Phil's Home Journal

I'm trying to do more writing now that summer is upon us so here's a little excerpt from my War Journal er Food Journal same thing as far as I'm concerned.

Friday: I didn't have time to prepare a salad for school so I went to Organic Forever (2053 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, NYC) and had a little of the sprouted brown rice, chick pea salad (w potato and spinach) and steamed veggies with a veggies black bean chipotle burger on sprouted wheat bread w/ sprouts and lettuce and tomato.

there was a baby shower for the Assistant Principal of the school and I contributed to her gift but originally didn't want to go to the party because "there's gonna be a lot of food there so I should avoid it" luckily I thought better of it and came in and hung out. It was completely decorated in a checkerboard motif, flags and tablecloths (that's always an indication to me something is approved by the universe) I had fun, spoke to people. I felt a part of. We shouted "surprise!" I had some water with ice and when the food started getting doled out it was time for me to cover a class. so I bid the guest of honor a hearty farewell and was out. and I felt good.

I was at MNN working behind the scenes on "Something To Offer" i did my best. I did audio, character generation and some camerawork. I felt good about it. Reminder to take that final cut class this summer!

Her first guests were Jeremy Taylor (Step Up!) and Richard Speziale (DVTV) who were the Director and Editor of Burma: An indictment I highly encourage everybody to check the documentary and go to the website: FreeBurmaAlliance.org

In contrast to the starving in Burma, the hallway s of MNN had every single tempting food laid out for me in mass quantities, junk food, munchies, candies I liked, even bunches of apples and bananas, grapes. The second show had as guest, Joyce White made a great salad but with big healthy slabs of chicken. I had to calm down and relax I was scheduled to eat later and i gotta stick to the plan. never deviate from the plan.

For dinner I went to my absolute favorite restaurant Empire Schezuan Kyoto, I had my normal design your own dish: steamed vegetables (broccoli, spinach and green beans) with tofu, cashews and brown rice with black bean sauce on the side. I had a nice conversation with two eighth grade boys who engaged me in conversation during dinner over the book I was reading (Napoleon Hills Laws of Success) over 1000 pages! We discussed literature summer reading plans and artistic pursuits. they were sharp and will go far in life. it gave me optimism for the future of youth.


Saturdays food:
Breakfast: 1oz shredded wheat, 1oz raisins, .5oz milled flaxseeds, 1 banana, 8oz unsweetened soymilk

Snax: Granny smith apples

Lunch: steamed vegetables and tofu with cashew nuts, brown rice and black bean sauce on the side.

Dinnr: if I go to a diner I will have a veggie burger on whole wheat bread with lettuce and tomato, pickle and baked potato (if they offer a salad or steamed vegetable, that too.) If not I will go home and have my regular home meal of salad with cucumber, 4 color peppers, tomatoes, radish, alfalfa sprouts, capers, balsamic and olive oil. Perhaps some quinoa with beans and tofu, 1 baked yam, 2 slices of wheat bread and if I'm feeling crazy a lil steamed kale.

Mercury Rising

Safe among the vegetation: Jason Trachtenburg from the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players and the Pendulum Swings strikes a pose with me and my Mercury t-shirt at the 4th street Food Co op.


For the past couple of years I had cut out all meat except for fish. this was going well i was feeling healthy (with the exception of a strange lung thing that wasn't going away and and an itchy feeling all over that my doctors could not find the origins of or proof I was even feeling this.) was I going nuts? then it dawned on me puritis is a symptom of mercury poisoning so is insane thinking. so I got tested. I got a phone call from my doctor while i was on my way to buy more white albacore tuna in water for i only had 7 cans left an was in constant fear of running out (insane thinking) He asked how much fish do you eat. I said 7-12 servings a week over about a year. He asked if I could pare it down to 2 times a week and not eat tuna. (I was still trying to figure out ways I could sneak in some tuna into my diet until I realized that was insane thinking) .5 nanoliters of mercury in your blood is ok I had a whopping 29nl in my blood I received a letter from the Department of Health and spoke to the person in charge of Mercury. They also have one for Lead and other elements he informed me. He said when I got tested, anybody who hits over a 25nl of mercury on their blood sets off a red flag and he interviewed me to see if I had been exposed to anything like neon lights and other things. i told him how much fish I ate and he ran down a list of what I was not to eat

HIGH MERCURY Eat three servings or less per month:
Bluefish, Grouper, Mackerel (Spanish, Gulf), Sea Bass (Chilean) Ive had it, Tuna (Canned Albacore) a staple to my eating, Tuna (Yellowfin) no more sushi!,

HIGHEST MERCURY Avoid eating:
Mackerel (King) holy mackerel!, Marlin, Orange Roughy, Shark (I had it in Hawaii), Swordfish (I had it twice), Tilefish, Tuna (constantly)

this list can be found http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/guide.asp plus a list of fish you can eat (Wild caught salmon is ok farm ones has PCBs) but considering the current oil situation maybe I will stick to advice from Jason Trachtenburg of the 4th street food co op. (open to the public) and roll cruelty free. Here is a list of top 10 vegetarian protein sources. http://www.womenfitness.net/protien-option.htm

Personally, I enjoy quinoa (Inca red or plain) with beans is considered a complete protein.

Incidentally when I stopped messing with the mercury laden items, the itching and lung thing both went away. the insane thinking is still up for debate.

What exactly do I eat anyhoo?

Salutations all. It's been a hot minute since my last post. As of 3/1/10 I weighed in at 169.2 lbs, which begs the question: What the heck am I eating? I'm posting this now so I will never have to answer this question ever again. I can simply refer any curious person to this blog entry and their questions will be answered and the world spins.

Keep in mind I am a little ocd. Even as a child I categorized and stacked items like baseball cards and comic books in many different configurations. I do the same with food. I don't have to understand 'em, just rope 'em, throw em, brand 'em.


Breakfast: I eat the same thing 99% of the time 1 ounce of spoon sized shredded wheat (usually around 27 squares) 1 ounce sun maid raisins (approximately 63 raisins) .5 ounces milled flaxseed. 8 ounces (one cup) of unsweetened "Silk" soymilk (the green container, the regular has cane juice!) 1 banana and one centrum multivitamin. I use a polder travel scale to precisely weigh everything. I make at least 7 to 9 breakfasts at a clip so I dont have to do this every day like I did when I started this routine.


A friend told me there was a sale on shredded wheat so you can guess what I did: (My roomate walked in and said "Um.. What's this cereal display doing in the house?")












Dude! it was a dollar a box at Wallgreens! You woulda done it too except I cleaned em out!

Snacks: between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner I have one handheld fruit. I can have an orange, apple or pear. at this moment I prefer apples. I enjoy, honey crisps, cameo, pinova, galas, and golden delicious. I hate mealy apples like mackintosh and jonagold. Waxy apples like the incorrectly monikered red "delicious" super sweet ambrosia and winesaps. I am currently into Granny Smiths. The Iron Gym handbook extols the virtues of this apple so I'm holding that down. (Note all apples are face up, face down, face up...)



Lunch will be a salad of lettuce (I dig romaine, red, green, curly leaf and boston. I hate frisée and iceberg lettuce) Tomatoes (Vine ripened usually, heirloom when available) and 4 different peppers, cucumbers and alfalfa sprouts if use dressing it's balsamic and extra virgin olive oil, a lil' adobo or some sea salt. I mustn't forget the capers

!

I always like a baked potato. sometimes a yam or sweet potato. Tho I find yams sweeter than sweet potatoes, can you belive it?



the golden sweet potato is in the center then the yam.

Next I make a yum yum bumble bee salmon sandwich (in water) and I use veganaise. just read the ingredients and you'll never return to mayo again.




Dinner: actually I'll finish this later because this blog has reminded me it's time to eat! More later!

9.1.09: #198.2

1) #198: 9.08.1988



2) #296: 11.01.08



3) 11.01.2008 - 09.01.2009


*
4) 09.01.2009: #198

(*08.21.2009)

...

WHAT THE ...?

I guess I better just accept dimensional space as it is. Trying to figure out a way bend reality to hop between dimensions it just too dang hard. If you want to peep a good show about it I recommend Charlie Jade.

Canadian Trip - Day 7

My last night in Canada. perfect breakfast. I went to visit my Aunts grave today. Tio Tony's name is also on there. It kind of freaked me out at first but that's life. We are finite temporary beings with a beginning middle and end. Only children and fools in denial think otherwise. None of us escape it or should avoid the inevitable. Acceptance is the key. Once you do, life is easy to live. It's like me and food. Once I used to agonise every second of the day about what and when I was going to eat. Now I know what, when and how much I will eat and I'm happy. All choice has been eliminated now I can continue living my life.

At Titi Suzanne's grave I prayed, watered her flowers and had a good talk with her. It was very emotional. I gave my uncle some privacy and looked around and gravely read the stones. I saw the Hells Angel's grave. Large, very impressive. We drove home and the radio was playing American Top 40 with Casey Kasem from 1981. From the hints Casey gave I was able to discern that that the number 2 song was The theme from Greatest American Hero and Endless Love was number one knocking down Jessie Girl from the top spot. Man, I loved AT40. I would listen to that and Dr Demento religiously. I always wanted to be like Casey Kasem, DJing and doing cartoon voices that had to be the life. It was cool to go back to that time. Xmen were in the John Byrne, Terry Austin, Tom Orchezowski, Glynis Wein and Claremont phase. It was a good time to be alive. Correct that. Life is a good time to be alive. Every day above ground is a good day. Even if things are crappy. life will get better and worse. this is the nature of existence. My goal is to milk this life for all its worth. Better myself, help others. love God. Live. Love and one day die. affect positive change, create things I'm proud of. Even if I die tomorrow I can honestly say that I did my best. I put my head on my pillow and know I'm happy. I like myself. I have good people around me that love and care about me. Every day I wake up alive I have another day to do it all over again until I'm done, whenever that is.

When we got home I made Uncle Tony and I Salad and Salmon with Miracle whip, lettuce with whole wheat bread. Arlene came over and it was time to move into the final phase of the painting. Karine , Phil and Roselynn were coming for dinner and I wanted it done. Arelene DJed playing a combo of System of a Down, Tragically Hip and She Wants Revenge.

Aunt Sue's Sister came over and brought me a blessed Virgin Mary medallion from this old church in Montreal that you have to walk up the stairs on your knees while doing a succession of Hail Marys. She also requested I draw a cartoon of her grandchild, Frederique. No problem. I'm honored. I drew a picture of her daughter Olympic basketball player Patricia Mandeville 9 years ago.

Everybody came over right in time. Arlene and I put the finishing touches on Roselynns portrait and we had a fine unveiling. Everyone though the painting was groovy. Dinner was salad, tomatoes, red peppers, mushrooms, capers with homegrown cucumbers. Speckled trout, onions, steamed zucchini and mushrooms with garden grown string beans. After fine conversation and hanging out everyone went home and I said my goodbyes to my cousins. Uncle and I put up the painting. I believe this to be the finest painting I ever did.

Memo to myself: is "6Teen" just a french cartoon? I like the art style. clean.

hmn it's late I have to pack and make breakfast and lunch for tomorrow. I have a long trip back home. Bonne Nuite.

Canadian Trip - Day 5 and 6

Friday: I woke up prayed, meditated had a perfect breakfast sat on the swing and chatted with my Uncle then got straight to painting. Arlene assisted she also shares my moms ability to draw and is methodical and a bit of a perfectionist. A good quality especially because time is not on our side. Teamwork made the the dream work. We painted until it was time to make dinner. Pink Salmon w/ miracle whip on toasted Belgian whole wheat. Our Salad was romaine, red and orange peppers, cucumbers and capers, cherry tomatoes from my uncles garden with balsamic and extra virgin olive oil. A baked yam. Steamed mushrooms, zucchini and spinach. I saw an episode of 2 and a half men. That show makes my uncle laugh so much. I love to hear him laugh. Afterwards we did dishes. Next we set up for Karaoke night. Roselynn, Karine and her boyfriend Phil came over and we rocked out. I learned something important about Karaoke. You don't do songs obscure tunes you're into. That's only fun for you. You need to do songs people know. Also the doing the Smiths were bringing folks down. Things started getting fun with tunes that everyone can get into like Funkytown and Fame (Irene Cara not Bowie). My Uncle and cousin are wedding singers so they had a ton of karaoke versions of songs. I really hearing them sing. It was like a an all request concert just for me. I loved hearing Mercury Blues, Delilah and my cousin Arlene and Karine sang Dancing Queen by Abba and Spiderwebs by No Doubt (I forgot that was such a great song.) My cousin kept pointing out I do a shtick when I sing. A kind of mocking parody of singing. I'm no singer although I have been recently dreaming of songs that don't exist and I call my phone and record it on my computer. It's gotta be for some reason. Time will tell.



Me on the ferry wearing a Wolverine tshirt. He's Canadian eh?

Saturday 10:12am I am in a car on a ferry crossing the St Lawrence river to Berthier (berty-eh?) I'm staring at Gods face moving along the water. we are on our way to My cousin Marjorie's pad and swimming. It's 31 degrees with a humidity index of 40. That's multiply by 2 add 30 to switch Celsius to Fahrenheit. Sorel is a town that has a lot of bikers. The Hells Angels have a lot of homes here. This means a lot of cool custom motorcycles that would make Johnny Blaze jealous. On the ferry a guy gave a peek at his custom bike. Wen we came off the ferry we saw a whole bunch of custom cars. A ford cobra gt, a few Ferrari's and more motorcycles. Wow.

Noon time writing a friend: I am sitting in a comfy chair in the shade of a tree overlooking a swimming pool. A warm breeze rustles through the tree and fans me while I sniff at the freshly cut grass and write this. I am having a perfect moment constantly. Each moment gets better. I have so much love for God and my family and friends and my life I am so grateful for it. I've done a lot of thinking and speaking about life and death here. It truly is all good. It's all God.

3pm chilling poolside. Swam. Floated. Mmm. Nothing wrong with cruditiés. (San dip) Cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, mushrooms, yellow and orange peppers. Writing to capture moment is a little ridiculous especially because I am always trying to be present. 2 small pickles. Salad: curly leaf lettuce, yellow pepper, tomato and celery, a side of Marjorie's famous chickpea salad with cucumbers, onion, tomatoes parsley and love. The fish of the day was Pangasius with onion, steamed broccoli.

I spent the rest of the day being present , conversing listening to tunes. It was fun to see my cousins interacting with each other, quibbling and egging each other on with affection as only siblings can. It made me appreciate the relationship i have with my own sisters. I'm glad I had time this trip to spend with each of them one on one as well as together. We had a whole span of time to make up for.


Cosmo Girls:
Karine, Marjorie and Arlene