tap my glass

Thats about all i can say (recipe here, flour used was brown rice though). New jobs rule too. They’re scary as fuck, but they do rule. Especially when you sit in a meeting where your director and lead dude babble for more than an hour about the feature you’re doing, and most of it flys over your head. Thats fun stuff. O, and day old pizza made fresh with a gluten free crust including teff, ya thats right TEFF flour, is used. Super kick ass. I also tried some gluten free gnocchi using rice flour, very different, must try the leftovers to know for sure. More to say, but little time to type amidst stuffing my face. I guess i can say the predictions i made here are coming to fuition, and that i probably will be working 9 to 10 hours a day for a long whiles.

I often wonder, not why we’re here, why we’re given this opportunity, but why we are given the power to experience such happinness and such sadness. Extremes are fundamental to our existence. Some people live there lives on one end, some on the other, and some constantly fluctuate in between. I wonder if you were to take all the individuals on the planet, sum all their respective happiness/sadness scales, what you would get? Would it be in the center? On the sadness side? Happinness? Is there some global/universal quota? Perhaps me being happy means taking it away from someone else. I have to assume this is not the case, if i’m going to continue with my optimistic attitude for this new year, new life i’m loving leading.

The cleanse is done. It was a complete success, although i probably needed a few more days (not fully clean if you know what i mean). Little “easing off” took place yesterday, started with oj, then sweet pink lady apple, then some organic sweet potato soup (not mine), then veggies and salad along with some WAY too salty olives… then a banana and more soup in the aft. Dinner was succulent, tofu pho and veggies at golden turtle, holy crap, animal based broth ok, but WOW. That fried tofu they stuff in gets more flavour than any beef they could, i suppose cause of the beefy/oxxy broth, but i don’t care, spectacuLAR! The night ended with an oven at 425, some walnuts and hazelnuts, and when ready, roasted chestnuts and red wine…. ok , then it ended with toblerone, lindt, and chestnuts. I really need to try/make some chocolate covered chestnuts. O baby.

All is progressing well. I really want to eat. Shit is strange stuff, bodies are strange, i’ve already talked about the input/output phenom, but man, its something you really don’t appreciate until you “simplify”. I sit here drinking my senna tea, wishing to munch. I think it’ll be nice to regain a baseline for eating, bring me back to the basics, make me really think about what i’m putting in my body. Its nice to know i’ve got the willpower to stop putting anything bad in for 10 days (or so)… it actually won’t be the full 10 days, it has been decided to sort of end it at the middle of the 9th day. My lunch of friday is a must, and well, we’ll do the flush on thursday but that’ll be about it. We’ll test ourselves with soups/broths, then veggies, then some pho sans meat… damn i can’t wait, less than 40 hours and i’ll be putting something other than water/maple syrup/lemon/lime/cayenne/herbaltea into my body.

I do recommend it tho. I think i would need to go a perhaps a while longer to clean out the rest of the crap in my body. You really need to have an open ended timeframe to do this with, i didn’t… or i didn’t make one.

Its been a productive week and bit though, here’s what i’ve done:
- laid some vinyl tiles in a walkway in my apt where the floor was shite
- hung a mask
- assembled and am now using ikea’s stolmen
- did some research on drapes/blinds for my bay window
- watched a few movies, one of which is tampopo, a movie about the proper way to run a soup joint in japan, very cool
- did a bit of yoga, no running
- didn’t eat smoke or drink… did i mention that?

Woke up, almost half way there. Bodies are strange things. They have inputs they have outputs. Change the inputs, you change the outputs. Sometimes, the total number/mass of the inputs doesn’t equal the mass of the outputs. When this happens over a long period of time, it takes a cleanse like this to get to the point where the mass of the inputs is less than the mass of the outputs. Matter state is different too, all 3 (no plasma) types are coming as outputs. But i egress…

I’m feeling pretty good. The key is to keep your energy up, the 2nd day was the hardest, i was slow and a little stupid. After that just drinking the mix is the key thing. You hungry? Drink. Tired? Drink. Iratable? Drink. Thats the key.

One of the main thing i’ve realized is that even though i love food so much and i loved it so much before (i think my previous blog posts and flickr pics are evidence enuf of this), is that i will love it SO much more after, and will take it for granted even less. Food is essential for life. It is one of, if not, our most consistent and enchanted pleasures. I’m also reading a book right now called The China Study. Its a pretty eye opening book, i’m taking it with a grain of salt, but damn are some of its results are profound. The nutshell i’m currently seeing (after reading about half of it) is that animal protein is the #1 cause of all north americans diseases of affluence, ie cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes. You eat animal protein your chances of having cancer, or activiting cancer, increase. If you eat a diverse plant based diet, you’re chances of getting cancer are sigificantly reduced, practically non-existant. Their are activators aside from animal based protein, but they are basically not having a “balanced’ plant based diet (ie malnutrition). Anyways, i’m really curious about food while not eating it, heres what i want the most right now:
- pho
- a dirienzo’s sandwhich
- fresh pasta in tomato sauce
- miso soup
- pita and tzaziki and hommous, and tabouli
- a carrot
- nigiri sushi
- etc.
Really, any food, provided its mostly natural, i’m in for. Mmm…… o and a fresh loaf of italian bread on which to make this funky cheese and prosciutto grilled cheese sandwhich. Video directions here. (btw these videos are awesome but the chef is a big butter/cream/meat guy, look at his gut!!!).

So, i griped about a cleanse i wanted to do a while back here. Well, i’m taking it on now, and i’m not alone. Today is day one. Most of my knowledge has been learned from sites like this and this. Its the same one my buddy did, and its so far so good. I plan to learn a lot about my bowels and my body over the next 10 days or so, and i’m looking forward to it. Unfortunately i only have about 10 days to do it, i fear real life is going to occupy me next friday making next thursday most likely my last day. We’ll see though, thats a long ways off.

The worst part isn’t hunger so far, is just NOT EATING! I LOVE FOOD!!! Damn. I have to make due with the flavour derived from this herbal senna tea that’s gonna make my loins run like wind by morning (hopefully). Tell me i’m crazy, i’ll listen. I’ll tell you how i feel after too, at which point we can compare notes. I’m pretty confident this will be a worthwhile and mind/body sharpening experience.

Its been a good year. I have to say, i’m more impressed with optimism than with any other concept this year. I’ve realized it’s the guiding lite, anything else is just a waste of time, or something that should be acknowledged needs working on. I have no room for negativity anymore. I have time for my friends, people i like, people i love, and things i enjoy. I will also make time for things i may not enjoy right now, but hold promise for the future. All else is moldy gravy, totally unworthy of contemplation.

Have you ever been told you’re Joshua? You’re this guy that is so like this guy that its scary, even pathetic. You look so alike, minus eye color, its scary? And words, emails and voicemails alike, all the mails, are erily similar? Very strange. Life continues to weird us all out. Thats never gonna stop, until we’re old and we’re saying “hef fun” with our rusty coils we try to pass off to our grandchildren as slinkys.

Yes, 2005 was a learning experience. No doubt 2006 will be busier, crazier, scarier, and more enviogorating than the last. This is because i’ve embraced confidence and optimism. And because things have turned my way. For all the ways things have turned i am thankful for. If i have one brutally obvious thing i need to work on is to be more selfless, and less self absorbed. I care for others, but rarely do i take part in selfless acts. Even for selfish reasons (ie, to be more selfless) i think they should be done. If i were to make a nwr it would be that. I should, make the time to help others not convinced of the benifits of optimism. Drama is so unnecessary with friends, be and let be, don’t let silly preconceptions and fantasy play a part in reality, when reality is all that should be necessary. Blah blah, merry fuckin xmas, happy new year, and if you’re faced with a question, the answer that best suits the “why the hell not” response, is most likely the scariest but right choice. Go for it, theres really nothing to lose.