The Crab Chronicles

Potassium and Magnesium

Mother has been in the rehab facility for just over a week now, and is adjusting to the new routine pretty well. I miss her very much and the house seems terribly empty. I haven't lived alone in years so it's a big adjustment for me.

I am trying to pay more attention to what I eat, and to eat more healthfully.

About a week before she went in the hospital, the doctor tested Mother's potassium and magnesium levels and they were very low. Because she had been vomiting and having diarrhea she had hypokalemia. She didn't want to go to the hospital and get an IV, so the doctor prescribed supplements. I had a mortar and pestle someone gave me years ago so I got quite expert there at grinding up the enormous supplements and mixing them with some yogurt, which was easier for her to swallow.

I have always been faithful about taking multivitamins but most vitamins do not have anywhere near as much potassium or magnesium as humans need in a day.

I started researching the effect that potassium has on the body. An article called Why Is Potassium Important in the Diet? was fascinating.

"Classified as an electrolyte, potassium also regulates the electrical activity of your heart, builds protein and metabolizes carbohydrates. However, potassium becomes more important in your diet as your body ages. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010, a potassium-rich diet can decrease high blood pressure and may also reduce your risk of kidney stones and bone loss."

Mom has suffered from leg cramps and cramps all over her body, for years. My brother and I also get cramps, but not as much. I seldom get them. My brother found a supplement called No Salt that is basically pure potassium. If you get leg cramps a lot, consider switching from salt to No Salt.

Or better yet, just eat more foods high in potassium.

Bananas aren't the only foods high in potassium. Black beans have quite a lot. Salmon and avocado also are champs. Potatoes star in the potassium universe. In fact, if you have been sweating a lot, or dealing with diarrhea, and you want a quick feel-better food, eat a bag of potato chips, to replace your sodium and potassium.

Magnesium is also critical to good health. This article was really fascinating, Should You Be Taking Magnesium Supplements?

This article also was very informative, Magnesium: Health Benefits, Facts, Research

"Magnesium deficiency, especially prevalent in older populations, is linked to insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, coronary heart disease, and osteoporosis."

Shrimp, almonds, and sunflower seeds have lots of magnesium.

The list of magnesium benefits is quite long. It's good for your heart. It helps with PMS symptoms. Most interesting to me is that it helps with anxiety symptoms and helps one sleep.

So I have been consciously trying to make sure I get enough potassium and magnesium in my diet every day. I started keeping charts listing every food I eat every day, then adding up the potassium and magnesium mgs at the end of the day.

First, though, I made the chart below, which lists a lot of foods I eat every day. I am consciously trying to add a cup of black beans to my daily food intake, because they are so healthful.

I am not a doctor or a scientist, but if you get leg cramps, suffer from anxiety or sleep issues, or PMS, I urge you to take an hour and do some research on potassium and magnesium. Try to add in these healthful foods to your diet, and be aware of what you eat.

I don't drink sodas or alcohol, and haven't for years. (I use a little wine in cooking, but I don't think that counts.) I try to limit my sugar intake -- one day I hope to eliminate it entirely. I also find that avoiding bread is a good thing for me.

Just becoming conscious of foods and how they make you feel is important as you grow older. I feel good after I eat a banana or a cucumber. I feel yucko after I eat ice cream or chocolate. So maybe I am finally maturing in my food choices -- I am trying to, anyway. I want to feel good, and eating foods that help me to feel better, and avoiding foods with no nutritional value helps me feel better, in general.

UPDATE: Mom is slowly getting better in rehab, and I go see her every day..

POTASSIUM AND MAGNESIUM

FOOD	POTASSIUM 4,700	MAGNESIUM 320	PROTEIN
1 cup black beans	611	120	15
Banana	422	32	1
Egg	63	3	6
Prunes (3)	210	10	2
Spinach	167	23	1
Greek yogurt	240	15	15
Almonds ¼ cup	191	75	6
Green beans 1 cup	209	20	2
Chicken 3 oz.	357	32	25
Salmon 5 oz filet	719	44	40
Avocado 1 cup	708	35	3
Raisins 1.5 oz [small box]	322	90	1.5
Zucchini 1 medium	514	18	2
apple	260	15	1
Chickpeas 1 cup	447	78	14
potato	897	34	4
Peanut butter 2 tblsp	208	34	8
Cucumber 1 cup	150	14	1

An Idea About Genius

The older I get, the more fascinated I am by genius. The word itself brings to mind all kinds of images and ideas and likely preconceived prejudices. Is it simply a number? Does that number change?

More importantly, how hard is it to conduct your life if you are a genius?

What started me thinking about this is that there is a new series on the National Geographic Channel about Albert Einstein, called Genius. Einstein undoubtedly deserved to be called a genius and yet his private life was really chaotic. He was a lowly patent clerk and he changed the world. This is the blurb from IMDB:

"A series which explores how patent clerk Einstein could not get a teaching job or doctorate in his early life, yet managed to go on to develop the theory of relativity."

This book explores his letters, which illustrate his personal life struggles. "Albert Einstein's genius did not extend to his own love life, which was full of messy affairs, bumpy marriages and bitter endings, as judged by his letters to the women in his life."

This is a "making of" about the National Geo show:

 

 

I also recently watched a movie called Genius, about the author Thomas Wolfe, who was undoubtedly a genius and who also had a very messy private life. After he died, the New York Times wrote: "His was one of the most confident young voices in contemporary American literature, a vibrant, full-toned voice which it is hard to believe could be so suddenly stilled. The stamp of genius was upon him, though it was an undisciplined and unpredictable genius.... There was within him an unspent energy, an untiring force, an unappeasable hunger for life and for expression which might have carried him to the heights and might equally have torn him down."

 

 

I don't have any profound statements to make about being a genius but I do want to offer an observation.

When I was about 15 years old, I had been studying voice for a while with a retired music teacher and vocal coach in Knoxville, Pop Hamilton. I loved Pop. He was a huge man and he had a huge basso voice, which I heard many times when he would sing something for me. What he said to me has stayed with me now for more than thirty years and it's worth pondering. When I went in to warm up, and the accompanist was playing vocal exercises for me, we always started out low and went higher. It took a while because I had a huge voice, about 3-4 octaves. Pop would listen carefully while I ran through the gamut of vocal exercises, and finally he would say "You an Alto or a Soprano?" (I could sing tenor, too, but it's not a part most women sing.)

What he said to me was this: Dee, you have a huge voice. It's hard to control, your voice. Someone who can only sing one octave has a much easier time. You have to work much harder because you have a much bigger instrument.

Genius has to be the same way. If your IQ is very high, your mind can go in many different directions and you have to control it. My mother, who is a genius, told me the other day that her mind always has at least two things going on and sometimes three or four. When she was in high school she was sitting in class one day reading a book and the teacher noticed it and said "Miss Hasty since you are reading, why don't you tell me what I just told the class?" (or words to that effect). Mother repeated verbatim what the woman had just been saying in the lecture.

Einstein and Wolfe had huge intellects, huge gifts. How much harder is it to control your thoughts and ideas when they are so vast? How much harder is it to modulate yourself down to the level of the ordinary, and keep step with people whose intellects are tiny, compared to yours?

Handling being a genius is hard enough for men, who generally are much more able to control their lives, less at the mercy of biology and societal expectations. Imagine how much harder it is for women.

There's a new movie called Gifted, which explores that.

 

I've been thinking a good bit about this lately because my son is a genius. He doesn't believe it but it's true. I offer a couple of reasons why I think this. He came to America ten years ago knowing maybe 10 words of English, in May 2007. By Fall 2008 he was able to skip a grade in school. He was always bored in school, so it didn't appeal to him. After his sophomore year in high school I got him into a program called Gateway to College, which allowed him to take college classes and get high school AND college credit. Unfortunately, the program was shut down. Michael was very upset. He didn't want to return to high school and I didn't blame him, but there wasn't another choice, we thought. One of his Gateway professors suggested he just take the GED and see if he could pass. Without any preparation at all and after only 2 full years of high school, he took it and passed it on the first try.

Michael has an amazing intellect. He's never taken a formal IQ test but he did a little online test and tested at 150. I suspect it's probably a bit off, but I know he's smarter than I am and mine is 134.

It's much harder to control a huge brain. I know. My mother knows. My brother knows. That's why we all read, a lot. It's why I write.

I've never done well on standardized tests, though. I don't have a standardized brain.

Faith helps. I have a strong faith that God is beside me every step of my life, and it comforts and strengthens me.

Maybe as a society we need to spend some resources helping people who are geniuses fulfill their true potential, instead of trying to keep them on short leashes, in lockstep with the ordinary. Maybe then their private lives would be happy, instead of tortured. Maybe then geniuses could really fulfill their true potential, and change the world for the better.

It's an idea worth considering, right?

 

The Beauty of Magical Thinking

I was browsing around the other day and came across this book by Matthew Hutson, The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking: How Irrational Beliefs Keep Us Happy, Healthy, and Sane. Here is a quote from the Amazon blurb:

"Magical thinking helps us believe that we have free will and an underlying purpose as it protects us from the paralyzing awareness of our own mortality."

As soon as I read the paralyzing awareness of our own mortality I got an image of Woody Allen in my head. In his younger years, he was always talking about his fear and anxiety over death, in his movies, even though they were very funny. I remember watching them years ago and thinking, why is he so scared of death?

Without having read the Magical Thinking book, I am happy to see that it's not a New York Times bestseller. It's basically saying, it seems to me, that people who don't engage in Magical Thinking are superior to those of us idiots who have faith in God.

The RationalWiki page is even more insulting. "Science and the scientific method are designed to elucidate causal relationships through careful controlled experiments; magical thinking, given a correlation with an observed effect, pulls a causation out of thin air."

Even Scholastic has jumped on the Magical Thinking bandwagon, equating Magical Thinking to being childlike and ignorant, as explained in Ages and Stages: How Children Use Magical Thinking.

From my reading of all of these sources, it seems to me that one can divide the world into two camps:

1. Those who refuse to believe anything not scientifically proven - I'll call them Science Worshippers.

2. Those of us Magical Thinkers who believe in God, and have faith.

[Now, logically I know there are plenty of people who fall into a middle area, not fully trusting science, but not fully trusting God either. For my purposes, I am not going to address this unfortunate group here. I am going to say a prayer they will come to have faith in Magical Thinking one day.]

I have a friend who is completely convinced that anyone who goes to church and believes in God is not only delusional, but dangerous. He is a big Science Worshipper. That belief has little basis in reality. He is basing it on his experiences with his mother, who is a bit of a religious fanatic. His negativity is so strong, and so crippling, that he has a lot of issues with depression.

I have a cousin who cannot handle death at all, because he believes it's the complete extinguishment of a life. He doesn't believe in any afterlife at all. He can't even fathom the possibility. I feel intensely sorry for him. He's a good man, a loving, kind man. He pities me for my Magical Thinking, my ignorant belief in a loving God.I pity him more.

Even President Obama, in 2008, famously said that anyone frustrated with the economy and opposing his views on immigration or trade was prone to "cling to guns or religion". The implication was that anyone who owned a gun or went to church was delusional. So I would reluctantly have to classify him as a Science Worshipper too. Clearly, his lack of church attendance would tend to suggest that I am correct. You may utterly disagree with me and that's OK, but in my mind, a little more Magical Thinking out of Washington would probably be a good thing.

I looked up Matthew Hutson, the author of the Magical Thinking book I linked to above. This is territory he has explored before, in a 2008 Psychology Today article. In that article, as I read it, he is basically saying that any sort of Magical Thinking is simply delusional, because it's un-scientific and irrational, but that it's ultimately beneficial.

"To be totally 'unmagical' is very unhealthy," says Peter Brugger, head of neuropsychology at University Hospital Zurich. He has data, for example, strongly linking lack of magical ideation to anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure. "Students who are 'not magical' don't typically enjoy going to parties and so on," he says."

I would imagine Mr. Spock to be the poster child for anhedonia...

In trying to read between the lines, I get the impression that Hutson envies us Magical Thinkers. He is a Science Worshipper who is jealous of Magical Thinkers.

Hutson ends the article by saying some forms of Magical Thinking are ultimately proved scientifically accurate:

"Germ theory has shown that we have reason to fear that something invisible and negative can be transmitted by contact. Bacteria are the new curses."

If you time traveled back to the 19th century, when my great grandparents were alive, and showed them an iPad, they would view it as magical. It would be that far away from their experience.  Go back even further, and showing someone an iPad or a computer might get you burned at the stake for being a witch.

So who's to say that Magical Thinking is delusion, and Science Worshippers are the only sane, intelligent folks around?

Here's my very un-scientific observation, based on my life experiences: those of us with a strong faith in God are more happy than Science Worshippers. I cannot control the universe, or what happens to me. I can't even explain it. It's way too complex for me, even with my advanced degree and high IQ. So I have two choices: try to control everything around me, based on my scientific observations, or trust in God to see me through everything.

Now, does that mean I don't do everything possible to improve my life? Of course not. But instead of basing my actions on precedent, or the advice of someone I think is smarter, I listen to a voice inside me that tells me what's the best course of action. You might call this small voice "instinct" or "intuition." You might even call it "God." So be it. My experience has been when I listen to that small voice, things go much better for me. When I try to override it, and exert an iron, scientific control over it all, I get burned.

Am I stupid, because I rely on what some would consider silly, irrational Magical Thinking? I don't think so. I don't think I am delusional. I try very hard not to "overthink" things. I try to remember [in the words of a very true cliche] to "let go and let God." As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, Surrender, this is so important.

I am not afraid to read my horoscope, or watch Ghost Adventures, or talk to my friends about times in my life that defy logic, like the fact that I knew the moment my father died.

You can call me delusional. You can call me irrational. I don't care. I like to keep my mind open to possibilties. Who's to say that a hundred years from now we won't all embrace Magical ThInking, because we've seen it proven to be true over and over? I like to think human beings CAN advance to that level.

Today's Magical Thinking is tomorrow's Scientific Fact.

I think this is a fascinating area, and I encourage anyone reading this to keep researching and exploring it.

Working in the Sun

Michael and I got a lot of work done around the yard yesterday. My back issues make it difficult for me to do much bending over so putting in the flowers in two of our front flowerbeds is a challenge now. 

I had revoked Michael's privilege of playing videogames last week because he didn't turn it off when I asked him to [3 times] so I told him if he would help me with yard work yesterday he'd get the privilege back.

Michael likes videogames but he's never been a kid who obsessed over them.

He figured out that helping me in the yard means he can work without a shirt and that helps his tan. He was out long enough yesterday to get some sun on his chest and back. The weather was perfect, low 70's and sunny.

Today we are headed up to Lookout Mountain for a day trip which hopefully will be fun and informative.

This morning he was telling me about science videos he likes to watch on YouTube. Here is an example - What If The Sun Disappeared?. Michael is so smart he finds this stuff fascinating. It gives me a headache...

 

Bigtooth

Sharks have always fascinated me, ever since I saw Jaws and noted the resemblance between the shark that starred in that movie, and my 7th grade math teacher. She spent a lot of time in the hallway, whacking students with a big wooden paddle.

Too bad we weren't able to hire a crusty old fisherman to go after her. I won't say her name here, but our nickname for her was "Mrs. Rectum." Did not learn one thing in math that year.

I thought of her when my cousin sent me the photo below:

Looks like one of her teeth.

It's a prehistoric shark tooth. My cousin Frank used to work at a large military facility near St. Simon's, and here is what he said about it: How would you like to have this guy grab your worm and take off with it? I picked it up out of the dredge spoil area while I was working. There were many of them around. I imagine that area is restricted now.

I once had a large turtle grab my fishing line and nearly pull my 7 year old self into a murky pond. So the thought of a prehistoric shark doing that makes me want to wet my pants.

This is by far the most interesting thing about my day.

Perhaps the second most interesting thing - I started to go to Mo's and buy $3 burritos after work, for dinner, and there was a long line of ticked off people inside Mo's and the drive thru was closed. I gave up on that and got sandwiches at Jersey Mike's, for dinner.

I was planning on cooking but I was too tired.

I only got about 6 hours of sleep last night. Alesia was late getting in from her date. Grr....

More later. Gotta sleep now...

A Few Things I Have Learned Recently

Time for another edition of What I Have Learned [the hard way]. There are actually some interesting things in here mixed in amongst the funny.

Baking Soda ROCKS - I burned rice in my favorite Club aluminum saucepan that we've been using for years. I mean I really burned it. I soaked the pan for two days - still black gunk on the bottom. I dumped in about half a cup of baking soda and 2 inches of water and just let the pot sit for two days. Voila, with a little scrubbing the gunk came right up. YAY!

I have been washing my hair a lot with a mixture of baking soda and water, and it is amazing how much better my hair looks and feels. For more uses, check out this site, Yahoo green. Baking soda is amazing stuff.

Blog = Good - I posted a few days ago hoping that the wonderful Antares Foundation could get sponsors for Denis [Mike's best friend from the orphanage] and his little brother Kolya. I am delighted to report that one of my readers has stepped up to the plate!

Coco is a Furry Genius - The plumber was here this morning and needed to move a very heavy buffet from against the wall. Underneath it was a Milk Bone, Coco's favorite treat. How she got it under there I have no idea, but we find Milk Bones cleverly hidden everywhere. They are the only treat that doesn't upset Coco's very delicate tummy, BTW. I think she operates on a policy of "When it's 2 a.m. and I want a treat I refuse to wait on a human to get me one, so I will hide a Milk Bone everywhere I can."

The Good Ones Are ALL Taken - All single men I encounter fall into one of 4 categories: married, gay, divorced and bitter, or crazy as a loon. There are no exceptions to this. If I were interested in dating I might go to Plan B, which involves checking out men in comas, but it seems like an awful lot of trouble...

Politics Isn't Completely Evil - I am going to break my "no politics" rule on here and finally admit it: I am a Libertarian. Here's the quickie explanation of that:

"Libertarians support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties."

Don't worry, I am not going to turn this into a political rant blog, but I am right in line with Libertarian ideas. That leads me to my next revelation -

I am a lot of things ending in "ian" -

I really think it's funny to point out that I am all of these things:

Blogerian - because I love to blog

Cancerian - because I was born in July

Chocolaterian - because I love chocolate soooooo much

Tuckerian - because I live in Tucker

Disciplinarian - because I believe children should be raised with firm but loving discipline

[I just realized Coco is a Milk Bonerian!]

What about you?? Are you any "ian" things?!? Enquiring minds want to know...

Plant Identification

I have blogged a couple of times about the weird but lovely plant growing up next to our accidental corn, just below our bird feeder. It looks a little like a fern, but I keep hoping it's somehow a magical vegetable or flower of some sort. Here's a photo below.

CAN ANYONE out there help me identify this plant??!!! If you can, I will send you a free copy of my book, Jack's New Family.

Short Haired Folks

I did something I rarely do on Saturdays. I got up early. Well, 7:30 – early for me. I hustled around and got the children and mother up and we had eggs and sausage for breakfast, then headed out to get haircuts for the kids.

Fantastic Sam’s is not my favorite place for haircuts, but they are cheap, and I am trying to conserve money. I will skimp on haircuts, but not on things I think are educational. I just ordered some rather expensive educational books, and I feel like that’s a better use of my limited money.

Michael’s hair is quite short now. That’s good. I was getting tired of the nightly battle to get a comb through it after his shower. Now it’s at a length short enough so that we likely won’t have to get it cut again this summer.

Alesia’s hair is also shorter, by about 3 inches, which she wanted. It now takes her less time to straighten it. She demonstrated that as soon as we got home.

We picked up Elena at noon, and headed out to Goodwill, one of my favorite shopping experiences. We found 2 hardback books, 4 paperbacks, a picture frame, a belt for Alesia, a DVD of a recent movie,shoes for Alesia, and a used VCR [ours is dead] for $35.  I know you’re saying, why the heck is Dee buying a VCR?! Well, I happen to own about 50 VCR tapes and I would like to continue to watch them as long as possible.

In 1981 I stayed up all night and watched the coverage of the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, and taped it. I also have tapes of my father, tapes of family reunions, etc. Call me an anachronism, but I need a VCR.

We had lunch at Folks. When I was a kid, Shoney’s was the same sort of place – good American food, reasonable prices. The kids ate well. Elena and Alesia actually ordered fried okra.

I took the kids to the Fernbank Museum [www.fernbankmuseum.org], to the IMAX movie Grand Canyon Adventure. I love IMAX movies, but they are somewhat discombobulating. We were about 5 minutes late, and we walked in and I instantly felt like I was going to fall, even though I was standing still. The screen is so HUGE [3 stories] that it feels like you are there. The film was awesome. It felt like I had been hang gliding in the Grand Canyon, a truly awesome natural experience. Now I don’t have to go there.

I will never again travel to a place where there are no clean bathrooms with real toilets. I don’t camp. I don’t hike. I also can’t tinkle au natural and avoid pee on my shoes, so that should explain my reluctance to experience the great outdoors. Well, bugs also factor in. Bugs love to bite me.

One really nice and unexpected aspect of the movie was that it spent a few minutes talking about John Wesley Powell, the man who first went down the entire length of the Colorado River, in the late 19^th century. He had lost one of his arms in the Civil War.  He mapped the river and was a very distinguished explorer and scientist. [Here’s a link to learn more, if you’re interested: www.powellmuseum.org/MajorPowell.html]

When we got out of the movie, it was raining lightly. By the time I got to the car, I was soaked. We drove home in torrential rains. I hate driving in that stuff so I prayed a lot. Several traffic lights were out. We get home, and there has been NO RAIN! It’s only about 6 miles from the house as the crow flies. Aaaargh!

In case you think my blog has no objectivity whatsoever [snicker snicker] I want to report this remark made by my mother today. I was telling her about a sassy retort Alesia made to me this afternoon, which wasn’t disrespectful so much as it was funny, and Mother quipped:

“When you were that age you, were a LOT more mouthy.”

I thought for a moment. I recalled myself as being quite grownup and delightful at the age of 16. Time, however, distorts everything, of course.

“I do not remember that. I’ll tell you this much, though – Michael is on his way to getting there. He just doesn’t have enough vocabulary yet to really be smart mouthed.”

I have looked at Michael’s haircut all day and thought wow, I see now the man within the boy. I can see him as a grown man. He is going to be really handsome.

Dinner was salmon, baked in the oven. I love grilled salmon, but the kids don’t. I doused the fish pretty well with onion powder, seasoning salt, and pepper. I then covered it liberally with mayonnaise. Yep, mayo. That, plus some dabs of butter and a sprinkle of lemon juice, and that was yummy, I’m here to testify. Thirty minutes in the over at 350. It’s a great recipe for any kind of fish, and so, so easy. 

That plus some pasta with butter and garlic, and fresh sliced tomatoes, and you have a feast, my friend.

Our movie tonight was “Flawless” [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780516/] a thriller with Michael Caine and Demi Moore, about a theft of diamonds from a huge London company. It was very clever and interesting. I really enjoyed it, except for one thing. The sound quality was bad – I often couldn’t hear the softly mumbled lines of the actors. Of course, I mis-hear things all the time. I don’t know if I need to get my hearing checked or just enjoy it as long as possible..

[Oh, and Jane, don’t feel bad about laughing about my remark about Michael not cutting his fingers off with the hatchet. It would be impossible, which I thought was sort of humorous, because I have a dark sense of humor. I’ll let you know if he slices off a toe – that would shut my big mouth, huh?!]

<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]-->