An Ounce of Prevention...

Today’s topic is skin cancer. This topic was contributed by…me.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of my father’s death from Melanoma.

Three years before he died in 1986, my dad had a cancerous mole removed from his neck, which was diagnosed as Melanoma. At the time, Melanoma had a 95% mortality rate. Long story short, the cancer came back, metastasizing in his liver and pancreas. He was diagnosed in May and died in September. As far as cancer deaths go, in a way my dad was “lucky” because he went so quickly. My mother had just retired from being a hospice nurse the previous January, so he was in good hands. I have seen too many people suffer for years before finally succumbing. He knew there was no cure, and at the time, no treatment. Experimental treatment would have been very expensive and would have only postponed the inevitable, and possibly could have made things worse. Quality over quantity where illness is concerned, I say.

I was watching Headline News and one of the anchors looked a little, well, orange – orange enough to the point of distraction. She was almost Oompa Loompa orange. It got me wondering why anyone would want to look like that, and do they even know how odd they look? It also made me wonder how healthy, or harmful, slathering on a chemical cocktail that is designed to change the color of your skin is. I guess you could say the same about sun screen itself, so that’s why I choose to stay out of the sun altogether.

Then there are tanning booths. Personally, I think they offer a false sense of security due to the fact that they claim that they do not emit UVB rays. The problem is, UVA rays are just as harmful, if not worse. UVA rays actually penetrate the skin deeper than UVB rays. There’s no such thing as a “safe tan” and the “base tan” is a dangerous myth that leads one to believe that a few sessions of indoor tanning will protect your skin from sunburn outside.

According to this website, “…"Safe tan" is an oxymoron. There is no such thing. The purpose of sunscreens is to not tan. If you tan, you didn't use enough sunscreen, or didn't apply it soon enough or often enough. I'm quite aware that the social norm in this country is to keep a "healthy tan" year-round, but when we diagnose a Melanoma on a young person, attitudes among family and friends change rapidly.

That's what's happened in Australia, which leads the world in incidence of Melanoma. Very few families there haven't been touched by this cancer. It's no longer cool to be tan in Australia. With the rising rates of Melanoma in the United States we'll see that come to pass here too, but only after a lot of people have died.”

Melanoma is the most common form of cancer for young adults 25-29 years old and the second most common form of cancer for young people 15-29 years old. The vast majority of mutations found in Melanoma are caused by ultraviolet radiation, the same radiation emitted by all tanning booths.

Shortly after my father died, I had a mole on my stomach checked out. There was really nothing wrong with it, but I may have just been a little paranoid – apparently, rightly so. The mole seemed to be the only one I had. The dermatologist didn’t think much of the mole and asked if I was experiencing any problems with it, or if I had reason to be suspicious of it. I told her no, and she asked why then, would I want it removed? When I told her that my dad had died a few months before as a result of Melanoma, she couldn’t remove it fast enough. She quickly removed it with a scalpel, parallel to my skin. About two weeks later, it started to come back. I went back to the doctor and she discovered the mole had a “root” and actually went down into my skin about a ¼” of an inch. She sent it out for a biopsy, which came back negative, but she said 90% of the moles that have roots end up causing serious problems later. I am not much of a worrier, but I’m glad I listened to the little voice in my head 25 years ago. I’ve had enough sun burns over my lifetime to know that it only takes one bad one to put me in a categorical chance to get skin cancer – and I’ve had a few blistering ones at that. I’m hoping I’ve lessened my chances by not only having that mole removed, but also by staying out of the sun all this time.

Skin cancer awareness is at an all time high; ironically, so is the incidence of skin cancer. I believe that most people think it won’t happen to them. No tan is worth risking your life for. I’d rather be pale and alive, than tan and dying.

Here is my small contribution to the cause, courtesy of Everyday Health:

Skin Cancer Myths Debunked By Dermatologists

by Dalene Entenmann, M.D.

Dermatologists are concerned about the misconceptions people have about sun safety that are putting them at greater risk for skin cancer. A tan-no matter how gorgeous and "healthy looking," is actually skin damage. The skin has become browned in response to radiation from the sun. Even though there's no peeling or red burn in that bronze tan, there's still skin damage and increased risk of Melanoma.  Melanoma is a cancer that begins in the melanocytes – the cells that produce the skin coloring or pigment known as melanin.  Sadly, skin cancer can take 20 or more years to develop.  For sun worshippers everywhere, here is the truth about some of the myths:

Skin cancer is not serious. Skin cancer is very serious and skin cancer diagnosis is reaching epidemic levels in this country. More than one million new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed each year.

A base tan shields you from sun damage during the summer, or As long as I tan instead of burn, I don't have to worry. Any darkening of skin from the sun is due to sun damage to the skin. A base tan is not a shield; it still lets dangerous radiation penetrate the skin.  A tan is actually the skin's injury response to damage from UV radiation.  Dermatologists state there is no such thing as a safe tan.

Sunscreen is all the protection needed. According to dermatologists, while sunscreen does offer some protection from the sun, UV rays can defeat the strongest lotion and damage skin.

Dark-skinned people are safe from sun damage and skin cancer risks. Brown skin with lots of melanin protects better against UV rays, but at the same time, dark-skinned people are more prone than others to have moles, and moles that become abnormal are a major risk factor for Melanoma.

Skin cancer is an age-related disease of the middle-aged and elderly. Yes, the chance of being diagnosed with cancer does increase as we age. But dermatologists say the number of young adults and even children with skin cancer appear to be rising faster than it is for adults now.

Tanning salons are safer than the sun. Tanning booths can be more damaging to the skin because they use pure ultraviolet light.  20 minutes of exposure in a tanning bed is roughly equivalent to four hours in the sun. Although sun beds use UVA rather than UVB rays, 'The Skin Cancer Answer' states that "UVA penetrates more deeply into the skin than UVB, can cause skin cancer, and may suppress the immune system."

I stay out of the sun between 10 am and 3 pm, so I'm safe.
The sun's rays still penetrate right through to your DNA as long as it's above the horizon. But the rays are most potent between 10 am and 3 pm.

The winter sun isn't strong enough to cause harm.
Oh yes it is, especially when the rays are intensified (by 80 percent) by surrounding snow.

Sunscreen isn't necessary on cloudy days.
80 percent of the sun's rays penetrate clouds. Do not mistake cloud-cover as a shield. The sun is never “gone” – it’s always there!

Thoughts On Lost Pigs, Ugly Ducklings, and Dead Princesses

Today’s topic was suggested by my sister, Carol, who also contributed the title.

Click on the linked words for extra hilarity!

I admit it, I do like video games. I do own a Wii, a Nintendo DS and I do have a few games on my phone I play if I’m bored. However, I have never and will never play any social games, specifically Facebook games. I believe they are not only a complete waste of time, but they are potentially addictive and exploitative. They also promote spam and identity theft.

I like keeping in touch with family and old friends on Facebook, but what I don’t like are the constant reminders that someone needs Critter Milk to heal a wounded animal, or dead princesses, or vegetables, or that someone has reached level 42. I have ignored and hidden every one of these requests (yes, even YOURS!) and will continue to do so.

Zynga is the company behind Farmville, Mafia Wars, and Café World, among others. They are now, thanks to all of you who play their games, a billion-dollar company. Not that there’s anything wrong with a little capitalism, but they took misleading and underhanded measures to get there. They gain approximately $50 million a year from Facebook advertisements that attract more players to their games, and even more money getting people to part with their cold, hard credit cards.

In April 2010, Khondkar Faiaz Hasan and Mohammed Suhail Akhtar, students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, wrote an “Interactive Qualifying Project Report” titled The Dark Side of Facebook Games and submitted it to the “Faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science”. In their dissertation, they point out that “almost all games on Facebook have real time elements”. What this means is that users can’t reach the end of the game quickly, thus keeping them seated in front of their computer for sometimes HOURS ON END and feeding what eventually can be deemed an addiction.  The more time they spend in front of the game, the greater the potential to click on advertising or spend more money. Seriously, there are so many other ways one could be spending their time.

“As the players cannot proceed forth in the game when they want to,” the paper continues, “it is likely that they feel an urge to advance faster than the game will let them. This is when Micro-transactions come into play.”

Micro-transactions, they explain, are a form of micro-payment for purchasing virtual goods available for sale on Facebook games. For instance, you can spend $5.00 of your real money to buy 7,500 gold coins needed for Farmville if you can’t wait for your crops to grow fast enough to bring to market.

$5.00 may not seem like a lot of money, but Zynga is the only one receiving any real money. With 232 million monthly active users and 60 million daily users, that’s a lot of money in their pockets. You’re not even buying anything tangible. Over time, that $5.00 builds up, but what do you have to show for it? Maybe a few gaming gift cards (sold at major retailers) so you can buy more intangible goods.

Zynga tries not to seem too greedy though; they do have the following posted on their web site:  Zynga is committed to transforming the world through virtual social goods. Zynga players have raised more than $10 million for several international nonprofits since Zynga.org launched in October 2009. Players have purchased virtual social goods within games like Farmville, FishVille, Mafia Wars, and Zynga Poker that have benefited earthquake victims in Haiti and to school lunch programs for children in Haiti.

But consider this: If half of the daily users took the $5.00 they would have spent on gold coins and donated it instead, they could have contributed far more money to charity than Zynga has and upped their karmic footprint in the process.

As far as identity theft is concerned, Hasan and Akhtar warn, “Once a person uses his credit card to buy something, not only is he paying for something fake, but he is also susceptible to future privacy breach as he loses his credit card information to an illegitimate source. In almost all Facebook games, users are required to buy in game currency using their credit card…if one of these offers is a scam, then the user loses his information.” Of course, they don’t warn you about any of the pitfalls you may encounter or let you know which offers not to click on.

Some of you might say I should try playing the games just to see what they’re like, but that’s just the point. In order to try one, I would have to spend money and spam friends. It’s as if Facebook is the crack dealer camped out in front of the school in their ice cream truck telling me to “just try it”. I would have to send all my Facebook friends, even those not involved in the games, unsolicited requests for an ungodly amount of crap that I “need” in order to advance in the games and keep feeding my addiction. This can only eventually alienate the friends who choose not to participate if I annoy them enough.

According to a recent study, the average social gamer is a 43 year old woman. Yes, that’s correct. Probably a parent who is constantly telling her children to get off the computer and get out more, secretly wanting the computer all to herself.

What amazes me is people are essentially playing the same game over and over again, just with different titles. Apparently, Zynga thinks people are too stupid and gullible to notice; either way, they steal your time or they steal your money. Or both.

I Was Such a Stupid Kid

Today’s topic is childhood stupidity. This topic was not quite suggested. It was more that my husband finds this story extremely funny. You will note the irony of that sentence by the end of this post.

I have an intense fear of public speaking that almost surely originated on a specific day in second grade before a crowd of about thirty seven-year-olds during a sold out performance of second-grade Show and Tell.

Once a week, my teacher, Mrs. Bluestein, would ask the class if anyone had anything for Show and Tell. On this particular day, not a single student raised their hand. I figured this would be my golden opportunity to show the world what I had to offer. I had something brilliant. I knew these kids would think I was as hilarious as I thought I was and in the end, I would take an extended curtain call as they all shouted “Brava! BRAVA!”, throwing roses at my feet and begging for more with their standing ovations.

I confidently raised my hand and was immediately called upon. I stood up, marched over to the spot that had been occupied by so many before me, and said, “Okay, this is funny. This is really funny.”

“Chinese (pulling the corners of my eyes down with my fingers)

Japanese (pulling the corners of my eyes up)

Dirty knees (touching my knees)

Look at these (pulling my shirt out from my pre-pre-pubescent chest)”

Nothing. Pure silence. Although, I swear I heard crickets.

I could feel every pair of eyes slowly move toward my teacher, as if her reaction was going to indicate whether or not I was going to receive my standing ovations. You know that phrase, “If looks could kill?” Mrs. Bluestein had just committed ocular homicide in the first degree. I slowly side-stepped my way back toward my desk, not wanting to turn my back to a crowd that apparently could turn so condemnatory at the drop of a hat.

At the time, I didn’t realize how horribly racist and sexist that little ditty was. Needless to say, it was not repeated by me too often after that, if at all.

I really don’t remember much after that point. I just know that I did not want to get up in front of any kind of audience, whether it was made up of children or adults, especially people I knew personally, for any reason ever again. And I certainly have no desire to throw my hat into the ring as a candidate for Poet Laureate. 

Right to the Point

Today’s topic was submitted by my brother, David Hibbard:

Politics – How much they suck.

There you go.

Accountability

When I was about eight years old, my family lived on Kirtland Air Force base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was riding my bike around the block, and just as I rounded a corner I saw a very hysterical woman come rushing out of her house with a naked baby boy in her arms. As she hastily put the baby on the front lawn, a fire truck pulled up and a fireman rushed to the baby and immediately started giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. While the mother was wailing nearby, an older boy of about four or five came out, also not wearing any clothes, and started playfully dancing on the lawn, seemingly oblivious to what was going on. After a minute or two, the fireman gave up on resuscitating the baby and covered him with a blanket, at which point the mother lost it altogether. I have a vague memory of the older child asking someone something, but I can’t remember to whom, or what was said.

I remember going back home and telling my mom all about what I had just seen. A few days later, my mom told me that the baby was about two years old and had drowned after the mother left him alone in the bathtub. She also told me that she heard the older child was periodically locked in a closet as punishment, and that the mother also had an infant who had been hospitalized for malnutrition on more than one occasion. My mother was a nurse working at the base hospital at the time and may have had evidence of the latter supposition. I’m sure at the time my mother had explained what child abuse was, but all that stuck in my mind was what she told me about each of the children.

Slight segue here: I give my mother credit for not holding back when she explained everything to me. I talked to her the other night about this incident, and while she doesn’t really remember it, it’s something that is forever ingrained in my head. She told me that she would have had no reason not be honest about it, and may have figured that after what I had witnessed, I could probably handle details about child abuse and what was going on with the mother’s other two children. Personally, I think kids are pretty resilient and can handle more than most people think. I’ve heard too many stories from friends whose parents didn’t tell them something they should have known because they were “too young” to handle it, only to find out second or third hand as an adult to devastating consequences.

I never saw the mother or her kids after that, and I don’t know whatever became of them, nor do I know how the situation was handled. This was around 1974, and child abuse was still a taboo subject, so even if someone had witnessed any of the alleged abuse, it is doubtful anyone would have said or done anything.

We now live in a time where almost nothing is taboo, and Child Services are called frequently, sometimes erroneously, without hesitation. Unfortunately, no one called them for 10-year-old Ame Deal (read about her here and here). Unbelievably, neighbors said they had not called authorities “because they had not witnessed any physical abuse, although they would occasionally hear screams.” Yet the neighbors had witnessed her being forced to exercise barefoot outside in 103 degree heat. On one occasion, a neighbor heard screams from the same footlocker authorities found her body in while the girl’s aunt sat on top of it, using a laptop computer. When they were interviewed on the news, several neighbors mentioned specific situations that should have been huge red flags. Some of these neighbors should be held accountable for their negligence. Since they had no problem expressing what they saw and heard while being interviewed by the press, there should be no problem proving them negligent.

I don’t have children of my own, and one of the reasons I don’t, is that I know I do not have the patience to put up with them. People wrongly assume I don’t like children, but that certainly is not true. That’s not to say I would abuse them – I just know my limitations. I have often been told that my attitude would change once I had children of my own. There are too many parents out there who have children but shouldn’t. Not only do the children end up suffering, they often carry the abuse into adulthood and onto their own children. It makes me wonder if any of those parents were told that it would be different once they had children of their own.

Update:  I found a newspaper article about what I saw. I was actually seven at the time.

Albuquerque Journal

August 12, 1972

Boy, 2, Found Drowned in Tub

The bathtub drowning of a small boy Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB) was discovered early Friday morning by the boy’s mother.

David Edward Gaby, two and one half years old, the son of Capt. Lewis P. Gaby, 1116 B 11th Loop SE KAFB was found by his mother at 11:15 a.m. in the family bathroom.

The Gaby’s have two other children, Lewis, 5, and a three month old daughter, Debbie.

Capt. Gaby is a project officer in the Theoretical Physics Branch of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory’s Technology Division.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

I Just Made You Say Underwear

Today's topic was submitted by...me! The topic is tact (or lack thereof)


Just over two weeks ago, on a particularly hot day, I was at my local AT & T store to get a new phone. There was a woman ahead of me buying a new SIM card. While waiting for the clerk to do whatever he had to do for her, the woman kept impatiently looking toward the front door.

Clerk: Is everything okay?

Woman: Yeah, my mom is waiting in the car and I’m just making sure she’s okay.

Clerk: If this is taking too long, she’s more than welcome to come inside where it’s cool.

Woman: That’s okay. She can’t come in because she’s only wearing underwear.

Desire Me

Today's post topic of consumerism comes from Denise. I hope this one makes you think...

There’s an old Buddhist saying that goes, "You need clothes to keep you warm, food to nourish you, and a roof to keep you dry. The rest is just desire." Buddhists believe that desire is the root of all suffering. If you desire something and don’t get it, you are disappointed. If you desire something and get it, the euphoria is fleeting and you move on to desiring something else, thus continuing the cycle.

Consumerism creates desire while at the same time fails to fully satisfy it. We buy one thing, especially the case with electronics, and it’s almost immediately obsolete. Manufacturers are constantly working on products to replace the ones we haven’t even bought yet. They know we are going to buy what they are currently advertising. They feed off our desire for their products and we feed off their ability to create those products. They keep telling us that we need these things; they don’t tell us why we need these things, just that we can’t live without them. Or so they’ve convinced us.

They bombard us with advertising that now shows up on the very products they sell us (smart phones, especially) to the point that we don’t even realize we need or want something until it is put before us. English writer G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) said “There are two ways to get enough: one is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.” But when is enough, enough?

The problem with buying all these goods is that something new is always replacing something old, which means we are always discarding something. According to an EPA estimate, Americans create roughly 251 million tons (228 million metric tons) of garbage per year [source: EPA]. That number is only going to go up. In spite of telling us how to properly dispose of the batteries and other toxic components, many of these items end up in landfills, potentially adding dangerous chemicals to the environment.


“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. patent office, 1899 

Okay, it turns out Charlie never said that. But think about this: what if everything we ever truly needed to survive had already been invented? Not wanting for anything more, would we then be living rewarding, more satisfying lives? We wouldn't have to work for things we didn’t need, only the basic necessities of clothing, food and a roof over our heads. Imagine how much happier we would all be.

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Tear the Roof Off the Sucker!

Today's topic comes from Roslyn. She would like me to write about how many times the debt ceiling has been raised over the last ten presidential administrations. Roslyn must be mad at me for some reason...

Kennedy raised the debt ceiling 4 times.

Johnson raised the debt ceiling 7 times.

Nixon raised the debt ceiling 9 times.

Ford raised the debt ceiling 5 times.

Carter raised the debt ceiling 9 times.

Reagan raised the debt ceiling 18 times.

George H.W. Bush raised the debt ceiling 9 times.

Clinton raised the debt ceiling 4 times.

George W. Bush raised the debt ceiling 7 times.

Obama has raised the debt ceiling 3 times (soon to be 4 since we all know it’s going to happen).

That’s 74 times in 51 years, but actually 102 since 1917 when the debt ceiling was implemented. Prior to 1917 it was a pay as you go system. Every expenditure had to be approved by congress prior to the debt being incurred. Tired of having to approve every bill that had to be paid, Congress created the debt ceiling. The only reason this is an issue right now is because they are at an impasse. The raising of the debt ceiling has often been tucked into other bills without it being made a public matter.

By law, we cannot go above the debt ceiling. The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits Congress from defaulting on our debt, so if all other financial support is exhausted, then something has to give.  Either the President must allow Congress to break the law, or he must issue debt on his own authority and face the consequences.

  

There are other sources of revenue (selling assets, incoming taxes) that may work for a short time, but it’s much easier to raise the ceiling. I believe they will reach a deal before August 2nd. Otherwise, they'd miss their summer vacation, and I think that’s what they are actually concerned with!

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Language Barrier

Thank you, Angela for suggesting the topic for the day --  poor grammar!

Growing up, there was a commercial on the radio that started with the words, “Fair or not – people judge you by the words you use.” It was an ad for a product called Verbal Advantage, an audio learning method for improving your vocabulary. Whenever I hear someone say something grammatically incorrect, that phrase immediately comes to mind. The more I think about it, the more I think that people should be judged not only by the words they use, but how they use those words. Call me a snob, but what is the point of learning anything in school if you don’t use what you learned correctly?

When someone corrects a child, they are trying to teach them something, but from one adult to another, it’s considered rude, even if done discreetly. The problem is it’s difficult to correct someone without sounding like an arrogant ass. Although, if it was socially acceptable to correct someone, I believe instances that required correction would drop dramatically.

I’ve often heard that English is an evolving language, and while that is true to a degree, I don’t think it is an excuse to abandon the rules of grammar and spelling. It’s easy to blame the school system for the way things are, but that doesn’t explain why people from the same family or students in the same class are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Dependence on computers’ spell checkers and the catastrophe that was Hooked on Phonics certainly have had an impact on the situation. Add to that Twitter and texting shorthand and it makes one wonder what the next generation will have to offer.

I know some non-English speaking adults who came to this country as a result of a job transfer. Their employer will often require they take English classes either here or in their own country. The problem is, they’re learning one kind of English in the classroom and another on the street, which can be quite confusing. While the same can be said of most American students, I can imagine this makes it more difficult for non-English speaking adults who are still trying to learn the rules. For those foreign transplants who learned English as part of their education growing up, how will they actually know what is right or wrong when so many of their American peers don’t seem to know either?

I encounter many cringe-worthy incorrect phrases throughout the day, and I do try to refrain from correcting anyone (depending on the person), but I will occasionally break out my red pen (literally) and correct some misspelled words on job sheets and in our telephone memo book. Snobby I know, but no one seems to care, or notice for that matter, and it does give me a sense of satisfaction!

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What This Blog Is All About

It's all about reader participation! This means YOU!

Here it is in a nutshell: I have always wanted to write a blog, but I’ve never known what to write about. All the advice I’ve read says to choose a topic you’re passionate about. That’s fine, but I’m really not passionate about something specific enough that I think will sustain a blog through the long run. If I try to choose a new topic daily, again, who’s to say I would be passionate about enough random topics every single day to sustain the blog through the long run?

Here’s where you come in: The blog is going to be called “Pulled Out of a Hat” and the topics will literally be pulled out of a hat. The topics will be submitted by you and credited to you.

I will post something about submitting a topic daily on my Face Book page. You may submit the topic in the comments area of that specific post, or in the comments area of any post on this blog. Depending on the number of submissions I receive, topics could be carried over to the next day’s hat. The only guideline will be that the topic be seven words or less.

The topic can be about anything you want – even me. No subject is off limits. So if you might be put off by what other people submit, you don’t have to play, but you can always watch from the sidelines or walk away. Please note: I will try to be as inoffensive as possible, but the topics may be the issue. I will keep it professional, appropriately humorous and/or respectful, and informative.

Please try to stick around – this could be fun!

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