From the The Universal Household Assistant or What Every One Should Know (1884):

Worms — treatment of. — Some members of the profession still cling with bull-dog tenacity to the opinion that worms do not affect the health of children, and that they are natural to them. The latter may or may not be true, but when they accumulate in the intestines, they produce the same disturbance that any foreign, indigestible substance would do. We find the picking of the nose, swollen lower eye-lids, restlessness in sleep, groaning, gritting teeth, starting, and lastly, spasms.    Worms kill more children than teething*; and when you find the above symptoms with a strawberry tongue and a fever, which will attack several times daily, going off as frequently in cold sweats, you can swear that you have a case of worms, and had as well prepare and attack them.    Now as to the best means of getting rid of them. I use the fluid extract of senna and spigelia in teaspoon doses for patients of eight or ten years of age, and less in proportion, night and morning, for three nights and days, following this up each morning with a good dose of castor oil, provided the senna and spigelia does not act. Then wait three days, and again institute the same proceedings, and for the same length of time.    This treatment is for the lumbricoid. For the oxyuris, or "thread worm," I see any bitter infusion by enema, sulph, quinine, followed by an enema of common salt and milk-warm water half an hour afterward, which will destroy and expel them.    The symptoms of the presence of the worm are the same as the scratching of the anus. If every practitioner will use these he will be gratified by the restoration to immediate health of many a little sufferer, who would otherwise linger in sickness for many months and perhaps eventually die.    Worms in Horses — to cure. — A remedy for worms in a horse which has never failed of a cure is to take half a cup of pure, hard wood ashes, finely sifted and mixed dry with the mash or food. If one dose should not prove sufficient, repeat it after a day or two.    Worm Lozenges. — Powdered lump sugar, ten ounces; starch, five ounces; mix with mucilage; and to every ounce add twelve grains of calomel; divide into twenty grain lozenges. Dose, two to six.    Worm Medicines. — 1. Two tablespoonfuls of pumpkin seeds peeled and pulverized, or given to a child who will chew fine. The seed does not kill, but stupefies the worm. The next day give castor oil or any other cathartic, and if the worms are present in the system they will pass off.    2. Make an infusion in the proportion of one pint of boiling water to one ounce of dried hyssop flowers; let it stand ten minutes; pour it off into a wine bottle, and take a wine-glass, or rather less, according to age, two or three times a day.

* Teething was thought to be a common cause infant mortality in the 19^th century, however most "teething deaths" were actually caused by opium poising from the opium and morphine teething infants were treated with.

The ferst time I was in Egypt a simplified speling epidemic had broeken out and the atmosfeer was electric with feeling enjenderd bi the subject. This was about fiev thouzand yeers ago. The simplifiers had rizen in revolt agenst the hieroglifics. An uncl of Cadmus hoo was out of a job had cum to Egypt and was trieing to introdoos the Phonecian alfabet and get it adopted insted of the hieroglifics. The Simplifiers wer fue, the Opozishun wer multituedinus. Amung the Simplifiers wer meny men of lerning and distinkshun, maenly litererry men and members of colej facultys, but all ranks and condishuns of men and all graeds of intelect, scolarship, and ignorans wer reprezented bi the Opozishun. Uncl Cadmus began an object leson, with chauk, on a cupl of blakbords. On wun of them he roet in hieroglifics: "At this time the King pozest of cavalry 214,580 men and 222,631 horses, of infantry 84,946 men, 37,264 transportaeshun carts, 321 elefants, and 28,954 camels." It fild the bord and reqierd twenty-six minits of time. Then he repeeted it on anuther blakbord in Italian script and Arabic noomerals and did it in wun minit and a qorter. Then he sed, "Mi argument is befor U. Wun of the objecshuns of the hieroglifics is that it takes the brietest puepil nien yeers to get the forms and thair meenings bi hart; it takes the rest of the naeshun all thair daes to accomplish it -- it is a lief sentens. If you wil renouns the hieroglifics and adopt riten werds insted, a tremendus advantej wil be gaend. Bi U? No, not bi U. U hav spent yur lievz in mastering the hieroglifics, and to U thae ar simpl, and the efect plezant to the ie, and eeven buetiful. But I apeel to U in behaf of jeneraeshuns yet to cum. Let yur suns and dauters adopt the riten werds and the alfabet, and thus saev milyons of yeers of uesles time and laebor." The Opozishun roez and combated his reezoning in the uezhual wae. Thoez peepl sed thae had long bin acustomd to hieroglifics and had deer and saecred memorys about them, that thae luvd to sit on a barrel under an umbrela in the brilyant sun of Egypt and spel out the rabits and eegls and aligaetors and sawteeth, and taek an our and a haf to the Lord's Prair, and weep with roemantic emoeshun at the thaut that thae had, at moest, but aet or ten yeers between themselvs and the graev for the enjoyment of this extasy.     —Mark Twain

I'm qikly becuming enamord with SoundSpel. Thair ar meny reezons for wonting to reform the speling of English, frum maeking it eezyer for maeking the tranzishun to English eezyer to lern for imigrants and uther non naetiv speekers to maeking literasy skils mor nacheral for naetiv speekers.

It wuud allso help solv a frustraeting ishoo I, and meny uthers, offen cum acros: thair ar meny werds I am qiet familyar with in print but hav no iedeea how to pronouns. Having red it meny tiems but never having herd it properly pronounst, I fiend it dificult to uez thees werds in oral conversaeshun. Speekers of langgwejes such as Spanish or German do not hav this problem and with a reformd sistem such as SoundSpel, English speekers wuudn't eether.

For sumwun uezd to the oeld speling sistem, SoundSpel is prity eezy to lern to reed but a task to lern to riet. Becauz of the readability of SoundSpel; laebels, siens, and public docuements cuud to be qikly chaenjd to SoundSpel without cauz much in the wae of confuezhun.

I am serten that no amount of nujing and cajoeling cuud sucseed in geting sum peepl to swich oever to SoundSpel. But, as pointed out bi Twain, this isn't for the curent jeneraeshun but of the jeneraeshuns yet to cum. The chaenj cuud be handld in a jeneraeshunal wae. Children cuud be taut to riet SoundSpel, but be instructed on how to reed the oelder spelings until thoes spelings becum obsoleet.

Taeking the leed in speling reform wuud be a huej advantej for the Uenieted Staets. It wuud esenshaly enshrien American English as standard. However, I do hav seerius douts that a cuntry that veeemently rezists adopting metric wuud undertaek sumthing as braezen as speling reform.

The American Literasy Counsil offers free sofftwair that wil automaticaly translaet standard English speling to SoundSpel (Microsoft Werd is reqierd). It is a bit bugy and I do fiend it anoiing that the proegram consistently drops the "e" frum "the", which isn't standard SoundSpel. The problem is eezily fixt with a serch and replaes. It maeks a fue uthere errors as wel, and eeven tho the rezults must stil be proofred it stil saevs time and increeses acuerasy for thoes nue to SoundSpel like mieself. In fact, I uezd it to prepare this poest. Perhaps I shuud practis rieting longger strings in SoundSpel.

Poll #844112
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Whut do U think of SoundSpel? (0 = "Pleez no! It herts, maek it stop!"; 10 = "Wun of th best iedeeas ever, we shuud all swich oever imeedyetly")

I just spent several hours trying to get these pictures to upload. Very frustrated with LiveJournal and Semagic. Will, of course, get over it.


( +73 )

When I was little, we would visit my Aunt Leslie and Uncle Dizz. When we'd visit, I would always ride Thunder (the horse I'm riding in the picture below). They had another horse that they let us ride, but Thunder was my favorite

One time, my sister (ellynx) and I were riding Thunder bareback and she started to slip off. Panicking, she grabbed onto my shirt pulling me into the mud as well. But, when you fall off a horse it is best to get right back on. And that is just what we did.

I miss riding horses. I haven't done it in so long. Someday, maybe again.

gacked from kyrene:

How Spoiled Are You?

( long survey )

gacked from lady_babalon and sophiaserpentia:

"Jesus merely raised one hand a few inches and a yawning chasm opened in the earth, stretching far and wide enough to swallow all of them. They tumbled in, howling and screeching, but their wailing was soon quashed and all was silent when the earth closed itself again." "The best thing about the Left Behind books is the way the non-Christians get their guts pulled out by God." -- 15-year-old fundamentalist fan of the Left Behind series-- From Glorious Appearing by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins That is the sophisticated language and appeal of America's all-time best selling adult novels celebrating the ethnic cleansing of non-Christians at the hands of Christ. If a Muslim were to write an Islamic version of the last book in the Left Behind series, Glorious Appearing, and publish it across the Middle East, Americans would go berserk. Yet tens of millions of Christians eagerly await and celebrate an End Time when everyone who disagrees with them will be murdered in ways that make Islamic beheading look like a bridal shower. Jesus -- who apparently has a much nastier streak than we have been led to believe -- merely speaks and "the bodies of the enemy are ripped wide open down the middle." In the book Christians have to drive carefully to avoid "hitting splayed and filleted corpses of men and women and horses," even as the riders' tongues are melting in their mouths and they are being wide-open gutted by God's own hand, the poor damned horses are getting the same treatment. Sort of a divinely inspired version of "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on." This may be some of the bloodiest hate fiction ever published, but it is also what tens of millions of Americans believe is God's will. full story

These people are dangerous. Very very dangerous. They have money, numbers, and power. They are the reason that silence is not an option. Those still capable of free and intelligent thought need to get these people out of power before we are all fighting the in the right wing's homegrown version of Armageddon.

I just realized something by looking at my last two posts. There is a time I feel safe outside: during a downpour. Rain somehow takes my fear away temporarily. Maybe it's because I've always been safe in the rain. I grew up in a situation where rain meant prosperity and happiness. My parents got along and generally happiness ensued. Drought brought fighting parents and less money. I still have such strong positive associations with the rain, that it overpowers my otherwise timid nature. I will jump and play in the rain. It's odd.

Something else that stands out is that years ago, when I was in much more danger outside, I didn't have the same level of fear. It's almost as if I'm a horse who's finally been broken and now knows her place. I don't want to know my place. I don't want to be a broken horse. I need to break out of this trap, before I spend the rest of my life in it. I know that many non-queer and non-trans folk end up with the same sort of agoraphobic response to the world, and for similar reasons. But, with all the talk about not living in fear of terrorist, about how doing so lets them win, I can't help but think that those that broke me were essentially terrorists. Just of a different breed. There is still a systematic effort to instill fear into the population, not by foreigners, but by the good-olde-boy network right here. By allowing my actions to be dictated by that fear, I am letting them win. That is something I need to change.

I purged early this morning. I ate a bag of cheetos and felt incredibly ill. The combination of nauseousness from the cheetos and the guilt over having essentially binged led me downstairs to vomit. I haven't done that in quite a while, and I know I cannot allow myself to get back into that nasty cycle. I had incredibly bad problems with my upper digestive system because of bulimia and I still haven't completely healed. I don't want to do more damage. I've got to nip this in the bud. It's much easier to avoid that road before it becomes a habit. It is so fucking addictive.

I've been trying not to go back towards somesort of eating disorder lately. The fact that I weight more than I ever have in my life currently is one factor.

Another, possibly larger, factor is that I feel that my life is going nowhere. I feel helpless to make any meaningful changes. I know that might not be true, but that is how I feel. That feeling makes me want to control something. Purging is a bad method of taking control of something, but does feel a bit like it.

In addition to those reasons, I also get into a "fuck you" mode, unfocused on a ambiguous system. Self-harm feels like a way to express that rage, even though it really doesn't do that effectively.

But, those "factors" are simply excuses., and not very good ones at that. The bottom line is I screwed up. I fell off the horse, and now I must get right back on.

Got to the endo appointment on time. We were very switchy at the appointment. My endo saw the cuts on the arm, and noticed how we were acting, so she sent us downstairs to the psychiatric emergency room.

Before I went downstairs, she also give us a prescription to estradiol. No more hourse pee for me.

Before sending me down, she told me our weight is not unhealthy. That we shouldn't lose any more weight, but if I maintain my weight where it is now in a healthy manner, it is okay. The only reason I'm at a healthy weight now is because I've been smoking pot. I've gained quite a bit of weight since I started. This is a good thing. Now I just need to stop purging and start controlling my binges. Not going to be easy, but will be worth the effort.
-----

I spent about 4 hours in the psychiatric emergency room, mostly waiting. Waiting is a large part of the psych experience.

The visit ended up being a very good thing. First, they're going to try to move up our therapy intake appointment. Second, they got us into a partial program starting tomorrow. I've never been in a partial program, save the 75 minutes I spent at the Triangle Program. I'm a bit nervous about it, but am overall optimistic about it. And, the program is right in Cambridge Hospital, so the commute shouldn't be an issue.

-----

I came home and crashed for many hours. Very strange sleeps. My sleeps have in general been strange lately. I tend to drift in and out of sleep consistently confusing the dreaming and waking worlds. Both become intertwined in a way that can be quite scary at times. Bed isn't something I look forward to these days.