I couldn't have asked for a better start to my blog year than to have my blog referenced to by another blogger, and an influential one at that.
Ms. Janette Toral wrote her 2008 wrap-up and had included the blogs of fellow Plurkers who have provided her with links to their year-end thoughts. I had two entries (i-swipemo and i-sabuhaymo) but she chose my personal journal.
I have provided the link through this entries title. Or you may reach the same at: http://www.influentialblogger.net/2008/12/wrapping-up-2008.html.
A good year in the making indeed.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Farewell 2008
I couldn't be happier to end this year given the series of personal and professional challenges I faced. In order to usher in the new year, I would like to enumerate my resolution bullet-points for 2009:
1. Blog more. I intend to populate all my blogs meaningfully.
2. Work effectively. No longer will I just do a job for compliance but seek specific tasks that translate in quantifiable results.
3. Eat better. No more diet soda. Less processed flour and sugar products (goodbye brownies and cinammon rolls, I barely knew you). Less fast food. More fruits.
4. Engage more. I will exert more of an effort to get out and meet people, especially interesting people with unique perspectives.
5. Deeper self evaluation. I promise to no longer be stumped when asked for my strengths & weaknesses, my most defining professional/personal decisions and core beliefs.
I know I will discover more points moving forward but this is a good start.
Happy New Year all!
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Straight talk on Politicians (and saying it because it is a bad thing)
So that more people will read about this. I hope the message gets to them that this behavior, whether in Lanao, Cainta or anywhere else in the Philippines, is no longer acceptable.
Again - http://vicissitude-decidido.blogspot.com/2008/12/world-is-fucked-up.html
Monday, December 22, 2008
The Year in Review
This would be a good way to wrap up one's year then think about the coming one. Got this from a High School & Facebook friend.
1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
4. Did anyone close to you die?
5. What countries did you visit?
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
9. What was your biggest failure?
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
11. What was the best thing you bought?
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
14. Where did most of your money go?
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
17. Compared to this time last year, you are:
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
22. What was your favorite TV program?
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
24. What was the best book you read?
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
26. What did you want and get?
27. What did you want and not get?
28. What was your favorite film that you saw this year?
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
32. What kept you sane?
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
34. What political issue stirred you the most?
35. Who did you miss?
36. Who was the best new person you met?
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
4. Did anyone close to you die?
5. What countries did you visit?
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
9. What was your biggest failure?
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
11. What was the best thing you bought?
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
14. Where did most of your money go?
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
17. Compared to this time last year, you are:
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
22. What was your favorite TV program?
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
24. What was the best book you read?
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
26. What did you want and get?
27. What did you want and not get?
28. What was your favorite film that you saw this year?
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
32. What kept you sane?
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
34. What political issue stirred you the most?
35. Who did you miss?
36. Who was the best new person you met?
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Straight Talk on best diet for diabetics
Again an article on diet and the importance of lentils.
I am tracking these studies because of a genetic predisposition for Type 2 diabetes. This has been blamed on a change in eating habits in developing countries with an growing affinity for quick service food and sweets/confectionery and the overall increase in caloric intake.
Now if we can only find a diet to mitigate the effects of a lentils on high levels of uric acid, yet another recessive trait to watch out for.
Recommended Diet for Diabetics May Need Changing, Study Suggests
By RONI CARYN RABIN
People with Type 2 diabetes on a high-fiber diet kept their blood sugar under better control when they ate foods like beans and nuts instead of the recommended whole-grain diet, researchers have found. (Emphasis mine)
Beans and nuts are among foods that only modestly increase blood glucose levels; scientists describe these foods as having a low glycemic index. The new study, which lasted six months, is one of the largest and longest to assess the impact of foods with a low-glycemic index, researchers said.
Participants on the low-glycemic diet also saw significant improvements in cholesterol after six months, with increases in HDL, the so-called “good” cholesterol associated with a reduced risk of heart disease, the study found.
“That’s an important issue today, because there’s a double whammy for people who are diabetic," said Dr. David J. A. Jenkins, lead author of the report and a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto. "If they’re men, they have twice the risk of heart disease, and if they’re women, they have four times the risk. If you can hit the heart disease to which they’re particularly vulnerable, you may have something useful."
“Pharmaceuticals used to control Type 2 diabetes have not shown the expected benefits in terms of reducing cardiovascular disease,” he added.
The study was published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Some 210 patients with Type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to a low-glycemic diet or a high-cereal, high-fiber diet.
The high-cereal high fiber diet emphasized “brown foods” such as whole-grain bread and breakfast cereal, brown rice and potatoes with the skin on. The low-glycemic diet included beans, peas, lentils, pasta, quickly boiled rice and certain breads, like pumpernickel and rye, as well as oatmeal and oat bran cereals.
Both diets are low in saturated fat and trans fat. Both groups were told to limit their consumption of white flour and to eat five servings of vegetables and three servings of fruit each day.
Participants on the low-glycemic diet saw their hemoglobin A1C levels — a measure of blood glucose levels over recent months — reduced slightly, by 0.5 percent on average, but experienced significant improvements in HDL, which increased by 1.7 milligrams per deciliter of blood on average. Those on the high-cereal diet saw smaller reductions in hemoglobin A1C and slight drops in HDL.
Dietitians who work with people who have Type 2 diabetes said earlier studies had not demonstrated the benefits of low-glycemic index foods as clearly as this report.
“We’ve been telling people to eat whole grains for a long time," said Emmy Suhl, a nutrition and diabetes educator at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. "What this study shows is that it’s not enough to have whole grains. It’s these very specific low-glycemic carbohydrates that do a much better job."
But, she said, following such a diet is complicated, since the glycemic index of a food can change depending on how it is prepared and served.
“People tell us again and again that diet is the hardest part of diabetes management,” she added.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Shocking story on pet cruelty
I simply have no words for this...
Pet lovers protest cats on the menu in China
By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer William Foreman, Associated Press Writer
GUANGZHOU, China – While animal lovers in Beijing protested the killing of cats for food on Thursday, a butcher in Guangdong province — where felines are the main ingredient in a famous soup — just shrugged her shoulders and wielded her cleaver. "Cats have a strong flavor. Dogs taste much better, but if you really want cat meat, I can have it delivered by tomorrow," said the butcher, who gave only her surname, Huang.
It was just this attitude that outraged about 40 cat lovers who unfurled banners in a tearful protest outside the Guangdong government office in Beijing. Many were retirees who care for stray felines they said were being rounded up by dealers.
"We must make them correct this uncivilized behavior," said Wang Hongyao, who represented the group in submitting a letter urging the provincial government to crack down on traders and restaurants, although they were breaking no laws.
The protest was the latest clash between age-old traditions and the new sensibilities made possible by China's growing affluence. Pet ownership was once rare because the Communist Party condemned it as bourgeois and most people simply couldn't afford a cat or dog.
The protesters' indignation was whipped up by recent reports in Chinese newspapers about the cat meat industry. On Monday, the Southern Metropolis Daily — a Guangdong paper famous for its exposes and aggressive reporting — ran a story that said about 1,000 cats were transported by train to Guangdong each day.
The animals came from Nanjing, a major trading hub for cats, the newspaper said. They were brought to market by dealers on motorcycles, crammed into wooden crates and sent to Guangdong on trains. A photo showed a cat with green eyes peering from a crowded crate.
Some people in Nanjing spend their days "fishing for cats," often stealing pets, the report said.
One cat owner in Guanghzou said people are afraid to let their pets leave the house for fear they will get nabbed.
"It's never been this bad. Who knows, it might be because of the bad economy. I've heard that there are cat-nabbing syndicates from Hunan that are rounding up cats," said the man, who would only give his surname, Lai, because he feared the cat business might be run by gangsters.
Animal protection groups have occasionally ambushed truck convoys loaded with bamboo cages filled with cats bound for Guangdong. In one recent case, hundreds of cats escaped after their cages were opened, though hundreds more remained penned in the vehicle.
Lai Xiaoyu, who was involved in the attempted "rescue," said authorities couldn't stop the cat shipment because the traders said the animals were to be raised as pets.
"The police did what they could, but there's little they can do to stop or punish those traders from shipping live animals," Lai said.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, issued a statement Thursday decrying the cruel treatment.
"China has no animal protection laws, and throughout the country scores of cats and dogs are bred or rounded up, crammed onto trucks and driven for days under hellish conditions to animal markets, where they are beaten to death, strangled or boiled alive," said a spokesman for the group, Michael V. McGraw.
Guangdong is home to the Cantonese people, famous for being the most adventurous eaters in China. There's a popular saying: "The Cantonese will eat anything that flies, except airplanes, and anything with legs, except a chair."
Zhu Huilian, a nutrition and food safety professor at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangdong's capital, Guangzhou, said people usually eat cat in restaurants, not at home.
"There's a famous soup called 'Dragon, Tiger and Phoenix,'" Zhu said. "It involves cooking snake, cat and chicken together. In winter more people eat cats as they believe it's extra nutritious."
The wide-ranging Cantonese culinary tastes are on display daily in Guangzhou, also known as Canton, in the Qing Ping Market. Shopkeepers sit behind cages full of writhing snakes, tubs with turtles and plastic basins with mounds of scorpions crawling over each other.
That's where the butcher, Huang, sells her meat, sliced on a blood-soaked cutting board in a stall filled with cages of chickens and rabbits.
Hanging on a hook from its head — with its snout cut cleanly off — was a skinned dog with a long curly tail, paws with small clumps of fur still on them and black claws. The dog's jaw bone was displayed in a metal tray beneath the carcass.
"The cat meat we sell comes from legitimate sources," said Huang, who gave only her surname because her boss doesn't allow her to speak to reporters. "It's from cat farms. The animals are raised the same way cows are."
She said cat meat sold for about $1.32 a pound, while dog meat was cheaper, at about 95 cents a pound. Chicken was the best buy at 62 cents a pound, while lamb sold for about $1.32.
Huang said customers had to order cat meat a day in advance because it doesn't sell as well as dog.
"Cat tastes a bit like lamb. I don't like it much," she said. "Young cats are tender, but the meat on the older ones is really tough. Usually old people like eating it."
Pet lovers protest cats on the menu in China
By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer William Foreman, Associated Press Writer
GUANGZHOU, China – While animal lovers in Beijing protested the killing of cats for food on Thursday, a butcher in Guangdong province — where felines are the main ingredient in a famous soup — just shrugged her shoulders and wielded her cleaver. "Cats have a strong flavor. Dogs taste much better, but if you really want cat meat, I can have it delivered by tomorrow," said the butcher, who gave only her surname, Huang.
It was just this attitude that outraged about 40 cat lovers who unfurled banners in a tearful protest outside the Guangdong government office in Beijing. Many were retirees who care for stray felines they said were being rounded up by dealers.
"We must make them correct this uncivilized behavior," said Wang Hongyao, who represented the group in submitting a letter urging the provincial government to crack down on traders and restaurants, although they were breaking no laws.
The protest was the latest clash between age-old traditions and the new sensibilities made possible by China's growing affluence. Pet ownership was once rare because the Communist Party condemned it as bourgeois and most people simply couldn't afford a cat or dog.
The protesters' indignation was whipped up by recent reports in Chinese newspapers about the cat meat industry. On Monday, the Southern Metropolis Daily — a Guangdong paper famous for its exposes and aggressive reporting — ran a story that said about 1,000 cats were transported by train to Guangdong each day.
The animals came from Nanjing, a major trading hub for cats, the newspaper said. They were brought to market by dealers on motorcycles, crammed into wooden crates and sent to Guangdong on trains. A photo showed a cat with green eyes peering from a crowded crate.
Some people in Nanjing spend their days "fishing for cats," often stealing pets, the report said.
One cat owner in Guanghzou said people are afraid to let their pets leave the house for fear they will get nabbed.
"It's never been this bad. Who knows, it might be because of the bad economy. I've heard that there are cat-nabbing syndicates from Hunan that are rounding up cats," said the man, who would only give his surname, Lai, because he feared the cat business might be run by gangsters.
Animal protection groups have occasionally ambushed truck convoys loaded with bamboo cages filled with cats bound for Guangdong. In one recent case, hundreds of cats escaped after their cages were opened, though hundreds more remained penned in the vehicle.
Lai Xiaoyu, who was involved in the attempted "rescue," said authorities couldn't stop the cat shipment because the traders said the animals were to be raised as pets.
"The police did what they could, but there's little they can do to stop or punish those traders from shipping live animals," Lai said.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, issued a statement Thursday decrying the cruel treatment.
"China has no animal protection laws, and throughout the country scores of cats and dogs are bred or rounded up, crammed onto trucks and driven for days under hellish conditions to animal markets, where they are beaten to death, strangled or boiled alive," said a spokesman for the group, Michael V. McGraw.
Guangdong is home to the Cantonese people, famous for being the most adventurous eaters in China. There's a popular saying: "The Cantonese will eat anything that flies, except airplanes, and anything with legs, except a chair."
Zhu Huilian, a nutrition and food safety professor at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangdong's capital, Guangzhou, said people usually eat cat in restaurants, not at home.
"There's a famous soup called 'Dragon, Tiger and Phoenix,'" Zhu said. "It involves cooking snake, cat and chicken together. In winter more people eat cats as they believe it's extra nutritious."
The wide-ranging Cantonese culinary tastes are on display daily in Guangzhou, also known as Canton, in the Qing Ping Market. Shopkeepers sit behind cages full of writhing snakes, tubs with turtles and plastic basins with mounds of scorpions crawling over each other.
That's where the butcher, Huang, sells her meat, sliced on a blood-soaked cutting board in a stall filled with cages of chickens and rabbits.
Hanging on a hook from its head — with its snout cut cleanly off — was a skinned dog with a long curly tail, paws with small clumps of fur still on them and black claws. The dog's jaw bone was displayed in a metal tray beneath the carcass.
"The cat meat we sell comes from legitimate sources," said Huang, who gave only her surname because her boss doesn't allow her to speak to reporters. "It's from cat farms. The animals are raised the same way cows are."
She said cat meat sold for about $1.32 a pound, while dog meat was cheaper, at about 95 cents a pound. Chicken was the best buy at 62 cents a pound, while lamb sold for about $1.32.
Huang said customers had to order cat meat a day in advance because it doesn't sell as well as dog.
"Cat tastes a bit like lamb. I don't like it much," she said. "Young cats are tender, but the meat on the older ones is really tough. Usually old people like eating it."
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