So, today is mother’s day. Happy Mother’s day to all mothers out there. 

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’m kind of curious to know why we need 1 day to celebrate our mothers, another one to celebrate our love, etc etc. I’m not a huge fan of those. It seems more like a huge marketing campaign (have you seen how much those cards cost? and the flowers which end up wilting in a few days anyway?)

What is life coming to, when you give a gift for seemingly no reason at all, and the first thing the other person thinks/says is “Oh my God, what did you do?!” / “What do you want from me?” This is the sad state of affairs right now…we’ve been brainwashed to believe gift giving is only for special days pre-determined by someone we don’t know at all. Someone we don’t even question, it’s just there, so we go with the flow, stop being sheep. We’re not here to be subjugated.  

Now, I’m not saying don’t celebrate your mother or your father, or your significant other. I’m just saying do it because you really care, not because “oh, it’s the special day, I have to get him/her something!” to me, it makes it more of a chore and isn’t honest enough. I like surprises and I like surprising people, when I can. That’s the archer in me talking, Sagittarians love spontanienty. And I know I probably don’t do it enough. 

If life has taught me anything, it’s that we need to appreciate our loved ones as much as we can whilst they’re still here. Yes, I don’t always agree with my mother, or my father, or my brother or any of the relatives. But, I don’t need a special day to tell them I love and appreciate them. I try to hug my mother everyday. My father not so much, he’s not the huggable type, sadly. But most military men aren't huggable anyway. I appreciate both of my parents for being here, and for supporting me, even if we don’t always agree on things. 

Appreciate our loved ones any day, any time, because sometimes they may not live long enough to get to that particular day. I lost someone very dear to me a few years ago, I’m just glad I got the chance to say I love him before Feb 14th came around. Life’s fragile like that. So don’t wait for the “special day” assigned by a disembodied entity. Don’t wait… give thanks, hug a loved one, take them out to dinner, enjoy your time with them. Appreciate them whilst they’re still around, because you never know when your time here is up with them.

Up until I saw the movie, I can’t say I was a huge fan of the Marvel universe. I was more of a casual fan. I’ve read a few comic books, seen all the previous Marvel Movies (Iron Man 1 & 2, Thor, Hulk, Captain America). The usual, life goes on stuff.  

Then along came The Avengers, helmed by Joss Whedon and….WHOA. It definitely had an effect on me, the good kind. So far, this is the only movie I’ve seen in the cinema more than once. I never thought I’d be one of those people, as I know ones who saw things like Titanic over 20 times at the cinema. I never quite got why people do that. Well, I do now and it took Joss Whedon to make me realize that. So thanks, Joss, for unlocking the cage where my inner fangirl was locked up for reasons unknown (so far...)

And I *never* fangirl over movies or TV shows or the actors…that much. Not even Nathan Fillion. Seriously! I thought I didn’t have any emotions as far as squee-ing and going crazy over actors and such. Okay okay, so there was that ONE moment I got hugged by Luciana Carro at ComicCon…but aside that, nothing. That is until Jeremy Renner who plays Clint Barton/Hawkeye. (as well as Tom Hiddleston as Loki and Chris ....well, actually the whole cast was appealing. lots of arm porn there.) But it goes beyond the looks and all that jazz.

Seeing The Avengers woke something up inside, something I thought I buried a long, long time ago. (no, not hormones! Geez!); still trying to figure it all out. There’s a few things that have clicked into place over the last week alone. Things that were out there somewhere floating beyond my reach, lost in that big picture. More on that in future posts as I’m still discovering things here. I can’t write fast enough to keep up with what’s going on in my head right now. But I’m sure it’ll come out eventually. It sort of already is, i'm just trying to make some sense out of it.

Those of you who know me well, and there’s not that many left out there….alive anyway…er…slightly creepy much? ... know that I love TV shows for bigger reasons than actors and the plot. I truly believe writers and directors have reasons behind doing what they do and why they write or shoot things in a certain way. I mean, they essentially create their own universes with the writing and the way shots are framed. I have a whole small library of books talking about different shows and their philosophy, psychology, characters and their motivations, the show universe, and a lot more. I’m watching for what I can learn from the characters as well as the story lines, and whether there’s anything I can apply to my own work. It’s interesting to know stuff like that, and it’s not just silly entertainment; there’s a lot more to it. If you’re on GoodReads, you can see my partial list here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3078015?shelf=tv-series-nonfiction-research

Joss Whedon’s ability to weave a good story with a variety of characters (as big as the Marvel characters involved) is part of the reason why I loved The Avengers. There was never a dull moment in that movie. And the way all the characters were brought together and worked off of each other was nicely done. Yeah, they didn’t all get along right off the bat, and that led to a few great fights between Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America as well as Black Widow and Hawkeye. Joss Whedon definitely proved the skeptics wrong when he pulled this off and the earning figures speak for themselves.

Each character had his/her own moment, even the minor ones. Agent Hill was introduced early on, and immediately thrown headfirst into an action sequence, which told the viewers quite a lot about what sort of a character she is. Of course not all main characters got equal screen time, Hawkeye in particular only had about 15 minutes of screen time throughout the whole movie, but considering what they did with him, I didn’t complain much (beyond not seeing more of Jeremy Renner onscreen). *grumble*

It makes sense, though, it was a quicker way to show off Barton’s skills and tell the audience what he's like without having to drag the story out. (plus, he was a bad guy in the comics at first too, so it's sort of fitting he was Loki'd 3 minutes into the movie. And I disagree with those who say Hawkeye is the most useless of the Avengers, he’s not, here’s why. Plus, having one of them compromised early on raises the stakes a bit, Barton was the logical choice for that IMO.

There’s a lot of dialogue and moments in there that resonated with me on a whole other level, and I hadn’t realized it after watching it for the first time. I just had an urge to watch it again and again. First time you essentially watch for the plot, anything after, you can pick out bits you missed, pick up on the more subtle things. I mean there was A LOT going on in that movie. This is why watching it just once isn’t enough. And like I said, I never felt that way about a movie.

And there weren’t any slow moments in The Avengers, each scene moved everything else along until it all came to a major climax at the very end.) The final battle was truly epic and it truly felt like I was reading a comic book instead of watching a movie. I think this was what woke up my inner fangirl. Joss  did a nice job in bringing everything together.

I would really like to get my hands on the script for this one. I hope they’ll release an official one. 

Some of my favorite scenes (WARNING: spoilers after the pic)

- The first scene, with the music and everything, you can tell the movie is going to be great.

- Loki’s introduction was quite literally smoking! 

- Loved the Heli-carrier lift off scene, coupled with the score it made it look so great! 

- Stark's "Phil? His name is Agent!" and the exchange that follows , including the juggling of the drinks and the tech, followed by Coulson standing awkwardly with a glass as Stark and Potts had their moment.

- Stark and Potts arguing over percentage and “I was having 12% of a moment” 

- Caulson “on hold” whilst Black Widow beats the crap out of the Russians

- Thor: “Listen well brother” [Iron Man flies in tackling him away] Loki: [deadpan] “I’m listening.” 

- Thor and Iron Man fight, joined by the Cap, and the "Are we done here?" after they level the whole forest. 

- Thor whacking Hulk with Mjolnir, and Hulk being unable to pick it up.

- Loki's "mewling quim" comment (surprised that made it through the censors, but even Joss is proud of sneaking that one in.)

- Stark asking Banner what was his secret, "Bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

- Caulson's "I watched you sleep" comment and the awkward scene that follows.

- Barton taking out the Helicarrier’s engine with one of his trick arrows. The shot of him with the bay doors open. 

- Stark and Banner exchanging some scientific stuff, Stark going "Finally someone who speaks English" and Steve goes "so that’s what that was!" 

- Steve’s “I understood that reference!” bit and Stark rolling his eyes at that in the background.

- Black Widow mindf***ing Loki, that scene was nicely shot. 

- Hulk punching Thor for no reason, without even looking that way. Completely random and hilarious.  

- Thor: “He’s my brother.” Black Widow: “He’s killed 80 people in 2 days” Thor's "He's adopted?" line; the delivery was nice. Chris snuck in a little question mark at the end there. I almost felt like he was going to hang his head in shame or something.

- Loki's speech in Germany. Chilling! and Tom delivers well.

- Hawkeye firing the arrow at Loki & Loki caught it but then got blown aside into Stark’s building, which lead to one of the best moments of the movie where:

- Loki gets pummeled by Hulk, that was just so random, yet such a typical Joss Whedon move! (plus it was in the comics too)

- Iron Man's: "Uh-oh" after he jump started the engine and Cap still hadn't pulled the lever.

- Barton / Hawkeye to Captain America: “It would be my genuine pleasure” 

- Hawkeye: “You’re going to have to get in line first” comment as he removes the tops from the arrows and puts the arrows back in his quiver. (see he’s environmentally friendly! He re-uses the arrows! that’s why it took him so long to run out.)

- Hawkeye shooting at a target whilst mid-conversation with others and not even looking that way. (one of the reasons that makes him a badass IMO)

- Hawkeye leaping off a building (shout out to the Ultimate Hawkeye comic), more badass points there. Although, I can't quite make out the look on his face as he does it. I'm not quite sure what he's thinking there. Like "Holy crap, what am I doing?!" or just one of those desperate times call for desperate measures things?

- the whole fight at the very end was really well executed, again, a lot of happening, but Captain America put all the team members to good use. Hawkeye up on the roof as the eyes and ears of the team telling them who’s doing what and where and ensuring their tails are kept clear; Thor and Hulk working together; Iron Man flying all over the place then assisting Captain America; Black Widow doing her thing. Everybody contributed and supported eachother to an extent, whether super powered or mere human. 

- Loki grinning up as Hulk's unleashed on the Helicarrier (and I know people complain about the seeming inconsistency of Banner being able to control the Hulk at the end of the movie whereas he was afraid to unleash it at the beginning. Remember that he’s highly susceptible to the energy in Loki’s scepter, this is why he picked it up in that scene shortly before Hawkeye and co invaded the Helicarrier.)

- Tracking shot of the whole team as they assembled with weapons armed. Seen it in trailers many times, but seeing it in context, with the music, is something else. 

- The group shot where they're all against Loki as he struggles up, followed by "if it's all the same, I'd like to have that drink now". (I want that on a t-shirt!)

Tons more, but I’ll stop here, since the whole movie was filled with great moments like that. And I’m not the only one who wants to see it again, there are many who watched it multiple times and are planning on going again. And why shouldn’t they? Avengers is a fun ride, especially if you’re into roller coasters. You know when a movie is great? When you walk out of it wanting to go back in and watch it all over again right away. When you walk out and you feel the adrenaline rush and keep the high for at least a few days. Yeah, like that. 

So yeah, I have heart (again). And I’m beginning to feel like I used to back in the days of role playing and writing. Back in the days before my baggage wasn't a truck load of stuff but just one suitcase and my mind was occupied with a lot of other things. That seemed to have diminished over the last few days. I have been writing a lot more in the last two days alone, that’s a huge accomplishment. I mean, how often do you see me update this thing? Exactly! And even those updates are halfassed, mostly. But it looks like that's changing, and I've been snapped back to my earlier years. I don't know, maybe I've lost some bagage everytime I go watch the Avengers? If that's the case, I'm definitely going again and again. 

But the point is..as Joss Whedon said recently: “All worthy work is open to interpretations the author did not intend. Art isn’t your pet — it’s your kid. It grows up and talks back to you.” 

Oh I hear it talking back to me. Every. Single. Time. And, you know what? It’s totally cool with me. I could use folks like Loki, Hawkeye, Stark and co as my muses, depending on what I’m doing. It’s great to have that sort of an arsenal, especially given what I do.

And if you think all of this is silly, that's totally fine by me. :-) Everybody has different experiences and tastes. This is just part of my experience. 

You guys are forgetting that Clint Barton is....what that thing called...oh yeah - human (with maybe a hint of a superpower in terms of eyesight). He's not a soldier on steroids, he's not a demigod, he's not a guy with a weapons suit of armor or a guy who can turn into a big green angry dude; Hawkeye is a weapons expert whose favorite weapon happens to be a recurve bow and a set of trick arrows. Which, to me, makes a lot of sense. Arrows are more accurate (depending on what he wants 'em to do). We've seen him take down one of the Hellicarrier's engines with one of those, and he took out another engine by scrambling the computer systems with another arrow. Arrows can do more damage than a typical gun. Especially the trick arrows Hawkeye uses. Who needs guns, right? You can do the same amount of damage, possibly more, with guns,but you'd need several different ones. With the trick arrows, it's more compact and user-friendly. More versatile too.

First time we meet Barton in this movie, he's watching from up above, you can tell he's brooding as well. I can't help but wonder what's on his mind.  When Loki tells him he's got heart, it's a good shout out to the Hawkeye of the past (he started out as a bad guy) of course we didn't get to see that in the movie, albeit he did briefly go to the Dark Side, although not by choice. This is why we need a Hawkeye movie! Jeremy Renner nails the bullseye as Hawkeye IMO. 

The final fight, Hawkeye had some badass moves on the ground as well as up on the roof. And Cap put him to good use by sending him up to the roof to be the eyes and ears of the team. It's what Hawkeye does best, he sees better from a distance. And he used the bow and arrows in nifty ways, covering others' asses and taking out bad guys from above. So what if Loki caught the arrow sent his way, we saw what happened next. So it worked out well. If anything, Hawkeye is a great cockblocker with those arrows. Can you imagine if Hawkeye wasn't up there calling out who's where, who needs help and so on? The team would be screwed and all over the place in so many ways given the size of that battle alone. 

So what if Hawkeye's archery technique is for the birds, and I'm not expert but I've used a bow under the guide of an instructor whilst on vacation a few years ago. But the myth of the character is more important than getting the moves all proper-like. You want accurate portrayal, go watch a documentary. This is a movie based on a comic book, a certain level of "unrealism" is to be expected. 

It was a nice touch for him to run out of arrows too, usually that doesn't happen, so there's your reality there to an extent; and when he leapt off the building and crashed through the window to land on his back amongst glass, he didn't get up right away. Although at first I was like "c'mon, get up!" but then I thought "he's human, what the fuck? Do you expect him to do a little dance right after THAT?" At the very minimum, he'd have been stunned and had the air knocked out of him. Trust me, been there, done that, (not crashing through a window after leaping off a building, mind you!) but, I couldn't move for at least a minute due to the sheer pain of the landing itself. So I can imagine the dude would've been quite stunned and in a decent amount of pain to get up right away, so he needed a bit of time to recover.

But the scene where they all assemble to hold up Loki, Hawkeye's the one in the middle, armed with his bow trained at Loki. That was just brilliantly framed and shot. It could've been Iron man, with guns raised, it could've been Black Widow with the "glow stick of destiny", it could've been the Cap with the shield, it could've been Hulk, it could've been Thor with the hammer, but no, it was Hawkeye in the center with his trusty bow and an arrow aimed at Loki. 

I saw the movie four times, and at first I didn't think they've uses Hawkeye enough, and I still think they didn't, but there's foreshadowing and hints of a tortured past if you watch closely. Out of all the others, he's the one with least "backstory" introduced, but perhaps that was cut out from the final movie. Because an EW.com interview here when asked about who's the most messed up of all, they all said Hawkeye. So I'm thinking there's gotta be more, stuff that got cut out, perhaps. (and Hawkeye needs his own movie!)

So, don't dismiss the archer just because he's got a bow and a set of arrows as his weapon of choice. He's human, and him and BW are way in over their heads in this battle. As Black Widow mentions earlier "this is nothing we were ever trained for" They're assassins and spies, not superheroes and fighters against monsters and magic. Yet these two held their own next to Thor, Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America, given their skills and one other thing - heart. Sometimes when you got heart, everything else just comes together when it's time. 

Clint "Hawkeye" Barton - most useless Avenger? I think not!

Besides, you can't quite do this with a gun:

Oh sure, you can cock a gun and whatnot, but this is much more fun. ;-) 

If there’s one thing that happens every time I run into an old friend, it’s the “OMG you’ve lost weight!” comment, sometimes followed by a “What diet are you on?” I’m not a fan of the diet industry, as such. Now, yes, I’m a vegetarian, but that alone isn’t exactly a diet, it’s more of a life style due to medical reasons from my childhood.  

As far as diets go, my diet plan is simple - stop eating you fat bastard! Nah, just kidding. but it is simple, as simple as cutting down on things like sugar (try it for 30 days and see how you feel, yeah the first few days won't be easy, but by day 30, it'll be a different story).

Diets don’t tend to work in the longterm, just over a period of a week or so. Most diets are hard to stick to, because you’re forcing yourself not to eat something (or to eat one particular group of foods). Diets are temporary. Let me ask you this, how many of you ladies went on a diet, lost the weight and got it back (with a bonus couple of KGs) within a month of going off said diet? What further proof do you need that diets don’t work in the longterm? 

Oh fine, let’s look at this handy infographic about the diet industry. 

And there's somewhere around 400 different diets out there. (including Acai Berry diet, and so on) I call mine the "no crap in my food" diet. sounds charming, no ? Okay, I'm not a marketer, if you can help me market that, jump me on Twitter or here. Kidding. ;) 

I used to eat everything with sugar (or sugar with everything? even Spaghetti was topped off with ketchup and then a heavy dosage of sugar , brown sugar that is, i thought that was healthier.) It's been found that sugar feeds cancers, increases cholesterol, weight and does a lot of whacky things to our cells, see the videos below for more info:

I never took to sweeteners, and rightfully so, most contain aspartame and don’t actually help you lose weight. Be honest ladies, have you lost weight (and kept it off?) with sweeteners in your morning cuppa tea? If you have, I guarantee it wasn’t because of the sweeteners alone. But, you *are* poisoning your body by consuming sweeteners and "diet" drinks. (which contain aspartame as well, so if you think you're being healthier just by consuming a diet cola instead of regular cola, the joke's on you)

For that matter, diet foods in general, it's all just marketing BS. Diet foods are a lot worse than non-diet foods. I don't know anyone who has lost weight by consuming diet foods. There's too much sugar and sugar-like ingrideints in there. Salt too. 

I was never one for counting calories, either. I think it’s a waste of time. Further, it loses sight of the more important issue: ingredients of what it is you’re eating. But if it makes you happy to know how many calories you’ve ingested, by all means, be my guest.

Based on research (reading multiple books as well as things available online) and personal experience, I made a choice not to eat anything with additives (those pesky E-numbers), flavor enhancers and chemicals masquerading around as food (and believe me, there’s LOTS of those out there on any given package). It's frustrating at first, because you tend to think "well those are in everything nowadays!" (no they aren't, you just have to look deeper, it can take a while, but eventually you'll zero in on the good stuff.)

I also made a choice to try and not to eat any version of sugar (high fructose corn syrup, glucose, etc etc). Read the label folks, it’s a real eye opener when it comes to finding out what it is you’re actually feeding your body. Who knows, you may lose that weight without having to wonder why aren't you losing that weight as you sip your diet cola after a hard workout.

Not sure how to read a label? Here’s a handy guide:

It's not easy, but it is doable. All you have to do is stop making excuses to yourself. :)

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I find it difficult to answer one of the typical ‘get to know you’ questions; the question here is “so what do you do?” My answer is usually “I freelance as a bunch of things” probably not the most convincing answer, but it’s as short as I can get. One thing comes to mind right now, it’s a quote from one of my favorite TV shows: "You can't open the book of my life and jump in the middle. Like woman, I am a mystery" ~ Captain Malcolm Reynolds in "Our Mrs Reynolds", Firefly. 

“So you don’t do anything?” is a response I get a lot, mostly by folks who consider 9-5 jobs as “proper jobs” and anything else is just… gosh… not possible. Yes, I freelance across various areas, I work for myself, I make my own schedule. I also co-own a family business with my father and my brother. Again, I make my own schedule. Doing a second master’s is part of that schedule, but it is not the sole focus of my daily activities. Over the years, I’ve learned to be able to focus on a number of things at once.

Since the 90s we’ve worked hard to get the business up and running and keep it going. For me that meant kissing goodbye to my social life the moment I came home and diving headfirst into the business and helping out where I could. At times it meant staying up late to pack spare parts to be sent overseas to our clients; long drives to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah were a weekly occurrence so we can personally deliver the cargo to the aircraft waiting on the tarmac. I lost count of how many all-nighters I pulled to translate various documents from one language to another, so that they’d be ready for my dad first thing in the morning so he and I could rush off to sign an agreement with a dealer. 

As a family, we were all involved; my father, brother, myself and my mother. Vacations were scarce, time off was a luxury we couldn't afford for fear of losing clients and thus the businesss. It is only over the recent years we’ve expanded enough to warrant the need to hire people and move into a bigger warehouse. More importantly it allowed for us to be able to take time off and travel at least two weeks out of the year. It also allowed my mother to go back to cooking home meals and taking care of the family instead of handling various car spare parts, boxes, packing tape, and other tasks not quite associated with women. I am still guilty of the latter part. The expansion let me take a step back, focus on what it is I want from life, I knew for sure it wasn’t a desk job or a job in the IT industry (for which I was, apparently qualified after getting my first bachelor’s degree). 

Over the years, I worked for Showtime (now Orbit Showtime). I worked for the University of Wollongong in Dubai. I worked for Madinat Jumairah Theatre. I’ve also worked for a Kuwaiti-based student magazine. I worked for online tutoring services and a host of other “odd jobs”. These are the ones I enjoyed to a degree, those I didn't, aren't worth mentioning in here. (I wasn’t kidding about that 4th mid-life crisis!) Currently I do a lot of volunteer work, because I’d like to. I could easily be charging people for putting together presentations & newsletters, training, helping folks pass IELTS and TOEFL, etc; but I don’t want to. I do balance the volunteer work with ‘paid work’ better nowadays.  

It is thanks to my family business I have been able to continue studying and “collecting degrees” as well as zero-ing in on what’s my whole damn point on this planet. I don’t talk a lot about my family or the business. It exists, it is a success, I’m still involved on a need-to-be basis. But I don’t go around advertising the fact either online or offline (mostly because it is completely irrelevant to the UAE itself as we deal with exports to other countries). 

My personal cards say I’m the #TwitBookClub organizer, freelance journalist, presenter/speaker and a sound engineer. All of these are things I enjoy doing. It’s a luxury to be able to do what you really want, I know, but I can afford said luxury and I am grateful for it. I spent my early years helping my family business get on its feet at the cost of my social life (which wasn’t a big loss in the end, I think). Now it’s time to focus a bit more on where my own life is heading. I always wanted to be a journalist, a writer, a public speaker perhaps. Now I’m finally getting that chance, and I couldn’t have gotten here without the support of my father, brother and my mother. The core four of us have helped grow Republic Air into what it is today. 

And to be dismissed as “these guys don’t have jobs” ? That’s right, I don’t; not in the traditional sense, but traditional sense is overrated anyway (just my opinion). I’ve worked for other companies and other people; I am not one for a “desk job”. Been there done that, I need more out of life than being tied down to one place of work, I like traveling although I don't do enough of it. Besides, I have an issue with job interviews here in the UAE. So instead of job hunting, I focus on other things.

And with every degree I complete, not only do I learn new skills and strengthen my old skills, but I get more out of life on a personal level. Yeah, I guess I’m weird like that, and I’m gorram proud of it! What’s more, I’m proud of my family and how we got to where we are today. Most of all, I’m grateful for all the good and the bad that has transpired throughout the years to get us to where we are right now.

So yeah, I don't have "a job", but does that mean I don't do anything?

I follow my passion, and I am so done with being one of these guys when going to work:

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Tomorrow is day one of the WAN-IFRA conference, and I’m looking forward to both days. The very first session is eloquently titled “Social Media - the Silver Bullet in Media?” This is one session I’m definitely looking forward to, considering my previous posts on the topic of social media, citizen journalism as well as the power of the audience in media and a host of other issues. 

It’s funny how quickly things change. Only a few years ago, mainstream media (aka newspapers, magazines, TV, radio) didn’t go anywhere near social media. Most journalists scoffed at the mere mention of ‘Twitter’, calling it out as a “useless place to post what you had for lunch”. Given the rise of social media, and its assistance in proving not at all useless (especially when mainstream media cannot get to an incident on time or is barred from reporting the news for one reason or another); the media quickly changed their tune, and embraced Twitter, Facebook and others as important tools in the journalistic bag of tricks.  

So yes, social media, is a source, but is it a definite source? Nope. If anything, it makes life a lot harder for a journalist considering the amount of information they have to dig through to get to the original source, if they bother, that is. Sometimes, for one reason or another, they don’t, which results in plenty embarrassing “breaking news” reports, only later to be pulled or the journalist has to resign not unlike Dan Rather did post the Killian Documents Controversy (Here's how the story played out in the media)  And here's a look at the Paper Trail. 

Social media does bridge the gap between the media and their audience, but, much like everything else, there are downsides, the biggest of those being misinformation. These days, Twitter alone “kills” several celebrities a week by making “RIP <celeb name>” trend quite high up in the trending topics. in 2009, even 2010 and 2011, those instances were rare. 

Jeff Goldblum wasn't the only celebrity to get hoax-killed online. Over the last three years, users on Twitter managed to hoax-kill Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Rowan Atkinson, Lady Gaga, Snooki, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Aretha Franklin, Nelson Mandela, Kanye West, Tiger Woods, Eddie Murphy, and even Jon Bon Jovi and US President Barack Obama (albeit the last one was courtesy of Fox News, who blamed it on a hacking attempt of their Twitter feed). So is this a reflection of the juvenile delinquents on Twitter? or the gullibility of the user base? (Those who retweet without verifying, and those who believe everything they read, especially online?) A bit of both? Maybe we’ll know one day. At this point, we can't stop the signal, even if it is sometimes scrambled, at least in part. For journlists, verification is important, especially with the rise of social media.

Only I can go to a uni to submit my application to graduate and end up signing up for another degree.

Starting a Master’s of Media and Communications today; well, orientation and enrollment today, classes commence 5th Feb. Yay!

I can’t seem to escape the clutches of UOWD…Been with them since 2002 (with an intermission from 2006 - 2010 ) ; I watched the university grow and expand from their campus in Jumeirah to a building, then another one, and part of a third one in Knowledge Village. Even worked there from 2003 to 2006 (better 3 years of my life as far as working is concerned actually.) 

I don't know what it is that pushed me towards doing another degree, but I feel it’s something I have to do. One of those ‘snap decisions’, well I’ve thought about it when I first heard UOWD were going to do a master’s in media, but I let it slip and well, I just ended up being at the right place at the right time yesterday. It’s bound to keep me writing, and media & communications seem to be more of a fit for me considering my research interests. 

So, Once More With Feeling! Off I go. Allons-y! 

Oh yeah, and seemingly random, but in case the title of this post wasn't obvious...before Glee, there was....

I don’t go to hospitals here too often. I avoid them, if possible, considering my life style & other factors. An ‘experience’ a few weeks ago further shown why I shouldn’t go to hospitals here. I’m not dissing all doctors here or everywhere else in the world, but the more doctors I go to here, the more it seems like they’re just pulling wild guesses right out from beneath those white coats. 

How else do I get a diagnosis of chickenpox out of a 2 second review by a doc? I’m not sure what he’s heard from my heart over 3 layers of clothing (and what that had to do with my rash); and a quick cursory look at the back of my neck. AED500 down the drain, and no definite answer. 

I’m reminded of a scene from Stargate SG1 episode ‘Window of Opportunity’ where Jack O’Neill and Teal’c are stuck in a time loop relieving the same few hours at SGC. During one of the time loops, both Jack and Teal’c are in the infirmary with Doc Frasier checking them out. 

[Dr. Frasier is shining a penlight in his eye] Col. O'Neill: I ask you: What could possibly be in my eye that could explain this?!

Whilst I wasn’t in a time loop, and I am in no way comparing the great Doctor Janet Frasier to the costumed buffoons here, there’s the obvious reference to sci-fi right there. 

FYI, it wasn’t chickenpox (I had it as a kid), it was, however an allergic reaction to a cortico-steroid cream that I started using recently, coincidentally due to advice from another quack from the branch of the same hospital.  The bozo in the ER dismissed the idea of an allergic reaction when I mentioned the possibility to him. That, right there, should have been one of my first clues. Actually, my first clue was coming back to that hospital years after being told I needed surgery on my wrist because of a strain!! Why’d I go back? Dad insisted because he was satisfied with the services he’s gotten there a while ago, and the hospital had a change of management, so we reckoned things gotten better. Not exactly. 

In any case, it was an allergy, I stopped using the cream, and everything cleared up very quickly. Simple thing that at the time we've overlooked, because we're still in the mentality that doctors know best. They don't. Just because we’ve been conditioned to think so, doesn’t mean it’s still true. If doctors knew best, there would be near zero death rate due to medical mistakes, and no one would be misdiagnosed. 

There’s nothing worse than a doctor who refuses to listen to their patients. 

Those white lab coats doesn’t turn doctors into omnipotent beings who know everything by heart. Sadly those days are gone. The below, may be funny, but I can't help wondering if they're based, at least in part, on some real life experience...

Caveat Emptor - let the buyer beware. In this case, patients beware. Maybe we shouldn't just blindly trust someone else with that sort of thing? It's our health, we can't expect doctors to fix it, we play a part in preserving our lives as much as doctors should. 

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If there’s one piece of advice and a life lesson I’m taking away from 2011, it’s to remain positive. That and to look after my health as no one else is going to do it for me. Okay that’s two things. 

Since my early years, I’ve had a lot of health issues, including low blood pressure, (resulting in a nasty coffee habit from a relatively early age). How surprised was I when I found out around September this year that my blood pressure has inched up into the ‘normal’ range, and it wasn’t just a one time fluke. It remains steady, all I did was significantly cut down on sugar, products with additives (E-numbers) and other chemical crap.

Other than that, this is also the year I finally got my second bachelor’s degree and (results pending) finished my Master’s. Great, now what?! Another master’s? Actually, there’s a few academic things that are happening in 2012 for me, not necessarily getting more degrees either. 

This year’s Middle East Vegetarian Congress has been good as well; we've launched an 8-page newsletter that I've put together in just a few weeks' time. It was so good to see it in print. And the research for my talk actually led to me cutting down on sugar and other stuff & there’s a lot of books and research papers I’ve yet to read. So it’s a good learning experience too. And as a result of the congress, I’ve started my own garden on my balcony. Let me see if I can keep it going. 

There’s a lot of other stuff that’s transpired, things that I can’t necessarily blog about just yet, one of these days, maybe. 

Yeah, 2011 has been good to me in a lot of ways, it’s been bad too, but you know what, I’m leaving all the nasty, bad stuff in 2011, and taking all the good stuff with me to 2012 where it will be multiplied even more by the end of the year.

Yeah, there is the whole Doomsday thing on Dec 21, 2012 according to the Mayan calendar, (and did that old dweeb “predict” another end of the world next year?), I don’t think it’ll be the end of the world, it’s the dawn of a new age, well, I'm looking at it this way.

I guess we'll see what happens in 12 months. Either way, hello year of the dragon. Allonsy! :-)

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Today's consumers are led to believe soya is a healthier alternative than many other condiments. It’s good for the heart, reduces risk of colon cancer, and so on, and many of us fall into the “it’s soy = it’s healthier” logic trap without thinking twice about it. I know I did, at least for a while before I started looking deeper into things. Then I found out that most of soya is genetically modified, because it’s a lot cheaper to GM it rather than grow it naturally. 

Primary reason for tinkering with food genetics is to extend shelf life, enable resistance to certain herbicides or to introduce vitamins into the fold. What exactly is genetically modified food? Here’s a short video to explain the process:

Okay, so what’s the downside of GMOs? It’s been linked to sterility for starters; and here’s an interesting view on where our genetically modified future may be going:   

I recently got my hands on a copy of Genetic Roulette by Jeffrey M Smith (had to order it from US) but it’s well worth it. It’s a collection of documented health risks of genetically engineered foods. I’ve yet to read the book in full, but from what I’ve skimmed so far, GM’s linked to sterility, a number of allergies, cancer, autism and a host of other things. Even rats won’t eat GM food, why do humans eat it? Ah, it looks and tastes better? Yeah, well, so does candy, but one look at the ingredients list will tell you there’s rarely any natural food in there. Natural-flavoured, natural-like, etc, yes, real-stuff? Not likely.

But, back to soya, for years I’ve had huge quantities of soya sauce, specifically the Kikkoman brand sold here. Following my research into genetically modified food for a talk during this year’s Middle East Vegetarian Congress; out of curiosity I took a look at the ingredients label at the back of the bottle.

Here are the snaps: 

Ingredients: Water, salt, wheat, soybeans, sugar, soy sauce extract, sodium acetate, acetic acid, sodium benzoate, disodium 5’-inosinate, disodium 5’-guanylate, lactic acid 

Label reading 101 - ingredients appear in order from most to least amount included in the particular food item. 

Now let’s deconstruct this particular label. 

Water, salt and wheat seem self explanatory, so let’s move on. 

Ingredient number 4 is soybeans. According to research outlined in Jeffrey M. Smith’s book Seeds of Deception as well as just over 90% of soybeans available on the US market is genetically modified. Rest of the world the number is around 70%. Unless it says “non GMO” or Organic, you can safely bet your life that the soya’s been genetically modified. 

From research, soon after GM soy was introduced in UK, allergies linked to soy skyrocketed. It’s not the allergies to soy itself, it’s allergies to the genetically modified elements of the soya.  

Next ingredient is sugar and it is rather obvious. And I can write a lot about that, but I wont do it here just yet. If you’re curious about the dangers of sugar, read Sugar Blues by William Dufty, or any other book on the negative effects of sugar. Better yet, do an experiment, cut down on sugar, see how you feel/look in 30 days. 

Next up is soy sauce extract, same story as with soybeans.

Sodium acetate - is your typical salt substitute used in food as seasoning. 

Acetic Acid is the main constituent of vinegar.

Sodium Benzoate - widely used food preservative, E211. Again, widely used in seasoning products, also used in acidic food like carbonated drinks, jams, fruit juices and so on. It is also used in cosmetics and medicines.

Disodium 5’-inosinate - is a food additive & flavour enhancer also known as E631, found in instant noodles, chips and other snacks. It’s generally produced from meat or fish, but can be produced from tapioca starch so can be suitable for vegetarians.

Disodium 5’-guanylate is another favour enhancer, carrying the E number 627. And is commonly combined with disodium 5’-inosinate in food. It’s not safe for babies and those with asthma. 

Last but not least, we’ve got lactic acid, aka milk acid. Found mostly in milk products (laban, yogurt, etc). Can also be used in detergents as it’s a good de-scaler. Carries the E number 270.

So, it’s not even Soya sauce, it’s just water with a bunch of other ingredients mixed in there. Bunch of not so healthy ingredients at that. Good thing I’m done with THAT particular brand of soy sauce! 

Interesting to note, kikkoman soy sauce sold in other countries, has other ingredients & a lot less of them too.

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So go figure. 

And I know some choose to ignore looking at the label, instead, look at the pretty box, Thing is, we don't eat the pretty box, we eat what's inside it. Remember the old adage, "You can't judge a book by its cover"? Well, you can't judge a food by its box either. Well, you can, and most of us do, but we really shouldn't. 

We, consumers, cannot just close our eyes and take whatever’s on the market, it is OUR health the big companies are playing around with, and it’s time more of us stood up and said “Hey, enough!” and stop feeding those companies by giving them our hard earned money. They take their money, and take away our health, even if it's done slowely over the years. And even if "there's a pill for that" , those aren't always safe too.

It's time we take the power back into our own hands. After all, it was Hippocrates (460-370BC) who said "Let thy Food be thy Medicine", and if all we eat is crap, is it any wonder we feel like it too?