Rice Krispies with Rice Dream is perhaps a little redundant. I have one of those stomachs which is quite a burden, both on me and those who care about me.
Everyone loves cheese. I love cheese too. And milk. But I can't digest them. For some reason though it is not as simple as just avoiding dairy products... Apparently, I have IBS. So, anytime I get stressed I have problems, and it seems that it does not matter what the food is.
Lately, I have taken to avoiding chocolate, because I am pretty sure that that has very adverse effects on me as well. It helps, but with the IBS, there are still those days where it seems like it matters not what I eat.
I would like to make it so that there is no excuse for my body to act this way at all. Something in my mind tells me that if I did not eat any crap at all, my body would handle it much better. I have thought of having salads and vegetable meals, only fruit and bread, a little meat. But people do not make food like that. Unfortunately, we live in a society where people need food to taste good.
I have discovered that I like food the way it is. I rarely add dressing to my salad. I can eat potatoes without anything added. I can eat broccoli and rolls without butter. I think this is an excellent gift, because I do not need to add unhealthy items to my food. If only I could channel this more into something like health.
The food struggle is a long, hard fought battle. Everytime I think I make progress, I will have a bad day. When going on trips, I have to be extremely careful. When having dinner at someone's house, I need to be cautious. And, sometimes, that means eating less.
I think if I put the effort into a very conscious daily plan of healthy eating, I would do much better. It is all about thinking in advance and planning. That would be very nice for me and others too. I could have little meals planned in advance so that I could carry them in bowls and when people decide to order pizza, I can just pull out my little salad... Kind of depressing, isn't it?
31 July 2007
15 July 2007
Harris Potter
After my Dad has vehemently opposed the whole phenomenon known as Harry Potter, I feel like I need to say something about it. I don't hate Harry Potter. I do realize that as a phenomenon it is a little lacking. Its hype does give it a little more momentum than it deserves. JK Rowling has been able to transcend generations though and get adults as well as children to embrace a story of a child. It is fun to read the books and be a part of something which has meant so much to so many people.
The story of Harry Potter is something most everyone can get behind. There are too many different things going on at once though. Rowling dug a hole for herself by having so many characters and so many new things to introduce to each book. The subsequent books got so long and burdensome. But, people read them and find things they like. Whether it is the Weasley family celebrating Christmas or the werewolf aspect or just a love of snakes... There are plenty of evil under and overtones to deal with for that crowd. It covers a lot of bases.
And we, the audience, love all these different mythologies. Wizards and witches, goblins and trolls, evil forests and trees. Before Harry Potter came along, no one would dare make these dark things declaratively good. And, it is entirely mainstream. I figure that the idea of Hogwarts School outside the realm of regular school is very good. They keep it in its own realm. It is obviously make-believe. It does not have the children sloughing school so that they can go join some cult elsewhere. And, the school is set up to be just as tough as a regular school.
The movies are interesting to have, but they could have done without them. Why not leave Harry Potter up to the imagination of people? I suppose they have to make movies though of everything. Why is that? I have this idea of creating a miniseries for classic books, so that they can cover every aspect. But, still that is absolutely unnecessary. A movie is a snapshot. That's it.
As far as the criticism of magic and how it affects children and the dark nature of it all. It has some evil to it. There is the notion of the misunderstood aspect of wizards and witches. Our familiarity with magic has told us that witches are evil and wizards are kind of cool. Why not tell a story that says that witches and wizards are just the same except for their gender? It is a fun idea to open a world up to a child who thought he was just a kid in Great Britain.
The main argument I have heard against Harry Potter is that it empowers the nerd aspect of our civilization. It trains and emboldens the awkward, weird, and outcasts to continue on that road. Instead of embracing the tougher aspects of childhood like sports and being disciplined they are embracing the namby-pamby lifestyle which says that one can accomplish things by reading and casting spells. But that is not true within the books themselves. Harry and his friends are constantly battling all types of conflict while in school. Sure, some of it is contrived, but that makes for fun reading.
I do think that we have a culture of namby-pamby parents raising namby-pamby children, but Harry Potter does not really contribute to that. Harry Potter falls into the realm of good escapism just like Lord of the Rings or Xmen comic books. Sure it is over-hyped, but so is everything.
The story of Harry Potter is something most everyone can get behind. There are too many different things going on at once though. Rowling dug a hole for herself by having so many characters and so many new things to introduce to each book. The subsequent books got so long and burdensome. But, people read them and find things they like. Whether it is the Weasley family celebrating Christmas or the werewolf aspect or just a love of snakes... There are plenty of evil under and overtones to deal with for that crowd. It covers a lot of bases.
And we, the audience, love all these different mythologies. Wizards and witches, goblins and trolls, evil forests and trees. Before Harry Potter came along, no one would dare make these dark things declaratively good. And, it is entirely mainstream. I figure that the idea of Hogwarts School outside the realm of regular school is very good. They keep it in its own realm. It is obviously make-believe. It does not have the children sloughing school so that they can go join some cult elsewhere. And, the school is set up to be just as tough as a regular school.
The movies are interesting to have, but they could have done without them. Why not leave Harry Potter up to the imagination of people? I suppose they have to make movies though of everything. Why is that? I have this idea of creating a miniseries for classic books, so that they can cover every aspect. But, still that is absolutely unnecessary. A movie is a snapshot. That's it.
As far as the criticism of magic and how it affects children and the dark nature of it all. It has some evil to it. There is the notion of the misunderstood aspect of wizards and witches. Our familiarity with magic has told us that witches are evil and wizards are kind of cool. Why not tell a story that says that witches and wizards are just the same except for their gender? It is a fun idea to open a world up to a child who thought he was just a kid in Great Britain.
The main argument I have heard against Harry Potter is that it empowers the nerd aspect of our civilization. It trains and emboldens the awkward, weird, and outcasts to continue on that road. Instead of embracing the tougher aspects of childhood like sports and being disciplined they are embracing the namby-pamby lifestyle which says that one can accomplish things by reading and casting spells. But that is not true within the books themselves. Harry and his friends are constantly battling all types of conflict while in school. Sure, some of it is contrived, but that makes for fun reading.
I do think that we have a culture of namby-pamby parents raising namby-pamby children, but Harry Potter does not really contribute to that. Harry Potter falls into the realm of good escapism just like Lord of the Rings or Xmen comic books. Sure it is over-hyped, but so is everything.
10 July 2007
Environmental Cause to Fight
How come there is no middle ground when it comes to the climate and the global warming debate? Liberals want the awareness and the taxes. Conservatives deny it. There is the cause and the fight. And there is the denial and the rhetoric.
How do we know who to trust? The scientists converged and said it is definitely happening. Then, some others denied it. Do we have to have a definitive answer about the Earth to know that we are doing horrible things to it? I am not the only one who shudders when I see black smoke coming out of a car or a structure like a refinery or steel plant.
I am sure these scientists are guessing at this point, because they really do not know. They just want to error on the side of major damage since it may be too late by the time they really get some good data. But from the looks of things, they definitely see problems.
The funny thing to me is that both sides represent perspective. There is nothing wrong with not wanting to throw a bunch of money at something we cannot prove is absolutely happening. Being conservative means being smart with your money. We are not going to just throw money at it in hopes that it goes away. To tax the people who do not contribute so much to it as the big businesses and industry in third world countries is ridiculous. People do leave lights on in their house. People do throw away cans. People waste water. But they do not contribute to the pollution that is so prevalent in our world.
But, we are aware of major pollution that man has done before. It does not take a genius to see that big factories and refineries and steel plants really pollute the atmosphere. And there is so much more. Do we tax these companies? What good does that do? Why not help change what they are doing? Why not change the process? And that means more regulation which is more burdensome on small business, but even so, there must be some best practices here.
The only thing I can think that would really help is education. Not hype. Not taxes. Educate the people. Present people with facts on both sides. Concerts do not really help people unless the lyrics have facts in them. There is all this awareness, but how do people trust these wackos on either side? A musician is a musician. A radio talk show host is an entertainer.
I just want to pick up. I want to start small with my house. Then, my neighborhood. It goes from there. Campaign with education, not hype. Enough with the hype...
How do we know who to trust? The scientists converged and said it is definitely happening. Then, some others denied it. Do we have to have a definitive answer about the Earth to know that we are doing horrible things to it? I am not the only one who shudders when I see black smoke coming out of a car or a structure like a refinery or steel plant.
I am sure these scientists are guessing at this point, because they really do not know. They just want to error on the side of major damage since it may be too late by the time they really get some good data. But from the looks of things, they definitely see problems.
The funny thing to me is that both sides represent perspective. There is nothing wrong with not wanting to throw a bunch of money at something we cannot prove is absolutely happening. Being conservative means being smart with your money. We are not going to just throw money at it in hopes that it goes away. To tax the people who do not contribute so much to it as the big businesses and industry in third world countries is ridiculous. People do leave lights on in their house. People do throw away cans. People waste water. But they do not contribute to the pollution that is so prevalent in our world.
But, we are aware of major pollution that man has done before. It does not take a genius to see that big factories and refineries and steel plants really pollute the atmosphere. And there is so much more. Do we tax these companies? What good does that do? Why not help change what they are doing? Why not change the process? And that means more regulation which is more burdensome on small business, but even so, there must be some best practices here.
The only thing I can think that would really help is education. Not hype. Not taxes. Educate the people. Present people with facts on both sides. Concerts do not really help people unless the lyrics have facts in them. There is all this awareness, but how do people trust these wackos on either side? A musician is a musician. A radio talk show host is an entertainer.
I just want to pick up. I want to start small with my house. Then, my neighborhood. It goes from there. Campaign with education, not hype. Enough with the hype...
07 July 2007
Practice Never Made Perfect
A friend of mine the other day said that he did not like golf because of the lack of achievement one gets with it. You can master a video game, but with golf some new problem is always developing. After practicing and playing volleyball yesterday, I realized that this is true of all sports that I have played and it is just a fact of life.
True, I have seen people who have natural ability for sports, but even though they may be a notch above, they still have their problems.
So, I had my friends work on hitting the volleyball being given good, consistent sets. I was trying to help them work on technique.
When I first learned to play volleyball, I learned the basics from my uncle, who had me play pepper with him at the beach. We used to play 2 on 2 and that was about it. Then, I played church ball and we were good. We had a basic system, but we still had not really developed any technique. That came later. My Senior year in high school I finally got to play. I had wanted to play every year before that, but the club team was kind of secretive.
So, my first try-out practice came for the high school team and there were a lot of kids out there. I remember not doing anything very spectacular the first day and my Mom giving me a hard time about that. So, the next day, I was intense. And, I remember just doing what it took. I think that was a turning point for me in volleyball. Making that team was huge. Then, I got to learn how to play a 6-2 and how to hit the proper way. I learned where to stand assuming you have a decent block up there.
We had an okay year, with some nice highlights. We had two major tournaments. The first one, we went up from San Diego and played in Pacific Palisades against a bunch of teams in the LA and Orange County areas. We even lost to the JV team. We were so outmatched. But then, something amazing happened. We had another tournament a couple weeks later in San Diego and we took it. We beat all the teams. We took our experience from up north and used it to win down south. I constantly marvel at that. But then our games throughout the year were not so great. We won a couple, but then lost most of the important ones.
I went to college after that at Long Beach State University, which is of course, one of the best volleyball schools in the nation. The workout routine for the summer to make the team was insane. I think the routine frightened me away before I even looked into it. Once again, the players to compete against were native to that area. If I had stayed at San Diego State, perhaps I could have been more equipped to compete.
Since that time, I have had various volleyball experiences. A group of guys from work would get together on a Saturday at about 7am to play. I played with a couple guys for a three man tournament at King Henry apartments and we took that.
Then, a miracle happened. A guy on my team at work used to play all the time with local guys who are good. We went and played one day and I did terrible. It had been years. Then, we found out there was some guys at work who played an indoor game two times a week, every week. The guy in charge grew up in San Diego and had a passion for technique and playing properly. He talked to some other guys at work who wanted to play, but did not want to play jungle ball.
So, I started going once a week. It was nice to play again. It's always nice to play. The guys in this group are hit and miss. Some are good, some not so good. Some have technique, some have no technique. Some learn from their mistakes. Some never learn. Some play smart. Some play defense. Some play offense. Most have improved.
This game has been going on for about 3 years now. The organizer and I have talked about various aspects of it. His intensity helps me to want to continue to go and play. I enjoy it because it is volleyball, but it is nice to have the competition aspect too. We have talked about the idea of winning versus losing. We have talked about technique. We have talked about keeping it simple for people to keep the interest alive.
These guys have gotten good enough to start learning technique. But, we may never get there. And that has to be okay, because some people always complain about making it too good. Some people like to not be very good. They like to play for exercise sake. They want to keep tempers from flaring, which can be one of my problems. Volleyball is such a team sport. And, getting 12 guys/girls to come out week after week takes a tremendous amount of skill. I could not even get one of my friends to play one game in the heat yesterday. How could I convince 11 others to do it? But this organizer does and hats off to him.
As I was working on hitting technique with my friends yesterday, one of them commented on how the ball will never come in that perfect in a real game. I thought of the days of baseball and going to the batting cages. We go to the batting cages to practice technique, getting our timing down, getting our swing just right, working on those things that we can control. Golf has the driving range. Basketball has the standard in front of our house. Rock climbing has the rock wall.
And, we practice things, not to be perfect, but to maintain. We practice so that we can constantly improve. We practice to perform. We practice to get our bodies in line with the activity. We practice to get technique. And we can learn so much from practice that the activity does not have to be where the mistakes are made.
True, I have seen people who have natural ability for sports, but even though they may be a notch above, they still have their problems.
So, I had my friends work on hitting the volleyball being given good, consistent sets. I was trying to help them work on technique.
When I first learned to play volleyball, I learned the basics from my uncle, who had me play pepper with him at the beach. We used to play 2 on 2 and that was about it. Then, I played church ball and we were good. We had a basic system, but we still had not really developed any technique. That came later. My Senior year in high school I finally got to play. I had wanted to play every year before that, but the club team was kind of secretive.
So, my first try-out practice came for the high school team and there were a lot of kids out there. I remember not doing anything very spectacular the first day and my Mom giving me a hard time about that. So, the next day, I was intense. And, I remember just doing what it took. I think that was a turning point for me in volleyball. Making that team was huge. Then, I got to learn how to play a 6-2 and how to hit the proper way. I learned where to stand assuming you have a decent block up there.
We had an okay year, with some nice highlights. We had two major tournaments. The first one, we went up from San Diego and played in Pacific Palisades against a bunch of teams in the LA and Orange County areas. We even lost to the JV team. We were so outmatched. But then, something amazing happened. We had another tournament a couple weeks later in San Diego and we took it. We beat all the teams. We took our experience from up north and used it to win down south. I constantly marvel at that. But then our games throughout the year were not so great. We won a couple, but then lost most of the important ones.
I went to college after that at Long Beach State University, which is of course, one of the best volleyball schools in the nation. The workout routine for the summer to make the team was insane. I think the routine frightened me away before I even looked into it. Once again, the players to compete against were native to that area. If I had stayed at San Diego State, perhaps I could have been more equipped to compete.
Since that time, I have had various volleyball experiences. A group of guys from work would get together on a Saturday at about 7am to play. I played with a couple guys for a three man tournament at King Henry apartments and we took that.
Then, a miracle happened. A guy on my team at work used to play all the time with local guys who are good. We went and played one day and I did terrible. It had been years. Then, we found out there was some guys at work who played an indoor game two times a week, every week. The guy in charge grew up in San Diego and had a passion for technique and playing properly. He talked to some other guys at work who wanted to play, but did not want to play jungle ball.
So, I started going once a week. It was nice to play again. It's always nice to play. The guys in this group are hit and miss. Some are good, some not so good. Some have technique, some have no technique. Some learn from their mistakes. Some never learn. Some play smart. Some play defense. Some play offense. Most have improved.
This game has been going on for about 3 years now. The organizer and I have talked about various aspects of it. His intensity helps me to want to continue to go and play. I enjoy it because it is volleyball, but it is nice to have the competition aspect too. We have talked about the idea of winning versus losing. We have talked about technique. We have talked about keeping it simple for people to keep the interest alive.
These guys have gotten good enough to start learning technique. But, we may never get there. And that has to be okay, because some people always complain about making it too good. Some people like to not be very good. They like to play for exercise sake. They want to keep tempers from flaring, which can be one of my problems. Volleyball is such a team sport. And, getting 12 guys/girls to come out week after week takes a tremendous amount of skill. I could not even get one of my friends to play one game in the heat yesterday. How could I convince 11 others to do it? But this organizer does and hats off to him.
As I was working on hitting technique with my friends yesterday, one of them commented on how the ball will never come in that perfect in a real game. I thought of the days of baseball and going to the batting cages. We go to the batting cages to practice technique, getting our timing down, getting our swing just right, working on those things that we can control. Golf has the driving range. Basketball has the standard in front of our house. Rock climbing has the rock wall.
And, we practice things, not to be perfect, but to maintain. We practice so that we can constantly improve. We practice to perform. We practice to get our bodies in line with the activity. We practice to get technique. And we can learn so much from practice that the activity does not have to be where the mistakes are made.
06 July 2007
Pirates and Parades
I think I just did the same thing two days in a row. I went to see Pirates of the Carribbean 3 on Tuesday and then went to a parade on Wednesday. Both were too long. Both had too many characters to follow. Both had a little something cool.
What would it take for a parade to not be so commercial? What would be wrong with having a float that was just creative? No sponsor. No pioneers. No community involvement. No direct purpose other than to be really neat looking. That is the kind of float I want to have. I really want to create a float. I think it would be so much fun. It would be expensive, but wouldn't it be nice to have people come away thinking: Wow! That was really creative.
And it might confuse people. Like, why was that float in that parade? It did not honour any war veteran. It did not shuttle the city council. It did not have pretty girls on top waving to everybody. What would this float be? Would it reflect history or the future? Or a great movie? It certainly would not reflect Pirates 3.
So what was wrong with Pirates 3? I had fun. It is definitely silly and Keira Knightley is the most annoying actress on the planet. It goes on forever in 12 different plots which take forever. Why are we rescuing Jack? Why is Barbosa in this movie? For the life of me, why did they bring back Barbosa? It was like having this gigantic Garfield balloon at the parade. Well, we have this extra Garfield sitting there that we never use, so let's pull it out even though it has no connection to anything and is extremely outdated. Garfield had his day as did Barbosa.
We definitely escaped into the pirate world. The pirate lord concept was interesting albeit powerless and pointless. What did they do other than look like pirates? Adding another dimension to the movie helps it because now we see that there is something greater than just a bunch of thieving, raping, and pillaging people. And that is what is lost in these movies. Road Warrior was a good pirate movie. Waterworld had at least something we could follow. Pirates 3 was just creating nonsense for nonsense sake. And that is okay in movies like Blazing Saddles, because at least you are laughing.
The whole finale scene in Pirates 3 is so long and loud and confusing. Let's just twirl around and have everybody fighting and while we are at it, let's get married. Oh, and let's have a bunch of insignificant characters die with swords and have no one else get hurt or have their legs blown off...
If someone has millions and millions of dollars in their budget and all they have to do is make it back, then what do they do? They go and repeat everything from the last one (or the first one), have all kinds of action scenes and intrigue and bring back as many characters as we can. I see movies which totally flop and I think: I respect this movie for going in its own direction. Sure, Pirates 3 had mass appeal, but it had no soul.
The only thing it had was going to look for Jack and what they had to do to overcome that. That was creative. That was fun. It was new, but then they went back to the real world and it became boring because we knew what was going to happen. As we do with the parade every year. Old people in old cars. The same thing year after year. Do what the people expect and nothing more. Get them to come. Don't challenge them. Just honk your horn as if you are in traffic as you go by in your giant suv and wave and it will all be okay.
What would it take for a parade to not be so commercial? What would be wrong with having a float that was just creative? No sponsor. No pioneers. No community involvement. No direct purpose other than to be really neat looking. That is the kind of float I want to have. I really want to create a float. I think it would be so much fun. It would be expensive, but wouldn't it be nice to have people come away thinking: Wow! That was really creative.
And it might confuse people. Like, why was that float in that parade? It did not honour any war veteran. It did not shuttle the city council. It did not have pretty girls on top waving to everybody. What would this float be? Would it reflect history or the future? Or a great movie? It certainly would not reflect Pirates 3.
So what was wrong with Pirates 3? I had fun. It is definitely silly and Keira Knightley is the most annoying actress on the planet. It goes on forever in 12 different plots which take forever. Why are we rescuing Jack? Why is Barbosa in this movie? For the life of me, why did they bring back Barbosa? It was like having this gigantic Garfield balloon at the parade. Well, we have this extra Garfield sitting there that we never use, so let's pull it out even though it has no connection to anything and is extremely outdated. Garfield had his day as did Barbosa.
We definitely escaped into the pirate world. The pirate lord concept was interesting albeit powerless and pointless. What did they do other than look like pirates? Adding another dimension to the movie helps it because now we see that there is something greater than just a bunch of thieving, raping, and pillaging people. And that is what is lost in these movies. Road Warrior was a good pirate movie. Waterworld had at least something we could follow. Pirates 3 was just creating nonsense for nonsense sake. And that is okay in movies like Blazing Saddles, because at least you are laughing.
The whole finale scene in Pirates 3 is so long and loud and confusing. Let's just twirl around and have everybody fighting and while we are at it, let's get married. Oh, and let's have a bunch of insignificant characters die with swords and have no one else get hurt or have their legs blown off...
If someone has millions and millions of dollars in their budget and all they have to do is make it back, then what do they do? They go and repeat everything from the last one (or the first one), have all kinds of action scenes and intrigue and bring back as many characters as we can. I see movies which totally flop and I think: I respect this movie for going in its own direction. Sure, Pirates 3 had mass appeal, but it had no soul.
The only thing it had was going to look for Jack and what they had to do to overcome that. That was creative. That was fun. It was new, but then they went back to the real world and it became boring because we knew what was going to happen. As we do with the parade every year. Old people in old cars. The same thing year after year. Do what the people expect and nothing more. Get them to come. Don't challenge them. Just honk your horn as if you are in traffic as you go by in your giant suv and wave and it will all be okay.
05 July 2007
Excess
There is all kinds of excess in our society. I don't object to it in any liberal way. If people enjoy the excesses of life, then so be it. I just find it offensive for me.
Last night at the Stadium of Fire, there was an onslaught of excess in the fireworks. Now, many people would say they insist on having tons of fireworks, that the show would be somehow less without having three separate themes of 20 minutes each.
This is not just the case with fireworks. Movies have become tremendously excessive. Pirates of the Carribbean 3 was just so unnecessarily long. As was all the Lord of the Rings movies as was the new Star Wars movies as was the new King Kong and so many other movies which insist on being over 2 hours.
I really do believe that no movie should be over 2 hours. In a way, it is amazing that they are able to keep the audience that long in the theaters. I can understand the DVD concept and the idea of pausing a movie to break it up. The two disc set for the Lord of the Rings movies makes sense. Movies are not books. We understand that going in. We know that it will be condensed.
Now, excess can extend to a lot of things. My problem is how it gets in the way of entertainment. There is hardly ever a "less is more" scenario anymore. More is more is more. Like, concerts most of the time are over the top. The creative mind is no longer available, because a large tv screen has to show us what the song is about. The music does not get to speak for itself.
People need to have the annoyances. The flashy stuff has to be there. Why? There was a reason why the original movie was good. The remake uses excess and fails. Show me an example of where this is not true.
Last night at the Stadium of Fire, there was an onslaught of excess in the fireworks. Now, many people would say they insist on having tons of fireworks, that the show would be somehow less without having three separate themes of 20 minutes each.
This is not just the case with fireworks. Movies have become tremendously excessive. Pirates of the Carribbean 3 was just so unnecessarily long. As was all the Lord of the Rings movies as was the new Star Wars movies as was the new King Kong and so many other movies which insist on being over 2 hours.
I really do believe that no movie should be over 2 hours. In a way, it is amazing that they are able to keep the audience that long in the theaters. I can understand the DVD concept and the idea of pausing a movie to break it up. The two disc set for the Lord of the Rings movies makes sense. Movies are not books. We understand that going in. We know that it will be condensed.
Now, excess can extend to a lot of things. My problem is how it gets in the way of entertainment. There is hardly ever a "less is more" scenario anymore. More is more is more. Like, concerts most of the time are over the top. The creative mind is no longer available, because a large tv screen has to show us what the song is about. The music does not get to speak for itself.
People need to have the annoyances. The flashy stuff has to be there. Why? There was a reason why the original movie was good. The remake uses excess and fails. Show me an example of where this is not true.
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