Rudynate

I find his youtube vids on personal grooming very useful. I learned how to trim my pubes from him and I loved his vid on clipping your stomach hair to emphasize your happy trail.

I was blocked by an escort once. He only wanted to be contacted by text, and he only wanted people to contact him by text who were ready to hire. I wasn't ready to hire, so he blocked me. I was upset about it for at least five minutes.

To me, an hour is a quickie.

Some would consider them PNP, others not. To me, PNP is hard drugs - meth, ecstacy, K, G - that sort of thing.

But isn't it possible to have that boundary without judging? Sort of like, "It just doesn't work for me?"

I know the 70s are remote in time to men 30 or 40 years younger than I. Back then, everybody pnp'd. Not so much on meth, but MDA, a forerunner to ecstasy. I've done my share of MDA. I tried meth-not my cup of tea. IN THEORY, I would still pnp. But even back then, it took me a couple days to recover from a party. Now, I imagine the recovery time would be more like a week. I would think twice about throwing away a week of my life for a night of substance-enhanced sex. The cost/benefit analysis doesn't make sense.

Given what you say, I could believe that imaging might not be able to be relied on as gold-standard evidence for efficacy, but it seems foolish to dismiss it entirely, especially when the practitioner relying on the imaging is one of considerable skill and experience and is presumably familiar with its limitations. Doctors rely on imperfect diagnostic methods all the time. part of relying on them is recognizing their limitations.

She's not who I went to, although I called her. I went to an osteopath who specializes in sports medicine.

His were in the lumbar spine. I don't know the name of his doctor. There's a woman here in the Bay area who is semi-famous in the field of proliferative therapies. She was a student of the guy who originally developed the treatments. She has a clinic in the East bay with a 3-month waiting list. Her fee for the initial consultation is $500.00.

But when a positive outcome is objectively documented by imaging, it is either the treatment that brought it about, perhaps with some assistance from the placebo effect, or it is a miracle cure. I'm happy with either.

Guy Pierce, even now that he's an old guy.

Europeans used to call me exotic. Even though, as far as I know, my ancestry is 100% northern European, I look like I might be bi-racial. Asians think I'm part Asian, blacks think I'm part black, and so on. So European men would tell me I had an exotic look.

It wasn't that long ago. There may still be people around who could confirm or refute. My sister-in-law's partner was a small child when the Russians were sweeping westward at the end of the war. She remembers frantically scraping together a few clothes and belongings and making a mad dash for the last train out before the Russians captured their town.

Truthfully I've noticed that. I'm actually inspired by how I sound on a terrific piano.

I don't think most people are dumb enough to think that buying a new Steinway piano is a good investment. But those salespeople in Steinway dealerships are ruthless, they'll say anything to get the money. Once, in a Steinway dealership, a saleswoman told me that I needed a new Steinway to develop further as a musician -that my instrument was holding me back. There might be a little truth to the notion that a poor instrument holds someone back, but the obvious solution isn't to drop a pile of money on a brand new Steinway.

The average middle class home would be much more likely to have an enormous entertainment center than a Boesendorfer grand piano.

There was objective evidence of it having worked-the imaging. As you said, it's not your area, so anything you may have say about it is mere speculation.

From Steinway's Golden Age.

Fazziolis are very popular right now among the set who can afford to drop 5 - 6 figures for a new grand piano, but some people who know more about pianos than I do sort of sniff when you mention Fazzioli. Don't know if its justified or not. There are just so many great piano manufacturers - Boesendorfer, Pleyel, Bechstein, Yamaha, Kawai. I don't have room in my house for a grand piano, so I content myself with a studio upright. But if I did, I would buy used. You can buy wonderful used grand pianos for a fraction of the cost of a new one. Supposedly, US made Steinways from the early 20th century are outstanding pianos.

Another thing they are doing is partnering with Asian piano manufacturers to produce pianos manufactured to Steinway specifications. Boston pianos are the product line produced by Kawai. I played a Boston piano at the Steinway dealership the last time I was in LA and it was a wonderful piano. Essex pianos are produced by a Korean manufacturer under the same type of arrangement. I dont think they have an arrangement with any Chinese manufacturer.

I know a guy who had PRP for a couple of herniated discs with good result.

I can report that I had a very positive experience with PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injections. It's not for everybody, and it is a fringey treatment that is not well thought of by the mainstream. 7 or 8 months ago I sustained an overuse injury to my right hip. It had become quite painful and was really starting to affect my activity level. I had started to avoid walking any more than short distances. I'm not sure what the problem was but the symptoms were suggestive of a labral tear. Kaiser was absolutely no help. They x-rayed the hip and found mild-to-moderate osteoarthritis, and basically decided that they were done. The arthritis made me a poor candidate for any kind of soft tissue repair but the arthritis also wasn't bad enough to justify a hip replacement ( which I never would have gone for anyway). That was all conventional medicine had to offer. I have known people who had excellent results from prolotherapy for joint tendon and ligament problems. They inject an irritant at the site of injury, which provokes an inflammatory response. The inflammatory response jump-starts a healing process in cartilaginous tissues like joints and ligaments, that heal slowly or not at all because they are not well supplied with blood. I went to an osteopath who does prolotherapy and he thought the best type of prolotherapy for my injury was the PRP injections. They draw some of your blood (about half a unit) separate the platelets and inject the platelets at the site of injury. The platelets provoke a strong inflammatory response which helps to initiate the healing process. I was 90% convinced it would work and 10% skeptical. He thought a single treatment would take care of my problem. The procedure itself is no picnic. He injected platelets at 10 different sites, under ultrasound guidance. He warned me in advance that they were going to feel like hot lead - and they did. It took about an hour. I was in serious pain for about 4 days, but then things started to feel much better. After about a week, the symptoms from the injury started to improve. It has been a month since I had the treatment - the pain from the original injury has decreased at least 60%. My limp is almost gone. Secondary to the injury I had developed pain in my knee, ankle and tibia. These are completely gone. I'm a believer. It was expensive - $1500.00, not covered by insurance. But, so far, I think it is was money well spent.

The couple times I had an epidural injection that worked, I think the effect lasted for 3-4 weeks.

If one just looked at the prices for used Steinway pianos, they would easily see that buying a new Steinway is a lousy investment. They depreciate about the way an automobile does. The only good reason to buy a new Steinway is to own one of the worlds finest pianos.

I'm sure a physician would tell you not to do it. Nonetheless, stacking them is a fairly common practice.