I thought about writing a nice long post today, until I got home and reality smacked me in the face. Reality has a name, it is, the dishes.

Instead I thought I would tease you with my tasty vegan dishes.

Lentil sauce with spaghetti.

Salad with chickpea dressing, mashed potatoes and creamed lentils.

Vegan strawberry smoothie.

Are you hungry now? I’m am. Glad I’m making dinner in a bit.

Take care now.
Maybe I’ll write something tomorrow or later in the week.

Early this week I was contacted by agentsully where she asked if I wanted to read her new book and write a review on it in my blog. I gladly accepted the task and was handed the book on Friday morning.

The name of the book is titled, The Secrets to a Healthy Life; it is a 60 page ebook that is packed with information on how to live a healthy life and why you should do it.

Many of you might now think this is yet another self-help book that will give you strange “hippie” advice and put you on an extremely strict diet; but that is where you are wrong. The book tells you what you should change in your life to become healthier in a non-forceful way. The author lets you know that changing your lifestyle is nothing that can happen over night, but is something that you need to do at your own pace.

The book has 5 chapters that I feel I should mention a bit about chapter by chapter.

Chapter 1: Healthy Eating
The main focus is to change your diet to a plant-based one; where you focus on what you eat, why you eat it and how you eat it. It is here where the author impresses me as a vegan. She doesn’t shove the vegan or plant-based diet down your throat; instead she advises you to try to eat more plant-based foods, as it is very beneficial for your health. I’m also very impressed with her pointing to good sources of why a vegan diet is so healthy and easier than many think it is.

This chapter is a good source for those who are sceptical towards a vegan diet, or for vegans who want to show others that their diet will give more nutrition, more easily, than an animal-based diet will.

Chapter 2: Healthy Exercise
Again the author amazes me when she writes that if I want to exercise, I don’t need to go to the gym or get an advanced training course. She lists more or less any form of activity that will give you some kind of a workout; whether it is hard on your body or gentle. What matters is that it raises your pulse and makes you have to work a little bit harder than you usually do.

The training she focuses on is aerobic training, strengthening training, flexibility, balance and how to breathe correctly.

I really don’t enjoy working out, but I do ride my skateboard and always prefer walking to work than taking the tram or the bus. Reading this not only motivated me to maybe start training a bit more, but also showed me that training can be fairly simple and good for you; and even fun.

Chapter 3: Stress Reduction/De-Stressing/Managing Stress/Tranquil Life/Equanimity
This was a very interesting chapter for me as I’m interested in psychology and finding inner-peace. This chapter will make you understand that some seemingly insignificant habits can be very bad for you; and instead of finding excuses for them you should try to take action and do your best to change them.

Having a healthy life is not only about having a healthy body, but also a healthy mind. If your mind isn’t healthy your body will surely affected by it in a bad way.

The author continues to be very sensible and not forceful about how you can, and should change your mindset. You get a lot of information contained in a very neat and simple package.

Chapter 4: Support Systems
Some people don’t always tend to be very social, myself included, but we still get the social-craving now and then.

It kind of caught me off guard on how important it is to have a good social network around you. I was also very happy to read that the author focuses on the fact that your social network should make you happy, or in other words, quality is far more important than quantity.

I found it very nice how she incorporates the importance of the family too, because this is now not just a self-help book, but in a way a group-help book as you can in a way share your changes with the people around you.

You will find lot of great tips on how to build and maintain your social network.

Chapter 5: Meaningful Life

This is a short but very good chapter. Briefly it is about finding meaning in your life on your own, not being told what it is. It also gives you suggestions on how to start prioritising your life, and find out what is really important to you.

What I’ve written above is more or less the gist of what you will find in this 60 page book. I managed to read the book in one day. Not because I had to or forced myself, but because I was sucked in from the very beginning. The information it contained felt important to me.

The author also mentions that this is a book you can carry with you anywhere and read it now and then to remind yourself; and after reading it myself I feel I can safely call it a very good pocket guide on how to get a healthier life.

The book is short, but it gives a lot of information from many good sources. It does this without giving you a headache or making you feel that you’re getting overloaded with information. Sometimes books like this tend to get a bit too in-depth. The author manages to give you just enough information to start your quest towards a healthier lifestyle.

This is a book I can recommend to anyone that already lives a healthy life or is just curious. It’s written for everyone and more or less any age group. I would also say it is written in an encouraging way rather than an intrusive way.

I recommend this book to everyone who is interested in becoming vegan or curious about developing a healthier lifestyle.

This book would get my approval stamp if I had one.

You can get the book here: The Secrets to a Healthy Life
You can learn more about the author here: Life Learning Today

Note: I would like to thank agentsully for giving me this opportunity to read her book and to write a review on it. I also want to thank Lizzie for helping me with my English grammar.

Beginning of this week I was asked if I wanted to read and write a review of a new book. It’s about how to improve your life by changing your diet, lifestyle and mindset so you can become more positive, energetic and healthier. I got it Friday morning and finished reading it at night the same day. The book 60 pages, but the reason I finished it in one day was because I was sucked into it. I just haven’t had time writing the review today (Saturday 12.07.08), but I will do it tomorrow (Sunday) of course.

And if I haven’t told you already, I more or less do my draft writing in my head, so I’ve kind of been working on the review since Friday.

I thought about writing the review today (still meaning Saturday), but Lizzie and I have been too busy today and I almost got no sleep last night.

It was raining like mad last night. So hard I thought (as I always think when it rains as hard as this) that the ceiling window will give in and break. Again it didn’t break, but it sounded like it would this time (which I will say next time and next time and next time…). And of course, earlier in the morning some extremely loud and close by thunder woke me up. So actually I haven’t felt all too well today. Hopefully staying up a bit extra will make me very tired so I can get a really deep sleep; and no rain would be very much appreciated mother nature.

Think I’ll just end the night with reading some news and some blogs.
See you all tomorrow and don’t forget to read my review about a book you should must get.

Take care.

BizarroBlog writes:

Words like “free-range,” “organic,” and “humane,” make consumers believe that animals are being well treated and that the environment is not being damaged. This is a patent lie in virtually all cases. Animal agriculture at current rates is always cruel to animals and damaging to the environment. Any animal that goes to a slaughterhouse has experienced the ultimate cruelty. It’s a no-brainer, there is no such thing as “humane meat”.

Just follow the link to the full post as I fully agree what he writes; so I see no reason for me repeating that in my own words.
Why invent the wheel twice?

I’ve taken some photos of some yummy vegan food I’ve made, but I’ve been too lazy to transfer it to my computer. I’ll try to do it tomorrow or something. Maybe you’ll get inspired?

BBC News writes:

“Tomorrow, popular software applications like Skype or even Firefox might be declared illegal in Europe if they are not certified by an administrative authority,” warned Benjamin Henrion, FFII representative in Brussels, in a statement.

Kind of strange if that really happens that software like Firefox can be seen as illegal software. I don’t think it will happen, but I for sure won’t care if it does to be honest. I will still be using Firefox.

Just gives me yet another reason to leave Europe.

It’s sad what so many women have to go through when they are trying to enjoy the company of their friends when they are at the pub. It’s even more sad when their fiancée has to tell another guy that she is his fiancée so he will back fuck off and (hopefully) understands she only just needed to have her cigarette lit.

I really have to apologise on the behalf of my gender that so many men are acting like tossers. Gladly I have some good news for all women out there. Not all men are sleazy suckers who want to get into your panties. My fiancée can and will vouch for that.

Are you men out there that desperate and stupid that just because a woman asks to have her cigarette lit or even just is in your vicinity that she wants to do the vertical mambo with you? You of all people. No wonder you’re single.

Ever heard about being courteous? No? According to the dictionary the definition of courteous is: having or showing good manners; polite.

Being courteous is how Lizzie became my fiancée.

Not sure what the problem is, but women still want to be treated with respect, and not like a slab of meat.
Is there a memo to all men that I missed or something? If I did, I’m very glad I missed it.

Oh well. I really don’t care. If you don’t understand it after your 100.000th reject there might be something more serious then you just being a male chauvinist.

Take care people, of yourself and the people around you.

I truly wish I had a red shiny button on the side of my computer at work that worked like this; I will explain it as how I wish the situation would play out.

Customer: I don’t know how to do it. I don’t understand computers at all, so I don’t understand anything of the instructions you give me; even if you send it to me as an email.
Me: Please step back from the computer.
Customer: Why?
Me: Please, just listen to me and step away from the computer.
Customer: Done…
Me: Your computer will self-destruct in 5 seconds. I’m sorry I have to do this, but you are to non-technical to be allowed to use a computer. If you choose to acquire a new computer, please learn how to use it next time by reading the manual.
*poof*

I know, it sounds extremely elitist and cruel, but seriously; these people have paid heaps of money for their equipment, but they don’t bother learning how to use it. I really don’t understand that logic. And they have the nerve to get angry at us because they are stupid. Talk about having high thoughts about themselves.

Does it really hurt your self-esteem that much that someone who tries to help you is far more knowledgeable than yourself? Shouldn’t you rather try to listen to that person instead of being a pigheaded twat?

I don’t mind helping people, but just listen to what I have to say. Nothing makes me more happy hearing someone say, “Oh, now I understand it.”, when I explain something to them.

As you might have suspected I work as a customer support representative and have some experience with it. In short, I’ve met a lot of moaning customers in my life that really make me wonder how they can have friends and even family.

And just for fun I thought I would write a few things you can say when calling customer support to make sure you get the worst support ever; but for those who are irony illiterate I will add a comment why you “should” say it. Of course, the comment will be slightly ironic too, so don’t be afraid of using your brain. I have hope in you my trustful reader that you will understand my jokes, unless my humour really is bad.

Continue reading ‘What not to say when calling customer support.’

I thought about writing a funny and geeky article today, but now it’s too late. Well, not really. Thanks to my lovely insomnia and the heat I’m wide awake. Of course, if I start writing now I want to write something good and I’ll just be up too late and feel like poo-poo at work tomorrow.

I’ll try to do it tomorrow.

Take care now.