The Kids 10.15.10

THE STORY BEHIND THIS VIDEO

World, plase meet Grad. Grad the dancing penguin was a gift from Ma, best MIL ever, as a congratulations gift for finishing my NYU master's program. Ma knew purchased me this as a token, which is grealty appreciated. Surprisingly, this little penguin kind of sums up how I am feeling about the whole thing.

Seriously, I am happy, and I know it! I feel like clapping my hands and shouting hooray. I can take my time at night. I don't have an albatross around my neck. I don't have to save my energy with the the kids to keep writing. No editing, sourcings, bibliographies, referencing checking, none of it.

I went for sushi and got the most expensive roll AND hot sake.

I had a beer when I got home after work. So what if I get tired? I don't have to work!

I watched Lost the same night it aired.

I didn't have Jack crying at the door because I won't play with him.

I didn't bring my computer home from work.

I felt like I had just returned from the war and was given a second chance. I can't believe it's over!

I sort of miss it. At graduation I noticed that Steinhardt had a nutrition/food science program. I looked into, one of the core courses is on Agriculture. It sounded awesome. And oh look, it's only 32 credits. So that would take me 2 classes, no 3 classes a year and...

NOOOOO!!! No no no no. Oh no you don't! No more. I can read any book I want, watch any movie. There is no subject off limits. I just cannot/will not put myself under the emotional and financial pressures of an organized academic institution. (Maybe I'll go for a PhD when I retired. Seriously.) For now and a long time after, it's the college of life (the cheesiest line of my blogging career to date, yet oddly true).

This little penguin really sums it up. I got my whole life ahead of me. I'll likely never lose the drive to read and learn new things. But now my time is my own. I just taped 3 hour long shows about space, so that may keep me busy. I'm dying to get back into the guitar, which will happen. And I may think about reading some fiction (probably not).

What this video most represents is that I now have the time to watch the little moments like this with the kids. Before, I'd be in the bedroom working while these gems take place. Now, I can be there without the worry of my school work (on top of my job). That's the biggest relief.

Why Diet is Dangerous

Today at Francesca's (and Ian's) birthday party at the Palace skating rink, Mom told me I should be drinking diet soda. I said diet and all its chemicals are bad for you. Mom patted my stomach. Thanks, Mom.

Shockingly, Fooducate.com had a posting about the problems with diet soda:

1. Our body gets confused by artificial sweeteners
The dissociation between sweet taste and calorie intake may put the regulatory system that controls hunger and body weight out of sync, thus sabotaging weight loss plans. A study on rodents showed that those fed saccharin actually gained weight compared to rodents fed sucrose.

2. We’re “Infantilizing” our taste sense
Artificial sweeteners are a hundredfold sweeter than sucrose (table sugar). By getting ourselves used to so much sweet, normal sweet flavors, of fruit for example, become bland and so do other healthful foods such as grains and vegetables, thus reducing our willingness to consume them and ultimately the quality of our diet.

3. Long term effects unclear
While there have been many studies on artificial sweeteners and disease such cancer, very few focused on long term weight gain. A seven year study, (San Antonio Heart Study), showed a relationship between diet drink consumption and obesity, but the causation is not clear. Consumption of artificial sweeteners is growing yearly.

The article that the posting references is not available to everyone, but it's written by this guy.

It comes down to this:
1. regular soda tastes better.
2. because it tastes better, I enjoy it more.
3. because i know it's bad for me, i drink less.
4. overall, i drink less soda but enjoy it more when I do.