Gummy Adults ?

I've noticed several commercials lately advertising adult supplements in gummy form and I just couldn't understand why an adult would need an easily chewable vitamin save for the small percentage of the population that has throat or swallowing issues - but these are wide scale expensive advertising campaigns. Here's one article on the subject and another more 'tongue in cheek' here. So what's your take on the trend? Is it hard for the vast majority of people to swallow vitamins or do we have a large population that just doesn't want to grow up or if-you're-going-to-have-to-take-a-vitamin-it-might-as-well-taste-good-and-be-easy-to-swallow or something else?

The Give and Take of Living Around People

Since the weather was so beautiful yesterday afternoon, I decided to sit outside and enjoy it. I should've been weeding the garden or mowing the lawn, but decided since the rainy season will soon start,  I would just enjoy -  except it's not always easy to do when you live in a city or suburbs, is it?

I find it amazing how little children who are only 3' tall and only weight 40-50 pounds can be so loud. The lungs on some of those kids, my word! Yesterday a three year old neighbour was emitting some weird whine that I found quite disturbing, so much so that I resisted the urge to yell "shut up" hoping that his throat would get sore or he would get tired of it. But no, he continued for about 10 minutes (it felt like an hour). His parents seemed completely oblivious.  Another set of kids were playing on a trampoline and arguing as that group often does. If children learn from their parents then I suspect their parents must fight a lot!

I consider myself a fairly quiet neighbour but I'm sure that Eco's squeaky toy or her ball-in-the-pool game can be quite disturbing to others. And of course one neighbour's lawn mowing is never a convenient time for another is it? My mom used to lament (she still might, but I don't live with her anymore) about neighbours mowing the lawn during our dinner time. But really my dad might have mowed the lawn during someone else's dinner time  - we just never know do we?

The give and take doesn't just include backyard sounds it includes street activities too - children riding bikes/skateboards/scooters up and down the road or playing in the street. I always find it 
humourous when a little kid gives me the 'slow down' hand signal when I drive by, especially since I am doing about 5 kph past them and the speed limit for school zones is 30kph. They have no way of judging my speed, they have no idea how slow I am going, yet someone's taught them that they should tell cars to slow down.

Street parking is also included in the give-and-take and this is where I am at a disadvantage because I live at the 'bubble' part of a cul-de-sac and so the space in front of my house is only about 1 car length. My one neighbour has much more room, but has much more visitors and their guests have learned to park perpendicular to the street so they can fit about 6 cars in front of that house, however to back out of my driveway I have to go the long way around since those cars all stick out so far into the cul-de-sac.  I don't own the road or the street, and it's not up to me to police it and who's going to listen anyways - as long as they don't block my driveway, there isn't much I can do about it is there? Even when they park in front of my house - that's just life with neighbours.

As I've long said, when you own a house you're like a sitting duck. And one should always be cautious of others who have a lot less to lose than you. Some people have loads of time to think of evil and devious ways to get even. I don't need that. It takes them less time and money to cause damage to my things that it does for me to fix and clean up. So I discourage the children from playing in my driveway, drive slowly down the street so I don't smoosh a kid and put up with other people parking in front of my house. It's all part of it. And then I can go back to sitting in my back yard dreaming of winning the lottery and buying a house with a big property so I don't have to be so near to my neighbours. Or moving to the back country, or buying an island, or ...

Is it Naked Day today?

Okay this is really odd, first I see a naked man standing in the doorway of his house during this morning's walk, then a couple of hours later Jp drives by a topless chick on the by-pass - are we missing something? Is it Get Naked In Public day today? It's not that hot out there, is it?

Additionally - a friend of mine just sent me this message, " that's interesting because I just got off the phone with my sister - she was commenting that she can see her neighbour going to the toilet because his doors are fully open, yet at the same time she's telling me this, she's topless because she's too hot, go figure!"

Did you see (or have) any unexpected nudity today?

mankind is confused

We live in very confusing times - on the one had people are bombarded with silly pranks that win them money or fame or other things from TV or radio or internet, and along with that we really don't know what is what.

For example:  the shooting Thursday night in Colorado - a very tragic event indeed. I understand the shooter was dressed in a costume and had what theatre staff was replica guns, sadly that was not the case. And sadly 12 people who were doing nothing but sitting in a theatre lost their lives. Reportedly many people thought that the smoke bomb which started the tragedy was a publicity stunt - and really, how could they think otherwise? Too many times they've been shown that a failure to be curious has cost them the prize. That the furry thing that brushed against them in the dark was a doll head and if they completed the correct sequence of behaviours, they could've won something. Or if they only poked that person on the street they wouldn't have been embarrassed by a hidden camera, etc. By the sounds of it, this 24 year old man didn't look so out of place as he walked into and around the theatre - how could anyone have known what fate lay ahead?

Sure con-men and crooks have existed as long as man, but there was a time when a 'gentleman's handshake' stood for something. It's no wonder that there is such a prevalence of anti-anxiety medication being taken by not only young to old, but also our pets. Society has bombarded everyone and everything with so many inputs - SOUND! COLOUR! MUSIC! VIDEO! FLASHING LIGHTS! and on and on. In general, it seems that most people don't really know how to relax. And they also don't know what's expected of them and surely this is all leading to a very anxious and nervous and stressed out society. And not only do these factors take a toll on the body but they result in other things such as weight gain, or loss of sleep and the negative impact just snowballs from there. The way things are going, it's not looking so good for the humans. Forget that we're overpopulating the planet and depleting it's resources as we (in North America at least) tend to live a very wasteful lifestyle. Forget threats to humanity by nuclear war or germ warfare or the West Nile Virus. No, it almost seems like we've just going to implode ourselves, self destruct as it were - unless the vast majority of us can learn to take responsibility for ourselves, and slow down on the consumption of everything and learn  to meditate and learn to be still, and to communicate with one another face to face instead of hiding behind little electronic devices to practically communicate for us.

Forgive me if I sound all 'doom and gloom' but I'm worried for mankind, and perhaps that's what needs to happen as complacency only leads to our downfall, does it not? I remember whenever I had a test in school or college - the times I thought I'd ace it, I didn't and the times I thought I failed, I did much better. So maybe enough people's eyes will soon open and they will take charge or their lives and perhaps we can get a handle on these situations that shouldn't happen at all. But how many wake up calls do we need? Man has come so far in evolving and civilization and knowledge, but yet, in many ways we are more out of touch with our bodies, ourselves, our planet than we have ever have been.


If you had to assign a letter grade to the human race, would would give us? 

Safety Glass?

So the other day, Jp and I are at our favorite 'local' dairy having some ice cream when I notice the car beside me. Check out the broken window...

...next to the baby seat? WTF????

Hmm, not what I'd consider 'safe' - would you?