Ponderings and Musings

In my never-ending quest to be a super smart superhero, or at the very least be as healthy as I can be, I am trying a supplement called CILTEP. A Nootropic, CILTEP is an all natural “smart drug” that should improve focus, long term memory and motivation. It’s goal is to help one reach Optimal Mental Performance.

I tried it for the first time yesterday. tl;dr It really helped me find my “zone” while working yesterday.

I didn’t feel any sort of caffeine rush, the colors around me didn’t get more vivid (like in the television show “Limitless”), but my mind was clearer than it had been in a long while. The noise that my brain usually goes on with was kept at bay. I was able to concentrate and honestly, I wrote some amazing code yesterday. I didn’t feel like I was on a drug or stimulant, I just felt centered and motivated. Interestingly, my tendency to stammer a bit was significantly reduced. I didn’t expect feeling that articulate.

I had a check-up with my primary physician today so I opted to not take another round of CILTEP this morning. The visit with my doctor was to address my high blood pressure which is controlled by medication. I monitor my blood pressure here at home on a routine basis and I did not see any increase in blood pressure yesterday as a result of taking CILTEP, so that was good, but I didn’t want to mess around with being a science experience during this routine checkup. I did tell him about CILTEP and he didn’t seem too worried about it, but my blood pressure still wasn’t where he wanted it to be. While much lower than it was a month ago, he deemed it to be too high and he increased the dosage of my blood pressure medication. I went with the increased dosage this morning and I’m not noticing any weird side effects, just a very slight headache, which could be expected. I’ll probably hold off on trying CILTEP for a day or two so I can identify if I’m suffering from any side effects from the BP med.

All in all, from what I can discern from one experience with this Nootropic, I think CILTEP gave me the kick for motivation and focus that I was looking for. I hold hope of becoming that super smart superhero.

Every year we get warm tidings from my inlaws. The card or text or email or whatever will say something like “We hope youses have a wonderful Christmas”. Not only is the sentiment much appreciated and well received, I am also fascinated by the pluralization of a word that is not part of my regular vocabulary, and that’s “youse”, Philly speak for “you guys” or “y’all”. 

When I was first acquainted with my in laws, it was pointed out that I have a very distinct accent that places me well above the New York City limits. The similar sounding words in the sentence “Mary was merry when she got married” all sound the same. Mary, Merry and marry are all the same word as far as I’m concerned. Apparently my face is very wide when I say “dollar” or “collar”. “Wallet” sounds similar to “dollar” not “wall”.  A big wide “ah”. 

Having grown up right on the soda/pop line, as I kid I would hear both, especially if we were getting a treat at Westons Department Store, in Oswego (20 miles to the west) the cashier rang up a “pop”, but in Watertown (30 miles to the north), the cashier rang up a “soda”. Living in the Southwestern corner of the state for several years solidified “pop” in my vocabulary and I never bothered to change it. When I was in California a couple of years ago I asked for a diet pop and there was much discussion amongst the counter staff at Chipotle about what I had just said.  They were amused as they sipped their Evian. 

I lived in the greater Boston area for a few years in the late 1980s but I don’t think it affected my accent all that much.  Earl and I were in New England a few years ago and I was talking with some of the natives. I mentioned that at one time I lived right outside of Worcester, which I pronounced “Wooh-steh” like a native and it caused Earl to give me a second glance. The only holdover I really have is the use of “wicked” for emphasis, but that was common where I grew up as well.  “He was wicked angry about the toll about the Thruway”. Just this week at work I said, “she’s wicked smart”. My manager, originally from Maine, agreed that the woman we were referring to was wicked smart. 

Working with folks based in South Carolina finds its share of “y’all”s but I try not to use that phrase because I think I sound like an ignorant Yankee when it comes out of my mouth. It’s easy to pick up, though. We don’t really have a second person “you” word up here in Central New York unless it’s “you guys”. It perfectly normal to hear “what are you guys doing tonight?”  As I’m typing this I’m saying that sentence out loud with different dialects and “you guys” and the Pittsburghese “yunz” feel the most natural to me, though the Philly “youse” feels quite natural to me as well.  “Y’all” brings up the ignorant Yankee bit. I think some “yunz” might have snuck into Southwestern New York, or at least people I knew, maybe because I used to DJ in the thriving metropolis of Erie, Pa.  And by the way, we never went to Erie, we always went to Erie P-A. 

I find the varying dialects and such in the Northeast and Midwest to be quite fascinating. New York (City) and Philadelphia are just a couple of hours apart but the accents are nowhere close to each other.  Boston is in a league of its own (“use yah blinkah”). And Pittsburgh has its own Pittsburghese, which I’m trying to figure out how it influenced my speech patterns because I say “let it alone” instead of “leave it alone”.  I’ve never lived in Pittsburgh. My friend Matt in Williamsport says “slippy”. When asked by Earl how many beers I had after flying with other pilots, I usually say, “I don’t know, two, tree”.  The “tree” is not a drunken slur.

The one term I have always said that catches people off (though I don’t know why) is when you’re at the office gossiping around “the water bubbler”. I was 19 when I first started working in a corporate environment and I remember a glance or two when I asked where the water bubbler was. 

I was thirsty.

I am making an effort to convert our standard household lighting over to LED bulbs. I can’t stand CFLs, or Compact Fluorescent Lights, because they give off a weird color light, they often need to “warm up” and they can flicker when they’re turned on. This is especially startling when you’re trying to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night and you find yourself with a rapidly blinking light breaking the darkness. LEDs are better behaved in this regard. However, if you’ve browsed Lowe’s or The Home Depot lately, you’ll see what LEDs are quite expensive.

Hence, my “effort” to slowly convert to LED lighting.

Like their CFL counterparts, the color (or temperature) of LED lighting can be a little wonky. LEDs tend to be a little more cooler, or blue, in their light, which can be especially harsh in the home environment. Manufacturers are getting better at providing bulbs with a warmer glow but we’re not quite there yet when compared to incandescent lamps or even sunlight.

A couple bulbs in different ceiling fans throughout the house blew out, so I decided to convert one ceiling fan lamp to LEDs and move the working incandescent bulbs to the other ceiling fans. The new LEDs would be in the kitchen over the kitchen table.

The chosen LEDs were marketed as “warm white” and dimmable. The dimming ability was important because the lamp in question has a two-stage switch: low and high. I installed the new bulbs and flipped the switch to the first setting.

No dice.

I flipped the switch to full power and after a fraction of a second the lights came on. I’d love to say that I heard a shriek as Earl and Jamie ran for cover or at the very least in search of a strong pair of sunglasses, but that would just be dramatic. But it would not be inappropriate.

The “warm white” glow I was expecting from these frosted LED bulbs turned out to be a very harsh white and very, very bright. The lamps were suppose to approximate at 60 watt bulb, but it felt like we were standing in the middle of a baseball stadium. No peanuts, no popcorn, no seventh inning stretch, just very white, harsh, bright lighting flooding our kitchen table.

We ate one meal under the new bulbs. Jamie asked for sunscreen. Earl’s photogray glasses darkened. I think I sunburned.

I rearranged the bulbs and moved the incandescents back to the kitchen and the new LEDs into the spare bedroom. The white light will accent the white walls quite nicely. I would really hate to see what the “cool white” light bulbs put out.

I don’t think my Irish skin can handle it.

It’s a new year and to celebrate, I am getting my yearly cold out of the way by getting it over with right at the beginning of the year. I woke up with the sniffles yesterday morning, but I wasn’t really feeling sluggish until later last night. This morning I woke up with the cold at full tilt; I slept for about 14 hours and haven’t done much throughout the day today. I’m not really complaining as the downtime is just what the doctor ordered.

Earl and I watched quite a bit of television today; we’ve been catching up on the first season of “Mom” via AppleTV. It’s a fun show to watch. This evening we watched “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”. With the advancements in entertainment technology there’s really no reason to go to a movie theater to deal with the buffoonery found amongst the audience in your typical American cineplex. Maybe I’m getting old and cranky.

I don’t really have any resolutions to share for 2016. I have a few goals that I have set: become an instrument rated pilot, lose a few pounds, ride at least 100+ mile bike rides during the warmer weather. The goals will never be reached without milestones, so I have set up some milestones to hit and I feel comfortable that I will do just that.

I’ve been reading up on my family’s genealogy a little bit over the past couple of days. I think one can build a better future if they know the past. I’m definitely a mutt pedigree. It explains a lot of things.

Watching these two effortlessly paddle upstream has helped me find my center. 

  
I’m sitting here in the park along the canal near the house. It is 60ºF, the sun is shining beautifully. Aside from the limited amount of sunlight this year, today could easily be mistaken for any given day in March in this area, just with a little bit less amount of mud from snow melt.

This doesn’t really get one in the holiday spirit.

The forecasters have been saying for months that we would have a mild winter this year due to the largest El Niño in known history. So far they have been correct. A quick look at the next 10 days has more of the same temperatures and weather during that time.

If the clouds cooperate I plan on going for a night flight tonight.

I spent the first half of the week working Greenville, S.C., and it struck me that not everyone is dependent on snow to get into the holiday spirit. It’s never really dawned on me that snowflakes and over the hills and through the woods and all that is a northern thing. Jingle Bells must sound ridiculous in the desert.

It gives me a whole new perspective on the holiday season. New perspectives at my age are good.

This past weekend Earl and I attended the services in memory of my aunt and godmother after her 14 year battle with cancer. She was the daughter of an Episcopal priest and was still very active in the Episcopal church in my hometown. The minister was a younger woman who had a joyous smile with a voice and demeanor to match. I felt comfortable in this church and I enjoyed the services for what they were.

When it came time to recite The Lord’s Prayer during the service, I couldn’t help but smile as I spoke along with the congregation. I smiled because the I learned The Lord’s Prayer through the popular song by Sister Janet Mead in 1974. In my head I’m singing the tune while I speak the words along with the congregation.

There are worse things I could have learned in the early 1970s.

The idea of a church based pop tune reaching #4 on the Billboard charts today is nearly unthinkable. Perhaps I’m growing old, but I can’t help but think about how times have changed. I wonder where we’ll be 40 years from now.

https://youtu.be/j__6Eyt8uYM