Well, I had a numerology reading the other day and it was interesting. Of course, like palm reading, astrology and other predictive disciplines, you always have to take the results with a grain of salt. I’m always sceptical, but if any of these disciplines tells me that an anvil is going to drop on my head if I walk under the Empire State Building on my birthday, then I’m going to avoid walking under the Empire State Building on my birthday.

The numerology reading used only two pieces of personal information – my birthdate and my name (the latter of which I suppose you could change, but they want your original birth-name). Apparently, these two bits of information can be run through a complex mathematical formula to determine your rate of vibration, which in turn can be used to reveal your character type and personality.

Some of the predictions were quite accurate. Some, not so much. But it was definitely fun, and since it was a free numerology reading, I figured, why not!

You can get a free reading yourself. The website I used was: http://numerologyguide.net/

Have fun! And stay away from the Empire State Building on my birthday (just kidding).

Living in the world of the mundane requires one to participate in a number of mundane activities. One such activity is chewing your fingernails. This is often an act of boredom, an act that can eventually become a habit. And it’s a habit that can have severe social repercussions. For example, you’ll never become a hand model. Certainly those of you who are fans of Seinfeld will know that one of George Costanza’s few talents was that he had fingernails worthy of the small screen. So, if you are a nail biter, that entire career path is unavailable to you.

Other issues include the fact that you’ll never be as good at scratching your dog or cat as the person who has fingernails. In a world as highly competitive as ours, do you really want to be thought of as an inferior scratcher in the eyes of our animal friends? I think not. In fact, the you’ll also never be as good at scratching yourself as those of your confrères who do not bite their nails. When you sit in a bar, frosty mugs of beer in front of you, and your friends regale each other with long tales of how good it was to scratch themselves, you simply cannot compete. No, nail biting definitely has a darker side.

You may not of known that nail-biting actually has a name. It’s called onychophagia and there are books, manuals, and courses dedicated to the eradication of this syndrome. So there is hope for those of you cannot master your nail biting habit. Keep your head up, a satisfying scratch may be only one Internet course away!

Photo from woodleywonderworks c/o Flickrr

When I was growing up,  I was forced to take piano lessons. It was horrible. My lessons were Saturday morning at 10 o’clock, just when all my friends were starting to play football, basketball and pickup baseball, I was being loaded up into a car for the half-hour drive to my piano teacher’s house. My father’s rationale for this enforced Saturday torture was that his father had made him take piano lessons when he was young. His dad told him that he’d probably hate taking the lessons, but in the long run he’d be glad he did. So my dad told me the same thing – and I guess both fathers were right. My piano teacher had an old upright piano, as did we, I’m sure ours was third or fourth hand and it needed constant tuning. I was only about seven or eight years old at the time, but I remember that our piano tuner was blind. He’d obviously chosen a career in which he could use his best assets to excel.

The pianos available today are much more advanced than that old upright I used. And I think if I had one of the new digital pianos I might have been more enthused about learning how to play. Some of the new digital pianos allow you to produce sounds that simulate a number of different instruments. Many allow you to play along to a synchronize drumbeat, and some even allow you to play along with a complete background band, or record your musical efforts. That’s a lot of fun! One such digital piano is the Yamaha Arius YDP-161. It simulates 10 other instruments, has a full 88-key keyboard, allows you to record songs and is generally an all-around amazing instrument. If you think you might be interested in the Yamaha YDP-161, you can get great deals and read user reviews on Amazon.com.

Photo by William Brawley c/o Flickr

As I sit here contemplating life and looking out my window at the snow banks in the frozen lake across the street, my reverie continues to be interrupted by a loud hacking cough-like sound. In fact, that coughing sound is emanating from my own mouth. That’s right, I have a cold.

Now, the question is, what to do about it. I’ve been told by the powers that be, that a trip to the doctor for a common cold is a waste of time. In fact, there is little that a doctor can do about the common cold aside from advise you to take products that may or may not alleviate the symptoms. The cold simply has to run its course. Antibiotics may have an effect, but our society is using antibiotics so frequently that they are beginning to lose their potency. So, for society’s sake, we should be using antibiotics only in the most serious of cases.

The best cure of course is to take action before a cure is necessary. I’ve been checking into some methods for improving the human immune system. Antioxidants may do just that. The immune system is the body’s defense system against bacteria and viruses – the bacteria and viruses that cause the common cold. If the immune system is not working at 100%, those nasty viruses can win this battle, and you end up having a reverie interrupted by loud hacking cough like sounds.

So, how to boost the immune system to make sure it’s running at 100%? Antioxidants do seem to play this role. They combat free radicals, nasty molecules that are often the result of our environmental degradation. These free radicals attack our immune system in several ways. They damage the immune system’s cells themselves, such as T cells, natural killer cells etc. that are our infantry in this immune system battle. Free radicals also can damage our cytokine pathways, which are the communication pathways between immune cells. In doing so they reduce their effectiveness because the communication within the immune system is vital. And finally they reduce the ability of microphages – vital elements of our immune system-  to destroy viruses, parasites and bacteria.

So how do we increase our antioxidant level so that our immune system is running the way it should? One way appears to be with antioxidant-rich supplements from sources such as the Acai berry or blueberry. The Acai berry is particularly rich in antioxidants and regular supplementation does appear to result in an increase in the antioxidant level.

You have to be careful when ordering Acai berry supplements, however. There have been some scams recently, in which free samples of Acai berry have been offered. Unfortunately, these companies ask for your credit card in order to pay for shipping. Once you have your card, they then continue to send you a monthly order of the supplements at full price. And make it devilishly difficult to cancel your order or to receive a refund. Also, some companies have been employing deceptive advertising using Opera and her medical consultant, Dr. Oz, as endorsers of their Acai berry product. Dr. Oz did indeed run a segment on the Oprah show in which he discussed the benefits of the Acai berry for increasing antioxidant levels. However neither he nor Oprah have ever endorsed a specific Acai berry product. If you are interested in purchasing act library products, stay far away from any company that offers you a free sample, or shows either Dr. Oz or Oprah and its advertising. The company is obviously not ethical.

So, where do you buy credible act library products? You can go to a chain drugstore. Their products will probably be inexpensive and readily available. However, you often get what you pay for. Such products tend to have a lower Acai berry content and ineffective potency. I have found a supplier that appears to be credible. It’s called Pure Acai Berry Max. They use no deceptive advertising, offer a money-back guarantee, provide a supplement with 1500 mg of pure act library for serving – which is very high, use a flash freezing method in processing their Acai berries – the only way to really preserve the potency of the berries, and they ship almost any country in the world. So, if you want to buy Acai berry supplements, they would be a credible option.

Anyway, enough rambling. I have to hobble out my garage and carrying some more firewood. Yes, it’s a mundane job, but it’s one that keeps me warm, and cozy as I hack away and suck on my Fisherman’s Friends.