I haven't posted in a while and I miss it. I guess I was trying to have a direction with my blog-which is good-but it limits the time I have to do research. I do have a full time job and 3 teenage sons.

We are planning to go to New York this Sunday. We will go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I want to show the kids where their great-great grandparents landed in America, on my father's side. We will try to get to Ground Zero, as well. I am looking forward to it.

Of course, there are at least 2 movies I would love to see this weekend: Where the Wild Things Are and Law Abiding Citizen.

Poem: Calming Meditation

My brain is shattered
In tatters
Noisy-noisy
What do I want?
What do I need?
Make me, carve me
Take me, shake me
Wake me up
Spit me out
Comb the wires in my head
Bake me bread
Spoon me honey
Calming tea
Soothing me
Drown the sounds
Choke the bees
Smooth it out
Blow the breeze
Gently through the trees

Upcoming Movies I am Looking Forward to Seeing

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs - opens September 18, 2009
Animated movie based on a children's book. It employs a new animation technique that allows a camera to move though a virtual animated environment.

District 9 - now playing
We actually saw this last week. It is a Peter Jackson movie. I enjoyed it. It is a Sci-fi alternative history that explores the idea of an alien spacecraft being marooned on Earth in South Africa.

Extract - opens December 3, 2009
(Writer and Director: Mike Judge) New movie from the creator of Office Space.
Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Ben Affleck.

9 - opens September 9, 2009 (9-9-09)
Post-apocalyptic animated film. Runtime 79 minutes.

Pandorum - opens September 25, 2009
From IMDB's description: "A pair of crew members aboard a spaceship wake up with no knowledge of their mission or their identities."
Check out the trailer.

Surrogates - opens September 25, 2009
Murder investigation set in a future society where people do not leave their homes, but interact with each other via robots they control. Stars Bruce Willis

The Invention of Lying - opens September 25, 2009
Movie set in a world where no one ever lies. Ricky Gervais, Directs and stars, with Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Tina Fey, Patrick Stewart, Rob Lowe, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Guest.

Shutter Island - opens February 19, 2010 (was October 2, 2009)
Directed by Martin Scorsese, stars Leo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, and Ben Kingsley. Set in the 1950's, on an Island that is home to a facility for the criminally insane, a U.S. Marshal investigates the disappearance of one of the patients.

Couples Retreat - opens October 9, 2009
Comedy written by Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn in which four couples go away on a couples retreat at a tropical island.

Where the Wild Things Are - opens October 16, 2009
A live-action film based on the children's book by Maurice Sendack.

Amelia - opens October 23, 2009
Amelia Earhart movie starring Hilary Swank, Rhichard Gere, Ewan McGregor

A Christmas Carol - opens November 6, 2009
Robert Zemeckis animated retelling of the classic story. Voiced by Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth. Trailer looks amazing.

The Boat that Rocked (aka Pirate Radio) - opens November 13, 2009
Stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy.

The Box - opens November 6, 2009
Stars Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella.

2012 - opens November 13, 2009
John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover. End-of-the-world movie based around the Mayan Calendar.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox - opens November 13, 2009
Stop-action film voiced by George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Bill Murray.

Armored - opens December 4, 2009
Stars Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne.

The Princess and the Frog - opens December 11, 2009
Disney, hand-drawn animation set in New Orleans.

Invicitus - opens December 11, 2009
Nelson Mandela biopic directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman.

Sherlock Holmes - opens December 25, 2009
Guy Ritchie directs, starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law.

Note: the hyperlinks in this text are links to another website-Internet Movie Database. Release dates are for USA.

Sugar Detox

Yes, I have gone off sugar. Well, for the most part I have. I still have some sugar (the occasional ice cream, etc.) But I no longer sup on it like mother's proverbial milk. And going off sugar was so much harder than I thought it would be.

First, some background: I started having severe joint pain in May of this year. I just this past Thursday got in to see the rheumatologist, but I digress. A friend of mine suggested that lowering my sugar intake might lessen my pain. She said it worked for a friend of hers. So, I thought to myself: I'll just try it for a day or two to prove that it doesn't work. Then I can forget about this nonsense. I should tell you right now, I am a sugar-aholic (if there is such a thing!) I love candy, cookies, ice cream, sweet tea. There's not a sugary confection I don't love. And I regularly was buying candy of all different sorts to enjoy. My two favorite holidays are Halloween and Easter-because they involve candy! Even special candy not available at other times of the year!

Besides eating candy every day, I was putting 3 sugars in my morning coffee (I had worked myself down from 5 packets, so I was pretty proud of that) and drinking 12 to 24 ounces of sweetened iced tea per day. I would ocassionally treat myself to sweet tea from McDonald's.

So, getting back to what I was saying, I started avoiding sugar that first day. I was expecting no changes. I was so wrong. The first day-The First Day-of no added sugar I noticed a difference. My pain decreased by about 70 percent! I was so happy, and so sad. I loved not having the pain, but I didn't want to go without my beloved candies and sweetened drinks.

The second day of no added sugar was pure torture. I was angry. Every time I saw something with sugar in it I got mad. I wanted to buy candy so badly. I felt so out of control. It felt like the candy was sitting on the shelves at the store mocking me, broadcasting their desire to be in my belly-home sweet home. Yes, I felt like I was going crazy. For the next couple days this went on. I was shaky and angry and even angrier at myself that it effected me this way. One of those days I snuck in a big piece of cake. It tasted good, but it also tasted weird. The sugar tasted different. It tasted too sweet. A few hours later I paid the price with increased pain. That was enough to deter me from doing that again.

So, now I have been off sugar for over a month, and I feel better. I am still having joint pain, but not nearly as much as I was before I went off sugar. In the past two to three weeks I have also lost weight (about 6 pounds). That's amazing in itself because I have not been able to loose weight for the past 4 or 5 years, since I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I never thought that all this trouble could come from sugar. I had heard people talk about it, of course, but I thought it was some new age-y, natural-eating propaganda. Plus, I didn't want to believe it. I thought I couldn't live without my sugar. I guess I was wrong.

Independence Day?

What happened to the dream that was America? the United States of America? Would our forebears even recognize their country? Slowly, over the last several years, we have been losing our freedoms. Not enough to always recognize. We are cooked slowly, like the proverbial frog in a pot of water, never attempting to escape. When we have sought to correct the situation, such as flooding Congress with communications to vote against the bailout, we have been ignored. Ignored by our own government, the government that is supposed to represent us. We have been told that we are too stupid to know what we are talking about. They know better. They know what's best for us. That sounds dangerously close to a dictatorship.

If our elected officials won't do what we, the people, ask them to do, then it is time to elect public servants who will. It is time to set term limits, so that our representatives (Senators and Representatives) will not become indoctrinated into the Washington political machine. Time for campaign fund reforms, so that our official our not beholden to companies and organizations instead of the citizens of the United States.

On this Fourth of July-this Independence Day-let us remember what those who have gone before us have paid for our freedom. Let us honor them by taking back our freedoms, before they slip away completely. Let's not allow their dream die because of our own apathy. Let us have a happy Independence Day.

Poem: Silent Wings (for Joe Weiss)

On silent wings
See me flying
You will not catch me
As I steal the light
On silent wings
I am gliding
In an endless
Summer flight

Your eyes are fixed
Yet, not believing
As I circle in silence
In the orb's gold light
Unreachable
Beyond your hearing
On silent wings
I trace my flight

Cruel is the ground
In its unseen might
Stealing the wind
That you crave for light
Am I an illusion
To your earth-bound sight?
On silent wings
I steal the light

by Andrea E. Feeser

Poem: Bind Rune

Runes I rist, and rhyme the tree
Climbing upward toward the stars
Chant and song of galdr strong
Guide me down the pathway

Let the runes fall as they may
Tine against tine, binding lore
New are the magics I will find
Older still than the icy sea

Fire in my blood be still
Mold by me to reddened rune
Opening me, page by page
Torn by self upon the tree

by Andrea E. Feeser

Poem: The Center

Seek the Center.
Seek from the Center.
Seek the Center within.
Divine is not only to be found without, but within.
Too much energy is spent, it seems,
In trying to find Divinity.
It is not lost,
It has been here all the time.

When I am quiet,
I find I know the secret.
In the stillness of the Center,
I am one with all.

Let me unfetter my spirit,
Unshackle it from the bonds of label and dogma.
Let me experience,
With all that I am,
The wholeness and diversity of the universe.

No need have I for outer ritual
Or lengthy recitations.
My mind encompasses the ends
Once brought about only by those means.
I have no need for symbol or word.
All I need do is "be",
Exist where I am.
Nothing more is required.

by Andrea E. Feeser

Myths about Biofuel

The biofuel I am talking about is fuel for vehicles that is made mostly from kitchen grease (i.e. vegetable oil etc. There are a few myths surrounding this kind of fuel that I hear mentioned quite often.

1. Biofuel comes from a free resource.

False.
Kitchen grease from restaurants and other businesses is not free. Rendering plants pay many of the customers for this grease.

2. Biofuel comes from an over-abundant resource.

False.
Kitchen grease is picked up by the rendering plants and rendered to be used in products such as moisturizers, conditioners, and industrial lubricants.

3. Biofuel is a cheap alternative to gasoline and diesel.

False.
It cost money to process biofuel. It must at least be screened to remove impurities (i.e. foreign materials). Rendering plants make more money selling to companies that produce the products listed above.

4. Biofuel is available for the taking. Just pick up a grease barrel from your local restaurant.

False.
Taking this grease is stealing and is illegal. It is not the same as taking someone's trash. The restaurant is under contract with a rendering facility to remove their grease. There are also laws in many communities that regulate the way the grease is stored, removed and disposed of.

5. Biofuel is cheaper than gasoline.

False.
The transport, processing and storage of biofuel would make it about the same price as gasoline.

Poem: Chooser of the Slain

Valkyrie!

Thou dost call me,

Odin, at thy side.

Sword and wing

All night to sing,

Calling as we ride

"Choose the slain!"

The battlefield

Of life is just begun.

A dance of death

Dost honor bring

To heroes and unsung?

Sword to sword,

And blood to blood

Has brother brought to fight.

In one fell swoop

The line of old

Dies with him tonight.

What folly brings the mortal

To fight upon the field?

A quest for untold glory?

A seat in Odin's hall?

Whatever be the outcome,

To carl, thrall or thane,

In the end they heed the call

Of the Chooser of the Slain.

by Andrea E. Feeser