Getting Prepped for Paris

Alright, so I'm not going to be posting on here for a little while because I have a blog for while I am in Paris. I wanted to give you all a heads up to where you should be looking for new posts. I have already a few posts over there so I encourage you to read them for now.

My Blog for Paris:
Nicole In Paris

Now when you get bored over there check out my book reviews over on Tumblr!

My Book Reviews:
My Crazy Bookself

Non-Smoking by 2020

Remember the days when at a restaurant you were asked smoking or non smoking? I do a little, but it is a fuzzy memory that the next generation will not have. When I worked at Golden Corral people asked to be placed in non-smoking, even though there wasn't any smoking on premise. When the bans started I was happy, because I didn't like the amount of smoke that filled the entire restaurant ruining the experience for the non smokers. I believe smoking should be left to the out doors and personal houses and homes. 

I just read an article that says that the CDC, Centers of Disease Control, is predicting by 2020 every state will have a smoking ban. The pressures from the public officials is the main driving force behind the bans. Studies have been done since the beginning of the bans that have shown a decline in childhood asthma and adult heart attacks. This is has only been in the last ten years. It is astonishing that in such a short time there is a significant change. What will happen when everywhere has the ban? Maybe a huge reduction in lung cancer cases because people aren't smoking the same amount or even being exposed to the second hand smoke. 

Click Here for the Original Article

Cleopatra and Vegetarianism

Today I'm watching Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor for the first time. I'm about an hour into the movie and am enjoying it. This is a great way to end this week with. Cleopatra was such an impressive Queen of Egypt, she did whatever she had to do for the throne she desired, even killing her brothers and sister. Being the last great ruler of Egypt, she did her best to keep the Romans at bay by creating relationships with Caesar and Mark Antony. Making sure that her country remained what she loved and cherished. The costumes for the movie are amazing, the colors and fluidity are beautiful. 

Enough about Cleopatra, now on to my possibility of becoming a vegetarian or more specify a Ovo-lacto vegetarian. This is where I am able to eat eggs and dairy products. I figure that I am basically a vegetarian because of being a college student. I love meat don't get me wrong, but I love vegetables too! I want to be able to have more good vegetables than have a little bit of meat. Poultry might be in my diet sometimes, but not as prominent like before. Today I went without meat without intention, so going without might not be that hard. I will not eat tofu though. 

If more people started doing this, the problem of bad animal care might be more manageable. The less animals we eat, the less animals being treated badly and easier it would be to stop the bad companies and encourage the proper healthy ones. I'm not going to preach about how everyone needs to eat in this manner, but that everyone should look at what kinds of meat are entering their bodies. Most of the meat is raised in unhealthy situations, shown in movies like Food Inc. and King Korn, which is why meat is cheap. The better meat is usually more expensive, but the taste and impact to the world are better. 

VIA Brownies

Today I finished Onward by Howard Schultz, and I loved it! I now want to work for the wonderful company of Starbucks! In spirit of finishing the book I decided to make brownies with VIA, instant coffee from Starbucks. The story behind VIA was so touching. The driving force of VIA, aka JAWS to him, was a man named Don Valenia. He worked on JAWS (Just Add Water and Stir) for 20 years, his team helped create the bottle Frappacino and Coffee Ice cream. He died right before the product officially was announced and released to the public. I added my review of the book to my tumblr for reviews. There is a link on to it on the side bar of this blog, and I hope you like My Crazy Bookself. I know that the name is cheesy but I love it. 

This week has been crazy, but yet what week hasn't. I didn't receive a title which stung a little, but I'll survive. The paper had yet to be printed. We just started rowing all eight, but we didn't go out on Monday because our cox slept in. That's just a start of it.

Enjoy the pictures of my brownie making!

Toodles!

Two Weeks Left

Today I counted and I only have two weeks left of rowing, then finals and my trip home. Time is going by so fast. Then after I get back there is about three weeks of nothing and then PARIS. Thinking about it still freaks me out a bit but I get a little more excited. This week the new paper comes out and I have, I think, FIVE articles in it. One is front page and one is on the back! I have taken over the paper it seems. I keep wondering if I'll be gaining a title this week or not. I hope I am, but only the Editor In Chief and our Faculty advisor know at this point. I'll keep everyone posted! 

In the news today I read that even ancient Egyptians had clogged arteries, even though they thought it was a recent disease. Now the researchers are on a mission to figure out the other cause of heart disease, because the ancient Egyptians didn't have a fatty diet like we have today. Part of me just wants to say that it's apart of how we age as humans, because if they found it in the ancient Egyptians who knows who else had this problem. Maybe in the future they can find a cure to heart disease, but right now people just need to eat the proper foods to keep nature in it's place. I'll be trying to eat better, but as everyone knows its easier to say it than to actually do it. Wish me luck!

Toodles!