Effin' Blogger and its Weird, Frustrating Settings

I think I fixed the commenting on this blog. Now we can have exciting discussions and get links to ED medicines for less and never pay full retail price for Gucci watches again!

Technology in classrooms: confusing for everyone, especially NY Times readers

In the past few days, the NY Times, bastion of everything educated and literate, has run a bunch of single articles (at least, I don't believe these are part of a series) about technology in the classroom. Spurring intelligent discussion or spreading confusion? You decide.

Screen Time Higher Than Ever for Children:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/us/screen-time-higher-than-ever-for-children-study-finds.html
(my summary: studies show increased tech use; term "app gap" used for the division of people who use apps and don't)

And
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/opinion/occupy-the-classroom.html?emc=eta1
(my summary: we need to change classroom tech inequalities instead of financial/job inequalities)

And
Out with Textbooks, in With Laptops for an Indiana School District:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/education/19textbooks.html?pagewanted=1
(my summary: this school uses only laptops and PDF textbooks; it's ka-ray-zay!)

Contrast this with:

A Silicon Valley School That Doesn't Compute:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?hpw
(my summary: these rich IT execs send their kids to a school with no computer use; the kids learn fractions from cutting fruit; it's ka-ray-zay!)

Beautiful network of utility: friends

Somebody told once that if I wanted to make lots of friends, I could just buy a truck. It might have been my brothers-in-law, because they all have friends and trucks, and also like to throw out little tidbits like that.

I was thinking about that the other day: the usefulness of friends. So, I made a list, which is of course a completely logical thing to do. At this point, I feel compelled to say two things:

1.    This blog is not small-children-with-big-eyes cutesy, so although I fully acknowledge that a friend “who knows where all the bodies are buried” and a friend “who loves you even at your worst” (yeah, I work in an office and have received that particular email a time or twelve) are both really nifty, I want to talk about utility, not about feelings of joy like a wriggling basket of puppies.

2.    And when I talk about utility, I don’t mean it in a cut-throat way. I’m not going to drop or make friends just because they have certain things. But you can’t possibly know, have, or learn everything, so it’s nice to have friends who do.

All right, caveats aside, here is my list of The Friends Everyone Needs

-A friend with a truck.

-A friend with power tools.

-A friend who can fix your computer or tell you when it can’t be fixed.

-A friend who can help you shop for a car.

-A friend who makes really excellent desserts.

-A friend—who may or may not be a medical professional—who knows if something looks infected, if those sound like symptoms or just a result of eating pizza four days straight, and who doesn’t mind helping you with lancing, bandaging, icing, or driving to the hospital.

-A friend who can find you on the freeway with a spare and a jug (that’s the wrong word: bottle? Tank? Nozzly thing?) of gas. In the night in the rain.

-A friend who knows about cars.

-A friend who will cook for you when you are sick or hungover.

-A friend who still has whatever bad habit(s) you quit and will indulge you with it/them when you hang out.

-A friend who will float you a twenty when you forgot to go to the ATM… and never bug you to pay him back.

-A friend with an AAA membership.

-A friend who brings good booze to the bbq or dinner party.

-A friend who can offer free legal advice.

-A friend who can explain technical things.

-A friend who will help you look for a job.

-A friend who has a house with a pool or lives by the beach.

-A friend who enjoys planning parties.

-A friend who’s handy.

-A friend who will make phone calls for you.

-A friend who likes gardening.

-A friend with actual grown up, nice possessions who acts like a mature adult.

-A friend who has good taste in books and music.

-A friend who can grill and has a nice bbq.

-A friend who will forward really great YouTube clips and silly websites.

-A friend who loves to babysit.

-A friend with all the latest tech toys.

-A friend who is DIY crafty. Not shifty crafty.

-A friend who knows all the slang and pop culture references.

-A friend who gives a good massage.

-A friend who knows what’s going on Friday night and will make an effort to get your ass out of the house.

-A friend who will research something for you, or proofread something for you.

Got any you want to add?

No dairy=Happy

So, I’ve been trying to cut out dairy from the family’s diet, for a variety of reasons that I’ll mention briefly here and perhaps expand upon in a later rant. Some of these reasons are pseudo-science based, and pseudo-economics based, which I fully acknowledge before you question my conspiracy-theorist-sounding use of the nefarious “they.” Dairy is bad because:

-Hormones. They (see? “They”!) pump the cows full of hormones so that they will lactate  and the hormones go into our milk. I didn’t think about it much until I was a nursing mother, and saw firsthand how what I ate affected the milk I produced.

-The cattle/dairy industry is not humane. Read “Skinny Bitch” (or a host of other books) if you want to give yourself a complex.

-It causes inflammation. Here’s the pseudo-science part, not because it doesn’t make sense but because I am not good at articulating these kinds of things. Inflammation—where a localized part of your body swells, usually in response to injury or sickness—is bad when it’s chronic. So, if you eat dairy all the time, then you are always inflamed, and that is bad. For little kids it’s especially bad because their parts are small. When they stopped having dairy all the time, my kids stopped having ear and sinus infections (caused by sinus inflammation and trapped liquids in their inner ear tubes, etc.).

-Milk allergies. I saw an article (that of course I can’t find now) that milk allergy is the most common and most undiagnosed allergy for toddlers in the U.S. Milk allergy is different than lactose intolerance, which is also unpleasant.

-It makes me mucus-y. Maybe that’s part of the inflammation point above.

-Cheese poops. Powerful and wretched.

So, absolutely no milk, not even Lactaid (which tastes like milk blended with Tums). Sometimes yogurt, which I like to make myself from the organic milk from Costco. We also like to get froyo. But my biggest weakness is cheese. One of my college roommates ate a lot of good cheese and passed on the addiction to me—but nowadays, we get a block of Tillamook Medium Sharp Cheddar once a quarter or so. I also adore brie and gouda, and that goat cheese where they soak the rind in wine. I made myself drool on the keyboard. Damnit.

All of the above has been a longwinded introduction to what I really wanted to talk about: The Uncheese Cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak, and the only recipe from that book that I like, Parmezana Sprinkles (Note the “z.” It’s that kind of book. I was surprised that it wasn’t “Sprinklez.”).

This book seeks to create a non-dairy equivalent to any occasion you should have to need cheese, usually using some combination of beans, nutritional yeast, tofu, lemon juice, pimiento, nuts, oats, and salt. You also need a blender and a transcendent act of imagination. It is my opinion that anyone who thinks these recipes taste anything like cheese (I tried five recipes in this book, but have blocked out most of them) either is quite imaginative/delusional, or hasn’t had actual cheese in so long that they can’t accurately remember the taste.

Here I will note that negative reviews of this book on Amazon.com have received aggressive responses from Ms. Stepaniak. I appreciate how she is protective of her work, but “You’re a fat pig who’s going to die from a heart attack” (not a real quote, but approximate) is not an appropriate response to “I don’t like your book.” Just sayin’.

But this book led me to nutritional yeast. Yes, it’s a fungus. A dry, mustard-yellow powder (or flakes) that smell cheesy/nutty/yeasty. It’s supposed to be super nutritious, and is not to be confused with brewer’s yeast, or any of the other yeasts you may already know. In NZ, it’s called “savory yeast” or “savory yeast flakes” (for Claire, who may or may not read this blog but who definitely lives in NZ).

Here’s my version of the Parmezano Sprinklez (couldn’t resist). I put it on popcorn and spaghetti. What’s really awesome is that I find I like it better than cheese. How often does that happen?

Sprinklez

-Handful of blanched almonds, dry, skin taken off

-1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast (you can add more later, but start with less)

-Pinch of Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning or chili pepper flakes

-Pinch of salt

-Pinch of brown sugar (not mandatory)

Blend. Sprinkle on stuff. Eat. That’s it.

References:

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/symptoms/inflammation/hic_inflammation_what_you_need_to_know.aspx

www.skinnybitch.net

http://www.webmd.com/allergies/guide/milk-allergy

http://www.amazon.com/Uncheese-Cookbook-Creating-Dairy-Free-Substitutes/dp/0913990426

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/glossary/g/nutyeast.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutritional_yeast

Solar Aquaponic Update 1: Gettin' the sh!t together

I know I just posted a whole review, but I'm super stoked: Tyler just dropped off the solar water pump he had torqued up for me!

Diving in: review: Lush solid shampoo and conditioner

So, let's just get into it, shall we?

I decided to start by reviewing Lush Cosmetics' Trichomania Solid Shampoo and Jungle Solid Conditioner. I bought 'em myself, promise ahmiss. This is not a Lush commercial, though they can feel free to send me tons of free stuff because in general I love their products.

If you've never gone into a Lush store, it can be confusing and disappointing, because is set up like the produce section of Whole Foods (warm lighting, faux hand painted price signs, and a general air of "Everything's so fresh and natural!"), and it is full of bath bombs and soaps that look like confections straight out of the original "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" or "Babes in Toyland"--I was going to write "look and smell" but I have idea what the confections in those movies smell like because my tv's smell-o-vision has been broken for years (the weather guy can't possibly smell like weed every day). But if you bit into a bath bomb you'd be sad for two reasons: 1, it's soap and so tastes and foams appropriately; and 2, you'd have just wasted a $7 one-time use product. Yes, one bomb=$4.50-$8. Anyway, this is not a complaint, just a description.

So, the reasons I wanted to get a solid shampoo and conditioner are because I usually use Dr. Bronners and it was making my hair dry and crunchy (even someone whose blog is called "Slightly Crunchy" has her limits and crunchy hair is one of them), and I wanted something with little to no packaging and ingredients I mostly recognized. Solid hair products were mysterious and intriguing. And I hate hassles with the TSA agents.

I've been using these products for over a week. Here're my thoughts:

Trichomania Solid Shampoo: Features creamed coconut and vetivert oil. It's supposed to be a good moisturizing shampoo, especially for people with really dry hair or afros. I have neither, but I wanted more moisture in my hair, so I had them carve a little piece for me off the huge shampoo block, about the size of a golf ball. To use, you can either soap it up in your hands like a bar of soap, or wet your hair and run it down your head like a big eraser. Then, you work up a lather in the usual way, and rinse. It smells lightly coconutty, pleasantly so, and your hair comes out clean and smooth. It's a nice, mild shampoo. People on the Lush site rave about it, so I was expecting suddenly glamourous hair, but nope, it's just a nice shampoo. Which goes to show: never confuse a product with a miracle. It's $9.95 for a 3.5 oz. chunk, so I guess I'll append this when my one ounce chunk is all used up, to see if it's cost effective or just twee. Initial rating: 3.5/5.

Jungle Solid Conditioner: it's supposed to be made with five fruits, but it smells like the potpourri my Grandma had in her bathroom in the early '80s. Old lady + early '80s= slightly nauseating. My hair is almost shoulder length, and all day I'm like, "What is that smell? Oh, it's me." sigh. To again cite the reviewers on the Lush site, there are people who loooove the smell, but I think they are either fake reviewers or old ladies full of '80s bathroom nostalgia. Then again, Lush is an English company, and them Europeans like that sort of bouquet. As for the product itself, you break off a piece (it has the waxy consistency of cool butter), work it into a paste in your palm, then run your hands through your hair and rinse. Functionally, it works pretty well. Too bad this is the only solid conditioner Lush makes. It is $7.95 for a 2 oz. puck, and the block itself lasts a month or so--or much, much longer if you can't stand the scent and so hide it from yourself in the back of your supply closet. Final rating (including points off for the smell): 2.25/5.