Oh My Goff

The other day I was perusing my favorite health food store, Mountain Valley Foods, in Kalispell when I happened upon a new item in the freezer: Coconut Bliss Ice Cream. What’s special about this particular brand? It’s dairy-free, and uses coconut milk as a base instead of cow’s milk or cream.

Seeing as I’ve tried my fair share of alternative ice cream products such as Rice Dream, So Delicious, its arch-nemesis Soy Delicious, and other wannabes with mostly negative results, I figured I’d snatch their “Mint Galactica” flavor (essentially Mint Chocolate Chip which is basically my favorite ice cream flavor, after all) and give it a whirl. Onward to the review:

The packaging on the pint-sized Mint Galactica flavor was proudly showing off a green minty-cool theme, reminiscent of the colors you might see on St. Patrick’s Day. More on that later. Peering at the nutrition info on the label I noted its ingredients (parenthetical items removed): Organic Coconut Milk, Organic Agave Syrup, Organic Fair Trade Dark Chocolate, Organic Peppermint Extract, Organic Fair Trade Vanilla Extract.

Looks good. This is the first alternative ice cream I’ve ever tried that contains agave syrup, which leads to a fun fact: Agave is the plant that (real) tequila is made from. Hmmm. My imagination began to run wild with visions of a party filled with college co-eds eagerly downing frozen shots of mint galactica, entering into a Coconut Bliss-induced bender. Then the thought of what it would look like once the puking started put a quick stop to my fantasy. Walking up to the counter, I realized I hadn’t even looked at the other flavors. Oh well, next time.
After arriving home and depositing it in the freezer, I got on the computer and curiously commenced googling for more information. A quick check of “coconut bliss” results in the number one hit being the manufacturer’s website, www.coconutbliss.com. I clicked. At this point, my confusion deepened. Right at the top of the site, the viewer is met with this logo:

Umm, what?
Being horribly uncultured, I didn’t realize that the happy looking four-armed elephant man thing is Ganesha, the Hindu god of placing and removing obstacles. Ahhh, now we’re getting somewhere. I have the obstacle of not being able to eat dairy products, Ganesha wants me enjoy life to the fullest regardless! He’s even holding a spoon and an ice cream cone (which makes no sense if you think about it). Thanks, pal! Wait, it says that you’re the god of placing obstacles too. You rat bastard… I guess those folks at the paralympics got a double dose of your divine influence then, huh? But I digress…

Finally, it was time to eat. Note to self: do not attempt to use a plastic spoon on ice cream just taken out of the freezer. Tossing the pieces into the trash, I glanced at the label again. There’s a warning saying I should leave it out for 5-10 minutes before consuming for best taste. NOW they tell me. A nail-biting 5-10 minutes of suspense passed before I dove in again. The first bite: wow, that’s good! The texture was very close to that of real ice cream, perhaps a bit thinner but it left a very clean taste on the palate. Hardly any aftertaste, and didn’t leave a film on the roof of my mouth. I kept eating. The little chips of chocolate were plentiful and spread evenly throughout the ice cream, something that can’t always be said of its competitor’s counterparts. Before I knew it that whole gosh-dang pint had been consumed. No biggie, I thought. Then I inspected the nutrition facts. Uh oh. According to the label, I had just consumed a whopping 824 calories. Crap.
Let’s break down where all those little units of heat came from:
Serving: 1 pint (2 cups)
Calories
824
Total Fat
60 g
Saturated
48 g
Total Carbs
72 g
Sugars
52 g
Protein
4 g

Holy mackerel! Suddenly this organic, healthy ice cream alternative became an artery-busting abomination.
But wait! After a little research, it turns out that fat from coconut milk is extremely good for you. At least that’s what Coconut Bliss’s own website states. How’s that for objectivity?

Wrap-Up: Coconut Bliss Mint Galactica Ice Cream

Pros: All organic. Made from coconut milk instead of milk, rice, or soy. St. Patrick’s Day. Clean, refreshing taste. College age co-eds.  Overcoming obstacles. Lots of chocolate chips. Being half-elephant. The paralympics.

Cons: Consuming 824 calories of mostly fat at once. Non-alcoholic. Broken plastic spoons. Being a Hindu god’s plaything. Busted arteries. The paralympics.

Final Verdict: 9.5 out of 10
This product is highly recommended to anyone who likes ice cream, not just we cursed few who can’t eat dairy products. The only thing that might make it better is being sold in half-gallon containers.

Yes, way too much time has passed since my last post. Life has been extremely taxing for the last few months, in both figurative and literal ways. I’m still working at AJCC Tech in Pasadena and business has been good enough that I’m able to make ends meet, but just barely. I’ve now been living in Baldwin Park with three roommates since the end of August and I’m loving it! Living alone has its place but living with others gives so much more opportunity for growth as a person. I’m definitely experiencing some stretching that is testing my character, resolve, and strength to be the person I believe I should be.
    One of the biggest things going on in my life right now is a refocusing on God as my first priority. For the last year or so I’ve spent a lot of time living for myself and things I thought would make me happy/fulfilled. As I’ve learned, God is much better at that than I am. As I give up the things I cherish most to Him, I experience peace in a profound way that never ceases to amaze me. It’s not that He takes me out of the stressful situations I’m in, He simply gives me the strength to make it through them with His help. Never could enough be said for peace during times of testing and trial.
     Once again I’m reminded of how important community is, and how much God can do through it. I love each and every one of my friends dearly no matter the history and am thankful that they are in my life and I’m in theirs. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Too long has it been since I’ve posted…it’s all been justified though. Life has been tumultuous lately, with many big things going on. First off, I’m moving! I’ve enjoyed living alone in my house here in Temple City but I can save money and cut down on the loneliness factor by moving in with some friends to a house for rent in Baldwin Park. I just got the house keys last night
 In other news, I’m on a new diet that will hopefully really work and allow me to function normally in a semi-permanent way. Right now I’m in the first phase of the diet which basically includes homemade organic chicken soup only…it gets old but I’m still feeling well and it’s completely worth it. With everything else going on, time is flying by…finances didn’t allow me to go to my favorite place in the world, Montana, this summer. Nor did I get to go there in the spring, which I usually do as well. I’m confident that next year I’ll be able to afford it, and I’m really looking forward to that.
I truly feel that I am rounding a corner in life, and that the combination of this new diet/new living arrangement could be one of the best things that’s happened to me in awhile.

 Off to work!

It’s been awhile since I posted anything non-political, so here goes. Work is going well (at least monetarily) and for the moment, the stress of having no money has been lifted. I’m a little uneasy about the future right now because of a couple things. First, I’m not getting taxed on my income so come next April I could be in for a nasty tax return. Secondly, my Cobra medical insurance expires in the next 5 months and I currently have no replacement lined up. My boss had a couple independent agents come in and neither of their policies cover someone with my pre-existing diseases (ulcerative colitis, ankylosing spondylitis). The only way for me to get coverage is if my employer gets on a group plan, or I get married to someone who’s on it. If my employer doesn’t get on the ball I’m going to have to start looking elsewhere again. Usually there is a 90-day period after you start working somewhere before the benefits kick in, and I’m coming up close to being 90 days from my medical insurance expiration.

Other than that, things are going alright. The weather keeps me indoors most of the time that I’m at home, and sleeping at night isn’t very easy without the ceiling fan on full blast. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since I sleep better with the feeling of air hitting me anyway. Plus I get plenty of time to think and ponder what my next moves in life will be. More later…

I’ve been emailing back and forth with a friend of mine about the state of things in Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and politics in the USA. I thought I would share a couple of excerpts.

Email from my friend: “that’s strange considering they hide so much of what really goes wrong over there also… there’s tons of legitimate news happening over there that other countries play without editing and dispense straight up. If our liberal media really wanted to convince the public we’re failing in Iraq they should run more of those stories. Has the Iraqi disposition changed back to favoring us anymore if that much or their goverment, social and public service structure is intact as your statistics say? Do you feel we’re actually accomplishing anything in Iraq or just trading one problem for another, stable tyranny for unstable quagmire? Death toll on both sides keep rising, troops are spread too thin, Iraqi’s are still inable to fully control their country without us and our troops on the front lines suffer the most with staffing and equipment deficiencies due to political delay and incompetence. Meanwhile the countries that actually pose a WMD threat go untethered…North Korea and Iran anyone?”

My response: “I don’t believe that the so-called “legitimate news” that other countries run are real stories. In general, most other countries have liberal philosophies and political systems and run stories meant to depict the USA in a bad light because of GWB. I often frequent the BBC and Al Jazeera sites to see what kind of stuff is being published, and honestly, it’s hogwash. Al Jazeera is a biggest propaganda machine I’ve ever seen or heard of. BBC isn’t too bad, but even a lot of stories we see in our own media are biased and if read through carefully, it’s obvious that the journalists seem to side more with insurgents and terrorists rather than our own soldiers and ideals. Less than 1000 Iraqi civilians that have died since Operation: Iraqi Freedom started were killed by American errant bombs or gunfire. The rest (about 12,000 or so) have been killed by insurgents, suicide bombers, etc. I HIGHLY encourage you to read this website in its entirety. Be sure to click on “click for details” throughout the page. http://www.logictimes.com/flowchart.htm Please do so with an open mind, and if you like, I absolutely encourage you to attempt to prove anything on the site wrong. I tried to pick it apart and I couldn’t find any errors, nor any flawed logic. The facts are there, and when one sees the entire picture with the real numbers, you realize that things are going pretty damn well over there, all things considered. It’s way too early in the game to be making any judgment calls on how the occupation is turning out anyway. While of course I wish we weren’t there, because war sucks…we’re there and we need to be given the proper resources to do the job. Vietnam went bad because our hands were tied and we were not allowed to use the full force of our own strength. Liberals continue to try to put this war on the same wavelength as Vietnam, even at the cost of more U.S. soldiers’ lives. They want us to pull out of Iraq immediately, declaring defeat, and allowing them to then make a more convincing comparison to Vietnam in that we turned tail and ran home. The difference here is that Vietnam wasn’t our conflict. The Iraq war is. The fact that there are so many terrorists fighting us there is simple proof. While obviously Iraq was not responsible for 9/11, nobody ever said they were. GWB never said Iraq caused 9/11 or Saddam caused 9/11. The decision to end Saddam’s regime was to preemptively lower the terrorists’ ability to wage war against the USA. Notice how there hasn’t been any more attacks on U.S. soil? That’s no coincidence. You can bet that the Iraq war has contributed to safety of our civilians here at home. Apart from the rest (by the way again PLEASE go to that website that I linked you to, do yourself a favor , talk to some soldiers that have been there…as many as you can, in fact. Ask them about what’s going on and what the people think of America and what we’re doing over there. I guarantee you’ll be surprised. It will be a mixed bag to be sure, but overall I think you’ll be shocked at how differently the media portrays progress over there (they don’t) versus what our young men and women in the armed forces are seeing every day. Oh and about NK and Iran…North Korea right now is realizing that they’re in hot water and are faced with a pretty big decision of whether or not to launch this test missile. If the US shoots it down, it will surely cause both NK and the international community to realize that the US is not a force to be trifled and taunted. North Korea has several times refused to talks with the group of nations that it was supposed to. By going forward with their plans, they have essentially lined themselves up on the chopping block. The US doesn’t need to invade or attack them to show Kim Jong Il that his hopes of being a major power will never be realized. He is an insane dictator that hogs all the money from his land and would rather watch his people all starve and die so that he can have his precious 1950′s technology missile. He’s just a rogue…the country is so impoverished nothing will ever happen over there. There aren’t any terrorists, except Kim Jong Il himself. I encourage you to read up about North Korea and how bad off they are. It’s pretty sad. With Iran, talks will get us nowhere. Regardless of any deals that are made, we all know that Iran will continue, secretly or not, to develop its nuclear weapons program. Eventually this will come to a head and I’m not looking forward to it. Hopefully by then we’ll have more troops available if the need arises. Lessons learned in Iraq will be valuable if the Shah of Iran pushes the envelope. By no means am I hoping for another prolonged occupation of a middle eastern country. I just know that unless something big changes over there, it will continue to escalate until the issue is forced. And for the record, yes I do believe there is major progress happening in Iraq.”

Something that has been bothering me for awhile just surfaced and I need to address it. It isn’t that our political system is any better or worse than the next random country’s out there. It’s that our system is failing us and shows no signs that there will ever be any sort of improvement.

      For a moment, let’s forget the democrat (notice i didn’t say democratic) and republican parties. Let’s think about the direction we want our country to go in as a whole. It’s my belief that the current arrangement of separation of powers creates a bureaucratic nightmare out of ANY sort of bill, law, or proposition that attempts to do anything to alleviate or change a system that isn’t working. It seems that any time the public vote on a proposition, the outcome is trivial because within minutes after the final votes are tallied, someone is off appealing it to a judge who will then suspend the proposition and call it unconstitutional. Seeing as the constitution is open to all kinds of subjective interpretation, it doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that the way of democracy isn’t really working in the United States of America.
    Another example of our political and judicial systems failing us is the ridiculous number of frivolous lawsuits coming from every direction for the most inane reasons known to man: A group gets together at a park and sings the national anthem to commemorate a fallen comrade or to celebrate a patriotic event. A man in another location of the park hears the song, becomes offended because it’s ”infringing on his liberties”, and he files a lawsuit. What the heck? I’m sooo tired of one person getting offended by something stupid and then ruining it for everyone. I could go on for hours listing different lawsuits that have actually been filed just in recent months, but I’m sure anyone reading this will get the picture.

The worst part about all of this is that this is but one of many issues facing America that has no solution in sight. Everyone in congress and the senate are too busy taking polls, being partisan just for the sake of shooting down the other side, and taking money from people they shouldn’t. Heck, even if a few people got together to try to do something good, it wouldn’t happen! Just look at the current immigration bill being pushed through the senate…it’s a simple rehash of what went through during the Reagan administration (which we all know didn’t help matters any) except THIS time, it’s going to allow between 60-250 MILLION new immigrants into the country in the next 20 years. Umm, does anyone else see anything wrong with this? The current population of the USA is close to 300 million.
How on earth would our economy support a 1.5x increase in population? Consider the fact that most of the immigrants coming would not be bringing skilled labor. I just don’t understand the reasoning behind it.

Enough for now, but I’m fired up and the worst part about it is that I know I can’t really make any sort of a difference to fix one bit of it.

Again, it’s been awhile since I posted…I’ve been really busy with work and staying alive financially. I finally broke through as a result of some gift money I received for my birthday (which was yesterday) and am finally out of the woods. My sister Bonnie is getting married this Sunday and it’s just now sinking in that I’m going to have a brother-in-law. He’s an amazing guy and I can’t begin to imagine that there’s anyone else out there that is a better match for my sister. It’s going to be a small ceremony with family and just a few friends present, which will be nice. I’m not a big fan of huge weddings anyway

On other fronts, things with my house are going well, I finally got rent paid on time last month (for the first time in 3 months) so my landlord should have any relevant fears allayed. My power bill was cut in half this month because my neighbor (who shares my power meter) finally stopped using their electric heater.
I have to go get some clothes today for the wedding …traditionally I’m not much of a clothes connoisseur, so it’ll be interesting.

I have 3 friends overseas right now and I miss them all. Sean is in South Africa, Taryn is in Turkey, and Dayna is either in England or about to travelthere. It’s crazy! Most of my friends have moved home for the summer so I’m anxious for them all to come back in August, but I’m sure I will keep busy while they’re away. Hopefully I might even get to take a vacation to Montana in July or so. Here’s hoping!

It’s been almost two weeks since I posted…things have been extremely busy, with work at my job taking up most of my time, and finally quitting it on Friday. I’m back working for AJCC in Pasadena doing something I enjoy far more. My passion is definitely for the desktop support arena, not so much the corporate network environment. It feels good to know that I won’t have to go to downtown LA this week to deal with law firms and whatnot. Yay for Monday!

I’ve gotten into the habit of going to see Sean and Sheena on the weekend…it’s been quite fun. This last weekend after a job in Van Nuys I went to see them at Sean’s place in downtown L.A. As you can see from the new pictures in the gallery, we had quite the amazing time

No matter how much we try to convince ourselves of otherwise, we humans always need to let things out once in awhile. For the past few months, things have been really crazy…on the main front: I moved out, got a job as an EMT, ran out of money, quit my EMT job, sold some belongings to pay rent, got a few independent contract jobs, and now finally I’m a full-time employee making more than enough to make ends meet and then some. I’ve been in survival mode every day nonstop until today..my first day at this new job. Being able to finally know deep down that my bills and rent will be paid on time this month and that I’ll be able to pay off my debt in the next 2-3 years is a feeling I’m having serious difficulty describing.

The financial liberation has allowed me to refocus inside, providing an alarmingly somber glimpse into my relational life. I’ve lost a very dear friend, someone I’ve known my entire teenage/adult life, and it hurts. While I know that the termination of the relationship has lifted much stress, it’s still hard to let it all go. There just comes a time when you realize that the detriments of being close to someone outweigh the benefits…reaching that point took me a long time, but I don’t regret it. I wouldn’t trade the clarity I’m experiencing now for anything…though this has been quite a hardship to endure.

I’m not sure I’ve fully appreciated my friends as much as I do now. Today as I sat on my couch after work, flipping through channels, it dawned on me that my group of friends are basically the first set of people that have really accepted me, loved me, and embraced me for who I am, ever. Growing up I wasn’t very popular, I was loud and annoying to most…friends were very hard to come by. The lack of acceptance earlier in life led to a serious deficiency in my self-esteem, and it’s taken a few years of having such wonderful people in life as friends to really sink in that I’m a person worth knowing and befriending. In addition to that, last year I spent quite a lot of time with a therapist working through the feelings of doubt and self-deprecation, going over the past…there is no doubt that this work was invaluable in finding freedom.

I just want to say a few good things about a few of my friends, and how much I love them.

Sean M. – He’s probably the most talented musician I’ve ever had the good fortune to know. Every time we hang out, the laughter level goes through the roof. We understand each other’s sense of humor, and it benefits everyone   Also, if it weren’t for Sean I never would have gotten into Dance Dance Revolution…I know, what a shame it would’ve been. I hope he knows how incredible of a guy he is, and how blessed and talented God has created him. 

Taryn C. – When I first met Taryn, we were playing frisbee in a group and after a terrible throw by yours truly, I remarked out loud, “I’m rusty.” A girl about 15 feet away took that as an introduction and replied, “I’m Taryn.” It was an amazing moment She’s a very unique girl. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know her better and I’m grateful for the time we spend together at margarita monday or watching/competing in jeopardy. I like finding out more about the inner Taryn and the more I find out, the more I appreciate who she is. I definitely count her as one of my favorite people because of her awesome personality and zany sense of humor.

Kevin S. – Kevin is the kind of person who would give you the shirt off his back even in sub-zero weather during a snowstorm. He’s given of himself time and time again in ways that really show God’s love to just about everyone. He let me stay at his place for like…at least 15 nights last September/October during the time I was looking for a place to live. Unbelievable…

Mike G. – Mike has been a solid rock of spiritual stability and prayed with me on many occasions when I felt like I couldn’t handle life anymore. He’s been an incredible friend who always makes himself available to anyone in need. If I could pick one person to pray with me, it would be this guy. While I don’t see him as much as I used to, I know there are seasons in people’s lives, and I look forward to the next one that includes plenty of time to hang out with him.

Dayna R. – If it weren’t for Dayna I think I would’ve written off my first year at APU as a disaster. She really embraced me as a friend during a time that I desperately needed friendship. I don’t know if she knows how much I appreciate the time we had hanging out and becoming good friends that first year. Even though I don’t see her much anymore, she’ll always mean a lot to me, and I know there will plenty of opportunities in the future to cultivate friendship again.

That’s all I can say right now…I’m just blown away at God’s grace and how He’s provided such wonderful people a place in my life. I just know that I want to spend more time with all of them, and give as much as I can of myself.