Category: Uncategorized

Categories
Samuel Thoughts Uncategorized

Hospitals In Cuba

Something strange is going on in our world today. Using an example from my own life, a conversation I just had with my older sister. My older sister is very intelligent, she is someone I look up to in many ways, which made this conversation all the more strange. I found myself sitting with her listening to her say that hospitals in Cuba are good, that they are better than the US. I believe her exact words were “their medicine is socialized and free, so its good!”.

I can’t make any logical since of this, I know my sister is intelligent. I know she has to be aware of how silly this comment sounded. I mean just without even examining it; Cuba is a country that has food shortages, they lack basic infrastructure. Doctors all over the world share many similarities, and one thing is for sure – you are going to have a hard time attracting world class health care talent into a country where they will be concerned about finding their next meal. A quick search online shows that Cuba is not even in the top 100 ranked countries in therms of healthcare. I know my sister knows this deep down, I don’t understand why she would say something like this? She does watch a lot of main stream news and she lives in LA which is from the outsides seems like it has a very narrow minded echo chamber of ideas, (but then all of us live inside our own echo chambers to a degree).

Really almost all of the health care comparisons that people shout about are really very useless. The US heath care system ranks 30th in the widely shared rankings, behind many other countries. These rankings are obviously very silly though – these rankings are trying to do an almost impossible job anyway. What does it mean to have the “Best” healthcare. Does that mean having the best doctors, the thought leaders of the industry? Or does it mean having the best “average” of skill when you factor all of the doctors in any given country? The answer really depends on who is asking the question. Germany and the US are widely believed to have the best raw talent in the health industry, these countries have the most “thought leaders”. These countries drive the most innovation. So if you are someone who is in need of very advanced care – its obviously that your first choice would be Germany, or the United States. Beyond that if you have a simple injury that could be fixed by almost any doctor – or if you don’t have enough $ to afford treatment then you would be best off in a country where the “average” of all the doctors skills is the best and or the care is subsidized by the government.

The entire ranking process seems pretty silly and basically totally politicized.

Categories
Laravel Samuel Uncategorized

Setting Composer To Use PHP 7.3 From Command Line

So we ran into a little bit of an issue today when upgrading Laravel from 5.6 -> 6.0. We updated the version of PHP using the MultiPHP Manager section in Cpanel, however when we then SSH’d into the server to pull in the updated Laravel code and run composer install we ran into the issue of composer using the system version of PHP. The full process we went through is below:

Update the version of PHP on MultiPHP manager page:

We then SSH’d into the server to pull in the new Laravel code. When we did this, we got the following error message:
To get around this issue we created a shim script, so now instead of running:
composer install

We instead ran:

~/bin/composer install

Composer now uses the version of PHP defined in the shim script, which in our case is PHP 7.3 and we are back to all green happy lines 🙂

Categories
Uncategorized

Re: Privilege (a draft) for Sam

I read your post on “Privilege” and I took it as a chance to explore what I know about race and racism in America, and how this made me cringe while reading your words. You are my friend and are an intelligent person, and I believe your quest for knowledge is positive; but also that you should be seeking it without asking for others to do the work of explaining it all to you. In an effort to help begin your continued seeking and learning here is my response to your post:

— systematic exclusion and suppression of communities of color since the beginning of the American Colonies
— That social /public policies seemingly built for progress are explicitly designed to keep people of color from doing so (voter laws, predatory housing loans and denial of loans in areas minorities try to buy)
— How even after civil war and reparations Black people were criminalized (ex: states made vagrancy illegal, and then those with a record could not vote/ Poll taxes to vote/ Strict voter ID laws…the list goes on) and disenfranchised from participating in our democracy.
— (after 2012 election where more Black Voters than white…) 2013 US Supreme Court Ruling that ripped out section 5 of the Voter Rights Act (est. through the civil rights movement in the 1960s) – removing voter rights protection. Many states did not waste time putting old voter suppression tactics back in place. (same as above: strict ID laws, poll taxes, felony holders unable to vote. Don’t even get me started on the 1980s Reagan “War on Drugs” and how this criminalized drug use focused on Black Americans. and how this also plays into loss of voting rights for ostensibly low level drug related crimes; same as today for states who have not yet legalized Marijuana)
— Racism shapes everything for Black/minorities and for white people in america. from schools, to the quality of education at said school, what grocery stores are near you/what kind of fresh produce is available, etc.
–New Deal housing programs were to segregate/ “redlining” came from indicating where it was safe to insure mortgages, and you guessed it, Black and other minorities’ neighborhoods were not inside that line. Predatory practices still in place, like the average EIGHT percentage points higher a loan automatically gets raised if you’re trying to buy a home while black.
–Couldn’t buy suburban homes in the 40’s 50’s 60’s if black = no equity appreciation. So today, Black Americans may earn 60% of what Whites do, but they have only about 5% of the wealth. (i.e: unlike their White counterparts who used their home equity to send children to college or to have something to leave behind financially…black families could not progress this way)
— Despite Fair Housing Act in 1968, the inequalities and disparities continue, due to continued residential segregation and steering.
— Health disparities and access to care issues also very prevalent for Black and other minorities in the US
— Biases that establish white or fair as “nice” “good” and other positive attributes, and black or dark as “bad” and “dumb” and other negative attributes (Doll test for kids, in the 1940s and again in 2010 showed these results)


The Fucking “travesty is the inability or the unwillingness of White Americans to see clearly or understand fully this racist reality” – Joe Feagin

You cannot look at a mountain of evidence to the way our country was build around suppressing people, and still believe that everyone’s privilege is the same. Your ability to even think this, shows how privileged you are. This small but somewhat encompassing list I hastily threw together is merely several waves in the storm referenced in the tweet you want to know more about. We are not all in the same boat because we (white) people have not been affected by the systems in our country the same way as our black and other minorities have been. I hope this inspires you to read more articles, follow more people of color on social media, to listen more – and to learn. So the next time you talk about working hard to make changes in your life, you remember the context and the constructs people face who aren’t you. Everyone can work to make changes, but not everyone has the same freedom of movement or the same support (as black men and women and minorities face systemic inequalities, active oppression, or racism, or violence, or hell, even death by those who are sworn to serve and protect) along the way.

Categories
Fixing Stuff Samuel Uncategorized

A Couple Physical Therapy Exercises

Jaw pain: 

*these are great as well: https://www.healthline.com/health/tmj-exercises#exercise

  1. Place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Open your mouth as wide as you comfortably can, and hold for 5-10 seconds.
  2. Place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Glide your lower jaw out as far as it will go and then back in as far as it will go. Hold for 5-10 seconds in each position.
  3. Slowly and steadily open your mouth as wide as it will comfortably open, with your tongue in a neutral position. Hold for 5-10 seconds then close your mouth. Next, open your mouth slightly and glide your lower jaw back and forth 5-10 times.
  4. Close your mouth. With your head facing straight ahead, glance to the right with your eyes only. Extend your lower jaw to the left and hold for 5-10 seconds. Repeat on the opposite side.
  5. Place a thin object, such as a pencil or paintbrush, in between your front teeth. Slide your lower jaw forward so that the object rests in between your back teeth and front teeth. Hold for 20 seconds.

knee and hip pain:

1. Lengthening Stretch

Because the iliotibial band is a connective tissue and not a muscle, you can’t really stretch it (or it would take too much force than you are capable of). But that “tight” sensation can be alleviated by stretching the surrounding muscles. This move stretches the tensor fascia latae, a muscle that runs across the hip and outside of the leg. Cross the injured leg behind the other leg and lean toward the uninjured side. First, stretch with your arms over your head, creating the shape of a bow from ankle to hand with the injured ITB on the outside, then bring your arms down to touch the ankle on the inside of the bow. Hold for 15 seconds and repeat 10 times. Perform 3 sets a day.

2. Clam Shell

Place a resistance band around your legs just above the knees and start by lying on your left side with head resting on left arm, knees bent and stacked. Slowly draw right knee up toward ceiling to open legs like a clamshell. Perform the exercise slowly with emphasis on good form. Build up to 3 sets of 10 repetitions on each leg. When this exercise becomes easier and the leg remains pain-free during the process, you can move on to more advanced strengthening.

3. Side Leg Lift

Start by lying on your left side with legs straight and feet stacked. Lift your right leg straight up, then extend the leg backward in that plane, move it forward, and then return it to the starting position. Form is very important. Check that you have a straight line from shoulder to ankle with the top hip slightly in front. (Do not let the top hip rotate backward.) Perform the sequence slowly with toe pointed down. Build up to 3 sets of 10 reps for each leg. Once you can handle that with no pain, make the move harder by lifting body into a side plank position with shoulder directly over elbow and hips lifted as shown. Build up to 3 sets of 10 reps for each leg.ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW

4. Single-Leg Squat

Start standing and shift weight to right leg. Balancing on right foot, send hips back and bend right knee to lower one-quarter of the way down into a squat. Make sure the knee stays straight over the foot and does not collapse inward. Extend arms straight out for balance.

After you have mastered the straight quarter squat, make the exercise more challenging by mimicking running form, extending the unsupported leg behind you and bringing it through to lift the knee in front of you. Ultimately, work your way up to touching the ground in front of you on the forward lean. Then you can progress to holding a medicine ball overhead.

5. Hip Hike

When strong enough, eccentric strengthening works the hip abductors in the same manner in which they function during running. Stand with left foot on a step or a stair, and let the right foot hang off. Place hands on hips for balance, then raise the other foot by lifting your hip on that side, while taking care to stay in a straight, upright position. Slowly lower the hip to the bottom of your range of motion, while staying upright. Perform 10 repetitions on each side and build up to 3 sets.

Categories
Uncategorized

Thinking Techniques

I’ve had a lot of clients come to me recently with feelings of being overwhelmed. Maybe they’re in grad school, or saving to buy a home, or working on a career change; and they’re juggling this, their daily lives, and their plans and hopes for the future. I find it is easy to stay trapped in your own head when you’re so busy and working so hard. That the doubt and negative self-judgment simultaneously push you to work harder and cast a dark feeling of insecurity over the whole process.

When you begin the process of thinking about your thinking, you’re able to see how much weight and validity we tend to automatically give our negative thoughts, while dismissing our positive thoughts and examples as a fluke, luck, or not enough to result in lasting change.

I try to encourage client’s to not just accepts the thoughts that guide you, but to really stop and check in on some of the content. Are you telling yourself you can’t do it? That people are judging you? That others have done it better? Just because these thoughts occur doesn’t make them true. Tapping into your thoughts helps you recognize negative pattern, question them, and replace them with more realistic thoughts that carry more truth.

For example, a client comes in and tells me that they are in school for a post-masters program and they’re feeling depressed and isolating from friends because they’re overwhelmed by the program. Together we examine the thoughts that are making the client feel this way, and identify that one particular thought is repeated often: “I am not as smart as everyone here, and what am I going to do with this degree if I am already feeling out of my league?” Next, the client is encouraged to process why they don’t feel as smart and whether there is any evidence to support this belief. Have they failed a test? Has someone in the program told them they are not smart? The client realizes there is no actual evidence for this thought, but they have been allowing it to be true simply because it’s in their head.

Then we explore the fears and insecurities the client carries relating to feeling less smart – and process the times in their life they’ve felt this way, which may have created this negative thinking in the first place. Finally, we work together to dismantle the negative thought with a more realistic and self-supporting thought. Instead of “I am not as smart as everyone here, and what am I going to do with this degree if I am already feeling out of my league?”, the client is able to re-frame the thought using evidence, to, “I am feeling that everyone here is as passionate as I am about this program and I am second guessing myself because it’s new and intense. I can do this, as my coursework and participation have shown me. And I can collaborate with the people in my program to gain insights into how this is going to help or shape my career.”

Over time the ability to examine a thought and to question its validity using evidence from your life, becomes easier. And in doing so, you stop allowing the negative thoughts to carry more weight or truth than the positive, or neutral thoughts. It’s a great exercise to try on your own, and would be even more effective with the help of a professional who can support you in processing the themes in your negative thinking, where they come from, and how to use reality to change them.

Categories
Uncategorized

Creating A Default Meal Plan For Normal Days

In order to help make eating at home easier I’ve come up with the following meal plan that I can follow and know it is setup for low carb success:

Breakfast: 2 Carbs

  • 3 – 4 eggs & 2 pieces of bacon
  • 20 oz Protein Drink w/MCT oil

Lunch: 22 Carbs

  • Salad with:
    • Cut Salad From Garden – or romaine/spinach mix
    • 1oz chopped cashews (10 carbs)
    • 1/2 chopped apple or pear (12 carbs 1/2 apple 9 carbs 1/2 pear)
    • 1/3 cup shredded cheese
    • Hot Giardiniera
    • Olive Oil & Vinegar
    • Mustard
    • Ground beef or shredded chicken

Dinner: 8 Carbs

  • 1 Cup Cauliflower Rice ( 5 carbs)
  • 1 hamburger/chicken breast/pork chop
  • 1/2 cup Baked Broccoli (3 carbs)

This Plan has a total of 32 carbs which based on my previous eating habits feels about perfect. If I want to mix in an optional desert it can be a rice cake w/Almond butter and a light dusting of erythritol for an added 18 grams of carbs.