Brendan Shea's Blog, page 32

(reblogged) Mental health and food: 6 facts

Hello everyone ! Have a wonderful and safe Friday Generally speaking, after having a heavy meal rich in carbohydrate, we tend to feel lethargic, less attentive and unable to focus.

Mental health and food: 6 facts

This Inhaler Sucks

Actuation in medical terms is the process of release of product by inhalation via inspiration. All inhaler’s I’ve used have a canister of product, a mechanism that actuates the product, and a chamber opposing the actuator nozzle that delivers the product to the user.

[image error]Asthma Inhaler Simplistic Diagram

Over the decades, I’ve used many rescue inhalers, and for several years, I’ve used Ventolin, an excellent product. Ventolin works well, has not provided side effects for me, and is affordable.

[image error]Ventolin – An Excellent Product

I recently went to Kaiser, to pick up a new inhaler. I usually stick with their excellent mail-order service, especially with COVID-19. This time, however, I’d forgotten to order the product in time, so I had to drive to the pharmacy. It isn’t far, so it wasn’t too bad.

They handed over a new product at the counter. Instead of ventolin, they gave me Perrigo’s generic Albuterol Sulfate HFA inhaler. The photo on the box showed a sleek and modular product, so I figured the ever-efficient Kaiser had discovered something cheaper, but also better, as the non-emergency inhaler, Alvesco, was a good replacement for QVAR, which was discontinued at that time.

[image error]Outstanding Alvesco Maintenance Inhaler

Unfortunately, when I got the Perrigo product home, after the first few dosages, the inhaler stopped emitting the product on demand, but started to retract the product. I came to a few conclusions about this product:

[image error]Perrigo Generic Albuterol Inhaler Actuator –
Defective in my opinion and in others



“It’s supposed to emit product, not retract it…”



“This product sucks”



“The canister content is okay, but the actuator does not work”

I thought maybe the actuator was clogged, but wasn’t sure how to rinse and clear it as with the easy Ventolin actuator. Maybe I’ll have to try that because I trekked to Kaiser and exchanged the product, but the new one did the same thing.

I asked the pharmacist why they were not dispensing Ventolin, and she reported that Kaiser is trying to cut costs by using the Perrigo product… I’ve used products in the past that were generic forms of Albuterol, not just the name brands, Ventolin or Proventil, but the actuators usually work, and if not, a quick rinse, dry and drain, tends to do the trick.

The Perrigo product seems cheap, not merely inexpensive. Apparently I’m not alone in my opinion that the actuators seem defective, and while the product itself seems okay to me, I’m glad I still had a bit of Ventolin left, because I’m using the Ventolin actuator, which works. While the Perrigo canister is a bit short for the Ventolin actuator, the arrangement works, I get relief when breathing is more difficult, and my money is not ultimately wasted.

[image error]Perrigo Canister too short for Ventolin Actuator

I read that Federal Authorities raided Perrigo as a probe into potential price-fixing, in 2017, but later that year they were bought out by private investment firm, SK Capital. Who knows what any of that means, I just hope that with COVID-19 supply-chain issues and corporate financial wranglings, that asthma sufferers continue to have access to working rescue inhalers.

With all the wildfires in California this year, there’s got to be thousands more, with no history of asthma, who are having trouble with breathing, coughing, and other such issues. I’m glad to have what I need for breathing thus far, and hope you do too.

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(drugs.com has an abysmal review of the Perrigo Albuterol Inhaler)

Keeping Cool, Drinking Fresh

FitzGerald on Products

I was gifted with an excellent, Oakland Raiders Tervis sports up several years ago. It is very nice, and still going strong. I was asked to not use it for juice, but just for water, and for years, I did just that, but recently, I noticed it has a couple of great features, beyond these, which I noticed at first:

24oz. jumbo sizingSturdy, double-wall constructionGraphics within double-wallComfortable and washable silicon straws

Last year, when the lid of my Tervis was all chalky and white, due to the hard water in our area, my wife got me a new, genuine Tervis replacement lid, and excellent replacements straws from a company called Manna. The new lid and straws made my cup like new, and I am still on my first new straw.

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Then, when us Californian’s experienced some of the hottest weather on record this summer, I decided to variety-up my Tervis drink options. Here is the main drink I prepare, given I’m not yet utilizing my juicer, and my options are good, but somewhat limited at times. I can’t use a lot of sugar as my glucose runs a bit high:

Mix the following with any variations in your Tervis or preferred vessel –

16oz iced water4oz orange juice2oz apple juice1/2 packet Crystal Light Citrus



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This brings me to the feature of the Tervis I’d never utilitzed, and a care and maintenance aspect I’d never considered:

The lid has a closure so that you may mix drinksWhen washing Tervis tumbler and straws, allow to drip dry, but use a cloth or paper towel to dry the lid



Crystal Light does not always mix fully in a glass, particularly when employing the “Fruit Punch” flavor, which also tends to stain clothing and counters1



I figured in this way, the lid will more seldom be in need of hard-water stain replacement because the water will have less time to impact the lid.



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The drinks are then easier to make and the mixture of real juices with iced water and Crystal Light, conserves juice, reduces suger intake, saves money and enhances health. The bottom line is that mixing juices with water and artificial sweetners, if not overused, is a drink that is tastier. It at least provides variety if you are bored with your beverage routine.

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1Don’t use the Fruit Punch flavor if you want to avoid staining the Tervis interior. Bleach would likely fix, but my Tervis is about six years old, and I don’t want to compromise its peerless manufacture.

Frampton Falsetto?

I recently reminisced about an old favorite birthday gift from a dear auntie, and an oft enjoyed tune, The Long and Winding Road by Peter Frampton, from BeeGee’s movie and record, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, based on The Beatles album.

Frampton was hitting an extremely high note on today’s listen, but the note just kept on going… I was stunned… then I remembered I’d left the teakettle on. The notes were perfectly symbiotic. I’d been working and just wanted a hot cuppa (tea), and the work distracted me a bit from the kettle.

In the summer of 1978, for my 11th birthday, my one aunt gifted me this album, probably as I’d talked of nothing else since seeing the movie.

There were a couple of songs that were a bit seductive in the movie, and I did enjoy them a little too much, but for the most part the story was wholesomely entertaining; if memory serves, it was a dramatization of The Beatles top ranked album. The story was great, and there were lots of great cameos, including George Burns as The Celebrated Mr. Kite.

I have wondered at Barry, Maurice and Robin being in it sans Andy, with Peter Frampton taking the part of Billy Shears. Barry is the only surviving Gibb Brother, and it must be hard to be both the eldest and the last. I can only hope he has many fast friends to comfort him in this situation. In any case, I have many fond memories of listening to this album.

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(Reblogged) R.I.P. Chadwick Boseman — Better For That

I just wanted to take a somber moment to say goodbye and thank you to the amazing actor Chadwick Boseman who once encouraged us all to be the hero of our own stories. It dawned on me then that someone could only put a challenge like that out there if he was living it. Of […]

R.I.P. Chadwick Boseman — Better For That

(FitzGerald Press considers Chadwick Boseman a dignitary1, beyond the scope of the movie screen; thus, one of the categories we’ve used for this reblog)

1Google: Dignitary – Noun – a person considered to be important because of high rank or office.

Really? No Vote by Proxy?

So I realize I’ve been on a political kick of late, and don’t mean to annoy, but I’m really getting more vocal about politics, not because politics resolve a lot, but because public awareness can help people make better choices.

To be eligible…to vote by proxy…shall be at a higher risk from….COVID-19…

Apparently, California State Assemblymember, Oakland’s Buffy Wicks, was not considered “… at a higher risk… “, because she was declined the right to vote by proxy. But here’s where things are cattywampus1: She has a newborn and had to drive 82 miles, from Oakland to Sacramento, where the California legislative body meets2. Then and only then, was she able to vote on a bill being decided.

Now an hour drive, even on congested California freeways, might not be so bad during Shelter-in-Place, with lighter traffic, but Assemblymember Wicks should not have had to travel with her vulnerable newborn. At least that is my strong opinion. Not only that, but she’d likely have to have taken a longer route to bypass the many fires between her home in Oakland, and the Capitol Building in Sacramento3.

[image error]Calfire Partial Incident Map

Is this another example of Republicans trying to circumvent voting, this time in the context of the CA State Assembly? Again, my agenda is not partisan in this instance, and many respected Republicans are endorsing Biden/Harris, like Colin Powell, because they recognize that Biden understands that reducing “anarchy” is not going to be accomplished best by supression and more racism, but by inclusion and a commitment to ending racial killings.

1The definition of cattywampus, often spelled catawampus, is not lined up or not arranged correctly…

2Strangly, while capital relates to money, it is also the word for the capital city of a state in the U.S.A., but when referring to a legislative meetingplace in the Capital, one would use the word, Capitol (Building).

3She probably had to take 24 to 580 to 5 to avoid most fires.

Trump Lacks Understanding

It’s sad, but President Trump lacks understanding, as does Vice President Pence. Our nation is crumbling around us, and they want to send in more troops. They are saying if the Democrats get into office that anarchy will result. We already are seeing anarchy because our executive leadership is blind and cannot discern what is happening around them.

It is also sad that they do not see that they are not being Christian in their view. I am loathe to judge as I don’t want to be judged. There is much for me to be ashamed of, but I must speak out. I know we are to respect our leaders, so I must respectfully say that I hope they broaden their perspective to allow for ALL of God’s creation.

Jesus was not exclusive when he came to Earth born of Mary. The only group he really hated was the Pharisees, because they made it hard for people to see the truth, they added so many rules. I have played a Pharisee onstage and off, but I do not support Pharisaic philosophy. I think the main things people should follow are the Beattitudes Jesus gave in The Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus is not a Democrat nor a Republican; Jesus is the God of the universe. I hope Trump and Pence can see that all people are created equal, and endowed by their creator with the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness. I pray for our nation as she is in dire straits. I don’t know if Biden/Harris is the answer, but I feel we need a change in leadership at this time.

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RIP Chadwick Boseman

I have not been that familiar with Chadwick Boseman, but loved him in Black Panther, and some guest spots in the Avengers’ series. I will have to see Get On Up, Marshall, 421 and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, anyway, because I love James Brown, want to learn about Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, and am a fan of the late playwright August Wilson already.

Today is my 53rd birthday, and I got to go out and do some fun things, but on arriving home, I went on the internet and was shocked and saddened to hear of Boseman’s passing. All that lives must die, but when someone in the public eye, particularly someone as likeable as Boseman, leaves us behind, it is a shocker if we didn’t know he was ill, and sad, as we’ll never get to see him perform new roles.

Fortunately, we have some work of his to enjoy. I hope his family and friends find some comfort despite his homegoing, and hope that he has found true rest, as that beautiful scene in Black Panther, shows his fictional father to have acheived. I am very saddened at Boseman’s passing, but hope he’s in a better place…what a good countenance and a bright strength he leaves in our hearts and minds. A good countenance is worth more than gold.

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T’Challa reunites with T’Chaka

1Directed by Brian Helgeland of A Knight’s Tale fame

Last Days Ice Cream?

I wanted to write a blog about ice cream, then about my Shakespeare teacher, and lastly, about what could be the edge of the apocalypse. No one knows the hour or the day, but the seeming near confluence of events in our world today with COVID-19 and natural disasters, brings foreboding. While the end times are said to be fraught with wars and rumors of wars, we could look at one high-level definifion of the end-times or last days:

The Last Days are comprised of the times from the advent of Christ, or from His death, burial, resurrection and ascension, to the end of the Church age, the coming of the anti-christ, or the second coming of The Christ. So if we are nearing the cataclysmic events described in the Apostle John’s book of Revelation, at the “end of the end-times”, I wouldn’t be surprised, but again, no one knows the hour or the day.

There are two ice-cream trucks that frequent our dead-end street: one that plays the joyful and familiar ragtime tunes of my youth, and the other, with what sounds like the summoning of the grim reaper, due to the truck’s playing of a haunting bell that clangs like a ghost ship, traversing The River Styx, on the way to Hades. The side of the truck is ironically labeled, “Just Desserts”. Today, when I heard the latter bell toll for the umpteenth time, I recalled my Shakespeare instructor.

Joanna, as she was named, used to begin each class by asking her students what kind of tea they wanted, herbal or caffeinated. She quipped coarsely in the ask, but I did not really understand at the time. I suppose she did not transgress but rather just joked, and could instead have asked did people want Heaven or… Just so with the ice-cream trucks, I wonder what type of sweet treats people wanted.

This afternoon, with terrible air quality, ironically, my wife was barbecuing on our new grill, and I wondered, “Here we are, nearby some of the largest fires, in the worst fire season in California history, with record hurricane activity threatening the Southern United States, and COVID-19 a dirge to the socialization of the human race, and what does it all mean?”

Will things grow worse, and the anti-christ come on the scene to bring “peace” and take over, seemingly as our ally? Will Christ rapture His church somewhere during this time as the Bible says? I know whom I believed in March of 1993, but the times are confusing. The Bible says that there are those who will fall away from salvation, IF IT WERE POSSIBLE, but of course it is not, as, “...no one can snatch them out of My (Christ’s) hand…“, for the Father has given them to Jesus.

My hope is that all will repent and be saved. That is not the way scripture tells it. Scripture says that many will reject the free gift of salvation. If so, this is the greatest tragedy in history, and makes all earthly tragedies pale by comparison. But there is hope in times of calamity: C.S. Lewis wrote that death is a doorway. He tells of one who makes it to Heaven on faith, not by name. This is controversial due to John 14:6, but even so, the Bible states that God wants those who worship in spirit and in truth.

Let’s believe for one another. Let’s avoid sin. Let’s pursue peace. It is not hard for me to sin, but it sure does hurt afterwards, and despite my disillusionment, I hope there is still some part of me that truly longs for a heavenly country. I can seldom conceive of it anymore, but God specializes in the unseeen.

FitzGerald Press

[image error]FaItH hOpE LoVe

Free for One Day!

Dear readers, for one day, you can stream free my former theater company’s production of Jonah. Don’t watch it because of me. Don’t ignore it because it’s Christian? It’s a great production, and may be an encouragement to you. If you aren’t wanting to watch it, I get that. Thanks for reading my blog, and I hope you have a good Sunday.

Sight and Sound’s Jonah

This is not just for the kiddoes