Water: Essential to Life

Water is a fundamental part of our lives. It is easy to forget how completely we depend on it. The average adult body is 55-75% water. Every day we lose water through the simple act of breathing. We perspire and we use water as a means of expelling waste products from the body. For our bodies to function properly we need to replenish the water we lose. For the average male that’s about three quarts of water a day. As a general rule women don’t need as much. Two to two and a half quarts of water is usually sufficient.

For most people the thought of drinking two and a half quarts of water a day is daunting, but we can usually get enough water through the foods we eat and the beverages we drink. While it may be “enough,” adding a glass or two of water to your daily diet is a good idea. Water aids in the digestion and absorption of food, helps regulate body temperature and blood circulation, carries nutrients and oxygen to cells, and cushions joints from shock and damage.

Dieting? Water is a natural appetite suppressant and it helps metabolize fat. Even when not dieting, most people prefer to not gain weight. Research shows that low water intake can increase the amount of fat deposits. The primary function of the liver is to metabolize fat but without enough water, the kidneys cannot function properly. Some of their workload is pushed onto the liver. Rather than metabolizing the fat, it’s stored. The weight creeps on, one pound at a time.

Young Adult Fiction: I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

The concept behind the story, I am Number Four is great, nine alien children and their cepans (guardian/teachers) have fled their annihilated home world of Lorien to seek refuge on Earth. Once their ship landed the children and their cepans scattered. They were being hunted by a malevolent extraterrestrial race from a dying planet. Their only hope was to hide until the children grew into their legacies. Their legacies would give them the strength and the ability to fight back. As added protection the elders of Lorien placed a charm on the children. As long as they stayed separated, they could only be killed in order. As the book opens, three of the nine children have already been tracked down and killed. This is Number Four’s story. He is a teenager now and is slowly coming into his legacies, but the Mogadorians are on his tail. A fight is inevitable. Will he survive?

I read several reviews before I sat down to write this. The biggest complaint was the lack of depth in the characters. Yes, the characters were a bit two dimensional, but the pace made up for it. What I had a problem with was the amount of damage ensued by the battles. The humans thought it was terrorists. Sorry, but we lowly humans are not that naïve. An epic battle in small-town USA would have caught our attention.

I am Number Four was published in 2010 and supposedly written by a 4,000 year-old elder named Pittacus Lore. The second book in the series, The Power of Six was released last year. I have read both books and am looking forward to the next.

February’s Birthstone: Amethyst

If gazing into the sparkling purple depths of an Amethyst suffuses you with a sense of powerful wellbeing, this is only to be expected. The ancient Greeks believed that the gemstone held many powers, among them protection against intoxication. In fact, the word Amethyst comes from the Greek word “amethystos,” meaning sober. In ancient Greece, the gemstone was associated with the god of wine, and it was a common practice to serve this beverage from Amethyst goblets in the belief that this would prevent overindulgence.

Even today, Amethyst is considered a stabilizing force for those struggling to overcome addictive behaviors. February’s purple birthstone has been found among the possessions of royalty throughout the ages. The intense violet hue of Amethyst appealed to early monarchs, perhaps because they often wore this color. Purple dye was scarce and expensive at one time, and so it was reserved for garments of kings and queens.

Amethyst has been found in ruins dating as far back as the ninth century, adorning crowns, scepters, jewelry, and breastplates worn in battle. A large Amethyst is among the closely guarded gemstones in the British Crown Jewels.

Tangerines: A Mix of Tart and Sweet

Tart, sweet and portable, these mouthwatering fruits make great pic-me-ups for breakfast, lunch, mid-afternoon snacks, or midnight snacks. A single delicious tangerine supplies 2 grams of fiber as well as 45 percent of the RDA of vitamin C.

Toss a few tangerines in your bag to snack on while you are on the go, bake wedges atop fish marinated in orange juice and soy sauce, or stir-fry sections with lean beef, water chestnuts and green pepper strips.

Another reason to load up on tangerines is that they contain powerful plant chemicals called flavonoids that have been shown to lower the risk of breast cancer.

Tangerines are at their peak of flavor from now until April. Pick up some today.

The Color Red

When I think of The Color Red, many different thoughts come to mind for it is the most contradictory colors on the spectrum. It can signify danger or life. It can be good luck as well as bad. In India red is the sacred color of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and beauty. In China a ruby represents longevity. The red planet Mars is named after the Roman god of war. Early physicians wore red robes to signify their healing profession, and doors were decorated with a red cross to signify the presence of the bubonic plague.

The early Christian church used red for directions in prayer books as to the conduct of church services and to show feast days on the ecclesiastical calendar, so a red-letter day became a lucky day.

In the Middle Ages bright colors were rare since they were tedious and difficult to produce. Hence red became the exclusive preserve for kings, judges, the nobility and the pope and his cardinals. In 1464 Pope Paul II introduced “Cardinal Purple,” which was not purple at all, but a red dye made from the kermes insect.

To the Romans, the red flag was a symbol for battle. In Russia, red means beautiful. The Bolsheviks used a red flag as their symbol when they overthrew the tsar in 1917. That’s how the red flag became the symbol for communism.

In In the English War of the Roses, red was the color of the House of Lancaster, which defeated the House of York, symbolized by the color white.

The “Redshirts” were the soldiers of the Italian leader Garibaldi, who unified modern Italy in the nineteenth century.

Using Illustrator CS3

When I started drawing again my son gave me the program Illustrator CS3. As I spend so much time on the computer, he thought I would enjoy drawing on the computer as well. The program excited me. There are so many neat things you can do with it. Maybe you can, but I spent more time trying how to figure out how to do something than actually creating anything. I would get frustrated and abandon the program for months at a time, but I kept coming back to it.

I read the manual that came with the program. I bought books guaranteed to make you an expert. I watched the videos released by the company. I was running out of options when I stumbled across a series of videos made by Rick Rice on YouTube. He has published over 70 different tutorials. For a longtime user of Illustrator the lessons are probably too simplistic, but for a beginner like me they’re perfect.

Seduced by Moonlight, by Laurell K Hamilton

I just finished reading Seduced by Moonlight. It is the third book in Laurell K. Hamilton’s Meredith Gentry series. The series was recommended to me by a friend. She knew I liked reading fantasy fiction. I was skeptical when I picked up the first book, A Kiss of Shadows. I started reading Hamilton’s Anita Blake series several years ago, but never finished the series. A little violence and a little sex can add spice to a story, but it will not carry a book if the plot is weak.

I read A Kiss of Shadows and enjoyed it enough to go on to the second book. It wasn’t as good as the first, but I liked the theme behind the story and wanted to see where it would go. I downloaded Seduced by Moonlight and kept reading.

When a story bogs down with too much sex or violence I’ll skip a few pages and get back to the story, but with Seduced by Moonlight I found I was skipping more pages than reading. The plot was almost nonexistent. It was page after page of sex and violence. I finished the book but I will not be reading the next one in the series. I love a good fantasy fiction and I enjoy reading romance, but sex and violence for the sake of sex and violence is too close to my definition of porn.