Friday, July 30, 2010

Today, I love...

bizzy beez

open hearts

tree houses!

and this :)

Raw in: MISSISSAUGA

So Dan and I were in the Lakeshore area visiting an old friend, and decided we HAD to check out Raw Aura Organic Cuisine at 94 Lakeshore Rd E.

Here is what we had :)

my juice :) parsley, carrot, ginger, apple... hmmm i can't remember what else. it was so good!
i also got a shot of E3 Live in it :)

Dan's Strawberry Cacao Smoothie :)


Caesar Salad with Kale Chips on top (they ran out of eggplant bacon)!


"Pasta Bolognese" - Zucchini pasta tossed in some kind of deeeliicious (!) spicy sauce, and seemingly every vegetable from carrots to kale to sundried tomatoes. SO GOOD! <3


"Mac & Cheese" - Carrots mandolined into what was supposed to be elbow pasta shape (I applaud the effort, lol) and served covered in cashew cheese, nooch (nutritional yeast) and other veggies. Dan liked it but said there was way too much cashew cheese. Despite enjoying the overall flavour, he wasn't able to finish it.


OMFGlkhjjkshfkhsfhkfhomnomnomyumyummmmYES!!<3
Pecan Pie & Chocolate Avocado Pie
Holy Crap.

<3 *drool* <3

more desserts <3

US :)

The Wonderful World of MYCELIA! (Mushrooms! Fungiiiiiiiii)

I have recently - or I should say in the last several months - become fascinated by fungi. The majority of people have no idea how important and intelligent (seriously) mushrooms are. Beneath our feet lies an almost unimaginably intricate network of mycelia, trading nutrients with plants for energy, transporting nutrients from tree to tree, and helping to heal and detoxify whole ecosystems.


Here are a few short exerpts from an interview with expert on mycelia and author of such books as "Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World", Paul Stamets, about the secret world of the Mycelial network; Nature's internet.


Jensen: "Almost since life began on earth, mycelia have performed important ecological roles: nourishing ecosystems, repairing them, and sometimes even helping create them. The fungi’s exquisitely fine filaments absorb nutrients from the soil and then trade them with the roots of plants for some of the energy that the plants produce through photosynthesis. No plant community could exist without mycelia. I’ve long been a resident and defender of forests, but Stamets helped me understand that I’ve been misperceiving my home. I thought a forest was made up entirely of trees, but now I know that the foundation lies below ground, in the fungi."




Stamets: "There are an estimated one to two million species of fungi, of which about 150,000 form mushrooms. A mushroom is the fruit body — the reproductive structure — of the mycelium, which is the network of thin, cobweblike cells that infuses all soil."


"A mycelial “mat,” which scientists think of as one entity, can be thousands of acres in size. The largest organism in the world is a mycelial mat in eastern Oregon that covers 2,200 acres and is more than two thousand years old. Its survival strategy is somewhat mysterious. We have five or six layers of skin to protect us from infection; the mycelium has one cell wall. How is it that this vast mycelial network, which is surrounded by hundreds of millions of microbes all trying to eat it, is protected by one cell wall? I believe it’s because the mycelium is in constant biochemical communication with its ecosystem."


"I think these mycelial mats are neurological networks. They’re sentient, they’re aware, and they’re highly evolved. They have external stomachs, which produce enzymes and acids to digest nutrients outside the mycelium, and then bring in those compounds that it needs for nutrition. As you walk through a forest, you break twigs underneath your feet, and the mycelium surges upward to capture those newly available nutrients as quickly as possible. I say they have “lungs,” because they are inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, just like we are. I say they are sentient, because they produce pharmacological compounds — which can activate receptor sites in our neurons — and also serotonin-like compounds, including psilocybin, the hallucinogen found in some mushrooms. This speaks to the fact that there is an evolutionary common denominator between fungi and humans. We evolved from fungi. We took an overground route. The fungi took the route of producing these underground networks that are highly resilient and extremely adaptive: if you disturb a mycelial network, it just regrows. It might even benefit from the disturbance.


I have long proposed that mycelia are the earth’s “natural Internet.” I’ve gotten some flak for this, but recently scientists in Great Britain have published papers about the “architecture” of a mycelium — how it’s organized. They focused on the nodes of crossing, which are the branchings that allow the mycelium, when there is a breakage or an infection, to choose an alternate route and regrow. There’s no one specific point on the network that can shut the whole operation down."



Now, these small chunks, should you choose to read them (in other words, should you have a burning interest in a seemingly irrelevent topic that doesn't interest most people in the slightest, as i happen to =P) may not reveal any mind-blowing truths to you. It was difficult to find specific chunks of text that conveyed the entire message of the interview.

The jist is, all fungi release spores (spores are like their seeds), which float around and eventually settle on the ground. When a male and a female mycelial spore touch, they begin to form a network, that can span many miles, across entire forests and beyond given enough time. There can also be multiple networks in the same area because each year/season, leaves and dirt obviously accumulate, and then more spores float down, creating another network overtop of it, and so on and so forth. Through these networks, the mycelia can do amazing things such as transport nutrients from a thriving tree to a dying tree many miles away. They also, as mentioned previously, trade nutrients with plants for their photosynthesized energy, creating a symbiotic relationship between the mycelia, the plants, and the trees. And that's how a forest really works.


Here's to seeing the forest for the fungi :) YAY FUNGI!! lol



Here's the rest of the interview, for anyone interested.
http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2008/07/natures-internet-vast-intelligent.html

Joe Rogan: Unexpectedly Awesome.

Yeah, the guy from Fear Factor!


This guy






I started to love him a little when he produced "The Union: The Business Behind Getting High" which focused on the injustice of cannabis prohibition in North America and - in part - the British Columbia "union" of marijuana growers.


And NOW, he's going to be doing a documentary based on Dr. Rick Strassman's "DMT: The Spirit Molecule" !!! Whaaaaaat! And now that I'm actually reading up on him he seems to be a pretty outspoken advocate for the exploration of DMT. The film might already be out, actually. Whether the doc will focus on the more "illicit" method of smoking DMT or natural methods of stimulating your brain's DMT production through things like superfoods (eg Mucuna Pruriens), kundalini yoga and meditation, I'm not sure, as I have not [yet!] gotten around to reading the book, and I'm at work so I can't watch the trailer >_<




Either way it should be pretty mind-blowing. DMT is a very powerful and fascinating subject.




stoked. <3ujoe.

Get improved concentration, memory and overall brain power with SUPER BRAIN YOGA

This technique is being used by doctors and teachers alike to improve brain function and increase concentration and mental clarity. And it really works! Improved grades and increased mental focus among people who practice it are being reported, even among those with mental disabilities.

Super Brain Yoga, as it's being called, is essentially a form of acupressure and breathing technique used to balance both hemispheres of the brain and bring energy up to the brain. It was developed by Master Choa Kok Sui who has written a book on the subject. The exercise is easy to learn, takes only a few minutes to do and can be done basically anywhere! :)


Step 1: Face east, if you can. I don't really bother with this as I'm not aware of the significance, but if you happen to be aware of where east is, it can't hurt.


Step 2: Connect your tongue with the roof of your mouth, pressing lightly.


Step 3: Grasp your earlobes with your thumb and index finger, your thumb on the front of the earlobe and index on the back. Your right arms should be crossed OVER your left arm.



Step 4: Inhale and squat down to the ground (or as close as you can, the degree of squat isn't terribly important, but try to get as low as you can without hurting your knees or any other part of your body) while inhaling.

Step 5: Stand back up on the exhale. So as you're squatting, inhale, then as you're standing, exhale.

Step 6: Repeat this 15-20 times once or twice a day


I started doing this yesterday and plan to do it everyday. I'll post updates on whether I start to notice improved concentration, memory and overall balance. I definitely notice slight effects right away, but it's hard to determine whether it's as a result of the systematic breathing, the squats, a placebo effect or whether my brain hemispheres are actually being affected =P but I plan to practice it everyday and I'll let you know what I discover :)