Donuts for depression

Went out and bought a dozen donuts. Then went home and proceeded to eat six of them. What a horribly unhealthy way to help– er, cope with depression. Why can’t I have the urge to gobble some apples or Brussels sprouts?

I did it.

I took a picture of my dinner.

Now, I have never been one to do such a thing, especially since I’ve deemed it stupid and annoying. But I decided to do it tonight because I cooked, which I don’t really do. It’s not that I can’t — I can follow recipe directions to a tee — but I’m never really inspired to cook anything fancy. Tonight, I made organic brown rice, baked salt and pepper salmon, broccoli with Parmesan cheese, and two eggs. And I must say, it didn’t turn out nearly as disastrous as my mom probably thought it would.

See for yourself (and yes, I ate a little of the salmon before I took the picture).

 

Everyone should eat more fibre

I’m only saying this because my digestion’s been weird for the past few weeks. I think I need more fibre in my diet, but it’s hard to tell. I do think I’m definitely not getting as much as I used to, so I will now be stuffing myself with multigrain cereal and flax seeds. With broccoli.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/31/high-fibre-foods_n_4178239.html

 

The Tiffin Project

What a neat idea! Getting people to bring take-out containers to restaurants where they’ll get discounts for bringing said containers, while more importantly avoiding the traditional styrofoam packaging that they would have gotten with their food. How brilliant.

That’s the Tiffin Project in a nutshell. The list of participating restaurants is still a short list but it seems like they’re looking to include more soon. I rarely order take-out nowadays but this would be a good idea if I ever did. Check it out!

http://thetiffinproject.com/

Saturday Morning Documentary: Secrets of the Superbrands

This may already be obvious, but most people realize that their everday lives are infiltrated by superbrands but to what extent?  Are we aware that everything we wear comes from a corporation?  Do we see that a lot of the food we buy and that nourishes our bodies is made from a big factory somewhere?

A three-episode series, Secrets of the Superbrands, hosted by Alex Riley, comically explores the mega corporations and their secret hold on the world, influencing us from food to fashion to technology.  Riley is the perfect host for the series– casual and funny but at the same time, curious and driven to finding out more about these companies.  From Starbucks to Apple, Riley explores the powers and the control the superbrands have on people, but also, and perhaps more importantly, peoples’ reactions and relationships to these brands.  In all three episodes, there’s a part in which people go under an MRI machine and images flash on a screen while the machine reads their brain activity, which is then interpreted; the results are pretty astounding, I must say.

What I really like about the series is that neither Riley nor the show tries to impose a certain thought about the superbrands, even after their findings.  Even after the bizarre seemingly ritual that takes place upon Mac store openings that involve massive crowds and immense cheering from store employees, it’s up to the audience to think about it (ie. What a bunch of lunatics Mac lovers are).

Alex (left) investigating at the Adidas store

Saturday Morning Documentary: Paul Merton in China

The funny Paul Merton

Who’s Paul Merton?  Well, for those of us North Americans, he is well-known in England as a comedian/occasional actor and his travels in China are unique and interesting, to say the least.  His goal was to explore China the unconventional way, avoiding the typical tourist attractions like the Great Wall to get a glimpse of the true heart of the country.  Merton’s charm and humor draw viewers in every episode and he serves as the perfect host for the series.  With only 4 episodes of his travels in China, he still manages to do quite a lot — from eating exotic and strange cuisine like a donkey’s penis in the first episode to buying a pair of fighting crickets that escape on the train to visiting a Shaolin temple complete with martial arts-practicing monks.

What makes this series unique is the people he meets along the way who are full of heart, full of stories that we never see in other travel shows.  The villagers in rural China who have lived that way are unsure of their children’s future as urban areas expand and cover their land is a sad an unfortunate situation — the traditional and the modern way in conflict.  Because it’s been a while since I’ve seen the series, I can’t fully recall all the things Paul does and all the people he meets but I can say that this is a fun, humorous series — like a B-sides disc to the more well-known album.  A definite favourite of mine to watch for the beautiful landscape and to take a look at the China people rarely, if ever, see.

Saturday Morning Documentaries: The Cove

I was never the kind of kid who would wake up bright and early on Saturday mornings to watch a block of cartoons — since I preferred sleeping in instead and I would always catch the episodes later on that week after school. I wonder who thought of such a concept; programming multiple cartoons on the weekend early in the morning so kids will wake up, probably make lots of noise and wake up their parents. Brilliant.

Since January of this year, every Saturday morning, I’ve taken to watching not cartoons, but documentaries (though a few times, I’ve had to postpone my Saturday mornings to Sunday mornings/afternoons). The best thing about this is I don’t have a set time for my Saturdays — whenever I wake up is when I start which, then technically, it should be called Saturday Morning/Afternoon Documentaries.

I don’t remember the exact order of all the documentaries I’ve watched since I started but I thought I’d start making a list of everything I’ve seen and then provide a weekly update to what I’ll be watching. Luckily, I go to imdb after I watch anything and rate it, so I do have a list of most, if not all, the documentaries I’ve seen.

This is definitely not the first documentary I saw for my series, but it’s certainly one of the most memorable. The Cove, which I’m sure most people have heard of one point or another unless they’re worshippers of Twilight in which case they haven’t heard of much at all, centers around a pool of water in Japan where fishermen presumably kill dolphins. No one has documented any footage of what actually happens in the cove and a group of experts — including some dealing with high-tech spy gear, two divers from Vancouver (yay!), and Rick O’Barry, who we learn has dealt with releasing dolphins around the world and has gotten into trouble loads of times which of course makes things that more interesting — all come together to try and find out what exactly goes on in the cove. Trying to stop them are various men from the area, blocking the film crew’s cameras with either their own cameras or signs, and as the film progresses, the each side go to more and more extreme lengths to stop the other.

It’s tense and riveting and almost feels like an action film with all the equipment and the danger of going into forbidden territory. I’m trying to avoid putting spoilers in here, but I feel like I should say there are parts in the film that are genuinely disturbing; The Cove is one of those film that, like An Inconvenient Truth, is a call to action and will make you think — not just about your impact in the world, but how to change it.