California Gold

I visited Oregon, first time in spring. I was a little reticent to leave and come back home. There was more than the usual flora all around. Coming back to California, feeling a little down I was welcomed by this: Home sweet home!

I'm planning on hitting the hills this weekend again and capture some more of the local beauty.

How to ruin your lungs without smoking!

There is a lot of talk about second hand smoke and the effect it has on our health. I'm not exposed to the traditional second hand smoke (from smokers). I live  in California and smoking in public places is prohibited everywhere. Cars, that's another story, but I digress.

It may be that second hand smoke is over hyped but there is something we don't hear enough about. This will ruin your lungs just as effectively as a smoking a pack a day.

You want to know what it is? Bacon and deli meats. In fact any cured meats that have nitrates in them will do this for you. Free of charge!

I had read about this in some 'health' websites and I thought that they were just overdoing it. I did a little research and still was not convinced. There is a study for everything under the sun that 'proves' this or that.

Apparently nitrates are the evil thing described in many articles.

COPD? Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. I'm sure there are a myriad of ways to get this, one of them is ingesting enough nitrates in your diet over time.

Heating these cured meats by some cooking method, 'enhances' the nitrate effect. Just lovely! So I stay of the cigarettes because I don't want to get emphysema. I choose to eat turkey breast for a 'healthy' sandwich and I'm toast.

I'm sure that the folks who thought of putting nitrates in our meats did not mean to harm us. But like many things that our advanced society has come up with, we end up in a world of trouble.  Researchers at Columbia University found this little 'nitrate' gem.

Bookmars and your Favorites

I've discovered a neat add on to my broswers. Foxmarks. It allows you to have your bookmarks and favorites synchronized between browsers and locations as well.

Bookmarks are now available on the road, at home, at the office.

You can visit the site and read more about it here:

http://www.foxmarks.com/

While looking this up, I was informed that Foxmarks is becoming Xmarks (for Firefox only at this time). You can read about that here:

https://www.xmarks.com/firefox/upgrade/3.0.0

As long as their servers are up, I don't have to worry about loosing my favorites. There is always back-ups but this sure is convenient.

Daylight Savings and my wedding anniversay.

After a week of struggling I'm finally used to the earlier time change. I woke up at around 4:00 AM and shortly after got up to do some body training.

I celebrated my 34th wedding anniversary. March 16th, 1975 was the big day. Given the economy situation there was not much splurging but we really had a pleasant time.  My daughter baked some Lasagna for us and it was just absolutely great.  Actually my wife was the one that asked for it.

We have grown up together and learned to love each other for what we are. It's like daylight savings. There are adjustments to be made and it seems like a lot of work, yet the benefits overshadow any inconveniences.

Scales are for suckers...

I read an interesting article on why one should be very apprehensive about putting complete trust in the scale. A body weight scale that is. Basically our weight does not tell the whole story. An obese individual weighing 220lbs is not the same as a very fit individual weighing 220lbs. And yet we persist in using the scale as the final judge of our progress.

I saw a cartoon drawing depicting how men and women perceive themselves while looking at themselves in the mirror. Thin women see themselves as fat and out of shape. Men out of shape see themselves as fit. This is a generality of course. But I know I had the same issue. I was carrying a lot of weight and never saw it. I see it now after 54lbs are gone but not then. I did have to use the scale (it does have its use), yet my blood tests, my waist measurements and blood pressure told the rest of the story.

A thought or two...

The best educated people are those who are always learning, always absorbing knowledge from every possible source and at every opportunity.
-Orison Swett Marden, 1908.

There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.
-W. Clement Stone, 1946