Health part two

Continuing on the topic I never thought I’d be writing about, health. This blog is about water and exercise and the benefits that this will have on your life. After drinking about 7 liters of water a day for a week, then skipping it for even one day I felt tired, restless and mindless. I had been exercising regularly and one day without it I could feel the difference in more then one aspect of my life.

“Water is your body's most important nutrient, is involved in every bodily function, and makes up 70- 75% of your total body weight.” http://www.sissel-online.com/article/water.php Water I have to say is what made the most difference in my body and mind. I began to feel cravings for it, and not only that water is an appetite suppressant so I wasn’t craving food half as much as before I started drinking water. Even just the movement of the bottle to my mouth has an effect on the amount I eat, as I eat when I’m bored and if I have the water bottle I will use that to distract myself. A friend also mentioned that a water bottle is a good way to distract your self from smoking for the same reason. The website http://www.weightlossforall.com/benefits-water-drinking.htm tells you that water will help you to loose weight as well as a long list of other health benefits such as regulating your appetite, increasing metabolism, boosting energy levels, alleviating some headaches, helping to reduce blood pressure, helping to reduce high cholesterol, easing joint pain, decreasing risk of some cancers, releasing toxic waste products and improving your skin. I don’t know about you but despite needing to go to the loo every 20 minutes, sounds like you can’t go wrong with water.

Exercise is another important factor in a healthy lifestyle. Thirty minutes a day can improve mood, “when you exercise, your brain releases endorphins, adrenaline, serotonin and dopamine. These chemicals work together to make you feel good.” http://longevity.about.com exercise can improve learning and memory “investigators from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have found that voluntary running boosts the growth of new nerve cells and improves learning and memory” http://www.hhmi.org/news/sejnowski.html It improves sleep “exercise can improve the quality of your sleep. More specifically, exercise can you’re your sleep deeper – meaning you’re your sleep will be more refreshing and you will be less likely to wake up during the night.” http://longevity.about.com/od/lifelongfitness/a/exercise_sleep.htm It can help with health, both mental and physical “regular exercise can help protect you from heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, noninsulin-dependent diabetes, obesity, back pain and osteoporosis” http://www.nutristrategy.com/health.htm mental health is associated with mood http://mentalhealth.about.com/od/depression/a/howexercise.htm and exercise can help with your skin by helping your circulation http://blog.pharmacymix.com/can-exercise-improve-your-skin So basically, exercise and water will improve your life in many ways and now that I've started, there's no going back :)

Health Blog

I have never really been a healthy person, and I have never really thought about how what I put (or don’t put) into my body effects my weight, my health and my mind. I’d say it happens to most people, when you move out of home you are all of a sudden in control of everything in your life, including your diet. So recently I have taken a turn for the better. I can feel my body craving the junk food that I have for so long indulged in, but I also feel the negative impact after eating that food. After eating healthy for a week then giving into my craving for junk food I felt sick, bloated and disgusting. There are all sorts of junk foods but I’ll be talking about fast food mostly. Cheeseburgers are my weakness and when I’m bored all I want to do is mission to McDonalds for a cheeseburger. So I have changed my diet from eating whenever and whatever I want, to eating a light breakfast of yoghurt or toast, then a chicken and salad sandwich for lunch and large portions of vegetables for dinner with less meat and carbohydrates. In between I have limited myself to nuts and fruit with water filling in the gap if I get hungry. So when I treated myself to McDonalds after only a week of this routine I felt sick, bloated and horrible. My mind wasn’t functioning anywhere near as well as before I ate it and I couldn’t believe how quickly I felt the junk food affect my body. My stomach seemed to grow within minutes after only just noticing a small weight loss form the healthy food. If a healthy lifestyle is going to change my life as much as it did this week there is no way I’m switching back.

minority in the media

I read something in my reading television class called "Television News and Monoculturalism" from the book "Shaping the News" by Sue Abel. I found really interesting, it may have seemed almost racist but it had a fair point. It was an article about New Zealand and how Pakehas call themselves New Zealanders therefore in a way making Maori the minority. We are a bi-cultural community here in New Zealand but we like to think of it as Pakeha dominant, making ideologies that the Pakeha opinions, culture and ideas are what it means to be a New Zealander. This article was based on TV news programs and how we lack in Maori broadcasting and miss things that may be very important to New Zealand due to not seeking out the Maori point of view. This theory works not only in relation to TV but many other things in New Zealand culture. We are promoting Pakeha as the dominant culture while leaving the sub-cultures with little, or nothing. Due to this lack of information being presented in the media we are pushing the other cultures of New Zealand out and not forming and understanding for them. I believe that this theory can work in relation to women as well. Women in the media are pushed into the background. They are rarely represented in positive ways in the media. Men are pushing their ideologies of them being dominant and ideologies of what they think that women should be like. These ideologies are just as much, if not more harmful than the Pakeha ideologies in New Zealand.

I firmly believe that all people should be equal. It doesn’t seem fair that people can be judged by appearance and wealth. I fear that with all of the judgment in society today we are turning into a nation of non-fiction characters. We are not fairly being represented and due to the overload of new ways to receive information, eventually the things that we are being told, we believe. This related back to a story I was told a long time ago to try and teach me to stop lying; it is that eventually, if you lie enough you will begin to believe it. And this isn’t just a story, an example of this would be women who believe so much that they are pregnant, that they begin to get the symptoms of pregnancy and in some cases their bellies even grow as if the baby is there, even though it’s not http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080716224532AAUCGlM . With all of the information at our fingertips the opportunities are endless, now we just need to realize how to control it in a way that will create equality between people, no matter the age, race, wealth, sex, religion and sexuality. We need to insure that our online lives are more accepting than the real world. Bring people together with information, rather than separate them.

Living Longer

In New Zealand “a newborn girl can expect to live 81.9 years, and a boy 77.9 years” http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?l=1&t=112&id=20511 This average age to live till is around the same for places like America, Australia and England but there are certain towns that change the average for the rest of the world. Places where the people live for 100 years and are still in good health. I think the rest of the world could do with some tips from the best.

http://www.vegan.at/newsundinfo/pressespiegel/daten/where_people_live_the_longest.html

The first place I will be talking about is Okinawa, Japan. This is a small island off Japan and is quite secluded from the rest of the world. Scientists say that the people here actually age slower than the rest of the world. "The calendar may say they're 70 but their body says they're 50," says Bradley Willcox, a scientist researching the extraordinary phenomenon. It is because of what and how they eat that keeps them going for so long. Most Okinawans believe in hara hachi bu which means eat only until you are 80% full, and this goes for everything they eat. Their diet is called by scientists a “rainbow diet” as they eat a vast range of different fruit and vegetables that are rich in anti-oxidants and lots of tofu and Soya products. Their calorie intake in at least 20% lower than England, this has a lot to do with where Okinawa is situated, miles away from Western society and all the junk food involved in Western Culture. Without the influence it would be a lot easier to stay away from it, and live to the fullest.

Another place where the population lives longest is Ovodda, Sardinia; in this case it is not the food that keeps them alive although they do eat a lot of meat which may affect it slightly. It may be that they are isolated from the rest of the world, as Okinawa is. But scientists believe that the reason people live longer in Ovodda is because they are descended from only a few settlers, they are inbreed. "One particular gene on the X chromosome seems to be faulty, failing to produce an enzyme known as G6PD. This can often have a negative impact on health, but in Ovodda it may well have had a positive effect." I don’t think anyone will be taking tips from these guys in my lifetime.

In Loma Linda, California there is a completely different reason that these Americans live longer than any other Americans and it is religion. The majority of people that live in Loma Linda are Seventh Day Adventist which means that they don’t drink or smoke, and many of them stick to a vegetarian diet, this is not the only factor as some of the ones that do not stick to a diet and do smoke and drink are also living 10-15 years longer than the rest of America. This brings up the question as to whether religion and having something to believe in will improve not only the length of your life but also the quality. "Religion and connection to something higher than oneself, connection to the sacred, connection to a tight-knit religious community allows you to modulate your reactions and your emotions to believe there is a broader purpose," says Dr Kerry Morton, who is involved in a longer-term study on Adventist health. "Therefore your body can stay in balance and not be destroyed by those stressors and traumas over time."

So top tips from the professionals, believe in your faith - have a religion - have something to believe in. Love your family and be tight with your friends and eat a healthy diet rich in fruit and vegetables.

Tool

http://www.toolband.com/album/index.html

I’ve never really been interested in metal music, but after three years with my partner Logan who is a big fan, I thought I should make an effort. It started as an effort but as I read more into his favorite band Tool I couldn’t stop myself. These guys are more than just angry screamers; their music has another side.

Tool could come under many genres, metal, rock, progressive rock, art rock, heavy metal, thrash metal and alternative. The albums say metal so that’s what we’ll stick to. So Tool is an American metal band that includes four members, three of which where in the band from the start, and the bassist Justin Chancellor who joined them in 1995. Their first Album Opiate was released in 1992 the bands line up including drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. As soon as they started performing they were offered a record deal with Zoo Entertainment. They have released six albums including Opiate, Undertow, Enima, Salival, Lateralus and 10,000 Days.

Anyway the thing that I found so cool about these guys is the reasoning and meaning behind their songs. Maynard (the lead singer) was abused as a child by his stepfather. In their second album they released a song about child abuse called “Prison Sex”. (lyrics to song http://www.lyricsfreak.com/t/tool/prison+sex_20139421.html)
The website http://www.lyricinterpretations.com/lookat.php/bands/tool/198892b70d4b4e9 allows people to go on and discuss what they think that the song means and interpret it their own way. Many people agree that the song is based on child abuse. From the reading I’ve been doing I agree. The song “was removed from the MTV playlist and deemed too graphic and offensive” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool_(band) When you watch the video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf1vC8ubnkY you really don’t see anything half as graphic as the song “Hush” from the Opiate album http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hush+tool&search_type=&aq=f where they run around naked (with censors). The thing with “Prison Sex” is the metaphors.

It is called “Prison Sex” to represent the child not being able to get away from the abuse. He is stuck – like in a prison.

“I was so young and vestal then, you know it hurt me, but I'm breathing so I guess I'm still alive” this is a line from the first verse. It tells us that he is singing about when he was young and bringing up the dodgy relationship with his stepfather and how it hurt him but he is moving on.

This song has many religious references in it too. They use things like “my lamb and martyr”, “I am your witness” and “only this one holy medium brings me peace of mind”. They use the term “Sodomy” as a metaphor to represent how a child is impressionable and will listen to any authority without yet being able to question what they say, therefore believing it. This is when “do unto others, what has been done to me” (Luke 6:31) comes in as if you are bought up without questioning what you are taught; you are likely to do the same to your children.

There are many other Tool songs that have deeper meaning. I will continue to read about them and keep writing amazing blogs about these trippy dudes :)

The Tattooist - Evil in Ink

http://www.thetattooistmovie.com/home.htm

“The Tattooist – Evil in Ink” is a New Zealand horror movie based in Auckland. It is the best New Zealand movie that I have ever seen. Although the main character is an American named Jake Sawyer, they have based the majority of the plot on Samoan culture.

Jake is a tattooist and he tattoos people as a way of healing. In the beginning of the movie Jake is exposed to Samoans doing traditional tattooing, the tattoos are different in all Samoan families as they are past down through the generations from father to son - they represent becoming a man.

“The Samoan people believe tattooing is a gift from the Gods. He who misuses this gift brings shame upon himself and his family. In Samoan culture to live in shame is a fate worse than death.” Quote from beginning of movie.

The family that Jake gets involved with has a son who was said to have been to frighten to get the traditional tattoo; they all believed that he had run off in fear. But weird things start to happen. Jake steals one of the tattooing tools off the family and accidentally cuts himself with it; this causes him to see visions of his past and an unknown Samoan man. Then the people that Jake tattoos all begin to die. The special effects are amazing, as they don’t just die; you see the characters tattoo grow and it ends up consuming their whole body. Jake has been passed on a curse through the tattooing tools that he stole. Curse may not be the right word; he has taken on the spirit of the man who was said to have run away. In truth the man wanted his tattoo, but he was murdered. It is his spirit taking over people’s bodies and killing them. Not until the truth was out would he stop killing them. In the end Jake exposes the truth to the family and the rest of the Samoan community and the shame is lifted and given to the murderer.

The movie was so well made; the use of graphics was amazing throughout the whole thing. How could a movie about tattoos killing people be so good? Even the actors were superb. I feel that one thing stood out in this movie making it better than other New Zealand movies and that is the culture involved. It was completely based on the culture of tattooing, which is a huge part of life in New Zealand. The use of Samoan culture was also fantastic as Samoans are also a big part of New Zealand.

I feel that we need more movies like this one to represent us as New Zealanders and to represent the Samoan culture. Not many people realize that tattooing is sacred to Samoans and this movie not only gets their cultural views on tattooing, but it brings up views about religion, representation and many other cultural views of Samoan people. It is not negative at all, even though the Samoans seem to dislike the “palagi” (pronounced palangi) at first it is only for the safety of their culture and when they realize that he is accepting and understanding he is accepted into their culture.

This movie was not only a great way to bring out Samoan culture to the world but it was co-produced by a New Zealander and a Singaporean. This is in itself a collaboration of culture and has put more than one perspective into the movie.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz-trade-and-enterprise/news/article.cfm?o_id=290&objectid=10507917

New Zealanders and TV

The website http://www.stats.govt.nz/schools-corner/find-info-by-subject/population/how-people-spend-their-time-activity.htm tells us that there is a small difference in the amount of television watched by different age groups. The average amount of television watched per day by New Zealanders is 2 ½ hours. TVNZ owns two channels on New Zealand television, TV1 and TV2 and it “broadcasts its services to approximately 1.126 million households.” http://www2.stats.govt.nz/domino/external/web/nzstories.nsf/0/5511b3d7bcc110aacc256b1f00006c42?OpenDocument
These statistics tell us that TV is an important part of the New Zealand culture, which is why it is important to face the realities of TV.

I am currently in a class called ‘reading TV’ and the idea of this class is to look deeper into the television and reasons behind everything to do with TV, this includes researching why a television is square. The reason a TV is square is due to history but many of the programs, movies and advertisements on TV have deeper reasons behind why they are playing, what channel are they on and what time they are on.

We tend to watch television in a state of mind that doesn’t involve a lot of thinking. Television has turned into an escape from our own lives and a move into the lives of others. Reality TV for example, we see people living there day to day lives and it may be that there lives are just like ours and we relate, or maybe their lives are worse or better then ours but we tend to believe what we see. So my question to you is how real is reality TV?

“Reality TV often monitors ordinary people in stressful situations, as entertainment is made of people’s private lives.” http://www.mediascape.ac.nz/cms/index.php?page=reality-tv This is also known as schadenfreude (pronounced shahd-n-froi-duh) which is pleasure derived from the misfortune of others or “largely unanticipated delight in the suffering of another which is cognized as trivial and/or appropriate.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude

“There is no ‘truth’ there are only versions of It.” http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/phil/blphil_eth_realitytv.htm I find this quote a perfect description of reality TV. We believe that what we see is the truth, but really it’s just a version of it. What is the harm in this? I’m sure you all remember high school and the gossip and rumors that went around, most of those were based on some kind of truth, but had been tangled along the way, just like Chinese whispers. When we watch a reality show many things may have been edited or even planned out for the benefit of the audience. We become the fools at the end of the Chinese whispers when we believe what we see on reality TV. “There is a hidden, guiding ideology in every image we see, in every edit, and in every sound effect. We are less able to think for ourselves if we watch a lot of Reality TV.” http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/phil/blphil_eth_realitytv.htm
One of the reasons that people enjoy reality television is obviously the reality of it – “unscripted and unplanned situations and reactions”. But it makes you wonder really how real is it? “One of the ethical problems of reality television is the fact that it isn't nearly as "real" as it pretends to be.”