Back from HK!

So I am finally home again =) HK was nice, the people were interesting as well. Everyone had some broken 1/2 english but was very animated to make up for decificencies in language. Meeting the various personals of the HKPF gave me a sense of happiness to know that they are capable people.

It hits me and I realize I have been traveling most of my year so far and have spent very little actual time at home!

2007 Janurary – 1.5 weeks in Ottawa, Canada
2007 Feburary – 2 weeks in Ottawa, Canada
2007 March – 4 weeks in Ottawa, Canada
2007 April – 2 Weeks in Ottawa, Canada
2007 May – 1.5 weeks in HK, China & Shenzhen, China

I am scheduled for travel again in June to HK, China.

It’s times like these that I really wish I had a girlfriend to take with me to these places. It would be like a free vacation for her while I work. We just met up again at the Hotel at night and maybe share in some of the sights during the evening.

This time during my travels I tried a lot of fruits! Various type of fruits from Shenzhen China that was bought there from various parts of China. Dragon Fruit, Lotus Mist, Red Haired Pearls, Mountian Banboo, and some more! All of them were very very good, and also makes much more sense in their chinese names!

The next time I return to China I hope to get a suit made. I’m told it takes 1 day to create it from the day you walk in to get measured. Some really cheap labor there.

I also finally actually got a body massage there (a real one, no not a happy ending type). It was nice, also only cost my 8 bucks for 1.5 hours of service! I kind of wish i lived there, I would spend 8 bucks a day! Think about it!!! In LA, a stupid boba drink is like 5 bucks already… So i can drink boba…. or get a 1hour massage. Big difference there. =P

Current Stocks

Recently bought:

– Mindray (MR)

Increased positions: 

– Cogent Systems, Inc (COGT)

Already holding:

– Intel (INTC)
– AMD (AMD)
– Cogent Systems, Inc (COGT)
– Nintendo (NTDOY)
– Waste Management (WMI)
– First Data Corp (FDC)

Thoughts on each:

INTC and AMD are currently in bounds by a lawsuit and AMD is losing market shares. This seems to be a moment of conflict. In time of war and despare the underdogs find a way to come up on top. So far INTC is holding the grounds, but I smelled new advancements that have come with AMD’s Puma Chip. I am also looking forward to INTC Maxwifi technology. All in all, my decisions have been to buy them both, as the lawsuit seems to be an anchor of undecisiveness and a blimish on INTC, but I do not believe this will slow them down for long. One thing large corperations have over smaller corperations is resilience. They have experience from falling multiple times but have always found a way to rise up again. I do not see INTC fading away any time in the future without an unexpected twist of depth. AMD and INTC will continue to rival one another and in-essence, support each other from trailing growth of smaller companies though good pratice of competative market tactcis. My goal is long-term. I see AMD and INTC rising to above 30 by end of year.

NTDOY was one told to me that I should not buy their stock because I like them. I do like them. But I bought their stock for one reason…. “the Wiii’s are still sold out!” As Nintendo is still rushing out more Wii from the production line, it is still not enough to satisfy the growth and demand for Wii consoles. Many are probably like myself, sleeping, waiting for the day it becomes “easy” to get one. This leads me to believe that there is an unpresidented and unrealized expectation of demand. This can be kept in many aspects. 1.) the stock is sold out. 2.) analysis can only predict by what has been sold! 3.) It is was not a decision to release “less” like Nintendo competetor Sony. Because Nintendo is making a good effort to try and satisfy demands and still failing, this gives insight into an unrealized value for the company. I see Nintendo finishing strong at a value of 45 before this demand is met.

WMI is an energy stock. At some point I had thought about it. The world generates a TON of trash day to day. Where does it all go? I see WMI as the leader in Waste management and I also seem them gaining much stronger markets as the months go by. I bought them for many reasons, but of the strongest reason is because they have realestate as well as recycling plans. To put it in an bad manner, trash management is a matter of how much you can tuck away. Creating new recycling facitities and compacting trash beyond simple compression is a greater step towards the energy market needs.

FDC holds more than 52% of north america’s electronic transactions. Second place is Bank of American with a small 18%. This is quite a lot! I was lucky on this stock, I picked it in Janurary due to it’s market share and quickly it was bought out by KKR for restructing. My hope is that this restructuring will take 1.5 years and the company is re-openned to the public. Currently I am still holding a small share of the company, unwilling to give it up to KKR.

MR is a medical equipment manufacturing company based in China. With the recent increase in the china markets, I could not help but jump in on at least one. Another mark for my decision to buy this company is also their current expansion in China. They are building new building in Shenzhen China right next to a few other globally recongized company buildings like Fangda. This stock is definitly much more of a gamble, but I have been looking for a medical stock to jump on for a while now. I see the medical world advancing a few folds in the near future. I hope that there will be a technology spur in this coming year.

Stocks of Interest:

GE – genernal electric – they have a research moment towards hydrogen fuel cells. As a larger company they are stable and have much better funding. Additionally their interconnections (if not held up by beaucracy) will be a bonus for realizing new potential techniques to stablize the conduction chamber.

UTX – united technology corp – as the standing company of multiple waste and power management solutions they hold a mighty share in both market and technology in the energy sector, or so my thoughts tell me. But more research needs to be done before i commit to this company. Perhaps I am only looking at it due to it’s size and stability. When i first looked it was at 64.08  now it is at 68.92. Recent markets have been doing well, maybe it is only a rise due to economic strength.

GOOG – Google is on the move again. Sadly it’s value is too high for me to jump in. My recent experience has been very limiting and with a 20-60 dollar value of observation there are curtian rules that can be applied, but for a 470 dollar stock! The rules are very different.

Been feeling distrot

So, recently I’ve been feeling a bit disorganized and a little disoriented.

Life is still on the go as always and there are always new and exciting things for me to learn and conquer. I suppose some people in life hate their jobs because it gets boring and they feel like they are not progressing anywhere, where I feel like everything is happening too fast and I never have enough time for my own things. I should probably be grateful that I’m allowed to experience such a life style. But then again, my personality has never been the type to be in such a rush.

The reason why I try not to live in a rush is because I know I make bad and poor decisions when I’m angry or emotional. It’s always a constant battle with myself to preserve my own sanity and keep myself calm. Many a times I find myself enraged, panicing, tunnel-visioned, or just spacing out in general. I know that whenever I reach one of those states it takes me quite a while to reclaim myself. But the worst if it is that I feel I would loose control of myself and do something I will regret in the future.

This brings up an interesting idea I suppose, “regret”. What is “regret”? Why do I fear it?

My initial thoughts are: “regret” is a state of feeling or being of which one wished they did not do something in the past, of which the thing they have done is irreversable and unreplaceable. No power in the world could correct or remove the scar/damage that has been done.

There are many things that I regret:

I regret what I said to someone when I was 16 in highschool, of which I have never forgiven myself for. It was something I wish I had not done, and it was something that went too far and for no good reason. Yes I was young and stupid, and uneducated at the time, but when I think back to it all I can think about is how the whole ordeal could have been either avoided or carried out in a different manner.

I regret not being more couragous in life. There are so manything things and actions I could have done and taken in my past, if only I had more self confidence in my own abilities. Now that I’m older and wiser, I suppose, I see all the various path ways and methods that could have been done in the past. My younger life could have been more full and more interesitng.

I regret not taking better care of myself and my health. There are things wrong with me that I didn’t even know existed until now. I really should have listened more to my parents and elders. I really should have taken much more of a step in my own health than to let it fall apart the way it did.

I regret that I did not take on all the things I have done in the past that I could have. Everything I do now, I could have been doing four or five years ago. I wish I had realized my own potential and been able to harness my abilities eariler.

Of course, it’s not to say I in a bad position. Life at the moment is pretty good, but some how… not satisfying. I suppose a lot of my current thoughts have a lot to do with my old (well she’s not that old) friend’s most recent album. She’s gone so far in life and really done something with her self that make me really reevaluate my current position in life. There’s a lot I’ve done yes, but there’s also a lot I really wish I could have already done, because there’s so much!

Well before I get into that, I suppose I should visit what I consider a full and happy life.

I think one should be happy if they can acquire the following:

1.) Family
2.) Wealth
3.) Friends
4.) Shelter
5.) Health
6.) Passion
7.) Love

Of course the list of seven is not all emcompassing, but I think it’s the foundations for creating “happiness” in life. There are usually the textbook envy of mortals.

I have a good family, but may not have a good wife just yet. I’m still young and looking I suppose. This also ties into my father’s teachings and life lessons, can I continue his legacy?

My wealth, I have to say has been spoon fed to me for the most part. Granted I do bring in a lot of money into the family, but deep down inside, I know I life my current life in luxary because it has been provided by my father. I am now seeking a way to prove to myself that I can do it too.

Friends are the one aspect which I am worst at. I’m not completely sure why actually. Many times it’s just a feeling of regret and remose, or betrayal. Not necessarily from friends, but at least from old lovers and some how it ties together a bit. I’m a bit lonely in this aspect of my life and really wish I could spend more time relaxing and having fun with friends.

Shelter is something that is given to me. This is essential for life’s happiness. I am content with this aspect of my life. Specially because my father helped me setup ownership for a 538k house! Age 24, Technical Project Manager, House owner. Yes!

Health, I’d have to say is also a bad subject at the moment. I most recently found that I have scoliosis. Which means at this age I have no hope in ever truly correcting it. At most I can only “ease” it from day to day as I fix my life style and living habits.

Passion is something I believe everyone in life should have. A reason for being, a reason for living, a part out of reach goal to chase. Having a general direction to work towards, life becomes more meaningful and more interesting. For me, this is making a video game in the future. I have been dreaming about this since I was 9 year old, yet I have still not yet completed this…

Love, my worst subject on the syllabus. I think I may try a speed dating service or something, but really I know the problem is in my own life… I should fix myself first before I attempt this again… I am jaded, still scared from the more recent emotional transactions that happened four years ago. Yes, it did mean something to me at the time, now though, it is just fear…

Anyhow… life is “happening” at the moment, but I am definitly not exactly “happy” with it. I’ll see how this goes later on in life… But I really wish to have things kick up a bit more with the passion and love aspects of my life as well as the ability to spend more time with family and friends…

I feel like I’m left behind and in the dust… But yet… I can not given up nor can I stop… just keep walking and walking… one day I’ll get there.

Movie Review: Eragon

Highly disapointed in this movie. I suppose it was the weakness in plot and execution. True I did not read the book, but from what I saw, yuck, I would never touch it!

The story is straight up textbook dragon fantasy. You have your evil ruler, evil henchmen, mystical key item, a stupid hero, and a princess. It’s straight up … ooo got egg, hatch, hero, conceited, kills bad guys, fights boss bad guy, loses, learned, gets to destination of travel, big war, kills bad guy, yay, rejoice.

At first i thought there might have been some long winded really deep relationship between dragons and riders. Something along the lines of a cyclic relationship or something to that nature. Instead the dragons are basically slaves. Simplicty? No, it’s just a straight up… dragon picks person, dragon is a slave. Person is hero.

Should have been something different.

The Hero should have an upset dragon or something… fate picks them and puts them together. Chicken shit hero, hardcore (just add water) dragon. They power up only when they are near. Fed-up dragon ties the wimp to his back because he falls off and toasts the bad guys.

Character! Character! Character! Development, grow found of them. Love them, care for them…

This movie had quite alot of protential at first… felt like they ran out of funding about 10 mins in. Some hollywood sponser decided to pull of, because it would suck too much!

Lame movie, I wish I could get a refund on my bandwidth. =P

Depressive Dependents and Solution Methodology

Currently 6:37am, can’t sleep. Random thought occured while thinking about some of the people I’ve interacted with in the past as well as observations of myself.

What’s a Depressive Dependent? (At least in my terms! haha!)

A person that is easily depressed and if difficult to cheer up. Additionally, they exhibit a dependent traits for needing constant support and needing lots of love and care.

One thing to note about these types of people is both of these disorders seem to have their own symptoms and issues with interacting with society. But when combined together they are even more of an issue.

One philsophy I have in life is that anyone can accomplish anything. As long as you take the time to calm down, think it through, evaluation all possibilities, and ask lots of questions it should turn out alright. Nothing is impossible, there are no limits to our abilities.

So…

One of life’s most brutal factors: stress.

Many people in the world over-stress a situtation, especially me! It’s hard to refain from stressing, it’s a psychological and chemical balance which makes us who we are and how we think, but to a degree it is controllable.

Depressive individuals do not handle stress very well. They will shun and hide at the first signs of stress, it is then sometimes much easier to “run” from the situtation than it is to confront it. Always thinking there is no other way, no other possibility! What can I do?

Dependent individuals are interesting. They are individuals that can find and muster the inner power they posses to accomplish something, but with one caviat, they must be encouraged. It is very easy for a dependent to start spiraling as easy as it is for a depressive. One they are not supported, they can not find the care and affection they require, they fall into a downwards spiral.

When an individual of the above two traits collide it becomes an interesting speciman.

When confronted with a task that is difficult the few things that will run through their minds are something along the lines of:

“I don’t know what to do!”
“I can’t do anything.”
“I’m so lost.”
“What can I do?”
“I hate this”
“Omg”
“What should I do?”
“What’s going on?”

When translated into an action process it might seem like the following:

I don’t understand!
I don’t want to do anything!
I don’t understand!
I am powerless!
The world hates me!
Why me?
Where can I runaway to?
I don’t understand!

Now taking a step back… we can begin the solution process.

Calm down, goto the restroom, wash your face, mentally prepare yourself…. “I am going to attack this issue!”

With every action or sub-problem there should always be a step taken to evaluate it or solve it. These are the only two major decisions that need to be made at any given time. Either “Need more information”, “I know what to do next!”

Heavy note here, it’s never going to be a straight solution. Things are not that easy, if it was… it would not be stressful. Your on the right track and progressing…

I don’t understand! (Need evaluation) “What do I not understand?”
I don’t want to do anything! (Need resolution) “But I have to!”
I don’t understand! (Need evaluation) “Need more information!”
I am powerless! (Need evaluation) “Am I really powerless?”
The world hates me! (Need evaluation) “Does it really hate me?”
Why me? (Need evaluation) “Yes. Why you?” Take it as a question, not a statement!
Where can I runaway to? (Need evaluation) “Why do I need to runaway?”
I don’t understand! (Need evaluation) “What do I need to understand?”

Now iterate! Let’s take something like “difficult task, strict supervisors, don’t want to disappoint” a very common scenario. The questions are always what is iterated on, all statements are final.

• “What do I not understand?”
  • The assigned task
  • “How can I do to better understand the task?”
• “But I have to!” – (statement)
  • Just like it started, this was simply a statement, there’s really no flexibility on this, but one can still find an ounce of knowledge within it.
  • “Do I really have to do this task?”
  • “Why do I have to do this task?”
• “Need more information!”
  •  “How can I get more information?”
• “Am I really powerless?”
  • “Is there something I can do other than give-up? anything at all?”
• “Does the world really hate me?”
  • I’m just paranoid looking for an excuse.
  • “How can I make the world like me better?”
• “Why me? It’s unfair!”
  • There are people who are worst off than you, it’s not that unfair.
  • Not easy, yes. Fair? Maybe not. But really ask yourself “why me?”
  • I have been tasked by my supervisor it’s my Job.
  • Any one can quit a job and always look for another one.
• “Why do I need to runaway?”
  • Because it is more comfortable to runaway than to confront
  • “Should I run away? Is it impossible?”
• “What do I need to understand?”
  • Repeated question.   

Next iteration:

• “How can I do to better understand the task?”
  • It was assigned to you. There must be some expectation or qualification critira to get it right or perfect.
  • “How do I find out the expections?”
  • “What is is that I need to do?
• “Do I really have to do this task?”
  • “Am I the best suited person to accomplish this?”
  • “Could I suggest it to the servisor to ask someone else to do it?”
• “Why do I have to do this task?”
  • It’s your job, your the choosen candidate.
• “How can I get more information?”
  • “What other knowledge sources are there?”
• “Is there something I can do other than give-up? anything at all?”
  • Find more information because a final decision.
• “How can I make the world like me better?”
  • The world doesn’t hate.
  • If this task is finished, all these excessive feelings caused by it will be finished too.
• “Should I run away? Is it impossible?”
  • This is alway a possibility.
  • But lets pretend the person wants to keep his job. For reasons like need of money or family support.

Next iteration:

• “How do I find out the expections?”
  • Ask someone.
    • Who?
      • The person which expects something from you.
• “What is is that I need to do?
  • Ask the person that wants you to do it what it is they want you to do.
  • “But I don’t want them to know I do not understand!?”
• “Am I the best suited person to accomplish this?”
  • Possible way-out. Not done evaluating. Push to next iteration.
• “Could I suggest it to the servisor to ask someone else to do it?”
  • Possible way-out. Not done evaluating. Push to next iteration.
• “What other knowledge sources are there?”
  • Google?
  • Friends?
  • Family?
  • Parents? They are old, but knowledgable? =)
  • Your supervisor?

I believe the general point can be observed.

The method of problem solving is to create more problems! Just kidding, more over it’s just to ask more questions. Get more knowledge, build an evaluation, try again, and again. There is always bound to be a solution or way-out. Sometimes the way-out is to do nothing! It’s all about where you want to be in the end. =)

Now as the psychological twist.

Sometimes I write things down not to tell others but to really tell myself. It’s difficult remembering things when stress comes around. Specially if your also the nervious type! Writing it all down helps =)

Buy-out’s and Economic analogy to a small War

This is the first of many new posts I hope to make. Somewhat just capturing the cognition I get at any one moment about financial information that might be interesting or a possible good theory in today’s world. So lets get started!

One thing that I’ve noticed in the economy is the interesting market shift whenever there is a buy-out. When one company acquires another company, it is a dramatic move. Like most societies, people will follow great leaders. Thus when a larger company, a recognized leader, buy-out another business it is a big deal. Many investors think to themselves “They must know something I don’t! That’s a large investment! If they are willing to risk several hundreds of thousands to several million, what’s my little piece of the pie?” Thus there is a heighten term of which the price of that stock will grow.

Being said, of course these terminologies are not bound to just stocks. It’s also similar to every day business. If someone’s willing to invest a lot into someone, you have a general feeling that they are serious and they will not be as likely to fail.

Another corperate buy-out strategy, I’ve noticed, is when a company starts buying out multiple smaller companies. They lash out and buy up multiple smaller firms and group them together, sort their technology, make it their own, and perform integration over several aspects of a single field or possible bringing together multiple fields into an all-in-one solution.

One thing I always love to compare financial information with is a small regional war. Each region (or in the market they say Sector) is competing over resources. Some might think of this as “cash” or “profits” but that is a misconception. Specifically the resources these small nations (companies) are battling over are terrorial stakes of land, which are not quantized by their worth in gold, but rather their quality as a reusable and renewable resource (specifically Customers!)

As few nations fight over the available “customers” they are competeing to win the trust and loyality of a reoccuring resource from quarter to quarter. This provides one thing that is the majority of what the world is looking for “stability”. People do not desire the unknown, they fear it. When things are predictable, they are confortable. Same rules apply in their decisions for their own futures, of course some are less conservative and also even fewer make their metals while doing it.

Thus, how can you find a buy-out rush?

This is a power struggle over a specific sector of the market. As one competer becomes more powerful and more dangerous as a threat to the other competors, fear will start to cause a reaction. When there is such fear there are multiple war stratigies that really stand out. Of which are the explained above but in different terms:

1.) Acquire more resources to ensure a stronger defensive as well as arm yourself with a possible retaliation. (Which mimics buying out smaller companies to gain leverage).

2.) Conquer the surrounding nations and acquire their power and make it your own. Taking their Society, their methodologies, their technology, and their resources to help stage a later step in the war.

3.) (Not noted above, but is easily recognized) Collaborate with other forces to help combat a common enemy.

Thus there are some interesting warning signs that might bring about the ability to perform a “buy-out” or collaboration of resources.

1.) A health army capable of showing presense or power. Too small of an army will be ignored and more lightly be the surrounding nation that gets assembled.

2.) A super power, but not overpowered. When there is a threat over the horizon, things change, people change. Although if there is a threat that is overpowering, such that hope is crushed and passions for “freedom” (or whatever) are passified, then there this will not happen.

3.) Fear and competition. This is a very critical aspect. Say we have the same situtaion as the above two poitns #1 and #2, but there is plenty of land and resources to go around… Then there would be no reason to fight just yet. The first step for each nation would be to acquire as much land as possible before preparing for a confrontation. Thus fear and competition play a major role as the catalysis.

Hmmm Hong Kong

So looks like life’s always changing for me, at least that is the case for my career. I have been choosen to be the technical lead for the Hong Kong project in my company. That means I’ll be spending something along the lines of 2 weeks then more weeks in HongKong, China. I will also be staying a bit in Shenzhen, China since we have a branch there.

One thing I regret in my trip to Shenzhen is that I did not take pictures. Looks like I get to correct this and go again =) One thing I hope to do this time also is to check out more of the city and really try my best to learn Chinese.

Some interesing facts I did not realize. Hong Kong’s formal education is done in English! At first I thought I might have had a deficientcy when it comes to working on this project. But it looks like I may not be in that bad of a position after all.

It will be interesting.

One thing I don’t like about this deal is the increased stress. Also another thing I don’t like is the fact that I need to be away from home.

I just got back and I have spent a nice 3 weeks at home and just hearing about travel again makes me miss everything from the walls to the food to the simple table I have in my bedroom.

Everything in this room is positioned exactly where I want it, it’s a good feeling of “home”. But I suppose travel and especially at my age is something I should do more of.

When i got out of college, I did complain that I did not travel as much as I feel like I should have. I suppose this is my chance to redeem that regret and make it an experiance.

Life sure does have some heavy twists.

I think I will need to continue my plan of action. The critical moment in my plans are coming up soon. We’ll see how I perform and how well it goes =)

Return of Earth…

The year was 2098. A time of peace, renewal, and advancement, late in what scientists of 2103 considered the Golden Age of advancement. The innovations and creations developed in this era were unparalleled compared to prior hume history.

Many historians believe the coming of this golden era was a result of a series of events:

In 2043, the sudden depletion of petroleum halted worldly operations dependent of this natural resource. Cities came to a stand still, as well as shipments, transportation, heating, and miltiary. Many regions were left in the dark without power or food, resulting in riots and rapid decay of social and judicial order. The more heavily populated areas, California, Neo New York, Shanghai, and New Delhi, were the worst due to loss and high demands for trade goods such as fresh water and food.

In response, the world was quick to adapt to the much delayed hydrogen fuel cell technology, but the damage had already been done. regions throughout the world were labeled as Red Zones, Yellow Zones, and Blue Zones. Red Zones were regions within a nation that were conserned beyond reform, forsaken, and left ungoverned. Yellow Zones were pronouced areas of “reform and restructuring” of which only one region was ever reclaimed severl years later in 2063. Blue Zones were the more favorable living conditions and also housed the governing bodies of each crumbling nation.

Over the few years that followed, in 2049, new regiems and methodologies across the world were erected. Call out phrases like “new resources”, “new technology”, and “new life” could be heard echoing in hundreds of different langauges across the globe.

With the world in disarray, international treaties and intellectual property restrictions were mere unheard whispers of the past. 

In 2050, the Bi-Hydrogen Fuel Cell, know as “B-Cell”, was first introduced to the world by the Chinese, which was difficult to refine but once created could produce comparable energy throughputs as Petroleum. Quick to follow was the Etheral Hydrogen Cell, “Eh-Cell”, by Neo-Germany, which exceeded energy output expectations. Lastly the well known, Quantum Hydrogen Cell, “Q-Cell” created by the Americans under a the Chinese scientist, Liu RenJain. The “Q-Cell” was a self-renewing fuel cell that would later throttle the growth of the golden age.

Unknown at the time, the long term manipulation of quantum fields, used to “produce” hydrogen had strainous affects on the adhesive fabric of space.

In 2058, over just a few short years, The Q-Cell was marketed and distributed throughout the world, the Americans became a political giant. The year later America became evenly matched as China redeveloped their own technology and produced a quantized Q-Cell, nick named QQ-Cell.

The golden age of abundence and advancement followed. With major advancements in atomic displacement of cargo, micro computing in wearable technology, cybertronics in medical, enchancements by artificial intellegence, and hologram virtualization hume history had never be more thrilling.

Then came the year 2099, when multiple rifts in time space openned up across the globe. Another dimension, a foreign and alien world that laid parallel to Earth could be seen through these vechicle sized portals. It then became known that the Q-Cell had been “producing” hydrogen by extracting it from this parallel world.

Then came the armies from the other world, marching forth with technology much more advanced than that of the Hume. Earth was seized as a harvesting ground, a farm to replenish their damaged world…

The year is now 2152… Humanity as it was known before was lost… Earth lays wasted before the feet of the advanced Tyronians… Red Zones and Blue Zones retained their names, but there is not much to be differenciated between them… oppressed and enslaved the people of earth under foreign rule.

Thus we begin as two children fleeing from a local Tyronian Military outpost. Carrying containers of water and rations under their shirts, crossing rough terrain and avoiding watch lights, headed home to the orphanage within the nearby city…

Scoliosis

So, I finally got around to seeing my doctor about my neck and back pains. One of the first things he said once he started examining was:

     “Your pretty screwed up for your age. You’re all twisted.”

That was not good… then he added:

     “You have a 38 year old’s body. What happened?”

So … I’m 13 years older physically than I am biologically, if that makes sense. Haha. Then again I have been feeling quite old in the mind as well, but I guess this is proof! I’m older than I really am? If a doctor says it, it must be true! (Leo needs to hurry up and get his MD, so I can ask him to make a few false statement for me and make them true as well.)

We took x-rays, looks like I have Scoliosis.

Well I joke, because it doesn’t seem to be a major or serious case. I’m assuming my angle should be pretty small. I’ve been reading up on my condition and there’s really quite a lot to it all. Specifically they measure your seriousness by the angle created between two “should be” aligned vertabras. Then also I was looking up various medical symptoms that may cause scoliosis or may be resulted from scoliosis. Looks like there’s nothing in-depth that seems life threatening at the moment, but I do risk what is called “spinal fusion”.

When the cartaliage between two bones get stretched out too far, they inflame and saturate in response, but then after they implode and shrink. Slowly once that film is gone, the bones touch. Once the bones touch, they start to “heal” and bind together which creates spinal fusion of multiple bones. To iternate, that is when it REALLY starts to hurt, and eventually you can’t move some part of your back because the bones are fused together.

I’m no where that serious, but am at future risk. It definitly makes me more interested in the medical field. After reading so much it make me feel like I could have been a doctor, if I wanted too. At least for the most part a cryropractistian, maybe not any other type of doctor. Touching the small of the back on young women seems interesting, then again I suppose if i wanted to make money, I can’t pick my patients. I guess I’m glad to be a computer scientist.

Learned a new term… “Idiopathic” it means (in simplifed terms) “Idiot which does not know how he/she got to their current path (state)”. 

I am an adolesent idiopath with Scoliosis.

Sounds harsh, which is why doctors don’t use this term to your face! They say it behind your back in medical diaries, text books, and publications. I learned this from my reading.

       “Susan, your condition is unknown as to what the cause might have been. Please take these medications and also perform these excersies.”

Then behind your back!!! The doctor will write in their medical journals:

       “I had a patient today of idiopathic nature. After exhaustive examination and questioning, I could only conclude her as an Idiopath.”

It’s an interesting new word! =)

2007 Chinese New Year