ARTICLE: Close Encounters Of The Paranormal Kind: Part 2

IMAGE SOURCE: PHOTO FROM THE INTERNET

This article first appeared on Bubblews on June 18, 2013, a website that no longer exists

Sometime ago I had written about one of my paranormal experiences I had in my life and I include the link to it at the end of this article should you like to read it.

To me the "paranormal" realm was never a strange or foreign concept, since off and on throughout my life I've had such experiences; ironically to me they were "normal". Two experiences no doubt saved my life.

The one "occurrence" took place during the summer of 1980 when I was 24 years old. I was one of those women who would be plagued by painful cysts every month when I got my period. They would come and go, come and go. Well this one time, a cyst wasn't going away as it usually did, yet I still didn't exactly race to the doctor's to get it checked out. Finally, I gave in and decided to go to the doctor. My doctor was the type where you didn't need to set up an appointment, you just walked in and waited your turn. Upon arriving at my doctor's office though a sign was tacked up on his door indicating he was on vacation and wouldn't be back for a good two weeks or so. The sign also indicated that for any emergency to go to the hospital. I took note of which hospital and went home.

Once home I started to get into my daily yoga routine…I was laying on the floor doing my yoga breathing, my eyes closed and I was nice and relaxed. All of a sudden this very loud booming voice in my mind said, "You need help NOW!" Well maybe to some people if they suddenly hear a loud voice in their heads would probably freak out thinking they were going, well, a bit daft, but as I mentioned since I've experienced "paranormal" type events all my life, it didn't phase me in the least, but I realized, yes, maybe I needed my health problem, my cyst taken care of. I waited until both my mother and grandmother came home from work and told them that I needed to go to the hospital and told them why; I never had mentioned about my cyst problems before to them and certainly hadn't this time. We got a cab and went over to the ER of the hospital and waited and waited. Once I had a doctor examine me, among other things I had so many blood tests taken it was a wonder I had any blood left at all. Some hours passed by I was admitted to a room and right away hooked up to IV antibiotics. I never exactly questioned my admittance to the hospital, I just kind of took it in stride.

A full week would pass by with my constantly being pumped up with IV antibiotics, and then I was scheduled for surgery to drain out the cyst. All went well and it took another week for my incision to continue to drain and heal and the nurses would change the bandage everyday. Finally I was ready to go home, but before I did one of the attending nurses asked me, "Do you know what your temperature was when you were admitted?" I said no, and never even had thought to ask. She said 106.8. I think my eyes nearly popped out. You see I had absolutely no symptom of a high fever, no dizziness, no fatigue, nada, and it was due to that cyst I had that turned out to be highly infected, thus the antibiotics. Heck, I've felt worse when having a temperature of only 101.

Now we zoom up to May of 1996. I was walking along this very busy area of the neighborhood doing some errands. Upon reaching one street to cross, the light was starting to change against me, but figured I had enough time to cross it. Instead, some "hot rodder" decided to zoom down the street even before the light changed green for him. All I can say is I understand why "roadkill" occurs…here I was in the middle of the street crossing it, seeing this car coming at me at full speed ahead, and I froze…I just plain couldn't move for some reason. Any second, that car was about to hit me full impact, when suddenly I felt this tremendous push from behind me, pushing me to safety and out of harms way of that speeding car. I was notably shaken up and realized how close I had come to being a fatal statistic. However here was the weird part. When I looked behind me to see who had pushed me out of the way, guess what? No one one was there. Once again I could have been freaked out by such an experience but I wasn't…I realized that some guardian angel no doubt was watching over me and protecting me.

My first article about my "paranormal" experiences:

First Paranormal Experience Article

ARTICLE: Close Encounters Of The Paranormal Kind

IMAGE SOURCE~©MELANIE NEER~PERSONAL PHOTO

Photo of my great grandfather, great grandmother and my mother circa early 1950s

This article originally appeared on Bubblews on May 21, 2013, a website which no longer exists

I think a little "background" information is needed here. Despite my having grown up in a Christian background and upbringing, from early on I was aware of the more "paranormal" metaphysical and mystical realms, thanks and due to my way ahead great-grandmother. It was she who, despite being Catholic, was into the ideas and concepts of reincarnation, ESP, psychic awareness; she was even "into" Edgar Cayce, the famous psychic who had given "readings" during the 1930s and 1940s, so the whole "paranormal" world wasn't so strange to me. In fact, I was to experience the paranormal on and off nearly all my life.

I had a very close bond and connection with my great grandmother, more so than either my mother or grandmother, which may have explained what happened during the last week of August of 1970 when I was fifteen years old. At that time my grandmother, mother and I were away on vacation in the Lancaster, PA area. One night, fairly late, we were all watching the Johnny Carson Show. All of a sudden I was overwhelmed by this scent flooding the hotel room. I recognized it as the favorite perfume of my great grandmother. I asked both my mother and grandmother if they could smell it; of course, they looked at me as if I were daft.

Very early the next morning we got a phone call. It was from one of my great grandmother's neighbors to tell us that she had been rushed to the hospital but had passed away. When? The exact time I started smelling that perfume of hers flooding the hotel room and this was hundreds of miles away from where my great grandmother was in the NYC area.

Sometime passes and now of course my grandmother, mother and I were home and my great grandmother had her funeral already. One night, very late I would say around near 3 a.m., both my mother and grandmother were sound asleep while I was still awake reading. Something compelled me to look up from my book. At the foot of my bed, I could very clearly see a female form, yes, it was the spirit of my great grandmother.

I guess for many people such an occurrence like this might totally freak a person out no end, but as I mentioned, I've had "paranormal" experiences on and off all my life…to me they're normal. Maybe I'll tell of some of my other experiences I've had at another time. A few saved my life.

Has The Internet "Cheapened" The Creative Fields?

IMAGE SOURCE~©MELANIE NEER~PERSONAL PHOTO

Article Originally Published At the Bubblews Website on May 1, 2013, a website which no longer exists.

In a word yes it has, and has particularly hurt writers and photographers. I've been involved with photography ever since I was a child. Back then I used to borrow my mother's vintage Kodak Brownie camera. It wasn't until around 1976 that I got my first 35mm film camera, a Kalimar. I was instantly hooked on the 35mm film photography world, so much so I took classes in how to develop black & white film and prints. By learning how to develop my own film and prints that really triggered my love for photographing and the following year "graduated" to a 35mm Nikkormat El-W SLR. I primarily became a nature photographer, but would also set up my living room like a studio complete with lighting equipment and would do commercial type photos on a holiday theme such as Halloween, Christmas and Easter. The idea then occurred to me, hey why not try and get my work published.

Now back in those days people didn't have computers, most businesses didn't have websites, and the digital format of photography didn't even exist then, so since one couldn't simply send photos as an email attachment, one had to send their photographic work via the old fashioned way, yes, by snail mail. When it came to color photography, I primarily used the now discontinued 35mm Kodachrome slide film, it was the accepted format when submitting portfolios of ones work to a publisher or client. So here I'd be, picking out slides of my work that I thought suitable for a particular publication, mail them off and keep my fingers crossed that at least one of my photos would be accepted and published. It took awhile but lo and behold, when I sent a portfolio of my slides to Unity Magazine, my very first photo was accepted and published on the cover of the April 1980 issue (I include a photo of the cover here). This of course inspired me to keep at it, to keep sending my photos for publication, and from the years 1980 to 1986, I was a regularly published photographer. And what did I earn for my published work? On average one-hundred dollars.

"Life" intervened and I had to stop my photographic endeavors, but all the while in the back of my mind, I hoped to somehow resume my photography work. It wasn't until around 2002 that I became computer savvy and relied on library computers ; it wouldn't be until 2006 that I not only got my own first computer but a film scanner to digitize my slides, negatives and prints to digitize them. But boy, I was in for a shock at just how much times had changed for the photography world in general.

Of course by then most people had access to their own computers, most people were involved with digital photography, but something else cropped up…the microstock websites. Even way back when I was getting my work published there had been the Stock Photo Agencies and in most cases, one submitted their slides and if the company liked the work would keep them and promote your work on your behalf…payment was usually 50-50, meaning they got half of the earnings of your work. Microstock websites work differently however. One can join up these sites and upload their photographic work on-site (no more sending work via snail mail) and hope the work is chosen and published. But the rate of pay is mere peanuts! A "client" wishing for a particular photo to illustrate something can go to these microstock sites and download the image for about $2.00 and usually for "royalty free" licensing, which means once the client has purchased the image can use it over and over again without further compensation to the photographer. And what does the photographer earn with each download of their image? A mere 25¢. This is all a vast difference from the "old" licensing methods in the past, such as one-time rights, meaning the client "purchased" the image for about $50.00, $100.00 or more dollars and could only use it once. If the client wanted to use the image again, they were obligated to pay the photographer again.

The writing world has also suffered similar effects of the whole internet~computer world. Once again, in years gone by, if someone wrote an article or short story for a magazine, one had to submit a typewritten manuscript and send it by snail mail, and rate of pay was so many cents per word, and of course exclusive type articles could fetch even more. Of course all that has changed also. Yes, how easy it is now to either submit articles or short stories again via email attachment, or submit directly on-line to any magazine, newspaper, or other writing site, but as in the case of the photographic world, the writing world as I see it has suffered.

Yes there are pros about the whole internet~computer world. Either as a photographer or writer, we can submit our work via email or directly on-site, and instead of crossing one's fingers that our work may be published and perhaps waiting weeks or even months to find out if any of our work has been accepted for publication, it can be merely a few days or even instantaneously that our work is accepted and published. But at what cost? As I see it, it unfortunately means our work no longer has the value it once had. How sad.

UPDATE TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

There's another hiccup with the digital writing world, especially with those article writing type websites; many tend to "disappear". With so many talented writers, often times in a sense. fierce competition begins and the websites literally become overwhelmed and somewhere along the line, those writing websites just plain can't pay it's writers. This is what happened I believe with the one website I was writing for called Bubblews. One did not have to write long, lengthy "articles" or "Bubbles" to submit to the site; so what happened was, was that people often submitted several "Bubbles" in one day. The original minimum payout one had to reach before being paid was $25.00. One got "paid" every time someone viewed one's article, however, it was mere "pennies" per view of one's article. Then no doubt due to the rising "competition" going on with the website, they upped the minimum payout to $50.00, so naturally, it took a lot longer to achieve that minimum. Well, I have to confess, I didn't write for Bubblews as much as other websites I had been writing for, but I kept checking my status of how much I had earned. I had reached $47.00. Yahoo! Only three dollars short of the minimum. A few days passed, and I decided to check my status again. This is what I got:

Yes…they had disappeared! Charming. No warning of any kind and not only I, but all of the other contributing writers got screwed out of their earnings. At least when I had written for Yahoo.voices (formerly Associated Content), they had the decency to message all of us contributing writers, informing us of their plan to discontinue, gave us time to download our articles we had submitted if we so wish, and best of all, we got our final payout.

I'm still on a "quest" you might say, to find some other outlet to write for, but so far have come up blank. One of the things I would love to do, is to re-submit many of my former articles somewhere, however I've been finding a "hiccup" so far with many of the other types of writing sites: they don't allow for previously written work. So the search continues.

ARTICLE: Homemade Cooking: Is it Becoming a Lost Art? Don't People Really Know How To Cook Anymore?

IMAGE SOURCES: ©MELANIE NEER~PERSONAL PHOTOS

Quiche Lorraine
Chicken Alfredo
Bœuf Bourguignon
Homemade Minestrone Soup

ABSTRACT: In today's society, many people have resorted to shortcuts in cooking, from getting processed foods, frozen dinners, and relying on fast food restaurants. Sadly, this means it seems the people have forgotten how to cook good old fashioned homemade meals.

CONTENT:

Once in awhile I reflect on different things, and only recently I was thinking of how real genuine, homemade cooking from scratch has become a lost "art' form. And yes, homemade cooking can be considered an art form, as it can take skill, time and patience. However these were qualities our ancestors seemed to have naturally; they had whether they liked it or not since there weren't the conveniences we have nowadays. Did one want to serve piping hot biscuits with their dinner? Well one couldn't simply go to the supermarket and get that pop-able Pillsbury canister, our ancestors had to make them from scratch. Did one want some kind of soup, no matter what kind? Yes, back in the old days one had to spend perhaps hours making it, from first making the homemade chicken, beef, or vegetable stock, then later adding in all the other ingredients. One couldn't simply open a can, pour into a saucepan and heat the soup on the stove or pop in a container and place into a microwave.

Another thing that kind of sparked my recent reflection of how cooking has become a lost art form was when one day I was talking to someone and I mentioned that I was planning to make homemade chicken pot pie. So here I was rattling on how I make the dough for the crust part from scratch, chop up the onion and garlic, cook up the chicken and vegetables and make a white sauce for it. The person listened to me with a great deal of interest and when I finished yakking about it, but she asked me, what is a white sauce? At that moment, I swear I was having a Hell's Kitchen Chef Gordon Ramsay moment and rolled my eyes up in disbelief.

As for myself, I must be one of those rare breeds of people. I absolutely love cooking and yes, I do things the old-fashioned way: I prefer to make everything from scratch. I must have inherited my great grandmother's skills in cooking, as she was known as THE cook of the family, while ironically my grandmother nor my mother could cook to save their lives. I had been told that in her younger days, my great grandmother would get up literally at the crack of dawn just to start making the homemade bread for the day. I do happen to know the joy of real, authentic homemade bread as I've done it myself in the past, and nothing beats smelling that yeasty aroma as the bread dough is rising, and then to actually bake it in the oven. I plain couldn't wait to "sample" a slice as the homemade bread came out of the oven and have it literally dripping with a lot of butter.

For awhile there, up until I was about five years old, my great grandmother, grandmother, mother and I all lived together. No one was really allowed to go into the kitchen as that was considered my great grandmother's domain, save for myself that is. Since both my grandmother and mother worked, my great grandmother became something of a babysitter to me, so I supposed to keep me busy and amused she actually would allow me into the kitchen to help out so to say. I remember her teaching me very, very basic things to cook at that young age, like scrambling eggs or frying up the bacon; she'd let me stir her homemade soups as they were simmering, and even taught me how to make something like homemade mashed potatoes.

After age five, my grandmother, mother and I moved out from my great grandmother's home. Well things changed. As I mentioned neither my grandmother nor mother could cook to save their lives. And yes, by that time there were more convenience foods, especially frozen TV dinners like Swanson's, other types of frozen foods like vegetables, canned soups like Campbell's, even instant mashed potatoes once could buy in a box. Yes, of course on occasion my mother would perhaps roast a chicken or form ground beef into hamburgers and fry them up, but my mother had a habit of burning everything she cooked, even the frozen dinners. Let's put it this way, growing up I often ate foods in various shades of grey or black. It's a wonder I survived my childhood!

As I got older, say in my teenage years and a bit older, yes I started to do some cooking, but very, very basic things. In other words, nothing fancy schmanchy, but at least I didn't burn anything. Then came my college years and I was about to embark on a journey so to say. It was during college that I decided to take a basic course in French. The course was entirely conducted in French by the professor but on occasion she would then speak in English and tell of various aspects of the French culture, which of course included French foods. By a coincidence one time I was watching an episode of Julia Child and she was introducing an upcoming new French chef, Jacques Pepin. Well that cinched it. I had become inspired by the talks about French foods via my French language professor and now with Jacques Pepin.

After buying a good number of French Cuisine type recipe books, including ones by Jacques Pepin of course, I now started my new "journey", that of attempting real cooking, not just scrambling eggs, frying up bacon, cooking up hamburgers and fries, I was to embark on real cooking journey and entirely from scratch. It didn't seem to take me long to acquire my new culinary skills, for as I said, I must have inherited my great grandmother's skill in cooking. Yes it did take skill, patience and time, but out of it all I was having fun with my new skills. I was making Crêpes, French Onion Soup, Bœuf Bourguignon, a myriad of French styled desserts and yes, I even did a few Soufflés.

It didn't stop with French cooking however, but I also ventured at making Italian, Oriental, German, and Mexican cooking, heck it really didn't matter what nationality, if it was food and a recipe sounded good to me I would make it. Even when I did old-fashioned American type cooking, I still would do everything from scratch, no short cuts. For example, if I were fixing a Thanksgiving Dinner, I would make some kind of homemade soup, usually Cream Of Celery, homemade stuffing of some kind, no Stove Top here! I would make homemade mashed butternut squash, the homemade biscuits, and no, Bisquick was never used and to this day, some thirty five years later i still won't use Bisquick. For dessert I would usually opt for sweet potato pie rather than pumpkin.

Don't get me wrong however since I'm not saying I don't use any kind of processed foods at all, I do as its not as if I'm making homemade pasta for instance, nor am I churning my own butter, but I do try to eliminate as many shortcuts and processed foods as possible. My freezer hasn't seen any kind of frozen foods stored in it in decades. Swanson? Lean Cuisine? Banquet? Healthy Choice? You might as well be speaking a foreign language to me. The only frozen foods I have stored are my own food that I cook in volume and and maybe some frozen vegetables, but that's it. Also, now that I'm on my own since both my grandmother and mother have passed on, I'm not exactly cooking the way I used to, but I'm still a stickler that when I cook for myself I still cook from scratch.

Now…I just might have another Hell's Kitchen Chef Gordon Ramsay moment and roll my eyes up as I wouldn't be surprised if you are wondering what a white sauce is. It's one of the most basic of all sauces to make, and basically it is a combo of melted butter, flour, milk or cream, salt and pepper; also by adding ingredients to it, it can also become Sauce Mornay, Alfredo Sauce and so forth. It's the type of sauce that is used when making chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese, the base for creme-styled soups, potatoes au gratin and scalloped potatoes; goodness, the list is nearly endless.

To give you an idea of just how versatile white sauce can be, I've done a good number of articles in the past using white sauce and I have them listed in my Sources section.

Image Sources: ©MELANIE NEER~PERSONAL PHOTOS

Quiche Lorraine
Chicken Alfredo
Bœuf Bourguignon
Homemade Minestrone Soup

Sources:

Former articles of mine using white sauce which have been published. Originally at Yahoo.voices, now on my blog:

The Many Uses For White Sauce in Recipes: Cream Soups Without the Cream

http://myfavoriterecipecreations.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-many-uses-for-white-sauce-in.html

Old-Fashioned Baked Macaroni and Cheese

http://myfavoriterecipecreations.blogspot.com/2014/07/old-fashioned-baked-macaroni-and-cheese.html

Two Special Potato Recipes to Enhance Any Meal

Part Two: The Versatile Potato

http://myfavoriterecipecreations.blogspot.com/2014/07/article-two-special-potato-recipes-to.html

The Art Of Making Croquettes:

http://myfavoriterecipecreations.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-art-of-making-croquettes-special.html

The Skill and Art Of Making Crepes
Part Two: Creative Ideas for Using Leftovers by Making Crepes

http://myfavoriterecipecreations.blogspot.com/2014/07/article-skill-and-art-of-making-crepes.html

This article had been originally published on May 23, 2014 on the Yahoo.Voices website,which no longer exists

Article: Believe It Or Not It's Just As Hard To Gain Weight!

Photo Images: ©MELANIE NEER

1). Me at about five years old dressed as a "ballerina" for Halloween.

2). Me at 16--still have those "Twiggy legs"

3). Me only a few years ago

(This article was originally written on March 11, 2014 and was published at Bubblews, a website that no longer exists. Have made some edits from the original to update)

At the risk of people wanting to throw wet noodles at me, oh, and I'll take that with Alfredo Sauce by the way, when I tell people I wouldn't mind gaining a bit of weight, this doesn't go over to well. I'm all too well aware that many of my on-line friends struggle with the opposite, that is the constant quest to lose weight, so when I tell people I want to gain weight, I'm pretty sure people are thinking…shut up! I'm almost 61 years old now, around 99 pounds, and wear a size four. (Hears the unmistakable grumbles and mutterings from people).

I've been rail thin all my life. Chalk it up to genetics. The common joke of the family was that my mother and grandmother could gain weight just by looking at food, while my father's side could eat a whole cow at every meal and not gain an ounce. Guess which side I inherited?

I happen to have a good number of photos of myself as a child, and one can't help notice my sticks for legs and arms. At one point as a child my mother even dragged me to our family doctor to see if there was a medication to help me gain weight. Well, yes I was given something but it most apparently didn't work since I remained thin. My mother on the hand was on a life long quest to lose weight and tried every cockamamie fad diet going; name the diet, she was on it. She even went to a diet doctor for help. That turned out to be a disaster as the doctor gave her glorified amphetamines. Talk about mood swings and always being on edge!

I really don't have any special "secrets' in how I've stayed thin all my life, that is diet wise. As a child, my teen years and a bit beyond, I pretty much ate the typical "American" type diet. Yes, I ate those greasy hamburgers and fries, drank sodas, ate sweets, salty snacks and so forth. Yet I still remained thin. Somewhere along the line later in life I did become more conscious of what I ate, not of course to lose weight, but if anything to just plain eat healthier.

I actually do have a very healthy appetite and eat small mini meals literally day and night; I even have a light meal a little before going to bed, which of course, is considered one of those "taboo" things to do, yet hasn't affected me as far as weight gain. However, I am more mindful of exactly what I eat and no longer eat most of the "junk" most people do. Since I do love to cook, what I eat is mainly home-cooked meals, and while it's nearly impossible to avoid all processed foods, I do refrain from relying on too much on them. I haven't had sodas now of any kind for decades, haven't eaten at fast food restaurants since the 1980s. I also refrain from eating too sweet or too salty foods, as well as heavily fried foods.

I'm also an ingredient label reader when I do buy processed foods: if it has HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup), or any soy or corn product, back the food goes since unless it's organically grown soy or corn, it's Monsanto GMO, or frankenfoods as I call them. As a by the way, 90% of all soy and corn grown in the USA is GMO, and think of all the corn products out there alone: HFCS, corn oil, corn syrup, cornstarch, cornmeal, farm factory raised animals are also fed GMO corn.

Just for one's knowledge, if you don't know what Monsanto GMOs are, there are tons of information one can read up on the subject on the internet, and believe me, none of it positive. Monsanto is the same company that concocted up DDT, Agent Orange, and the still popular pesticide Roundup. Many countries outside of the USA are outright banning GMOs all together, and/or if GMO seeds are still grown, the GMO ingredients are clearly on the labels of foods. The USA remains the only country that doesn't indicate that GMO ingredients are in foods thanks to the stranglehold Monsanto has.

Anyway, so going back to my being thin all my life. When I mention what and how I eat, I often get kidded and told, don't' eat so healthy! I really wouldn't mind gaining a few pounds here and there and trying to figure out how. So please don't hate me for being thin and wanting to gain weight. It really is just as hard to gain weight as to lose.

(Now dons armor and helmet waiting for those wet noodles flung at me).

ARTICLE: MOVIE REVIEW: HACHI (based on a true story)

This article originally appeared both on Yahoo.voices and Bubblews which no longer exists)

If it hadn't been for Facebook and my involvement with animal issues, I may never have come across the whole story of Hachiko, an Akita dog of which the 2009 movie is based on.

First let me share a bit about the story of Hachiko itself. Back in 1924, a Professor named Hidesaburo Ueno who taught at the University of Tokyo. It was in that year, he took in an akita dog and named him Hachiko. The dog was completely loyal to Professor Ueno, so much so, that a routine seemingly began where the dog would patiently wait every single day at the Shibuya Train Station, waiting for his master to come home from the University. But then one day in May of 1925, the Professor didn't. he had suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage and passed on.

The story doesn't end there however. From 1925 up until 1935, Hachiko continued his patient wait at the train station for his master to come home. The story of Hachiko's loyalty toward his master didn't go unnoticed, and the story started to circulate and made public. Even before his passing, a statue of Hachiko was erected in his honor at the Shibuya Train Station, in 1934. A year later on March 8, 1935 passed away and a ceremonial funeral was heldat the station.

Now for the movie version.

The 2009 movie the story is "Americanized" with Richard Gere playing the role of Professor Parker Wilson, who one night, when coming home from the University that he teaches, finds an abandoned Akita puppy roaming the train station. The dog almost immediately seems attracted to the Professor and of course, Professor Parker feels sympathy for this lost, abandoned puppy. At first he tries everything possible to find a home for the puppy, especially since he knows his wife Cate (played by Joan Allen) wouldn't be too keen on the idea of having a pet in the home. For a good part of the beginning of the movie, you might say it's a sheer battle between the Professor and his wife and in keeping the puppy. Well, as you can guess, the puppy does stay and is named Hachi.

A close bond occurs between the Professor and Hachi, and true to the original story, Hachi develops a routine where he goes to the train station and patiently waits for the professor to come home, and like the original story, as you can guess, one night the Professor suffers a cerebral hemorrhage and passes on. Also true to the original story, Hachi waits, and waits, and waits for ten years for his master to come home.

I'm not going to kid you, while watching this movie, one definitely needs a box of tissues nearby. I think what gets a person the most is the demonstration of loyalty and devotion that this dog exhibits to his master. I'm not going to spoil things by giving the entire plot away but the ending of the movie is truly bittersweet, and yes, tissue time again.

For the record however, this demonstration of the loyalty of a dog to his master, even after death is by no means the first recorded incident. There is also the true story of Greyfriar's Bobby, which was made "famous" by the 1961 Disney movie of the same name, and was one of my childhood favorite movies that I had watched. In this case, the story takes place in 1865 in Edinburgh, Scotland and of a Skye Terrier owned by a shepherd who passed on, and after his master's death, kept vigil watch and slept on the grave of his master in the Greyfriar's churchyard. Like Hachiko, there is also a statue in Bobby's honor. More recently is the story of Huachi, a dog of mixed breed in Bolivia and had been owned by a student who tragically died in an accident. In similar fashion to Bobby and Hachiko, Huachi waits for his master to return.

The movie Hachi is definitely one of those must see movies, particularly if one is an animal lover. The movie and the original story that it is based on clearly demonstrates that animals do indeed show feelings, emotions, joy, pain, depression and grief, and as the former movie critics, Siskel and Ebert would have said, I give this movie two thumbs up. Just remember those tissues!

For a little more background of the true story of Hachiko one can read all about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachikō

Hachikō

There are also a good number of books that have been written about Hachiko and if you're interested they can be purchased over at Amazon.com

1). Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog by Pamela S. Turner

2). Hachiko Waits by Lesléa Newman and Machiyo Kodaira

3). Hachiko: The True Story of The Royal Dogs of Japan and One Faithful Akita by Julie Chrystyn

4). Hach-Ko: The Samurai Dog by Shizuko O. Koster

5). Hachi: The Truth of The Life and Legen of the Most Famous Dog in Japan by Mayumi Itoh

The official Greyfriar's Bobby website:

http://www.greyfriarsbobby.co.uk

Greyfriar's Bobby

Story of Huachi of Bolivia:

http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2014/01/after-five-years-dog-continues-to-wait-for-diseased-owner/

Huachi of Bolivia

Image source:

http://www.moviecape.com/product_info.php?products_id=5665

ARTICLE: Do People Take Medications "Blindly" Without Knowing All The Side Effects?

(Also published at Bubblews with an additional addendum)

I have to confess, I'm not really big on taking medications and that is probably a throwback to my great-grandmother's viewpoints, as she was a nurse, thought doctors for the most parts were idiots, relied on natural remedies, never took anything stronger than aspirin, and lived to be 98.

Thankfully, I don't have any of the common health problems that many people may have: I don't have high blood pressure, nor high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. that would indicate the need for medications. I'm also not one to rush out to the flu vaccine as I haven't had the flu since I was eleven years old. Like my great grandmother, I try to find natural remedies to keep me healthy and also like her, I never take anything stronger than aspirin, with the few exceptions when I've taken an anti-biotic for some infection in my system. Unfortunately, that you might say was my downfall.

In the past, when I have taken an anti-biotic, I did fine with the simple penicillin types, they did the trick, but the last time I was prescribed an anti-biotic, the doctor insisted on my taking "Cipro" (Ciprofloxacin). Being the ever curious type, I decided to look it up on the web to find out if there were any side effects one should be aware of. You see, doctors do not, repeat do not know all the possible side effects any medication may have, usually just the more common and expected ones. Upon looking the medication up on the internet, I didn't see any serious side effects so I took it. Well I did have one effect right away. Not to be graphic, but let's put it this way, I could have read Tolstoy's War And Peace while sitting on the "royal throne". Yup, it triggered a real severe case of diarrhea. I even complained to the doctor about it, and he told me, "Oh, that means it's working," and that I should continue to take it.

For the first time in my life, I perhaps went against my better judgment, and rather than insisting in perhaps asking for a different anti-biotic, especially a penicillin type, I did indeed continue to take it. Then, about a month after I stopped taking it, I suddenly noticed an ever increasing stiffening and pain of my joints, particularly my wrist and hands and my ankles and feet. As time went on it became worse and worse and worse. I didn't connect the dots as to why I was having this problem, and no, I didn't exactly rush to the doctor about it either.

Well one time after a year had passed by and when I was researching for an article to write about, and yes dealing with medications, I came across and looked up "Cipro" again. NOW it had warnings about triggering RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis) and even ripped tendons and was now one of those medications that had class action lawsuits against it. Gee, wonderful. Yes folks, I now have severe RA, with it CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and often feel like 150 years old at times.

Now, you may ask, do I now take medications for my RA? Are you joking me? The medications often prescribed for RA and severe pain issues aren't exactly stellar and even if you gave me a million dollars to take them, I won't. One common medication prescribed for RA includes the warning: "Please tell your doctor of any sudden mood changes, depression or have suicidal thoughts." Gee, lovely. I'm sure quite often while watching TV, you may have seen those commercials for some medication for a particular health problem, then the announcer lists all the side effects. Are you like me and shake your head in amazement and wonder, with all those side effects, why on earth would anyone want to take this crap?

So now the question, do people blindly take medications without knowing all the possible side effects? I would have to give a loud resounding yes to that, as way too often people perhaps trust their doctors a bit too much. I can give one great example of this, my own grandmother. Unlike my great grandmother who had a distain for medications, my grandmother was the opposite. In her later years my grandmother had developed a bad case of asthma and was given a wide variety of medications including Theophylline to clear her lungs. That medication was to have fatal results: one night when my grandmother went to the ER while having a bad asthma attack, the doctors gave her a stronger than usual dosage of Theophylline. Did my grandmother pass away due to her asthma problem? No. She passed away due to the Theophylline since it can trigger cardiac arrest.

In my own life, for a very, very brief time, I too took Theophylline whenever I had a serious case of bronchitis, but in very, very low dosages, much lower than what my grandmother had taken, but even with such low dosages, I could feel my heart palpitate , would feel shaky, and often had anxiety. There was one time while having a really extreme bad bout of bronchitis, I went to see my doctor and he decided to give me an injection of Theophylline, and I asked what effects could I expect, and he told me I might feel a little dizzy. A little dizzy? A little dizzy? Are you kidding me? The room was actually spinning and I thought I was going to pass out.

I can't emphasize enough how all too trusting people may be with their doctors and any medication that are prescribed. People will rattle out their symptoms of this or that problem, the doctor will then write out prescriptions, but again without full knowledge of all the side effects or possible drug interactions. Also, in this day and age of accessing the internet for information about medications, people still fail to look them up. I mean wouldn't you want to be aware of just what you are taking? And even then with looking up information, there are no real guarantees of being fully informed, as was in my case when I took Cipro since not all the side effects and warnings were known at the time I took it.

So do I take any medications? No. Like my great grandmother I only take aspirin, and even that only sparingly. I've been on a quest you might say to find an alternative, more natural means to help my RA problems. I refuse to be a guinea pig taking pharmaceutical type medications that may have far more serious detrimental effects and perhaps trigger even more health problems.