Effective Homemade Deodorant
Posted 10:25 AM

For years I, like many others, unsatisfactorily sought an alternative to aluminum-based antiperspirants. Finally, in the last month, I found one that's extremely effective, and it's easy to make at home. It literally lasts 24 hours, easily as effective as an aluminum-based deodorant.

1. Go buy the cheapest deodorant stick you can find. Roll it all the way up, break it off and throw it out. (If you have serious odor, none of them work well anyway.)

2. Clean the container, and roll it back down.

3. Buy some coconut oil and baking soda. If you can't find it locally, buy 92 degree oil, which is solid at room temperature. Coconut oil contains powerful antimicrobials that fight odor-causing bacteria without impairing sweat functions. Organic oil seems to work better for me, probably because it had to fight off more microbes during development. Only use 100% pure coconut oil. Additives can break long-chain fatty acids, impairing function.

4. Warm approx 1/2 cup of the oil in a microwave-safe bowl for a 20 seconds or until it's liquid.

5. Thoroughly mix in 1/4-1/2 cup of baking soda. It should dissolve completely. Some people say that they use less, some more. If you use too much, it can be too strong, causing redness, so start with a little bit. Baking soda is generally mild, acts to absorb odor, and when suspended in oil, it's usefulness lasts all day long. Mix slowly as it cools. You can put ice under the bowl to accelerate cooling.

6. Pour the mixture in the empty roll-up, put the cap on and refrigerate in an upright position. You will have to keep it refrigerated unless you use 92 degree oil, or your house is kept cool.

That's it!

Why no aluminum?

It is well-known that the toxic aluminum compound in antiperspirant is absorbed through the skin, although studies as to the amount of absorption vary. It is highly probably that certain people are more at risk than others to antiperspirant aluminum exposure. Certainly, pregnant or nursing mothers should consider reducing aluminum exposure.

In addition, perspiration in proximity to lymph nodes is an important part of the bodies process of eliminating toxins. The regular use of antiperspirants will certainly impair this process to some extent.

Labels: deodorant, weird experiments

[View/Post Comments] [Digg] [Del.icio.us] [Stumble]

Honolulu Surge
Posted 12:57 AM

We took Noakai to see the Christmas lights, and the giant shaka Santa, in downtown Honolulu. He went on a little carousel (by himself for the first time) and waved "hi" the over and over until he got bored and started poking the horse of the kid behind him.

Made a bad move and decided to read some news headlines. IMHO, the Iraqi "Surge" is a win-win political maneuver for Bush & Co. This is something they probably shouldn't get approval for by the new Democratic Congress, if the will of the electorate, which is 60% opposed to troop increases, is followed.

But if Congress doesn't give it to him, then he'll be able to say "If only you'd approved my surge", and blame the Democrats as Iraq slowly drifts into chaos. And if we do give it to him, he'll only chuckle and come up with an even more expensive and outlandish thing that's needed to get the increasingly amorphous job done. No matter what, the Democrats will safely be able to be blamed.

Labels: christmas, hawaii, politics

[View/Post Comments] [Digg] [Del.icio.us] [Stumble]

Running Perl Programs as Services
Posted 10:28 AM

Taking spur of the moment notes, responses to phone calls, ideas, things to do, etc. is something I prefer to do very rapidly. I never seem to manage to have "task software" installed on a given machine, nor do I regularly have web access. Nor would I want to wait, while in the middle of a thought, for a program to open, or a web page to load. Some people use a pen, but that requires me to lift my hands from the keyboard (slows me down). Plus I can type faster than I can write.

My solution is to create a shortcut to a text file on the Desktop assign a key sequence to it. I press Control-Shift-T and a text file pops open. Then I add some dashes at the top as a "new entry" marker. I jot some notes down and Alt-F-S, Alt-F4. I rarely remember to time/datestamp my entries, so I'd wrote a program to do it for me.

If it looks complicated, that's because I decided to copy and paste some skeleton code from Win32::Daemon. It's terribly easy now to create Windows services out of Perl programs.

The program monitors my two text "note files" and updates them with timestamps within 1 second after being modified. It uses negligible CPU time. Archiving could be done automatically as well, moving 6 month old entries to a backup, but for now, I like to do that by hand.

Labels: perl, programming

[View/Post Comments] [Digg] [Del.icio.us] [Stumble]