The wonders of the internet continue to astound me. You gotta problem? The internet's got an answer.
Problem: my wifi connection often fades out when it drops to 2 bars. I'm fine at 3 bars, and it never gets to 4 bars from my location.
Using the directions on this video, I made a parabolic reflector out of a sheet of -- heavy weight tin foil, as per the directions below. Since my router/antennae are suspended, I just slit the tinfoil and rested it right on the wire to the router. And indeed now the reception varies between 3 and 4 bars, enough to avoid disruptions. Neither Comcast nor our electrician had any idea how to solve this, other than installing a hard connection....
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Tin Foil Upgrade for My Wifi - Thanks, Internet!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Ectopic Heart Beat, Benign Palpitations, Cardio-Hiccups
This is a completely off-topic post, written in hopes it may be of interest and help to people who have the same weird heartbeat thing which I have. Starting in my 20's I very occasionally had a moment where I felt like my heart stopped and then went thud, followed by a nano-second of breathlessness. But before I could focus on my imminent death, everything went back to normal. An EKG in a doctor's office assured me I was fine, nothing to worry about. Hah! Nothing to worry about, until the next time this happens!
In my mid-50's, I noticed it more, and once again had a physician check it out, same result. Nothing to worry about. Then a few months ago, around my 58th birthday, this started happening several times an hour. Usually in threes, a few minutes apart. I would be very conscious of my heart beating, a weird sensation. Each thud would be followed by a slight flutter in my chest and stomach. This began to drive my crazy, trying to figure out a pattern, what might be causing this uptick (pardon the pun!). And lots of anxiety, since it is an unpleasant sensation. The doctor reassured me it's harmless, and called an ectopic heart beat, as "in the wrong place". No known cause, no cure.
Eventually the frequency made me so nervous that I asked for a referral to a cardiologist. I just couldn't believe that something so scary-feeling could really be harmless. He did another EKG and an echo-cardiogram, neither of which is invasive or unpleasant. He pronounced me the healthiest lady he had seen all day, and described these as "benign palpitations". Benign is good, but it sounds very alarming, really. There is no known cause, this is just one of those things that happens; it's weird, but it's harmless.
I am slowly training myself to be less reactive to my benign palpitations; which at least will decrease my reactivity. The most useful thing I've come up with so far is to rename them heart hiccups, since that in effect is what they are. Somehow, hickup sounds more friendly and normal than benign palpitations.
I do hope they go away just like them came; some days I have very few. Other days I have a lot. Just sharing. By now I've discovered a few other people who have these too, and we're all alive and well.