Some Nonsense Writing For General Update....

Blah!!!!! That's just how I felt like starting this blog. I really have nothing at all in particular to say - I just thought - it's been quite a while since I wrote anything at all here... what have I been up to? Lets see............

Work is going well. I'm settling in at the Graduate School well now, and I like the people I work with. I miss my friends at the other School, but we have lunch now and then, so it's ok. Dundee is nice and small - so no one is really that far away. I have no dating life to speak of - still. I have decided it's not because I'm not a great catch. I am - we all know this. I possibly just need to network more. I need to join a club of some kind or two. The only problem with this is that it always costs money to join things, and I'm totally skint. Life is expensive here as it turns out. Actually, truth be told, it's cheaper to live in Dundee than it does to live in Calgary - but I'm paying more bills since I'm out here on my own, with no room-mate. I'm Mary "freakin'" Tyler Moore. I kind of like that - most of the time. Some of the time it's lonely, but usually at those times, I log on to FB and remember that the world really is a much smaller place than it used to be. Also, I have a few friends that I spend time with, and slowly, my circle of friends is getting larger.

Mum and Dad are doing ok, they stood in line for the flippin' H1N1 shot for six and a half hours though. I guess there's this huge hype over the shot back home. Here we hear nothing of it - it's only for people who are under some danger of dying from the Swine Flu. Can you imagine, my senior citizen parents standing in line for 6.5 hours? They were quite sore the next day as it turns out. Sigh. Alberta. Nuts to Ed Stelmach. On the bright side, they seem to be coping with my absence now. I think they finally believe that I'm not coming back. I really can't go back now - I have furniture and stuff, and an entire life built here. Besides, I like it here. The weather is infinitely better than it is back home. Yes, it's wet, and chilly sometimes, but Dundonians really have no idea what cold is. I'll tell you though, Sunday we had possibly the worst weather I have experienced in a long time (including Calgary weather). It rained from early morning until late night, and it wasn't normal rain. It was the sideways kind of rain, and incredibly windy, cold, etc. Who was wearing a skirt as she walked to church? Me. I had an umbrella, but it didn't help - even a little bit. I got ridiculously soaked - to the bone. Then I had to teach Relief Society - which incidentally - went great. I love our ladies at church - they are the greatest! Sunday also marked the calling of a new Bishop here in Dundee Bingham Ward. A young fella - younger than me - got called, and he seems like a very capable Bishop. It turns out, he's done the job before. We'll all miss Bishop Snee, but life changes and moves all the time. The only thing constant really is change.

I've been reading Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible" - which I will finish today. The woman - is amazing. I have to say, I can put this book in the same classification as "To Kill A Mockingbird". It's that good. I will write a review after I'm done - maybe tomorrow, maybe not. Remember when I wrote a review of her "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"? I actually met B.K. at a Slow Food event in Calgary when she was promoting that book. It seems kind of ridiculous to me now that I hadn't read this ingenious novel before meeting her. Everyone else at the event was all - "Poisonwood Bible this, Poisonwood Bible that". I had no idea that I was standing in the presence of pure genius. A multi-talented person all around, that is for sure.

Well, that's all I have to say today. It's all nonsense, but it's my nonsense. I'll try to write more nonsense more often. Love you all, and miss you. (you know who you are)

B

Act

What is it that turns the switch inside the human brain? The switch that goes from being acted upon to acting for one's self? I'm not sure what it was yesterday, perhaps just the last straw really. But, today - I have a new outlook. I won't go into too much detail, but I have felt somewhat - helpless lately. Almost like, nothing I could do would change my circumstances. I had done absolutely everything I thought possible to make the changes in my life that would bring happiness, but nothing seems to be working. As I was communicating this in prayer last night, I fell asleep, and as I awoke, I had a new outlook. It is up to me, to decide - this is what I want. I may not be able to change the external factors in my life that much, but I can change how I react to them, and I can change myself, by deciding now - how I will act and what my response will be to the external factors.

2 Nephi 2:26 comes to mind...

"And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given."

I think that whether or not you believe in the Book of Mormon, as I do - this message is something that all of us regardless of our belief should adopt into our system of beliefs. We are here on this earth - to make choices and learn from them. The more we allow ourselves to be victims of circumstance, the less freedom we will hold. Helplessness is a tool of evil. (regardless of whether or not you believe evil exists as I do) We really are a lot stronger than we realize, because we are children of God. The divinity inside each of us is strong enough to conquer anything - at all. There are forces in this world that would prefer we didn't realize that. Don't be fooled though - you can do anything... and so can I.

Book Review: "The 100-Mile Diet - A Year Of Local Eating" by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon

I just finished this book that I've owned for about a year. It's called "The 100 Mile Diet" by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. The book chronicles their attempt to eat locally for an entire year - specifically within 100 miles of their home. They chose 100 miles because they live in Vancouver; the surroundings of which are a cornucopia of amazingly good local food. The suggested local food line is actually 200 miles. This is drawn from Dr. William Rees' Ecological Footprint calculator. However, after analyzing their location, Alisa and James decided that would be FAR too easy for them, and that 100 miles was a bit more of a challenge with them living in the Pacific Northwest. I find it remarkable how they did this - just picked up and took on the challenge from where they were at that moment. The idea was born from a meal which they miraculously prepared while staying at their cabin in Northern British Columbia where they were virtually cut off from the outside world. They had friends visiting, and the only thing they had on hand was a cabbage. So, they and their friends went into the forest to forage, and what they came up with was the most amazing meal they had ever tasted. After the meal, they went home with an idea forming in their minds.

The thing about local eating, is that it really may be one of the most important ways we can make a difference in the world. Not only is it more nutritious to eat locally (nutrients are lost with the amount of time that food is out of the ground and thus - the farther it travels), but the fact of the matter is that we have lost touch with our food chain. Do we know where our meat is coming from? Do we know what is in our meat? (see entry below re: Fast Food Nation) Do we know how our vegetables were grown? Do we know that they were ethically traded? What sorts of things are we taking into our bodies? In my mind, almost no question to do with our physical bodies is more important. What are you putting into your body? I'm not saying I know exactly what I'm putting into my body all the time, but heck - I'd like to, and I do try. Beside the nutritional, and the health factors - eating locally is a VERY effective way to lower your carbon footprint. Do you know how far your food travels to get to your plate? Do you know how many gallons of oil are in your meal? Not only are we talking about travel costs here, but also petroleum products such as pesticides and herbicides used on your food. You wouldn't believe how much energy goes into one single plate of food. That's something to think about.

There are lots of websites with excellent ideas about how to eat locally, not the least of which is Alisa and James' site... (link)

There was also a local experiment which (according to Steve) has some links to the 100 mile diet experiment. The project was called "The Fife Diet" (link) Steve knows the guy who did this one apparently.

This brings me to my sad news about the garden... :-( Well, here it is - Sue Anne went to Germany for a couple of months to do research, and Steve went to Canada for a month, and because I had no money to get on the bus to Dunino (it's £7.05 round trip to St. Andrews alone) - our garden is pretty much dead. There are things alive in it, we just need to salvage them from the weeds. So, yes - we have a garden in Fife - we were part of the Fife Diet - however sadly it turned out. How great would it be though, to grow your own food, and obtain other food locally, and live off of it for a year? Or maybe - forever? (as much as one can) I think - that's pretty much my dream. It's even possible for flat dwellers such as myself to obtain an allotment from the city council, and grow food on it. It really isn't that hard.

I may have been dubbed the "garden murderer" in our recent attempt at this sort of project, but with a reasonable amount of do-ability and elbow grease, it's totally possible to carry this out. Alisa and James are proof. Some of you may remember that I did a book review in May of 2008 about another family who did this project. It was called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver and her family. They did the same thing, but they took much time to prepare for their year of local eating. What I loved about Alisa and James, is that they just did it - right from where they were at that moment - they decided to just eat local for a year. They're true heroes in my books.



Some links to help you on your way to local eating...

Slow Food International

Slow Food UK

The Fife Diet

100 mile diet

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Scottish Association of Farmers Markets

Books I've Been Reading

This week is already 10 times better than last week. Most of my team are back from their annual leave time, and I am busy. I feel useful, fulfilled, and overall just - you know - awake. This is a really good thing, as I've always been the kind of person who needs to feel useful. I've been reading a few books lately. I won't do full-on reviews for these ones, as there's a few of them and they weren't moving enough for an entire review. They were entertaining enough for an honourable mention though...

The first one was "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser



I never saw the movie that was based on this book, but I can tell you that the book was certainly eye opening, and taught me a fair bit about the fast food industry that I didn't know before. I've said it before in other book reviews, but the thing about food is that it touches absolutely every aspect of life as we know it. Food is basically what we're made of, food is business, food is political, food is environmental, food influences absolutely everything in the world that lives in many different ways. The thing about fast food is that it's full of crap (quite literally), it holds very little nutritional value (if any), and it is a business that is corrupt right through the entire system, from the earth to the animal, to the slaughterhouse, to the restaurant where we so greedily gobble up those cheap meals that really aren't so cheap when you look at it in it's proper perspective. Though I was averse to fast food before I read the book, I certainly am 150% more averse to it after reading it. Thanks Eric for opening our eyes further. (I know I said that none of the books were moving enough for an entire review, but if any of them really were - it was this one. It was just a while back that I finished it, and therefore is not as fresh in my mind as some of the more recent ones)

The second one was "Elephants On Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments" by Alex Boese



This was a really interesting book. I read almost the entire thing on my bus trip to Leeds which took an entire day. I discovered it when I was at Sue Anne's house. Typical kind of book to find at a Scientist's house I suppose. The title and bright colours attracted me at first, (let's be honest) but then I opened the book and found LOADS of fascinating stories about whacky experiments that have been performed through the years by Scientists with the best of intentions. The one which the author got the title from was quite possibly the saddest thing I have ever read. Some scientists thought it would be a good idea to see what an Elephant would do on LSD. Unfortunately nobody knew how much LSD an Elephant could handle, so they gave poor Tusko a whopping 297 milligrams of LSD. Unfortunately this proved to be a huge mistake. Poor Tusko died quite a painful death all in the name of Science. None of the other stories are quite as sad as that one though. They're fascinating really, and totally worth reading even for the likes of non-scientists such as myself.

The third book I read recently was "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen



You may remember that I mentioned discovering this one a few months back. Well, yes - I finally read it and umm - I have to say it was mildly entertaining. But, for a true Jane fan, it is difficult not to pick out the glaring errors that Mr. Grahame-Smith made when re-writing the classic beloved by so many. You can also tell that he doesn't really have much literary experience. It seems to me that he just had a thought one day along the lines of - "Pride and Prejudice - AND - Zombies" and thought - how brilliant is that. Likely his girlfriend made him watch the BBC P&P and the thought came to him in a blinding flash of sheer brilliance. It is a brilliant idea really, but I feel that if he really knew the characters better, and the general period that the book was written in - he could have taken it and run with it in a really intelligently creative, yet still hilarious manner. However, that being said - it was good. I laughed out loud at some points. Good fun overall. The character Elizabeth Bennet and even Mr. Darcy have totally different personalities altogether in this book. Don't expect gentility and cordiality. These people are true killing machines!!!! I mean, they take out the living (mainly Ninjas) and the un-dead with sheer ruthlessness. Any guy who's girlfriend has made them sit through BBC P&P will probably think it is the MOST brilliant thing they have ever read.

The book I'm currently reading is "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman



I am REALLY enjoying this book. Neil is a genius. How DOES he know the world of Faerie so well? I'm not sure, but I have a theory that he's been there before. I saw the movie for this book when it first came out, and I thought it was brilliant. The book though - is better as I'm discovering at the moment. This man has amazing talent. I think I'll be reading his other works in the future.

That's all I have for book reviews today folks. Happy Reading!!!

This Has Been the Longest Week of my Life!

I seem to be having a great deal of trouble finding motivation to get up and go to work this week. This is due to a couple of factors, but the main one is that my programme director has been away for a month, and I am TOTALLY caught up as far as I can go without her direction. I've been begging co-workers to share their work-load with me, and they have been very obliging in offering me things to do, but there are many things which they just have to do themselves I guess. So, most of the time, I've been moving my cursor around the screen, and just randomly clicking on things to make sure they're still there. There have been a couple of student enquiries over the last couple of days - which was exciting. But, after quickly addressing their queries, I ran out of things to do again. It's also been really really boring around the office, as EVERYONE with the exception of a skeleton staff is away. I miss the buzz, the excitement, the friendly faces...

Anyway, I only have one more painful day to endure, and then my programme director is back Monday. Unfortunately, I'll have to deliver to her the bad news that I'm leaving and going to another school within the University. I've already e-mailed her about it, but she likely hasn't read it yet. (who reads e-mails on vacation?) She knew I was likely to get the job, so it won't be so much of a surprise to her. I sure have enjoyed working with this group, so it will be hard to leave them behind. Onward and upward to new things though. I'll make new friends, and keep the old ones. That seems to be the story of my life. I get around you know... haha.

One more day of the longest week of my life. Let's hope next week is better. So far, I am expecting it to be so.

The Green Smoothie Experiment

So, I've been trying this new thing for about a couple of months now. My friend Pam in Australia told me about it, and I thought - you know the idea is sound, it makes sense, so why not give it a go?

Check out this link... (link)

The idea in it's simplicity is to take a cup of fruit of some kind, (I use mixed berries usually because their full of anti-oxidants) 2 or 3 big handfuls of something green and leafy, a cup of water, maybe a banana, maybe some honey, perhaps a bit of spice (I've been experimenting with cinnamon); put it all in a blender and drink it.

I have to say, I'm really impressed overall with how I look, feel, and generally live now that I'm on the green smoothies.

I admit, when I first went to the website, I thought - ok, what's all this? Is this some sort of pyramid scheme or something? Or an opportunity for someone to sell my e-mail address? Truth is, it absolutely isn't. These people just want to give out recipes for green smoothies. I signed up and received loads of recipes for Green smoothies. I didn't follow them though if I'm honest about it. They did give me some interesting ideas for what to put into my smoothies though. I mean, these people live in Australia, and they have every fruit/vegetable known to human kind available to them. I live in Scotland, I've got Spinach, Kale, and dark green lettuce. Plus, it can get expensive to buy all kinds of exotic fruits.

Simply done, I've been using frozen berries bought at Tesco for £1.29, putting them into my 1000 watt blender with 3 big handfuls of spinach or kale, water, banana, honey (just a touch), and cinnamon. I usually save a small container for the morning, but I've been taking the entire thing for supper. (that's me replacing meals again - I can do that since I only answer to myself) You don't have to replace meals though, you can just add it to your normal every day diet, and still reap the benefits. It's amazing.

My skin, hair, and overall energy level, health, cravings, cholesterol, GI tract (loads of fibre) have improved immensely. You should give it a go for a month, and see what happens for you. It's amazing really.

That's what I've been doing lately with my diet. Regular, normal healthy eating for Breakfast, and Lunch, extra healthy Green smoothie for dinner. I've also been trying really hard to keep up the Yoga. I have to say, those two things combined are seriously powerful...

News From My World...

Wow, I can't believe I skipped an entire month of blogging. Sorry to my fan. Miss you mbfm. I've really not been doing too much exciting stuff for the last little while. For the most part, it's been work. So, really - I couldn't find much inspiration for blog material. Though, before I moved to Scotland, I had even less of a life than I do now, and I found loads of inspiration, so I really have no excuse whatsoever. Perhaps I was driven by the goal? Who knows, lets not psycho-analyze my blog frequencies...

Though, I do have bits of news.

Well, as you know I've been working at the University of Dundee for some time in a temporary position covering a maternity leave. My contract is up September 4th, so recently while out at lunch with my team, and also the girl who I am covering, I realized - yes - indeed she is coming back, and soon. So I was really stressed out. I've been applying for jobs as they come up in the University. I mean, if I'm internal, why wouldn't I take advantage of that and use my position to obtain an internal position within the same organization? Though, I have been applying, and interviewing to no avail. Almost every interviewer (with the exception of 1) said that there was absolutely nothing I could have done differently in my interview, but that they had found someone else with more "relevant" experience. I couldn't wrap my head around what this "relevant" experience was. After all, admin is admin, is admin. You can't get more relevant than that - but that's just my opinion. So, frustrating time.

So there I was, feeling down, and annoyed, and frustrated at my financial stress, and also slightly depressed about other, rather sluggish, immobile portions of my life. (One can guess quite easily which portions) So, what did I do? The same thing I do every time I'm feeling this way. I cried into my pillow, and poured out my heart in sad, but fervent prayer to my God. After I cried myself to sleep, I woke up the next day - and went to work as usual.

What happened?

Well, I had a meeting that morning with some colleagues, and there we all were, sitting around a table, discussing the business at hand, and joking about a bit. They were all talking about the autumn, and what they would be doing (I'm not sure what we were talking about to be honest with you, it's all a blur), but then somehow, I interjected "I don't know if I'll even have a job in the autumn" quite sadly. Then everyone went "awww", haha, and then the convener of the small meeting said "What? What's all this? You won't be working with us?" and then I explained about my contract, etc. He asked me why I hadn't applied for this job that he posted with another school he is involved with (still within the University) I really, honestly have no idea why I hadn't applied for the job, except to say that perhaps I was just a little bit sad, and perhaps at the point where I had lost a bit of hope. (I know how pathetic that sounds, but it's true - haha) Anyway, they arranged with HR to make it all legal, and get my application in, references, etc. So, there was a little hope, I had an interview lined up - that very day. There were other things which happened that day which gave me a bit of hope in the other portions of my life that need attention, so umm, that was really good.

So, long story short - I had the interview - swept them off their feet, and now I am the happy occupier of a permanent, full-time position at the University of Dundee. I'll be working at the Graduate School of Natural Resources Law, Policy and Management. Which incidentally, my good friend is the class president of. I'll be crunching numbers as I have before. (to be honest, many years ago, but those skills don't really go away if you truly love numbers) I also have more hope in general about my life and portions thereof. I'm hopeful things will change for the better - soonish.

There's other news...

At church, in my congregation, I was asked to take a leadership position in the Women's organization. The position is that of 1st Counselor in the Relief Society - for those who know what that means. When my Bishop asked me to take the calling, I was all - ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!! Because after all, I'm me, and with all of my struggles as late, I haven't been at my best, or even my strongest. Here I was thinking, how can I be an example to these ladies, who are likely much better prepared for such a responsibility? I realized of course, that God knows what he's doing, and if I'm going to be here a while, I might as well be doing something useful. So, I took the calling. So far, it's been a prime motivator to do better overall in my life, and to get out and be among people / serve people, not feeling sorry for myself so much.

So, that's news in the world of Becky. I also recently went on a trip to Leeds for a week, and visited a fair number of my extended family. It was lovely, and really really needed. It's nice to know that I have family not too far away. Here's a few pictures of the Yorkshire Dales that I took whilst there...







These pictures were taken at a place called "Blubberhouses". How did such a lovely place receive such a ridiculous name you ask? So did I. So, I looked it up where all of the answers are - wikipedia...

Blubberhouses:-

* From the blueberry: Hargrove's History of Knaresborough.
* From the Blue Boar, a former inn.
* Early spellings include "Bluburgh", "Bluborrow", "Bluburhouse", (1172) "Bluberhusum". These may come from:-
o Anglo-Saxon burh = "fort".[2]
o From "Blueberg" = "blue mountain".[3]
o Anglo-Saxon bluberhūs = "the house(s) which is/are at the bubbling stream"[4], with a later regularized plural; the -um form came from the Anglo-Saxon dative plural case æt bluberhūsum = "at the houses which ...".

So there you have it. No, it has nothing whatsoever to do with whale blubber, or blubbering (as in crying)

p.s. If anyone wants to see all of the pictures from my trip, they can see them here... (link)