Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Going to Word Press

Well my faithful followers, I am moving over to word press to continue blogging! I like the features that they have and it appears that one can do a lot more on Word Press than on Blogger! Please join me at Word Press for any future updates and thank you all!

http://joshbiggs/wordpress.com

TMJ - What it all about

For quiet sometime if you have been following me on Twitter or if you know me personally you know that I have been complaining about TMJ so I thought that I would give you all a little insight into what it is and why its so painful and an update on my condition. The acronym for TMJ actually refers to joint in your jaw called the Temporomandibular Joint and this joint can become inflamed leading to a disorder. It is this disorder that is what is going on with me and unfortunately it is generally a chronic inflammation much like Arthritis, so it will come and go.

The temporomandibular joint connects the mandible to the skull, and the disorder and resultant dysfunction can result in significant pain and impairment. Because the joint is so close to your ear, ear pain is associated with the swelling and many times it feels like its an ear infection or ear pain. Another classic sign of TMJ disorder (TMJD) is a constant clicking or popping and an occasional locking of the jaw, and even possible in more extreme untreated cases it will lead to lock jaw.

There are many reason why people develop TMJD and mine is mainly due to clenching my teeth while I sleep, but other reason include:
  • Trauma to the jaw
  • Grinding Teeth

  • Excessive gum chewing or nail biting

  • Size of foods eaten

  • Clenching

There are many courses of treatment that can be followed and because of the pain and the joint it will probably take a combination of your dentist and physician to develop a treatment plan that works for you.

A dentist will generally fit you for a bite guard that will be used during sleeping hours to prevent someone from clenching and grinding their teeth as this is a leading cause to TMJD. A physician will generally prescribe pain killers and NSAIDs to reduce inflammation of the joint. My physician is also trying a therapy that involves an anti-anxiety medication to allow my jaw to relax while I sleep, this medication is taken at bed time as it generally will cause severe drowsiness which is a bonus for me as I have been having a hard time sleeping, again another problem that you may recall if you follow me on Twitter or know me personally.


I can say that after a week of being on this medication my pain in my jaw has subsided significantly to almost unnoticeable, and most of the medication that I have been prescribed is to be used on a need basis regime, other than the anti-inflammatory. My physician highly suggest that I continue using this on a daily basis as a form of preventative measures and to lessen the frequency of painful flareups.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

My New Toy and Win 7 Upgrade

Today is the first day that I ventured into the world of owning a netbook and so far I have found that I like it. I opted to stick with Win XP and purchased a system that has a 16 gig flash memory and 1 gig of ram which is well enough to run XP! I have customized XP to run similar to how I operate Vista. Which also brings me to another point, I also made the decision yesterday to order a copy of Win 7 which I will install on my main laptop and the other machines in my home with the exception of my netbook! It will be interesting to see how much more of an imporvement Win7 is over Vista! So far initially everyone that I have spoken to has only positive things to say, so could Microsoft really have gotten something right? I will keep you posted as I travel through my upgrade and how my systems handle the newer improvements. The biggest thing I would like to see is less CPU dedicated to operating an the OS.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Weekly Top Ten to Follow on Twitter 10/30/09

So last week was my first week of building a list and adding a mention in my blog about a group of tweeps that I have interacted with for the week! I am trying not to mention anyone more than once in a few blog post, but eventually there will be some repeats put in there from previous weeks. The list this week includes one bonus tweep that I have selected as someone that I think will have the potential of being a great tweep to follow! The individuals that I have selected this week are funny, interesting, and provide quality tweets that keep me interested and is the reason that I keep tweeting week after week! I look forward to tweeting with these people day in and day out and I know that you will too! So without any further delay here is my list for this week:
  1. @CdnGal_ps http://twitter.com/CdnGal_ps
  2. @deafrock http://twitter.com/deafrock
  3. @90_angel http://twitter.com/90_angel
  4. @Chattylisa69 http://twitter.com/Chattylisa69
  5. @anniemcs http://twitter.com/anniemcs
  6. @anz_rocks19 http://twitter.com/anz_rocks19
  7. @JohnnyVoiture http://twitter.com/JohnnyVoiture
  8. @CEEisME http://twitter.com/CEEisME
  9. @selwynD611 http://twitter.com/selwynD611
  10. @sarahbellafina http://twitter.com/sarahbellafina

And my bonus tweep that I believe that has the potential to being a great tweep to follow that I was introduced to today is: @NikkiG1st http://twitter.com/NikkiG1st

You can not go wrong with these tweeps at all and if you don't have an account then it is time for you to get one and start following these tweeps! You can sign up by following this link: http://twitter.com to sign up for an account.

Friday, October 23, 2009

My First Top 10 Tweeps List and Introduction

So every week I am now going to provide a list of my top ten tweeps that I interacted with for the week. I am going to use this blog as a method of keeping track so that I try not to repeat a tweep multiple times, because we all know there are a few people that we talk to all the time and would be on that list every week and one thing that I like about #FollowFriday is the chance to follow good quality people and I cherish all of my tweeps that I interact with daily, weekly and monthly and soon I will be able to say yearly as I am approaching my one year anniversary of being on twitter. I will also post a link to twitter from the previous week which will allow me to #FollowFriday 20 tweeps in one quick sweep. So without further delay here is my first list of top 10 tweeps from this past week.

Follow these people on twitter as they have brought great information, kept me entertained and enjoy life as much as I do!
  1. @niffirgelleinad - http://twitter.com/niffirgelleinad
  2. @Wattyz - http://twitter.com/Wattyz
  3. @Ceggs - http://twitter.com/Ceggs
  4. @Claire_Cordon - http://twitter.com/Claire_Cordon
  5. @nelsonmaud - http://twitter.com/nelsonmaud
  6. @DJPlaZma - http://twitter.com/DJPlaZma
  7. @davehilman - http://twitter.com/davehilman
  8. @molliemoon - http://twitter.com/molliemoon
  9. @Dumplin75 - http://twitter.com/Dumplin75
  10. @InMyBeatlesLife - http://twitter.com/InMyBeatlesLife

You can not go wrong with these ten tweeps, I love them, and I love conversing with them on a daily basis and I know you will to! If you are not on twitter then its time to sign up and follow these 10 people by going to http://www.twitter.com and setting up your account

It's been a Month

It's really been a month since I last blogged? I can't believe it, and I also can't believe that I have ignored blogging for so much! I've just been flooded with things to do and have spent more time relaxing and enjoying life but not really writing about it, which brings me to this point.

This is my favorite time of the year as well so I have been just taking in the smell of the season. There is just something about fall that I really like, the smell of the season change and the colors that the cooler weather brings just a warm feeling! I also enjoy visiting apple orchards and taking in the harvest and fresh cider that they produce. The kids enjoy it as well because it gives them a chance to go on a hayride and have the joy of picking out their own pumpkin that will later be butchered into a jack-o-lantern for Halloween.

Fall also brings on the holiday season and its not the hustle and bustle that I enjoy, its the fact that the holiday's does bring the family together and there is nothing that I like more then bringing the family together to sit down and enjoy a huge Thanksgiving Day dinner. Its the rare occasion that no matter what is going on, the family seems to set everything aside and come together and be what the meaning of a family really is and really act like a family.

So although I don't really enjoy the colder weather that the fall brings in with winter at its door step, the season itself is really enjoyable with the colors, smells and feeling that the Fall brings and eventually the holiday's, but yes with the fall brings in the snow that all in Michigan; well I shouldn't say all, but some including myself really only enjoy during the first snow fall and then would rather see the snow gone for the remanding of the winter. So with this thought I leave you and encourage you to visit a local apple orchard and enjoy some fresh cider and bake goods that they produce.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Being Copied by a Star

So today was just a normal day for me! I got up ate a little breakfast and got some coffee! As most normal days go, I sign into Twitter and give my morning welcomes and every things. I was in the midst of chatting with @ceggs on MSN messenger and going back and fourth between her and TweetDeck this morning when a RT from a tweep that I follow came across my feed. I was shocked in what I saw to say the least. The feed came from @jemmathesquib and here is the link of the tweet that she posted: http://twitter.com/jemmathesquib/status/4054165129

I then noticed that Patrick Swayze was trending in the trending topic section and clicking on that lead me to a plethora of tweets retweeting this tweet from @aplusk who happens to be Ashton Kutcher on twitter. The tweet from @aplusk is here in this link http://twitter.com/aplusk/status/4048749026 and was posted 8 hours ago on twitter! This tweet is amazingly similar to the tweet that I posted on twitter and facebook on September 14th and is linked here http://twitter.com/Josh_Biggs/status/3993602831 although Ashton's joke is changed a bit from mine, it is still the same joke that I posted! I honestly could not believe what I was seeing, I was being copied and a tweet of mine was being made popular! The first thing that crossed my mind was "how rude" and I started my twitter campaign but now I find it completely flattering and all of the love and RT's about being copied and being given credit from all of my followers and tweeps that I don't follow is amazing! I am truly shocked and flattered! What an amazing experience today!

The people from Twitter are amazing! I am truly grateful for everyone that I follow and that follows me! I am amazed everyday about how genuine people are and how Twitter, a social networking site has changed my thoughts and views on life! An amazing experience and one that I am grateful everyday to experience. I am thanking everyone from my heart, everyone is amazing that I have meet on Twitter, I never knew how many nice people exist!