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Travelling without the iPod

2 Jan

At a time, when anyone and everyone is seen with little white earbuds in their ears; on the bus, on the train, in school, on the street, riding their bike, I find it necessary to point out certain times to leave the iPod at home.

And one of those times I find it not only necessary, but critical that you leave your iPod or any other electronics at home, is when you are travelling. Let’s face it, if you went through the effort of lugging mini speakers along for your iPod, you probably didnt venture too far off the beaten path, and that beach your at will probably have somebody else playing Bob Marley anyways. And nothing screams “don’t talk to me I’m antisocial” like headphones on while riding the train or bus to the next city on your itinerary. Point is, if your blocking out your surroundings on a trip, your also blocking out potential conversations and experiences at a time when you should be absorbing as much as possible.

Travelling is about experiences, its not about killing time between the next “snap a picture proof I was here lets move on now” moments. It’s about listening to the sounds around you, the way the train wheels squeel along the tracks, the strange music that bus driver is playing, picking out key words in a conversation between people speaking a foreign language your trying to grasp. This is it, you went through a great deal of trouble to be somewhere else other than home, you came to see how people live, new smells hit your nostrils, your touching and feeling, why not listen, listen to the sounds of this new place.

You’ll be surprised at how many chance encounters with friendly strangers can happen when you simply open yourself up to the possibilty of interaction. You can listen to your new playlist anytime when you are at home, how many opportunities are there to converse with somebody who lives a world away?

Are we in a new era of antisocial behavior never seen before? Is it healthy? Lynne Truss doesn’t think so, in her book ‘Talk to the Hand’ she figures “this is an age of social autism, in which people just can’t see the value of imagining their impact on others..”. Not convinced? Google the term “ipod antisocial” and you’ll find a plethora of articles and blogs discussing the topic.

So if a cellphone or an iPod can have such detrimental effects to our social life at home, the reasons to leave the iPod behind are only compounded when embarking on a new trip. So do yourself a favor, when your packing your bag, leave the iPod in the dock, you’ll be glad you did.

Is Chocolate Milk Really That Bad?

28 Dec

So after a little Christmas break, I was reading this article about the new war on chocolate milk. The basis of this story is nothing new, it is infact a new target in the same direction as the fight to get unhealthy food out of schools, ban vending machines, and try to sue Mcdonalds for everything. And it got me thinking, is chocolate milk really that bad?

The issue at hand is chocolate milk in schools, and the push to remove chocolate milk from schools across the United States for health reasons. I grew up drinking chocolate milk, granted I drink a little less nowadays than what I used to, but the fact remains, I am not overweight and unhealthy because of my chocolate milk consumption. So I personally take offense to movements such as this, not only for their false evidence, but also for the greater issue of a total lack of personal liability. In this artcile Ann Cooper, director of nutritional services from Boulder Valley School District in Colorado states that:

If a child chooses chocolate milk instead of regular milk every single day for a year, she says, they’ll gain about 3 lbs. because of the extra sugar and calories. “Over the course of a K-12 education, that can add up,” says Cooper.
 

 If Cooper’s statements are correct, if I drank a glass of chocolate milk everyday starting say when I was 5 years old until I was 24 years old, I will of gained 57lbs of chocolate milk weight hanging around my middle section. Well that’s scary! I wonder how much weight I’d gain if I ate one sandwhich everyday for a year, maybe we should ban sandwhiches too? Fact is, there is a total disregard for the nutrional value of chocolate milk, and the amazing ability of human beings being able to burn calories through their daily life.

The deeper issue to this health blame game that has erupted over the past decade boils down liability and responsibility. When will we draw the line in the sand and realize that there is only so much blame that can be diverted from yourself. There is no physical force making you buy chocolate milk and drink it excessively until you become overweight. The old rationalizations that fast food is cheaper to buy than healthy food simply does not fly anymore. Nowhere is it cheaper to buy 10 dollar meal combos for each member of your family at BK or McD’s than what you can buy at a grocery store for that same amount of money spent at the drive-thru window. By placing regulations on what foods we can and cannot buy we are slowly chipping away out our right to choose, our freedoms even. We are slowly creating a society in which we are told what to consume and what not to, a society where nothing is your fault, but rathery societies fault. If it comes to that, heck, why don’t we just line up and have the government hand out are designated rations of food we are supposed to eat each day, it would save us all some time at least!

All sarcasm aside, is this what we really want? I just hope everyone thinks about the bigger picture when they are faced with these decisions. And for the record, I am in no way being compensated by any National Dairy Council to write this, but if you are reading this and would like to, please contact me. Rather I’m just a big kid who loves chocolate milk. Drink up!

 

Quick & Easy Meal: Honey-Soy Pine Nut Pork

12 Dec

Love to cook or maybe you hate to cook, doesnt matter today it’s a cooking blog entry!  If your a busy person its nice to be able to make a meal thats delicious, healthy and fast. Heres a dish that I just made this evening that really is very quick to make and really only required a few ingredients. Ive included some photos I took during the process as well just to help with the visual aspect.

First, what you’ll need. Please note I never use actual measurement when I cook, so Im not about to list them in a recipe, haha!

Boneless Pork

Nuts or Seeds (I used Pine Nuts I had left over from a previous dish, you can use sesame seeds or any type of nut)

Honey

Vegetable Oil

Soy Sauce

Green Beans (Or any vegetable, be creative, that’s what cooking is about!)

Rice or Noodles

First, you’ll need to take the nuts that you have chosen, in my case the pine nuts, and crush them into a coarse consistency. If you have a mortar and pestle, this could be a great time to actually use it, or just use the back end of a spoon, crushing the nuts in a medium sized bowl. If your using something small like sesame seeds, skip this step, just put them directly into the bowl.

Once you’ve got that finished, go ahead and pour equal amounts of dark soy sauce, oil, and honey into a mixing bowl. If you only have creamed honey, just heat some up in the microwave to liquify it. Stir that concoction up well, getting it to a nice consistancy and then set that bowl aside, after a quick taste of course, go ahead, its good.

Now hopefully you have thawed your pork, or if you always buy your meat fresh, your good to go. Slice that pork up into fairly small pieces, something a bite or two in size. As soon as you are finished, go ahead and toss all the pork into your bowl of oil-soy-honey marinade. Stir that up, making sure all the pieces of pork are completely coated. Let that sit for a minute and absorb the flavor.

Now is a good time to get some rice or noodles cooking, I also cooked up the green beans at this time. Turn your stovetop on medium heat, and get your skillet or frying pan ready. Pour some oil in there and set it on the burner. Have your bowl of marinated pork ready to go, along with your bowl of crushed nuts or seeds. Now here comes the fun part, pull out the peices of pork one by one and lay them flat in the crushed nuts, flip it over to cover both sides, this coating is going to give the pork a tasty crunch. Repeat this process with each piece of pork, laying them in the pan ensuring not to splash hot oil on yourself.

With all your pork in the pan, let it cook for a good few minutes, turning the pieces over so they are cooked and browning on both sides. You don’t want to overcook your pork, it will give it a tough texture, a common mistake by many.

Your almost done! Prepare a bed of the rice or noodles in a bowl, and once your pork is cooked, start laying some pieces ontop of the bed of rice or noodles.

From here I quickly sauteed my green beans in the same pan that I cooked the pork in, making good use of the rest of that flavor. I then scooped some beans ontop of the pork and rice.

And that’s it, your done! Garnesh that dish with some fresh herbs if you’ve got them, some coriander would go well. Grab your chopsticks, or fork if your chopstick inept, and dig in. Its a healthy and tasty meal that should only take you 15 minutes to make. Be sure to cook up a little extra for tomorrow incase you don’t have time to cook!

Sydney Plagued by Dust Storm

22 Sep

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Karen from Dulwich Hill, in Sydney’s inner west, says she woke up to find the red dust had covered her floors and birds had been blown out of their nests.

“It did feel like Armageddon because when I was in the kitchen looking out the skylight, there was this red, red glow coming through,” she said.

According to witnesses reporting to ABC news in Australia today, its an eerie feeling of Armageddon sweeping across parts of New South Wales including Sydney. You can read the article here.

It is already September 23, 2009 in Australia, and residents in Sydney woke up to something quite surreal this morning when they took a look outside. A dust storm is currently covering the city and is expected to last for most of the day. With a rush of photos emerging on facebook, blogs, and media websites currently, the city looks more like images from mars than the sunny coastal city that most people know Sydney to be.

Winds up to 100km/hr have been pushing red dust from inland Australia to the east coast, blanketing the city in a redish tinge. There has been a spike in calls for emergency services from people with breathing difficulties, ferries have been disrupted and international flights  being cancelled and diverted is causing chaos for passengers. The storm is only expected to get worse, with current winds in the city at 60km/hr but expected to gust up to 100km/hr later in the day.

And exclusive to fivepuddles.com are some photos taken recently in Sydney. Thanks to my friend Teall for these.

A True Cordless World

13 Sep

So bluetooth has been around for a while, we’ve all gotten used to wireless routers, so whats the next step. No its not wireless earbud headphones that I am praying for. Well according to WiTricity, a technology company, its cordless electricity. No more laptop charging chords, cell phone chargers, dont bother plugging in the hybrid just park it in the garage, and we can forever be done with unsightly powerlines and disposable batteries. Well maybe not right away, but the technology is well on its way.

There are a variety of methods used by different companies, and some commercial applications are already in use. WiTricity ( http://www.witricity.com/) converts eletricity into a magnetic field which is then radiated through the air. Some refining is needed, but advances are being made which means we could see applications for computers and cell phones within a year.

Another company known as Powercast from Pittsburgh used radiowaves to power an LED lightbult 1.5miles away from the power source. According to CNN: 

Now, Powercast’s technology is used in office buildings to power temperature sensors that regulate air conditioning systems and in other low-power applications. The company also has sold wireless artificial Christmas trees strung with LED lights for about $400, Ostaffe said.

But radio waves can’t transfer the larger amounts of electricity needed to power laptops or mobile phones, he said.

Magnetic technology seems to be the only currently available method of sending larger amounts of electricity. But reasearchers at MIT admitted there may be health risks associated with the technology. Apparantly the technology can produce magentic levels consistent with the density of the earths magnetic field.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/02/wireless.electricity/index.html

Eat more Popcorn, It’s Good for You!

18 Aug

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Maybe I’m the only one, but I have a strange habit. When my friends and I are watching a movie, we sometimes get a bowl of popcorn going, everyone loves to snack on something when your watching a good movie right? But as the plot thickens, and my peers become absorbed by the story, I have an ulterior motive. I clutch that bowl of popcorn and single handidly eat the rest until I am meticulously picking out the half popped kernels and devouring them. The only evidence is a handful of unpopped kernels at the bottom of the bowl rolling around as a distant reminder of the grandeur that  bowl used to be. I then ease the bowl back onto the coffee table, hoping nobody noticed.

I used to feel bad about gorging myself on the deliciousness of popcorn. But today that all changes. According to a study released today by Professor Joe Vinson and his team at University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, popcorn can be better for you than you think.

Polyphenols are healthy antioxidant’s, and until recenlty have only been attributed to plants and have mainly been associated with the skin and seeds of fruits and vegetables. But this new research suggests that whole grains contain a substancial amount of polyphenols, among 30 brands of supermarket cereal, all contained polyphenols. And popcorn contains the highest amount (2.6%) of polyphenols of any snack foods. Polyphenols also have anti-inflammatory properties and scientists also belive they reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other ailments.

“Early researchers thought the fiber was the active ingredient for these benefits in whole grains — the reason why they may reduce the risk of cancer and coronary heart disease,” says Vinson. “But recently, polyphenols emerged as potentially more important. Breakfast cereals, pasta, crackers and salty snacks constitute over 66 percent of whole grain intake in the U.S. diet,” he continues.

You can read the Forbes Article here, and the WebMD article here.

Cereals containing cinnamon and cocoa had much higher levels of antioxidants as well. Turns out all those nights where I polished off the popcorn bowl, I was actually doing my body good. So with that said, I no longer have to feel guilty about my late night bowl of cinnamon toasted life cereal, or eating the rest of the bowl of popcorn.

So get that Orville Redenbacher poppin’ sit down, put in a movie and start munching, and put your mind at ease, your doing your body good!

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