Out in the forest in Janaury to grill

Today, we went out in the forest to grill vegan sausages. We are a bit crazy in our family, but at the same time... Family snug and family time. That's how it should be. Here's some pictures:

Me before the trip

Nadya in car

Before fire

Here's the fire

More fire

Snowballs were fun according to Leo

Family night

Eating potatoes and carrots gives bad karma

In Swedish magazine Nära, I found an article about raw food. Fine, I like it. In connection with this article, I found a fact box about food karma - the top list.

It tells, karma is energy, so to speak all the collected activity during the existence of a human being. What you have done, what you have not done, in life.

Personally, I thought karma had something to do with actions of choice, and foremost actions in adult age. Simply, trying to behave in a way other people, or yourself, won't be hurt or injured in any kind of way more than what is really necessary. To our assistance, there is culture.

But karma food is different. What is giving you bad karma and what is giving you good karma is not in agreement with west world culture. We would have a hard time living like that. And even if we should live like that, we would probably, we would probably be saddled with a nutritional deficits.

Here's the list!

Good karma
- Breast milk, given with love
- Rich fruits, like olives and avocado
- Sweet fruits, like pear, banana, orange, melon and berries
- Non-sweet food, like cucumber, tomato, aubergine and pepper
- Raw food made with love

Neutral karma
- Milk from cows which willingly is being milked
- Algae
- Edible flowers, like lavender and marigold
- Herbs where leaves have been picked, but bush is still in soil, basil for example

Bad karma
- Herbs where the whole plant has been used, has been taken from soil, sprouts and coconuts
- Nuts and seeds which could have been sowed to be trees and bushes
- Hybrid root vegetable, like carrots, potatoes, beet roots
- Egg
- Fish
- Milk from subjugated animals
- Animal muscles, meat
- Intestines and blood (the last is the worst)

Okay, where to start...

An infant, whose mother cannot breast feed from any reason, also medical where the mother did not have an own choice, or that the mother, also from any reason, cannot be present in her baby's life - maybe she is not still alive... all those kids, are they going to end up with negative markers for life on his or her karma? The article do not expressly tell. It doesn't tell about breast milk alternatives at all.

And how to give breast milk with love more specifically? Could you measure a mother's behaviour here? Feelings? Smiles? Commitment? I just wonder... how do I know if I put in enough love in early food of my children?

Milk from a cow, willingly being milked. What?

At first sight, a cow of today, is not giving its milk willingly. Milk pumps on her teats may not be to funny. But in the 19th century, when a servant girl came 4 in the morning and toiled and pulled the cow's teats, was that better? Maybe the cow liked the close moment she shared with the servant girl. But if I was a cow, I think, it might have something to do with the servant girl itself, or today, how the milker is behaving around his or her cows. A cow of today is not really know of any other life and from this, it has accepted being a milk cow. And what is willingly? That you do not have to fight with the cow to have her milk? That the cow accepted and let people treat her however they want to? That she meat her milker with a smile every morning, almost like she's milked herself? And how do I know, as a consumer, how the cow is looking at the milk in specifically this bottle I hold in my hand at the moment, is it given willingly or unwillingly? How can I measure if I swallow neutral or negative karma?

Carrots, potatoes, beet roots... hmm...

Egg - but if hen is willingly giving her eggs away (allusions to milk and cow above)? After all, we are talking about infertilized eggs here. Human women may donate their egg for others to have children. How does a hen think?

Meat and fish I actually understand on a list like this. In this case, you eat from other living individuals, or more specifically, you eat individuals who has been alive.

I can't find any sort of environmental thinking, for example when we are talking about bananas or oranges travelling all over the world before end up in my kitchen. Nor can I find any thought of work rights round certain kind of foods. Berries for example, good karma, but the poor strawberry pickers who sometimes work under not very much reasonable working conditions... I should now support their employers?

I reckon they haven't thought of that they remove certain sorts of plants to fill upp cultivated land with pear tree and tomato plants to keep karma of people in good levels. But potatoes then? And carrots? Are they being deported to the list of endangered sorts? Or are they getting a new function, like people are going to enjoy greens from those plants in their gardens.


REFERENCE:
Walles, Madeleine (2013). Sommarfest med raw food. Nära 6/2013 (Swedish magazine).

Skip the swab

A picture of article Skippa topsen in Må Bra 10/2013

To use a swab to get rid of ear wax has an opposite effect. Tops just remove the ear wax farthest out. The rest of it is crowding into a plug of wax. At least it is what doctor Brynjulf Barexstein says to the Norwegian paper KK (according to the Swedish magazine Må Bra).

Also, the swab irritates the ear canal and for this reason, it produces even more ear wax.

Hmm... for me, it itches from time to time in the ear canal... and for that reason swabs are perfect.





REFERENCE:
Sandberg, Jennie (2013). Skippa tanken! Må Bra, 10/2013 (Swedish magazine).

Teenage idols Bros

Talked with a person about the phenomenon teenage idols. When I was about 14 till 17 (about 1988 to 1991), my biggest idols was British group Bros (twin brothers Matt and Luke Goss and to begin with Craig Logan)... Do you remember?

Not one of these groups and songs that made history. But from memories and diary, Bros was a group that meant a great deal to me at that time.

Searched a bit at YouTube to remind myself what I really listened to back in this time.

I owe you nothing

Drop the boy

Cat among the pidgeons  (part 1)

Silent night  (part 2) 


Try

Are you mine

Halloween: Get the facts fright

A year ago I was at Edinburgh Airport, heading back to Sweden after 1,5 week in Carlisle. I found an issue of The Scottish Sun in which they wrote about Halloween. They said, most people had a vague idea about Halloween and what it's all about, that is ghastly ghosts and witches.

The Scottish Sun, October 29th 2013

Maybe you have bought a suit to scare the hell out of everyone you meet. Maybe you have
cut out a pumpkin. Maybe you have filled up your storage with a lot of sweets to restrain all the horrible monsters at your door, screaming trick or treat. But why?

As said, most people have a vague idea what Halloween is all about, but there are more than ghosts and witches. There are theories about this period of the year is a sort of a thin line between our profane world and the so called other side. Medium Joan Charles says: "It has long been one of the most important times of the year when our departed loved ones come close and can connect with those they've left behind" (The Scottish Sun, 2013).

American tradition, many would say, but in fact, Halloween has roots a lot older than that. The Celtic festival Samhain (or Samain as the festival could be spelled as well) underlies Halloween (Cunliffe, 1997 / The Scottish Sun, 2013).

During this festival Celts made fires as sort of cleansing ritual. Summer was at its end and winter was about to start (The Scottish Sun, 2013). Barry Cunliffe (1997, p 189) writes in his book The Ancient Celts that the festival Samhain more was about the year was at its end and new year was about to start.

Samhain fell on November 1st, and as said above, it was a line between two years, end of the year that passed and beginning of a new year, and as such, it was a dangerous time: spirits from people who had died were about to roam freely (Cunliffe, 1997, p 189).

A theory, according to The Scottish Sun (2013), is that Celts' cleansing fires during Samhain, attracted insects with its light, and insects in turn attracted bats - a fantastic feast for them, all insects at one place.

Celts were really superstitious (The Scottish Sun, 2013), noted also by Roman Julius Caesar, who wrote about it in his text Commentaries on the Gallic War (Cunliffe, 1997, p 185). He imagined that bats feasted out of Celts' deceased ones. That is one theory of how the vampire developed.

Trick or treat-part of Halloween can be traced back to Middle Ages, where beggars occupied themselves with "souling". They went from door to door and begged for food. They said something like they would beg for people who felt sorry for them. 19th century kids to Scottish and Irish travellers picked this up. They danced outside houses for money and cookies (The Scottish Sun, 2013).

All Hallows Day, All Saints Day, where we're honouring our deceased, are also originated with the Celts Samhain. But it is the Christian variant (Cunliffe, 1997, p 189).

Resources:
Cunliffe, Barry (1997). The Ancient Celts. London: Penguin Books.
Get the facts fright (The Scottish Sun, October 29th 2013)

Good morning Wednesday

I've been sleeping pretty well this night, eventuellt if I believed for awhile last night that the really curious family hamster would knep me awake with its movement in our ventilation system, where it had out mistakenly though it was blocked by 2 heavy books. She's a strong little one that hamster. Eventuelly, se came upp again. No fun in there and longer.

But now I am heading for a new day. What to do today? I'm going to read some psychology, lecture 7, which I've received in written form. Only one out of eight lectures is filmed in some way for this course, I prefer filmed material. I think you get another contact with teacher studying at distance as I do. You hear his / her voice (and you see power points) - that is the most ordinary sort of lecture. Best is when you see the while teacher, face, movements, I believe.

Well, let's start the day now. See you! :-)

When Cultures Collide

Must say this book offered a pretty useful reading. My edition was, however, from 1997, so much has happened after that, but it still gave a good foundation about cultures.

Cultures could be divided into 3 groups:
- Linear active
- Multi active
- Reactive

Linear active cultures plan, organise and act in a decided order, do one thing at a time. British and Swedish cultures are among these.

In multiactive cultures, you're pretty vivid, talkative and gladly do more than one thing at a time. Instead of acting according to a planned order, you do what is most interesting or relevant at the moment. Lewis put Italians, Latin americans and Arabians to this group.

In reactive cultures, politeness and respect are important. They listen without interrupting, carefully considering what has been said before they decide. Chinese, Japanese and Finish cultures belong to this group.

Linear active trusts information. Multi active prefer personal contacts. And the reactive combines the two of them.

Lewis tells language is vital for how we think and not just a tool to tell thoughts. Notion of brain paths differentiates. In Britain, thoughts run along British brain paths, and those are different from brain paths of other nationalities. An Englishman, a Chinese and an Italian experience the same happening. First the experience is a sort of kaleidoscope and must be registered by brain. And brain mainly do this by help of language. It results, the three of them see three different things. Lewis illustrates with "fair play". It could be something else for a German person, as he/she has to translate the word ny help of other words. In a society lacking organised games, "fair play" may lack meaning.

But Lewis warns. It's a bit risky to use stereotypes. This is all about getting a bigger picture of a people in a whole. A Dane could be quite like a Portuguese. But a Danish choir or a Danish football team are easy to distinguish from their Portuguese equivalences. Generalised, national characteristics are rarely applicable to individuals, Lewis tells, but for several members out of a specific cultures, it is.    

Brits as well as Swedes see the space around them, within 1,2 metres from themselves, as their territory, and they do not like this being offended by someone they do not know (and in that case, they will probably rear away to restore the distance). However, people close to us we accept at a distance of 0,6 metres. But there are cultures, book exemplifies with Mexicans, who talk to strangers with 0,5 metres distance. They could understand our rearing as they are physical distasteful.

In the end of the book, Lewis means that if you have an cross cultural understanding, you will accept differences, and use this in a positive way.

This book will give you a good foundation to build this cross cultural understanding of yours.


About the book:Lewis, Richard (1997)
When Cultures Collide - Managing Successfully Across Cultures (link intends an English edition from 2005)