overidon.com Central Database for Overidon Omnimedia

Green Machine

Yesterday I drank a Naked Juice brand, “Green Machine” drink. It tasted so good. I am amazed by how refreshing and crisp it feels going down. It looks weird being green and all. But it really is delicious. So today I looked online at the Naked Juice website and found the ingredients for the drink. It has a lot of interesting things in it, including Blue Green Algae. I remember living in San Francisco years ago and a friend recommended Blue Green Algae to me and I tried it and I thought it tasted pretty good. It was one of those health food moments, where the sliminess of the food was outweighed by the potential health benefits. The basic line of information on Blue Green Algae is that it is a life-form that is full of energy due to photosynthetic properties. So if you ingest the Blue Green Algae, you supposedly get the energy benefits. I definitely did feel better after drinking the Green Machine beverage. But there is no real way of telling if that feeling came from the other ingredients in the drink which include: Broccoli, Kiwi Puree, apple juice, and… grass? That’s right, there’s straight up grass in this drink. If you are wondering if I’m talking about wheat grass, then no. That’s in there also. But “Grass” is an actual ingredient in this Green Machine drink.

So if you are one of those people who like Blue Green Algae and this is the key point, “Believe” that it is good for you, then Green Machine might be a nice fit for you. But if you have had bad experiences with Blue Green Algae in the past or think you may be allergic, then I’d stay away from this beverage.

Personally, I’ve never had any bad encounters with Blue Green Algae so I’m glad it’s in the Green Machine juice drink. I also like wheat grass and broccoli so I was happy to read that in the ingredients list. As for “grass” I wasn’t too sure. Yes, I know grass sits in the sun all day and soaks up a great deal of energy rays. But that doesn’t necessarily convince me that it is food and I should be drinking it. But hey, I’m open to new things. “You gotta try something new everyday.” That’s what my Mom says.

Let’s not forget that Green Machine by Naked Juice has “Chlorella” inside it! Now you may be wondering, just as I did, if “Chlorella” was a new female Pop Singer who is about to have a debut album rock the Billboard charts. But in fact Chlorella isn’ t a singer at all. Chlorella is another form of algae. It is supposed to be a type of protein filled algae that has contested healing and health benefits. I like the name, “Chlorella.” It rolls of the tongue with such seduction and pizazz who spoken aloud. I imagine myself being introduced to a famous and rich South American king’s daughter in a giant mansion…”Let me now introduce my beautiful daughter, Chlorella!” But in fact this stuff is just tiny spheres that collect energy and engage in photosynthesis.

The thing about Green Machine juice is that it is pretty expensive for a little container. I spend over three dollars for a medium-sized Green Machine. It isn’t very affordable to be drinking all the time, but if you savor it and have it every once and a while you will probably enjoy it as much as I do. If you are the kind of person who liked healthy things then this drink may interest you. It is a light kind of drink. It isn’t like a latte or something that pulls you down.

-Tyler

Read the Lotus Sutra for free online

I love the Lotus Sutra. I’ve read it multiple times and it has changed my life. I found a website called, sacred-texts.com that has the Lotus Sutra online so you can read it for free. It is a slightly different version than the one I’ve read, which was the Kumarajiva version so I am going to read it again online and see if there are any major differences. The Lotus Sutra is a Buddhist text that has a tremendous amount of good in it. The version I read had a glossary so I could look up the words that I was unfamiliar with in the back. But if you check out the link above you could always just have a tab of Wikipedia open so you can look up any words or phrases you are unfamiliar with. The wikipedia entries aren’t as concise as the glossary definitions that I read in the printed book form, but they should do well to clear up major questions and ambiguities. The Lotus Sutra has a special place in my mind and heart because every time I have read it I have had a different experience. The text brings up ideas that are both thought provoking and stillness invoking. I remember reading the Lotus Sutra one day at a Starbucks in Orange and I felt like I was having a mild out of body experience. It wasn’t like what I expected the experience to feel like.

Out of all the books and texts I’ve read in my life I can say hands down that I am most thankful for the opportunity to read the Lotus Sutra.

The Lotus Sutra changed my life in more than one way. It altered my perception on the world that I live in. I no longer viewed the world as a finite experience. After reading the text, I no longer viewed my fears in the same way.

It took me a long time to decompress after reading The Lotus Sutra the first time. But I’m glad I did it.

I love spiritual and religious texts so reading The Lotus Sutra was very enjoyable. One of the great things about The Lotus Sutra is that it is presented in an interesting way. There are descriptions before each chapter of the situation and the beings in the area. Then there is spoken words. So the information is presented in an interesting fashion and you always know who is talking. It is very clear and if you have patience with the longer names and words it will flow easily. One personal suggestion that I have is that you try and pronounce the longer and unfamiliar names slowly out loud in order to remember and get to know them. Some names in the text are very long and beautiful and sound like poetry when spoken aloud. It isn’t a big deal if you don’t pronounce them perfectly, it is more about paying respect to the entities in the text. By doing so you will probably have a more enjoyable and fruitful reading experience.

Another cool thing about The Lotus Sutra is that it is divided into easily manageable chapters. I read each chapter usually during one reading session and then took time to reflect on what I read. You may find yourself reading at a different pace, but that’s what worked for me.

Here’s a link to The Lotus Sutra so you can read it for free at sacred-texts.com.

-Tyler

Latte Conspiracy

I am very suspicious and am keen on the conspiracies. But there is one conspiracy that is more dangerous than all the lizard people combined: The conspiracy of WHO MAKES THE BEST LATTE! Many of you have read the article I wrote a couple months ago called, I had the best latte of my life today. But today I had a latte that even topped that one. It was a latte that I got from my neighborhood Starbucks in Corona del Mar. This master barista made it with foam that was more serene than a sunset inside the Horse-head Nebula. The foam was so good I almost felt unworthy to drink it. But then after a few moments of admiration I decided to take the first sip and slipped into Latte Samadhi. At the first sip I was stunned by how smooth and mildly sweet the latte was. It tasted buttery and sweet. I asked the barista if he added caramel sauce to it, he said, “yes.” So, this latte had caramel sauce and therefore was not a virgin puritanical latte as compared to the one mentioned in the previous article. But the thing was, it was buttery and soothing and delicious just like the one from Antonello Espresso Bar. Yet the difference was that the one I got at Starbucks had far superior foam to the other latte. So that made it an overall better experience. Also the one from Starbucks was a bit sweeter than the other latte but not overwhelmingly sweet. It was the perfect blend of sweetness and bitterness. It was almost a hybrid between a latte and a caramel macchiato.

I’m going to be honest with you. I think that baristas act like they are all friendly and community minded. But deep down they are very competitive and are on a secret mission to make the best drinks. It’s kind of like how all baristas seem to know a lot about music. What’s up with that? They don’t teach you anything about music when you sign up to be a barista. They teach you about foam…if you’re lucky! This is obviously a conspiracy and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.

-Relyt