I moved!

to longandponderous.wordpress.com.

I'll continue to post entries there starting today (well, I started earlier really) so it's probably best to read this bit first and then just work your way to the more recent posts from there. Content is going to be the same, I imported everything from here. Only the template will be different. Too bad too, I was really fond of this one. But there's a moon in the next one, it's really good. Anyway, it's impossible to post anything from work and I'm there most of the time and I found the oppression unbearable. And talking to the IT people to sort it out is too much of a hassle. So yeah. See you guys on the other side.

Banned

I can't post entries at work! I need to upgrade the browser but the computer won't let me because access is restricted. Hmph they've completely child-proofed it. I can't even click on the time/date in the System Tray to see the calendar because I'm not authorized.

Anyway I'll work around it. In the meantime, posts will be irregular (more than usual, that is) till I sort it all out. I'll be rather busy this weekend anyway. People celebrating birthdays, people leaving the country, that sort of thing.

Plus I've got to buy toiletries, that's always a special I'm-all-grown-up event for me.

Happy hearts month

Italian archaeologists found skeletal remains of this couple in Mantua, somewhere in northern Italy. Nothing has been confirmed yet but they may have been buried 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. They were holding each other when they died. How romantic. Look how their skulls form a heart (sort of) too!

I can't avoid hydrogenated fat

Because my body is in a life-long love affair with it. It's in the foods I enjoy the most and I have said time and time again that I will never change my lovely eating habits. Nevah! If there's Coke, chocolates, cookies and cheese balls around, you can be sure I'll be eating those for dinner until supplies run out. And even at this age, I'm pretty sure I'll "fail" that marshmallow test as well. I will find a way of getting that second marshmallow and this confidence I ooze comes from years of experience.

Anyway I've just realised exactly HOW bad hydrogenated fats (and partially hydrogenated fats; yes, they're bad too and not just partially). I bought some chocolate candies from the local convenience store down the road and was prancing back to the office, enthusiastically popping them candies in my mouth one after the other, when I decided to look at the ingredients. I've decided I'm going to be a pretend health freak temporarily. The candies were screaming HYDROGENATED FAT. Hello, Cardiac Arrest. I nearly choked on my treats.

From what I've read, and I tend to read in a blind panic when hypochondria kicks in, hydrogenated fat (also called trans fatty acids) is created by injecting hydrogen in liquid cooking oils to make them either semi or all solid. Like a stick of butter. That's pretty much what it'll look like inside you. Hydrogenated fat has no nutritional value AT ALL, it just makes packaged "goods" last longer. Like Oreo cookies (why GOd why??). Like breakfast cereal, a, if not the ultimate, chris staple. HF puts the crisp in those potato chips. Yummy. Moreover, it's not like saturated fat that just raises bad cholesterol, it also lowers good cholesterol, the type that clears arteries. How horrible is that? Doubly.

Food labeling is still a bit of an issue as some restaurants (cough Mcdonald's) refuse to provide their consumers a complete list of ingredients that go into their food while also refusing to use healthier oil in the preparation of it. WTF right? No law has been passed regarding that yet. And while some companies do label their goods (oh how noble of them), they do so in a misleading manner. For instance, let's say a product's label says it's got 0 trans fat in it. Good right? I'm not sure what our lovely country has to say about this health issue but according to some laws (US), companies are allowed to label their products 0 trans fat if a serving of the product contains only half a gram of it or less. So yeah, chances are you're still going to be a fatty.

Where does that leave us? Briefly, nowhere healthy: We're eating ourselves to death. But I think if we just eat an apple every day, we're sorted.

I've been writing about health stuff so much lately that I've caught the attention of some health blogging community site and they've asked me to join as a contributor. They urge me to join but only if I deem my writing appropriate for the topic of health. Hehe I don't know what that means. It could very well just be some stupid spam thing but, boy, getting that email really made my day. Haha I'm still chuckling about it now. And I ate the bad candies after all, and it made me feel both good and bad about myself. It was an unusual experience, I may have to experiment some more before reaching a well-founded conclusion.

Megatron spoke to me

In a dream last night. It was so vivid. Well he spoke to me and my friends but they were busy giggling and groping each other. People can't get a room even in my dreams, go figure. Anyway my friends, my sister and I were at a beach resort and we were walking along the shore when the Autobots arrived from the sky. They were suddenly all over the place. I wasn't scared mainly because they didn't seem to know we were even there. They were going on about business, looking at everything suspiciously, poking under rocks and inside bathroom stalls, that sort of thing. It all happened in a matter of a few minutes and they were moving collectively in one direction till they disappeared over a sandy hill. My friends and I carried on like nothing happened, still walking along the shore and picking up rocks. We were on our way back to our room when the Decepticons landed. They didn't behave like Optimus and his crew. They were spread out and seemed to be looking for something on the ground. Megatron glanced our way and I stood stock still and locked eyes with him, as if hypnotized. He spoke in his big robotic voice and asked us if we had seen any other robots around. I was absolutely petrified, his piercing gaze made me feel as if he could read my mind so I said there were some here a little while ago but they left very quickly and I don't know where they went.

I remember being rather annoyed with Megatron watching The Transformers when I was kid. But in my dream and up close, he was majestic and impressive. The moonlight was glinting off his shiny metal body and he held himself in a very stately way, much like a commander would I suppose. He was certainly more than met the eye. Haha I think I have a crush on a robot. Yesterday it was Pete Doherty and now this.

I can't wait for the movie to come out and I don't care if it's directed by awful Michael Bay (he was responsible for Pearl Harbor).

Pickpocketee

My wallet was stolen this afternoon on my way home. I didn't take a cab because I didn't want to get held up. Instead I got pickpocketed. Hehe how unfortunate. Manila manila manila.

Dental date #1

I dreaded going to the dentist when I was younger and my mom used to tell me and my sisters that we were going to the carnival but always neglected to mention that we were stopping by the dentist's office first. The dread never really went away as I got older and I put off scheduling dental checkups for as long as I could, and only until my parents' nagging got to be too much. Recently, though it's been tricky to squeeze checkups into my disorganised schedule, I've begun to really enjoy getting my tooth cleaned and just generally having someone fuss over me for an hour or so. I always feel like fasting after cleaning because I didn't want to get my teeth dirty.

Today I went to see my dentist and had the first session in what I project to be a year-long series. It's not as expensive as I initially estimated so I will probably see her more than once a month. Here's to healthier teeth in 2007. How strange that I'm growing more and more obsessed with my health lately. What is the world coming to? Ack the climate changes are wreaking havoc on behavioral patterns of living creatures! Crazy? Maybe so. But I'm still going to look into it.

Stealth health

Ugh Broncho Girl is still at it. This is her second week of coming to work ill. She's coughing on her keyboard her monitor her seatmates. This is so wrong. Yesterday she sat with us while eating. I made sure I sat as far away from her as possible. She offered some of what she was eating because she's such a nice person and I almost blurted out, I don't want any of YOUR germs on my food and certainly not in my system! Instead I shook my head and politely declined. Just earlier, she was complaining to her seatmate that she was getting tired of the numerous trips to the bathroom to spit out the phlegm she was coughing up. GROSS! Just fucking stay home already!!

Anyway, moving on to MY health: I went to see the heart doctor this morning. I was reading up on persistent chest pains yesterday and the research led to articles on various heart conditions. Anyway Mr Doctor said what I thought all along. Lack of exercise! Apart from that, I'm hale and hearty. Woohoo where's my medical diploma?

So maybe if I go around saying BG's condition is contagious and the office's poor ventilation could easily turn it into an epidemic, maybe she'll be shamed into staying home and the others won't be so touchy-feely with her. Don't they understand that she's unclean and that SHE'S BREATHING HARMFUL GERMS OUT INTO THE WORKPLACE? Shun her! Shun her!

I could be mass hysteria all by myself.