Musings and chronicles on life, work, film, culture, politics, etc.
24 May 2013 2 Comments
in musing, opinion Tags: annoyance, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, obnoxious, Pale Moon
I ususally use Firefox or Pale Moon as browsers, but I’m having trouble uploading photos with them. So I switched to Microsoft’s Explorer for this task.
Explorer has been adding obnoxious ads of big breasted women, rotting teeth and cigarettes to my page. No thanks. I don’t want what you’re peddling. Ever think of trying actually add beauty to the world instead of shock?
19 May 2013 Leave a Comment
in humor, musing, satire, YouTube find Tags: animated, film, The Office, typography
07 May 2013 1 Comment
in culture, food, musing, opinion Tags: health, Intermittent fasting, alternate day fasting, Eating, nutrition
It’s week two of this, Alternate Day Fasting (a.k.a. Intermittent Fasting). Last week I fasted on Sunday and then Thursday. It wasn’t a complete success because I was going to fast on Wednesday, but I just got tempted so I changed my second day to Thursday. Last week was a weird week because I worked on Sunday and had Monday – Wednesday off. I just think if I don’t have to work, eating will be more of a temptation – at least by dinnertime.
Tuesday I have a good schedule for my fasts. I teach from 8-10am then again from 2:30 to 4:30pm. I can skip breakfast easily enough and if I get a 400-500 calorie lunch, I’m okay for the afternoon. Then I can take it easy in the evening and go to sleep early if hunger gets to be too much, as it has.
Thursday seemed harder because I teach from 8 to noon. So the afternoon’s wide open for temptation. As far as my teaching schedule goes Friday would be a better day as it’s just like Tuesday, but Friday is typically a night to go out with friends. I may need to fast on Sundays.
Today I’ve been pretty good. I did eat some radish balls for a small supper as it’s really hard to miss dinner completely. I recall I had fruit for dinner last week.
It’s interesting how this challenges me. It’s a more intense challenge than say cutting out a food group, but because its short term and intense, I think it’ll work. I can tell myself that tomorrow I can have some chocolate or whatever. I’m not going to weigh myself the first month because this change isn’t about weight, though that wouldn’t be a bad side effect. It’s about avoiding cancer and dementia, which seem to be caused by the American diet.
02 May 2013 1 Comment
I just deleted this comment: Great words here.
Okay, there are lots of great words in English and loads of other languages.
28 Apr 2013 6 Comments
in food, musing Tags: alternate day fasting, Cardiovascular disease, Fasting, Intermittent fasting, Michael Mosley, Mosley, PBS, Weight loss
Tuesday I finished watching PBS‘ Eat, Fast and Live Longer with Michael Mosley. It’s a documentary that shows Mosley exploring how changes in diet can dramatically reduce our chances of heart troubles, cancer and dementia. Mosley’s engaging and informative, an Everyman searching for a workable diet.
He gets several medical tests that confirm that although he looks to be in what we consider good shape, he’s on the way to needing loads of pills a day to stave off heart disease, diabetes, cancer and/or dementia. Wanting none of that, he meets expert researchers who’re discovering that lower calorie intake can help one avoid these conditions. Two of the three approaches are quite tough, cutting calorie intake by about a third and fasting for four days at a stretch a few times a year. He tried the four day fast and it was really tough, as you’d expect.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Then he learned about intermittent fasting. The idea is that you eat regularly for a few days and fast, with just one 500 (women) or 600 (calorie) meal on the fast day.
Intermittent fasting sounded quite doable for me and I’ve embarked on it. Yesterday was my first fast day. No breakfast, a lunch of three cabbage baozi and a banana. Throughout the day I had as much tea as I wanted. I did feel quite hungry and my head felt weird as the day went on. It wasn’t a headache, per se, but a sensation. Like Mosley, I’m going to try to fast 2 times a week. It’s easier, I think, to get through a 36 hour stretch with little food, none of it loaded with protein or fat, than to swear off a food group or go for several days or a week without a substantial meal. I can choose to fast on a day when I don’t need to be particularly active.
I don’t need to lose a lot of weight, but I’m concerned about cancer and such. I do try to eat lots of vegetables and fruit, and scale down on dairy, processed foods, meat and poultry. Yet, swearing off cheese or chocolate, for example, just ain’t gonna work. I do see this method working with my social life. It’s easier to say no to the occasional invitation to eat out, then to impose my restrictions on a hostess or group. It’s also easier to manage temptation this way, I think.
We’ll see where this takes me.
21 Apr 2013 3 Comments
in musing
I’ve had several spam comments lately. They all consist of 3 – 5 very general complimentary sentences that sound like they’re either written by a computer or someone who doesn’t know English or human communication very well.
Has anyone else had this problem?
05 Mar 2013 1 Comment
in musing, opinion Tags: blogging, Recordings, Tools, video, Wordpress, YouTube
Why is it that now on WordPress any post with a YouTube video starts playing? I liked it much better when a reader had to choose to start one. Now it seems they all begin and there’s a calliope, a total nuisance.
I’ll have to stop including YouTube videos and remove those already posted on the front page.
14 Jan 2013 Leave a Comment
in musing, opinion, Review, television Tags: 20th century, aristocracy, British, cancer, Downton Abbey, ITV, Julien Fallows, Masterpiece Theater, period drama, period piece, Romance, servants
Ahh, the house was abuzz as everyone quickly prepared for Edith’s wedding to the older Sir Anthony. What are my thoughts? Well, there will be spoilers below, so don’t say you weren’t warned. Here’s my 2 cents on an episode that kept me rivetted:
04 Jan 2013 6 Comments
in essay, musing, opinion Tags: quotations, DailyPost, Daniel Burnham, postaday2013, Bible, Old Testament, Micha
I usually don’t do the Daily Post Prompts, but this one appealed to me. Yesterday the prompt asked bloggers to share quotations that spoke to them.
The quotation that is foremost in my mind, that I use whenever prompted to add a quote to a profile is Daniel Burnham‘s “Make no little plans, they have no power to stir men’s blood.” I choose to cast aside the possible sexism figuring that Burnham was a product of the 19th century and to uplifted by the exhortation to think and act big, to imagine and shoot for the crazy, the different, and go beyond the ordinary. To think different, as Apple suggests.
From the Bible, I also really like Micah 6:8:
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly[a] with your God.
I think this encapsulates a lot, not all, that we’re asked to do in life.
How ’bout you? What quotes inspire you the most?
04 Jan 2013 1 Comment
in musing, opinion, words, writing
"A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs who never knew one another.
smkelly8