Martini

Pour a splash of Vodka, and a dash of Vermouth over ice in a chilled Martini glass, and drop a speared olive in. Find a nice reclining chair, and sit down. What were you worried about a moment ago? It doesn't matter now. Take a sip, close your eyes, take a deep breath, relax. You don't get fired every day, and for now you are free. Enjoy it.

Paris Hilton

She may be a perfectly nice young woman in private, but haven't we all had enough of this ongoing, superficial, bullshit, media exposure of this jaded, indulgent, not so little, rich girl?

Hangover Cure List?

"How many Irish does it take to change a light bulb?
Twenty One. One to hold the bulb and twenty to drink until the room spins."

You wake up in the morning irritable, and depressed with a headache, and dry, gritty eyes. It's another freaking hangover on the weekend, and a miserable way to start the day. You might call it another variant of the weekend warrior syndrome if you never drink during the week. You get up, and look in the mirror then say "Alright you miserable sot this time you're going to kill this malaise, so let's see what's out there in hangover cure land." A few hours later, and a little research gives you some hope for salvaging the day...

Well, there is probably no such thing as a hangover "cure", but there are a few things that can alleviate the toxic symptoms we endure after a bout of drinking.

First a disclaimer: Although there is sporadic scientific evidence for some of the remedies suggested here it would be prudent to consult with the appropriate health care experts before adhering to some of these methods.

I will stake claim to one of the suggestions listed here, and that would be a proscription for some mild exercise after you've hydrated yourself. For me this works as good, or better than anything else, and yet I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere.

Here is the Hangover busting list:

Drink lots of water before and after sleep (unless you are on
medically proscribed fluid restriction). Sports drinks may
be a good alternative as well since they contain sugars, needed minerals, and electrolytes such as potassium.

Take a shower or bath.

Ingest sweet foods that contain fructose (helps the body
metabolize alcohol).

Do some mild exercise, or take a brisk walk (stimulates the
circulation etc).

Vitamin B complex tablet (within recommended daily dose).

Cysteine (within recommended dose) as it counteracts
acetaldehyde a toxic by-product of alcohol metabolism.

Vitamin C for its antioxidant effects.

Be wary of headache pills as some (acetaminophen), can
increase the risk of liver damage in conjunction with alcohol,
and some (ibuprofen, aspirin) can cause gastric irritation.

PRAY.

Here are tips on preventing a hangover:

Drink clear alcohol. Dark alcohol tends to contain a substance called cogeners, and these types of alcohols are more likely to cause hangover symptoms. White wine, vodkas, and light rum are examples of clear alcohols. Red wine, dark rum, sherry, and brandy are high in cogeners. Beer is somewhere in between.

Drink slowly, and have some food in your stomach. If you are a small person the same amount of alcohol will affect you more than it would someone larger.

Try to drink in moderation. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recommends that women have no more than one drink per day and men no more than two drinks per day. One drink is defined as a 12-ounce bottle of beer; a 4-ounce glass of wine; or a 1 1/2-ounce shot of liquor.

Drink some water in between your alcohol containing drinks as that will decrease your alcohol consumption, and help prevent dehydration

Of course, hangovers can be prevented altogether if you avoid alcohol completely, but that's not for everyone either.

If you are concerned about alcohol abuse here is a list of complications that can occur with excess drinking.

Hybrid of computer and human generated prose

Most of the words, grammar, and syntax in the following paragraph have been computer generated with a little human editing thrown in. This creates a kind of cyborg language that might stimulate many creative pathways in our writing endeavors whether they be fiction or non-fiction. It seems to demonstrate that communication can sometimes be effective even when conventional grammatical rules are not followed. There is a whole world of synthetic language out there, and with the advent of greater advances in artificial intelligence we are beginning to confront the implications of this. One day machine code might articulate our deepest emotions as the following paragraph hints at.

HYBRID PROSE

Everything to know about Technological Impact on Everyday Lives. Sometimes I wonder if there is more to life than to struggle to be the best or to simply struggle to find oneself? Why am I talking about Technological Impact on Everyday Lives, you probably wonder?... Well, when the grass was still green, and the sky still blue I was totally into music. Lucky me, huh? In a nut-shell: But something wasn't right. I saw an image of the X-Files again and again . Which would be nothing special, but my eyes were opened to a new reality, and I began to hear the music again.

If you would like to explore some of these ideas further one place to start would be the Blog-O-Matic site where you can obtain random, dynamically generated blog posts.

Quote for Today

"Hatred is our only true enemy. Hatred has no other purpose but to destroy us. Never give it the opportunity to conquer you. It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."

Lost in the nether reaches of Cyberspace publishing

This blog still needs to find a unique voice. At this point none of the posts are really connected to each other, although they might interest readers as individual articles. As a relatively new blog the site traffic, and comment numbers are quite low. The advertisements on this blog are really out of proportion to the readership numbers at this point, and I question the decision to stay with advertising on this blog. Blogging as a commercial enterprise is not really the point for me, and it should be secondary to the integrity of posts, but if the advertisements mainly reflect the content of posts then I think that is a fair, symbiotic relationship that adds value, and interest for the reader. I am committed to publishing a blog that has value, and interest for readers, and anticipate that the present seed blog will morph or mutate into a publication that is responsive to readers opinions and comments. I welcome all feedback both positive, and negative as this blog continues to grow. Please visit from time to time as the blog journey continues.

Buddha Jazz

Here we see the Zen master named Jazz in a state of recline and absolute bliss contemplating the great nothingness of being. This image was taken within an hour of him sinking his fangs into my left thigh, because I insisted that his claws be gently trimmed against his will. He planned the ambush, and it occurred a few minutes after the trimming. Despite this willful attack I love him unconditionally :-).

JAZZ

Next Blog

I have now visited hundreds of other blogs in blogger.com land using the next blog icon on the navigation bar while leaving a few comments here and there. It has been an interesting journey and I thought I'd share a few observations. It doesn't take long to notice that the original templates are radically altered on some blogs by masterful manipulation of the HTML code. This is often associated with a very artistic looking blog, and some fine art work. Unfortunately some of these blogs are difficult to decipher, and some are associated with annoying pop ups, malicious code, and even viruses (although they were detected, and cleaned by my anti-viral software). Some use an annoying fade in or fade out feature when you click Next Blog delaying your arrival at the next site. There is a whole subset of these blogs with cartoon characters, radically altered templates, and strange love sick messages strewn across the page (expressing myself as an aging boomer here). A lot of these blogs seem to be loaded with style, but lacking in substance. There are many heart felt, diary, like blogs about family, children, babies, jobs, and hobbies. A lot of these blogs seem real, and despite the sentimental ramblings in some they often make for good reading. The X-rated blogs were few and far between on my journey, and I was thankful for that. Unfortunately the spamming type blogs came up a little too frequently, and you'd think there would be better ways to sell something. Of course I found a few inspirational posts strewn along the way in my Blog journey, and as for my own blog, let's just say that it's a work in progress.

Colors

Anyone who has visited this blog before may have noticed a few color changes. I have been playing around with the template code to try and improve the color scheme. I don't think I quite have it yet. Any suggestions?

North to Alaska

This will be one of my last posts for at least a week as I will be heading to Alaska this weekend. My wife and I are finally going on an Alaskan cruise, something we have wanted to do for years. Alaska seems like a magnificent, mysterious place with amazing vistas, and wild life relatively untouched by modern civilization, but who can forget the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the political wrangles over Alaskan resources enviously eyed by the southern states. There is really no such thing as virgin wilderness anymore, although some of the preserved Alaskan parks likely come close. Speaking as a Canadian there is one unforgettable, compelling, historic link between Alaska and Canada. This would be the gold rush, and the treacherous Chilkoot trail traversed by thousands in search of riches, many of whom died attempting to reach the Yukon. Stretching from Skagway, Alaska to Dawson City, Yukon traversing the Chilkoot trail required incredible fortitude and stamina.
The trail is symbolic of what humans will attempt in an effort to find a better life. Perhaps we can all reflect on whether we have put full effort into our attempts at succeeding in life, especially when the chips are down.









Packing up Chilkoot Pass

The Wonderful Art of Heather Keenan

Heather Keenan is a superb artist who lives in Victoria, British Columbia. She is a well known artist in the city who has participated in many galleries, and art shows in additon to having many published art works. Her art forms are diverse, but always reflect a sensitive, symbolic, and spiritual kind of ideal. Such words can't fully express the depth she often reaches in her paintings. I have seen the same person spontaneously laugh, and cry while viewing one of her works as they often have a strong emotional impact. To my knowledge, her art has never been influenced by commercial pressures, and she remains true to her own voice. She has worked quietly in the Vancouver Island art community for years, and it is time for the rest of the world to become aware of this wonderful artist and person.

If you would like to see a sample of her work, or arrange to see her art in person please go to Heather Keenan

Verification

My apologies to those fellow bloggers or internet surfers who leave legitimate comments, but in an effort to control comment spam I have activated the verification function. Using verification for comments feels somewhat presumptuous to me at this stage as I don't want to discourage anyone from leaving a comment, but such is life.

Katrina and the Pundits

It's been gut wrenching enough for most of us to see the terrible saga of Katrina unfold, but now as with most disasters of this magnitude where mistakes are made we all have to endure the political posturing and finger pointing in the aftermath. "This agency was inept, that public official was incompetent, the President was caught off guard, the Feds didn't work well with State and local officials, it's all part of a racially motivated right wing, conspiracy, it's a legacy of prior left leaning democratic administrations, and so on ad nauseum".

People! Let's leave the name calling, and head bashing alone for now. Just put all your efforts into providing positive aid for the gulf region no matter what side of the fence you are on. The spirit of cooperation is a powerful force if we can put aside our petty greivances. America can show the world that despite some initial difficulties it can mobilize resources after a disaster like no other country on earth. For this to happen though teamwork and effort will be required by all, not petty squabbling to provide more fodder for the always waiting media hounds.

Original Labor Day

Can't Sleep. Just prior to writing this post my wife and I were awakened at 12:30 AM by someone claiming to be from the gas company. Through our phone intercom he said there was a service disruption in the neighborhood, and requested access to our residence. Being the somewhat typical, wary city dweller I declined to open the door, and he said that someone would return in the AM. I then proceeded downstairs and attempted to light a burner on our gas cooktop, and sure enough no gas! Arrgghh! I suppose I should have let the poor fellow in, so he could check the gas appliances, and ensure our safety. This got me thinking about Labor Day, and all of the hard working people across the globe, many of whom provide some kind of 24/7 service. To most of us Labor Day is a last chance long weekend to pursue leisure, and summer activities prior to returning to school or work. I have never really reflected upon a deeper significance for Labor Day.

In 1898, Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, called it "the day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward, when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed...that the workers of our day may not only lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it."

So this Labor Day as you water ski at the lake, cycle down the coast, sip a mint julep, or watch a sports event on TV, take a moment to consider those often unrecognized workers who labor diligently to support their families, help society, and make the world a better place. That person might even be you, or the man from the gas company in the middle of the night.

Have a great Labor Day everyone!

Statue of the Laborer