Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) recently announced Kindle Singles, which are short stories written by popular authors such as Jodi Picoult, Rich Cohen and Jonathan Littell, as well as magazine writers and journalists such as Mark Greif and Sebastian Rotella. Kindle Singles are set at a good price as well.
Jodi Picoult, one of my favorite authors, wrote Leaving Home, a collection of three short stories that as Amazon puts it: “Leaving Home‘s three emotionally charged stories deal with a gamut of pain, regret, unconditional love, memory, motherhood, and friendship that the author renders almost palpably.” The first story, “Weights and Measures” describes the trauma of dealing with the loss of a child, The second is a letter that Picoult wrote to her son when he left for college and the last, “Ritz” is about a mother’s much needed vacation.
Picoult is a master at dealing with controversial issues in some of her most well known novels, My Sister’s Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, Change of Heart and House Rules. Her next novel, Sing You Home arrives March 1.
Many of the Kindle Singles touch on current issues such as Greif’s Octomom and the Politics of Babies and Rotella’s Pakistan and the Mumbai Attacks: An Untold Story. Richard Cohen got the opportunity to spend some time with John Milius, who wrote the screenplays for the movies, Apocalypse Now, Red Dawn and Dirty Harry. Milius is the basis for the ultra conservative gun welding Walter on The Big Lebrowski. The Real Lebrowski provides a more realistic glimpse of the infamous movie director’s life and into the world of show business.
Jonathan Littell, the author of Kindly Ones and a war correspondent for Le Monde, provides a harrowing account of the Lord’s Resistance Army campaign in The Congo called The Invisible Enemy. Thousands of children were captured and made slaves by members of the this horrendous movement. Littell includes stories from children who managed to escape and from anti-LRA officers.
The selection of Kindle Singles touch on heavy, emotion evoking issues that many of us can relate to at some point or another. You have a choice of romance, thrillers and first hand accounts of major events, as well as stories from the international stage. The prices range from 99 cents to $2.99. So, if you are looking for something short, yet worthy of reading for your Kindle or Kindle DX, these are worth a try.
An exciting new look for The Real Katie Lavender out in paperback on the 19th July, 2012. Publication is a little later than we originally thought, but the timing is perfect for that handy holiday read!
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I left the wipes a little too close to his highchair. He decided he'd clean his own face and hands. He actually did a pretty good job...wiped it almost as good I do, laughing while doing it instead of crying like he does when I clean him, and using only about 5 times as many wipes as I do! He likes to be a big boy!
Jimmy loves to stick things down the heater vents in the floor. The other day I found his toy monkeys down there. Then later on I kept giving him little slices of apple and I was amazed because he kept coming back for more...until I turned around and saw him dropping the apples down the vent. A few days ago he stuck his crackers down the vents and then decided he wanted them back. The little stink! He also loves to turn on Jarom's radio early in the morning. He turns it on, then off, then on, etc...over and over. He also firgured out how to turn on the bath water in my bathroom so I go in there sometimes during the day and discover it's on and wonder how long it's been running! He loves to play with his tool set from Aunt Shelley and get into all of my drawers and cabinets. He definitely keeps me busy and laughing all day.
Tight muscles create asymmetry and weak muscles permit asymmetry in both the myofascial and skeletal systems. Deep, intrinsic muscles and the bony framework of the body are inseparable: What affects one always affects the other. Until the therapist develops a basic understanding of how deep tissue techniques affect mobility/stability in the bony framework, random deep tissue work is contraindicated. Massage and bodyworkers who focus on chronic pain and postural problems profit by studying spinal biomechanics and learning to focus therapeutic intent on both myofascial and spine-related (articular) structures.
Poor joint function and accompanying protective muscle spasm is commonly seen in clients dealing with long-term neck, upper-shoulder and arm pain. People who habitually hold a telephone with one shoulder frequently develop chronic unilateral hypertonicity in the levator scapula and splenius cervicis muscles. Due to their common attachments at the top three or four cervical transverse processes, unilateral contraction of these muscles sidebends and rotates the neck and elevates the shoulder to help secure the phone. Problems increase as deep spinal "groove" muscles such as rotatores, multifidi, and intertransversarii react to unilateral sustained hypercontraction. When overstimulated, these fibrotic little rascals are famous for locking facets closed on the ipsilateral side and open on the contralateral side.
Sensitive joint mechanoreceptors respond to sustained torsional loading by flooding the spinal cord with noxious afferent messages that could cause the brain to further shorten these spinal rotators. Repeated exposure to compressive forces from prolonged unilateral neck sidebending also leads to joint cartilage degradation, which, in turn, leads to adhesive tissue build-up at the cervicothoracic junction, i.e., Dowager's Hump.
Conceptualize for a moment the forward-drawn head also being pulled into right sidebending and right rotation due to combined hypercontraction in the levator and splenius cervicis muscles. As the client tries to raise her head from a flexed to extended position, the facets on the right glide down on their inferior neighbor as they should. But the right sidebent neck alters vertebral tracking causing the left-sided facets to "jam" as the head and neck attempt backward bending, ie T3, cannot go back into proper closed position on T4. Because the T3 joint on the left is unable to close accurately, it forces the T3 transverse processes to rotate right.
To compensate, the T3 rib on the right is made into external rotation - Now the nagging pain begins. Extended irritation allows this “dynamic duo” (vertebra/rib fixation) to feed off each other, creating reflexogenic inhibition in the surrounding paravertebral muscles, including the rhomboids and trapezius muscles. Retraining exercises to strengthen the weakened lower shoulder stabilizer muscles to help resist the powerful pull of the massive pectorals are useless until both joint fixations are fixed. Between-the-blade pain (dual fixation) is one of the longest lasting and most annoying joint-related problems our clients will ever experience.
The therapist can use fingers or thumb to palpate the lamina groove bilaterally palpating in an inferior direction until the bony knot on the right at T3 is palpated. Using gentle, sustained anterior/inferior pressure, the client is instructed to inhale to a count of five, while carefully attempting to extend and left-rotate her head against the sustained isometric resistance from the therapist thumb.
When the bony knot pushes back against the therapists resistance, a strong Golgi tendon organ release is transferred through the transverse process to the adjoining spinal rotator muscles, creating increased capsular flexibility and subsequent joint decompression.
As the client exhales and relaxes, a post-isometric relaxation response further softens the muscles and joint capsules. Pressure from the therapist finger slowly de-rotates T3 and the improved tracking allows the T3 facets on the left to move smoothly down on T4.
If immediate softening is palpated in the surrounding spinal muscles following this technique, then the therapist has done her or his duty. Always notice to see if the rib on the left has corrected itself by lightly scanning the rib shafts with soft fingertips, superior to inferior, feeling for a bump at about T3. If a slightly bulging rib shaft is palpated, the rib is still fixed in internal rotation. With fingers or thumbs, simply release the intercostal muscles above the dysfunctional rib in a medial to lateral direction. Then apply the same basic procedure as above to align the costotransverse rib joint. Finish off the method with a soft elbow dragging down the groove as the client extends and relaxes the head and neck.
Erik Dalton, Ph.D., Certified Advanced Rolfer, started the Freedom From Pain Institute and created Myoskeletal Alignment Techniques to share his passion for massage, Rolfing, and manipulative osteopathy. Go to the Erik Dalton website for information on workshops, conferences, and CE home study courses.
Leg length discrepancy, or as it has been alternatively termed, the short leg syndrome, is undoubtedly the most important postural asymmetry. Limb length discrepancy is simply defined as a condition where one leg is shorter than the other. If a significant difference exists, disruptive effects on gait and posture can occur.
2. Functional. Development from altered mechanics of the lower body, such as foot hyperpronation/supination (Figure 1), pelvic obliquity, muscle/joint imbalances, poor trunk stabilization and deep fascial strain patterns.
Flawed feet and ankle structure profoundly affect leg length and pelvic positioning. The most common asymmetrical foot position is the pronated foot. Sensory receptors embedded on the bottom of the foot alert the brain to the slightest weight shift.
Since the brain is always trying to retain pelvic balance, when presented with a long left leg, it attempts to adapt to the altered weight shift by dropping the left medial arch (shortening the long leg) and supinating the right arch to lengthen the short leg.1 Left unchecked, excessive foot pronation will internally rotate the left lower extremity, causing excessive strain to the lateral meniscus and medial collateral knee ligaments.
Conversely, excessive supination tends to externally rotate the leg and thigh, creating opposite knee, hip and pelvic distortions.
Most structurally oriented manual therapists have learned hands-on routines for separating adhesive fascial bags of the 11 lower leg muscles to lift (or lower) dysfunctional foot arches. To insure proper foot functioning, tone must be stimulated in weakened arch muscles using fast paced muscle spindle techniques. As the myofascia regains lost elasticity, blood flow and vital nutrients saturate the fatigued tissues, allowing the muscles of supination (tibialis anterior, peroneus longus, tibialis posterior, etc.) to regain strength and mobility.
In addition to myofascial work, one also must center attention on restoring alignment and motion to the subtalar joint commonly stuck in a valgus (pronated) position (Figure 2). The subtalar or talocalcaneal joint forms the articulation where calcaneus and talus meet and allows foot inversion and eversion. To bring back normal subtalar alignment, the therapist decompresses, abducts, plantar flexes and inverts the foot using myoskeletal contract-relax-assist (CRA) maneuvers. After successfully mobilizing the talus and calcaneus, all remaining ankle and foot joints should be systematically assessed and corrected.
This complex ilial rotation coexisting with sacral rotation usually is portrayed as pelvic obliquity. Weight bearing on the right leg will create this common compensatory pelvic pattern. Ilial rotation can be palpated by placing your fingers below each ASIS and shifting weight from one leg to another.
Now place your thumbs on each sacral base and change side to side. Right leg weight-bearing should make the right sacral base to go deep (anteriorly rotate).
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