"Good things can never last" ♫ ♥

Get Lost in the Music

I love this picture... and it makes an awesome desktop background :)

Labrinth ft. Emeli Sandé

The only thing I can post after this incredibly shitty day is a song. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Feminism and masculinity: Stereotypes hurt everyone

One of the many ways that the patriarchy hurts both women and men is to typecast us into tiny boxes that restrict our fully realized expression as people.

If we say that “men think with their head, just not the one on their shoulders,” we are not only confining men and their motivations to a tiny box, but we are reinforcing to men that it is, in fact, okay to allow themselves to be led solely by their sex drive.

If we ever hope to realize a more positive masculinity, though, we must leave behind these insulting generalizations about the nature of men. 

Just as we must never excuse the misogyny of intimate partner abuse by saying that men are violent by nature, we must be careful never to excuse other forms of sexism by saying that men are slaves to sexual desire. It’s time we hold men to the high standard that our cognition deserves.

- Jamie Utt (male) ~ article link

My Latest Read

"Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History", written by Florence Williams.

A fantastic, insightful read so far. If you're even mildly interested in learning about evolutionary anatomy, social changes and influences on how we view breasts, and how everyday toxic chemicals are affecting the mammary and reproductive health of not only women but men, too... then this book is definitely worthwhile.

The back-cover synopsis of the book starts out with: "Did you know that breast milk contains substances similar to cannabis? Or that it's sold on the Internet for 262 times the price of oil? Feted and fetishized, the breast is changing. Breasts are getting bigger, arriving earlier, and attracting newfangled chemicals. Increasingly, the odds are stacked against us in the struggle with breast cancer, even among men. What makes breasts so vulnerable?"

This bookis an engaging narrative written in an informing-yet-witty (and humourous, at times!) way. It's a bit long, at over 320 pages, but it's worth every minute. Right now I'm on the chapter called "Toxic Assets: The Growing Breast", and it ties into Rachel Carson's research back in the 1970s. BPA and other xenoestrogens are a huge focus in this chapter, and I'd like to share some of the facts with you.

~ BPA is an artificial estrogen --called a xenoestrogen-- that was developed in the 1930s to prevent miscarriages in women. It failed to work as that... but was then used in the chemical industry to strengthen plastics.
~ BPA is a byproduct of refining petroleum (aka CHEAP to use and add to everything from food packaging to grocery receipts to dental sealants)
~ One dose of BPA to lab mice effectively damaged THREE generations. The same appears to be true in humans, meaning our chemical exposure starts much earlier than in the womb and lasts much later than death.
~ BPA alters the way mammary glands grow and respond to later threats.
~ Age-old saying: "The dose makes the poison." False: Even minuscule amounts of exposure can cause severe problems. What are these associated problems?
~ Early-in-life exposure to BPA can lead to:
        • early puberty
        • lower sperm counts
        • changes in mating behaviour
        • predisposition to obesity
        • increased risk of breast and prostate cancers
        • increased risk of miscarriages

We are crippling both sexes at once with our chemical exposure. Whether we know it or not, toxic ingredients in household cleaning products and even in the lining of our food products (canned goods included!) are altering the hormones in our bodies and introducing environmental toxins in our breast milk. It's extremely disheartening that corporate America (and the government) choose to turn a blind eye to human health in favour of high profits and low regulatory control over these profitable industries.

Quote of the Day

The soul attracts that which it secretly harbours,
That which it loves, and also that which it fears.
It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations,
It falls to the level of its unchastened desires.

And circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.

-James Allen, As a Man Thinketh

Happy Chinese New Year

On Saturday, I went to Atlanta's Chinatown with Lin and my mom. We had a grand ol' time sampling different Chinese treats and walking around the [small] Chinatown plaza. Overall it was a great walk down memory lane without the permanence of buying a plane ticket to ZhongGuo 中国 (China). Here some pics! :)

More to come...

Two Important Quotes for Today

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

Randoms

Above: Shallow advertising: The reason why I don't watch the superbowl (aside from the fact that I detest football). Women aren't possessions or commodities. Stop fueling the problem, people!
Below: This picture below captures a really lovely quote (in my opinion). :)

Crazy Canines :)

^ sibling love

MSG, the hidden ingredient

I know I flip between many different topics on my blog-- from recent adventures (hence the blog's name) to thoughts, quotes, new articles, and songs I like. This time it's what I did today and a note about a toxic ingredient in our food (MSG).

I hope you're all having a great weekend. Here it's been a bit nippy and rainy. As we grew up saying in my hometown, it's "spitting out" -- meaning "it's raining lightly". Today I babysat the most adorable little boy, who was about two and a half years old and FULL of endless amounts of energy! He would leap and dive across couches and run around the house, throwing basketballs and molding playdough and wanting cereal and running to the neighbours' to run around with their dog. Needless to say, I was WORN OUT by the time his dad came home! (Here's a cute picture of him playing with Callie).

The main focus of this post is monosodium glutamate, better known as MSG. I became quite familiar with this ingredient in China, as the Chinese use MSG instead of salt in all their cooking. In fact, I spent months looking for real salt in grocery stores in Zhuzhou... checking the "foreign" grocery store and other places I thought might carry it.

“你门有没有盐?" (Do you have salt?) I would ask, only to be pointed to an entire shelf of MSG packages. I was faced with the same impostor every. single. time.

Why was I trying to avoid MSG? Because it's a cheap chemical compound -- a toxic amino acid, to be exact -- that can have negative effects on the human (and animal) body and brain, specifically the nervous system. Remember the negative hype about aspartame when it first hit shelves? It's another toxic amino acid... discovered by scientists trying to create a fertilizer. Not exactly something we want to ingest, right?

Many low-fat and fat-free foods contain MSG, along with countless other foods. And why don't we know it most of the time? Because food companies disguise the ACTUAL ingredients when they create their ingredient lists. (Surprise, surprise. Big corporations don't give a crap about the people who buy and eat their products!) How can we really know what's in the food we're eating?

Well, for starters, we can learn how to decipher the ingredient lists. Did you know that companies have hundreds of different names for MSG and compounds that include MSG? As a rule of thumb, don't consume foods that include ingredients you can't pronounce. And the longer the ingredient list, the more dangerous the food product is. Basic is better and safer!

Second, beware of the following ingredients, as they contain MSG:

amino acids
autolyzed yeast
citric acid
glutamate
glutamic acid
hydrolyzed protein
monopotassium glutamate
monosodium glutamate
natural flavors
protein
whey protein concentrate

This renders a lot of "health foods" unsafe. If you don't believe me, just check the labels of a few items  in your pantry. I'm not trying to be Negative Nancy or Perfectionist Patty (lol), since it seems almost impossible to fully rid ourselves of chemicals in our food... But, we sure as heck can try!

If you're interested in reading about the other substitute names for MSG in foods, here's a helpful resource.

Nike Zoom Elite+

Thanks to my marathon-running coworker, Joe, a new pair of running shoes is heading my way this week. (He gets a discount with a running website). I've been a faithful Mizuno user for the past few years, but ever since my current pair of Wave Inspires had been left at a Hampton Inn in who-knows-where Kentucky, I thought it was time to try something new. (Update: they were supposed to send the shoes to me but forgot -- thanks Hilton! -- but are now en route back to me). Anyway, tomorrow I'll have a new pair of Zoom Elites, which came highly recommended as I start to train for a half marathon. Woohoo for new goals!

Hiking with Josh

This past weekend Josh came to visit! We decided to hit the trails on Saturday... and headed to the Davidson-Arabia Nature Preserve about an hour from my house. We had to get up at 6:30am to make it for the 9am ranger-led group hike. It was definitely worth it though. Lots of picturesque waterfalls and certainly lots of insight from Ranger Robbie about the topography and history of the land. We were certainly tired after spending six hours on the trails! Here are some pictures:

^ at a lovely waterfall :)

^ one of my favourite shots of the day

                              ^ hiking with the group

^ (1) a waterfall... and (2) the summit of the really cool rock mountain 

Movie Night: Argo

Last night we went to see Argo -- I thought it was out of theatres but luckily it was still playing! I'd wanted to see this film for a while, especially since the 1979 Hostage Crisis had interested me over the past few months. And what a great movie! I highly recommend this for anyone to see. It was about 2 hours and had my attention for every second. George Clooney and Ben Affleck did a fantastic job directing this one. :)

Just Because

Just because this is my most favourite song EVER. :)

Yesterday's Photos ♥

Lake Acworth Trail

This afternoon I took Callie and Duke on an adventure to the next town north of here: Acworth. We walked through the small historic downtown and went to the lake! It was a bit chillier than I expected, which made me regret wearing shorts... but nevertheless it was a great adventure. :)

Here are some pictures from walking the Lake Acworth Trail.

More pictures to come once this computer's working a bit faster.

Kombucha

So, some of you may know about my newest DIY (do it yourself) project at home: Making Kombucha. I'm basically starting a small-scale brewery here, but instead of brewing beer I'm brewing kombucha!

What is kombucha? Great question. Although it's been around for thousands of years, it's not extremely well-known yet. Kombucha is a fermented tea made from what enthusiasts like to call a SCOBY-- Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. Mmmm. Sounds delish, right? Haha.

Anyway, the SCOBY is the "mother" of the fermented tea, and to successfully brew a batch you must use yeast cultures from another kombucha batch to grow a mother. (People drink this tea because of its numerous health benefits). This process requires boiling distilled water, adding organic black tea bags and some sugar, and letting it get back to room temp.

Then you take some culture strands from the bottom of a kombucha drink (store bought or locally produced- both ok) and mixing it with the cooled tea mixture. It must be placed in a sterile glass jar, like a large mason jar... and then covered with a cloth or paper towel and an elastic.

After one to two weeks, the mother will visibly start to grow. I know this all sounds really gross, so if you don't think you can handle the pictures STOP reading now. lol! I'm about to start the second stage of the brewing process today, so I'll post those pictures later. Until then, here's what my project looks like so far. :)

^ the mother grew on top of the liquid... and to make the next batch she will sink to the bottom and a new baby will grow on top. Interesting isn't it? ;)

Bryson City, NC

I spent the weekend with Kristin and some friends at a cabin in Bryson City, North Carolina. We had an awesome time adventuring and hanging out at the Smoky Mountains. 

^ my lovely friend Anna at the Museum of Design Atlanta

Today's Adventures

Unfortunately, today wasn't much of an adventure as much as it was staying home because the painters were here. (We're getting our house ready to sell...). So I played "house mom", which was totally unfun. I did, however, manage to get involved in a couchsurfing group that exchanges postcards from around the world. Here's a pic of the postcard I'm sending to a Bolivian student in Switzerland:

I also made a delicious dinner (for one, argh!) but had a blast making it! I tried a new recipe for a dish called "Coconut Lentil Soup". I also steamed some brussel sprouts and made a kick-ass salad. Looks like I'll have tons of leftovers, but thankfully there will be people here tomorrow so it'll get eaten eventually. :)

If you want the recipe for this soup, here's the link. Have a great Friday night, everyone!

~ Anna's Birthday ~

This past weekend I got to celebrate my good friend Anna's birthday with her and some friends in Alpharetta, GA. We had a blast that Saturday night, and then the following morning Anna and I went to hear her dad speak at a Bible study. It was really nice being in a group of people willing to hear and discuss religious/spiritual things together. I felt really welcome by everyone during our brief time there. :)

Anna and I spent the rest of the day at the High Museum of Art in Midtown Atlanta. We saw a really interesting (and slightly disturbing) exhibition called "Hard Truths" by an artist named Thornton Dial. He grew up in Alabama and witnessed a lot of racial tension and prejudice. His art was interesting- he used a lot of layers, sometimes incorporating items like desiccated rats, barbed wire, and barbies. It was  mostly dark but explored a lot of racial issues and "haunting meditations on events of contemporary global concern".

Here are a few pictures from our day out! :) Love you An!

The Local Natives is an indie rock band from the LA area... this song is brilliant!

Notable Quote

I was reading an article about yesterday's helicopter-crane crash in London, when I came across this interesting commentary:

It is often said critically of religion that it seeks to impose meaning on meaninglessness, that it is a sort of anxiety reduction strategy in the face of the general randomness of things. This is not the religion I know. What I see in church is a place that is remarkably accommodating to confusion and doubt. A place where people bring their not knowing what to do. They sit and light a candle or say a prayer, not fully understanding what this really means or expecting some instrumental purpose. "I don't believe in organised religion," people often say. That makes me laugh. All religion is intrinsically disorganised. Forever perched over chaos.

And no, I am not implying that God is the ready-made answer. For me, God is the question. A question that will not leave me alone. 

... I finish the day with a prayer. In the midst of life, we are in death.

Quote from: Giles Fraser, Guardian newspaper

Instagram 2012

^ Happy Thanksgiving!

^ Dutch plate (Delft blue from Delft, Holland)

^ Canadian Thanksgiving (October)

^ Roadtripping to Tennessee... and Emily's crayon art.

^ Hiking at Fall Creek Falls State Park with Em & Kristin

^ the things you see in middle-of-nowhere grocery stores.

^ pictures at the office

^ my morning running attire; cooking a pot of organic & vegetarian chili 

^ whilst reading Pride and Prejudice

^ my fortune... and early morning garage sales with the ladies 

^ visiting Chattanooga with Khan, Aiman, and Hasaan

^ Mini Wheats heist in Publix! And the GA State seal at Marietta Square.

^ stressful work week (office fridge, lol) and great sales at TJ Maxx

^ Marietta Square on a beautiful autumn Saturday.

^ Our condo in Ft. Lauderdale, FL... and trying not to get sick.

^ visiting a Ft. Meyers beach with the Garcias

^ me at Lee's new chapel - courtesy of Kristin Mueller

^ Lin's "healthy" ice cream/granola sundae. And my Callie darling.

^ rooftop ponderings

^ both pictures from Florida

^ beach bound with Lin, Randy, and Dad

^ poolside view, and view from above at our firepit

^ receiving mail from China

^ Christmas tree goes up! Callie gets festive!

^ at the Everglades for the first time

 ^ making Christmas cookies... and packing up my room.

^ being this cute is tiring... and my favourite album

^ reflections in our front hall