Insanely Awe-dical

Turns out Reggie and the Full Effect released another CD. I knew he was working on one -- but didn't know it was already finished and RELEASED.

Heading over to Tower Records to pick that up right after work. Booyah.

Kate posted a very interesting post about love (well thats me), friendship, and growing up. I'm in the same boat as her -- when did life get so complicated? I remember this thought echoing in my head throughout my life in the last 8 years of post-grade school education. Life constantly or even exponentially got more complicated. From drama on the playground, to the difficult classes of high school, to awkward social situations and understanding girls (what little number of the I met), to dorm life, apartment life, college life, working life...

Things really did catapult to a serious level, and now where am I? Looking for a full time job, perhaps juggling multiple jobs/internships, making sure I'm set with an apartment, perhaps getting medical insurance since I will not be able to stay on my parents' insurance when I graduate...

This did get complicated, but it is nice to look back and remember the good simple times, and the people who rocked your world then, and helped shape you. Times are different, people drift off, and its sad. No reason to fight for what made you friends -- things are so different now in different places that it is impossible to wish for that. Kate says to just "remember how we used to be and how much we mean to each other." She's right.

I will take from my friends what I have, and appreciate it for what its worth. I hope a lifetime of inspiration, hard work, and happiness. They have given me so much, and I hope nothing less for them. If you're inspired me, I hope you know who you are, and you all know you're the best. Period.

By the way, I freakin' love Kate. She rocks my world so much, I don't even want to imagine what I'd be doing without her. She is absolutely right with what she says in her post -- we have changed a lot. We fight, we make up, we work hard at our relationship. Sometimes we have our issues, but we talk about them, and work things out. We compromise and sacrafice for each other. We understand how one thing would affect the other.

I posted a comment on her lj, and said that I need to be concerned where I'll be living in 6 months, and I need to be concerned where we will be living in 6 years.

I'll close with some lines from The Starting Line's "The Night Life." It's about a breakup, feeling bad about it, and eventually recovering from it, but it also reflects some words about friendships that aren't as pertinent anymore:

"At least you lived to talk about it.
At least you got your health.
At least it made you feel alive."

I watched the first episode of Grey's Anatomy. I feel so betrayed by the commercial overhyping it, especially by giving it the coveted tv slot after Desperate Housewives. What made me realize that I didn't like it was that Scrubs had a similar first episode -- the first "hell" day as a medical intern. They have a diverse cast, and a fair amount of room for expansion, but I'm not excited about it, and I doubt I'll even check out the subsequent episode.

It made me think about watching new shows. Most people say give a show 2 or 3 episodes before you make your decision. I started watching Huff since I liked Hank Azaria, and it is pretty good after 6 or so episodes. It did start off pretty slow, but its pretty good. The OC hooked me right after the first episode, and Kate and I are at about episode 6 also. Scrubs hooked me from that one episode I saw at Daniel's place 2 years ago.

The truth is -- Grey's Anatomy sports beautiful girls, but nothing more is keeping me there. If I was in high school, I may pretend to like it just for the girls -- just like how I watched that Jennfier Love Hewitt show for a couple of weeks. Maybe the real reason I stopped watching that show was because it preceded WCW Nitro (whic preceded Monday Night Raw), and 5 hrs of wrestling tv is enough tv.

I saw this happy couple, probably in their late 50s/60s walking around campus. The husband had a lunch pack, standard to perhaps half of high school kids, while the wife carried around a backpack, more feminine than masculine, in that it was rounder and smaller (than the standard unisex jansports). It seemed like they had a really free and happy spirit, and they legitimately enjoyed walking around campus. Perhaps UCI was their alma mater. But the carefree way he looked at her almost seemed to say "I love walking around our old school together, and even though there are younger girls here, I will only have eyes for you."

Or something more eloquent than that.

I was cooking last night and I used some olive oil, and realized that if I continued cooking like this, I may be in a problem, oil-wise. So I decided to do some research on cooking oils and apparently coconut oil would be the best oil to cook with. Apparently its very high percentage of saturated fat is attributed as its main selling point.

But wait -- isn't saturated fat bad? More research was needed.

I stumbled upon an article called "The Truth about Saturated Fat" and it explains how saturated fat has an unfairly publicized name. I am in process of reading it still, but the following excerpt gives an idea of where Atkin's started from:

"The notion that saturated fats per se cause heart disease as well as cancer is not only facile, it is just plain wrong. But it is true that some fats are bad for us. In order to understand which ones, we must know something about the chemistry of fats.

Fats-or lipids-are a class of organic substances that are not soluble in water. In simple terms, fatty acids are chains of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms filling the available bonds. Most fat in our bodies and in the food we eat is in the form of triglycerides, that is, three fatty-acid chains attached to a glycerol molecule.

Elevated triglycerides in the blood have been positively linked to proneness to heart disease, but these triglycerides do not come directly from dietary fats; they are made in the liver from any excess sugars that have not been used for energy. The source of these excess sugars is any food containing carbohydrates, particularly refined sugar and white flour."

Summary:
Extra carbs --> extra sugars not used for energy --> liver uses those extra sugars and creates triglycerides, which have been positively linked to proneness to heart disease.

A major reason oils such as corn or sesame are so unhealthy is the unfortunate levels of the type of fats they contain.

More polysaturated and less saturated = more prone to being overheated in cooking and may lead to rancid oils, which are characterized by free radicals, which have been characterized as "marauders" in the body for they attack cell membranes and red blood cells and cause damage in DNA/RNA strands, thus triggering mutations in tissue, blood vessels and skin. Free radical damage to the skin causes wrinkles and premature aging; free radical damage to the tissues and organs sets the stage for tumors; free radical damage in the blood vessels initiates the buildup of plaque.

From the chart, palm kernel, coconut, and olive have the best ratios of saturated to polysaturated.

My final result -- Olive oil will do fine. Coconut/palm kernal oil may be relatively harder to olive oil is pretty good in all cases:

"Olive Oil contains 75% oleic acid, the stable monounsaturated fat, along with 13% saturated fat, 10% omega-6 linoleic acid and 2% omega-3 linolenic acid. The high percentage of oleic acid makes olive oil ideal for salads and for cooking at moderate temperatures. Extra virgin olive oil is also rich in antioxidants.

It should be cloudy, indicating that it has not been filtered, and have a golden yellow color, indicating that it is made from fully ripened olives. Olive oil has withstood the test of time; it is the safest vegetable oil you can use, but don't overdo. The longer chain fatty acids found in olive oil are more likely to contribute to the buildup of body fat than the short- and medium-chain fatty acids found in butter, coconut oil or palm kernel oil. "

I don't intend to be doing any heavy frying; I am stir frying at moderate temps, so this should work out also. I'm glad we have the oil that would be relatively best to use.

The Academy is

may sound like a handful of bands, but it definitely stays away from maintaining a “general rock band” type of sound. The guitar flows with more than punk repetition, and the rock harmony created fuses fairly well. The album opens with a general call for “Attention,” where a steady drum and guitar synergy pump up the listener. In “The Phrase That Pays,” the singer croons about being deathly ill, then fires into a chorus about seizing the day. “Hold your head high heavy heart. So take a chance and make it big, cause it’s the last you’ll ever get. If we don’t take it, when will we make it?” “Checkmarks” hails as a powerfully energetic song, leading into a blasting chorus with a low-tone call of semi-desperation.

I would be at fault to quickly define The Academy is as a general standard rock band, paralleling Yellowcard (minus the flowing violin) or Green Day (minus the form-fitting voice of Billy Joe). I believe they have a wonderful mix of punk rock energy and guitar, combined with a non-whiny
emo sound.