Words.

I felt the need to refresh myself and calm from all this study before bed.

A favourite past time has been reading poetry, sounds rather lame but true.

So I opened up a book and read from its pages the perfect words of John Keats:

"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts". 

-John Keats

..... perhaps my inability to decide on numerous things daily isn't such a terrible fault.

And also, the fact that I must always argue something out both ways until I drive myself into the mindset of a fence sitter may also be acceptable??

I don't think that is quite what he was getting at but poetry is all a matter of perspective, right?

And here comes the random shit from the bottom of my brain... the stuff that really means nothing and are thoughts that pass casually through the heads of most people but somehow dwell in mine for a substantially and highly unnecessary period of time...

Communication is such a gift.

However - why are words never enough?

They can arouse the deepest thoughts,

the most amazing feelings.

They transfer wisdom and teach fact.

But look at them and their ridged shape.

There is such restriction,

"Masculine with a compact frame".

But can one only 'create' or be 'creative' with words to a certain degree?

Or can sentences be constructed delicately and skillfully enough to sound like they have never been written or thought of in word-form before.

I guess this, like poetry is all a matter of perspective.

I've been told that people can't simply 'create' from words.

But there are definitely two sides to that argument.

Inspire me.

Perhaps we all have this longing, a need in fact - to be inspired.

And when those valuable sources of inspiration pass, we embrace them.

It's fair to say that a lot of our time on this earth is spent looking for inspiration.

I suppose that's why we hold onto those special people who have the power to inspire us...

Everyday.

Life is good.

‎"The only dream worth having is to dream that you will live while you are alive, and die only when you are dead. To love, to be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity of the life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget."

Rant #239802

How are people so concerned with praising a sacred "higher power" that they forget that they themselves are sacred?  So is the word 'faith' trust and belief without necessary proof?  Is there really any logic in that at all?  Was science and medicine just so undeveloped when the whole idea of religion came about that absolutely nothing seemed ridiculous?  I mean if diseases could make people ill "out of the blue" (obviously reasons were not yet known) and there were few answers to many of life's questions wouldn't it be easy to believe in something that has not been proved?  Clouds can be seen in the sky but do we need proof as to how they got there?  Because people didn't originally understand these things, did that make their minds vulnerable?  I believe so.

So why has religion not died out yet?  Why are humans happy to place their whole livelihood and trust in a non-existing being/set of beings?  It actually blows my mind.  But what to I know?  And what use is it?  Will religion ever be disproved more than it already has been?  And by religion, I am particularly referring to Western religions like Christianity.  To me, scientology and christianity are on par when it comes to bogus ideas but why are people so dumbfounded by 'wizardology' and all that but a guy in the sky creating the world is totally legit?  I hope that before I die I can meet a religious person who can give me some awesome arguments.  I would actually like to hear some, legitimately!

Some people :)

Eeep day :)

I love those days where things are productive.
Where you appreciate the little things that make the day brighter.
And where you realise that there is so much to look forward to in this stupid little life...

Uni Venting - Not a good feel good read I assure you.

Uni has been bothering me lately, but in a long term, career aspirations sort of way...

So here's my study journey...

Its daunting when you started something at uni that really wasn't your thing and it happens to the best of us I guess.  In 2009 I realised that journalism wasn't for me and in Semester Two I did bridging units for nutrition.  For semester one I could only do 3 out of 4 units as one wasn't offered, then I failed my first semester chemistry exam and my life was basically over for a few hours until I managed to deal with it.  Sadly, the same unit wouldn't be offered until the following year and I'd have to repeat in 2011, unless I did a similar unit from the biomedical science course and soldiered on through biochemistry.  Luckily, biochemistry was a lovely change and I accustomed quickly.  I found a way to structure all units to meet every prerequisite required and life became sweet again...

So now I've started some third year units but I have missed two core second years that i'll be needing as they were only offered in certain semesters and the bridging units limited me in my first semester unit selection as my entire course was based on chemistry prerequisites.  I know this is the direction I am meant to be going in but I see everyone slowly graduating and I sit and wonder when the fuck it will be me.  When will I finally have what I wanted?  After trying this hard, it must be in reach? ... but it seems so far away and I'll need to keep soldiering on. 


The primary problem I have had lately is what will I do when I'm finished this course?  It seems apparent that I will need to stay until the end of 2012 to finish my Nutrition degree but then what?  I'm writing this blog as a means of justification, as a way of working things out.  I sit here and question my capabilities.  I sit here and I think of how many people have actually wanted something as much as I want this.  But alas, there is a silver lining to all this worry and it has just come to me - emails from oh mighty course coordinators and Curtin and ECU.  Now I hate to seem pretentious but ECU has never really been a model university for me as a hopeful future health care professional.  In fact, I have steered away.  However I've just received a nice neat package for the course information for Masters in dietetics. GREAT success.  The course is far more recognised than expected, it offers almost an entire year of prac and it gives you a life membership with the DAA (Dietetics Association of Australia) AND allows you the accreditation required for own clinical practice.  This is everything I wanted to hear.  Of course I will investigate my options but this is good news... HOWEVER, good always comes at a price.  The course only starts mid year and i'll miss next years cut off.... Fuck. My. Life.
What to do....
I have wanted this far far too much.
I think its time to remind myself of that.
I have come so far but it really doesn't feel like it..
But I'm through the hard part, I'm over half way and I know I am capable.
I guess I'll have to suck it up and realise that I'm going to be at uni for quite a while..
And I guess in order to be fulfilled in life, I'm going to have to be ok with that.

Sunshine

No matter the weather, always bring your sunshine...

Today is Thursday

So I started this sober but have ended up drunk. I'm not sure if its due to all the wine i've been consuming over the last few years or the beauty of this journey I have experienced.  I will go with the latter as being drunk from years of drinking holds no logic :P ... but I can't describe this indistinguishable feeling.

I'm not sure whether when faced with the choice, some of us can push past things with a strength we never knew we had. It makes no sense to say this - any of this.  The more I have lived, the higher I have aimed and to be honest it feels like I haven't got very far. Failure, guilt, lack of priorities... it has all come down to me though.  I guess the less control you experience from time to time, the more you feel you have when suddenly you take hold of it.

I wish I had a camera and a notebook, constantly with me.  It seems like so many thoughts fill my head and I lose them as fast as they make their way in there in the first place.  Perhaps they are trying to make room for the new ones and my brain briefly ponders, finds a meaning or resolution and lets them go.  Perhaps I'd go insane if it didn't?  The longer I live, the more I know... and the more I know, the more I want to know.... and the more I want to know the more I know I will never know as much as I want to... for there is far too much to know and each human being only lives long enough to know a minuscule proportion of information, despite the longing... 

Wednesday 15th September

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. 

~Oscar Wilde

RE: religion

RE: Food cents

I feel the least inspired by uni that I have ever felt and it saddens me.  I can't wait until the holidays to get through my massive stack of books to reignite me but I suppose there have been some things I'm yet to write about:

I have a lot of awesome shopping tips for healthy budgetting and upon request I will tailor some to vegetarians and Low GI diets as promised before.

Blog on iron also coming :)

First world problems

How infatuated we are with our lives that are so insignificant in the scope of the universe.
And who can blame us really - we are consciously or subconsciously government by context, by all these social and cultural 'norms' that exist around us.  A characteristic of human beings is that we can easily adapt, but this is generally in response to a change in physical environmental state - changes in weather, people etc.  How easily we can break like glass when placed in new extreme and contrasting contexts, unlike those we are so comfortably adapted to.  It is worrying really, the mentality of our first world minds with our first world problems and how breakable we would be if faced with something so unthinkable.  But we are what we are and we are like this because we are here, in this place, in this time.

Its funny really, despite how dramatically I can sometimes react to first world problems it always brings a smile to my face when I know I can appreciate little things to a strong degree; when I feel like something so small has really impacted me.  Right now I feel simply blissful.  And it feels like such a big deal.  It feels like just when you begin to adapt to something, to really truly live your life with and around something; new variables come in to play...

Now you may not really know it yet but this is so platonic for me.  

You text me just to say good night and good morning...
You brush my hair out of my face when it gets in my eyes...

You smile at me with this extreme content that ricochets through me...
Now... you may not know it but, you have been the best adaption so far.
And this appreciation for little things is so fulfilling because..

Well, I guess they don't really seem like little things to me.
And that's the best part.

RE: Rage

This is for your rage...

See we got together so young,
before our real lives had begun,
but flowers don't grow up as one,
each finds its own way to the sun,
and that's exactly what we've done.

We've grown up separately too,

And for a few years now it's been the problem,
and these realisations...i wish that i could stop them,
but I've realised that love is all we have in common,
and deep down you know that's true.

Time to bloom.

It's time to bloom... ^_^

Now

Everything fits just right...

Beauty.

Time waits for no one.

***

There are few moments in my life where I feel lost for words, peaceful, escaped from turmoil.  That isn't to say that everything I say and express is always negative and I guess I feel selfish of any negativity that gets out on here, or anywhere by me in public really.  Absurd feelings are always had when you look back on your former self, before a life changing experience.  I suppose this has occured to me often, after times of travel, happiness, hurt and everything wonderful and terrible that lies in between.  I feel so jaded, like my mind can't even seem to catch up.  It feels like pure exhaustion relief; something I have come to realise is a ridiculous feeling to have in a life so short.  I almost feel dramatic really but I would rather be just right here in comparison to anywhere else.  I feel naive, but this is what happens.  We become so concerned with bigger and more complicating things in life that we forget the essentials.  We forget pure and easy pleasure.  We always worry about not having enough to say, having too much to say; being too much of this or not enough of that.... rarely moments like these, honestly.

If I could describe how I feel it would be like sitting on a cloud.  I sit here in bed and wonder how many people get to feel this - how many right now?  How many will never be absent of stress.  I wonder so often what people are thinking in the moments they pass me.  I hope that everyone gets to feel this perfect, if only for one tiny little moment amongst the many they experience...

Mmm... People & their crazy lives...

Sometimes human interaction is so comforting to observe.
I had to put these up... makes me warm and fuzzy.

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Perfect night.

...and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life...

Tuesday.

"The thing is that I want it all next week, right now, this millisecond. The leader, the instigator, the creator, the cold origination; life should sparkle and rush, burn with fire, hot like melting steel, like freeze-burn from a comet. Be seriously involved with growing, with your own development, and never fear. Be the kind of person who is naturally powerful, positive, ingenious, open, to the highest degree, but with no interest in coercion or pressure or power over other people. That kind of power is hollow. It contains nothing and brings you nothing in the long run".

Today.

“All flowers in time bend towards the sun, I know you say theres no one for you, But here is one”

- Jeff Buckley

Epiphany #34984

Farm to fridge.

I know this is just one perspective among many good ones but it made me vomit.  My stomach is strong but I couldnt do it.  Beware before watching.

http://youtu.be/THIODWTqx5E

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THIODWTqx5E

^_^

Mi-ran-da.

Miranda \m(i)-ran-da, mir(a)-nda\ as a girl's name is pronounced mer-ANN-dah. It is of Latin origin, and the meaning of Miranda is "worthy of admiration". In Shakespeare's "The Tempest".

Find yours.

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for
newer and richer experience." Eleanor Roosevelt

***

Colon Cancer: An Aussie problem

So as a nutrition student, time and time again colon/bowel cancer comes up and facts and figures are always shown, prevention methods are given and causes are always stated.  However it's actually fucked how many Australians are diagnosed with bowel cancer.  It is so easily preventable with some good old resistant starch or probiotics added to the diet.

This whole blog has stemmed from a little book I started reading about disorders of the digestive system.  Admittedly the pictures were very pretty (I love microscope slides) but feel free to look at them and then read the rest of my ranting.

The Facts and the Figures:

Colorectal cancer

Excluding non-melanoma skin cancer,(1) colorectal cancer, commonly called bowel cancer, is the second most common cancer in both men and women in Australia. Eighty per cent of cases have no known hereditary genetic associations. Colorectal cancer is preceded by adenomas (polyps), which may become invasive cancer if undetected.

Incidence and mortality

There are more than 14,000 new cases each year. The risk of being diagnosed by age 85 is 1 in 10 for men and 1 in 14 for women. 


In 2007, there were 4047 deaths from colorectal cancer.


- From the Cancer Council Australia website.

















Prevention

How much fibre is enough?

Reports suggest you should be eating 30g of fibre each day, yet most of us probably eat around 10-12g.  A banana contains 1.8g of fibre, as does 1 slice of wholemeal bread.

How do you build fibre into your diet?

• Replace lower fibre foods with high fibre foods.
• Eat vegetables and fruit raw, whenever possible.  Boiling too long can cause up to one half of the fibre to be lost in the water.  Steam or stir-fry them, if you cook them.
• Replace fruit or vegetable juice with the whole fruit – fruit skins and membranes are a particularly good source of fibre.
• Always start your day with a bowl of high-fibre cereal – one that has five or more grams per serving.
• Add fresh fruit to your cereal for an extra fibre dose.  Sprinkle wheat germ or bran on top of cold cereals.  Mix wheat germ or bran with hot cereals while they are cooking.
• Add bran cereal to muffins, breads and casseroles.
• Buy and eat only whole grains.

Not all who wander are lost.

Not all who wander are lost...

wanderingpresent participle of wan·der (Verb)

1. Walk or move in a leisurely, casual, or aimless way.

2. Move slowly away from a fixed point or place: "

Sometimes its nice to wander; to be free.
It seems strange really - not having to attempt adequacy.
I only have to worry about myself,
Everything else can just fall into place as it so chooses.
And although I wander, my path is still clear.
I know what I want and I will get there eventually.
Just you watch.

Sunday afternoon

Here are a few of my unedited pics from this afternoons photography mission.  Hopefully I will get some proper ones up with some touching up but I love how rough these are... gives a real feel for the type of afternoon it was and the beauty of the building at that time of day.  How I love afternoon lighting...

"