Healthy french dressing recipie:
Start with good fresh made hummos from your local deli or market, mix in a dash of heinz organic ketchup and fresh cracked coarse black pepper. Add rice wine vinegar to deisred consistency and taste. Feel free to add salt, paprika, cayyanne, garlic powder to taste.
Get your spices from "the spice house" fresh ground spices like nothing you've ever tasted before. They have a shop in evanston and the loop.
Salad:
fresh spinach, drizzle a bit of the french dressing on...just a bit.
slice up some roasted red peppers
mince 2 sport peppers.
thin slice cross grain 3-5 ounces lean skirt steak. (either hot or cold)
pine nuts
peanuts
french feta cheese
(sauteed mushrooms are optional)
drizzle of sesame oil
very light splash of balsamic oil
combine, lightly toss and enjoy.
yummy yummy yummy.
I made this yesterday after a crazy sick gym workout. It tasted great and felt amazing.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
I love myself
Its true. I do. I love myself.
My self worth comes from within. My value comes from within and is not predicated on or influenced by you.
I accept the responsability of caring for my needs and fufilling my own desires to achieve my own self.
I accept you.
I accept you even if I don't understand you.
I hear what you are saying.
I love you too.
My self worth comes from within. My value comes from within and is not predicated on or influenced by you.
I accept the responsability of caring for my needs and fufilling my own desires to achieve my own self.
I accept you.
I accept you even if I don't understand you.
I hear what you are saying.
I love you too.
Washington
Just got back.
Took the last week off for a last minute getaway to Washington D.C.
A friend of mine who works for united called me last week and said, "I've got three free 1st class round trip tickets to Washington, you want em?"
He also had a car for us to use and a mansion with servants for us to stay in...nice.
We had a fantastic time, one thing you have to give the feds, they make sure that they never have to deal with potholes. Our capital city is visually stirring with loads to see and do. And all the museums are free admission.
The only glitch came at airport check in. Both there and back we were treated to the vip security experience. On the way back my friend was at the airport with us. I asked him if our special treatment was random or with cause. He hopped onto the system and came back with a big smile.
"Congratulations," he beamed, "you've made the terror watchlist."
I guess over clam chowder at the pub someone overheard me bitching about the poloticians and the gleaming ivory/gold towers where they reside.
Ain't it a great country. You want to strike gold become a federal polotician.
Took the last week off for a last minute getaway to Washington D.C.
A friend of mine who works for united called me last week and said, "I've got three free 1st class round trip tickets to Washington, you want em?"
He also had a car for us to use and a mansion with servants for us to stay in...nice.
We had a fantastic time, one thing you have to give the feds, they make sure that they never have to deal with potholes. Our capital city is visually stirring with loads to see and do. And all the museums are free admission.
The only glitch came at airport check in. Both there and back we were treated to the vip security experience. On the way back my friend was at the airport with us. I asked him if our special treatment was random or with cause. He hopped onto the system and came back with a big smile.
"Congratulations," he beamed, "you've made the terror watchlist."
I guess over clam chowder at the pub someone overheard me bitching about the poloticians and the gleaming ivory/gold towers where they reside.
Ain't it a great country. You want to strike gold become a federal polotician.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
cows vs. geese
Jason Spulock, from the psuedo-documentary 30 days has a cable show along the theme: someone lives for 30 days doing the opposite of their normal life, omnivore as vegan, evangical with a gay couple etc. I watched one recently wherein a hunter lived with an organic sustainable farm run by a group of animal activists. Like the hunter, by the end, while I am still happily an omnivore, I am more concious of the conditions the factory cows live and die in and try to eat only organic or high quality animal products.
As it is you really only need 3-6 oz. of protien per day, so limit your meat intake in general.
But I think about the chicago ban on fois gra and wonder why we care so much for the geese but would anyone pass a law banning beef?
And the same disconnect applies on the left wing, they won't drill for oil but have no problem with wind farms which will kill birds by the thousands.
And the real disconnect is this: all these problems and their problematic solutions are completely unneeded. They are phantasms. They are real problems, but they are fake. They don't need to be problems and have bad solutions. They can be avoided with a minimum of mindfulness.
As it is you really only need 3-6 oz. of protien per day, so limit your meat intake in general.
But I think about the chicago ban on fois gra and wonder why we care so much for the geese but would anyone pass a law banning beef?
And the same disconnect applies on the left wing, they won't drill for oil but have no problem with wind farms which will kill birds by the thousands.
And the real disconnect is this: all these problems and their problematic solutions are completely unneeded. They are phantasms. They are real problems, but they are fake. They don't need to be problems and have bad solutions. They can be avoided with a minimum of mindfulness.
Monday, July 21, 2008
at the adult bookstore
The other night was a friend's birthday. We went downtown, all rushed and last minute but as always nice resteraunts downtown come through in a pinch and put on a spectacular dining event.
I will probably write more blogs on food, both home cooked and resteraunt, at a later date, I love great food. Suffice to say that the resteraunt was phenom and at 1 am we staggered out and were ready for a nice walk in the early morning air. Of course we couldn't walk more than half a block without being hit up for change. I gave the guy our doggie bag which in retrospect was terribly mean. There was this homeless guy begging for money while holding a bag from Ruth's Chris... and to top it off, all I had left over was some creamed spinach and etc.
But we crossed the street and went into TJ's Adult bookstore, which has been there forever and for all the time I've been in that area I've never stopped in, so we did, we went in. And we wander about, and gigle, and we find some products which piqued our interest. So we are looking at a few items near the front counter, about to check out, and the guy behind the counter starts offering (unsolicited) advice on our choices; which was both helpful and sleazy.
But then he says, "it's really healthy that you two are here together." And I thought to myself, really? really really? do I really need relationship commentary at the same time you're charging a guy 2 bucks to get into a peep show? Maybe it was healthy maybe it wasn't, I know for sure that that guy didn't know.
I will probably write more blogs on food, both home cooked and resteraunt, at a later date, I love great food. Suffice to say that the resteraunt was phenom and at 1 am we staggered out and were ready for a nice walk in the early morning air. Of course we couldn't walk more than half a block without being hit up for change. I gave the guy our doggie bag which in retrospect was terribly mean. There was this homeless guy begging for money while holding a bag from Ruth's Chris... and to top it off, all I had left over was some creamed spinach and etc.
But we crossed the street and went into TJ's Adult bookstore, which has been there forever and for all the time I've been in that area I've never stopped in, so we did, we went in. And we wander about, and gigle, and we find some products which piqued our interest. So we are looking at a few items near the front counter, about to check out, and the guy behind the counter starts offering (unsolicited) advice on our choices; which was both helpful and sleazy.
But then he says, "it's really healthy that you two are here together." And I thought to myself, really? really really? do I really need relationship commentary at the same time you're charging a guy 2 bucks to get into a peep show? Maybe it was healthy maybe it wasn't, I know for sure that that guy didn't know.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
ego and humility and judgment
I have a dillema. I am an unabashed meglomaniac. Essentially this means that I believe I am God or at the least; godlike.
On the other hand, as an all knowing old school diety I am aware of the need and benefits of humility.
I am lacking the gene for that behavior. I recognize however that the end result of humility is lack of judgment. Lack of judgment in the sense of judging others by my standards, not that I am incapable of healthy and effective choices.
So I replace humility with the effect of humility which is to accept that all actions are equal. That choices and behaviors have no value other than the worth one places on them internally.
Most of the time exhibiting a non-judgmental mindset is easy and natural for me. But the other day I heard one of the many stories of how one human has treated anouther human. I am not thinking on a global scale here, I am not talking war or genocide which is easily understood and internalized without malice. I am referring here to those common behaviors between individuals, the micro-evil that we all know of. Insert here ==> an event that happened to you or a friend of something you feel was evil done to you or by you.
Those are the situations with which I struggle to accept.
On the other hand, is there no places for judgment in the human experiance. In fact, should any behavior, even humility, be taken to its extreme? Even physics fails at its' most extreme endpoints.
On the other hand, as an all knowing old school diety I am aware of the need and benefits of humility.
I am lacking the gene for that behavior. I recognize however that the end result of humility is lack of judgment. Lack of judgment in the sense of judging others by my standards, not that I am incapable of healthy and effective choices.
So I replace humility with the effect of humility which is to accept that all actions are equal. That choices and behaviors have no value other than the worth one places on them internally.
Most of the time exhibiting a non-judgmental mindset is easy and natural for me. But the other day I heard one of the many stories of how one human has treated anouther human. I am not thinking on a global scale here, I am not talking war or genocide which is easily understood and internalized without malice. I am referring here to those common behaviors between individuals, the micro-evil that we all know of. Insert here ==> an event that happened to you or a friend of something you feel was evil done to you or by you.
Those are the situations with which I struggle to accept.
On the other hand, is there no places for judgment in the human experiance. In fact, should any behavior, even humility, be taken to its extreme? Even physics fails at its' most extreme endpoints.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
in the garden
Genesis:
God tells Eve not to eat of the tree.
The snake tells Eve to eat of the tree.
Eve tells the Snake, not only can I not eat of the tree but I should not even touch the tree.
Eve touches the tree and does not die.
The snake tells Eve, "well lookee there, you touched the tree and didn't die, I guess you can eat it too."
Eve eats from the tree.
Now, ignoring all the sexual innuendo I want to focus on the issue of Eve saying that she could not even touch tthe tree let alone eat from the tree.
What happened in that moment, is that in an effort to keep herself from eating from the tree she expanded god's commandment to include even touching the tree. It was in that expansion of God's words that created the opportunity for the fall. By touching the tree without consequence she was lured into eating from the tree.
There is a maxin that religious people have, in old hebrew/aramaic it is called "geder lifnay hadin" putting a fence around the rules. This maxim accounts for the vast vast vast majority of rules that the religios live by. They take a sentance or word out of the bible and expand the law into a contortionist and create a world of new rules to prevent themselves from breaking the literal rule.
For example, it says "don't boil a calf in its mother's milk" from that minor sentance the religios (jews for this rule but it applies to religios of all faiths) get that you can't have any dairy products with any meat products.
Sounds like they should go back and reread the story of Eve.
God tells Eve not to eat of the tree.
The snake tells Eve to eat of the tree.
Eve tells the Snake, not only can I not eat of the tree but I should not even touch the tree.
Eve touches the tree and does not die.
The snake tells Eve, "well lookee there, you touched the tree and didn't die, I guess you can eat it too."
Eve eats from the tree.
Now, ignoring all the sexual innuendo I want to focus on the issue of Eve saying that she could not even touch tthe tree let alone eat from the tree.
What happened in that moment, is that in an effort to keep herself from eating from the tree she expanded god's commandment to include even touching the tree. It was in that expansion of God's words that created the opportunity for the fall. By touching the tree without consequence she was lured into eating from the tree.
There is a maxin that religious people have, in old hebrew/aramaic it is called "geder lifnay hadin" putting a fence around the rules. This maxim accounts for the vast vast vast majority of rules that the religios live by. They take a sentance or word out of the bible and expand the law into a contortionist and create a world of new rules to prevent themselves from breaking the literal rule.
For example, it says "don't boil a calf in its mother's milk" from that minor sentance the religios (jews for this rule but it applies to religios of all faiths) get that you can't have any dairy products with any meat products.
Sounds like they should go back and reread the story of Eve.
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