Learning About Portugal

A friend of mine is married to a man who was born and raised in Portugal. He came to the U.S. to attend college, got an engineering degree and was hired by an American company to work on aeronautics. He must be very good at what he does. When the company offered him a promotion, they paid for his family to move, paid for their lodging while they looked for a house and paid the down payment required for his new mortgage. I was very impressed.

At Christmas, his family in Portugal sends boxes and boxes of gifts for him and his family. Their special gifts include foods, like Portuguese sausage and special candies that you cannot buy here in the States.

I am going to be learning a lot more about Portugal as our friendship grows. It sounds like a lovely country with great people and a moderate climate. So, maybe a trip to Portugal is in my future?

Costume Shopping

This year we are going out for an Adult Halloween party. Since Halloween is on a Monday night, the adults are taking the Saturday and Sunday nights for ourselves.

I went to the KMart looking for a costume. I am shocked and dismayed. The cheap crap they are selling for $40 is awful. They have the nerve to charge over $20 for little more than a large green trash bag that they are calling a cape. I’m not spending good money on that cheap crap.

Picnics and Barbecues

Planning my big Labor Day weekend coming up. Everyone here seems interested in a big backyard gathering, with a huge barbecue or at the very least a picnic where we grill burgers and hot dogs and everyone brings a dish to share. We used to go to the beach to celebrate Labor Day, but with the price of gas still so high, we are staying closer to home.

Rehab and detox may be easier with suboxone

I have watched several close friends go through the addictions to pills the past few years. Really great people who started with a prescription to pain pills like hydrocodone, and end up addicted to pain killers, some even moving up to oxycontin. It’s horrible to see these girls try to stop taking the pills only to be in more pain with detox. It’s made me sick to think there isn’t much I can do for them. Today I was reading about a new drug and treatment program that blocks the drugs from working, making detox easier.

Certainly this has to be a better option than the methadone replacement therapy which simply replaces one opiate addiction with another. There are several suboxone treatment centers using this suboxone therapy now.

Opiate painkillers are serious business. There is a lot of money being made with loratabs, vicotins, and OCs or oxy. Hydrocodone is the most prescribed drug in all of Tennessee and West Virginia from what I read in the news recently. I think it is great that we have drugs that can stop pain when it is serious, however these drugs tend to cause much more pain with the detox, and torn families and relationships than they are worth. I think we need to find alternative pain relievers, acupuncture or something. IT is horrible that the cure for pain often causes much more in the long run. I have one girlfriend who has turned into a whore because of her addiction to pain meds, and another who has turned into a pin cushion, with horrible sores all over her face and arms, yet she still continues to shoot up. We need changes, perhaps this suboxone detox is a step in the right direction.

Podcasts gaining popularity again

I have spoken with two friend in the past week that are starting new podcasts. I found that quite odd, as podcasting was a big buzz word two years ago, I had thought that there were a couple of popular podcasts out there, but for the most part rss text was still king. Perhaps since I still do not have an ipod, or similar device in my tech arsenal, then I am not as aware of the video and audio podcasts that may get listened to or watched everyday. I still use the DVR and streaming video, I do occasionally hear an audio cast withing my netvibes feed reader, perhaps if I had a portable mp3 player I would find some good webcasts to listen to.

This week I also see a story in one of my rss feeds (via netvibes) talking about podcasting picking up steam and advertisers are looking to step up advertising in this arena as well. I certainly hope Steve and Glen’s podcasts take off. I know Glen is looking to do a video podcast, I just hope there are easier ways to subscribe to them, currently Itunes will not let me preview podcasts without having iTunes installed on my machine, which means I can’t listen in at work, no iTunes will be installed on this system.

I think there was a movement for some time to rebrand podcasts as webcasts or something, since audio and video files put into an rss feed can be listened to on other portable devices, no need for an ipod to listen in. Perhaps there will be mix of this webcasting with you tube channels and such, perhaps there already is a way to auto-download video channels online without itunes, is anyone doing this already?