Shrift, there are Google buses from the East Bay, where rents are cheaper and brogrammers are fewer. Also great parks and plenty of good restaurants and cheap dive bars.

what it meant was, you DON'T need to get rid of your potato; whole grains were no better than a potato in terms of reducing mortality.

Wait, what? After all these years believing that a potato was essentially the equivalent of teh demon sugar and whole grains were the Holy Grail of Health, you mean I can keep eating whole potatoes and I don't have to shovel grains down my face to be healthy? Well, well.

And it was pretty damn long. Too many tables.

I feel your pain. We don't even edit tables anymore; we turn whatever the author gives us into a .tif and put it in the paper. If he wants to change it? Send us a new table. Ain't nobody got time fo' dat.

It's kind of a bummer to be sure. Much as I enjoy my quinoa and my brown rice, neither feels much like a treat. Also a bummer? Those studies that suggest a vegan diet reduces cancer risk because my fear that I am cancer-prone is HUGE and my love of cheese is deep and fervent.

Yeah, but it doesn't have to be all-in-or-all-out. A little sugar won't destroy you, and lots of other things also reduce cancer risk, and it's not like everyone who eats cheese gets cancer. You can't control it all, and past a certain number of variables, you can't know exactly what's best to do. So instead of giving up your beloved cheese and occasional dessert, you're probably better off focusing on an overall healthy lifestyle with, you know, enough vegetables and exercise and not-smoking. I get what you're saying, though; I have a HUGE fear of dying of the same disease that killed my mom, and I'd do just about anything to avoid it - except no one knows what causes it, much less what to do to avoid it. I think if we're not careful, we can lose some of the enjoyment of life now in fear of the possibilities of later.

(Sorry, that sounded more preachy than I meant it to, I've been pensive and melancholy all day.)

Thanks Zen and Nora, I love how buffistas are always so quick to remind each other to enjoy the life we have now.

And it didn't sound preachy, no worries, or at least it wasn't stuff I don't already know. I already practice a Zenkitty-like approach, so to speak. I don't think diet changes, even dramatic ones, can magically make one's cancer or heart disease disappear. I haven't seen any study that says eating the right foods will help you live longer, but I do put stock in the research that suggests diet plays a role in keeping you healthier over the long term.

Timelies all!

Came back from OVFF with Canadian chocolate.(All the guests were Canadian, and some chocolate went into the Interfilk auction.) Aero bubbles and bars!

Holy crap, Anita Sarkeesian is going to be on Colbert tonight! Someone I know is going to meet Stephen Colbert! Wow.

Also, the shitstains who have been harassing her are losing their tiny minds. Apparently they thought Colbert would be on board with death and rape threats?

I took myself to Barnes & Noble for some coffee and book browsing. They were having a sale on DVDs, so I perused those, knowing I'd probably get something but hoping they wouldn't have anything I didn't have that I was willing to pay that much for.

But what to my wondering eyes should appear by Kolchak: the Night Stalker. I still am creeped out by memories of this show. It is the seed from which many wonderful shows came. I started a fic about Kolchak in Sunnydale (only a few paragraphs, darn that real life thing).

Reader, I bought it. And I'm wondering if I have the nerve to watch it and afraid that it will not live up to my memories.

The sample size on vegan diets is, by definition, too small to be meaningful, plus there's always the complicating factor that people who follow vegetarian and vegan diets may have other healthy habits. My take-away from nutrition studies is: eat more vegetables and fruits; eat a wide variety of vegetables and fruits; eat smaller portions of meat; exercise; and *sigh* maintain a healthy weight.

New hairdryer acquired.

Also, broke recent fastest lap average in 18 months AGAIN tonight, beating the one earlier in the week by a full second. Felt the whole time like it was a kinda sluggish pace (fall mild congestion) but apparently not. I don't know why suddenly I'm headed back in the right direction, but I'll take it. Maybe I'll get back under a minute pace by the New Year?

Barnes and Noble for coffee and book browsing is pretty much always a good plan, i think.

It reduces incidence of genital warts by a big percentage, and genital warts are a bummer. Also reduced incidence of HPV-related oral cancers, and I would assume others as well.

Anal cancer as well--more common in gay men, but still.

I scoff at healthy eating. Instead, I will eat the blondies my roommate left on the counter. And wine. Because lo, I had a stressful yesterday and demand some chill. And if it takes minutes off my life, so be it.

Also....potatoes are totally whole grain! Uh, in y'know, the sense that you're not breaking them down into partial-potatoes? Eat the skin! Then you are consuming the whole thing, which is clearly healthy. Surely.

and *sigh* maintain a healthy weight.

I'm not just saying this as an excuse to stay a big fat panda, but -- the article I edited (about whole grains yay), did several multivariable analyses where they controlled for other factors, including BMI, and even the study participants with a high BMI still had a lower mortality risk from eating whole grains.

I'm not saying that to pimp whole grains; I'm just saying that there are other lifestyle factors that can mitigate being a big fat panda. It's nice to know that being fat isn't a hopeless death sentence.