Tao of Sha

Technically it's sort of a Manifesto.

Technically.

1. Laugh.
Surround yourself with people and things that make your heart feel so full that you need to express it in various degrees of movement and sounds -- sometimes the quiet ones are the best.

2. Eat, Drink.
If you can, try and have a taste of everything. Nothing brings you closer and tells you more about a community then what sustains them daily.

3. Play.
Never ever forget what playing feels like. Life is a game, you lose when you willingly stop playing.

4. Listen.
When you stop talking, that's when most of the magic happens. Everything around you will impart to you a lesson.

5. Throw Your Judgements Out The Window.
Yes, defenestrate that which keeps your mind shut to people not of your own, experiences outside your own, objects away from their common use.

6. McGuyvering.
I didn't know 'McGuyver' could be a verb until I was in my first year in design school. In a pinch, you can always find some way to complete a task, it doesn't have to be beautiful, it just has to work.

7. Make friends.
People always underestimate the importance of a vast community that you have curated and made significant efforts in maintaining. These wonderful people will be the net that brings you a wealth of ideas, knowledge, expertise, and sometimes even time.

8. Relax.
There's no such thing as doing nothing. Even when you're resting you're allowing your mind and body to consolidate it's daily experience and do maintenance on itself so that you can function properly later.

tbc.

What Kind of Designer Are You

ANOTHER ONLINE TEST THINGY!
This time to determine roughly the kind of Designer I am.

What Kind of Designer Are You? -- Take the quiz here >>> https://whatkindofdesigner.com/design-types

Apparently, today I'm one with the Data Drivers.

Rough rundown:

UNDERSTANDING. Data Drivers:

D - DIVERGE, R - REAL, G - GROUP, M - MEASURE

Key traits:

You enjoy exploring lots of ideas

Your work helps to craft the final design

You like to work with others to discuss and refine ideas

You like decisions to be based on data or insight

Watch out for:

Is it time to stop looking for new ideas and make a decision?

Is there anything else that you could do to build confidence in your work?

Are you giving everyone enough time on their own to think things through?

Have you thought about the things that can’t easily be measured?

Similar Types:

Team Player, Fortune Teller, Experimenter, Party Animal

OPPOSITE OF DATA DRIVERS. Opposites Attract:

Brand Builder: Not everything that counts can be counted. Right?

Quite Interesting.

TIL

Today I learnt that there's such a thing as Absurdism and it's very different from Nihilism...

And then, reading through articles made me realise I'm less of a Nihilist and more of an Absurdist because...

There's no real meaning to life but I try to live as well as I can and be a benefit to my society.

Found a thing on the internet that was interesting to read. Mayan Calendar and Zodiacs.

My write up is here. and I have no idea how it works. Will do more reading soon.
Also, I tested it on other sites as well and all answers popped up the same. No discrepancies.

How it works, apparently, is that I have a main sign called a Day sign, A Galactic Tone, and The Trecana Sign and finally, your Tree of Life.

Day Sign: Cauac (Rain)

Sometimes also called Storm. I guess ribut bila rasa hati berserabai? hahahaha...

Galactic Tone: Bolon (9)

What I find interesting is how this mirrors my Chinese life path (which is also 9) They really like doing math the same way. Add all the numbers until you only have one number remaining? THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!

Trecana Sign: Monkey

This is apparently my tree of life -- Which is funny given many cultures have a version of 'The Tree of Life'. I ain't complainin' -- Past: Monkey ; Destiny: Deer ; Female: Serpent ; Male: Cane

They all pretty much point me in the same direction as the rest of the hoobiegoobiespiritual life stuff.

Natural leader, healer, life of the party when I wanna be, Monster when I don't get what I want. Levelheaded monarch lel.

What else is new? *shrugs*

Driving Miss Angry

I want to drive a car.

To have a car but not be able to drive it is hands down one of the most frustrating things in the world.
Then I found out that Hospital Rehab Cheras has a Driving Simulator.

Catch 1: Right now the driving sim is broken and we don't know when it'll be fixed.
Because the government agencies are famous for tardiness... unless we have to pay them for summons or whatever. Bastards.

Catch 2: The driving sim operates on a pull-push system for acceleration and breaks which I find a bit clunky so I did some research.

EMC AEVIT 2.0
This system is used heavily in the US to enable people with various disabilities, the ones I saw were paraplegics who wanted to function normally without the absolute help from others which I also need. Autonomy is king! SOVEREIGNITY IS KING!!!

It doesn't use a push-pull system but instead a series of monitors and joystick type things... it looks super easy to work with and also very close to how a game pad works... This is good. Why?
Because I can drive in videogames.

Catch 3: Getting into and out of the car.
I don't have the typical wheelchairs that you can drive into the car and start driving straight up because I use a Travelscoot. It's more like a tiny motorised tricycle which means I have to get off it and go towards the front of my car, maybe with the aid of crutches. How do I load up the car with the scooter?

Something like this... Hoist lifts (This one's called the Armstrong Lift but I expect there to be more types out there).



Because I have issues with sit to stand, getting into the car will not be a problem provided it's a car close to my height getting out on the other hand... maybe a little bit more difficult. What systems can I put in place to make sure I can get in and out safely? (Aside from getting a tall-ish car straight off the bat). I think my only option is to have a slighly taller car. It's also good so people don't bully you on the road which is always an issue in Malaysia.


...
I think having all these mods would definitely make it amazingly easy for me to drive. It also makes it a very attainable goal. Cheers to me! If this works out, we'll figure out how to monetise this so that other OKUs can drive too.

VIVAMUS MOBILITATEM!

Okay, so I'm horrible at keeping up with my posts for IAMOGP.

So here's a backdated updat from the last 2 weeks summarised into one sentence:
I feel stronger, maybe.
(Dumbells getting to be more manageable, might be able to increase in a month, ditto with cardio intensity.)

Aside from that... Patreon?
Mini Projects that I should be arsed to do every month?
RESIN CRAFT/JEWELLERY making?
Art.

Aaaaaaaaaart. I should really get started.

I have no raison d'être.

:(

On another note,

This just happened... (click to read.)

And then I photoshopped the poster appropriately...

Took half an hour and it's because I was bored.

I AM MY OWN GUINEA PIG!!! (IAMOGP) -- or eeamogupuh for short.)

Day 6 2mg, twice a day
First Dose at 8AM
Second Dose at about 4PM
Heart Palpitations: None

Thoughts:

Physio/Occu at PPUM, 830AM to 12-ish AM.
20 minutes stationary bike, Wasn't paying attention
15 minutes arm cycling.
3 reps: 2lb Bicep curls x12, front raises x12 ; 4lb shrugs x12
20 minutes leg push thingy but the machine looks like a giant old-skool sewing machine.
30 minute standing with the standing machine.

A bit of a slow, crummy kind of day. Period definitely on the way.

________________________________

I AM MY OWN GUINEA PIG!!! (IAMOGP) -- or eeamogupuh for short.)

Day 7 2mg, twice a day
First Dose at 2:15PM
Second Dose at about pm
Heart Palpitations: None

Thoughts: Actually no thoughts today.

________________________________

Binge read New Normal: Class 8. It's really good but since I binged it... I HAVE TO WAIT FOR EVERY SUNDAY FOR THE NEXT PIECE. >:(

I AM MY OWN GUINEA PIG!!! (IAMOGP) -- or eeamogupuh for short.)

Day 5 2mg, twice a day
First Dose at 12:15PM
Second Dose at about 10pm
Heart Palpitations: None

Thoughts: Not much to comment on today. Stayed at home. I think my period is on the way so legs are taking a bit of a beating and back hurts.

________________________________

Okay, I admit to having a soft spot for the dead fat F* Jabba the hutt.
His lines are pretty awesome.

http://www.completewermosguide.com/hutttranscript.html

On to...
I AM MY OWN GUINEA PIG!!! (IAMOGP) -- or eeamogupuh for short.)

Day 4 2mg, twice a day
First Dose at 7:45AM
Second Dose at about 4pm
Heart Palpitations: None

Thoughts:
Physio/Occu at PPUM, 830AM to 10-ish AM.
20 minutes stationary bike, Level 2. Right leg dominant.
15 minutes arm cycling, Level 3 (5m), Level 2 (10m).
3 reps: 2lb Bicep curls x12, front raises x12 ; 4lb shrugs x12
15 minutes leg push thingy but the machine looks like a giant old-skool sewing machine.

The two-pound dumbells were... slightly lighter. Again, I'm not sure if this is all psychosomatic and I'm making all of it up but I'm pretty sure this Salbutamol thing is sort of maybe working.

________________________________________

On a side note,

Anti-feminist bullshit that is unfounded has made its rounds again -- as it does every year.
Please, read this https://everydaygeopoliticshouston.wordpress.com/2015/04/10/a-reply-to-lauren-southerns-why-im-not-a-feminist/

It is imperative that you go through all the links she provided as well as go through the comments. Just read the entire thing.

On to...
I AM MY OWN GUINEA PIG!!! (IAMOGP) -- or eeamogupuh for short.)

Day 3: 2mg, twice a day
First Dose at1PM
Second Dose at about 11pm
Heart Palpitations: None

Thoughts: Did not sleep well, not really sure why, maybe taking Salbutamol too late? I don't know.
But I had a mediocre steak... Red meat is still red meat no matter how mediocre it is.

We now return to...
I AM MY OWN GUINEA PIG!!! (IAMOGP) -- or eeamogupuh for short.)

Day 2: 2mg, twice a day
First Dose at 3PM
Second Dose at about 11pm
Heart palpitations: None

Restlessness: N/A -- I'm taking this out for all future posts because it's not applicable.

Thoughts: I think it needs some sort of benchmark test thingy to be done at the end of the week. Maybe something to do with walking somewhere...

IAMOGP 1

Just wanted to introduce a new segment into this blog called

I AM MY OWN GUINEA PIG!!! (IAMOGP) -- or eeamogupuh for short.) This should be recorded for the appropriate effect.

I have just found out that our friendly neighbourhood asthma drug called Salbutamol (also known as Albuterol and sold as Ventolin) also helps SMA patients to a certain degree. I am elated to know this because of 2 things:

1) It is cheap

2) It is easily accessible

A fellow medical practitioner, let's call himTinkerbell, from the SMA family group recently gave me and a few others instructions for self dosing. He said that optimal dosage for an adult is 4mg, 3 times a day but to start of with 2mg, 3 times a day so that we can check if there are any heartrate issues as it is a stimulant.

Let's discuss how Salbutamol works for a second, this is all from Tinkerbell by the way:

- Salbutamol is a beta 2 agonist. Beta 2 receptors found in lung and heart muscles. Thus incrreasing heart rate and causes bronchiodilation. Since both are muscles, in theory, it will stimulate all muscles.
The main worry is an increased heart-rate, too fast and it will cause an irregular heartbeat (arrythmia) and the Respiratory specialists will say that it can cause ventilation/perfussion missmatch.

- If you get heart palpitations, drink plenty of water -- I'm guessing it helps you pee out the drugs.

Lower dosage if palpitations happen.

- Optimum dosage would be 4mg, 3 times a day (based on my weight apparently) but to keep things safe, start with 2mg, every 8hours.

And now, some research of my own as to the effects of Salbutamol on SMA...
- (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20837492)
METHOD:
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neuromuscular disorder caused by mutations of the SMN1 gene. Based on severity, three forms of SMA are recognised (types I-III). All patients usually have 2-4 copies of a highly homologous gene (SMN2) which produces insufficient levels of functional survival motor neuron (SMN) protein. Recently, evidence has been provided that SMN2 expression can be enhanced in vitro by salbutamol, a β2-adrenergic agonist. This compound has also been shown to improve motor function of SMA patients in two different pilot trials.
RESULTS:
A significant and constant increase in SMN2 full length transcript levels was detected; the response was directly proportional to SMN2 gene copy number.

- Salbutamol for Spinal Atrophy Type 3 

CONCLUSION:
Oral salbutamol has been well tolerated and appears to maintain, and in some cases improve motor performance in SMA III

(Click links for further readings and do a quick Google search for more info)

_____________________________________________________

Bought Salbutamol from pharmacy.21 tablets (2mg each) costs RM4.20,ergo, cheap as chips. 21 tablets for a one week test, starting tomorrow. I think I'll be doing voice recordings on my thoughts and the effects.

Day 1: 2mg, twice a day
First Dose at 2:14PM
Second Dose at about 10pm
Heart palpitations: None

Restlessness: The usual amount because i have never had a day where I just sit and do nothing.

Thoughts: It's probably psychosomatic but I feel a tad better. Also, keep in mind that I did have an intense work-out session yesterday (Weights went up from 3lb to 4lb -- it's not much for you but it's satan on my muscles) so it might be my body's just chilling out and fixing itself.

I know I haven't been posting much but life happens. Life being going out and seeing people and... eating.

Aside from that.... I read. A LOT. Not just books but self-helpy type articles on the interwebs and I keep the good ones for future references.

Here's one that I find absolutely golden.

Take backs:
- A list of 10 things I'm absolutely afraid of.
- MUSTS are non negotiable, but they are very easy to lose sight of so you always have to reel yourself back in and reassess your life.
- Don't be an entitled lazy prick.

All of these I want to do with Meersy and Ash, a sort of "Sit down and let's talk about life," kind of thing. It's great bonding tools, truly.

On a more pressing note, RAMPS, MALAYSIA (specifically, Kuala Lumpur)!!! Not a difficult thing to have and it also means people with physical disabilities can get into places! Inclusivity, yo.