Anyway, Kate is a ballet freak, and over the years she got me and my wife Sylvia interested in trying it as well. Yes, it’s true - you don’t have to be dreaming of a career in the Russian ballet to try the sport - Sylvia and I are trying it casually. Call us “ballet dabblers.”

The thing that most surprised me after I tried ballet, was how incredibly, intensely painful it is. My legs felt like they’d been yanked from by some crazed giant, trying to dislodge them from my body. My neck felt like someone had beaten it with a French breadstick; it wasn’t broken, but it stung and felt granular for some reason.

All in all I’m thrilled with my casual ballet experience, but if you’re into giving it a try, make sure you can spare a few days off from work to recover. The physical toll is surprising.

My past experience with listing on web directories had me pulling out my hair – what little hair I have, anyway. It was the usual: people not answering the phone; tech support positions gifted to low-level employees not sufficiently trained to handle customer issues, and so on. People would give the lamest excuses as to why their most basic services were suddenly unavailable.

I got sick of it fairly quick and did an extensive online search for the most conservative, reliable web directory I could find. I think I’ve nailed it with Web Directory 7. My technical questions to their knowledgable staff were answered in a matter of minutes, not hours or days. They even offered some unsolicited tips of their own on web directory organization which helped a great deal in figuring out how it all fits together.

http://www.webdirectory7.com/

In my case, when the phenomenon started, I consulted doctors who prescribed a couple of different medications, all of which had horrible potential side effects. In the end, none of them worked. I then saw a doctor who told me I was allergic to a variety of foods, such as wheat, egg, milk, and sesame. I was fine for a couple of weeks (though very hungry), but the headaches came back.

One day, after a particularly bad attack, I was told about a Vietnamese monk living in southern Vermont. Although he was a doctor in Vietnam, he was not given any kind of official medical status in the US. He examined my wrists (presumably my pulse), looked at my tongue, and checked my eyes. After a minute or two, he said I had too much “heat” in my stomach and liver. He then disappeared into the back room only to return with a bag full of plant matter, sorted into paper envelopes. He told me to boil them in water for several hours, then drink them.

I left with the bag - a four week supply of “medicine” costing around $40, including consultation - and began the treatment. The stuff tasted worse than anything I have ever drunk in my whole life. I found it really annoying boiling everything down according to his specifications every day for a month, and it made the house small pretty bad for a while. However, I have not had a single migraine since then, and that was ten years ago! There were absolutely no side effects. There were no chemicals used whatsoever. And there was no money being poured into pharmaceutical companies.

That was a life-changing and eye-opening experience for me. Since then, I have constantly questioned why the government has been so reluctant to open its arms to homeopathic medicine. I suppose if there is no money to be made, there is very little impetus to promote it. But if we could save all that money that we have been so generously contributing to giant pharmaceutical companies for potentially dangerous medications, couldn’t we put it into something else that would help the economy…without side effects?

First, what I had heard so much about were repetitive stress disorders, or RSD, which are medical conditions resulting from overuse and overexertion of certain joints. Basically, when you make the same motion too many times, your body can react with pain, which is usually the result of inflammation. People who play tennis and golf often get pain in their elbows, and baseball pitchers feel it at several places in their arms. Unfortunately, those of us behind computers are also at risk. Scary.

I found out from my doctor that I had a problem with the fluid in tiny sacs in my wrist joints. These sacs are called “bursa”, and they become inflamed when they experience too much friction. He told me to alternately ice them and heat them, and take some over the counter painkillers if they hurt. That was a relief. It turns out, however, that the condition is called bursitis, and is, indeed, an example of an RSD.

Luckily, most bursitis cases heal fairly well and can be treated at home with ice and ibuprofen. If you are feeling regular pain at work, I highly recommend getting checked out. If it is something simple, you might as well just get rid of the pain. If it is something more serious, though, getting rid of it before requiring serious treatment and immobilization will save you a lot of agony and money.

Research points to the evolutionary race between humans and bacteria. Certain microbes cause a variety of ailments generally referred to as “food poisoning”. We don’t have built-in defenses to fight off all of these pathogens. However, many plants do. We incorporate their defenses in our cooking and, in effect, utilize them to potect ourselves. In other words, when cooked with certain spices, food that could be carrying dangerous bacteria will potentially be “detoxified”.

The same chemicals that kill the aforementioned dangerous microbes, however, can also have a deleterious effect on humans. Research shows that spices can be allergenic, carcinogenic, and even abortifacient. However, when dealing with spicy food, we have seemed to have developed the abiliy to know when to say when. Check out research posted on the Cornell Univesity news site for more information.

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1. Shop only at reputable shopping sites. By going with lesser-known online retailers, or mom-and-pop sites, you might get a better price sometimes, but you might be setting yourself up for disaster.

2. Shop only at secure websites. Reputable sites are typically secured, but double check to make sure. You will be able to tell whether the site is secure by looking for one of these three signs: https:// in the address bar instead of http://, a pad lock displayed at the bottom of your screen, or an unbroken key symbol. These all indicate that you are on a secure site, and that your data is encrypted to protect it from being intercepted by a third party.

3. Research the website/business before you order. Verify the validity of the business by looking for a phone number and seeing if you can actually reach someone. You can also check with the Better Business Bureau, as well as various consumer protection agencies. Lastly, a quick Google search on the company can also be helpful.

4. Always pay with your credit card. This is the safest way to make transactions online because in the case that something would go wrong, you are fully protected by the Fair Credit Billing Act. Never send wire transfers or money through Western Union, and don’t send cash. Paying by check can leave you susceptible to bank fraud.

5. Never give out your Social Security number. This is absolutely not necessary to make a purchase, and should immediately be a cause for concern should an online merchant request it.

6. Check the website address. Make sure you are on the website that you think you are on. Sometimes phishers will send you an email with a link to a site that looks legitimate, but when you click it you are redirected to one of their bad sites that they use to steal your personal information.

7. Print a copy of your order. You’ll want to have proof that you in fact placed the order and paid for it.

8. Before you buy, find out the merchant’s cancellation, return, and complaint policies.

9. Read the web site’s privacy policy and security policy. Make sure that they are doing everything to ensure your safety, and aren’t selling your personal information to third-party organizations.

If you follow these tips and use your intuition, you should be pretty safe in your online shopping ventures. Have fun, and shop safely.

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