BEDA 30: Tha.. Tha.. That's all folks!

Hi fellow bloggers and BEDAers,

Today is a sad day, the end of BEDA. Even though I didn't stick to it every day and missed some sadly, I am quite proud of myself.

I used to blog once a month perhaps if I thought about it or once every two or three months. With BEDA, it helped me to blog "almost" every day. I achieved the goal I set for myself, to blog more and thinking of writing down my thoughts of the day, what happened, opinions about news I read, books, etc.

All in all I am proud of myself.

I missed yesterday because I went to bed at 8:45pm. Yes I know that is early but I was tired and needed the rest, sometimes it is needed.

Moving on...

How about this swine flu? Wouldn't you agree that the media has this way of creating more fear and panic than needed.

Let me explain, I know this is serious and needs to be dealt with and contained before it gets out of control. By stopping trips to mexico for a while until they contain the outbreak, I know some people don't want to because it won't be good for their economy but if you think about it, it is quite needed. Otherwise the virus will spread even more.

I read online that this virus is not new, there was an outbreak in 1918 I believe, I can be wrong with the date and far worst than how it is right now. I saw 50 cases in the US, people who contracted the virus, didn't die from it and are being treated. I also read that the virus is not spreading as quickly as the media is saying it is either. And that the cases in the US, Canada, etc. are much milder than in mexico hence the reason why it isn't spreading as quickly.

It is always the same, there are a couple cases of a flu and the media blows it out of proportion causing more fear and panic and I don't know if it does that to you but every time I hear of symptoms, my subconscious tends to make me believe I might have the symptoms and end up fearing having the disease.

And that is one of the reasons why my TV has been off for months. The other being that I can't find one decent show that catches my attention for me to want to follow it every day. Aside from House MD, mind you I missed a lot of episodes since my soccer games are on mondays and most of the times at the same time as House MD. Boo.

Since this is the last day of BEDA I may not cross post to Maureen's ning, probably will still check the page and see if I have comments or people who added me, I love making friends so don't be shy add me as a friend and talk to me if you want.

I plan on keeping up the posting, probably not every day since summer is on its way and as you read on another post I set myself a lot of goals and things I want to do. lol But I will post when I have something exciting to share and talk about so you can check out my "real" blog. Like this isn't real, haha. I have other blogs that you can get to from this one (recipe, books) check them out too.

http:sweetgirlrants.blogspot.com

I also plan on using my dailybooth a lot more, picture a day with a haiku for the description. Check out my dailybooth:

http://www.dailybooth.com/sweetygirl

I will try to update twitter as well more often, here is the link:

http://www.twitter.com/sweetygirl00

I am also planning on making and editing some videos, here is the link to that.

http://www.youtube.com/sunshinebear00

And also taking lots of photos, I want to take my camera every day with me and at least snap one picture a day. Well I know I will snap more but one good picture that will be worthy of flickr. You can check my photos but I am warning you, there is A LOT!

http://www.flickr.com/sweetgirl32

Well, that is it for BEDA, I might take it up again in august, it will work since august is the other month starting with "A". Who is with me? Will you do this in August as well. And this time I will condition myself to blog EVERY DAY to sort of beat my record. Big challenge now. Yikes.

If anyone wants to see what I am up to just check out the links above.

My last healthy tip of the month:

Include more fiber to feel full. Eat lentils, dry beans, peas, vegetables, fruits, brown rice, and whole grains.

BEDA 28: I think I just might stick to Wii Bowling

Hi fellow bloggers or BEDAers,

Today I bowled! Yes you heard right I BOWLED. And no, not on the Wii. I went to a real bowling alley for the first time in what would be called: forever. And I officially found out that: I SUCK. lol

It was an activity organized by the technology department at the university where I work and since our department is joining them soon due to the faculty of medicine needing to cut cost back by 15% due to this recession, we got the news recently that we would be joining CCS. It makes sense since we are the technology department and CCS has a much bigger budget than the faculty and will be able to pay our salaries. Basically that it all it means since we are physically staying at the faculty and will offer them the same technological services as before. It also means that whenever CCS will have activities such as bowling or anything else we will be invited, that is kind of cool.

I went a little off track, yes I bowled. And I sucked. We played two games, the first I bowled 55 and the second 40. Miserable isn't it? lol It is odd that my first game was better, normally one would bowl horribly on the first game and do better for the next. I am Bizarro Nancy, like in jerry's (seinfeld) bizarro world episode.

I fact come to think of it I have always been the opposite of everyone. It is alright, makes me be different.

The last time I bowled must have been when I was 9, 10 perhaps. It was also not with the big balls but smaller ones, way easier if you ask me. The ball was too heavy I had trouble throwing it properly to get any sort of decent score.

All in all it was fun still.

Possibly had one of the greasiest pizza ever though, I think I must have gained 5 pounds, I MUST do my hour of cardio tomorrow morning. Can't expect much, the bowling alley was in the east end part of town named Vanier. Not exactly the best neighbourhood. I wouldn't expect much more.

Unfortunately I failed at starting to paint my eco-friendly herb garden containers but I will make this my goal for tomorrow. I can't wait to start planting and I plan to not let my herb garden die of thirst as it so happened last year.

I wanted to talk about something a little deeper, perhaps about swine flu or any other news worthy of blogging about, but quite frankly it is late and I am tired, I think I will wrap this 28 day of BEDA with my usual healthy tip and say goodnight.

Healthy tip of the day

Chew each bite 12 times. This prevents overeating by giving your stomach time to realize what you have eaten.

Goodnight and DFTBA

BEDA 27: Last soccer game and 33 celcius weather

Hello fellow bloggers

I know I am bad I haven't posted all weekend. It is hard to do BEDA and stay inside when the weather is beautiful. Saturday was gorgeous, I went back to a little park I used to go to rollerblade and read sitting under a tree. Had a picnic and played some frizbee with my boyfriend.

Until rain tarted to fall on us and we had to go. It is a funny thing because that has always happened in that area and when i drove back downtown, the park is in the west end, The rain stopped and it was beautiful again. There is something about this park clouds seem to form only over it for some reason.

Saw these guys, high school I am guessing, doing stunts on skateboards. Jumping on the rail and everything. One kept getting hurt and going back, isn't that stupid, I mean I don't believe I would try again if I got hurt, to be honest that is not something I would even thing of doing to begin with, but I suppose guys like to show off like that. ;)

Moving on...

Tonight was our last soccer game and ... we lost. :( I think I need to practice goalie more, I foudn this video on youtube showing how to properly stop the ball and I think I will try and practice this a lot more, I know what I am doing wrong, the ball always ends up going between my legs because I don't have the proper way to be a soccer goalie. Hey, it is my first time playing.

I never thought I would actually enjoy sports. I have never been one for sports before. Still afraid of the ball but I think I am getting better with that as well.

I had some good saves still despite the fact that we lost.

I will still play for spring soccer but this time it will be outside. Surely it will be different then benchball soccer (indoor). Looking forward to it. Might play some volleyball in the summer with the people from the team I played with in the fall, one guy said he was thinking of getting a net and setting it up at a beach and invite anyone who wanted to play. I think I would like that.

Today was 33 degrees (celcius). Sorry for anyone who are used to farenheit, I do not know what it is in farenheit. All I can tell you it was scorching hot. For april that is a record I think, for Ottawa that is. I so wished I was at the beach yesterday, swimming and enjoying laying down reading a book. I love summer. Though it isn't summer yet technically but it sure felt like it yesterday.

I wanted to go through boxes with my summer clothes and store my winter stuff, yes living in an apartment, one has to do this to save space.

Healthy tip of the day:

At restaurants, only eat half your meal. Ask for a “to-go” box when ordering, and place half your meal in the box.

This about wraps things up for day 27 of BEDA. See you tomorrow.

BEDA 23: Getting ready for new kids on the block day - april 24th

Hello fellow bloggers

This may be a short one because I am tired and need to get some sleep.

So we are getting to the final countdown of BEDA, I am proud of myself for stiking with it, even if I missed some days. I might not blog EVERY day after BEDA just because the nice weather has finally arrived and I plan to enjoy that quite a bit, plus as I said in my next post, I have a lot of things to do for my self-betterment project and I plan to stick to that as well. Especially painting, drawing, guitar.

I thought since we are in the final countdown for BEDA, if you have any questions you could leave them in the comment and I could make a BEDA blog about answering questions, I can return the favour and ask some questions to help you guys find blogging topics.

Moving along...

Did you know that April 24 was declared, in Boston, new kids on the block day, a while back when they first were popular?

The reason I am bringing this up since they came back after 14 years, I thought I would do my part to celebrate new kids on the block day by ONLY listening to their songs for an entire day.

Before anyone says anything like: they weren't good, they are just a boy band, one hit wonder (though they had more than one hit for sure), or they were lip synching (not true), or anyone who liked them were stupid and didn't know music... spare any of those comments.

I was a fan and back then I couldn't care less what anyone thought. I am still a fan and loved that they came back after 14 years and I DO NOT care what anyone thinks. And will continue to be a fan and support the new kids on the block until the day I die.

I love the new cd, upbeat music, the song summertime is one that makes me want to take a road trip on a beautiful sunny day and just crank up the volume, windows rolled down and just have fun. I think they have grown as musicians as well, now they can write their own song not having to sing what the producer wants them to sing.

I went to their come back show in montreal, last september and the frenzy was still there, it didn't take a second after they got on stage for people to start screaming just like they did 14 years ago.

That being said, I recently found the new kids on the block ning network. WOW! So any new kids fans who are still fans and carry the boys in their heart to this day, I SAY LET'S BRING BACK THE NEW KIDS FRENZY OF 14 YEARS AGO.

What do you say?

I think they deserve it. As the song said: "the hardest working kids in showbusiness" even if now they aren't kids anymore, though I think they are still kids at heart, which I personally find great.

It might seem odd but when the news that the group was no more, I never believed for a second that it was definite. Deep down something inside me said: "they will come back, you 'll see". And THEY DID! I am so happy.

I know people might say I am silly for hangin' tough, hehe yes pun intended, but judging from the crowd at the montreal show, I am far from being the only one who were hangin' tough.

Check out the new kids ning: http://newkidsnetwork.ning.com/

They already have 49,414 members. Pretty good, I would say, for a group that just came back after 14 years.

And oh my Joe still looks amazingly hot! Sorry you probably didn't want to hear that. But I had to say. As you can probably guess now, Joe was my favourite. I went through a Jordan phase but too many people liked him and I ended up falling for Joe's beautiful blue eyes and smile. Plus he was my age, well he still is duh.

Healthy tip of the day:

Instead of regular sodas, drink diet drinks or water. The sugar in regular sodas turns to fat in your body.

This about wraps up BEDA 23. I guess I had more to say than just a small blog.

See you tomorrow.

BEDA 22: Happy Earth Day, self-betterment project and Yuk Yuk comedy night

Hello fellow bloggers

Happy Earth Day!

I have decided to look at the top 10 actions I found googling earth day to see if I am doing enough green things and perhaps pick one or two new things I can do daily to help the environment.

The things I already do:

1- Replace incandescent light bulb with energy saving ones. Most of my lightbulbs are energy savers but I will check and if they aren't replace them for energy savers.

2- Walk, cycle, use public transportation daily.

3- Choose local organic foods that are in season and support local food producers. I try to do that as much as possible and in the summer I buy my fruits and veggies in the market from local producers.

4- Eat less meat, well I already don't eat much meat only occasionally chicken. I think I do my part.

5- wash full loads of clothes in cold water.

6- I usually close the water tap while brushing my teeth.

Two new things to do in the spirit of earth day:

1- Use the dryer a lot less and try and hang my clothes to air dry as much as possible.

2- Make simple natural non toxic cleaners out of vinegar baking soda and water. I googled and found this link on homemade cleaning products useful for cleaning, I had no idea. I think I will start doing this. http://www.eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm

On a related note, while bettering the environment is a great idea an dvery important, I also decided to start a self-betterment project as well. Which basically consist in taking better care of myself and my body in general, although I already do a lot but lately I have been a little lazy.

Things I will do or already do and will make sure I keep doing:

1- Drink green tea after every meal.
2- Eat more fruits and veggies. Eat at least one apple a day which is supposed to health speed up metabolism and therefore help in not gaining wait so fast.
3- Eat out less and start making more healthy recipes at home.
4- Keep eating at a slow pace to help the digestive system. And eat small portions.
5- Go to bed early to catch up on much needed sleep.
6- Do cardio exercise every morning (Wii boxing, Wii jogging, Wii steps, Wii hula hoop, etc.). Go rollerblading after work and walk home whenever the weather permits.
7- Do Yoga (on Wii) every night before I go to bed. To help relax and make sure I keep a good posture.
8- Drink more cold water to help in speeding my metabolism.
9- Finish reading all the books I have started. Hmmm this may be a lot but I am up for the challenge)
10- Get back to painting and drawing a lot more.
11- Grow my own herb garden. Or at least try again and make sure I don't end up killing it. I am bad with plants. lol
12- Practice guitar at least 10-20 minutes every day.
13- Try an just enjoy the little things in life each an every day.
14- Keep blogging after BEDA is over. I really do enjoy it.
15- Get back to writing some more Haikus.

WOW! I really do have a lot of hobbies and take on a lot of things at once. ;)

I think that is about it, that is a lot I think. I may add some more things if I have forgotten any.

On a related earth day news, I found this cool craft idea which goes with my growing an herb garden project.

It is basically recycling tin cans to make containers for my herbs. It is recycling and great for the environment and also a way to express creativity. I only wish I had seen this link yesterday before I threw out a whole bunch of diet pepsi cans (that my boyfriend drank while at my place), oh well I am sure I will get more than enough if I start to collect them from next weekend.

I can't wait to start my herb garden creative and environmentally sound project. I am excited!

Check out the link to make your own herb garden containers:
http://crafts.kaboose.com/earth-tin-can-herb-pots.html

Healthy tip of the day:

Eat several small meals each day instead of three big meals. Your metabolism will stay high and burn more fat.

Going to Yuk Yuk's comedy night at Alcatel tonight. I don't work for Alcatel but my boyfriend's sister does and she got us tickets, $10 with a meal included, greek food. Must remember to eat slow and just small amount though. I am excited I don't think I have ever had greek food aside from greek salad that is but I am sure everyone has tasted that at one point of another.

$10 with a meal included is way cheaper than if we actually went to the actual comedy club, I think it is more expensive. Usually the stand up acts are pretty good, though last time there was one girl who was terrible, hopefully she is not there tonight.

Well this wraps up day 22 of BEDA Have a Happy Earth Day everyone and remember to be green.

See you tomorrow.

BEDA 21: Favourite childhood memory

Hello fellow bloggers and BEDA buddies

I am excited today, at work I did the very last cbl of unit I. I know no one else knows what cbls are so I will explain. I work for the faculty of medicine as a web designer, or rather multimedia designer. I will spare you the long job title they gave us because that is just way too long to write or remember.

Our main job is to build e-learning modules (cbl: case base learning, SLM: self-learning module) for the students. We have been working non-stop and on very tight deadlines and today was the very last one for unit I. No worries next year it will start again with Unit II and they also have decided to change the unit I modules around, so we will have to do both at the same time. Fun. :( Hey, no complaints, at least it assures our jobs right?

My boss suggested perhaps all going for lunch and celebrate, I am all for that. I would celebrate with sushi, oh yeah, I love some sushi.

I was reading some other blogs and came across one where one girl posted the following question with her answer:

What is your favorite childhood memory?

I thought this to be a great idea and decided to share my favourite childhood memory with other bloggers and perhaps it will inspire other people to do the same and give them something to blog about for tomorrow.

My favourite childhood memory is basically all the summers I spent as a child. I grew up in a small rural area of the small town called Mont-Carmel. 

Only a few families lived there all year and the rest only came during summer, to their cottage. Since it was such a small place, everyone knew each other, families visited each other, hung around campfires at night, kids playing together and parents talking amongst each other.

I remember the lake, well actually it is more a pond than a lake, always waking up early to go swimming from early morning until late at night on nice and warm days. Sometimes we began our swimming season in May, ok perhaps late may. Two kids started the season, when we saw them pass by in their bathing suit carrying towels various beach related items, we knew swimming season had begun.

The place was private, meaning only for the ones who lived there, summer or all year and their visitors. Though everyone knew that some people from the other area called lac bedard came to swim in our lake (pond).

Sometimes we even forgot to go eat lunch and parents had to call come and get us. We occasionally brought picnics sometimes as well. 

There was this building near the pond known as 'la batisse" where the committee, since the area was private, there was a committee and everyone who had a cottage or house there had to pay a fee because the area didn't belong to the municipality the fee paid by members used to go towards taking care of the roads, the lake (pond), etc. 

In that building, they always organized a lot of activities for the kids and grown up as well. There were games for the kids, running around the pond and the winner won a prize. Very nice prizes too. And many other activities. A rally where organizer went around the area and created questions and teams had to find what they saw, kind of like a scavenger hunt if you wish.

I just remember something else, that is vague, but still. I remember "les arpents verts" it was basically the equipment with which the members  fixed the road, it used to be gravel so they had to take care of it to make sure rain didn't make holes that could potentially break cars. 

I remembers all of us used to run behind and ask to climb on board to go for a ride. Somehow that was quite fun. I know a lot of city people will say this is weird as they are used to going to the mall for fun. But that was our way of entertaining ourselves and having fun.

I supposed when I got rto high school, I would not have minded living in the city, but I liked my childhood in rural area. I think nowadays kids grow up too fast, they don't really enjoy being kids as I always did.

There was also softball, I loved that. All the kids from the area participated. 

Picking wild blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, "merises" sorry for the french here but I am not sure what it is in english, basically it is like a wild cherries much smaller. 

My friends parents organized a christmas in july once and everyone who lived in that area was at their place. It was amazing though it was missing snow, christmas without snow to me is not really christmas, but it was one of my fondest memories.

And even as a teenager they found activities for us. At the building known as "la batisse" they always organized dances with a theme, one was a 60s theme. My mom made me a skirt and a sweather and me and my friends were dressed as 60s teenagers. It was awesome. when I was younger everyone dressed up for another dance, kind of like it was halloween but it was summer.

They organized bingos for adults and kids also had fun playing, garage sales, corn roast I think that is what it is called in english. In french it is "epluchette de ble d'inde".  I love corn on the cob.

Funny anecdote: I used to eat corn on the corn when I only two bottom teeth. And I wanted to eat it with the cob, my mom always wanted to remove the grains so that it would be easier but I always refused. LOL

I am certain that I am forgetting a lot but hope you enjoyed me sharing one of my favourite childhood memory or part of it if I forgot a lot of it. 

So what is YOUR favourite childhood memory? I would love to hear if anyone want to share.

Healthy tip of the day: 

Read the label on “fat-free” foods carefully. Often the fat has been replaced by sugar
– which makes you fat!

That is it for day 21 of BEDA.

See you tomorrow.

BEDA 20: sunny day boost my energy level

Hello fellow bloggers

I know, I am terrible. I missed four days of blogging. :(

I will try really hard not to miss any more days until the end of April. Honestly I actually missed blogging. I got into this blogging mode and when I stopped I started to miss it.

This weekend was too much of a beautiful one, weather-wise for me to stay inside and sit at a computer. I took advantage of the sun being out to recharge my energy level.

Sometimes I can be quite the energizer bunny but lately I have been feeling a lot more tired and the sun is my energy level charger.

I also saw two movies that I have no idea why I did not get around to watching but I must say I am glad we rented them. Two Micheal Moore documentaries. Yes I know I SHOULD have watched them a long time ago, when they first came out. I missed the movies when they were in theater and never got around to renting them.

The first one was "Bowling for Columbine" and the second was "Sicko". The two were amazing. They both made me cry a little. Michael Moore surely is my favourite documentary filmmaker. I absolutely loved "farenheit 9/11". The documentaries made me cry but also laugh at times, more so at the stupidity of people, I cannot believe it. Especially at insurance companies in the US, denying people treatment or trying to find any possibly, as small as can be, loopholes to not have to grant the patients request.

I know that every country with free health care has its own problems but it is much better than letting innocent people die just because they aren't fortunate enough to be millionaires to afford high priced medical care. So essentially if you are American and by sheer misfortune you end up being sick and need expensive treatment for your illness, and are middle class or poorer, you better accept that you will die even if you have insurance. since people working for insurance companies are getting paid more if they deny more patient's requests.

That is sick.

Americans like to be number one for everything, why is it that they are not number one when it comes to free health care?

I also saw "bedtime story" with Adam Sandler. I love this actor so funny. I really enjoyed the movie as it reminded me of what I used to do as a kid, make up stories and invent a world of my own like this with adventures and fantastic creatures. I don't do it nearly as much as I should now being a creative person. I need to get back to this, perhaps it would help me find awesome ideas for paintings and drawings.

I am still trying to keep a good exercise regimen in order to lose the pounds that I have gained since christmas. I know I am not overweigth technically but I don't feel as good as I used to and last week I played soccer at lunch and realized that I WAS TOTALLY NOT in shape.

Healthy tip of the day

Go lean on meat. Buy extra-lean ground beef, chicken, or turkey. Trim the meat fat and remove the chicken skin.

Well that is about it for day 20 of BEDA.
See you tomorrow.