Aaaannnddd a week later...

Short stuff...if there's a blue pill and a red pill...and the red pill is half the price of the red pill.....wait...I take the blue pill and I can stay in my happy little matrix world? Yeah...I want health insurance, but DAMN I love ignorance! And Keanu Reeves...and/or Laurence Fishburne...aka Morpheus. Ok, so I do love me some Matrix.

Hmmm...kinda like me some Stephen Colbert as well..."Benjamin from Nyack - I've heard a lot that Canada rations - what does that mean, and I'm scared enough?"

Colbert - "Good question Benjamin,"
...

"Ben, rationing means that when things are looking bleak, the government is going to say 'Sorry! Treating you is not worth the cost.'

Private insurance would never do that.

They decide you're not worth the cost much earlier."

...There you have it - socialized medicine=invisible death box"


Indeed.

Even more so...

"Now, evidently folks, Bill Gates is devising a plan to cool the warm water on the ocean's surface that fuels oncoming hurricanes.

We can't let Bill Gates control the weather!

No matter what weather he tries for, there's a good chance everything will freeze...

Besides, if you really want to get rid of hurricanes, wouldn't it be easier to spray that cold water onto the gay people who's hot sex is causing God to send them in the first place?"

Oy. Vey.

Fail Blog

That should be the new title of my blog since only three days into my promise that I would post every day I have already failed...Whoops!

So, I caught the last 1/2 hour of the movie Serendipity today and I heard a quote that kind of stuck with me: "The ancient Greeks didn't write obituaries, instead they asked only one question of a man: 'Did he have passion?'"

As I'm trying to determine my direction in life right now (where do I go for grad school? what exactly am I going to get my masters in? what do I want to do for the rest of my life?)

So, in true Summer fashion, the first thing I did was research if the statement in the movie is even true. Apparently it is...kinda...

Aristippus of Cyrene, of the post-Socratic school of Greek philosophy, developed a philosophical movement called Cyreanaics, of which, one of the main precepts was Egoistic Hedonism. His philosophy said that everything was based upon the human reaction to pleasure and pain through sensation of the world, rather than the Socratic and Platonic belief in "Ideas", a.k.a.-the ideal forms that humans only imperfectly percieve in the material world and which they had to reconstruct in their own minds in order to perceive the true and the good of the "real" world beyond the senses (See Plato's Allegory of the Cave").

Anywho, Aristippus and his followers felt that people should always seek pleasure and avoid pain which would lead to right moral behavior. Specifically, that in the cultivation of ones passions, they would find heightened experiences, or "Know thyself".

/Philosophy lesson

So, how does this relate to me? As I said, I'm trying to figure out what direction I want to take in my life right now.

To do that, I have to figure out what my passion IS.

Of course, if you know me, you know this question has been keeping me up at night for the last 7 or so years.

So, what have my conclusions been so far?

I love traveling - hence my thought of getting my masters in International Business. Then, ostensibly, I could find a job that let me travel.

Of course, I also love helping people - hence my thought of getting an MBA with a greater focus on non-profit managements.

Then, I found a solution that could combine the two - Gates Foundation. It's an international non-profit. Perfect, right? Of course, I can't get a job there to save my life.

So, what else do I like? Cooking. Don't want to be a chef (have you ever worked with a chef? They're assholes!). Similarly, I like food. I don't have the experience or palette to be a food critic though. I like wine tasting! Still don't have the palette...I enjoy reading? Yeah, don't think that I have what it takes to be an editor either.

So, yeah, still searching. I want to figure it out, but damn it's hard. I failed at keeping this blog going for even one full week, let alone a month. And so far, I have failed at finding my *passion*. (I say so far because I honestly believe that I WILL find it, just haven't been successful so far...) Any suggestions? :)

Damn!

Said I was going to post every day for a month, and almost failed on my second day of posting! This is going to be hard...

So, I find it entertaining that Fox News even criticizes Obama even when he's throwing out the first pitch at the baseball all star game...geez, give the guy a break every once in a while! :)

And since I haven't discussed all that for a while, quick note on Obama - so, I think he's doing ok. Not brilliant. Not sucking. He's making a lot of concessions in an effort to work with people, but sometimes he give a little too much. And there have been a few instances where he has just full on rejected things that he said he would support during the campaign. I.E. - trying to keep records of who is visiting the White House secret, going back on his promise to revoke Don't Ask Don't Tell, etc.

Time will see how it all goes, but I still think he's doing a lot of great stuff too...Some other time when I have the time to go into more detail... :)

On a related note, I heart The Daily Show :)

Ok...

So, I'm going to try something new...I am going to try and post a blog entry every single day for one month. Some of them may be pathetically boring, but I'm just going to try it out!

So, what's happening in my life?

Looking at some additional sources of revenue since the bookkeeping biz, while doing relatively well, is still not enough to comfortably pay the bills.

Planning the boyfriend's 33rd birthday!

Trying to figure out inexpensive trips to take so I still get to take advantage of the beautiful summer and have a little bit of a vacation, but not break the bank!

Starting to train for the half marathon I'm running in October. Super excited for it! It's the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco...motto is "Run Like A Girl" and when you cross the finish line, a firefighter hands you a Tiffany necklace! Oh yeah! I mean, really, what else can a girl ask for? ;)

And, today, specifically, I'm working and looking at making "Chilled Summer Gazpacho with an Herbed Sour Cream" for dinner...now what do I make with it?

And another...

Interesting article I found...

Finally, some people are showing signs of having some common sense, here’s a thought for ya…

“Frustrated by the failure to overturn Roe v. Wade, a growing number of antiabortion pastors, conservative academics and activists are setting aside efforts to outlaw abortion and instead are focusing on building social programs and developing other assistance for pregnant women to reduce the number of abortions.

Some of the activists are actually working with abortion rights advocates to push for legislation in Congress that would provide pregnant women with health care, child care and money for education -- services that could encourage them to continue their pregnancies.”

So, news flash, for those of you who are anti-choice (or pro-life, however you like to spin it), almost all (if not all) pro-choice people are anti-abortion as well.

We would LOVE to see the number of abortions reduced!

HOWEVER, we will not stand for allowing that option to removed because under abnormal circumstances we may choose that for ourselves as the best option.

So, yes, please, provide services to encourage women to allow their pregnancies to continue to full term, but do NOT tell me what to do with my body.

My choice is to never have an abortion.

That may not be your choice.

And, in all honesty, that is my choice under normal circumstances. I have no idea what I would decide under different (i.e. – rape, endangering my life or the life of the baby, or if I would have become pregnant 15 years ago, etc.) circumstances. A similar response, I would image, that most other people (if they were honest) would also have if faced with a difficult situation.

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." [Matthew 7:1-5]

HFCS...

So....just because I'm seeing all these commercials around here making parents who are concerned about High Fructose Corn Syrup seem like uninformed idiots, I just want to post the following info about HFCS so there is no confusion:

There are a number of relevant studies published in peer reviewed journals suggesting a link between high fructose diets and adverse health effects. For example, studies on the effect of fructose, as reviewed by Elliot et al.,[1] implicate increased consumption of fructose (due primarily to the increased consumption of sugars but also partly due to the slightly higher fructose content of HFCS as compared to sucrose) in obesity and insulin resistance. Chi-Tang Ho et al. found that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS are up to 10 times richer in harmful carbonyl compounds, such as methylglyoxal, than a diet soft drink control.[2] Carbonyl compounds are elevated in people with diabetes and are blamed for causing diabetic complications such as foot ulcers and eye and nerve damage;[3][4] Furthermore, a study in mice suggests that fructose increases obesity.[5] Large quantities of fructose stimulate the liver to produce triglycerides, promotes glycation of proteins and induces insulin resistance.[6] According to one study, the average American consumes nearly 70 pounds of HFCS per annum, marking HFCS as a major contributor to the rising rates of obesity in the last generation. [7]

A 2007 study also raised concerns of possible liver damage as a result of HFCS in combination with a high fat diet and a sedentary lifestyle.[8]

1. Elliott, Sharon S; Nancy L Keim, Judith S Stern, Karen Teff and Peter J Havel (April 2004). "Fructose, weight gain, and the insulin resistance syndrome1". Am J Clin Nutr. 79 (4): 537–43.
2. Soda Warning? New Study Supports Link Between Diabetes, High-fructose Corn Syrup
3. "Diabetes fears over corn syrup in soda". New Scientist (04 September 2007). Retrieved on 2007-11-17.
4. Theresa Waldron Sugary Sodas High in Diabetes-Linked Compound
5. Jurgens, Hella; et al. (2005). "Consuming Fructose-sweetened Beverages Increases Body Adiposity in Mice" (abstract). Obesity Res 13: 1146–1156. doi:10.1038/oby.2005.136, http://www.obesityresearch.org/cgi/content/abstract/13/7/1146.
6. Faeh D, Minehira K, Schwarz JM, Periasamy R, Park S, Tappy L (July 2005). "Effect of fructose overfeeding and fish oil administration on hepatic de novo lipogenesis and insulin sensitivity in healthy men". DIABETES 54 (7): 1907–1913. doi:10.2337/diabetes.54.7.1907. PMID 15983189, http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/54/7/1907.
7. Mariniello, J. Martin (2007-11-28). "Weight Loss — Revealing The Hidden Secrets" (in English), Obesity Factors In Current Society. Retrieved on 28 November 2007.
8. “Supersize Me” Mice Research Offers Grim Warning for America’s Fast Food Consumers

THIS is how awesome my city is...

Here is the scene in one area of Seattle right after Obama was declared the winner (and yes, that is Don't Stop Believing blasting from speakers on one building's roof):

And here is the scene in downtown Seattle, mostly around Pike Place Market:

And, as another blogger pointed out, a miracle occurs - a drunken Capitol Hill hipster crowd sings the National Anthem, and means it:

NOT to mention the fireworks throughout the city, and even random "parades" of jubilant people through the smaller neighborhoods, mine own included!