My overdose of vitamin B3

In October of 2005 I went to the doctors with a weird tingling in my left arm. Of course, being in the left arm my wife thought for sure I was having a heart attack. It took about a week to get an appointment, though, so I told he I doubted that it was a heart attack.

At any rate, they told me it sounded like a pinched nerve somewhere in my arm or shoulder. While there, they noticed that they never ran any blood work on me in the several years I had been going to that doctor. So, off for some blood work I go.

I get a call about two days later telling me that my cholesterol was a little high. Not drastic, but a little high. And I was to try a follow this diet plan they were going to mail me. That is a nightmare all in it's self, but a whole seperate story.

My wife hits the web and finds out that the B3 vitamin, also called Niacin, has been shown to help lower cholesterol. So, she goes out and gets me a bottle.

I keep forgetting to take them on a regular basis. I might get one today, but forget for a few days then take it again. So, determined to not forget the other day I inadvertently took this once daily supplement twice in a day.

So, here I am at 3am with 10 times the daily recommended allowance of Niacin in me and I wake up. I feel like it is the middle of summer and the A/C was left off. I am burning up. My skin felt sore like it was sun burned. Thinking that I am getting the flu or something I get up to take my temp. It is normal. So I go look in a mirror in the bathroom and notice that I am bright red from head to toe.

Being mildly freaked out I go wake up the wife and we start to Google illnesses that would cause you to look red. We found plenty of ominous deseases out there that would cause it, but I wasn't too worried by them because I didn't have any of the other symptoms. So, we start thinking about anything that I might have eaten.

Turns out if you take too much Niacin that your body will react in the way mine did. You look like a beet for several hours. After reassurance by the poison control center that I had nothing to worry about I went back to bed and woke up looking normal again. It has been about 4 days since I took a dose. :)

Type of blog?

I find myself wondering most days if what I have to say is worth posting to a blog. "Will anyone actually care to read this stuff...?" So, I was thinking that I might make my blog kind of a Q and A type for computer help.

Even that might get overlooked with all the other site that offer information that will pop up from a Google search. So, if anyone is reading this to begin with and thinks that is a good idea and/or has a question post a comment to this and I will reply as a new blog post.

I have been tinkering with computer since essentially 1992. The last computer I bought pre-fab was a 386 in 1992. I build my own now. I have worked as a computer tech and managed a computer store. I might not know it all, but I know a fair amount.

Kids unleashed onto the internet....

I really have to say that I hate punk kids that have no parental guidance and have been unleashed onto the internet. I like to play the occasional computer game. I recently installed a new one and have been experiencing some odd behaviour. So I take a trip over to the website of the game publisher in hopes to find the answer to my problem in the tech support forums.

I found two things to be annoying. Seem to be the same two every time I have an issue with a game. First is that there is NEVER an answer to the problem you are having. And second is the inevitable posts by thousands to teens unleashed into cyberspace with a keyboard, a healthy dose of ignorance and a desire to make every other word (real or implied) a swear word.

I think we should lobby congress for some useful laws like making parental control software mandatory.

Confused by mortgages?

I am.... It has been several years since we thought about purchasing a home. The last time we looked it was pre 9/11 and rates were reasonable, but nowhere near as low as they are now. Back then we were told our rate would put our payment for our prefered home at about $1400 a month.

Now, with rates much lower than they were then (or supposedly lower) and my credit MUCH better I am still being told that a payment on a house the same price that we were looking at before would be about the same payment.

I am no financial novice having been doing financial planning for several years now. I am licensed to do mortgages myself, but I really just take an application and turn it over for someone else to do the "dirty" work. I am also licensed to do investments. So, I am far from a novice in the finacial arena but for the life of me cannot figure out how it can be that rates are about 3 points lower and I still "qualify" for the same payment.

One of these days I will get out the obnoxious packet or mortgage paperwork and see if I can figure out what weird math is being used to end up at the same payment. I am sure there are new ways the lenders are making even more money on people.

Cancer sucks!!

On a serious note, but with a happy ending.... My son (now 10) was diagnosed with cancer at age 7. The exact name of the cancer was rhabdomyosarcoma. As if it isn't bad enought he has cancer, it has a name like that.

Anyway, he underwent 48 weeks of chemo. Every monday in for a treatment. And 24 straight days of radiation to his right eye (the cancer was in his eyelid). Still is missing his right eyebrow. Although it does make for some good teasing. I can tell him that he has a unibrow even though they do not connect.

Well, he was in for another MRI in January and the doctors told us that, although he will need to keep going in for annual checkups, he is officially considered cured since it has not returned.

Down-syndrome Daschund

I am by no means making fun of anyone that has down-syndrome. I do think my dog has it though. She was the runt and still is the runt of the litter. Mom and dad were also sister, brother, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, etc...etc..etc... She didn't have the best chances to begin with.

My wife helped the "breeders" when one of thier parents was in the hospital by caring for another Daschund that was about to give birth. This other Daschund had a bigger head (more brains?), longer body and longer legs. Other than being fat, our dog is a dwarf.

To beat all, the damn thing is an epileptic. Who the hell has an epileptic dog? I never heard of it in an animal until we got this stupid dog. I spend more per month in meds for this dog then I do for anyone else in the family and she has her own dog health insurance plan.

If anyone wants a slightly used Daschund that is crate trained and goes to the door when she needs to use the bathroom let me know.

Buying a car?

Ok, as a car salesman I have this need to vent for a moment. If you are currently shopping for a new (or used) vehicle I hope none of this offends, but it needs to be said.

Let me start by providing a bit of background into how a car salesperson earns a living. He/she sells a car, period! There is no consolation prize for being there all day and not selling anything. You basically just worked for free. Imagine for a minute that the job you work at paid in this manner. Let me give you an example. My bother is in law enforcement. Let's say that he was required to be at work for a set shift but he did not make a cent unless there was a crime commited AND he was the arresting office. Now, we all know that there isn't a day that goes by that someone somewhere isn't breaking a law. For the sake of the example, though, let's assume he went to work and the town he lived in was not typical and they had days without a single crime. He would have worked for free. This is how it works for me. I don't sell a car, I don't make a dime.

Now, for all you negative folk out there ready to tell me something along the line of "you picked that job, if you don't like it find a new one...." give me just a bit longer. Let me make the situation worse and give you another example. Let's say you work in the mall. Stores in the mall usually get a lot of traffic in and out. I would imagine a good portion of it is for window shoppers. Maybe they have no intentions of ever purchasing for that store or maybe they are just checking to see what is there. Now, let's use the above example and say that you had to work a full day in said store but the only time you made any money was when you sold something. Now, let's say you are at a store that is plagued with an over abundance of window shoppers that have no intention of making a purchase or want to start looking today for something that you won't even have in 6 to 9 months. Hell, you probably won't have whatever he is looking at in 6 weeks. So, you just spent the whole day showing off and answering questions about some product that they probably could have researched online and not gone into the store well before the time they are ready to make a purchase. This too is my life.

It seems to be a trend in the winter. People like to go looking at cars with no intentions of buying one. This whole month has been riddled with people that are three, six or nine months from buying a vehicle. If you are this person, i bet you are thinking to yourself or have recently told some poor salesperson trying to provide for his/her family: "Oh, I just like to know about the features before I narrow my list of actual vehicles I am considering." I do not know of a single manufacturer that does not have a website. They will have all the information that anyone could ever want to know about the vehicle. Do your research through an outlet that does not pull someone out of a position to provide for his family. Call the store if you must, but don't show up and occupy someone's time for an hour or two with no desire to actually buy a vehicle for any length of time.

Oh, BTW, if you are looking to buy soon and you simply didn't like the vehicle, when they call you back to follow-up just tell them. By all means don't tell them that you like it and set up a time to buy it and then never show up and stop answering your phone. We can handle being told "No".

Well, I feel better. Hey, if you are looking to buy a vehicle let me know ;)