Why I ride...

I have a class this semester on health risks. One of the biggest risks is high cholesterol. We have an assignment to get our cholesterol checked and then create a diet/exercise program to improve the cholesterol levels. Then we will have our cholesterol levels checked at the end to see if our program worked. I don't think we're graded on improving our cholesterol, just the program that we write for it. I got my cholesterol back yesterday...98. That's the total. It breaks down to an LDL of 43, HDL of 48 and VLDL of 7. My triglycerides were at 33. I eat very little meat or sugar and I exercise regularly. I think I'm going to cut the pretzels out of my diet for the semester, that will be good. Otherwise I'm just going to continue with my current diet and see what happens.
Last night I went on an activity with the youth at church. We showed up and it was obviously a youth group and one of the ladies asked me if I was one of the youth or a leader. Actually, I'm the oldest leader in the group.
Honestly, I don't ride my bike for health reasons. My commute is merely transportation and a time to relax and enjoy nature (when I'm not being run off the road by a car). The commute has so many benefits that are little extras.

The family

The weekend post on the family... We're all doing well. The Mugwump is potty trained and is extremely disappointed with himself when he has accidents, which are rare at this point. Every night he asks to go to bed without a diaper and we tell him that as soon as he wakes up with a dry diaper he can go to bed without. So far he still wears the diaper, but he's excited and that's wonderful. He got a taste of what aunts are really about this weekend when Icky painted his fingernails. And toenails. Pink. He was very proud of it and was excited to show people at church. "All the classes will be so impressed!"

Sixpence got some shots that he wasn't excited about. Otherwise he likes art. We have a set of art drawers and he will go get the paints or crayons out of the drawer and say "da da" which means this is what I want to do. He's a pretty good artist... for one year old.

My wife is excited about drawing our new house. We dream of building a strawbale house that is environmentally friendly and maybe even off the grid. Anyway, my wife spends time drawing plans for a small house that would meet our needs. They're really pretty good, except I am feeling a little pressure.

The weather has been cold (I think the high today was 14). We had icicles forming on the inside of some windows, so we decided to hang some flannel sheets to hopefully keep some of the warmth in. The low inside of our house so far this year was 46 but we've been consistently in the 50s through the cold spell, we're doing quite well.

I'm doing fine, and looking forward to the semester. I'm taking a couple classes that I'm really excited about, but I'm taking a lot of classes and am sure that I will be busy. It's only the first week and I'm already REALLY busy.

A helmet-bouncin' good time...

We got snow yesterday. I've ridden home in snow before, so I hopped on the bike and left for home. I just got out of the school parking lot, and I was going along just fine, thinking it was going to be a breeze when suddenly the I noticed that the asphalt was rather close to my noggin. Now, I've crashed a bike before and it always tends to seem like slow motion... I can always remember thinking, "uh oh, this is going to hurt", and then you pick yourself up off the ground. Last night, it was like it never happened. I was riding and then suddenly I was on the ground. A very kind pedestrian asked if I was OK (she seemed a little worried), but I hopped up and said I was fine. I got back on the bike and tried to get going again, but I couldn't on the fixed gear. You see, to get started on a fixed gear, you have to get some momentum before the bottom of the pedal stroke or you will come to a stop before you can get your other foot on the pedal. Standing over my bike I would push down on the pedal and all it would do was spin on the ice. I couldn't get going again. I eventually rode a little on the sidewalk and made it up to the bus stop where I caught the bus.

As the bus pulled away a couple of people noticed that it was not the bus they expected, it was going to stop about 15 miles short of their destination (the bus was 30 minutes late and forgot to change the sign until we were going). So I went home, and brought a couple of people with me (bus people). I changed my shoes and drove them to Payson. They were pretty nice people. I will still have to say that you never know who you will meet on the bus.

Today I'm a little sore, but otherwise there was no harm done in the little bike accident. I'm on the bus today because the roads are still ice and it's still snowing.

Homeostasis

Don't let the title fool you, this post may be interesting.

I study homeostasis alot as it pertains to the human body. Our bodies run at a certain pH, with certain amounts of stuff in the blood at all times. We can tell alot about a person by what is in their blood, or more accurately, what is in the blood in unusually high or low amounts. Your body goes through considerable efforts to maintain concentrations at certain levels, and if we find that you aren't within those normal ranges, somthing is wrong. Glucose (sugar), for example is well maintained by the body in a fairly tight range. Every time we eat, we add a bunch of glucose to the system and the body is able to take care of it within a couple of hours. However, if we abuse the system and keep giving the body more than it can handle, it has to take drastic measures to maintain blood glucose in "healthy" levels. If the cells have too much fuel, but we keep pumping more fuel into the system, the cells say that they've had enough by resisting the action of insulin. So now the sugar in the blood can't get into cells as easily creating higher blood sugar levels. This is called insulin resistance and is a precursor to type 2 diabetes. Diabetes (from now on when I talk about diabetes, I'm talking about type 2; type 1 is a different ballgame) is a disease caused by over-consumption. It takes considerable overconsumption for an extended period of time before the body is no longer able to maintain blood glucose homeostasis, and a person is diagnosed with diabetes. (Diabetes is reversable with diet and exercise, but it takes a lot of work).

Last night in my readings, I learned that the earth also has mechanisms to maintain homeostasis (this is not my area of expertise, but I'm going to try and tackle it). I read that the earth's exposure to the sun has increased by 30% since the world began... Well that explains gloabal warming. Except it doesn't. As sun exposure on the earth has been increasing, plants have been better able to undergo photosynthesis (the process of using carbon dioxide for energy with oxygen as a byproduct) thereby decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide acting as a greenhouse gas to keep the planet warm. How cool is that? As the temperature rises, plants thrive and decrease the greenhouse effect and as temperatures cool, plants are less able to use carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect to help maintain the homeostasis of the temperature on earth. That was working really well for a long time, until we decided to start pumping extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through industry and automobiles. Oh, and at the same time we decided to cut down forests because we need to make wood products like paper, houses, furniture, etc. Oh and some of the forests got in the way of farmland, so we cut them down too. We have increased CO2 through industry, but decreased the earth's ability to get rid of CO2 by cutting down forests.

Now I'm not going to jump into any research about global warming, because I'm not familiar with it. It looks to me that wether global warming has started or not, the earth is becoming "insulin resistant", except with CO2 instead of glucose. If we continue to abuse the earth, it will eventually be unable to maintain homeostasis and that won't be good.

In the Bible, a rich man asked Jesus what he needed to do to obtain eternal life, and Jesus responded that he needed to leave all that he had and follow Jesus (or something to that effect). Wow, evidently God wasn't kidding when he gave us that scripture. Are the consequences of not giving up comfort to follow Jesus certain death? Spiritually, maybe. Physically, it's sort of looking that way. As obesity and diabetes reach epidemic levels, it appears as if more and more people are killing themselves with excess. As a society we are producing more and more CO2 and decreasing the earth's ability to convert CO2 back to oxygen which, if continued indefinitely, will lead to the end of the world. I'm not trying to say the world will end anytime soon, I have great confidence in the human body's and the earth's ability to take abuse for a long time, as well as a conviction that Jesus will return and make things better. I just find it interesting that God created the earth such that if we are not charitable, if we continue to be greedy seek for "more", and if we continue to overconsume, it will lead to the death of individuals, and eventually the death of the earth.

Family "Bonding"

After a couple of voting blogs, and missed pictures I thought today would be a little lighter. (But first a little more momentum for voting) Don't vote for styrofoam peanutes, they just fill landfills and ruin the environment in their production. Instead get the corn starch peanuts.

We recently got a package full of these peanuts and my wife discovered that if you lick them, they stick together quite nicely and can be used as a construction material. (Dear, what were you doing licking the packaging?)

Anyway, my wife started family night by building a cabin from corn-starch peanuts.

The Mugwump was quick toget into the action and he built a car. Someday I will remmeber to stand my pictures upright before I put them onto the blog. This is actually the fourth time of me posting this blog because our home computer is dying. It randomly shuts itself off. On two occasions I was just about to push the "publish" button and the computer died. So now I'm at school and this blog is several days later than I had hoped.




The car wasn't good enough for the Mugwump, he insisted on improvement and he ended up with a "packed firetruck". I don't know what it means to have a packed firetruck, but that's what he said it was, and I certainly was in no possition to argue with him because I couldn't tell what it was. Oh, and the Mugwump is potty trained! Most of the time he just strolls right into the bathroom, takes care of businness and we never know... except there's no mess. Well, no mess, except he's really NO GOOD at wiping. How do you teach a kid that? At this point we ask if he pooped and if he says yes he knows to turn around and drop his pants for the poop check. (He hasn't passed one yet). Sometimes I wish he were just a little less independent.

Sixpence was really excited about this game, except he was a little too good at the licking part, he just kept licking until the thing was gone. OK, that was an exageration, he didn't lick at all. He stuck each of them in his mouth and ate them. He would occassionally finish the first before starting on the next one. There was no stopping this kid, he is a corn-starch peanut junky. They're just corn starch, right?

Otherwise, Sixpence is learning to talk he's mastered "Da" and can say "mamamamama" Although verbally he is quite simple, he is very good at getting his point accross.

Not a great picture, but this is the Mugwump trying to sabbatage my bicycle. This is quite possibly the coolest thing I have ever built. I never liked art class because my things never quite turned out how I had imagined them. I think this is partly due to a lack of tallent, but now I'm realizing that they hadn't supplied me with the right materials. I could have built anything with corn-starch peanuts. I've been thinking about submitting my bike to a museum, but I'm afraid to take it outside or it might get wet and dissolve.

... It's beyond words.

Voting in life

I recognize that my last post was a little long, but I have more to say. Not only do we vote with everything that we buy, we vote in every action that we make. From a religious perspective, we are accountable for our actions. That doesn't mean that we "earn" our way to heaven, but if we know that something is wrong and we do it anyway it is a sin. The scriptures councel us not to sin.

So every time you go to Walmart and buy a cheap toy built by child labor in China, you are voting for child labor, inequality between social classes and filling landfills (those toys never last). You are accountable for the decisions that you make and although I don't think you are condemned to eternity in hell for shopping at Walmart, you are accountable and that will need to be taken care of... and I have no idea how that will transpire.

Every time that you drive your car to the end of the driveway (or to a nearby store) you are being lazy and polluting the earth that God gave us. Certainly we will be accountable for those decisions.

Every time you unnecissarily raise your voice at your children, or anyone else for that matter, you will be accountable. We are responsible for the decisions we make and we can make a difference by "voting" according to the laws set forth in the scriptures.

I also want to point out that choices aren't always that easy. I try to look like a big shot that makes all the right decisions, but sometimes we must choose between the best of several evils. I don't buy organic or locally as often as I would like. I'm a college student and really can't afford to. I'm ashamed of that (I'm ashamed of not buying organic, I'm not ashamed of being a student or being poor) and hope to change that in the future (by starting to buy locally). Anyway, situations often make choices more difficult. That is no excuse to not make good decisions, but sometimes bad decisions are the only decisions that we can afford or that our situation allows. They are still bad decisions and should be recognized as such. We're not perfect and that is why we have a Savior.

Vote

I know that the November elections are long gone, but really I don't think that is where the power lies. Lobbyists have far more power than we do as voters (because the lobbyists have money). So if we want to see changes the votes that we cast at the polls is of little significance compared to the vote that we cast at the cash register.

So I'm not a fan of the system and I express that at the polls, but it really doesn't do much good. I'm not big on the idea of sitting around and doing nothing, and I feel that we have a far more powerful vote to cast that doesn't pass through the bureaucracy of our government. Almost every time we provide money for a good or service, we are supporting a powerful lobbying group in Washington. Even if the product we are buying and the store we are patronizing are not associated with lobbying groups, they listen to the consumer based on what we buy.

Really, at heart I'm a capitalist. I believe that businesses will fail, survive or excel based on the products they provide the consumer. With that said, it is important for the consumer to take a stand against those products that they feel shouldn't exist. I want to point out a few examples and how they impact us in various ways.

First of all is wrapping paper. I know it's tradition, it's festive, it's the way we use to surprise people. What I hate is that it is not recyclable and completely wasteful. Demanding wrapping paper be made of a material that can be recycled would be a step in the right direction. Even better would be to use old newspapers instead. Then we use the product and reuse it to hide a gift and it still has the potential to be recycled. Why would companies continue to produce wrapping paper that is used for a short period of time and then does nothing more than contribute to landfills? Because you buy them! You vote to fill the landfills every time you wrap a gift in that stuff. It's a powerful vote. We no longer have wrapping paper in our home and we use alternative means of wrapping gifts. I asked family not to use traditional wrapping paper on the gifts for our family, but every gift that we received from outside of our home was wrapped in non-recyclable gift paper. I find that frustrating.

Second we'll hit on milk. Although I don't think milk is good for human consumption, I don't think it's the worst food available either. I offer this example to demonstrate a point, not to persuade you to stop drinking milk. Every time you purchase milk or dairy products you are contributing the the National Dairy Council which has a powerful lobbying group in Washington. What do they lobby? Among other things, they make sure that milk is given to all WIC participants and is a "handout" (although I'm sure the grocer and dairy still get their money from the product being given away) to those in need. Milk is also influential in schools and this is one of my biggest complaints about the dairy industry. Schools are a place for education, not marketing. There have been big arguments recently about advertising in the halls of schools which is really all about making money for business and NOT about benefiting our children and the future generation. Milk doesn't advertise in halls (well, maybe they do, I don't know that for sure), but I do know that the dairy industry provides curriculum for health teachers to ease the burden of having to come up with a lesson plan. Long before advertising in hallways became an issue, milk was advertising in the classroom, spreading the propaganda and encouraging milk consumption. It's really a great marketing idea, but I don't send my kids to school to be marketed to, I send them to learn how to think for themselves. In addition to health reasons, I don't buy milk because I am unwilling to support their unethical marketing practices. Every time that you buy milk you are voting for marketing in schools.

McDonald's recently spent lots of money on a survey of their customers to find what they wanted. The survey concluded that customers wanted more healthy choices in salads, yogurt, etc. McDonald's responded by introducing product lines that reflected the desires of the customer. It turns out that people don't buy the healthy choices at McDonald's, so the line was discontinued or at least down-graded (I don't really know, I haven't been to McDonald's in at least 5 years). Kudos to McDonald's for trying, but what you pay money for speaks far louder than your vote on a survey.

My final rant will be about WalMart. Recently, I have found many good things that WalMart is doing. They have decided to reduce the packaging on products that they are carrying. They carry organic (although not locally grown) produce, and they employ elderly and handicapped persons that would likely not be able to find employment elsewhere. Those are wonderful things that I would like to support, but I won't through WalMart. The reason is that this Mega-store is too powerful. They demand low prices from their manufacturers. If the manufacturer is unable to meet that price Walmart goes elsewhere. I'm a capitalist, that should be OK with me, but not when it forces manufacturers (and even Chinese manufacturers) to pay their employees less and essentially abuse the human resources of a company in order to get Walmart to buy their products. Walmart even does this to their own "associates" who do not make a livable wage. It's unfortunate, I choose to vote against Walmart every time I spend money, yet I still have to pay taxes that support Walmart employees who are unable to meet their financial responsibilities because they are not being appropriately compensated by the big business.

As I think of who will read this blog (if anyone makes it this far, it ended up a little longer than originally anticipated) I think of how global this is. For example, Vertigo is a Canadian (I think) living in Japan, yet he has a powerful vote in the US. Every time he goes to the store he chooses to buy US made goods, or others. If he votes for the companies he gives his money to, regardless of what country that may be in. So who do you think the Russians vote for? the Chinese? Who do you vote for?