How to enter the Odessa catacombs without a guide or tour

If you’re looking for something to do in Odessa, the catacombs are pretty cool. If you haven’t heard of them before, posts on Atlas Obscura and The Bohemian Blog are good places to start.

If you’re like me, you’re already ready to go check it out, but where do you go exactly? I searched around for “how to get in the odessa catacombs yourself” or “odessa catacombs entrance”, but couldn’t find anything. I found several paid tours, but of course it’s not in their interest to give up the actual location of where you enter.

A lot of sites will warn you about getting lost in the caves. I thought their warnings were too cautious, but after firsthand experience, I must agree: they’re a serious danger. I went on a guided tour. About 10 or 15 turns in I thought I was doing pretty well in keeping my bearings. After 20 minutes we’d passed by perhaps 50 possible turn locations, not including all of the possible routes going backwards if you miss one, and my internal compass was disoriented. Either don’t walk more than a few minutes in, or go with a guide. Supposedly several people have gotten lost and died. It’s not surprising (even if only legend).

Our tour guide met us a bit out of the city in a smaller village, Nerubaiske. We parked out car under a tree, and walked to the entrance. There are supposedly dozens of entrances, but I was unable to find any other online besides the official museum (perhaps I wasn’t searching well enough, and, after all, I was only searching in english).

An entrance to the Odessa catacombs is located at 46°32’33.8″N 30°38’06.0″E. (Or decimal form: 46.542713, 30.635005).

Entrance to the Odessa Catacombs

If you want to go the safer route (which I didn’t do actually, but plan to next time I’m in Odessa), you can visit the Partisan Glory Museum in the same village (Nerubaiske).

Where to buy MMS (Sodium Chlorite) in Ukraine

I’ve been making huge strides in improving my chronic Lyme/parasites/heavy metals recently, and I intend to write much more about it, but for now I just wanted to post some simple info.

After a personal recommendation, I finally tried MMS. The disinformation campaign on the internet is overwhelmingly strong, and it was successful in scaring me away from trying it before hearing from a friend who had experience with it himself. MMS is Sodium Chlorite mixed with an activator (I use hydrochloric acid), to produce Chlorine Dioxide, a relatively weak oxidizer which is electrically attracted to pathogens, and oxidizes them on impact (steals their electrons, destroying their molecules and reducing them to mere salt or other harmless byproducts).

I originally purchased MMS from this US based supplier: https://mmsforhealth.com/ (I recommend the glass kit with hydrochloric acid as the activator). I unfortunately dropped the bag I was using to carry the bottles around on the cold icy ground in Kyiv and broke the Sodium Chlorite bottle (I was really bummed, I felt like I had actually dropped my brain on the floor because of how beneficial it had been over the previous few days).

I still had the hydrochloric acid, so all I needed was 22.4% Sodium Chlorite solution and I was good to go. The instructions on how to make this are basically “open source”, it’s just simple chemistry and Jim Humble describes how to create it in his book (The Master Mineral Solution of the Third Millennium).

By searching for “Хлорит натрия” I found an ad on olx.ua by someone who produces MMS in Ukraine. Going to insert the text from the ad here, just in case it disappears:

Хлорит натрия — неорганическое соединение, соль щелочного металла натрия и хлористой кислоты с формулой NaClO2, бесцветные кристаллы, растворимые в воде, образует кристаллогидрат.

MMS (Master Mineral Solution и старое название Miracle Mineral Solution) – это водный раствор хлорита натрия 22,4% концентрации (NaCLO2). Это уникальный окислитель, способный проникнуть в тело и уничтожить патоген, являющегося причиной заболевания. ММС также является окислителем ядов тяжелых металлов и самым сильным средством уничтожающим патогены: вирусы, грибки, микробы.

Может использоваться для получения диоксида хлора и приготовления CDS, CDH, CDI путем смешивания с активатором. Активатор может быть добавлен к Вашему заказу при необходимости.

Минимальный объем заказа: 1 литр.

Отправляем почтой по Украине.

The name listed on the ad was Oleg, phone number +38(063)208-0189. I called and an older lady answered. She didn’t speak any English, but my Russian was good enough to ask a few questions and place an order. I forgot her name, but she was very nice. They’re based in Kharkiv. They sent the package through Nova Poshta and it arrived just a day or two later (I was a little disappointed it was in a plastic bottle, but I suppose glass would’ve been much more difficult to ship). I think the price was 700 UAH for 1 liter (about $25). This is obviously a ton of MMS, and it’s cheaper than prices in the US, as most things are here. Anyway, if you need some MMS or want to give it a shot and you live in Ukraine, give them a call.

I’ve been chronically ill ever since I started taking Accutane in 2011. It’s now February 2017. Numerous doctors could identify my body had serious problems, but nobody could figure out the root cause. There were many. Parasites, heavy metals, and Lyme have been the main underlying issues, but I wouldn’t have had such a health decline if my liver and intestines weren’t destroyed by Accutane and the numerous antibiotics the dermatologists put me on before before that. The skin is a safety valve for you liver, I had so many zits and acne because my liver couldn’t keep up with all the toxic substances inside of me. I likely had acne mainly because of candida, or other parasites I probably had at that time (it’s on my todo list to write about the parasites I’ve gotten out of me. The pictures are the best part!).

The modern US “healthcare” system completely failed me. They’re great at treating acute issues, like if you break your arm or get shot, but horrible at chronic problems. They’ll just put you on health-harming drugs with little benefit. Once you’re on the drugs, you likely won’t get off. This is not the solution to health. I absolutely cannot trust allopathic medicine anymore for my personal health.

I feel so betrayed by the US healthcare system that they will likely never regain my trust again, unless we see some serious changes to the FDA, what studies are funded, and the leveling of the healthcare free market.

I intend to write more, time permitting, over the next several months about my health recovery. There are lots of success stories similar to mine, using the same tools I used, but the propaganda (yes, propaganda, as in the same sort of disinformation campaigns the Russian use) against these methods is so intense, many more will be tricked against using them. The least I can do is honestly write about my personal experience and what my years of research uncovered.

Using a 110v IQAir purifier in Europe with a 220v transformer/converter

At one point in my health journey, I became very sensitive to polluted air. I’d walk in the woods outside of the city and feel very clear headed, then as soon as I got out of the forest and near cars I’d feel bad again. At the time I was living in an apartment (Kyiv, Ukraine), and it was great to get fresh air from outside, but the reality was that the air wasn’t all that fresh.

I decided to check out air purifiers and see if they might be able to help me out. Indoor air is supposedly more polluted than outdoor anyway, so even if I wasn’t going to open the windows the air was still not ideal. There was also a sort of chemical smell in the apartment I was in, probably from the off-gassing of the furniture there (even though it had been finished for a few years, something still smelled).

I did some research and came to the conclusion that IQAir makes the highest quality/best residential air purifiers around. Awesome, in the US the retail price at the time (end of 2014 if I recall correctly) was $1200. Looking in September for 2016 it seems like it’s still the same price. Great! Let’s call them up and make sure it’ll work in Europe with 220v-240v outlets. Nope. “Get the European version, contact IQAir in Switzerland”. Of course Switzerland is the land of the cheap (not), but I still contacted them to see what it would cost. 1600 CHF. Pfft. Plus shipping, probably a couple hundred. I’ll just buy the US version and use a transformer. That should be no problem right?

All the sellers warned against it. Nobody wanted to continue the warranty outside of North America. Plus, I had to transport it. Whatever, I’ll give it a shot, I thought. A good 220->110v transformer should be the exact same as 110v power in the US, assuming no power surges or anything. I ordered one, with a Black Friday discount for another 10% off (from freshairpro.com, wait until a holiday and they’ll email you a discount code if you’re on their list. Most recent code is from labor day 2016: LABORDAY).

It came, and my plan was to take it with me on the plane as a checked bag. It fit within the weight limits, but there was a problem: the size. The airlines limit by length+width+height in addition to weight, and the purifier was just a couple inches over. No worries: my Dad is a master packer (and pilot himself) so we tore it open and started looking for a way to reduce the size. It wasn’t too hard actually, if you take off the bottom stand that the wheels connect to, you save a few inches. I put that bottom square thing on the outside of my backpack and carried it through Frankfurt on to Kyiv no problem. I was obviously worried about how it would make it through, seeing that the lugging handling regularly throws bags around and this was a seemingly delicate device. Thankfully there were no issue.

I unpacked it, plugged it into my voltage transformer/converter (not sure what the proper term is), and it worked! Beautifully smelling fresh air flooded the room. I still use it to this day. Now I live outside the city and like to leave the windows open, but sometimes the annoying neighbors burn things and it gets in the house. This purifier takes care of it no problem within a few minutes. I generally leave it on level 3, which is high enough to make quite a noticeable difference but not too loud. Anyway: if you’re looking to use an IQAir purifier on a 220v european outlet or somewhere else in the world, using a transformer has worked perfectly for me so far and saved a few hundred bucks.

Cheapster – what’s cheaper?

A friend of mine and I launched a small little project today: an app to help you compare product costs in terms of price per unit. It’s free, take a look on the App Store.

My wife has been asking me to make this for some time, so, this is for her 🙂

Cheapster - what's cheaper? screenshot

Sketch to UIView

Recently, a friend of mine and I started meeting up for 1-day “hackathon” projects. He designs, I code.

It wasn’t too long before I had the desire to automate my job, which, I felt, was simply a matter of making Sketch mockups come to life.

I enjoy writing views in code, rather than using interface builder. I wanted something that would “export” Sketch mockups into UIView code.

The first task was to get the data out of Sketch, which appeared to be easiest using Sketch Plugins. Sketch plugins use CocoaScript, which is similar to cycript, which I’m quite familiar with (at least using Objective-C methods) from iOS reverse engineering. I decided to start with just exporting data, then work on generating UIView code later.

This is the “Sketch to json export” script I came up with.

Select a layer, like an artboard, and run this script. You’ll see a .json file popup on your desktop.

I can post the python script that reads the .json and generates code later if there’s interest.

Starting the Cowden Protocol

Just thought I’d note that today I’m starting the Condensed Cowden Protocol: http://www.nutramedix.ec/ns/lyme-protocol

Tests for Lyme Disease have low accuracy, but I’ve suspected for some time that I might have it, so I’m going to give this a shot. Antibiotics this late in the game (assuming I have it) seem to be fairly ineffective, from my understanding of the research. I’ve actually been taking the detox herbs for a few days, today was my first with 1 drop of Samento and Banderol. Perhaps it’s my imagination, but it seems something is happening in my head already. (Here’s the schedule).

Update Feburary 24th, 2016:

I’m doing amazingly better. This protocol is super effective. If there’s a chance you might have Lyme, I recommend just buying the Nutramedix products and starting ASAP, you’ll know within a couple days if it’ll help you or not. I’ve gone a little over the recommended dose up to 35 drops for the microbial defense herbs. Dr. Cowden said somewhere (don’t recall the source) that you can double to 60 and it should help clear things out faster.

Update April 4th, 2016:

Past week has certainly been hard. I appear to be having some serious Herxheimer reaction/dieoff symptoms. I think I was slacking off a bit too much on drinking water. Yesterday I did multiple glasses of Burbur/Pinella and Parsley/Pinella combinations, and I could feel that working in my head. I put a full dropper of each into a glass of water and sip it down. I need to impress upon myself that there’s basically no limit to how much of the detox herbs I can take, they’ve been animal tested in huge amounts with no negative affects. I’ll try and make myself take more than before.

Update May 14th, 2016:

I’m currently on day 101 of the program. I’m certainly making progress, but, not as quickly as I’d hoped. This is pretty standard though. It’s hard for me to be patient when I feel like I’ve already lost a good 3 years of my life to mysterious illnesses that fell through the cracks of our broken medical system.

Anyway, I am doing better. A couple weeks ago I started doing LLLT with a device from LazrPulsr. They have a “Lyme Recovery Treatment Record“, which I was generally following, but now I mostly just to the “Lyme #684” and “Bacterial Infection #620” programs over and over. #684 almost always have a great impact on how I feel, generally in a positive way. I can feel it doing something in my head, it feels like my brain is slowly expanding in an odd sort of pleasant and relieving way. I really wish I knew what exactly it was doing, but it’s certainly helping, so I’m not at all worried. I hypothesize that it’s helping my brain better handle the toxins released by dead Lyme spirochetes, but, it could also be helping my immune system kill them, so I have no idea really. LLLT really needs to be studied more. There’s a place in NH that claims to have good results with LLLT, but I’d love to hear some patient testimonies (besides the ones on their site).

I’d like to note that I once took drops of the Cowden protocol, I don’t remember which exactly but I’m certain it’s irrelevant, and then went on a walk. I walked about 5km at a fairly brisk pace. I started feeling my typical brain fog, as a result of the herbs doing their work in killing the bad stuff, but after I got back, it continued to get worse. I reached a point where I had a splitting headache. After googling for “Lyme exercise” I confirmed that yes, lots of people experience discomfort after exercising with Lyme, because it helps our body kill off the spirochetes. But, I had gone on plenty of walks, or bike rides, or runs, before. The difference was I took the “killing herbs” right before I went on a walk, and my increased blood-flow helped them get to places in my body they might not reach as well when I’m inactive. I’m careful with how I take the drops and exercise now, because serious Herxheimer reactions can kill.