Rusty's Balcony

Routine

2012-01-28T10:03:00.001-06:00

One of the downfalls of technology is that one sees just how boring one is. Just before and over winter break, my foursquare account was busy with check-ins and it actually seemed like I had a life. Since the new semester began my check-ins have been work and home and work and home and work and gas station and work and home. As busy as work has been, I cannot say that I mind the routine. The routine provides stability in my busyness. I know when I am going to cook, when I am going to pack my lunch, when I leave from work, when I am doing my regular household chores. Other than the occasional excitement while cooking, the rest of the routine is boring. Right now, as busy as everything else is. That's ok!

Baths in the Time of Drought

2012-01-13T08:00:00.000-06:00

Since damaging the connective tissues between two ribs a month ago, I have found the healing process goes much more slowly as a mature man than it did when I was much younger. I followed the doctor’s directions and most of them worked well except for the high doses of ibuprofen. The best thing I have done consistently, though is taking hot baths with Epsom salts.

Each time I take one of the hot baths, I feel guilty about it. We are currently experiencing one of the worst droughts in recorded history and a bath is not the most efficient use of water.

If this was Little House on the Prairie, a couple people could bathe in the tub after me, but alas I live alone and none of my friends have expressed any interest in using my Epsom salt lukewarm leftovers.

Maybe I should place an ad on Craigslist – Free in Austin: “Low guilt cleaning. Lukewarm bathwater. Only used once. Pre-soaped. Email for directions.”

Despite my best ecological intentions, I am afraid this may draw the wrong crowd, but it certainly sounds fun just to see what responses I get.

In the meantime, I am trying to carefully conserve water in everything else that I do while I do everything I can to recover and not need the baths anymore.

Reduced Risk

2012-01-08T10:57:00.000-06:00

A few months ago I purchased a rice cooker and it substantially changed the way I prepare my foods for the week. I read the basic directions to the device and have used it weekly since the purchase. This morning, though, I noticed a label I had not previously paid any attention to.

Reduce the risk? You mean I may still get shocked by using it correctly? I want a rice cooker that is giving me no risk of electrical shock. As an almost daily rice eater, I know that cooking rice involves a great deal of water!

We get such labels because of someone’s demonstrated stupidity followed by a lawsuit. Without the removable container, there is no way for the cooker to hold the water and rice. Or even function for that matter as it is pressure triggered.

After becoming a label reader in recent years, I continue to be amazed at the various warnings that come with seemingly innocuous products and what it says about our society. As an educator, I have a hard time believing we are truly that stupid, I think we are that greedy that we will do stupid things for money. We get such labels because of someone’s demonstrated stupidity followed by a lawsuit.

So the next time you make rice in a rice cooker, be sure to use the appropriate removable container. You have been warned so that lawsuit will not work again.

Bed and Breakfast Land

2012-01-07T15:57:00.000-06:00

Earlier this week the remarkable happened: I (briefly) had more followers on Twitter than accounts I was following. Unfortunately most of them were spam accounts, but (briefly) I felt like a celebrity. After reviewing the list, I blocked and reported many of them for spam – I am consistent in that I block spam-tweets as fast as possible.

Most of the newfound popularity has come since I started using foursquare for check-ins and many of the businesses into which I have checked and nearby businesses have started following me since I began using the service. I guess that is good for the businesses to make a direct connection with their customers.

But now that winter break is over, they are going to find that “homebody” marks my most common status.

Which still gets me lots of hits.

I named my home “Roy’s Bed and Breakfast” for the many friends from out-of-town who stay with me. So every night when I check in at my house, it appears that I am frequenting a bed and breakfast, so I have become popular with B&B’s across the land on Twitter. I have never actually stayed at a B&B as I prefer room service when I travel.

Just as I was disturbed recently when my doctor’s office replied via Twitter to one of my tweets about being there, I am enjoying tracking how my online activity tracks across media and seeing the trends in both spam email and spam Twitter.

Does that make me a nerd? Geek? I never can keep them separate.

I think I may start giving places I frequently visit my own personal name to see just what kind of interactions I can stir up. It will also give me more mayorships on foursquare – but that would be cheating, wouldn’t it?

Black Like...Really?

2012-01-02T14:19:00.000-06:00

Recently a friend mentioned that he named his car Michelle “because it looks like Michelle Obama.” While it is not uncommon for people to name possessions after well-known people, I have never heard someone name a car after a person because they look alike. I did not quite understand the reasoning and pressed the matter. It turns out that the looking alike was limited to color – both are black.

The admission astonished me.

This person claims to be a progressive Christian.

No wonder the so many people do not see the difference between progressive Christianity and the more traditional Christianity. Ephesians chapter 4 provides many useful guidelines for conducting our life, but very important among them and what should be a defining verse for all Christians is verse 29: “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.” I freely admit that I have limited use for political correctness and frequently write about extremes in the use of language. Nevertheless, I have no use for statements or actions that are inherently destructive or damaging, whether they were made in all seriousness or for the sake of humor.

My friend may have intended the naming of his car as a joke, but I think he actually meant it in some misguided attempt at acceptance. Unfortunately, though such comments may be made with a true lack of malice, they carry the full weight of inconsideration and do as much damage as those that are made with harmful intent. The same Ephesians passage cautions us about being responsive to guidance from the Holy Spirit in all that we do. While no person is perfect, thoughtful consideration will lead to understanding of what is and what is not acceptable speech or behavior.

Such can be the challenge with attempts at being clever, but we have no excuse to damage the witness we have to the world as people called apart. The last few years have brought too many headlines of the church behaving badly with sex abuse scandals, social stances that represent antiquated (unchristian) thinking, and numerous financial scandals. Such headlines give legitimacy to questions about the relevance of the Church in society. The Church as an instrument of anger and pain in no way reflects the calling of the Church in the world.

Ephesians chapter four defends the purpose of the church and those in it. We must examine how well we uphold the principles behind the purpose of the church and live that our consistently. Unless the church begins to function and garner headlines as an instrument of peace and healing, entire generations will miss the blessing that comes from being in relationship with God.

As much as my friend’s comment personally offended me, it led to the time of reflection about my own comments and my role in the church and the Church’s role in society. I have made many changes regarding the information I take into my mind and the media to which I expose myself in the last months. The more selective I have become in those areas, the more deeply I have been able to reflect on my personal status. At some point the reflection should translate into action or it serves only to be an egotistical exercise in self-aggrandizement – much like the behavior of the Church in the last few decades. For every thing there is a season; now that the season of gestation is complete and the season of growth has begun.

Unlisted

2011-12-30T12:46:00.002-06:00

I genuinely appreciate Twitter for bringing me daily news digested into 140 characters or fewer, but I swear, if the “top” lists continue I am going to blow a few characters myself. I think the news people come up with the lists just because it is an otherwise slow news week. Do I really need them to tell me what are the 10 cutest animal pictures of the last year? Or the 10 best tweets? Or the 10 biggest celebrity scandals? Or 10 worst fashion disasters? And the lists go on.

I do not read those new stories when they are singular, much less pluralized into tens. I have sufficient grasp of the trivial without the assistance of such year-end lists.

Some sites are begging for my resolutions for the new year.

They do not really care that I, like every other American, want to be fitter, healthier, etc.

What I really want is to make fewer typos on my iPhone. Big fingers, old eyes, and a tiny screen were never meant to go together. Editing is not glamorous, but its importance on twitter and IM exceeds that even of longer compositions. One unfortunate autocorrect (easier to blame the machine than personal carelessness) stands out even more in the brevity of such communication. If everyone proofread before sending, websites would go out of business. Somehow I doubt that everyone will start proofreading tweets and texts, so we will continue to have the entertainment (real or fake).

So I have decided to be anti-list as the year comes to an end. I have my list of unaccomplished tasks on my winter break; I do not need any more lists in my life right now. I move into 2012 unencumbered with the weight of expectation. No years have passed without personal accomplishments regardless of my resolutions. I will go forward and make the most out of the year and opportunities as they arise.

Unlisted, unresolved, but motivated. Come on 2012.

Clever New Uses

2011-12-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

The barrage of emails with holiday tips did not stop with the arrival of the holidays. They have continued offering sage bits of advice, or things I could buy at a discount with sage bits of advice. One in particular caught my attention with the subject line: Clever New Uses for The Holidays.

While I, for the most part, shrewdly resisted the appeal of the various pitches, I could not turn down investigating what new uses someone had found for the holidays. Considering it came from a popular magazine that regularly presents new uses for common items, I figured that if anyone could do it, they would.

Opening the email proved disappointing because the headline had nothing to do with the content. There were numerous ways of using holiday packing and wrapping. There were recipes for combining common leftovers into more appealing dishes. There were tips for what to do with those partially used holiday-scented candles.

But not one new use for any holiday.

Despite the disappointment, I realized that Boxing Day has me pretty much holidayed out. I do not know how many more clever uses for holidays I could handle at this point; I am satisfied with the uses they already have. I just have to recover in time for New Year’s Eve.

And I have an entire year to come up with clever new uses for the holidays and give that magazine an article that lives up to its headline.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T09:00:00.000-06:00

I did not believe the Christmas forecasts when they started coming in. No, the forecast did not call for snow in south Texas. That only happens once every few lifetimes and we had that once a few years ago. The weather forecast actually called for what equals winter weather in south Texas – chilly with chances of rain. The chilly part is most certainly correct, but the end of the day will tell us whether the rain held true.

Work, in several forms, got in the way of the holiday cards the way I normally do them. Instead of 96, this year there were exactly zero that went through the mail. I did not even create a fancy electronic card. If the motto for my Christmas this year was on a t-shirt, it wouldn’t even make the t-shirt. I would be, “I attended Christmas 2011 and all I got was this lousy blog post.”

Behind the appearance of griping, the “lousy blog post” means I am busy enough and loving what I am doing that I did not take the time to send out the many Christmas cards I normally do. The blog posts also came in the way of Advent devotionals – one written for each day of the season – that is continuing into Christmas and in some form through the church year calendar on my other blog.

Doing the daily Bible study and actually meditating on the passages and then writing a reflection has done more to prepare me for Christmas this year than in a long time.

I am not at all giddy about Christmas; I am ready for the holiday to kick of a new season of work and opportunity.

Beyond preparing for the holiday in a different way, I made some major changes in my life this year that fundamentally shifted how I spend my time. The changes led to positive, measurable output in writing and reading and health, so I do not look back on any of the changes with regret. I write from time to time about technology – especially when it fails.

Some of my changes have involved changing the technology I have in my life – namely getting rid of cable television and actually spending more time working on my iPad than on one of my computers because, while possible, it is harder to multi-task on the tablet than on a computer or laptop. All that is for naught when I have the MacBook Pro, Dell Laptop, and iPad all going at the same time – which I sometimes still do - though I am working at only using one device at a time.

2011 truly has been a transformational year for me and it culminated in the preparations for Christmas.

Twhat?

2011-12-24T10:00:00.000-06:00

While running last minute errands yesterday, and doing the requisite Foursquare check-in at every location, I found myself getting a spam tweet after almost every check in as I have Foursquare set to share the check-ins on Twitter (which shares them with Facebook – so my technology programs are interconnected). After one check in, my phone did its typical ding to let me know I had a text message.

There was yet another text message from Twitter notifying me that someone had mentioned me in a tweet or has sent me a direct message via Twitter. By this point in the day, annoyance ran pretty high and I almost deleted the text without reading it, but as I had been in conversation with a friend in direct messages that day, I decided I better check it.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this tweet:

@rwlarson Sorry about your back pain. Hope all goes well. Please let us know if you hav a ny [sic] feedbackbit.ly/ARCfdbk Happy Holidays!

It was from the clinic where my doctor practices!

How did they get my Twitter identity?

And why are they tweeting out something that identifies a health condition in a way that anyone who follows my Twitter account can see? I had gone to the doctor two days earlier because of lingering back pain. I think there is a HIPAA violation somewhere in that tweet.

I am glad it was not an STD. I can only imagine that tweet:

@rwlarson Sorry about your gonorrhea. Hope the shot didn’t hurt too much. Please let us know if you need another. Happy Hoiidays!

What are they going to do next? Send my prescriptions through Facebook?

I joke about the circumstances of the tweet, but below it lays a serious concern about who has our information – not only our confidential information, but our socially accessible information as well. I work to connect all parts of my social media experience so that together they paint a more complete picture than any one alone would. I diligently monitor everything I post for appropriateness while ceding that I cannot control every line printed about me by others.

It is one thing for a friend or acquaintance to say something inappropriate, but quite another for a medical facility to post something about your health. Is the bank soon going to start tweeting my account balance to my timeline?

Our ability to now connect disparate bits of data through technology contributes to the exponential growth in our knowledge base and makes great strides in scientific and social progress, but where are the lines to be drawn? I know I do not want my personal details available on social media and will be extra careful about what and how various agencies learn of my social connections.

Simple Fixes

2011-12-18T16:55:00.000-06:00

While I generally think myself pretty handy, sometimes it costs me more than if I had just hired a handyman in the first place. Such was the instance with my attempt at installing the iPod connection to the stereo in my truck. I not only did not install the connection, I injured my back which kept me from enjoy Christmas with my cousins in Kansas as I had originally planned. I finally went by an audio shop and for just $35, they made the connection in just ten minutes and now my truck stereo sounds better than ever.

After leaving the shop, I went to a home improvement store because my food disposal had stopped working and despite my best efforts, I could not get it to operate again. I resolved that I would have to pay for a new food disposal. While there, I saw a wrench designed to manually break disposal jams. I doubted that I was stronger than a ¾ horsepower motor, but decided a $7 fix was better than a $130 replacement.

As soon as I got home, I pulled out the wrench and decided to see if my disposal even had the appropriate slot for the wrench. It did and with just a little back and forth motion, my disposal worked better than it had in a very long time.

Sometimes the simple fix works best in the situation. This was one time that I actually saved money by doing-it-myself.

Old Men and Small Spaces

2011-12-12T10:37:00.000-06:00

Sometimes the simplest task brings unexpected complications. My truck came with an auxiliary input, but it is not easily accessible. Still all one has to do is access the wire behind the dashboard. Previously a satellite radio receiver was connected to the input, but after it stopped working, I had nothing working through that access point.

With a lengthy road trip coming up, 12.1 days of music, and 4 days of pod casts in my iTunes library, I have no need to spend my trip scrolling through unpredictable broadcast radio stations when I can make a custom playlist to play each way on the trip. Having all of this in mind, I decided to connect my iPod to the auxiliary input. All I needed was to plug it in, right?

The access panel came of easily and the access to the system was clear. I just had to work my way up under the dash to reach all the wires and move them to a point where I can connect everything. On my first reach I discovered that old men and small spaces do not go well together. To get my arm where it needed to go I had to twist around, grasp the wire, and pull it down.

Twist. Grasp. Pull. Forty-five-year-olds cannot do that without proper warm-ups.

I felt and heard the muscle pull and wondered for a bit whether I would be able to even get out from under my dash. I began to consider how long it would be before a neighbor came by to pull me out. After taking a few deep breaths, I managed to slide out and make it inside to my recliner.

Almost a day later finds me still in my recliner. Fortunately with cloud technology, I am able to work from home and not get too far behind. I am still not convinced that is a good thing, but on days like today when I feel fine but simply cannot move, I think it is a good thing. Especially since I hope to take a day off later in the week to make my road trip.

But to finish the installation of the iPod kit, I think will require a trip to an audio shop with younger people crawling into the tight spaces.

God Said What?

2011-12-11T08:39:00.001-06:00

A student made my day today. He said he should have dropped out last year before he met me. He came to that conclusion after sparring with me two different times over his stated decision to drop out of high school. He was certain it did not matter to anyone else and that he was the only person affected by his decision. He continually insisted that it was his decision, but he would not stop arguing with me about the idea of dropping out. He could not accept my disapproval anymore than i could accept his decision. He wanted someone to talk him out it, someone to not give up. He made the mistake of saying that maybe God put me there to tell him to drop out of school. It did not take long before he realized that making that comment was even worse than saying he decided to drop out. I think he does have a better understanding of social justice now. I pointed out that since he had brought up God, all was fair game and he was in for a sermon. And I began to preach. I connected everything I had already said to him about staying in school to social justice. Lifetime health. Family stability. Living wages. Doing what is right. Every one of them come with social justice implications. And every one of them linked to education. He never saw the sermon coming. God was his trump card. He was not expecting a pair of Gods to match and raise. Our first conversation ended with him walking out of my office. The second conversation ended with us laughing together and agreeing to meet again in the next week. He still insists he is going to drop out. I still insist he is going to graduate - from somewhere. I look forward to more sparring with him when he returns to my office. One thing I am certain of is that he will not be using "God" and "dropout" in the same sentence.

Deer People

2011-12-08T07:00:00.000-06:00

During the day today we received an email with information for directing the homeless to the emergency sheltering system that was going to be in place tonight since the forecast called for temperatures below freezing. Since we do not often get temperatures so low, they can be especially deadly for people unaccustomed to them since they likely have few clothes suitable for the cold. In the education system, homelessness has a broader definition than just people sleeping on the streets. While I work with a number of people experiencing homelessness, none of them live on the streets.

Driving home tonight, while stopped at the longest stoplight through which I pass, I glanced over and saw a group of people gathered at the edge of the scrub-brush that had overtaken an unused lot on one corner. They looked like a herd of wild deer, waiting for the sun to go down just a bit more before they ventured out into the clearing to forage. The reality was that they were huddled together, taking what shelter the brush provided. Farther back from the street is the camp where they live in cardboard and tarpaulin structures that provide protection from the sun, wind, and rain, but do little to protect from heat and cold.

The residences there are not new. The well-worn paths out to the street provide ample evidence of regular traffic. The presence of the people in the triangle clearing at the corner of the lot behind the bus stop remind all who pass that way that, while undeveloped, the lot is used. Throughout the day, the residents take turns on the concrete barrier separating the turn lanes from the oncoming traffic panhandling for change. They are hard to miss.

I could not separate the people clustered back at the edge of the grove from the daily Bible passages for this season’s Advent. Here are the poor, the needy, the oppressed, quite possibly the ill. One side of the social war says give me more and I will do more. The other side says take away more from the other side and we will do more. Nothing is being done. Where is the church? Where are the social services providers? Where is anyone who actually does more than use these people as a rallying cry?

Growing up in the country, I used to see just how close I could creep to the wild white-tail deer in our pasture. While they can be quite dangerous, I was not afraid because I knew at the first whiff of me, they would flash those famous white tails and high tail it to the other side of the meadow and beyond. The “deer people” at the corner are not those wild animals in the pasture of my childhood. We cannot wave our hands or walk by with our cologned selves and have them flee deeper into the urban forest, out of sight.

As I caught up on the news of the day, with politicians on both sides blasting the other side of the culture war, I could not help but inject my mental picture of those people from the corner lot into the story and ask who is looking at them when they speak? No one is. Neither side is ready to get their hands dirty and actually get into the trenches with the neediest among us or consider the hypocrisy that we as a society proclaim to value all persons while we daily drive by deteriorating lives and wish they were on some other corner.

The government cannot do it all. The Church cannot do it all. So both sides quickly give up and shift their focus to something with quick results that bring a nice warm feeling to replace the emptiness of that which continues to go undone. Together, though, more can be done than either side could ever do by itself. Governmental entities at the local, state, and Federal levels all have a role in changing the circumstances of the neediest residents under their jurisdiction. I use Church but really mean bodies of faith (churches, synagogues, mosques, etc.) - all have commandments from God to serve the widows, orphans, and needy in their area.

There is room for the 100% to become involved. This is not a 99% problem or a 1% problem. It is not a problem for people of faith or the atheist. It is a people problem. The “deer people” are doing their part: they survive from day to day with remarkable resourcefulness. It is time for the rest of us to emerge from our own forest and do our part.

401

2011-12-05T07:30:00.000-06:00

Without paying much attention to it, I reached my 400^th post. During November I noticed I was into the upper 300’s and thought I should do some special post for number 400, then as I was looking at some visitor statistics, I saw the nice round 400 for total posts. Fortunately, those posts have been spread over 6+ years, so it has not been something I have been addicted to – as I can be with new technology.

After over six years, this is old technology, though I do update the template from time to time and expand it as I become more proficient with the layout. Eventually, I am going to be comfortable enough with some format that I will be managing it with my own website.

As I look over the numbers, the posting has been somewhat consistent over the years, though a couple of the years got a boost with NaBloPoMo as I attempted to write something every day for a month.

2005 – 2 posts (created and forgot it in a month’s time)

2006 – 41 posts (rediscovered it and started exploring)

2007 – 109 posts (really embraced the blog)

2008 – 64 posts (grad school took a toll)

2009 – 57 posts (more grad school)

2010 – 64 posts (finished grad school)

2011 – 62 posts and counting (including this one)

I have met over 20 people in person because of the blog – most of whom I met on a 24 hour trip to New York and back for a blogger picnic. I am still in contact with three of those people. Additionally, I have formed friendships with the two west-coaster bloggers I met while in Los Angeles a few years ago.

This continues to be a fun little aside for me. I have never sought to give it much purpose like the other blogs I write or to which I contribute, or make it into anything profitable as have some of the blogs I follow. I just like to write whatever comes to mind and toss it out there for the amusement of others. And so it goes.

Here’s to 401 and counting.

Just in Time

2011-12-04T16:51:00.001-06:00

Some days demand that everything work right lest they turn into disaster. Yesterday was one of those days for me. By quirk of calendar, I ended up coordinating two events at the same time. Fortunately, they were both at the same location, so I could run back and forth between them. Despite their proximity, for them to work, both had to run exactly on time so I could do my necessary duties for each one.

Like clockwork each event went off on cue.

Part was due to simple good luck. Part was due to my ability to plan and schedule.

In the last few years, I have recognized that I have a photographic calendar in my mine. I remember details, dates, and days of the week almost perfectly. I am not one of those super-humans who can instantly recall the information, but with a little thought, I am able to get it. Such organization comes in handy with the many projects I have going on simultaneously.

One thing I discovered and have really been thinking about following an innocent comment of one of the participants yesterday was that I do not do a good job of communicating my organization.

As long as I am in charge and able to directly command the situation everything works great. The moment I step aside and assume others know what is going on, confusion and chaos take over. I need to learn to communicate the details of my organization much more effectively, so others have a better understanding of what is going on. People look at me as a leader, but I can see that this is one area of development I need to manage.

By luck, both events worked out yesterday, but I cannot count on luck happening every time I manage events. There are many around me who can have a bigger part in the event and themselves become stronger leaders. I made notes throughout the day yesterday and now am working out formats for communicating the organization I have in my head so I do not have to count on events playing out just in time.

World AIDS Day 2011

2011-12-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

World AIDS Day each year has for years been one of the most moving days of the year for me. In the years before I came out, and in the early days of HIV/AIDS the day symbolized a time of fear an uncertainty. From the time HIV/AIDS was a topic for debate while I was in high school, I stayed update with news regarding the spread of the infection as well as the treatment for persons infect with the virus.

Sadly, for years there was not much good news with the disease, but over the years medications and prevention have made a difference and we begin now the fourth decade of recognition of the disease and progress continues to be made, but we cannot forget the toll of the disease on the community and populations around the world.

Robert Klitzman, M.D.: World AIDS Day 2011: Entering The Fourth Decade Of HIV:

'via Blog this'

Klitzman, a long time physician gives some insight into the progress. While there is much to celebrate on this World AIDS Day, we must also continue to remember the millions lost and redouble our efforts to create an HIV free generation by 2015.

Exercising My Fingers

2011-11-30T07:00:00.002-06:00

Now that thirty days have passed, with writing every day, I managed to get thirty-two posts online in the time frame. Unfortunately I goofed and did not set the publication time correctly for one post and posted two on one day and missed a post on the next day – something I discovered after the fact. My attempt at NaBloPoMo was both a success and a disappointment. Because I am also writing an Advent blog, which has led to posts on two blogs since Sunday, I do not know if I have it in me to compose two blogs a day through most of December.

Fortunately the Advent blog comes with built in inspiration of the scripture passages for each day of the period.

This blog requires me to find inspiration somewhere in life either from what I am reading, watching or doing. Fortunately I do not sit still very often so come across something worth saying more often than not. I just do not force myself into it on a regular basis like I do this month.

Fortunately this month a confluence of events presented the opportunity to again focus on reading and writing. The time change coupled with canceling cable television gave me so much more time to engage in creative endeavors. I rarely “watched” television before cancelling the cable – or so I thought. I have found that even though I usually only had it on for noise, I paid much more attention than I thought I did because I have had so much more free time now that the television is not on.

My greatest distraction now comes when I leave an instant messenger on and start getting chat messages from various friends. That too, is something I am learning to turn off while I turn on my brain and exercising my fingers.

Free Black Friday!

2011-11-29T07:00:00.001-06:00

Black Friday for me involved staying home avoiding the masses, and other than looking for a food disposal to replace mine which stopped working the day before Thanksgiving, I did not even begin to shop for the holidays. I have not yet decided what to get anyone for Christmas this year, so I guess I better start shopping soon. I did however purchase a few days of pure pleasure for me on Amazon. iTunes has free songs each week. Amazon music has free songs AND entire free albums.

Most of the free albums on Amazon are music samplers from various music publishers, but so far, everything I have downloaded from classical to world music has been music that I would listen to at length. While the process can be a bit tedious and the system does not warn you when you have already purchased (grabbed, snatched, taken) an album which sometimes leads to a double download of a particular selection, it can easily be cleaned up after they make their way into iTunes with the display duplicates function. Since my Black Friday raid on the free music on Amazon, I have been listening to a variety of artists I likely would never have experienced.

Which is exactly what the free music push-outs on iTunes and Amazon would like.

I like some new artists I probably would not have sought out on my own, but now that I am familiar with them, I am much more likely to search out something they have for sale on one of the music sites.

I have not played with the Amazon cloud player enough yet, but have played with the iTunes program enough to know that I like having a wide variety of music available at nearly any time. It comes in handy at work when I cannot count on otherwise streaming music to fill my office and have to rely on the radio.

Fortunately there is a classical music station I pick up most of the time.

Not long ago, I relied on the radio for the majority of my musical exposure, but in the last six years, I have hardly listened to commercial music. With friends posting music on social media, the period of time I had satellite radio, and now with the streaming music sources, I hardly turn on the radio more than to get my daily news fix in the morning and evenings.

I am happy with the much broader variety of music I get now than ever before – and the much broader selection than I can get from the broadcast stations in Austin. Honestly, I cannot slam them too much because I have not listened to them in such a long time, I could not tell you the format of any but the local NPR station and local classical music station. I stopped listening to them for a reason, and the few times I have turned one or the other on, I heard nothing new that made me want to come back on a regular basis.

For the time being, I am going to continue taking advantage of the music to which I have access via social media, streaming music stations, and the other random sources.

And I’m going to continue growing my music library whenever I can.

iTraining

2011-11-28T07:00:00.002-06:00

I do not know where my puppies, Bart and Lisa, got the idea that digging in daddy’s pot plants was a good idea or a fun thing to do, but lately it is one of their favorite things to do. They have also taken to biting limbs off the shrubs in the back yard.

I give them plenty of toys and give them new ones when I suspect they are being bored of the ones they have.

Still, they manage to be destructive.

Bringing the plants most threatened by the promised freeze we were to get with the latest cold front reminded me to be prepared for puppy damage. I have spent two years nurturing pineapple plants grown from the top of two pineapples I purchased on a whim (and during a particularly good sale) at the local grocery store. They managed to knock one off the plant stand in the yard twice and I worried about what they would do to it in my kitchen.

After playing with a couple placements, I think I found a spot where the plants will get enough light and not be in the path of the puppies running area. Much of what they do in the house is not malicious; it is brute muscle carelessness as they run around playing. And some of it is just them being puppies.

Still, I have to clean up after them.

Realizing that they are just puppies, I am ok with doing it. Unfortunately I can never catch them in the act because they are always nearly angels when I am home. They manage to do the damage when I am at work. I need to get a nanny-cam so I can see which of them does what during the day when I am at work.

Of course that would work best if I had a remote control and could watch the camera from my desk at work and activate a recorded “Stop!” command when I saw them doing something they were not supposed to be doing. I have an iPhone and my home theater system is connected to iTunes. Surely there is an app for that.

And Now I Bleed

2011-11-27T12:54:00.000-06:00

Shaving remains the personal grooming activity I like the least. On weekends and holidays from work, I avoid shaving as much as possible and only shave for special reasons. I see why a month like November can become a month like Movember, a month for men to grow out their facial hair, would catch on. I could participate in something like that.

Except four days of facial hair annoys me about as much as shaving, so I give in.

And now I bleed.

One of the side effects of not shaving for several days is that I always nick myself trying to get every bit of the thick stubble. I keep a styptic stick and toilet paper handy, but I think I am a slow bleeder. It always appears after I have finished my shower and gotten dressed.

So, many of my shirts end up with blood stains around the collar because my Adam’s apple always gets the nick.

Honestly, I cannot grow a good beard. I have too many thin patches on my face. I could get a good moustache going and maybe even a goatee, but that takes even more work because it involves shaving AND trimming. Until someone comes up with a remedy for facial hair, I will continue to shave and I will continue to have my breaks from shaving.

And I will continue to bleed.

Blah

2011-11-26T19:54:00.002-06:00

The company at Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful, but the food was, by my standards, a great disappointment. The challenge has been to figure out what I would have done differently. Going into the meal, I was concerned that people would find the food too spicy for their liking; instead the food came out bland. After going through the consideration of making new foods for Thanksgiving, I decided to stick with the traditional foods I have cooked for years.

Because I have made these dishes many times, there was no excuse for them turning out the way they did.

I have gone over everything I could imagine that could cause the dishes to come out the way they did.

I purchased the ingredients just days before preparing the meal, so everything was fresh.

I did not have a cold or sinus problems affecting my sense of taste or smell.

Still, something had to be going on for every dish to come out so bland tasting that I was embarrassed to serve it. Of course, I did not know it was so bland until I actually took it out of the oven to serve it.

Everyone who ate the meal said it was wonderful and thanked me many time for having them over, but after tasting the food myself, I am convinced they were just being polite. Despite their polite assurances, my search continues to get to the origin of blah.

Thanksgiving Lunch 2011

2011-11-24T18:26:00.000-06:00

Of course, I cooked too much, but I do not really know how to do otherwise. The foods today were:

Turkey - soaked in a citrus brine and cooked breast down to stay extra moist. Cooked with lemons, limes, apples and an onion in the cavity for extra flavor.

Cornbread dressing.

Corn pudding - with bacon grease for that extra goodness/badness.

Steamed green beans with bacon and a honey-mustard dressing.

Cranberry salad with fresh cranberries, diced apple, and fine pecan pieces.

And the best part of the meal:

Sweet potato souffle with slivered almonds and brown sugar crust on top. I personally think it is as good as any of the desserts.

And speaking of desserts - pumpkin cheesecake, pecan pie, double layer pumpkin pie, mincemeat pie.

Altogether a pretty nice meal.

Tryptophan Dreams

2011-11-24T17:05:00.002-06:00

If I judge the goodness of a meal by the silence around the table, I think today was fairly successful. After my friends and I filled our plates, we sat in silence as we made our way through the different dishes. After having a few pieces of pie, we settled into a post-meal stupor watching football and different YouTube videos.

This is such a nice way to spend the holiday. Ample food to share with friends and then just hanging out is the way to spend the holiday. Cooking and sharing the table is one of my favorite activities - and is made even better when I get to share with friends I do not get to see very often. In spite of the stress that often comes with the holidays, the chance to spend quality time with with friends and family.

I like it for the chance to spend quality time in the kitchen whipping up some of my favorite foods that are not always the best for me. Even thought I do not eat nearly enough turkey for the tryptophan to truly be an issue, I enjoy it for the opportunity to blame it for an afternoon nap while the games play on in the background.

So will belly full and dishes washed, I nap and am thankful.

Another Week of Running - Week 4

2011-11-23T23:09:00.000-06:00

One upside of food poisoning is the weight loss. I lost ten pounds in a week, but it comes with the down side of almost no energy. On my first run of the week, after not running for a week and a half, I only made it 3/4 of a mile before I was completely exhausted. I walked another quarter mile and tried to run the mile back. This time I only made it 1/2 mile before I could not run any farther.

Probably the worst part of the second stretch of running is that it re-aggravated the pulled muscle in my back. Apparently it was not as healed as I thought it was. I'm going to have to take some time doing other exercises to get more of my core strengthened so I can do as much running as I would like to.

Following the bad run, I decided to start doing some weight lifting and other actions to strengthen the core, but my back kept that from going as far as I wanted it to. I have just been focusing on stretching. Hopefully in a few days I will be back into condition to run again because I truly enjoy it for the health benefits and stress relief.

Cooking with My Besties

2011-11-22T21:59:00.002-06:00

This week I purchase an extra bottle of dishwashing liquid so I could run the dishwasher as often as I needed while preparing the Thanksgiving dinner for friends and family. Even running the dishwasher every time I get it filled, I never seem to have the dishes I want to use, though anyone who has ever been in my kitchen knows I have more than enough dishes to stock a small restaurant.

It is just that there is always the one pan I REALLY want to use that happens to be in mid-cycle in the dishwasher.

Some dishes just seem to be best for cooking, stirring, mixing, storing, etc. I have my favorite knives, spoons, mixing bowls as well as my favorite appliances. All of them work together to make cooking as much fun as it is for me. And with the holiday preparations in full swing, I am making the most of them in everything I do.