I've been wondering why often I suffer from slight nausea and / or headaches (sometimes pretty bad ones) since I came to NYC - today I seem to have both. One theory is that the dramatic and rapid changes in air pressure here cause the headaches. I'm used to a more temperate climate (New Zealand) where the variation between highs and lows in air pressure and temperature (and seasons for that matter) are substantially less than that in New York, both in strength and speed of change. For short term periods I always seem to have been fine in any environment, but living here long term maybe not. Basically (going by this theory) I'm in an alien environment and my body has not fully acclimatized yet (if ever). This could well be true, but what about the nausea?

Well, it could be air pollution, although I'm frequently told NYC has comparatively little air pollution (comparative to other US cities that is, which is true - I've been to Los Angeles - now there's some serious air pollution), but I don't see many stars in the sky at night here, even on the clearest of nights, and there's only one reason for that (well, besides light pollution). There's also the question of bovine flatulence in NZ, but I won't go there. *cough*

Here's my latest theory though: preservatives and GE (genetically engineered) food. They're really into that crap here in a big way, particularly preservatives. NZ on the other hand is strongly against GE foods and avoids preservative type additives as much as possible. Am I slowly being poisoned? hmmm. One of the foods I like the most here is watermelon. Strange that it's also one of the few foods here that aren't loaded with preservatives.

People who have been eating these unnatural substances all their lives apparently don't have a problem (at least not yet) because that's the sort of punishment their bodies are used to, although I'm now wondering about the long term effects. I mean, genetically engineered food (or animals we eat like poultry that are fed GE grains and steroids etc) have not been around all that long. If I'm coming from a country that is relatively GE and preservative free (except for KFC chicken, which is another story altogether) and come to NYC and start feeling mildly nauseous after eating it all the time here, what does that say to you?

To me it says one thing: this stuff ain't as harmless as the general populace is led to believe. Sure, the effects may well be negligible, even over a whole lifetime, but what about a couple of generations down the track? It's useless saying "nah, it's fine, they don't let things like that out without thorough testing first." Well, (a) who are you trying to kid? and (b) my point is that it hasn't been around long enough for anybody to really know for sure the long term effects (if any) of eating genetically enhanced food and huge amounts of preservatives. I dunno ..sure as shit doesn't sound to good to me. I smell a conspiracy!

I had a discussion with IceQueen along the similar lines recently. I theorized that if you took a Nomad from the heart of the Sahara Desert and an Eskimo from the coldest igloo at the North Pole and swapped their environments, they'd both be farked within a few days because they were different in how their bodies operated due to their environment (acclimatization).

IceQueen quite rightly argued that the Nomad would be tall and have little body fat which helps him/her stay cooler in the desert (bigger surface area and less solid mass), whereas the eskimo would be shorter and have a layer of body fat to insulate him/herself from the cold, so therefore of course they'd be farked, but it was a question of body type rather than acclimatization.

I then proposed that if both had the exact same height to weight to body fat ratio, they'd still be farked because their bodies individually are used to a particular climate and naturally operate in differing ways as a direct result. Eventually they could get used to it with some help (acclimatization), but if they lived in the exact same circumstances as the other, they'd be farked.

Damn, I just lost my train of thought here because the phone rang, but believe me, I was getting to something so stunningly mind-bogglingly convincing that you probably would've been down on your knees repeating "I'm not worthy!" at the sheer brilliance and logic of what I was about to say.

I guess you'll just have to trust me on that.

Maybe it's because I haven't had a surf for so long. Maybe it's because there are NUKES here, whereas NZ is blissfully nuclear free. Maybe there's an alien probe inside me that's causing damage... or not.

Of course this entire entry could be a load of bollox and this nausea could just be the result of that over-buttered popcorn we ate last night while watching Lara Crofts latest Tomb Raider movie at the local theater.