Congrats for Joseph!

Filed Under friends | Leave a Comment

Hooray to my friend, Joseph Santos-Lyons (aka Radical Hapa), on passing his MFC today!!!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Mar

23

Even Positive Change Can Be Overwhelming

Filed Under life changes | 3 Comments

Well. Yesterday was my last day at the office I’ve worked at for over ten years.

The good news about this is that I can devote myself full time to
a) making video and producing
b) writing and getting published
c) helping folks get healthy and lose weight

And it also means that work won’t conflict with the San Diego DRUUMM YaYA Summit at the end of this month, or General Assembly, or the US Social Forum. My time is my own.

At times like these, I feel awkward because I’m an agnostic and have no one to thank for all my blessings. My heart is filled with gratitude, nonetheless.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Mar

13

Women in Sparta

Filed Under history, movies | Leave a Comment

Late Friday night, the DH and I tagged along with my brother and his wife to see 300. The DH was excited because he loved Sin City, and is fascinated by the warrior codes and battle formations of ancient societies. I strongly disliked Sin City (though I do understand its appeal to so many men), but I share his interest in ancient cultures and mythology.

So anyway, we talked for a long while about it the next day. He and I both had some prior knowledge of the Spartan way of life, but spent some time reading up on the Battle of Thermopylae in particular. Truth truly is stranger than fiction. I was quite impressed at how basically every over-the-top aspect of Spartan life depicted in the movie was strongly rooted in historical record (I cannot say the same for the depiction of Xerxes; I don’t know anything about him being pierced everywhere and made up like a drag queen).

What most intrigued me in my readings, however, was the way in which Spartan women were virtually equals in their societies. I found it very curious that Sparta - as militaristic and pragmatic as it was - was the only place in Greece where women had a great deal of personal freedom and power. The women of those Greek states that were rich in philosophy and the arts were really viewed as inferior. So why was Sparta different? Was it precisely their pragmatism that caused them to have such progressive views about women? Not to say that they were well informed about all things - they practiced infanticide, too.

Any thoughts or information about this? I’ll have to look more into this later - I’ll put that on my list of “Someday” activities.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Mar

12

Surreal Television

Filed Under love, pop culture | Leave a Comment

Daytime television is just weird. A lousy “thriller” called American Crime - although it stars the stunning Annabella Sciorra - has some of the worst pacing and one of the most unsatisfying movie endings I’ve ever seen. Maury Povich (still) has on mothers who want to subject their 13 and 15 year old daughters to lie detector tests to “prove” they’ve had multiple sex partners. And the DA boss dude from Law & Order might be running for president?

I’m not sure what I think about all of that.

Why the Internet is a better place:

I learned that Maggie Gyllenhaal will be replacing Katie Holmes in the new Batman movie. Whoo hoo!
I received an email informing me of two discussions being held in my area about the film, The Mystery of Love. Unfortunately, I can’t make either of the two discussion meetings (damn, damn, damn!), but at least now I know about Mystery of Love, and The Fetzer Institute for Love Forgiveness. These are both interesting - take a look!

Also, I’m reading a really good book called The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women which, interestingly enough, references Robert Fritz, whose book, The Path of Least Resistance, transformed a lot of my thinking. I’ll probably write more about 12 Secrets later.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Mar

6

Yes, We Have No Bananas

Filed Under health | 5 Comments

The first shock was seeing the General Assembly photos that Rev. Clyde posted on his blog last summer. My immediate reaction was, literally, OH MY GOD! I had no idea I looked like that! A few months later my mother sent me photographs from my 30th birthday party in September. By this time, I’d reached new territory because there was absolutely no way for me to camouflage my chubbiness anymore. Even a sun-dress told all.

When I was down to about five outfits that I felt even remotely comfortable in, feeling sick all the time from symptoms of IBS, and frequently waking up with mysterious back pain, I decided to do something. The grandmother whose body type I inherited spent most of her adult life coping with an extra 100 pounds, and she ruined her health in desperate attempts to lose them. Genetics were definitely not on my side in this regard, so it was really just a matter of me deciding how many trips to the doctor it was going to take before I took some action.

Two months ago, the DH was joking about how much we US Americans desire instant gratification. In the midst of listening to him it dawned on me that I’d been harboring the unconscious belief that if I liked a particular food and it was available to me, I needed to eat it. Not only that, but I had the right to eat it, and it was wrong and unfair that there could be negative consequences (such as gaining weight or feeling sick).

But now … I finally understood what millions of other people (like my “naturally” thin brothers and mother) already knew: It’s okay to love the foods I do (breads and pastas), and not eat them every day. Imagine that! My whole “relationship” with food changed. Basically, I stopped seeing myself as having a relationship with food. Relationships occur between people, and perhaps other animals. That slice of sweet bread over there is neither my friend nor my enemy; it’s just flour and water. It’s indifferent to me, so why get so riled up about it? When I think of the range of emotions I’d feel about eating - anxiety, excitement, guilt, self-indulgence, regret … what a soap opera!

A while back there was talk of a campaign to lose weight by General Assembly 2007. I don’t know how that is going, but after seeing Clyde’s pics from last year, I knew I didn’t want a repeat of OH MY GOD! Now I just have to get over the inevitable photo of me with black pepper stuck in my teeth, or my eyes in mid-blink.

September 2006 March 2007