Attempts at Maturity

Flaunting my own epicness

2011-06-03T22:51:00.002-05:00

A Facebook friend of mine posted a link about theories on rape prevention (which is nonsense and my friend doesn't believe in that, which is good because then I'd have to defriend her and I don't want to do that because she rocks).

So this is what I said and I like it.

I think asking "How man women protect themselves against rape?" just doesn't jive with the reality of rape. And I'm not sure what you could say. "Don't get into the car with strangers" doesn't work when the perpetrator is, say, a guy from your dorm at college. "Be careful around strange men" doesn't work when need a plumber or exterminator or electrician to work in your home.

Given that most victims know their rapists and have at least a semblance of some sort of relationship, what do you say? "Don't be too trusting of anyone"? Plus, there is such a wide variety of potential perps and victims and relationships that it is at best futile and at worst insulting to issue some catch-all tips, and there's no way you could issue tips about every possible rape scenario. That's why the best way to to prevent a rape is to make sure it never happens, and the onus therefore is on the man to understand why rape is never acceptable. (And I suppose on society to teach him that.)

To tell people they can help prevent their own rapes is like telling them they can prevent being hit by a drunken driver. It's not possible. Sure, you can give people tips on how to drive safely just as you can give people tips to how to "stay safe," in a very general way. But, you can't control the actions of other people, and there's no way to prevent yourself from becoming a target whether it be by chance or design. To go back to the burglary analogy, there are lots of tips to help make your house safer -- lock your doors, have an alarm, get a dog -- and they might even be dressed up as ways to prevent burglary; but if a burglar decides your house is the target, you have no control over that, just as a victim can't prevent being singled out by a rapist.

Bah, I hit return. I meant to add that for hundreds of years, society has blamed rape victims for the crimes against them. I think the outrage at the idea that people can prevent their own rapes has echoes of, "We've shouldered enough responsibility, it's time to shift the blame where to belongs." There can be no such thing as, "Rape is always the rapist's fault BUT...." Even if that's not what well-intentioned people mean to say when they suggest there are ways for people to protect themselves, that's how it comes out.

Then I wrote something else epic about women and objectification. Maybe I'll post that later when I need an epic pick-me-up.

Why?

2011-06-01T21:37:00.003-05:00

At the gas station today, I saw a car parked, engine running, windows down, music blaring, no one inside.

And I thought, "What's the point?" I understand leaving the car running with the AC on to keep it cool, but the windows were down. You couldn't hear the music inside the gas station convenience store. It was one of the most pointless things I have ever seen. And a blatant waste of gas ... at a gas station.

Then and now

2010-10-14T21:16:00.002-05:00

I'm reading this:

There's one part that made me giggle a little because it's such a contrast to the 21st-century mindset.

In this novel, Eustacia Vye, who is as close to gentry as you get in a little farming community by a heath, longs for the glamour and bustle of a bigger town and a better lifestyle. Another character mentions an elderly woman in the nearby metropolis of Budmouth seeks a live-in companion. All the companion would have to do is read to the woman and chat with her a bit. As the man says, for those who play, it's work; for those who work, it's play.

Budmouth would suit Eustacia well. She remembers it from her childhood and would love to go back. And if she took the job, she'd have somewhere to live, a wage and she could hunt for a rich husband. But she says she's not interested in the position because it would mean giving up her independence.

And I thought, "Wow!" Because by today's standards, Eustacia is not independent. She's completely dependent on her grandfather; the only independence she has is to spend her days being bored and hating the heath and pining for a man she doesn't really love. She's indolent to the max. It's 180 degrees from independence. Today, she'd be scorned as a welfare queen.

I like classic literature because life was so different then. I can't imagine living like Eustacia with nothing to do. Although as I consider the dishes in the sink and the unmade bed, I feel game to try.

Conversions

2010-09-18T00:14:00.003-05:00

Sometimes, I spontaneously bake. I try to keep all the ingredients I could possibly need on hand -- chocolate chips, honey, walnuts, etc. -- but I have gotten about halfway through a recipe and realized I need to make an emergency run to the store.

Hopefully, this handy-dandy Joy of Baking ingredient substitution table will help out with that. I'm excited to see I can substitute honey for corn syrup and lemon juice for cream of tartar.

I love it.

Questions and answers

2010-09-05T18:29:00.003-05:00

Remember all those e-mail surveys we received/sent as kids that asked us questions about ourselves? I got this one from a Facebook friend and it's apparently designed for grown-ups.

1. What bill do you hate paying the most?
Gas and electric -- they always feel too high.

2. Where was the last place you had a romantic dinner?
Home.

3. What do you really want to be doing right now?
Reading my book.

4. How many colleges did you attend?
One.

5. Why did you choose the shirt that you have on right now?
It's clean.

6. What are your thoughts on gas prices?
They're dropping. Score!

7. First thought when the alarm went off this morning?
My alarm doesn't go off on Sundays, but on mornings it does go off, my first thought is something like, "Uuuugggghhhh."

8. Last thought before going to sleep last night?
"I'm sleepy."

9. Do you miss being a child?
Not at all.

10. What errand/chore do you despise?
Cleaning the bathroom.

11. Get up early or sleep in?
Sleep in.

12. Have you found real love yet?
Yes.

13. Favorite lunch meat?
Salami.

14. What do you get every time you go into Wal-Mart?
When I do go, which is rarely, it's toiletries.

15. Beach or lake?
Beach

16. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual?
I don't think it's outdated. For better or worse (ha!), I think there are legal and economic benefits to marriage, but I don't think it's necessary to legitimize a relationship. I remember going to a concert and the performer said her daughter had been seeing a man for about six years, but that those anniversaries didn't count because her daughter wasn't married. Now, that mind-set is outdated.

17. Sopranos or Desperate Housewives?
I haven't seen either.

18. What famous person would you like to have dinner with?
Stephen Fry.

19. Have you ever crashed your vehicle?
Well, I once had a little, er, confrontation with a concrete post, but I don't know if that qualifies as a crash because I didn't come to a halt.

20. Ever use a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose?
I have never used one at all.

21. Ring tone(s)?
It's called "Aqueous."

22. Strangest place you have ever brushed your teeth?
I don't think I've ever brushed my teeth in a strange place.

23. Somewhere in California you've never been and would like to go?
El Centro to visit my friend Kelly.

23. Do you go to church?
No.

24. At this point in your life would you rather start a new career or a new relationship?
If I had to pick, a new career. But really I'm satisfied with both.

25. How old are you?
Twenty-seven.

26. Do you have a go-to person?
Not really. My boyfriend is probably my No. 1, and my parents are always ready to dole out help and advice, but I'm a fairly self-sufficient person.

27. Are you where you want to be in life?
No, but I'm in a good place.

28. Growing up, what were your favorite cartoons?
Postman Pat, James Bond Jr., Thundercats and Biker Mice from Mars.

29. What about you do you think has changed the most?
In some ways, I'm younger than I used to be.

30. Looking back at high school were they the best years of your life?
They were good, but not the best.

31. Are there times you still feel like a kid?
Oh, yes.

32. Did you ever own troll dolls?
Yes. And I cut their hair off.

33. Did you have a pager?
No.

34. Where was the hang-out spot when you were a teenager?
I'm not sure. I lived in a rural area and didn't do much hanging out.

35. Were you the type of kid you would want your children to hang out with?
Sure. I didn't get into trouble.

Feminist graphic FTW

2010-09-03T17:00:00.003-05:00

This is an awesome graphic that I found through the STFU Conservatives blog, although I believe it originated here.

I've also had skeevy comments. There was one guy who, upon learning I have boyfriend, asked, "Are you faithful to him?" and seemed surprised when I said yes. And the guy who asked me my name at Wendy's and said it's "sensual," all the while looking me up and down in a way that made it clear what was on his mind. I've had some men honk at me, some whistles, comments. Not that many, but some.

The graphic is right. It's not charming or funny or uplifting to be on the receiving ends of that attention. Comments like "DAMN, sexy!" aren't flattering, they are unnerving. It's degrading to be treated as a potential bed partner. It's uncomfortable to receive so much attention from someone you don't know but who has the power to hurt you. It's one thing when a guy approaches you, strikes up a conversation and then politely asks for your number, accepting without question if he's rejected, but that's not what we're talking about, that's not what this comic is about. This is about men who treat a woman on the street like a sex toy there for their pleasure and amusement. It's easy to tell women to just ignore those men, but some will, as the graphic says, curse you out for it, and that's degrading and humiliating. (Yes, there are men out there who believe they deserve your time and attention and get angry when you show you disagree.) It starts with a comment, but you're not sure what will happen next.

I think some of the men who make these comments know it's a power play and enjoy the ego boost of a) attracting the attention of a woman and b) insulting her if she ignores them. But I also think some men believe these comments are the ultimate compliments because they're the kinds of things they wish women would say to them. The sad truth is, it's just another form of sexism.

A hard letter to write

2010-08-22T21:49:00.003-05:00

"Dear Uncle:

I'm just e-mailing to say hello and I hope you're doing OK."

That's as far as I've gotten in my letter to my uncle who right now is deployed in Afghanistan. My mother mentioned that my uncle loves getting bits of news of home, so I silently promised I would write him. I haven't written in a couple of months, and then it was just to say hello and that I'm thinking of him.

I'm stuck as to what to write. After all, I can't keep sending him letters that just say hello and that I'm thinking of him. That's going to get old soon for both of us. But I don't really have much else to say. That's partly because I lead a pretty mundane life and partly because I can't imagine my uncle is particularly interested in what's going on in it. Yes, my uncle loves me -- I'm his favourite (OK, only) niece -- but I expect e-mails from his wife, mother and sister are the ones he's most interested in. My uncles and I get along really well, but we don't really keep in touch between family gatherings.

My mother says I should e-mail my uncle a book review so he can brag to his fellow troops about me, but that makes me feel super awkward. I can't help feeling the troops have better things to do, like stay alive.

Anyway, I'll probably blither a bit about what my boyfriend and I did this summer and put in a few photos and hope for the best. But I can't figure out what I'm really feeling here. Is my self-esteem so low that I believe my uncle doesn't care about my life? Or is my self-importance so high that I imagine he does during such a stressful time?

Old friends

2010-08-16T21:33:00.003-05:00

Rachael is a married university teaching assistant. She turns 27 next week (like me).

Leonie turns 27 today and is an organizer for a group that picks surplus fruit and veg and distributes it to those who need it.

Anita turns 27 tomorrow. She's an editor at a publishing company that specializes in legal material.

Romaine killed herself in 2007. (Her death was never officially ruled a suicide, but I know in my heart that it was.)

Those were my closest friends growing up. I always think about them in August because our birthdays are so close together.

I wonder if they Google me the way I Google them?

Taking charge

2010-07-27T14:29:00.002-05:00

Sometimes, I'm in charge at work.

This is kind of sort of a big deal for me. I must be doing something right if I'm given this responsibility, but on the other hand, holy cow, I'm in charge. If something goes wrong, it's my fault, and no matter how minor the transgression, I find it difficult to forgive myself. (And things do go wrong.)

I don't like being goalkeeper, I like being sweep. There's something unnerving about being the last line of defense. You can shrug and say that all those people ahead of you shouldn't have let the ball get this far, but at the end of the day, it's the goalkeeper's job to keep the ball out. If it's in, you've messed up. Rob Green will tell you that.

Being in charge means I have to trust my skills, instinct and training won't let me down. It means taking a deep breath, doing what I must and saying, "That's that." It means stressing until work the next day where I learn whether I messed up, and it means I have to find healthy ways to manage my stress.

I don't really like being in charge. But it is good for me.

Memorial Day

2010-05-31T17:33:00.003-05:00

On my way to work today, I got stuck behind a car meandering on its side of the road and also going about 5 miles under the speed limit.

I was irritated. There I was running late and I was stuck behind this guy.

Then I noticed the car's license plate had the symbol for a disabled driver on it and I felt guilty. It being Memorial Day, I couldn't help wondering if the driver was disabled through war. I couldn't help feeling impatient at going so slowly, but I chastised myself for my uncharitable thoughts.

I'm not normally this glurgy, but after I got to work, I e-mailed my uncle, who is a Marine, to tell him I'm thinking about him. Which is true.

Happy Memorial Day.

Ebay

2010-05-24T22:43:00.004-05:00

Every so often, I bid on a good deal on eBay. I normally win my bids, so I was disappointed and, yes, angry tonight when someone sniped me in the last few minutes of an auction. I actually felt my face flush and my brows lower.

EBay is bad for ultracompetitive people such as myself. I like to win at everything I do. I like to outstrip people. I hate to lose anything. I have a hard time NOT taking it personally when I do lose, even when it's something silly like being outbid on eBay. That sort of attitude isn't very healthy. It's also not healthy for my wallet, because I will go over my maximum bid for the sake of being first (and then spend the rest of the auction half hoping I'll lose so I won't have to pay that much money).

I'm watching one more item I really want in eBay and I plan on entering my maximum bid in the last couple of minutes. I suspect the sole bidder now is the one who sniped me tonight. You will taste your own medicine, fellow bidder. Victory will be mine.

See? Not healthy.

Itchy and scratchy

2010-05-22T22:00:00.002-05:00

No, this post isn't about dwarves either.

Summer is almost upon us here, and I have three bug bites. More are coming, so I have to prepare myself.

Normally I buy two or three anti-itch products from the store, such as Cortizone and Benadryl (love Benadryl!), but tonight I was idly wondering if there are home remedies for itching. I'm too lazy to go through archives of the People's Pharmacy, so I did a quick Google search and found suggestions of things to put on your insect bites:

- Hand sanitizer
- Ammonia
- A piece of freshly cut onion
- A paste made of bicarbonate of soda and water
- The inside of a banana peel
- Vinegar
- A piece of Scotch tape

OK, some of these are really weird, and I had to wonder how they were discovered. I can imagine the scenario: You have a horrible mosquito bite. You know you shouldn't scratch it, and as an aid, you put a piece of Scotch tape over it, consequences be damned. To your surprise, the itching fades. The same with the banana peel: You're trying not to scratch your bug bite, but, out of frustration, you slap it with your banana peel. It feels better. Sweet, unexpected, fruity relief.

Desperation births innovation, and anti-itch remedies are no exception. That's how I found out as a child that toothpaste can reduce itching from insect bites.

Grumpy and sneezy

2010-05-09T19:08:00.003-05:00

No, this isn't about dwarves.

I've had a sneezing problem all day -- not with sneezes that won't stop but ones that won't come. I've been doing that move people make when they are about to sneeze: Head tilts back, mouth opens slightly, eyes squint, nose twitches -- but nothing happens. It's very frustrating to feel as though you're on the verge of sneezing.

I did some Googling to see if there's a solution and one Web site said to stare at a lightbulb. The bright light somehow stimulates you to sneeze. All the lights around me at work are fluorescent, but I ran downstairs to just outside HR and stared at an energy-saving lightbulb. Turns out it makes my eyes hurt and doesn't make me sneeze.

So I went to the break room, opened a little packet and pepper and inhaled. A few grains went up my nose and I sneezed heartily three times. Victory!

I have no idea how people snort drugs though; it's not particularly comfortable to feel little particles go up your nose.

Your Facebook drama makes you look like an idiot

2010-03-27T17:42:00.008-05:00

I have a good friend from high school. She dated a guy for about three years; let's call call him Rex (short for Really Exasperating X-boyfriend). My friend moved cross country and Rex was supposed to join her after a couple of months -- a date he kept pushing back and pushing back.

My friend and Rex had a messy breakup that got plastered all over their Facebook pages. My friend's statuses for a couple of weeks were how much she loved Rex and how sorry she was for hurting him. Rex's statuses were real doozies: "good thing i wasn't buying the Valentines Day, black diamond earrings until fri. How do u lie to someone for 32 days and sleep?" And a detailed explanation of their breakup that painted my friend as a cheating villain and concluded with the line, " So she said she wanted to be with me and had to call him to cut him loose and couldn't. She chose the guy she had known 45 days over her bf of 3 yrs."

It was difficult to watch Rex demonize my friend on Facebook, especially because my friend's only transgression was to befriend a male co-worker and then refuse to cut ties with him per Rex's jealous demand. (In fact, Rex demanded my friend call this male co-worker and tell him she no longer could hang out with him while Rex listened in on some kind of three-way conference call. Yeah, totally out there.) It was even more difficult to resist the urge to comment on all his statuses, even to say something like, "Rex, you're in your mid-40s and you're doing this on Facebook?"

To me, Facebook is a way to keep up to breast on my friends' lives, share silly jokes, organize an informal gathering and air opinions. It's not a platform for criticizing your partner, and I don't care how bad things are between you and him/her. A status such as "Rex is tired and upset because his relationship is falling apart" is one thing, but "Rex can't believe his girlfriend of three years cheated and now he can't trust her and he'll never trust anyone again and it's over and his life is falling apart" is airing your dirty laundry just a little too vigourously, in my opinion. The former is a noncritical statement of fact designed to garner sympathy; the latter is a judgmental opinion designed to smear someone else. Plus, consider your audience. Your closest friends can see this ... and likely some relatives, co-workers, friends of friends, partners of friends of friends, old schoolmates and a random few strangers from Facebook groups you frequent. You really want all those hundreds of people to watch the show?

The closer you are to the people involved, the harder it is to disengage. I really struggled not to comment on Rex's Facebook page. I knew it wouldn't do any good. I wrote supportive comments on my friend's page and contented myself knowing Rex would read them. Rex wiped out any respect I had for him, and I was a bit disappointed my friend's statuses were involved in the drama, too. At least she only wrote a few.

I'm not saying people should keep their troubles under wraps and never share, but there is such a thing as too public. We have friends, telephones and therapists for a reason. Airing your dirty laundry for all the world to see is a bad idea. The best time to write out your troubles is when you can burn the paper straight afterward.

Why I love my doctor

2010-03-03T15:58:00.003-06:00

My doctor is a really cool guy. He's funny, yet professional, very thorough, and I can ask him anything. A couple of years ago, when I was in for a checkup after a cat bite, he stuck his head round the door and hissed at me. He's that kind of funny.

So the three highlights of my annual checkup today:

1) I have considerably more dry skin on my right foot than my left. My doctor examined my foot, shrugged and diagnosed it as "the specialness of you."

2) My doctor has been urging me to lose weight. According to the scale at his office, I have lost 10 pounds since my last visit in September. I insisted I have lost 14 pounds according to my scale at home. He looked at me skeptically, but grinned and agreed to make a note of what my scale says in his file. I appeciate those little indulgences.

3) If I keep up my weight-loss efforts at this rate, my doctor told me, I will be skinny by the time I am 28. "Not skinny," I corrected quite sternly. "Healthy." With no sign of irritation, he nodded. "Healthy," he agreed.

I lucked out with most of my doctors. They are friendly, funny guys who never talk down to me and really listen to me. They are worth their weights in diamonds and gold.

Satan, 1; my salvation, 0

2010-02-17T22:02:00.001-06:00

Today is the first day of Lent. I had about one serving of fruits/veg.

Oh, well. Better luck next year.

Lent

2010-02-16T12:38:00.003-06:00

I don't know why I make Lenten efforts; it's not like I practice Catholicism. Call it a habit from my religious youth, I guess.

This Lent, I'm going to eat five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. This doesn't sound like an exercise in denial, but I count my calories, so hopefully I will consume less junk. I've been planning it out in my head, and it boils down to eating fruit or vegetables with every meal and as snacks. (Fruit snacks don't count.) I got the idea from my grandma's approach to Lent; she doesn't give something up, she does something to help other people. My resolution combines tradition and novelty because it helps ... me. OK, that sounds selfish and contrary to the Lenten idea of self-sacrifice, but I'm going to roll with it.

I don't think I've ever succeeded during Lent. Once I fail, I tend to give up on the whole thing. Hey, if you're going to break down and eat one piece of chocolate, why not eat four while you're at it? Every day?

But I'm trying to be healthier and counting my calories and stuff, so I'm optimistic this year. The Easter candy has been out for weeks and I have yet to consume one Cadburys Creme Egg. That's unprecedented. An omen if I ever saw one.

Whoopie!

2010-02-11T23:26:00.008-06:00

I made gingerbread-lemon creme whoopie pies last weekend. They were very rich and decadent; I took them into work on Sunday for my co-workers to polish off.

Only one of them was familiar with the term (dare I say the concept?) of whoopie pies, and that co-worker had never heard them called by that name before.

According to Wikipedia, that hotbed of accuracy to which we still turn and freely quote, whoopie pies originated in New England. Amish women would put them in their menfolk's lunch boxes; when the men found the treats, they would exclaim, "Whoopie!" I find that highly amusing because I do not associate the word "whoopie" with the Amish, no matter how many exclamation points at the end. "Industrious," yes; "whoopie," no.

Most of my colleagues at work that night are from the South or Midwest and I can see why they would be unfamiliar with that New England jewel that is the whoopie pie. Oddly, however, my dad's cousin's boyfriend -- a totally awesome guy with whom I am Facebook friends -- commented on my wall how yummy they are. My dad's cousin's boyfriend is English, so I was surprised he knew what whoopie pies are (although he is an exceptionally well-travelled man). I hadn't heard of them when I lived over there; I thought they were just a general American phenomenon.

The whoopie pies are all gone now, disappeared into my co-workers' bellies. I'm just doing my part to spread a little culture around.

Bookworm vs. spendthrift

2010-01-27T12:13:00.003-06:00

I got a bunch of Barnes & Noble gift cards for Christmas. I'm excited because I put them toward expensive first-edition books I read in the motherland and can't find here in the States. (By the way, B&N allows you to put only three giftcards toward a book. Rotten.)

I also got a $15 Borders gift card from grandma. My eyes went all dreamy, because I can blow this one on books I want right now. My first impulse was to rush to borders.com and order "The Road," "Undead and Unpopular" and "The Lightning Thief" all at once, with maybe "Lolita" and anything new by Jasper Fforde thrown in there for kicks.

But the spendthrift pulled me back. "Mastiff" might be coming out this year, and I definitely want the hardcover for that. I had an anguished internal monologue.

Spendthrift: Don't blow your money! You know you want "Mastiff" in hardcover.
Bookworm: I can buy that later, though. I want these books now.
Spendthrift: I bet you can get some of those at the used-book store.
Bookworm: *concedes point* But I bet I can't get "Undead and Unpopular," "The Lightning Thief" or "The Road" there. Those last two are major motion pictures, and nobody I know buys the Betsy Taylor series.
Spendthrift: It's a waste of money. Go to the library.
Bookworm: But I can afford it! I can blow $20 on books.
Spendthrift: Save your money for useful things.
Bookworm: But ... I can afford it....
Spendthrift: Uh-huh. You can't have too much in your emergency fund.
Bookworm: *whimpers*
Spendthrift: Ask for the others for your birthday. Or Christmas.
Bookworm: But --
Spendthrift: You know it makes sense.
Bookworm: *whimpers and retreats*

In the end, the bookworm and the spendthrift compromised; I spent my $5 B&N gift card on a couple of books, and the $15 Borders one will be put to a necessity (and "Mastiff" is a necessity). I got free shipping on my books, so the spendthrift was content with the good deal. She even agreed it's OK if I buy "Lolita" at the used-book store. But JUST "Lolita." I have to put the $10 I would spend on other books toward my investments.

The spendthrift is merciless. I'm kind of glad.

Why I stick with rubbish books

2010-01-02T21:36:00.002-06:00

I'm reading this book:

It's very long, convoluted, boring and poorly edited. I've been reading it for about six weeks -- a long time for me, even if the book is more than 500 pages -- and am about four-fifths through.

I really wanted to quit long before that, but I pride myself on sticking with books I dislike. What's the point, you ask? I'm stubborn and I want to conquer the book. Finishing a book I dislike proves I'm not a quitter; it gives me a sense of triumph that boosts my ego. It doesn't matter that the book isn't a participant in this struggle; if I put down "Court of the Air," I will remember for the rest of my life I didn't finish it. That's how seriously I take books and reading.

I know I'm not alone in this, and I think it begins with school where we are forced to read books we don't like -- not just the mediocre ones but books we genuinely despise. For me, it was "Moby Dick" in 10th grade. Boy, did I hate "Moby Dick." But I grit my teeth and got through it (and got an A on my paper), and that's what I've done with such books since.

Logically, I know it doesn't matter now if I give up partway through a book. No one can penalize me. The author doesn't find out. My friends and family don't care. Emotionally, however, it's all about the battle with the book, that moment when I turn the last page and it's done. I breathe a sigh of relief and feel lighter and more at ease. It's like being a kid again and knowing you can go out and play now your homework is done. Now I'm all grown up, it means I can move on to a better book.

I don't like the idea of making students read books they hate; give them choices and they will appreciate reading more. Forcing your way through a bad book isn't about literature, however, it's about character. You don't give up partway through a race, a chess game or a project at work, so you shouldn't give up on a book. It's a lesson best learned while young. I can't wait to finish "Court of the Air" even though I dread picking it up again. But I look forward to giving myself an A.

My new year's resolutions

2010-01-01T02:26:00.005-06:00

1) Lose weight. I make this one every year, but this time, I'm going to try for real.
2) Read more. I don't read as much as I should. Darn the Internet.
3) Do a better job of keeping in touch with friends and family.
4) Keep a neater, tidier house.
5) Go out on more dates with my boyfriend.
6) Stay focused at work.
7) Quit impulse buying books on eBay.
8) Finish "The Court of the Air," by Stephen Hunt, which is a long, tedious book I've been reading for about two months now but am determined to finish because I believe it will show character. Hmmmm, more blog entry fodder.

New year's resolutions present conundrums, when you think about it. I have no idea how I am going to read more AND keep a tidier house AND go on more dates with my better half. You have to sacrifice one for another. Still, it's good to reflect in which ways your life could improve, even if you only follow through for a month.

Happy new year!

Touche

2009-12-30T23:02:00.003-06:00

My boyfriend and I were chatting tonight and I mentioned women are less likely to get pregnant when we're having our periods.

"That's because no one wants to be around you," he replied.

Touche, my darling.

What might have been

2009-12-05T01:29:00.005-06:00

There was a kind of out-there letter to the editor in the newspaper today that talked about what would have happened had the South won the Civil War. It said slavery would have taken longer to disappear, England would have ceased to exist and we'd all be speaking German.

We talked briefly at work about how World War II could have ended differently had the South won the Civil War, and I shrugged and said, "Bad stuff would have happened." Because that's really all we can say.

Maybe it's because I'm not a World War II or Civil War junkie, but that game seems pretty pointless to me. There's really no way of knowing what the world would look like now had the Nazis triumphed in the 1940s. If you know the intimate details of Hitler's mind and Nazi Party doctrine -- and I mean the details of their domestic policy, not just the fact Jews and minorities were targets -- I suppose it's fun to hypothesize. I know there are books out there devoted to the subject. But all we know is bad stuff would have happened. I don't think we can safely say what the health care system would be like, or what our major exports would be.

I love history, I really do, but the further back in time you go, the less fun the hypothesis game is. What would Iraq look like with a monorachy? OK, we can talk about that, that's current and fun. What if the Nazis had won? Lots of killing, I wouldn't have been born. What if the South had won? Er, a later civil rights movement, maybe. What if Elizabeth I had had a child? Well, Virginia would be called Fornicatia. What if Archimedes hadn't taken that bath? He'd be dirty? Who cares?

Also, I don't think it's appropriate to talk about the American Civil War and World War II the same way. World War II was more recent and more ... impactful than the Civil War. Because of the war's timing and magnitude, I can understand why the hypothesis game is appealing -- plus there's that mystique of 1930s Nazism itself. But the Civil War? Everyone has a civil war. I don't see the allure of discussing what would have happened because it all ended a very long time ago. People should be over that now. I think there are lessons in World War II, but I don't see any in the American Civil War.

And on a final, random war-related note: Why is it called the French Revolution, not the French Civil War?

Appetite for crime

2009-11-29T18:26:00.002-06:00

Crime Library has a nifty little feature about crimes related to Thanksgiving foods. My favourite is the one about the pumpkin pie.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/photogallery/thanks-for-nothing.html?curPhoto=1

Enjoy!

The opposite of emergency

2009-11-19T18:23:00.002-06:00

I was at work Tuesday night when my phone rang. It's my mother.

Now, my parents know that I work nights and that I don't take personal calls at work, so I figure it has to be an emergency. I find a secluded area and, fearing the worst, answer.

Mother: Hey, do you have a minute?
Me: Yes. What's up?
Mother: Who did you see the movie "Independence Day" with?
Me: ...
Mother: Was I there? When did the movie come out?
Me: I have no idea. I can look it up for you.
Mother: Noooo, we can look it up. I just wondered if you knew. How is everything going?
Me: Pretty good. I am at work.
Mother: Ooops! Well, we'll let you get back.

I did take a few minutes to tell mother that I was pretty sure I saw the movie with dad and Anthony and maybe dad's ex-girlfriend before she came along (which was awkward -- who wants to discuss her father's ex-girlfriend with her mother?). Apparently mother had some kind of bet with dad and now has to make him bread sauce for the rest of the month.

My parents are kind of weird.

Scary stuff

2009-11-08T22:32:00.003-06:00

Whenever I want to scare myself, I visit www.crimelibrary.com and read about the serial killers. With so many effed-up people out there eager to snuff out your life, who needs scary movies?

Then I started thinking about scary movies in general, and that triggered the word "Saw."

I've never seen a "Saw" movie. I don't do scary movies, and I certainly don't do torture. I thought the first one had an intriguing premise, and I read the plot outline on Wikipedia and, even though it's not my thing, at least it takes a stab at some kind of moral dilemma. I can respect that.

I've kept up with the plots as each movie has come out, and I've become more and more horrified. The franchise has devolved from exploring a moral dilemma to plain torture porn. I really can't imagine watching people tear off their arms and die from knives splitting their heads open, and I definitely know I wouldn't like it.

Would people who watch "Saw" movies be OK with watching lions eat unarmed prisoners and gladiators hack each other to death a la Ancient Rome? I really can't see the difference. Similarly, are people who just like to read about it any better? I read a novel called "Gladiatrix" a few months ago about female gladiators, and lots of people died in gruesome ways. I did enjoy that book. So what differentiates people who like the read about torture as opposed to watching it?

The answer is nothing. After all, both groups do it for entertainment. What matters is the person's reaction to the content, be it on a screen or on a page. I enjoyed "Gladiatrix," but it also horrified me. I did not revel in the barbarity and bloodlust of Ancient Rome; I did not cheer the different ways the women died in the arena. I enjoyed the characters and the setting, but not the bloodshed.

So where does that leave "Saw" and its viewers? This Jigsaw character led a troubled life, but his story is not the focus of the franchise, it's the Rube Goldberg-like deaths. This is an outright celebration of torture, and that's what I cannot comprehend. I can see enjoying a film in which violence plays a key role ("300," "Silence of the Lambs," "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"), but is not the star of the show.

I also don't buy the well-it's-not-real-so-what's-the-big-deal argument. The point of a book or movie is to suspend reality and introduce you to an alternate one. You have to accept that alternate reality or what's the point? True enjoyment of a book or movie comes from empathizing with the characters. The reality in the fiction is their reality. That's why we cry when Sirius Black dies, feel happy when everyone pairs up at the end of "Sense and Sensibility" and get really, really mad at the pigs for what they do to poor Boxer in "Animal Farm." If you walk away from those books/movies saying, "What's the big deal? It's not like they were real," you just wasted your time. If you walk away from the "Saw" movies saying that, yes, you've just wasted your time. If you cannot empathize with the characters, investing your time watching them is pointless.

Maybe the "Saw" movies are just so over-the-top ridiculous with their torture, it's genuinely funny to watch. Maybe there's more to them than what I'm reading on Wikipedia. I don't know. Maybe I'm overly empathetic ... OK, that I do know. I also know that I'm not going to watch the "Saw" movies to find out where I went wrong. But I'll sure hunt for a revelation when I read about them.

Gender discrimination in academia

2009-11-01T20:04:00.003-06:00

I found a cool story in the Chronicle of Higher Education about a game called "gender-bias bingo" in which players use discrimination they have experienced to win the game.

The link to the story is here. Some of the comments are particularly, er, interesting.

The game itself is here. Some of the questions on the square include "Do women face assumptions that they can be serious professionals or good mothers -- but not both?" and "Are fathers discriminated against when they play an active parenting role?"

It looks like you have to be a professor to win a T-shirt, but it's a nifty idea.

The best news story ever

2009-10-31T02:06:00.004-05:00

A comment from my supervisor reminded me of my favourite news story.

Burglary victims wake to spice rub, sausage attack

By LOUIS GALVAN , THE FRESNO BEE

SANGER — A burglar who broke into a home just east of Fresno rubbed spices over the body of one man and then used an 8-inch sausage to whack the other man on the face and head as the two slept in their rooms, Fresno County sheriff's deputies said Saturday. The burglar then ran out of the house.

Lt. Ian Burrimond, describing the crime as one of the strangest he's ever heard of, said a suspect was found hiding in a nearby field a few minutes later and taken into custody on suspicion of residential robbery.

Deputies, he said, had no problem linking the suspect to the crime.

"It seems the guy ran out of the house wearing only a T-shirt, boxer shorts and socks, leaving behind his wallet with his ID," Burrimond said.

Arrested was Antonio Vasquez, 22, of Fresno.

Burrimond said deputies headed to the victims' home in the 300 block of South Thompson Avenue near Kings Canyon Road outside of Sanger shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday regarding a burglary in progress.

The victims, both farmworkers, told deputies they were awakened by a stranger applying spices to one of them and striking the other with a sausage.

Both the spices and the sausage, Burrimond said, were obtained from the victims' kitchen.
After the man fled, the victims discovered the home had been ransacked and that some money was taken, Burrimond said.

Burrimond said the money was recovered, but that the piece of sausage used in the attack was discarded by the suspect and eaten by a dog.

"That's right, the dog ate the weapon," Burrimond said.

"I tell you, this was one weird case."
(Link: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/268/story/442201.html)

Weird Dream Haikus

2009-10-21T10:29:00.003-05:00

Apparently everyone in Chicago, like myself, had bizarre dreams last night. What better way to express something strange than via haikus. In fact, I think haikus are the best choice for most self-expression.

Here is my dream sequence from last night, condensed into 17 syllables:

A part-time boyfriend?
Chair to head stops Scream killer-
Poirot solves the case.

And, as proof that I am not alone, I present other people's crazy nights:

Locked in a bathroom
By Chinese mafia who
Hated my noodles.
- Caroline

Airport: what's missing?
No! I have to go get it!
Shut up, I'm a girl.
- Chrissy (Group effort)

What I learned today

2009-10-19T19:26:00.003-05:00

Today I got to go to Edward Tufte's seminar in Chicago. Tufte is basically the guru of data visualization.

I can't go through all the stuff he said, but I did manage to write down some of his amazing (and ridiculous) quotes:

"It's a question of content - what answers the question- not of what you use to answer the question. Use whatever it takes."
- About using the platform/system/style that best answers the question. It's a presentation about a topic, not a 'powerpoint presentation.'

"You want an open mind, not an empty head"
- About assessing data and being open to new theories or ideas.

"Why are we having this meeting? The rate of information transfer is asymptotically approaching zero."
- About the asinine nature of many powerpoint presentations.

"Why am I looking at these dumb graphics with this amazing perceptual system."
- Why do we use stupid, boring pie charts when our eyes and brains are so smart.

"chartoonist" and "data decorator"
- The people you call in when your data is boring and you use gimmicks to make it purdy.

"Smallest effective difference"
- All about making connective design elements functional and clear without being disruptive to your entire visual. Ie. 1+1=3 because the connector becomes a third element you assess.

"I'd rather be approximately right than exactly wrong."
- He stole this from someone else, but it cracked me up.

Tufte has all his info on his site www.edwardtufte.com and there's some cool info. There's also practical info on designing project plans, user interfaces, websites, dashboards, etc. Good place for inspiration.

Happy wedding day

2009-10-16T14:10:00.003-05:00

This is a really cool article by The Washington Post about women in India who are making toilets a requirement of marriage: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/11/AR2009101101934.html

Power to the women for demanding privacy and hygiene. If it were me, I would make sure I got a Western toilet as opposed to the squat toilets fairly common in that part of the world:

I don't care how clean they are -- squat toilets squick me out. And they are not easy to use in a dress, trust me.

Peace Prize? Really?

2009-10-09T13:02:00.005-05:00

All right, who the heck nominated Obama for the Peace Prize just weeks after he became president?

I mean, I like Obama, but really? Don't you actually have to DO something to win the prize?

I'm not dissing the president or how he's governing the country, but I really can't think of anything he's done to earn the Nobel Peace Prize. Effort counts, intention is important, but action gets results. I'd like to buy the world a Coke and teach everyone how to sing, but that doesn't make me worthy of any kind of recognition (well, maybe a pat on the head and a thumbs up from my indulging, patient friends).

Now, I don't think the war in Afghanistan excludes Obama from nomination. I've heard a number of people say it's too ironic for a man who might increase troop levels in Afghanistan to win the Peace Prize. Let's face it though, the war in Afghanistan isn't being waged for the sake of it. The ultimate goal is to weaken the Taliban so they don't spread violence. The goal is peace. I think it's valid to wage war in the name of peace. That doesn't bother me. What bothers me is the lack of, well, deserving. In fairness to Obama, he hasn't been in office very long and had the chance to produce results worthy of the Nobel -- but that doesn't mean he should get the prize in anticipation that he will.

Obama's critics are going to rag him, but they should really divert their attention the Peace Prize committee. He may have won, but the president didn't nominate himself -- that's not allowed. Obama shouldn't be blasted for something over which he literally has no control. According the Nobel Prize Web site, the only people who can nominate would-be winners are:

1. Members of national assemblies and governments of states;
2. Members of international courts;
3. University rectors; professors of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology; directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes;
4. Persons who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize;
5. Board members of organizations who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize;
6. Active and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; (proposals by members of the Committee to be submitted no later than at the first meeting of the Committee after February 1) and
7. Former advisers appointed by the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

I'd love to know who nominated Obama and why. Maybe something's rotten in the state of Denmark, I mean Norway.

Sympathy jingles

2009-10-05T16:27:00.002-05:00

I've decided that any sympathy cards with rhymes in them are trite. A card that says, "I'm so sorry for your loss" seems more heartfelt and appropriate than one that says, "I can't imagine what you're feeling, I really hope your heart is healing." *barf*

"Meat" the co-worker

2009-09-30T00:02:00.005-05:00

Last week, I took a deep breath and shot down a co-worker.

As far as my co-worker knows, my boyfriend is vegetarian. (This isn't true: He was, but he started eating meat a few months ago. Most people at work don't know.)

My co-worker -- let's call him Jacob -- is a foodie. He likes to cook, he likes to eat, and he appreciates fine food. He also doesn't understand vegetarianism. On an intellectual level, he knows some people don't want to eat meat, and he knows there are valid reasons for that, but it's not a choice he would make himself, and he seems to have trouble connecting with the idea. He was curious about my dating a vegetarian. If I did bring in meat for myself, he would jokingly say, "Well, your boyfriend can't eat that!" He was intrigued and repulsed by the idea of cooking fake meat. Eventually, I realized that Jacob has some sort of odd prejudice against vegetarians, much the same way someone might say, "I'm not racist BUT ...." and then say something racist. I sensed it through the looks, the tone of voice, the raised eyebrows. My solution was to cut down on the cooking talk.

It worked until Jacob started listening to a comedian who mocks vegetarians. A couple of months ago, he repeated one of the comedian's (rather lame) jokes about vegetarianism. OK, prejudice against vegetarians isn't as serious as racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., but mocking people's lifestyles doesn't sit well with me, especially when that lifestyle is large part of my boyfriend's and my own. My boyfriend by this time was eating meat, but at least half the cooking I did was vegetarian. I smiled tightly and chuckled politely.

Last week, Jacob started up again:

Jacob: He said that if you invite a vegetarian for dinner, you have to make this whole vegetarian menu, but if they invite you over, don't expect them to make meat for you! *laughs*
Me: *acting puzzled* But why would you go over to a vegetarian's house and expect them to serve meat? You know they won't.
Jacob: Well, yeah, but it's the idea that they won't make meat for you, but you can't serve meat to them.
Me: Not all vegetarians are like that -- my boyfriend makes me meat. But you shouldn't expect a vegetarian to serve you meat. You don't have to eat meat. A vegetarian can't eat meat, but a meat eater can NOT eat meat.
Jacob: But as a courtesy, they should serve....
Me: *cuts him off* Whoa, whoa, that's not fair. There's no courtesy that says you have to serve someone meat.
Jacob: *a bit put out, but seeing the light* Yes ... but ... oh, never mind.
Me: Look, I get the joke. I do. But I don't agree with it. If you invited a Jew to your house, would you serve them pork? Would you expect them to serve you pork?
Jacob: Well, no.
Me: Then why would you expect a vegetarian to serve you meat?
Jacob: *trying to think of a reason why Jews don't have to serve pork but vegetarians should serve meat*
Me: I just don't understand why you would expect a vegetarian to serve meat. Not if you say it's OK for a Jew not to serve pork.
Jacob: *latches onto opening, talks about kosher cooking*
Me: *figures I made my point, rolls with it*

It will be interesting to see if Jacob makes any more jokes or jibes about vegetarianism to me in the future.

Being Green and Saving Green While Cooking

2009-09-23T12:42:00.003-05:00

Ever heard of hypercooking? No? Me neither.

Apparently, hypercooking refers to tricks to be greener and more efficient when cooking. Check out the Food Selection's definition for more.

Serious Eats had a number of tips today to use hypercooking to save money and be green:

1. Skip Preheating

Most stuff you cook will be fine going into a cold oven. Things like Souffles and cakes, not so much. But everyday dishes like casseroles and baked pasta dishes will work.

2. Turn the Oven Off Before the Dish Is Done

This makes total sense and I wish I had thought of it. Ovens take a long time to cool off (we all know this from super hot kitchens taking forever to cool). So turn the oven off early and let it finish cooking in there. This is nice if your side dishes aren't ready as well, since it should cook less quickly and help prevent drying out.

3. Green-Grill It

Like turning off the oven, turn the grill off early. Just make sure your meat reached the right temp already.

4. Don't Use an Oven

Use the more efficient toaster oven, pressure cooker, slow cooker or rice cooker when you are able. I love using my toaster oven instead because it doesn't give off as much heat as the oven.

5. Get Creative

OK this is brilliant: Take advantage of the hot steam coming off a pot of boiling water for pasta. Put a glass bowl with your sauce ingredients over the pot, as the pasta cooks, the ingredients will warm up and melt. Instead of dumping that boiling water pasta water down the drain, use it to heat your serving bowl.

6. Turn Things Off

Don't consume phantom or vampire power - aka the power that is spent with appliances are off but still plugged in.

Helpful and easy tips!

Permission to dance?

2009-09-22T13:45:00.003-05:00

This letter is from Annie's Mailbox:

Dear Annie:
At the request of our daughter and her fiance, we invited two gay gentlemen to their wedding. When the bride and groom motioned for people to join in for their first dance, it never dawned on us that the two men might wish to slow dance together. Needless to say, many guests, including us, were uncomfortable and unprepared for that situation.
As host, I felt disrespected in that I was not asked if it would be OK. I think my wife and I deserved that consideration. My wife later asked that we forget about it because the party went over well and it was only one dance. I agree. But I would like to know exactly what the protocol is for these types of situations.
I always felt that hosts who foot the bill should have some say over anything inappropriate that might occur. — Dad

Dear Dad: We understand that watching two gay men dance together was difficult for you, but we are going to ask you to be tolerant. These gentlemen are a couple and, like any other, when invited to dance at a wedding, wanted to do so. We doubt it occurred to anyone that you expected to be asked for permission. And the fact that it was only one dance indicates the two men were aware of your disapproval and did not wish to cause offense. Hosts cannot possibly control every aspect of an event. Your wife is right. Please forget about it.
(Link: http://www.creators.com/advice/annies-mailbox.html)

I get the feeling dad didn't want this gay couple at his daughter's wedding in the first place, but bowed to her wishes -- and rightly so. But, oh man! He felt "disrespected?" What about disrespecting your guests by wanting them to ask your permission to dance at a wedding? And what makes this guy think he can say no to this couple? "Sorry, guys, you can't dance because it will make everyone feel uncomfortable. But, hey, I'm glad you could make the wedding!" Ironic much?

In what other situation is it appropriate to demand guests ask permission before engaging in the festivities the host has provided? None that I can think of.

Flu Season Tips

2009-09-21T11:53:00.004-05:00

Some everyday tips to help ward off the flu this fall:

- Sleep
- Eat right
- Stay hydrated
- Exercise
- React reasonably if you get sick

Check out more detailed advice in this blog post. It's pretty short and has some good tips for making things like green tea even better for you.

And on a lighter note...

2009-09-20T12:43:00.005-05:00

Thank you to Cracked for this deep and intellectual chart. As well as this pretty accurate ven diagram:

Women are unhappier?

2009-09-20T12:34:00.004-05:00

A number of recent articles and books have discussed the fact that, according to General Social Survey, women are much less happy and men are much happier than they were 30 or 40 years ago. In fact, women have steadily become less happy ever since the 70s.

It also found that women start off happier than men when they are young and slowly become less happy, while men do the opposite.

Check out Maureen Dowd's op-ed on this issue. Possible reasons why are at the end. One interesting factoid -apparently having children is one of the biggest statistical points that predicts if a woman will be unhappy. Children = less happy. Though this isn't self-reported as such.

I have to say, the getting less happy overall as you get older, that doesn't surprise me at all. I can already see forces in my life that could pull me that way. And her comment that as we get older women add more factors that we judge ourselves on, without removing any, seems spot on to me. Then, of course, there's also the argument about our society's obsession with youth that falls harder on women. This is very true, but why that has to lead to unhappiness seems to be a point that is forgotten.

There are a number of other points included in the piece and I would love to hear other people's opinions on if this seems true. Perhaps we are too young to know yet, but I doubt that.

LOL

2009-09-17T14:26:00.000-05:00

More info here.

13% isn't sure?

And a new tag for the blog: anti christ.

Celebrating little things

2009-09-16T13:33:00.003-05:00

This diary entry on Daily Kos today is short, sweet and, well, sweet (though the title may make you think otherwise).

Gay Marriage: already at work destroying heterosexual marriage.

Perhaps it's because I've spent so much of my life sad about the way all our GLBT brethren fight to live their lives. Or because too many decisions in my life were influenced or dramatically changed do to homophobia. Or because I know too many people who have struggled through horrible, horrible situations, feelings and decisions because of homophobia and heterosexism - external and internalized. But when I got to the end of the entry it made me tear up a bit.

No, not everyone wants marriage. Yes, there are many other fights that need to be had that marriage distracts from. And yes, there are some serious issues with the institution of marriage in general. But, there is something incredibly beautiful about both the idea she discusses as well as the power in celebrating the everyday moments of life that show us that we are making progress.

There goes dinner....

2009-09-15T12:08:00.005-05:00

Dinner tonight was supposed to be a coconut-lime-ginger cod dish. I made the bulk of the vegetable component of the cod dish yesterday afternoon and let it sit in the fridge. The stuff I made is heavy on the spice -- think chopped onion and garlic smothered in fresh cilantro, fresh ginger, chili paste, cumin, garam masala, coriander and tumeric. I wrapped it all up in foil and left it in a nice, neat package the fridge. All I had to do was dump the spicy stuff on the cod, steam everything in coconut milk, and the hard part of dinner would be done. Marvellous!

Well, I checked my phone a few minutes ago and I had a text message from my boyfriend: "By the way, what was that food in the foil? I took it for lunch." I run to the fridge. Sure enough, my foil packet of spicy onion stuff is gone. I check my voice mail and burst out laughing. My boyfriend had dumped the contents of that package on leftover white rice, taken two bites and called me practically choking.

Go figure that of all the stuff in the kitchen that my boyfriend could have taken for lunch, he chose my foil package. But then I think of him eating it over rice and I giggle.

Bleeding Red

2009-09-13T22:45:00.003-05:00

As I covered in my last post, I recently bought 20 lbs of Roma tomatoes at the Evanston farmer's market. Exhibit 1:

The point of this back pain inducing purchase was to make a large vat of spaghetti sauce that I could then freeze, allowing me the pleasure of local, "fresh" veggies in the coming months and, ideally through the winter. I worked from Barbara Kingsolver's spaghetti sauce recipe, with my own tweaks: some because I wanted a different flavor and some because I only had one onion. The original recipe can be found here (pdf).

But here is my process, complete with pretty pictures and witty barb.

You need a 1-4 whole onions, depending on how much sauce. I only had one, so I used one. Barbara says 4 onions for 30 lbs of tomatoes. I used 1 for 20 lbs and it seemed fine. So it really comes down to how much you like onion. My onion got to hang out with my awesome new knife before getting the knife:

Dice that puppy up and set it aside. If you are like me, this is the point where you wipe all the tears up too. Stupid onions.

Btw, little tip. If you need to peel a whole onion, cut the ends and the skin peels off nice and easy, like so:

Now start chopping up those tomatoes. I started off by dicing mine, but by the end I was just cutting them in half and then cutting each half in 4ths. Much faster.

Now throw a batch in the blender and mix 'em up.

They will look a bit like a smoothy - pink and a bit frothy. It's odd, but it's ok. I put the blender at a low speed and stopped once the last chunks disappeared under the surface. But I like my spaghetti sauce a bit chunkier. Go longer if you want it smooth.

Once you have enough tomatoes chopped for the first blender batch get out your biggest pot. This is my beautiful 8-quart pot.

Hello, lovely.

Turn the heat on medium and throw the onions on the bottom to soften. In the meantime collect your other spices. Barbara Kingsolver's recipe calls for:
1 cup dried basil
½ cup honey
4 tbs. dried oregano
3 tbs. salt
2 tbsp ground lemon peel
2 tbsp. thyme
2 tbs. garlic powder (or more, to taste)
2tbs. dried parsley
2 tsp. pepper
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg

To be honest, I just threw in what I had in the amounts I felt like. You can always add more later. Spaghetti sauce is pretty forgiving.

Throw in your spices and your first batch of pureed tomatoes. Stir. Then start pureeing and adding in the rest of the tomatoes. At this point you probably want to turn the heat down to keep it from boiling. Boiling tomato sauce is messy. Very, very messy.

Once you are done, stir it, cover it and let it simmer until it's at your desired thickness, could take a couple hours. It'll look something like this:

Mmmm!

When it's done, take it off the heat and let it cool. Then fill your tupperware and freeze. If you're canning then you have to worry about the pH level, but we aren't right now, so we'll worry later.

Made a good amount. Still, I'm sure I could use more than this all winter. But I only have a small freezer. Canning may be on the horizon. Given that I only spent $12 for all those tomatoes, this may end up being the more delicious, healthier AND more cost efficient choice. Win-win-win.

Farmer's Market Bounty

2009-09-13T22:35:00.004-05:00

This is my produce haul from the two Farmer's Markets I attended this week:

That's 6 pears, 8 beets (red, white and some crazy striped one), 2 beef steak tomatoes, 2 green tomatoes, 1 orange tomato (not shown as I already ate it), a bowl of sugar snap peas, half-eaten loaf of pretzel bread (was a full loaf when I got it), a dozen red and white potatoes, 9 heirloom red and green peppers...

Aren't they purdy?! $3. Freals.

... and about 20 lbs of Roma tomatoes.

This picture actually makes that pile look small.

Needless to say, I bought a lot of produce. I spent most of Saturday lugging it around Evanston too. And I spent most of today cooking it. The tomatoes were turned into fried green tomatoes, 7 quarts of spaghetti sauce and 9 frozen tomatoes. The peppers were sliced, diced and frozen. The goal is to buy and freeze/can enough produce to get me through at lease some of the winter. I haven't gotten around to attempting canning things, mainly because I haven't bought cans. But freezing also works very well. Most frozen veggies will last around 8 months in the freezer.

I'll be putting up posts chronicling my local food storage efforts shortly. The tomato sauce was so worth the effort! And it was messy, which is always fun.

Also weird....

2009-09-13T01:05:00.006-05:00

One Saturday about three weeks ago, my boyfriend and I took a little daytrip to an area zoo. The zoo features elephant rides, and the elephant handler took a pretty cool picture of us on Ellie the elephant:

Now, once a week, our newspaper runs a reader-submitted photo, and staff can also hand in pictures. I gave in this one and it ran a couple of weeks ago. The cutline -- that's newspaper-speak for a photo caption -- clearly said that I work for the newspaper.

I thought no more about it until I checked my mailbox at work and found an envelope addressed to me care of the newspaper. It was a card from a local chiropractic clinic. Inside was a business card and a cut-out of the photo that ran in the newspaper. The card reads: "Suzanne, How did you ever the elephant to pose like that? Saw this in the paper and thought you might want a copy. Looks like a good time!"

I'd never even heard of this chiropractor before. Aside from the company stationery and business card, there was no plug for me to visit the chiropractor -- no "Did you strain your back getting onto that elephant? If so ..." or "That elephant is big, and so is our level of professionalism!" Why didn't the writer bother to sign the card? And why did the clinic think I couldn't get a copy of my own picture? The power of the media is sometimes overstated, but one of the perks of working for a paper is free copies.

It's an interesting marketing technique, but I don't think it's had its intended effect. I didn't suddenly become aware of back problems after reading the card, and although I did pass it around my co-workers, all they did was laugh.

Weird....

2009-09-11T15:15:00.002-05:00

I've had a bad problem with spam IMers this week at work. Usually they take the format of "hey baby check out my web cam at....." or "I'm horny, aren't you? link...." They are annoying, you close them, etc etc.

But this one was far more creative:

Once upon a time there was a guy who was the kind of guy who did things like specifically he once ate a round thing made of dough not a donut a different thing a muffin and it tasted good and he shouted something that expressed happiness.

WTF?

My bad

2009-09-10T14:50:00.002-05:00

Hi Friends,

I haven't posted in a while. I am sorry. With moving and then a riveting trip to Lexington, KY I have been behind in my stories.

But yesterday I bought a new 7" santoku knife and today I went to the farmer's market and picked up some green tomatoes. So I am going to attempt fried green tomatoes this weekend.... Stay tuned.

Though, if I burn myself, I may not want to type.

Saving the children

2009-09-10T10:57:00.002-05:00

I really liked Leonard Pitts' column today. He talked about Obama addressing schoolchildren and certain Americans' reactions to health care reform. The best line: "If America were a person, you'd sedate it. You might even have it committed."

So true.

The column in its entirety is here: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/1224025.html

The L word

2009-09-03T23:33:00.002-05:00

Last night I had this weird dream in which my supervisor told me to go to Lynchburg, Va., to familiarize myself with its major landmarks. She pointed to a building on a map and told me to be careful of this warehouse because it's full of "the L word." I nodded knowingly -- and then my alarm went off and I woke up.

Of course one of my first thoughts was, "What is the L word? What was in that warehouse?" I puzzled over this as I got dressed. LSD? Lingerie? L-ephants? The only time I'd ever heard the phrase "the L word" was in reference to love.

Oh, except for this one time at my former gym. A regular there, Ernie, was a born-again Christian with whom I'd often chat. One afternoon he told me he had restricted his son's TV viewing because there was so much sex and violence in programs these day. There was even, he said, too much of "the L word."

Me: The L word? What do you mean?
Him: You know, the L word.
Me: Do you mean love?
Him: *beckons me closer and whispers* Lesbians.

It was such an unexpected response that I started laughing. I blurted out that I think there's nothing wrong with lesbians, and Ernie promptly did this half-shrug, head-tilt move that meant he thought I'm going to hell but was too polite to say so (I got this move a lot).

Lynchburg is the seat of evangelical Liberty University, which was run by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, but I don't think even there people advocate stuffing lesbians into warehouses (and certainly my supervisor doesn't). Although if there is a warehouse full of lesbians in Lynchburg, I dare say some LU folk consider it dangerous enough to a) consider it a major landmark and b) warn people about it.

My many bedfellows

2009-08-28T12:08:00.006-05:00

I've always been the No. 1 buffet for insects in the summer. I'm usually covered with bug bites, and I mean covered -- I once had 48 insect bites at one time. This summer has been unusually wet, and I have hardly suffered. It's been pretty sweet.

So I was pretty ticked off when I woke up this morning and had 13 new bug bites, some of them the size of quarters. My legs are covered in big, red blotches, which in turn are covered by white anti-itch cream that is already drying into a crusty paste. I look diseased.

Oddly, my boyfriend rarely gets bug bites. We can both go to the park and he will resemble a perfectly ordinary person while I look like some uncoordinated oaf dancing the stupid dance, slapping my arms, waving my hands in front of my face, rubbing my feet along my legs and craning my head to check my shoulders as I attempt to keep the bugs at bay.

The most frustrating part about this round of bites is that the perpetrators were in my bed. Now, our house is pretty clean, so I suspect the culprit who is bringing little friends to share the bed is our dog, Jack the Bandit. Jack spends the days doing this:

And sometimes this:

And then this:

I guess I shouldn't be surprised to find lots of nasty, microscopic insects relaxing in the bed, although why they choose my side beats me.

Anyway, I sprayed the sheets down with Lysol. That might kill anything in there, although it likely isn't safe to sleep on all those chemicals. But maybe, just maybe, the Lysol will seep into my pores and the bugs won't bite me anymore.

Cart: The Movie

2009-08-27T15:14:00.001-05:00

This short film is adorable, beautiful and just plain awesome. I'll be honest, I teared up a bit at the end. Poor cart.

Cart - The Film from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

So bad, it's epic

2009-08-24T23:43:00.002-05:00

I'm a big fan of the so-bad-it's-good movie genre. One of my best friends and I try to work in an "ethnic food and a bad movie" night when we get together, a tradition we began our senior year of high school. The made-for-TV movies are normally a good bet, but some of the blockbusters make good fodder -- think "Glitter" and "Crossroads." Now I think about it, I've bonded with most of my good friends over bad movies.

The trend continues with my boyfriend. Word reached us of a movie called "The Room," an independent work that bills itself as having "the passion of Tennesee [sic] Williams" yet is also "a quirky new black comedy." Research showed me critics say this movie supercedes "bad" and enters the realm of "masterful." Eh, we thought, it's probably an exaggeration, but let's blow $12 and find out. It can't be that bad.

We were wrong. "The Room" blew past the exits for "God-awful" and "Well, that was crap" on the highway of movie experience and got off at "Epic." I think part of the beauty lies in the fact no one can deliberately make a movie this bad, not even the masters of cinema such as Steven Spielberg. I mean, Spielberg can make just about any movie he wants, and I bet he could make a bad one if he tried, but he could not make a movie this bad. That's how bad it is.

The reason why I consider this important enough to write about is because it's gaining cultural significance. Midnight screenings of this movie appear in major North American cities, and, like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," it's interactive. The line "You are tearing me apart, Lisa!" has great meaning for a growing subset of the continent. If there's a cultural revolution brewing, surely it's best to take part? And get your foot in as early as possible?

A link to the trailer is on my Facebook wall, but this is a scene from the movie (don't worry, it's not even a minute long):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnnTqFTHGuc&NR=1

The rest of the movie is just as inane.

My boyfriend and I are eager to go to a screening of the film and be a part of the experience. I encourage anyone lucky enough to be in proximity of such a show to take advantage of that.

Investigation into Food Monopolies

2009-08-21T10:06:00.004-05:00

This morning NPR reported that:

Since the 1980s, American agriculture has become increasingly concentrated. Today, less than 2 percent of farms account for half of all agricultural sales. The new antitrust division of President Obama’s Justice Department has said that scrutinizing monopolies in agriculture is a top priority.

That shift is giving hope to independent farmers, who have complained for years that agriculture giants are shrinking the marketplace and paying farmers less for their products.

This is exciting news. The consolidation of the agriculture industry is at the heart of many of the problems we have. See the post right before this one. Let's hope it means more room for small and independent farmers and not more room for non-Monsanto major companies (i.e. DuPont).

Jim Cramer was one of the few people to actually cover this. Here's his full segment from "Mad Money". Long, but interesting. He thinks Monsanto will be the first to go.

The State of American Food

2009-08-20T14:21:00.003-05:00

Farmers' Market Tomatoes

Time Magazine has a great article, "America's Food Crisis and How to Fix it," on the state of the American food system. For a mainstream publication it is both accurate and strongly worded. The author, Bryan Walsh, doesn't couch the destruction for major producers. I think the most important line is right towards the front:

But we don't have the luxury of philosophizing about food. With the exhaustion of the soil, the impact of global warming and the inevitably rising price of oil — which will affect everything from fertilizer to supermarket electricity bills — our industrial style of food production will end sooner or later.

He covers (and condenses) many of the most important issues in our food production today: monoculture, the proliferation of corn, government subsidies that hurt farmers, government subsidies that make produce more expensive, the lack of flavor/nutrients in industrially raised produce, animal cruelty, antibiotics, chemical use (excess?), environmental destruction, and the hidden costs of cheap meat. Phew! Any one of these should be enough to make us pause.

An important aspect I think he miss construes:

And while large companies like General Mills have opened organic divisions, purists worry that the very definition of sustainability will be co-opted as a result.

A. Organic does not equal sustainable. You can farm sustainably without being officially organic, though it is hard. And major industrial organic farms are a great step, but even their sustainability is debatable.
2. There is no non-purist version of "sustainability". If it isn't sustainable, it isn't sustainable.
Lastly. The term 'organic' has already been co-opted. That's why local and sustainable have grown in popularity. But still, co-opted organic is better than industrial in my book.

Dog Sitting

2009-08-20T13:37:00.002-05:00

Last weekend a neighbor-friend in the building moved from the other side of our courtyard into my stairwell. Since I was just staying home packing I volunteered to let her leave her dogs in my apartment while they moved things upstairs.

So these little dudes joined Emma, Lola and me in the apartment:

Meet Da Vinci (Vinny for short) and Duke.

Needless to say, it was a wee bit crowded.

And Lola wasn't happy. Note the raised hackles:

At this point she was plotting her evil attack on poor Da Vinci. Poor guy was sniffing along, checking out the area under the kitchen table, unaware that Lola was on the hunt and had followed him across the living room. He was suddenly shocked out of his blissful ignorance by a big cat smack right on his butt. Lola, as I yelled at her and chased her away, also managed to take a nice swipe at Duke's ear which ended up leaving blood drops on my floor.

Took me about 20 minutes and some dog treats to calm the poor guys down. But after that I got the feeling they wanted to leave...

Class of 2013

2009-08-17T19:58:00.001-05:00

Beloit College's Mindset List for Class of 2013. Courtesy of the Associated Press.

Every year, Beloit College releases its Mindset List to give a snapshot of how incoming freshmen view the world. Most students in the Class of 2013 were born in 1991.

1. Author Theodore "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, Queen singer Freddie Mercury, "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, actor Michael Landon, Miles Davis, Martha Graham, Pan American Airways and The Dallas Times Herald have always been dead.
2. Dan Rostenkowski, Jack Kevorkian, and Mike Tyson have always been felons.
3. The "green giant" has always conjured up images of Shrek, not the big guy picking vegetables.
4. They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
5. Margaret Thatcher has always been a former prime minister.
6. Salsa has always outsold ketchup.
7. Earvin "Magic" Johnson has always been HIV-positive.
8. Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible.
9. They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.
10. Rap music has always been mainstream.
11. Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice.
12. Someone has always been building something taller than the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower in Chicago.
13. The KGB has never officially existed.
14. Text has always been hyper.
15. They never saw the "Scud Stud" (but there have always been electromagnetic stud finders).
16. Babies have always had a Social Security Number.
17. They have never had to "shake down" an oral thermometer.
18. Bungee jumping has always been socially acceptable.
19. They have never understood the meaning of RSVP.
20. American students have always lived anxiously with high-stakes educational testing.
21. Except for Barack Obama, the president has never inhaled. (Obama is the first president in their lifetime who admitted smoking marijuana.)
22. State abbreviations in addresses have never had periods.
23. The European Union has always existed.
24. McDonald's has always been serving Happy Meals in China.
25. Condoms have always been advertised on television.
26. Cable television systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa.
27. Christopher Columbus has always been getting a bad rap.
28. The American health care system has always been in critical condition.
29. Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves.
30. Desperate smokers have always been able to turn to Nicoderm skin patches.
31. There has always been a Cartoon Network.
32. The nation's key economic indicator has always been the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
33. Their folks could always reach for a Zoloft.
34. They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.
35. Women have always outnumbered men in college.
36. They have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.
37. Amateur radio operators have never needed to know Morse code.
38. Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Estonia have always been independent nations.
39. It's always been official: President Zachary Taylor did not die of arsenic poisoning.
40. Madonna's perspective on Sex has always been well documented.
41. Phil Jackson has always been coaching championship basketball.
42. Ozzy Osbourne has always been coming back.
43. Kevin Costner has always been Dancing with Wolves, especially on cable.
44. There have always been flat-screen TVs.
45. They have always eaten Berry Berry Kix.
46. Disney's Fantasia has always been available on video, and It's a Wonderful Life has always been on Moscow television.
47. Smokers have never been promoted as an economic force that deserves respect.
48. Elite American colleges have never been able to fix the price of tuition.
49. Nobody has been able to make a deposit in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).
50. Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.
51. Britney Spears has always been heard on classic rock stations.
52. They have never been Saved by the Bell
53. Someone has always been asking: "Was Iraq worth a war?"
54. Most communities have always had a mega-church.
55. Natalie Cole has always been singing with her father.
56. The status of gays in the military has always been a topic of political debate.
57. Elizabeth Taylor has always reeked of White Diamonds.
58. There has always been a Planet Hollywood.
59. For one reason or another, California's future has always been in doubt.
60. Agent Starling has always feared the Silence of the Lambs.
61. "Womyn" and "waitperson" have always been in the dictionary.
62. Members of Congress have always had to keep their checkbooks balanced since the closing of the House Bank.
63. There has always been a computer in the Oval Office.
64. CDs have never been sold in cardboard packaging.
65. Avon has always been "calling" in a catalog.
66. NATO has always been looking for a role.
67. Two Koreas have always been members of the UN.
68. Official racial classifications in South Africa have always been outlawed.
69. The NBC Today Show has always been seen on weekends.
70. Vice presidents of the United States have always had real power. (They are most aware of Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney, who were given distinct responsibilities by the presidents they served under.)
71. Conflict in Northern Ireland has always been slowly winding down.
72. Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them.
73. Nobody has ever responded to "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up."
74. Congress could never give itself a midterm raise.
75. There has always been blue Jell-O.

Packing

2009-08-17T11:25:00.001-05:00

This is what happens when you don't label boxes right when you tape them closed.

And you are overwhelmed with packing and can't remember what you put in the boxes stacked in your living room.

And you are tired, overwhelmed, and packed-out so you label boxes with exactly what you are thinking.

I'm sure the movers will be amused.

More old photos

2009-08-15T23:00:00.000-05:00

These are my great-grandparents, John and Josephine. They were born in Poland and came to the US in 1906.

They ran a general store in their little town in Connecticut. They lived in a gray house with a barn out back that was the store, an outhouse that was the outhouse, and another shack for storage and horses.

This is my mom and my cousin in the 1960s. You can still see the outhouse in the middle, the edge of the barn on the right and the shed on the left. The outhouse wasn't turned into a storage shed until my aunt's husband moved into the house and fixed it up. I guess they had just filled in the holes with dirt but left the seats and stuff hanging out in there.

Anyway, back to these two. During Prohibition they made bathtub whiskey and sold it to everyone, including the Hartford chief of police. My grandmother remembers having to take baths in a big metal tub cause the bath tub was full of alcohol.

They are older here. But clearly still awesome. And still looking like an old Polish couple.

Dear idiotic men in car:

2009-08-15T22:04:00.002-05:00

Neither my supervisor nor I was upset when you yelled, "Yo, fat bitches" at us as you drove past the parking lot of our workplace. In fact, we giggled. Because we have lives.

Sincerely,

Suzanne

Old photos

2009-08-15T09:22:00.000-05:00

I scanned a bunch of old photos onto my computer for my mom.

Here's one:

And this one:

Oh, and another:

Do we see a theme? Apparently, stuffing my face was something that took me a while to grow out of.

I'm a bad mother: Part 2 or Emma is Spoiled

2009-08-14T14:23:00.000-05:00

I am in the midst of getting ready to move. And as I've been pulling stuff out of closets, out from under the bed, etc I've found a number of Emma's toys.

Here's the pile so far. It's actually missing the half eaten bones I found as well.

But despite all these toys, Emma has one favorite: the fluffy white bone thing (far left). With a squeaker. It has to have a squeaker. 4 of the 6 toys in the picture have squeakers. The ones that don't were bought by someone else, someone who didn't know that Emma : squeakers :: Ellen: Purple.

Emma is looking at me like that cause I'm holding her toy and won't share.

Emma loves this new furry, bone squeaky toy. I haven't come up with a good name for it. Emma is good at learning her toy names. Like Blue. Blue used to be her favorite. This is Blue:

It was a funny looking present for Emma from my roommate. Emma liked Blue, a lot. (It's cause Blue squeaks) Even though Blue is really big, off balanced and pretty much too heavy for her to carry. Whenever she tries to jump on the couch with Blue in her mouth she hits the toy on the cushion and falls back down. Though this doesn't stop her from trying again... and again... and again... and you get the idea. But she doesn't really play with Blue anymore. Blue is the Jessie Cowgirl doll of Emma's toys.

But not furry, bone, squeaky toy-thing. No, she loves this guy. He goes on the couch, all over the apartment, up on the bed. She sleeps with it. See:

And her favorite way to play with it is to dig at it. This is only a small section of a good 5 minute long Emma-digs-at-her-toy fest.

Emma is nuts. Spoiled and nuts.

Welcome to Suz!

2009-08-14T10:02:00.003-05:00

You all may have noticed a new contributor to the blog. Suzanne and I go way back... to college.

We met freshman year when we lived in the same dorm. All the new freshman had to arrive early for orientation. The first night there was a dorm meet-and-greet. We were all sitting in the lounge area introducing ourselves, saying where we were from, etc. When we got to Suz she went "I'm Suzanne, I'm from Pennsylvania." And I knew right then I'd like this girl.

Why? Because Suz has a British accent. And even though she knew everyone would hear it and expect her to say she was from England she didn't, she said 'Pennsylavia' because that's where she lived then. You could see the confusion on people's faces. I literally laughed out loud. Of course, everyone looked at me. I'd like to think that's when she decided we'd get along too.

Suz is pretty awesome. And smart. And witty. You will soon see for yourself, but trust me on this one for now.

Weird direct mail

2009-08-14T10:01:00.001-05:00

So I canceled my car insurance last year. When Geico asked me why I said "Because I sold my car."

Now they send me stuff like this on a regular basis:

No, I don't. I have no relationship with my insurance company. Because it was you and I don't have a car anymore. You know this. Now go away.

This is better then the one I got before Valentine's Day that said "Baby come back!" with hearts all over it. Or maybe this one is just lazy.

Holiday. Celebrate.

2009-08-13T22:32:00.003-05:00

That's all the Madonna I'll put in this post, I swear.

I have one more week of work and then I'm taking a week's vacation time. I am champing at the bit, bouncing off the walls, jumping up and down in anticipation. I haven't had time off since Easter, and that was too long ago.

We are trained since tinies to expect time off during the summer. From first grade through senior year of college, summers are free time. Sure, we had reading lists and jobs, and maybe summer school now and then, but we severed routine. "Enjoy it while you can," the world-weary adults around me cautioned. "You'll miss it when you're older."

Actually, they're wrong. I'm excited to take time off work, but I'm glad it's just one week and not 10. I don't miss those massively long summer vacations at all. The charm wore off the older I got. During high school, I replaced English and math classes with scooping ice cream and folding burritos; in college, it was internships and that horrible, horrible summer I spent as a camp counselor -- plus all the packing and unpacking that happens when you skip from one state to another. The change in routine was welcome, but toward the end, I was glad to get back to school. A break that's too long is not a break at all.

This one-week break I have coming up is really no different from the summer holidays of my school years: It's a change of routine, and I will have some fun, but duties at home will replace those at work. When my break is over, I'll be happy to get back to work and into my regular schedule. I have no idea what those grown-ups all those years ago were talking about. If I had 10 weeks off, I would think now at 25 what I thought at 15: "What the heck am I gonna do?"

Sick bats

2009-08-13T12:28:00.004-05:00

Once upon a time (a year and a half ago) in an place far, far away (an apartment in Rogers Park) a young woman (me) came home from work. She unlocked the door to her apartment's stairwell, checked her mail and headed up the stairs, flipping through the usual panoply of junk mail and bills. This lovely lady was tired and cold, given the snow outside and the long day at work. And she still had to walk the puppy she could even then hear running towards her front door.

But this young woman was in for a surprise - this was no ordinary trip home. As she was in the midst of bringing key to lock, she noticed something odd out of the corner of her eye. 'What is that brown blob on the molding around the door," she asked herself.

"Is that a.... BAT!!"

*jumps back*

"Wait, what?"

------------- fin ---------------

Yes, I had a bat chilling on my front door. It was a little brown bat. Your usual barn denizen about 2 or 3 inches tall. The little dude was cowering against the wood, fast asleep it seemed. I was worried he was dead or sick, but I think he had been woken from his hibernation and had decided my door seemed like a good spot to go back to sleep. I knew if he woke up again he could be done for that winter, so I went inside quietly and figured I could share my door frame with the little dude.

He hung out at my front door until I left to go home for Christmas. When I got back to Chicago about a week later, he was gone. Don't know what happened to him, but I like to think he found a better place to hibernate and not that someone in the building killed him.

As you can probably tell from this story I think bats are awesome. I thought having one on my door was fun. I love their weird furry bodies and crazy, disjointed wings and legs. I love that they are mammals but look like dinosaurs. I love watching them dip and soar and squeak through the night sky. Overall, I dig bats.

But the bats back home (say that three times fast) are dying. In big numbers. The poor guys are really sick. Most of the sick and dead ones have been found with an odd white fungus over their ears, nose and wings. The current theory is that the fungus wakes them up as they hibernate, causing them to burn through their stored fats too fast to survive. So even if they could fight off the fungus, they would never make it through the winter. No one is sure where this fungus comes from or how it spreads. The current concern is that it will be carried to bats further south and west.

So why is this bad? Well, beyond that fat that bats are awesome. It would also mean a lot more mosquito bites. And, according to Peter Brown in Scientific American

If WNS spreads to the American South and West, it could also lead to huge losses of crops pollinated by bats. As Turner points out, bats are major pollinators of plantains and avocados and are the sole pollinators of the agave plant; margarita cocktail lovers owe the tequila in their drink to the activities of bats.

Now that's a reason for humans to care.

Packing

2009-08-13T09:06:00.000-05:00

Or as it should really be called: moving stuff around my apartment to make one room seem empty.

Creepy

2009-08-12T21:40:00.003-05:00

This is how Lola was sleeping when I walked into the living room before.

I think the one eye staring at the camera is the creepiest part. But a close second is that she fell asleep with her head under her!

There's something wrong with that cat.

Hilarious

2009-08-12T19:24:00.001-05:00

Ok, more like amusing and will make you chuckle. Vampire part is the best.

Obama Debunks Birther Conspiracy - watch more funny videos

OMG SO GROSS! I love it.

2009-08-12T12:05:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I've decided I have Lyme's disease. I know, shut up. I have a lot of weird bug bites. That's the problem with going to the lakefront in Chicago. So I went to WebMD to self-diagnose, naturally. And this was their lead article:

Bad Bugs Slideshow: Identifying Bugs and Their Bites

I feel like I'm 6 and going "Ewwwww, let me see!"

The recent PA shooting and misogyny in US culture

2009-08-12T11:46:00.000-05:00

So I wrote this post the other night and didn't put it up. I think it's a bit convoluted, but want to keep it timely. I welcome your thoughts to help clarify it!

-----

This op-ed piece in the NY Times highlights an important fact - misogyny is so widespread in our culture that it has become ho-hum. TV shows make rape and violence against women seem everyday. The arguement that this can move from uncovering a problem to normalizing the behavior is not often discussed in my experience. Sexist and misogynistic statements fly across the airways on national TV all the time - from the mouths of men AND women.

Obviously we can't forget the importance of misogynistic men. But we women are very good at adding to the problem - mainly by not addressing it. We don't recognize our own self-hatred or self-defacement. We defer to others more aggressive instead of showing our own assertiveness. I don't want to preach. I do it, all the time. I try not to, but it's a struggle. Something in how we're taught, what's encouraged probably. My innate personality traits also likely play a role. So I know, even when conciously thinking about it, it is very very hard habit to break.

Perhaps it takes years of an example of a strong, self-assured woman in our lives. Or maybe it's a series of them. I've been lucky enough to have a few of these amazing women as family members, bosses, co-workers, teachers and friends. They were all different but have all impacted my life - some of you are even reading this blog I bet! Even ones that, as I've grown up, I realized were real people, not the idols I made them when I was younger, have been and remain powerful forces in my life.

I argue that women need to more actively and consciously realize the importance of the way we act and speak, especially to other women. There are so many books and articles about how women should behave at work. And they tend to explicitly or implicity assume that we are surrounded mostly by men. But that isn't true at all. For the last few years I've had more female than male coworkers.

Women can be incredibly mean to and distructive towards each other. And yet, women are also able to become amazing individuals that give and give to both those they love as well as total strangers. I think sometimes we aren't encouraged to mix this feminine compassion in the 'authoritarian' work world. There's this compartimentalization of acceptable behavior. But that just makes things worse. There's nothing wrong with being a 'feminine' woman or a 'masculine' woman or, as so many of us are, a combo of both. It's about being smart, talented and good at what you do.

So I think it's time to celebrate each other and 'feminine' traits like kindness, honesty and compassion. It's not just about being a high powered businesslady - but good on ya if that's what you're after! We don't have to fill 'men's spaces' in order to stop misogyny. We need to show that 'women's spaces' are not secondary. And we need to welcome men into them. This is the most important part.

Too often the men who are struggling to be 'men' yet respect and admire women and are forgotten. Or treated as this strange minority. But that isn't fair. I know many amazing men who seem women as fellow humans who make their own paths just like they have. I think these men need supporters who show that this doesn't lesson their manhood. There are a lot of messages in society that say just that. We need to help show the men who think violence is the way to 'regain manhood' that they are wrong.

Also, the author starts to tie the ready availability of guns into his argument, but I don't think he really justifies that connection. It's easy to blame the availability of guns when we just had a shooter target and kill women. But really, I think that starts to blur the argument. It makes you start to think that taking guns away will stop violence. I'd wager that the vast majority of violence against women occurs with no weapon. That's been the case in my own experience and with the people I know. Obviously a small and biased sample, but telling. If someone wants to hurt women, he (or she) will do it, with or without a gun. We can't think making it hard to get a weapon will make the impetus for needing it change.

You know where I was when I felt the most sexualized and disrespected? At an all-girls liberal arts school. And it was students there- straight women, lesbians and trans bois- doing the marginalizing. This whole blog post has assumed that the men and women discussed are straight. But, my experience has shown that the issue is the same and yet very different in the GLBT community. But that's another post.

Illegal Urban Bee Keepers

2009-08-12T11:25:00.000-05:00

This is quite the way to break the law.

Brooklyn's Urban Beekeepers: Breaking The Law For The Planet (Part I) from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

And if you are breaking the law, why would you make a video about it and put it on Vimeo?

Cool art

2009-08-11T16:22:00.004-05:00

Photograph from James Reynolds

I came across James Reynold's site today. He is a graphic artists from the UK whose work tends to take on slightly political overtones. He doesn't try to beat you over the head with a message. Instead, he finds graphical and artistic ways to illustrate a societal problem.

I think "Last Suppers" is the most powerful (image above is from this work). Don't want to ruin it for you by giving details. If you click on the link (SFW) it's worth taking a moment to be aware of the emotional path you go on from first seeing the thumbnail images, reading the description at the top to realize what they are, and then clicking through them. I went on quite the roller coaster.

"Far Foods" is poignant in its simplicity and potential impact if it ever actually happened.

And "Boarded Up" is just plain cool.

Links to some more of his work is on the left sidebar of his site.

Roasted Chicken, Potatoes and Pepper

2009-08-11T10:11:00.000-05:00

I'm moving soon. A whole two miles, woo.

But as such, I'm working on churning through the rest of the food in my apartment that would be hard to move... mainly the frozen stuff. The majority of what is in my freezer is boneless chicken breasts and pork chops.

I also have a lot of veggies in my apartment. I'm a sucker for a farmer's market.

So last night I made this:

It came out pretty good, if I do say so myself. So calling on the Pioneer Woman Blog as my muse, I will share how I did it below. As a caveat, I would put more spices on the chicken, it was a bit bleh. I also didn't take pictures of all the steps, but I'm hoping you can still follow along.

Step 1:
Defrost chicken

Step 2:
As your chicken is defrosting, chop up your potato(es) into larger chunks. Dice some onion (maybe a 1/4 of a cup depending on how much you like onion) and mince a clove of garlic.

Step 3:
Melt some butter in the microwave. I used the last bit of a bar. I'd say it was around 2 tablespoons, you probably could get away with 1 and be a bit healthier.

Step 4:
Mix together the potatoes, onion, garlic, butter and seasonings of your choice. I used salt, pepper and some fresh basil I picked up at the farmers market that day. You could use thyme and parsley and get an Italian flavor or make it spicy with chili pepper and cumin. I mixed them in a big tupperware. Just shook 'em right up.

Step 5:
Coat the chicken in vegetable oil. I didn't use olive oil because olive oil has a low smoking point and I was worried that roasting the chicken it in would cause my apartment to get smokey. But it would probably work.

Step 6:
Add your seasonings to the chicken. I just used salt and pepper. It wasn't really enough. It probably would have been tastier with a chicken piece with bone in it or if I have marinated it a bit.

Step 7:
Put the chicken in a roast pan or casserole dish and surround with the potatoes.

Step 8:
Cook it.
Ok, I'll be more specific. I roasted mine, covered for about 20 min and then uncovered for about 15 at 375 degrees. Not sure if that was the best plan. The potatoes were great but the chicken was a bit dry. So you might want to play with that.

Step 9:
While the chicken and potatoes are going, chop the peppers into slices. Obviously, if you don't like peppers, then make something else. I used a bunch of different colors cause I like the various flavors and I think they look pretty.

See! Aren't they pretty? Sorry, they are a bit blurry, I have a crappy camera.

Step 10:
Put some oil in a frying pan. Again, I didn't use olive oil, though you could. Worried about the smoke. I tend to have a problem with smoke in my kitchen.

Step 11:
When the oil has heated up, drop in the peppers.

Mmmmmm.

Step 12:
Cooke them. duh.

If it wasn't so blurry you would be able to see the way the sides are brown and bubbly. They will also be limp and easy to bite into. I usually throw some salt in with them once they are hot. Salt wont stick to them if you add it at the beginning. So wait until they are almost done and season to your heart's content.

Step 13: Chicken's done!

Potatoes have browned on the edges, the top of the chicken is bubbly and tanish. This is where a different cut of chicken would look even better. One with skin would have browned nicely. And that would have kept the meat more moist. Alas.

Step 15: Serve and enjoy!

No. Though Emma would look cute. But still. No.

2009-08-10T20:58:00.000-05:00

I don't know how they got that Dachschund to sit still. Mine would be growling at it, trying to rip it apart, get her head stuck inside it and then roll off the couch. All in about 3 minutes.

You know what? That might make it worth it. I'll record the video if I get one.

If you want one, check out the Chicago Tribune article.

Times when I am a child: Chocolate-chip pancakes

2009-08-10T15:10:00.000-05:00

So I made myself some chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast yesterday. Used good ole Bisquick from a box. Yum. But I have some weird habits when it comes to chocolate chip pancakes. Any other type of pancake I eat with a knife and fork. But not chocolate chip pancakes.

First, my first pancake never comes out right. Am I the only one this happens to? Or is this normal?

Attempt 1 (right) versus attempt 2 (left). Attempt one had to get thrown away, it was pretty much bathed in butter. Which, usually, I'm cool with. But it was too much.

But despite this early hurdle, I had a pretty little pile of pancakes in the end.

Mmmm.

Except for this one, I got a little spatula-happy and flipped it way too soon.

I ate it anyway. We all know looks don't matter. Wrinkles are a part of life.

So my pancakes aren't that amazing. I'd say they are pretty average in fact. But what makes them childish, and AWESOME is this:

Whipped cream. Well, and the glass of milk.

And, yes, I own Candyland and it sits under my coffee table. My roommate and I have even played it. And, yes, I eat breakfast at my coffee table. Whatever, don't judge.

Anyway, the whipped cream needs to go on like this:

Right down the middle. Trust me on this. And isn't that a perfect little line? Thanks, I try. And the picture isn't blurry. Did the whole arms-as-tripod method.

Anyway, it has to go on like that because now you pick it up, fold it like a taco aaaaaand

awesomeness ensues!

Your life is now better. You're welcome.

Cool idea: Oatmeal Brulee

2009-08-10T09:20:00.005-05:00

Saw this on Serious Eats today (an awesome, if slightly pretentious foodie blog):

Photo from chotda on flickr

Basically, instead of creme brulee, you make oatmeal, put brown sugar on top and go at it with a blow torch. Or you can broiler it if you don't have a blow torch. Either way, you want to heat the top until the sugar melts and starts to darken as it carmelizes. Be
careful with broiling though. It won't take long, so stay in the kitchen and watch for it to be don't want to burn it, or worse, start a fire.

Definitely easier than creme brulee, but equally impressive!

Movie Review: The Hurt Locker

2009-08-10T08:50:00.000-05:00

I went to see The Hurt Locker last weekend. It was intense and incredible and definitely worth your time.

It's about the men (and women, I suppose, but only men in the movie) in the armed forces who diffuse roadside bombs. It is set in Iraq an follows the end of a tour for 3 guys. It's amazingly well shot, acted and put together. It was also directed by a woman, which I think is cool, given it's very macho subject matter.

I was really impress by the way the story is told. There are climatic and anti-climatic moments, but they don't occur in your usual story arc. You spend most of the movie wishing you could look around corners for the guys. There's no real purpose to the movie other than showing you what these guys do. It's very, day 1-15 days left, day 2-14 days left, day 3-13 days left. Really, it's just these guys doing their job and trying to stay alive. And, rather than being dull, it adds to the movie's power. You start to feel, as a movie goer, the repetitive yet surprising nature of these guys' day-to-day. The movie seems repetitive, yet you have no idea what will happen. It's pretty powerful.

There was one funny moment for me though. I went into the movie not really sure if it was a movie or a documentary or a weird combo of both. About halfway through I realized the army would never have let them film like this if it were real soldiers. But, at the same time, it feels so real. You really start to think that this is a documentary or based on real people or with real footage interspersed. But then, with about 5 minutes left in the movie, who walks on screen? Freaking KATE! From LOST. Illusion shattered! Now, if you aren't a huge LOST fan like me, not an issue. But, with my hyperactive brain, I went 'WTF? What is Kate doing here?' (btw, not 'Oh, Evangaline Lilly is in the movie.') She's Kate. Even weirder was how much her scenes looked just like some shots from Lost. When she first shows up, she's in a grocery store. They've had like 5 Kate-as-cute-mom/wife-in-a-grocery-store scenes on Lost. It really messed with my head, that's all I have to say.

But despite the Kate-mind-bender, it's a great movie. When we left the theater my mom and I went home and looked up more about the movie: where it was shot, how it was made, the actors, etc. It makes you want to go learn more. We really haven't had any Iraq war movies, particularly ones that are about the story instead of a pro/anti-war message. This movie let's you make your own decision about the war and it does the incredibly important job of showing us the bravery of the men and women fighting.

Check out the movie's official site here: The Hurt Locker Movie. I'd say go check it out if it is still in your city. There's even been some talk of it being the first Academy Award nominee of the year.

County Fairs = cheap... and AWESOME

2009-08-09T14:55:00.001-05:00

So the USA Today says county fairs are doing well this year because the tickets are so cheap.

I say it's also cause they are awesome.

But they don't cover that in their article.

Matt Tabbi's article on Goldman Sachs and what it says about journalism

2009-08-09T14:07:00.004-05:00

Surprisingly enough, Rolling Stone reports over the last 10 years have examined and taken on some of the biggest companies in the world as well as touchy subjects that often don't get their due in mainstream reporting. They took on Smithfield Farms in 2006 with Pork's Dirty Secret, and abortion facility bombers in 2004 in One Man's Bomb Squad.

Last month Matt Tabbi wrote a scathing review of Goldman Sachs, accusing the company of a prominent role in the cause of basically every major financial bubble since, oh, The Great Depression. Tabbi's 10,000 word article (diatribe, muck-raking, brilliant journalism- depends on your POV I guess) is an amazing read.

Obviously, Goldman Sachs and the financial world did not respond positively to the reporting. Most, if not all, publications in the financial space have attack Tabbi, with responses ranging from a mere brush aside to scathing reviews of his journalistic integrity, intelligence and writing style. Albeit, Tabbi's article is an angry one. The oft-quoted line is his comparison of Goldman's to a "giant vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity". Ouch. But if you read his article and take everything he says at face value, you will probably agree.

Now, I should caveate that I personally believe that companies like Goldman are at least one of the villains in the financial meltdown. Not sure I'd call them "vampire squid" but I also don't have that kind of creativity in my insults. Note to self: work on this. But, to be honest, I base this opinion largely on my knowledge of the corporate culture of these institutions, not on any strong understanding of how things like derivatives, hedge-funds and credit default swaps work. But I also think that no one else gets them either. Either way, I'm glad someone is trying to figure out what the hell is going on on Wall Street.

The most interesting thing to me about Tabbi's article has been the response. The general media has largely ignored it. The Financial media outlets have tried to shoot it down. This article by the Columbia Journalism Review examines the response to Tabbi and what it means about journalism today, as a whole. Like Tabbi's article, it is long. And dense. But it's damn smart. It also fact-checks Tabbi's article, providing an intelligent counter-balance to the original piece. I think one of the most poignant bits of the entire 5 page article is on page 2, where they point out that:

[W]hile some in conventional business journalism may wish to dismiss Taibbi, it’s worth remembering that he is only filling a vacuum left by mainstream outlets themselves. One reason “Bubble” was so shocking, I believe, is that it looks with well-deserved skepticism (okay, red-faced, foaming outrage) on the core business practices of an individual financial institution, by name, and a powerful one at that. Conventional business-press investigations focus too often on marginal infractions, rulebreaking within the game, and too rarely on the game itself.

(Emphasis added by me.)

We hear accusations of what is effectively laziness and incomplete fack-checking leveraged across the board at journalism today. I know a number of good journalists, so I know it is not true of the entire field. But if you get the majority of your news at mainstream sources, it's hard not to see how the standard has decreased. I'd argue some 'new sources' don't even bother to fact-check at all or even, perhaps, blatantly make things up or ignore news that they don't like. It's a scary trend. We already live in a country where half the people don't know about Pangea. Removing any critical thinking from news just makes us dumber.

Anyway, the end of the article touches on the places where Tabbi went overboard. Some of it is semantics, bit semantics are important. But the rest is about places that the facts are off or his analysis could be misleading. If you decide to read Tabbi's article, I'd take the 15 minutes to read all of the CJR piece too. The critical eye it takes to Tabbi's piece is impressive and it helps meter the over-the-top tone it takes on in places. But the CRJ does note one thing about Tabbi's piece that, for me personally, made it such a powerful read:

The outrage that fuels the piece is not only welcome but strangely missing from the conventional business press, which, with few exceptions, has been numb to the moral dimension of the crisis.

Ask a spy

2009-08-09T10:29:00.004-05:00

I'm a big fan of the show Burn Notice on USA. Unfortunately, I don't have cable right now as I kill time before switching apartments. So I have been enjoying the wonderful thing that is Hulu. That is where I re-discovered these awesome short films. As a promo for the show, USA released a number of 'Ask a Spy' short clips where Michael, the main character, explains the spy's way of getting out of a tricky situation. Beyond the eye candy aspect of Michael, they are pretty amusing.

Having worked in media where people tend to get stupid drunk at rep events and with clients, I present this 'Ask a Spy' video as a public service. Plus it's funny.

Enjoy! Oh, and watch Burn Notice. I don't want it canceled.

Some Great Green Tips

2009-08-08T16:55:00.003-05:00

Foodie blog Serious Eats posted a list of 10 cheap and green kitchen tips last week. All of the tips wont work for all people, but they are pretty good. For the full article go here. My recaps are below:

1. Fill your oven
Don't wait for your oven to pre-heat, use that time to roast something else - sweet potatoes, peppers, wet shoes, etc. This one is going to take a little learning for me. I have no idea what else you can roast.

2. Get a small tub for your sink
Washing dishes by hand uses a lot of water. If you don't have a dishwasher (which uses less water) having a tub to soak and rinse in is a good way to save water.

3. Clean with white vinegar and baking soda
These are two amazing substances. I've used baking soda to make my stove and fridge shiny white again when I've moved the last few years. And who doesn't love the smell of white wine vinegar.

4. Eat less meat
The food for animals, the water required for the plants and animals, the antibiotics, all that poo- animals being raised for meat take a lot of inputs and are hard on the environment. But they are so tasty. But eating less will make a big difference. And veggies are pretty tasty too - try some fresh, farmers' market ones, you'll love em.

5. Keep your fridge full, clean and sealed tightly
Full, well sealed fridges use less energy. Crazy, I know. I think liquor in the freezer counts towards filling. I'm sticking to that one.

6. Get a power strip
Plug your kitchen stuff into a power strip and turn it off when you leave for work. Helps stop shadow energy loss (electronics use power even when they are off, fyi)

7. Ditch paper towels
This one is pretty obvious. Not sure I'll do too good with this one just yet, but, hey, I'll try. I have bugs in my apartment and I'm not killing them with dishtowels. But that's just me.

8. Bring a bag with you when you shop
Another obvious one. Plus you look sharp. Freal, those bags are pretty cute these days.

9. Embrace yard sales and thrift stores
Well, most of us probably do this already. But they are a great place for cute kitchen stuff. I know a girl buying 200 mismatched plates through yard sales for her wedding. You don't have to go that far, but if the stuffs good enough for a wedding reception...

10. Don't waste food
I wish I could compost in the city. Think I can find a hidden corner of the park near my apartment and make a compost pile? And not get arrested? I'll let you know.

I'm a bad mother... but it's not my fault.

2009-08-08T15:50:00.006-05:00

So, sometimes, I kick my dog. I know, I know!! It's never on purpose. I mean, sometimes I want to on purpose, but I don't. Sometimes I also accidentally drag her down the street when she's peeing. So, overall, not the best dog-parenting skills. But sometimes it's hard to not kick or drag her. No really!

Let me explain:

This is Emma. Emma is a two-year-old Miniature Dachshund. She is cute and she knows it.

Just look at that face:
She is also small. About 10 lbs small. So sometimes, frankly, I don't see her.

I don't think it's my fault. Look at her! She fits on a windowsill! But if that isn't enough, let's look at some more evidence.

This is Emma standing:
She's got about a 9" clearance.

This is Emma sitting:
Still about a 9" clearance.

This is Emma peeing:

Just kidding - I'm not putting a picture of my dog peeing in my first post.

Though, still about a 9" clearance. FYI.

Anyway, you see what I'm getting at here. If you aren't paying attention, it's kind of hard to see her. And she's fast. You should have seen how long it took to get her photo, that girl never stands still.

Yes, I am blaming the victim. But doesn't she look happy? I think she still loves me.

Greetings

2009-08-08T14:39:00.002-05:00

My name is Ellen. I'm 25. I work full-time in a snazzy ole high-rise in downtown Chicago. I can see the lake and Millennium Park, Trump Tower and the Wit, all from our office. I take the el into work everyday and live in a lil' apartment with my dog and cat. I even have a 401k. Technically, I am an adult.

But I'm so not.

I'm trying. Really! I swear.

But, damn, it's not as easy as I imagined it back in the days of those little paper fortune-tellers and MASH (the game, not the show). All these little things come up that I have no experience in - from the serious to the day-to-day hassles. I've realized recently that no one really trains us for adulthood anymore. Perhaps it was simpler back in the day when ladies only got married and had babies, though I'm not convinced.

Luckily I have friends and family to bombard with questions. But, you know what? My friends and I are hoping to lead very different lives. As friends, they overlap. But in the end, we all have our own directions and our own experiences. So sometimes we're great help and sometimes we just can't relate. That's where this blog comes in. The goal of this blog is tap into all those hopes and histories in order to help each other out. There will be a number of contributors to discuss topics ranging from trying to be green to staying in shape to cute hair.

We'll see how it goes....