Two Words…

Pirates rock!

In other news,  “Bah!! Exams!!!”

Da Vinci’s Guide to Healty Living

Found this article. It’s still very relevant in today’s society.

Da Vinci’s Prescription for Life (reprinted from Dave Dewitt’s Da Vinci’s Kitchen: A Secret History of Italian Cuisine) :

If you want to be healthy observe this regime.
Do not eat when you have no appetite, and dine lightly,
Chew well, and whatever you take into you
Should be well-cooked and of simple ingredients
He who takes medicine is ill advised.
Beware anger and avoid stuffy air.
Stay standing a while when you get up from a meal.
Make sure you do not sleep at midday.
Let your wine be mixed with water, take little and often,
Not between meals, not on an empty stomach.
Neither delay nor prolong your visit to the toilet.
If you take exercise, let it not be too strenuous.
Do not lie with your stomach upward and your head
Downward. Be well covered at night,
And rest your head and keep your mind cheerful.
Avoid wantonness and keep to this diet.

Seems pretty straightforward, but maybe it’s easier to abide by the prescription in 15th century Italy. Living is a little more complicated in our fast paced world. It’d be an interesting comparison to see how each of his prescriptions translates to modern life. Let’s see:

1. Do not eat when you have no appetite, and dine lightly

   Sounds like a good idea, but don’t listen to me. Here’s what Elaine Magee, Ph D has to say: Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re comfortable. “There’s a difference between stuffed and comfortable,” she says. “If you truly follow that concept, you should be hungry every two or three hours.” (WebMD)

2. Chew well, and whatever you take into you
   Should be well-cooked and of simple ingredients

   Yup, even our President can attest to this one. Dubya on the wisdom of mothers: “If my mother is listening, mother, I should have listened to you: Always chew your pretzels before you swallow.” (CNN )

3. He who takes medicine is ill advised

   He’s spot on about this one too. It’s been well-publicized in the last couple of decades that we’re an overmedicated society. We take pills for minor aches and pains, and there seems to be a pill for everything we presume to suffer, from ADD and baldness to vomiting and diarrhea. Doctors are too much influenced by big pharma so do not always have the patient’s best interest in mind. For those self-administering, treating an ailment with the wrong medication make matters even worse (Mott Children’s Hospital).

4. Beware anger and avoid stuffy air

   We all know anger kills. What’s this about stuffy air? Turns out being inside can sometimes be pretty bad for your health too. There are biological pollutants such as mites, molds, dander, and cockroaches. Then you have cigarette smoke, asbestos, lead dust, carbon monoxide, the list goes on. Being inside is as hazardous to your health as standing in the middle of rush hour traffic huffing exhaust fumes.

5. Stay standing a while when you get up from a meal

   Gravity helps keep food where it belongs, in the stomach area and not backing up into the esophagus area, thus decreasing the likelihood of heartburn. Simple physics.

6. Make sure you do not sleep at midday

   Avoiding naps during the day leads to more restful sleep at night.

7. Let your wine be mixed with water, take little and often,
   Not between meals, not on an empty stomach

   It wasn’t until the 1990s that Americans realized the health benefits of regular wine-drinking. Alcohol has been used for its curative properties for millennia; the Egyptians were brewing beer 5000 years ago to treat illnesses. It took a French scientist, Dr. Serge Renaud, to deliver us from our benightedness. We should’ve just studied Leonardo’s Last Supper a little more closely to see what the Apostles were drinking.

8. Neither delay nor prolong your visit to the toilet

   Now, this prescription I’m curious about because we’ve all enjoyed an entire magazine while on the throne. It’s one of the more relaxing times of the day for many of us, the far stall being a great place to avoid the boss. I was shocked to discover that just sitting on the toilet too long can lead to hemorrhoidal flare-ups because it increases the pressure on the veins of the anus. Get on and get off. Don’t linger like a panhandler outside a 7-Eleven.

9. If you take exercise, let it not be too strenuous

   Those who do little vigorous exercise actually die from heart attacks less often versus those who train long and hard. Seems counterintuitive as heck but, as with everything, moderation seems to be the key.

10. Do not lie with your stomach upward and your head
    Downward

    We’ve already mentioned the heartburn reducing benefits of keeping your stomach below your head; there are also other downsides of having your head below your belly. Giraffes graze from treetops because if they bend down to nibble low-lying grass when they straighten back up they can lose consciousness because of the sudden change of pressure when the blood pooled in the head region flows back into the body. So, hanging upside down for long periods may cause several health issues, such as hemorrhaging, even though your neck probably isn’t as long as a giraffe’s.

11. Be well covered at night
    And rest your head and keep your mind cheerful

    From another smart and talented fellow, Benjamin Franklin, “A cheerful face is nearly as good for an invalid as healthy weather”. Old Ben Franklin was another polymath of some renown so I’ll go with it.

12. Avoid wantonness and keep to this diet

    Leonardo had one close female friend his entire life, his closest companions being his lifelong pupils Salai and Melzi. It’s been speculated that he may have been gay but it seems more likely he was asexual, not having a high regard for sex at all. He commented “the act of procreation and anything that has any relation to it is so disgusting that human beings would soon die out if there were no pretty faces and sensuous dispositions”. Hmm, this one I’ll suffer the consequences of not abiding by. A man can’t live on virtue alone.

Source

Random Stuff

Did you know that Goldfishes are totally unnatural creatures domesticated by us humans? According to the history of the fish, goldfish were once no different from carps. One fine day during the Tang dynasty (around the 7th - 10th century A.D.) in China, one carp in one of the many ponds in the Imperial Palace experienced a genetic mutation that caused its scaly skin to turn to a yellowish gold tint. Having had a yellowish gold coloured body in a pond in the Imperial Palace and being surrounded by the royal family, it was obvious that this outstanding carp was kept and bred in what would be an industrial scale breeding. Soon enough, their numbers multiplied and the general public was forbidden to breed any yellow coloured varieties.

A few centuries later, more and more coloured mutations occurred and the first coloured carp other than yellow was recorded to be 1276 between the Song and Yuan dynasties. Another few more centuries later during the Ming dynasty (late 14th century - mid 17th century), the carp started developing fancy tails similar to what modern day goldfishes posses.

So basically, if that one particular yellow mutated carp weren’t in the pond of the Imperial Palace, then goldfishes wouldn’t exist today. Pretty interesting fact.

In other news, Shrek The Third is opening tomorrow and sadly I will not be one of the first to watch the movie in the world. Spiderman 3 was excellent and passes Guang’s Movie Entertainment Standards™ with two thumbs up. I guess I’ll have to wait until after my exams are over or wait a wee bit longer until I return back to Malaysia. Personally, I prefer Malaysian cinemas compared to those that are available here. Golden Screen Cinemas and even Tanjong Golden Village screens feel more like a cinema. Bigger, louder and more comfortable seats. The ones here are cramp, small and the screen is pathetic in terms of size. Not to mention the price of the ticket. One ticket here is enough to watch 3 movies in Malaysia or 1 movie in Gold Class screens.

Hopefully, I will be able to watch Shrek The Third in cinemas before the novelty runs out and also Pirates of the Caribbean. These two movies are the must-watch films that I must not miss even if it will cause me my life!

Anyway, back to revision. *study study study*

Exams and a dead camera

What a great way to welcome the coming of exams. A dead camera… Just when I opened a Flickr account. *curses*

Sad to say, there will be no more pictures of beautiful Sheffield until I get back to Malaysia and somehow fix the camera or get a new one though it’s highly unlikely I’ll get a new one unless my camera stays stubbornly dead (which I am hoping it will). LOL

Exams are drawing closer too. So expect very little or even no updates at all during this period of time until my last paper ends on the 6th of June.

Anyway, I have the entire library to painfully squeeze into my head now. Better get starting before it’s too late…

Flikr

Great. I’m already managing too many websites. Okay, okay, not managing but subscribing to many websites i.e Friendster, Facebook, Digg.com, Project Petaling Street etc and now I’m hooked to another one. The well known and oh so famous photo sharing site, Flickr. Well, I don’t have that many pictures to upload yet. So far I’ve only uploaded 70+ pictures. Good pictures that is.

So visit my page yeah! Lots of pictures of flowers there! Well, it’s spring isn’t it?

Click here to view my photos now!