Thoughts on The 100-Mile Diet

As mentioned in Reading Non-Fiction, my goal is to share what motivated me to read the books and some thoughts that came from said reading.

This was a fun read for several reasons, but I mostly enjoyed it because we live in the same city as the authors and it made me feel very connected to the story being shared. Since reading the book, I have been encouraged to check out local mentions, like the UBC Farm, and pleasantly surprised at some items that are found locally (e.g. honey). Eating locally seems easy for some items that I like (especially fruit because of our closeness to the Okanagan!) and challenging for others. Community gardens are something I’ve never tried, but it makes me happy that the City of Vancouver supports growing local produce. I have tried urban gardening for the past 3 years with some success and plan to continue.

Board games for couples: Mr. Jack

Our first board games for couples review is the two player murder mystery game Mr. Jack.

Board games for couples

We love board games. Sadly, it’s hard to find solid two player games. Many games include two player “special rules”, but they rarely work well; the real gems are usually designed expressly for two players. Even then, a good two player game might be a terrible couples game, at least in our experience.

We found some other couple reviews on the web, but not many. So to celebrate TableTop Day, we’re going to start posting our experiences board gaming as a couple.

Thoughts on Tuesdays with Morrie

As mentioned in Reading Non-Fiction, my goal is to share what motivated me to read the books and some thoughts that came from said reading.

While visiting family in the summer of 2010, I discovered this little book lying around and asked my step-mom what it was about. She told me the book was about a guy who had ALS. She said that since  a close family friend had been diagnosed with ALS just a few months prior, reading the book was helping her gain an understanding of the disease and get a realistic perspective of how the disease affects not only the person with it, but those closest to them.

Results: 12 movies in 2012

As planned, we limited ourselves to 12 movies in 2012. It was a struggle at times, but here’s how we fared:

• watched 15 different movies
• total cost was about $200
  • theatre tickets: 11 x ~$15 each = $165
  • iTunes rentals: 6 x $5 each = $30
  • dvd rentals: 2 x $2 = $4
• each watched about 25.5 hours
• works out to $3.9/hour of entertainment

So, compared to 2011, we watched 1 day’s worth of movies instead of 5 and saved about $500. We could have easily made up the difference with TV episodes, but I’m pretty sure we cut down on that too by canceling Netflix.

Geekathlon 2012

You’ve got a milestone birthday coming up. The big 3-0, maybe. What do you do to celebrate? You throw a geekathlon, that’s what you do.

That’s what I did, anyway. Not a geekathon, mind you. That sounds exhausting. No, I’m talking about a geekathlon, as in the Greek word for “contest”. A contest of geeky proportions complete with a playable invitation.

Reading Non-Fiction

Every year I try to read at least 12 books. Up until three years ago, the bulk of my reading was from the fiction section (think Pride and Prejudice, Twilight, Confessions of a Shopaholic). That may have been due to my status as a student for so long and getting into the habit of using my personal reading time for something light and entertaining. Nevertheless, when I watched the movie Julie and Julia, I realized I might be missing out on a plethora of interesting stories, people, history, etc. So, I decided to start my journey into non-fiction by reading Julie’s book, on which the movie is based.