A Man And His Ideas

MS fatigue is an MSer's best friend. Connecting to fatigue is one of the hardest MSer challenges. Often without warning, MS fatigue invades activities. Even with life skill management and avoidance techniques, the fatigue monster can find a way to hack into any activity.  This interloper action provides many reasons to consider the fatigue invader an enemy. In systems design, anything that causes a breach in system security is an interloper. As good as any system can possibly be, an interloper demonstrates an opportunity for improving security. An interloper that penetrates enough to cause damage means recovery actions.  While the interloper attack is cursed, the attack triggers  opportunities to make a better system by  improving security and recovery plans. MS fatigue is an interloper attack on our body’s systems. We curse its existence as an enemy to our health. But if we step back and look a   the attack as defining a breached area in the bran due to t...

Propel Adaptive Cycling Pedal I have multiple sclerosis. The disease inflicts neurological trauma and causes nerve-muscule fatigue. An MS attack will limit nerve conduction and in turn, limit muscle to-from engagement.  Nerve fiber conduction has the same four conduction conditions, normal, resistive, open, and shorts as wired circuits.  Open and shorted nerve fibers can exhibit a permanent disability. However, the brian's neuroplasticity can develop adaptive circuits. The Propel pedal began as an adaptive device as a workaround for my MS disability challenges to pedal the trike.  However, the research and development to make the adaptive pedal discovered a new pedaling performance and methodology for all cyclists.  I am a USMC veteran, 68-71.  When an MS release prevented me from doing an upright bike mount, I petitioned the VA's Adaptive Sports Program for a recumbent trike. Before the VA would approve the trike purchase, I had to prove I could ride the trik...

Denver Post Newspaper Boy Joseph Flanigan, Loveland, Colorado. September 2016 Sometimes when I am cycling, I think about 1961, I was 11 years old, and the two years I delivered The Denver Post newspaper near our home in Aurora, Colorado. I remember Mr. Colten, the Denver Post paperboy manager, and my job of delivering the Denver Post every day. Every afternoon and Sunday morning to pick up the papers, for my route,  I would ride my bike about a mile and a half to a converted garage called the newspaper shack. Inside, attached to the walls, were folding benches. The Denver Post truck would drop bundles of papers off at the newspaper shack where the boys would unbundle and count out the number of papers for their routes. Carrying the stack, they would go to their assigned folding bench, fold, rubber band and load the papers into the bike bags. Often there was a race to see who was fastest. Once loaded, each boy road to their route. A good route was 50 papers. Canvas bags wra...

Shingles Then Postherpetic Neuralgia (PHN) Then Apathy Then Grit Shingles and Postherpetic Neuralgia Selfie Picture On April 7, 2017,   shingles broke out on the upper left side of my face. In about 2 weeks, the shingles pox left, but I spent the next 6 months in bed from postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) pain on the V1 of the trigeminal nerve on the upper left side of my face. The pain from itching was so bad I could not walk.  After more than two years, and the itching persists, but it is not as debilitating. The first PHN drug treatment was gabapentin. It did not work. Ice packs helped. I am glad I am a veteran, and my VA neurologist is a serious doctor.  He switched gabapentin to the drug to Lyrica, and that provided more relief, at least I stopped screaming. I started wearing Lidocaine patches on my forehead.  I made my own concoction of Lidocaine, CBD and THC lotions to replace the patches. I read about some experiments using Botox ...

Veterans Day Speech at Loveland High Corporal Joseph Flanigan Marine Corps January 1968-January 1971 San Diego, California Veteran’s Day Speech, November 11, 2014. In 1967, when I graduated high school, I wanted to be a nuclear physicist. I just thought it would be amazing to study the insides of atoms. Well, it was Vietnam time, and the draft enlisted youth to the military as soldiers. In college, I soon realized I needed more money for tuition, and I volunteered for the draft to get 3 years of college for 2 years of service using veteran’s benefits. While in boot camp, I learned the first of many Marine ideals, like, “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” On November 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution staring the Marine Corps. From that date, every Marine is trained in combat to defend our United States. As I was to learn, for every Marine on the front line, there are many jobs Marines do to support missions.  Yesterday was our 239 th ...

Fitness Model Primary Elements The Fitness Model shows the body's connection relationship of physical, neurological and cognitive. If are sitting in a chair and you want to walk out the door across the room, three activities must happen.    Must have the physical prowess to move.    Must have neurological coordination of movements    Must have cognitive plans to direct movement. Movement activity requires millions of body system's connections. Movement performance requires different systems to work in harmony with each other. Tone exists wherever the connections among the different movement elements perform in harmony.  When connection tone  does not exist - a new skill or are weak - not used  or broken - due to trauma like an accident, illness or diseases like multiple sclerosis then connection toning (contonix) training uses the connection relationship to remodel the connections. Mind-It is the training technique m...

Connection Toning Elements The Finite Elements of Conditioning