Reviews

An introduction to the Water Ionizer

I put together a short video demonstration of our water ionizer, as a quick introduction to the idea of ionized water and its main benefits. A few months ago, I laughed at the idea of ionized water. I thought it was a foolish concept. After all, the acid-base chemistry of our body would cancel any ionized water. I thought it wouldn’t have any effect, and who knows, it might even be harmful. But my mother had bought a machine, and she went on and on about its benefits. She said we should get one as well, and once Ligia and I tried it and saw its effects on our body, we’d be sold.

Well, I am sold on ionized water now. We drink alkaline water daily, and wash our faces with acid water. Our bodies went through a process of detoxification, and from time to time, we still feel the effects of eliminating toxins (headaches and slight nausea). Most of the time though, we feel great, much better than we did before. Our complexion has improved as well. My face is much smoother. Ligia says the same about hers, and I agree, although she’s always had great skin.

An Introduction to Ionized Water
Released 5/23/11
With English and Romanian subtitles

If you’re a skeptic, I understand, having been one myself. The only thing that will convince you is to try drinking alkaline water for yourself and see the difference on your own body. You don’t have to buy a machine. See if there’s a health store in your area that has a water ionizer and is willing to sell it to you, and drink it for a few weeks. Keep a daily journal of what’s going on with you, and make up your mind afterward.

A lot of people prefer to get bottled water, thinking it’s pure. There’s been plenty of research on this, so you don’t have to take my word for it — purity is a foreign concept to bottled water, which contains more impurities than tap water. Given the way it’s kept in plastic bottles, whose chemicals leech into the water over time, and the harsh conditions in which it’s kept (cold or hot, depending on the weather), it’s also possible that it’s harmful to the body, its chemical make-up having been altered. Water isn’t just water. Simple as its chemical formula is, it just isn’t as simple as H2O. Water is basic to all of the chemical reactions in our bodies, so it’s a reactive substance. Water also needs to have minerals in it, in order to be properly absorbed by our body, and to benefit it. Do you think that a reactive substance like water does well when kept in toxic plastic containers over long periods of time, and subjected to cold or hot conditions — temperatures which facilitate various chemical reactions?

Ionized water isn’t a recent discovery. It’s been around since the 50s, and it’s regularly consumed in countries like Korea and Japan. If it’s been around that long, surely that in itself lends it a bit of credibility. A hoax usually doesn’t stick around for 60 years or more.

You can, of course, remain a skeptic. You’ll be in good company, since the folks at Wikipedia have done so. You can also be skeptical of the skeptics, like this man. Or you can choose to believe the testimonials of those who’ve tried the water, folks like me or like the ones in this video (with whom I am not affiliated in any way, shape or form):

The thing is, even if you choose not to believe anything about ionized water, surely you can use logic to reason the following out: alkaline cancels out acid, right? Then it stands to reason that at the very least, alkaline water should help in those situations where the stomach is overly acidic (ulcers, acid reflux, upset stomach, etc.) So if you’ve got one of those conditions, the logical thing to do is to drink alkaline water instead of taking antacid tablets, and see how you feel. You may just discover that it will make a bunch of other pre-existing conditions go away, and that’s not a bad deal, is it?

Here are a few photos of the particular model we have, the Chanson VS-70. I’m not saying it’s superior to other models and that you should get it above others. It’s a good model from a good brand, which we liked because it’s an under-the-counter unit, and it has seven electrolysis plates, coated with platinum. Other models are counter-top units and have fewer plates. Price-wise, the Chanson brand is also less expensive than other brands on the market, so they’re a good deal.

Thoughts

Fresh strawberries, first batch this season

At this morning’s breakfast, we had fresh strawberries from our garden. It was the first ripe batch this season, picked just minutes before we ate them. No artificial ripeners or chemicals used in our garden, I can tell you that!

Forgive the inferior quality of the photos; they were taken with my mobile phone, a Nokia X3-02. (If you’re thinking about getting it for its 5 megapixel camera, don’t.)

Ligia's Kitchen

Ligia’s Kitchen: A raw zucchini spaghetti dish

We published the seventeenth episode of Ligia’s Kitchen tonight. It’s an already popular recipe of Ligia’s, loved by all who try it at her culinary demonstrations. It’s already been featured on national TV in Romania, several times, so we thought it was high time to film it for the show. It’s raw spaghetti, made from zuchinni, though any member of the squash family will do. Naturally, the spaghetti sauce is also raw.

Bon appetit!

LK-017-RO-HD with English subtitles
Released 5/22/11

A Guide To A Good Life

Shaving: art versus design versus profit

Where’s the art?

When I think of shaving razors currently on the market, I think of cartoon fights where everyone pulls out a bigger gun. Razor companies are constantly trying to outdo each other with more blades. If it’s not the blades, then it’s a “microcomb”, or a vibrating handle… which brings all sorts of other imagery to mind, the kind that has nothing to do with shaving, unless you’re into weird fetishes.

It’s the same kind of approach that software companies use these days. Their code gets so bloated, because they never take the time to clean it up, that all they can hope for is that hardware manufacturers can throw more RAM and MHz at the problem so they don’t have to optimize their code. Apple took a different approach with the Snow Leopard operating system: they took almost a year to clean it up, throwing out the junk. That’s why I admire Apple.

Made better through improved design? Not really.

On the other hand, companies like Gillette and their competitors lost sight of the art of shaving and figured everyone was a nitwit who couldn’t learn to shave properly and couldn’t take care of their razor, so they overdesigned their razors for the lowest common denominator. In the process, the razor became a plastic toy, not a tool, a crappy little thing you throw away instead of something you respect and maintain, because it keeps you looking civilized.

Designed for profit? Thank you sir, may I have another?

Because it became a throw-away toy, their profit margins increased. Because the razors no longer lasted a lifetime, they could sell more of them. You just look down the line of razor models from the Gillette over the years, and you’ll see they get more and more plasticky, with less metal parts. If they have metal in them, it’s not in the head (certainly not where the cartridges attach to the handle); that part needs to be plastic so it breaks after a while.

Don't let its flashy looks fool you. It just can't compare to a good safety razor.

The cartridges have started to cost more as well. A pack of eight cartridges for the Gillette Fusion ProGlide razor (the latest flashy gimmick from Gillette) runs about $30 at Amazon. That’s $3.75 per cartridge, and from my experience, they last about 3-4 shaves. By contrast, a pack of 60 assorted safety razor blades costs $18. That’s 30 cents per blade, and they last about 6-7 shaves. (By the way, I’d recommend that pack for those learning to shave with a safety razor, because it’ll let you try different brands to see which blades work best for your face.)

The real deal.

Wait, it gets worse

They also polluted the environment with all that disposable plastic crap. Now you throw away the razor, not just the blades. And the blades aren’t just steel, which is perfectly recyclable, but they’re plastic and metal, which is annoyingly difficult to recycle, because you need to separate the two materials from each other, and it’s just not worth the trouble.

It’s such a shame. I used to admire Gillette about 10 years ago, before I got disappointed with all the stuff they’re doing these days. I still shave with a classic Gillette Safety Razor, pictured below. I still keep my grandfather’s Gillette Heavy Duty Safety Razor, and plan to use that when my own breaks down. Things used to be simple and beautiful. Where did they go wrong?

The classic Gillette safety razor.

If you’d like to learn how to shave properly, check out my wet shaving guide. And there’s also a video, embedded below.

Image of ProGlide Razor courtesy of Gillette. Image of Merkur Heavy Duty Safety Razor courtesy of Wikipedia.

Lists, Places

Interesting Places

Interesting Places is a playlist I put together for my travel and nature videos. It contains 52 videos at the moment, with more to come in the future. Here are just a few of the videos you’ll see in it: