Revisiting resolutions

It’s a bad sign that I had to re-read my post to remind myself of my resolutions.

Let’s take a look at how I am doing.

Have a clean and organized craft room by January 31st.
Well, things are not ‘clean and organized’ so much as they are ‘a hell of a lot better than they were’. I shifted some things around, but I still have more work to do. I do have a proper jewelry work station and I have been making things, so progress has been made.

Learn how to work sewing machine by Feb 28th. (know how to turn it on, thread it, stitch in a straight line, etc.)
This isn’t going to happen this month. I need to finish up my craft room and get to work on jewelry before I do anything else. Learning the sewing machine is a want, not a need.

Work on cohesive festival setup to be used in spring and going forward by March 31. (This will have to be done in collaboration with other half of Wanderland) Focus on portable, beautiful, sustainable, easy to set up and break down.

This has to happen – April is going to be crazy, and we need a good setup. I already have some ideas and having a deadline and someone to whom I am accountable really helps.

Ongoing goals:

1. Put 10% of each paycheck in to savings. Adjust based on personal economy. Always put *something* in every check.
2. Take a picture. (This is where hopeful me would tack “every day” at the end of this, but I’ll just start with one. Take a picture.)
3. Continue to work on bringing the things I like best about myself to the forefront, and work on resolving/understanding/repairing the things I don’t.
4. Do not put off cleaning till tomorrow what will take 10 damn minutes today, for goodness sake.

1. I am not putting 10% away, but I am putting something away every check.
2. I have taken some pictures. Not daily, but certainly some.
3. Work in progress.
4. Trying to get better at this. Am possibly a little better than I was.

That’s it for now. Things are a little crazy thanks to factors beyond my control, but I suppose that’s just how life is.

Ambivalence

I read this article the other day from Fast Company about Walmart’s attempt to create a “Sustainability Index” that will require suppliers to add sustainability info to their labels. They’re working with the folks from The Good Guide and they are handing the reins over to a 3rd party group rather than running it themselves so this project does have some legitimacy to it. Granted, this is not done with pure intentions – but things so rarely are these days. I don’t mind if there’s a marketing reason behind something if it’s the right thing to do and it’s done properly.

Between thinking about that and a conversation last night, I’ve decided Walmart really represents my total ambivalence about what ‘doing the right thing’ means.

Walmart has some really terrible practices – they discriminate, they encourage the disposable lifestyle, they represent the fast cheap fix and the uncaring consumer. One point I had never thought about that much until last night is this: the cycle of terrible eating practices is often perpetuated by the prices at Walmart and other places – the food that is terrible for you is cheap and easy and usually on sale. The food that is good for you and the planet requires work and effort, and often costs more money. For folks working themselves to the bone just to make ends meet, the idea of shopping local markets and then spending half an hour or more on prep seems impossible. Also local markets often can’t take EBT due the individual nature of the vendors and the market, so it’s a lot harder to buy local if you’re on any kind of assistance.

On the other hand, Walmart also provides jobs for thousands of people who might have a difficult time finding work otherwise and provides a basic standard of living that many people might not be able to otherwise afford. One personal story I know keeps me from just outright hating Walmart without a second thought. A friend had a series of circumstances that forced him to quit his well paying job and then pick up again at Walmart, one of the places that would hire him and that had jobs available. He worked hard there and is now in management. Not many companies provide second chances for people, and in some locations, it’s work at Walmart, or don’t work. Also, the options, at least where I am, are generally not any better. They don’t have markedly better practices or items and there are some items that are just impossible for me to get locally, so I have to shop somewhere.

I’m left with a real problem – do I support a big box company with shady practices while they try and do the right thing for morally questionable reasons? When it comes to food, that’s not a question – it’s easy enough in this day and age and location to avoid those stores for what goes on my plate. It’s all the other items that really leave me wondering what to do, and I haven’t found a good answer yet.

Thinking about my dad today

Note I wrote my dad when I was young

My mom and dad at a friend’s wedding

Dad as a young man

My dad loves science fiction. He loaned me this book

Younger dad, playing some chess

Dad in the santa hat he wears every xmas

Mustard making

The other day, I was reading up on mustard. We don’t have the kind of time it will take to explain how I got to that point. The end result was that I picked up a container of yellow mustard seed at the farmer’s market, and last night before bed, I set the wheels in motion to have a batch of mustard completed before I went to sleep tonight.

I would suggest you do your own research about mustard to familiarize yourself with the (very few) basic principles behind it. The thing that all sites seem to agree on is that you should never use metal anything when making mustard. It corrodes metal and it will make your mustard ugly to look at, nasty to taste, and possibly hazardous to your heath. The other thing is that mustard does not need to be refrigerated unless you have a large amount of non-acidic additions. The longer you leave mustard out of the fridge, the more it will mellow.

The recipe I followed was this one:right here. I made a few changes, although nothing major. Follow the link for the original.
6 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds

High and mighty and pretty self-righteous. But it’s my blog, so I get to be that way.

All week I’ve been watching the commentary on facebook – my friends’ statuses are a pretty good cross-section of general opinion since people from various points in my life have all developed in different directions over time. Ignoring the fact that anyone who uses facebook inherently represents a certain level of privilege, it’s interesting to see what people think about the crisis in Hati and the democratic party loss in MA yesterday.

The thing that struck me the most was the sheer volume of selfish, shortsighted, greedy comments.

Now, I realize I was raised in a virtually socialist household. My mother is English, both of my parents are highly educated, and have spent their lives educating others. They donate to charities, help individuals when they can, and are some of the kindest people you could hope to come across. My biases are pretty plain, and it’s no mystery where my attitudes come from.

That being said, I find it simply unbelievable how many people feel justified in saying things like “Don’t give the Haitians free shit!”, “So sick of handouts to people who don’t contribute to our country!”, etc. I am willing to bet 100% of them would expect some help if a flood washed away their house, if the earth cracked open and sucked their life in, if winds came through and knocked over every solid foundation, if a fire toasted the roof over their heads and the bed they sleep in. It’s easy to sit back and be judgmental when you’ve never encountered any hardship and the worst crisis you face is not being able to afford a vacation this year. The sheer disgusting selfishness of those attitudes makes me sick to my stomach.

I don’t have a solution to the world’s problems and I don’t pretend to know everyone’s circumstances. My expectation is not that people give until they deprive themselves or their families and I think people have a reasonable expectation to enjoy the things and money that they have worked hard for. But for the love of pete, try not to be a complete selfish jackass who can’t think past the gimmie gimmie attitude to understand that not everyone is like you. Not everyone has a choice, and not everyone has the chances you’ve had. Try to muster just the tiniest amount of sympathy for someone other than yourself. Please.

Did I tell you I went skiing?

I did! And I stayed up more than I fell down!

A post that will not have an accompanying picture.

This is where I use my bra as a metaphor for discovering that things aren’t really what you thought they where. That’s right. Close browser now if you don’t want to read about it.

Briefly: due to a professional fitting, I discovered that my rib cage is 4-6 inches smaller than I thought it was. 4-6 inches. That’s a hell of a lot. I’ve been wandering around in ill fitting undergarments for years and years because I assumed certain things. So.. how many other things in my life aren’t what I thought they were? What else am I going to find out if I examine things closely and not assume that the way I have been doing things is the way I should be doing things?

New Year’s Goals

Photos from our NYE party, courtesy Bonnie Heath Photography

I’ve been reading a lot of assorted posts, status updates, and comments about resolutions lately. No big surprise – it’s the new year and time for that sort of thing. The things I have been reading range from pretty specific plans down to the simple but lovely idea that the writer is happy with themselves and is just going to continue on their path. I’m caught somewhere in between – I don’t want to change a lot of things about myself, but there are certainly things I want to work towards. I had a small experience on NYE that reminded me of the person I want to be now and the things I want to have and the kinds of decisions I want to make.

With that in mind, I decided that I need to create a plan that works the way I work. My friend Joe pointed out that tacking “every day” to the end of any resolution is a good way to fail fast. Every day is very difficult, especially for a new habit you want to develop. Not to say that your goals shouldn’t require some work – just that setting yourself up to fail isn’t a good way to achieve anything. As much as the state of my kitchen doesn’t reflect it, I’m a perfectionist and incredibly hard on myself when I fail. This leads to a large amount of not trying – if I don’t try, I certainly won’t fail. However, if I don’t try, I certainly won’t anything. It’s very hard for me to go after what I really want because then I have to reveal things about myself to the outside world, and I have to accept public humiliation if I fail in front of others. However, not trying doesn’t really seem to be working out, so it’s time to try a different tactic. Hence, my public list of goals. Some have dates because I do much better with deadlines.

Deadline items:
1. Have a clean and organized craft room by January 31st.
2. Learn how to work sewing machine by Feb 28th. (know how to turn it on, thread it, stitch in a straight line, etc.)
3. Work on cohesive festival setup to be used in spring and going forward by March 31. (This will have to be done in collaboration with other half of Wanderland) Focus on portable, beautiful, sustainable, easy to set up and break down.
4. Learn how to use new camera (i.e. understand all settings) by April 30.
4. Visit friends in SF by June 30th.
5. Create goals for second half of year by July 15th.

Ongoing items:
1. Put 10% of each paycheck in to savings. Adjust based on personal economy. Always put *something* in every check.
2. Take a picture. (This is where hopeful me would tack “every day” at the end of this, but I’ll just start with one. Take a picture.)
3. Continue to work on bringing the things I like best about myself to the forefront, and work on resolving/understanding/repairing the things I don’t.
4. Do not put off cleaning till tomorrow what will take 10 damn minutes today, for goodness sake.

Check back for progress updates! Writing about things here is the way I am going to hold myself accountable.

The sunday after

This is unrelated but adorable. My cat tried to blend with the decor

I’m having a pretty lazy Sunday after a busy few days. In my fridge is a mishmash of leftovers that I am going to turn in to dinner. I have stuffing, I have pie… I needed something healthy to go with, so here’s a little lentil soup recipe that I whipped up.

1/2 c dried lentils. I used the orange ones that are often used for dal. They break up when cooked.
3 c water
1 tablespoon better than bullion no chicken chicken broth (fee free to deviate – use canned broth instead of the water/bullion combo and use veggie/chicken/turkey stock if you like. Whatever you’ve got laying around should work, really)
1 medium shallot, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme (you can use 1 teaspoon dried, but I really suggest the fresh if you can get it) leaves removed from the stem
Salt to taste while cooking

Put all ingredients in a medium saucepan and simmer for about 20 minutes – till the lentils are tender and breaking up. For a creamy soup, take out 1/2 of the soup, blend, and pour back in the pan.

Bonus usage: Don’t blend the soup – drain all liquid and put the solids in a blender and whirl till it’s a paste. You’ve just made lentil dip!

The Good Guide

You may not be aware of this, but I love gadgets and applications and new programs and basically… toys. Since I am not exactly diving in and out of my gold coins like Scrooge McDuck, cool things that are free pretty much make me do inner cartwheels. (Outer cartwheels usually end in disaster)

Enter The Good Guide for iPhone – you can scan the barcode of a product and the app will tell you the Good Guide rating for that product. What is The Good Guide, you might ask? In their own words:

GoodGuide is building a comprehensive source of information on the environmental, social, and health performance of products and companies. The GoodGuide team works with a network of leading academic institutions, government data sources, non-governmental organizations, and private research firms to bring world-class information to consumers.

I did a little reading on the site about the methodology that they use and I feel like they are fairly up front about the difficulty in rating a company on a 1 to 10 scale when so many factors involved. If a company uses quality natural ingredients but has terrible labor practices, where does that leave you? Should you buy the product or not? They have taken a lot of these things in to account and they also have some warnings about using their data since they can only report using information that has been made public, and that doesn’t always tell the whole story.

Overall, I really like having this app. It helps with decision making in the store and gives you a way to find out about companies that you might not otherwise investigate. I can’t tell you how many pictures I have saved of things I meant to look up later and never did – the age of the internet may be making us stupid in a general sense, but it’s also making us more aware consumers and big companies can’t hide the way they used to.

Click on the picture above to be taken to The Good Guide’s site. There’s a link to the app there and you can also search ‘Good Guide’ in the app store to find it.