The most recent edition of Reader's Digest, February 2011's issue, has made me depressed about what I eat. People who eat 5 or more cups of white rice per week are 17% more likely to develop diabetes, compared to those who eat less than 1 serving per month. Also, most people have to stay under 20 grams of net carbs per day (meaning the grams of carbs minus the grams of fiber in a food). Two slices of bread contain about 24 grams of net carbs, and pasta has 40 grams per cup. I eat bread, rice, and/or pasta pretty much all week. So I can either choose to pursue my goal of weight loss and suffer, or I can become a glutton and enjoy myself but have pangs of guilt all the time...

...And stomachaches, too. These days I tend to eat when I see something tasty, instead of because I'm hungry, so I have to stay away from the kitchen, bakeries, grocery stores, even my own school during lunchtime. I guess it's like this quote I saw on the Internet; it said that you never really stop being addicted to things, you just get addicted to something else. If only I could stay addicted to something that wouldn't sap my energy and time, the way various websites and video games have done to me. I figure I ought to do something more useful at least, since those things that I think I'm doing for fun don't really make me happy anymore. What I'd really like to do is just live a slacker lifestyle - get up late, eat when I feel like it, work on my character designs, read a lot of books, go on walks to take photographs, practice drawing, go to bed when I'm tired. But considering how many years of school and a career that I have ahead of me, I wonder when, if ever, it'll become a reality.

Oh, but today, January 23 (the publishing time shown for this post is actually the time I first saved this post, not always the real time that I posted it!), I did get to eat some delicious food, so I am pleased. I had spaghetti with beef as dinner (my dad makes some nice spaghetti, I haven't tasted one like it in restaurants, though I like almost all pasta in general), and then I had a little taste of chocolate crumble. It's a cakish, soft brownie kind of thing. One of my classmates from French class and I made it for our cooking project. Too bad I have to bring it to school and give away the pieces. I'd rather just eat the whole thing myself, it's so sweet and chocolatey. (It was kind of a hassle to make, though, I suppose it'll be a long time before I eat it again.) Ahh, it makes me miss being on a cruise ship. I love how there's a buffet and you've already paid for it so you can eat what you like, when you like. It was so nice getting to eat cheesecake and chocolate cake. But gosh, I should stop talking about it, it's just going to make me hungry again.

I really haven't had much to write about lately, so I guess I'll just end with saying that I am currently watching Durarara! and I'm reading Kaichou wa Maid-Sama. Both were fairly popular series, so I thought I ought to check them out. At first I was dubious, since sometimes popular things turn out pretty disappointing (like the Twilight series, Edward bores me) but so far both Durarara! and Kaichou wa Maid-Sama are fair enough. I watched Toradora! not long ago and I suggest that you watch it if you haven't. I don't know if I had abnormal levels of hormones or something, but I actually cried a little when I watched it. I figure if something can actually make me show some emotion, it must be pretty good.

Labels: addiction, buffet, carbohydrates, carbs, chocolate, control, cruise ship, crumble, desire, durarara, eating, food, gluttony, health, magazine, maid sama, readers digest, spaghetti, toradora

I was just reading the February 2010 edition of Reader's Digest magazine. (Apparently we only received this issue recently, which is odd. I mean, it's long past February now. I guess they forgot to send it to us before.) This time the magazine had a focus on ways to lose weight and the attitudes of people in various countries about being fat.

Regarding France, many families eat together every night, much more than the percentage in the USA out of people surveyed. And the meals in France are quite long. My French teacher told us that the lunchtime at French schools is about two hours long, so school ends late, like 5:00 pm or so. It's such a long lunch that you might even be able to go home and take a nap (just as long as you got up in time to return to school).

Actually, the longer the meal, the less you eat, given that you talk to someone while eating. If you're holding a conversation while eating, then you don't eat as quickly, compared to when you're focused on eating (as I tend to be). That pretty much explains why eating lunch or dinner seems to take so much longer when my parents are eating with their friends.

In this way, you end up not eating as much even though you supposedly would be spending more time talking. By talking, you have to slow down your eating (unless you eat and talk at the same time, which is disgusting and can also result in choking or food coming out). It's a good strategy, but it does take up time, which is a valuable resource that is impossible to replace.

But the opposite - that less is more - is also true, when it comes to swimming pools. Blackberry Farm, a place of recreation in my town, has its pool open during the warmer months. There's a discount on Sunday evenings (after 5:00 pm), I believe, so my mother and I went to the pool.

My mom had thought it wouldn't be crowded because she figured not many people would know about the pool, but she turned out to be wrong. It was quite crowded. Still, we figured that since we bothered to come we should go and swim. I suppose that less money needed to go swimming means more people flock to the pool.

The deepest section, 6 feet deep, was the one with the least amount of people. (This is an instance of "more is less" - the deeper the water, the smaller the amount of people in it.) The shallower sections were mostly occupied by parents teaching their children to swim.

It brought back my memories of the time when I was still struggling with swimming. My mom and I would go to the YMCA pool because we used to have a membership there. My mom would tell me to do four paces of Freestyle or something like that. It had been difficult for me then. Sometimes I choked on water and became very upset. I used to resent swimming. I feared water. Even showering was something I disliked because I might get water in my eyes. Now I don't fear the pool anymore. I guess the toils and trouble turned out to be worth it.

Labels: conversation, deep, fear, fight, france, lunch, magazine, meal, pool, readers digest, shower, struggle, swimming, time, trick, water, weight, YMCA

Sometimes I feel like that, and other times I feel like quite the opposite. There are times that I have the feeling of being on top of the world, like I can overcome anything, and that life is easy. But there are times as well where I feel as if there is so much out there and I am just one person, too insignificant to matter.

I mentioned in a previous post (unfortunately, I can't remember which one it was, so unless you're really bored, don't bother searching for it) that I live in a place where many people are fairly affluent. One time, my language arts teacher (who says she is poor, but I suppose it can't be so bad she must live off of freebies) asked how many of us think about the price of things when we buy them. I didn't mind when I was younger, but over time I started to care about it, and nowadays I don't really buy much for myself (except for a Galileo thermometer, but that's a different story). A lot of people said they just asked their parents to buy something and didn't really worry about how much it cost. I had heard that my town prides itself on having an average income that is quite high, or something along those lines. (Note: That doesn't mean everyone owns a private jet or a beach house in a foreign country, though)

I started to wonder, "Would us kids be able to survive out in the real world?" Well, my parents' friend's son was a student at both UC Berkeley and Harvard, and he said, "The experience you get at the schools is different. At UC Berkeley you're more left to your own devices, but at Harvard you'll be helped along." Basically, even the different colleges may encourage a different level of independence. I have been wondering whether people living a sheltered, privileged life will really be okay when they get out there into the rest of the world. (Well, unless they always live in the same place, or move to a similar place) I mean, there are 6.8 billion people in the world and counting, so there will definitely be a lot of competition - for example, people will fight for jobs, as jobs are not created fast enough to make up for the growing population and the bad economy.

And really, the world is filled with hardships. I don't think everyone can be so lucky to never experience them. Some of my troubles are physical, like when I catch a cold, or sprain my ankle, but most of them are mental. I've always wondered what it would be like if I had a different life. Like if I had siblings...Being an only child, I don't really learn to share or to take care of someone else. In fact, I don't really do chores besides putting my clothes away when they have been washed.

Today, I visited a bridge in my town. It's not a bridge over water, it's simply a bridge over a highway. I think it looks very nice at nighttime, though I didn't visit it at night. I walked there with my dad in the afternoon. There were several people on the bridge. No cars are allowed on it - only people on foot and people on bicycles. The bridge is practically on the border of my town and a neighboring town, so if you cross the bridge, you'll be in a different city. But you'll be in the same school district. There is a high school right next to the other end of the bridge. I would like to be able to go that high school. (The high school I will probably be going to is a very highly ranked one in academic terms, though, and the high school next to the bridge is...not so much) It would be so charming, living next to the bridge and walking across it to go to school. Quite picturesque. Some people would be bothered by the highway noise, but I don't think it would be too much of a problem for me (as long as there aren't too many police chases and ambulances at nighttime).

I wonder what I ought to do. Should I accept my fate, because destiny cannot be altered? Or should I fight against it, fight to change it, and make a life for myself? Is it better to be the blade of grass, which bends but doesn't break, or like bamboo, which prefers to break than bend? Is it better to go with the flow or to make ripples in the water? I wonder about that.

Oh, before I end this post, I would like to explain why I was thinking of fish in the beginning of the post. It was because of something I saw in the December edition of Reader's Digest. There was a complaint someone made to a travel agent. The person said, "No one told us there were fish in the ocean. The children were startled." Wow. I guess there are many different people.

Labels: bamboo, berkeley, bridge, change, college, competition, destiny, feelings, fish, grass, harvard, high school, money, only child, readers digest, spending, survival

You might've heard of the book. I'm just using the title as a post title, though. Here I am talking about a balloon.

Yes, a balloon. It is a blue color, I guess you could call it sky blue even if it is not quite that shade. On it are various crooked lines which are supposed to represent the International Date Light, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Prime Meridian, and Equator. All lines and drawings were drawn on the balloon with a black Sharpie marker. The continents can be seen on the balloon, and they are labeled, along with some deserts and countries and islands, and of course the oceans.

Right now, the balloon in question hangs from a ceiling fan. This ceiling fan has two chains hanging from it. One you pull to turn on the lights, the other you pull to turn on the fan. The balloon has a white cord tied around its end, and the other end of the cord is tied to one of the chains of the ceiling fan.

The balloon has been residing in my house since quite a while ago, when I first brought it home. In my history class, we were doing an activity where we blew up balloons and drew the world on them. Neither of my "teammates" wished to bring it home, so I just held on to it all day. It was a problem walking home with it, so I attached it to one of my keychains. Ha! Having so many of them came in handy. I kept looking back as I walked to make sure the balloon was still there. It kept bobbing and swaying, but at least it stayed, until I came home, and found the white cord, which is its leash.

In a way, this is kind of sad. As I can't have a cat or dog, because of my mom's lack of love for animals, I end up leading a balloon of all things on a leash. Probably I should name it, if it's already my pal. I can't tell what gender it is. They call the earth Mother Earth, but the balloon just seems rather male to me. Maybe I should give it a unisex name, like my name...

Now for a switch of topics. Sometimes I read a magazine called Reader's Digest. Mostly I read the jokes, Ask Laskas (it's an advice column, I guess you would call it), and perhaps an article or two. This time an article about baby naming caught my eye. Apparently it is a very exciting thing. Some people just name their kids trendy names and others name them all sorts of things, like Lexus (a car!), Nevaeh (heaven spelled backwards), and so on. I found out that my name was the 41st most popular girl name in 1996. I didn't know I was that common. D: And oddly enough, one of my friends, her name was 40st. So close together it's scary.

Labels: baby naming, balloon, ceiling fan, earth, gender, keychain, label, leash, magazine, map, name, readers digest, sydney

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