Presumably you aren't going to test each person for likely reactions to every known drug, just for the drugs he or she is considering using.  But, tell me what drugs you are considering using, and I can make a pretty educated guess at what ailments you might have...

My husband can have what appears to be an allergic reaction to his own sweat, if his skin is broken or even just slightly abraided in the area.  I noticed this years ago when I scratched an itch on his back before he showered after exercise, and a doctor did finally agree, in some surprise, that it appeared to be so.  And I believe some couples' inability to conceive can relate to the female's apparent allergy, or auto-immune reaction, to the male's 'contribution'.

Brianna - sounds more like psoriasis or something like that. Either that, or he had some toxins in his body that it was trying to sweat out (like when you have a cold or flu) and you ended up reintroducing them... I itch abominably, most of the time, but especially when I've been sweating or am in that wierd, irritating too-hot-but-not-quite-hot-enough-to-sweat stage. And yes, I get horrible rashes afterwards.

Well, it's not psoriasis, and if it's a toxin, he has it all the time, over a period of many, many years.

How it works is that every pharmaceutical drug is an inhibitor of some sort. It blocks some receptor site and that is what causes the change in your body. It has a vector, a target receptor site. Through genetic testing they can determine if you have an increased or decreased tolerance to a specific drug based upon your expression of that receptor site, and so they could plan accordingly if you need an increased or decreased dosage.

Keep in mind i'm just a computer techie, not a biologist or a pharmacologist. This is the dumb down version they told me to build, so it probably isn't accurate, but a best guess in layman's terms.

I still wouldn't want that info to be available to pharmacists. :-)

Bah, it doesn't matter because this is a long way off anyway. We barely understand what anything does right now, let alone being able to use it.

Second time around:

I just found one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands. Very interesting music video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsYgcACfWTw

For those of you curious, the interesting video snippets are from a french film, Vidocq.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164961/

I might have to find this one so I can understand what is happening. However, it looks cool from the music video.

Well, it might not be that far off; they already know how to create drugs that target a specific receptor site.

Yeah, targetting's "easy." You can look at the receptor site and using compounds tailor a chemical to bind with that site.

It's like the childrens puzzel with the different shaped blocks and the box with the different shaped cutouts in it. Just observation allows you to identify what fits where.

Now what causes the cutouts to be shaped like the way they are? That is the current mystery. We have very little idea of what makes the receptor site react a particular way. What makes a person more or less susceptible to a chemical, what makes these receptor sites more or less prevelent in your body, that's the mystery.

In a week's time, I'll be going for my black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Patterns, one-steps, terminology, 100 push-ups and sit-ups (but for creaky ol' me, more like 60-70), board and tile breaking, and of course, the 10 minute fight against 5 black belts.

So for the last few weeks, the week to come and maybe the week after that while I recover, I may be erratic, distracted or not up to my usual standards here at RoA whilst I study, train or get beaten senseless.

So, my apologies. Normal service for games I play and DM will resume after.

If you were in theater, I'd say 'break a leg!'... I'm not sure if that's appropriate for this though. ;-)

Seriously though, all the best!

As a music/theater person, break a leg is just about the only way I know to say good luck other than just saying, well, good luck!  :p

Seriously though, you should try grabbing DM Ordon if/when he's around.  He's really into martial arts and is really, really good, too.

Hey guys, I've got something for y'all!  You've gotta listen to it. :)
(especially if it irx you how people say happy holidays)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAckfn8yiAQ

That is so well said...
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:08, Thu 06 Dec 2007.

The Happy Holidays / Merry Christmas thing always bothered me a bit.

I always used to say Merry Christmas when I was younger, then I meet my best friend who happens to be jewish.

He brought up the typical arguments we've all heard. Instead of hearing it from the "I hate christmas and want to be PC crowd" it became personalized. He didn't hate Christmas he simply wanted to make it clear he doesn't celebrate it, but he does celebrate Honica.

In all honesty, Jewish holidays have a tendacy to be ignored, while Christian ones always get the full stage treatment. He had many stories of manidatory school events (He's a law student) being schedualed by a Christian teacher on his religious holidays without any consideration for his religion. Even when this was brought up to the teacher he refused to changed it. He and several others had to fight for it to be changed.

So I figure the very least I can do is say "Happy Holidays" as a way to acknowledge that Christianity isn't the only religion out there.

as an atheist I don't care which, as long as you gimme presents. :P

I wished people happy Haunuka(spelling?) on the proper days last year and if I remember the other ones get the same treatment, but otherwise I just oscillate between happy holidays and merry christmas.

FYI: Hanukkah

As one of the many out there that is not a Christian, I like how Happy Holidays goes. Besides, at least here in America most Christmas celebrations have so little to do with religion and Christ it should be called Santamas or Clausmas because nowadays Christmas is about Santa and his presents. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, others can debate, but considering how many holidays there are at this time of year (because Happy Holidays includes New Year's as well) might as well roll them up into a nice general statement that is both accurate and acceptable.

edit: Watched the video and gotta be honest, not a big fan. The argument it presented was that people say "Happy Holidays" because they're afraid to say "Christmas" because it has to deal with Jesus, and I don't agree with that at all. People say (in my opinion) "Happy Holidays" for 2 reasons

1. The person isn't sure which holiday (if any) a person is celebrating. Saying "Merry Christmas" to someone who celebrates Kwanzaa or Hanukkah is kind of a slap in the face, like "Hey, I don't have the time or the care to find out what you really believe, I'll just make a broad assumption about your holiday preference without bothering to discover the truth."
   
2. It's easier to say instead of "Have a merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year's, Eid-al-Adha, and Boxing Day" The end of the year has a ton of important holidays, and it would be a pain to have to put up a sign or message to address them all.

And that also brings up a fallacy that I see it. Maybe it's not common, maybe it is but it seems like there's a belief that saying Christ or making references to Jesus around the Jewish is like a dirty word. No, we don't go scattering into the dark when someone brings up Jesus. Just putting that out there.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:09, Fri 07 Dec 2007.

Well, I'd like to point out something.  The song mentioned that people say 'Happy Valentine's Day' in February.  Technically, that's a saint's day.  It's a religious holiday; a Christian celebration.

Also, happy holidays?  You know what holiday means, right?  Holy day.  You catching my drift?

And on yet another note, Christianity is in fact the religious heritage of the USA.  It's even in the pledge, and the national anthem, and such!  One nation, under God!  And yet schools still don't teach Christian stuff!  Good grief...

Any holiday where you don't get off school or work isn't really a holiday. :)

Other then that I agree whole hearted with you DM Kitty.

I'd also like to point out that it is in our heritage to have a Freedom of Religion. I think the "Happy Holidays" falls into that little box.

The "Happy Holidays" translates into "What ever religion you are have a good event" for me at least.

So if you know someone is Christian say "Merry Christmas" if they're Jewish say "Happy Hanukkah" or whatever.

Just don't assume people are Christian (even though like 80%+ are) when in doubt go back to the general "Happy Holidays"


As a side note:

Saddly, re-reading this stuff makes me sound like a "Political Correctness" type which I'm really not. In fact, I tend to get a great deal of joy pissing those types off normally. So please don't mistake me for one of them. :o

Hmmm. We'll start from the top

• People say "Valentine's Day" in Feb> That is true, see my second point about how there's a buttload of holidays in December as opposed to everywhere other month. Also again note that Valentine's day no longer celebrates a Christian saint, but has become a symbol of love, mushy cards, and chocolate.
  
• God is not limited to Christianity. Last time I checked Muslims and Jewish worship the same god, it's the details of his prophets/messiahs that are debated. So it would be better to say that our religious heritage is monotheistic, which is very true. Unless you count the Vikings, because their Nordic gods were cool and they were here first. Or unless you count Native Americans who worshiped spirits. Technically they were here first. Hmmm...our heritage really is a mixed bag across all fronts. No wonder we struggle so much with our "cultural identity" when it's such a hodgepodge of the world.

On another note, I think Political Correctness is a terrible phrase to use, so I will invent an equally horrible but more PC version of it in the phrase of "Political Sensitivity." You don't have to like it, just be aware that there are people who believe different things then you and so be careful when making broad assumptions.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:11, Fri 07 Dec 2007.

I don't have any specific holidays or other religious festivals, but I still celebrate christmas in a mostly christian way because that's how I was brought up - I don't believe that there was anything superhuman about Jesus, or even that he necessarially exists as a person - but I know that he does have power as a symbol, just like Santa exists as an idea - and celebrating is fun. :p

Soo... have a good midwinter, because the best way to celebrate having enough food to last until spring (no-one mention the veg price sensationalistic crap please, food prices always go up this time of year in England, and hello, we've had flooding, of course things are more expensive!) is to eat most of it. ^^

So you're supporting hibernation (after you eat all that food) as the ultimate winter holiday?  *grin*

Well around this time of year I think(If I'm wrong correct me) that most religions have a holy day around this time of day and then it would be the correct thing to use.

Vikings also had holy days around the 24 th of December. Because of the changing of th seasons. Going from darker to lighter. Also if you check other old and now dead religion you'll find many holidays that go around the same time as the jewish, Christian and islamic holy days. To take the 24 th of December as an point of this.

Vikings used it. The druids used it and many more minor religions that existed around the year 300.(When the roman emperor rewrote the bible) Is it just a coincident or maybe some deep plot to more easily gather all under one religion. It's up to you to decide.

Also I saw that Kitty wrote that they don't mix god into school. How great I would say. religion has no place in school or so I think at least.


PS: I'm going to create a new tread seen as we are coming up on the nice 1000 post limit.

You've had flooding?  Send some of that rain over here, we're in drought!

I'll be leaving this chat up for another week or two before deleting it in our ongoing effort to keep RoA neat and tidy.  If you want any part of it, any links, etc., please save them to your personal computer as soon as possible.

Thank you!  :)