Michael Reviews Things: NovoRapid® FlexTouch®

It appears that Michael Reviews Things is one of my most successful ventures in my blogging career.  A little while back, I got a free product sent to me for review purposes. I'll get to that in the coming weeks, but for now, I want to review something else:

The NovoRapid® FlexTouch®

I've been back on insulin pens for a few months now and I'm generally pretty happy with it. I got the promo in the mail a while back and was intrigued. Not much has changed in the recent history of insulin pens, so let's see what's new.

OVERVIEW: lightweight, disposable - a sideways step in insulin pen technology.

The promotional material and main design feature seem to be most concerned with thumbs. The idea is that with most pens, like the NovoPen 4, the plunger pulls out very far and is hard work for our thumbs...?

A few precursors:
1) Who uses their thumbs to plunge?!? That is an epi-pen technique where you need the power of a strong jab, but I've always used my insulin pens like syringes: held between my thumb and middle finger, using index finger to plunge. This allows much more finesse and control, resulting in a better injection.

2) How many units are people really taking with insulin pens? The FlexTouch allows you to dose 80 units at a time, while the NovoPen4 allowed 60.... I'm a fat, insulin resistant diabetic and the largest injection I ever take is my 36 unit once-daily Lantus injection. Most people split their long acting insulin into two injections, so I am hard pressed to imagine anyone ever using the full dosage on an insulin pen!

Now, back to our poor thumbs..
To save us the hard work of thumb-plunging, the FlexTouch has a self-lancing system (I imagine all sorts of springs and levers inside...) so that your finger releases the system and it automatically injects the amount for you.
When I first injected, I was shocked at the speed with which it injected 13 units into my arm. First was the shock of, "that was fast and noisy," followed by the burning sensation from taking it all in right away (geez, buy a boy dinner first!).

One of the things I loved about the NovoPen 4 is the ability I have to control the speed of injection. I see what they were going for, but I see this as a big step backwards for the FlexTouch. I'd say that 8 units shot in quickly is manageable, but anything more should be slowed down. With the Flex touch, you can do it in little bursts, but you can't really control with any finesse. I really wonder how the FDA allowed them to make a product that could shoot out all 80 units in a matter of 3 or 4 seconds (it's really fast)! In addition to the lumps it would cause, and the pain, I can't imagine the absorption rate would be at all reliable.

For those of you thinking, 'Lay off, it's a new idea and there are bound to be some bumps to work out", shush, cause this isn't new. I remember using a similarly designed Lantus pen back when I lived in Ontario... 4 years ago. The technology hasn't really improved and the quality certainly hasn't either...

While I love technology innovations, I wasn't impressed then, and I'm not impressed now.

Before I finish, I should be objective as there are some benefits:
-The pen IS the cartridge, so you don't have to do any loading. Personally, this saves me all of 15 seconds that it takes to change and prime a new cartridge, but I can see it being helpful for children and the elderly.
-As a one-cartridge device, it's theoretically made to work for the length of one cartridge, so you don't have to worry about the eventual jamming that may happen if you have a long-term pen. (I experienced this only twice in the decade plus that I've been using insulin pens, covering tens of thousands of injections).
-Because they're not interchangeable, each pen is clearly labeled with the drug it contains. This can be incredibly helpful for those using multiple types of insulin.
-It is significantly lighter in weight than any other pen I've come across, and with the number of things a diabetic has to carry around on a daily basis, this is a big plus!

IN CONCLUSION:
I'm glad I tried it, as it reminds me that there are many different ways of managing diabetes. Bottom line - this insulin pen does not fit MY diabetes management regime. It likely will not be the ideal fit for those taking moderate-to-large doses of insulin, but could be an ideal fit for children and the elderly who lack the dexterity for a traditional insulin pen plunger. Lastly, though light-weight, it worries me that the pen feels a little cheap...

Thanks for reading. As always, these are just my opinions. I am not offering medical advice, just patient feedback.

Up next for review... my old flame, the AccuChek Aviva.

Michael Reviews Things!

This posts topic: Seattle, Washington.

After living in Vancouver for almost 3 years, I finally made my way down for a weekend trip to Seattle. I went with my lovely friend Michelle, and we had a thoroughly delightful time.

Blurry, but that's what you get when
I'm the photographer!

There are many things to review, so I'll just approach them haphazardly.

Boltbus: A new option for Vancouver-Seattle-Portland transportation at very low rates. The seats looked nice in black (faux)leather, but it was impossible to get comfortable. As a fat man on a bus, I'll take the blame on this. For each bus trip, they offer one 1$ fare, which my friend got. Otherwise, you can't complain at $10. Both directions, the bus was punctual down to a minute or two: incredibly impressive for international bus travel!

Singer, Jeannette d'Armand: A mutual friend connected us (both diabetic musicians) when she heard about my opera about diabetes. We had a great talk about diabetes, working as musicians, and life in general! In addition to being one of the awesomest people to drink whisky with, she's a phenomenal singer. If you haven't already browsed her website, do it, then check out her CD HERE.

The Whisky Bar: This is where the three of us went to chat. As you likely know, I love rye, so I was excited to see the decent selection of Canadian and non-Canadian ryes. Then I was sad...
After Michelle returned for the third time saying that they 'didn't have that rye available', I went in to chat with the barkeep. When I went in, he recommended a rye that was half the price of the ones I'd requested, and it was no better than any bar-rye you could get at any old bar in Canada. Certainly not sipping grade, I'll tell you.
Other points to note... there was no table service and no food. The patio was nice, and we got some great people watching done. The general atmosphere was something that I quite enjoyed: a specialty whisky bar without any pretensions.

US Liquor Prices: LIES! People have been telling me for years how cheap alcohol is in the states, but that was not my experience. Sure, you can buy cheap bottles and cans from the corner store, but bars in downtown Seattle did not offer the bargain-basement drinks I was expecting. In fact, they were about the same price as Vancouver bars!

The Space Needle: Oops, I forgot to care.

Gum Wall (aka Bubblegum alley, though not the original):
Gross.
I can sorta see the appeal, and the shop that sells gum must make a killing, but really...?!?
I'm surprised they don't have spinoffs, like 'Used Condom Lane'...





Seattle Shopping: I suppose this is more a sign that Vancouver and Seattle are equivalently metropolitan, but there weren't really any stores that we don't have up here. I even spotted a Vancouver staple (John Fluevog Shoes) downtown!

We stayed at the Sixth Avenue Inn: It was decent, for an savings-oriented hotel. Pretty standard for a hotel, the beds were incredibly comfy upon first lay, but it didn't take long to realize that the beds were far too soft for a decent sleep. There was no pool, but we entertained ourselves by watching episodes of Frasier on TV - in real life, the Space Needle is off to the side of downtown Seattle. Some dumb-ass in the room above us overflowed their tub or something, so use of the toilet in a seated fashion gave us a gentle drip reminiscent of autumn rain... not able to offer a better room at 2am, they brought us extra towels and gave a slight discount at checkout.

I'll end with a rave review of the Belltown Pub: We attended both of their happy hours because... well, we ate and drank there for a very long time. The service was friendly, the drink and food prices were quite reasonable, and they atmosphere was great. Most tables had a random set of trivial pursuit cards, and some even had built in board games. Upstairs, they had shuffleboard, foosball, and pool. They had another lounge area with big leather couches and guitars on the wall that were for people to use.

Me with Connan. I promise you, he was
not nearly as frightened as it appears.

As I understand to be common in Seattle, they had a dog-friendly establishment; about a dozen dogs made their way in and out during our stay.
It was delightful!

With last call at about 1am, all the bars in Seattle kick everyone out precisely at 2am, so the streets fill up with drunks. I can't remember the last time I was in such a thick crowd of people. A little unnerving, it was also exhilarating. I didn't get to try one of Seattle's infamous cream cheese hot-dogs, but I'll try to get around to that next time.

Michael Reviews Things!

Today's review:

Lillian Alling

Have you heard of John Estacio? If not, click on his name and check out his website.

[Mini review: The website needs some attention... The angled headshot with cheezy background - it's not really helping! Also, the opera section of your website doesn't even mention your newest opera, and the "upcoming concerts" section starts listing things in Sept. 5/2009]

Anyway, he recently premiered an opera called Lillian Alling here in Vancouver. I was lucky enough to have been treated to the dress rehearsal as a birthday present from a delightful theorist friend of mine.

The Story (Spoiler Alert!)

While I'd never heard of her, Lillian Alling is an intriguing character. Here is a website about her. She is a woman enshrouded in mystery: she came from Russia(ish) and lands in Brooklyn looking for Josef, her lover. She repeatedly tells the tale about how they met in Russia and he said he would marry her, and how her life is bound to his life. Long story short, she walks to North Dakota, then Vancouver looking for this chump. Along they way, everyone tells her what a playa he is and tells her to give up, but she doesn't. You're left wondering, 'why is she so frikkin' naive?!' Some guy falls in love with her, and follows her all around. She feels she can open up to him and then reveals that she's not naive, she's a vengeful wench! The man she seeks isn't her lover, he's the man that killed her family, and I bet you know what she wants to do to him...

So she does, badda-bing badda-boom - bad man dies.

Oh ya, all of this story is nestled inside a side story about an old lady and her middle-aged son who is moving her into the city after a life out in the wilderness (ie. cabin). Surprise, surprise, she's the old version of Lillian Alling, having changed her name etc. Apparently murder is ok, her son doesn't even get mad when he finds out his mom is a killer... oh well!

Really, I liked the story - and the use of the story within a story.

The Music

Mr. Estacio writes good shit. I think he's onto what Opera needs - good solid accessible, but not boring music. At first, I wasn't really hearing the connection between the music in different sections, but as the opera went on and actively listened, it was building a sound story for me. It was a great balance - some kitschy stuff like a coney-island quartet singing when she arrives in Brooklyn, but there were some really well-crafted pieces:

My favourite scene was with the telegraph wire men - singing beepity boops, and all that fun stuff. I'm likely oversimplifying, but it expressed some really refined, yet broad wit.

Of course it's opera, so there were some fantastically orchestrated swells that took you along that journey of Lillian's across the great prairies and the rockies.

Basically, all of the exciting things I've been interested in doing in my own opera, were already masterfully done in this one. I need to look into other contemporary operas, but it seemed like the balance of recit and aria in Lillian Alling was quite far from what I'd been thinking of as traditional. The majority of the opera was in a hybrid dialogue which mixed the flow of recit with the lyricism of aria... ish. The distinction between dry and accompanied recit was out the window, (thank goodness), and it was often hard to find the distinction between the dialogue and the 'song'. Often I would realize they were singing what would classify as a duet/aria, but I couldn't pinpoint when it had started because they had been recit-ing just before.

The Other

This was a sizable world premiere, and Vancouver Opera didn't disappoint! The set was fairly high-maintenance, but was impressive: basically one main formulation with a truck that entered and exited right in the middle, from under the bulk of the mainstage.

There was a video-integration element which was ok, actually, no, I don't think it really did much... It was about a 5-15 minute section (I hate trying to judge time) where there was no real stage-presence. The orchestra was the main focus, and the only visual was the video which had recorded images of Lillian climbing on rocks, etc. For me, this seemed like an interlude which, in really old opera, would feature a ballet scene. I would have preferred to see dancing.

Oh ya, The Performing

I thought the orchestra was very strong, which is very refreshing compared to my last few live opera experiences...

The singers were great - some standouts worth mentioning:

Judith Forst, as Irene (Old Lillian Alling) - her diction should serve as a standard for the care that needs to be taken when singing English!

Colin Ainsworth, as Kristian, the farmer's son - a great tenor voice! The one true aria in the opera, and he ran with it. It was Ainsworth's aria that reminded me, 'hey, this IS opera!'

I really wish that I could scream to the heavens about how great Frédérique Vézina was as Lillian, but I can't. It was dress rehearsal night, so I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume (I really hope) that she was marking. I hate to be a bitch (no, I love it), but I was disappointed with how weak her voice was, but yes, I'll assume she was saving herself for the big night.

In Conclusion

All in all, I was heartily impressed with all aspects of this performance. After what seems like a long line of minimalist operas, I'm excited to see that opera can be comprehensible, engaging, emotive, beautiful, and exciting without lowering itself to the common denominator.

I really hope that this opera gets toured around and performed in many places - and when it does, you should go see it!

Michael Reviews Things!

This post:

Hilroy Notebooks

If you grew up in Canada, you likely used a separate Hilroy Exercise Book for each subject in elementary school. This review starts off with points for invoking nostalgia!

The reason I bought these notebooks is because I've been dissatisfied with the other notebook options out there. Coil bound books are obnoxious to write in and ripping a page out leaves that tacky side of feathery ripped paper. The tape bound books are unreliable. When I saw these ones in the store, I was excited by the simplicity of their design.

I'll be honest, I don't have anything negative to say, so here are my favourite elements:

Colour Variety

Blue, pink, green, and yellow

They're GREEN

They are part of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and feature Certified Fiber Sourcing.

Map of Canada

When I asked my American friend if he used these notebooks growing up, he pointed out "There's a freaking map of Canada on the front!" It has the up-to-date Territorial divisions which were missing when I was in elementary school - they were so behind the times back then!*

The map is only on the 32 page variety; there is a healthy blank space on the 80-page type so you can draw a picture of your own, or maybe it's a test to see if you can draw the map yourself from memory.

32 or 80 Pages

These are perfect sizes. 80 is good for taking notes in my seminars and 32 is a great size for individual projects or just to carry around with me for notes of interest.

Life Organization

On the back of the 32-page books, there is room for you to fill in your class-schedule information and final examination schedule.

Simple, Reliable Design

This could be seen as a slight weakness, but I like it. for a 32 sheet book, there are 16 pieces of lined paper (twice the needed width) folded in half, with a cover and then stapled to hold it in place. As a result, if you rip a page out, the opposing sheet will also fall out - this is something I remember from childhood. Nevertheless, if you conceive of the book as one notebook, not to be disassembled, it will stay that way for you!

Affordability

While a coil-bound hilroy notebook costs between 3 and 5 dollars, I got 3 80-page exercise books for $2.10 and 4 32-page exercise books for $1.60.

In Conclusion,

These little notebooks are fantastic and I highly recommend them to everyone!

*N.B. I am fully aware that the territory of Nunavut did not appear until after I finished elementary school...

Michael Reviews Things!

This post's topic:

Grand-dad's Birthday!

and

Jenn and Sean's Wedding!

I recently went to Winnipeg for a few big events involving my friends and family. Both events went off without a hitch - here are the details:

On Sept. 25th, my Grand-dad turned 90 years old! My mom and her brother organized a big ol' family dinner that brought together all the disparate family members. She and one of her brother have a long history of being less than pleasant... specifically with each other, haha! Anyway, almost everyone from the 4 generations was there with only two exceptions: grand-dad's sister who is locked up in an old folk's home and my sister because she had to work until 3pm when the dinner started at 5, and she lives 8 hours away.

It was an understated evening. I only ever see most of those people at Christmas time and it's always mild-to-moderately awkward, which I enjoy. This time, it was much more intense. I wish we were a more extroverted family- then it would have turned into a brawl, or there would have been screaming or slapping. Not my family - it's all subtle, underhanded, and spiteful - just the way I like it.

The dinner was fantastic, but I don't recall much about the details. There was chicken with some kind of creaminess and carrots and potatoes.

The next weekend, my friends Jenn and Sean were getting married. I was invited to the stagette, which was an all day affair. I was there for the brunch and a delightful plate-painting experience. We went to a do-it-yourself art studio and we all decorated plates or bowls for the bride. This reviewer thinks this was a fun and creative way to spend time with

the bride and bridesmaids and female relatives....

[Tangent - Davey... where the hell were you?!? Lord knows I'm not very manly, I'm pretty sure I lost 90% of my testosterone because of that day...]

The ceremony was beautiful - I showed up exactly minutes before the processional. The vows were heartfelt and entertaining. They should have been miked, but I heard enough of them to know they were good!

The dinner was also good, but there was no choice (unless you got the veggie option, presumably). It was chicken florentine - come to think of it, that's probably what I had at the other dinner, too. Taking the cake, though, was... the cake(s). The wedding cake had two types therein. The first one I had was quite nice, but the best thing ever was the second cake option: banana cake with 2 types of icing - peanut butter cream and chocolate. That's right ladies and gentlemen, you missed out!

The open bar was a welcomed addition, that I sadly

missed at the previous weekend's birthday party. Nevertheless, I behaved myself much more gentlemanly than I have at previous weddings, but that's a whole different story. A highlight of the evening was when they had a fireworks display honoring the parents. It lasted about 10-15 minutes, which is better than any Winnipeg fireworks I'd ever seen. Even more exciting was the fact that I got a sparkler.

I felt a little like I was put at the wrong table for the dinner. I had a wonderful time, but all of the people I was sitting with left soon after the dinner - the table behind me was the fun table, playing drinking games to pass the time of the speeches... Nevertheless, I had a great time and danced the night away!

Long story short, I had a wonderful time in Winnipeg - it's always nice to have reasons to celebrate; keep 'em coming, friends and family!

Stay tuned for the next installment of:

Michael Reviews Things!

Michael Reviews Things!

As part of my never ending, never successful, search for increased readership and blogger popularity, I'm going to do what a lot of successful blogs have done:

Reviews!

The first installment is:

My map bag ® Vancouver map bag.

So, I've developed a bit of a man-bag fetish these last few years. I fully acknowledge that it is a purse, but I like the term 'man-bag'. I always need to carry my diabetes essentials around with me, and those just don't fit in pockets comfortably

The bag features a map of [Insert City Here] and comes with a dry-erase marker so that the wearer can:

-give or get directions within that region

-circle their home address on the map to encourage stalking

-I'm blanking as for real, functional uses...

The store I got it from wrote on it in permanent marker "I'm on sale here" for promotional in-store use, but when I was shopping, it was the last one left, so I got it for 5 dollars! I think the retail price was about $15.

The cons:

As I should have expected, it was pretty cheap. Within a week, the plastic map started to crack. Unfortunately, my apartment is just off the side of the map so I can't even use it for those above purposes.

The pros:

It's a great conversation starter and an interesting concept. One Friday night on public transit, a kind, inebriated gentleman informed me that he had a map fetish, and he would be happy to release some bodily fluid on it.

The permanent marker is pretty kitschy and fun.

In conclusion, I have pretty low standards and this man-bag meets those standards.

Keep posted for the next installment of Michael Reviews Things!

Movie Reviews

I love bad movies.

Give me poor production values, inconsistencies, flawed storyline. bad acting, etc., and I'm a happy camper. In the other direction, my standards for a good movie are rather high, but luckily, I react the same to most movies that tickle my fancy.

In the past, I've had some friends that would indulge my love for B-movies, and I even had one thickly-browed friend who loved teeny-bopper rom-coms, so that filled a big section of the bad movie category, but there are few people out there who are willing to watch whatever I want.

Lately, my bassoonist friend has indulge me in watching a bunch of bad movies from the new releases wall. Here are some reviews (If you want real details and names, look them up on imdb or something - these are truly michael-style reviews and you better bet there's gonna be spoiling):

Tenure

This was about and English prof who has twice been denied tenure at various universities; surprise surprise, he's up for tenure again... Long story short, he doesn't get it the third time around. I'm glad they didn't go the Hollywood route of realizing his unseen brilliance at the end and getting offered a position at Harvard, etc.; instead, he realized that his passion was for teaching of any kind and that he didn't need to be in a university to do it. In short, they glamorized a huge wage-decrease and basically demotion!

There was a love story involved, but it only really appeared and resolved in the last few scenes, so I wasn't nauseated. The secondary storyline involved the main character's best friend who was searching for Bigfoot - you can't go wrong there! Both of these guys seemed vaguely familiar. I think the main guy was Dewey from Scream, and his best friend often plays a sidekick character.

In short, this movie was better than it should have been!

Visioneers

Starring Zackafanakagakas or something. This was a about a bizarre world where people lead seemingly vacant existences and where dreams are a symptom of the growing epidemic of spontaneous explosions.

This rental was worth it only for the opening 15 minute segment at the main character's workplace. He walks in, gives the finger to a poster - as his coworkers come in, they all flip each other off and say, 'Jeffers morning'. Jeffers is the huge company they work for, which is the self-proclaimed most profitable company in the world. Every minute, a voice announces the time, and how many productive minutes until the weekend. There are also buzzings and beepings and ringings from different sources. I can't do it justice in words, but the opening sequence is like clockwork in it's intriguing and elaborate counterpoint of events.

In the end, the movie falls short, lacking in real character development or a compelling story. I get it that that's the point of the movie, but the point of the movie also seems to be what holds it back.

Confessions of a Porn Addict

This movie stars Spenny from Kenny versus Spenny, for those of you who are familiar with terrible Jackass-style Canadian comedy. This movie is a mockumentary; it doesn't matter what the topic is, the genre is guaranteed to be fantastic. [There's one about a parking-meter attendant that I highly suggest!]

It's about a porn addict whose wife left him as a result. He joins a support group and changes his life, only to realize that his wife has gone into the porn industry - hijinks ensue.

Despite the gratuitous use of pornography, I don't actually recall seeing genitals. Nevertheless, I wouldn't say it was done tastefully. At the end, when he confronts his wife in the middle of a Bukkake filming, the reunion kiss is both heart-warming and stomach-turning!

All in all, the movie is fairly entertaining.

Taxidermia

Weird.

I can barely describe it.

Basically, three short movies in one that were connected by generational lineage, but I still didn't quite get the connection of the first and second sections' main characters. It was foreign - I'm gonna go with Hungarian. Contrasting the last one, this movie has gratuitous genitals, as one should expect from any artsy foreign film.

The first section featured a military assistant or something... he has a fire/candle fetish and he caresses, licks, and nipples the flame. There is an impressive scene where he is jerking off his flame-throwing penis. There's a graphic sex scene but it keeps changing between his partner - the variables are his boss's obese wife, another random lady, and a pig carcass that had been slaughtered earlier that day. The next morning, when his boss finds him asleep with his pants down on top of the carcass, he shoots him in the head and then it pans to a scene where the boss's wife gives birth to a baby boy.

In the second section, the baby boy is now grown up - a Hungarian national speed-eating champion (well, second place). Apparently this is a profession and they train hardcore. The gratuitous obese vomiting was almost too much to handle. Long story short, he and the female speed-eating champion have a baby who ends up being the focus of section three.

Contrary to his gene pool, the son grows up to be an emaciated taxidermist who has to take care of his now incredibly obese father - imagine the Monty Python fat guy right before he explodes. After a fight, the father tries to leave his chair, he dies and his guts spill out all over the floor. The son comes back, cleans out his father's carcass and taxidermifies. He then hooks himself up to a machine that taxiderms himself and also slices off his head and right arm - resulting in the image for the movie cover.

The movie is grotesque to the extreme. While I wouldn't say there was what I would think of as traditional beauty in it, it had a rich tapestry and powerful imagery. Strangely compelling. Also, slightly disturbing.