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Thursday, February 5, 2009

Update on the Mg paper

En français
Hi, just a little special post here to say that my Mg paper ("Satic and dynamic polarisabilities of Mg-like ions") appears now on the featured article list of Journal of Physics B : Atome, Molecular and Optical Physics.
What featured article means is :"These high-interest recent articles are all free to read."
So the period of free reading of the paper has been extended.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Polyphasic sleep and food

En français
The end of the raw food diet allowed me to test the effect of the food I eat on polyphasic sleep.
I started to be polyphasic again at the end of my detox period that is on Monday two weeks ago.
I never had such an easy adaptation to polyphasic sleep before. I had no problem to get up and wasn't really feeling tired during the day even when I had to delay or miss a nap.
Last week-end I changed diet to go back to normal. And huge change appeared on my sleeping pattern :
I tend to oversleep every morning
Problem to get up, don't even remember the alarm o'clock
Tiredness in the morning not in the evening even if I miss a nap or delay it
And tired around nap time
I read somewhere that eating only raw food only can decrease you're need for sleep to only four hours a night. Apparently that what's happend to me when I started back being polyphasic.
Now I don't really want to go back to eat raw food only, it's a bit difficult when you want to have dinner out with other people and also when you're a fan of pizza and crèpes.
I think however that I'm going to try a new approach with food. That is include more raw fruit and vegetable. For example having half raw half normal cooked meal for dinner and lunch. Also I would like to decrease the amount of bread and fat that I'm having. I'm not talking about meat here because I'm already not eating that much meat already. We'll see how it goes.
Even if the raw food diet seems to be the perfect diet for polyphasic sleep, that doesn't mean that I can't find something that allows me more freedom.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Cooking : Salmon-Spinach Lasagna

En français















Today I wanted to try to cook some Salmon-Spinach Lasagna.
Here is the recipe :

What you need :
Spinach
Smocked salmon
Mozzarella
Lasagna

For the Bechamel :
Butter
Pepper
Nutmeg powder
Flour
Milk

Preparation :

Chopped the spinach leaves.
Melt the butter in a pan, add the pepper and nutmeg powders.
Add the Flour and mix with a spoon.
Add some milk to have a creamy but liquid Bechamel.
Add the chopped spinach.

In a plat, put a row of lasagna, some salmon, some Bechamel sauce.
Repeat three times.
Cut the mozzarella in slides and place them on the top of the dish.

Cook in the oven for about 25 minutes.















Sébastien don't really like spinach but he liked that dish.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Iceland : Gulfoss

En français
After visiting Geysir, we continue our journey to see Gulfoss. At first we need to go down and we start see the second part of the water fall on the way. The river look broken with a right angle.
Then we tried to go on the mountain road to Kyölur but it was too bad so we had to go back.
We went back to Gulfoss where we slept a little then to Selfoss. The landscape is flat and green in this part of the island and we could see lots of horses. The road 30 isn't very good.
In Selfoss we find a camping for the night a watch a football match during the evening. Our next step will be Vik.

Travel table of content

Monday, January 26, 2009

Raw food diet : Conclusion

En français
This is the end of the raw food diet. So I want to share with you my conclusion about the diet and the effect it had on me.
First I was expecting something bigger from the detox period, I was expecting to be sick, except very small headache nothing really happened to me. I was expecting that due to the fact that I knew of people needing to go to the toilet much more often during the first days of a new diet, and because of all the food I ate during the Christmas holidays. Nothing very spectacular occured. That probably means that I don't have so many bad eating habits in general.
However last week I went climbing with friends and find out at that I lost 2 kilos after 1 week and a half of diet. On Thursday, I went to the gym and figured out that I lost 2 more kilos. I wasn't expecting to lose that much so quickly even if I new the diet was low in fat and calories. I'm a bit happy about it.
The diet also allowed me to discover that even a diet as restrictive as only raw food can be very diversified. I needed to be creative in the first part because I was carving for other people cooked food. Then I really get used to it. At some point I was even disgusted by Sebastien's chili con carne. However I truly missed some product like pasta and bread and butter. The good point was also that I tested new fruits that I never tested before like pomegranate, jack fruit... I really like that one.
I'm very happy that I made this diet because I often heard people unable to do it even if their health is in the line and if it's a diet much less restrictive. I was imagining something much more difficult, especially as Sebastien was eating our usual food so that I wasn't "psychologically" helped in that sense. Now I know that if I ever really need to do a diet even that restrictive I can do it !!!
Changing my habits for nearly a month was also a great experience for me.
Yesterday evening, we had a very nice international dinner for Chinese new year and lots of very tasty cooked food :), arancine, spring roll, kimbap (that's not cook), beef bulgogy...

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Chinese Knot 中國结: Good Luck Knot 吉祥结.

En français















I want to share with you my new hobby that I discover not to long ago that is Chinese Knot 中國结 (Zhōngguó jié).
These is as far as I know now 12 basic types of Chinese Knot. More complicated shape are obtained by combining them.
Here I have made a Good Luck Knot 吉祥结 (jí xiáng jié).
I tried to describe the step to make it.














a) place the string in the shape on figure a
b) place the two ends of the rope number 1 on the top of number 2 as shown on figure b
c) place the loop number 2 on the top of 1 and 3
d) place the loop number 3 on the top of 2 and 4
e) place the loop number 4 on the top of 3 and 1 and under the other part of 1 and pull all ends.
f) tight slightly the knot
g) start again for b repeat c,d and e but turning in the opposite directing
h) tight slightly the knot
i) find the little ring between the loop and extent them by adjusting the length of the different loops.

I would like to try more complicated things in the future. Of course I will share them on the blog.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Christmas amigurumi : One more Amineko

En français
This almost black and white Amineko, with its colorful scarf and tail has been send to my friend Joon in South Korea. Contrarily to all other Amineko which have black eye and eyebrow, as its head is black I made them yellow. That gives it a funny look.
As it had a long journey to do in Winter I made it a scarf, so that it doesn't get cold.
It is also bigger than the first I made probably due to the difference in wool. I was so proud of my first amigurumi not even one year ago yet. That's probably why I choose to make Amineko to my friends.