A Grain of Salt

I really hate the media. The focus is largely on the negative and on perpetuating destructive normative behaviours and beliefs. Today I saw an article that was fearmongering parents yet again and tying on a nice dose of fatphobia. The article was expressing a "new study's" concern about overweight childern, their sodium intake and the ties to higher blood pressure. What that article should  have been asking is why are so many products packed with sodium now? Why do we continue to purchase products that are packed full of preservatives so that they can sit on the shelf longer and contribute to the massive amounts of food waste when it reaches its extended "best by" date? Whenever a brand launches a new "reduced sodium" version of their product, they do it with such a fanfare. Why don't more consumers pressure those companies to ask why they had so much sodium in the first place? The reduced brands are often still packed with enough sodium to account for your daily intake alone - never mind the rest of the meals you eat that day. The same can be said of the sugar added to our food. We are adding our way into a nutrition deficit and all anyone wants to do is find a way to produce fake chemical versions that are ten times sweeter and trick your body. It just doesn't add up. 

Reading Rainbow

Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Ivey and the Airship - Cheryl Ammeter
Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus - P.C. Martin, Richard Monson-Haefel, Daniel Corte
Hunger Games trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Timepiece - Heather Albano
Sundae - Matt Wallace
When Women Were Warriors: The Warrior's Path - Catherine M. Wilson
The Final Deduction: The Last of Sherlock Holmes - David W Walker
Above - Leah Bobet

In a fit of productivity...

or perhaps just a fit, I return to this forlorn corner of the internets. Hullo kittens, all 6 of you. Hugs all around. My summer was spent moving into a new space and making it fit to live in. This principally involved me trying to purge a bunch of stuff and awesome!L doing a lot of grunt work. awesome!L lives up to the name folks. I don't really want to live up to expectations of dying amidst piles of books and cats and more to the point awesome!L would probably kick me out onto the balcony to best consider my options before that happened.

I jest of course but on the upside we now have a balcony that I could sleep on if it came down to it! No more juliet balcony for me but a proper space that can host a cosy dinner or an even closer gathering of friends to watch the fireworks. Back to my previous point however, I have yet more things to purge. Some items I think I should try to get money for and the rest I worry I will have to pay to be rid of. Eegads. In some sense I think I have accidentally been purging what meagre ideas pop into my head as well. They aren't gems, let me advise you, and most of them actually pertain to washrooms. Really, I don't know how to explain my fascination. I think it's just that they so often rouse my ire that I start getting wordy with a minimum of effort.

In any event, I do want to try purging some thoughts into type more frequently so here we are again. The dance we know so well -- I'm a terrible dance partner actually, always stepping on toes and leading into the other couples. Ah my poor blog, you are ill-used indeed.