Blog Action Day 2008

15 October 2008 was Blog Action Day. The theme this year is poverty.

An apt topic right now when you see all the news about billion-dollar bail-outs for the “leading” economies of the world. These rich nations who can afford to put out this much money to save themselves, on the one hand, but spend pittance to help less fortunate countries, on the other.

It gives new meaning to the saying charity begins at home.

How I prevented gout attacks

Speaking of health, it has been over a year since I had my last gout attack. The last time I had an attack I had had a beer prior. I was on medication back then but still I had the attack.

But now I have been controlling my drinking but not my diet. I have been taking my medicine, eating all the things I like (beef, chicken, chips, etc) but have strictly abstained from alcohol. Despite a diet of food rich in purine (the cause of gout) I not had a single attack. Though my doctor thinks I should have the occasional drink (something to do with the Japanese believing man cannot live without sake) I know myself better. Beer, in particular, just pushes my uric acid levels over.

Blogging is not healthy

I decided to start blogging again last week. But now I am having second thoughts. I have started to lose sleep just as before when I was blogging. During the last six months which I had stopped I had my full eight hours sleep, without interruption. But now that I have decided to blog again I seem to be getting restless again. I woke up at 1:00am this morning. And three and a half hours later I am still up writing this. So should I really be blogging? Is blogging doing damage to my health? This is worrying.

Three years since my last sake matsuri

I went to the Saijo Sake Festival yesterday.

This time is it with my children. My youngest, being two year old, had not been born on my last trip three years ago. Certainly different when you become a parent and your kids get bigger. Both can play games now. Our son played the shooting gallery and our daughter the dice game.

My son won a toy gun. It shoots beads. This is something I am not too keen on. But it does teach him about how dangerous guns can be even if it is a toy gun. I tested it by shooting a piece of paper. It went clean through. I can just imagine how much my son would cry if he was hit by a shot. This morning I accidentally hit him with a toy plastic baseball. He was already rubbing his arm in slight pain. And it wasn’t even a fast pitch.

Coming back to the Sake Festival, I am not too keen on it these days as I don’t drink. There was nothing good in it. drunk people, greasy food, kids dancing pretending to be adults, toys of bad influence. Not a single thing I can think of which is good about it except for the business of sake. Not at all comforting.