kinkish.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I talked about Michael Pollan in my previous post, and now here’s a video clip of him –

[via Serious Eats]

When I told a friend of mine that we buy most of our groceries at Whole Foods when I’m in the US (and Choices or the Granville Island market when I’m in Vancouver), she commented, “Girl, you’re living it up!”

Am I? I just like to think that I’m making good choices for my health and for the environment. Just yesterday, we started buying 100% recycled paper towels, tissue paper, and laundry soap. They were the last to be ‘transitioned’ because it was remarkably more expensive than from the regular supermarkets if they’re not on sale. It makes me feel much better to do what I can do to save the environment. Next week, once I get the stuff that I need, I’m going to try making our own cleaning agents from environment friendly ingredients. The store-bought, chemically-laden ones are starting to irritate my sinus. Anyway, as I was saying — good, responsible choices — these are what I’m trying to make.

Now, a lot of people (including my mom, a total penny-pincher at times), have said that it’s more expensive than your regular stores. I think it’s just a little bit, when it comes to food. Some are even cheaper at the organic market (and definitely cheaper at farmer’s markets). I also don’t like buying like a truckload of food (from meat, to other bulk stuff) that will end up going to waste anyway. Being a household of two makes it cost-ineffective to buy bulk because if we do buy a lot, half of that will just go to waste. I’m not the type to overstuff myself with food just to finish it either. My old roommate told me this before, and it stuck: “Don’t treat your body like a waste disposal system. If you’ve had enough food…stop eating! Don’t try to eat what you intend to throw in the garbage.”

According to Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food” [if you'd like to learn more about the book, I wrote some long-ish post here], Americans spend less than 10% of their income on food. I was absolutely surprised. In the last decade, I’ve spent a LOT on food. On some months in my younger years (living much more frivolously), I spent more on food than clothes. I like good food. I celebrate good food. And I don’t have good friends who don’t like to do as I do. We all like to eat. And eat well we do!

Also, one of my personal logic to this spending is: if I can spend this-and-this on clothes to make me look good, why won’t I spend good money to nourish my body as well? Plus, I work hard, and I deserve to treat myself well. Right? I don’t see it as an indulgence, I see it as a good way of living.

What do you think? What’s your take on food and spending?

I know some people say they could not simply afford to live healthy and environment friendly. Hmm…really? Do what you can. I’ve lived on half a budget before, but I still ate fairly healthy and I still did what I can for Mother Nature. I never was a big fan of fast food, or those sandwiches that have a billion calories. If you think about it, you are ’spending less’ in the long run, because you are taking care of yourself, and therefore the ‘maintenance’ later on in life wouldn’t be as bad as when you don’t. I think we just have to make a conscious decision to live healthy and green, and we’ll find ways to do so, no matter the budget.

Now that I think about it, if I really want to, I can live on less than $50 a week (or even $30!), just eating vegetables and grains, and occasional meat. [No precious wine, though.] Hmm…perhaps I’ll challenge myself to that!

Whenever I’m staying here in Vancouver, my Green Side comes out more than usual. It’s really easy to think green here, in my opinion.

I remember years ago when we immigrated to Canada and we weren’t used to segregating the trash into newspapers, mixed paper, bottles, etc. So one day, I think my mom got to lazy to do that and we got a love letter from the city’s waste management company about it. Oops. They’re watching us. I guess that’s why I feel more green here. I find more people who are actively engaged in recycling, reusing, and into eco-anything. I think our neighbor has a compost pit, too.

My friend has a spa that uses natural products which she formulated herself. In fact, she’s releasing a line of natural yoga body sprays that have reusable bottles. Right now she’s looking for recycle post-consumer packaging. [If you have any recommendations for companies that supply this, let me know!] She tries to avoid giving paper brochures because she hates wasting paper.

I’m an avid mailer and half the time I use old magazine paper as stationery, to write on or to make as envelopes or packaging material. It makes me feel a little better about my paper obsession.

This past weekends freak weather of snow and sleet in the middle of April is a very obvious reminder that we are now experiencing the fruits of our earth-sense-less behavior. Who knows what else we’re going to see next?

It’s easier to just be apathetic about the earth and our environment most of the time, and it really takes an effort to get into that consciousness of taking care of our Earth in any way we can. But we really have to, or we’re just going to keep finding new ways to deal with the symptoms (flood! drought! pollution! heat! diseases) instead of going to the root of the problem. Could it be us?

I finished reading the book “In Defense of Food”, as I get deeper into my madness for food and cooking. It’s a very enlightening read in that the author not only managed to change my attitude toward food and the source of my food, but also the source of food of my food. [Got it?] The ground that we disrespect with all these chemicals? Well, we’re eating them through the food that we eat which got its nutrients from there. The animals that we feast on? They eat that, too. Michael Pollan brilliantly bridges the connection between man, it’s food, and its environment. We are all connected in this big, symbiotic relationship and we need to take action if we are to survive and thrive.

I think it would be my goal to think about what good I did for the environment each day. I try to maintain an “accomplishment” list, and I’ll make it a part of that.

Today, I signed up for the Red Dot Campaign, which is Canada’s No to Junk Mail program. Junk mail begone! For those in the US, there’s Forest Ethics, which has its own Do Not Mail campaign.

What did you do for the Earth today?

I remember this frame up near my grandfather’s home office with a quote I’ve memorized since I was 7:

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

It’s one of those mantras that have stuck with me through life and it comes reverberating in my head especially when I’m in challenging and trying situations. I’ve confessed time and again that patience is not my strongest suit, and the way that life throws the ball at you is often to strike your weaknesses — and that tests my patience. You can either look at it as an insult to injury or accept it as a way for your to reinforce yourself.

There are things I cannot change recently that have frustrated me: my physical ailment at the moment — the radiculitis/nerve irritation that is simply irritating because it’s given me three weeks of constant pain and headaches, my unintended month-long stay in Vancouver, etc. Now that I mention that, I vividly remember saying to myself as a girl less than 10 years old and seeing my beloved grandmother suffering from excruciatingly painful pancreatic cancer, that I do not want to live in pain. Ever. I think this is the longest time I’ve been in pain and it scared the hell out of me, to come so close to the reality of how fragile my body is. I used to feel invincible to a lot of things — pain (which is probably why I had a flare up because I ignored pain), sickness, bad luck, etc. I live a very carefree life until something strikes me. Ooops, back to reality. And then I have to be able to change my plans according to the situation.

I’m that kind of person — the planning gal who has a visual calendar in her head with all the boxes needing to be filled if they’re empty. Today, I imagined it to be a beautiful sunny weekend like last week [see the photo?], and planned to go to Granville Island eat some good food, and bring home goods from the public market. And that did the news say to expect today? SNOW and RAIN. In April. Aw, c’mon!!!

Screw the weather, I’m still going. :p

I’m re-reading Alain de Botton’s lovely, lovely book “How Proust Can Change Your Life“. Now that I am here in Vancouver, doing minimal work because of radiculitis and going to doctor’s appointments, I now find myself with time to read in the train or bus or while waiting at the reception area. Time became a little slower for me this week.

At the beginning of the book, de Botton talks of the newspaper L’Intransigeant in the 1920’s that posited a situation to select French celebrities:

An American scientist announces that the world will end, or at least that such a huge part of the continent will be destroyed, and in such a way, that death will be the certain fate of hundreds of millions of people. If this prediction were confirmed, what do you think would be its effects on people between the time when they acquired the aforementioned certainty and the moment of cataclysm? Finally, as far as you’re concerned, what would you do in this last hour?

The last celebrity consulted was Marcel Proust, and he sent the following reply:

I think that life would suddenly seem wonderful to us if we were threatened to die as you say. Just think of how many projects, travels, love affairs, studies, it — our life — hides from us, made invisible by our laziness which, certain of a future, delays them incessantly.

But let all this threaten to become impossible for ever, how beautiful it would become again! Ah! If only the cataclysm doesn’t happen this time, we won’t miss visiting the new galleries of the Louvre, throwing ourselves at the feet of Miss X, making a trip to India.

The cataclysm doesn’t happen, we don’t do any of it, because we find ourselves back in the heart of normal life, where negligence deadens desire. And yet we shouldn’t have needed the cataclysm to love life today. It would have been enough to think that we are humans, and that death may come this evening.

This made me think of the Eckhart Tolle book again when he talked about looking at things as they are, without pre-conceived notions and labels, and finding the beauty in them. Somehow I imagined it would be similar to what Proust is saying here, except in the context of death. Proust talks about negligence that deadens desire. Tolle talks about unawareness that desensitizes us to our true self and the true nature of things. Bottom line is, we should live life now. We should be here now. Why wait for the last hour?

I’m not sure what I’d do in the last hour. Definitely nothing to do with the computer. I’ve already spent a good part of my life with it.

What would you do?

When iPhone came out in the US, some friends said that the Canadian iPhone is not far behind. I disagreed saying that with the cost of mobile internet here (heck, my accidental pressing of the internet button on my phone cost me $15 at one point!), there’s no way it’s going to come through unless our wireless companies lower their rates. And honestly, I find that impossible these days. It feels like wireless service here has gold that comes with it when I compare it to what the US carriers offer. I’ve had a cellphone here since 2000 and my bill has always gone up.

When I read this article, my fears and assumptions were validated:

Most experts, however, believe that the high rates Canadian telecom providers charge for mobile Internet data transfer plans are the biggest factor keeping the iPhone out of Canada.

Canadian companies also block such opportunities. As mentioned in the same article, the delay of iTunes Canada was caused by that. What the hell. I’m sure it’s not as simple as what they said, but since years ago I’ve felt that Canada is lagging behind the telecommunications technology services because of local monopoly giants refusing to allow competitors from outside that will bring down the prices. Come on. This is getting ridiculous!

My phone in the US has a navigator/GPS system that’s included in my monthly fee, and I get to access the internet with no limit, and check my emails, and do other cool stuff; all for the SAME price as what I’m paying here with Fido just a phone call capability, caller ID and 50 text messages. That’s it. There’s no way I’m paying $.05/kb for internet on an overpriced phone that comes with a ball-and-chain contract.

O Canada, wake up.

“Real Estate Road Trips” — a foreclosure tours show vacant properties. Yes, it’s come to this. At least in the US. I’ll have to check with our real estate agent if she does that now in Canada. Yikes.

One thing that stuck with me from the article that might be important to buyers are there is: Bank-owned properties are sold AS IS. Sometimes you have to call the water company to check if there are damages to the pipes. I’ve also read about missing fixtures in these houses, so be careful. Thoroughly check the property you’re interested in. It’s tempting to go for the kill of buying a house at such an “opportune” time, with zero money out of your pocket and payback incentives. However, be smart about it.