The Right Recipe for Summer

 I am a diabetic (yes you all know that) but, I am also a sweater (my wife knows that) and now that it is time for summer and keeping my outdoor adventures trouble free and exercising becomes a challenge.  The insulin pump is the greatest thing since the no code glucose meter but your infusion site during intense workouts and high sweating can get irritated, infected, or start that slow peel off, or even just pop right off in the middle of nowhere.  Working with my own body and in my home science lab I have been trying to come up with a mixture that will reduce sweat and keep my infusion site safe.  Up to this summer it has been mixtures of anti-deodorant sprays, gels, and roll ons mixed with band aids, tapes, and even colostomy bag glue.  Nothing to date has really been affective until now.  The first thing I found out is that Mitchum is the best anti-persperant deodorant on the market (yes, I have tested them all) but, it does not stop sweat and in high heat and intense workouts it simply can't handle life by itself.  So I start by rubbing my arm pits with Mitchum then around my pump site making sure not to touch the tape because that will cause it to fall off.  Once that is done I add some around my belly (I sweat everywhere) and call it good.  The downside to Mitchum is that it irritates my arm pits if I use it every day so on none sweating days I switch to a straight up plain old deodorant.

 Once I am done with the Mitchum rub down I then top it with Gold Bond medicated powder.  The powder adds a touch to the mixture that keeps the drips of sweat away from my pump site and reduces friction once the Mitchum limit has been reached.  This one-two combination has been a personal miracle since I started using it.  Now I don't have pop-offs or irritating slow peel backs or even the third day itch.  Now, there are downsides to the powder as well because it gets everywhere and so once you get done your clothes, body, and surrounding area is covered with a nice layer of white powder.  I apply the powder in my arm pits, around my pump site, on my back, in my under pants and even feet.  Think of any place that gets irritated by sweat apply this stuff.

Recently Gold Bond has added this "Chafing Defense" anti-friction deodorant that I will be trying real soon.  Now I know it will not be as good at Mitchum (nothing is as good as Mitchum) but maybe it will be a close second and not have the stickiness that Mitchum has.  Of course once I put it through my science lab there will be a full report posted here.  Stay tuned and until then let me know what you do to defend your diabetes against summer time.

Out of the Wild the Alaska Experiment

 A month or so ago while out camping my buddy Paul and I were discussing NetFlix and I was talking about how I am about fed up with the eight bucks a month I am paying and they never add anything of quality to the offerings.  Then we get into the discussion of what we are currently watching and Paul tells me about this Discovery show called "Out of the Wild" and how it is this reality show on people having to make it in Alaska with little to nothing.  This show sounds interesting and Paul gets my attention how they have to use a map and compass while staying at these predetermined locations for only a few days not knowing how long this experiment will last or what the next location might hold.  They get random rations at each place but are constantly hungry, cold, and tired I now have to keep my NetFlix subscription and check this show out.

 The show is made of nine people that get a three day lesson on how to survive in Alaska and also basic items on survival and safety.  One thing I did forget to mention is they each get a location GPS finder thing that they keep on their belt and at any time if they feel they can go no longer all they have to do is turn it on and a helicopter comes and picks the individual up.  In the beginning they have two people that are somewhat outdoorsy people but the rest are basic city slickers with little to no camping or hunting experience.

The beginning the group is dropped off at a location and there are tarps with all sorts of equipment on them and the group makes the bad decision as to taking everything instead of analyzing and discussing what is needed and what is wanted.  So one guy is carrying a 25 pound cast iron dutch oven along with a giant wash bin and all sorts of unnecessary item.  What was real neat is how they had to make these ruck sack things out of tarps and rope with some foam strategically placed in the waist and shoulder areas.  I have never done this and would definitely like to try something like this.

I must say this eight episode show was extremely entertaining and they did a great job of filming the experience.  The group had real appeal as well with their likable personalities instead of the weirdos you see on Survivor and the likes.  While watching this you see them make some classic mistakes such as crossing streams in your hiking boots (been there, done that), trying to make snares (tried it and I will resort to eating boogers before I try to survive on my snare abilities), and then how they did not know how to use the magnesium fire starter.  Part of the drama is the first two to leave are the most experienced fisherman and a lady that camps and hunts.  I had certain pegged for lasting and others to go out in no time but it was amazing to see when the go or who goes.

In the end this 2009 Discovery show is great and I would recommend it to anyone not just for its survival appeal but for the quality of the program.  They also show how the team doesn't listen to everyone and how the group dynamic changes and when people explode they just have to get it out and everyone gets along in the end.  The next series they go to Venezuela and I can't wait to spend a few hours late at night watching it as well.  These always make me sad thinking how us diabetics would survive in these situations and how I would love to participate in something like this.  Maybe in my next life when I am re-incarnated as a Hypoglycemic.

Bing

Everyone I know of uses Google for all their searches on the inter-web and some even use Google Chrome as their inter-web browser thing.  Then there are those few others that use Ask.com or lycos as their search engine, but what everyone needs to do is switch to http://www.bing.com/.  You are asking yourself why?  Well because Bing is the only search engine that pays you to use them.  How do they do that?  Well first sign up for a Bing account and then whenever you do your searches on the inter-web use Bing and for every two searches you use they give you a point.  Then everyday if you look at their topic of the day they will reward you with more points and then the more points you build up you gain levels which gets you more points and so on.  In the end when you go and redeem these points they have quality gifts.  I was very sceptical of this Bing reward system at first because I am a Coke rewards person and they usually offer at the best a free coke with so many points but most of the rewards are either discounts on stuff or raffle chances to win big things you are almost guaranteed not to win.  With Bing the rewards are simple and they are good such as free red box movie rentals, Xbox live gift cards, Starbucks gift cards, Groupon gift cards, and my favorite Amazon.com gift cards.  Many of my friends are extremely sceptical of using Bing and one even told me it was because "they record and monitor what you do on that website" and my response to that was if you are scared of Microsoft keeping your search results because that part of their business is about .001% of their revenue stream but Google does the same thing but your search history is about 99% of their business that makes no sense to be scared of Bing any more than Google.  So all of you penny pinching diabetics out there (OK and regular people as well) switch and earn free stuff.  I have already received 5.00 dollars in Amazon.com gift cards and 1/3rd the way to another 2.50 cent gift card just for doing what I already do.

Random photo of they day here, I was walking through the store the other day and noticed this "Lawn Darts" game and had to stop and take a closer look.  I am not sure any of you remember the original lawn darts game of the 80's but one of my best friends and I during the summers of early elementary school would play the original lawn darts at his house.  The original lawn darts had long sharp metal tips so they would stick in the ground.  The game was to set these rings out in your yard and they had red darts and blue darts and you were to throw these suckers in the air and try to get them to stick in the ground in the circle to get a point.  Well you can easily guess that throwing huge metal darts in the air for kids under the age of 10 would stop them from making that game for long but I remember the fun my buddy and I had with his set.  Now they make these as just weighted balls with fins on the back.  These should not be allowed to have the name of lawn darts.  They should be something like safety lawn spheres or something.  When you take the danger out of the original lawn dart you take all the fun out of it.  My friend and I would of course modify the game to where the circles where close to danger so if someone was a real bad thrower they were getting into some major trouble.  What will come next, not allowing babies to stick pennies in wall sockets?