Short Bits 2025

Updated on 2025-08-13

Short Bits is my method of sharing information that would be too short for a separate blog post. Following are my short posts for 2025.

Contents

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• 01 – Use Honey to Help You Sleep (2025-04-06)
• 02 – Complete Tissue & Bone Ointment (2025-05-23)
• 03 – Bit of a Health Scare in 2024 (2025-07-22)
• 04 – Why I Will Not Buy Gorilla Munch Again (2025-08-07)
• 05 – Google, I Hate You! (2025-08-13)

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01 – Use Honey to Help You Sleep (2025-04-06)

I have seen manuka honey at Whole Foods Market for years when shopping there, but I thought it was very expensive. A former dental hygienist tried to get me interested in manuka honey a few years ago, but once again I thought it was too expensive, even if it was beneficial for your health.

I began shopping at Trader Joe’s a few years ago and last year while shopping there I noticed that they sold manuka honey for $13.99 for a 8.8-oz jar with a UMF-10 rating. I didn’t think the price was too bad, but I wanted to further research the health benefits of consuming it before deciding to purchase a jar.

I researched the health benefits of manuka honey and I came across two excellent posts about manuka honey, one on the Dr. Axe site and one on the Life Extension site. One of the benefits listed in the Dr. Axe post was that consuming honey in general can help you sleep better. I was already taking magnesium glycinate, which helped improve my sleep quality. However, I thought I’d try consuming manuka honey to see if my sleep quality improved even more.

My sleep quality did improve even more after I began consuming about one tablespoon of manuka honey not long before going to bed. Before I began consuming manuka honey, I was getting 10-11 hours of sleep. After I began consuming manuka honey, I began getting 11-13 hours of sleep. That might seem like a lot of sleep to most people, but I’m usually up for well over 24 hours before going to bed.

Based on what I read in the Dr. Axe post, any honey should work if all you’re interested in is better sleep. However, manuka honey has other potential health benefits, so I prefer to use manuka honey over regular honey.

I found a brand of manuka honey on Amazon with a UMF-12 rating for $15.90 for a 8.8-oz jar, which is a slightly better rating than the brand I was buying at Trader Joe’s. I’d eventually like to purchase manuka honey with a UMF-15 or UMF-16 rating, but it’s a bit too expensive for my current budget.

What are your thoughts about manuka honey? Let me know in the comment box at the bottom of the page and thank you for visiting.

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02 – Complete Tissue & Bone Ointment (2025-05-23)

A few months ago, I began experiencing intermittent, mild pain in my left elbow area. I think the pain had something to do with the posititioning of my left arm while I’m sleeping.

In late March or early April, I began having pain at the back of my left knee when squatting or raising from a squat and when taking a knee using my left knee. I’m not sure of the cause, but I’ve had pain issues with my left knee on and off since 2017.

For both pain issues, I could have used DMSO, but one of the side effects of DMSO is eczema, so I decided to try something else. I’ve used V-Vein manufactured by Christopher’s Original Formulas for a number of years for hemorrhoid issues and it has worked well. I knew Christopher’s Original Formulas also manufactured a number of other natural remedies, so I spent some time going through their Formula capsule line of natural remedy products. I came across a remedy called Complete Tissue & Bone ointment.

I applied the ointment twice during the time I was awake; once after getting up from sleeping and once before going to bed. Within a week, the pain in my left elbow area and the pain behind my left knee dramatically decreased. I then decided to decrease the dosage to once per waking period. The pain in both areas has continued to be abated by about 98-99% using the Complete Tissue & Bone ointment natural remedy.

Warning: Keep out of the reach of children. Complete Tissue & Bone ointment is for external use only. One of the active ingredients in the ointment is comfrey, which can cause liver damage if ingested. Complete Tissue & Bone ointment should not be taken orally, used as a suppository, or applied to broken skin. I also recommend washing your hands with soap and water after application to prevent ingesting any trace of the ointment.

Use the Comment box at the bottom of the page if you have a comment or question and thank you for visiting.

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03 – Bit of a Health Scare in 2024 (2025-07-22)

On October 23, 2024 at around 1700, my left eye felt like something was in it. I rubbed my eye a few times in an attempt to dislodge whatever might be in my eye. Shortly afterwards, I began having flashes in the same eye. The flashes continued sporadically until about 2300. I also experienced some visual distortion similar to having wrinkled or folded plastic wrap over my left eye.

I searched the Internet using the symptoms as a search phrase and I discovered that the issue might be the signs of a detached retina. A detached retina can lead to blindness if not treated quickly, so I was a bit concerned. I also remembered during my last eye exam that the doctor examining my eyes stated that I had early signs of cataracts and that if I began seeing flashes to call the office as soon as possible.

I made an appointment the following day with an ophthalmologist in the late afternoon. The ophthalmologist diagnosed the issue as posterior vitreous detachment (PVD), an age-related eye issue. The ophthalmologist also confirmed that I had early signs of cataracts.

The PVD in my left eye resulted in a large floater that annoys me. I watched a video on the Dr. Eric Berg YouTube channel in May of this year in which Dr. Berg stated that n-acetyl-carnosine (NAC) eye drops can remedy cataracts and eye floaters. I began using the eye drops in June of this year. From what I’ve read from reviews about NAC eye drops, the drops can take awhile to work.

Are you excited about getting old? Let me know your thoughts in the comment box at the bottom of the page and thank you for visiting.

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04 – Why I Will Not Buy Gorilla Munch Again (2025-08-07)

For a few years now, I’ve encountered an issue with Nature’s Path Gorilla Munch where there were rock-hard clumps of cereal. However, I never felt like taking the time to write Nature’s Path to let them know about the issue. While larger clumps are easy to identify, the smaller clumps aren’t so easy to identify. Thankfully, I never bit down hard on one of the smaller clumps because my mouth is full of dental crowns.

In July of this year, I encountered a number of large and small rock-hard clumps of cereal in 2 or 3 boxes of Gorilla Munch.

I saved the clumps and cereal box tops thinking I would write Nature’s Path and let them know how displeased I was with the issue.

Then I thought it would be better to write a blog post so that others could learn about the issue. Surely other customers have already complained about the issue, but it has gone on for years. I’m thinking the folks at Nature’s Path either don’t care, or they haven’t been able to do anything, about the clumping issue.

I have been buying Gorilla Munch from Wegmans because they sell it for the cheapest price I’ve found, $4.49 for a 10-oz box. I’ve now decided that I will no longer purchase Gorilla Munch.

If you’d like to leave a comment or if you have a question, there’s a comment box at the bottom of the page. Thank you for visiting.

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05 – Google, I Hate You! (2025-08-13)

On July 8 while Web browsing using WiFi on my smartphone, I noticed that an Android update had started.

Even though I have automatic updates disabled, updates are still installed automatically. I have a Motorola smartphone and receiving updates even with automatic updates disabled was also an issue on my previous Motorola smartphone. Because of the issue, I will not buy another Motorola phone. I should be able to delay Android updates if I so desire.

Anyway, the Android update performed on July 8 was not just a security update, it was an upgrade from Android 14 Upside Down Cake to Android 15 Marshmallow, an apt name based on the results of the upgrade. After rebooting my phone when the upgrade had finished, I didn’t notice anything unusual. However, I later learned that there were two issues introduced by the upgrade.

I use PipePipe on my smartphone to view YouTube videos. PipePipe seemed to be really slow and I eventually got fed up with the slowness and deleted the app. Then I noticed that web browsing and app downloads were unusually slow. I fired up the Speedtest by Ookla app and checked my wireless speeds. Upload WiFi speed was very respectable, but WiFi download speed was horrible…less than 1mb per second.

On another day during July I connected my smartphone to my desktop computer using a USB cable to transfer documents to my smartphone. I wasn’t able to connect my smartphone to my desktop computer as I had successfully done numerous times prior to the Android 15 upgrade. I did some Internet research on connecting a smartphone running Android 15 to a computer. I tried all of the suggestions, but I was still unable to connect my smartphone to my desktop computer for file transfers.

I also began to notice that browsing the web with my smartphone and downloading apps, app upgrades, and digital magazines were agonizingly slow as well. Then I realized that all of the problems I was experiencing must be related to the Android 15 upgrade. A bit of research about Android 15 issues confirmed my suspicion. I guess I should feel fortunate because the Android 15 upgrade bricked some phones, including Google’s own Pixel phones.

One of the issues with the Android 15 upgrade is slow WiFi. Oh, I thought, maybe mobile data runs fine. So I enabled mobile data and ran the Speedtest by Ookla app to check data speeds. Mobile data download speed was worse than WiFi.

In August I was able to resolve the connectivity issue between my computer and smartphone by installing android-file-transfer under all of my Linux installs.

Maybe if Google concentrated more on their technology instead of trying to be the thought police, they could release better Android system upgrades. We need Linux running on smartphones like yesterday. I absolutely hate Google.

There’s a comment box at the bottom of the page if you have a comment or question. Thank you for visiting.

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Post header image courtesy of makeshyft_tom on Pixabay.

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