Month: December 2019

[gallery] Slasky

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In defending the significance of digital art, Slasky has become one of the most influential artists in this genre. Extremely reserved, he works from Rome, Italy, where he creates most of his pieces. His work is a fusion of urban influences and contemporary pop art, in which he represents the icons of this century and those that make up significant moments in history.

His portfolio of works includes a wide range of contemporary styles: graffiti, street art, pop, contemporary digital art and mixed media collages. Working on some of the world’s most recognisable images gives his pieces an instant sense of familiarity, but because they are presented with an explosion of colour and life they gain a unique richness and modernity. By merging classic art works with contemporary digital art techniques, Slasky transports the art into our present time. By placing the original artwork’s protagonists into contemporary social and artistic environments, he created a number of pieces that send new messages and require a level of collaboration from the viewer in order to be understood.

His reinterpretations of classic art, as well as modern photography, are collected all over the world.

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Mostly good news, bit of meh news

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I had my 9-month surgery follow-up this morning. I’ve lost 5kg in the last 3 months. This is good news. My BMI is no longer in the “obese” range but more in the “overweight” range. This is good news. My visceral fat levels have gone down again. This is good news. The meh news is that I’ve lost a bit of the muscle mass I’d put on at 6 months. This is probably due to the fact that I had the gall bladder op and I’ve borked my shoulder, so that means I did less resistance workouts. Hopefully I can turn that around.

Another bit of meh news is that I’m above the “expected average” line of my predicted weight loss. Ideally, I’d be at around 90kg but I’m more around 94kg. This one isn’t a big deal from the doctor’s perspective, it’s more a numbers thing for me. My rate of weight loss is mirroring the average curve, I’m just a bit above it. He’s happy that I’m still within the general range that is considered a positive outcome. He also points out that they measure overall success on a 4-axis basis:

– how you score the weight you’ve lost
– how you score the physical benefits/complications (i.e. post-surgery pain, dumpings, cramps, etc)
– how you score the mental benefits/complications (i.e. food frustration, cravings, etc)
– how you score the nutritional benefits/complications (i.e. the supplements you need to take, etc)

Each should get a score from 1 (worst) to 7 (best). I gave a score of 23 out of a possible 28, which is very good.

I can live with that :) I just need to get my shoulder fixed so I can restart doing more weights at the gym.

One thing I didn’t expect though was that the nurse who normally takes the blood samples for micro-nutrient analysis was out sick that day so I had to go to the main clinic. Instead of taking 5 minutes at the CMCO, it took an hour. That played havoc on my schedule because I had to get to the EPFL for a project review meeting with the NIHS LT.

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So…. I might have just ordered 2 kilos of squeaky cheese curd

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I’m Canadian. This means that I have a fondness for poutine. It goes with the territory. Unfortunately, getting cheddar cheese curd outside of western Canada has, in the 15 years I’ve lived overseas, proven impossible.

Until now.

I recently came across this little gem of a news article:


Walter Grob, the current owner of the Engelberg cheese dairy, moved from Unterland to Engelberg. After years of hiking in Switzerland and Canada, the young man from eastern Swiss took over the business in 2015 at the age of 24. He produces traditional products in outstanding quality – but always tinkers with something new. Thanks to his innovative strength, he has already launched several new products, such as the Cheddar, and won prizes at the Swiss Cheese Award.

From there, auntie Google provided this information:

Walter Grob
Klosterhof 1, CH-6390 Engelberg
Telefon: +41 (0)41 638 08 88
info@schaukaeserei-engelberg.ch

So I reached out by email.

But got no answer.

Then I reached out by phone.

And got in touch directly with the man himself. And found out that the email reply was written but never actually sent, and since they make cheddar 3 or 4 times a month, I could have as many curds as I wanted. He’s been trying to get the product in stores, but with little success.

But I will get 2kg of freshly made cheddar cheese curds by post next week.

This makes me stupidly happy.

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