Super Size Me

I finally got around to seeing this unusual documentary
about a guy who eats nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days.

Ever since a kid I have been a sucker for McD’s, especially the fries. Everytime I walk by a McD - even until this day - I am very tempted to buy a pack of fries to munch on. It’s that smell - many think that it’s some addictive ingredient in the oil they use - that weaken my resolve to stop eating those fatty carbo monsters.

Until I was 14 or 15 I ate McD’s regularly - two or three times a week - and loved it. But after that what happened? My body wanted Chinese food instead. You see, when I was a kid my main diet at home was Chinese food and even though my mind favored McD’s, my body gradually told me that it was not right to eat that. So one fine day in my mid-teens something drastically changed: I could never eat McD’s more than once a day, or two days in a row without feeling sick to my bones.

Seeing all those fellow fat and unhealthy Americans in the documentary really made me sick again. I realize I am lucky to have had Chinese food mix into my diet since I was a kid. Because of that, my body knew that there was a healthier choice and it steered me to it. I am not sure most Americans have this choice; if they don’t eat McDs chances are they are stuck with other equally high-fat unhealthy diets such as pizzas, pseudo-Italian or pseudo-Mexican that are present in many strip malls around the country. If not, then there are crazy diet fads - to me anyway - such as Atkins that forces many believers in our country to play unnecessary Russian Roulette games with their own health.

The documentary is a wake up call, as with the book “Fast Food Nation”; too bad many still will fail to heed their advice.

And it is true: you are what you eat.

Family-centered home offices?

Traditionally, the idea of a “home office” or “study”, as we used to call it, is a room that is located in a relatively secluded area of the house, and sometimes heavily fortified to keep out noises of young, screaming miscreants so that a parent may concentrate on his or her work.

Here is a report from Canada about the rising popularity of home offices being placed close to the living room so that a parent can be more receptive to one’s kids while working at home. The trend is about creating an open office that keeps a parent connected physically and spiritually to the rest of family, even at “peak” working hours.

I just don’t know about this… Having just fathered a kid, I don’t think this new trend of home offices is such a good idea especially if the kids are young. I live in a one bedroom apartment so our living room is also my study. My kid - who just turned one - is starting to yank cables that hang from my desk, because there is no door to stop him from doing so. He particularly enjoys watching the mouse fly over his head and crash onto the hardwood floor.