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UK Woman Allergic To Modern Life?

By Uncategorized 14 Comments

This looks like some fake news story you’d expect to find on The Onion. But it’s actually real. A woman in the United Kingdom claims to suffer from electrosensitivity, a severe reaction to being around wireless electronic devices, especially wi-fi and cell phones. It’s very rare, but apparently also very real. Check out this article to find out more.


“The Woman Who Needs Protection From Modern Life” – via The Daily Mail

No, she’s NOT a beekeeper. This woman believes that her bizarre headgear can save her from the dangerous electrosmog all around us. Can she possibly be right? Before knocking on Sarah Dacre’s door, I take the precaution of checking my mobile phone. It’s switched off, as she has requested.

“Last time someone came to visit,” she warns, “I started feeling awfully nauseous. It turned out he had a picture phone with him and had left it switched on. A picture phone!” She pauses, looking genuinely horrified. Apparently, this type of mobile automatically sends signals to a local base station every nine minutes – “No wonder I felt so sick.”

Sarah, 51, is one of a growing band of people who claim to be experiencing extreme – and incapacitating – sensitivity to electrical appliances, as well as to certain frequencies of electromagnetic waves. “Wi-Fi, or wireless broadband networks, seem to be the worst thing,” she says. “Closely followed by mobile phones – particularly if they’re being used in an enclosed space – the base stations of cordless telephones and mobile phone masts. “I have to restrict the amount of time I spend on the computer or watching television, and make sure I don’t have too many household appliances on at once, because that sets me off as well.”

This may sound bizarre, but there is no doubt that Sarah’s symptoms are real. To date, they include hair loss, sickness, high blood-pressure, digestive and memory problems, severe headaches and dizziness. They strike with such ferocity that, since diagnosing herself as “electrically sensitive” in May 2005, she has been marooned at home. She can’t work. When she wants to phone friends, she has to use a land-line – a significant advancement, it turns out, because she was so ill at one stage, she says, that she couldn’t even touch an ordinary receiver without feeling a violent shock pass up her arm.

Food shopping is done as rapidly as possible, once a week, at a time carefully chosen to avoid younger people and their permanently switched-on mobile phones. And she can venture into built-up areas only if she is swathed in a net-and-hat ensemble made from a special “shielding fabric” that makes her look like a bee-keeper.

Read the rest of the story here.

Made Of Honor – Review

By movie reviews, Uncategorized 12 Comments

I went to see Made Of Honor the other night. The plot of this movie is pretty simple.

Tom (Patrick Dempsey) and Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) became best friends in college. Almost ten years later, after becoming absolutely inseparable, the two part ways when Hannah goes to Scotland for a six week period.

While she’s gone, Tom realizes how much she means to him and wants to tell her when she gets home. However, he’s horrified to find out she’s met a man on her trip and plans on marrying him. She subsequently asks him to be her maid of honor in the wedding. The plot unfolds around Tom’s plans to convince Hannah he’s the more worthy man.

This was a lighthearted comedy that was filled with smart humor and a great storyline. The character development is somewhat stagnant, but this was overall a great film.

Overall Rating:

Short Pump Wal-Mart

By Uncategorized 19 Comments
I’m posting via Utterz. I’m sure the text will be all messed up again.
I need to figure this out. Anywho, I’m in the Short Pump Wal-Mart. I
hate this place. I’m pretty sure this is what hell might look like.
Well this and Claire’s, the place with the plastic jewelry that my
sister and her annoying friends shop at. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings
if this Wal-Mart got hit by a tornado once. I mean come on the
Colonial Heights store got hit three times. Share the love! And that
concludes this sarcastic post from your neighborhood Wal-Mart.
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Baby Mama – Review

By movie reviews, Uncategorized No Comments

I went to see Baby Mama this past Friday. Tina Fey stars as a busy woman in her late thirties who has always put her career before her personal life. She suddenly comes to the realization one day that her biological clock is ticking and, after trying every other way, decides to have a baby through a surrogate mother.

The mother (played by Amy Poehler) is desperate for money and will do anything for the cash given to her for carrying the baby. There are several big plot twists that I’m tempted to share, but like I said, I’m not doing spoiler reviews anymore!

The plot line is funny and relatively easy to follow. The character development is strong as well. Steve Martin adds comic relief as well with his role as CEO of the organic foods company Fey works for.

If you’re up for a feel-good comedy, check this one out, but don’t expect a whole lot more.

Overall Rating:

Tornado Outbreak: Suffolk Devastation & Colonial Heights Déjà Vu

By news, Uncategorized, weather 87 Comments

Fifteen years ago, in 1993, a strong F4 (winds of up to 260 MPH) tornado touched down in Colonial Heights, destroying the Wal-Mart store and killing three people, before tearing through Petersburg’s historic district. Well today, history seems to have repeated itself. A moderate tornado touched down in the exact same shopping center (Dimmock Square, near Southpark Mall). Is that eerie or what? I was only five years old the first time it happened, but (strangely) vaguely remember seeing it on TV. The Dress Barn and Target stores suffered blown out windows and minor roof damage, but for the most part there was no extreme structural damage.

It was a different story in Suffolk this evening. The same line of storms marched eastward (and strengthened considerably as they did so) and proceeded to completely flatten a portion Suffolk’s historic district, then went through a golf course community and completely wiped large, substantial homes clean off their foundations to the point where all that was left was a concrete slab beneath. This part was especially eerie to me because the neighborhood looked very similar to mine (Wyndham) from the aerial shot.

Suffolk is completely devastated. It looks like an atomic bomb went off the way the homes literally exploded with the extreme winds. At the time I’m writing this, there has only been one person confirmed dead, but unfortunately, it would be miraculous if the death toll didn’t rise, by the looks of the flattened neighborhoods. Hopefully it won’t, though. Virginia is no stranger to tornadoes, but usually experiences much weaker ones than this. This was extremely rare. Keep your thoughts and prayers with the Hampton Roads community during the aftermath of this immense, widespread natural disaster.

I find all of this very interesting since most of you know how much I like weather and storms. I flipped through the local news channels and hooked up my Comcast digital box to my Mac to record everything as it happened. Here are some screenshots from the live broadcasts I recorded from NBC 12 (WWBT), 8 NEWS (WRIC), CBS 6 (WTVR), and WAVY 10 (WAVY) (NBC affiliate in Norfolk, via live streaming on-air web simulcast).

1993 archive video footage of the destruction of the Southpark Wal-Mart (WRIC)

Meteorologist Jim Duncan advises citizens to take shelter during a tornado warning (WWBT)

Aerial image of Dimmock Square Shopping Center (perimeter highlighted in yellow) and the adjacent Wal-Mart store (now a Sam’s Club) that were both hit by tornadoes that followed the exact same paths in 1993 and 2008 (Blackwood Development Corporation)

Cars were tossed like toys in the Dimmock Square Shopping Center parking lot, in front of Target (WWBT)

A house suffers extreme damage in Suffolk (WTVR)

A Suffolk antiques shop is cut in half with almost no visible damage from the front or rear façades, but obviously the historic building is a complete loss (WAVY)

 The owner of a car dealership snaps a picture through the front windows of his business as a huge tornado barrels through Suffolk (WAVY)

Things I Learned This Weekend

By Uncategorized 2 Comments
• I really want to move to a downtown river loft. They’re amazing.

• You don’t need a computer to blog.

• You don’t need a computer in general and life does march on without
one, in fact sometimes it’s better without one.

• My i does everything my MacBook Pro can (well sorta) except
run Photoshop and Premiere Pro and stuff, but it’s a great basic
platform in terms of mobile computing.

• Family is number one.

• Life is good when you dream big.
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Utter Confusion

By Uncategorized No Comments
So this is the second night in a row I’ve posted to my blog from my
i using a service called Utterz. It’s basically a mobile service
that lets you call a number and record an MP3 from your cell
that is then posted to your blog. You can also send an email
from your as I am doing now.

The service is a great idea but I still think it has a long way to go.
If you edit your posts in your blog later on, your blog’s formatting
will be completely screwed up. This includes simply adding tags. And
if you send an email the line breaks get messed up (this post is no
exception).

Anyway, it’s a great service but I think their blog importation
service needs some more work. It’s still in beta development, though,
in their defense.
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Hooked On Fitness

By Uncategorized 16 Comments
So some people do things like smoke simply because it’s something they
can have control over in their lives when everything else sucks.

Well, I’ve found a healthier, yet just as addictive alternative to
nicotine: the YMCA. Strange as it may sound, whenever I’m stressed,
tired, or unhappy lately I’ll go to the Y. I guess it’s a good habit
to have. An hour on the Expresso bikes and thirty minutes on the
treadmill and I feel renewed, refreshed, and ready to take on the rest
of my day. I went twice today!

Anyway, I’ve been feeling pretty good because exercise is such a
stress reliever and releases "happy" endorphins. I’m also starting to
have more energy throughout the day and am sleeping better at night
thanks to working out.
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