The Small Print on Healthy Food

I can't live without meat.

Today, I had a stab at the "healthy lifestyle" that we're being bombarded with every second on TV, the papers and magazines. I made myself a generous portion of caesar salad, with slices of chicken ham, cheese, a tomato, an apple, a hard boiled egg, and a lovely cup of green tea. I snarfed it all down, feeling quite pleased with myself.

2 hours later, I'm feeling hungry. So I chock down another piece of apple. Then, 30 mins later, I'm hungry again. So I have a slice of cake. Then, 30 mins later... you get the idea. The thing with healthy food is that it's not as filling as MEAT (aka PROPER food). Trying to stay healthy is EXPENSIVE coz you have to constantly consume this stuff!

I wonder if this is some farmer's conspiracy to make us buy more of their produce... Frickin' hell, I'm hungry again, better go grab something to eat.

Weekend Work

Busy season sucks. It means we work Saturdays, and before we know it, Monday's rolled along and the slog begins anew. It's not like I would have done anything productive on Sat, but still, I'd have liked to have a quiet weekend of rest before all the birthdays come along at the end of the month and my weekends fly by in a hazy blur...

Well, there won't be much of those left as my exams are creeping closer with each passing day. It'd be good to get away from work again.

Anyway, I'm disappointed I haven't picked up those rock climbing sessions yet. I've agreed to book early so that we have no further excuses for not going. It'll have to be sometime after the exams.

As for the band sessions, it's been pretty tough to squeeze in a weekend between holidays and busy season. Still, if I want to perform live once again, a lot of practice is needed...

Opinions

... are like a**hole*. Everyone's got one and they all stink. Except mine :)

Take this article about the earth being over-crowded.

The esteemed Professor has the gall to suggest that there is a "utopia" threshold that the Earth can support of about 3 billion people. It would seem that he has failed to consider what technological improvements can do to stretch the resources available to us.

His is a pretty sweeping conclusion. Let's just look at one resource: wood. The next factor to consider is human needs, so let's bring in one need: heat. Now let's take a time period, say, 40,000 years ago. Humans would have lived in caves, with fur cloaks, wooden clubs, and basic firepits to keep warm. They would have collected dry or dead wood, broken branches from trees (as they probably weren't able to cut trees down yet) and just pray they'd find scraps around when they needed them.

In that context, Earth could have probably only supported about a million people before it would eventually run out of dead, dry wood lying around the ground. There were probably some old tribal shamen predicting the end of humanity as he could see fallen wood getting scarce. Then some bright geezer came along and invented an axe...

Fast forward to the 21st century. To fulfill our need for heat, we have oil powered plants, coal powered plants, nuclear powered plants, pulp burning plants, waste burning plants, wind powered plants, solar... etc. Our choice of resources from which to extract heat have multiplied ten fold. We weaned ourselves of reliance on one sole source of heat with technological advances. And now, our tribal shamen today are now worried about other things, like over population. Sheesh.

I'm amazed how most people on the BBC forums are suggesting population control to be the appropriate measure to take. It's a completely ridiculous suggestion. Who should decide who lives and who dies? Who should decide who should breed and who shouldn't? Who should decide what numbers from where to preserve? Should selection be on race, age, sex, nationality, or some other criteria pulled out of someone's hat? Who should that someone be? The mere suggestion of pop. control is SO idiotic it makes my blood boil. Can't stand baseless, groundless, unsupportable, and unconsidered opinions masquerading as an important, factual statement of affairs.

2006 arrives

No point lamenting the fact that many events have occurred since I last posted. Basically, I spent Christmas in Birmingham with an old friend. It was definitely unlike the Christmases of old.

Christmas Past version 1: Was with girlfriend, having a traditional christmas dinner, showing off my guitar skillz and singing a few xmasy songs.

Christmas Past version 2: With family, kinda apathetic, but was fun messing around with my siblings, and watching their faces light up when they open their presents. And then the long gaming sessions would follow...

Christmas in Birmingham

It was, to sum up in one word, spiritual. My friend's a devout Christian. Not hard-core like... he and I often debate the philosophical points of the religion, and more often than not, he concedes that it is all down to faith, and I am not one to easily have faith in anything.

But, seeing as I was living and eating under his roof (and that I really had nothing else to do), I tagged along.

First, it was a cell group dinner. These cell groups are interesting, composed of mostly people of our age. So I met quite a few people that night, young, vibrant, but definitely not the "up-for-it" sorts!

Then, I attended church (whoah!) and almost fell asleep during the sermon. The singing bit wasn't much better (the lyrics aren't very imaginative... it usually ends up with "Praise the Lord"), but heck, I was there for the ride, so why not try to enjoy it eh.

Invited a couple of girls over (more like they invited themselves over) for a few drinks, movies, games (!) and chat. They were quite interesting. One of them in particular, is not only hot, she also is in the 3rd year of a medical degree. Awesome. Maybe I should go to church where I live...

Anyway, more tomorrow if I have time. Busy season has arrived so I'm not too hopeful...