I finally glazed most of the stuff I've been working on, and the kiln is just cooling down. The first few new ornaments for this year are looking good so hopefully everything else turns out - fingers crossed - pics of the finished work coming soon!
1. Monday October 19th was Canada's Federal Election, and right after voting the song from a Wayne and Shuster comedy sketch from the 70's got stuck in my head. Luckily I found most of the sketch here on youtube! According to wiki, Wayne and Shuster's "Question Time" was a satirical sketch inspired by a plan in the 70's to televise proceedings of the House of Commons for the first time. Ironically when this was made, Canada's Prime Minister was Pierre Trudeau, father of our new Prime Minister designate, Justin Trudeau.
2. Speaking of comedy, this episode of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver: Canadian Election which I think I watched on Tuesday. I loved John Oliver's bits on the Daily Show and am glad to see anyone can watch his stuff on youtube, and that he's using humour while addressing serious subjects like Mandatory Minimum Sentences in the US (which I knew nothing about but it sounds bad) and Food Waste.
3. This lecture on youtube: 101 Reasons to Go Vegan by James Wildman of the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida. Compelling stuff. I agree with most of this however am still not sure if humans are meant to be 100% vegan - even gorillas apparently get 3% of nutrition from animal sources from what I read online. Definitely factory farming is cruel and I wish everyone would just quit eating products derived that way - and that more restaurants and even fast food chains would offer better vegetarian options, or source their animals products from local farms that treat their critters with love and respect.
Maybe some people can thrive on a 100% vegan diet and some people can't, the human species is sort of enormous and expansive. If we were birds or insects or fish some biologist would probably have come up with a whole taxonomy system for us, and the different human subspecies might be biologically adapted to different diets. Just a thought.
The other thing I don't 100 percent agree with from the lecture is the statement that all animals fear death - maybe they do at slaughterhouses and/or in factory farms, but I don't think wild ones or those raised in more natural conditions do; though of course they'd do what they can to avoid death, eg responding to predators. I think chronic fear of death and anxiety might be more of a human thing. Even when watching the scene where the free range duck in Cowspiracy casually gets his or her head chopped off, the vibe I got was the duck was thinking, oh well guess it's my turn to die, here let me stretch my neck out so this will be easier for you. Likewise in A Language Older Than Words by Derrick Jensen, there's a moving part in this autobiographical book where he describes slaughtering a chicken on his small farm and the connection that they share. Maybe it is possible to take small amounts of animal protein, if it is necessary for human health, in a respectful way that doesn't cause wide scale suffering and environmental degradation - I think most tribal indigenous cultures used to live this way. Problem is thanks to the 'civilized' countries a lot of us are eating a lot of factory farmed animal products, creating mass animal suffering, while wrecking the planet and getting sick. Wouldn't it be cool to see what would happen if everyone at least just stopped eating factory farmed stuff and all GMOs. That could really mess up some big corporations!
4. This Expressive Art Inspirations blog
5. New favourite research topic, to be taken with grain of salt: Aliens!!! Yes! Alien influence over humans could explain so much.
6. The 2 Circles youtube channel. Lots of interesting videos about aliens here, especially The Alien Matrix Control System youtube video mirrored from the TomMontalk youtube channel.
7. After watching the above video I checked out montalk.net - the website of Tom Montalk, physicist turned Alien researcher, with lots of interesting stuff. I like his Advice for Newbies. And so far I've listened to part one of this radio interview: Veils Afire - Episode 1 overview of the alien presence. Anything is possible I suppose. At least now if alien ships do show up en masse I won't take a heart attack.
8. This article from in2worlds.net which is is another cool website with all sorts fringe information.: The Hidden Puppetmasters: Neg Entities Taking the Wheel in Cases of Abuse by Carissa Conti.
9. The premise behind the movie Jupiter Ascending. Unfortunately IMO the movie itself was a bit of a letdown, but the idea behind it is excellent: that the earth is actually a 'farm planet' where, unbeknownst to us, we're all being farmed by humanoid aliens looking forward to harvesting everyone as soon as the population exceeds the planet's carrying capacity (thanks, ecology education). The end product? Some sort of elixir that extends life, with the idea that time is the most precious resource.
Now THIS is the best reason I can think of for going as vegan as possible: the law of karma, which is also one of the 7 Hermetic Laws: the law of cause and effect. I thought about this earlier in the year when I was obsessed with parasites, and whether people are hosting more internal parasites than we may have realized, and if this is supported by factory farmed products, where a lot of parasites thrive on animal products. This takes that whole idea to an external level: where maybe the factory farming system has been put into place by aliens who are fattening us up. So, maybe if you don't eat factory farmed foods you won't end up being farmed by something else (aliens and/or parasites). Definitely a hypothesis I don't mind personally putting to the test.
10. Speaking of aliens, the call for submission for the The Dart Gallery's next group show: Dart Wars, inspired by Star Wars, entries due Nov 25th and the show will run December 4th - 20th. Should be awesome!
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Monday, October 19, 2015
This Week's Favourite Things! Monday October 12th - Sunday October 19th 2015
1. Kejimkujik National Park (aka Keji). The Park officially shuts on Thanksgiving Weekend until May, a change that was made in recent years... But you can still go in and dayhike around. Last Thursday the autumn leaves seemed to be peaking:
2. Nocturne was last Saturday! Halifax's Art at Night event which seems to be getting bigger and brighter. Didn't make it into town but especially loved seeing the pics online of Kim Danio's shoe sculptures, there are a few featured in this Herald Article.
3. Lentils. They're high in fiber, high in protein, cheap, make a nice vehicle for anti inflammatory spices like turmeric, and are a good source of folate, iron and lots of other nutrients. In 2001 I trekked in Nepal for over a month and the standard lunch/dinner at all the guest houses is 'Dal Bhat': lentil Dal with rice (Bhat), typically served with a side of curried cabbage or other vegetable. Maybe it was the hiking in Keji that had me craving Dal Bhat so I made Dal quinoa with a side of curried cabbage, kale and broccoli. So good, filling and full of various health benefits.
Unlike other dried beans lentils don't need to be soaked before cooking but I have been anyways, and ending up with leftovers to sprout. For my dal I soaked green lentils overnight and boiled with a chopped onion, maybe a chopped carrot and/or celery stalk, lots of chopped ginger, garlic and spices including turmeric, cayenne, cumin, black pepper, curry powder, sea salt and coriander seeds; then boil to a spicy paste.
4. Turmeric and black pepper. I had no idea black pepper is mostly from India and that using it along with turmeric greatly increases the bio availability of curcumin (the anti inflammatory agent in turmeric, which apparently also fights bad fat cells).
5. This article about black seed, aka black cumin, and its health benefits.
6. This dance video I saw linked on Facebook: "Jackie and Charlie Spotlight Dance"
7. Why gigantic goals will F you up a video by Infinite Waters
2. Nocturne was last Saturday! Halifax's Art at Night event which seems to be getting bigger and brighter. Didn't make it into town but especially loved seeing the pics online of Kim Danio's shoe sculptures, there are a few featured in this Herald Article.
3. Lentils. They're high in fiber, high in protein, cheap, make a nice vehicle for anti inflammatory spices like turmeric, and are a good source of folate, iron and lots of other nutrients. In 2001 I trekked in Nepal for over a month and the standard lunch/dinner at all the guest houses is 'Dal Bhat': lentil Dal with rice (Bhat), typically served with a side of curried cabbage or other vegetable. Maybe it was the hiking in Keji that had me craving Dal Bhat so I made Dal quinoa with a side of curried cabbage, kale and broccoli. So good, filling and full of various health benefits.
Unlike other dried beans lentils don't need to be soaked before cooking but I have been anyways, and ending up with leftovers to sprout. For my dal I soaked green lentils overnight and boiled with a chopped onion, maybe a chopped carrot and/or celery stalk, lots of chopped ginger, garlic and spices including turmeric, cayenne, cumin, black pepper, curry powder, sea salt and coriander seeds; then boil to a spicy paste.
4. Turmeric and black pepper. I had no idea black pepper is mostly from India and that using it along with turmeric greatly increases the bio availability of curcumin (the anti inflammatory agent in turmeric, which apparently also fights bad fat cells).
5. This article about black seed, aka black cumin, and its health benefits.
6. This dance video I saw linked on Facebook: "Jackie and Charlie Spotlight Dance"
7. Why gigantic goals will F you up a video by Infinite Waters
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
This Week's Favourite Things! Monday October 5th - Sunday October 11th 2015
1. Brazil Nuts. After watching this Superfood Evolution video about nuts and seeds I learned that Brazil nuts are actually harvested from wild giant primary rainforest trees in South America. So not only are they full of important minerals like magnesium and selenium, they're pro-rainforest conservation as cultivating mono cultures of them isn't practical.
I googled whether eating Brazil nuts helps to protect the rainforest and found this interesting treehugger.com article based on the writer's travels to where nuts are harvested: "Eating Brazil Nuts Protects the Amazon Rainforest - Literally".
I think unless you can buy direct from a small grower all almonds are now steam pasteurized so not technically raw, while I believe at this point in time imported Brazil nuts don't have this requirement, though I'm not sure about this.
Brazil nuts are fatty like cashews, so therefore good for nut milk and ice cream.
2. Nut milk. It's super easy to make your own nut milk. This is a good way to prevent buying boxed milks that might have too much sugar or additives like the thickener carrageenan which is found in all sorts of dairy and non dairy products, and could be bad for health, not to mention whatever chemicals maybe be in the lining of the box.
To make nut milk just soak some nuts eg. almonds overnight. Soaking deactivates the enzyme inhibitors. Rinse, and blend in water on highspeed. Store in glass jars in the fridge and just shake it before use, we found it's fine not to bother straining it if blended on high enough speed. Apparently if you start with a small amount of liquid and gradually add more, it'll make for a creamier milk. Then you can pick your own sweetener if even desired, like some local raw honey, or a few pitted medjool dates.
It can also be way cheaper to make your own nut milks.
3. Brazil nut ice cream. In experimenting with vegan ice creams I tried this: soaked over a cup of Brazil nuts over night, blended at high speed into 2 cans of coconut milk, starting with just enough liquid to get it going and gradually adding more. I added 2 ripe bananas (which may or may not have been necessary), vanilla, some raw honey, maybe 8 or more pitted medjool dates, blended, chilled, put in ice cream maker, the result was a really rich, filling, creamy ice cream that went really good with pumpkin pie/apple crisp for Canadian Thanksgiving which was this past week. This vegan pumpkin cheesecake recipe that uses cashews looks really good too.
4. Peganism. The statement in Cowspiracy that you have to be a vegan to be an environmentalist is what got me looking into the veganism over the past few weeks. Hats off to those who can pull it off being vegan and thrive - I can see where that would be the best diet for the planet. But for me, for now, though I can eat like a vegan for 10 days or more at a time, I still feel best and brightest with the odd bit of local humanely/sustainably produced animal product, like the delicious local free range turkey we just had for Thanksgiving.
I found these interesting posts from different authors: "Why I Eat Meat and Why I Talk About It On My Blog" and "How Raw Veganism Almost Killed Me" - the latter is a page on a blog espousing the Paleo Diet. These posts point out that not all animal products have to be cruelly raised, and that as people that evolved eating meat we're also part of nature. I think it's the combination of factory farming and GMO feed that has disrupted this balance.
The issue I have in Cowspiracy is in the bit where they map out how much land would be required if everyone started eating local grass fed beef, and how this wouldn't be possible. But, they make the assumption that everyone would need 9 ounces of animal product, every day, all from beef, so they left out the ocean when making a map of what North America could really sustain in terms of animal protein. It is possible that people on average could just cut way back, and this suggestion could be more do-able, empowering and appealing than requesting we all go vegan. In fact since I decided not to technically be a vegan it has made me even more interested in vegan cuisine if that makes any sense.
In terms of human health, in this interesting documentary on the 'world's best diet', most, but not all, of the world's healthiest people have a diet that includes animal products - though these animals aren't being force fed GMOs in factory farms.
This article by Dr. Mark Hyman on a "Pegan" diet (Vegan + Paleo = Pegan) "Why I'm a Pegan And Why You Should Be Too". Makes sense to me, plus he's pretty smart and healthy. In a nutshell it calls for eating a balanced diverse diet full of nutritious whole foods, but mostly plants. Nice. He points out that people take to diets almost as though they are religions, something I've noticed in my online research. He also points out that it's very possible to be a 'vegan' and still eat a lot of processed foods, sugars and simple carbs; while someone technically following a Paleo diet could be eating unhealthy feedlot animal products.
5. This vegan filling I came up with to stuff phyllo pastry triangles: chopped garlic soaked in olive oil, plus chopped onions, chopped soaked walnuts, chopped olives, dried shiitake mushrooms that were soaked for a couple hours in warm water then chopped, fresh chopped herbs from the garden: dill, sage, parsley, a lot of steamed chopped kale folded in, ground flaxseeds to bind, sea salt, pepper. Prepared following the 'triangle' directions inside the phyllo pastry box. I used organic butter but olive oil would have been fine for brushing the pastry. They were so good! I made lots, so with the leftover filling I added chopped apple, chopped celery, a few cranberries and heated through for a vegan stuffing/side dish.
I googled whether eating Brazil nuts helps to protect the rainforest and found this interesting treehugger.com article based on the writer's travels to where nuts are harvested: "Eating Brazil Nuts Protects the Amazon Rainforest - Literally".
I think unless you can buy direct from a small grower all almonds are now steam pasteurized so not technically raw, while I believe at this point in time imported Brazil nuts don't have this requirement, though I'm not sure about this.
Brazil nuts are fatty like cashews, so therefore good for nut milk and ice cream.
2. Nut milk. It's super easy to make your own nut milk. This is a good way to prevent buying boxed milks that might have too much sugar or additives like the thickener carrageenan which is found in all sorts of dairy and non dairy products, and could be bad for health, not to mention whatever chemicals maybe be in the lining of the box.
To make nut milk just soak some nuts eg. almonds overnight. Soaking deactivates the enzyme inhibitors. Rinse, and blend in water on highspeed. Store in glass jars in the fridge and just shake it before use, we found it's fine not to bother straining it if blended on high enough speed. Apparently if you start with a small amount of liquid and gradually add more, it'll make for a creamier milk. Then you can pick your own sweetener if even desired, like some local raw honey, or a few pitted medjool dates.
It can also be way cheaper to make your own nut milks.
3. Brazil nut ice cream. In experimenting with vegan ice creams I tried this: soaked over a cup of Brazil nuts over night, blended at high speed into 2 cans of coconut milk, starting with just enough liquid to get it going and gradually adding more. I added 2 ripe bananas (which may or may not have been necessary), vanilla, some raw honey, maybe 8 or more pitted medjool dates, blended, chilled, put in ice cream maker, the result was a really rich, filling, creamy ice cream that went really good with pumpkin pie/apple crisp for Canadian Thanksgiving which was this past week. This vegan pumpkin cheesecake recipe that uses cashews looks really good too.
4. Peganism. The statement in Cowspiracy that you have to be a vegan to be an environmentalist is what got me looking into the veganism over the past few weeks. Hats off to those who can pull it off being vegan and thrive - I can see where that would be the best diet for the planet. But for me, for now, though I can eat like a vegan for 10 days or more at a time, I still feel best and brightest with the odd bit of local humanely/sustainably produced animal product, like the delicious local free range turkey we just had for Thanksgiving.
I found these interesting posts from different authors: "Why I Eat Meat and Why I Talk About It On My Blog" and "How Raw Veganism Almost Killed Me" - the latter is a page on a blog espousing the Paleo Diet. These posts point out that not all animal products have to be cruelly raised, and that as people that evolved eating meat we're also part of nature. I think it's the combination of factory farming and GMO feed that has disrupted this balance.
The issue I have in Cowspiracy is in the bit where they map out how much land would be required if everyone started eating local grass fed beef, and how this wouldn't be possible. But, they make the assumption that everyone would need 9 ounces of animal product, every day, all from beef, so they left out the ocean when making a map of what North America could really sustain in terms of animal protein. It is possible that people on average could just cut way back, and this suggestion could be more do-able, empowering and appealing than requesting we all go vegan. In fact since I decided not to technically be a vegan it has made me even more interested in vegan cuisine if that makes any sense.
In terms of human health, in this interesting documentary on the 'world's best diet', most, but not all, of the world's healthiest people have a diet that includes animal products - though these animals aren't being force fed GMOs in factory farms.
This article by Dr. Mark Hyman on a "Pegan" diet (Vegan + Paleo = Pegan) "Why I'm a Pegan And Why You Should Be Too". Makes sense to me, plus he's pretty smart and healthy. In a nutshell it calls for eating a balanced diverse diet full of nutritious whole foods, but mostly plants. Nice. He points out that people take to diets almost as though they are religions, something I've noticed in my online research. He also points out that it's very possible to be a 'vegan' and still eat a lot of processed foods, sugars and simple carbs; while someone technically following a Paleo diet could be eating unhealthy feedlot animal products.
5. This vegan filling I came up with to stuff phyllo pastry triangles: chopped garlic soaked in olive oil, plus chopped onions, chopped soaked walnuts, chopped olives, dried shiitake mushrooms that were soaked for a couple hours in warm water then chopped, fresh chopped herbs from the garden: dill, sage, parsley, a lot of steamed chopped kale folded in, ground flaxseeds to bind, sea salt, pepper. Prepared following the 'triangle' directions inside the phyllo pastry box. I used organic butter but olive oil would have been fine for brushing the pastry. They were so good! I made lots, so with the leftover filling I added chopped apple, chopped celery, a few cranberries and heated through for a vegan stuffing/side dish.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
This Week's Favourite Things! Monday September 28th - Sunday October 4th 2015
1. Vegan stuff I've been finding online: eg, This Rawsome Vegan Life is a great blog. Also EnVie, a Halifax vegan restaurant, began a '30 days of wellness' series on their blog on Oct 3rd. It's nice!
2. Secret to Health by Dr. Group - youtube lecture by a naturopathic doctor
3. The benefits of beet juice - and the entire Superfood Evolution youtube channel.
4. Invasion of the Brain Snatchers - an episode of CBC's Nature of Things about parasites controlling the minds of various animals, including humans. Parasites, including Candida, are a lot more common in humans than everyone might have thought - they can cause inflammation which can lead to a bunch of other medical conditions. There's a lot about this online, and what foods to eat/avoid to control them, so do your own research to learn more.
5. Island of Lemurs: Madagascar, narrated by Morgan Freeman, is on Canadian netflix and pretty awesome.
6. Sacred knowledge of vibration and the power of human emotions
This is a trippy youtube video, which I watched after the CBC thing, which made me wonder if any badassery going on in the universe might either be explained by parasites: whether as a tool for nasty aliens or whether people who come up with videos like this are making science fiction style interpretations of behaviours that have a more simple explanation.
2. Secret to Health by Dr. Group - youtube lecture by a naturopathic doctor
3. The benefits of beet juice - and the entire Superfood Evolution youtube channel.
4. Invasion of the Brain Snatchers - an episode of CBC's Nature of Things about parasites controlling the minds of various animals, including humans. Parasites, including Candida, are a lot more common in humans than everyone might have thought - they can cause inflammation which can lead to a bunch of other medical conditions. There's a lot about this online, and what foods to eat/avoid to control them, so do your own research to learn more.
5. Island of Lemurs: Madagascar, narrated by Morgan Freeman, is on Canadian netflix and pretty awesome.
6. Sacred knowledge of vibration and the power of human emotions
This is a trippy youtube video, which I watched after the CBC thing, which made me wonder if any badassery going on in the universe might either be explained by parasites: whether as a tool for nasty aliens or whether people who come up with videos like this are making science fiction style interpretations of behaviours that have a more simple explanation.
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