Sunday, July 30, 2023

The swimming pool show - addenda and updates

First of all, if someone has a very discerning eye, they might have noticed that the bassist not only switched shirts from the afternoon sound check; he also switched his bass! Just after I left home on Friday afternoon, after the cold shower and change of shirt, he called me and asked whether he could play my bass in the evening. It turns out that his bass was making noises at certain places (I didn't get the complete story) and that the soundman suggested that he replace his bass. Where is the nearest bass guitar? At my home. So we went home, I produced the guitar and he proceeded to play it in the evening.

The lead guitarist has been complaining that he was mixed low in the mix. I thought that this was just in the monitor on my side of the stage but the various videos do have me louder. The singer says that he and his wife helped do the balance in the afternoon and then it was good, so maybe someone changed something later on.

I found out that this was not the first time the guitarist had suffered from a bad on-stage mix: apparently the group - without me, who was yet to join - played on Independence Day.

I used to have a dream in which I was playing with a group of musicians; their sound was a complete accompaniment and all I had to do was add rippling arpeggios. The meaning behind this is that in 1975-1982 I played in various combinations where I had to do most of the music work and so I never had the chance to sit back and contribute something extra to the music. This musical group allows me - at times - to do just that. In some of the songs I am playing plain and simple rhythm guitar parts, but others allow me to stretch out a little. For example, the first few verses of 'I want it that way' are based on my arpeggios. In the original recording of 'Long train running', there are three guitar parts; the other guitarist in our line up is playing the chords, leaving me free to add an obligato part. No one made any comment about this part that is melodically simple but sometimes challenging rhythmically, so I continued playing it. One song even gives me a short unaccompanied solo; I was encouraged to take this part at an early rehearsal, and throughout the weeks refined the notes (playing notes from the Gm scale over an E chord). So one could say that my dream came true.

We have a gig on Tuesday night at a neighbouring kibbutz! Or maybe we do not as the female singer might otherwise be engaged. The issue has yet to be resolved.

Here's a video of us performing "I want it that way", originally by the Backstreet Boys.



Saturday, July 29, 2023

Exhausted but happy

The swimming improvement class finished on Thursday. I'm not sure that I got that much out of it, but my body has remembered how to swim crawl. Whilst warming up, I swam a length of crawl, infinitely more than the past 45 years put together. I have to work on my breathing, though; whilst I am exhaling properly, I am not closing my mouth fast enough after inhaling and so during that length I frequently took water into my mouth (not that I swallowed). 

I went swimming as usual on Friday morning but found it very difficult to achieve a rhythm. My back ached a little and I simply wasn't in the mood - or lacking the strength - for swimming.

After walking slowly back home, I had the weekly conversation with the Occupational Psychologist then spent some time working on the song in 7/4 time and nearly finishing it. Over the past few days, I have improved the harmonic structure of the song, changed the links between verses, added a middle eight and generally improved the song. I was improving the oboe solo in the coda when it was time to go and start the final rehearsal for the musical group's show!


Outside was brutally hot, maybe 38°C, so it was with great relief when I arrived at the air-raid shelter where we rehearse. This is about 10 feet below street level and much cooler there, even without the air-conditioner. Everyone arrived on time and we proceeded to play our set, almost without having to repeat anything. I played the entire set standing up, in order to get used to the weight of the guitar - it's quite heavy.


We then took everything over to the swimming pool, most of the equipment (primarily the drum set) being transported in a 'Gator', then we set up everything again. The pool was full of mainly children and the lawn was full of people from outside of the kibbutz - season ticket holders. The heat and sun made it difficult to play - apart from tuning problems, I was always looking for some shade. In the above picture I'm on the far right (i.e. stage left). After running through a couple of songs and supposedly getting the balance and monitors correct, we finished at about 5:45 pm. I left my guitar in a cool room by the pool.

After dragging myself home for a cold shower and change of shirt, we reconvened at about 6:30pm when a picnic supper was held on the grass. At 7:30pm, someone made the Friday evening blessing, complete with wine and challa, and then we were off (or rather, on)!

Despite the sound check, I couldn't hear the other guitarist very well; this is ironic in that most of the time I complained that he was all I could hear, but this time I heard myself clearly and him only faintly - slightly problematic as there were a few places where I rely on his musical cues. Apparently the PA team said that his sound was far too dirty and maybe purposely reduced his volume in the mix. The recordings that I've heard clearly feature my playing but not so much his - or maybe I'm just used to listening to myself. It was like hearing only one channel of a song recorded in stereo.

The gig itself went well: no serious mistakes that I could hear, except for one song where for some inexplicable reason I suddenly thought that the introduction had been cut in half. Probably no one except the drummer (the female drummer, cue Steeleye Span) and myself caught this. At first there wasn't much audience reaction, except for the small children at the front who were running around - out of time - and somewhat annoying. After a song or two, I put them out of mind. At around the halfway mark I could see that young adults, say 35 years old, were joining in with some of the songs and generally enjoying themselves.

It was hot on stage, because of the lights, and humid, because of the swimming pool, so I found myself frequently towelling down with the small hand towel that I brought with me from home; very professional, as were the swigs from my water bottle, barely visible by my little amplifier. The heat and humidity didn't seem to affect anyone else.

After we finished our set, we were asked to play half of the opening medley again - this was composed of two 'Mediterranean' songs that we joined together, despite one being in Bb and the other in F#m. We played the second half, and many adults jigged and sang along.

Many of the audience came up and said how much they enjoyed the show, possibly not expecting something so good. The OP asked me in the morning whether the musical director of the harvest festival was involved; I said that no, we played 'head arrangements' where everyone figures out their own part and very little is written down. Thinking about this later, I realised that the MD writes arrangements so that everyone can learn their part and play together with very little rehearsal, whereas we played together many times over the course of the past few months. I heard someone say something about us playing as a real group and not as an impromptu gathering.

By the time we had finished, I had sweated through the second shirt and I could already feel great tiredness. Despite this, we had to 'strike the set' and return the drum kit to its home. Eventually I dragged myself home, suffering from hiccups and some digestion problems, although I still had to walk the dog. I had problems falling asleep as I was both too tired and had the songs running though my head.

This morning [Saturday] when I eventually arose, I was exhausted and barely managed to take the dog for a long walk around the kibbutz. When I came home, I lay down for a few hours - my calf muscles hurt so much that I couldn't sit or do anything. There was no way that I was going to swim today! The pains wore off by about lunchtime. Checking my walking app, it's not surprising that my legs hurt so much as I walked 13.5 km yesterday, easily closing the weekly target.

Today were posted various films and remarks; we are requested to play at the New Year festivities, whatever these might be. Now we have to decide upon some new songs and whip up some arrangements.

My wife said that it wouldn't hurt to smile a little. Actually I did, when I saw how the young adults were joining in, but I have yet to see photographic evidence of this. My excuse is that I was concentrating, and that none of the other musicians smiled either.


This day in history:

Blog # Date Title Tags
44 29/07/2006 Holiday Holiday, Joni Mitchell
187 29/07/2009 Speed, speed, speed/2 Programming, Office automation
614 29/07/2013 Transferring more cassettes Personal, Old recordings
744 29/07/2014 Research proposal accepted DBA
965 29/07/2016 The night manager TV series, John Le Carre
1410 29/07/2021 My father's eyes (song) Song writing, Father

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Displaying blog content within my blog manager (2)

In my last blog on this topic, from about five weeks ago, I wrote how I exported blogs that had been sent to me via Outlook to a text file containing HTML statements, and how I 'taught' the blog manager to display those text files within an internal web brower. Of the 1646 blogs to date, I must have connected about 800 files.

After another session of renumbering files the other day, I thought that it might be better if the text of these files were stored within a table inside the blog database. As I wrote then,

I spent a frustrating hour and a half trying to save html text to a new table; my guide was a question on Stack Exchange where someone asked how to save the text displayed within a web browser - not exactly my situation, but close. Big mistake. Eventually I realised that I was knocking my head against a brick wall, so I decided to take the dog for a walk.

Exporting the data from Outlook solved the 'saving html text' problem; a few days ago, I wondered whether I could load the text from these files into a table, then later retrieve that text and display it in a web browser without having to save it to a file then load that file. In a more lucid moment, I searched the web and came across this page with the following code:

uses ActiveX; procedure WB_LoadHTML(WebBrowser: TWebBrowser; HTMLCode: string); var sl: TStringList; ms: TMemoryStream; begin WebBrowser.Navigate('about:blank'); while WebBrowser.ReadyState < READYSTATE_INTERACTIVE do Application.ProcessMessages; if Assigned(WebBrowser.Document) then begin sl := TStringList.Create; try ms := TMemoryStream.Create; try sl.Text := HTMLCode; sl.SaveToStream(ms); ms.Seek(0, 0); (WebBrowser.Document as IPersistStreamInit).Load(TStreamAdapter.Create(ms)); finally ms.Free; end; finally sl.Free; end; end; end; procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject); begin WB_LoadHTML(WebBrowser1,'SwissDelphiCenter'); end;
Today I had the time to adapt this code to my blog manager and it worked successfully first time. I then spent some time uploading the 800+ files into a new table. I probably spent more time on the uploading code (checking that no source exists for a given blog, checking that a file exists with the correct number, etc) than I did on adapting the above code.

I made an approximate check as to whether any disk space has been saved: I compared the increase in size of the database file as opposed to the apparent size of the files. The rough answer was the same, but this doesn't take into account the space wasted in saving the files, what is termed the sector size. The database approach should save some room, although whether it works faster is another matter. Actually the speed doesn't really matter as frequently the code has to access the online Internet blog page where the pictures are stored, and this takes time.



This day in history:

Blog # Date Title Tags
185 27/07/2009 MBA MBA
389 27/07/2011 Masochistic programming Programming, Unicode
881 27/07/2015 Vinyl log 22 - 27 July Vinyl log, Fairport Convention, Jackson Browne
1057 27/07/2017 Sing Street Films, Swell Season
1157 27/07/2018 Careless love Literature, DCI Banks
1248 27/07/2019 10 years of post-graduate study DBA

Monday, July 24, 2023

Israeli Democracy, 1948-2023


Now every elected official in the country can do what he wants without any oversight whatsoever. Of course, tomorrow a legal challenge to this travesty will be presented to the Supreme Court, and after that anything can happen.

When the going gets tough, I am always reminded of Woody Allen. Today I want to recall part of his very early film "Bananas", where a dictator of an imaginary South American 'banana republic' goes 'bananas' and starts issuing edicts such as 'everybody has to wear their underwear outside of their trousers'. 

Theoretically, a minister could make this announcement tomorrow and no one can challenge it. Of course, no one would honour it, either, meaning that either everyone gets thrown into prison or that the 'law' is unenforceable.



This day in history:

Blog # Date Title Tags
743 24/07/2014 Improving the In-basket Programming, In-basket
1055 24/07/2017 Sleeping in the ground DCI Banks, Peter Robinson

Sunday, July 23, 2023

The beginnings of a new song

With seemingly no premeditation, on Friday I started work on sequencing a new song. The genesis of the song came from two other songs: firstly, Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill", which is in 7/4 time. I had noticed some time ago that despite this wonky time signature, the tune only starts on the fourth or fifth beat of every bar and finishes (most of the time) on the first beat of the following bar, leaving a few beats open for the flute riff. This seemed like a possible way of writing a song in 7/4 that I could use.

The second preceedent is The Alan Parsons Project and "Sirius" that was presented on the Daily Doug YouTube channel on Saturday. Whilst I've heard the song, I've never really listened to it with a discerning ear. Doug points out that the simple riff fits all of the opening chords, and that this is because a triad D - F# - A (aka D Major) is held in one hand, whereas the bass descends in thirds, from D to B (creating a Bm7 chord) to G (G Maj7) to E (E min 11). I've done something like this in the past, although I don't recall exactly where - maybe it was just a sketch that didn't progress far.

Anyway, I laid down an initial sequence on Friday afternoon, and throughout Saturday I worked on improving it. The song is now at an intermediate stage, and that's where I'm leaving it for the time being, for several reasons:

  • I want to let the song mature, whilst in the mean time I may think of further harmonic progress, or even a complete bridge. At the moment, the song sorely lacks harmonic variety, being more of a 'groove' piece, despite the time signature.
  • Words!
  • On Saturday morning, my right ear became blocked after swimming. Normally this would clear up almost immediately, but all throught the day (and night), I couldn't hear much through my ear. This explains why the instruments in the song sounded so muted and muddy: I couldn't hear them properly.
This morning, my wife had to wake me by shaking me: the phone was playing its alarm call but I couldn't hear it as my left ear was in the pillow and my right ear wasn't functioning. On the morning walk, my headphones apparently broadcast through the left ear only, although I know that's not true.

During breakfast, I heard some 'cracks' in my ear that might mean that the problem is resolving itself. I am reminded of the protagonist in David Lodge's "Deaf Sentence": It’s stuff [warm olive oil] you put in infants’ ears for glue ear. The heat of the sauna melted the wax in your ears and the sudden deluge of cold water solidified it into a perfect seal. This might be what happened: the extremely hot weather may well have softened the ear wax, and the cold water solidified it.

Last night's band rehearsal was excrutiating: once again, all I could hear was the other guitarist playing very loud, along with some drums. I couldn't hear myself at all and had to play by imagining the sound that I was making. Our performance is on the coming Friday evening: I hope that my ear sorts itself out by then.



This day in history:

Blog #Date TitleTags
9623/07/2007Favourite filmsFilms, Woody Allen, Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Hugh Grant
26823/07/2010Porting the Amateur Reasoner/2Prolog, Bill Thompson
105423/07/2017This bird has flown: the enduring beauty of Rubber SoulBeatles

Thursday, July 20, 2023

The end of the country as we knew it is fast approaching

I haven't written much about the proposed ruin of Israeli democracy in the past few months, mainly because after the events at the end of March, there was a distinct slowing of the government's agenda. This was in no doubt due to the period of festivals that began with Passover, then Remembrance Day followed by Independence Day, then completed by the harvest festival of Shavu'ot. But if the government thought that we had forgotten their intentions, then they were wrong.

The pace has heated up in the past few weeks as the joke of the Knesset Law Committee has passed the full original abandonment of the 'reasonability' clause. When this law gets passed in the Knesset next week (and of course it will), it means that NO ELECTED OFFICIAL IN ISRAEL WILL FACE OVERSIGHT ON ANY DECISION. It means that the legal advisors to all ministers can be replaced without problem; the allegiance of the legal advisors is to the law whereas the allegiance of the ministers - or town majors - is only to themselves and to their supporters.

We were promised a speech by the Prime Minister this evening, in the hope that maybe he might finally understand how much damage he is doing (or allowing to happen) to Israeli democracy. Instead of pouring water on the spreading fire, Netanyahu poured petrol and made the flames grow higher.

He started by noting that next week is the fast day that commemorates the destruction of the Second Temple (Tisha b'av). Obviously the irony of this timing - that his government is causing the metaphorical destruction of the third temple - was lost upon him. Once again we heard the tired lies that he and the government had approached the opposition time and time again with requests to discuss the proposed legislation but was rebuffed every time. In truth, the opposite is true: last night, almost joint opposition leader Benny Gantz (who is leading Netanyahu in the polls) called for more discussion but was ignored.

I stopped listening because all the old lies were trotted out once again - we received the mandate to rule and we are ruling; it is not democracy when a minority force their opinions on the majority (and the religious parties don't do this? They're maybe 15% of the population but have non-proportionate political power); etc etc etc. 

God knows what will happen next week. Once this law is passed, these people can do whatever they want with no fear that their decisions will be overturned. Oh, let's bin the law about elections, let's rule forever!

Presumably the law will be challenged in the supreme court, and I assume that the court will not accept this law - and this brings us to an interesting situation in which the government will not accept the court's decision. This is the real anarchy - denial of the rule of law. Oh sorry, I forgot: the government makes the laws and we all have to obey them. No oversight. We are the anarchists.

Civil disobedience. Civil war. It is definitely coming.

Like thousands of others, I devoted my life to this country and now it is being torn from me. How would I have reacted had this happened 50 years ago? Would the course of my life be changed?



This day in history:

Blog #Date TitleTags
9520/07/20071971 was when the music came togetherHabonim, King Crimson, Van der Graaf Generator, Tom Wolfe, Yes, 1971, Dave Evans, Music festivals, Jack Kerouac
26420/07/2010Alarm clock mp3 playerclock radio
87920/07/2015Vinyl log 19 - 20 JulyVan der Graaf Generator, Vinyl log, 1972
105320/07/2017Back to the beginningDBA
124420/07/2019More on Movie MakerHome movies

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

If this is jazz then I'm all for it

I was looking for a certain song on YouTube whose name (I thought) was 'Together'. I didn't find the song that I was looking for, but I did find something else with the same name, something far far better. I had stumbled across the trumpeter Matthew Halsall, who as his website puts it is redefining spiritual jazz for the next generation... His thoughtful and refined style draws on the foundations laid by greats like Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders.

As it happens, via another connection, I have been listening on and off to Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders: I like some of their music, but the noisier parts of Sanders' music don't resonate with me. So at least I can understand the reference. 

As hinted above, the first track that I heard by MH was 'Together', which is a beautiful piece of slow music punctuated here and there by an unobtrusive accompaniment. First a saxophone plays a solo (not knowing that MH is a trumpeter, I thought that this was him), then a trumpet and finally harp (that's the Alice Coltrane connection). 

This is very much midnight music, and as there don't appear to be many tunes, it serves as excellent background music while I am working. This is not to denigrate this beautiful music.

This music - at least for me - is much much better than that Miles Davis character, although I suspect that if I play this for any 'real' jazz fans, they won't appreciate its beauty. If this is jazz, then I'm all for it!



This day in history:

Blog #Date TitleTags
9419/07/2007What I did at work todayProgramming, ERP, Thermal printers
74019/07/2014Statistics with SQL (Firebird)Programming, Delphi, SQL, Firebird, Statistics
96419/07/2016When the music's overDCI Banks, Peter Robinson
124319/07/2019Making the Greece holiday videoHoliday, Home movies, Andros, Athens, Greece

Monday, July 17, 2023

Dietician

Yesterday I had my long awaited appointment with the dietician (whose name is Daniel ... or Danielle: in Hebrew it wasn't possible to know in advance the gender of the dietician, but like 99% of all dieticians is female). The appointment began with my stating my goals (after having been asked): reduction in blood glucose and maintaining a reasonable low potassium diet. We had a conversation that ranged over many topics and lasted about an hour, but in the end, there was only one real recommendation: drink more water! (That means, drink less tea). I am also trying to increase the amount of non-digestible fibre in my diet, primarily by eating barley groats, as opposed to the pearl barley that I had been eating. The reason that there was only one major recommendation is that my diet is fine and does not need much more tinkering. 

Reflecting upon the appointment, there was one topic that was not raised: my weight. I didn't mention it as one of my targets and I forgot to mention that it has been decreasing over the past few months. The dietician didn't mention it either; considering my recent reading material, this means that she is not bothered by calorific count or reduction. 

She booked me a return appointment for another month, and asked that I repeat my blood tests a week before the appointment. Hopefully the adjustments that I have made over the past few weeks will make a difference.

As in common with southern Europe, the weather is very hot here (although less than in Italy); it's been like this for a week and we are promised (not the best word) another week. I find it very hard going as it's very difficult to find suitable time for walking and the heat itself causes no small amount of lassitude.



This day in history:

Blog #Date TitleTags
38617/07/2011Lucerne log (5)Holiday, Switzerland
61117/07/2013A radical change in our ERP programERP
73917/07/2014EAST and research questionnairesDBA, Organisation behaviour, Psychology
96217/07/2016More mobile phoneMobile phone, DCI Banks
124117/07/2019Losing weightHealth

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Funny girl

I have often written in the past about how I don't like dramatisations of books, as the dramas tend to leave out many things, primarily the motivations for various events happening. One of the most egregious examples of this was the film version of 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'; the novel was hard enough to understand (at first) whereas the film left out so much that it was almost impossible to understand.

This is not the case with the television version of Nick Hornby's novel 'Funny Girl', renamed as 'Funny woman' that was recently shown on one of Israel's television channels. There is a great deal left out of the book - the television series covers only the first quarter of the book - but it doesn't matter too much, as the series reinvents itself and creates a new story in some places. This is possible because the book itself doesn't have much of a plot, and so an alternative version of the story is possible.

The book is about a working class young woman from Blackpool in the early 1960s, a time when prejudice was rife. It was enough to be working class or a young woman or from Blackpool to be derided but having all three was a real handicap. This young woman, the eponymous funny girl whose name is Barbara, wants to become a comedic actress and is actually very good at it, but standing against her are all the above prejudices (and probably more).

Whilst the first episode of the tv series is not far from the original, from hereon we enter a parallel universe. The obvious advantage of a tv series is that it is visual, as opposed to a book where one can only imagine how the scenes play out. Thus we see several episodes of Barbara (now known as Sophie, playing the part of a woman called Barbara) acting in her television series - these are mainly invented. The various questions about the sexuality of the (fictional) series writers are barely posed. Barbara's agent appears much more in the tv series than in the book, probably because he is played by an unrecognisable (but superb) Rupert Everett, and the agent's wife is played by Morwena Banks, who wrote several of the episodes. Social commentary about the swinging 60s is translated into having Barbara's room-mate (whom she leaves quite quickly in the book) becoming a member of a womans' group who are early women libbers.

On the other hand, two musical jokes - one about having Jimmy Page recording the theme tune for the series and one about meeting Keith Relf (both of these people were in the Yardbirds, although in the book's timeline, Page has yet to join) - are missing in action, and probably rightly so.

If one considers the tv series to be inspired by the book and not a dramatisation, then it is very successful.

The wiki page on the novel quotes The Independent criticising the change of focus in the novel, stating "it's a shame that Hornby abandons his funny girl halfway through for more of his hapless men". I think that this shows a lack of understanding: the book is about changes that occurred in the swinging 60s. Just as the fictional room-mate becomes a women's libber, in the book one of the series' authors becomes an outspoken and militant homosexual writer, and one reads about his trials and tribulations.

Final note: once again I am amazed at how many of Nick Hornby's books have been dramatised. The only major work that has not yet appeared on the screen is 'How to be good'; this is not surprising as this is a very atypical work by Hornby. I remember remarking to a friend after having read this book that I was surprised at the depth of the book and that Hornby took the trouble to write it (there are also some connected jokes in the book - a sly reference to a character in Hornby's "High Fidelity").



This day in history:

Blog #Date TitleTags
38313/07/2011Lucerne log (2)Holiday, Switzerland
105013/07/2017Room hiring service designProgramming
132713/07/2020Swimming pool reopenedSwimming, Covid-19
140913/07/2021Bish-a-lu-laKibbutz

Current weight: 80.4 kg!

Saturday, July 08, 2023

Revisiting my weight history and a surprising conclusion

In the process of storing the HTML code for this blog, yesterday I read an entry dating from just after we returned from Greece in 2019: On 8 Feb 2019 I weighed 83.0 kg and on 15 March I weighed 82.8 kg: I thought that this was the heaviest I have ever been but checking my records, I see that on 4 Oct 2013 I apparently weighed 85 kg! Obviously I must have done some dieting for my weight went down to 78.5 kg by 31 May 2014. This morning I weighed myself and apparently I now weigh only 77.9 kg which means that I have lost 5 kg since February. My BMI is now less than 30 which is very good news. I wonder how much more weight I can lose ... and not regain.

Obviously that weight loss didn't last long, as by January 2023 I weighed over 85 kg again; I now weigh 81.3 kg. Upon reading that blog, I asked myself what has changed. The most obvious change is the diagnosis of primary hyperaldosteronism that leads me to take certain medications. Exactly two years ago, on the morning of my father's funeral, I saw an endicrinologist who changed some of my blood pressure medication and started me on something new. Almost overnight I saw my weight increase by 2 kg!

The book 'The fatburn fix' starts off with short case histories of several patients of the book's author, Dr Catherine Shanahan, and how their situations improved after changing their diets (no vegetable fats, more saturated fat). I suspect that those case histories display what is known as the selection bias, aka cherry picking the data (see section 4.5 of my doctoral thesis). One does not read about the people who followed Dr Shanahan's recommendations but did not see any improvement. Anyway, this got me wondering as to what might have caused the hyperaldosteronism; presumably at some time I didn't have it, although I don't subscribe to the notion that this hormone imbalance appeared the moment it was diagnosed.

Obviously the direct cause of hyperaldosteronism is too much aldosterone and not enough renin, but the question that I asked myself last night was what caused the reduction (or failure) in renin production? This morning I searched for the terms 'primary hyperaldosteronism metabolic syndrome', and up popped several papers whose lead author is one Francesco Fallo from the University of Padova. I couldn't access one very interesting paper of his, but I did manage to download one entitled 'Prevalence and Characteristics of the Metabolic Syndrome in Primary Aldosteronism'1 from 2006. I shall read this with interest. I also intend to send it to my nephrologist: in my appointment with him last week, I asked him whether metabolic syndrome has any effect on primary hyperaldosteronism (or vice versa). He wasn't aware of any such effect.

My hypothesis is that my prediabetic state from 2019 caused some level of metabolic syndrome that put metaphorical pressure on my body, causing the suppression of renin, causing a rise in blood pressure, causing ..... According to this hypothesis, if I can reduce the level of metabolic syndrome then I should see an improvement in my blood pressure (this has definitely happened) that may lead to the removal of the renin suppression that will lead to .... I see this as a cycle as displayed in the following graphic


If the text is illegible, it reads Lower blood sugar > Relieve metabolic syndrome > Relieve renin suppression > Reduce hyperaldosteronism > Relax dietary restrictions for potassium > Lower blood sugar.

That's the hypothesis. How can I test this? I will continue my dietary improvements for another few months, hopefully with a few more monthly blood tests, then I will ask for a repeat renin/aldosterone test. If these results show an improvement then I could reduce the dosage of spironolactone, that increases the level of potassium in my blood. Obviously, I require the participation of my GP and possibly the neprologist, but I have to do the work (i.e. improve my diet).

To think that all this started from an innocent question three months ago as to how the lemon-line flavoured water that the kibbutz shop used to sell (they have yet to restock) could advertise itself as having zero calories.



This day in history:

Blog # Date Title Tags
43 08/07/2006 The Equatorial Stars King Crimson, Van der Graaf Generator, Peter Hammill, Eno, Equitorial stars, Paul Simon
378 08/07/2011 Locarno log (4) Holiday, Switzerland
496 08/07/2012 That's why God made the radio The Beach Boys
961 08/07/2016 New smartphone Mobile phone


[1] Fallo, F., Veglio, F., Bertello, C., Sonino, N., Della Mea, P., Ermani, M., Rabbia, F., Federspil, G. and Mulatero, P. (2006): "Prevalence and characteristics of the metabolic syndrome in primary aldosteronism", The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 91(2), pp.454-459.

Friday, July 07, 2023

Today's nutrional reading: "The fatburn fix"

Today's nutrional reading is "The fatburn fix" by Dr Catherine Shanahan. Again, this is a book (published 2020?) that is about preventing metabolic disease. Apart from the usual enemy, sugar, Dr Shanahan writes again and again that a major problem is the vegetable fats that we eat. The Americocentric view is also very much apparent in this book. I quote:
Today’s farms are mostly monoculture, growing a single crop, and instead of getting our fats mostly from animals, we get them mostly from plants. That wouldn’t be such a health problem if the North American climate was different and we could grow enough olives, avocados, and coconuts—all excellent sources of fats our body can use for energy. Unfortunately, we don’t have the land to grow enough of those kinds of warm-weather-loving trees. What we can grow throughout North America are hardy annuals like corn, soy, and canola. The problem with growing so much of these crops is that we’re now eating more, exposing ourselves to massive quantities of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are very different from the fats in olives, avocados, and coconuts.

I was about to write that I have yet to see the words "olive" or "olive oil" in this book, but here they are, accompanied by avocados (that I can't eat because of their high potassium level but I never liked them whenever I tried to eat some). Olive oil is technically a monounsaturated fat, although the wiki page says that it's 'only' 73% monounsaturated, with another 14% saturated and 11% polyunsaturated. Coconut oil is 82.5% saturated; the standard recommendation is not to eat this oil, but as 'The fatburn fix' is as much about going against standard advice as it is about eating saturated fat, Dr Shanahan approves of this oil. Marketing of coconut oil has created the inaccurate belief that it is a "healthy food". Instead, studies have found that coconut oil consumption has health effects similar to those of other unhealthy fats, including butter, beef fat, and palm oil. Coconut oil contains a high amount of lauric acid, a saturated fat that raises total blood cholesterol levels by increasing the amounts of both high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (wiki).

This reminds me of a scene towards the beginning of Woody Allen's "Sleeper", in which scientists 200 years from now (or rather, as the film was from 1973, now it's only 150 years in the future) say "You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or ... hot fudge? Those were thought to be unhealthy ... precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true." Who knows?

I still haven't got to the eating recommendations of the book so I can't comment on them, but I can guess what some of them will be. My problem will be how to adjust my diet to apply these recommendations, whilst still aiming for a low potassium diet. I have my appointment with the Health Fund's dietician in another week; although I'll listen to what s/he says, I'm not sure yet how I will react - nod then ignore, or argue. Of course, the dietician may be enlightened, in which case the appointment will be fruitful. The same holds for the nutrition courses; I voiced this worry previously.



This day in history:

Blog #Date TitleTags
4207/07/2006Schizophrenia and insomniaMIDI, Van der Graaf Generator, Bar mitzva, Insomnia
37707/07/2011Locarno log (3)Holiday, Italy, Switzerland
87507/07/2015New lyricsPersonal, Song writing
115607/07/2018DBA updateDBA
123807/07/2019Changes in the music roomMusical instruments
140407/07/2021Relative date fieldsProgramming, Delphi

Wednesday, July 05, 2023

More university stories - the Jewish Society

Sometime during the winter term of 1977, my final year, I saw an announcement about a meeting of a proposed Jewish Society at the university. Intrigued, I went to this meeting; I have a recollection that it took place in a lecture hall with banked seating - not a room that I ever frequented.

After introductions there would have been some discussion as to what the society was intended to be and what it intended to achieve - presumably a place where Jewish students could feel at home and discuss issues close to their heart.

There must have been some development regarding the society and me, as I have a further memory of pleading the case of the society in front of the student governing body - was I asking for money or just for legitimacy? I know that I had to hide my future plans, i.e. emigration, and blandly claim that the society was for Jewish students in the same way that a Christian society would be for Christian students; we were not interested in Zionism, God forbid. The chairperson of this governing body was a 'professional student': she was employed by the students union. She either was or had been the chairperson of the London Union of students' union so was a powerful figure. She was also Jewish, although how I knew this then eludes me now.

I don't recall what happened after this meeting; I don't recall even why I was there - was I elected treasurer or similar? I don't recall any further meetings.

The only real outcome of this was that I discovered that there was a Jewish girl in the first year of my course's intake and that she lived not far away in Swiss Cottage. We went out a few times but nothing much happened. Most of this particular story has already been told here.

There was another Jewish girl doing my course but in a different year. Due to the strange structure of the course (study/work/study/work/study), we were only in the university buildings at the same time in my final term, and I don't think that I even met her then. The sole meeting that I recall was as a group sitting outside in the sun while my class was celebrating the end of our studies. She had more than a few drinks and was getting rather tipsy, which was when I stood up and took her at least part of the way home (she lived somewhere like Edgeware or Stanmore, a district that I knew to be 'Jewish'). Somehow we both knew that both of us were Jewish and that I was not trying to take advantage of her.



This day in history:

Blog #Date TitleTags
37405/07/2011Locarno log (0)Holiday, Switzerland
37505/07/2011Locarno log (1)Holiday, Switzerland
60805/07/2013Doug Engelbart, inventor of computer mouse, dies at 88Computer, Obituary
73405/07/2014SwimmingHealth, Personal, Swimming
95905/07/2016Sophisticated syntax in PriorityPriority tips

Tuesday, July 04, 2023

My first year as a Londoner - being a student, continued

I was looking at my original blog on this topic and could see that whilst I started by writing a little about being a student, I didn't go into much detail and swiftly became side-tracked. I'll try and put down more memories.

As I wrote then, the Polytechnic of the South Bank (now 'the South Bank university') was situated next to the Elephant and Castle underground station. The institution had come about due to the amalgamation of what was the Borough Street Polytechnic, a nursing school and possibly one or two other institutions. As a result, the university was spread over several buildings, some old and some new. Almost all of my academic hours were in new buildings, but every now and then there would be something that took place in an older and much less ordered building, making it very difficult to find the appropriate room.

A full day would be as follows: first class at 9:30 am, probably until 11:30 am, with a tea break led by the lecturer in the middle. We would descend to the referectory that was on the second floor for this. There would be another class from 11:30 am until 12:30 pm, whereupon we had an hour for lunch. Classes would then recommence at 13:30 pm until 16:30 pm, with again afternoon tea at about 3 pm. There were half days on Wednesdays, when the afternoons were intended for sports (I played hockey maybe once at the beginning of the first term, but no more; they used to show films in one of the university buildings at this time and I saw a few). I doubt that this happened in the first year, but in later years, we had gaps in this schedule, and my fellow students would do their utmost at the beginning of each term to fill each day as much as possible - in order to have a day without classes. Laboratory classes would have been a double class, if not a treble. In the first year, these would have been in all four of our main topics: microbiology, analytical chemistry, biochemistry and food manufacturing (a memory of trying to make jam suddenly popped into my mind); in later years we definitely had lab classes in microbiology and analytical chemistry but I don't recall any others.

I seem to recall that there were 12 students in the class the first year. After the examinations at the end of the first year, there were only 7 of us left (and I barely scraped in), but we were joined by a girl student who had to repeat her second year. This was handy for laboratory classes as we had to be in pairs; she was my partner for microbiology labs in the first term of our second year, but later on we had different partners. Working with her brought me into closer contact that I had been with any other student so far. Once she asked me why I was almost always making cynical remarks and I probably said that this was what I was used to; this was a facet of the difference between me and the others. For my final year, my partner was Asian - it never occurred to me to ask where he was from. 

From the start, I was an odd character, primarily because of my gap year between school and university. Most of the others had come straight to school, but one African gentleman told me once that he had a wife and child, so he would have been a few years older than us. Also, the entire movement aspect was completely foreign to them. Being completely non-politically correct, socially the class was split into British and non-British factions; although theoretically I belonged to the British faction, I had more allegiance to the non-British side. Of course, I was Jewish and interested in completely different things than my class mates. I don't recall talking about music; I imagine that the topic did crop up but again, I probably had completely different tastes to the others.

Only very rarely did I eat lunch at the refectory; one could have a proper cooked meal there and it probably cost proportionately. The first day, someone said "let's go the [student] union for lunch" and that's where I ate most of my lunches with my classmates. There was a bar (this is what attracted some if not all of the British faction - they enjoy their drink) and they used to serve steak and kidney pies or chicken and mushroom pies, with chips, at a very cheap price. Looking at this now, there were too many carbohydrates; we should have been aware of this as fledgling Food Scientists. The alcohol drunk (not by me) only added to this. 

At first, I used to order half a pint of cider to go with my pie; I don't recall whether I enjoyed this or did it for appearance's sake, but it wasn't to last. At the first lunch in the spring term of 1975, I had a sip of cider - and immediately slid under the table in great pain. This was the last alcoholic drink that I had for about 40 years (I tried drinking champagne at my daughter's wedding and found it a painful experience). There was a all-London students' newspaper that I had been reading that had a columnist who visited different university bars and wrote about them. One time he wrote that the real test of a bar was its non-alcoholic beverages; I latched onto this and started drinking lemonade and blackcurrant juice. I would vary this with Roses' Lime Juice and lemonade, when there was no blackcurrant juice.

At the end of the winter term 1974, there was a long drinking session; technically this was a Christmas party but as it had no beginning and no end, I'll call it a session. I had barely set foot in the union when someone asked what I was drinking; I asked for vodka and pineapple. I had two more vodkas and pineapple although I don't recall paying for any of them. Towards the end, I started feeling unwell so I made my farewells and walked to the underground station and from there, I got home. The first thing that I did was throw up a little in the downstairs toilet of our communal house; I wasn't exactly drunk - I certainly didn't exhibit the lack of behavioural inhibition or a problem with walking - but the alcohol definitely had an effect on my stomach. No more.

This teetotalism was another factor in my being considered 'weird' or at least 'different'; after all, every Briton enjoys his beer and football. Not me.

I tried to be as conscientious as possible as regarding 'homework' - mainly writing up lab reports or writing essays. To be honest, I don't remember doing much of this in my first year, but in later years, I definitely worked. Often I would have nothing to do on a Saturday evening (what sacrilege!) so I would use this dead time for studying and writing. I didn't go the university library very much in the first year as I found it a very sterile place and couldn't work there. I did spend more time there in my final year when I was working on my dissertation and research project, but that's only because I had to look for literature. None of the ease of today's students where 99.9% of all the required literature is online, if one knows how to look for it.

Although this isn't concerned with the first year, I'll throw it in. While I was working at Schweppe's (second year), one of my fellow chemists suggested that I join the Royal Institute of Chemistry (or whatever it's called) as a student member. This wouldn't cost much but would give me both a monthly (?) journal as well as access to their library. I have a memory of leaving the university and driving north a mile or so to this library near the Thames in order to search for an obscure paper about xylitol that my university library didn't have. I thought/hoped that this would give me extra Brownie points ... but it didn't.

It wasn't until I returned to the university in April 1976 after six months of work at Schweppe's that I began to feel more connected to my studies. As a lecturer in biochemistry said to me at the time, that's what happens after the first industry placement: the students become much more involved in their work and studies. At the end of that second year (this would have been in February/March 1977), for the first time I got involved in what I call 'the exam lottery' - trying to figure out what questions our examiners are going to ask and so prepare accordingly. This made me feel much more confident - and fortunately, most of our guesses were correct. 

I wrote in the original blog entry that I felt that I was in a triangle with each point trying to attract my attention and that I gave the most attention to the point that wasn't the most important (the youth movement). Of course, by March 1977 I had no girlfriend and wasn't involved in a day-to-day basis with the youth movement so I could devote a great deal of time and attention to my studies. This marked the end of what might be called my lost academic years.

One further memory from this time period that has nothing to do with my studies: in 1975/6 (and possibly longer) I had become the representative of Habonim to the British Board of Deputies, 'the voice of the UK Jewish community'. Although I probably never opened my mouth there, I and my colleagues probably felt that it was important to be seen at this body. On the fourth of July 1976, we heard the welcome news that the Entebbe operation had been a complete success (bar the death of the rescuing force's commander). That was a moment to be savoured.



This day in history:

Blog #Date TitleTags
9004/07/2007Apres le feuFire
13504/07/2008Bacon numbersProgramming, Randy Newman, Prolog, Corinne Bailey Rae
13604/07/2008Bacon numbers (2)Programming
87304/07/2015Peppermint teaHealth, David Lodge
95804/07/2016Vinyl log 28 - 04 JulyVinyl log, Peter Hammill