Growing Wolfberry

Remember the wolfberry plant that grew from the seed in May? Well, it's still alive and has grown a little bigger. What did I do? Not much besides watering it. It surprisingly survived the extreme heat of southern California. Here's another photo. (If you click on it, you can get a larger image.)



As a legend goes, this plant is linked to China's first emperor. He lived in 2800 BC and was known to be an herbalist and the "father of agriculture". Today, the berry is considered a "superfruit" with antioxidant qualities with many nutrients and phytochemicals. My mother-in-law puts the dried wolfberries in soup, and it's supposed to be good for the eyes. This link to Wikipedia has more information.

Wolfberry Seedling

Wolfberry is a traditional Chinese (and Japanese) medicine that's supposed to enhance the immune system, improve the liver, and improve eyesight. It's usually found as a dried red berry at the local Chinese herb stores.

I was very curious, if I could actually grow this Asian plant from its seeds. So I planted one the wolfberries in some soil. And it sprouted! (See photo below.)



I'll try to keep you updated on how well it grows.

Propolis

That's a vocabulary word I didn't know before, but I came across it in some random web surfing. Propolis is sort of like a wax-like "caulking" used by bees to seal and protect the hive (including diseases).

But the interesting thing is that is claimed to stimulate the immune system, and has antibiotic and antifungal properties. Boy, as new parents catching colds every weekend, we can use this.

I guess, there's many things that we don't know, and maybe bee technology has some new engineering and material applications, including our health. Who knows? Sometimes when I feel that modern science has investigated everything, there's always something new in something old.

Earth Day Weed Pull

What did we do to celebrate Earth Day? We pulled weeds.

This, of course, was performed in an "earth-friendly" non-toxic low-impact low-tech traditional manual manner -- by hand and down low, that is... No herbicides were used. And I gained some cardio health benefit (including the back). The result was a huge pile of green material for our backyard compost pile.

By the way, some of the pulled weeds had deep roots going down a foot or more. I was so impressed that I took a photo of them...



If these weeds can grow so well in our soil, I'm rationalizing that some other plants will grow just as much. Here's a photo of some Japanese eggplants and cucumbers that I planted. I'm looking forward to seeing them grow.

Saturday Night Fever

Maybe we should be disco dancing. But from this past Friday through Monday (yes, the entire weekend), Hikaru had a fever reaching a high of 103.9 degrees F on Saturday. Mommy was also sick with the cold, but I seem to be OK. The mysterious thing is that Hikaru didn't have the usual symptoms of a cold virus, like runny nose and congestion. But he was certainly "not" a happy baby.

We gave him some Tylenol, and that seemed to bring the fever down. On Sunday evening, Hikaru was extremely tired, and didn't eat or drink much. He was clingy and cranky, and couldn't go to sleep. So we finally resorted to the "auto method" where we put him in the car, and drove somewhere. It finally worked to put him to sleep. I actually did all our grocery shopping at 8 pm, so it wasn't a waste of our time.

He seems to be ok now. On Monday, we called Dr. Huang, our pediatrician, and he speculated that it could be something called Fifth Disease. It's common in children, and a characteristic sign of the disease is a rash that develops afterwards. I guess, we'll see.

Yes, the wonderful joys of parenthood! Happiness is when a baby is back to normal. We move as an interconnected family unit/network. If the network (or even one server) goes down, it's not a very happy situation until service is restored again.

It wasn't such a bad weekend to be at home with a sick baby, though. The night time temperatures dropped below freezing to around 30 degrees F (which is cold for Los Angeles). There was even some ice on the sidewalk the other morning. But the days were brilliantly sunny, and the air intensely clear. Even the most distant mountains are visible, so this might compensate for any lack of vision (even if our present view of the world is small).

Sleep Like a Baby

Does sleep deprivation result in premature Alzheimer’s disease? A few months ago, we thought we were losing our brains. I was driving Hikaru to his grandmother's house, and forgot where I was going. In fact, I forgot where Hikaru was, and went to work instead. He was sleeping in his car seat when I realized that I never dropped him off. Mommy was going to make rice, and she went to scoop out some powdered baby formula for the rice cooker (instead of the rice).

If anyone says that they "sleep like a baby", we're pretty sure they don't have one. Having a baby is a great joy, but the associated sleep deprivation can literally kill the parents. In our years BC (Before Child), part of our happiness was getting the required 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night. During our past year AB (After Baby), we've experienced the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation.



Sleep deprivation has been used as a form of torture. A lack of sleep can result in emotional mood changes -- irritability, anger, pessimism, paranoia, sadness, and stress. It can also cause lapses in memory, confusion, hallucinations, and psychosis. Sleep deprivation weakens the immune system and reduces white blood cell production. We haven't been sick as many times as in this past year. In laboratory rat experiments, sleep deprivation leads to death. Besides being mentally and physically tired, we didn't realize the seriousness.

One study by a researcher at the University of Chicago Medical School, showed that in otherwise healthy adults, glucose metabolism can fall by up to forty percent in sleep deprived people who were only getting four hours of sleep per night. Also, levels of the stress hormone cortisol were higher as well that affect memory, and tissue repair and growth. In very simple words, one feels tired (of course) and health is adversely affected.

With insufficient sleep, metabolic activity in the brain also drops, and the neurons cease to function normally. Apparently, these changes in neural activity can be inferred from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans. The brain's frontal cortex needs adequate sleep to function. Insufficient sleep affects the frontal cortex's ability to control speech, access memory, and problem solving skills. Scary stuff.

But one doesn't have to be a new parent with a newborn to be sleep deprived, though. It is estimated that one quarter of all adults in the United States are sleep deprived. Maybe one simple solution to improving your life is to get some sleep. Here's a few random website links about sleep deprivation, if you're not too tired to check them out...

Sleep Deprivation

Sleep Deprivation Can Hinder Sports Performance

Physiological correlates of prolonged sleep deprivation in rats

Brain Activity is Visibly Altered Following Sleep Deprivation

The real victims of sleep deprivation

A lot of computer guys we know are sleep deprived...

Are sleep-deprived engineers hurting the Web?

Routine Things

I never was much of a person for routine things. Too boring. Some examples of routine things are washing dishes, folding laundry, mowing the grass, sorting mail, paying bills -- well, you get the idea... Just thinking about it is enough to bring about a big sleepy "yawn".

But in my "older" age, I'm gradually figuring out that it's all a matter of perspective. Life is what you notice. Even in a life filled with routine and repetition, there can be things to keep our minds active. In our urban fast-paced stress-filled lives, those routine tasks can provide a much-needed "calming" effect.

A few weeks ago, I started a new "healthy" routine, a morning exercise routine. Where do I find the time? I get up at 5:30 am with the rooster. (Yes, we do hear the crow of the rooster -- and the baby rooster Hikaru wakes us up early. )

I'm not a laborer or farmer, but "early to rise" is good for the soul. I take a 40-minute walk up and down the hills of our neighborhood, and followed by practicing some of Tai Chi Chuan (Yang style). Usually I go alone, but sometimes the baby and Mommy come with me too.



So far, the new routine has been going well. The photo above is what I often see on my daily walk, and its wonderful to take in the quiet beauty of the San Gabriel mountains in the colors of the twilight. My routine provides a certain "rhythm" to life, and I'm finding myself feeling more in tune with the dynamic changes in the weather and the cycle of the sun and moon.

The Difference a Week Makes

A week ago, the darkness of a virus (the biological kind) entered our family, and spared no one. During this time, in our confused and scattered thoughts, we couldn't see beyond the next day -- weak with fever, nausea, headache, thirst and dehydration, drifting in and out of consciousness. We were also immersed in worry and concern.

The virus entered our baby's brain, causing a series of seizures. We helplessly watched his small body, eyes rolling, shaking uncontrollably in convulsions. We called our pediatrician, and rushed Hikaru to the hospital where they performed a number of tests, and where he stayed for four days of observation and recovery.

It was a terrible stomach flu where vomit and diarrhea for four days reset our digestive systems to zero. I was the last one to get sick, but also the last to physically and mentally recover from it. We were exhausted, and our immune systems ran a good marathon.



But that was last week. Today is the moment, and we felt the need to visit a spiritual place, so we went to Hsi Lai Temple which is located not far from where we live. By some mere coincidence, we arrived to hear the sutra chanting from a special celebration to the birthday of the "Medicine Buddha", or the "Buddha of Healing".

On this hot bright sunny day in LA, the darkness has left us. We offered some incense and a brief prayer of thanks. Our health is a gift (as they say), and not having it for a while shows us how much we really do have.