Ada Zuba

I discovered the band My Chemical Romance in 9th grade when the song "Teenagers" became popular. The now former lead singer of the goth rock band had his struggles, but now is a comic book writer. Gerard Way is possibly one of the most optimistic people that walked earth. In a 2008 rolling stones interview he said "I always have faith in the world. When I was 15, I got held up with a .357 Magnum, had a gun pointed to my head and put on the floor, execution-style. No matter how ugly the world gets or how stupid it shows me it is, I always have faith." We could use a little bit of that faith right now with racism and covid-19 happening, we relaly could use some of that Way faith. He continued to say that "The events after 9/11, the moments of tragedy when people show their colors and pull together, have renewed my faith." honestly, I thought that Covid-19 that we would be in this together, but the tragic death of George Floyd has brought us together instead and it is sad that a death is what took us to get closer together. Anyways, I am getting off topic here, but we need faith.

2020 has been a let down for us all. First, you bring us a pandemic, which will probably ruin my wedding day. Second, racism is louder than ever and it is disconcerting. Everyone has been using the hashtag black lives matter. Before the brutal incident of the cop kneeling on a man’s neck racism was visible, it was visible and heartbreaking. I read a blog that my friend from my former job had written and my jaw dropped. I was shocked to hear this happen. I will not go into detail but essentially a customer had asked for his drink to be prepared by his coworker because they were afraid he had covid 19, simply because of his ethnic background and chances are he has worked there longer than his coworker. It’s disheartening that some people judge someone else by their background or their skin color. Have the movies not been enough to teach you to not be racist? 12 Years a Slave was one of the hardest movies I have watched and when I read The Help tears rolled down my cheeks. Did you forget about Hitler too? He slaughtered and murdered thousands and thousands of people because he wanted to create “a clean” race. If you so dare to treat anyone different because of their skin color, then you are no better than Hitler.

I always enjoyed art, I liked going to the art museums on my travels and seeing the Mona Lisa, the sculpture of Nike, Sunflowers by Van Gogh and all the renaissance paintings. I like to pain myself, I do not think I am worthy or Picasso or Van Gogh in anyway, but I enjoy the craft of having a blank canvas and thinking "What will go on this canvas today?" and I create art. Unfortunately, I cannot keep painting for a day, I like to rush through it and show it off even though most of my art is no better than a six year old who paints. I like the idea of being a painter, I like the idea of having no money and painting for a living, it is an artist's life. But, let me paint you a beautiful pictures using just my words. What do I see outside of my window? What is it that I see when I look outside?

Like a lot of people nowadays I spend a lot of time surfing Facebook. I am sharing images of dogs and puppies being cute and kittens being silly with their best friends. However, I have been surfing the web for work out routines that are easy to follow and I can do anywhere. Of course, that affects my Facebook feed. I have been seeing many ads for pills, teas, and coffees that are helping people lose weight, but does it really work? Can a pill slim you down into what you want your body to loo like? The answer is no. No, a pill or a tea cannot slim you down to what you want your body to look like. You might want to know why? well, let me tell you with the research I have conducted with the help of my sister. I first asked her about these products because being a scientist and all she has to know something about these weird products that people are buying. Her response was that if you found a compound in a plant that increased cell metabolism, but that would eventually cause cancer because your metabolism is tightly regulated to prevent the release of reactive oxygen species. So, you would be doing more harm to your body then anything. Most of these ads advertise that they are made from natural ingredients and I think this is where people get caught up in it and start believing it. I, then asked myself "could it be a placebo effect taking part in this?" That's when I received an article called "Expectancy, Self-Efficacy, and Placebo Effect of a Sham Supplement for Weight Loss in Obese Adults" apparently there was a study done to study this phenomenon: All participants were randomized to 1 of 3 conditions:

We all like the idea of breakfast food, we like orange juice that is freshly squeezed, the taste of buttermilk pancakes, the sticky sweet syrup that we drown our pancakes in just to get a sugar high, the smell of freshly cut grass sweeping in from your window. Pancakes are a very common breakfast food no one can deny it, but I myself prefer waffles, waffles have more substance and you can eat two a be full. I grew up with my mom making crepes, we only had pancakes while camping and waffles were a rare treat for us, I learned how to make waffles from a recipe book titled "Company is Coming" but since then, I created my very own waffle recipe that is perfect for a solitude breakfast that is social distancing friendly. This will be enough for you a loved one to share.

This is a difficult challenge to write about. I would want to do many things once this pandemic is over, there are movies I want to see in the theaters, there are parks I want to have picnics in, there are clothes I want to shop for, there are restaurants I want to eat at with good company. But I do not know when this pandemic will be lifted and over chances are I will probably make my day look something like this.