Austin Acupuncture School Review: Texas College of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Original post removed.

Update [04/10/2010]:
Factors to consider when deciding on an acupuncture school.

1. Style of Acupuncture. There are many styles of acupuncture taught in the US and all accredited by ACAOM. The styles that I know of are: TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), French Energetic Acupuncture, Japanese Acupuncture, and Classical 5-Element Acupuncture. TCM is the new version of Chinese Medicine taught in China since the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Despite its misleading name of "Traditional", it is not. It seems to be a very Westernized version of Chinese Medicine. It focuses mainly on treating symptoms, much like Western Medicine. French Energetic acupuncture is mainly taught to M.D.'s. Japanese acupuncture focuses on palpating various parts of the body and notably the abdominal for diagnosis. Classical 5-Element Acupuncture is a European offshoot claiming to be the original but after looking at the founder's textbooks, I sincerely doubt that is the case. And there's the original Chinese Medicine taught since antiquity which is now only taught in Taiwan, as far as I know

2. Quality of Teaching. Some instructors, it seems, are not interested in teaching but just earning a paycheck to pay the bills, or because they want a work Visa in the US. They don't care about the students or what they teach. So quality of instruction is important. Look for instructors who are interested in answering student questions. Some instructors get angry when asked questions, others get annoyed, and yet others are helpful. Look for a school with the helpful ones. Some teachers genuinely enjoy teaching. These people make the best teachers.

3. Depth of Instruction. Is the material covered pretty superficial or is the material covered in-depth. You'd be surprised how many of the self-proclaimed "top schools" teach at the superficial layer. If you'd like a solid foundation, I suggest you pick a school with in-depth instruction.

4. Student body. It's good to talk to the student body and the students you will be going to school with. You will spend a lot of time in class with them and perhaps outside class as well so make sure these are people you can get along with. When you are a prospective student and asking current students, they are all nice and say nice things. It's when you have to deal with them on a day to day basis, that you see their real side come out. Everyone is nice at first. Most of these students are in their 20's and have the emotional maturity of someone in their partying and drinking phase. Don't expect much adult behavior.

5. Administration. Make sure the administration is professional. If they treat the students like peons, then most likely that will not change. On the other hand, if the admissions person is very nice, it does not mean the rest of the administration is that way.

6. Convenience of Schedule. There a schools out there can accommodate professionals with full-time careers. Look around. There are schools with a full night-time program for students who work during the day. There are distance learning schools where you fly up there for one weekend a month. And there are distance learning schools where you fly there and stay for 2 weeks every 3 months. And of course, there are full day-time programs too.

So find a school that mixes with your style and schedule and enjoy learning a great art.

iPhone: Devices that can cause injury

What's worse than buggy software? Having a device that can cause permanent damage to your eyes or maim you for life. Here's the article.

Apple in hot water over exploding iPhone

Criminal Probes

The Obama Administration should focus more on how the war on Iraq got started illegally and look into criminal prosecutions there than on CIA interrogation probes.

iPhone Hangs and unable to recover

I got my iPhone about 3 weeks and have been enjoying using it. Today it hung, and does not respond to anything on the screen or buttons. In fact, the power off button doesn't even work. This is some incredible programming by Apple. They try to make it look like only Microsoft has bugs however that is just a marketing scheme.

The only way to make this iPhone usable again, I presume, is to take out the battery and wait, put it back in and power up. The only problem is that it seems the battery to the iPhone is internal to the phone and difficult to access. Apple wants you to send in the iPhone, in order to change the batteries. What an incredible waste of time.

My iPhone is like a computer to me, as well as a cell phone. Now I won't have access to my computer while I send it in and wait for Apple to fix their bugs. I'm highly disappointing at Apple for poor programming techniques, to let the iPhone operating system hang like this and become totally unusable. I am also disappointed at Apple in that I have to send it in to get it fixed. Certainly not user-friendly.

Drag Me to Hell: Movie

Good movie. Good scare and some good laughs. Hopefully the Republicans will go see it. It will give them something to think about. It looks like the movie did some research and followed some things factually, and then made up a few things for movie effects (gotta do it for ticket sales :)).

Don't go to those palm readers or spiritual advisors. The majority of them are scams.

Associated Press has some of the dumbest writers

Nuff said.

Cheney's Daughter

With Cheney as the male role model in the family, it's easy to see why his daughter chose to be gay. :)

Treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with Acupuncture

I attended a presentation by Joe Chang and listened to the testimonial of the PTSD soldiers under his care and was pretty impressed with the results he is getting with acupuncture in the US Army. This is only a pilot program but I hope it will expand out and the Army will hire more acupuncturists to treat soldiers with PTSD. Article.

Air France Part 2

So now they are saying they have a GPS unit (homing device) on the airplane ... but still cannot find it. This is really ridiculous logic similar to red neck logic. :)

Missing Air France jet

Article. I'm surprised that they don't have a GPS locator on such an expensive unit as a plane yet have on one cheaper units like cars. Go figure.

Movie Review: Wolverine

Badass movie. Go watch and have some fun.

Chemotherapy

Article 1.
Article 2.
Article 3.

I think the "27%" of deaths caused by chemotherapy in article 3 is a much fixed number. Doctors will do anything, if not for anything other than reason of malpractice suits, not to admit their recommended treatment actually caused the deaths of their patients. They will likely attribute it to anything else they possibly can.

Mac Users

I just had a pretty interesting chat with a Mac Lover. I was telling him that people need to use stronger passwords for better security especially because we were talking about online banking passwords. He said he bought the Mac so he doesn't have to worry about security anymore.

I found this argument quite amusing. Seems to be a common argument for Mac Users.

Thousands beaten, raped in Irish reform schools

Article. Not surprising. However when I talk to most Republican voters, they are very supportive of the Catholic church because they say these things "rarely happen". They seem to make up their own facts despite the published reports in the U.S. and otherwise. It seems that those who have no brain, automatically vote Republican.

Republican voters don't believe in news or facts. In fact, they just make up their own. Like cults and religious fanatics they believe what they want to believe.

In fact, they claim CNN and most news sources are biased towards the left while believing their leader, Rush Limbaugh, is being truthful and wholesome with them without any kind of bias. In fact, they talk exactly like him. They will deny publicly that they idolize Rush, of course, while secretly worshiping him. They would even suck his c*ck if Rush told them it was the right thing to do.

Don't believe me. Republicans still believe in giving money to corporations, as of today, as a way of saving the economy when there have been so many published reports of corporations abusing government bailout money for executive bonuses. Their excuse, "these things don't really happen", CNN and the rest of the news media made up these stories. Of course, if Rush says it, they will believe it. The Republican strategy of course is to "keep dumb people in the dark". If you've ever had a woman tell you that she loves you while bilking you, then you will understand the GOP Republican strategy. It works on the naive and the stupid. Most of us were young and stupid once, but Republican voters still fall for this fantasy. Many of them have a college education too but it's no guarantee of intelligence.

If you have doubts as to the number of stupid people in America, look at how many still go to McDonald's, Burger King, and Jack in the Box. Look at how much business they still generate. Should we be responsible for paying for the health care bill of Americans who decide to kill themselves with fast food their entire lives?

The two groups of people who are most dangerous to the growth and prosperity of America are the Liberals and the Republicans.

Republicans

The only Republicans I would vote for are: Ron Paul, formerly Arlen Specter, John McCain, and Chuck Hagel. The rest of the Republicans are scam artists.

Movie Review: Star Trek

Most of the characters were much improved and their personality very interesting. Bones was excellent. He outdid the original Bones and even almost likable, entertaining at times. The same can be said for the new spock and his character. The plot was good however the movie was ruined by the bad acting of Chris Pine as James T. Kirk. This new Kirk is simply a loser who has made it into the big time. A fantasy that many losers appeal to. Perhaps he is an iconic fantasy for the new generation. James T. Kirk from the original 1965-69 series was one of my favorites, quite likable, charismatic, and respectable. The new Kirk is just a loser. Nevertheless I think it is a good movie despite the flaw.

Judge orders death of boy

Article. Everyone I've met who's done chemotherapy dies shortly thereafter. Despite being "highly educated", most judges are pretty damn stupid. The cure is worse than the disease. This judge orders the murder of a boy.

So why does chemotherapy exist? It makes a lot of money for the hospitals. Western Medicine.

There are many ways to cure cancer with alternative medicine, assuming it has not progressed too far, but most "highly educated" doctors in the U.S. have shit for brains. You wouldn't believe how dumb most U.S. doctors are about real health. All they know is what they've been brain fed by the medical school and AMA. No ability *whatsoever* to think outside the box. Should send these doctors to Special Ed along with the other retards.

3.6 Trillion Dollar Spending Package

3.6 Trillion dollars? I haven't seen any benefit yet. What a waste of money spending on silly social programs that haven't done anything for the general public. The Iraq War costs less than that. Better to go back to the Republican days where they are spending money on Defense.

Guess how this is going to be paid for? By increasing taxes.

Health Plan Overhaul

Article. It's stupid to require all Americans to carry western medical insurance. I don't even go to those doctors. What a waste of money. Western medicine is a scam. I have enough bills to pay, don't need to pay scam bills. This is the stupidest thing the Democrats have done. I'm about to vote Republican soon.

Saturated Fat

Saturated Fat.

Medical Insurance for Herbs

I personally prefer taking Herbs from Chinese Medicine to acupuncture. I don't like needles all that much. I like taking concoctions. :) You can cook the herbs and drink the broth or buy prepared formulas. It is like drinking healthy food and much better than taking Western drugs.

It would be good for medical insurance to cover this. The health of the nation would be much improved and the costs would be cheaper than the drugs one gets at the pharmacy.

It seem with Western Medicine, the costs seem to skyrocket and people's health seem to get worse over time. What's worse is that people get addicted to the drugs the doctors give them. In fact, one of the anti-depressants such as effexor has really bad withdrawal symptoms when you try to get off it. It's meant to hook you on for life. Like marijuana, it is addictive but it's been legalized by the pharmaceutical companies.

If you look at the the number of psycho behaviors in the U.S. such shootings at bases and in the U.S., a number of these people were on some type of medication prescribed by doctors. Marijuana and cocaine does the same thing too but anti-depressants have been legalized by the pharmaceutical company. Would marijuana or cocaine ever become legalized? Not if the pharmaceutical companies can help it. No. The pharmaceuticals would lose so much business if it ever became legalized. It's like a war of drugs between the cartels and the people who run the pharmaceuticals to see who owns the industry in the U.S. As far as Congress is concerned, many of them are paid by the pharmaceutical companies so it's not likely things will change for the better.

Everyone I've talked to who's ever put on effexor by doctors say they feel crazy and psycho when they try to ween off the medication. In fact, the withdrawal is much worse than if they had never taken the medication. Will the FDA ever put a ban on it? Not likely. Guess who slips money to the FDA under the covers? You guessed it.

Putting a ban on effexor and similar drugs would be more effective in curbing the percentage of "crazy violence" in the U.S. than gun control, especially in the armed forces.

Treating soldiers with with Chinese Herbs is more beneficial to them and the safety of their fellow soldiers than pharmaceutical drugs. But don't look for that to happen soon due to the influence of the pharmaceutical companies.

Rising Healthcare Costs?

Why is the cost of carrying medical insurance rising? Hmm.

U.S. service member kills 4 fellow troops in Iraq

Article. The obvious way to fix this is to take the guns away from soldiers. That's how most gun control advocates think. Let's disarm all soldiers. "You don't give guns to someone who is in a stressful situation (Iraq)."

Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

I would like to see medical insurance cover acupuncture and herbal medicine treatments. I think most insurance companies try to "save the biggest bucks" by opting out of acupuncture treatments. But the biggest irony is that insurance companies would save more money because patients wouldn't need to go to the emergency room and the insurance company pays $8,000 to for diagnostic tests.

Acupuncture treatments costs much less like $75/treatment in most places and if people got good care prior to it becoming a medical emergency, the health of the nation would be better. Let's say someone gets $75/treatment for 2 times a month. That's $150/month or $1,800/yr for treatment of a condition. Whereas just doing a medical study like sleep study is $5,000 per single instance and $1,000 for the cpap equipment.

One can clearly see that acupuncture is clearly cheaper and works much better than shooting someone full of drugs. These companies cannot see for their own benefit. This is typical of the Myopia in how U.S. executives think.

They do not realize that it is also much cheaper than paying for a prozac prescription. With acupuncture, things get healed in a relatively short time. With prozac, it's a life long prescription.

I think a national health insurance plan should do what's best for the people and offer acupuncture coverage.

p.s. if you would like to see more examples of myopic thinking, watch the movie "Body of Lies" with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Educational Assistance

Article. This is good however I would like to see Pell Grants for graduate students. If you are unemployed and have a college college, you wouldn't get a Pell Grant going for graduate work.

Would you like to erase some painful memories?

If you have painful memories you would like to be erased, Western Science always has a promising cure for you, regardless of the problems you may have. Let's take a look at one such approach.

ECT Video. It works but yes there's always some side effects with Western Medicine.

Capitalism vs. Communism: The Realities of Corporate America

It seems that most Americans are so proud of capitalism and shun communism as it if is some evil entity, usually without understanding much about either. Welcome to America. These are Americans.

In corporate America, one IT developer could be carrying the weight of most of the team, yet his pay plus bonuses is only maybe 2,000 - 5,000 more per year. This kind of communistic strategy hardly motivates top talent to deliver. The productivity of some developers are at a rate of 10 to 1 to many of his peers in the company. Yet his pay is only marginally higher. Why work so hard when everyone else is deadweight? Many CIOs refuse to reward their top talent much more than that because "they don't want to upset everyone". Yet the CIO himself takes home himself a big bonus plus promotions that year for the work of that single person, the highly talented person. Not only is this person's productivity 10 to 1 but he is able to produce things the 10 others are not able to produce and move the company into a new area.

It seems the reward strategy for most companies in corporate America is based on communism. Basically you get the same regardless of what you do. The exception of course are the executives. They seem to take some millions more for failing everyone else. By pulling back hand deals and corrupt practices, they seem to take all the money and glory of some of the top talent who work underneath them. Hardly seems unfair. Is this capitalism or a form of tyranny seen in communistic countries.

It seems to me the best strategy for a highly talented person in America is to work in a communistic way because corporate America is based on communism.

Domestic Violence

Looking at Oprah's list of warning signs, I can say my ex-wife treated me that way. I recorded all the phone messages she left me and all the names and phony charges she accused me off. Usually 10-20 messages in a day when she is on her bipolar tirade. Hmm. I'm sure a judge would be interested in hearing that.

Ex

While we were married, my ex-wife wanted me to shoot her 1st husband. It's kind of contradictory in that she is very much against guns, gun ownership, but wanted me to shoot someone for her. I refused but she kept on pressuring me constantly to do. I told her, "Why don't you do it?" She said, "No". And insisted that I do it. I said I had nothing against him, why would I want to kill him. She said, "Do it for me". "No thank you". She lost custody of her first son and wanted me to kill her 1st husband, so she could have the child. Of course she wanted no part of the dirty work knowing that the shooter would likely be arrested. She kept on pressuring me until I told her first husband about it ... at which point, she insisted she never said such a thing and told me to never contact him again.

Is she innocent or just wanted her hands clean of any dirty work? Did she really love me like she repeatedly profess or just trying to use me and have me take all the consequences? I'd think that if you'd love someone, you'd want the best for them long-term and not for them to end up in jail.

It's also kind of funny that she often "joked to death due us part" making a pistol with her hand and shooting at my head. She said there'd only be one way for us to be separated. It was funny the first couple of times, but she kept on repeating every time I told her I wanted a divorce. Coincidentally, during the divorce, she repeated asked me to sign a will that in the event she and I both died at the same time (real likely since we were separated), to give the parental rights of the kids to so and so. I said, "How is it likely that we will both die at the same time (we don't even live together)?" She responded "just in case". She has been clinically diagnosed by a state psychiatrist as "bipolar with homocidal tendencies". It's weird that she thinks we could die at the same time. I had no idea what she had in mind. I never signed it and am still alive today.

Women have different ways of taking revenge

While this was one person's way of taking revenge, women have their own ways of taking revenge in a much more brutal long term effect. This particular guy's revenge was pretty short, women on the other hand will suck every dollar out of you for the rest of your life, they will take your kids away from you, and make you into a living zombie for the rest of your life. Who is more cruel?

In other news, the media often reports war casualties of dead men, but make a big deal when women and children are killed. It's as if it's okay to kill men, but women and children are off limits. Women are not pacifists. They have their own ways of doing evil that is not so obvious to report. As a kid, I was picked on by many other kids, mainly because I was the only Asian in the school. Kids can be very mean, and cruel, so they are hardly innocent by any standard.

Women like to portray themselves as helpless and innocent with no power but in reality do not most women "control" the household in America? Some say the Nancy Reagan was the one who really ran things and not President Reagan. He had to do everything according to how she forecasted "the stars"? Are they really helpless when they complain and lie to their male sympathizers to get stuff done for them ( or kick another guy's ass)?

Portraying themselves as helpless victims is just a political maneuver to gain even more subtle power over men (who they often consider stupid and easy to manipulate). These same men will go on "crusades" for more power to the women. *yawn*

NJ/NYC Area

I recently relocated to the NJ/NYC. Kinda fun today with all the snow and shoveling. It beats a hot Texas summer. The lady I am renting my room from is a very nice lady. It can seem that all women are evil during and after a divorce. Women can be so nice. They are a little moody at times but I think it is all just part of the fun. he he he

War Crimes Trial

Article. It looks like Milosec died of a heart attack before he could be found guilty. Maybe former Pres. Bush would suffer the same fate. Hmm.. We need to put Bush on trial for his war crimes, have the details of what he did read to him, and victims testify in front of him.

Army charity hoards millions

Army charity hoards millions. No surprise here. I know how charities really operate. That's why I don't give to charities or "non-profit" organizations.

Fraud Alert: vault.com

Beware of vault.com. Long after you cancel your membership, they keep charging you 49.95.

So many despicable business practices out there. They are hoping a certain percentage don't notice or take the time to call, so they still make a profit. A lot of companies are now using scam practices to get more money since the economy is down.

They do not have a number you can call. So you have to scan through their website to figure out the email address to contact. Another scam technique ... charging people but not listing obvious ways to cancel. One has to take the time to comb through the website and figure it out. Finally, there is a web form for submitting a question. Let's hope they bother answering those.

Update: I got an email response back saying they refuse to refund me but will reduce the charges by 25%. It is signed by an anonymous pseudonym. No real name is provided. Their claim is that I never canceled. The cancel button on their membership site obviously doesn't work for obvious reasons.

Republican Losers show their True Colors

The Republican Losers want a perjury probe of Sen. Burris but are against a probe of former Pres. Bush. What a bunch of hypocrites.

They also created the $700 financial bailout without any restrictions but were adamant in placing a ton of restrictions on US auto workers. These liars are worthless human beings.

Ron Paul

Article. He has a point.

This sucks! An innocent man's life is ruined.

Video. This woman pinpointed the wrong man as her attacker and showed no remorse for her mistake. She ruined his life. Being a good person and faith in G*d isn't enough to survive in this world when there are agents of the devil, i.e. prosecutor, working. The prosecutor ignored real evidence because he/she is just pure evil. The prosecutor should be prosecuted for this. Of course we don't see this happen, because the system is a failure. The system of justice is a fraud, where few in the system care about real justice. It's like "oh well, next case please." Earn the paycheck.

Marriage

Look what marriage to certain kinds of women can do to you. Picture. Gates is only 53 yet he looks dramatically older than my father who is 78.

Bill Gates

Picture. He's been looking pretty stressed out ever since he got married. He used to be such the happy person.

Google Layoffs: 10,000

Yay! What a bunch of losers. Imagine being interviewed by a bunch of people severely less skilled than you. They pass you on the interview because you can't remember definitions you once knew 20+ years ago. They just learned things I knew 20 years ago, and think they are the smartest people in the world. Serves them right for their big losses.

They like to hire Ivy League degrees. It's no wonder they have to lay off so many.

low-tech White House

The Secret Service and NSA are so low tech. It's so easy to disguise the source location of the email or phone call but they don't have the technology in the world to do it. Just all the expert hackers know how to do it and many not so expert.

Obama needs to get real experts in there quick.

Bush

It's time for former Pres. Bush to pay for his crimes against humanity especially against that of the people of the United States of America. You cannot be soft on crime and let his deeds go unpunished. What does that say when you do? Why are normal citizens prosecuted for the crimes in the past but ex-Presidents not?? It speaks of an unfair system.

Of course Bush was nice to Obama after he became President-Elect and helped him with many things. Why would Bush piss off a new President when he knows he could easily go to jail for what he did? Of course he is going to try to smooth things over. If a criminal saw an opportunity to free of himself of the penalities of past crimes by just being nice to somebody for a few months, why would he not be helpful? Some people are more gullible than others.

I hope the right thing is done regarding Pres. Bush crimes. He is not repentent, only playing someone for a fool. If the Va. Tech murderer suddently became repentent, should we just let him go because it is the past? Who is going to pay for the life lost? Who is going to pay for the lives lost in Iraq??

Flying Car

I'm getting one for Christmas. :)

Happiness

I look around and notice that I've been the happiest than I've been in a long, long time. I notice what is different now than was before and remember that my divorce was finalized a few weeks ago. Being with the wrong person can traumatize you. Luckily, that was only a temporary part of my life.

Life is Good.

Many people find losing their job is a blessing in disguise

Video.

Hospitals Medicaid Fraud

What else is new? Article. I've know for a long time how dishonest the medical profession is. Guess who is submitting the false charges? Nurses and doctors. Crooked individuals.