Allergies and dealing with them

I am one of those individuals that deals with allergies, asthma as well as anaphylaxis. So for those that don't know what anaphylaxis is, it is the severe allergic reaction that could cause death if not treated. Anaphylaxis isn't just for food it can be for medication as well. I am anaphylaxis to some foods as well as codeine so it is something I deal with every day of my life now. I wasn't allergic to much growing up but the food and codeine allergies seemed to develop once I was an adult.

With regards to the food allergies I do have problems as sometimes people don't understand what I am saying to them. Here are some of the things that I deal with:

• When you ask if you can bring me something for lunch and I say no due to my allergies please understand. It's not that I don't appreciate the offer it's just with the life threatening or even allergies to things it makes it difficult for me to enjoy different foods.
• I know what I can and cannot have and sometimes even a small change in a diet can cause a bigger impact than it is worth. Please don't try and tell me what I am allergic or intolerant to because you will probably be wrong.
• The food itself may not cause me problems but it could simply be a combination of what I normally have and this new item could result in me having issues.
• So often people have offered to bring something for me and it is difficult to say no as I don't want to hurt their feelings, but I have to say no and explain why.
• The nicest thing you could do for me is understand that I have allergies and know that the best thing you can do for me is understand.

Recently a couple of us were discussing going out for a lunch and I had to say no because of all the food allergies and intolerances that I deal with. Of course, if you don't live with these reactions it can be harder to understand why I have to avoid some restaurants or meals. I have learned how to deal with my issue myself and thankfully I have a wonderful husband who assists me in dealing with them when I get too tired of dealing with them.

For me, I think one of the biggest challenges is that I was able to eat most of the stuff that I am now allergic to when I was growing up. Finding out that I was allergic to foods like pineapple and raspberries were very hard as it meant that I had to give up some of my favourite foods. I know that these foods taste like and having to walk away from them has been hard.

Allergies especially to food can be a challenge at the best of times. Of course it means you have to always be checking and double checking ingredients and even then you may miss a change.

Please understand I appreciate the offers of going out for lunch or you bringing me something as a treat but I can't take the chances. If you really want to get me something that I would like maybe an African violet plant as it doesn't cause me issues and I do like them.

Phone call scams about your computer

It seems that recently a lot of us have been receiving that call about our computer and the virus that we have or the spam our computer is sending out.

These calls are in some cases a lot of fun because if I am in the right mood I can make the person work for a while. Of course I don't do anything that they ask me to do but continue to ask them to verify which computer they are referring too. It can be interesting when you ask them that question because they automatically say the one connected to the internet. What makes me laugh was the call that I got this morning and the guy on the phone told me it didn't matter which computer it was as they all have the same id on the internet. Gee, maybe if you are calling from a computer and complaining about my computer doing something wrong you better know a bit about computers.

I know a couple of people that have actually started to let these individuals making the calls get access to their machines. I can only say that when you get calls like this you never give the person calling any remote access to your computer as you don't know what they could be installing on your computer. You could lose a lot of confidential information by just giving the access for even a couple of minutes.

One call that my husband received meant that the person calling was on the phone for over 30 minutes with my husband. The person making the call didn't realize that he was talking to an IT professional even when my husband was asking a great deal of technical questions. The best calls are when you are transferred to the individuals boss and they still don't get it that we are just pulling their legs and wasting time with them.

If your computer is really causing problems on the internet it would be your service provider that would contact you. When your service provider contacts you they would know a great deal about your system and even what service you are getting from them. My best suggestion is when you get a call from someone saying that your computer is causing problems on the internet is to say thanks. If it is your service provider, hang up and call them back so that you know you have called into the service area that you know and not just any number.

Excuses for not writing

I decided to write up some of the excuses I have heard from people about why they don't write.

• I have too much to do.
• I don't have time to sit and do it
• I have nothing to write about
• No one will want to reach what I write
• I'm not good enough at it
• My ideas are silly
• Something else always gets in the way
• I have too many ideas and can't focus on one

These are some of the reasons/excuses I have heard about why someone isn't writing and they keep saying that they want to be a writer. Maybe they aren't going to be the best writer or the fastest writer but at least they will get some enjoyment out of the actual process of sitting down and putting words to paper. I think the best reason/excuse I heard was “I can't write anything on a computer file because if I am writing on there it has to be perfect otherwise it isn't good enough and I spend way too much time editing what I wrote. I can only do my writing on paper and it takes forever to get a thought down.” If this person saw some of my writing on my journals they would wonder what I was thinking but at least I get the thoughts down quickly and then work on making them sound better.

I for one did use a lot of those excuses earlier and then I decided that I just had to take the time to sit down and try to write. I have to admit that not everything I write is ever seen by any one other than myself but at least I sit down and write.

One of the biggest things that I did for myself was to set up a spreadsheet to track my word count each day for my journal and blog writing that I do. This spreadsheet has been going on since 2013 and I track each day and if I wrote and how many words actually made it to paper/computer document. Of course I have seen that at the beginning I missed a lot of days because I just couldn't find the time to sit and write. For me making myself accountable for sitting and actually getting a few words down onto paper each day helped me in a number of ways. I am no longer afraid of that blank slate any longer because I know that just being able to get a few words done normally starts the process for the rest of my writing. The practice of writing has made it so much easier to write when I need to write something for work or my blogs. This spreadsheet also shows me how many days in a row I have been able to write and that is also motivating for me. As of this morning I have reached 449 consecutive days of writing. Maybe not always a lot of words but at least I have written something.

I know that I used a lot of excuses when I started writing and the biggest one was I wasn't good enough. Maybe I am not the faster writer or the greatest writer but at least I enjoy what I am going. Yes, when you start writing you are going to come up with a million excuses why you aren't writing but you have to tell yourself that these are just excuses and sit down and try. One of the first exercises is to write out all your different excuses and then see how you can know them off that list.

Blogs -- Following versus Followers

Recently I was reading a blog and the person says Hi to their 4 followers and I know that I read the blog all the time but have not identified myself as a follower. So yes I am following the blog through an RSS reader but haven't click the follower icon on the system to let the individual know that I read their blog.  I use "Newsblur" as my RSS reader and my husband users “old reader” for his.

What I decided to do is look at my other blog, Craftkitten, to see how many followers I have versus people that are following me. I have 10 individuals that have clicked on the follower icon on blogspot but I know that most of these individuals rarely, if ever, visit my blog. Now I looked at a stats counter that I have and noticed that I have a lot of individuals that regularly visit my blog to see what I am up to.

Yes, the individuals that regularly visit my blog are more the true followers than most of the individuals that are showing on the page. I have some people that come to my site on almost a daily basis to see if there are new posts, some check in about once a week and others follow me through an RSS reader and I can see that as well.

The other advantage of using a stats counter is that you can see how the person found your blog. I know that one of my blogs I wrote about four years ago still gets found and read. Through my stats counter I can also see if I was found through someone else linking to my blog.

So it is best not to think that only individuals that have clicked on an icon are your followers, you may have a lot of other individuals reading you. I am happy to see even one person read my blog and I thank everyone who does. Maybe you are a follower or you are following me, but I do appreciate it and I also appreciate the individuals that maybe only come to my blog once.

Vacationing close to home

Have you ever had a vacation that the total travel time was under an hour?

The type of vacation I am talking about is where you pack up and actually leave home and go and stay somewhere else for at least a couple of nights. I know that we have done this type of vacation and it feels so good. Yes, it is a vacation from the regular routine but it doesn't involve a long commute to get to where you are going.

For us, what we do sometimes when we need an escape is to book a suite at the other side of the city. What we also want is to make sure there are restaurants within walking distance so we don't have to drive anywhere once we park at the hotel if we don't want to drive. Having a suite means that we have space to spread out and get some of the things done that we enjoy doing without running into each other. The suite also comes with a small kitchenette so that gives us a fridge, coffee marker and a microwave. Sometimes the only thing we use is the fridge but at least we have the other items if we decide to just hide in the unit. Now for breakfast that is part of the package so it is one meal that we don't have to go anywhere other than downstairs at the hotel.

The idea behind the suite is it gives us a chance to do things that we love to do and normally don't have time to focus on at home. Yes, we probably could do most of these things at home if we really tried hard but the hotel also means we don't have to worry about meals for a couple of days.

A vacation like we sometimes do helps us recharge our personal batteries and regain a focus that given our busy lives we sometimes lose. I know that sometimes on these mini vacations I can do quite a bit of writing and in some cases I can get more done in a day or two away than I can at home. I have also seen my husband be able to document ideas that he doesn't seem to have time to do at home.

I think it is time to think of another one of our mini vacations. Time for someone else to prepare our meals and clean up after them.

Talking on mobile devices in public

It is so amazing to listen to people when they are on their mobile devices in public. In some cases it seems that people want everyone to hear what they are saying on their mobile devices.

There have been instances when I have heard people give their entire credit card number plus security code over the phone when they are in public and make no effort to ensure no one else can hear what they are saying. The amount of credit damage someone could do once they have a credit card number without you being aware could be a lot of work for you to correct after.

The other thing is the volume of a ringer that some people seem to have their phones set. When you are on transit or in public places it seems some people want to ensure everyone knows how important they are (well how important they want people to think they are). I have my device set to vibrate most of the time and the ringer is set to a volume that isn't going to disturb other people around me.

I think what is really funny is when you can hear one side of an entire conversation and you can basically figure out what the other person is saying. There are times especially when I am sitting along on transit that I try not to listen to a conversation but it is being done at such a volume it is next to impossible to not hear what is being said.

One thing that is starting to happen is people are trying to cover their phones with their other hands. What I have noticed is that in some cases the conversation is actually being increased from when the hand is not over the phone. Of course I think that depends where you are in relation to the individual but on transit you may be saying things that you think are private but the person sitting next to you is hearing all of it.

Yes, it is sometimes necessary to have conversations in public but remember what you are saying and the volume you are speaking. If you need to give private information when you are out in public make sure you are doing so where others cannot hear you. The best time to give that private information out over a mobile device is when you are in a private location.

So, next time when you are having that conversation on your mobile device think twice about what you are saying. You may be giving away some very confidential information without even thinking twice about where you are or who can hear you speaking.

Safety with mobile devices

In the recent couple of months I have been noticing something that is of major concern for me and it is the number of people that leave their mobile devices just sitting unattended in public places.

One concern is when people leave their computers on a table in a fast food table and it is not secured and it is left logged in to what they were doing. The person then goes and orders something and their back is to their table so the device is totally left unattended and someone else could easily walk off with it. This situation as also happened at restaurants with people going to the washroom and leaving their device totally visible while they are away from their table. The most recent instance was at a car dealership and the person left their laptop open and went to deal with a service individual. People need to realize that by leaving their devices such as laptops unattended they are putting their device possible into the hands of a thief.

The other devices that are quite often left unattended are the mobile devices (tablets and phones). These are the items that I would really be taking with me when I left a table because these are so easily put into a pocket or into a jacket.

Maybe people are just a lot more trusting than I am because I won't leave any of those unattended out in public. If my computer is on a table and I have to leave it even for a second it will be secured with my security cable to ensure no one can walk off with it. My mobile device is always on my hip when I leave a table so that something that I don't have to worry about being stolen. I have also seen ladies get money out of their wallet and then leave their purse at a table unattended which really bothers me.

The safety of your personal property is very important because it is so easy for people if they have some information from your portable device to possible steal your identity. For a speed bump I also have a password on both my laptop and my mobile device so that it is harder to get into it. Of course the password is just a speed bump but better than nothing. Having different passwords on your portable devices also means someone would need multiple passwords to get into your devices.

The other thing that I do not do on my laptop is save any passwords on websites. I feel that not saving those passwords if my computer was broken into no one could get into my bank account or any of my other applications that require passwords to open them.

By taking just a little bit of time and effort you can make it less of an attraction for your mobile device  to be taken when your back is turned. The basic step is if you are out in public and alone take your device with you when you leave the table so that no one will be tempted to walk off with it.