Umami...

Heard once about the fifth taste (Umami) and how monosodium glutamate is what triggers that taste, and never got the chance to read it. Now I have :)

Quite interesting I might say, especially the history of its discovery that is. Keep in mind the quite problematic health concerns though.

Efficient timeout

Did you ever notice how much you can sometimes learn by stopping doing something for a while?

Occasionally, when I skip a workout or two at the gym, I notice that the weight I can handle improved pretty seriously. Today, after a little period of not playing the guitar, perhaps my playing ability didn't change much, but I discovered a comfortable position on my chair after deciding that I must get a more comfortable chair for playing.

I'm usually using my computer chair to play. The problem is that it has arm rests that don't allow me to sit with the guitar while resting my back. Today, after using this chair for almost a year, I discovered that I could sit diagonally :)

It's interesting how breaking the routine can allow us to gain new... uhmm... strengths? :)

Dusty Davis

Dusty Davis is a guy who has made several long motorcycle trips throughout Switzerland and the US. I'm against motorcycles, but the pics are so dazzling that I've got a huge motivation boost... Perhaps I should do something like that on a bike one day :)

Review: whey protein powders

Lately, I decided to try buying two of those huge protein powder containers to fill the stomach with some proteins right after the workout, so that I'll be able to catch a nap at the Sauna instead of rushing home, or opening up a table in the middle of the dressing room.

The two products I've bought are:

1. CytoSport - Complete Whey Protein - Cookies 'n Creme (5lbs)
2. Optimum Nutrition - Gold Standard Natural 100% Whey - Natural Chocolate (5lbs)
   

Taste:

1. The smell is very nice - indeed of cookies. There is a moderately disturbing chemical taste (acesulfame possibly?). The product was not bad when slightly diluted with water to the extent where it was just a bit more watery than a paste. But when really diluted, it was actually disgusting. Rating: 4.5 (wouldn't buy again)
   
2. The powdered milk smell is not tasty, but definitely bearable. The taste is of a cocoa powder mixed with powdered milk and no sugar (or other sweetener). Addition of one spoon of sugar makes it a pretty tasty shake - even good compared to a good cocoa drink. When sugar is added the strange smell is not sensed anymore. Rating: 8.5 (would definitely buy again)

Price:
If I remember correctly it was about:

1. $38
   
2. $29

Other than that:

The container should include a measurement scoop for which they have calculated all the nutritional value, and whoops... there is none. Later I've read that it may have traveled to the bottom of the container, and so it was - for both containers!

Can't they make some little hook at the top of the container and connect the scoop to it? Or is it some kind of ritual to get head-to-toes white of protein powder to get it?... :)
In any case, until they make a useful change, all I can recommend is using a fork instead of a spoon (hand?!) when digging. It is much more powderodynamic...

The noise at work won't let you concentrate? Try the rain...

For some time already I was looking for some monotonous music to listen at work, when the voices and the noises around make it more difficult to concentrate. The problem was that most music either had words, wasn't monotonous enough by some other criteria, or was too slow and made me fall asleep pretty fast. In In any case I either fell asleep or lost concentration in an even worse manner - instead of at least trying to concentrate albeit the voices around, I just started to listen to the music.

Today, the noise really got me frustrated, and I caught myself thinking how nice it would be if the fan would do more noise. Aha! Who needs songs?! I can download an .mp3 containing just noise and listen to it while working! So I downloaded a file with some computer generated white noise...

Well... it was awful to listen to. But on that very site (called the Free Sound Project) suddenly I've seen a link to rain noise. This was it. It was so darn nice to hear some rain falling and some thunders exploding in the skies, especially on the verge of October, when it's still so hot here (not hot enough for an A/C, but a fan is a must).

If you have the same problem, I recommend:

• Rain 1
• Rain 2
• Rain 3
• Rain 4
• Rain 5 (May be a little slow to download - their servers seem not to cope with the traffic...)

Ok, that's it.

P.S.1. Seems that I do formulate it for an audience... Well, as long as it doesn't take me much extra time, let it be.

P.S.2. I think I'll try to sleep with it too...

A few introductory words

I decided to open a blog to track some of my thoughts. The question I'm asking myself is, why post these thoughts online? I don't have any urge that people will read them, so why bother?

I mainly do so in order to have a place to organize them, and to track progress in various skills (such as cooking). More as a result than as a goal, someone may Google-up something that might interest him/her.

Ok, let's start then...