Shampoo

People concerned about the environment are starting to examine more aspects of our everyday lives. There is a "No Poo Movement". (No Shampoo- for those people who were just startled and wondered where I am going with this entry.)

Before the 1930's, people just rinsed their hair with water. Since then a vast industry has grown promoting the use of various products that will enhance our tresses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shampoo

A growing number of North American men and women are experimenting with this idea, and although the results are mixed. Basically, the logic is this: Our bodies produce oils that naturally clean and condition our hair. Using shampoo and conditioner, especially brands that contain synthetic chemicals can interfere with this process and cause the scalp to produce more oil than is necessary, thus making our hair greasy and leading to even more product purchasing.

Within the No Poo movement, there are three types of followers: Those who use absolutely nothing: those who use a combination of baking soda, water and apple cider vinegar each time they shower, perhaps with some essential oils; and those who mostly use nothing but occasionally resort to the baking soda and vinegar technique if, they've just run a marathon in the middle of summer.

Not sure that I am willing to try the experiment for 6 weeks, I might be asked to leave the stage when i am performing. but it would be interesting to try if I did not have to do anything social or public for 6 weeks.

Button Necklace

In the new economy, many of us are going to be more frugal. I already knit, darn socks sometimes ( yes, you read correctly), make most of my food from scratch and now I have a use for all those orphaned buttons. A button necklace! A Martha Stewart creation. It actually looks interesting and more economical than buying all the beads that some people use. I do admire beading and have a friend who teaches beading and makes wonderful creations but so far it has not claimed my interest. Remember, I did not say that I would not wear a beaded necklace. Love to wear them. Now, buttons that is good and I can do that.

This will be part of my plan to clear up clutter which has accumulated the past few years and restore order. My goal is to have it all cleared up and sorted by the summer. Life does not stop and I can only devote short periods of time to this. I did empty at least 20 files yesterday. They had material that was obviously no longer of interest, use or could be found elsewhere. I should take a before and after picture but the before would be frightening.

Don't be surprised if the next gift that you get from me is a button necklace!

Socializing is good

As I head out for another round of tennis, not only am I maintaining or trying establish physical health but I am also aiding my mental health. Research has determined that to help avoid dementia in my old age, it is a good idea to be calm and build a strong network of friends. This is the conclusion of a new study that explores the links between personality, lifestyle and dementia.
The researchers recruited 500 healthy seniors, who completed a series of questionnaires designed to assess personality traits and lifestyle habits. The seniors were then followed for six years. During that time, 144 of them developed dementia. This study was one of the first to examine the effects of multiple factors not just stress and socialization separately.
Their findings suggest that having a calm and outgoing personality in combination with a socially active lifestyle may decrease the risk of developing dementia.
Researcher. Dr. Hui-Xin Wang determined high levels of stress hormones appear to damage the brain's hippocampus "which may exacerbate cognitive deficits in old age and contribute to the development of dementia."
The study did acknowledge that it is hard to change your personality but it is important to begin to understand the impact of these factors on future mental health.
Time to socialize and enjoy.

York University Strike

Last fall, some of my former students started what they hoped would to be a short break from their university studies. Little did they know that on January 21, they would still be at home waiting to be called back.
One question, I asked as the strike dragged on was "how could a strike by contract instructors and teaching assistants cripple a university like this? Is the university so dependent on these staff members that it can not function without them? The answer is yes, apparently York University depends on over 900 contract faculty to provide instruction to its many students. In some American university, tenured staff are only 30% of the staff.
Contract staff must apply to teach courses each year despite the fact that some of them have been teaching for the university for up to 15 years. They are informed about their teaching load in June and have two months to prepare.
The tenure tract does not exist for many academics. Contract faculty earn about $14,000 for each full year course and can teach up to 5 1/2 courses over a calendar year. A tenured professor earns up to $90,000 or more for teaching no more than 2 1/2 courses per year, providing time for research as well as university duties.
It seems that universities have adopted some of the same practises as business and depend on contract workers who support the organization but do not receive the benefits as full-time tenured staff.
The university is proposing 5 year contracts and better pay. What happens at the end of 5 years? And what benefits do contract staff not receive? Some of these academics would have been better off getting into teaching at the secondary, more job security.
Hopefully, this strike will end soon. However since this practise of using a high percentage of contract workers has become accepted practise, it does not seem that an end is on the horizon which might even mean that some students will loose their academic year, a crisis academically and financially!

Financial Crisis spreads to the Met

Last night, I met with a good friend of mine and we discussed music groups; we are both involved with a number of music groups. One of the issues that we discussed was fundraising, always a challenge for non-profits. During the discussion, I mentioned that even the Metropolitan Opera is facing difficulties. Monday, an article mentioned that New York's venerable Metropolitan Opera is facing a $40 million deficit next season and it is about to start cost cutting. This does give others cause to be concerned. This is a well run organization.

It was the Met that launched the hugely successful high-definition simulcasts to opera fans over the world-including Toronto, where many Cineplex theatres are packed. In December, 21 out of 32 performances in Lincoln Centre were sold out. ( I have friends who are devoted to the performances in the movie houses because they are not able to travel to New York.)

What is the cause of this financial crisis? The Met's $300 million endowment has suddenly shrunk to $200 million and isn't going to yield enough investment income to help with operating expenses.

Peter Gelb, the general manager has decided not to raise ticket prices and cancelled some opera productions for next year. The Met could lose as much as $40 million next season on a budget of $291 million.

The Canadian Opera Company is looking south and examining its own situation and so far so good with a strong subscription base, a home that is paid for and revenue from the underground parking garage the organization is on a good financial footing.

This is going to be a challenging time for many organizations not just the banks and car companies. Hopefully, arts organizations will find ways to survive because it is at times like this that we need them most.

Music for the brain

The benefits of studying music continue to be analyzed. It seems that playing music may make the language areas of your brain more efficient. And there's hope for people even if they are not proficient on an instrument.
Researchers asked a group of musicians and non musicians to listen to -and reproduce-tone sequences. The musicians did better. The surprise was that scans of their brains as they reproduced the tones showed major activity in areas linked to language, which suggested that building music skills may bolster language areas of the brain, too. In other words, studying music is like doing push-ups for your brain.
Never studied music? Apparently, even listening to music and subconsciously learning the melody and words seems to work too.
Wonderful that something so beautiful can also be beneficial and enhance other areas of expertise.

Cake Wrecks

One of these days, companies are going to realize that their mistakes can now be seen around the world. One example is Cake Wrecks,http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ a blog with peoples' cake nightmares. If you are a company that uses pictures to present the finished product make sure that the final product closely resembles what you promised. A lesson for all of us.

The picture at the left is the cake that was ordered. The next cake is the cake that was actually received. Love the missing piece. Was the bride trying to find the cake that she ordered? This certainly created an unexpected memory for the bridal couple.

Microwave for the car

Over the years, I have decided that one of the downsides to long road trips is the problem of finding good,healthy food on the road. There are plenty of fast food joints and we have decided that Tim Hortons keeps drivers on the road. In some towns, each exit from the freeway has a Tim Hortons even if the population of the town is less than some high schools. There is now an answer to the problem of food on the road. My knowledge of technology is usually a few years behind and this is another case of lag: the microwave for the car http://www.autoblog.com/2007/03/12/crave-a-hot-pocket-plug-the-wave-box-into-your-dash/. Wow, I could prepare tasty snacks and if I have good cooler and there are certainly plenty of those available now, I could eat healthy (or not) hot meals while on the road.

Who would have thought that burgers and donuts would no longer be the staple of the road trip. I could heat up a lean cuisine!

Munchies

Just found out why I am hungry after working on the computer preparing articles and sending e-mails, generally doing brain work.
Researchers have found that " You just spent half an hour writing a presentation for work and you feel hungry?
Or, you've been reading reports for an hour and crave a great big snack?
You help the kids do their math homework with a bag of chips at your side-thank goodness I never buy chips- at the most once a year.
It seems that intellectual work triggers a desire to eat even though few calories have been burned, say researchers at Quebec's University of Laval, who speculate that this is contributing to the nation's obesity problems.
What are they suggesting the earlier generations did not engage in intellectual activity?
As reported in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine, the medical research team headed by Dr. Angelo Tremblay found that students offered a buffet after three different activities, gorged when they had done heavy mental work.
Students were given three activities: resting, summarizing texts and writing tests. The intellectual activities used only three more calories than resting, the study says, but the students consumed 203 and 253 more calories following the two intellectual activities.
Blood tests before, during and after the mental activities showed much bigger fluctuations in glucose than resting (possibly due to stress), leading researchers to believe people were spontaneously trying to restore the glucose balance by eating.
Since intellectual activity is usually sedentary, researcher say the post-work munchies are just compounding weight problems.
This certainly suggests that we need to be careful about thinking too much!

Sugar

I am always amazed at the topics authors choose to write about. I have just discovered the book: Sugar: A Bittersweet History by Toronto author, Elizabeth Abbott. She took something that we all love and crave in many forms despite the fact that we know it is not good for us and wrote a book that is now on short lists for book awards. Because many of us only relate to our food as something that comes from the local grocery store, we do not wonder how it got to the shelf. Abbott discusses the history of sugar and present day conditions that will make us think carefully about this product. It is interesting that commodities that come from more tropical climates that most often give us pause to think about the where and how.

I am looking forward to reading this book in my warm house. Our Toronto weather sounds balmy compared to the prairies. Just saw two male cardinals stopping in a neighbours tree. Need to get some food for them. I am always amazed that they can survive in this bitterly cold weather.

Hope that everyone stays warm and reads a good book.

Julian Kuerti

What a joyful afternoon I had yesterday. I went to Mooredale Concerts to attend a special concert. It was a sell out- Julian Kuerti and Anton Kuerti performed on the Toronto stage together. Father and son make a formidable musical team. What wonderful talents!

I am still delighted to be able to say that I first met Julian when he was a rebellious teenage planning to start a rock band. He wore torn jeans-not the suit that he wears now. His headband is no longer a fashion accessory. Parents would be relieved to know there is hope when they could see the pictures and the transformation. Julian has become a young man who is becoming a force in the musical world. In 2007, he was appointed assistant conductor to the Boston Symphony. http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2007/02/12/kuerti-conductor.html

I hope that to attend many more concerts that bring such excitement to the audience.

Audition-Barbara Walters

When I drive, I usually have a book recording in the car. When I started doing this, they were tapes and then technology forced Cd's on us. Thank goodness, both our cars now play Cd's. It was awkward during the transition period when we were using both tapes and Cd's. We had to purchase a number of pieces of technology. The books beat hearing the same news over and over again. Now that CBC no longer has a good Classical Channel, the only alternative is to listen to recordings. I have been doing this for several years. Love it.

The latest book that I listened to was Audition by Barbara Walters.http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/Story?id=4789418&page=1 It was fascinating learning about her life which has not always been smooth sailing. The ease which with she seemed to conduct her public life has not always revealed this side. She had a sister who was mentally handicapped and a responsibility that she assumed as well as the care of her parents in their later years. This drove her to achieve so that she could make sure that their care would never be neglected. As the title suggests, she felt that she was always auditioning and striving to do better so that she would achieve financial security which would allow her to should her burden.

I also admire how Walters takes care to discuss her colleagues and friends with a great deal of respect. She does not reveal flaws and things that have probably irritated her. A lesson for all of us.
This autobiography is definitely worth a listen or read.

Interests!

This morning as I worked my way through one of the many daily papers that I read, I was surprised and fascinated to read about someone I know. Jim Boyle who collects Wedgwood. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090109.LWEDGWOOD09//TPStory/LifeIt The article was reminder that if we follow our interests and passions we can become respected in our field but mainly that we should follow our passions. I am not a collector of china but respect fine pieces of china and also regret that as a society we have lost the ability to appreciate well made products: china, crystal etc. We have become a Pottery Barn society and that is not to say that I don't have some products of this nature and that we all need these products at some point in our lives but it is nice to move on and own and appreciate the craftsmanship of finer works. Despite the fact that I do not own any Wedgwood, I can appreciate the quality of the china and the design qualities. Also Jim Boyle's desire to learn as much as possible about something that he is passionate about. We all need to follow our passions and enjoy the wonderful things that life offers.
I hope that everyone finds their passions and follows them.

Taoism

Yesterday was another eventful day. One of my former students invited us out for a vegetarian dinner to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the day he first met me. Hard to believe that much time has passed since that meeting. Simon (not his real name) whose life has been very challenging has managed to find some peace in his life with the help of a Taoist Monk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism). It was an honour to be recognized as a significant part of his life. It was also interesting to meet a Taoist Monk whose temple is in Simcoe Ontario. He followed his master from China to Ontario and when the master left for the United States, he stayed behind and now is responsible for two temples in the Simcoe area.

We enjoyed our vegetarian dinner and meeting the monk who would not stand out in a crowd because he was not wearing special robes for this meal.

After the meal, the monk had to go and meet some people who needed his help. I think that he was asked either by social agencies or members of the Chinese community to help some of their community who need spiritual and social guidance. A good man who is doing good work. Simon is one of his minor successes. Simon still has a difficult road ahead of him but is making progress.

It is always interesting to learn what is happening to people we have been involved with. Simon is one student I maintained contact with the past 20 years. He has worked at it more than me since he has been on the move and not always easy to contact. I hope that life gets better for him in the future.

Why Blog?

New Year's day, we had a number of guests over for dinner. Don't know about you but having company is the reason for cleaning house. Our other guests agreed that everything seems fine until company is supposed to come over and then we all look at our humble abodes and tear around cleaning up. We promise that we will not let things get to this state of messiness again, until the next time. Our promise is to have someone over at least once a month and also try more new recipes.
During dinner, one of the topics of conversation was my blog. The question was: why do I blog? Who is my audience? Could I not just write in a journal and achieve the same goal? I know that I am not going to get a book deal although I am impressed with those bloggers who hit upon an idea that results in a fabulous deal: a book and tour and other spin offs.
I was inspired to try this by a friend who started blogging when she had time to contemplate where she was and what was going on in her life. Since I started, I have found that blogging is a good way to get my writing started for the day. During the past year, I have started writing essays that have been published in a number of journals. My letters to the editors are also published regularly. Have to start reading the paper with more attention to local matters. My letters to the editor tend to focus on local issues.
It is good to reflect on why we do things and if they are worthwhile. Right now, I do enjoy the process of blogging and searching for topics that hold some meaning for me and hopefully others. There are actually people who read this blog regularly and sometimes even comment on it.
Time to read the paper and reflect on life, need to find tomorrow's topic. No new recipes today.

Pools as skate parks.

Apparently, 2000 film already documented the use of abandoned pools by skateboards. Who would have predicted that this practise was only the beginning of a burgeoning practise.

During this economically challenging time , we are learning how people are reacting to the situation. One innovation (at least for me) that I came across recently is pools in the south being used as skate parks. http://www.mouthpiecesports.com/blog/2008/12/29/southern-california-turning-into-skaters-abandoned-pool-paradise-all-over-again-bro/
"We have more pools than we know what to do with," said Josh Peacock, who lives in Fresno, the Central Vally city where thousands of homes, many with pools behind them, are in foreclosure. "I can't even keep track of them all any more."
Across the United States, the ultimate symbol of suburban success has become one more reminder of the economic meltdown, with builders going under, pools going to seed and skaters such as Mr. Peacock find a surplus of deserted pools in which to perfect their acrobatic aerials.
These are boom time for skaters such as Mr. Peacock, who travels around town with a gas-powered pump, five-gallon buckets, shovels and a push broom, risking trespassing charges in the singel-minded pursuit of emptying forlorn pools and turning them into de facto skate parks. some skateboarders use scuch real estate tracking sites a realquest.com and realtor.com to find forelcosed houses with pools, while others trawl through satelite images from Google Earth. On the Website skateandannoy.com, where skaters trade tips about how to find and drain abandoned pools, one poster wrote about the economic malise. "God bless Greenspan," the post read, " patron saint of pool skatin. "
Skater boarders are helping the situation because in many warmer states, the authorities are trying literally to bail out pools, using pumps, dredges and strong stomachs to attack an explosion of abandoned pools that have attracted all manner of nastiness-rats or belligerent raccoons or algae, dead leaves and worse. These "green pools" can become a breeding ground for mosquitoes carrying west Nile Virus. "
Skateboarders help clean these pools while providing themselves with recreation. They prefer kidney shaped pools.
One person's tragedy is an other's source of fun and excitement.