Tuesday, February 21, 2017

This Week's Favourite Things! Monday February 13th - Sunday February 19th, 2017

1.  Youtube video: 66 (Old) Movie Dance Scenes Mashup (Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk ft.Bruno Mars).  wow.  The music video for the song this is based on is great too of course. 

2.  Gogol Bordello videos on youtube:   Tribal Connection (again), Not A Crime, and Immigraniada (We Comin' Rougher)  this last song seems to be a tribute to immigrants and ends with a slide which says "No Human Being is Illegal".   Timely message.

3.  Pineapple.  President's Choice has bags of frozen pineapple chunks now, very convenient for smoothies.  Pineapple has a lot of health benefits.

4. This Michelangelo quote: "The great danger for most of us is not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark".

5. This twitter feed: @LawAttractionLO 

6.   This Tyee Article about the first project funded by CMHC's Affordable Rental Housing Innovation Fund:  'Modular' One-Person Homes Fill A Need in Vancouver.  At 250 sqft these units are actually larger than student housing at UBC, which is currently constructing 140 sqft "Nano Suites" and 230 sqft studio apartments.

7.  This Tyee Article about another cool Vancouver affordable housing project:  'Inspiring' Shipping Container Housing Set to Multiply. 

8.  This youtube clip from the Big Bang Theory Episode where Elon Musk helps out at a soup kitchen.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

This (Past Two) Week's Favourite Things! Monday January 30th - Sunday February 12th, 2017

1. This YouAreCreators youtube video: Nikola Tesla Code 3-6-9 "All is vibrating energy, especially thought"

2.  The Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan.  It is HUGE (over $170 billion) and prosperous, growing like a money snowball as described on this wiki page, in their annual reporting, and in this Walrus article: Pension Envy. subtitle "Ontario Teachers have the world's best-performing retirement fund.  Is it a model for the rest of us?"  

Meanwhile in Nova Scotia there has been a lot of media about teachers requests for better classroom conditions and pay etc, which makes me wonder if the NS Teachers Pension Plan could be managed as successfully as the OTPP, whether that could solve some of their problems.

3.  New lifestyle decision to stop complaining about anything, or at least try hard to do so, inspired by item #1 on this list, and also in order to test the theory that complaining causes tension in the body and therefore detracts from health and productivity. Hence the hypothesis that in the absence of complaining, health and productivity should improve.  I found a few posts on the topic, especially from people trying a 21 day complaining detox.  This article explains why Complaining is Bad for Your Brain

4. Becoming Warren Buffet - a 2017 HBO documentary about billionaire Warren Buffet. 

5. Our sweet, sweet Canadian air, especially after reading this article: New Zealand air farmers are cashing in on China's air pollution.  Sorry about your air, China, but thanks for all the cheap stuff. 

6.  Youtube video Sophia Loren Mambo Italiano  and  Fred Astaire & Rita Hayworth in The Shorty George

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

This Week's Favourite Things! Monday January 23rd - Sunday January 29th, 2017

1.  Salivary Amylase.  This enzyme kept popping into my  head lately and was a reminder that digestion starts in your mouth, as some digestive enzymes such as salivary amylase and lipase (which break down fats) are secreted there.  Therefore while smoothies are delicious drinking them quickly may mean they aren't getting digested as well as they could be, as enzymes are needed to break down plant cell walls, so it's a good idea to chew your smoothies, listed first in this article as one of the 3 Smoothie Rules to Live by.

2.  Psychic Jeopardy.  This is a fun new way to watch Jeopardy and test psychic ability, by trying to guess the right questions based only on the category title.  I thought I maybe invented this but a google search revealed other people had this same idea.

3.  Youtube Channel Fitness Blender's cardio kickboxing home workouts.  Eg this one but there are other good ones on this channel too.

4.  Gogol Bordello videos on youtube.  American Wedding, which has an awesome song lyric "have you ever been to American wedding?  Where is vodka, where is marinated herring?", Tribal Connection, and Start Wearing Purple

5.  More Higher Self videos: 40 Things you soul wants you to know, The 5 Stages of Awakening, Angelic guides - you didn't come here to struggle how to allow with ease, and Awakening - 7 steps to ease the labor pain of spiritual rebirth