Helen H. Moore's Blog, page 1110

37 ways to un-rig the U.S. economy so it no longer favors the rich

Joseph Stiglitz, Elizabeth Warren and the Roosevelt Institute weigh in on the defining issue of the 2016 elections

America has not thought remotely hard enough about the death penalty

We must think longer and harder about why we support (or don't) the act of execution. Far too much is at stake.

Richard Dawkins doesn’t “give a damn”: The big mistake he’s making about religion

Dawkins and his fellow New Atheists were on the warpath in recent days over the subject of believers

Jon Stewart vs Sean Hannity: We all know who the real “sanctimonious jackass” is

Oh, how funny it is when a Fox News blowhard tries to take down "The Daily Show" and just embarrasses himself

Bill Maher: Americans respect British accents because deep down we know we’re a fundamentally unserious nation

"Therein lies our 'special relationship' with England -- they have the gravitas, we have the swag"

The Writing Life of (O') Reilly

Busy, busy, busy!

  Yesterday's radio interview with James Kelly of the "Aspects of Writing" show on KLAV was super! Lots of fun, I got to talk about Spunk, a Fable, and I made two nice new friends, James and his co-host, Janet. Looking forward to my next appearance on August 27. More later!   What else has been keeping yours truly so busy? Well . . . Today, KNPR's Desert Companion magazine hit the stands with an article about Las Vegas (and the nation's) pain pill epidemic, and what one Doctor, Mel Pohl, of the Las Vegas Recovery Center, is doing about it. The article is below, and there's also a link to the magazine itself. (The byline is one of my many avatars!)       All things medicine: Rising above pain     Story by Helen Moore

Someone you know has a drug problem — but not the kind you think. With more than 100 million Americans suffering chronic pain that prevents them from working, playing or resting, at least 8 million Americans fall asleep at night under the influence of an opioid such as Vicodin, Lortab or OxyContin. Every morning, 40 of those people don’t wake up. In 2009, more people in the U.S. died from prescription medication overdoses than from motor vehicle accidents. And those who don’t die face the risk of addiction and side effects ranging from cognitive impairment to erectile dysfunction.

   

Who knows — Dr. Mel Pohl could have been among those statistics. Ten years ago, he began experiencing chronic pain after simply trying to pick something up.

 

“I bent forward to pick up a very light computer case,” he recalls. “As I was straightening out, something snapped or caught in my back and I developed excruciating pain. I was traveling home from San Diego to Las Vegas and I thought I was going to die. On that day, my journey into chronic pain began and has continued until today.”

 

That journey took him through pain-management techniques both exotic and extreme. “I’ve tried all sorts of interventions including epidurals, radiofrequency ablation, prolotherapy and others.” That was until he began exploring alternatives — and launched a program to teach others how to use them.

 

 

Pohl, medical director of Las Vegas Recovery Center (lasvegasrecovery.com), founded the Pain Recovery Program, which includes such techniques as meditation, distraction, yoga, Pilates, reiki, acupuncture, physical therapy — “Acupuncture, hydrotherapy, music therapy, aromatherapy, oxygen therapy, hypnotherapy, yoga, meditation, exercise, nutrition, biofeedback, chiropractic, and also cognitive behavioral therapy,” Pohl adds, running out of fingers to count on. Better yet, most of these techniques are inexpensive or free.

 

Perhaps the most effective tool? Attitude adjustment. “My solution is to face the emotional aspects of my pain, exercise, meditate daily and not take myself too seriously,” says Pohl. He’s since written several books on the topic, including A Day without Pain.

 

Dan Mager, who has a chronic pain condition and used pain medications every day for over eight years, completed the program at the center in 2006, and hasn’t taken opioids since.

 

 

“I never would have thought it possible for me to experience significantly less pain while being opioid-free. ... Through my experience at LVRC, I’ve learned to accept and live with my chronic pain with as much grace as I can mobilize.” Three hundred clients have gone through the program since it started.

 

 

Notice Mager says “accept,” not “fix.” No miracle cures promised here — pain is real. But just as real is functionality, a core value of Pohl’s program. “We must be realistic about our pain,” he says. “It may always be with us, to greater or lesser degrees. The goal of pain recovery should be to reduce and manage pain, while focusing on restoring or recovering functionality. And the emphasis should be on the word ‘functionality.’”

 

 

He adds: “Pain is inevitable. Suffering, however, is optional.”

Read entire issue online: Aug 2013 Issue

"The End" Ain't the End; You Have to Ballyhoo Your Book!

Since self-publishing Spunk, a Fable, I have been on an incredible learning journey. Actually, even before I self-published the novel, I learned to apply the knowledge I've gained from a long career in publishing to the tasks of typesetting and layout, and coordinating with an artist/designer for the aspects I couldn't do myself.

 

I had a very limited budget, and so one of the first things I did was start an indiegogo fundraising campaign to raise money to create a book trailer, which is running on YouTube now. It has been seen thousands of times. I created a giveaway on Goodreads, which collected more than 800 entries to win five books! Those are being shipped now, also.

 

I had no funds to hire a publicist, so I researched everything on self-publishing I could find for free online. One common refrain: "Get the word out by any means you can!"

 

So following that advice, today at 2 pm Las Vegas time, I will appear on a local AM radio show, "Aspects of Writing," to discuss Spunk, a Fable. How did I get booked onto this show? I "googled" terms like "local" "talk" "radio" and "books," and, screwing up my courage, I contacted the shows I found via email and asked if I could be a guest. (Dial 12:30 am if you are in Vegas, or listen online at the link above.)

 

All these things are fun and exciting, if time-consuming, but they need to be done if the book is to stand a chance of selling. In my next post, I'll talk about some of the other marketing ideas I've tried, including organizing a Book Launch Party in downtown Las Vegas! It's tiring, as you can see from my photo, but at the same time, it's very enjoyable!

 

 

My hair has turned quite gold from exhaustion! (Apologies to Oscar Wilde!)

 

Panic in Vegas: Cougars Invade Town Escaping Carpenter Fire

 

 

Forced by fire to flee their native habitat, wild cougars have been turning up in suburban Las Vegas backyards, frightening householders with their antics, and even threatening small pets, say officials.

"They usually stay hidden during the day, as it takes, like, forever for them to get ready for a hunt, but with the fire and all, they are abandoning their beauty rituals and running for their lives," said BLM agent Evelyn Crabtree, who has studied the species since its emergence in the late 90s.

But they are wily, and they are fierce, especially when they're desperate. "And boy are they desperate now," said Crabtree, who maintains that the Las Vegas wild cougar is an invasive species, but only when she smells prey. "Cabana boys, Valet Parking Attendants, and Massage Therapists" are her usual diet, but "these days we've been getting reports of local soccer dads and even grocery baggers being dragged away by these vicious creatures."

"My Harry was under the car in the driveway, and one of these females just dragged him away by the legs!" says a local woman, who refused to give her name. "All we found later were his flip-flops and his Sansabelt slacks, up in a tree!"

"How to Spot the Las Vegas Wild Cougar"

These normally nocturnal creatures have been successful largely because they are able to blend into the environment, abandoning the muu-muus of an older generation, donning tight-fitting animal print clothing, and teasing their hair into elaborate structures normally associated with lions' manes. But there are ways you can tell you're in cougar territory. "They have their little tells," said Crabtree. Often, these are the items associated with the "cougar lifestyle." Finding them discarded on or near your property could indicate you or your loved ones have been marked as "cougar-prey." They include:

Empty Wine Boxes
Botox vials, needles
Bumpits
Discarded Wonderbras
Frederick's of Hollywood paraphernalia, including tote bags, receipts, and catalogs

"How to Protect Yourself from the Las Vegas Wild Cougar"

"Once one of these gals gets her claws into you, she hangs on like grim death," says Edna Flemm, who calls herself a "recovering cougar."

But, she adds, "there are things you can do to make yourself less attractive to the Las Vegas Wild Cougar." These include combovers, T-shirts worn tucked into trousers, and, for surefire cougar-proofing, adopting a "hobo" look. "My advice to any guy out there who wants to avoid being cougar prey is to start shuffling along East Fremont holding your pants up with one hand and a cardboard sign in the other." Says Flemm. "That's about the only kinda man that is 100% invulnerable to the Las Vegas cougar. The East Fremont Hobo." 

Sex Over Sixty? Women Say, "Please" But Not to These!

 

 

Thanks, author and speaker Renee Fisher, for your hilarious series of Huff Po articles on "Sex and the Sixty-Year-Old." In Part 2, excerpted here, we learn of Renee's friend Susan, a 60+ woman who is trying her luck at internet dating. Sadly, most of that luck has been bad, with come-ons like this:

 

"For those of you who believe my friend Susan hasn't given online dating enough of a chance, rest assured she has been doing this since the original site, Cavematch.com. Thus far, she has only excluded the sites that would result in the FBI confiscating her computer."

 

"After she is contacted by men, and, after she continues to communicate with them via personal email and phone calls, she is able to eliminate most of them as not a good match for her. "Not a good match" may mean various things:"

 

"1. Men who send her photos of their genitals.

Susan assures me that this has happened on more than one occasion. I didn't ask her if they were Glamour Shots or just candid shots. It might make a difference." And so on."

 

Check out rest of Renee Fisher's original post, here; it's riotously funny.

 

What did my plus-sixty squeeze write online that attracted me almost five years ago? "Boris Seeks Natasha." Right away I knew he was:

 

Whimsical,
Witty,
A Rocky and Bullwinkle fan,
In my ballpark, agewise and otherwise
a Baby Boomer.

 

A man like that has got to be great in bed . . .  I figured. And I was right! If sex between seniors upsets your sense of order or propriety, then you probably won't like Spunk, a Fable, my new novel, available on amazon.com. If, on the other hand, you are open to the idea that sex can continue to be a vital and important part of a happy life as long as the parties involved are interested, then you will love this sexy, crazy, dystopian romp.

 

Follow me on twitter @helliepod.com

It's Hard, Being Your Own PR Machine!

 Everyone knows that the first book ever printed was The Gutenberg Bible. Do you know what the second was? 

 What's Wrong with the Publishing Industry

 By the time I was ready to write my first novel, the publishing industry was, if not on it's deathbed, at least feeling very poorly. Hence the decision to self-publish. Which has been fun; I won't say easy, because as the Little Red Hen learned, it's only EATING the bread that's easy. Everything else is work. But I did it, and I'm happy I did. 

Now comes the part I don't like, don't have the resources or aptitude for, and yet which must be done: marketing. 

My best idea is to just keep on shamelessly plugging away at shamelessly plugging.  Like this.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/community/press-releases/2614/#axzz2UEuH86Qg