Today Apple released their updates for their notebook lineup, iphone, and sneak peaks of their new operating system, “snow leopard”.  The new iphones are quite cheap.  I took a look at the site and the new iphone is 99 bucks for 8gb.  For a phone that gives you unlimited web surfing for ten bucks a month is great.  You really don’t need a computer if you’re just planning on keeping up with the newest news.  Also, the software released with the iphone is also available with the ipod touch.  You can actually make phone calls with your ipod touch.  Only while you’re in hotspots though.  These phone calls can be free with some apps as well.  Cheaper than a cellular contracts.  Free texting is available as well.  I would say, if you have the money to invest in an ipod touch.  Get it!

Apple made nice improvements to their notebook lineup as well.  In my opinion, they pretty much discontinued the macbook.  They only have one option for it for crying out loud.  While the macbook pro now has six different configurations to choose from.  They’re a bit pricy, but it’s worth it.  The computer that I’m typing this blog on is a mac.  It’s a G5 Powerpc.  It’s not Intel and I’ve never had a problem with it.  It’s moving a bit slower these days, but it still works fine.  I bought it in the Spring of 2005 and it still works just fine.  I can’t do any intense video editing on it, but when it comes to just daily computer use; it’s just as good as anything else.  On the flip side, there is my girlfriends cheap pc.  She bought it late 2005 and it doesn’t work anymore.  Well, it comes on.  But that’s about it.

Snow Leopard is set for release sometime in August.  For current mac owners the update to the new operating system is only 29 bucks.  Look up how much Windows charges and you’ll appreciate the low cost.  For more information on the updates and everything else going on with apple you can visit these web-sites.

 http://store.apple.com/us?mco=MTE2MjI

 http://www.macrumors.com/

I thought this video was interesting and I decided to share.

how to eat out and STILL MAKE HEALTHY CHOICES
have you been wondering for some time now why you always have salads for lunch and sometimes dinner as well but just cant seem to be getting into better shape (you know you should lose the salad dressings but that makes the salads taste unbearable….ehem.. lol). Don’t get me wrong, this is not a manual for an overnight miracle (if you are looking for one), but it is a sort of collection of information that will bring about some kind of positive change. Yes we want those abs and everything tight, but that’s just us envying what we haven’t got, so right now, I would just like to bring your focus onto enjoying better health for now and a lifetime to come and those ab’s will eventually become just an added bonus.
With some help and pressure from someone I love and I am began my quest for better health about two years ago. At that time I did not realize just how terrible my eating habits and diet choices were. Reading the articles and books has convinced that one of the most important things in this life is good health. This is something that took time to sink in. I will be sharing little by little all the useful information that I think will help me achieve my goals for better health while also accommodating the fact that I’m student, I usually eat out and I cant cook.
I dont cook much if not at all, and I’m sure most of us do not either, we eat out quite regularly and we usually eat out in the restaurants whose portion sizes are humungous and well priced – MORE FOOD FOR LESS CASH . The food industry is cashing in on our tendency to want a better deal and they are increasing portion sizes as well as the gunk in order to give us more for less. increased portion sizes come with an increase in meat, fat, sodium, sugar and everything else, the good and the bad and this comes with a heavy price on our health and well being, who can resist the temptation to eat more while spending less money – I’m sure we can blame this on the economy). BUT REMEMBER,  the monetary savings is only short lived because trust me, we’ll spend even more during the course of life to try and get our health back while battling all these monsters like heart problems, diabetes, cancer and you name its.

It is important to know how many calories your body needs and then consume appropriately. each person’s needs are different, but by visiting some online resources you can figure out how many calories you need to consume depending on your age, gender, weight and fitness goals. The US goverment recommended that adults get about 55% calories from carbohydrates, less than 30% fat, 15% from protein. for a quick calculation for your daily calorie requirements, visit: http://www.thetrainingstationinc.com/Nut… this calculator will tell you how many calories and grams from protein, fat, carbs you need to consume each day to achieve your goals. and with the help of a pyramid you can modify this to suit your needs. !

Its easy to feel like we have no control over how much we eat and how the food has been prepared, But we do, we can begin by choosing where to eat and what to eat if and when we need to eat out. needless to say, is the food industry oversizing Americans or are we making choices that oversize us?

with the help my readings, I have compiled a small list of habits that we can follow list that may help you decide what to eat and how to eat when you eat out. and yes I did try to be as realistic as possible.

• If we learn how to make smart choices when we sip, we can lose a few pounds every month—without giving up most of our favorite foods or ever dieting again. And I have experienced the change.
• portion control is also a very important part of eating healthy and consuming just the right amount of food that one needs. just because it has been served does not mean it has to be eaten all at once..  You can always ask for a place to pack your remaining food if it feels like you need to get your money’s worth.
• another thing is ” cheaper is not always better”
• chosing what to eat and how to eat from various restaurants:
• Counting calories doesn’t mean your meal is healthy. For example: the Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich matches the Quarter Pounder without cheese when it comes to caloric content—but the chicken has no trans fats, while the burger does.
• Still feeling hungry after the last bite? Order another Garden Salad. You’ll still take in fewer calories than if you had consumed a small order of fries.
• when ordering your salads, avoid the dressings and use vinaigrettes instead, they contain fewer calories and less of the bad fat.
• eating slowly and taking time will allow you to realise when you get full. It takes 20 minutes for your brain to tell your body it’s full, so start with a salad and then proceed slowly with the meal.
• eat just a portion of what you have been served. remember begin with a salad and have extra veggies instead of extra potatoes or etc.
• to find out alternatives to the murderous burgers we eat, visit:
   

  ” title=”http://www.menshealth.com/eatthis/index.php

” target=”_blank”>http://www.menshealth.com/eatthis/index….

• and to determine how many calories you need to consume a day visit: mypyramid.gov has a lot of information on how to eat what we eat and in what quantities we should eat

THE NEXT POST WILL BE A CONTINUATION! GOOD READING!

       Summer spring is here and most people i know have been waitin for the weather to get warm in order to begin shedding a few extra pounds of fat or flesh (watever you might like to call it) that they gained during the colder months. the interesting thing is that the weather doesnt seem to  be making up its mind on wether to get warmer or stay cold. its like everytday is a different season, this means that many have not yet got the courage to brave out a walk quite as frequently as they want to. these many include myself, everyday i say to myself “today is the day i’m going out to jog or just brisk walk” but it seems like everyday something comes up, usually its in the form of a cloudy sky and chilly weather, but sometimes its just being busy. hmmmm i wonder if that is actually just an excuse or if its actully a legitimate reason. regardless, i have been visiting various sites to learn more about how to attain better health and most of them: the genuine ones that is, begin my advocating better eating habits, some go on to advocate diets but one thing in common is that they all talk about improving on what we eat, nutrition nutrition nutrition!.

      Many of us dont realize just how bad we eat, i recently took my nutrition course here at wayne state and this was at a time were i always wondered why i just seemed to get bigger and bigger even when i tried to lose size, finally i gave up trying to be smaller and contendently blamed it on genetics, which i still do up till today, run me up and ask me! anyway, like i was saying, i recently took a nutrition course and our lecturer made us write down everything we ate for 5 days including a weekend and to calculate the total calories and nutritional information of the food (carbs, fat, protein)……we did ….and ….i was suprised. how i actually eat is way far from the way i think i eat and its a far cry from healthy. my diet was/is made up of calorie dense(typically high in fats and sugars) but nutrionallly empty food. Many of us choose the foods we eat based on immediate gratification, without much thought about the long-term effects of our selections. This often results in choosing foods that taste good, but are not good for us at all. all the pictures below represent 200 calories. 

     Perhaps if i ate more at AVI (this is the food supply chain for the wayne state university diners) i would’ve been in better shape, theres so much tasty and untasty food thats good for you as well as tasty and untasty foods thats bad for you, my point basically being, theres a lot of variety and selection which is  a plus for those of us that are trying to get into shape. but again, who’s to say, many wayne state students do realize that the menu in the student cafe’s is off the chain.

        This spring summer semester the Mort Harris recreational center (wayne state university’s state of the art gym..for real) well equiped with even a women only and men only section, rock climbing, an indoor track and etc this place is pleasant. it offers spring summer training to help get us started with our sring summer fitness goals. this will be an 8 week program beginning may 19th and morning, afternoon and evening classes are available to help us work with our schedules visit the link below to get more information:   

 http://rfc.wayne.edu/power-training.php

Today was the first day of class for the spring/summer semester and I don’t think it’ll be so bad.  Everyone has there own opinions on how many credits to take during the Spring/Summer semester because of how compressed the class schedule is, but I believe that as long as a person studies and stays on top of their work they will have nothing to worry about.  I guess I’ll let you guys know how well the semester is going for me after a couple of exams pass.  Or maybe I won’t.  ;-)

I recently had my cable television turned off and in its place now is the internet.  I usually just view a few channels on television and mostly ESPN and Discovery.  I have found those episodes online to watch anytime I want and it’s much cheaper than paying a bill for television.  My internet plus cable bill was 80 bucks a month.  I cut that in half for just the internet and I can watch whenever I want.  I’ll let you guys in on my secret websites where I view any show I would like to anytime I want, but you can’t spread the word to far ok?  www.ovguide.com.  This website will take you wherever you want to go.  It will show you most of what you want to see and it is a free service.  The only issue is streaming.  At times it can take a while for a show to load if the file size is large, but I think it beats paying for television anytime.  Also, nba.com has a service where you can watch all the nba games you want live for somewhere around 100 bucks for the season.  Yes, I will never miss another NBA game again.  Like I said, all I watch is ESPN and discovery.  Sometimes the food network, but that doesn’t count much because that decision is usually influenced by my girlfriend.  So I’m basically paying 50 bucks a month for ESPN, discovery, and the food network because I don’t watch the other channels!  Ever!  So, to make a long story short.  I just wanted to spread the word about ovguide.com.  Hulu.com is also another great source of online television.  Some links to the websites are below.  Enjoy!

 http://www.ovguide.com/tv.html

 http://www.hulu.com/

A couple weeks ago Wayne State University held it’s annual Mad Anthony Concert.  I heard rumors that this was the last one that Wayne State is holding.  I hope that is not the case, but if it is Wayne State is headed down the wrong direction.  Mad Anthony has been the biggest most entertaining event for students and the surrounding area of Wayne State since they started Mad Anthony.   Nonetheless, Mad Anthony was a success in April.  The entertainment was awesome.  Artists such as Joya Weeks, Lady Te, and N.E.R.D performed live. There was a magician who’s magic tricks weren’t all that great, but the guy was funny.  So he made up for his lack of talent.  The place was packed, it was a beautiful day, and I wish Wayne State would hold events like Mad Anthony more often.  Especially during the late summer months and during the fall semester.  The only downfall to the concert in my opinion was the profanity, especially from the hosts.  It was a complete slap in the face to me.  Mainly because I felt like a professional University didn’t feel like we could still have plenty of fun without reducing themeselves to what they believe our level is.  Which seemed to be ignorance.  I don’t remember where I heard this, but a mysterious woman in my memory said, “A mind that supports its sentence structure with profane language is an ignorant mind with no will for success”.  I think about that quote and I reflect on the choice of words from the hosts at Mad Anthony and their choice of words in my opinion were completely unnecessary.  Complete inappropriate!  There were plenty of children in the audience filtering in from the outside as well.  Don’t get me wrong, the concert was hype!  However, everything has something to critique and the unnecessary use of profanity at Mad Anthony is mine.  I took some footage of the event.  Take a look and I hope you enjoy if you didn’t make it.  Until next time….

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cHLlOtT5…

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think the human race is taking global warming serious enough.  Seriously!  Sea creatures that are meant for warm water are now residing near the north and south poles.  Here is an article concerning that.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/15/climate-change-polar-species

We all know that the glaciers are melting which will in turn raise sea levels and the ozone layer fading away.  I mean seriously, how much of our planet must we loose before we decide to make some drastic changes?  Yes, we are trying with the electric vehicles but that isn’t enough.  How about shutting down all of the factories that produce vast amounts of pollution?  Yes, we will lose much money but the earth will become healthy again.  Isn’t that more important than making money?  I think it is.  They say that some glaciers will be gone completely between 2030 and 2050.  And the article below tells you the vacation spots to visit before the warming earths temperature destroys them completely.  I read this article and the feeling behind the article is “it’s going to happen and we aren’t going to do much to stop it”.  That’s how I felt about it and it’s not right.  Instead of saying “visit these places before they’re gone” say boycott ford motor company or don’t purchase whatever from this factory or the next.  Yes, it will be a huge step back from our “luxurious” way of living, but that is the sacrifice that must be made in order to save our planet from dying.  We don’t recognize it now (for some odd reason), but global warming is effecting our health currently.  Science Daily released an article that says, “ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2005) — In a recent chilling assessment, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that human-induced changes in the Earth’s climate now lead to at least 5 million cases of illness and more than 150,000 deaths every year.”  They also said, ”Those least able to cope and least responsible for the greenhouse gases that cause global warming are most affected,” says lead author Jonathan Patz, a professor at UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.”  Now I don’t think that is fair for those not creating all of these problems, but this is the reality.  

Now what should we do about it?  Can we do anything about it?  Yes we can.  We would just have to accept and learn to appreciate a new way of life.  What that life would involve?  I’m not sure, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have cars and factories and everything else.  Our ancestors did survive without the use of factories and vehicles.  I’m not saying we should begin living like that again.  I’m just saying I’m sure there is a way to live without killing ourselves and our planet.  

 http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/02/17/glo…

Wayne State is holding an event  entitled, “Saving our Planet: The Challenge of the 21st Century” and the speaker is award-winning scientist, environmentalist, and broadcaster Dr. David Suzuki.  He is being interviewed in the video above.  The event is taking place Thursday, April 23, 2009 from 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM at the Community Arts Auditorium.  The event is free and open to the public.  For more information you can contact Michael Hicks at (313) 577-5550 or  focis at wayne.edu.  I would say attend this event because it involves very useful information about the previous, current, and future health of the planet we live on.

My nephew showed me this clip yesterday.  It’s sad because it’s not a movie, but at the same time I thought it was kind of cool.  

I found a website today that gives 10 grains of rice to every word that you mark with the correct definition.  I actually found that it is quite fulfilling as you see the amount of right that some kid or family will receive soon.  The site is free, you don’t need an account.  All they ask is that you try to match the correct word with the definition.  They also have various levels.  As you begin to mark many words correctly, to keep you on the website the words become harder.  Basically, you produce a stronger vocabulary as well as helping a family somewhere and it is all free for you.  Just visit the website at www.freerice.com and check it out.  Here is a direct link to the website below.  Enjoy!

 http://www.freerice.com/