Healthcare discussions make me angry. The discussions about 'reform' are taking place with professional politicians who used to be lawyers or businessmen and for the most part have never had a problem getting healthcare or paying for treatments. It all makes me so angry I don't even want to open up my opinions for discussion here. However despite that, I felt the need to share this conversation that two of my favorite vloggers have been having this week...
Meet Hank;
and meet his brother John;
Capitalism is good for many things, but allowing your health or sickness be the determining factor of someone else's profit is dangerous.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Happy Robbie Burns Day!!
To A Kiss
Humid seal of soft affections,
Tend'rest pledge of future bliss,
Dearest tie of young connections,
Love's first snow-drop, virgin kiss.
Speaking silence, dumb confession,
Passion's birth, and infants' play,
Dove-like fondness, chaste concession,
Glowing dawn of brighter day.
Sorrowing joy, adieu's last action,
Ling'ring lips, -- no more to join!
What words can ever speak affection
Thrilling and sincere as thine!
---Robert Burns
And... a song that I was not aware Robbie Burns wrote the lyrics to; Auld Lang Syne. This guy doesn't use the same tune we usually mumble at New Years, but it's kind of pretty;
Friday, January 21, 2011
Wanderlust
Consider this a warning. I have a vacation planned. Or perhaps I should say I have a plane ticket to Germany and I cannot stop planning. I am as indecisive as my little sister at Halloween; "I want to be a cowgirl, no a ballerina, no a monster, a witch, a ballerina who wears cowboy boots!!!!...."
For some reason, in my brain, getting off of the continent instantly makes the rest of the world easy access. In my head it's like America has this big bubble over it and once you break free you're in "the rest of the world" and this lovely not America place has magic trains that cost a dollar and suddenly it is possible to travel from Berlin to Jerusalem via Hyderabad in just a matter of hours. Logically I know this is not true. A Eurorail pass costs a few hundred dollars depending on how many countries you want to see and the duration of your trip. A train takes eight hours to get from Berlin to Munich. Of course considering the train from San Francisco takes twelve hours to get to Los Angeles, it makes it all seem so close!
Right now I pour over travel books, I consult Anthony Bourdain, I somehow try to decide where and how long to stay while trying to keep the magic fairy train out of my head. If I keep my travels on a schedule and only go to a handful of cities I can keep this trip somewhat affordable. I must remember that it takes time to really see a place so taking my time is better than trying to just zoom past it all. It is so tempting to get the super expensive all access train pass and think that once I get to Munich, I should just hop on down to Italy and from there Spain is right next door... and hell, if I'm in Spain I really ought to travel south for just a little bit to get to Morocco... there's just so much I've never seen. For once I can say it is good I am traveling on a used shoestring budget and cannot possibly get the super train pass. I am forced to think this through and plan carefully.
I've got nearly three months left and somehow need to find a way to make myself chill out. All of this possibility keeps me up far too late at night.
For some reason, in my brain, getting off of the continent instantly makes the rest of the world easy access. In my head it's like America has this big bubble over it and once you break free you're in "the rest of the world" and this lovely not America place has magic trains that cost a dollar and suddenly it is possible to travel from Berlin to Jerusalem via Hyderabad in just a matter of hours. Logically I know this is not true. A Eurorail pass costs a few hundred dollars depending on how many countries you want to see and the duration of your trip. A train takes eight hours to get from Berlin to Munich. Of course considering the train from San Francisco takes twelve hours to get to Los Angeles, it makes it all seem so close!
Right now I pour over travel books, I consult Anthony Bourdain, I somehow try to decide where and how long to stay while trying to keep the magic fairy train out of my head. If I keep my travels on a schedule and only go to a handful of cities I can keep this trip somewhat affordable. I must remember that it takes time to really see a place so taking my time is better than trying to just zoom past it all. It is so tempting to get the super expensive all access train pass and think that once I get to Munich, I should just hop on down to Italy and from there Spain is right next door... and hell, if I'm in Spain I really ought to travel south for just a little bit to get to Morocco... there's just so much I've never seen. For once I can say it is good I am traveling on a used shoestring budget and cannot possibly get the super train pass. I am forced to think this through and plan carefully.
I've got nearly three months left and somehow need to find a way to make myself chill out. All of this possibility keeps me up far too late at night.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Cake rant
Recently two links have popped up on my Facebook feed... both related to the propaganda of dieting. It's odd how there seems to be stock photography about diets that I never really noticed. It's all aimed at women and it seems to assume that women all have similar eating problems... clearly it is cake. It is chocolate. It is eating that one delicious thing that Every woman loves... we are offered cake at every turn and find we must resist. Did you not notice this?
Oh OH! it is so hard to turn the corner and not find a cake. You know what would cheer me up? It's salad. Salad is apparently the funniest meal of the day. It's awesome. And you can eat it alone because well, men do not think salad is as funny as we do...
I know there are other stock photography examples out there... the woman lifting weights on the beach, the happy yoga on a rock... on a rock! Have you ever done yoga on top of a bolder? As soon as you try a new balance pose and fall out of it at best you're going to scrape up your feet, and at worst you're going to fall off.
The larger problem in all of this is the way that it simplifies problems. You are fat because of cake. If you're not eating cake... well there is no real solution for you but you should laugh over some salad and lift some weights. You should eat some salad and lift weights, but most diet magazines are not going to tell you why. They are also not going to tell you that fast food, and soda are making you fat because then Mickey D's is going to sue them. They will tell you the "healthier" foods to buy at the fast food joints. They are not going to tell you that you need to eat less, because that's not profitable. They talk a lot about things to buy but not quantity to consume.
They aren't going to tell you how to really understand your nutritional needs... you need to eat more energy bars and take more special diet pills and spend Money! Even the FDA has its hands tied by food lobbyists about what they can or cannot tell you (check out Food Politics by Marion Nestle). How is it fitness magazines are going to push past that? "Make healthier choices" is the creed but when you get down to it they clearly think that cake is the most delicious thing on earth... yes they even try to tell you to eat yogurt instead of food... knowing that yogurt (at least diet yogurt) is kind of vile.
(You'll be back on cake and fat in no time) You need to stay frustrated and continue to pick up their diet magazines with slightly repackaged advice that never really gets you where you want to be... just closer when you are very very good.
...and when you resist cake. Of course.
I know there are other stock photography examples out there... the woman lifting weights on the beach, the happy yoga on a rock... on a rock! Have you ever done yoga on top of a bolder? As soon as you try a new balance pose and fall out of it at best you're going to scrape up your feet, and at worst you're going to fall off.
The larger problem in all of this is the way that it simplifies problems. You are fat because of cake. If you're not eating cake... well there is no real solution for you but you should laugh over some salad and lift some weights. You should eat some salad and lift weights, but most diet magazines are not going to tell you why. They are also not going to tell you that fast food, and soda are making you fat because then Mickey D's is going to sue them. They will tell you the "healthier" foods to buy at the fast food joints. They are not going to tell you that you need to eat less, because that's not profitable. They talk a lot about things to buy but not quantity to consume.
They aren't going to tell you how to really understand your nutritional needs... you need to eat more energy bars and take more special diet pills and spend Money! Even the FDA has its hands tied by food lobbyists about what they can or cannot tell you (check out Food Politics by Marion Nestle). How is it fitness magazines are going to push past that? "Make healthier choices" is the creed but when you get down to it they clearly think that cake is the most delicious thing on earth... yes they even try to tell you to eat yogurt instead of food... knowing that yogurt (at least diet yogurt) is kind of vile.
(You'll be back on cake and fat in no time) You need to stay frustrated and continue to pick up their diet magazines with slightly repackaged advice that never really gets you where you want to be... just closer when you are very very good.
...and when you resist cake. Of course.
Frosty Garner Valley...
Ice that dusts the trees can make you stop
in the middle of the road
and gasp.
Photos are rather insufficient.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Brevity
Fighting a cold today,
Sewing at home where it is warm,
sleeping soon I hope...
The camera that I've been piecing together from ebay auctions came in and my friend lent me his lens to make sure it works... I dare say it takes some rather stunning images... I hope I can get equally satisfying results from the lenses that I actually got. The only downside to this baby is that the automatic flash is stuck and will not turn off, leaving me without any special features... but still not so shabby.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Mother of invention
Traditionally this phrase is that "Necessity is the mother of invention" Perhaps Accident is more like Invention's flaky Aunt. Many times the slip of the brush or the scissors at an inopportune time leads me to make "design choices" I would not otherwise make, but it seems to me that most invention is the result of desperation or of carefully planned out experimentation to fill needs...
What do you think? Could Accident be a mother to Invention?
Monday, January 3, 2011
Yo?
Ok this is a little random and just odd enough that I had to make a vid of it to share...
I tried the CD in a CD player... it's Billy Ocean disguised as Yo-Yo Ma... weird.
I tried the CD in a CD player... it's Billy Ocean disguised as Yo-Yo Ma... weird.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Happy New Year
A new year brings with it a plethora of resolutions that most people expect to fail at. I say Nay! Improvement is ongoing, resolutions should happen all year, the human spirit should be ever climbing to a greater goal at all times... January is a good time for reflection, to sit and think "where am I going?" "what would I like to be doing?" "Who do I want to be?". It is a time to look into the mirror and have a good harsh discussion with yourself.
Onwards and upwards.
This year I intend to learn about how to manage my money better, I am going to read one book by aRepublican Conservative (a non-fiction book, Orson Scott Card does not count),I will fill the massive HP Lovecraft gap in my education by reading some, I am going to improve my foreign language skills (Spanish, Hebrew AND German), I will be a more positive person when I can, I will find time to go swimming this next summer... yes soon I will be closer to being closer to attempting 'perfection'
May your year bring you happy adventures, improvements, brilliant ideas and new exciting goals!
What are your next steps towards the fractal that is never quite perfection? What Conservative book should I read that I will not feel the urge to purge upon?
Onwards and upwards.
This year I intend to learn about how to manage my money better, I am going to read one book by a
May your year bring you happy adventures, improvements, brilliant ideas and new exciting goals!
What are your next steps towards the fractal that is never quite perfection? What Conservative book should I read that I will not feel the urge to purge upon?
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