No, I'm Not Dead
Turns out I haven’t written anything in almost two weeks now. Truthfully, I almost completely forgot about my blog, partially a consequence of not having anything to write about, and partially due to all the things I have going on lately. I’ve actually quite enjoyed taking a break, and don’t really think you’ll see much in the way of content over the next few months, other than a post here and there when I’m bored or have something on my mind. If you want, follow my Twitter stream for some random amusement.
I spent the last weekend pretty close to home. My friend Jeff had a birthday party for his 3 year old daughter on Saturday morning, so I went to that for an hour or so. Then I came back to my place and made dinner with a friend of mine. I woke up on Sunday and had a few old friends pop by for a late brunch, which gave me another opportunity to cook for some people — it was a lot of fun. I seem to be doing quite a bit of cooking lately, which is quite fine by me, as it’s something I find that I actually enjoy.
I used to think I was a pretty good cook in Vancouver, but truthfully, I was just pretty good at making food. The difference is that I’ve spent time learning how to do a lot of the basic aspects of cooking, such as making stock and sauces, that I really had no clue about in Vancouver. That’s naturally led to me eating healthier and also spending more time trying to shop for healthier food in my home town. Examples of that are grass fed beef that I purchased from a farm in Abbotsford, Free-range chicken and chicken eggs, and organic pretty much everything I can find.
It’s actually been fairly amazing just how much stuff I’ve needed to get my hands on in order to get my kitchen to the point where I can cook most things without making a huge grocery run. In terms of herbs and spices, I’ve probably had to buy between 10 and 15 staples that seem to pop up in most recipes. That of course necessitated a spice rack, which I now have next to my coffee maker. In the process of trying to make soups, I realized I really needed a food processor. For some things, a food processor doesn’t cut it, which is why I now have a blender. So, I’ve made quite a few acquisitions over the last year, and still have a ways to go.
Many people know that I spend a few hours a week reading medical research. I’m not really too sure why, it’s just an area I’ve always found both fascinating and important. I had a 30 year old cousin who died of a heart problem years ago, and since that time I’ve always been conscious of the fact that heart disease runs in my family. To that end, I do my best to keep up to date with the latest research.
I’ve amassed quite a personal collection of articles and research papers that I think are important over the last few years. Given the sheer volume of research I’ve read, and the cross disciplinary nature of much of that research, I’ve decided to try and piece some of it together and release a research paper of my own. I published several papers in journals during my master’s degree, but haven’t published anything since. So I’m quite looking forward to slowly putting a four or five page paper together over the next few months. I’ll probably release it on my blog, and let it drift where it may on the internet. But it’ll be nice to get my feet wet in the area of medical research. I may start a separate site at some point to put some of my thoughts and bookmarks on for people who are interested in what I read routinely. But I will definitely be authoring a paper sometime in the next few months.