I also got to watch game two of the Lakers v. Celtics Finals Championship Series. The first two games were horribly officiated. Ridiculous calls were made on both sides, and it’s hard to tell what the reason for it was. Conspiracy theorists will blather about how the NBA as a business profits more from longer series since there is so much advertising money at stake. There is probably some truth to that, but I think it would be something of a miracle to produce any kind of evidence to support that, or any other related notion. Regardless, I have enjoyed watching the games, frustrating though they may be at times.

I also recently had an interesting discussion with somebody, and by “discussion”, I mean internet post. The premise was: “God loves violence…Why else would there be so much of it?”

My response was:

“The basic premise of this goes back to question, “If God was a loving God, why would He allow suffering in the world?” I mean, you could really apply this to anything, right? God loves Coke. God loves drugs. God loves porn. God loves murder. God does not love these things, and so, the mere existence of a thing does not solely merit God’s love. This, of course, presumes the existence of God, so that is not in question.

At the heart of this question is why do these things exist? And the question before that is, do you believe in free will? I believe in free will, as well as God, and therefore I believe that many things exist in this world because mankind has chosen to do them. Violence is one of them. It is easy. It is powerful. At times, it is effective. To subdue someone with violence is far easier than to subdue someone with love because the body is so much more easily broken then the soul is. We as humans have a knack for wanting results regardless of cost.

It is an act of the greatest love that God allows us the option to love or not to love. What would love be unless the possibility to hate existed? We would have to call it something else altogether.

As for acts of nature, death is a part of life. It only stands to reason that some acts of nature birth life, and others death.

In the end, God loves us so much that he allows us the ability to make mistakes, and mistakes we have made.”

Looking back at the response, I believe it communicates what I had intended, even if the wording is a bit clumsy at times. Perhaps I will write a book one day…

Tags: violence, God, Lakers vs Celtics, basketball

These past couple of weeks I’ve been in a weird mood – neither happy nor sad. I think the best way to describe it is “blah.” I was in a “blah” mood, probably approaching depression, but not quite there yet. Anyway, I was working at an event with my fellow balloon twister, “Balloonloodle”. As we were making balloons for this particular event, we came across a child who was in a wheelchair.

I can’t remember what she was suffering from, but she looked pretty frail. Both “Balloonloodle” and I made her something special, nothing too complicated, but a bit more advanced than the basic balloon sculptures. I made her a big butterfly and handed it to her.

The smile on her face really touched my heart. Something as simple as a balloon butterfly can make someone really happy. The joy on her face was so touching. This really reiterates how one person can change another person’s outlook. It just goes to show the truth of the old adage, “when you are open to give, you are also open to receive.” Not only was I able to touch her heart, but in return, she also touched mine.

Tags: smile, balloon animals, therapy, twisting

This just brings me back to the fact that for all our efforts, mankind’s ability to circumvent the way our body responds to nature is still limited in many ways. This news comes nearly 75 years after the invention of sunscreen in 1936. It would be interesting to read the news 75 years from today to see what things that we think are good for us today actually turn out to be bad for us.

Of course, the world doesn’t come crashing down with this news. Indeed, it’s just a reminder that we all need perspective in life, so we may effectively discern what is genuinely important. Otherwise, we may end up not getting what we want out of life, or not living at all.

And just to show I’m not just a harbinger of bad news, my mom actually sent me this other link. I’m not sure what’s funnier, the post itself, or the fact that my mom actually sends me stuff like this.

Tags: sunscreen, cancer, bad news, yoga, being drunk

I took their suggestion and went to “Laughter Yoga on the Phone.com”, as this was one of the recommended resources they gave out during the call. Well, I was pleasantly surprised to find out there was a laughter session on the phone at that very moment.

Can you guess what I did? You bet! I dialed into the call and had a good 10-minute laughing fit with one other person. I didn’t even know who she was, I didn’t know her name, what she looked like, or where in the world she was. She didn’t say “hi” to aknowledge I was even there.

When I first got on the call, the phone service announced there was only one other person on the phone, so I figured it might be kind of a quiet call, but when I was connected, it was all laughter, nothing but laughter and then more fun and giggles.

I didn’t know how much I would really be able to just dive right in without any silly exercises or stimulators, but the longer I just sat there listening to this woman laughing (while it sounded as she was in the car driving somewhere), the more I couldn’t help but to laugh right along with her. At first I was kind of laughing at her because here she was all alone before I got there just having a laughing fit.

Then, almost uncontrollably, I joined right on in with her. We must have laughed for a good 10 minutes straight before she announced that we had only two minutes left (incidentally, those were the first words she had spoken to me).

What? Wait, where can I get another token to plug the meter, I don’t want it to end. But rest assured, there’s another session starting up in only 40 minutes. So I guess I’ll go grab a bite to eat and dial back into the phone to enjoy another laughing fit with some more total strangers. How fun Very good, Very good, Yeah!

Tags: Laughter Yoga, Jill and Dan Johnson, laughter workshop, laughter yoga on the phone

There is just no time to catch a cold; however, the other day I began to feel like I had the beginning of a cold. That weekend, I was scheduled to shoot a film, so I canceled all my meetings that filled every evening after work for the week and stayed home to prevent the cold from become worse.

I didn’t feel so bad, except for my nose. Even though some of my friends have been strongly recommending using Neti Wash Plus, I avoided trying it for a long time because of the rumor that Zinc may cause to lose the sense of smell or something like that. But I decided that this was a good time to try and see how it worked. So I planned to use a very small amount of drops for a couple of nights. It made me think that it shouldn’t affect my body badly.

I asked my friend to let me use her Neti Wash and tried a few drops that night. WOW! My nose got immediately clearer and I found it much easier to breathe! It’s amazing how it worked.

I used it for about a week and then returned it back to my friend because I felt much better. Now I miss the Neti Wash but I don’t want to be addicted to it. Luckily, we have other kinds of Neti Wash such as Neti Wash Flu and Neti Wash Silver. I believe those two Neti Wash don’t carry any Zinc. So I am thinking that I shall buy one of them and use it every night so that I can breathe and sleep better!

Tags: neti pot, neti pot plus, neti pot silver, neti pot flu

I noticed that my “farm raised salmon” has had “color added.”

This really peaked my interest in farmed fish. After all, I thought farming fish would produce healthy, sustainable food for us. Check out CNN’s article on the matter: Farmed or wild fish: Which is healthier?

Tags: farmed fish, wild fish, cooking, healthy food, seafood, cooking fish

This got me thinking about other, different ways to use non-toxic household products. Another good example is baking soda! Not only does it keep unpleasant odors out of the freezer and refrigerator – or even put out the occasional grease fire – but baking soda has many other uses as well. For example, you can use baking soda to avoid clogged drains and as a multi-purpose cleaning agent!

I remember some years back there was a show on PBS called Haley’s Hints, which offered inexpensive and unique tips for cleaning and organizing. Of course, due to the wonders of the internet, there are also some good websites out there that offer a lot of helpful tips for cleaning and organizing. My favorite website is, “The Frugal Life: Living Well with What You Have.” Especially in today’s economy, where money is scarce for everyone, these small things can be a huge money saver. Not only that, but it teaches you to respect what you already have.

Tags: frugal life, living well, cleaning, cleaning up with vinegar, baking soda

I find myself saying “There’s an App For That!” nearly every day now. With the app store touting nearly 200,000 apps, I’ve come to a recent conclusion that there is pretty much an app for just about everything you can think of — no matter how small a niche or obscure the idea.

My most recent gold mine is a sweet little app called Water by foware. I came down with a fever a few weeks back and needed a way to track my water intake. I started just logging the time of when I finished a glass of water into notepad. However, it was kind of boring and uninspiring so I did what nearly every good technology loving, iPhone fanatic would do – I went looking for an app.

Sure enough, a search for “water” brought up at least half a dozen different apps that could do exactly what I needed. After a quick glance and a few reviews, I spotted a clear winner. Not only was this one of the more well thought-out apps I’ve seen in terms of design and aesthetics, it was simple to learn and use.

In a nutshell, you track your daily water intake by placing various different-sized water glasses and bottles onto a table as you finish each container throughout the day. They track your daily progress over time, grading you on a scale of A through F, and display a line chart for the past 30 days to illustrate your progress. If you get 7 A’s, you receive a Bronze medal, and if you keep up your results over time, you can even work your way up to a Platinum award for 365 days.

When you first load up the app, you input a bunch of data points such as your weight, age, the climate you live in, etc. and it calculates the exact amount of water you need to be drinking per day.

Now this might sound just a little on the cheesy side, but for a tech geek who – to some – could appear to be glued to his phone all day, it’s the perfect app.

It takes some dedication to remember to open it and log your progress, but once you get that habit squared away, it’s all downhill from there.

I’ve realized that there are several tips to ensuring your success:

1. Make sure you finish your first glass in the first two hours of your day.
2. Try and drink at least 10-12 oz every two hours.
3. As soon as you finish a glass, go get a refill immediately.
4. Take time for frequent washroom breaks – they’ll decrease over time.
5. Make sure the “Water” app is on your iPhone Doc or home screen.

And don’t forget to reward yourself personally when you achieve 100%. I swear, I must have been a dehydrated zombie like the rest of the world before I found this app. I think I probably drank about 1-2 glasses of water per day at the best of times. Now, in the past 18 days, I’ve managed to drink 995 oz. Now that’s a lot of water!

How’s your water intake? What other life-altering apps have you’ve made a part of your daily gadgetry?

Tags: glass of water, iphone, water app, iphone app, dehydration

As I was thumbing through this book, I was quite taken aback by the amount of information that was there: when foods are in season, the nutritional values, how to pick and prepare them for maximum nutritional value, and some quick and easy recipes with ingredients.

What I found most beneficial was the shopping list at the end. There is a one-page shopping list broken down into different categories: fruits, vegetables, protein, and spices. I found this pretty helpful because it kept me from buying any unnecessary or unhealthy foods.

Granted this book is text-book size and text-book heavy. But the amount of information contained within the pages is definitely worth the $40 I spent on it. I haven’t read the book cover to cover yet, but I think it is a good reference for when I want simple, quick and healthy dishes!

Tags: being healthy, healthy foods, The World’s Healthiest Foods, George Mateljan, eating healthy food

What if we knew with 100% certainty that we would all be going somewhere, even if it was just right back to earth and being reincarnated as something or someone else?

What if your report card was judged by the quality of people who attended your funeral?

What if you were judged by the things they said about you after you were gone?

These questions may sound a little far fetched and I’m sure, for some folks out there, I’ve just gone completely off the “deep end,” but if you read those questions over again and then take a few minutes to reflect on your own life, you might just find that there are a few things lacking in your existence.

Perhaps if you knew what these things were, you might act differently with your family, your co-workers – and perhaps even the homeless person who asks you for spare change on your way to work every morning.

Or maybe you might take a good hard look at your life and ask yourself “What am I doing here!,” “Am I happy?”

And when I say happy, I mean TRULY happy. Are you doing the things you always wanted to do, the things you said you’d do when you “grew up?” Or did life run you over like a steam-roller with all its responsibilities and credit cards – not to mention those taxes?

Do you ever feel that sometimes you’re just “chasing the dragon’s tail?” Or do you picture yourself like a hamster going in circles around a wheel?

I don’t really have any direction or focus for writing this piece. I just started to wonder… What is it all about and am I doing the things that I love to do? Am I making a difference? What will people say about the things that I’ve done when I’m gone? Will they even remember my name?

Perhaps I’m having a mid-life crisis. I doubt it; I don’t feel the urge to go out and buy a sports car – not yet anyway! : -)

Tags: life, happy life, after death, mid-life crisis