Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

weenancyinAmerica

Dusty - I had trouble with Metformin also. Actually made me nauseous as well as putting on weight. When I was changed to Glipizide, my blood sugars went down and I'm not sick at my stomach anymore - and I have not gotten dizzy since the medicine was changed. Can you talk to to the doctor about options other than Metformin? I know several people who had trouble with it.

dustydigger

weenancyinAmerica said:

Dusty - I had trouble with Metformin also. Actually made me nauseous as well as putting on weight. When I was changed to Glipizide, my blood sugars went down and I'm not sick at my stomach anymore - and I have not gotten dizzy since the medicine was changed. Can you talk to to the doctor about options other than Metformin? I know several people who had trouble with it.

I honestly dont think its the metformin. True its caused weight gain of 6lbs in 7 months,but I have had no symptoms of nausea or sickness. Its a regular thing for me to get ear infections,and that can result in prolonged ear problems since my useless immune system cant fight even a cold off (took 7 weeks to throw off last cold.Mr Dusty who gave it to me was better in 5 days!),and sometimes ear problems cause me vertigo,and I'm pretty sure that that is what it is. That horrible feeling similar to seasickness is quite distinctive.

There is some improvement now. I can walk around fine if I am cautious about turning my head too quickly. Moving from upright to lying down is a bit fraught.Turning over in bed is a major undertaking if I dont want my head swimming unpleasantly. I still have to get out of bed a bit gingerly,and sit a little while before standing up. Bending aint too pleasant unless I take care. But compared with a fortnight ago I am much much better.Another week and I should be much better.

Its all just a by product of my useless immune system,a life long nuisance.

dustydigger

Hi folks,a quick update  - been nowhere,done nothing!

+health - apart from the vertigo I am fortunately not too bad. Arthritis is still pretty much remission. It seems that metformin can help reduce inflammation,so the joints are less painful. My fingers are the straightest they have been in years!. Sometimes they used to curl up like talons,but the last few months they have been straighter and less painful.Big plus.As is reduction of brain fog

+finances - never posted my budget last week,no difficulties ,though annoying how prices are inexorably creeping up. Asd@ always inform of price changes on my orders. Last week 4 items went up,by 10p,25p,50p,£1.25,for a total rise of £2.30 extra on the bill. The week before there were rises of 85p Tribe is taking me to our fave chinese restaurant. Not been there since 2019,precovid,so it will be fun!

+home - oh dear only most basic tidying up being done. Mr D washes up,hoovers. All I do is pull myself together enough to cook. Mr D isnt happy because I have stopped giving him full meals both dinner and supper,but he has to cut down on food for health reasons.He thought just replacing sugar with sweetener in his tea was enough! . I now give him sandwiches,just 2 slices of bread used. We will both start from next week on probably Slimming World based meals. Because of the vertigo I just havent been up to rooting around for my old SW booklets or magazines in bags and boxes deep in cupboards.

I look longingly at Brambling's Old Style weight loss thread,wishing I could join. Back in 2017 I was a member and regularly lost 2-3lbs a week,around 40lbs. Now I doubt I could lose the minimum half pound! Would be delighted at even 1 lb a month,like I did for 18 months....sigh......

+good job I having money in my Household Savings envelope. Mr Dusty ruined my old carpet shampooer at the end of October when he almost threw the lawnmower into the cupboard under the stairs,and it fell on top of the shampooer,breaking off the plastic place where you put in the shampoo.Now useless. Probably cost about £250 - £300 to replace. Now that my hair falls out regularly I need  a machine that people with pets need,to collect my hair. Not joking,I lose a mass of hair daily. Need to get online to look for a good one. I need to get my manky carpet at least presentable so a carpet layer can measure for a new oneRemember when the radiator leaked and drenched the hallway carpet,which was already dirty from where the hall ceiling fell down and ruined the carpet. A year of rotten health has meant the soaked carpet ended up treading dirt on the first few steps,and it looked horrible. But with the health problems I just had to let it all just get worse.

So,now a new shampooer,and get one of the boys to clean the carpets. The machines are VERY heavy.

 

dustydigger

Read 15 books this month,including that book ''Dhalgren'' which I had been struggling with for 4 years,so thats a relief. At last I could post the complete list, the list of the ''50 Best SF Books of All Time''on my science fiction group. We normally have 80-100 posts a month on that thread. This month its over 200! Nothing like making a list to get people engaged!

Here is February's Boardgame challenge.Never even heard of it but at least its an excuse for given us broad categories of genres etc to brighten up our reading month.

Beguiling Board Game Countdown: Flying Through February with Othello (aka Reversi)!

The next entry in our Board Game Countdown is the 7th most popular board game, Othello, also known as Reversi!





Reversi is a strategy board game for two players, played on an 8×8 uncheckered board. It was invented in 1883. Othello, a variant with a fixed initial setup of the board, was patented in 1971.

There are sixty-four identical game pieces called disks, which are light on one side and dark on the other. Players take turns placing disks on the board with their assigned color facing up. During a play, any disks of the opponent's color that are in a straight line and bounded by the disk just placed and another disk of the current player's color are turned over to the current player's color. The objective of the game is to have the majority of disks turned to display one's color when the last playable empty square is filled.

Each of the disks' two sides corresponds to one player; they are referred to here as light and dark after the sides of Othello pieces, but any counters with distinctive faces are suitable.

The historical version of Reversi starts with an empty board, and the first two moves made by each player are in the four central squares of the board. The players place their disks alternately with their colors facing up and no captures are made. A player may choose to not play both pieces on the same diagonal, different from the standard Othello opening.

For the specific game of Othello, the game begins with four disks placed in a square in the middle of the grid, two facing light-side-up, two dark-side-up, so that the same-colored disks are on a diagonal. Convention has this such that the dark-side-up disks are to the north-east and south-west (from both players' perspectives). The dark player moves first. Dark must place a piece (dark-side-up) on the board and so that there exists at least one straight (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) occupied line between the new piece and another dark piece, with one or more contiguous light pieces between them. Play always alternates. After placing a dark disk, dark turns over (flips to dark, captures) the single disk (or chain of light disks) on the line between the new piece and an anchoring dark piece. Multiple chains of disks may captured in a single move. No player can look back to the previous status of disks when playing moves. A valid move is one where at least one piece is reversed (flipped over). Players take alternate turns. If one player cannot make a valid move, play passes back to the other player. When neither player can move, the game ends. The player with the most pieces on the board at the end of the game wins.

The Origins: Reversi



Englishmen Lewis Waterman and John W. Mollett both claim to have invented the game of Reversi in 1883, each denouncing the other as a fraud. The game gained considerable popularity in England at the end of the 19th century. The game's first reliable mention in print is in the August 21, 1886 edition of The Saturday Review. An 1895 article in The New York Times notes that Reversi is somewhat similar to the Japanese game of Go Bang or Gomoku, which is in turn a variant of the ancient game of Go. In 1893, the German games publisher Ravensburger started producing the game as one of its first titles.

The Modern Version: Othello
The modern version of the game—the most regularly used rule-set, and the one used in international tournaments—is marketed and recognized as Othello. It was patented in Japan in 1971 by Goro Hasegawa, then a 38-year-old salesman. Hasegawa initially explained that Othello was an improvement on Reversi, but from around 2000, he began to claim that he invented it in Mito regardless of Reversi. Hasegawa also claims that the origin of Reversi/Othello dates back 5,000 years. A Japanese publication in 1907 titled World Games Rules Complete Collection describes the board game Reversi with the same rules as Othello where the first four pieces go in the center in a diagonal pattern and the player who cannot make a move simply passes.

Fun Facts About Othello/Reversi:

• British Mathematician Graham Brightwell (5 time British Champion and 3 time World Champion Runner-Up) developed the “Brightwell Quotient” which Is used in tournament play as a tie-breaker, with the winner being the player with the higher BQ. It is an elaborate 4-step calculation based on number of disks scored, number or rounds played, and whether opponents in prior rounds played to the end or withdrew.



• Good Othello computer programs play very strongly against human opponents. This is mostly due to difficulties in human look-ahead peculiar to Othello: The interchangeability of the disks and therefore apparent strategic meaninglessness (as opposed to chess pieces for example) makes an evaluation of different moves much harder.



• The first tournament pitting Othello computer programs against human opponents took place in 1980. In it, then world champion Hiroshi Inoue, although he would go on to win the tournament, lost a game against the computer program “The Moor”. In 1997, the computer Othello program “Logistello” defeated the reigning human champion, Takeshi Murakami, six games to zero.



The Challenge:
1. Read a book set in Japan OR Read a book with an author who is Asian or of Asian heritage OR Read a book with the words “Dark”, “Light”, “Black” and/or “White” in the title.

2. Read a book that features a feud OR read a book that includes a sentient computer of some sort OR Read a book with two 8s in the page count.

3. Read a book in which a character competes in a tournament or contest OR Read a book that has an object shaped like a disk on the cover OR read something by Shakespeare or based on something Shakespearian

dustydigger

Dusty is hopeless at board games,but will do an Othello challenge!

The Challenge:

1. Read a book with the words “Dark”, in the title : Daniel Galouye - Dark Universe

2. Read a book that includes a sentient computer of some sort : Harlan Ellison - I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

3. Read something by Shakespeare : The Sonnets

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1. Havent a clue about the Galouye book,just that it ticks off one of the list of DefiningSF Books of the 1960s,and a Hogo award nominee.

2. Not looking forward to a reread of Harlan Ellison's bleakest most brutal short story,but it is brilliant,a classic of the SF/Horror genre,and quite short - but VERY gruelling to read. But 1 hr is better than adding another whole novel to ths challenge. My TBR is insane this month.

3. Quite a while since I sat down to read the whole cycle of sonnets,though I do often read an old favourite for a soothing pleasure,just 5 minutes of calm . I may post one or two faves on this thread when I'm finished

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Yep,my TBR is crazy. Non SF reads include

Michael Innes - There Came Both Mist and Snow
William Shakespeare - The Sonnets
Jodi Taylor - A Second Chance
John Milton - Paradise Lost
Lindsey Davis - Comedy of Terrors

Plus 6 SF novels Aarrgghh!! Some really good stuff on there though.The Shakespeare and Milton are LONG.and also finding time for all those other books in the short month of February will be a challenge. - but fun

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Last point on reading. Not sure,it may have been Muddy_Walker who recommended Jacqueline Druga. I read ''Gone'' as a palate cleanser for Dhalgren,and to my dismay found it was a cliffhangar in a trilogy. Of course I must read the next in series,but unless I break the back of this month's TBR,it will be in March.

OK,thats all for now,back is breaking > am off to watch some of my Booktube fave videos,and will of course then fall asleep for about 40 mins! Ciao

Crazycatlady2

Sorry to hear you still not fully better.

with the carpet shampoo machine you might be able to replace the part…I’ve done this with hoovers 

slm6002

From experience avoid shark hoovers.  We bought one as 3 girls in the house with long hair.  I am forever trying to get the hair off the brush of the hoover as it just clogs up.  I hate it but having spoken to the company they are not prepared to help or replace

Katiehound

I just love the game Othello- so simple and yet so complex!
A couple of moves and the whole board can change (probably for the worse!) Dusty if you haven't tried it, it is really easy... but of course there are strategies! Doesn't need the brain power of chess remembering which pieces can move ... where!

Take care with that vertigo: nasty

weenancyinAmerica

Dusty - I just use a rubber broom for cat and dog hair - works om carpets and on floors. And not very expensive. Will also clean up cat and dog hair on furniture - but we got a shorter rubber brush for that. 

MrsCD

Sending you many, many happy returns of the day, dusty. Hope you have a great 75th birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 🎂