Monday, August 6, 2012

T-Bay, Veggie inspired diets, Zappa, missing Eunju


Been eating mostly vegetarian, actually pretty close to vegan since arriving Thunder Bay, though I bought some Feta yesterday. I poop a lot now, so googled that, most said it was normal body adjusting, but also was a link to the documentary "Forks Over Knives"that my cousin Sean Fergus Reiligh told me about, which also spurred him to switch to Vegan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forks_over_Knives



  I'm downloading it now and will watch. However I've also found a critique of the documentary based on some of the scientific claims, which actually does agree with some of the stuff in the documentary, and generally thinks the idea of focusing on diet and preventative over surgery when possible is a good idea, but goes into a very extremely in depth play by play review of the documentary, I've read maybe 30 minutes, and I'm only a tiny ways in, so it's almost more the size of a thesis, and contains lots of links to wartime diet and stuff. Anyway, I'm looking forward to watching the documentary, and reading the rest of the science review which you can find here http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/09/22/forks-over-knives-is-the-science-legit-a-review-and-critique/ and generally trying to eat healthier than I was. Eunju said she thought my stomach looked a bit thinner, and no doubt eating all these veggies rather than a Whopper a week has got to be better for me just on eliminating processed stuff.

Oh and Harvey's Veggie Burger is good, I'm craving, bought some veggie "chicken" but I opened it and it's smelly, so I balked at eating it without being able to cook it.



In this temporary dorm I have no way of cooking anything, that combined with wanting to watch my budget is another factor in why the died shift, though I was planning on going veggie or my phrase veggie "inspired" diet anyway. I will try it if I can fry it because I've eaten their mexican veggie ground round and love it, as well as their veggie meatballs in the past which I'm not sure if they still produce. Here's there website and some pics  http://www.yvesveggie.com/ I've had some other veggie "meat" products in the past that were simply awful and not even close to the tastes I love, such as meatballs and hamburger meat. I honestly love that taste, but want to eat healthier, so I'm glad there is a middle way for me.



I can say it's a lot easier to find this stuff in Canada than in Korea, as vegetarianism and the likes are almost non existent phenomena there, other than buddhist monks, tho a lot of their meals have smaller portions of meat, till you get to the Korean galbi (BBQ meat joints) which are all meat. Anyway, I'm not for or against, just interested in educating myself, and the skeptic in me always wants to make sure I view many different sources of information, not doing so is basically like getting all your news from one source, I've heard Zappa would watch hundreds of different news programs from different sources, political viewpoints, and countries, and I do tend to agree it gives a better all around view. I'm not sure where I heard that, I googled for images and couldn't find a pic of him with several tv's simultaneously, maybe I read an interview or am mis-remembering stuff. For good measure I'll add a quote from Zappa about watching news.

“I like to watch the news, because I don't like people very much and when you watch the news ... if you ever had an idea that people were really terrible, you could watch the news and know that you're right.

 Frank Zappa



I should probably devote an entire blog to Zappa someday, for now a tiny mention is all, but a little Zappa is better than no Zappa, right.

So guess I should give my shout out links to skepticism blogs too, so here's one of my favorites from Brian Dunning http://skeptoid.com/blog/ Actually I have spent much more time with his podcast than his blog, as I used to listen to or sometimes read the transcripts of his podcast on my commute to work http://skeptoid.com/blog/category/skeptoid-podcast/

So, I didn't go too far into it, but yeah, I'm living in a new place. Moved back to Canada. First flew to Vancouver and visited some friends which was great. Had some of my last real hamburgers, for awhile at least. Had my Wendy's fix I'd been craving. Then I flew back home to PEI in time for my cousin Tara's wedding. It was nice I could get back in time. Unfortunately I missed my other cousin Garth's wedding as I'd already booked my Van flight, and it happened too soon for that. I did get them a small gift though, and seen them before they left. After a week and a half of more in PEI I decided to come her to Thunder Bay earlier as I heard there was a scarcity of available apartments for students. Since I've been here, I've bought a bike, seen deer while biking, didn't see bears yet, which I mention because I saw a notice about Bear sightings near campus and what to do in the event of seeing them, and mostly spent a whole lot of time on the internet searching for apartments, and making phone calls. I've only seen a few places so far. I went to one place yesterday. It's a bit farther away than I want to be but I really think I'd get along well with the landlord. His wife passed somewhat recently, and he's converting the basement into an apartment. He still plays hockey twice a week, and has this old, old, old milk truck from when he used to deliver that's been converted into a little camper. I don't think he uses it that much as he also has a full sized RV in the yard. The little camper does have a bit of a hippy vibe, but he's doing the conversion himself, so that's more of a kind of guy who can build things like my dad and uncles, and the hockey means he's sporty, so in a way I think he's kind of like me. I don't really fit into any one category, I like some hippy dippy stuff, but also like exercising and often wear sports type Reebok T-shirts cause I really like the dry fit stuff, more comfortable. I like to read, love reading science type stuff, and a fantasy novel reading dude, but don't mind wearing a suit or thinking about business minded stuff. Anyway, off topic. I also looked as some rooms but decided I'm gonna be willing to pay more and get my own apartment. I really miss Eunju, and if I get a room and have to share stuff with other people it's going to be a lot harder to have a place where she can come and stay when she gets her permanent residency. It's really hard on her being alone, the fact we are still waiting for her visa, and then seeing me being happy to be back in Canada. It plays upon her fears at times. Other times she is more happy and positive. Needles to say, I love her very much and miss her heaps, even though I don't show it as much as she does or in the same way.

Yesterday, I stumbled upon an Italian Festival while trying to track down a landlord which owns an Italian Food store and other businesses. A guy in the street told me they would probably be there. I enjoyed the vibe of the festival, but it was a bit lonely being there alone and not knowing anybody. I was really thinking on how lucky I always was to have my wife with me to do things together when we were together. There was a big inflatable thing for people to have competitions where they knock each other off podiums in the middle of the ring that I guess must have been based on American Gladiators Joust game.



Still the fact that I am married and will see her in the future for me is better than being completely single, but I know it's harder for her.

I did have some good conversations with people I met there. One older woman was standing next to me and there was a guy on stage that sounded pretty much exactly like Sinatra singing Sinatra. I commented about how much he really sounded the part, and we had a nice conversation. Then I finally met one of the landlords and spoke briefly. She remembered my voice and details I'd told her about Eunju being in Korea and me about to go to school at Lakehead, so that's pretty good. Then I met another woman who had a table with her husbands 'caretto' that he carved himself. It took him seven years do carve it, and the detail was amazing. It was really beautiful. By the way a caretto is basically a traditional Italian carriage for horses. Her husband immigrated to Canada years ago from Sicily, I think. We talked for about an hour. I mentioned how the caretto (his was not full size, but had pictures of full sized ones from Sicily) gave me a similar feeling as the colorfully colored Jeepneys I saw in the Phillipines. My iphone died, so I couldn't take a picture, but she has my email and is supposed to send me a picture. The festival is still going today, so I might go take one myself. For now I'll post some pics of caretto and jeepney I found online. I found elaborate caretto and also some plain ones.




It made me wonder about similarities in Italian and Spanish cultures, since Philippines used to be a Spanish colony I think, and if there is any link. It also made me venture to guess that our English word "car" may derive from the spanish word "caretto". At any rate, I love the detail, color and life in both. In addition to learning about the caretto, it turns out that Heather, the woman at the caretto table is good friends with the owners of the Italian grocery that own the business and promised to put in a good word for me.

Wow this is pretty long, I originally started with a post on facebook just about the veggie / knives over forks / my own recent diet changes and then copied over to here and went much more into other things. I feel good that I've got a good meaty (pun intended) blog entry up; it had been quite a while since my last post.