Money makes the world go round … or something like that.

Every day on the way home from work I listen to the News Radio in my car.  I hear news on all sorts of things from around the world, but one thing that stood out to me this week was the financial section.  It was talking about how much the United States is in debt.  It got me thinking (of course it did… that’s what I do) about money and numbers. 

The concept of money is a man made thing.  It was all started by the banks which were the store houses for people’s gold.  In order to make it easier for people to spend their gold, the banks came up with the idea of issuing notes, stating a certain value in gold.  If a person wanted to use some of their gold, he or she would go to the bank, ask for a specific amount and then they would be given a ticket with a value on it.  If they wanted to physically take their gold out of the bank, they could take these tickets or bills to the bank and hand them over in return for physical gold. 

Sound familiar?  To me, it sounds a lot like how we put our money into the bank and then we spend it electronically using a debit card.  It is essentially the same idea, only now we are able to spend money that does not even exist.  This means that money is being virtually created but does not really exist at all.  The only reason the American government is in such great debt is because they have given virtual money to their constituents, via credit cards and lines of credit.  People liked the idea of having all of this money at their disposal and not having to earn it, or pay it back immediately.  The people then went spend crazy and started spending virtual money that they would never be able to repay.  How could the government be so stupid?  I always figured you had have at least a grade three education to be a politician, but maybe things are different in America.  Who knows?

The next place my mind went was the different currencies in the world.  First I thought of Japan and their Yen.  As of today, each US dollar is worth roughly 76 Yen.  As of January 23, 2011, the country with the lowest exchange rate compared with the US Dollar is Somalia, coming in at a conversion of 1 US Dollar for every 33,300 Somali Shillings!  If we were to take only the domestic debt of the United States ($14.34 trillion) and convert it from American Dollars to Somali Shillings we would get a number like this: 23,474,580,000,000,000.00 I am pretty sure that the word “kajillion” would come into play here.  Is that even a word?  Who knows?  That is the point.  There is so much money in the world that we have to make up new words just to accurately portray such a large number.

I googled it!  Kajillion is a word, and it is in reference to “fictitious, infinite numbers.”  Moreover, $23,340,580,000,000,000.00 is called “Twenty three quadrillion, three hundred forty trillion, five hundred eighty billion dollars.” ... just in case you were wondering.  I found a chart that gives the proper names for all of the proceeding numbers after quadrillion.  Click HERE to see it.  You know your nerdy side wants to!

The next place my mind went was here:  How many people in the world are starving?  How many people in the world do not have access to health care or clean water?  How many people in the world do not have a home or a bed?  More importantly, if there is SO much money in the world, why is it that there are so many people who are going without the basic necessities of life?

Now, we all know that the government is crazy, maybe even corrupt, (please hold your comments until the end) and each country of our wonderful world has its own government that likes to be “crazy and corrupt” in its own specific way.  Therefore, there is pretty much no possible way for me alone to make a world wide change in the way the governments deal with their debt, their resources and the basic needs of their people.  That being said, there is a way that we can help.  In fact, there are many ways.  We will likely not be able to get all of the powers that be to see the world with one mind, but we can sure do something about helping our fellow human beings and meeting their physical needs.

There will be more to come on this topic later.  

Thanks for "listening."

Count Your Blessings

Earlier this week, I was having a very bad day.  I was hormonal to the point where I felt like I was about to burst into tears all day, but I had no idea why I felt so sad.  I was supposed to go see my family to celebrate my brother’s birthday with him, so he called me up to confirm where we were meeting and when.  His call couldn’t have come at a better time.  I had just gotten home from running all over town doing errands, and I was ready to head upstairs to my apartment and fall into a heap on my couch and cry.  

My brother could tell right away that I was in a horrible mood, so he asked me what was going on, and I shared what was on my heart.  One of the more practical things that I mentioned was that I work long hours and I don’t have much time to sleep in between shifts.  When I come home, I am so very tired, but I don’t have a bed to sleep in.  I sleep on my couch, and have been doing so for the last 5 months.  Needless to say, my body is often in a lot of pain due to not having proper support for my back in the few hours a night I actually get to sleep.  

This is when I was really ready to burst into tears.  I was tired, hormonal, sad, overwhelmed, worried and just plain old worn out.  Then he said something that got my attention.  He asked “Have you thanked God for your couch?”  He was completely serious, and right away I had an attitude check.  Even though I had reason to complain, I still needed to put things in perspective and realize how much worse my situation could be.  I could have no bed AND no couch, but God has blessed me with a couch to sleep on at night.  This is more than many people in the world have.  I have a roof over my head, and I have food in my cupboard, even if it is just canned food and pasta.  

Now that a few days have gone by, my hormones have calmed down, and I have had some time to think, I have realized how very blessed I am.  I just started thinking of a song that my friend’s mom used to sing all the time.  It is a little bit repetitive, but it does a good job of getting the point across.  Here are the words:

"Count your blessings.
Name them one by one.
Count your blessings.
See what God has done.
Count your blessings.
Name them one by one.
Count your many blessings.
See what God has done."

I was challenged by this idea.  How often do I actually stop and list all of the blessings the God has bestowed on me?  Even if you do not believe in God, I challenge you to look at your life, your world, and start counting the things with which you have been blessed.  It really helps to put things into perspective when we feel like the world is falling apart all around us.

Thanks for "listening."

LOVE!

It doesn’t matter who you are, what you have been through, or what you have been told.  You are here for a reason, and you matter.  Old or young, rich or poor, fat or skinny, male or female, genius or disabled, athletic or clumsy, shy or outgoing – your life IS significant.

Everyone could use a little more love.  I don’t mean the kind of love that you see in the movies, where everything goes down with its own perfectly timed sound track.  I mean the personalized kind.  The little things and the big things.  From strangers and from loved ones.  There are so many people in our world who are hurting more than we all realize.  I believe what they need is to be recognized, not necessarily for anything that they have done, but just for the fact that they exist!  This shouldn’t happen just once a year on a person’s birthday (I personally find my birthday to be depressing, because it is the one day a  year when people are supposed to acknowledge the fact that I was born, and yet people forget) but rather, it should happen regularly and spontaneously.  People need to be loved on Tuesday mornings – quite possibly the least significant time of the week.  They need to be shown in practical ways that they would be missed if they were gone.

Because of all this need for love, I have decided to live my life with one purpose: to love as many people as possible.  This may mean sacrifice on my part, but that is so much more than okay.  I would rather lose a little sleep or have less money in my bank account than know that there is someone out there who needs me for whom I have just not made the time.  It could be anyone – friend, family, the cashier at the grocery store, the guy who pumps your gas, or the teenager who babysits your kids.  They all need love, no matter how happy they may seem.  

A lot of times there are people who will test our patience.  They may be needy, or just plain annoying.  I can almost promise you that those people are starved for love.  They need love more than anyone.  The same goes for the rich people of the world.  It is so easy to think that just because someone has “everything” that all is well with their soul.  It could very well be the farthest thing from the truth.  Possessions don’t equal happiness and they never have.  I personally would trade everything I had just to find that one person who would love me unconditionally.  It doesn’t have to be a man.  It doesn't have to be romantic.  It could be anyone.  Sometimes life can be so very lonely.  Work, sleep, eat, repeat.  It’s in our nature as human beings to NEED connection with other people.  It’s how we were made, and our society is basically turning us all against our human nature.  Sure, we may be playing to our natural instincts to succeed and procreate etc, but honestly, what is the point of “success” if you have nobody to share it with who really loves you for who you are?  That being said, if you are lonely, please don’t go and jump off a bridge.  As sad as it is, sometimes it’s the lonely ones, the ones in need of love who have to take a step out.  It may be the hardest thing you do, to step out and ask someone to care for you, but you may be surprised how many people will reach back.  It’s a moment of epiphany when you realize that people actually do care.  Not only that, but you may find that when you step out and ask for love you may be able to help someone else in return.  We humans need to stick together, for goodness sake!  Why do you think there are so many of us in the first place?  Do you really think it is so that we can just go about our own little lives, living apart from any real, meaningful interactions?  Somehow, I doubt it.

Thanks for "listening."

Put it all together, and have you got ?!?

Some people who don’t know me very well have said that I am a negative person.  I have to disagree with this.  First of all, I have depression, so when I am negative, it is not fair to say that it is an overall description of who I am as a person.  Secondly, I consider myself to be a very realistic person with a very active imagination.

For example, when I see something that can be potentially unsafe, my mind starts to think “worst case scenario” but not in the way you might think.  I do not panic and run away, I simply observe my surroundings and think of ways that I could deal with things if an accident were to occur.  The key to being able to deal with all sorts of situations is to have information about all sorts of things. 

When I drive along the road to and from work I see a lot of trucks and big rigs.  Most of these trucks are not carrying anything extra special, but there are some that transport dangerous goods.  In order to keep people informed, a system has been set in place.   In this system any vehicle that transports dangerous goods has to clearly display the identification numbers of the substance they are carrying.  Each dangerous material is assigned a four-digit number according to its chemical properties and what effects it would have if it were spilled etc.  I am familiar with some of these numbers, such as …… for gasoline, and ………….. for diesel, but there are some numbers that I have seen which I did not recognize at all.

I started to wonder what was in all these trucks, and more specifically, what would happen if two of these trucks were to collide into each other, expelling their contents into traffic.  I know this sounds crazy, but anything CAN happen.  As a First Aid Attendant, I always want to be prepared to help anyone in any situation that requires medical attention, so I decided that it would be good for me to know some of these ID numbers and what sorts of procedures I would need to do to help anyone who is exposed to them.

I took a few days in a row and wrote down the ID numbers for all of the dangerous goods transports trucks that I saw on the road between my home and work.  I was surprised to see some things.  Given the tendency of the public to overreact, I think it is very prudent of our government NOT to display the names of the dangerous goods on the trucks.

Here are some of the ID numbers I came across:
Class 2 = Oxidizing material (burns when combined with oxygen)
1789 = Hydrochloric Acid (corrosive, burns)
1202 = Gasoline, petroleum, oil. (Flammable, accelerant)
3257 = Hot asphalt (burns)
2582 = Liquid Ferric Chloride (corrosive)
Oxygen (no number is designated) in conjunction with oxidizing materials … FIRE!

When I saw these, I pictured a few things: chemical burns, and lots of fire which is only made more intense with the addition of oxidizing materials, oxygen and accelerants.

Check HERE for a full list of all of the dangerous goods and their associated numbers.

I know this may seem a bit random in comparison to some of my other posts, but never the less, 

Thanks for "listening."

Did you know that "Canuck" means Canadian?

As most of you know, I am a Canucks fan.   Even though this year boasts one of the shortest off seasons in Canucks history, it seems like the countdown until the start of next season is taking forever.  I follow @VanCanucks on Twitter, and they have a countdown which they display every once in a while.  Just when I stopped thinking about hockey, and felt like I was getting on with my life and doing normal things, I saw a post marking the progress of the countdown.  “70 days!”  and then “60 days!” and this week, “50 days!” Oh my goodness, people!  Stop rubbing it IN!  I know I have to wait for hockey, but do you really have to make it so obvious how long I have to wait?  It is like standing in line at the grocery store with only ONE cashier and having someone track my progress over the PA system:  “Only 70 people in front of you…. Only 60 people in front of you…. Only 50 people in front of you!”  Okay, Yes, 50 is a whole 20 less than 70, but it is still 50!  It’s just too much, and I feel like the countdown until the new season shouldn’t start until it is at least at a point where I can manage waiting with the same amount of people in front of me in line at the grocery store.  So, like, one day before maybe?

Alright, crazy ranting aside, this week has been a sad week for Canucks fans and Canadians alike.  Just this past Monday, the leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) Jack Layton, passed away.  He had been struggling with cancer for quite some time and recently stepped down from his position as a political leader  Before doing so, he said that when he came back, things were going to be better than ever.  This gave us all hope that he would indeed come back, and fight off his cancer just like he did last time.  However, he did not come back.  He joined the ever growing list of people who have lost their lives to the disease of cancer. 

Another person who joined the world of tragic statistics is our beloved Canuck Rick Rypien.  Rick was only 27 years old at the time of his death, but he had gone through many ups and downs in his personal life, having struggled from depression.  What I need to mention here is that depression can be just as serious a disease as cancer.  A lot of times, people with depression are considered to be something less than the rest of us (and I can’t even loop myself in with “the rest of us” because I too struggle with depression.) It is really not fair for people with depression to be overlooked as a person who is "just faking" sickness.  Nor  is it acceptable for anyone to avoid seeking treatment for the simple fear that they will be ridiculed.  There is NO shame in having depression, just as there is no shame in having cancer.  Both are unfortunate diseases from which many people suffer. 

Back to Rick Rypien.  I know that when people die, a lot of people say things like “He was the best”_____." or "He was my favourite _____,” but Rick Rypien honestly was one of my favourite defensemen of all time.  He had grit like no other, and he made hockey exciting to watch, even when our team was losing! It didn’t matter what the score was, if Rick was on the ice, we were winning.  Nobody wanted to oppose him, and rightly so.  I am proud to have him as a part of the history of my home team.  He will be forever remembered.

I have come across various things online paying tribute to both of these amazing men, but these two videos were my favourites.

Click HERE to watch a tribute to Rick Rypien.

Click HERE to see a clip of Jack Layton the way that the world will remember him.

Thanks for "listening."

Have you played today?

This may be one of the shortest posts I ever write, but it is possibly one of THE most important topics.

As a busy adult with a more than full time job, a home to keep up, family to attend to, friends to visit and errands to run, I rarely find time to slow down and REALLY enjoy life - no strings attached.  Today I got an opportunity to do just that.  I went to the beach with some of my extended family and got to play with my little cousins (ages five and two.)  We had a lot of fun digging in the sand, splashing in the water and petting every dog within a 50 foot radius of our play area.  As I was digging in the sand I thought of something that I heard a long time ago.  It seemed silly to me back then, perhaps because I wasn't as busy, but here it is:

Have you played today?

This is important for two reasons

1. Playing does wonders for your mental and physical health.
2. Any child that gets to play with you will be better off for having spent valuable, and likely rare, unadulterated, uninhibited play time with a responsible adult. Children and adults alike need this.

That's all.  Now, go play already!!!!  

Thanks for "listening."

Controversies and Paradoxes

By definition, a controversy is simply a “prolonged public dispute.”

A paradox, by definition, is something that “seems self contradictory.”

Here, I would like to discuss one topic from column A: Controversy, and one topic from column B: Paradox.

Let’s start with the paradox.  We all know that our world is becoming increasingly populated, so much so that the word “overpopulation” has been floating around for years now in regards to our own human race.  It makes me think of how every once in a while a certain species of animal is considered to have gone into a state of overpopulation.  When this happens, hunters are given what is called “open season” to hunt as many of this species of animal as the desire.  This is not done to wipe out the species entirely, but to reduce the numbers enough to maintain a balance within nature as a whole.  Here is where things get messy: have you ever stopped to think of our own species in this sense?  Human beings have vastly over populated this planet in comparison to other large mammals.  It is scary to think about, but what would happen if human beings just kept on procreating until we ran out of resources?  Perhaps what is currently going on in Africa is an example of what will happen in the rest of the world years into the future.  Famine and starvation will end up taking over because the land which we use to grow our food will be needed to house our species.  Not only that, but the animals that we depend on for food will have less and less land to live on (and less food to eat) so we will eventually run out of “natural” sources of meat.  Perhaps cannibalism will take a rise.  Maybe it will all end in extreme malnutrition and starvation.

As much as I know I sound like a crazy person talking about such things as cannibalism, mass starvation and death, it is where the world WILL end up eventually if we keep growing in numbers as we are now.  With the influx of cures to diseases, and the exponential increase of births, our worldwide birthrate is far outweighing our death rate.  Perhaps this sounds morbid, I don’t really care.  Here’s where things get paradoxical:  In order for humanity to survive as a species, people have to keep on dying.  Diseases can’t all be cured.  People have to actually die of natural causes, otherwise we will all end up dying of unnatural and unnecessary causes like starvation.  Our culture seems to have this mentality that we deserve to live forever.  Honestly, what makes us any different from other generations?  Why was it okay for so many people to die of plagues and famine decades ago, but now it is an abomination?  Death is a natural part of the circle of life, and in order for life as a whole to continue, lives must come to an end.  We all have a natural instinct to survive, but are we in a culture that is so incredibly self centered that we would put the immediate survival of self before the long term  survival of humanity? 

Now, I must apologize if this has offended anyone.  It is not my purpose to make people angry, or to belittle the loss of human life.  Human life is very valuable, and I have lost many people who are still very near and dear to my heart.  However, I know that life is fleeting.  We are each but a vapour that is here today and gone tomorrow.  We are NOT meant to live forever on this Earth.  I know how selfish I am.  I know that it is in my nature to want to survive and to think that I deserve to live.  The truth is, I will die some day, just like everyone else.  I don’t deserve to live forever.  I have done nothing to deserve such.  Even the greats of this world do not deserve to live forever, as is evidenced by their very deaths.  We are all but small parts of an exceedingly large web of life.  There needs to be balance.  What bothers me is that I know that I am not able to do anything about it on my own.  All I can do is call others to be more aware of the LIFE that surrounds them.  Not just their own life, but the lives of other species that inhabit this planet.  Humans are not the only creatures of value.  All life has value, and all life is needed in order to achieve balance.

Alright, that was a bit heavy.  (Not that this next topic is any lighter.)  On the topic of life, I would like to take this time to delve into a topic that is considered to be highly controversial.  It has been controversial for a very long time in our culture, and it remains a controversy even in my own mind.

As a disclaimer, I must say now that I DO value all life, human and otherwise. 

Having been raised in a Christian home with typical Christian morals, I have been brought up around the idea that abortion is wrong. Period.  End of story.  In the last ten or so years I have really been grappling with this.  In high school, I did an essay supporting the cause against abortion.  Now that I look back on it, all I really said was that all human life has value and that we should not be the ones who have the right to take it away.  For all intensive purposes, let us just assume that from the moment of conception, a human life has started.  Whether that is true or not is highly debatable and no actual proof can be given to support either side.  So, let’s not argue that.  What I want to talk about today is the difference between being “Pro Life” and “Pro Choice”. 

When I think about it, I really must be Pro Choice, because if I were put in certain situations, I would opt to have an abortion.  Here is where you can all drop your jaws in disgust.  Here is where you can continue reading.  As I said, I put an extreme amount of value on human life, so please for the love of God and all things Holy, don’t try to call me a heretic.  If I were to find myself in a situation of an unwanted pregnancy, I would go through with the birth, and then give the child up for adoption, UNLESS I was in one of the following situations: Sickness, Rape.  These are two situations where I would opt to have an abortion.

First off is the issue of sickness.  If I was to be pregnant and my doctor told me that I was too sick to carry a child full term, I would have to abort.  It is very important for a child to be carried as close to full term as possible so that it can reach full stages of development.  I would not want to go through with a pregnancy that would result in an underdeveloped child.  This is not to say that I would not love that child, but it is to say that if the child would be in extreme amounts of pain and only live a very short time, I would rather put it out of its misery sooner than later.  Another thing that a doctor could say is, “If you carry this child full term, your body will not be able to handle it and you will die.”  This is where I would have to put my own life first.  Not only that, but how incredibly horrible would it be to bring a child into the world only for it to have no mother? I would also end up leaving the child’s father (likely to be a man with whom I am love) in mourning over the loss of my life, and left to raise a child on his own.  I could never bring myself to do that.

Second is the issue of rape.  There are two reasons why I would get an abortion of I was raped.  First off, if I was pregnant for any other reason, it would have been because of a choice that I made myself.  If I were to become pregnant after being raped, it would be only fair for me to make a choice to have an abortion after I had my choice to NOT get pregnant taken from me.  Secondly, if I were to become pregnant from being raped, the absolute last thing I would want to do is raise that man’s child.  I am sorry if that makes me a horrible person, but there is just NO way that I could do it.  I think it makes sense that if a rapist fathers a child that his predatory ways will be ingrained on his child’s DNA.  Of course, it is possible that my genes would win out, but how would I ever know?  I would be living in constant fear that my own child would take after its rapist father.  Like I said, I would not be able to handle that.  You may be thinking that I could always give the child up for adoption.  My thought on that is, if a couple is seeking to adopt a child, would it really be fair for them to have to raise the child of a rapist?  I know this sounds absolutely horrible because it is only a child after all.  But that rapist was “only a child” at one point, and then he turned into a monster.  Even if I didn’t have to raise it myself, why would I willingly bring another monster into the world?  I can't expect anyone else to do something that I am not willing to do myself.

On that note, I need to mention one more time how much I value life.  I love animals and all of creation so very much.  Beyond that, I love PEOPLE more than anything.  I may be an introvert, but I sincerely love people so much it hurts sometimes, especially the little ones.  There is not a child in the world that I would not love if it needed to be cared for.  Given all the information that I have on the topic, abortion would be an absolute last resort for me, and only if it was in one of those two situations.  Even though I have lost a lot of people in my life, and I can barely stand the thought of losing anyone else, I know that eventually, everyone is going to die.  We can't all live forever.  If we did, it would essentially kill us all simply due to a lack of resources.  

Even though I have some mixed feelings about some things, I still love life very much.  I know I sound like a broken record, and I am sorry!  I just feel frustrated sometimes with our culture and how people seem to not recognize how their actions affect the world and the people around them.  There are things that we can all do to counteract the “wrongs” that society has done.  Instead of being wasteful we can conserve as much as possible, and as we were all taught in school, “reduce, reuse and recycle.”   It really doesn’t take that much effort at all to be mindful of the world around us, and when we do so, we effect not only ourselves now, but the future generations of people and animals that will live on this Earth.  The other major thing that society does wrong is being so selfish.  People think that they can just go out and take things that are not theirs to take.  Rape is a prime, (although, extreme) example of this.  I strongly believe that if we were to raise our children in a manner that teaches them to respect the rights of others, and to be giving and respectful rather than selfish, there would be a LOT less rape and abuse in the world.

I know this has been paradoxical and controversial, so please feel free to leave your comments.  I am open to criticism on this one; just don’t call me names, please.  The only reason I wrote about this at all is because it has been on my mind for a long time, and I just had to get it out.  This blog is called Day today musings of a restless mind.  Now you know how restless my mind can really get.  It’s not just all random thoughts on what I see from day to day.  It goes much deeper.  I do try to spread these “rough” topics out a bit, so as to not overwhelm anyone, or come across as overly intense.

Sincerely

Thanks for "listening."

You never know what you might find

Yesterday I met a man who calls himself a “binner”.  I assume this is a nicer way of saying “dumpster diver”.  He was a very nice man, and made good conversation.  He told me that he got hooked on it years ago when he went into a dumpster and found $700.  I laughed and told him that I would have been hooked too. 

He doesn’t have a "regular job", but he has chosen to do this to make a living and to help out other people.  That may sound odd, but just listen to this.  He says that every once in a while he will pass a bin and get the feeling that he should “check that bin right now” as he said.  Then, when he goes in to take a look, he finds all sorts of things.  All of his friends and family know that he does this, and they will occasionally mention something specific that they need or want.  Almost every time, he finds those very things unopened, unused and unsoiled the very same day.  He told me, “If there’s anything you need, all you have to do is ask, and chances are I will find it.”  I chuckled to myself and said “I really could use a new car!”  He then looked at me and said with a laugh, “Well, I could find you a car, but it will likely not be new, and I am pretty sure it wouldn’t be IN the bin, but just beside it.”

Today, just in the one buggy that he had with him, (he collects several a day just in the small area of town he frequents) he had found a few bags of unopened toys and unused clothing.  None of these things were dirty as one might expect them to be after being pulled from a dumpster.  They were all clean and smelled fine (yes I checked).  In fact, he gave me a brand new, name brand hoodie that still had the tags on it ($69.99).  All I have to do with it now is take it home and throw it in the wash before I use it, just like anything I would buy from a second hand store. 

I was really surprised, and my previous misconception about “dumpster divers” was thrown out the window.  It just goes to show that things and people aren’t always as they seem.

Thanks for "listening."

Shopping is not my thing

I am not your average girl.  I don’t really enjoy shopping.  I find it very tedious, mostly because I get an idea in my mind of what I want and I usually don't end up finding anything like it.  Sometimes I get lucky and I find something that is “close enough” to what I want.  Very rarely though, I find that golden nugget - the rare find.  I tend to stick with what I know works.  For example, when I go to Subway, I order the same thing almost every time.  It’s the same when I order pizza.  My mind doesn’t see Subway or Pizza as an array of options, because I have already selected which option is the best and that is what I associate with the restaurant as a whole.  I like to keep it simple.

Alright, back to shopping.  Over the years I have gone through many many many products that just don’t quite cut it.  However, I have also found some things that I consider to be true gems.  Because I love you all so much, I am going to give you a list of some of these products so that you too can know (without the hassle of years of searching) which things REALLY work.  These are all what I would consider gender neutral products.  Are you excited?  I know I am!!! Okay, enough of the girly excitement.  Here's the goods:

 

Exfoliating Skin Towel

This little baby is amazing!  One thing I love is a good back scratch.  When I shower, I always wish that I had something to really give my back a good scratch, so I used to scratch it myself as best I could, and would come out of the shower with red marks all over me, making it look like I just got attacked by some animal.  It was effective (sort of) but it produced a very unattractive result.  With this exfoliating towel, I just put some soap on it, lather it up, hold it behind my back and rub away (as if I was drying off with a normal towel).  It is absolutely heavenly.  So heavenly, that I use it on my whole body.  I tried it on my face last week and it buffed my skin until it was baby bottom smooth.

 

 Sneaker Balls!!!

I am pretty sure I was first introduced to these via late night infomercial.  I was not convinced.  After a few years of working in steel toed boots for 10 + hours a day, my boots were starting to stink up my front closet and all the jackets etc hanging above the shoe rack.  I went to a shoe store and found two products for removing foot stink from shoes.  One was a spray, and the other was a pack of these little yellow happy face balls that smell like fresh laundry.  Of course, I went with the happy faces, and I have not regretted my choice for a second.  I don’t have to take the time to spray each shoe.  All I have to do is take off my boots after work, throw the sneaker balls in and by morning they smell fresh.  Not to mention, my front closet smells much more appealing than it did in its previous state.

 Head and Shoulders Refresh. 

This is a shampoo and conditioner combination that has natural menthol added to it.  My goodness it is such a nice feeling.  Not only can I get away with just washing my hair (not using additional conditioner) but my entire scalp feels tingly and cool.  The fresh feeling lasts even after I have rinsed my hair and gotten out of the shower.  I know there is a bit of a stigma that goes along with Head and Shoulders.  I used to get made fun of when I was in middle school because I used Head and Shoulders.  I thought this was odd, because wouldn’t it be much worse to be walking around with flakes in my hair?  Either way, nobody should be ashamed of having dandruff.  It’s just dry skin.  I get dry skin all the time.  In fact, I pretty much have to douse myself with lotion after every shower I take because my skin is that stupidly dry.  That being said, if it is socially acceptable to use lotion to give moisture to the skin, then why can’t we all just admit our humanity and our need for Head and Shoulders Refresh Shampoo plus conditioner, and give our scalps the moisture they deserve?  Alright, I’m getting a bit carried away.  But seriously, your scalp is skin too.  Moisturize people!

Again, this has been another odd topic, but....

Thanks for "listening."

Inspired

I always think of things to write when I am not able to actually physically write anything down.  That, and I think of things before I fall asleep.  I always hope that I will remember them when I wake up, but I never do.  I swear I would be a published author by now if I actually wrote down everything that I want to write down.

Here are some more little factoids about me that you may or may not already know:

I have a habit of putting my sunglasses on upside-down.  I don’t always notice.

I have given mouth to mouth to a hamster that was in respiratory distress.  It didn’t work.

I always stand during the American and Canadian national anthems for hockey games etc, even if they are just on TV.

I like to pay with exact change.  When I can’t, I use the biggest possible bill so that I can get back as much change as possible, so as to be able to pay with exact change in the future.

I am a sort of "closet fan" of Justin Bieber.  In my dreams, he and I are friends and we hang out and talk etc.  It really sucks when I wake up and realize that he doesn’t even know I exist.  The more dreams he is in, the more it sucks knowing that he doesn’t know I exist, and the more determined I am to become famous someday so that I can maybe meet him and talk to him.  It’s not an obsession.   I just really want to have a conversation with the guy.  I feel the same way about Trevor Linden, minus the dreams :P  For the record, NO I do not have a crush on either of these people.  I am just inspired by them as human beings, and I would sincerely like to meet them both in the future and not just like “Hey can you sign my shirt” and then never see them again.  They are the kind of people who use their fame and their success for good.  They are both making the world a better place, and that is something that I want to do with my life.  I want to publish my book, have it sold to tonnes of people, then have people want to talk to me about it.  I don’t really want to be famous in the conventional sense, like having fans etc.  I just want people to know who I am so that I can have some influence and be able to get my message out to the world more easily :)

Some famous people who inspire me:

Justin Bieber
Trevor Linden
Mother Teresa
Terry Fox

Maybe you can let me know how inspires you?

Thanks for "listening."

Bad Day

Yesterday was just not a good day for me.  It is funny, the image I keep getting in my mind is someone with their foot STUCK in a toilet.  Odd right?  I mean, how on Earth would a person get their foot stuck in a toilet?  What would lead up to such a stupid situation?  That is how my day felt yesterday.  All these stupid little things kept adding up and all I could think was "How the heck did this even happen?"  

Given that I usually end up crying when I get overly frustrated, I am proud to say that I didn't shed one single tear.  However, I also didn't end up doing a lot of other things: sleep (insomnia again), make cupcakes, have my meeting with my boss, pick up my check, buy food for work, or remember to take my food from home with me to work (I left it on the table - thankfully the cats didn't touch it.)

To add to all this, I have just one word: Hormones.  

They suck!  Lately I have literally been able to feel when my hormones change.  All of a sudden I feel this change come over me, and I get very irritable, or I feel like I am going to burst into tears for absolutely no reason.  This happened the other day in the middle of a lunch date with a good friend.  I felt horrible, but I knew that there was essentially nothing that I could do to change my mood.  All I could do was try to avoid talking and crying at the same time (it sounds funny.)  The first time this happened to me, I was actually at the gym working out.  I had just finished doing a set and when I went to put the weights down on the rack, I couldn't even stand back up again.  I felt so weighed down by random emotion.  Sometimes I really hate being a woman.

Now for something that has nothing to do with emotions or hormones.  My computer likes to auto save my blogs every 30 seconds.  I swear it sometimes takes 29 seconds to save, and then all I can do is press "Enter" once and it has to save again.  I usually pre-write my posts so that I can get my thoughts out even if I do not have internet access.  Then, when I do have internet, I go on, copy and paste, and voila: my blog post.  All I have to do from there is change some formatting, add some pictures or links, and I am set to go.  It sounds like it would only take a minute, but last night I posted two entries, and I took about two hours to get them both out.  No joke.  So many times I sat there with my head in my hands, staring blankly at the screen thinking, "I am not even a patient person.  Why am I doing this???"  Then I consider never writing another blog again, a thought which is quickly dismissed, knowing that one person in particular seems to really look forward to reading my thoughts.  I will oblige, but hopefully they now know what goes into all this :P

What's interesting to me is that when I am in the midst of my frustration and emotion, the last thing I want to do is write about it.  Really, I don't usually want to do anything.  I just want to curl up into a ball and turn off. A friend of mine suggested that it is all in the mind and I just needed to think about "What turned me on" << Direct quote.  That one made me giggle :P  Now that I am looking at this in hindsight, I am able to analyze it with a clear head, and write about it.  

Today has been much better.  I slept about 4 hours, (which, in comparison to 30 minutes cumulative, is not that bad) I got paid, had my meeting with my boss, bought some food for work, and even remembered to bring my food from work (I put it right in my work bag this time.  Smart move, eh?)  I am actually surprised that I got any sleep at all.  I worked until 6:00am "last night" and when I got home, it was about 7:00 am when I got to bed.  There has been road construction close to my apartment for the last month, which has been very annoying.  I don't mind the hold ups before work.  I just mind that they tore up an entire block's worth of pavement and then took 3 weeks to pave the whole thing.  Of course, the stretch right in front of my apartment was last on the schedule to be paved.  Well, they finally started paving it this morning.  At 7:00 am.  All I have to say to that is I literally thank God for making the person who invented ear plugs.  I would go insane without them.  

One thing that I could still hear even through the ear plugs was something I should come to expect by now.  There is an Air Show that comes to town every summer.  For the last 4 years, I have been woken up by the sound of planes flying VERY low over my home.  I used to live much closer to the airport, and the first time I heard it, I thought we were at war.  The next two years, I was totally fine with it.  I woke up to the sound and thought "Oh ya, the Air show is this weekend."  This morning, (even though I am GOING to the Air Show this weekend, and I have seen the planes flying around during the day) I woke up out of a dead sleep to the sound of planes flying overhead.  It sounded like a bomber was approaching, and so, in my dreamy state, the first thing I thought was, "Why would anyone want to bomb Canada?"

After the Air Show, I am going to a friend's place for his birthday.  He is in the process of setting up some hammocks in his yard for the occasion. I saw this video, and now I am not so sure I am as excited about the prospect of swinging in a hammock with my "friends" around.  

Click here and you'll see what I mean.

Thanks for "listening."

Something Delicious

The other night I was just NOT able to sleep.  I was in a weird mood where I was contemplating life too much, and I didn’t really like what I saw.  Thankfully, my subconscious took over, and I was suddenly overcome with the incredible need to make something delicious!  I knew exactly what I wanted to make, but I had never made it before.  I did what I always do in situations like this.  I opened a tab on my browser to my favourite search engine, Google.

I needed to know if it was possible to make gelato without the help of an ice cream maker.  The only answer I got was no.  Google did not give me the answer I was looking for, so I did what I always do.  I tried it anyway!  Kidding!  I don’t always try things when people tell me ahead of time that it doesn’t work.  In fact, I do a lot of my learning from other watching other people make mistakes and just avoiding doing what they did.  However, in this case, I had my mind made up.  I didn’t care what Google told me – after all, Google is just a search engine leading me to results of what other people have done or failed to do.  Who’s to say that I can’t be the first person to successfully make gelato without an ice cream maker?  Let it be known, I believe in the power of dreams!

What I needed to know next was what I could use as a thickening agent.  I read that there are two options.  The first is eggs, and the second is gelatin.  Eggs are typically used in ice cream, but I didn’t want to make ice cream.  Ice cream is usually considered to be better or of higher quality if it has a higher fat content.  A dessert with a higher fat content is definitely not what I wanted to make.  I wanted something that would be delicious because of its strong core flavours, not because of its high content of milk fat.  Clearly, my only option was gelatin.  I wracked my brain trying to think if I had any gelatin in my cupboards.  Figuring that I didn’t I was at the point where I would have to postpone my gelato project until the next day when I could get to a store to purchase some gelatin.   This option was quickly dismissed, because I still seriously wanted to make something delicious.

I went to my kitchen and got out a big pot, some frozen strawberries and some frozen raspberries.  I put the berries in the pot and put the pot on the stove over low heat.  While the berries were defrosting, I looked around my kitchen and low and behold, I found some gelatin!  Unfortunately, it was in the form of an old pack of raspberry Jello that was in my cupboard.  This is where I was reminded of an old childhood lesson in improvisation, “Use what you’ve got!” 

I let the berries defrost, then turned up the heat a bit and waited until they had softened up.  At this point, I took a potato masher and squished the berries so that they would expel some of their juices.  I took a handful of green grapes, cut them in half and threw them into the mix, along with two snack cups of cranberry raspberry applesauce, and got to work on sending all of these fruits into one cohesive liquid state.

Once the mix was about 50% mush and 50% liquid, I got out my electric hand mixer.  Correction: I looked for my electric hand mixer.  For some reason, I always store the top piece and the bottom piece in different drawers.  I also always find one half and then forget where the other half is stored.  I know I should just store them together, but in the end, it always seems logical for me to store them in different drawers, so I do… *repeat cycle.*

I must add here, I really don’t like gelato that has seeds in it from the fruit.  That being said, I transferred the mixture into a big bowl, rinsed and dried the pot, and put the mixture back into the pot through a fine metal colander which removed all of the seeds.  I poured half of the mix into the colander at a time, and worked it through the holes with a spatula.  Once I was left with little more than seeds, I rinsed the spatula in the sink, used it to scrape the bottom of the colander, and then rinsed out the colander as well.

I wanted my gelato to have a bit of milk in it, so I decided to warm up some milk to dissolve the gelatin.  Apparently this was a bad move, because once I added the gelatin, the milk curdled almost right away.  

Perhaps it was just too acidic. 

To avoid this happening again, I added the milk (and some sugar) directly to the berry mix in the pot. 

I then boiled some water and whisked in about 1 tsp of the gelatin, 

then added the water mixture to the berry mixture.

All I had to do now was turn up the heat so that enough liquid would evaporate to get the mixture to the right thickness.  This didn’t take too long, which made me happy. 

I found a bowl that I planned to use to hold the mixture when it was 

in the freezer, and transferred the mix into it.

After it had cooled down, I put the bowl of deliciousness 

into the freezer for the night/morning.

When I woke up, I went straight to the freezer and checked on my gelato, hoping that it would indeed be gelato.  It was!  All I did from this point was take a spoon and use it to shave the contents of the bowl into smaller bits and then mould them into an attractive looking mound, and invite my mom over to be my taste tester.

Take that, Google! 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I wasn’t satisfied with just the gelato, so I decided to take ALL day running around getting ingredients. to make another something delicious.  I looked up a few recipes, realized I needed more things, ran around town some more to get those things, then came home, showered, cleaned the house and finally started making some hopefully delicious Indian Cuisine :)

Aside from a little bit too much yeast in the Naan bread (1 Tbsp instead of 1 tsp…oooops!) and a slight headache from the smoke alarm going off when I over-deep-friend the first round of chicken pakoras, I would say it turned out pretty well.  The Matter Paneer was a little bit thick, but tasted great and made for great leftovers, and the Mint Chutney was perfect, except I had no idea what to do with the leftovers. 

I was hoping to make some more rainbow cupcakes before bed (I stay up late because of my night shift schedule) but I was too tired, too full, and I only had 8 cupcake liners left and all the stores were closed.  

Maybe another day.

Thanks for "listening."

Game Time!

This may seem like a contradiction because I have previously said that I don’t have a lot of time to go running.  When I am at work, I have a LOT of time on my hands.  I am a First Aid Attendant, so my job is to be at the ready with all of my skills and knowledge, to help any workers who are injured.  I do site walks, and inventory, and talk to the workers and the security guard throughout my shift, but this hardly makes up the time that I am actually at work.  That being said, I have a lot of down time.  In this down time, I obviously do a lot of writing.  That doesn’t even take up all of my time, so I do other things such as exercises, watching the ravens that live at my work site, watching episodes of TV shows, and playing games on my computer. 

I have some games that are on my computer, but there are some others that are only accessible via the internet.  The good thing about this, is that I can share them with you!

To play any of the following games, just click on the game title and it will link you to the page where you can play the game.  Beware, they are addictive, occasionally frustrating, and may cause you to lose significant amounts of sleep, depending on how obsessive you are!

Tealy and Orangey: This game is very simple in that all you have to do is get the balls through the course to reach the next level.  however, there are obstacles in your way like bombs and spikes which you will need to avoid.  There are two portions to each level: Tealy and Orangey.  Each colour has its own ball, its own obstacles, and its own course to navigate.  The kicker is this: although the courses may not be the same, both balls move at the same time, so you have to keep your eyes on both areas otherwise the ball you are not looking at will run into an obstacle and have to start the level over.

The Company of Myself: This game has a weird, somewhat disturbing premise to it, but if you ignore that and just play the game, it is fun.  Each level is like a puzzle where you have to use your man to navigate gaps etc to reach the green box at the end.  There are a few elements to the game that when added together make each level possible.  There are no specific instructions, so you have to figure it out for yourself as you go, which is half the fun.  As you finish each level that you thought was impossible, you will feel all good about yourself inside ... even though it is just a game.

The I of It: In this game, you are the letter "I", and as this letter, you have to navigate your way through each level by extending and shrinking yourself to grab onto ledges and to jump off them.  It sounds very silly, and perhaps it is, but it is very fun.  The narrator has an accent and it goes through the entire game with you, telling you what to do in some cases, and subtly making fun of you in others. 

Super Stacker: This game is essentially just what the name suggests.  You stack things. (I used to play this game when I went to restaurants, using cups, ketchup bottles, salt and pepper shakers, cutlery etc... I stopped because it got a little too messy when the towers fell.)  In this game, the objects that you stack are common shapes such as squares, triangles, circles and bars.  Along the top, there is a list of what shapes are coming up next and how big they are.  The goal of the game is stack all of the pieces without any of them falling.  It is harder than it sounds in some cases, but they key here is to plan ahead.  That, and a lot of trial and error :P

I really enjoyed playing all of these games, and there is no way that I could choose a favourite.  They are each very different.  I hope you enjoy them, too, but try to make sure you get some sleep... and remember to eat and go to the bathroom too!

Thanks for "listening."

October

I am a Vancouver Canucks fan, in case I have not made that obvious enough already.  I have been a fan since I was a child, having been born in Vancouver.  My favourite players growing up were Trevor Linden, Alex Mogilny and Pavel Bure.  If you know anything about Canucks history, you know that these three are pretty much the ones who led Vancouver to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1994.  Heartbreak ensued, and our city has never forgotten it. 

This past year, 17 years later, things have changed considerably.  Mogilny, Bure and Linden have moved on.  New young stars emerged, and new leaders took up the role of bringing Vancouver to their second in history Round Four Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals.  I am sure I don’t even need to mention it, because the events of that night were all over the news.  People all around, Canucks fans and otherwise, heard what happened.  Yes, Vancouver fell short.  Again.  But it was more than that.  Rioters took to the streets and set fire to the beautiful city that I have always known and loved.  I, along with thousands of others, was appalled, devastated and even afraid.  I couldn’t believe that people would take things so far.  You see, in 1994, I was only 7 years old, and I didn’t watch any news coverage about the riots that occurred that year.  I was only interested in the hockey aspect, overwhelmed by the fact that my team had lost.  This year was different.  I didn’t have my parents to shelter me from the destruction being shown on television.  I was right there in the same city as it all went down.  I fled the city via taxi cab, but my fear took a while to be quelled.  I sat in a nice restaurant in an adjacent city, safe from the danger, and ate my food while watching the news.

The next day on my way to work, I was still high strung emotionally.  I was nearly brought to tears just at the mention of the rioting on the radio.  I have been a diehard Canucks fan for as long as I can remember, but I honestly didn’t care one bit that Vancouver didn’t win the cup.  First of all, it’s nothing new, so I have come to expect it, even though I hope for the best.  Second of all, the loss of a city – a home is far worse than losing an athletic competition. 

As I kept listening to the radio, I heard reports of Vancouverites going downtown to help clean up what the rioters had left behind.  This too got me very emotional.  I love Vancouver.  I am proud to be from there.  There is a lot of pride that goes along with being a Vancouverite.  Pride in our city.  Pride in our team.  We can’t dwell on the loss.  We just have to get back up, dust ourselves off and look toward the future.  The city has been restored to its former glory, and the Vancouver Canucks are already at it building up their ranks.  They lost yes, but the loss is not permanent.  With October comes a new beginning.  Players were injured.  Egos were bruised.  But healing comes with time. 

It’s just like anything in life really.  We can’t look at the losses as final.  We have to get back up, dust ourselves off and look toward the future.  Anything bad that comes your way in life is only permanent if you let it be.   Even if you have a crippling injury or disease, life is more than just your body.  Your soul is what makes you who you are.  Your soul holds your passion and your determination to push through the trials and look forward to the future.

Here’s to new beginnings.  Here’s to October. 

Thanks for "listening."

LINKS!

Hey readers! I am proud to say that I can legitimately pluralize that word "readers."

Have you noticed that some words in my blogs are different colours?  There is a reason for that.  If you hold your mouse over top of those words, you will find that it will turn a different colour.  If you click on those words, you will find that those words are actually links to different things on the internet.  Some of these things are more serious, and some are more entertaining.  They are all things that I find to be interesting.  This blog gives you a look inside my mind, but if you want to look even further inside, click on those links and go for an adventure.  You may laugh.  You may learn something.  Almost every single post that I have made has links in it, so I encourage you to go back and check them out!

Just a tip – you may want to adjust your settings so that links are opened in a new window, that way you will not have to press the back button a bunch of times to get back to this blog.

I would love to hear from you.  If you would like to send me an email, feel free.  You can reach me at Restless_Mind@ymail.com

OR

You can leave a comment.  At the bottom of each post it says how many comments there are (so far I have gotten only 2, and each on different posts.)  If you click on the word “comments” it will lead you to a page that allows you to leave a comment.  It will then be sent to my board and once I see it, I can approve it to be posted on here along with ALL the other two that I have so far :P  The only things you need to avoid for it to be approved are insults and the use of my name.

OR

You can “react” to any post by clicking one of the gray buttons at the bottom of each post.  It’s simple, and it’s a quick way to let me and others know what you thought of the post.

Happy reading everyone!  Thanks for taking an interest :)  and of course, 

Thanks for "listening."