From: Tom Cook
To: Recipients
Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2009 7:51 PM
Subject: Tom's prayer update - Dec. 2009
| Link | Contents |
|---|---|
| INTRO & REVIEW | A short, quick-paced review of the events that led up to this point, especially for those who weren't involved in any way during those times or never read the earlier letters. |
| BACK TO SCHOOL | The first part of my report of unusual events in connection with my "accidental" return to college (p-t) for some refresher computer courses. SKIP THIS if it's not relevant to you. (But those who've also gone back to school after decades of absence might appreciate it.) |
| SIGNIFICANT SIDE EFFECTS | ...of my Quantum Reflex Analysis treatments! Oh, this you gotta see! Four unintended effects of my therapy. Please don't skip this. You will be amazed! (And if you're diligent and like the Sweet Tomatoes restaurants, you'll find some delicious looking pictures of their cuisine.) - Breath - Dizzy - Tartar - Weight |
| STORAGE crisis | Covers how my storage crisis changed over time. SKIP THIS this unless you'd like to learn of some creative storage tactics I learned and implemented along the way. (Photos and video included.) |
| HOUSING crisis | See God's mercy in the unusual way He provided an acceptable housing change. It's still somewhat of a "crisis" as the provision is a rare option and I'm still not out of the water, making the situation still rather precarious. But SKIP THIS, if you don't know me or are otherwise uninterested. |
| SCHOOL update Part 2 | This may be boring at first, but then (like a Hitchcock thriller that takes it's time to set the stage) you'll learn how I "accidentally" (there's that word again that keeps popping up in my life) took a web programming course when none was planned, and how I was enabled to start down a path that is already helping and even saving people's lives! And how it will keep doing so for the next 80+ years!!! (You'll even hear about a doctor who nearly cried!) |
| WORK UPDATE | Difficulties through the latter schooling months. SKIP THIS if not relevant. But it is rather short AND there's a short and cute video of me "dancing" on a street corner. |
| REQUESTS | This is the part that most of you never "survived" long enough to see. The two requests are short and I hope each of you will help me by honoring them. The first one one, though dated, is still a problem. The second one is rather timeless, but I still hope each of you will help me with it. |
Dear prayer friends,
(Note: A very busy wife and home-schooling mom previewed this letter and said, "Tom, it's long, but good!")
Whew! It's been a l-o-n-g 18 months since I last wrote. I don't blame any of you if you haven't prayed for or even thought of me in many months. Life has been so very fast-paced I've barely had time to breathe, let alone pass on news to you all. However, the news items I last reported and the things I asked prayer for hadn't changed significantly during all this time, so that knowledge allowed me to hold off writing. But there's definitely been things happening. I will report them as well as give a couple of requests.
But first, for those who are new to my letters or have forgotten the recent history, here's a very brief review:
-- 1980s-1990s - A number of well-intended decisions made & habits sown that collided in '06-'07 to nearly destroy me.
-- Dec. '06 - Multiple stresses (business failing, no job, no career, job-critical body functions suddenly failing, unwelcome tenancy, forced ER visit, among others) leading to terrorizing despair & agonizing suicide planning for days. Pastor Mike talks me out of it.
-- Jan. '07 - Learn I have some kind of mental disorder. (My herbalist had tried to warn me of this for years).
-- Feb. '07 - Move to sofa/concrete floor of LR of friend's broken-down (half-remodeled) condo in desperation.
-- Mar. '07 - Move out of paid storage by painfully throwing a lot out and a kind friend lending me some space. Concrete floor of roommate becomes much more tolerable thanks to a twin mattress donated kindly by my niece & her husband.
-- Apr. '07 - Attempting to take on an excessively stressful job leads to terrifying despair and suicide again. Roommate talks me out of it. Take on data entry part-time for an old acquaintance, who kindly offered it after I told him of both suicide spells.
-- May '07 - In spite of subliminal fears, reconnect w/Dr. Heise, who offers to test me with a new breakthrough method that (I later learned) rapidly saved his own life from cancer, Quantum Reflex Analysis. (I write to him the long letter "Crisis review and update".)
-- Jun '07 - Just as I acquire the expensive fluke-killing nutrients, I become carless & jobless. (Was already "penniless".)
-- Jul '07 - I learn much about the flukes I'm trying to kill and about QRA and am very amazed by all. I write the "Update on my job and health" letter, which goes out to more and more people over time. Start P-T "granny" sitting (respite care) for a friend who's mother is mentally ill (dementia).
-- Jul '07 (18th) - QRA test shows the flukes are gone! (Amazing, as they are very hard to kill.) But brain problems ("terror/anxiety" attacks) still bad as parasites are still there doing their share of brain poisoning. Great dismay as cost will be more than double and take 2 long mos. to kill. No working car.
-- Sep '07 (19th) - Against all odds, God allows me to save up for parasite treatment; I begin 60 intense days of therapy--castor packs and heavy super-nutrients.
-- Oct '07 - Unbelievably horrendous car (& related family) problems get slowly and painfully transformed into this miraculous '99 Taurus; if you knew all about it, you'd agree that this is indeed as I said, a "gift from heaven".
-- Nov '07 (mid) - I write 2 more letters, documenting panic attacks, full-moon effect, items of progress, and numerous radical insights to which I've been driven during this extremely rough time.
-- Nov '07 (19th) - The 60-day rigorous parasite treatment is over, and I go for the all important checkup, and the parasites are totally gone at last! No more emotional instability when the full moon approaches! All the items I had requested prayer for at church (listed at end of my 1st letter), through QRA, were marvelously healed or greatly on the mend!
-- Winter '08 - Shift QRA therapy to gradual rebuilding of mental strength. Take on the weekend sign-twirling work to supplement P-T "granny" sitting, even though it means missing church sermons on Sundays.
-- Winter/Spring '08 - Very strange set of "accidents" result in financial aide for needed hearing aides and for going back to college (!) in May (!), while continuing 2 P-T jobs.
As in past letters, I'll try to break it up by topic, although there is often overlap.
SCHOOL UPDATE:
I mentioned in my last 2 letters (in April and June, 2008):
(Before I started the courses:) "So this is a very scary time, as I haven't taken a course in 30 years (!), but also very exciting. With God's help, I will do great in those courses, and get my decrepit life out of the pit I've been caught in, and back into the realm of real life again!" (Great hopes, but very nervous.)
(Part way during that 1st semester, summer '08:) "This new thing of taking two college computer courses is extremely rough. 30 years ago at UCF it was always hard to have two of my classes be in computers. But now it is especially hard as, even with my mental illness gone, it's VERY difficult to keep up. Furthermore, I'm struggling with motivation; I really don't like the material like I did the older counterparts 30 years ago. The complications of my present life add to it. Both part-time jobs consume a lot, both of time and energy as well as mental focus."
Most of you don't know what happened then. July 31, 2008 was an extremely significant and pivotal day for me: Final exams! Both courses were totally online, including the midterms and final exams. All were multiple choice, but that doesn't make it easy (especially w/no courses in 30 years)! 50 questions, 100 minutes strictly timed. Strict midnight deadline. I mustered all the test-taking skills I could scrounge from the faded memory of my distant past to get any edge I could get. (Doing the midterms earlier helped.) Decided I should not do both on the last day, so crammed hard for Visual Basic on July 30 taking the exam late in the evening. Then crammed throughout the day on the 31st for C++, making it in time before midnight. What a sigh of relief that night! Ate a bunch of ice cream to celebrate! (A rare treat for someone very health conscious.)
I was nervously waiting the course grades. I saw an A as a good possibility in VB, but much slimmer in C++. (I really wanted As.) I did get As!! Yippee!! But griper that I am, I really wanted to know how close I had scraped past the B mark of under 90. The prof. wrote me back that I was "not borderline at all", that the two numerical grades were..... 99.35 and 98.70!!! I was so happy!!! "Thank you, Lord, for the strength to get these grades in spite of how terribly rough this semester has been; my first in 30 years!" (Going back to school is something I never thought I'd ever do, even though I've always heard of folks going back to school.)
I must tell you what has happened from that summer to this summer school-wise, but first I gotta tell you about my health. I cry out that I've had...
Joy!
The crying need I originally had was to be freed from brain chemistry disruption caused by those "evil invaders", flukes and parasites and (to a lesser extent) bad bacteria. (The stage had been set for them years before by those Interference Fields, the "harmless" old scars and traumas.) But as I was going through those rigorous phases, and as I've continued overall rebuilding through less rigorous and less expensive maintenance work, my overall health is gradually improving, and I've identified at least these concrete side effects that I never sought after nor expected, but for which I'm very grateful! (These are not in any particular order.)
1. I cannot get bad breath!
2. I never get dizzy when standing up quickly!
3. I now get almost NO tartar build-up on my teeth!
4. I've had a seemingly miraculous weight change! [never attained previously!]
1. I cannot get bad breath! "How can that be, Tom; everyone has it sometimes! That why we have breath mints, mouth wash, etc." But it's true! According to the Doc, getting rid of the invaders in the colon results in the whole ecology down there being different. Not only can I absorb my food much better (no longer having to settle for scraps leftover after the parasites have THEIR fill of what I eat), and not only can my body make it's own B vitamins, but the radical ecology correction there causes the ecology of my mouth to become different! It turns out that bad breath is an indication of problems. What do we do as typical modern health-disregarding Americans? We try to cover up the problem with sweet stuff like breath mints, mouthwash, or simply "brushing harder" (or more frequently). No, the answer is to fix the systemic health problems and the halitosis vanishes!
I have been very careful to get objective feedback on this. In the early days of my multiple crises, I often asked my friend Eric at church to tell me whether the breath was bad. Many times, he'd say yes. Often it was yes, even when I had just brushed. Some time after the infections were gone over two years ago, I started occasionally asking several of you "How's my breath this morning?" You have kindly helped by making an evaluation (for which I thank you). Each time I've asked, the breath was fine. I did a special test w/my roommate who has very sensitive smell. Previously, he would gag whenever I was around and had just eaten sardines or mackerel. He'd even gag a good while later. (He does seem to have a particular fish-odor sensitivity, not terribly uncommon.) I ate 2 cans of sardines; straight, no ketchup, mayo or anything else that might possibly soften the odor. I ate nothing else til the test was over. Immediately after I ate, he checked me, and I did smell like fish, as expected. I think he said it wasn't as bad as in past months. Then 30 minutes later (w/no toothbrushing), he tested, and he could only slightly tell it was from fish, but it wasn't very strong at all. 60 minutes in, he couldn't smell any fish odor and could hardly tell I had eaten at all! No bad breath!! Even after sardines and a fish-odor-sensitive roommate! Amazing!
Most of you several guys who have helped test me, helped in this context: I'd eat Saturday supper, clean my teeth before bed (including flossing), get up Sunday, eat breakfast, NO brushing, then come to church. I wouldn't be sure of how I was, as my own taste sometimes seemed to me to be a little funny, so I'd ask you. EVERY TIME, you have said "No breath problem"! My thanks to Eric, Tim S., Jeremy W., Chris H. (I think), Joey, Berny, Chip, and probably several others who I can't remember. With your simple favor to me on those days I asked, you have consistently (and objectively) confirmed what I had been suspecting for many months. Thank you, guys!
Joey, a special friend in the singles group, created a special irritation. One Sunday a few months back, I found him available to tactfully check me before the church meeting. He said "it's fine". I revealed to him the full context. No brushing since the night before, and had breakfast that morning. Told him the many times others had checked me and came up with the same results; never bad breath! His response took me aback a bit. "That's amazing, Tom, especially as there were times in the past in the singles group setting that your breath was horrible!" I said, "Hey you dirty rat, why didn't you tell me back then??" I had always tried to ensure good breath, but had obviously failed. Joey's a great guy, and when I broke this QRA side effect to him, he smiled in amazement.
There's one caveat. Some weeks ago, I experimentally did a short water-fast, the first in many many months. (In years past, I might go for months doing a 20-30 hour water-fast one day a week.) It struck me as a serious conflicting issue and question: If I never have bad breath any more, what about when I fast and all the fasting experts say that during and after that, you WILL have bad breath what with toxins being released and flushed out? This was a good question to resolve. I had planned to do only a 20-hour fast. This time, circumstances made it difficult to stop after 20 hours. (Maybe I should say, "made it easy to continue past 20 hours".) I went for 35 hours! It ended just as I was reporting for a day of "granny" sitting. When I got even 3 feet from my friend Beth (who hires me to watch her mother), I didn't have to ask her; she immediately exclaimed "TOM! What have you been eating?!?" "Beth, you just answered my next question. Thank you." Yes, fasting still results in bad breath, so obviously at some level, there are always toxins there to cleanse out through occasional fasting. I broke that fast that day, a Friday morning. By Sunday morning, I wasn't sure I was okay breath-wise. I approached Berny for the first time, again, not giving any background. He confirmed, my breath was fine!
If there are many of you in my circles (present or past) who ever noticed bad breath with me and politely refrained from telling, I would be very interested to hear you tell me that in person, and then check me right then. I believe you will be pleased w/what you don't smell! (And I'll be interested to learn how wide-spread my unknown problem was being experienced.)
So I am very happy that as long as I continue to do my part to keep my body healthy like God intended (using the amazing tools of QRA), I never have to inflict bad breath on others again! (Except during and immediately after fasting, in which cases, I'll keep a little distance.)
2. I never get dizzy when standing up quickly! Doesn't everyone have that happen occasionally when getting up too quickly? That's what everyone tells me, and what I always thought. It never happened frequently for me, but was always there throughout my life. Can't say how often, but certainly enough to say "occasionally".
It turns out there's a name for it. Dr. Marshall recently spoke of it on his radio show; called it "postural hypotension". Your body's not making enough adrenaline to give the surge needed when you suddenly stand up. At the end of my first letter (5/2007), I mentioned adrenal exhaustion as a problem. I didn't know until later that an adrenaline shortage can relate to the mental problems, also. My letter mentions "~ 2 years". Well, after I heard Dr. Marshall speak of the 5 things needed for the body to make adequate adrenaline, one of the 5 things shocked me. It is that you must spend at least 5 consecutive hours each night not getting up (not raising your head above your body) for any reason! Not just for 2 years, but ever since about age 8, I've always gotten up at least once for the bathroom. In fact, I was shocked to learn in my 40s that not everyone does that! And now I learn that this problem has been enough, by itself, to keep my adrenaline low ever since that time! (Nearly 50 years!) Yet, in my 40s I improved my health significantly by successfully taking up a sport for the first time (volleyball). This goes to show how distorted one's self-perceptions can be. I've been adrenal-exhausted my whole life, and didn't realize it except for the occasional "dizzy when standing up too fast" non-problem.
Now that my body's gone through it's major overhaul through QRA, and my knowledge about maintaining good adrenaline has come, I'm very happy to say that apart from exceptional circumstances (like fasting), I never get dizzy no matter how fast I stand up! Even if I get up from my mattress on the floor while I'm a bit sleepy and maybe a little stiff (something to still work on), I don't get dizzy in the least!! Admittedly, this is not an earth-shattering, life-saving, "better than getting married" transformation. But every time I get up quickly and never start to visually black out, it's a wonderful reminder to me of God's goodness to me in letting me stumble across QRA to get me on the road to the fabulous kind of health that God intended for everyone.
3. I now get almost NO tartar build-up on my teeth! I never knowingly had indigestion problems at all. Yet while I was killing parasites in fall '07, I was taking HCL (hydrochloric acid) as part of the regimen, as my own ability to produce HCL was greatly impaired even though I had no overt digestive symptoms. (This is very common in our culture.) The very weakened HCL production was one of the big reasons parasites could take hold. One of the neat side-effects of having adequate HCL for digesting your food is that you have no plaque build-up! I had been improving my own HCL production and presence by taking extra HCL under certain circumstances starting in Sept. '07. By July '08, a dental cleaning showed tartar at "light to moderate". Then by Sept. '09, it became "very light"!! Yes, my whole dental profile has turned from "doom & gloom" to "delight & bright". My teeth had felt slightly sandpapery for SO many years, that I really had forgotten what it was like to have slippery-clean teeth years before. I had never consciously noticed them becoming gritty over the years. Sometime during this past year, when I finally noticed them slippery, the memories all clicked, and I was startled and happy to find that what Dr. Marshall and the other QRA folks are saying is true!
Of course this goes back, not just to gradually impaired HCL since adulthood, but to bad gut ecology, as I mentioned with my good-breath "side-effect". Correcting bad ecology down there, affects ecology at the mouth. So, good breath and no tartar are some of the results! Hey, there's more... There's very good reason to doubt I'll EVER have another cavity! And already, a cousin has noticed my chronically yellow lower teeth are starting to turn white again! Oh, I've also been told I'll never get chapped lips, no matter HOW cold it gets. (Which is obviously seldom a problem here in Fla. anyway.)
4. I've had a seemingly miraculous weight change! Most of you can't identify with the problem of being underweight my whole life. More of you wish to lose weight than gain it. But I still hope to convey to you the sense of ecstacy of what has happened to me, by giving some necessary history. (The conclusion won't make sense without it.)
I wasn't always tall. I didn't become 6'3" until about 10th grade. As a boy I was about average height, but always very skinny. I think by 12th grade, I was steadily at 155 lbs. During the 7 years I took to get a 4-year degree, I lost track of weight. Right after college, I had a very stressful season, a broken engagement. I think it was about that time (or shortly thereafter) that I was 143. I stayed at 143 for years and years. I was 32 (Feb. '86) when I first started learning about (and getting excited about) the wisdom of God shown in His health laws in the Bible. But even after months working with the best health experts at the time, they said, "Tom, you may need to come to accept that what you weigh now (something between 143 and 150) is what your ideal weight may be". By '76 (age 22), I had already learned not to resent God for the way He made me, so it wasn't too hard to accept that I would never gain much weight. But it was at least a little disappointing.
2001, 5 years into "career"
(CLICK HERE for cool VOLLEYBALL photos and short video clips)
I bring "F___" up, in part because it was her husband and son that helped me to see (1997) that I could improve my volleyball game and health even more if I would take another serious mental jump... start a weight-training program! Arrgh!! I had tried a gym for a few months in '88, but never got much out of it except resentment and boredom. I was actually glad when the gym folded. I hated working out! This is why I knew in '95 that if I was to get aerobic exercise, it would have to be a game-sport, not a boring thing like running. Well, times were different as well as the circumstances. The husband and 16-yr-old son worked together with me, as they were both good weight lifters. The husband allowed me to use his bench & weights in his garage, and the son custom-designed a program for me. Twice a week for months, I drove to their garage and tried this new thing in my life. As I progressed, I did notice that my VB games were better! I also noticed that I gained weight! By '98 (and 2 moves later), I was in a stable enough place that I could have my own weight set at home (a big plus pyschologically). I had watched thrift stores & garage sales 'til I got 300 lbs. of weights and bars, enough to not have to change hardly ANY weights to do my whole routine!A pleasant sidebar is that after not having any contact w/Thad & Virginia K. since about '93, I stumbled across their new home in Fla. (they having moved to MD, then back) as the last batch of used weights I bought was in a big community garage sale in their neighborhood. Contact was brief but pleasant. How nice that 8 years later, they were already a member of the church I joined in '06! And they were some of the ones early on who prayed for me at my worst (see her note near the start of my first email). Thank you, T & V!
From '98 to '03, I did weight-lifting intermittently. I'd do it for a few months, get health and sports benefits, then get burned out on it and stop. This is true even though I had the weights delightfully AT HOME, and my routine was only 2 days a week, not the standard 3. Interestingly, each time I stayed faithful, my weight would go up! Then after quitting, it would go back down. I think it was in '02 that I made my greatest increase. With much effort and "inwardly grunting" faithfulness, I made it to my all time record of 160! I was thrilled that I had made it that high! But as always, I couldn't keep the drills up, and eventually stopped again, losing some of the pounds.
After '03, I didn't have access to weights again 'til fall '06. But a nervous thing happened. I resumed working out with a new and better bench (and the old weights), and while my strength improved some, my weight went DOWN! In retrospect, I believe this was due to the fact that right about this time, a major emotional crisis occurred involving a relationship. (Those of you close to me then know what that was all about.) Then, unrelated to that crisis, was a major local move along w/a great rent increase. A couple months later, all the other things started to collapse (Dec. '06 as mentioned in my summary). So by Dec., even after weeks of renewed weight-lifting, I had gone down to below 143! I was nervous about this, as this seemed backwards; I'm supposed to gain, not lose. But then I thought no more about it as I was starting to be consumed by all dimensions of my life falling apart around me. In retrospect, I believe the previous emotional crisis set the stage by weakening me through stress. That made an environment ripe for the subsequent trials to trigger the latent infections (parasites, flukes) into a frenzy of activity (consuming my best nutrients and excreting their wastes in my bloodstream much faster than before) with the result of screwed up brain chemistry so that small problems seemed big and big problems seemed HUGE and insurmountable, necessitating to my "logical, intense and quick-thinking mind" the only possible (and fearfully horrible) escape, suicide! (I almost cry a bit right now, thinking back to those days of torture of soul that could lead me to seek an "acceptable" death method, i.e. one that would have less pain that the torturous one I feared.)
Well, if you've read my story of the previous 11 letters or even just the summary at the top of this one, you know that through much of '07 I was constantly dealing w/multiple crises with relatively little free time. During this whole time, I started and sporadically (in stages as money came in) continued through my custom QRA program, and fought many other abnormal battles to survive. So I've never been able or motivated to find some way to work out again. Even getting a pair of those "Perfect Pushup" handles hasn't worked. (Though compact enough for my chronically limited space, they still won't work if you don't make the time to use them.) But this lack of working out actually works to magnify the meaning of what happened next.
In Dec. of '07, which was at the end of my basic and most critical QRA "phases" or stages of treatment, I weighed myself at Publix and wrote it on the last page of my Daytimer for the year. (I had wanted to monitor my weight, but failed to be consistent. Many distractions, ya know.) The number I wrote down was 145, up a tad from 140-143 of a year before. But without me knowing it, the core QRA work had done it's job and would start effecting changes way beyond my original crying need for freedom from anxiety attacks. Throughout the busy 2008, I don't remember paying any attention to weight. Then in January '09, after helping my boss and friend Beth move across town, they got a digital bathroom scale and I weighed myself. I was a shocking 165!!! That's 5 pounds higher than I've EVER been! I looked in my Daytimer back to Dec. '07 to compare. 145 to 165 is a whoppin' 20 pounds! Wow! And that's not all... The 160 peak I had reached in '02 was ONLY after intense weight-lifting for many weeks. And now I had reached 5 pounds OVER that and I hadn't worked out AT ALL! Can you imagine how shocked I was?? Furthermore, the icing on the cake is that in the many weeks following, I monitored it and it was fluctuating between 165 and 167 constantly for months!!
A young friend in the late 90's, an athelete and school soccer coach, believed I should be at 180-185, based on my height and build. I surely must have said, "Luke, you're nuts; there's no way I'll ever come close." Who would have thought that my life could take a tailspin severe enough to make me suicidal, then that God would bring an amazing medical breakthrough into my life with the result that not only am I healed from mental illness, but I may actually one day reach Luke's impossible dream for me, already arriving at a nearly miraculous point HALF way there!
"Thank you God for your gift of
amazing renewed health! You
made the glorious heavens above,
AND the photonic and cellular
things of biology and quantum
physics here below! Thank you
for allowing men to discover
these unbelievable things!
Through these, you have saved
my life, and countless others!"
I've had setbacks in the last very few months; I've intermittently lost 5 to 10 lbs. from the peak of 167. This is explained by additional financial pressures that have preventing me from continuing even some of my maintenance nutrients. I am slowly working my way back up to 167 and maybe even way beyond! But in spite of this downward fluctuation, I see it as temporary and am still excited and happy about this tangible (non-subjective) evidence of how QRA is bringing me into a new taste of what God meant for health to be!
Concerning these 4 small but amazing "side effects" of QRA, I confirmed with the Doc what I already suspected based on my own intense re-studying of health through Drs. Marshall and Heise... No matter what you may embrace a custom QRA program for, whether to enable your body to rapidly heal itself from:
Alzheimer's, bronchitis, emphasema, hepatitis, high blood pressure, infertility, irregular heartbeat, kidney stones, Lou Gehrig's, macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, Parkinson's, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, tinnitus, or almost anything else...
...These 4 side effects are guaranteed to accompany YOUR healing! Do you hear that?? GUARANTEED! Of course you have to follow through on the custom protocol for what super-nutrients your own body is craving, as revealed by the QRA test. And as your body is healing itself, you will need to grow in your changing of bad eating habits that are part of what caused your problems. And of course the weight effect is to be redefined as "You will reach the weight appropriate for YOU", which for many means that after you kill your parasites which are largely responsible for those abnormal cravings of white sugar and white flour, your pounds will melt off much easier than any hard effort you made in the past. But yes, you too can join the ranks of those with permanently clean breath, instant energy, and healthy weight!
STORAGE: (a very significant subject for me)
1 of 2 "stacks" of blocks/boards at
Climate-controlled SafeStore
1 of 4 stacks at Uncle Bob's.
See books on 2x6s which
saved box space at expense
of roaches chewing everything
(20/20 hindsight)
Press Play button for a 1-min. tour of my uniquely flexible storage arrangement at the 10x10 SafeStore unit, which is now fully mine.
If you have trouble viewing it, click here to download it (4.6MB) or to let your browser handle it.
HOUSING:
(Short version: I moved to a farther away but cheaper and BETTER place in April '09.)
After Beth moved (Dec. '08), Dave announced his below-market rent (for a place still in below-market condition) would need to go up significantly. I didn't feel this was appropriate (given the broken down condition and that I was on the concrete LR floor w/little privacy), and was financially too hard for me as well. So I prayfully sought other options; not easy given that market rents are way above where I am able. I talked to two friends who might be able to rent a room, perhaps w/charitable discounts, but neither was workable.
Jan. 5th, I got this email from a slightly older lady, who together with her husband had run a VB (that's volleyball) group that I played with often from '96-'02:
"Hi Tom...........I lost all my emails twice in the past 3 months.......so I lost the address of the website where you were posting all your updates....could you please send it to me? THANKS! Hope all is well with you.....:)
HUGS
Paula _____"
We e-exchanged a bit of current info, as well as sending her the link. Within days, I got a call from her. She wondered if I needed a place to live! I said, "Hmmm... I'm thinkin' about it... Yes, I am looking around!" By early Feb. we had worked out many of the details, and it seemed that I would move out of a one very strange situation into another strange situation. (I seem to be good at needing strange situations. Perhaps because I can't afford "normal" situations.)
They wanted me or someone they might find from their church to rent a room cheaply in her 89-yr-old dad's 59-yr-old house. One grandson was already there, but they wanted an additional guy, both for the rent income and for additional presence for the sake of the old guy who is severely infirm and has a CNA visit him 5 hours nearly each day. It turns out the rent would be only 2/3 what I had been paying AND it would include internet, phone, cable, and electric! Plus new carpet and paint! (I would do the painting.) Plus a room to myself w/4 full walls and window blinds! (No more "can't use the computer for a couple hours because the sun is shining on it".) Plus major increase of access to common resources, especially kitchen! (Always a problem in Dave's tiny kitchen and fridge.) And they keep the A/C at 72! (Actually have to bundle up a bit in summer.)
I took it! Car insurance is higher in downtown Orlando, and there's more gas and time to drive to everything in my life (which is up in Seminole Co.), but overall, it's a great deal, and I'm very grateful for God's provision! Dave and I parted on very good terms. He did recant his increase, but he couldn't come down nearly far enough to compete. This was a very bad time for me to move, as the school work was a killer. But all things considered, it seemed the wisest course. I do feel a bit bad for Dave, as he had been (and still is) unemployed. (Pray for him, if you feel led.) I was staying w/Dave initially in emergency fashion, having needed to move out of the prior place desperately, and having no place to go. It's ironic that it ended up lasting 2 years, with largely mutual benefit. Months after I moved out, Dave was able to radically clean up/organize the place; I'm proud of his progress, and happy that he's closer to being able get a renter. (I did take up a lot of LR/DR space there. But as with storage, I greatly organized what he had there before I moved there 3/1/2007.)
I've been here on sleepy Livingston St. almost 9 months now, and while there were moderately severe housemate problems at first (which we've ironed out), and still some house repairs needed, it's been a move to paradise for me! I've gotten used to the few strange house-rules. I've gotten used to the long drives uptown. And I haven't even had to forsake my favorite money-saving super Walmart in Casselberry, as I had planned. I'm up to Maitland/Altamonte/Casselberry so often that I simply wrap shopping into whenever I'm up there. Of course, I'm constantly reminded of and am grateful for my "miracle" Ford Taurus, the best car I've had in many years (not like the nearly broken down jalopies I've had).
SCHOOL UPDATE (remainder):
After that excruciating first semester, summer '08, the break was a great relief. But it wasn't much of a rest. I was racing to accomplish and get caught up on things that I had had to let slide during the semester. There really wasn't enough break time, as fall '08 started very soon. Having taken part 1 of Visual Basic, I signed up for part 2. I would have signed up for part 2 of C++, but they didn't offer it until spring. So I took part 1 of C#, the 3rd language in my academic plan. (C# is a derivative of C++, kind of like a blend of C++ and Visual Basic.)
I rushed through the fall, again struggling to stay caught up with the work, and still do the p-t jobs and some other important priorities. But I still had to let some things slide. I did finish the semester similarly to summer, and did make As!! They were not as high As, but As nevertheless, so I was still very happy.
By this time, I think my brain was getting used to learning computer things once again. However, the VB part 2 was so hard that I got a bit scared when thinking about spring '09. The first semester was two "part 1" courses; second was a "part 1" and a "part 2". The third semester was to be two "part 2" courses. I was soberly scared I wouldn't get through either with good grades. I spoke to the C# prof about this, then to my counsellor at the V.R. (Vocational Rehabilitation). What I sigh of relief I had when both agreed that it would be better to take ONE "part 2" course and do well, than take TWO and do poorly.
So fall '08 ended, and again the break was far too short to finish getting caught up on the "sliders" as I call them (things I had to let slide while school was in session). Yes, it was somewhat of a relief to begin only one course in spring '09. However, this was the time during which I was quietly looking into other housing options. Not easy to find viable ones when one is so poor. Two p-t jobs and taking a difficult course is NOT the time to figure out a major move. But as you know, God DID work out a solution in spite of this being a very bad time to move. The part 2 C# course prof (same guy who taught part 1 AND who developed the online notes & videos for both VB courses) was understanding when I asked him for an extension on the project due after the week I moved. Nevertheless, the move was more complicated than expected and forced me to lose points anyway by going past the granted extension. The great news is that I still pulled a low A!!
But I felt a strange unsettled feeling upon finishing the course (or shortly before). The V.R. and I had agreed to cut the schooling short to 5 courses instead of the original 6. The prof had said that of the 3 languages, C++ was the most appropriate to omit part 2 of. So I would embark on the next step (job hunt) after only 5. But I just didn't feel that starting a job hunt was the right thing, right then. I can't pin it down more descriptively; I just sensed this was not the time. If it was not the time, then maybe I should try to take one more course in summer '09. I couldn't take part 2 of C++ as it wasn't being offered. The prof suggested Web Programming I (again, the 1st of a 2-part series; I'd take only part 1). He knew the prof was good and he felt that knowing some of HTML could be nothing but an asset in getting any job working with any of the other 3 computer languages. I accepted his advice, even though grudgingly. Web programming was one thing I wasn't crazy about. I'd seen HTML and as languages go, I felt it was ugly. Furthermore, it's not really an algorithmic language as others are, therefore the technical appeal to me was missing. (I always got a kick out of developing algorithms; it's what turned me on to computer science in the first place in 1972.) But I couldn't knock the prof's logic. Now to ask the V.R. The nice lady there DID agree that the V.R. could pick up the tab, even though our plan had changed earlier to stop after spring. Gee, I even asked my brother who's had a tendency to nag me into radically dropping all endeavors and trying to get any kind of a fulltime job (no matter how inappropriate for me the job might be). Even HE agreed this would be a good move. (And I think I asked pastor Chip, too.) Well, if all 4 of these "powers" (or advice sources) agreed I should continue, that settled it! I would jump into HTML.
Again, the break was a racing time to see how much of a dent I could make in "catch-up". It was a dent, but that's all. HTML was a little more interesting than expected. As radical as object oriented programming concepts were in the prior 3 languages, other new concepts encountered here were even more radical. MANY of us in the course found ourselves greatly struggling after only a few weeks. SO many times, you think (for example) you'll get a project done in the 3 remaining days, and obstacles present themselves that often just won't be knocked down. So I got major points off on more than one project. Probably by 2/3 of the way through, I couldn't imagine how anyone could take other courses at all while taking this "full time" 3-hour course. I got wind of a girl at Northland Church who had flunked the same course in the spring; not encouraging to hear that.
This is where the picture starts to get interesting. After a point, we had learned enough of the guts of HTML that I gained a feel for being able to do most of the things that I might want to do if building (writing) a website. This was a bit exhilarating, even though the problems when trying to program anything often seemed insurmountable. At a certain point, we were told what our final project would be. I was aghast; it required me to think up a business or other enterprise (real or imaginary) for which it would be suitable to have a website, and build the site. I am totally a bozo for being creative in this regard, and I figured this might be the one thing (beyond all the other troubles) that would make me flunk the course. The final project was a very large part of the final grade. Then I had an idea. It might stretch the definitions a bit, but I decided to try. I would propose making my OWN minimally existing (and very crummy) website into my final project! Part of the project was to storyboard the proposal and submit it not only for grading but for approval as a project. I hate this idea of "planning" a project before jumping into coding; I like to design as I go. But that's bad practice in most any language. The book and prof warned us of this tendency, and the proposal/storyboard was meant to largely short-circuit this. Furthermore, even if the storyboard was good, it might be rejected in which case I'd have to come up with another idea.
As you know if you have read any of my letters on the "old" site, it was truly nothing as far was websites go; just my email letters pasted onto blank webpages. No style, no graphics, no color, no nothing! I had used a simple and free webpage builder to do it (and didn't do it very well; just enough to get by). For this re-design, I developed a concept for a "splash" home page, which would transfer to a "main menu". This menu would have 3 sections, the 1st being simply the 11 prayer letters I had out there previously. But these 2 new sections would be very signficant. The 2nd would be an incredible set of various kinds of educational resources to aide lay-people (and doctors too) in learning about QRA so that anyone in the world can get to it and be blessed, all without having to necessarily read through the agonizing story of my own trials. (But I do still encourage reading it for those willing; many have said it was a blessing.) The 3rd would simply be letters, articles and especially audio files, i.e., all other items I've ever wanted to have on a website, including the 144 great sermons on the book of Proverbs I've dreamed of distributing since I acquired them all in 1999!
I worked hard to create my storyboard patterned (thankfully) after one of several examples he gave us. (Without those examples, I still may have lost all hope of passing.) While my storyboard met all the requirements, I was still sweating out whether he'd approve of the concept. He DID! Hoping for that, I even started coding the project before he gave approval. I was stretching things a bit; he said there must be 2 pictures, I planned over a dozen. He preferred 5-10 pages, I had 30+ in the works (11 were my letters). Once he approved, I was really really excited about this! I had figured that at some future date, I might try to pick up web programming and make the site something more attention worthy (beyond merely the important content), but I never realized that the rewrite would be part of a college course! I also thought it would be with one of those page builders like Dream-weaver, etc. I didn't realize that anyone (from what I had heard) still used HTML.
It was very much more like a full-time semester-load, than one course, in part due to my project's greater scope. Many of us, including myself, were having major problems. Unlike prior on-line courses where there was little if any class interaction on the class forum, this course had tons, and participation was even a graded requirement! We all gave and got help from each other and from the prof. especially as the weeks wound down to the finish line. Unlike some earlier projects, I did get this done on time (!) even though while it was in progress, he kept springing new chapters and quizzes on us. I got a low B on my project. I was distraught as while some points were legitimately lost, I felt some were not and the prof. wouldn't write me back in reply to my allegations. We both knew that I could still make a course A if I did well enough on the final. It was a terribly hard final, harder than I expected. But it DID push me into an A!!! (But not without the extra credit subproject I had included in my project as did many folks.)
So I think I see now why the Lord must have been giving me this unsettled feeling about not stopping school right after spring semester. As I said to the prof when trying to convince him to review my arguments and give more points, "This isn't just a course project; this is a very important site that I plan to enhance and maintain for the next 80+ years, God willing." After the final was done (and I rested maybe a day), I immediately remedied some of his criticisms, and started major enhancements. A few of you saw the final project and said it was really good. (Thank you!) But with all the enhancements (features and content) I've added since, it is really turning into something that may be used of God to greatly heal and save lives! I recently met a lady member of my own church who has two family members w/devastating chronic conditions, one who is but a teenager. She read my whole "book" (the then 11 prayer letters) and wrote me this kind note:
I've had contact w/a few of the many QRA practitioners around the nation in recent months. All these practitioners show a genuine passion for using this incredible breakthrough knowledge to heal and even save many lives. Often, as in the case of Dr. Heise, they themselves were saved of something serious through QRA. I was on the phone w/one lady doctor in CA walking her to a couple portions of the site. She almost broke into tears of joy when she saw my "Best of HealthLine" page! You don't know how my heart swelled with JOY when that happened! (And to think I had never planned to even take the course!) I wrote her awhile later saying, "Did you ever pass on the link to my site to anyone who might be helped by it? I've made numerous changes in recent weeks. Check out the main menu." She wrote back, "I have actually sent many people to your site and I visit it myself several times/week". Of course, Dr. Heise has it bookmarked, and does give out the link to patients sometimes."I can't thank you enough again for sharing this QRA info with me and your own personal testimony. I see you sharing this with MANY who need it and having great success. Your boldness yet tempered with a gentle spirit works well here. Please don't stop telling your story to others! Remind me sometime to tell you of the evidences that completely show the Sovereignty of God working through you in our situation." (Emphasis added.)
Another lady, not a practitioner, but a happy FORMER multiple sclerosis victim (and author of www.msreversed.com) wrote me:
"Holy Cow, Mr. Cook!
You have definitely gone to great lengths with your Dr. Marshall / Healthline page, ALONE! That is not including everything else! You have wowed me! Thank you for adding me [to your site] whenever you did. I appreciate it. You [a link to your site] will go up on my site today."
So I would urge you all to take a look at my "class project", greatly enhanced since the summer semester was over. (www.TomsGoodFiles.com) The main menu is the place to browse, then take quick surveys of the various items. EVERY one of them (in the 1st section) is intended to be valuable in some way to aide EITHER someone you may know with health issues OR a friend of theirs who just might happen to be YOU.
As you know or will know, I have many hours of audio information, both health-related and otherwise. A few of the many web-programming items I've learned have helped me to give great aide to those who don't have high-speed internet. I've been able to modify the site so that I can burn a CD-R with the entire site on it, so that someone with (slow) dial-up or even NO internet can read the site AND listen to ALL the audio files with great speed and ease! I've given out many CDs already, some to a few of you reading this. YOU folks are now able to download the MP3 files faster than the fastest internet! Of course, the CD will be constantly out-of-date as I find time to add new things to the real site. (And there is much stuff waiting to be added.) But I can always create you a new disk reflecting the updates.
I must give public thanks to Josh Phillips, an I.T. guy at church, for donating web-hosting to me. He realizes this is meant as a ministry to heal and (in many cases) save lives, and that I'm presently quite poor. Thank you, Josh! (If your company needs good outsourced technology service, visit his site, www.provisionit.com.)
I also want to report the good news that there are now TWO (2) certified QRA practitioners in the Orlando area now! (Oh for the day when there will be dozens!) If for some reason you'd rather go to a health professional who's not a chiropractor (not that that's ultimately relevant), the newer guy is a licensed acupuncturist (LAc). In either case, it doesn't matter what the "letters" after any QRA practitioner's name are; they both are great at QRA, or they wouldn't have been certified by P.R.L's strict standards. Their websites are on one of my new pages at the main menu, but here they are for your convenience:
Douglas Heise, DC, www.drheise.com
Todd Gegerson, LAc, www.integrativebalance.com
And now that all my schooling is over....
One of the two prayer requests I made in the last letter was: "And I wouldn't mind it at all if God was to provide unexpected means to support me through this difficult college season (so I could quit the torturous weekend sign-spinning work)". He never did provide any other means, so I've had to continue sweating it out. Hopefully, the web version of this letter will have various pictures and short videos of me dancing on the street corner for that job. While I've had to keep that job, there've been some stretches where none of that work has come my way. (So I did gain extra needed time, but at financial loss.) Add to that that my day-employer friend has had very hard times, therefore I'm stretching dollars very thin now, like during the most disastrous recent times.
Press the play button to see me dance (30 seconds).
If you have trouble viewing it, click here to download it (8.7MB) or to let your browser handle it.
REQUESTS:
So now that I've updated you on everything (thank you for reading), I would ask you to do two important things for me:
1. Now that school is over, please pray for the difficult transition into job-hunting. (And job getting!) It's been slow what with trying to catch up on things (including saving lives among other things), but the V.R. has a wonderful technician who is patiently coaching me along. I finally got my difficult resume overhauled to our satisfaction. And I'm just now about to start sending it out. (About time, eh, seeing as summer is long over.) Please pray for God to direct my steps, my mind, my decisions, and my willingness to step outside my comfort zone in MANY ways. Remember that I have not been in a regular programmer job since about 1991!!! I'm a little troubled in a couple ways about the fact that since I started my physical and educational healing, the big mortgage collapse and subsequent recession has occurred, putting many people in hard (or even harder) situations than mine. I felt alone in my trials, but now I'm tempted to feel a bit jealous that so many others are now struggling to get by. Not only are they justifiably taking some of the prayer and sympathy spotlight that I've greatly needed, but there is much greater competition for the job that I now need to find!
2. This is not a request for prayer, but for you to do something for me. (It's easy but of great help.) Within the content of my last letter (6/2008), I wrote a short article entitled "SEEKING HEALING FROM GOD". Several of you have said it was really good. One person said, "It is well written and persuasive. I will give thought to what you have stated". Will you please do this for me?... The article is only 8 paragraphs long (unlike most of my letters). I would really appreciate it if you would read it (or re-read it) and write me back with your comments, questions, opinions, etc. Click here to get to it:
http://tomsgoodfiles.com/seekinghealing.php
I am feeling that this article could be very potent and helpful to many people, but if you can give any constructive criticism, I am certainly open to making a good thing even better. Of course if you find it to be a blessing to you in any way now, my soul would be encouraged by hearing about that as well. There are over 270 (!) of you that are receiving this letter by email. I hope that each of you will write me back, and I promise that I will read every letter! And it may even be that based on your feedback and some strange things that have happened very recently, I may write a short "Part 2" article as a follow-up.)
Thank you to many of you for your loving prayers and help during these terribly difficult and sometimes frightening times. (I must say that every time I see any news report involving suicide, I look at it through very different eyes.)
I look forward to hearing from you, as well as finding the job God will direct me to in response to your kindly offered prayers.
Sincerely,
Tom Cook
(407) 897-4063 / (407) 671-1224
TomCook @ TomsGoodfiles.com
One day, QRA exams will be as commonplace as dental exams.
Most disease will be gone. Will you hasten the day?
See how I got involved. Visit--> www.TomsGoodFiles.com