Jay Morrissey

The western world has been hit with a recent burst of fitness frenzy. Gymnasiums are now more profitable than ever, with people lining up to use treadmills and resistance equipment. Personally, I used to train for 45 minutes a day at the gym every other day. I have since moved my training outdoors and have not looked back. However, how much time should we be spending at the gym?

I believe exercise is like anything else, and requires both efficiency and moderation. If you are spending hours on exercise every day, then you need to ask yourself: “why?”. The purpose of exercise is to make you feel healthy, to have more energy and to look better. Unless you are training for a movie role, or need to lose weight quickly due to blood pressure, you may well be wasting a large portion of your day at the gym. Please don’t misunderstand me, I think going to the gym for 2 hours is better than not going at all, but if your workouts are taking longer than an hour, perhaps you are not using that time efficiently.

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I am a big kid. I enjoy playing practical jokes (both administering and receiving), the occasional prank phone call to a fellow employee, and I make a conscious decision everyday to do something I enjoy. I have decided to give up my office job, and this has been one of the best decisions I have made. Business environments are such that the personality of employees are being suppressed constantly until they are mere drones. I have seen this happen to friends, who now resort only to “corporate speak” even in social environments. People are taking themselves much too seriously.

When we were kids, we liked to create, take risks, spend time with friends and enjoy life. As adults, we make an effort to look young but never to act young. In fact, having fun is often looked down upon by “serious” types. Having fun is seen as a “waste of time”. All of the things we used to do as kids to have fun are now regarded as wasteful. Yet acceptable means of fun have somehow transformed into drinking, cigar smoking and the occasional sporting event.

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Coffee is an amazing substance. It smells good, it tastes even better, and it gives you a sense of undeniable clarity. Before proceeding, I should mention that I am no longer a coffee drinker due to my inability to sleep well. I have since switched to decaffeinated coffee. This is a shame however, as having a nice cup twice a day was one of my daily pleasures. I was quite literally hooked on coffee. This article is not about giving up coffee however, it is about the many things that make coffee an amazing experience.

I believe that it is wrong to label something “good” or “bad”, we should accept some of the strong points of coffee and understand why it adds to the human quality of life.

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Growing up in Western culture, I will be the first to admit that the act of purchasing something new is exciting. From the moment a human being decides they need something, the level of excitement builds until the purchase. After the purchase, the excitement remains for a day or two, then the item simply becomes as unexciting as every other object cluttering our home. Although this may appear to be a trivial affair, it has a devastating effect on our lives, relationships and our environment.

Why do we buy what we don’t need?

As a species we are very intelligent creatures. We learn from our experiences. If something hurts, or does not yield the desired outcome, we learn not to repeat the action again. Why then are we destined to repeat our purchasing behaviour, when we know that the pleasure we derive from it is so limited? I believe this is due to a number reasons:

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