I'm not usually a jump-on-the-bandwagon type of person. Videos that go viral overnight are usually viewed, and then I don't think about them again. But last night I watched this video, and I can't stop thinking about it. I had no idea who Joseph Kony was. This man is the epitome of evil. And I know, I don't have the full story. I have one viewpoint. But really, how could his side of the story make ANY of it any better? I've read blurbs criticizing the campaign carried out by the group Invisible Children, and I can see these criticisms as valid points. I'm not going to try to convince anyone that they should or shouldn't join this campaign. Maybe launching a campaign to encourage our governments to hunt down this man is unethical. Maybe it will lead to more killings, more death. Personally, I feel that this man needs to be stopped. I would hope that no one else needs to get hurt. But I would hope that at the very least, anyone willing to fight for this man's capture realizes that they may be giving their life for it. And that would mean they were giving their life for any number of children's lives. I think that bringing an awareness of who this man is, and the atrocities he's committed will help. If everyone knows about it, knows about him, and he's so famous he can't even walk out in public, maybe he'll be stopped. Maybe he'll be captured.
So please take a half hour to watch this, and share it as much as you can, on FB, on Twitter, on your own blog, with your own opinions.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Recommendations
Recently I've read a couple of books that were really good, and I'd like to recommend them to anyone who enjoys a nice piece of fiction. The first book is Secret Daughter, by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, a Canadian-born author!
This is the story of two different families; an American family who adopts a girl from an Indian orphanage, and the Indian family who gave her away. I loved it because it gave me insight into the Indian culture, something I've never read about before.
The second book is called Before I Go To Sleep, by S J Watson.
This story centres around a woman who has lost her memory and can only retain memories until she goes to sleep for the night. Every morning she wakes up, and has to start all over again. Once she starts keeping a daily journal, she starts to be able to put pieces of her past together. It takes you on a fantastic journey of discovery right along with her, and keeps you turning the pages to keep revealing the secrets of her past.
I would have loved to have posted pictures of the covers of the books, but I couldn't really figure out how to copy and paste pictures using my iPad. But click on the links and have a look for yourself. They're great reads!
This is the story of two different families; an American family who adopts a girl from an Indian orphanage, and the Indian family who gave her away. I loved it because it gave me insight into the Indian culture, something I've never read about before.
The second book is called Before I Go To Sleep, by S J Watson.
This story centres around a woman who has lost her memory and can only retain memories until she goes to sleep for the night. Every morning she wakes up, and has to start all over again. Once she starts keeping a daily journal, she starts to be able to put pieces of her past together. It takes you on a fantastic journey of discovery right along with her, and keeps you turning the pages to keep revealing the secrets of her past.
I would have loved to have posted pictures of the covers of the books, but I couldn't really figure out how to copy and paste pictures using my iPad. But click on the links and have a look for yourself. They're great reads!
Monday, March 5, 2012
Not So Wheat Free
Yesterday our family finally got to do some more skiing! I've been wanting to go for weeks, but for one reason or another, we couldn't get out to go. So in the morning, I hopped right out of bed and into the shower at 7:30 and got everyone else motivated. Skiing is pretty much one of the only things that is going to get me out of bed and into the shower on a cold March Sunday morning!
Since I hadn't been feeling the best Saturday, I hadn't prepped anything that day/night to go skiing the next day, like a dinner for the slowcooker, or lunches or even snacks. So all I had time for in the morning was to throw some snacks into a bag along with waters and juice. This resulted in us having to buy our lunch from the ski chalet, which I do not like to do because it is always expensive!
Of course, buying lunch out from either a fast food restaurant or a cafeteria always presents problems to anyone with dietary restrictions. So after merely three weeks of sticking to my wheat-free diet, I had to either starve or break the diet. So break the diet I did.
I ordered a pulled pork sandwich on a soft white bun, and mmmmm, was it good. All afternoon I waited to see how my body would react to the gluten and aside from a very heavy lump in my stomach for a few hours (which also could have been because it was white bread), I had no adverse side effects. Not yet, anyway. I know I need to give my body a day or so to decide if it's ok with the wheat or not.
Anyhow, I know I'm not doing this diet because I have a huge problem with wheat; rather, I'm doing it for other reasons. It's good to know though, that I can handle a bit now and then.
But that's not the end of my story!
As we were finishing the last run for the day, R and I arrived back at the chalet only to turn around and wonder where L and DH were. When they didn't catch up soon after, I surmised that L must have fallen.
And fall he did.
He arrived back at the chalet with tears and a rather misshapen looking thumb. Yikes! DH took him to the first aid station, and about 15 minutes later, came back to get R and I and inform us that we were headed for an x-ray at the hospital.
I'll spare you all the boring waiting-around-the-emerg storyline, and just say that three hours later, we went home with a little guy with a splinted thumb, though not broken. (Thank GOD!) He had pulled the ligaments in his thumb when he fell against his ski pole, and caused an injury very common with skiers called "skier's thumb". The splint is to help him from accidentally knocking his thumb back and causing pain.
So while at the hospital, we were starving of course, since we were supposed to be headed home for dinner. Again, I had to break my diet and I went down to the Tim's and grabbed a bagel for R and a muffin for myself (L wasn't allowed to have anything until the Dr. saw him).
Now that I've had these two "forbidden" items after three weeks of being so strict with myself, I feel like it's going to be so much harder to tell myself no once again. But I'm going to keep trying, if anything, merely for the fact that I've lost a few pounds and felt far less bloated than usual. I think I'm going to let myself have something with wheat once a week, on a weekend, if the occasion calls for it. It will be my treat to myself for being "good" the rest of the week.
Since I hadn't been feeling the best Saturday, I hadn't prepped anything that day/night to go skiing the next day, like a dinner for the slowcooker, or lunches or even snacks. So all I had time for in the morning was to throw some snacks into a bag along with waters and juice. This resulted in us having to buy our lunch from the ski chalet, which I do not like to do because it is always expensive!
Of course, buying lunch out from either a fast food restaurant or a cafeteria always presents problems to anyone with dietary restrictions. So after merely three weeks of sticking to my wheat-free diet, I had to either starve or break the diet. So break the diet I did.
I ordered a pulled pork sandwich on a soft white bun, and mmmmm, was it good. All afternoon I waited to see how my body would react to the gluten and aside from a very heavy lump in my stomach for a few hours (which also could have been because it was white bread), I had no adverse side effects. Not yet, anyway. I know I need to give my body a day or so to decide if it's ok with the wheat or not.
Anyhow, I know I'm not doing this diet because I have a huge problem with wheat; rather, I'm doing it for other reasons. It's good to know though, that I can handle a bit now and then.
But that's not the end of my story!
As we were finishing the last run for the day, R and I arrived back at the chalet only to turn around and wonder where L and DH were. When they didn't catch up soon after, I surmised that L must have fallen.
And fall he did.
He arrived back at the chalet with tears and a rather misshapen looking thumb. Yikes! DH took him to the first aid station, and about 15 minutes later, came back to get R and I and inform us that we were headed for an x-ray at the hospital.
I'll spare you all the boring waiting-around-the-emerg storyline, and just say that three hours later, we went home with a little guy with a splinted thumb, though not broken. (Thank GOD!) He had pulled the ligaments in his thumb when he fell against his ski pole, and caused an injury very common with skiers called "skier's thumb". The splint is to help him from accidentally knocking his thumb back and causing pain.
So while at the hospital, we were starving of course, since we were supposed to be headed home for dinner. Again, I had to break my diet and I went down to the Tim's and grabbed a bagel for R and a muffin for myself (L wasn't allowed to have anything until the Dr. saw him).
Now that I've had these two "forbidden" items after three weeks of being so strict with myself, I feel like it's going to be so much harder to tell myself no once again. But I'm going to keep trying, if anything, merely for the fact that I've lost a few pounds and felt far less bloated than usual. I think I'm going to let myself have something with wheat once a week, on a weekend, if the occasion calls for it. It will be my treat to myself for being "good" the rest of the week.
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