Well, today I'll touch on religion. Ooops ! Did I just write this ?? OK, OK, calm down, all I'm going to talk about is religious music
☺.
I personally am not religious. I was born a Catholic with a Catholic mother and a Protestant father but I lived all my childhood in a Muslim country listening every Friday to the stirring calling to prayer, and every so often to the wonderful Islamic religious songs of
our neighbours, and whilst I hail from on overwhelmingly
Catholic country I now live in an overwhelmingly Anglican country, the UK, so I reckon I've experienced my fair share.
I love music from all corners of the world, and I defy anyone to beat my music collection in terms of numbers. We've all listened to stirring music, and R.E.M's
Everybody Hurts or George Michael's Freedom 90 are two examples amongst tens of thousands of stirring tunes (in my opinion, of course!).
What I have found, however, is that music from freedom movements (e.g. The Staple Singers) or religious music from all 6 corners of the World are quite often incredibly emotional and stirring regardless of whether you follow those religions. I've listened to unbelievably emotional religious songs from Guatemala, Peru, South Africa, Mozambique, Lebanon as well as Europe and the U.S. I've listened to amazingly moving religious songs from North Africa and the Arab world, from India, Pakistan, and China. Everywhere it's the same : whatever one's beliefs, whatever one's non-beliefs, religion all over the World does have this amazing ability to engender deeply moving and stirring music. And today I came across such an example.
I was at the hospital for some treatment; the nurses were playing the radio while I was registering, and I heard a song so powerful I decided I'd look it up on YouTube when back in the office, and, man, did I find a video ! When they tell you that the best of Gospel music is something to see, I can now tell you.... they're right ! Of course I know about Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson, and the rest, but this,
Let It Rain by Bishop Paul S. Morton, from Windsor -
Ontario - Canada, is something else altogether. What a performance, What passion, What stirring music, What energy, and What a Choir
I have never seen anything like it, the entire Church is the choir
this has to be the biggest choir ever !
See for yourself, and to those with an open mind, Enjoy ! (Maximise video
for best effect.)
(TUT) SpaceMan
Tuesday, 20th January 2009
Decency and Hope are back in town
Barack Obama 44th President of the United States of America
The 44th President of the United States of America has been sworn in. His name is Barack Obama. His speech was great, and the obligatory Thanks to George W. Bush were kept to the absolute minimum possible, 7 words or so. After 8 years of madness and alienation from the rest of the world, Decency and Hope have come back to town, they have come back to the USA, the country of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and of Non-Believers, which can no longer afford indifference to suffering and opinions outside its borders. Good Luck to you,
President Obama. Decency, Hope, Tolerance, Knowledge, and Intelligence are back in town. Today is a happy day.
(TUT) SpaceMan
Saturday, 17th January 2009
Acidic Stomachs Can't have vinaigrette (French salad dressing) ?
Unfortunately it is a fact of life that some of us have more acidic stomachs than the norm. For some of us this includes run-ins with stomach ulcers on one or more occasions, and, often, avoidance of acidic foods and red wine (what!!!).
You may even have had some of the worst symptoms including acid reflux and extreme discomfort after some meals, and you probably avoid any vinaigry salad dressing.
Well, here is another remedy that works : cider vinegar vinaigrette
or lemon vinaigrette.
As someone raised with vinaigrette almost every day of my "kid" days (mostly red wine or white wine vinaigrette), I still have vinaigrette about 5 times a week in starters or side dishes. I'm also blessed, unfortunately, with a very acidic stomach. Did I use "bless" just now ?? I would never have been able to continue with my love of vinaigrette (I used to come back from school and immediately head for the kitchen, make myself a vinaigrette and have that with french
bread!!) if I had not switched to making it with either cider vinegar or lemon. Cider vinegar is just as vinaigry tasting as most other vinegars but it is a lot more gentle, a lot less acid, and, certainly in my case, post vinaigrette stomach pains are now gone forever. Cider vinegar also has many other medicinal properties according to many reliable sources you can find on the web
I have no opinion on those, I just know that a cider vinegar vinaigrette no longer gives me acid aches in my stomach.
So, there you are, a vinaigrette (salad dressing) that works ! :-)
That said, I also want to mention my all-time favourite vinaigrette : Lemon or Lime, Salt, Garlic, Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Paradoxically, Lemon which seemingly feels like the most acid of food items (who can eat a lemon on its own ?) is actually extremely gentle on the stomach, and most particularly on overly acidic stomachs, when properly counterbalanced by salt, and it is a F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C vinaigrette. Remember, the salt is as important as the lemon (or lime).
Enjoy !
(TUT) SpaceMan
Thursday, 1st January 2009
Happy New Year 2009
We wish all our
readers, all our visitors, and all TUT users worldwide a Healthy,
Happy, and Prosperous 2009.
The AnswersThatWork Team
Saturday, 27th December 2008
That remedy for Athlete's Foot does work !
So, what happens on the month where we decide our blog will concentrate on Remedies That Work : we all get ill ! I got the
worst of it but that was marginal it was total decimation in our office.
Anyhow, I learnt something interesting during my time off : one of my colleagues read the blog on the Athlete's Foot remedy and emailed to say she liked the blog. She informed me that she'd suffered from Athlete's Foot since she was a child and that at one point it got so bad, it almost went right to the bone and she was forced to walk in crutches while it healed. Gee ! And I thought I'd experienced some
of the worst Athlete's Foot around...
She then went on to say that she liked the blog because it reminded her of how I helped her cure her Athlete's Foot 4 years ago ! Evidently, when I found out that great tip 4 years ago, I mentioned it here in our office and she too tried it straight away and, just like it did for me, it worked for her too. So, there you are, that Athlete's Foot remedy works !
Next Monday's blog : acidic stomachs.
(TUT) SpaceMan
Tuesday, 2nd December 2008
The best cure, best remedy for athlete's foot
OK, it's December, it's the festive season, so we've decided this year, this December, we're going to spend the month on anything but computer tips and solutions (you can check the rest of our website for that!). This month will be all about interesting wonderful cures.... that work !!
Today I'll have one for Athlete's Foot, the scourge of so many people around the World.
I first suffered from Athlete's Foot at the age of 8, shortly before
writing my first mathematical hyper computation program
J, and from then on I went through all the various remedies that all Athlete's Foot sufferers go through. Powders, creams, more powders, silk socks, cotton socks, shoes with ventilation, sandals, leather-only sandals, all-leather shoes, you name it, I
tried it.
And, of course, as all Athlete's Foot sufferers know so well, Athlete's Foot almost always comes back, or never disappears in some cases. So you try the latest remedies advertised on TV (what a great source of revenue for pharmaceutical companies this annoying condition is)
you try Tolnaftate, Terbinafine, Miconazole Nitrate, in powder or cream form, you try every single cream or powder under the sun, and still you remain a valued life customer of one or more of those pharmaceutical companies.
So, one day, 4 years ago, after a long and pretty serious bout, I decided there had to be a solution somewhere
someone had to have cracked this problem. I searched the web for an entire Saturday, read hundreds of pages, thousands of forum messages and finally came across one which made so much sense and was so simple it was stunning : this woman had got rid of Athletes Foot by using her hair dryer every morning
on her feet, after the shower, till they were totally totally dry, and that cured her forever. It made so much sense
after all, Athlete's Foot is a fungal infection which loves humidity !
I took the tip onboard and, guess what : it works. Without question. It works. So stunningly simple.
So, here is the method I have evolved from that wonderful tip of 4 years ago, a method which works for me :
Get a hairdryer if you don't already have one.
After the morning shower, dry your feet thoroughly with a towel.
Next, dry them fully with the hair dryer
don't burn them, use the medium setting for a 5 minute dry-up, on the top of the foot, on the sole of the foot and, most importantly, between the toes.
Wear cotton socks at all times.
Make sure your shoes have, at least, leather uppers.
If your place of work allows it, take your shoes off while at work and walk around in socks, or bare feet during the summer. Remember, it is those 10 hours you spend every day either at work, going to work, or coming home from work, which do the damage if your feet never feel "fresh air" during those 10 hours.
If you are a gym person, make sure you buy a mini hair dryer and do the same after the shower you have at the gym.
Ditto if you are a swimming pool person, or a sports person. Get that mini hair dryer and use it on your feet after the shower.
If you do get an infection, which will happen if you forget to do the above two or three days on the trot (trust me, I know!), then get back into the routine and accelerate the recovery with some Tolnaftate based Athlete's Foot powder and/or spray (I use both
dry the feet with the hair dryer, use Tolnaftate-based spray,
I use Scholl, put Tolnaftate-based powder inside the socks
you'll be cured in 2 to 3 days).
That's it. Good Luck. Remember, it works ! I wish I'd made a note of that woman's name to thank her for such a wonderful tip.
