SuperForest

Patricia Volonakis Davis has composed 10 things she’s learnt - about love, life and being a woman –  that she’d like to share with other women in the hopes that it saves them “some precious time”. Maybe the boys can get something out of it too.

1. You are at least ten times prettier than you think you are.
That holds true no matter how pretty you already think you are! Don’t believe me? Ask your mother/auntie/grannie if she thought she was pretty when she was 20. She’ll say no. Then find a photo of her at that age. See what I mean?

2. The only thing you should be faking is confidence.
If you don’t have it yet, pretend you do. In every new situation, pretend you’re not nervous, pretend you’re not afraid. After a few times doing this, the pretend part disappears.

3. Want to try something new like painting, skiing, running your own business? Go to the library and borrow ten different books on the subject.
Skim through them all, find the ones that have the most vital information and study them. Then see number 2.

4. No matter how old you get, remember what it was like to be a nine-year old girl.
Remember the feeling of freedom. If you’ve already forgotten, do a cartwheel. You can so still do one. Savior that feeling. Wake up with it every day. You’ll stay young until the day you die.

5. In the same vein, cut or potted flowers are never a waste of money.
Because every time we glance at them, they remind us how much beauty there can be in the world.

Click here to read the rest of Patricia’s list.

Hi SuperForest,

On March 7, armed with a pair of gloves and a few rubbish bags, I’m going to clean up my neighourhood. I’ve registered for Clean Up Australia Day (now in its 20th year) and am looking forward to making my little patch of the world cleaner. I’m also going to make a video of the day and give you guys a little tour of Sydney at the same time!

Stay tuned!

Baloo laying in the sun, me seeing an opportunity.

Gooooooood Morning SuperForest!

Yesterday I awoke with a bit of a head cold, and moped about the house drinking lemon ginger tea. My beloved brother, SuperForester Will, suggested the only proper way to treat a cold: surfing!

This morning my alarm went off at 6:45 AM and I hit snooze and lay back down, only to find Will hovering over me with hot coffee. Bless his heart! We jumped in the car and 45 minutes later we were in Malibu, where we found waves aplenty.

Since this side of the Pacific ocean is quite cold, we had to wear thick wetsuits to keep our body heat in. To be comfortable it helps to be naked under the suit, so you want to get into it as quickly as you can, as the morning breeze is quite chilly. I wore a wetsuit top under my fullsuit for added warmth, plus gloves and one bootie. Will wore the other bootie.

We paddled out into the glorious Pacific, and I was delighted to find the water clean and sparkling. No trash, no doodies, just clean, salty ocean water. We were sitting outside the break, looking out to the ocean to see the incoming waves, when a pod of dolphins broke the surface! They had come by to check us out, or perhaps just chase a fish past us. It was nice that my dolphin-to-trash-in-the-water ratio leaned so heavily towards dolphin. Lots of dolphins, very little trash.

The common cold is called the rhinovirus, which I assume means that it lives in your nose. I believe that surfing is beneficial to curing the rhinovirus as the exercise aspect stimulates white blood cell production and immune response, while a lot of salt water is helpfully squirted up your nose by the incoming waves. Once in your nose and sinuses, the saltwater leaps into action like Bruce Lee, using nunchuks and spinning kicks to smack the rhinovirus right in its mean old face.

Often, a good hard blow of the nose, (one nostril at a time) is enough to send what looks like the “mother colony” of bacteria flying out of your head and into the water to be eaten by fish. Gross.

But then you start to feel better, and the healing process continues.

While surfing today I underestimated where a wave was going to break, and when I tried to push my board under water and dive under the wave I got sucked into it and spun around. I lost my board really fast and had no leash, so the board was gone and I was underwater and thrashing about. For a few moments, I panicked and struggled.

Then the retraining kicked in and my body went limp. The wave let go of me and I was able to kick to the surface. All thanks to the conscious retraining of my natural human instincts. When you are being thrashed around underwater, it makes sense for your body to get upset and instinctively try to get you back to the surface. In this case, your instincts work against you. By letting yourself go limp, the wave has no power over you. Only by retraining my mind was I able to adapt to this force in a beneficial way.

I always feel so good and loose after a few hours of surfing. No aggression or frustration. Clear head and happy body.

Love to All,

Jackson

Check it (there’s a minimal amount of swearing), a video parody of the modern state of television news:

I laughed pretty hard. If you mute it, you can actually trick yourself into believing you’re watching the same old 5 o’clock news. Funny AND poignant, always a good combination.

Enjoy,

Chris

(via.)

I burned it a bit, but man was it tasty! With sharp cheddar cheese.

Here’s how I do:

Toast two slices of bread. Cut open an avocado. Smash half of avocado on one slice of bread, (minus the pit.) Add cheese, mustard, salad greens. Put other piece of bread on top. Smash together. Cut diagonally to ensure maximum deliciousness.

Enjoy!

Goood Morning SuperForest!

I’m back in Los Angeles, and who came over to say hello? My next door neighbor’s peacock!

Wicked cool. Here he (she?) is sitting on my roof.

If you’ve never read the Dinosaur Comics on qwantz.com, you’re seriously missing out. The premise is so simple: each has the same six frames, in which the same three characters (and sometimes an out of frame “God”) are performing the same actions in every comic, the only difference being the dialogue. They are so inventive, and each character has a distinct voice and personality. Here’s today’s comic (click to biggify):

Cool, yes? Make sure to check the rest of ‘em out at www.qwantz.com. You won’t be disappointed. Note that some comics are two or three-parters and going “backwards” through the archive might not make much sense. But they are still relatively standalone. Also, don’t miss the image caption, which is sometimes just as funny as the image itself. Just hover over the comics for a couple seconds to see it.

Enjoy,

Chris

This one’s for all our Beatles fans out there (that’s virtually everyone, right?).

The above is a yellow submarine (a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine …) that’s also a tea infuser. Yes, the TeaSub submerges tea leaves to the bottom of your cup, creating the perfect brew. Cute, no?

While we’re on the subject, did you know tea is good for your heart?

“It’s thought that the flavonoids in tea can decrease the tendency of platelets in the blood to stick together, so lessening the likelihood of a clot forming that could block arteries. The flavonoids can “relax” the inner lining of the blood vessels, allowing blood to flow more evenly.” Taken from itea.com.au

Mmm, tea.
April