How the 'Manosphere' is a problem.

Perhaps you have heard of the Manosphere? It was started via the Return of Kings site and has grown to include over 20 listed pages on the Best of the Manosphere. There are countless other less advertised sites espousing similar sentiments. A quick review of Return of Kings' beliefs statement, it is immediately apparent that misogyny runs rampant through the group. A terribly heavy emphasis is placed upon the value of women on the basis of their sexual performance and Return of Kings even states directly "A woman’s value is mainly determined by her fertility and beauty. A man’s value is mainly determined by his resources, intellect, and character."

Such a front-loaded position makes clear that women are not viewed as equals. Reviewing the material on Return of Kings and other Manosphere blogs, this repetitive dismissal of women as little more then sex objects is blatant and receives no greater consideration then the function of gravity. The target audience of the Return of Kings and its brother blogs is not the enlightened men of the 21st century. No, the target audience of these sites are men who yearn for an imagined past where rigid sexual roles defined how men and women interacted.

It is easy to find articles upon these sites that describe women who do not fit their ideal as damaged goods. More disturbing is that these are not just circulating within some dark corner of the internet. No, they have been found on outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and other major social networking media. Part of the rising popularity of these sites are from the people who share the outrage that they feel and include a link back to them. Another part of the appeal of these sites is that there is a significant population of men who feel intensely threatened by the cultural shifts that are taking place.
 
As such, these men react by lashing out with their words to belittle and denigrate those who do not fit what they believe are the correct mold of behavior. Derogatory comments as to the quality of a person with respect to their gender have reached near epidemic levels on the internet. Sites that make up the Manosphere serves to perpetuate this behavior when we should be decrying it. When women are declared to be flawed on the basis of the length of their hair, it is apparent that they are not being considered upon the merits of their intellect, efforts, or other personal qualities that are being applied to men.

Actions such as this deny women their humanity. Indeed, Return of Kings even has an article talking about how women 'train' men to rape. This type of mentality is dangerous for society at large. It dis-empowers women just as racism dis-empowers people of color. Repetitively teaching one group that the other is valueless or inferior to them, the message spreads to the other group by way of inference and context cues. These are the unspoken elements of language that can be found in both written and verbal communication.

Communicating the inferior status of another group escalates the potential for violence against that group. It encourages a negative position with respect to someone from the scorned group at the outset of any exchanges, irregardless of the actions taken by that person. The Manosphere may claim they do not condone violence against women but the attitudes that they espouse and express are frequently used to justify abusive behavior, sexual assault, and subtle second class person status behaviors, like the refusal to pay equal compensation for equal work.

The solution to the problem presented by the Manosphere is not simple. While one could theoretically create a demand for these sites to be taken down, these sites would simply come back. People who ascribe to this misogynistic approach and are especially vocal in their efforts could be simply ignored. This works on a small scale but once one moves out of the scale of individual interactions, it becomes far more difficult to remove their audience. It is more effective to create an alternate message and disseminate it with intensity and vigor.

A combination of spreading an alternate, more balanced perspective and shunning of those who are particularly virulent has a significant chance of success. A counter message that informs and educates women and others marginalized by the Manosphere how to respond to the scorn heaped upon them is vital. Encouraging the people in charge of forums such as Facebook or Twitter to apply their decency standards equally and to discourage hate mongering is also an effective tool.

If the community of the internet comes together and publicly denounces the sexism and related precepts espoused by the Manosphere, it would be a major step forward towards a public forum where people are not verbally assaulted for their differences.

January Beer Tasting: Edmund Fitzgerald

I had been curious about this particular beer for a while. Namely because anything named after a tragedy makes me go 'wait, what?' I realize that was part of the marketing ploy and I tip my hat to Great Lakes Brewing Co. on their cleverness.

On the bottle, it is labeled as a porter. I honestly don't know what that means. According to BeerAvocate, a porter is a blend of three different types of ale (old, new, and weak). The label describes this as a complex flavor with a bittersweet 'chocolate-coffee' taste.

The hops are present in this beer. It isn't as overpowering as it was in the IPA that I tried earlier in the month. After the strong influence of the hops, there is a subtle smokey quality. There is some after notes that could be described as bitter chocolate/coffee. It was a surprise, because I totally didn't expect that. I

I tried my first sip at room temperature. It wasn't terribly exciting and the hops were much more potent. After I chilled it down, the more subtle tastes of the beer came out. It went fairly well with the beef stew that I had for dinner last night. That little bit left in the glass was left as an experiment. After being allowed to sit in the fridge until about dinner time today, I can honestly say that the coffee flavors are much stronger.

The subtle chocolate qualities in this were enough that I came away from drinking half the bottle wanting to have some chocolate ice cream. Strangely enough, this beer paired surprisingly well with Chocolate Therapy ice cream. It was honestly the last thing I expected. While this isn't entirely my style, it was still a relatively pleasant beverage.

On Tofurky and other things.

From Here

Day one of intentionally eating vegetarian for breakfast and lunch was a bit of a challenge. I spent most of yesterday on the run. I was tempted when I was at Wegmans getting groceries to pick up some of the meat sushi but I got the vegetable instead. It was quite tasty, though the seaweed salad was not to my liking. When I got home with my groceries, I found that I was hungry again. So I busted out my noodle salad left overs from Thursday and ate that up.

A few hours later, I was ravenously hungry again. I was bad and I bought a jumbo sized rice krispy treat. I ate the whole thing in the time it took for me to drive from Geneseo to Lakeville. I am not proud of this. I considered my lesson learned and have had more protein today.

Today's breakfast was boxed cereal. I'd feel a bit guilty about this except for the fact that it was literally the easiest thing I could manage with the kids bouncing around like crazy this morning. Lunch was a tofurky sandwich and a bowl of curried lentil soup. I didn't expect it, but the tofurky sandwich filled me up enough that I managed a few spoonfuls of the soup. I have put it into the fridge to either have tomorrow for lunch of dinner tonight.

From Here

It smelled really, really good. The taste wasn't quite up to what the scent advertized but it was good. I'm thinking that next week, I'm going to make a big batch of chickpea chili. I forgot to get ground beef but I can chop up some of that stew beef that I purchased in my little food processor. I picked up a bunch of veggies for me to use in my lunches this week. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that I had most of what I needed for dinners in my pantry already.

I walked out of Wegmans with the smallest weekly shopping bill that I have ever had shopping somewhere other then Aldi's or Save-A-Lot. It was $110. My menu plan for this week is pretty much the same as what it was last week. (Look below the jump for my menu. Breakfast and lunch are planned for myself. Dinner for everybody.)

Vegetarian?

It struck me today that a possible route for me to go in my efforts to lose the 15 or so pounds that I want to is by changing my diet. Most days, I am on my own for breakfast and lunch. As such, I could eat what ever I want. I feel a bit silly realizing this so late, but it was a delightful thing to realize.

As such, I could start eating a more vegetarian diet. I think this would have a lot of healthy effects. I am more then a little bit sure that it would lower my cholesterol. Getting more fiber would be good for my digestive tract. If I do it right, I could possibly even manage to work myself to eating the correct amount of calories to be at my ideal weight (150 lbs) for the lifestyle that I have right now.

Today, quite by accident, I did just that. I had my usual morning breakfast of oatmeal with fruit and a bit of maple syrup. I blame McDonald's for getting me hooked on that combination. I'm not using instant oatmeal or artificial maple syrup for this. I do the refrigerator trick with quick cooking oats (I tried using steel cut and it just didn't work). To cut down on fat, I have been using just plain water for it. I must say, I prefer it this way. It could be because I'm a closet oatmeal purist but I doubt that. When I remember, I chop up half an apple and throw in one of those mini-boxes of raisins and a mini-box of dried cranberries.

This afternoon, I was feeling hungry but I didn't want to do much cooking. Then I remembered that I had ramen. Ramen cooks up fast and I will confess, I enjoy it far more then I rightly should. As I was boiling the water for the noodles, I realized that I had some veggies that I was going to cut up for a cold noodle salad last week. The clover sprouts that I was going to try turned questionable. So I tossed those, but I chopped up some celery, a tiny cucumber, and half of a small zucchini. Once the noodles were cooked, I drained them and rinsed them with cool water. Then I tossed everything in a medium sized bowl with a few tablespoons of balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

I ate about half of this. It probably was more then I really should have but it tasted SO good I couldn't help myself. I put the rest into a container and stashed it in the fridge. Because it is something vegetarian, I know that Beloved won't be terribly interested in it. As for the boys, the container is not see through, so I won't have little food bandits pilfering my noodle salad. Huzza for that, am I right?

Upon some consideration, I like the idea of eating a diet that is more vegetarian then not. One reason why is because I think it may help me control my PCOS related blood sugar issues. When I was pregnant with the boys, I was eating a diet that was low in processed foods, high in vegetables, and meat only when I craved it. I think I must have kept the grape producers hopping with how much I scarfed down. I found that when I had cravings, it wasn't for stuff like junk food. (No pickles and ice cream for this momma!)

I think the closest I came to craving junk food was when I wanted popcorn. (That's a whole story by itself. I'll tell it later!) I suspect that if I go with that kind of diet that I accidentally did while I was pregnant, I'll lose a few pounds all by itself. Throw in some increased exercise (I've been bad about that one) and I may see even more improvement. But, that's what's on my mind right now. I thought I'd share. :)

First of the Yule projects.

This is the beginnings of Moo's yule gift. It is 300 stitches long. The edge is worked in double crochet. I then worked 9 rows of wattle stitch. I'm now doing 9 rows of granny rows. I'm debating if I should then do a row of double crochet followed by 9 rows of inverted shells or if I should then do 9 rows of wattle stitch.

I'm going to be alternating colors. I have this petal pink that I'm doing right now. After I get 18 rows done, I'm going to switch to the pink camo. Then I'll do 18 rows of that and switch back.

Flammable objects, Mjollnir, and a bit of insanity.

This week has been challenging. My psychiatric health issues have been making it difficult to get much done. Feeling exhausted all the time didn't help very much either.

I picked up the crochet hook and started working on a simple project to help me keep my wits together. It sort of worked. I think as I continue forward and deliberately put time aside for this kind of thing, I will get more benefits out of it. I am pleased with my first 'sanity' project of the year. I call it the Buzzy Bee Bag.

Beloved and the bag

I wrote up the pattern and posted it up on Triond.
We'll see if it gets a bunch of views or not. Right now, I am just pleased that I finished this project with out running out of yarn. I was a little bit worried that I was going to run out of the black before I got near to where I wanted the top of the bag was supposed to be.

I had planned initially to have two stripes of black on the yellow flap but I didn't have enough for that. I'm not going to be grumpy and upset, however, because the bag looks good either way.



I mentioned flammable objects. One object was intended to be flammable. I took up the wax that I had sitting around from old candles. I melted it into a glass container with a pre-made wick. Thus, I created for myself a candle out of 90% recycled materials. I dedicated it to Dea and burned it for my little Full Moon observance. My plan is when I meditate, pray, or otherwise focus on Dea, I will burn this candle for her.

My habit of burning jarred candles has me acquiring a good number of jars. Because I don't trust them to be food safe, I have been working on coming up with alternate uses for them. I picked up a package of chalkboard labels that I slapped onto half a dozen jars. I think I am going to sell the clear ones on Etsy. The ones that are made out of pottery, I am going to keep. I have a plan to use one for buttons. I haven't decided what I will be doing with the other. I will figure something out, don't you worry!

I have been looking for a little over a month now and having no success for a crochet flat Mjollnir. I have been attempting to make one but I am not pleased with the results thus far. The first attempt here was based off of altering a cross pattern. Beloved and I have made several cracks about how it looks like a mutated form of Yoda from Star Wars.

My most recent attempt is on the bottom and it looks vaguely closer to
what I have been seeing people craft out of wood. I'm starting to think that this is going to be more challenging then I had initially thought. You'd figure from looking at the image that is popularly used for pendants that it would be fairly simple to create a flat shape like that in yarn. This is what I get for thinking it would be simple.



Now to return briefly back to the matter of flammable objects. My stove caught fire again. It happened as I was attempting to boil water. (This seems to be a theme. I attempt to boil water and something catches on fire. It's almost funny, if it weren't so damn annoying.) Now, the last time this happened, the drip pans (which I had thought were matte black finish) were so caked with grime and debris that they were a fire hazard waiting to happen. Seriously, the things were actually supposed to be shiny aluminum.

Apparently, they had NEVER been cleaned. I first attempted to clean them. When this ended poorly, I broke down and bought new drip pans. We didn't have any problems until last night. Now, let me first preface this with I regularly clean my drip pans (every month, and after I cook something greasy). When I was baking earlier in the week, I smelled something a bit burned. I thought it was the scones. When I took them out of the oven they looked ok, so I figured that it had to be that some batter had dripped down into the bottom of the oven and I paid it no more mind.

How does the baking relate to the attempt to boil water, I hear you asking. Well, it is very simple. Let me present you with exhibits A and B.

To the left, we have exhibit A. There's a little bit of mess from a few things splattering. All of which is easily wiped up with a warm, damp, soapy cloth. This does not look like it would be a fire hazard.

A touch messy, but not terribly dangerous (unless you're compulsive about cleaning.)

The drip pans are clean. There is no debris near the burners.

To the right, we have exhibit B. This is the space under the range top and over the oven proper. This is what caught fire last night. This is what it looks like after a good scrubbing by yours truly. It looked worse.

The truly disturbing bit about this is not the mere fact that it is utterly filthy under here. It was the fact that it was bolted down to the rest of the oven. Not only that it was bolted down, but the fact that ALL of the areas under the burners look this bad, if not worse.


The gods were watching over us last night. It is the only reason why I can think of that the whole bloody thing didn't catch fire. It is making me seriously think that I should move my bakers rack with books and such on it. I was too stunned to laugh in the property manager's face when he brought me a fire extinguisher. His solution to this mess: give it all a good scrub down.

Let's forget the fact that this area has at least one hole in it (note that gap in the center of the circle area with the scorch marks around it, that's what was burning last night). Let's forget the fact that this is not the first time I've had this problem with this stove. He brought me a fire extinguisher and basically stood there, pointed at it and said 'well, THERE'S your problem.'

My friend Lily is strongly encouraging us to take the cost of the cleaning supplies off of our rent check. I've already decided that if I can't get this bad boy clean, I'm going to demand a new stove. It has been almost a year now that I have been dealing with this nonsense. I am at a point where I am honestly questioning the safety of my stove. What other problems are lurking with this damned thing that aren't going to show up until I'm attempting to cook dinner?

Do I need to be worried about my home burning down just because I'm trying to make something to eat?

Crochet stuff.

Crochet for sanity's sake is underway! To the right is the messenger bag that I am making. It is just freehanded, no patterns involved at all. I'm using up some yarn that I had sitting in the project room. I am more then a little bit certain that there is not enough black yarn to make the rest of the bag black, but that's ok. I figure I'll do a few more rounds with the black and then switch to the gold. When I get near the top, I'll alternate between the gold and the black a bit.

To the left is the sock I am making with the Adironack sock pattern from Interweave. I am using Lion Brand's Sock-Ease yarn in their Toffey colorway. I'm not completely thrilled with the yarn but I like how the pattern is working up. I think if I'm going to do this again, I will be making it up with the Cotton Candy colorway. The dark blue and the occasional sections of slate colored yarn makes it hard to see the stitch definition under normal indoor lighting.

I have started the process of acquiring the yarn I need to make blankets for the Danger Duo. I have also begun looking over patterns. I am drawn to the Moorish Mosaic afghan pattern. I really like the way it comes together. I have also been considering taking the quilt pattern Grandmother's Flower Garden and adapting it for a crochet blanket. Along the lines of adapting a quilt pattern for use, I have been considering using the Log Cabin block too.

One blanket is going to be heavy on the shades of pink. The other is going to have more purples in it. I just can't decide what I'm going to do for these. Either way, the blankets are going to be modular so that I can carry sections with me to work on them. I don't want to be lugging around a huge blanket when the weather gets hot.

Oh, speaking of quilt patterns, I have decided that I am going to make another needlepoint sampler. This one is going to be like the one that I made years ago and had gotten stolen. I will be drawing on the canvas several traditional quilt blocks and then stitching them in. I'll be posting up pictures of these projects as I work on them. Right now, I am still in the planning stages. I figure in about a week or two, I should have these planned out and be ready to start working on them.

I have no idea what I'll be doing for the other girls. I'm sure I will figure something out. I'm crafty like that. And I have the whole year to think of something.

January Beer Tasting: Pine in the Neck

So, as I said at one point last year, I am going to start doing entries on beers that I have in my exploration of this range of alcohol. Right now, I have a chilled glass of Blue Moon's Pine in the Neck. It is a double crafted India Pale Ale with juniper berries. I'm not very familiar with IPA, so please bear with me.

This stuff has a palate clearing sharpness that kinda hits you square in the face. It's not entirely unpleasant but I don't think I'll be getting another bottle. The juniper is very present. I find that this stuff has a strong flavor of hops (which I think is typical of IPA, but I'm not entirely sure). It does linger on the palate a bit but not excessively so.

It did NOT go well with the tacos I made for dinner tonight. If I were to pair this with something, I would go with a nice sirloin stake and mashed potatoes. I have been reading some about IPA and this seems to be a fairly standard run of the mill IPA.

Score: 5/10

Feeding the sweet tooth!

The scones earlier today turned into muffins because I accidentally measured something wrong and doubled the batch. Now I am sitting here enjoying some chocolate as I review my notes in preparation of writing up an entry in Veiled Witch. I managed to connive the kids into picking up some of the toys they had scattered through out the apartment today. It looks like tomorrow will be a school day, provided the weather is decent. I am profoundly thankful for this.

From Here

I need a little time for me. I have some writing stuff I want to get done tomorrow. I also have a huge pile of laundry that desperately needs put away, a fish bowl to clean, and the checkbook to balance. I feel a little odd confessing this, but I am actually looking forward to working on these things tomorrow. I have been feeling like running around after the kids has kept me from taking care of other things that need done. It will be, dare I say it, satisfying to get caught up on that stuff.

Snow day and Momma's stir crazy

I am feeling restless. This is an amusing bit of irony, to be honest. We have a snow day today and the kids have been hopping around like mad little rabbits. I suppose it's the restless energy of the wind getting to me. Or perhaps the kids' restlessness is infectious, I'm not sure.

In an effort to use up some of the biscuit mix I have sitting on the counter and make something to satisfy my sweet tooth, I think I am going to whip off a batch of cranberry-walnut scones. It may not be brand name biscuit mix in my pantry, but I don't think that will change how these come out. I may even have something of a brain storm and come up with something good to write for Helium. I have two articles due in two days. They're both fiction, which should be relatively easy to work on.

One is on the topic of 'the spoiled child' and the other is 'a moment of madness'. My word limit is between 200 and 400 words. I am just at something of a loss for what to whip off for these right now. The kids have been distracting me. It made writing the 8 line poem that I had due today a touch difficult. I won't be surprised if that doesn't make the cut. I really feel it wasn't my best work.

Aftermath of Ion storm

Schools are closed in my area. Governor Cuomo has declared most of this area of the state to be in a state of emergency. The wind is just screaming around the corner of the house. We were outside a few minutes ago and the last view I had on the car's thermometer it was a bare 9 degrees above zero (in Fahrenheit or -12 Celsius). The cold is bitter enough that just the few moments that I was in it walking from the car to the building, my hands got painfully cold.

In all honesty, I am not going to worry about this. This weather system is not going to determine how stressed out I am going to get. Nonsense on the internet, however, may make me twitch a bit. I do my best to keep the first rule of the internet in mind at all times in all of my actions regarding this glorious interface of technology and such. I truly do. And I work very hard not to take it personally.

As someone I know once said, they just can't help being so painfully stupid.

When I have people yammering about how energy spirals differently through a crystal depending on how it is cut, I twitch. When I encounter this yahoo insisting that intercourse (of the penis in vagina variety) is rape, irregardless of context, I twitch a bit more. The former makes the scientist in me want to commit random acts of homicide via textbooks and pointy rocks upon the people who perpetuate this silliness. The latter drips with such privileged filthy entitlist attitude that I want to do horrible things to teach them what it means to actually suffer, because clearly they have never experienced it in their life to so blithely insist that insanity is true.

Rather then going head-explody over all this, here is some pretty music. This should do a reasonably good job of covering the weather situation.

Blog, blog, bloggity, blog.

I've been making a mass of snowflakes of late. To the right, you see my latest creation. It covers approximately half of the kitchen table. I made it from some boucle yarn that I loathed. It proved a surprisingly effective method of using up that damned yarn.

I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with this thing now. I am tempted to take some of my other yarn (like perhaps the variegated purple that I have in the other room) and do a few more rounds on it. On the whole, as much as I hated the yarn, I am fairly pleased with how this thing came out.

I have decided that I am going to do a blog entry every day from now to the end of the month. I am going to attempt to put together posts that are a bit better then what I did most recently. I will also be posting up some links soon to the things that I have been writing else where.

Scrumbling along.

From Here

I've decided that I really need to use up this baby blue boucle yarn. While the option of yarnbombing something, like the tree in the front yard, sounds like fun, I recognize that it would do absolutely zero good. I'm pretty sure that displays like the one to the right are frowned upon by the local ordinances and would land me into a bit of hot water. Never mind the fact that it is terribly cold out there and not ideal weather to be making a tree cozy in.

A bunch of other crafty people in the world have been making these things called scrumbles. I have decided to expand on the experiments I have been doing with crochet snowflakes. Thus, I have started work on a gigantic scrumble. I may sew the little scrumbles I will be making and the snowflakes I have made to this thing. I am not decided yet.

Currently, I am working the boucle yarn with a size q hook. The yarn is still fighting me mightily and I am rather annoyed with it all. The sooner I have this thing finished, the better, in my opinion. Not because I feel a great rush to finish this thing but because that means the faster I can stop doing anything with this silly yarn and get to working with stuff that behaves better.

Damn this weather.

From Here

Currently, it is terribly, terribly cold outside. I am sitting here at the computer wrapped up in a fleece shawl and sipping hot tea whilst thinking warm thoughts. It is doing precious little to warm me up right now. Winter storm Hercules has blown through and left a significant amount of snow out there.

The boys were excited when the property manager showed up to run his snow plow through the driveway. They were also squealing with glee when one of the neighbors fired up the old snow blower and took a whack at getting the white stuff off the sidewalk.

For my part, I just want it to warm up to freezing. The day has been cold enough that the apartment has not gotten out of the mid sixties in temperature. This has had the effect of the boys actually keeping their shirts on today. I suppose that is one good thing I can point to out of this whole mess. Snuggle Bug even kept his new sweater on today.

I have been busily at work drafting articles up for my Veiled Witch blog. I am optimistic that my work on that blog will prove helpful to somebody out there. I really want to try to get this whole working professionally as an author going into high gear. At the same time, I have been really struggling with this fear that I'm not good enough.

From Here

I am doing my best not to pay those thoughts any mind. I tell myself that they're the mental equivalent of my muscles complaining when I am exercise. I'm doing my best to soldier onward with the 'no pain, no gain' approach. I would be lying if I said that it was easy.

It is crap yourself terrifying, to be perfectly honest.

Still, I am going to do it because it needs done.
Shield up and push forward.

Fiction: The smallest elf.

She hated them and their oh, so kind gestures that hid their scorn like snow over ice. Yes, Hilda hated her companions so intensely that she could vomit. They made her dress in the nonsensical garb of modern images of the alfar. Twirly toed shoes, gaudy colors, and enough bells to choke a horse were the least of Hilda's problems.

The old contract with Odhinn still demanded they work to help him meet his new obligations. Old One-Eye cleaned up reasonably well and the glass eye did a passable job of making his missing eye less obvious. As the shortest of her people and the one that fit the stereotype of 'elves', Hilda had the misfortune of having to accompany the grim gallows god on his journey through Midgard. On one hand, Odhinn didn't drop scathing and patently vicious remarks about her parentage. At the same time, he was so solemn and silent on this night that Hilda got uneasy being around him.

The sleigh was loaded with gear. Odhinn was dressed in the same stereotypical garb as his unwilling assistant. Whereas Hilda looked to be the picture of an 'elf', complete with cheeks painfully pinched for a rosy blush, Odhinn looked nothing like the war deity he was. He looked almost kindly. There was something dangerous in that kindness that set Hilda's teeth on edge.

It was, she realized, time. As she struggled to climb into the sleigh an enormous hand gripped her wrist and pulled her up. Hilda gave an alarmed cry as Odhinn, great grandson of the first frost giant, did something unexpected. He laughed. Her fellow alfar laughed along with him and Hilda's cheeks burned with shame. He leaned down and murmured something quietly in her ear.

Suddenly, the mockery of her peers didn't matter. Her bastard lineage didn't matter anymore. Only his words burned through her mind. They don't know your strength like I do.

My brain feels like jello.

What ever this bug that the kids have is, it is not making me happy. I have thoughts slip away like fish that you're trying to grab and my whole body aches. I am reconsidering the cup of coffee I had this morning. I don't think it did much to wake me up. I also think that it is part of the reason why my stomach feels unhappy.

I want to work on the list of articles that I have waiting on Helium but I just don't feel up to it. I'm hoping that after a quick nap, I may feel better. Aside from that, I think that ginger ale and chicken broth are going to be my new best friends. I would really like to feel better in the immediate future, as in with in the next few hours. I have a huge pile of laundry to put away, a sink full of dishes to wash, and grocery shopping to do. I don't have time to feel like this.

Ah well, thankfully it is the weekend. Beloved has been doing a lot to help out with the kids. Cuddle Bear seems to be feeling better. He kept breakfast down and appears to be doing well with lunch. It may be that this evening he will be up for having something a touch more substantial for dinner.

Looking at the pot roast in the fridge, I don't trust that it is still good. I think I will be getting rid of that. Food poisoning on top of this virus would be hellish. I had something else that I wanted to mention but I simply can not recall it. Oh well, such is life. I'll catch up with y'all later.

Ugh.

So, we have the stomach flu at my place. My eldest came down with it first. He is on the mend, but his brother then came down with it. They've both been utterly exhausted. We've reached the point in the day that I am ready to be done with it all. It's not because they've been bad. I am just burned out from being Mom. I tell myself that I have only one week left to go and then they're back at school. I then go ZOMG! And then question how I will manage not to have my head explode by then.

I did some writing today. I thought that the research I was reading about the effects of meditation was rather fascinating. I don't know if my article is good or not. I literally just submitted it in the last five minutes. I expect I will hear back from somebody on it in a few hours. I have several different articles in the que right now but I look at them and feel black despair.

I feel like an utter hack right now. It's a terrible feeling. I think I may be sliding into a bit of a depressive funk. It's rough having bipolar. I try to keep myself moving forward and being optimistic all the damn time, but it is exhausting. Beloved has been extremely supportive. He tells me all the time how he has faith in me and how important I am to him. One of the things he always says is how he couldn't do this with out me.

When I have the times where I feel like I am utterly wretched and a fraud, I look at him. I remind myself that he has faith in me. I look at my kids and remind myself that I am a good mother and they are the proof of it.

In 30 years, I don't think it is going to matter if the house was spotless. I have a feeling that my crazily high expectations for my writing are not going to have much bearing on the world. If I am persistent and I push forward, even when I am feeling my worst, then I will build that career that I have wanted since I was a kid.

Amazement and awe.

A friend of mine has confided that he is independently wealthy. The way he so bluntly and brutally pointed out the basics of how he runs his business left me in pure amazement.

The thing that has me reeling is the fact that this is someone I know, in the flesh, who is a wildly successful entrepreneur. For some silly reason, I thought that people like that were ones that I would possibly meet by way of Facebook and only be on the perifery of their social circle. Then the Porchcat just completely nuked this worldview.

As silly as it sounds, it tells me something very big. It's not that the old 'nose to the grindstone' work ethic is the way to go. It's not that we can overcome adversity.

It tells me that it could be me next. That success like this is something that I could actually attain. I will be painfully honest, my belief in that possibility was dwindling. I decided somewhere over the last several months and the recent struggles with depressive episodes that I wasn't going to do more then self publish a few books and possibly make pocket change off my writing.

Knowing someone who has accomplished this magnitude of a goal and continues to do so successfully... Not having them be an acquaintance or someone that I still have the occasional question if they're internet trolls (because we all know the first rule of the internet: all people on the internet are trolls)... but knowing them in the flesh and having broken bread with them, it makes the possibility that I can actually do this real.

That kind of reality check was due, I suppose. Gods bless that man.

10 Tips for How to Be Successful in New Year's Resolutions

Every year, countless people resolve to make changes to their lives at the stroke of midnight New Year's eve. A few days, weeks, or months later, those resolutions are forgotten or recalled with crushing guilt and despair. Here are ten tips for how to have realistic New Year's resolutions that you can successfully meet and avoid the guilt trip later on.

Start Small
Often, the best laid plans of mice and men are nothing more then empty talk. People frequently become intimidated by the scope of what they had voiced a desire to do. Some become overwhelmed by the pure magnitude of work required to accomplish their stated goal. Breaking a large goal into smaller parts makes the resolution less overwhelming and easier to accomplish.

Respect Your Limits
Many times, people assume that they must push their limitations in achieving things. This is only true in a few areas. And within those areas, it is only true in moderation. If you desire to improve your weight, for example, it is important to work within the needs that you have and your financial constraints. Failure to consider your dietary needs, in this case, can lead to serious health consequences that could have been easily avoided by merely keeping your limitations in mind. Similarly, making changes in one's life requires that a person incorporates these changes into their existing life. Failing to work with your limitations sets you up for frustration and failure.

Make a Plan for Success
A quick look at the major players in the world, you find that all of them rose to success and fame by way of hard work and planning. Planning incorporates accounting for your constraints and weaknesses as well as how you will utilize your assets and strengths. A good plan considers potential problems and alternate routes to success.

Respect Your Schedule
There are only twenty four hours in the day. As much as one might like to devote all of their time to their resolutions, it is vital that their schedule is adhered to. This allows you to be successful in many areas, including your new resolutions. Proper scheduling helps a person to use their time wisely and more efficiently.

Don't Compete
Often, people are tempted to compare their progress with the progress of others. This sets up false expectations. Judge your efforts on their own merits. Your resolutions are for you and can only meet your needs. The people who have similar resolutions have different life circumstances that will lead their path to success in a different direction then yours.

Do Use Your Support Network
Just as a marathon runner draws strength from their cheering section, so to do people who are striving to accomplish new goals with their New Year's resolutions. Make a point of informing the people closest to you what you are seeking to accomplish.

Ask for Help When Needed
It is difficult to ask for help. Sometimes, people feel that it is a sign of weakness to ask for assistance. Nothing can be farther from the truth. If you are struggling to fulfill your resolution, look to your support network. They can provide you with new ideas on how to approach the problem.

Be Flexible on Order of Accomplishment
At times, a person is tempted to list out their goals as a timeline of what is to be accomplished. The path to success, however, is not always a straight line. Some goals may be accomplished in a fashion that defies the original planned timeline. Flexibility in how one approaches this situation helps a person to be successful because it frees up their mental resources to address the challenges before them. Rather then dwelling on how item A should have happened before item B, the flexible person appreciates that they completed item B and resumes work on accomplishing item A.

Be Compassionate
Being your own worst critic, it is easy to assume that problems and bumps along the path to success are an expression of how you are a failure as a person. When working on accomplishing any new skill or life goal, it is wise to consider the successes that one has rather then the problems. Thomas Edison is a fine example of a person who was compassionate in how they approached difficulties in reaching their goals. When asked about his difficulties in devising a working light bulb, he chose to phrase his response in a positive manner, famously stating "I have not failed a thousand times. I have succeeded in proving a thousand ways it will not work."

Don't Over Share Your Plans
Be careful about who you share your plans with. Make certain that the people who are made privy to your New Year's resolutions and goals are people who will greet this undertaking positively. Surrounding oneself with people who encourage an optimistic and positive outlook on their goals helps to boost one's confidence.

With a little forethought and some careful consideration, it is possible to make lasting changes by way of New Year's resolutions. Treat your goals with the respect that they deserve and do the same for yourself. Ultimately, a New Year's resolution is about what you seek to improve about yourself. Look for the positives and you will astound yourself by what you can accomplish.

Monday, we meet again.

I wish I could say nothing but happy things right now. I'm feeling too worn out, however, to muster up cheer, even false cheer, for you folks. Today was a very long day. I'm rather dreading how the rest of the next two weeks are going to progress.

All the plans for Christmas have been shot because Cuddle Bear is sick. When I say sick, I mean he threw up four times this afternoon. Three of those times with just water in him. It makes me dread the next few days. Because once he is over this, then Snuggle Bug will get it. I'll be lucky if I walk away with a passing day of nausea. I feel really bad that he feels so awful.

The poor kid just snuggled up next to me on the couch and didn't move. While Cuddle Bear is not all over the damn place like his brother, he doesn't usually sit down and not do or say anything unless he is completely entranced by something he is watching or if he feels horrible. Because we didn't have a parade of chainsaw action complete with garbage truck displays, I would say that he was feeling horrid.

I tried to get the kids to help me clean up. It was about as effective as shoveling snow in a blizzard. It didn't help matters any that every time that Snuggle Bug got mad about something, he pitched things over. I tell myself that this is a phase and that he will grow out of it. It is really hard to keep your cool, however, when the whole mess of train track pieces that you just finished picking up got dumped on the floor moments after you put the last piece in the bin and the offender just walks away.

I truly think that this dumping things is an effort to try and make me do what ever he wants. I'm not exactly sure how to approach this nonsense. Ignoring it hasn't been terribly effective. Cleaning up after him isn't going to do any body any good. If anything, it teaches him that there are no consequences for his actions. I've tried making him pick it up but that just doesn't work.

Time out doesn't work that well on Snuggle Bug either. I'm rather at wits end with him. It's only the first day of winter break and I'm ready for school to start up again. Ah well, I suppose all other parents go through this. I'm going to try approaching tomorrow as a completely fresh slate. I'm doing my best to attribute positive things towards the kids behavior and not let them drive me too crazy. I honestly don't feel like I'm doing a very good job of it. Again, I am pretty sure that is how a lot of other parents feel after a day that is as challenging as today was.

Sweater in progress.

So, the lake effect snow machine is going full force. We've got flakes about the size of quarters and dimes coming down outside. I have spent my day indoors. Partly because I really don't want to be out in the cold and partly because I've been working on a sweater for Snuggle Bug. I have the front and the back panels done.

 Front panel.

Back panel.

I'll be making the sleeves out of the green yarn that I used for the outside round. I have really enjoyed using this yarn that my MiL gave me. Her reasoning was since she didn't have the time to make the boys sweaters this year, I could use the yarn to do so. It's part of the reason why I haven't been making squares for the last two months. I've also been working on finishing up Yule gifts.

Next week, I'll be posting up pictures of the boys in their new sweaters. I'm pretty sure that Snuggle Bug is going to like his. Cuddle Bear tried his on after I finished it and was kind of indifferent to it. I still wrapped it up and I'll be putting it under the tree for him. I'll try to write up the directions for how I made the sweaters next week.

Holiday Wreaths

This article got rejected because I didn't have a picture to slap up with it. Seriously, it should tell me if they want me to submit a photo with the article. *shakes fist*

It is a little over a week before Christmas and you are missing a wreath for the front door. Is this the time to panic? No! With a little ingenuity, creativity, and a bit of glue, you too can have that homemade holiday charm for pennies.

Styrofoam wreath forms are inexpensive and can form the basis for several truly spectacular wreaths. The first and simplest of options is to wrap green yarn around your wreath form until it is covered. Be sure to glue the ends securely at the back of your wreath form. Add a cheerful, bright red bow for the simplest and sweetest wreath on the block. For greater holiday cheer, you can affix colorful pompoms randomly over your green yarn to suggest holly berries and ornaments.

If you wish for a more complex wreath based on the styrofoam form, you can purchase fabric sprays of holly. Snip the wired ends approximately an inch away from the leaves and berries. Insert into the form at various intervals. If you are concerned about your leaves slipping out of where they are placed, secure them with a dab of glue after inserting. Once you have covered your form with holly leaves, affix your bow with florist wire, making sure that the wire is hidden by the holly leaves.

Instead of holly sprays, you can also cover your foam wreath form with small plastic ornaments. You can glue the ornaments to your form or you can wire them onto it with florist wire. It is important to make sure that your florist wire is securely fixed to your ornaments to prevent them from slipping off. You must use light ornaments for this project because heavier ones run the risk of falling off your wreath and potentially pulling your wreath off of your door.

If you do not have access to a styrofoam wreath form, you can use a grapevine wreath. These provide a more sturdy and durable option. With your glue, you can affix sprays of holly, sprigs of ivy, and miniature boughs of pine to your wreath. You can also cover your wreath form with bows. It is important to use a low temperature hot glue gun for this project because you do not want to melt your bows, if they are made from plastic or vinyl.

Grapevine wreaths can also be decorated with lengths of ribbon and wrapping paper cut into long, thin strips. Remember to fix your ribbon and wrapping paper securely at the back of your wreath. When wrapping your wreath, make sure that your overlap the edges of your material. If you wish to use raw fabric to wrap your wreath, the same technique is used. Before wrapping, pull a few threads off of the cut edges of your fabric to give it a fringed texture.

Children love the prospect of helping to decorate for the holidays. The simplest wreath that can be made after your green yarn one is a paper plate circle with hand print cutouts covering the edges. If you wish to put a message in the center of your paper plate wreath, you can do so with glitter glue to give a touch more holiday sparkle. Paper plate wreaths can also be made with sticky back bows if your child is not ready for cutting paper.

Older children will enjoy cutting toilet paper tubes into one inch lengths and painting them green. These are then glued together into a large circle. It is helpful to run a length of paper inside the collection of paper tubes to secure them together. If you wish to have the paper tubes arranged so that the centers are facing outward from the door, gluing them to a strip of paper and then securing the ends of the paper together is a way to make the process of creating the wreath easier. A benefit of making your wreath in this fashion is that you can place small items, such as bows or light ornaments, into the tubes for added sparkle.

A homemade holiday wreath can be budget friendly and easily made in an afternoon. Even the littlest person in the household can help decorate for the season with these options. A homemade wreath can also make a novel gift.

Thoughts on life after Grandpa's death.

I originally wrote this to be submitted for a website discussing grief and how to cope with it. The article was rejected. I still want to share this, thus I am presenting it here.

In August of 2013, my paternal grandfather died due to complications from brain cancer. The news that he had cancer came at the beginning of the holidays last year. A few days shy of Thanksgiving, we had all thought that he had a minor stroke. After a series of tests and a biopsy, the news came that it was inoperable brain cancer. Of all of us, it was my grandfather who took the news in relative stride. Once the initial shock of the news wore off, he set to work learning everything he could about what was happening to himself and doing everything he could to see to it that his wife of 60 years, my grandmother, was taken care of.

The hardest part of it all for me wasn't his death. It was witnessing the way the chemotherapy made this formerly hale 84 year old man into a frail man who was in near constant pain. My grandfather fought his cancer with the same good humor and determination that he brought to bear on stubborn problems with his farming equipment, his beloved airplane, and the challenges that came up as the patriarch of our family. It was inspiring to see, even as it was heart breaking to watch as his body failed to keep up with his indomitable spirit.

The day my grandfather died happened to be my eldest son's birthday. We got the phone call from my parents that my grandfather had developed sepsis the night before. I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach just as I had the day before my grandfather had gotten his diagnosis of cancer. My intuition was screaming at me that this man I loved dearly was actively dying.

In the middle of the night, August 21st, I drove to the hospital. A queer sense of calm flooded me as I looked at that moonlit night. I found myself reminded of one of the last times that I had gone flying with my grandfather. It was a night flight with a waning gibbous. The stars shone like diamonds and the moon hung in the sky like a disc of hammered silver. The hum of the airplane's engine and the roar of the propellers was muted to a tolerable level by the headphones we were wearing.

As my grandfather explained to me how we were using instruments to navigate, my teenage self was enraptured. It was the closest I had ever come to fulfilling my childhood dreams of becoming an astronaut. When my grandfather let me take the stick and fly the plane for a minute, I was speechless with delight and wonder. That memory wrapped around me as I drove to the hospital to help keep deathwatch, though none of us dared say it out loud.

At the hospital, my grandfather was heavily sedated and beyond the reach of any of our abilities to communicate with him. He lay in the bed with a sickly pallor over him. I spoke to my grandmother and my aunt, desperately hoping that I was providing them with some form of comfort. As the minutes ticked by, the paper mask I wore to protect my frail grandfather from my germs grew hot and stifling. My body became restless and a part of me wanted to flee from the room.

I did not want to be witness to watching one of the strongest men in my life dying. The child in me wanted him to live forever. I forced myself to stay. I watched as his head jerked in seizures that were still wracking his body, despite the medications that were supposed to halt them. When that became too painful to look at, I looked at his feet. It was a curious thing to realize that I had my grandfather's toes.

Looking back on it, I suppose it was my mind's way of searching for something positive to seize upon. When my grandmother expressed her discomfort with remaining in the room, then I felt that I had permission to leave the room. The last time that I saw my grandfather alive, he had just finished shuddering with a seizure and his heart rate had become terribly unstable. I went home but I slept poorly.

The next day, I was frantic with activity. As I was out getting groceries, a curious feeling passed over me. I felt as though the world had become a touch colder, despite the fact that it was a sweltering day of near record heat in the middle of August. When I got home from my errands, I learned that it was the time that my grandfather had died. The next few days were something of a blur.

I had so dearly wanted to do more to be of help to my parents and my grandmother. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do and responsibilities to my own family kept me from being there with them in their grief. When the day of his memorial services came, I was short tempered and anxious. I had moved from disbelief and shock into anger.

I had mistakenly thought that I had passed through that stage already upon learning that my grandfather had cancer. I was wrong. My husband bore my moodiness patiently and forgave me my waspish temper. I still hadn't wept by this time. Not in the course of the many months between November and August had I truly mourned the situation.

I instead sought to out run my feelings by way of work and staying busy. It was at my grandfather's urging that I wrote the first two books of my adult fiction series. It was because of him that I published my first book. In all of that effort, I struggled with my feelings. I swayed back and forth between shoving them aside and mercilessly picking them apart. I poured my anguish and rage into conflicts on paper. Conflicts that I could resolve with a heroic ending.

I sit here a little over three months after the death of my grandfather. It still hurts, but I find that it propels me forward. The dignity with which my grandfather faced his mortality lent a heroic ending to his story. As I continue to 'write' my own story, I find that echoes of his story come up often. Where this would have paralyzed me and left me a broken mess in the past, I now strive to be like a resonating string on a violin. From the depths of grief, some of the sweetest music may be written. It is this capacity to pick ourselves up and continue on that honors the dead. It is how they live on through us.

Brain fried.

I've been writing a whole slew of articles over on Helium.com today. I finished up five of them. I had this crazy idea that I would get caught up on my writing for the day and possibly sneak in a bit of work on one of my novels. I am totally burned out right now. I'd love to be doing some fiction writing but at the moment, I just want to stop looking at words. I suppose it is a good thing that it is bed time.

I never thought that I'd feel this way. I have been reading and writing since eight o'clock this morning. I think I am going to space out some breaks tomorrow. I know that I can do this whole writing professionally thing. I just need to pace myself.

Why Reading Programs are Necessary In and Out of the Classroom

Reading, writing, and arithmetic are considered the cornerstone of all education. Pre-reading and pre-writing skills develop at the same time. Reading programs build a student's mastery of the language and directly impacts how effectively the communicate. These programs are most effective when supported with extracurricular reading activity. Literacy and effective communication are the keys to success in the social and professional spheres of life, in addition to academia.

The skills of reading and writing are closely tied together, often considered as being crucial to long term educational success. With out adequate skills in reading, one finds that writing skills are hindered in development. An early reader's success in understanding syllables and phonemes directly translates into skills in constructing words. Similar successes in understanding sentence structure and context cues leads to success in all areas of written communication.

K12Reader, in their excellent article The Relationship between Reading and Writing, note that time spent reading builds writing skills. They additionally note that phonemic awareness allows them to comprehend how to construct new words and to decode an unfamiliar word when presented to them. Reading can be used to build a skill set required for writing to a specific genre, because it familiarizes the student with the methods of constructing the narrative, commonly accepted techniques for transitions between concepts, and related ideas.

Acadia University stated in 2001 that the consequences of poor literacy and language skills can be seen in poor academic performance, lowered self-esteem, reduced psychosocial development of young persons. The impact of poor literacy skills can not only be found in the younger population. The National Comission on Adult Literacy reported that in 2007 of the 30 member nations in OECD, the United States was the only nation that had young adults who were less educated then the older generations. The Huffington Post reported in July of 2012 that the United States ranked 14^th in reading skills out of the thirty four nations that participated in the study by Harvard University.

Weakness in literacy skills can be considered a contributing factor to the poor performance that the United States showed in mathematics and science, ranking 25^th out of 34. Poor literary skills result in adults having a wide range of detrimental effects in their lives. The Literacy Foundation reports on their website that the top three consequences of illiteracy are:

1. Limited access to essential information
2. Unemployment
3. Poverty

Within the classroom, reading skills are necessary in virtually every subject. A strong set of reading skills benefit students in their ability to decode mathematics and scientific jargon. Reading comprehension is a vital part of one's ability to do simple and complex word problems. It is also important in helping a student to make sense of things such as the scientific method.

Reading programs that are supported outside of the classroom tend to have greater success then those which are not. The success of reading programs that are supported outside of the classroom environment lies in two areas. The first is repetition of the skill set required for reading. With greater repetition, the skills and concepts become more deeply ingrained into the student's mind. The second place that extracurricular reading program support is successful is that it models the benefits and skills for students.

Students are not only learning that reading is important in the classroom, but that it also has “real world” applications. It is ultimately, those “real world” applications that determine the success of a student. Skills in reading and literacy allows a person to interact more efficiently with their environment. It gives them greater access to information that allows them to broaden their knowledge base and to draw upon the knowledge base of others. All of this would not be possible with out a fundamental knowledge of reading that can only come from vigorous exercise in and outside of the classroom environment.

What to do with this glitter?

I have 15 packets of glitter sitting on my counter. I was wondering what to do with them and then it struck me, I could recycle an old soda bottle and make a Time Out Bottle for the boys. Lots of the instructions I find on the interwebs for how to make these things call for glitter glue. I don't have any of that, but I read that just straight up water works for these things too.

Refrigerator oatmeal success and failure.

We've hit that time of year where a warm breakfast is just what I'm looking for in the morning. Usually, I would go for the instant oatmeal because, well, it is quick and easy. Then I started to read about 'refrigerator' oatmeal. I suppose it was back in the summer when I first encountered this. The premise is that your oatmeal will 'cook' (read the oats will absorb the liquid and plump up) overnight and be ready to eat first thing in the morning.

My first attempt was with rolled oats and yogurt, as the summer recipes were recommending. It was ok, but it didn't sit quite right with me. Something about the texture versus the taste just wasn't appealing. I promptly forgot about it for a few months. Then, last week as I was preparing myself a bowl of steel cut oatmeal, I thought that there had to be a better way, an easier way to make this. I recalled the refrigerator oatmeal thing.

When I found this recipe, I thought I had found the thing that would work best for me. I mean, little to no effort and I get the wonderful texture of steel cut oats in the morning, who wouldn't want that? I regret that I didn't take the time to read the comments attached to that post. I set up four little jars of oatmeal in the refrigerator, three with the last of my steel cut oats and one with my rolled oats.

According to theory, if I let them sit over night, they would be ready to eat the next morning. What I discovered is that the rolled oats were perfect. The steel cut oats, on the other hand, had hardly changed. Deciding that perhaps they needed more time to 'cook' in the fridge, I let them sit for two more days. Nary a thing had changed when this morning rolled around. I was extremely disappointed.

The rolled oats, I did find, not only plumped up and were quite tasty in the morning, I had equal success using milk or water. I skipped the yogurt and used as much liquid as I would normally add if I were cooking them. As I prefer my oatmeal made with water and a pinch of salt, I was really happy with this development.

Now, one may ask, what do I do with my oatmeal in the morning? Since I have it in a pint jar, I can eat it straight out of the jar cold (which I did with my initial experiment in the summer) or I can pop the whole thing into the microwave and heat it up. If I don't feel like eating it out of the jar after heating it, I can pour it into a bowl. Either way, I have taken to pouring a generous amount of maple syrup on it and throwing some diced apples into the mix.

A realization.

For the past week or so, I have been doing something of an experiment with my spinning. I have been spinning exclusively using a distaff to hold my fiber. I have come to the conclusion that I am going to continue on in this fashion at all opportunities that this is feasible. My resulting thread has been more consistently even and I am finding that I have less problems with making it accidentally too thin.

I want to devise a method where I have my distaff in a stand of some sort so that I can sit and spin. (Y'all can stop laughing any time now!) I'm thinking about getting one of those oversized vases and filling the thing halfway with glass pebbles. Then I can just shove my distaff into it and have it supported in that manner. I don't exactly have the means to go out and make one of those fancy wooden holders.

Aside from that, I think that after I finish the stuff that I have on my distaff right now, I am going to try to figure out a way to make myself a stick spindle. There are some really nice ones that are out there for sale, but I don't exactly have the funds to be buying them. Looking at the things, I think they could be fashioned fairly easily from a short length of dowel. The part that will be tricky is the whorl.

Again, I don't exactly have the money to go out and buy whorls. I do, however, have the stuff to make some salt clay. So, I could, theoretically, make my own whorl. I am also considering the possibility of using a bead of some sort, because there is some evidence that bead whorls were used during that era.

Yule craftiness and such.

If you have a small person in your life (or a big person) who is absolutely nuts over fairies, pixies, and such, this is a dirt cheap and painfully simple gift that will just thrill them to no end.

Take a clean glass jar and some glow in the dark paint. Dab spots of glow in the dark paint randomly over the inside of the jar. Allow this to dry. Then take silver and/or gold metallic paint and do the same. Once all of this is dry, put about a teaspoon of glitter inside. Secure the top onto the jar. I used hot glue. Then shake your jar to distribute the glitter. Static forces the glitter to stick to the sides of the jar. Label the jar and add any ornamentation you want to the outside. I put a shooting star sticker on the top and my label reads 'Pixie Dust.'

That's it.

Something interesting & a little food politics

I follow some stuff about urban farming. I really feel that one of the keys to long standing success in the urban environment is going to be some measure of independence on the food supply. As such, I support things like planting fruit bearing groves of trees where it is possible. I am always in favor of gardening.

Then there is the really interesting stuff like this. The thought of having a direct grow to market situation in the heart of the urban sprawl strongly appeals to me. I worry, however, that it will become something terribly expensive and only available to the upper classes. It's not just the upper classes that need healthy food.

Just like math literacy is important and programs to encourage it need to be supported in the impoverished regions of the country (especially the city!) a program that encourages food independence and an urban friendly form of living off the land needs to be instituted. This isn't a matter of doing what is trendy. It is a matter of equality.

Yes, you read that right. I said it is a matter of equality. Access to clean and healthy food is increasingly becoming the 'right' of the upper classes of society. Problems like the obesity epidemic have been proven time and again to be the 'fruit' of the poor eating 'habits' associated with prepackaged and processed foods. It is also apparent that a larger percentage of the obese population is in the lower end of the economic spectrum.

Now, some people will breezily say that the solution to the problems can be found in 'changing their eating habits.' I argue that economic disparity and scarcity of those 'good for you' foods has more to do with the problem then someone's preferences. If you go into a store and the vast majority of the products available to you are boxed mixes of some sort, then you are going to wind up buying predominantly prepackaged and processed foods. If you go into a store and the fresh greenbeans are more expensive then the canned, and you only have enough money to get a small amount of food, you're going to go with the less expensive version because you can buy more of it for the same amount of money. This isn't because of laziness, it is simple economics.

Now, one may wonder why fresh food is so bloody expensive. The answer is fairly simple. Fresh food is perishable. It requires specialized equipment and techniques to maintain it at a fresh state and those techniques and equipment will only work for so long. After that, the food will rot. Getting food from the farm to the store isn't as simple as picking it out of the ground and lugging it in the same day. There is a process in place that requires transport, sometimes for considerable distances. (Avacados from California coming to New York, for example.)

Transport takes time. This time is going to lessen the length of time that fresh product is going to be on a shelf. Simple logistics at play here, there are only so many hours in a day. So, let's say it takes four days for your avacado to ripen. If you pick it on day one and transport it day two, you are left with two days to sell it. Now one of the tricky things about selling fresh produce is that people will assume that produce that 'looks bad' (not like it is just before or at peak ripeness) are bad food. In many cases, looks can be decieving.

Mavis Butterfield talks on her blog about food waste in this country (the USA). She has a lot of really good information there and is really one of my heroes when it comes to thrifty food management. That said, let's go back to that hypothetical avacado. Now, we've got a four day period of time that the avacado takes to ripen. We've used one day to pick the fruit and one day to transport it. By day four, your avacado looks over ripe and no longer is considered 'good'. This isn't saying that the hypothetical avacado is bad. It is no longer an attractive product.

Attractive products are what makes stores and agri-business money. This is why they wax apples (not just for freshness, though it helps some with that) and why there are different 'grades' of agricultural products. "A" grade or "Fancy" grade produce are the ones that look just like the advertisements. They are in no way 'better for you' then the lower grade produce 95% of the time. But once a product is no longer that attractive thing sitting on the shelf, it's sales drop off steeply because modern American consumers operate under the false assumption that if it doesn't look 'perfect' then there is something wrong with it.

While the "A" grade hypothetical avacado may be sitting in your grocery store in the produce aisle, the lower "B" grade ones were used to make that nifty little tub of gourmet guacamole. The even lower grade ones were used to make the cheaper little tub of guacamole. All three avacados have the same nutritional content and can be used in the same fashion. It's just the "A" grade ones look better.

So, how does this shorter shelf life impact the price of your avacado? It's again, a really simple thing. If you have a product that expires quickly, you can not get more sales by having a supply of them on hand that is big enough to sell for the full three days that the avacado takes to ripen. You need to have a refreshing supply of avacados that will maintain the image of 'perfect' produce. This keeps them attractive and the customers interested in purchase.

This makes the expense go up per avacado. No longer are you merely paying for the farmer to pluck it and the trucker to drive it to market. No longer are you merely paying for the store to keep it in the proper climate controlled environment to make it stay attractive. Now, you are also paying for the plethora of avacados that don't make the cut on the store sales floor. Stores need to dispose of the produce that is past the sale by date. Which costs money.

Unfortunately, most stores just throw this useable product away. Some folks, like Ms. Butterfield, will reclaim the produce and pick out that stuff that is useable. Other folks will 'dumpster dive', which is in many cases illegally doing the same that Ms. Butterfield does with the permission of the store.

Now, let's look for a moment at the whole difference between a big grocery store and a little corner mart (which is more prevalent in the urban setting). The first thing you can tell is that the big grocery store is going to have higher operating costs. You'd think that the big grocery store would be more profitable and have a better ratio of income versus expenses compared to that little corner mart by virtue of the fact that they carry more items and have the capacity to service more customers at a time. That they'd make their money on volume of service/sales versus quality of such.

I hate to tell you this, but proportionally speaking, you could argue that they're about the same at the outset. Then you start to factor in things like the costs of maintaining your produce department and your butcher's department. Suddenly, the big grocery store is facing down big costs that those little corner marts don't have. Partly because they don't have the space for those features, partly because they don't have the income to support them. The big grocery store is forced to set higher rates for equivalent items then the little corner mart to cover the cost of the additional expenses imposed by these other products.

The products with the limited shelf life turn into more expensive per pound then the boxed mix that will stay good on the shelf for a year. Why? Because each additional day of shelf life makes the product cheaper to put in the store. It makes the product cheaper to transport. When you put these cheaper, processed items in to the market and compare the price differences between the big grocery store and the little corner mart, suddenly that little corner mart becomes the most economical choice for shopping.

The other factor at play for people in impoverished urban areas is the fact that transportation of food supplies is difficult. If one were to take a bus to a grocery store and buy a week's worth of food, one would simply not be able to bring it all home. As such, you buy what you can carry. This measure of economic scarcity is relieved somewhat in the little corner store because it is closer to your home and you can purchase more food and bring more food into your home because the transportation cost and effort is less.

Thirdly, there is a great deal of ignorance about food, food waste, and healthful eating on a tight budget. The educational system is failing our nation in this respect. The days of the health class teaching people how to eat healthy and home economics classes teaching how to shop in a manner that you get the most for your dollar seem to have passed. Now, these things are brushed to the side as unimportant next to things like sexual education (in the case of health classes) or not taught at all (as some schools have dropped the home economics classes).

So, where does all of this leave us on the matter of food independence and such? I'll break it down to three points.

1. Financial difficulties and scarcity make it problematic to acquire healthful foods.
2. Ignorance about how to acquire healthful foods makes it difficult to do so.
3. A lack of public awareness of this problem increases the number of situations where this happens.

I grew up on a farm. I don't have much in common with folks in the city. Except that I live in an apartment now and money gets tight for us here in town. I was taught as a girl how important it is to have a food safety net. We have about two to three weeks worth of meals put by. Most people don't.

As Nihilspawn said in a conversation we had a little while back, most of this country is about 3 meals away from food riots. Think about that for a moment. It is a terrifying thought. Here's another terrifying thought for you. There are people in this country that are starving. Not the colloquial 'I skipped a meal and I'm really, really hungry' but literally starving right now. Most of them are in the urban centers. With all of that food waste that goes on in this country for the sake of keeping up appearances, we should be ashamed.

When children go to school and the free lunch that they qualify for is their only meal for the day, we should be ashamed. When parents forgo eating so that their children might have enough so that they can sleep with out hunger pains waking them in the night, we should be ashamed. When people are scorned for taking what measures they must in order to have enough to keep body and soul together, we should be ashamed.

I didn't go to bed hungry as a child. But my Mother did. I've been sneered at for using foodstamps when I was clean and dressed neatly. I have been scorned for the fact that I make meals that are not the latest in foodie fads because I can't afford the cost or the potential waste that will come from if that meal isn't eaten.

So, this guy's idea of making urban farming more prevalent, I am 110% behind it. Because I don't want my children to grow up and be left wondering how they were going to pay for their next meal.

I think I like this guy.

Passenger has been getting a lot of air play over in my neck of the woods. To be honest, if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have heard of him before now because I tend to live under a proverbial rock. His song Let Her Go is exceptional. It has the feel of another group that I really enjoy - Fleetwood Mac.

That would be a collaboration that I would love to see, by the way.

Learning something new.

So, my kids drove me to the point where I was just this side of nonfunctional because of how stressed out they made me. Thank the gods that Hubby was home and he handled it. Because of how I am struggling to chill myself out, even with the wonders of modern medicine, I've decided to start another 'sanity' project.

Last time, it was a basic knit shawl. This time, I am going to make a granny ripple one. I think this is how I am going to use up that ball of scrap yarn from making those blankets this year.

Elf on a Shelf...

I see a lot of folks using this 'Elf on a Shelf' thing to persuade their kids to behave during the holiday season. Honestly, I am not that impressed with it. Blackmailing your kids just strikes me as distasteful. I've tried looking at it from the perspective of 'whatever works' but I just can't get behind it.

I realize that the holidays are hard for parents. Between the chaos of the kids getting excited and wound up at school, the stress of paying for the boat load of toys you're expected to buy, and the wonkiness of attempting to plan for all of those get togethers, I realize that parents have a rough time of it this time of year. Heck, I'm a parent and I have a hard time with it all too. You guys aren't alone.

At the same time, blackmail is just not the way to approach this. And that is truly what I think this 'elf on a shelf' thing is. The Free Dictionary defines blackmail as:

blackmail [ˈblækˌmeɪl]

n

1. (Law) the act of attempting to obtain money by intimidation, as by threats to disclose discreditable information

2. the exertion of pressure or threats, esp unfairly, in an attempt to influence someone's actions

vb (tr)

1. (Law) to exact or attempt to exact (money or anything of value) from (a person) by threats or intimidation; extort

2. to attempt to influence the actions of (a person), esp by unfair pressure or threats

I am using the term in the sense of the verb in the second definition. Is it really that fair to tell a child that if they don't behave that some omniscent little spy is going to deprive them of the holiday experience? That's a fast way to set a kid up with a complex that has them afraid that if they don't do EVERYTHING just the right way, then they are going to lose something big.

It's one thing to sit the kids down and tell them that no matter how excited, they still need to follow the house rules. And if they're too little for that conversation, just sticking with the household rules like normal is a good thing. Think for a moment, the holidays are stressful for you. You're an adult, you have a better grasp on how to handle stress. Now imagine that you're a little kid with out the tools or experience to understand the ups and downs of the holiday season.

Pretty scary thought, isn't it? Now throw into that mix the added pressures of having to use your best behavior all the time. On top of that, put the nebulous consequence of being punished for potentially the slightest misstep and losing out on something you may have been looking forward to all year. It's a rotten place to be.

That is why I just can't get behind the Elf on a Shelf thing.

Blargh.

I don't really have anything terribly interesting to contribute today. So, in lieu of actual writing, here's a picture of a puppy burrito.

Jive candy is actually pretty good.

Aldi's has this knock off version of Twix that they call Jive. At first, I didn't think they'd be that good. Then I was craving chocolate and sugar. Into the cart they went.

Fast forward approximately a month. Random sugar/chocolate craving hits and I discover that this is the only source of chocolate in the whole house, with the exception of baking chocolate. (While I love my chocolate, baking chocolate is disgusting by itself. No matter how desperate I am for chocolate, I will not touch that stuff with a ten foot pole if it's by itself. Did it once, NEVER again.)

So, I opened up a package and munched on some. Aside from the cookie bit being a touch stale (of which I can only blame myself on this one) they were surprisingly good. The chocolate was of an inferior quality, but on the whole it was pretty tasty. I must say, they were not too terribly bad of a choice for an impulse purchase.

(We won't discuss the mexican hot chocolate that I bought. I will only say this: Abuleita hot chocolate needs to say BIG FAT HUNKS OF CHOCOLATE YOU MELT on the package. Also, it should come with a warning, that the cinnamon turns into a slurry at the bottom of the pot and could possibly be used in place of mortar for construction. WORST CHOCOLATE FIX EVER!)