Friday, March 30, 2007

List: Most-bang-for-your-buck in Victoria...



Chef's Early Dinner at Cafe Brio
Bulk Balsamic Vinegar from Ottavio Bakery
Laura's Homemade Soaps
Moss St. Market
Climbing at Fleming Beach (free)
Magic Teeth Comics from Legends Comics and Books
Riding a Double-Decker Transit Bus
Fresh Pizza Dough from Ottavio Bakery
Movies at Cinecenta
The Compost Educator Program at the Compost Education Centre
Buying Plants from the UVic Biology Dept
Japanese Dining at Shiki Sushi

List: the best of...




Milk chocolate: Daniel Chocolate
Dark chocolate: Denman Island Cocoa Loco
Toilet paper: Seventh Generation
Vitamins: USANA Essentials
Lipbalm: Bliss Natural Fatty Lip
Olive oil: Serego Alighieri
Conditioner: Bonacure Smooth Control
Styling cream: OSIS Buff
Body lotion: Burt's Bees Buttermilk Lotion
Deodorant: Tom's of Maine
Tents: Marmot
Windproof jacket: Patagonia
Room spray: Heather's Magnfiscent Fresh Forest
Incense sticks: Kyo-zakura Shoyeido Corp.
Menstrual cup: Diva Cup
All-round cleaning product: Baking Soda
All American shoe: SAS
Lipstick: MAC
Bakery: Swiss Pastries, Kamloops BC
Font: OCR A Extended
Numbers: 5 & 8

...And Specifically in Victoria BC:

Health services: Synergy Health Management
Tea shop: Oak Bay's Belgian Chocolate and Special Teas
Butcher: The Village Butcher
Recycling company: Pacific Mobile Depots
Futon bed store: Dreamscape Futons
Bakery: Ottavio
Deserts: Wild Fire Bakery
Hair salon: The Fix
Comic shop: Legends Comics and Books
Laundry soap: The Soap Exchange
Coffee: Cafe Fantasico
Hot chocolate: Cafe Fantasico

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Painting in the works...




The above is without photoshop and the below has some tweeking. This painting isn't complete, by any means, and it's about half way done.


Sunday, March 25, 2007

List: things I've stolen


toilet paper
a carrot
bricks
seashells
a National Geographic
a scoop of laundry soap
music
pictures
a suitcase
books
a pair of boxers
pens
pencils
paper
envelopes
milk crates
clothes

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Review: Everyday with Rachael Ray


This Martha Stewart rip-off is the worst magazine that I have read in some time. Gad. Upon first glance, I thought I would be reading a magazine filled with quick, semi-unusual recipes and boring decorative table tips. And so it was, but with so much more. Not only did I find what I expected, but I also found a literary contradiction of sorts. For instance, their is a real strong emphasis on organic diet and then on the next page, a complete review of the best-buy frozen meat pies. Huh?

My personal favourite is the monthly page called "B, L, D" (breakfast, lunch, dinner) that outlines a featured celebrity's daily diet. In one, I learnt that Lisa Edelstein from "House" eats: 3 glasses of organic yerbe matte tea, 2 shots of Dr. Foster's Essential Calcium from Herbs and 1 container of WholeSoy yogurt for breakfast; romaine, avocado and tofu salad with Asian dressing, 1 bottle of water, 1 cup of green tea, and a double latte for lunch; and stir-fry with rice, perrier with lime and 1 cup of calm tea for dinner; and her guilty pleasure is Vosges Creole Bar. So essentially this women doesn't really "eat", but instead loads herself with tons of caffeine. Hmmm, no wonder she is so skinny... I can see why knowing her diet is important. Then in the next month, I read that 14 year old Spencer Breslin from the movie "Zoom" (ever heard of it??) also has a terrible celebrity diet. He eats (gorges on): a cup of coffee for breakfast (doesn't everyone feed their 14 year old coffee for breakfast??); a sloppy joe and a diet pepsi for lunch; then for dinner has a cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato, a hot dog, a handful of potato chips and 1 diet pepsi (why bother with "diet" soda at this point?); and finally for a midnight snack, a giant piece of chocolate cake . Is he on the Adkins diet or something?? Where are the vegetables???!! Ahhhhh! I have to ponder the question: What do I need to know how unhealthy these rich people are?

The advertising in this mag is definitely geared towards the sexist stereotypical "house mum". There are countless advertisements of mum-lady dishing up, hauling around, and/or happily presenting her white bread family (a boy, a girl and dud, I mean dad) with enormous glazed turkeys, rice dishes, bowls of stuffing, super sealed garbage bags, etc, etc. There are also tons of cleaning product ads, especially paper towel advertisements, that say things like, "Don't fear the meatball", "Can't be alone with chocolate? Hurry, call the girls" and other dumbs remarks (I guess the assumption is that all the "girls" are at home, baking chocolate cakes waiting for their friends to call!) . And of course, there are several advertisements that detail cheap-o processed food recipes, my favourite being the "fiberccino" being a coffee beverage with Benefiber added to it (oh, as if the taste of added fiber to a traditionally precise cup of espresso would go unnoticed).

The last thing I'll mention is the interesting column "How to...". From this I learned how to make a no-knit scarf. Basically you chose a skein of bulky, textured yarn (they suggest something around $26 US funds), and then unravel the yarn and fold it back and forth to form a 5 foot long bundle. Then tie each end. Wrap the scarf around your neck and voila, you're done! My opinion of this: viola you're scarf looks like worm turd. Your "scarf" looks like something your child made at preschool. It looks like the shit that clogged your vacuum, the "yarn" you pulled that was spooled around the revolving brush of your dirt devil. Get real and get off the Valium.

Friday, March 23, 2007

drugs



I have since made the conclusion that when I take drugs, it means I'm sick. This association between drugs = sickness, is very new for me. And is very real.

Some might consider my life a bit of a dream. I spend most of my day at home, in bed, drinking tea, eating healthy, having warm baths if I want to and spend as much time as I want roaming the internet. For some, that is the perfect day. But for me this reality is far removed from wonderful.

I wake up everyday with excruciating/burning pain running a tree branch length down the side of my right leg. Every morning at 7 am I have to hobble to the freezer and then back to bed, with a frozen gel to ice my lumbar spine. Needless to say, it is a rude awaking and as cold as fuck. You see, I slipped a disc 3 weeks ago and now my schedule revolves around the healing rate of this protrusion.

My first time at the hospital they gave me a shot of morphine and gravel, and by the time I left, I was so stoned I could barely speak. The next time I went, I was given a prescription of equal amount to that previous morphine shot, only this time, I was to take the dosage every 4-6 hours to manage this new pain. At first it was impossible to function, but now I can do anything. Now the morphine hardly effects me. Oh, except that at least once a day I pass out from pure exhaustion and burn out.

Everyday I have to cut and combine several different highly addictive drugs, and then swallow them with water. Every morning at around 8:45am, I am full of cereal, tea and narcotics. What a fresh start.

I have spent a lot of time lately thinking about when I have smoked pot, which is a drug I have of course smoked. Not only does pot seem "dirty" to me now (I mean it does have a lot of junk in it and it's a carcinogenic, unless you eat it), it also makes me feel like there is something wrong with me. It makes me feel like I've got an illness or injury of some kind. Every time I'm high on pot, I wonder, "what's wrong with me?". "If there is nothing wrong with me, why am I doing this?" I have grown a big huge appreciate for a clear mind.

Being stoned day in, day out feels like a prison, even though, if I didn't take high doses, I would have no freedom whatsoever. Being stoned day in, day out sucks my creativity and my good mood. Being high for the last 3 weeks has certainly taken it's toll. And the relationship, in my mind, has been firmly established: drugs are for injuries, not for fun. I've been pushed past the realm of recreational intake and forced to ingest pills that force people into rehab. Ugh.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

comfort food


I have noticed lately that I am developing a different and strange relationship with the food that I am eating. Since my illness (which has now officially come and gone… whew) and disc slip, food has morphed from tasty and healthy, to comfy and soothing. I find these days that I crave all kinds of foods containing sugars and fats (which is unusual for me), and when I feel upset I want to eat something. I’ve also noticed that while I am munching away on these items, the food has a calming effect on my psychology.


Now food and I have a long complicated history. Being a sensitive eater, with sensitive digestion, food has always been a challenge. In fact, a few times my relationship with food has been so extreme that eating was next to impossible. Food just made me sick. Yet I’ve always pulled through. Even though I lost a lot of weight during those turbulent times, I always persevered and eventually bounced back with a new appreciation of food as a fuel. And that has always been my feeling, food is essential to life. I have never considered it a real console, especially in the sense that I could eat my troubles away. I’ve never been an eater under stress.


So it’s puzzling to me, to have this new attraction and seeming need for food. I have heard, of course, the stories of people binging and/or starving, but in truth I have never been able to relate on a personal level… that is until lately. So here I am now, wanting cookies and ice cream, and then practically wolfing it down, as if I’ve been hungry for months. How puzzling and how strange to want food so desperately. Then afterwards I feel guilty. Again, guilt is not a feeling that I normally associate with food.


I honestly don’t know what to think of this at the moment. I have the feeling that once I can get up and do things, this food temptation will pass. Or at least that is my hope. Also I'm sure once I'm off all of my pain killers, that will change how I view the world. I don’t want to over-eat or eat just because I don’t feel good. That in itself doesn’t feel good. What to think, what to think?

Friday, March 9, 2007

What Suze says...


"Women live their life like they are on sale."
-Suze Orman

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

list: good ideas

Steam instead of boil
Expensive olive oil on everything
Balsalmic vinegar bought from a deli
Sleeping at least 8 hours
Praying or trying to
Working towards doing what you love
Taking the time to read
Eating your meals with another person(s)
Recycling pens that write like shit
Recycling as much as you can, which is almost everything
Using either the Keeper or Divacup or Lunapads
Cleaning sinks and bathtubs with baking soda
Paying attention to anger and all the ways it will try to relieve itself
Working towards understanding reality
Using your imagination productively, rather than wasting it on fictitious future scenarios
Taking the time to look at one star/planet everyday