u/forwardishdirection

I just picked up the Cornish Halloween Murder as even with additional copies bought my wait time on Libby was still four months long and I want to read it this month but looking for more suggestions for Halloween and fall themed cozy mysteries that you like! I‘m usually more in the British historical category of cozy mystery so this is out of my normal wheelhouse and I don’t know what’s good. I am sadly now visually impaired and can only read via audiobook so need that to be an option. Thanks!

I have a Windows 10 laptop that runs iTunes and has a DVD drive. I am visually impaired and primarily use an iPhone for any digital stuff but have someone who can help me with this. I am aware M4B is an Apple file type but it’s my preferred audiobook file type and I use an iPhone and still have iTunes even if it barely functions on my old laptop. 

Does anyone have any instructions with what I have available on how to turn these CD audiobooks I have into M4B files I can save to my external SSD and transfer to my phone as needed? I am mostly digital only but do have a collection of CD titles that I want to be able to listen to the ones I have on CD only without relying on a 25 year old portable CD player to keep working and eating batteries.

Can someone provide detailed instructions or a link to detailed instruction? Thank you. I need assistance so I need to be able to give the Instructions and have the other person be able to follow them. I personally am visually impaired and can’t use a computer on my own I have to use my iphone with voiceover or I would have tried to figure this out ages ago.

I specifically want M4B files because of my limitations I have a hard time and I have MP3 converted iTunes audiobooks and they are difficult to manage where as my M4B files are really easy for me with voiceover to transfer and add into a player as it’s just one file since I don’t backup my phone via iTunes or connect it to my computer anymore. 

Thank you!

Had to delete and repost with corrected title because I made a major typo with the file type and you can’t edit titles. Thanks to the person who caught that!

I have the original Picture of Dorian Gray release and then I am going to start the series on Hoopla but I’m confused by the order Hoopla has for the series as it’s different from the release date order on the BF website. Is there any opinions for a best listening order or should I go with my initial plan of release date order?

Anyone have any news about what’s happening with Torrid with this Spencer’s buyout? Spencer’s is buying what is being reported as H*T topic, her universe, and box lunch. However there’s been absolutely no mention of Torrid anywhere and it is owned by the same company as all those other companies. I’m frustrated by the reporting or lack thereof about Torrid within this family of brands.

Anyone have any information or know what’s going on there?

Anyone else experience this increase in potassium demand a year into their shot journey? What does it mean?

I’m on a shot every 5 days schedule and I needed way more potassium after the shot before my last shot like got really dizzy and light headed until I supplemented extra afterward even having a massive amount of potatoes with additional potassium with breakfast. Last shot I ate my normal amount of potatoes plus a full dose of supplemental in water and still needed more. Both times it was about an hour after my shot that I crashed and I was very hydrated second was less severe because I had a bunch of water and potassium and salt right before the shot (3:1 potassium salt I have POTS so still needed salt) but still needed more potassium and some salt an hour later to prevent the crash I felt coming.

I know how to deal with this and obviously taking potassium helped and I got better but my question is does this mean that it’s using up potassium more and quickly mean I need to increase my frequency or do more tongue drops inbetween shots? I do a lot of potassium on my off days too to keep up and it’s an intake I monitor carefully.

Need fragrance free that means NO essential oils as well and alcohol free recommendations for a pet accident odor cleaner and I have searched Chewy thoroughly and can’t find any options now that my go to BOXIECAT fragrance free cleaner has been discontinued. I have really searched and not found anything so I figured I’d ask here while I still have BOXIECAT to tide me over. My dog isn’t super accident prone but he is an old man and shit happens.

IMPORTANT I react to vinegar so please don’t recommend vinegar at all or products with it! I also strongly react to alcohol VOCs which is unusual and a giant pain.

Must be able to order it to have it shipped to me. Thank you.

Vent because I have the trifecta and tons of other issues but I think this group will understand. First of all I am on disability Medicare and have a part G supplement plan that increased my premium $90 a month this year so it’s almost $400 a month now which is completely unsustainable and Medicare part B premiums also went up a lot but as such I should not be billed for anything because I pay out the butt to not have to have medical bills. But when there are errors OMG it’s a nightmare. My primary medical system you can’t actually talk to billing you leave a message for them and I have two outstanding not expensive but NOT my responsibility bills that I have repeatedly tried to fix to no avail. But at least they do actually provide an itemized bill with contact information.

At another medical system I just got an electronic bill for just the provider for an outpatient procedure and it has no details whatsoever, and I asked for the itemized bill. It was not remotely itemized and they have no address or anything no details on the bill whatsoever so having to call againand figure out what the hell is going on all I was told was that Medicare denied coverage but this is only for part of the procedure which means they build it wrong and their itemized bill isn’t itemized.

They are doing this intentionally because laws have been passed to protect patients so they just have no information and expect you will just pay the bill especially these ones that are like you know $50 here $15 there. Or when you try to correct it nothing actually changes. But I’m on disability I don’t have the extra money because my premiums just went up and obscene amount and I am on a fixed income. It’s harder and harder to get any real information or talk to someone who remotely knows anything all while medical bills sky rocket. These medical systems are now also huge entities combining and merging into giant machines that operate like corporations, even if they are nonprofit with a ton of financially, and their solution to it is to cut the stuff that actually helps the patient and to make it impossible to fight your billing errors.

Anyways have to deal with two different medical systems nightmare billing departs now and it’s stressful as hell and they make it so unbelievably difficult.

Added bonus I am complexly visually impaired and need assistance with all of this so I can’t just handle it on my freaking own, which is also frustrating. I mean I need a caregiver in general but I just don’t know what I’m gonna do when I don’t have easy access to caregiver that is a family which will happen at some point.

Just need to vent that on top of already being not good MCAS wise recovering from surgery and reacting to how bad the heat has been having the air quality from the wild fires being so awful like off the measurable scale for us last week and still bad has been ruining my life MCAS wise even fully medicated up. My MCAS doctor increased some meds last week before all this so I am fully maxed out. I am SO NOT doing well.
Anyone else going through the same?

Obviously my heart goes out to the Canadians actually dealing with the fires but fighting my own personal battles here.

The Hitchhike’s Guide to the Galaxy is one of my all-time favorite books and I can no longer read physical books. Stephen Fry is an excellent narrator however the problem is that the quality of the audio is terrible and there’s serious sound quality issues and quirks of Lofi recordings that I have problems with as I have extremely sensitive ears and it is a difficult listen for me for sensory reasons. I love the radio plays but that’s a totally different experience. I really want them to remaster or do a new recording of this favorite of mine it’s frustrating as I am trying to get through it right now and it’s just making my headache worse.

Anyone have experience with these as an ADD on to your existing purifier setup? I have MCAS so getting as much stuff not making it’s way onto or into my body is the goal.

I use ALLERAIR HD VOC and air doctor ultra HEPA filters of varying sizes for different rooms but I have MCAS and a dog and carpet and the ceiling fans in my main use rooms get so dusty was just wondering if anyone had experience or thoughts on them or are just a marketing gimmick to get you on a subscription?

In the US already have my VOC and HEPA setup covered.

Update It’s well after fix was supposed to be implemented and the problem is even worse than before for me so clearly it didn’t work. They are aware of the problem and working on it at least.

Original post:

Per a response to my email I received today a fix for the fact that the iOS app constantly crashes and is unusable should be deployed today.

Do I think this will work? Skeptical but hopeful.

Really wish I had thought to turn auto updates on apps off when I found out because I had so many downloads and was not intending on updating for a few weeks.

Finally got a email reply from sales today. I totally sympathize with the issue but they really should have announced this on socials or something so we had a heads up. They moved warehouses last week and had no access to their systems and emails. Now have external access to the sales email but still can’t access their systems. So they won’t be able to fix any issues until they get back access to their systems and I would assume this means nothing is being shipped right now.

EDIT: to clarify email was basically apologies we had no access to emails or our systems here‘s why but while we can now reply to emails we can’t solve any problems until we get back access to our systems so we will get back to you when we can.

The reason I say assume about shipping is because my issue was about a digital order problem not a shipping delay so my email didn’t address that.

Please recommend me cooling vests that have worked well for you. I have Amazon prime for a week for prime days so preferably prime because I need it FAST for next week‘s heat wave. Cannot be too heavy because I just had TOS surgery on one side.

Anyone used brand NOVOKOOL

ITEM: PCM Ice Vest for Men and Women - Adjustable Cooling Vest - Freezes in 30 Min - Special Phase Change Material (PCM) that Freezes Anywhere under 64Deg

Any color option. It doesn’t get wet which is ideal but worry about reacting to the special fabric with my MCAS.

Note cross posted to MCAS subreddit too for widest reach as I MCAS react hardcore to heat

Please recommend me cooling vests that have worked well for you. I have Amazon prime for a week for prime days so preferably prime because I need it FAST for next week‘s heat wave. Cannot be too heavy because I just had TOS surgery on one side.

Anyone used brand NOVOKOOL

ITEM: PCM Ice Vest for Men and Women - Adjustable Cooling Vest - Freezes in 30 Min - Special Phase Change Material (PCM) that Freezes Anywhere under 64Deg

Any color option. It doesn’t get wet which is ideal but worry about reacting to the special fabric with my MCAS.

Heat is one of my worst MCAS triggers and I have to go to multiple appointments during the heat wave.

Cross posted to dysautonomia community for wider reach as well.

So today I learned that even though I paid for the official Apple stupidly expensive camera adaptor thing to get to my external hard drive with m4b files saved on it there is NO WAY to play them in the Apple books app. Please recommend me a way to get these files to play as audiobooks as M4B because I have a massive amount saved in the correct audiobook format and can’t use them directly in books apparently and they won’t load into my MP3 books app either. My SSD drive shows up in files and the audio works but it won’t work like an audiobook should no chapters no saving your spot. I am extremely frustrated. Please help! I am visually impaired and can’t use a computer and get help to backup all my books and audio plays and was told by Apple that this was the way to get to them but apparently not.

Duckbills seem to work best for me because it’s the least amount of mask touching my face and also doesn’t trigger my trigeminal neuralgia but I know it’s hard to get a good seal any recommended options and where to buy? The where to buy is also important to me.

I have a round Caucasian face with apple cheeks and a small nose and wear glasses. Am located in the US.

EDIT IMPORTANT ADDITION: They need to be somehow sealed for shipping not just a cardboard box either in bags of multiple items, wrapped in plastic, or individually packaged. I unfortunately very much have to worry about fragrance and VOC contamination in shipping and warehouse if they just come packaged in a box versus somehow sealed. This is just become a huge problem with anything but especially something I breathe through that goes on my face.

end of edit

I am running out of mask options that don’t make me react and most of my good options aren’t available anymore. I have MCAS hence reactions and am also extremely heat sensitive.

I have tried multiple cage options and I haven’t found a good option that works for me. Huge reaction to ZIMI out of the bag so didn’t even bother trying on sizes. FLO is only OK for me for short wear use because my skin doesn’t like silicone on it for any length of time which I knew going in and the seal isn’t excellent.

Edit answered by u/FatDuke23

The “Behind the Scenes” is the 4th story.

It’s called “The Reality Director” by John Dorney.

Thanks!

original post:

Anyone have additional info or do I need to reach out to BF?

https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-death-and-life-of-river-song-series-04-war-widow-3355

It is priced as a 4 story set but only has 3 stories listed in the description plus a behind the scenes thing which doesn’t seem to warrant the cost of a four story box set.

I have MCAS and my safe products keep being discontinued and I am so frustrated. Need a recommendation.

Ulactin is now discontinued. I called the company because all that was available was the over priced tiny bottles and was told it was because they have discontinued the product and that was all the stock they had left. They did recommend me a product from another brand but I checked it out and it has multiple ingredients that aren’t OK for me.

ULACTIN was 10% urea and 2% lactic acid and wasn’t perfect but I don’t react to it. Especially as it used parabens instead of the new highly allergic preservative options. I need the skin care industry to stop with the fear mongering based off of the false representation of one study and switch back to parabens please for the love of my sanity!

Can anyone recommend a fragrance free urea and lactic acid lotion with high urea at least 10% and 10% OR LESS lactic acid if possible that does NOT have the following:

Isopropyl Myristate

phenoxyethanol

shea butter

TIA!

From this group treating my B12 deficiency I also learned that high inflammation can falsely inflate your ferritin levels my inflammation markers have been sky high for years and my ferritin has been low normal that time never above 90 but my iron saturation has been BELOW normal for years and my total iron binding capacity has been abnormally HIGH for years and the whole time my hematologist has said that has been fine when I do basic research and find out that based on these numbers I’ve been Iron deficient for years. She dismissed me as a patient at my last yearly because I ”didn‘t need her anymore” because the numbers she was actually mild concerned about unrelated to any deficiencies have normalize but I would have fired her anyways now because how useless of a docfor. These were flagged as abnormal and she said not to worry about it because ferritin was fine and I have so many other health problems I didn’t question her until this sub made me question all doctors handling of deficiencies and that my ferritin likely wasn’t accurate because of how unbelievably high my inflammation markers have been and it’s already been low normal and those other more accurate readings given my situation have been abnormal literal years.

I just needed to vent. And increase my iron supplement dosing.

EDIT: am in US so these are US numbers with US “normal” ranges which varies by healthcare system and we all know aren’t optimal.