Obesity & Starvation

I was donating plasma the other day and the television on the wall was showing a promotion by World Vision. They were visiting villages in Africa and the closed captioning was giving details of the children and people being highlighted. Two year old children without enough to eat. We all know the stories, we see the pictures, we hear the pleas for help.

Here in North America, the news stories tell us that the prevalence of diabetes has doubled in the last 30 years - to 357 million people. Mostly due to increasing obesity. And that is only for the adults who start to see diabetes showing up in middle age. Let's not talk about the increasing number of obese children and teenagers who are still headed for the obesity bandwagon.

Which makes me wonder... how can these two stark contrasts exist in the same world? How can we have starvation in one country and obesity in another country? And be OK with that?? Because let's face it, we are essentially "OK" with it. We don't rise up against our governments and demand an end to Carbon emissions which are altering the climate and exacerbating desertification in sub-Saharan Africa which forces people to become climatic refugees. We don't stand up and demand an end to the deforestation of Amazonian rainforests. We don't stand up really... as long as it is NIMBY (not in my back yard), we are content with our lives. Oh sure, we have twinges of guilt but... really...

Maybe all obese and overweight people should be forced to sponsor a malnourished or starving child? Maybe the junk food companies should be forced to sponsor poor countries like Haiti? Because in the great circle of life... what goes around... comes around... We might do well to think of that for our future.

12. CDs

Alright, so a few weeks back I completed the transfer of all of my music cds into my new desktop computer, into iTunes. Now that that is done, it's time to look at all of those cds and ask the question... do I still need to keep them? If all of the music is in the computer and in my iPod nano, then do I need to keep the originals? Could I just let go of them? That is the question... Because as soon as I think about getting rid of them, there is something inside of me that goes "NO.... what if you need them!! What if the computer dies or the sound files get obsolete or..." Funny how that happens...

Logically, seriously, realistically, I do not need these hundreds of cds. I could get rid of them. I could let them go... I could... But will I? I know from past experience, that cds are very heavy and bulky to move. I don't want to keep schlepping them around with me. I would really like to just let go of them and move on without them. That would be at least 3 less boxes to move in the future. And it would free up some wall space as the cd racks could go as well.

Maybe it's time to use the Peter Walsh method here as well, except a bit more ruthlessly. So, if I have 200 cds, maybe it's time to let go of 20% of them... which would be 40 of them. Could I let go of 40 cds? Probably... I can already think of some that I don't love and that could go by the board. So, maybe that's the way, just start somewhere and start pulling them off the shelf and see how far I get.

Now, that that's done... it's time to take them to the used record/cd store and see what I can get for them. I know that I'll never get back what I paid for them. But even $1/cd is better than nothing, because right now they aren't doing anything for me other than using my space in our house!

11. Bookshelf in Living Room/Dining Room

Well, although I haven't been blogging about it, I haven't been neglecting my little declutter something every day routine. Yesterday, I took a bunch of stuff to Value Village, stuff which had been starting to clutter up the basement. Now that it's all gone, it's amazing how much space is created! Love that sense of space.

I was watching Peter Walsh (organizing guru) on OWN the other day and he was helping some people declutter there books. His method is to take 10 books and get rid of one of them. If you do that every once in a while (and don't buy books all the time), then pretty soon the book collection will be manageable.

So, the book shelves in the dining room and the living room. Well, they have doors in front of them, so you can't see how many books are in there, which is a definite bonus. But... there are a lot of books in there. On my side, there are all of my scriptural textbooks from my master's degree. Have a referred to them in the last 7 years. Not really. Am I likely to read them again any time soon? Probably not. Am I ever going to refer to them again... most likely not. Hmmm... what to do... I could use the Peter Walsh method and try getting rid of 10% of them. That seems reasonable. It's easier to go through and choose the ones that I really am not attached to and leave the ones that I am attached to.

With that done, I can now take them to my favourite used bookstore and try floggin them there. If they don't take them, then it's off to Value Village that the go.

750 Words

So, I've been writing my morning pages on the website 750 words. I was up to a 55 day streak, and just a few days away from completing the month of June without missing a day. I was a happy Albatross (30 days in a row) well on my way to receiving the Pteradactyl badge (100 days in a row) when... yes, I missed yesterday! Sigh... I woke up this morning with a sinking feeling in my stomach. Maybe I just forgot that I wrote something yesterday? I remember thinking about it several times yesterday but when I logged in... alas... I definitely wrote nothing yesterday. And now, I have lost my lofty Albatross status and am back to being an Egg... Sigh... Well, today is a new day and it's time to dust myself off and try again!

Amazing how well it works, these little badge incentives. I really do not find it burdensome to sit down and write my 750 words, mostly because it only takes me 7 or 8 minutes on the computer, whereas 3 long-hand pages takes at least 30 minutes. Funny how that happens. Maybe I need to actually write on the computer for 30 minutes to match long-hand writing? That would be an awful lot of words!!

Karma?

Two stories of two car accidents:

On December 7, 2007, a cement truck rear-ended a small car stopped at a red light in Calgary. Two adults and five children died in the small car. The driver of the cement truck was convicted of man slaughter sentenced to a 8 year jail term. He was returning to Calgary after pouring a basement foundation at an acreage near Nanton, AB. According to witnesses, the cement truck was speeding and traveling erratically, passing on the shoulder of the highway, prior to the accident.

On Monday June 20, 2011, a small red Toyotoa Corolla rear-ended a transit bus stopped at a bus stop on Granville Street in Vancouver. Three adults, all members of a Hutterite community from Wainright, AB, died in the Corolla, and one occupant is in hospital with severe injuries. The bus passengers and driver were shaken with only one minor injury. The accident happened at the corner of Granville and Nanton Avenue. According to witnesses, the Corolla was travelling at a high rate of speed and weaving in and out of traffic prior to the accident.

The name of the cement truck driver: Daniel Tschetter
The name of the Corolla occupants: Daniel Tschetter (61, injured), his wife Suzy, her son Danny Tschetter and his wife, Debbie (all deceased).

On Monday June 20 and Tuesday June 21, the cement truck driver was granted compassionate leave for undisclosed reasons. His upcoming parole hearing has been postponed until October.

I read these stories and I wonder... is this karma? Is it fair? Is their some form of cosmic justice?

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Fatal+crash+trucker+postpones+parole+hearing/4991694/story.html
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Three+members+Alberta+Hutterite+colony+killed+Granville+Street+crash/4983878/story.html

Plasma

Today I donate plasma again. Plasma is that yellow stuff that oozes out when you have a scratch or a wound. They separate it out from the whole blood and then return the red blood cells to the donor. Plasma is used for cancer and bone marrow therapy, along with some bleeding disorders.
Every minute of every day, a Canadian somewhere needs blood or blood products...

Only 2% of eligible Canadians donate blood or blood products...

What's stopping you?

Tis the Season for.... Rhubarb

Yep, they are everywhere!! Every back alley, every front yard... It seems like everyone grows rhubarb. The only thing is... not everyone harvests rhubarb! The question is, what to do with rhubarb? Yes, I know you can make cakes and tarts and pies and all sorts of things but... there is so much rhubarb out there, how is one supposed to use it all? It's sort of like zucchini in the fall... an over-abundance... too much of a good thing.

For the last couple of springs, I have been eyeing the ubiquitous rhubarb, that appears around every corner and thinking "I should really pick some and do something with them". I've been searching out recipes and the one thing that looks like it might be useful is a rhubarb relish or chutney. That actually sounds like it might be useful for dinners. Growing up, we had rhubarb, and while some people would eat the stalks raw, I never developed a taste for the tartness. My mom makes rhubarb cake, but I'm not a big fan of it... so... need something else to work with! I did find a good website http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/ which as all sorts of recipes. Who knew that one could use rhubarb in so many different ways! Maybe rhubarb wine would be an option too?

I guess for me, I just see thes harvestable things and want to do something with them!! So... I went out this morning and... harvested some stalks of rhubarb. Lots of the patches I know of have already put out their flower stalks, but I did find a younger patch that didn't have flower shoots. Chopped up the stalks when I got home and put them in a ziploc bag in the freezer... We'll see what comes of them!