Palm Oil shopping challenge

I am sick and tired of companies using palm oil in anything and everything they produce - Palm oil is the cheap, unhealthy, environmentally damaging poor excuse for an option stained in the blood of the entire dwindling Orangutan population. Palm oil has brought the Orangutan and other wildlife to their knees and if nothing is changed soon will single handedly bring the Orangutan to extinction. That is reality, that is the blood big companies will have on their hands. There are no two ways about it.

A while ago I stopped buying anything with palm oil and I hope everyone follows suit. "Ethically" sourced or not, do not support the use of Palm Oil.

Monday night I went grocery shopping and was checking the label of everything I buy (as I do). Specifically I was looking for an environmentally friendly dishwashing liquid and I came across Coles "Green Choice" dishwashing liquid. The fucking nerve of these pricks... at the bottom of the bottle they lay claim to supporting the environment with "10 cents from every bottle sold goes to a carbon cleaning program" or some shit like that (i'll check what it actually says next time). Then I turn it over and have a look at the ingredients... Palm or Coconut Oil. Fuck these hypocritical mongrels and their contradictions. Using palm oil is just contributing to the problem you dumb arse squeezers.
Anyway as I write this i'm also writing a letter to tell them what I think of their so called green choice cleaning products. Be aware of this range of "green" products.

HERE'S YOUR CHALLENGE #1: - Do your normal shopping without buying ANY products with Palm Oil.
Next time you go shopping (and then every time after that) check the label of EVERY SINGLE item you buy and put back everything that says palm oil. ALSO, put back everything that says Vegitable Oil plus has a content of saturated fat... you can bet your arse it's palm oil. Unfortunately peanut and soy are the only ones that need to be labelled. And these companies will hide the fact they're using palm oil by labelling it Vegtable Oil - Don't be fooled!
Let me know how you go and even suggest alternative products!

BUT, fortunately there are people striving to make a change in the laws so that companies must be held accountable to label Palm Oil as Palm Oil. Shove the palm oil back in the face of these pricks until this shit is over. It's time to make these companies pay for the damage they're doing... Bad PR and economically is the only way they will listen. Public outcry and loss of sales will end this war. Look how quick Cadbury was to reverse their poor decision to use palm oil and appologise prefusely. Positive changes can be made.
Check out these website for action and info.
http://palmoilaction.org.au/
http://www.zoo.org.au/palmoil
http://www.orangutans.com.au/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5231183738
http://twitter.com/Project_18

CHALLENGE #2: - Write to companies using palm oil and request they change their habits.
Check out http://palmoilaction.org.au/ they have all the details on how to do it properly.

CHALLENGE #3: - Encourage all your friends and family to do the same.

In the words of Earth Crisis
"The time to react is long overdue from protest to confrontation by me and by you."

Whale Watching - Australia Zoo style

Went whale watching today onboard Australia Zoo's Steve's Whale One. I've been whale watching on the boat before with other Zoo people, this was the first time in my civies with guests. It as a really nice day out on the water and saw a handful of whales too.

How's this for a breach!

World Cup update - setback

So tonight i've had a set back with my World Cup training. I've strained the inside of my right hamstring... i'm not sure how long this will take to get over or even how long it will take to heal. Never-the-less i'm still on my way to Melbourne for the GKR World Cup injury or not. I'll just have to take my last week nice and easy and see how it goes.

GKR Karate World Cup

Long time no update... i'm currently in training for the GKR Karate World Cup in Melbourne 15-16 August.
After winning the last couple of tournaments and achieving to my last kyu grade I feel like i'm in great form and have plenty of confidence.

I'm not really wanting to win any world titles or anything. This World Cup and the other tournaments i've competed in are all part of a goal I set at the start of the year for my karate. Every year I set something to achieve, this year was to enter tournaments and get what I can from them. So far i've gained some valuable experience and the qualification needed to enter the World Cup.

I think it will be a great experience and will go a long way to contributing to my goal for the year.
My other goal was to grade to 1st kyu mid year and that is now checked off. Now 6-12 months of hardcore training for a peek at a black belt.

Family trip to Western Australia

Aaaarrrrrhhhhhh Western Australia was AMAZING. Best family trip ever! Swam with Whale Sharks in Ningaloo Reef. That in itself was something i'll remember for the rest of my life. I love the west coast, so barren and desolite. And so bloody beautiful!

I took plenty of photos so here are a few. You can check out the rest of my picasa web album http://picasaweb.google.com/scottyxxx/WesternAustraliaFamilyTrip

Do yourself a favour and take a slow drive up the Australian West Coast!

Cheetah conditioning

Today I went up that back of the zoo for a cheetah experience at work for "cheetah conditioning'. This is just to get the animals used to people without khaki shirts - hence why I have a tshirt on with my ID badge and not my uniform. Man these animals are amazing, just so sleek and agile! I'm sure i'll have a heap of new pics from animal experiences at the zoo throughout the year so later in the year i'll upoad a bunch a photos from all of those.

In the mean time, here's me with Echo behind the scenes at work (Australia Zoo) Touch job!

Bow to your sensei

So, some for some strange reason i've not mentioned on here that I've started as a Sensei. I was given this because the last sensei @ Palmwoods dojo had to leave and handed the dojo over to me.

I've been sempai'ing this class and a couple others since the start of the year and officially since I started my sempai course after i graded to 3rd kyu on Mothers day 08 (I have also been graded at training since then). So running the dojo isn't a new concept, just the next step for me and my karate I guess.

Tonight was my first class(s) on my own and I think I did pretty well. I went over time because the Kids Club started late... all 3 of my students rocked up 20 minutes late so that put me off a bit, however I think i'll take a while getting used to the concept of keeping an eye on the time so I can fit everything in.

Although I'm going to have to get some control over the few kids in the Kids Club who continiously talk over me and don't listen to a thing they say. Shit I hate kids.... probably all the better coz it makes it easier to get up them and leave them out of fun things when they mess up.

Anyway, I think my students in the 2nd class will really get a lot more out of my classes than anything from the previous boreing bag of bones.

Anyway, so far so good.
Hit me up if you want to start karate, i'd love to share it with as many people as I can.

peacexxx