?n=62124-cranberry-juice-kidney-stones-urinary-tract
The last paragraph of the article says “The study does not detract from the scientific evidence supporting cranberry juice’s use for urinary tract health, but it does indicate that it is not an advisable course of action for those with a tendency towards kidney stones.”
As usual, I am the exception. 🙂Â
While checking out some scriptures today, I found a humorous site that might be a daily visit for you.
Check out http://www.reverendfun.com
It is a new cartoon each day in a biblical sort of way.
Recently, my brother-in-law visited relatives in Washington, DC. When he was about to leave for home, they presented him with a computer that didn’t work. He brought it to me with the instructions to “fix it if it is practical, otherwise, pull any parts out that you may want and throw away the rest”.
When I first looked at it, I noticed that the cdrom and floppy drive were missing. It also had the sound of loose parts inside. When I opened it, I found both the cdrom and floppy drive inside, unsecured. Wires were ripped from the front panel, possibly from the loose drives tugging on them.
I cleaned the outside of the case and blew out the dust from inside using compressed air and began my visual inspection.
I have already decide that this is not a practical fixer up, Repair costs (parts and labor) are already over $200. This is mainly a challenge to me. I want to see how far I can get with this pc.
Here is a list of “obstacles” within this computer.
1. ripped wiring between the front case and the motherboard
2. password protected bios (unknown to me or my brother in law)
3. password protected login on win-xp/home (unknown to me or my brother in law)
4. unknown motherboard ( I looked everywhere — both sides of motherboard, still no manufacturer identity)
5. Loud noises from Hard drive
6. Need to re-install cd rom and floppy drive
7. one defective usb port out of two available
Using some of my software tools, I was able to determine that the processor was 1.6ghz pentium 4 with 256mb of ram. Hard drive is a 17gb hard drive.
I now have it working. So far, I have substituted a new power supply and because of the ripped wires it will need a new case, and the hard drive is making noises like it may go at anytime.
I rejuvenated the hard drive with spinrite, but would not recommend continuing it’s use. I called my brother in law with the news. He has decide to pay for the repairs, so my challenge has become profit ( a little — anyway ). If I had billed my brother as a regular customer instead of giving him the “relative discount”, it would not have been practical to fix.
I have learned techniques that will be useful in other repairs and in troubleshooting. I have made a little money, plus my brother-in-law is happy! The challenge was worth it.
New Orleans has feared that a disaster such as Katrina would befall them. It was just a matter of time. Now that the disaster has hit the Louisiana and Mississippi areas, it is time for all of us to pitch in some way to help that area recover from flood and devestation.
How can you help? You can give money to the Red Cross or some similar organization.
My favorite organization is Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort, Inc <a href=”http://www.disasterreliefeffort.org/”>http://www.disasterreliefeffort.org/</a> . You can call Toll free: 1-800-541-2841 to give via credit card.
One of the reasons I mention this organization is that they are far more efficient than other organizations, with more than 85% of every donated dollar going directly to disaster victims. This amazing record of efficiency is due in large part because of the many volunteers. It is my understanding that with other organizations, the amount of a donated dollar that reaches the victims may not be as high.
Churches of Christ Disaster Relief only works through the local Church of Christ in the community or town where the disaster has occurred. If there is no Church of Christ in the town, Disaster Relief will contact the nearest town that has a Church of Christ and ask for help. Supplies will be distributed by this congregation “in the name of the Lord” to anyone who has been affected by the disaster regardless of race, color, creed, or religion. |
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