We're famous!

Well, sort of. Check out the video of our ultimate team, Je Huck Bien, playing last weekend:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=shVmISGE-tE

Mixed feelings

On Monday, Garrett found out he was successful in the competition for a job with a consulting company in Calgary! While we're very excited that he now has a real (grown-up) job, we approach this development with mixed feelings, since now he has to move away to Calgary in 3 weeks time!

So, congratulations Garrett! And, you'd better get a good long distance plan, since I'm sure we'll be talking on the phone a lot!!

Too much ultimate

This weekend was way too busy. Like my whole week, we just had too much to do!

On Friday night, we went to Kristina's house for a BBQ, which was really fun and had great food, however we couldn't do the party justice since most of us were pretty tired from our busy week! In fact, we'd even picked up the leftover keg from last Saturday's Moustache Weekend and brought it to Kristina's place. Sadly, we barely put a dent in the remnants of the beer, although we made a valiant effort to imbibe its contents. By 10:30, the tired BBQ-goers were heading home to get a good night sleep before ultimate playoffs the next time, while the die-hards continued on to the Fringe Festival beer gardens.

I woke up early on Saturday and headed to the fields for our playoff games with the Love Handlers. Unfortunately, we only had three women for the whole day - Joelle, myself and our captain, Kim K. On an aside note, our team is funny because we have two Kim's, two Matt's, two Ian's and a Garrett and Gary. Gets confusing. In any case, this is the third year I've played with Kim K, and we've both gotten in the habit of calling each other Kim K or Kim Z. On the field, we usually know which Kim is being called to, just from knowing what positions we are playing. In any case, we only had three women for the whole day, which meant we had to play all the points of every game without any subs. In ultimate lingo, this is called playing 'savage'. We had enough men for several lineups, so we were alright on that point. The Love Handlers are in the highest tier on Thursday nights, so we were lined up against some quality teams. Our first game was against a team called 'Mana mana' and was a really close match, however they won that game and went on to the top side of the tournament. Since we lost, we went into the lower side of the pool and played a team called 'Ginch', which we strongly outclassed. We beat them resoundingly, although they were fairly unspirited in the game. After the second game, the girls were feeling pretty rough from playing so much, and from playing quite hard. I was putting my 'A' game on - I've realized I have a hard time playing at half-effort. My game is either ON or it's OFF, and when I'm playing competitive teams, it's ON! So, when we found out we were playing a team we knew really well, and that they only wanted to play for 30 minutes so they could watch the first place game, we agreed in a flash. The score for this last game was 5-2 for us, so I guess we came in 5th, but it was a fun game so it didn't matter too much.

After ultimate, we headed over to Garrett's parent's house to celebrate his dad's 50th birthday. We helped his mom set up and then mingled for awhile, then eventually party-hopped over to the ultimate year-end party happening just north of his parent's place. We met up with our team members and danced for awhile before heading home, entirely pooped and up too late! Morning came all to early!

Joelle, Ian and Gabe picked me up Sunday morning to go to the playoffs for our Tuesday night team - Je Huck Bien. We were ranked 9th out of 11 in the B pool, so I figured we'd have a pretty mellow day of games. I was already sore from playing the day before, plus tired from not having enough sleep. In fact, most of our team was pretty tired from being out at the party last night, however we weren't hungover like the team we played against in our first game. The Hard Triers are a great team that are very closely matched to us (ranked 8th). They are the team that beat us a week ago by just a few points. In any case, their hangovers became our victory, because we beat them and moved on in the pool. Our next game, however, put us against a team ranked 2nd in B pool. I don't quite understand the tournament setup, however it seemed odd we'd suddenly play a very high ranked team. However, they weren't really that much better than us, except that they had had a bye for the first game and were coming in fresh against us. The game was quite close, but they ended up winning and advancing.

Our third game was against the Frisbee Killers, a team that apparently took the playoffs very seriously because they entered our game with a lot of aggression. We had played them a few weeks ago and only lost by one, however we were getting pretty tired by that point and didn't have a lot of energy left. As well, by this point we were playing to rank between 5th and 8th of B pool and figured it didn't REALLY matter where we ended up, we just wanted to get out of the playoffs without any major injuries from fatigue. The captain of the other team agreed to play an hour game, rather than an hour and a half, which saved us some effort, however we lost to them by just one point, which was a little disappointing.

Our final game wasn't really a game at all, because our team didn't really want to play anymore. We were tired and cranky and just wanted a rest - we had expected to play just three games, so having four in the end was unpleasant for our tired bodies. We challenged the other team, called the Hucking Owls, to a spirit game match-up, rather than a real game. The girls on their team didn't want to play either, but the guys wanted to play a whole game of ultimate. They kept bugging us to play a real game, and we compromised saying we'd play a game to a score of 5, but they weren't interested in that offer. Then they suggested that anyone who wants to stay and play a real game, could stay, and they would mingle the players to make two teams. We agreed, however, no one on our team actually ended up staying to play, because we all wanted to go home, so I don't think they played a real game after all. They really should have agreed to a game to 5.

On Sunday night I was just pooped. I laid on the couch and watched TV for hours, dozing and reading and playing on the internet. I needed to relax, so that's what I did. Then I went to bed early. Hopefully, this upcoming week, I will ACTUALLY be less busy, although I'm not sure if that's possible, since I already have a captain's meeting on Wed, a couple coffee rendezvous' with friends and some social drinking events to attend. Plus, there is another ultimate tournament next weekend that I'm playing in (foolish though I was to sign up for it a few weeks ago) so that will keep me busy some more!

So much for free time!

I had originally thought that this week would be nice and relaxing, since dragonboating was finished and I no longer had practices for it. How foolish I was. On Monday night, instead of dragonboat practice, Garrett and I went to see the Bourne Ultimatum at the theatre. We had actually tried a few times before now to go see this movie, but had underestimated its popularity. One night, we went there only about half an hour early, but figured we'd be ok since there were a lot of show times. It was not to be. We were about 20 people from the front of the line when the announcement was made that the movie was full. Since there were no other movies we wanted to see that were playing around the same time, we went home. The second time we tried to go, we even met our friend Randy there. We weren't much earlier than the last time, but it wasn't as busy a night so we thought we'd be ok. No luck. This time, we made it about 10 people from the front of the line when the movie sold out. We went home again. So, on our third attempt, we finally made it in to the movie. Albeit, it was a Monday AND we went to a different movie theatre. In any case, we really enjoyed that movie, so if you want a cool action flick check it out (however, I recommend reviewing the first two Bourne movies beforehand - there were a few things in the movie that didn't make sense to me because I didn't remember the first two movies that well).

On Tuesday night, we had ultimate as usual. This was our last Tuesday league game, so next week I will be free, however this tied up all of Tuesday evening, especially since we went out for a beer with the team when we were done to celebrate our season. Thursday night will also be used up by an ultimate game.

Tonight, we finally went to the Incubus concert! I say 'finally' because we were SUPPOSED to go see them in May, however they postponed the concert for 3 months until today. So, we had to wait so long for them to finally get here! In any case, it was worth the wait, because despite the young kids and drunken rowdies, the concert was really fun and the band put on a fantastic concert. The opening act was interesting as well - Garrett and I tried to define their style, and came up with such disparate comparisons as 'The Beatles', 'The Doors', 'Blue Rodeo' and 'reggae style'. Go figure. In any case, they were fun and I liked their music so I bought their cd during intermission. Incubus came on about an hour after the opening act finished and started out with a bang - they played all their louder, rowdier songs (for the mosh pit was in full force in front of the stage) at the beginning. I find it interesting to see a mosh pit for Incubus, since to me, they are a moderately mellow band with some good rock components to their song - not so much a headbanger sort of deal. However, to other people, apparently Incubus is a great band to bang around to. Luckily, we were off to the side and on this little stage, so we didn't have to contend with the mosh pit.

Incubus played for about an hour and 15 minutes straight before heading off. They played a good mix of their older popular songs mixed with their new stuff. In fact, they even played some REALLY old stuff, which has a distinctly different style than their new music. However, I knew the words to all the songs except for two songs, one of which I think was a cover song, but we couldn't really identify it, and the other which was a new song they had written but not yet released. So, not bad. Unfortunately, though, when they came back for an encore, they dropped the ball a little. They played a good song when they first came back, but the second encore song was that new one that they had just written, and the last song was the slowest, most boring Incubus song out there. It's basically a lullaby. I'm all for calming down the crowd before they have to leave, but seriously, provide a bit of interest at the end! In any case, I had a great time and I'm glad I finally had the chance to see Incubus live, since I've been a fan for years and this is the first time they've come to Canadian cities while on tour!

Dragonboat festival 2007

This past weekend was the 11th annual Edmonton Dragonboat Festival, and the second annual participation by the Department of MMI's dragonboat team, named "22 Scientists in a boat". While this is a bit of a misnomer, because we also had a psychiatry graduate student, an archivist and several friends or family of scientists, we were over 90% scientists and felt justified in using our name again this year. As well, and perhaps predictably, we dressed similar attire to last year - that is, as nerdy scientists.You'll find me right in the middle, wearing the white wig and red tutu-like skirt.

In any case, we raced a bunch this weekend, and finally made good on our months of practicing on the North Saskatchewan River. Our first race was on Friday night, where we entered the Health Care Challenge Cup. There were 8 teams entered in this race, and since only 3 can race per heat, it was a matter of which team attained the fastest time to determine the winner of the cup. We raced in a heat with just one other team, and came out way ahead of them with a time of 2 minutes 58 seconds. This turned out to be the best time of all the boats, by a fairly decent margin, so we expected we already had the Cup in the bag. However, we had to re-prove ourselves on Saturday afternoon after our other two races, by re-racing the two teams with the second and third best times. Again, we came out victorious with a strong lead and a time of 3 minutes 4 seconds.
Here are some pictures from that race - Garrett was on shore, cheering us on and taking some cool shots of us paddling.
Taking 'er out of dock:Bonnie's roommate Jessica kindly agreed to be our drummer for the weekend on last minute's notice:Garrett took some clustered action shots, so you can see our paddles coming in and out of the water in synchronized fashion:It doesn't look like it in the above pictures, but we were totally winning that race - the race lanes were not straight relative to shore. You can tell a little better in this picture that we are ahead of the boat in the farthest lane:Now, skipping back in time to our regular races for the rest of the festival - we started out bright and early on Saturday morning with a race time of 9am. Since we had to be there an hour early all the time, it was a pretty early start for all of us. However, we showed up with bells on and took to the water with a time of 3 minutes 5 seconds. Fairly respectable, and much faster than a lot of other teams. Again, we were first in our heat, although it didn't matter much except for our time compared to other boats overall. Our second race on Saturday was at 2pm in the afternoon, and it was the only race where we didn't cross the finish line first in our heat - instead, we were second. Our time, however, was only 3 minutes 7 seconds, which we were happy with because the water was flowing a lot faster by then (due to rain and the upstream dam releasing water). Here are some pictures of our afternoon race:
Backing out of dock. It's hard to tell, but the dock was really close to the rocks on shore and the current was really fast, so it was a wee bit tricky keeping the boats intact while still making our turn to head downstream to the start line.Here we are at the start line, way down there by the bridge. We are in the right-most lane (look for the white lab coats):Here we are in the race - you can see the team in the closest lane is ahead of us:And after the race, we relaxed for a moment before bringing it into dock:After our 2pm race, we raced in the final of the Health Care Challenge Cup, which I already told you about. Here I am on shore before that race, checking out the current and movement of the water before our race - we were in a different lane than we'd been in before, so I wanted to see how the other boats were moving:Sunday morning arrived with a late race time - 10:15 - since we had been quite fast on Saturday. In fact, we were within the top 12 of the festival! That was amazing, considering we are a fairly new team that doesn't practice intensely and was in the festival for fun. We raced with a time of 3 minute 4 seconds, which we were happy with since it was probably our least coordinated race of the weekend. This time put us in the finals for the Borealis A division - basically, in the top three of the B pool. We went home and relaxed before coming back for our final at 3:30pm.

Our final race was by far our best and most spectacular of the whole festival. We raced against two teams, however one of them, called the "Loyal Eddies" and consisting of a bunch of military personel, were very close to us in time from the rest of the festival, and proved it once they were in the water next to us. They started off a little bit ahead of us after our race start, but as the race continued, we not only caught up to them, but passed them slightly. It was quite evident in this race that our endurance really counted towards our win, because halfway through the race, the Loyal Eddies started slowing down a bit, but the Scientists kept going strong, responding to my more frequent calls for POWER!! Everyone in the boat could tell the race was tight by the view of the boat in our peripheral vision, and by the shorter times between my calls for more power. In the end, we beat the Loyal Eddies by 2 seconds and hit our overall best time of 2 minutes 49 seconds!! We shaved a whole thirteen seconds off of our time by having a tight race! We were super excited, especially since we had won gold for the B pool! As well, we ended up only being 9 seconds slower than the team that won the entire festival.

In the end, we won a number of awards. First of all, I won the 'Best Dressed Steersperson' award. This was pretty easy to win, since I was the ONLY steersperson dressed up!Secondly, we won gold medals and a trophy for the Health Care Challenge Cup:And lastly, we won another gold medal and a huge trophy for our first place in the Borealis A division final:Now, who wouldn't want a beer after that?

Great week for ultimate

This week, both my Tuesday and Thursday teams had excellent games.

Je Huck Bien has really come together in the last few weeks and has started playing as a well-meshed unit. We played a really tightly matched game against a team that spanked us several weeks ago, but this time we really took it to them! We played some hard defense and had a lot of patience on offense, working the disc up the field time and time again. The score of this game was really low - it was only 3-3 at half (after at least 45 minutes of play time - usually it's around 8 or so for at least one of the teams) and the final score was 6-5, unfortunately for them. But, we didn't feel too bad about the loss, since we played really great and we improved immensely compared to our last game with them.

The Love Handlers played tonight against one of the tougher teams in the league, but again, came out strong and well coordinated. We won the game 13-6, and played hard throughout to hassle the other team and make them work hard for the few points they got. It's fun when our team plays cohesively, which doesn't happen as often as it should considering we've played together for three years now. In any case, it's a fun team with a lot of talented players, so when we pull it together we can really play well.

This upcoming weekend is the dragonboat festival, so we'll be racing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I'll post when I can with some pictures, which should be pretty fun since we'll be in costume. As well, Moustache Weekend 2007 is on Saturday night, so we'll be all dazzed up for that. I'll keep you all posted, but it might just take a few days for me to get organized.

Spanish dancers do high kicks!

Ian shared his pictures from our Saskatoon tournament and he took one of me that I find funny and amazing, all at once. Check it out:Look how high my leg is!! I am doing a footblock - you can use your foot to block a throw, as well as your arms. I just never realized how high my foot actually went when I was doing this. I look like I'm doing some sort of martial art.

Here's a cool picture of Garrett, marking his check with intensity:

Rome, here I come!

One of the perks in grad school (if you're supervisor is flush enough) is the free trips to scientific conferences around the world. Last year, the International hepatitis B meeting was in Richmond, BC. This was fine, since it was a free trip home, but it really isn't the most exciting place in the world. This year, however, the conference is in ROME!! Sweet! Not only do I get to go to Rome for free, but I basically get a free trip to visit Amanda and Ray! I've already booked my flights to London and through on to Rome with Amanda in tow. In fact, the trip will be even better, because my mom and dad are going to England around the same time and are going to stay in Rome with us as well! Thus, a great trip becomes even greater!

Today I got my email notification from the conference letting me know the results of the abstract competition. I submitted one abstract for an oral presentation and one for a poster presentation, and I was given both of them. So, I'll be presenting a poster AND giving an oral presentation! Not bad! The only difficulty comes in carrying a poster tube all the way over there with me, but I'm sure I'll work it out!

He's a Master!

Garrett passed his Master's defense with flying colours, and we helped him celebrate last night with a BBQ at my place. First, I made Garrett let me take a picture of him fresh out of his defense:Later, once he was changed and rested, we met up with our friends at Avenue pizza and had some beer, then headed over to my place for drinks and dinner. We made a great meal of corn-on-the-cob, baked potatoes, steaks and salad, despite the damper the rainy weather threw on our BBQ plans. We just ate dinner inside.

Here's Garrett with a mini-keg of German beer - a great gift from Ian and Joelle:Speaking of Ian and Joelle, here they are:Soon, though, the tequila shots started! We bought at 26 of Jose for Garrett, which he readily shared with whomever wanted some. Garrett and Bindi started things off:Here's a large group of us having some tequila!Bindi and Ian, goofing around in the kitchen:More tequila:After dinner we decided the weather wasn't so bad that we couldn't go outside and start a fire up. So, that's what we did! Here are a ton of random, around-the-fire pictures for you to enjoy:
Garrett and Trevor:Garrett and Bindi:Garrett and Ian:Mic and Garrett:Mic, Garrett and Trevor:Mini dance party:And the tequila is all gone!Bye bye Jose.Everyone had a good time, even though it was a Thursday night! We didn't party too late - everyone was probably gone by midnight. But it was fun and we properly celebrated Garrett's completion of his defense. Now, he's on to bigger and better things!

Good luck Garrett!

Tomorrow is Garrett's Master's thesis defense! I just wanted to write and wish him luck, although I know he's going to do spectacularly and will pass with flying colours! He's worked very hard for the duration of his graduate work, especially so in the last few months to complete his thesis and finish his degree. Now, tomorrow at 9am he will start his defense and after a few hours of questions from his committee, he will be done and it will all be over! Then, we will have a party for him and celebrate - so I may not be able to post tomorrow evening, depending on how rockin' the party is at my place.

Good luck Garrett, soon to be Master of the Universe!

Those crazy Russians...

On Monday, Bonnie and I went down and checked out the Heritage Festival at Hawrelak park. I've actually been to this festival all three years that I've lived in Edmonton, but there's always something new to try. The festival is HUGE and consists of food booths from many different countries. You buy tickets and then use the tickets to buy food items from whichever booth takes your fancy. Bonnie and I rode our bikes to the park and then joined the masses to wander around and check out the booths. We started off with a good pick - I got baklava and Bonnie got a spinach samosa from the Azerbajain. And no, I actually have no idea where that country is, but they DID win the 'Best Food' Award and rightfully so! Their food was delicious!

We wandered around for awhile after that, enjoying the dance shows that were put on by different countries throughout the park. Eventually, we stopped at some African country's booth (I forget which one) and I got a vegetable samosa. It was yummy, but SUPER greasy! Ah well, at least I don't eat that much saturated fat on a regular schedule. Next, Bonnie got some Chow Mein from the Chinese booth, which was good but nothing crazy. We didn't try that much outrageous stuff, partly because they were often expensive and partly because we just aren't adventurous eaters. As well, just a week or two ago, Bonnie had gotten food poisoning from another Edmonton food festival, so she didn't want anything too sketchy.

The last thing I tried was a snow cone because it was really hot out and I wanted something refreshing. Unfortunately, I also got a flavorless, sticky creation that eventually spilled all over me (well, I sort of spilled it on myself). Bonnie decided to try some malted soda from the Russian booth. She was quite excited, because she really loves rootbeers and all sorts of malted stuff, so she thought this would be something new to try. Unforunately, it was something new! New and BAD! She took one sip and I could tell immediately it wasn't good. Her face became all funny and scrunchy. I tried it and right away I said "It tastes like soya sauce!". And it did!! It was like drinking malted soya sauce! It was super salty. Weirdest darn soda pop we'd ever tasted. Those crazy Russians will drink anything!

In the end, we had a good time and both brought something for the food bank drive going on at the event. We also learned a valuable lesson - don't drink Russian soft drinks.

Back from 'toon town

We returned last night from the Disc Odyssey ultimate tournament in Saskatoon. Our crew this weekend for the trip included Garrett, me, Joelle, Ian, Bonnie, Catherine and Mic. We were fortunate that Catherine's parents were pleased to accomodate us in their yard for the weekend - their side yard became our little tent city for several nights. Not only was it a cheap place to stay while we were out there, but her parents were super nice and overly hospitable - they provided us with breakfast, coffee and juice on both mornings!

We all left on Friday, one car in the afternoon and the other car around dinner time. The drive out there in our car was uneventful but pleasant. We made good time and arrived just after 11pm, having left around 5:30. We set up camp and were off to bed quite promptly.

The next morning we got up quite early and had breakfast, before heading off to our game at 9:30am. The weather was fair - sun and clouds with a light wind. Catherine and Bonnie weren't actually playing this weekend, so Catherine stayed at home to visit with her parents and Bonnie came with us to relax at the field (she also went for a jog and entertained us when we were on the sideline!). Our team assembled mostly on time - some players were maybe 15 minutes late. But that's not too bad when you are on ultimate time. In any case, we came out strong and easily beat the first team we played. It was an intense game, but we were definately the stronger team, despite the fact that a lot of us hadn't played together before.

Our second game was immediately afterwards and one of our players told us the second team was even better than the first team, so we started out expecting to really battle for our win. In the first ten minutes, we scored five points straight with little effort. Hmm...seemed like it wouldn't be so tough to beat them after all. Which we did.

We had an hour and a half break for lunch before our next game, so we went to Booster Juice and had some smoothies and paninis.

Our next game went much like the first two - we beat the team quite readily, despite everyone being full and sleepy from our break, and the heat of the day really kicking in. However, our fourth game was when the tides started turning and we were beaten by the other team. Overall, though, our 3-1 record was quite good and put us in the championship for the B pool the next day.

The dinner and party for the tournament this year was in a different location than last year. I was a little disappointed, since last year's venue was really awesome and we had had a great time there. However, we gave the new location a shot, even though it turned out to be not as good. The first main problem was that the venue was outdoors - it was actually enclosed outdoor volleyball courts surrounded by some stands and patios. This was the main problem because no one knew it was going to be outdoors ahead of time and lots of people didn't dress to be outside all night. By midway through the party, it was quite cold and we had to go back to the car to get our coats. A lot of people left the party earlier than they would have because they were cold. The other problem was that the food was much crappier than the food they gave us last year. Our tournament fees included field food, dinner, all our beer at the party and the games themselves. So, we went for our free dinner and got totally ripped off with the hard, overcooked, dry steaks they gave us. Quite a let down, especially for hungry ultimate players who have played hard all day and need sustenance. The last problem with the party was the DJ, who played house music the whole time - not anything people wanted to dance to, even though lots of people wanted to dance! We ended up leaving the party around 1am, but we were near to the last ones to leave! Here are some pictures from the party:
Left to right: Joelle, Ian, Mic, Garrett.
Later in the evening, left to right: Garrett, Kim, Mic, Bonnie, Joelle.Just before we left, the girls huddled together for warmth while waiting for the boys to finish their game of cups. I'm on the far side of the group, although you can't see me!

The next day arrived quickly enough, leaving us all a little sleepy and some of us a little hungover. We packed up our gear, thanked Catherine's parents and headed out to our final games. We arrived a little early, and our team slowly started arriving and gearing up. However, by the time the game needed to start, we only had a portion of our team at the field! We had one girl sub and one guy sub, so we started the game, but we really struggled to keep up with the other team's depth of players when we had so few players. Those of us that arrived to play were starting to get angry as time ticked by and not even our captain had shown up!! As you might have guessed, this other team beat us and we headed into the consolation round (aka Loser Bowl) rather than to the finals like we should have. A bunch of our players started trickling in between 45 and 60 minutes after game start time, and they were given a hard time when they finally showed up.

Our loser bowl game ended up being against an Edmonton team that we knew really well, so it was really fun although still competitive ultimate. After our game, we took a team photo before heading over to watch the A division final.See the guy in front in the sleeping bag? That was our captain, who partied too hard and came too late to the game.

The A division final was between an Edmonton team and a Calgary team. We stayed to cheer for Edmonton, especially because the Calgary team was one that most crowds dislike (bad sports, jerky), but also to watch really good ultimate being played. We only stayed until just past half time, and then started back towards Edmonton, stopping in North Battleford (about an hour and a half west of Saskatoon) for dinner. Unfortunately, our dinner at Boston Pizza was really slow because of bad service and we lost an hour an a half there. By the time we got back on the road, our ETA was around 11:30pm, which was a lot later than we had anticipated. The drive back was pretty boring but I stayed awake to help Garrett stay alert, and we were treated to a fantastic display of active weather, with several thunderstorms all around us in every direction. It was great! There was lightning like crazy on my left, right and right ahead, however we didn't really get rained on as we drove between the storms. That kept us entertained until we were basically in Edmonton and the sky was dark.

Overall, it was a fun weekend and quite relaxing, despite the effort of playing lots of ultimate in the hot summer sun! I didn't injure myself and I played hard, so I was happy with my performance this weekend. Next time, though, I think I might sign up with a team where the captain might actually show up for the final games the second day of the tournament...

Ridiculous cancer email

Bonnie sent me an email with some information about cancer and nutrition, that was supposedly from the John Hopkin's Research Institute. For those of you who aren't familiar with John Hopkin's, it is a very prestigious research institute with a very good reputation. Thus, after reading the email I found it VERY hard to believe it's from John Hopkin's, since most of the information contained within is wrong and false. I would like to highlight some of the more ridiculous statements made in the email. I understand that some of the statements might not be as ridiculous to other people, since I do happen to know a lot about this sort of sciency stuff, but I will try to explain why they are ridiculous so you don't fall victim to believing other such rubbish.

1. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastrointestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk, cancer cells are being starved.

WHAT??!! Cancer cells DO NOT FEED ON MUCUS. This is true for the very simple fact that mucus remains in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and most cancers are NOT found in the GI tract. Thus, they do not come in contact. Mucus does not feed cancer. Mucus is not broken down and does not enter the bloodstream, thereby to travel to cancers and feed them. So, cutting out milk does not, in fact, have any effect on cancer.

2. Cancer cells thrive in an acid enviroment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork.
AND
A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment.

The acidity or alkalinity (pH) of your food does not affect the overall pH in your body. First of all, everything you eat is broken down in your small intestine and subsequently absorbed into the bloodstream. The bloodstream has an entire buffering system contained within it to keep its pH at the correct level, without which we would die. The pH level in the blood is crucial because it allows oxygen to be collected from our lungs, and then released once it is in our tissues. Any acidity or alkalinity in your food, which would enter your bloodstream in the small intestine, would be buffered by your blood and would not be transported to the rest of your body. In addition, all food must pass through your stomach, which is very acidic and DOES NOT become alkaline - EVER. No matter what you eat (unless you do something really bad, like drink a base. And then you would die). Thus, any 'alkaline' foods you eat will have their alkalinity negated once they reach your stomach. In summary, you cannot change the pH of your body by what you eat. This would be bad. Don't try to do it. Your body knows what pH it should be. Let it do its job.

3. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells.

YOU CANNOT ABSORB LIVE ENZYMES. Once your food reaches your stomach, it enters a very acidic enviroment. If there were any live enzymes in your food, they are quickly inactivated by this inhospitable environment. Once in the stomach, enzymes start digesting your food. The digestion continues once the food reaches the small intestine. The enzymes digesting your food digest everything up into little itty bitty bits, such as amino acids (the buidling blocks of proteins and ENZYMES), lipids (the building blocks of fats), nucleic acids (the building blocks of DNA or RNA) or carbohydrates (the building blocks of sugars). All LIVE ENZYMES will also be digested into little itty bitty bits such as amino acids or peptides (small strings of amino acids). You cannot absorb live enzymes. The small intestine is designed to absorb the building blocks, not entire enzymes.
The other part of this statement is also wrong. Even if you could absorb live enzymes, they would not reach the cellular level within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance the growth of healthy cells. Your food doesn't make it to your small intestine in 15 minutes - it is in the stomach for awhile while it is physically mashed and partially digested by enzymes, before it continues to the small intestine. Therefore, you couldn't absorb anything within 15 minutes through the small intestine. The stomach, on the other hand, doesn't absorb very much in general, and thus would not be a candidate for absorbing 'live enzymes'.

4. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

Again, WHAT??!! Cancer cells do not have a tough protein covering. But, more distressing to me, ENZYMES USED TO DIGEST MEAT CANNOT TRAVEL THROUGH THE BODY TO ANY TISSUE WHERE A TUMOR MIGHT BE. This is just ridiculous. As I have said, whole, live enzymes do not leave the digestive tract. They cannot enter the bloodstream and travel to a tumor, there to digest away at some mythical protein covering on a cancer cell. In addition, how do these digestion enzymes 'know' where to go to digest the cancer? Please do not believe this bulls**t. It's total bologne.

These were just the most outrageous comments made in this email, passing itself off as real scientific literature out of John freaking Hopkin's institute. I can only hope it doesn't scam too many people and cause them to start malnourishing themselves according to the information supplied in this email. It should serve as a warning to all those out there - anyone can write anything they want and it can all be false. In this case, this email had some small half truths that sound ok, except they aren't totally correct. From these half-truths, completely false statements are concluded. It is wrong. Please take it from someone with 8 years of post-secondary under their belt, with a specialty in microbiology and immunology.