Just ranting

News like the one I posted below disturb me to no end. I am not a genetic engineer, medical researcher with a specialization in genetically modified organisms (GMO), or a doctor, therefore, I have no clue whether GMOs are bad for your health, and as such, cannot make any claims saying they are. Whenever GMOs are mentioned, the debate seems to get to :Is this harmful for my health if I eat it? And the answer, based on research funded by the companies that produce GMOs is: No, they are perfectly safe to consume.

If you live in the U.S. or Canada, chances are you have already ingested a lot of food that's genetically modified, whether you were aware of it or not. Upwards of 70% of all corn and soy beans produced in these countries are genetically modified. And if you have not noticed, those two ingredients are in everything that we buy, from popcorn to corn-fed-cow-meat aka beef. Corn syrup seems to make its way into everything replacing other forms of sugar. Example: sodas are sweetened with corn syrup, which is probably made with genetically modified corn. But I, like many other people, enjoy my soda and would rather not think about the tiny genes that have been replaced with genes from bacteria, or in the case of the pork, with genes from mice. Everything in moderation is my motto about almost everything in life...

Although I am not qualified to talk about the health consequences, I do feel I am qualified to talk about the ecological consequences, of which I believe there are many. I cannot even begin to talk about it all in one mere blog post, so I'll just ramble instead as usual.

I understand the need to come up with species that are more resistant to environmental factors, so that we can grow more of them with greater ease, to be able to accomodate an ever growing human population. It seems that we have accomplished that goal right now with corn and soy beans, yet somehow world hunger is still a great issue. All that corn that we produce in such volume, I want to see how much of it actually goes to filling the bellies of starving people in the developing world. And why there is such an abundance of corn that we're trying to get rid of it by modifying and putting it into every kind of food we can think of. Let's face it: companies want to make money...I am totally OK with that, I have taken many economy courses and understand how that market works. But for some reason, putting patent on human food seems a bit...I don't know...Unethical?

When you genetically modify foods, and come up with something successful, it's only fair that you get a patent for it...And of course, since it's understandable that companies need to make money to stay in the market, it's also understandable that they would make the seeds "sterile" or put rules on how they can be used i.e. one cannot save and plant the seeds from these plants, they have to be "rebought" after every harvest season. Long gone are the days where farmers, who owned their own land and worked for "themselves", planted their crops, saved their seeds to plant come next planting season, thus profiting from the natural "fertility" mother nature provides for us.

Fiddling with crops in such manner creates a disturbance in the ecological balance. First of all, if a genetically modified crop is not well contained (which I assume is very hard to do in open air fields), bugs will do what they're supposed to do, and carry the pollens from plant to plant, causing 1) a potential patent infringement if the pollenized crop is on someone's property, and 2) a potential spur of modified crops on natural, unowned land. If the modified crop is exceptionally hardy, then chances are it will overtake entire fields over long periods of time, causing loss of "unmodified" species, which are apprently weak and not worthy of our consumption because they happen to be not resistant to the strong chemicals we like to douse them with. (One could say, I believe, that the need for genetically modified food comes from our bad industrial agriculture practices...We try to undo our impact on the environment, and this is the solution...)

Whether we appreciate it or not, there is some kind of balance in nature that is more delicate than meets the eye. Everything tips to one side to accomodate for a "disturbance" that comes from the outside. There is research out there claiming this (GMO) is better for the environment and ecological systems than growing regular crops with industrial agriculture as is, which may as well be the case...The research examining the impacts goes back (and can only go back) about 10 years, because this is relatively a new area of research (and development if you can call it that). 10 years of history...I wonder if that's really enough amount of time to come to a conclusion of any sort, be it on human health or the environment. Kind of reminds me of the margarine craze of my childhood, where butter was shunned from houses because it clogged arteries and made you die young. What could be more brilliant than taking "liquid" oils (which were much better for your health), and "hydrogenate" them and voila! Wonderful butter like fat that is not animal fat, and therefore was healthy...Except now we run from margarine like it's the plague because it contains cancer causing "transfats" and also raises your bad cholestrol much worse than butter does. And butter, it seems, is good for you after all because it contains all those good things, like Omega-3s and vitamin A, etc. It turns out eggs aren't that bad after all, either...So how can we be so quick to judge something that is relatively "young" as healthy and good for the environment, when it has only been around for a decade...It takes much longer than that for any obvious effects to come into daylight, at which point if there seems to be negative consequences, I hope we will have the proper resources to fix it "i.e. unmodified crops?"...If not, we will probably try to engineer our way through that, too...

I just don't understand...Nature works beautifully, there is nothing wrong with it...So why can we not try to make our processes more like it, rather than try to modify it?

Enviropig?!?

I do not see anything "enviro" about these pigs... This is wrong on so many levels I don't know where to begin....

So much to write, so little time...

Whew, the past few days have been busy, and although I wanted to write, and had so many things to share, I just couldn't find the time. I probably forgot half of the things I wanted to share by now. I've mostly been busy tweaking my resume or CV, depending on the situation, to apply for jobs (that I'll never hear back from), and to some degree with just regular "house" stuff...M's workload is lighter these days and he gets home earlier, around 5:30 pm, which gives me less time to get through everything I want to do before he gets home. Once he gets home, we usually don't want to talk about work, do work, or see work (which doesn't apply to all things that include the word "work" as someone has to do some "house work" around here after dinner, like load the dishwasher and clean up the kitchen, etc.). For the sake of being fair though, M does help with those things, but he claims I have very "strict" codes as to how things should be done, so I end up doing more. Anyway, if I keep writing about this matter, this post might turn into a full blown rant, so I'll just stop here.

Saturday afternoon we went out for a stroll (well actually we had to go out to take M's guitar to the shop because it was in need of some adjustment), and ended up walking around afterwards. We passed by the Notre-Dame Basilica , and in front were these horse carriages:


Some of the carriages were decorated for V day, although I don't think any of them are visible in the picture. Then we decided to go in...It is pretty impressive inside, too, and I believe it is one of the popular choices in Montreal for a wedding ceremony. Then we moved on, and passed by a cupcake store, which kind of surprised me because I had never realized there was a cupcake store there (crappy picture taken by yours truly once again):

I've read that cupcakes are not that big in Montreal, and Montrealers have a hard time grasping the whole "boutique" cupcake craze (that I heard was made famous by Sex and the City and Magnolia Bakery in New York), mostly because it's so easy to come across delicious bakery products here at every corner, and cupcakes in comparison seem like something you would buy at a baking sale...But of course it has caught up in the last few years, and I'm planning to check them out here because from the reviews I read, that store has the best ones. It's not a cupcake boutique, but a general cake boutique. I'm not a big fan of icing, but the reviews are so good, one has to go and try them.

We stopped on the way so that I could listen to these ladies gossiping:

And later we had dinner at this small joint where the hamburger, to my surprise, kicked ass...I think it was the patty that was seasoned with garlic, and it tasted like it was cooked on fire, and the bread was so crunchy my mouth is watering just thinking about it right now. During dinner, M's brother called and said they decided to have a V day party, and asked if we would stop by, and we did...There were heart shaped cookies, and cupcakes (not boutique ones though, hahaha), and decorations. It was nice in a red and pink sprinkles on white icing kind of way.

There are some other pictures and things I want to post, but for now I think I'll stop here, because I have a graphical design program I need to familiarize myself with, and a CV to send. I sometimes wonder if I should be writing about more serious stuff, rather than my mundane life, but I guess right now I am in that kind of phase, where I need to write about mundane things, because everything else is so "busy"...This is my escape from the hectic world, where I get to slow down and remember/appreciate the good moments I had, and to remind myself of the things that really matter-the things that make me happy. Speaking of things that make me happy, here's a bean chili that I made this week:


Maybe you can take the girl out of the south, but you can't take the south out of the girl...Next week, it'll be exactly 1 year since I moved to Montreal, and although things haven't been that great on the job search front, I do not regret for one second that I made this move. And maybe the whole job search thing and the frustration over it are what have made me consider new options, and made me start something I would never think I could do...But I sure do miss real "ice tea", and the great conversations that could be had over a great cup of chili.

Random stuff

• I'm still alive (as you can see/read). I stayed away from roe, eel, and sake last night, and ate about 1/3 the sushi I would normally eat...The result? A slightly itchy throat, a big red allergy spot under my right eye, and a slight GI symptom, but nothing compared to the horrible reactions I had before. So, I guess every once in a while, I can eat sushi. I'm just wondering if there will come a time when I'll just swell up and not be able to breathe, and if I'll still insist on eating sushi then, too...
  
• M. and I discovered this TV show called Dexter...It's pretty good.
• My friend N. is coming to take my picture(s) tomorrow. This red bump under my eye is not very sightly and this is not how I want to be photographed. I must have thought my timing through. It will be a VERY natural photo shoot after all he he.
• My scarf/belt/accessory thing is doomed. I keep trying to knit, but due to the bulky and inconsistent nature of the yarn, none of the patterns I try look like what I want it to look like. I might have been right about the tea cozy/sock theory after all.
• I found out that choosing/finding a business name is very hard. There's the image I want the name to project, and then there's the fact that all the cool names are already taken. I might put a poll here once I have a few eligible names, in a few months.
  
• I find it amusing that a post I made about an old song is what is referring people to my page...Apparently, I'm not the only one confused about the lyrics...
• Sometimes I go back and read my older posts, and then find typos in them...Argh...
• As I was walking back home after having coffee with a friend today, I started thinking about "personal life" choices and "career" choices, and at what point one becomes more important than the other, and at what point we can try to reconcile the two...Tough decision that one...
  

Dear Readers,
I've been trying to convince M. to take me out to eat sushi, and up until now he wouldn't hear of it...Given my latest track record with eating fish, I agree that this is probably a very, very bad idea. However, I got just the slightest hint of hesitation this morning as he was leaving for work (yup...I ask him morning and night and every other chance I get in between), so I am determined to get my way tonight. For starters, I haven't prepared anything for dinner. I think that's a pretty good place to start. M. will not be able to cook anything either, unless he wants to go grocery shopping when he gets home, as I made sure to clean out the fridge today (actually, the fridge made sure I cleaned the fridge out, long story, but we had our fridge replaced today, for a short period of time, since ours died on us, leaving us with nothing but apples, lettuce, milk, and condiments...I will hail the man who can whip something up from that...)

You might wonder why I am waiting for him to take me out when I am perfectly capable of going alone myself for lunch or something. Well, I think the consequences will be easier to handle if I can somehow get him to go with me, and it is good to have someone at home when I get sick and feel like passing out. Besides, it will definitely be easier to handle later if he knows I'm going. I don't want to have to deal with the whole "I told you this was a bad idea but you did it anyway and you had to sneak behind my back" drama...

I am armed with Benadryl, and I will eat my sushi tonight even if it means being sick for the next 48 hours. Just giving you a heads up if you don't hear from me for some time. I'll be sick, but at least I'll be happy...

Vous désirez la perfection

This was what was in my fortune cookie last week at the Chinese restaurant...You desire perfection...Well yes I do thank you very much! That was hard to miss, what with all the complaining, the non-satisfaction, the procrastinating tendencies...What should have come out of that cookie is "Cut the crap, perfection is an illusion, you cannot have what doesn't exist, and if you continue down this path, be happy you will not" (imagine for a second that Yoda said that last part). Doesn't that sound more like a "fortune"? What I got was a "stating the obvious cookie". I wanted to see something like "Weather will be nice(ish) this week. Your lucky numbers are 06 13 37 55 93" or "You'll need to buy a new pair of socks. Your lucky numbers are 09 44 45 76 80" (there's no pattern to those numbers so don't look for one). My cookie was not perfect, it didn't even have my numbers! ;) I taped it onto my laptop nonetheless, but the tape job wasn't perfect so I was upset about that...for about 30 seconds. I didn't want to redo it because I know it will not be any better, so I'm still procrastinating on that.

Had a very nice weekend overall. Saturday night I went out for drinks with 2 girlfriends for about 2.5 hours, after which I met M. to go to Bistro à Jojo, a blues bar where a band we really like, Unkle Groove, was performing.


This band has only 3 people, a drummer who also does the lead vocals, a guitarist, and a bassist...They play what could be categorized as "classic rock" I guess, and they must love Pink Floyd, because they do some awesome covers. They are very good at what they do...

One of the greatest things about Montreal is that the whole music and arts scene here is very old, strong, and evolved, which gives it a very bohemian feeling while ensuring that you'll never be disappointed when you go out to listen to some live music. In one of my French classes, we had to find words for describing Montreal, and every single person in the classroom picked "artistic" as one word of choice. Others were "joie de vivre", cosmopolitan, unique, energetic, lively, dramatic, romantic, animated, free, beautiful, historical, European, delicious, and contradictory. I think those words sum up my feelings about this city completely and with accuracy.

This one

I got together with my friend N. today for some quality girl time and wonderful tea at Camellia Sinensis. I met N. at my French classes here at the university, and it was so nice to see her again after 1.5 months. We really didn't practice our French that much, as we had a lot to talk about and only so much time. Talking in English was a lot easier and faster :) .

N. is a professional photographer, and hence she's "self-employed"...She's also Canadian so I got to pick her brain a little about setting up your own business here in Canada. She gave me a lot of good ideas about how to get started. The more I talk to people about my plans, the more encouraged I feel. I guess I am expecting people to reply back "Why, have you gone off your mind? That's ridiculous, what are you talking about?!?You cannot do that!" when I tell them about what I think will make me happy and what I want to pursue. But there hasn't been one person who said something even remotely negative (and that includes my dad!), so maybe I really am onto something good here and the whole environmental/eco-conscious market is just starting to pick up here, so it might just be the right time to get started. Only time will tell...

Anyway, N. said she wants to get back to doing something a little more "artistic" than what she's currently doing, so she asked me if sometime in a few weeks she could photograph me...I, of course, said yes, and I didn't forget to warn her I'm a terrible poser. But she said I just have to be "natural" so it won't be one of those fancy photo shoots with nice clothes and make-up, but something else, where I get to be just...me...at home. She said she would give me the ones that I like to keep. YAY! And she would I guess use some of them for her own portfolio. So that gives me something exciting to look forward to in a few weeks...

It's the little things like this, or running into M. at the grocery store at 5 pm on a weekday (because he decided to surprise me) that make me happy...My heart even did the whole "skip a beat" thing. I've been watching Sex and the City episodes again after a looong time, and have been thinking about what "the one", "soul mate", etc. etc. mean to me...I believe M. is all those things (and more) but I don't really care about "THE ONE", I am just glad that THIS ONE has picked me.

Could it be?!?

Well...It turns out that maybe (just maybe) my self employment fantasies might come true...I met some wonderful people today who gave me much encouragement and made me feel excited about my business plan (I might even have found my first client haha). Now I need to start drafting an actual business plan and conduct some market research to see how I might be able to market my services and I guess I'll take it from there. I know that this is not something to be taken lightly, and that I need to proceed with caution, so I will take this slow and not rush anything, but I want to lay the foundation and start it up maybe in 1-2 years...It seems that the right "tools" are there for young professionals (or "entrepreneurs") like me if one wants to pursue the "self employed" career path. In the mean time, I will keep looking (and hopefully find) an "in the meantime" job that I may or may not quit once I really get going. I would definitely like to/want to be able to teach while I am pursuing this path...But the good thing is what I want to do is:
-related to my field of study...well, actually it IS my field of study
-a Ph.D. might very well come in handy
-I don't need huge amounts of capital to get going, I can probably start it from my "home office" and so I wouldn't really be taking a huge risk if nobody was interested in what I'm offering...

On the other hand:
-I need to be really able to "sell" my services which means a lot of PR stuff, some or all of which I might not be able to do myself
-I need to create a really solid business plan and be able to handle all the financial and legal aspects, or be able to afford those who would be able to take care of said aspects for me
-Preferably, I would have to get some official certification(s) at some point (maybe after I make some money, if I can) to further my business and services, and the certification processes can be complicated and costly...

So, we'll see how it goes, but like I said, this is not something that will happen anytime soon, as it needs to be well-planned. M. is very supportive, and I'm thinking, if I can get another "in the meantime" job and make an actual living, then why not? After all, I think I've established for myself lately (after some deep introspection) that what I ultimately want is to own my own business and do what I like doing in my own field of study...Not academic research that involves laboratory work and definitely not designing sewer pipes for the rest of my life (but in the near future I might have no other option but to do those things to get me closer to my dream).

I feel so relieved...I have a dream, I have a plan, I feel like I solved a great mystery that was hanging over my head for so long...And I have no clue how or when the light bulb went on.

I got a peppermint mocha from Starbucks today, and realized I haven't had one of these for almost a year, and this was the second time in the past year that I actually went to Starbucks. Wow...And I think it might have cost cheaper than what it used to cost me in the U.S., although I can't be sure because I don't remember exactly what it cost before. It just remember it felt ridiculously expensive (probably because I drank it often), and today it didn't sound that bad when the cashier said the price, as I was prepared to pay upwards of $4. I found that at the grocery store right across the street (where I don't shop that often), lemons that come from the U.S., the same brand that I used to buy in the U.S., are also cheaper here. I don't understand how that can be, something doesn't make sense. At my "independent" neighborhood grocery store where I shop most of the time, everything is so cheap I sometimes buy 3-4 bags full of groceries (mostly fresh fruits and veggies of all kinds, bread and dairy products like milk and yogurt) for only $15. I read somewhere that Montreal is famous for it's cheap fruits and veggies because Montrealers don't like to pay a lot for produce. Also, there's no tax here on fresh produce or basic food needs, you pay only the total of the prices you see on the labels, so it makes it feel even cheaper. All in all, I feel very lucky to live somewhere where buying real food (like tomatoes...or peppers...) is not considered a luxury.

M. took the morning off from work today because we had to go get our health cards, and he had to renew his social insurance number...Two different government offices at two different locations, and we were done in about an hour total. Apparently we chose a good day to get all that stuff done, because I waited an hour to get my social insurance number alone from only one of those offices before. It felt nice to spend the morning with him, kind of like we were on vacation or something, because we never get to walk around, have lunch, ride public transportation etc. together during the week (or the weekends for the past two weeks for that matter) . Around 1 pm. he had to go to work, and I went to Eaton Center to buy some shampoo and look for a wallet for myself (as I had mine stolen about 2 weeks ago). I found the exact wallet I've had stolen, but I had a bad feeling about it for some reason, so I didn't buy it. All the other wallets I liked were out of my price range, so I guess I'll have to keep looking.

Tomorrow I am going to a seminar about the job scene here in Montreal and starting your own business. I hope it will be useful and give me some clues as to where else I should be looking for job ads/opportunities. I am also looking into self-employment options, although I am not sure if I can realize what's in my head for a lot of reasons, an important one being that I have no clue what it takes to set up one's own business here and how to market one's services and how I would create a client base, all the legal aspects, etc...Well, hopefully I'll know more after tomorrow, but I am sure it would feel so good to be your own boss. Ahhhh, did I mention before my fantasies have no boundaries?