Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Help me find my father's biological father (most likely a dutch sailor in Seattle, WA, USA, around November-December 1950)

Hi,

I'm trying to find out who my father's biological father is--we think he was a dutch sailor, who had a short romance with my father's mother (Pearl Lorine Mustoe, birthday December 1, 1924) in Seattle, WA, USA, around december 1950 (my father's birthday is August 16, 1951). Any ideas about how I might proceed?

My father's mother, Pearl, would have been 26 years old at the time she met this dutch sailor.

I'm wondering if there are any records of any Dutch ships that were in the Seattle area during November-December of 1950.

Any help would be greatly appreciated (email me at nick (dot) c (dot) humphrey (at) gmail (dot) com)

Thanks in advance,
Nick Humphrey

P.S. I've contacted
* the "Port of Seattle": http://www.portseattle.org/About/Contact/Pages/Public-Records-Request.aspx (REPLIED--REFERRED ME TO "Puget Sound Regional Archives")
* the "Central Bureau for Genealogy" in the Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie): http://www.cbg.nl/index.php/EN?taal=EN (REPLIED--DEAD END)
* the "Dutch Ministry of Defense" (Ministerie van Defensie): http://www.defensie.nl/english/servicemenu/contact/
* Tore på Sporet (a norwegian TV show that reunites lost family members): http://www.nrk.no/programmer/tv/tore_pa_sporet/
* Spoorloos (a dutch TV show that reunites lost family members): http://spoorloos.kro.nl/ (COULDN'T HELP ME, NO CAPACITY)

* Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society: http://www.pugetmaritime.org/ContactUs.htm
* Holland America Line: http://www.hollandamerica.com/contactUs/Main.action
* Puget Sound Regional Archives: PSBranchArchives@sos.wa.gov
* Netherlands Police: politie.nl (REPLIED--REFUSED TO HELP)

but am still waiting for their replies.

I've also submitted my DNA to FamilyTreeDNA: http://www.familytreedna.com



UPDATE 20131120


reply from CBG:
"
Hello Nick,
There is a Dutch T.v. program about such "things".
You can ask them to help you. See: www.spoorloos.kro.nl
"

reply from Port of Seattle:
"
Mr. Humphrey;
I have to say this is one of the more interesting requests that I’ve received.  The Port doesn’t keep records of ships that called in Seattle.  But there may be records at the Puget Sound Regional Archives.  They can be reached at (425) 564-3947 or via email at PSBranchArchives@sos.wa.gov
Good luck with your search.

"

reply from Netherlands Police:
"
this is not a matter concerning police, data from the DNA database can only be used for police investigation.
Regards,
Regional Service Center
Amsterdam Police Department

"

#####

here's a thread on facebook that i started about this, with additional ideas about researching this: https://www.facebook.com/myUser/posts/10152033942881469

here's a post I wrote on Family Tree DNA's facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/FamilyTreeDNA/posts/10152033938211469

#####

UPDATE 20140108

nobody above was able to help me, although i was pleased to get replies from almost all of them.

thoughts. i just looked at my FTDNA matches for both maternal and paternal sides. i have 10 matches for mtDNA (maternal) and only 2 matches for Y-DNA (paternal). maybe having so few paternal matches is a possible indicator that my father's father really wasn't from the US?
or is it common that people have more matches for mtDNA than Y-DNA?
both the Y-DNA matches have the last name "KING", which also is very interesting.

i think my DNA data has been registered with FTDNA since 2010.


#####

other relevant search terms:holland
boat
ship
washington state
sailor
navy
naval
child out of wedlock
one night stand
affair





Monday, July 29, 2013

my experience with vaporizing calea z (zacatechichi/ternifolia/dream herb)

i vaporized a couple of grams of calea z using a volcano digit with easy valve starter set, so i'll tell you about my experience.

i started off at a low temperature, 150 C (302 F), and could see almost no vapor inside the balloon, and could barely taste the calea z.

i then increased it to 200 C (392 F) and saw a little vapor in the balloon.

i then increased it to 220 C (428 F) and saw a good amount of vapor in the balloon and could clearly taste the calea z and could clearly see the vapor when i exhaled in a normally lit room.

i then increased the temperature to 225 C (437 F) and it started to taste a tiny bit like burned popcorn so i went back down to 220 C.


after about 5 filling chambers full of calea z, i started to notice a slight, altered change in perception, but nothing trippy like some people describe. i probably vaped about 10 filling chambers total, but it didn't seem to do that much for me. i went to sleep probably about an hour after vaping, and had a pleasant/vivd dream though that night.

tip: i found i could vape the same filling chamber twice--the second round was probably about half the vapor of the first round. i shook the filling chamber a good deal between the first and second rounds, to move the leaf bits around. there wasn't much left in a third round of vaping the same herbs.

if you're like most people, you probably think calea z tastes pretty gross, no matter if you drink it as a tea or smoke it in a bong, but when you vaporize it, it doesn't taste gross at all.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

the difference between methylphenidate and amphetamine

i know someone who uses ADHD medicine, so i was curious as to what the difference between the two types of medicine ingredients used are:
* methylphenidate
* amphetamnine
 
after reading alot today i think i've broken down the difference between the two:

methylphenidate (medicines like concerta and ritalin):
* blocks reuptake of dopamine (DRI)

* increases the body's production of dopamine, but to a less extent than amphetamine

amphetamine:
* slows reuptake of dopamine

"acts as a substrate for DAT and slows reuptake by a secondary acting mechanism through the phosphorylation of dopamine transporters."
 

* increases the body's production of dopamine (RA)


they seem really similar--their 2 main effects are inversely stronger than the other.

UPDATE 20131001

Here's some feedback about the subject from a pharmacist friend of mine in the US:

"
You're spot on with regards to the chemical action/brain chemistry. Dopamine is the main target, whether that be by blocking reabsorption or increasing production, but there is some norepinephrine activity with both as well. Two main characteristics that I think contribute to clinical efficacy with both is how your body metabolizes the drug and the drugs respective half life. The amphetamine salts have an active metabolite, meaning the drug has to be chemically changed through metabolism to an active form, in this case dextroamphetamine before it exerts an effect. Adderall is formulated in about a 25/75 ratio of amphet/dextroamphet. This process happens in the liver, and why the phosphorylation that you mentioned in your blog is important . Much more importantly in my opinion though is that methylphenidate has a much shorter half-life, 2-3 hours for the immediate release formulation (Ritalin) and 4-5 hours for the extended release formulation (Concerta, Focalin). Amphetamine salts have a half life of up 14 hours, depending on liver function. Longer half life means longer dosing intervals, which leads to better patient compliance which leads to better clinical outcomes. Ritalin IR has to be dosed two to three times daily and leads to a peak/trough drug level effect which is not ideal. This effect led to development of an ER formulation of methylphenidate. Concerta is ER, so can be dosed once daily, but with a short half life still poses more of a peak/trough effect compared to Adderall and dosage increase is often warranted to get trough levels to stay above the therapeutic level. Adderall is also dosed once daily, but with a longer half-life, typically dosing is more stable and drug levels avoid that peak/trough effect. Of course, both drugs a highly addictive and are habit-forming, which I think leads to a big part of the social stigma here in the states. (despite the same addiction potential of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, etc stimulant drugs are almost seen as taboo to some)
Hope that gives a little more insight or something to further research. Medicine is as much of an art as it is a science, if something works well for some, it doesn't necessarily extrapolate to you. Find what works well for you, fine tune the dosing and you'll be well on your way.
"