With the news reporting the U/V Index rising to 10 tomorrow and temperatures reaching and breaching 110 degree’s in Phoenix starting on Sunday, you have to make sure you are well hydrated. They say that if you drink coffee, soda or other drinks only about 50% of the liquid intake is valuable to the body, whereas if you drink pure water, 100% of the liquid goes toward hydrating your system.
You should always carry around a water bottle with you at all times, and if you are a company a good thing to do is to hand out promotional water bottles to customers and clients as a way to help people remember to stay hydrated and promote your company at the same time.
Its hot out there folks, remember to drink plenty of liquids and stay out of the sun for peak hours between 11am and 2pm, between those times the UV Index is highest and your risk of sunburn, dehydration is also the highest.
I usually don’t blog about politics too often, I do think that there are two sides to every story and nobody can really be 100% liberal or 100% republican, that most human beings have some opinions in each camp, and when voting are forced to side with one majority or the other. In fact, I don’t think there should be political parties at all and every politician should be independent and list their own core values without having to subject themselves to a full set within their party.
That being said there is a change in the world of culture and the internet has brought out a kind of ONE society that the youngest generations of the world are sharing, this hybrid culture is based on freedoms of speech and expression is one that several governments are doing the best they can to control and contain with limited success.
What is happening now in Iran is the precursor to a revolution, the people are rightfully tired of their voice not being heard and oppressed by the Government and the more this becomes a majority the likely it is that Iran will have an overhaul of their entire government infrastructure. It is all about numbers and pressure, the people making their peaceful demonstrations and political statements are only further opening the government up to negative exposure the more they try and control and squash the situation.
In the future, and I can’t say whether it will be near or far, enough people will have their voice heard that the existing leadership will have no choice but to either make changes and adopt more freedoms, or a single leader in the opposition will rise to prominence and be installed with the government being overhauled.
Obviously the rest of the democratic world is hoping this turns into a true revolution, one that US and other countries can financially back and lend support to ensure it can win and Iran can convert to a democratic nation. I don’t think it will happen in the next five to ten years, in my opinion I think this demonstration will cause an uproar but not enough to upset and cause major changes in the existing political infrastructure at this time.
Meanwhile, my thoughts, sympathies and support in spirit go out to our fellow Iranians and all others in regions oppressed who try to get their voice heard, continue to break new boundaries and find new ways to get around government restrictions. Leveraging social sites like Twitter and Youtube are brilliant idea’s and show that no matter how hard governments try, voices can find a way to be heard.
If you watch the Stemulite news articles on the TrueHealthyProducts.com website they claim that Stemulite which is taken as a supplement to increase muscle mass and lose weight (it is a protein supplement) has the benefit of providing better sleep as well. If you look at the studies, though only 3% of the people surveyed reported increase muscle mass or decreased weight, nearly all of the people acknowledged that they slept much better since taking the stemulite product.
It is a proven fact that when you add exercise into your daily life your body tends to get better sleep at night, but also studies appear to show that increase protein intake also can lead to better sleep. This might be a healthier thing to try instead of prescription sleep aids like Ambien other chemicals for those who are having a hard time sleeping at night.
So last night we took the family to see Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey: Zing Zang Zoom Circus which came to Phoenix, Arizona for a few days. I hadn’t been to a big circus since I was a young kid in New York, and my wife had never been to a large circus either. We were used to small time town and fair circuses where they have maybe 1 elephant or a single tiger.
My kids really enjoyed the show, the clown acts and dog acts were my kids favorites, I thought the circus was fun for the most part, though Cirque Du Soleil is much more entertaining in my opinion for adults. The human entertainment acts were enjoyable as were the various dogs and their tricks.
What I found difficult was the fact that there are multiple rings and you can’t focus on all three at the same time, so you are left really only watching 1 act while three are going on at the same time in some cases. The animal acts were also entertaining with the exception of the Tigers act.
My wife and I were mortified when we saw the Tiger act on stage, they bring out about a dozen tigers into a caged ring and a trainer with whips convinces the tigers to perform commands like sit, lay down, roll over…etc. The thing that is most disturbing is how clearly the Tigers are afraid and dislike the trainer and the whips, so much so they have to have people throw sand on the tigers from outside the catch to cover the fact that the tigers are spraying and urinating in fear and anger.
The tiger’s cringe and flinch whenever the trainer pokes at them, and when the Tiger does not want to participate they have someone poke the tiger with a metal pole from outside the cage. This was astonishing at what clearly appears to be abuse to make the tigers perform their “tricks”. We were witnessing what appeared to be animal cruelty and abuse, while the audience cheered the trainer on.
As the show ended my family was left with a bad taste in our mouths and we decided that we probably would not attend another Ringling Bros. circus again as we don’t want to support what goes on to condition these Tigers, which clearly are not treated very well, but the rest of the circus was entertaining.
After hearing on CNN about Michael Jacksons death and reading that the cause most likely is related to prescription meds in a similar style of death as Anna Nicole Smith, all I can do now is reflect on what I remember of Michael Jackson from my child hood.
Though his personal life was constantly in scrutany, and he may have had questionable contact with children, I am not saying he did or did not do anything inappropriate, just that because of his association with kids he had his reputation all but tarnished (if they were true, then its justified of course).
I remember when I was six years old when Thriller was released and I saw the video for the first time, I was already obsessed with horror films and zombie flicks and seeing this music video that has so much flare and style and is still to this day one of the best music video’s ever made. I can’t help but feel sad that the world has lost another talented musican and somebody who has contributed to the music art form since he was a small child. Michael Jackson was an innovator and an artist and will always be remembered as the iconic Pop King he was from the early to mid eighties.
Good Luck Michael, and if there is an afterlife (who knows) and you truly are a decent person (who knows), I hope you are moonwalking on the clouds right now.
Exactly 8 days after I shipped my Wii to Nintendo for repair it arrived back in my house with the statement claiming that the broken components have been replaced. I also realized I had left my Wii Fit game inside the Wii, and the company returned my game back to me which I am very thankful for.
So the first thing I did was plug it in and test some games that were failing before and sure enough, my Wii is back to full working order. Thanks to Nintendo for the speedy repair, but I still wish I didn’t have to pay $85 for a repair when my Wii was just barely over a year old and outside the warranty. They should have 3 year warranties on these components, I mean my PlayStation 2 lasted 9 years before finally dying and it never had problems after playing hundreds of games and thousands of hours of being on.
Today is my lovely lady’s birthday and I took the day off of work so that we can spend the day together as a family, I also am taking the family to dinner and the circus tonight. I have celebrated 13 birthdays with my wife and am happy to be celebrating another one here with her this year.
So help me wish my wife a Happy Birthday and many more to come.
My boys and I take walks almost every morning before the weather gets hot and we often spend those walks looking for bugs, butterfliest, spiders, toads or lizards we can catch and learn about and keep for a short period of time. Yesterday morning we were lucky enough to catch two very small lizards and take them home and put them in a small bug aquarium.
We caught a baby grasshopper small enough for the lizards to eat, in addition to a few beetles, but not sure if the lizards will eat them. With all the lizards crawling around here in Casa Grande, it is amazing how difficult they are to catch. They are very fast and there are hundreds of little holes in the ground all over the place so they can get into a shelter within seconds of spotting you.
When the rains come we often find dozens of baby toads and sometimes larger ones, last year the boys kept three toads as pets. Mostly we will let the critters go after a few days, if the toads or lizards are big enough to eat normal size crickets, then we will purchase crickets at the pet store and keep them as pets for a while.
This is just one of the many activities I enjoy doing with my two sons, and they both enjoy the walks, searching for critters and looking at them after we catch them. It encourages their creativity, teaches them about animals and insects, and gets some exercise all wrapped up in one fun walk.
While visiting Cabo in the first week of June my wife had asked for an original Jose Luis Serrano art piece for her Birthday, since her Birthday was coming up on June 24th, I decided to spring and purchase her a piece of this very unique clay / ceramic art. His famous Tree of Life series all consist of small ceramic clay figurines arranged to tell a story on a set background, his unique trademark is found in each of his creations and touches like the way the sun and moon are shaped and each intricate flower and decoration that adorns each piece. The pieces are not cheap, but not super expensive either, this piece which is about six inches in height was about four hundred American dollars.
Much of his art is amazing to look at and you can tell hours were spent on each finely detailed piece that was created and pinned to the final creation, this was the piece I had purchased for my wife:
So if your interested in ceramic clay art, check out Jose Luis Serrano’s work, he is truly a talented artist who hails from Metepec, Mexico.
I still to this very day am so thankful that I am blessed with my two beautiful sons and I cherish each and every day that I spend with them. My oldest who is five and a half is so bright, creative and artistic that he makes up his own board games using papers, action figures and I can’t help but see the similarities between his Mother and him every time I look at him.
My youngest who is two and a half is so strong, fierce and loves to wrestle, battle and channel his energy into physical activities. I often will spend half hour sessions just wrestling with the kids in the living room, where I become little more than a human jungle gym, but it is quality bonding time.
So today on Fathers Day, while my family celebrates and takes my Father in Law and myself out to dinner, as a Father I just sit back an think about how good it is to actually be a father, and I never knew it would be and feel like this. Though it is difficult raising children, nothing could be more worth it in life.
