A. Eat lots of vegetables and fruit so you get your daily dose of vitamins and fibers. Fibres are indispensable for the proper functioning of the intestines!
B. Avoid fatty foods. They make you gain weight very quickly and it upsets your whole intestinal functioning , which causes a bloated feeling.
C. Opt for sustainable sugars. Pasta, bread and potatoes give you a longlasting and full feeling so you don’t have to commit hold-ups on your fridge every few hours.
* Eat slowly and chew your food well: it will benefit your digestive system.
* Avoid bubbles in your drinks. Fizzy drinks provide as many bubbles in your intestines as in your glass and that gives you a bloated stomach full of air and cramps…
* Avoid snacking so your digestive system can "breathe" once in a while.
* Don’t use too much salt. Up to a limited amount, salt is necessary in our body for the vital biological reactions. More than this requirement, salt creates your body cells to swell, that is so called cellulitis. Cell edema is the accumulation of salt and water which increases your bodyweight. Just take all salts away from your table. You will be receiving the necessary salts through your daily helpings of fruits and vegetables the most. Salt is also bad for your cholesterol, all the more reason to reduce its use.
* Avoid stress and make sure you can relax at the dinnertable. Eat in a quiet environment, certainly not in front of the television or whilst doing something else. Your intestines will protest considerably less.
* Drink as much water as possible. At least a litre and a half a day, preferably not during meals. Are a juices fan? Bad news: you should better not drink too many, the high acidity unsettles the bowels.
* Reduce your milk intake: milk doesn’t digest easily and often weighs heavily on the stomach.
* MOVE! Endurance sports burn lots of calories, moreover they optimize your digestion, a flat stomach guaranteed! My top 3 sports are:
A. Running: it’s easy to lose weight and your lovehandles will melt like butter in the Californian sun. Additionaly you will unconsciously work out your abdominal muscles.
B. Rowing: you don’t always need to row on a beautiful lake, you can do it at your local gym: abdominal muscles guaranteed, moreover you’ll train your arm muscles, on top of that it burns calories very fast.
C. Swimming: in particular the "crawl" stroke ensures oblique abdominal muscles. In addition through the resistance of the water you’ll get muscles much faster than on dry land.
* Abdominal muscle training: an absolute must! Do 3 sets of 20 exercises every day: normal and oblique abdominals sessions. Are you tired of the traditional abdominals sessions? Try the kinesis wall in the gym, join a "abdo" grouplesson or use the powerplate for quick results.
Normally I think of myself as cool, calm and collected, but when I start defending myself, I start twisting facts, lying, posturing and just being a self-righteous ass.
I can listen or I can defend myself but for some reason I can’t do both well in the same conversation.
I can be a great listener. I can listen calmly to criticism and to views completely opposite to my own and my blood pressure doesn’t rise…until I start challenging or defending. Then my ego gets involved and I become a monster.
I had a traffic incident today.
I was walking from the Robertson branch of the LAPL towards Airdrome. A car was coming down Airdrome traveling east and wanting to turn right.
The walk light was on.
The white driver (about 35yo) did not look to the right, only to the left to check the traffic.
I had the right of way.
It bugged me that he was going to cut off my cool calm walk (full of Alexander Technique with my head riding high on my spine and shoulders relaxed and broadening, my hips going out and my legs stretching long) so I smacked his car hard and waved angrily in front of his windshield.
He stopped.
I walked in front of him and across the street.
"Was it really necessary to hit my car?" he yelled.
"You almost ran me over," I responded.
"Oh, come on," he said and drove off.
I would never bang on the car of anyone who looked violent, particularly not a young black man.
“True Love, my dear,
Is putting an ironclad grip upon
The sore, swollen balls
of a Divine Rogue Elephant
And not having the good fortune to Die!”
(Translation by Daniel Ladinsky)
…When we feel the squeeze of that grip.
In the Zen school, there is a famous koan about a master whose teaching it is to give a student a thorough beating, and no matter what the student’s question is, the beating comes just the same. When the student attempts to answer the question, he receives a beating. When the student remains silent, she gets a beating. When the student attempts to escape or withdraw, a beating comes anyway. Eros often gives us a beating; a complete knock-down, foot-to-groin, nose-smashed-against-asphalt, pummeling. It demands that we experience pain, injury, and the collapse of self, and it presents suffering itself as one of its many (hard to believe) loving touches.
The sexual models the erotic. This is true in all kinds of positive and pleasurable ways, but it is also true in terms of suffering and pain. The sexual life is filled with an array of agonies that are not easily borne by the ego, by the body, or by the identity of a small or limited self.
There is the pain of not being seen or desired, and the pain of being seen starkly, in the clear light of our most obvious flaws and imperfections. There is the pain of not having the attention we seek, or the pain of having it for a time, and then losing it. There is the startling pain of realizing that we are not special.
Or worse, recognizing that when we thought our love was exclusive, that we are not the only one. There is the pain of others wanting more from us than we are able to give, and the pain of trying to give and not being wanted.
The camcorder depends upon what he wants to use it for. If he can use a small one (not a professional footprint), I’d still go with Canon. And if he’d rather use a built-in harddrive instead of mini-DV tape, I’d still go with Canon. The one I use shoots in 24p (progressive frame) mode, which means that it shoots each frame at once, as on film. The new version of it is the HV30, which also does 30p, which looks great on the web. It’s cheaper too – down to about 800 on Amazon. You can plug in a Canon accessory mike which I’ve found is absolutely worth the money.
Slim, fits in one’s pocket, has a built-in USB plug for easy downloading, 640×480 video, has a tripod mount, etc. They can typically shoot up to an hour of video.
There are some other products that are pretty similar out there too and some have better features and/or are cheaper; the Flip happens to be the one with the buzz–here’s a comparison between the Flip Ultra (I think, from what he says) and the Creative Vado, is slimmer and cheaper than than the Flip Ultra (though the newest Flip, the Mino, is supposed to be thin too) — the same video is shot twice and you get to see it side by side as he verbally compares features. Again, worth checking out the comments.
Anyway, my feeling is that, unless he needs to have crystal clear audio (these things just have a built-in mic and no way to plug an external one in, as far as I know), that a product of this class is worth checking out for doing web videos (if better audio is needed, I suppose it could be added into a video using some editing software–that is, a voiceover could be added in the same way that music can be added).
It’s worth comparing a bit to make sure that the size, feature mix and price are suitable–for example, some take 2 AA batteries, which run out faster than the lithium battery that some models use, but which are easy to replace. If you’re shooting a lot and have access to electricity, the lithium might be better since it won’t run out as often and can be recharged but if you’re on the road and don’t have access to electricity, then perhaps the model taking AA’s would be better since you can always buy a pair when you’re out but might not be able to get to a charger for the lithium.
And so on with other features.
Definitely check out Amazon for comments (and the pricing might be good there too). E.g.
Also, looks like the Flip Mino recharges its lithium battery via USB and not via wall outlet, so if you’re going to be out and about and you run down the lithium and you don’t have a computer handy, you may be out of luck vs. the AA model. But, again, the lithium will last longer than AA batteries, so you pays yer money and takes yer choice. http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Pure-Digital-Flip-Mino-Camcorder-Review-35297/Handling-and-Use.htm
See what he needs it for – event taping, material for the web, family use, etc. I like my camera for just about everything – and it’s an inexpensive way to tape events. The optional microphone does a good job of taping in stereo, cardioid and “shotgun” mode. It uses mini-DVD tapes – other new Canon models have built-in hard drives like your camera.
He can take very professional-looking video with the Canon cameras, for a pretty good price.
The only problem with using a smaller camera is that you don’t have the mass/inertia of the larger pro camera, or the additional manual controls. But pro cameras are about ten times the price, and an amateur may never even use most of their features.
Sony’s Vegas 8 is a full-featured, low-price editor for the Canon HD cameras. If he wants to shoot in film-speed mode (24p), he may also need to invest in software to process out the encoding all 24p cameras use. And he’s need some kind of tripod.
This is all a low-cost solution, but I’m still using my setup over a year after I purchased it and very happy. There’s nothing out there short of a full professional camera I would use.
A friend emails:
1 – If I could afford it right now, for video I would get a still camera – these two
either the Lumix DMC-FX35
it’s got a 25mm Leica lens! this is amazing. also the ability to shoot HD video. This is new.
specs:
10.1-Megapixel Compact Digital Camera with 25mm Wide-Angle Lens, 4x Optical Zoom, Intelligent Auto Mode, 2.5" Diagonal Intelligent LCD and HD Output
2 – Better yet, get a Lumix DMC-TZ5K
same specs, with less of a wide angle
it’s still a wide angle, but you can also use the zoom in movie mode. also HD video
3 – External Mic source
These Panasonic camera will shoot HD (720p) onto SD cards for $300; perfectly acceptable for the web and a helluva lot cheaper than a GL1. You don’t need good optics for the web anyway; but this camera has great optics too…
What I like is that with the money you save you can get two or three and set up a two or three camera shot
I get a call: "This is sexual McCarthyism. She writes that Gershon Winkler is accused of cult-like practices. She made that up. You click on "cult-like practices" and you get this stuff about sexual abuse in cults, etc. Anyone looking quickly thinks that that is about Gershon. Disgusting. What did they do in McCarthyism? If somebody supports someone else, you are then put on a list of communist sympathizers."
Gershon Winkler emails me:
Hello, Luke.
I noticed on your site that the infamous JTA article quoting me regarding Gafni is repeated there in the context of the Awareness Center’s mention of me. I just want you to know, that yes, I did have a kid with one of my students, AND I was married to her for 16 years! I was trying to make a point with the JTA reporter but all he recorded was that I got one of my students pregnant. No mention that I had married her two years earlier. The JTA did nothing to correct it after it went to print. I was trying to point out that across-the-board ethics around “power imbalance” in relationships are ludicrous. My father was a college grad rabbi when he married my highschool grad mother. Was this unethical? And then I gave the example of how I married one of my students, and had a child with her. Was that unethical? But the JTA article, again, left out the details, that I’d been married to her. And for 16 years. And the marriage happened two years before the child came into the world.
The Awareness Center wants to stress that to the best of our knowledge there have never been any allegations made against Rabbi Gershon Winkler of molesting children or sexually abusing or assaulting any adult women. Rabbi Gershon Winkler is being posted on our web page under the category of “Other”. Rabbi Winkler currently resides in Thousand Oaks, CA.
July 8, 2008 — JTA published the article “Rabbi Fights sexual allegations”, which is about “defrocked" rabbi, Mordechai Gafni’s most recent attempt at becoming a “spiritual leader”. In the article Gershon Winkler “acknowledged that he fathered a child with a student, carried on several "intimate relationships" with students over the years and said he is currently in a relationship with two women.”
According to the ethical codes of every rabbinical organization and also clergy of all major religions, it is considered unethical to have sexual relations with an individual in which there is an imbalance of power. The same can be said about the eithical codes of teachers, medical and mental health professionals.
Winkler went on to tell “JTA that he believes it is wrong to insist on an "across-the-board" ban on sexual relationships involving rabbis and followers, teachers and students, and counselors and patients.”
Marc Gafni, left, visits with author Luke Ford in Salt Lake City on July 3, 2008
A section of Gafni’s new site dedicated to the controversy includes letters on his behalf from several spiritual leaders, attorneys and counselors, as well as the report of a forensic psychologist who administered a polygraph test.
Several references to e-mails and instant messages between Gafni and the Israeli women that supposedly prove the nature of their relationships were not exploitative. The correspondence is not available on the site.
"In each of these relationships, as is usually the case between men and women, there were complex power dynamics in which each side had power and vulnerability," Gafni wrote regarding the Israel controversy. "While I never promised exclusivity to any, in retrospect I see I did fail to recognize two things. First, that my non-exclusivity might in itself be experienced as hurtful. Secondly, that these involvements themselves, and particularly the lack of transparency around them, might be experienced as painful or problematic."
Gafni’s Web site is filled with allusions to his problems and explanations.
"Marc Gafni struggled with the question of whether to teach conventional spiritual wisdom in a conventional spiritual context, or to follow a more post-conventional style of teaching and living," his biography says. "This tension brought great dynamism to his work, but also caused some dissonance."
Now the biography says that Gafni will focus on "intense inner spiritual and psychological reflection on the course of his life" and "partnering with social activist leaders to create a new, grass-roots human rights movement."
"While Marc Gafni will continue teaching, he wishes to do so as a spiritual `artist’ rather than as a rabbi, guru, or formal teacher," the Web site says.
One of Gafni’s defenders is Rabbi Gershon Winkler, a New Mexico rabbi who runs Walking Stick, an organization that combines Jewish teachings with Native American wisdom.
"Do I believe that the women here experienced pain? Yes I do," Winkler wrote in a letter posted on Gafni’s site. "Do I know that this is not a story of abuse of sexual harassment as it was reported in public forums? I am sure it is not. Do I believe that the pain caused by all of us to Rabbi Gafni far exceeds the pain that anyone else can claim to have experienced? Absolutely."
In the letter, Winkler acknowledged that he fathered a child with a student, carried on several "intimate relationships" with students over the years and said he is currently in a relationship with two women.
Many in the Jewish Renewal leadership, he asserted, have engaged in similar sexual behavior, including some who are now critics of Gafni.
Waskow, one of the leading figures in the Renewal movement, rejected that line of argument.
"If there were, years and years ago, people in this or any other movement who did behave in ways that we would now find ethically prohibited, it was precisely because of the experience of the pain and emotional disasters and spiritual disasters created by that kind of behavior that we adopted the ethical rules that now apply," Waskow said.
"Maybe some of that did take place, but we grew enough to decide this was not a good idea," he said. "What he’s describing as hypocrisy is a shift over a 25-year period of time in which our movement and people in our movement grew considerably."
Winkler told JTA that he believes it is wrong to insist on an "across-the-board" ban on sexual relationships involving rabbis and followers, teachers and students, and counselors and patients.
Gafni, he added, is a victim of sexual McCarthyism.
"I think it’s extreme," Winkler said. "I think it’s a sexual ethic that’s made out of paranoia."
When John [Carroll] and Dean [Baquet, then managing editor, now back at the New York Times] took over, they severely curtailed local reporting. They closed down most of the local zoned offices. They discontinued the Metro section and renamed it California. They eliminated a secondary zoned news insert produced by newer, less expensive journalists.
They threw the resources instead into national and foreign coverage.
At exactly the same moment, over those same years, [Publisher] John Puerner’s crew was whacking circulation north and south and east of L.A. They thought it was
too expensive. They abandoned any pretense of a national edition.
So with all eyes wide open, the business model and circulation model became
LA-centric and the editorial model became national. The LA Times was trying to sell it’s national-focused newspaper locally only.
The New York Times knows better….It is selling a national newspaper nationally.
The LA Times tried to sell a national newspaper locally only.
It is five in the afternoon in Salt Lake City. It has been a hard day. I sent a letter of apology to someone I really loved. It was sent as an attachment with a short note. He read the note but forgot to look at the attachment.
He sent me back a deeply cruel letter?at least that was my experience of the letter. That was its impact on me even if that was not his intention. In the letter he said, “Why did you not write me a letter of apology?” It was then I realized he had not read the attachment.
I was angry and insulted as he was insulted. I wrote him back and said, “Open the fucking attachment.” I had waited two years to write him this letter and now that I wrote it he does not open it. I did not hear back from him. Perhaps I never will.
It is to this man that I dedicate this essay, written with one of my closest friends.
I have written before of the beauty of Eros and how the sexual models the greater movment of Eros in our lives. We have written of the opening that sex can be in teaching us to understand Eros, to live from her full and passionate source. But there is another side of Eros. In this aspect, Eros shows itself to be a more ferocious ally. While the sexual does model the erotic in all kinds of pleasurable ways, it also models the pain of Eros that inevitably comes from our loving.
Sexuality leaves so many mortally wounded in her wake. So much pain from that which is supposed to be the source of so much pleasure. We are confused about sexuality. And that confusion is the source of much of our pain.
Sufi poet Hafiz writes:
“Love is grabbing hold of the Great Lion’s mane
And wrestling and rolling deep into Existence
While the Beloved gets rough
And begins to maul you alive.”
There was a time when I believed that there was a way out of the pain of Eros. Some people may believe that I didn’t try hard enough; others are correct in ascertaining that I didn’t succeed. But I can tell you that I believed in a version of love that is fullfilled through commitment, through loving gestures, and clearly stated intentions. I believed in love that was passionate and wild even as it was broad, inclusive, and forgiving.
I thought that the dilemmas that Love presented to me would be solvable if I were earnest enough, authentic enough, and learned how to honestly communicate the truth of who I was and what I could offer. But this ethic of sincerity could not hold. There was a quiet untruth in this approach?not only because I lied to others, but because I lied to myself that if I got it right, I would not have to feel the pain in loving. My approach didn’t take into account the ruthless side of Eros?the aspect of Eros that does not let us cut this kind of a deal. The face of Eros is wildly uncompromising and insists that we live a fully embodied life. One that includes pain, loss, confusion and bewilderment. Eros is fierce and unrelenting. It won’t be captured, cajoled, or lulled to the realm of the comfortable, particularly when it is the ego trying to settle into an untrue version of Love.
Marc: "No. Zelig means someone who doesn’t have depth or a personal center. He’s someone who shifts to please a crowd. My story is one of evolution and unfolding. Over the years, I’ve read and studied hundreds, perhaps thousands, of books. I’ve studied wide and broad in my own search for an authentic and living teaching. Naturally, I evolved beyond a narrow Orthodoxy to a much broader worldview. That was a hard walk."
Luke: "What does Mordecai Gafni the teacher today have in common with Marc Winiarz the teacher from 25 years ago?"
Marc: "A passionate love of Judaism and its texts and practices. I remain committed to Hebrew practices. To miztvot. I remain in love with mitzvot. At the same time, the way I practice them has changed from when I was living in a narrow insular Orthodox mindset. My horizons have broadened. A number of important systems of thought I’ve engaged have challenged some of my original Jewish understandings."
Luke: "So what are the most important challenges?"
Marc: "The particularity of the Jewish people. The notion that Judaism is the superior system.
"The highly rigid vision of family and sexuality, which has great beauty and great shadow.
"The shadow of the gorgeous Jewish ethical commitment is an enormous amount of self-righteous judgment, verbal violence and ugly ways of conflict. I’m strongly drawn to more holistic and inclusive ways of dealing with each other."
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff)
* Abdominal muscle training: an absolute must! Do 3 sets of 20 exercises every day: normal and oblique abdominals sessions. Are you tired of the traditional abdominals sessions? Try the kinesis wall in the gym, join a "abdo" grouplesson or use the powerplate for quick results.