Quicky Points... Responsible Journalism, Book Reviews, and Josta.

My local Fox station, WAGA, reported today on an investigation where they found hispanic grocery stores sold persrciption drugs over the counter illegally. They went in, described what drugs they bought, how much they bought them for, and then confronted about it. It's sweeps month, this is normal stuff.

Except, the media was practicing irresponsible journalism. They told everyone in the Atlanta area that they can go to small, Hispanic grocery stores and buy drugs. Their profits are bound to skyrocket, and very little will be done by the police. You might as well report on bombings and show exactly how terrorists make the bombs. I've never seen the media act as irresponsibly as Fox 5 did.

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I finished All the King's Men finally, after starting in October. It takes that long to read a Robert Penn Warren novel. An amazing book, worthy of reading twice at least. See my earlier blog for a review of it.

I also finished Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo. If I had to grade it, I'd give it a C+. The characters are shallow, the plot unbelievable, and the story unexplainable. But it was enjoyable. It had a wit that I enjoyed, a couple of characters that, in a better novel, would have been highly sympathizable (is that a word?).

The main problem was that the author never explains the rules of Foo well enough to let us suspend our disbelief, and the fact that "fate" has so much to do with the movements of the characters, it makes it even harder to believe the story. It is clear that the author has a long way to go to become an experienced master of his trade. I will say that, once that has happened, his books will be well worth reading. I would instead recommend Diane Duane's Wizard series or MacHale's Pendragon series. I'm now going to read The Navigator. Seems promising enough. Linked below.

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I made Josta Reborn! Amazingly similar to its Josta ancestor. The problem with it is finding the ingredients. Bawls is easy-they now sell it at Target. Pepsi is simple. The Sobe Dragonfruit drink is more difficult. I found mine at a Shell station here in Conyers, but I did not find it at Krogers, Walmart, Target, and other gas stations. It's also similar in effects.

Brain Chemicals

I've often wondered, how much history has been affected by the problems of chemical imbalances. And not complex ones; we all know that there have been psychos and rulers like Caligula or Nero or whoever that had something seriously wrong with them. What about the simple everyday problems that occur in all of us? When your blood sugar goes down, you get cranky, or angry. It happens. Believe me, my car (older car), knows all about that.

So what ruler woke up, forgot breakfast, and then got angry at something and ordered troops to take over some country. Was it Napoleon's need for world domination that caused him to attack Moscow in the middle of winter? Or was it that he made a decision while his blood sugar was down and later regretted it, even though he couldn't reverse it?

But maybe that is a little too far off. How about the murders that happen everyday that could be thwarted if people would simple eat regularly?

My point is that each day, we go about daily chores, we deal with the chemicals that are constantly fluxing, Seratonin, Neopenephrine (sp), Dopamine, blood sugar levels, etc... all that are affected by what we eat, what we take as far as medicine, how many diet cokes we drink... etc... And I'll be the first to admit that there are days when I feel like punching a hole through a wall, and I don't have a good reason to. It's simply a matter of keeping all those brain chemicals in line. Through medication, food, laughter, emotions... and while we're doing all this, we have to put up with everyday life, dealing with people, circumstances, life in general.

And it's best to know what affects what, and of course that would take far too long to explain, but here's the main three that deal with depression and how to balance them:

Seratonin: the main chemical that affects mood. Prozac is the main medical balancer, but sunshine works too (which is why people get gloomy on gloomy days.) And exercise. And sugary foods, which is why people with depression eat a lot. Although I tend to eat lots of protein, but that's another story...

Neopenephrine (sp): notice the incorrect spelling of it, but it's close enough. And it's easily balanced by ephedrine, or in common tongue, Sudafed. that's why Meth is such a stimulant, but boosting it too much can be dangerous. Just a little for those that need it can really boost mood. Meaning Actifed or Sudafed, which is a decongestant. For those with allergies, it really does help. Other medications also help.

And Dopamine, which is a chemical that is boosted by brain activity. It's the juice that helps the brain to move. High dopamine levels are found in ADD people, although often, it's more roller coaster levels that cause ADD people to have depression. Low dopamine levels are found in people with Alzheimers. To keep dopamine levels high, brain activity is key. More importantly, research, looking for things, like word searches, or working at a bookstore where people are always looking for books. Reading, writing... anything to keep the brain going. And a side effect of this is very interesting dreams at night. Good stuff.

Hopefully, this'll help somebody. Keeping everything in balance, that's the main thing. Course, that's for life in general. An excess of most things will cause bad things to happen. For instance, those dreams can turn into nightmares, which deplete Seratonin levels. Makes you wake up cranky and in a bad mood. Do everything in moderation, and that'll help. Course, we don't do that here in this life. Roller coasters are much more fun. But you have to take the highs with the lows.

Anyway, i'm off to Target here in a little bit to get the ingredients for Josta Reborn, which can be found on the website on my profile under the Josta picture. It's supposed to taste just like it. That'll do for boosting chemical levels. Guanara, Caffeine, Taurine... all do something.

To Be Discontinued....

On every TV show that I've ever watched, there are always the thrilling and anticipated season finales. And at the end, there is always this suspenseful cliffhanger, with the words "To Be Continued..." written on the end. You get to the good part, and then it cuts off.

Well, the same thing goes for everything else that's good in this world. If it's something I like, chances are it will be "discontinued" very shortly. The exceptions being Plinko on TPIR, and Transformers, which will go on forever. Here are some of the things I loved, but are now gone:

Josta. Pepsi does this constantly. Come out with a great idea, and then pull it because, in their mind, it didn't work. Josta was amazing, ahead of its time, and about the most addicting drink ever made. I loved the fruity taste, the high caffine content, and the guanara extract which kept me going at my grocery store job for hours. There was nothing that kept me going while studying for a test. Why oh Why did they pull it!!!????!!! I want my Josta! And while we're at it, how about Crystal Pepsi? Wonderful stuff, but as usual, it was gone in about 3 months.

Bar None. Hershey's crowning achievement. A chocolate lovers dream! I remember the last time I had one, at the Omniplex in Oklahoma City (look it up, wonderful museum, needs your support), got it out of the vending machine in the lunch room near the plant exhibit. For those of you that like to take apart your candy bars (Twix takes me like, 15 minutes to eat just one bar.), this one was amazing! There have been sugar free and low carb attempts at this one since, but nothing tastes better than the original.

The TripleDecker Pizza from Pizza Hut.. it's a limited time only pizza that they might bring back... Clogs my artries just thinking about it.

And it's just not food. Howabout Press your Luck, a game show on TV. Amazing show, way ahead of it's time, and it was on forever as reruns on the USA network. Probably the most visually stimulating game show to come out of the 80's, early 90's. The host died John Denver style in a plane crash (self made). A game show that any ADD kid craved. Oh well, have to make do with TPIR.

Or The Wizard. Only lasted one season. A midget toymaker turned detective/James Bond person. Sure, he never got the girl, but oh, those toys!!! Find it on IMDB.com

In the book world, there was a series started after The Sixth Sense with a very talented writer, David Benjamin, who wrote the books as well as M. Night made the movie. Trevor (HJO) was as real in the books as he was on screen. Unfortunately, there were only three books ever made. The series was better than other drivel that's out there. They should have made more.

There are other things, I'm sure. But I'll leave it at that. What things did you love, but were destined "to be discontinued..."?