1,000 miles in 2011

i have a goal of running 1,000 miles in 2011.  i've created a peer challenge for those who are up for the friendly competition.  here is the link to sign up!

using co2 to clean clothes

let's face it, dry cleaning compounds are noxious, carcinogenic chemicals that should be banned.  an innovative northeastern us company is using carbon dioxide for their green dry cleaning solvent.  here's a brief story from time magazine.

charting trends

i do not believe in "flu shots." it is my opinion that the epidemic of pre-remediation of such a noxious virus propagates it to mutate, becoming more resistant to vaccination and therefore more noxious.

despite my ill-feelings surrounding the shock-and-awe of a preemptive strike on each year's microscopic bio-terrorists, google has developed an interesting gis product to chart reported flu cases.

mind you, my interest in this product is the mere charting of data, and, as alluded to, not the subject matter.

wisdom removed

at 34 years of age, i've gone through what i should have endured over a decade ago--having my wisdom teeth extracted. the nitrous oxide deluge withdrew my concerns for the gnarly prying that the dentist was engaged in. i chose pink floyd as my music of choice for the endeavor. recovery was quick, as i didn't require the hard pharmaceuticals past day 1 and relied on ibuprophen for the week following. kids, remove your teeth in your teens. no sense in waiting til later on.

acupuncture

i have suffered from chronic lower back and hip alignment issues for well over a decade now. not fun.

there was never an event of injury which set things off, unless you count the sneeze on an early october morning in '94 that rendered be incapacitated and begun this series of lame pronunciations of mortality.

i've tried the chiropractor and yoga and core work and rubber balls and inversion boots and all have helped or hindered further to one degree or another. well this time, i've tried acupuncture. the session was relaxing and interesting. there were definitely some key points of 'ohhhn that really hit something.'

ther hour was over and i mindfully erected my weight back over the top of my frame, expecting magic to heal me, i was pleasantly greeted with even more discomfort than i had originally walking in the door of the therapist's office. however, time is more fickle than the changing trends of a high school in-crowd and as the day progressed, i noticed a subtle release in my lower lumbar which even awoke me in the night with a 'clearing' sensation.

now i am an eternal skeptical optimistic pragmatist, yet pushed to extremes of human condition i will try alternative practice that people i trust speak highly of. i must tell you, in the days which have followed the acupuncture, i have suffered from what i believe people call recovery.

now i am still experiencing a bit of tightness in my hips, but i can once again lace up my own shoes without looking like an 80-year old man. again, my cynical side says, 'ah, that could have happened as the days passed in any event,' yet i am confident that my current status of recovery was expedited by a series of tiny little needles injected at numerous points along my trunk and legs. at this juncture, i am a believer in the healing stimulation of this centuries old asian medicine. it is worth a shot, in my book.

good book

i just finished this michael pollan text regarding the industrialization of "food" products, our culture's focus on nutrients vs. whole foods, and the drawn parallels from these market demands as they correlate to western disease-- namely obesity, diabetes, cancer, and hypertension.

in pollan's educated view, he believes that the aforementioned effects of our diet are linked within themselves with a causal relationship.

notable take aways from the book are that as americans, we have a dysfunctional relationship with what we ingest. he states the claim that we are focused on the nutrients that compose an item, rather than the entire food item itself--again, this is a generalization, but i believe it to be true as well. his argument dives further into the contradictory studies that reveal themselves daily from nutrition scientists, which leads to confusion amongst consumers. i would concur. pair these with the eternal shelf-life brought about by over-processing raw foods into either salt-heavy, fat-heavy, or sugar-heavy foods (e.g. white flour, high fructose corn syrup, etc) and add a little hydrogenated oil and you've got a manipulated and (until recent years) non-traditional food products.

all in all, it was a quick read which sums up a good deal of rising concerns about the long-term effects of these processed foods on our individual and cultural health snapshot. 8 of 10.

neti fever

one year ago, i was witness to a raging testimonial for this ayurvedic wonder. jmr's 70-year old father exclaimed across the dinner table full of pastas-o-plenty, "my neti pot changed my life!" the resounding image of his crooning full red cheeks echoed in my mind and finally prompted my recurring curiosity to action last weekend as i took the $13 plunge and procured a ceramic pot of my very own. thus far, i would have to say that it is only a mildly invasive journey to bring the inside out, and my sense of smell has definitely been heightened--for at least a good while after purging the sinuses. i'll keep you posted on the continual usage and outcome.

can bar soap get dirty?

occasionally, this question comes to mind. is seems wholly possible for bar, and liquid for that matter, soap to become dirty itself. how then do you clean dirty soap... with more soap?

i found one article that explained a bit of the resolve to this inquiry:

"according to a series of tests conducted in the early 1980s, bars of soap are often covered with bacteria and carry a higher load than you'd find inside a liquid dispenser. But no one knows for sure whether this dirty soap will actually transfer its germs to your hands during a wash. in fact, what little clinical evidence there is suggests that dirty soap isn't so bad. a study from 1965 and another from 1988 used similar methodologies: researchers coated bars of soap in the lab with e. coli and other nasty bacteria, and then gave them to test subjects for a vigorous hand-wash. both teams found no transfer of contamination from the dirty soap. however, both studies were tainted by potential conflicts of interest: the first was conducted by proctor and gamble, and the second came from the dial corp. still, there's no good evidence to contradict these studies, and it's likely that the bacteria on a dirty bar would just wash off when you rinsed your hands. in other words, you'd be cleaning the soap as you cleaned your hands."

very interesting. the study from 1988 can be found here.

the article continues and notes that "recent hand-hygiene studies in the developing world have found that washing with soap and water reduces infections even when the water supply might be contaminated. dirty water, like dirty soap, might not make washing less effective. even under the best conditions, washing your hands can actually increase the number of microorganisms present on your hands, thanks to contaminated surfaces near the sink, splashes of contaminated water, or improperly dried hands. (in general, it's safer to leave your hands unwashed than to leave them wet.)"

i find this fascinating and disturbing all the same.

the best dental floss ever

this stuff is the bomb. it doesn't fray or shred like standard floss tends to do. it acts more like dental tape products, like glide-- but dental tape is usually sold in 5 and 10-yard tins for ~$3/ea.

get this, this supreme floss comes in a recyclable package filled with 100 yards of flossing joy. i've been using this product for about 10 years and go through about one every 9 months.

it is usually found at local natural foods outlets, but it looks as if you can also purchase it online for a hair over $4.

make your dentist proud.

o-cha

perhaps one of the most mundane, yet satisfying, rituals that i engage in is drinking green tea all day long. previous to living in japan, i had enjoyed green tea on a semi-regular basis--purchasing bulk loose leaf at wheatsfield co-op-- and boiling water, dousing it over a tea ball jammed with leaves. the usual purchase there was the cheapest green tea they had, gunpowder.

in oregon, i found a website of an organic chinese grower that had connections in british columbia, and i would special order organic gunpowder for about $15 a pound. it took me about 4 months to pile through a pound.

then in japan, i learned of the subtle joy of sencha, which is the common everyday green tea of the archipelago. i also learned of the brewing rule of two: boil water for two minutes, turn off heat and let kettle sit for two minutes, then pour water over leaves in tea pot and let steep for two minutes for a perfect brew.

victorian parlor games, anyone?

this morning i was researching the dried form of our good friend, ms. grape. specifically, i was curious about the production methods in making raisins, the ability of raisins to maintain the health properties of its former self, and the seemingly noxious use of sulfur dioxide on many dried fruits. the verdict, stay away from sultanas and 95% of raisins are derived from thompson grapes, which are green grapes and do not harbor the resveratrol compound that is famed for its phytochemical properties. stick with sipping on the red, red wine (obligatory ub40 reference).

resveratrol:

amongst the periphery of this research i stumbled upon a olde tyme drinking game, snap dragon. where you take a bowl of brandy or cognac, toss some raisins in, set the liquor aflame, and then proceed to quickly fish out the raisins with your fingers while trying to escape without scalding burns. evolution...why ever did you mute this riveting game of risk and amusement?

caution: product endorsement

i tend to have an allergy to most material goods, as most of what is produced on our forsaken planet is cheap dimestore crap. yet i house within a special place in my heart a warmth and appreciation for quality engineered and designed items and gadgetry. one such item has recently moved into our humble home.

i must profess that now, a full month after my folks gifted us a sonic toothbrush, i have been enlightened to a new sense of dental elation. what have i been doing for countless years scrubbing away with a analog toothbrush? my teeth have only felt this clean after professional cleanings prior to using the sonic brush. the enamels brightened after the first few days of brushing and have continued to gleam. i am a convert to this technology and cannot foresee ever turning back. simple pleasures, yes, but damn important.

trans-law

coming full circle with this trans-fat ban post, new york has now approved the legislation. this is a milestone in protecting public health, in my opinion. transfats and their hydrogenated parents can eff off.

dean karnazes

this dude rules. he has completed his goal of 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. he makes me feel lazy, yet inspired.

i had anticipated running with him when he was in baltimore in early november, but failed because of my knee injury. it has still barked at me when i push the envelope. however, most of my time the past few months has been spent in the water, staring at a line painted at the bottom of the chlorinated pool. swimming is like meditation, with the added benefit of a full body massage via water rushing down the length of your frame. the weather out here has been spectacular, too, and we have been able to go on a long bike here and there.

right on, dean.

"you green blooded son-of-a-bitch"

of course those are the words of dr. leonard mccoy referring to his fine vulcan cohort. this green blood, however, is none other than the joyous wheatgrass juice, packed with a number of amino acids and an invigorating tongue-tingling taste.

i have lugged this czechoslovakian-cast steel manual juicer back and forth across the country to enjoy the glory that be within the comforts of the home. it is one of those things that takes a week or a bit more of preparation (in this case, sprouting time) and then is consumed within a few minutes. incidentally, that kimchi that i put together a couple of weeks ago was gone in 6 days post it's week of active fermentation.

there is nothing else quite like it in the world. amy and i both had our fixes this a.m. and can't wait for the next batch to mature.

hydration

it is coming to that time of year when i find myself not drinking as much water. the old adage of 8 glasses everyday is easy in the scalding heat of the summertime, but at the cusp of winter my thirst does not beg for the quenching quite as much as the prior season did.

one part of my problem is that the glasses at work are small little 8oz vessels that are more or less devoured in one long gulp, and i can't be running to the refill them every time the cup is empty. i usually have a cup of green tea perched next to the water glass and it takes me about an hour and a half to drain it and then i refill the water glass at the same time. huh, writing that out, maybe i am drinking plenty of water. perhaps it is just the sensation of thirst that i am lacking in. nevermind...

homemade

i've got the next couple of days off work to dedicate to the completion of my thesis. met with my professor this morning to go over the progress and went home feeling pretty good. for lunch, i whipped up some soba noodles and baby bok choy with a soy and rice vinegar dipping sauce. mmm, good. our water heater pooped out the other day and a plumber is coming shortly to replace it, showers at the gym come in mighty handy about now. in the interim, i decided to put myself to use on the vegan kimchi project that i mentioned a couple weeks ago.

i improvised on the recipe, looking at several recipes out there on the internets. for this, i took a tablespoon of rice vinegar, 1 T. soy, and a few T. of dried korean chilis and let them soak.

grated up a 1.5 inch piece of ginger, 4 cloves of garlic, and shredded 3/4 of a carrot into the compote. tossed in a dash of sugar and a healthy dash of salt.

then sliced up a little baby bok choy and 1 green onion to add for good measure. peeled a stout korean daikon and sliced into 1/4 diameter pieces about 1/4 inch thick.

mixed it all up as best as possible and funneled it into a good ol' mason jar. the fermentation period is supposed to take 4-7 days until its ready for eats. it will be difficult to walk by this bubbling vessel the next few days as it gurgles up a hello from the counter top.

i know that's right!

good times from jimmy.

all the lineage cabbage soup

ain't nothin' like a bowl of steamy hot sweet, sour, spicy cabbage soup. all the apple cider vinegar, all the stevia, all the cayenne... a head of cabbage, two cans of diced organic tomatoes, a healthy helping of garlic, and a pinch of sea salt. the recipe has been morphed over time and will continue to change. we've tossed in black beans on occasion, too.

diet

check out the healthy items on the menu...this was from a restaurant in hot springs, new mexico that we stopped in a number of moons ago. i guess because it isn't fried, its in the corner for those watching their waistline.