Archive for the ‘Misc’ Category
Posted by terrepruitt on October 14, 2014
You may be familiar with cycles of a cardio class. Most modalities or classes have a warm-up, a “moving portion”, and a cool down. Not every form of cardio class includes a “flexibility” portion. As I mentioned in my last post, I was in a training recently and they include flexibility in their class structure. That is awesome. Their required class structure is: warm-up, endurance phase (cardio), cool down, then flexibility. I love that they are including flexibility. It is great to see. That is four portions. As you may be aware, Nia has seven. We call our sections of class cycles. The cycles are:
1. Setting your focus and intent
2. Stepping In
3. Warm up
4. Get Moving
5. Cool Down
6. Floorplay
7. Stepping out
Nia’s cycle #4, the “Get Moving” is comparable to the endurance phase or the cardio phase. That is where we really move. We can use big movements and move through the planes to get the heart rate up, so our cardio does not consist of running and jumping. In order to get the heart pumping we move our body up and down, using the muscles. We also move our arms and hands — a lot. Could be we are punching or it could be we are just moving them in a way consistent with the body’s way but that helps get the blood moving.
Nia’s cycle #6, Floorplay, is multiple types of movement. It is stretching and/or strengthening. It could be rolling on the floor or even crawling. With floorplay we do exactly that . . . . we play on the floor. There is definitely “flexibility” going on.
I was happy to see the flexibility component added. In fact, it might be so new that it wasn’t even included in the copy of the slides that we received for hand outs.
Flexibility is important. We there is tightness in the muscles sometimes they do not move properly. Where there is tightness in the joints they do not move properly. We our body does not move properly it tries to compensate and often ends up creating more issues. Or the tightness does not allow us to fully straighten so it might feel as if it can’t move at all so then people stop moving. It is somewhat a cycle. Perhaps you would like to read Simple Stretches Could Bring Relief.
Working on flexibility is just as important as working on cardio and resistance training. Flexibility is great to include in your workout routine. It should be scheduled into your workout time. Just like a savasana is done at the end of a yoga routine, stretching should be part of any workout routine you do.
It would be best if you stretched the muscles that you just worked in your workout. Being specific would be good. But in general it seems a safe bet would be to start at the top and work your way down. Stretching each muscles/muscle group. As I mentioned it would be best to stretch what you just worked so if you know how to do that, spend an extra minute or two on those muscles/muscle groups. I know it might feel like you don’t have time for it, but it will actually prove to save you time in the long run.
Do you have stretching as part of your workout? Do you work on your flexibility?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: 7 cycles of Nia, cardio, cool down, cycles of a cardio class, dance classes, dance exercise, exercise classes, flexibility, floorplay, Nia, Nia class, resistance training, tight muscles, warm-up, workout classes | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 11, 2014
In Nia there is something called “the beginner’s mind”. Since learning about it associated with Nia, I have heard about it in association with other things. It might not always be called “beginner’s mind”, but it is the same concept, the same idea. It is the idea of stepping into something – anything, even if is something you are well familiar with – with a mind as if you are a beginner. Step into it as if you are hearing it, doing it, seeing it, or learning it for the first time. Step in as if you are a beginner.
This is a wonderful tool. When you walk into a situation with an empty cup, when it is not full of knowledge on the subject, it is able to be filled with all the information, new stuff is easy to learn, stuff you already “know” can be learned in a new way, and your cup gets filled again.
There are many reasons why you might want to practice the “beginner’s mind”. It could be because you are required – perhaps through your company, your certifying board, or any number of things – to take a particular class. It could be because – even though you know you don’t know everything there is to know . . . the timing of the class has you thinking it will be a waste of time. It could be — as just mentioned — you know you don’t know everything, but the length of the class has you thinking you will only get two hours worth of information out of the twelve hours you are being required to attend.
When I take a Nia class I always step in with a beginner’s mind. I know that no matter what routine is going to be taught it is going to be different. Which is not to say that the teacher will not do it correctly or will not do it the way it was taught on the DVD, but it does allow me to easily accept. I accept the way the teacher is teaching it. It flows so much better if I am just receiving as opposed to trying to inject my knowledge and the way the routine is supposed to be done. I accept that the teacher might not teach it exactly as I teach it. The teacher might use different pearls. The teacher use different cues. She might have found that a slight change in the choreography works better for her students or even something for her. And . . . with the idea that I am doing it as a beginner . . . instead of an expert who knows the routine . . . I can learn something. If I just do as I am being instructed I might sense that the move she does is actually good for a particular audience. Or the pearls that the teacher uses really matches well with the movements. Instead of my inner dialog being the moves or worse something like, “Well, here I say, ‘XXX'” or here we move like XXX, with my beginner’s mind I am listening instead of “talking” over what is happening. All of this could lead to discover of a new movement pattern.
In regards to a training where you are required to be, it could just make it be less dreadful than you thought it would. If you accept the fact that it is a requirement and decide to walk in with a beginner’s mind being told stuff you already know is not such a waster of time. Keeping the beginner’s mind and not telling your entire story to prove what you know gives you time to listen to what others know and learn about them. And — as stated before — possibly hear the same information but in a new way. Allowing yourself to let go and not be the expert is freeing and lets you relax into the learning process.
I was grumpy this past week because I knew I had to spend my Friday night (FRIDAY NIGHT) and all day Saturday in a training. I was afraid that my grumpiness would keep me from learning and be recognized by others. So I asked for help and was reminded of the beginner’s mind. I was able to step into the class not as grumpy. Of course, I did mention the fact to the trainer that it was a long training and the trainer – being an EXPERT trainer and pretty awesome – agreed, gave me the sympathy I wanted and boom! I got over it. 🙂 With my “cup” empty . . . I learned some cool things!
Do you every have the opportunity to practice the “beginner’s mind”? Have you every practice the “beginner’s mind”? How did practicing the “beginner’s mind” work for you?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: begiiner's mind, Expert trainer, movement pattern, Nia, Nia choreography, Nia class, Nia DVD, Nia pearls, Nia routine, Nia student, Nia Teacher, required training, training | 14 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 4, 2014
Paint Nite. Have you heard of it? I have wanted to do it for a long time. But it was not in my budget. It is about $50 for two hours of painting. But the idea is to have a glass of wine or something and a little snack while painting so it would be . . . . like I said . . . not in my budget. I kept seeing friends post pictures of their paintings and I kept wanting to go. I have a friend or two who have done it multiple times. Then I received an e-mail from Groupon. The Groupon deal is for $25.00. Much more affordable . . . but I still hadn’t done it. Then along comes my birthday. I have a group of friends who always get together for each other’s birthdays. We have been doing it since we were eighteen years old. Well, one of the group moved too far away so not all four of us always make it, but sometimes we do if she is in town. But anyway . . . . the remaining three of us are always trying to find stuff to do and I thought a Paint Nite would be fun. But one problem is, it is Paint NITE as in NIGHT. And one of us three, lives too far to be out that late on a school night. But one of my friends still decided to give me a Groupon for Paint Nite for my birthday. I was so excited. I finally got to go to a Paint Nite.
Upon first hearing about Paint Nite I didn’t realize you can pick the night you go based on the painting that is going to be done that night. I don’t know if it was different when it first started, but I know when I first heard about it, I was told that you just paint whatever . . . could be there was some miscommunication. So when I actually looked into it and saw you could pick via painting I was excited. You can also pick based on artist, date, or location. So it is really nice.
I, of course, picked a blue painting. It had pink it in, but I would suffer the pink . . . because it was blue with FLOWERS. Now one reason I wanted to do it is because I wanted to paint. But another reason I wanted to do it is because there are things that I won’t do unless I can do them a certain way. But sometimes I do things that I consider practice at letting go and just embracing whatever it is I am doing. This was my plan for painting. I had faith in the process, but I didn’t think I would paint all that good. And I didn’t. My painting is not one that they would put on the website or even their Facebook page to advertise Paint Nite. But it is partially on purpose and partially not.
The painting is done in steps so at one point it was close to what the final project is supposed to look like. But I decided that I didn’t care for the pink and I wanted more blue so I covered most of the pink. So THAT is one aspect of it that was purposeful. The fact that my flowers are not white was semi-purposeful . . . but not really. I purposefully painted my bottom layers thick because I like the texture of thick paint in paintings. But with only two hours to paint you have to paint thin so the paint can dry and you can paint the other layers. So — ding, ding, ding! I learned something. So, in order to try to cover the bottom layer I used a lot of white . . . .which also translated to thick lines (petals) and so my flowers are more like star fish. But I learned. And my painting is blue and that is pretty much all I wanted. I let go any idea that it was going to be perfect or even good.
I had a great time. It was not so much about the painting as it was about the company and doing something together. Now I am on the lookout for another “blue painting”. The thing is, is they have to be on a night I am available and in my area. So . . . I am still looking.
I am booked to do a painting with a friend in the future, but the painting was her pick and is not blue. And with that one . . . I really have to let go of the idea of my painting looking anything like that painting. Ha! I am going for the company. It is going to be super fun!
Have you heard of Paint Nite? Have you done a Paint Nite? Will you share a photo of you painting with us?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: Facebook, Groupon, Paint Nite, painting | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 2, 2014
Nia is a dance exercise . . . dare I say it? It is much more if you want it to be. Otherwise you can keep it just as that, an exercise class that you attend where you dance. That is fine. When you attend regularly you will more-than-likely experience more, but you do not have to take it any farther than that. But . . . since I love dance and I teach a dance exercise class, I am going to post AGAIN about dancing. I am not writing about dancing in an exercise class at the gym, community center, or dance studio, I am talking about dancing ON THE STREET! My last post was about dancing on the street. It was the fun idea of dancing while you are waiting for the crosswalk signal to change. You can check it out HERE! This post is highlighting yet another video about dancing on the street. This time it is about dancing WHILE you are crossing the street.
Now it did cross my mind that some of these people looked almost as if they were doing Free Dance in Nia as they were very absorbed in their dance. Some looked as if it might actually not be a safe thing to do. But then I remembered that many people don’t pay attention when they cross the street as it is. Many people have their face down and they are looking at their phone. So I don’t feel that dancing while crossing the street is any more dangerous than the “phone-walk”.
This looks just as fun as dancing while waiting. I think they should come up with a crosswalk sign that is ALL dance. Dance while you wait, then dance across the street.
I do love how so many people seemed to dance while crossing the street. So many people seemed to get into the moment and just go for it. So fun. I love the girl at the end. She was completely surprised. I was thinking that some of these people were “planted” and were dancing as part of the people filming the video. And that could be true, but that girl’s shoe flying off her foot was not planned. She was surprised.
Not everyone is into dancing or be what you might call a dancer. That is one great thing about Nia you don’t have to be experienced in dance you just have to be willing to move. Could be that you don’t have to dance while waiting for the crosswalk sign to change or you don’t have to dance while crossing the street, but you still could take a moment during your day to enjoy life. That really is what all of this dancing is about. The people who like to dance get enjoyment from it so they do so while waiting or crossing. If dancing is not your “thing” that is fine, take a moment to do something that is. Do something — if just for a moment — that brings you joy.
I love all this dancing! Thanks, SoulPancake! A friend of mine post this one on Facebook. Have you seen this video yet?
(click the pic to watch the video)
Posted in Misc | Tagged: community center, dance across the street, dance class, dance exercise, dance studio, dancer, dancing crosswalk signal, dancing on the street, exercise class, Facebook, gym, Nia, SoulPancake | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 30, 2014
One of my Facebook friends shared a link to a video. (See below. Watch video.) I LOVE this. The idea is so awesome, to me. I think it would be so cool if dancing on the street while waiting for a crosswalk light to change in your favor was acceptable and actually encouraged. I think this is so fun. I really love this idea. I was so happy to see that little red dancing figure, I was squealing while watching it. Then when I saw that it was NOT a computer program just set to play, I clapped with glee. People dancing while their moves are being reproduced onto the crosswalk signal in real time —- AWESOME.
How fun is that? It would be so much more fun to stand and wait. Also it would give you something to do. I always feel silly standing there waiting, not doing anything. Then I feel silly for feeling silly because I am supposed to wait. I shouldn’t feel silly. I am being courteous (and following the law) by waiting my turn and not darting out into traffic. It is rude when people walk out into the street against the crossing light hoping to can make it across the street before a car comes or worse yet, expecting the car to stop. GRRRRRRR. I get upset when I see people do that. Because if they get hit and die what will they care . . . they will be dead, but they will have ruined someone else’s day and perhaps their lives because they were too rude to just wait a minute or two. So this dancing would give them something to do.
I can see how it just might promote safety. The non-waiting people (that might normally cross against the light — jeopardizing their safety and the safety of others) might not dance, but they might be interested enough to stay and watch. To me it didn’t look as if that many people were dancing. The video said that 81% (THAT IS A LOT) more people actually followed the law (psstt . . . yes it is the law) while at the dancing crosswalk signal light. So, more people stopped from crossing the street when they did not have a signal to go, while at this signal. I did not see on the video a percentage given of how many people actually danced. But with the reported increase in the number of people that stopped it got people’s attention. I wonder how they measured that?
So fun. The title of where I saw the video said something about, “safe and happy!” Oh yeah. It would make me happy. I would be happy dancing while waiting at the light OR dancing to make the signal dance. Fun stuff. We could have a Nia crosswalk where we led people through Nia routines. Ha, that would be funny. The Nia Crosswalk Signal . . . .
The video is on Smart’s Youtube channel. Check out the video.
So what do you think? Would you watch? Would you dance if you were waiting at the crosswalk? Would you dance in the signal (the room they had set up) and be the dancing crosswalk signal? Do you think this is cool?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: crosswalk signal, Dancing, dancing on the street, Facebook, Nia, Nia Dance, Nia routines, pedestrian law, pedestrian safety, Smart cars, Youtube | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 25, 2014
I have asked on Twitter time and time again. I have received no reply. Perhaps people thought it was a rhetorical question. Perhaps no one else has experienced this. Perhaps they thought I was joking. Perhaps it was such a “No duh!” to them no one has bothered to answer. But my question is: Do people . . . owners of websites . . . pay other people, primarily those who do not speak English as their first language, to go onto other people’s blogs and leave comments? I get the weirdest comments. I get comments that have NOTHING to do with the post. I get comments where the person posting states their name is Samantha Garblygook, with an e-mail of habeebsrab@xxx.com, and the web address will be for Youtube. Odd stuff like that. I have received comments FIVE paragraphs long about washing machines or some computer part. And the way they type the comments is obvious that they are typing them in a way so they can search for them. With every “the” spelled tthe, with every “are” spelled arre . . . stuff like that. I cannot imagine people just doing this on their own. I can’t imagine Samantha or Habeeb (whatever their real name might be) going onto the internet to leave a comment to promote an appliance repair site or a lawyer’s site just to be nice. Just because. So the site owners must be paying these people, right? They are having people go out and comment on a lot of blogs to try to get traffic back to their site, right?
Sometimes the comments make sense, but they have the mismatched name and e-mail, as I have mentioned. Or they have the purposefully misspelled words as I have also mentioned. But sometimes the comments are just gobblygook. They make no sense at all. They are just words strung together. Or there might be one sentence or a two or three word combination that MIGHT sort of make sense but not really. So odd. Actually the ones that make absolutely NO sense at all are becoming fewer and farther between. Now it is more of the comments that have NOTHING, NOT. A. THING. to do with the post they are commenting on or they have a huge number of words crafted with misspellings. I am getting a lot of these lately.
I probably get at least 10 a day. That is a lot. It makes me laugh because some of them sound like nice comments. They sound sweet, but “I reallly love tthe way you expose tthe information to mme on this terriffic site. It is clear tthe information meanns allot to you. Could you tell mme tthe best webblog to use? You will be famous withh your blogging.” is clearly spam. Ha! Yes. I love exposing information and I am famous. Sigh.
I used to get excited when I saw that little number that indicates I have a comment. Now I know it will just bbe a spaam comment. I used to wonder why they typed like that because it is clearly calculated then my hubby said it was so they can search for their specific comment. The type-os would be unique to them. Yeah, makes perfect sense. So, I think once or twice, the comment sounded nice, so I edited out the type-os and approved it. 🙂
The comments today are hilarious. Once goes from talking about hair to digestion and then back to hair. Two talk about streaming movies. One actually says, “Try to knife him to see that he’s not down and out just yet.” WHAT???????
So is that what is happening, are people PAYING other people to leave these types of comments? Do you have a blog? Do you experience these crazy comments on your blog?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: blogging, crazy comments, gobblygook, paid comments, paid spammers, spam, spam comments, spammers, Twitter, web traffic | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 18, 2014
Ahh, I really wanted to have my blog post for today written yesterday. I wanted to “take the day off” today. Well, I taught a Nia Class this morning. And I have a Gentle Yoga Class to teach tonight, so I am not really taking the day off. I just didn’t want to have to think about a blog post or clean any part of the house today. I was going to take the day off from cleaning and doing chores. Ha. Well, it didn’t work out that way. But it is still a good day. We had a bit of rain. But that just made the traffic this morning very bad. My hubby was very thoughtful and called me to alert me to the chaos on the freeways this morning. So I left early than I normally do to get to class. I started to get on the freeway and got right back off. Since the traffic was not normal Thursday morning traffic I didn’t know if there were accidents that were blocking the roads so I decided to chance it and take the inner city streets. I actually made it to class RIGHT ON TIME! Which to me is not “on time” because I need to do a little set up before we start. But we still started only about five minutes late. Most of the Nia students didn’t even know we started late. So it worked out. The rain was only a very small amount, but it was moisture. That is a good thing. So there are a lot of things that can go into my Goodie Jar just today. So I am making this a check in day.
I haven’t checked in on you and your Goodie Jar for four months. I am still putting things in mine. I ALWAYS have something to put in mine. Regardless of what is going on I consider myself blessed. I hope you have at least one thing you can put into your jar.
I am doing a check in as a sort of “day off” from writing a blog post. Since I didn’t get the day off from chores and cleaning. I really don’t need a day off from teaching. Teaching is fun and I get so much good energy from my Nia and yoga students it doesn’t count as work. I can do without the extra travel time and traffic, but . . . we need the rain. Don’t know why it practically shuts our freeways down . . . but whatever.
Rain. To class on time. Birthday love. Hubby cooking dinner. These are the things that make me smile that I put in my Good Things Jar.
I have seen some people post on Facebook and others on their blog that some of you have gotten new family members . . . whether human or animal, that is a thing for the Goodie Jar. I always put notes about my family in my Goodie Jar.
So . . . what about you? Are you still putting things in your Good Things Jar? What have you added recently?
Posted in Good Things in the Goodie Jar, Misc | Tagged: birthday, blog post, California Rain, Facebook, freeway chaos, gentle yoga, good things jar, Goodie Jar, Nia class, Nia students, rain shuts down freeways, teaching Nia, Yoga class | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 13, 2014
Recently I woke up singing Fergie’s Big Girls Don’t Cry. I just woke up and started singing it. It was the first thought in my head. I sang it most of the morning, then I thought, “well, yeah they do . . . and there are a lot of reasons for big girls to cry.” Then I thought of that meme you might know it. I might as well voice my opinion on it. That is what the internet is for, right? People just throwing their opinions out there? Well, if you would like to hear about mine please continue reading. I wouldn’t mind hearing your opinion on this. I have things to say about this little saying. “No boy is worth crying over. And the one who is won’t make you cry.” Yikes. I have an issue with this. I truly think this sets a very unreasonable, unhealthy, and ridiculous standard. Really? We are telling girls that a boy is not worth it if he makes you cry. Or he is not worth it if you shed tears in your dealings with him. Wow! I think I understand the POINT of this, but then again, since I understand the point of it, I don’t need a little reminder of it. I am concerned that people who might need a reminder like this might take it literally without context. Because if you think that anyone in your life that makes you cry is not worth it, then you might end up very alone.
I mean, there are as many reason that someone can “make” you cry as there are people. It could be that you are having a stressful day and your emotions are a bit wobbly so you aren’t feeling very secure and your special someone walks in and says, “Did you do something with your hair?” And since you are feeling insecure and you don’t like your hair at the moment you burst into tears. It could be that your special someone had a very stressful day and walks in and says a little harsh, “Where is dinner?” And you have been busy all day and haven’t even thought of it and you feel bad and that makes you cry. It could be that your cat just died and EVERYTHING makes you cry. It could be that you were just diagnosed with something so, again, everything makes you cry. But since it is the boy who is doing the talking you think it is him that is making you cry.
It is not reasonable to think that humans interacting with each other will never cause tears. If the boy you are interested in never makes you cry because he is so perfect you should go with him to the doctor to make sure he is not either alien or a robot. That is why love is sometime wonky. You, yourself have to be secure enough to know where the tears are coming from. Are they coming from you–something going on with you or is the person you love really being mean. And with you knowing yourself and being secure you can decide if that is something you want to put up with. To say no boy worth crying over won’t make you cry is ludicrous.
I think it would serve people better — especially if your boyfriend / fiancé / husband is a highly paid athlete (!!!!) — if it said “No boy is worth letting yourself get hit/beat/dragged around.” THAT would be a much better lesson to get out there and to preach. The crying lesson is just not realistic. People are going to hurt your feelings . . . it could be that you are being sensitive for whatever reason or it could be that he is being a jerk — it happens. But does it happen all the time? Is it something that YOU know is just him being an ass because he has something going on or does he do it all the time? There is a difference between a once-in-a-while-I-am-being-sensitive-or-he-is-having-an-off-day thing and something that happens all the time. So . . . he just might make you cry every once in a while. But it should not be all the time and it should never be because he hit you.
But people are not perfect and someone who is “worth it” might just make you cry. What do you think?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: abuse, big girls do cry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Fergie, highly paid athlete, make you cry, worth crying over | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 4, 2014
You may have read my post regarding my Home Gym Machine (click here to go there). It is great, but it takes up a lot of room. When our cat died this year I decided to use some of the space that was hers for my machine. You may also know, if you have read a few of my blog posts that my mom died this year. You may have figured out that she was sick for a bit. She had a couple of cancers and with the second one that took over a year to diagnose, her prescribed treatment was chemotherapy. She opted to do it. One of her first shared thoughts was that she would lose her hair. She had very thin hair, but she did all she could to make it pretty. And she succeed. She wasn’t much to discuss things like dying and how she really felt about her illness so I don’t know for certain, but I think her focus on her hair was a way of distracting herself. In addition to her looking at wigs and we looked at things that could cover her head. What does that have to do with they BodyShop . . . the name of the Total Gym like machine? Well, I learned a valuable lesson. Even though my hair is short, cover it up because the pulleys will do exactly that —- PULL. My hair, that is. The pulleys pull my hair. So I have to cover it.
My mom didn’t lose all her hair. It started to fall out and get more thin, but she died before she lost all of it. But she never used her Buffs that we bought her. Now I use them. I keep one hanging over the foot board of my machine (you may have seen it in the picture on the Home Gym Machine post. So I just slip it on when before I get on. It makes me hot. I don’t like things on my head. But I like my hair getting ripped out of my head even less.
I am glad I am getting use out of the hair cover ups. And I am happy I am not getting my hair pulled out by the pulleys. Weird things that come from death.
I keep my hair short because it looks better drying on its own after a Nia class, than if I had long hair. (My hair gets very wet when I teach). My hair isn’t really long enough to “put up”. As you can see from the little picture. I certainly didn’t think it was long enough to be pulled. It could be that it is not really getting caught up in the pulleys as the pulleys are pulling it. Whether it be against the bar or the back rest. I don’t know because I am unable to see, but I certainly feel the pull and, “No thanks.”
So the point of this post is to share with you before you pull your hair out. Cover up your hair.
Have you ever had your hair pulled by a machine? Do you put your hair up? Do you cover your hair?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: BodyShop, Buff, cat died, chemotherapy, hair cover up, Home Gym Machine, lung cancer, mom died, Nia class, short hair, throat cancers, Total Gym | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on August 28, 2014
One of my Nia students gave me a catalog today after Nia class that had information in it about a new device. I have been saying for a while we need something like this. I am not saying this is it, but I am saying this is very interesting. I think this is really the start of something. This is something that — if used properly — could really help people be more in control of their health and wellness. Now, I know a lot of people who can practically do this on their own, without a fancy machine. But not everyone is THAT in tune with their body. Not everyone knows what little signs the body gives means. This is something that fascinates me because it COULD be very helpful. Unfortunately with everything, I am certain the information will be used as a marketing tool and therefore take away from the good (in my opinion) it could do, but we will see. I would also imagine different/additional tests to be helpful. It is very interesting and it is a start. It is a device called Cue.
Cue is a little cube that takes a biological sample using specific cartridges and processes it into information you can use to make decisions about your diet and what actions you can take to adjust the readings. It looks as if right now the information it can give feedback on is “Vitamin D”, “Inflammation”, “Influenza”, “Testosterone”, and “Fertility”.
I noticed that on the video, it showed the woman was deficient in Vitamin D. That makes sense, it can test for that. The flu virus is another one I understand along with testosterone, the device can detect the virus as it can detect levels of testosterone. It tests for the luteinizing hormone with the “Fertility” cartridge. It does not say how they determine the body’s level of inflammation. I would imagine they are testing for a specific level of protein with a blood test. But I cannot find information on the site that explains exactly how this thing works and what exactly they are testing for.
I find it very interesting.
I know there are presently at home tests where you can test for fertility, but I think the thing with the Cue would be tracking and documenting. And possibly even alerting you with reminders and things. “Hey, don’t forget tonight is the night . . . ” for the female (who cares to do so) “better shave your legs” and for the male who wants to be romantic “stop at the flower shop”. Ok, so I am going off of commercials I see regarding other devices . . . but I would bet there are alerts, probably not so detailed, but who knows?
I don’t care for the information being sent wirelessly, but that is because I wouldn’t want my information floating about. 🙂 I am also not crazy about the Flumap . . . again, some of the aspects of this could be abused . . . basically like anything.
The cartridges are all single use and they come in packs of five. A five pack of ONE test. So you would get five of the vitamin D test. And not one of each. The packs are presently priced at $20.00. Oh, except the flu, that is a THREE pack for $30.00. The tests (per the website) are as follows:
For an Inflammation test, Cue requires a droplet of blood.
For a Vitamin D test, Cue requires a droplet of blood.
For an Influenza test, Cue requires cellular material from the nostril.
For a Testosterone test, Cue requires a few droplets of saliva.
For a Fertility test, Cue requires a droplet of blood.
So, what do you think? Do you think this sounds interesting? Would you be interesting in use something like this? Would you be interested in one of the present tests? What would you like it to test for?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: and Fertility, biological sample, Cue, health tracking device, home tests, Inflammation, Influenza, luteinizing hormone, Nia class, Nia San Jose, Nia students, San Jose Nia, testing cartridges, Testosterone, vitamin D | Leave a Comment »
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
Paid Gooblygook
Posted by terrepruitt on September 25, 2014
I have asked on Twitter time and time again. I have received no reply. Perhaps people thought it was a rhetorical question. Perhaps no one else has experienced this. Perhaps they thought I was joking. Perhaps it was such a “No duh!” to them no one has bothered to answer. But my question is: Do people . . . owners of websites . . . pay other people, primarily those who do not speak English as their first language, to go onto other people’s blogs and leave comments? I get the weirdest comments. I get comments that have NOTHING to do with the post. I get comments where the person posting states their name is Samantha Garblygook, with an e-mail of habeebsrab@xxx.com, and the web address will be for Youtube. Odd stuff like that. I have received comments FIVE paragraphs long about washing machines or some computer part. And the way they type the comments is obvious that they are typing them in a way so they can search for them. With every “the” spelled tthe, with every “are” spelled arre . . . stuff like that. I cannot imagine people just doing this on their own. I can’t imagine Samantha or Habeeb (whatever their real name might be) going onto the internet to leave a comment to promote an appliance repair site or a lawyer’s site just to be nice. Just because. So the site owners must be paying these people, right? They are having people go out and comment on a lot of blogs to try to get traffic back to their site, right?
Sometimes the comments make sense, but they have the mismatched name and e-mail, as I have mentioned. Or they have the purposefully misspelled words as I have also mentioned. But sometimes the comments are just gobblygook. They make no sense at all. They are just words strung together. Or there might be one sentence or a two or three word combination that MIGHT sort of make sense but not really. So odd. Actually the ones that make absolutely NO sense at all are becoming fewer and farther between. Now it is more of the comments that have NOTHING, NOT. A. THING. to do with the post they are commenting on or they have a huge number of words crafted with misspellings. I am getting a lot of these lately.
I probably get at least 10 a day. That is a lot. It makes me laugh because some of them sound like nice comments. They sound sweet, but “I reallly love tthe way you expose tthe information to mme on this terriffic site. It is clear tthe information meanns allot to you. Could you tell mme tthe best webblog to use? You will be famous withh your blogging.” is clearly spam. Ha! Yes. I love exposing information and I am famous. Sigh.
I used to get excited when I saw that little number that indicates I have a comment. Now I know it will just bbe a spaam comment. I used to wonder why they typed like that because it is clearly calculated then my hubby said it was so they can search for their specific comment. The type-os would be unique to them. Yeah, makes perfect sense. So, I think once or twice, the comment sounded nice, so I edited out the type-os and approved it. 🙂
The comments today are hilarious. Once goes from talking about hair to digestion and then back to hair. Two talk about streaming movies. One actually says, “Try to knife him to see that he’s not down and out just yet.” WHAT???????
So is that what is happening, are people PAYING other people to leave these types of comments? Do you have a blog? Do you experience these crazy comments on your blog?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: blogging, crazy comments, gobblygook, paid comments, paid spammers, spam, spam comments, spammers, Twitter, web traffic | 4 Comments »