And here's a creepy song for a creepy day!
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Happy Halloween!!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN Y'ALL!!
Yes, that does light up. And the pig makes...noise.
And here's a creepy song for a creepy day!
And here's a creepy song for a creepy day!
Monday, October 29, 2012
The "Lift and Look" Button
As promised, I need to update y’all on the status of the internetting. So Freedompop.com has a pretty cool deal where you can get a certain, finite (500 mb) of internet for free, so long as you buy their little 4G adapter. Vonderbar. After I finally got the dang dongle, things were pretty swell. As long as I can find 4G, I get really fast service. There was a glitch though and my account was not connected to my device for the first week. As soon as they realized that I was basically able to infinitely watch youtube, they cut me off. One recurring problem is that they don’t have phone representatives to deal with glitches. A fresh-out-of-college type called me a couple of days ago letting me know everything was ok so I have internet for homework again. W00t!
On a quick note, I might be babysitting Einstein. I was walking with the Little Bear to the park and we passed a clothing donation box I’d never noticed before. She starts saying “SHOE! SHOE! shoe shoe shoe shoe!” I turned around looking for shoes. There were none, just the words “Clothes and Shoes.” Ok, well...it could have been a fluke.... So on the way back, I passed the same box and said “Little Bear, what does this say?” pointing to the word “Shoes”. She, very bashfully says “shoe. Shoe.” Have I mentioned she isn’t even 2?!
I had a couple really cool wins this week and only one fail. The first was making pickles (cucumber). Turns out there’s a season for that (who knew?) and it’s so easy I accidentally did it right. Feel free to comment or e-mail me if you want the recipe.
Second win: Pumpkin Soup Secondary Success. So I posted a pretty yummy recipe for pumpkin soup last week. One of the annoying things about soup is that it just sits there. I got bored pretty quickly and it just so happened that PartnerPenguin made Chicky with Beer Can Up It’s Butt and dirty rice (mushrooms, chicken liver and brown rice this time...not the good version, I’ll post that some other time) for dinner because the mushrooms were turning. Next day, I threw in a helping of rice/mushrooms, shredded a handful and a half of chicken and added it to the pumpkin soup. I also added a teaspoon of some crazy concentrated ginger stuff ( It’s called “Ginger Juice" by the Ginger People I’m sure some straight up ginger or even ginger powder would work) and some Cock Sauce (it’s red chili paste, it has a rooster and the label is in a language which is not English). It was so filling and delicious!! Cock Sauce saves meals!
Third win: Ok, a bit of back story is that winter’s coming and it’s going to be flippin’ cold. PartnerPenguin and I were debating whether to get an electric blanket but Professor Lightyear suggested that I should do the calculations on rates before we bought something which used that much electricity. Good call!!
Our bill is for both gas and electricity. In my physics class, we learned about the Joule as the standard measurment of energy. They measure gas in Therms (a British unit of measurement which, like every other Imperial measurement makes 0 sense) and electricity in Kilowatt Hours, neither of which appear to be related. But if you simply multiply the amount of Therms by (number Therms)*(105,480,400 J/1 Therm) and the Kwh by (number Kwh)*(3.6 x10^6 J/1kwh), you can easily bring them to be the same units. They are freaking huge numbers though, so I see why they put the other units in.
Anyway, I added them up to get the total, then I set a ratio where on one side I had gas usage over the total and the other side I had (x/100). I found that the gas usage was 93.61% of the total usage. This meant Electricity was 6.39%. Ok. So I set up the same ratio with the gas price over the total. I found that while gas was used a helluva lot more, electricity cost 30% of the total bill. 7% usage for 30% of the total price. WHAAAAT??!
Ok, so I'm sorry for everyone who thinks that's trivial but I've never thought of it before. Actually seeing that electricity is hella expensive just..made it so much more real. So...we're looking into other options for heating besides an electric blanket. We'll see how it works.
My biggest fail of the week: I bought a $20 toaster to fix my $2 bread mistake. We didn't previously have a toaster so when PartnerPenguin saw a yardsale in the little lot up the street, I went to check it out. Ususally the stuff in that lot is...um...soiled... so my hopes weren't high. It turns out these people were just getting rid of stuff. The aforementinoed toaster was the fanciest toaster I've ever seen. The seller wanted $25 and I thought that toasters shouldn't cost more than $10. The seller admitted that he had paid $130 at Sur La Table for it. While I dileberated, some guy came up and bought a spoon. It wouldn't have been so obvious why he wanted just one spoon if he hadn't DROPPED HIS DRUGS on the ground. After that, I just felt bad for them so I talked him down to $20 and got the thing.
Albeit expensive, it does have a "a bit more" button and a "lift and look" button.
Unfortunately, it does not fix the fact that CHEAP BREAD STILL SUCKS. Putting my stale-ass cheap bread in got it toasty but not actually any more tasty.
One day, I will have enough money to buy decent bread again. :womp:
___________________________________________
Leek Soup
1-2 cloves garlic, depending on if you love garlic
1 medium onion
1 big leek or 2 small leeks (They look like green fans on white clubs. Kinda heavy)
4ish carrots
4-5 medium potatoes, peeled or well scrubbed if you like their skins
2 tsp Better Than Bullion, dissolved in 2 c water
2-4 bay leaves, depending how big they are
.....I should really write down the names of my spices when I buy them...
I think it was something like Italian Seasoning and Thyme. I wouldn't reccommend Oregano for this. Something savory, maybe some Rosemary but not too much.
Mince garlic. The smaller the better, this way you don't bite into it.
Cut up onion. Cool trick if you have really dull knife: stick onion in freezer for ~5 minutes. It lessens the amount you cry.
You can sautee these two if you so desire.
Cut carrots into lengths about 2 knuckles long. Cut potatoes into thin slices, about 1/3 the width of your finger, if you can. They cook faster if they're thin. They're also easier to mash, should you choose. Clean the leek well, they tend to store dirt in weird places. Cut the white part with a width of about 1/2 to a full width of your finger. You can throw out the green part, it doesn't taste very good.
Ok, two cooking options. You can dump everything in a crock pot on low (including the spices) for like...hours. Or you can put everything in a pot and simmer it for a couple hours. I did the crock-pot so I'm not sure how long for the pot option. I think it's in the 2-3 hour arena.
After it's all yummy and cooked, you can either eat it as is or mash it up in either a food processor or with a masher. If it's mashed and cooled (when you put it away) you can stir in about a tablespoon of cream per 2 cups and eat cold. That way of serving it is called Vichyssoise. Super rich that way though. It's pretty good hot or cold, unlike Katy Perry's former lover, I'm sure.
This song is dedicated to a friend of mine who got me a card once that had a picture of a rock, and a star and on the inside said "party like one." Win.
On a quick note, I might be babysitting Einstein. I was walking with the Little Bear to the park and we passed a clothing donation box I’d never noticed before. She starts saying “SHOE! SHOE! shoe shoe shoe shoe!” I turned around looking for shoes. There were none, just the words “Clothes and Shoes.” Ok, well...it could have been a fluke.... So on the way back, I passed the same box and said “Little Bear, what does this say?” pointing to the word “Shoes”. She, very bashfully says “shoe. Shoe.” Have I mentioned she isn’t even 2?!
I had a couple really cool wins this week and only one fail. The first was making pickles (cucumber). Turns out there’s a season for that (who knew?) and it’s so easy I accidentally did it right. Feel free to comment or e-mail me if you want the recipe.
Second win: Pumpkin Soup Secondary Success. So I posted a pretty yummy recipe for pumpkin soup last week. One of the annoying things about soup is that it just sits there. I got bored pretty quickly and it just so happened that PartnerPenguin made Chicky with Beer Can Up It’s Butt and dirty rice (mushrooms, chicken liver and brown rice this time...not the good version, I’ll post that some other time) for dinner because the mushrooms were turning. Next day, I threw in a helping of rice/mushrooms, shredded a handful and a half of chicken and added it to the pumpkin soup. I also added a teaspoon of some crazy concentrated ginger stuff ( It’s called “Ginger Juice" by the Ginger People I’m sure some straight up ginger or even ginger powder would work) and some Cock Sauce (it’s red chili paste, it has a rooster and the label is in a language which is not English). It was so filling and delicious!! Cock Sauce saves meals!
Third win: Ok, a bit of back story is that winter’s coming and it’s going to be flippin’ cold. PartnerPenguin and I were debating whether to get an electric blanket but Professor Lightyear suggested that I should do the calculations on rates before we bought something which used that much electricity. Good call!!
Our bill is for both gas and electricity. In my physics class, we learned about the Joule as the standard measurment of energy. They measure gas in Therms (a British unit of measurement which, like every other Imperial measurement makes 0 sense) and electricity in Kilowatt Hours, neither of which appear to be related. But if you simply multiply the amount of Therms by (number Therms)*(105,480,400 J/1 Therm) and the Kwh by (number Kwh)*(3.6 x10^6 J/1kwh), you can easily bring them to be the same units. They are freaking huge numbers though, so I see why they put the other units in.
Anyway, I added them up to get the total, then I set a ratio where on one side I had gas usage over the total and the other side I had (x/100). I found that the gas usage was 93.61% of the total usage. This meant Electricity was 6.39%. Ok. So I set up the same ratio with the gas price over the total. I found that while gas was used a helluva lot more, electricity cost 30% of the total bill. 7% usage for 30% of the total price. WHAAAAT??!
Ok, so I'm sorry for everyone who thinks that's trivial but I've never thought of it before. Actually seeing that electricity is hella expensive just..made it so much more real. So...we're looking into other options for heating besides an electric blanket. We'll see how it works.
My biggest fail of the week: I bought a $20 toaster to fix my $2 bread mistake. We didn't previously have a toaster so when PartnerPenguin saw a yardsale in the little lot up the street, I went to check it out. Ususally the stuff in that lot is...um...soiled... so my hopes weren't high. It turns out these people were just getting rid of stuff. The aforementinoed toaster was the fanciest toaster I've ever seen. The seller wanted $25 and I thought that toasters shouldn't cost more than $10. The seller admitted that he had paid $130 at Sur La Table for it. While I dileberated, some guy came up and bought a spoon. It wouldn't have been so obvious why he wanted just one spoon if he hadn't DROPPED HIS DRUGS on the ground. After that, I just felt bad for them so I talked him down to $20 and got the thing.
Albeit expensive, it does have a "a bit more" button and a "lift and look" button.
Unfortunately, it does not fix the fact that CHEAP BREAD STILL SUCKS. Putting my stale-ass cheap bread in got it toasty but not actually any more tasty.
One day, I will have enough money to buy decent bread again. :womp:
___________________________________________
Leek Soup
1-2 cloves garlic, depending on if you love garlic
1 medium onion
1 big leek or 2 small leeks (They look like green fans on white clubs. Kinda heavy)
4ish carrots
4-5 medium potatoes, peeled or well scrubbed if you like their skins
2 tsp Better Than Bullion, dissolved in 2 c water
2-4 bay leaves, depending how big they are
.....I should really write down the names of my spices when I buy them...
I think it was something like Italian Seasoning and Thyme. I wouldn't reccommend Oregano for this. Something savory, maybe some Rosemary but not too much.
Mince garlic. The smaller the better, this way you don't bite into it.
Cut up onion. Cool trick if you have really dull knife: stick onion in freezer for ~5 minutes. It lessens the amount you cry.
You can sautee these two if you so desire.
Cut carrots into lengths about 2 knuckles long. Cut potatoes into thin slices, about 1/3 the width of your finger, if you can. They cook faster if they're thin. They're also easier to mash, should you choose. Clean the leek well, they tend to store dirt in weird places. Cut the white part with a width of about 1/2 to a full width of your finger. You can throw out the green part, it doesn't taste very good.
Ok, two cooking options. You can dump everything in a crock pot on low (including the spices) for like...hours. Or you can put everything in a pot and simmer it for a couple hours. I did the crock-pot so I'm not sure how long for the pot option. I think it's in the 2-3 hour arena.
After it's all yummy and cooked, you can either eat it as is or mash it up in either a food processor or with a masher. If it's mashed and cooled (when you put it away) you can stir in about a tablespoon of cream per 2 cups and eat cold. That way of serving it is called Vichyssoise. Super rich that way though. It's pretty good hot or cold, unlike Katy Perry's former lover, I'm sure.
This song is dedicated to a friend of mine who got me a card once that had a picture of a rock, and a star and on the inside said "party like one." Win.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Fluff Fluff Pass
So last week, I learned why every single babysitter/nanny/caregiver site requires you to be current in your First Aid and CPR. If you aren't, do it. Immediately.
The Bear family (who are also friends, on top of being employers) invited us to a fancy museum not last Saturday but the one before. Little Bear found the birds more amusing than the art (they were black but secretly had red wings) and I noticed as she ran that her little nose was running. Great, work on Monday would...not be pleasant if it turned into a full-blown cold.
Sure enough I get a text from Mama Bear on Sunday that Monday would consist of endless wiping of baby snoozles (her word for snot). Woo. Hoo. But I was feeling pretty healthy, taking my vitimins and stuff so I was up to the challenge.
Monday brought probably one of the strangest/scariest babysitting days of my life. It turns out that "lethargy" in babies means that they lie on the ground next to their favorite toy and flail their arms at it because they don't have enough energy to stand up and play with it. I picked her up and had her nap on my lap with her head angled so she could breathe easier. Soon after she woke up, her parents came home and I reported the odd behaviors. I looked up her other symptoms such as rapid breathing (>50 breaths per minute) on the internet and it said to call 911 immediately. Mama Bear called, dubious because so often the internet is wrong. 911 people said to stay put and they were sending an ambulance immediately, it really did warrent the call.
I drove the family's car to the hospital where I waited with them in the ER and gave the doctors all of the information about that morning since I'd been with her the whole time. Oma Bear (Little Bear's grandmother) came to help and I went home.
I was really unsure about whether or not to share this story because I have felt really guilty since it happened that I didn't call 911 earlier. Then I talked with an advisor-figure who said that it is a matter of experience. I had never seen a child in respiratory distress, neither had her parents, so we did not know what was going on. I thought maybe I could find some support on the internet of other baby-sitters/nannys who have gone through similar experiences, but there don't seem to be many blogs dedicated to such things. I am thoroughly grateful that there are sites dedicated to diagnosing symptoms though, so we could figure out before the pediatrician called that calling 911 was necessary. I think upon feeling badly; I hadn't considered that if the internet wasn't there, it actually might have been another hour till 911 was called. So the internet is the hero of the story again.
I would like to state that there are even fewer blogs dedicated to people working in childcare (not teaching though) who actually have as awesome a job as me. I realised this when the Bear came home from the hospital and I got to sit for her yesterday. Even after being in a metal cage for 3 days, she is still very playful and now loves her bears even more. Probably the happiest part of my job is tickling her for minutes on end and her giggling. The lack of positive blogs is sad, I think, because a lot of little kids and their parents are awesome people.
Needless to say, my week generally went to crap after that. But some really powerfully positive events changed that around by Friday. One of my good friends, The Romanean, gave me this book:
The Bear family (who are also friends, on top of being employers) invited us to a fancy museum not last Saturday but the one before. Little Bear found the birds more amusing than the art (they were black but secretly had red wings) and I noticed as she ran that her little nose was running. Great, work on Monday would...not be pleasant if it turned into a full-blown cold.
Sure enough I get a text from Mama Bear on Sunday that Monday would consist of endless wiping of baby snoozles (her word for snot). Woo. Hoo. But I was feeling pretty healthy, taking my vitimins and stuff so I was up to the challenge.
Monday brought probably one of the strangest/scariest babysitting days of my life. It turns out that "lethargy" in babies means that they lie on the ground next to their favorite toy and flail their arms at it because they don't have enough energy to stand up and play with it. I picked her up and had her nap on my lap with her head angled so she could breathe easier. Soon after she woke up, her parents came home and I reported the odd behaviors. I looked up her other symptoms such as rapid breathing (>50 breaths per minute) on the internet and it said to call 911 immediately. Mama Bear called, dubious because so often the internet is wrong. 911 people said to stay put and they were sending an ambulance immediately, it really did warrent the call.
I drove the family's car to the hospital where I waited with them in the ER and gave the doctors all of the information about that morning since I'd been with her the whole time. Oma Bear (Little Bear's grandmother) came to help and I went home.
I was really unsure about whether or not to share this story because I have felt really guilty since it happened that I didn't call 911 earlier. Then I talked with an advisor-figure who said that it is a matter of experience. I had never seen a child in respiratory distress, neither had her parents, so we did not know what was going on. I thought maybe I could find some support on the internet of other baby-sitters/nannys who have gone through similar experiences, but there don't seem to be many blogs dedicated to such things. I am thoroughly grateful that there are sites dedicated to diagnosing symptoms though, so we could figure out before the pediatrician called that calling 911 was necessary. I think upon feeling badly; I hadn't considered that if the internet wasn't there, it actually might have been another hour till 911 was called. So the internet is the hero of the story again.
I would like to state that there are even fewer blogs dedicated to people working in childcare (not teaching though) who actually have as awesome a job as me. I realised this when the Bear came home from the hospital and I got to sit for her yesterday. Even after being in a metal cage for 3 days, she is still very playful and now loves her bears even more. Probably the happiest part of my job is tickling her for minutes on end and her giggling. The lack of positive blogs is sad, I think, because a lot of little kids and their parents are awesome people.
Needless to say, my week generally went to crap after that. But some really powerfully positive events changed that around by Friday. One of my good friends, The Romanean, gave me this book:
I spent time with friends. I just took time to myself and then on Sunday, PartnerPenguin and I did something ritzy! We used a Fluff-n-Fold service at the local laundromat (which is called a "washouse" if you live in my neighborhood). If you don't know what that is, it's when you give other people your laundry and they do it for you. It's pretty expensive but it saved us about 5 hours. It turns out that just taking one big stressor out of your life allows you to get a lot done.
I paid this stress-saver forward to Mama Bear and did her laundry for her yesterday. Paying it forward is always the way to spread stress-reduction to those whom you are close to. So do something nice for someone close to you, you never know how much that might relieve the stress on their plate!!
______________________________________________________________________________
Simple, cheap recipe today:
Pumpkin soup:
*One medium, head-sized pumpkin (we found the perfect size for $2.22)
*Either cloves, nutmeg or ginger. All three might taste too much like pie
*Broth (As always, I used 1 tsp Better Than Bullion to 1 cup water) edit: I forgot to mention that it's 1 c broth per every 2 ish cups pumpkin. If your pumpkin looks mushy or like play-doh, ADD WATER!!
Open pumpkin. Take out seeds and you can bake those for a yummy treat. Cut up pumkin to fist size bits or a little bigger, leave skin on. Bake at 450, uncovered in oven until you can smuush the flesh easily with a fork. Let cool a bit, then take off the flesh into a bowl. Either in a blender or with a masher, combine the broth and the spices. Maybe if you feel ambitous, heat it all together in a pot.
Yum!
Silly video today!:
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
The Internet is For..
Well, besides that.
Yes, today's post is late; I have a perfectly valid excuse if you want to ask me so-please-don't-drop-my-grade-by-a-letter.
One of the really really cool things about PartnerPenguin working for a startup (zextme.com, formerly zebedoo.com) is that I get to find out about a lot of really cool and weird startups. This occasionally leads to cool things. I feel that promoting startups keeps up morale because of the omnipresent threat of failure. Here are some startups and old fogies who could be really helpful to being a college student or just navigating the internet for useful things instead of junk.
www.freedompop.com
Probably one of the best ideas/startups I've found recently has been freedompop.com. They solved my big problem of not having internet at home. Basically, you order a (refundable) special usb dongle (heehee) which has 4G network connection capacity. From there, it works like a data plan and the first 500 mb are free. 500mb is enough to do homework on Pearson's website (flash heavy) and check e-mails and all the wonderful comments from my readers (*_*). After that, they have a pay as you go plan which starts at $10/mo for the next threshold which is 1 GB of internet.
PartnerPenguin just ran a speed check and it's faster than the global average and 1/3 as fast as the fancy internet at his work (so pretty damn fast). It does run by similar rules to a cell phone in terms of working better near windows because 4G sattelite/cell tower signal. The only problem I've encountered so far was that I had the dongle sent to a different address than the billing address and it bounced and got delivered to the billing address. That defeated the purpose a bit since I'm afraid someone will steal my mail. But their customer service department has been pretty good so far. Will keep updates if I have a problem.
https://pantre.me/
This company is a refrigerator which they stock with (really yummy) healthy food which is all microwavable. They stock the fridge once a day and on sushi day they donate the leftovers (after a certain time) to local kids who need food. All of their food is better than Lean Cuisine at about the same price, and they have a first time user special offer of $5 off the total order. PartnerPenguin and I got 3 full meals for $8.
http://www.transitunlimited.org
I don't know if this is a startup but it's a really handy wiki I recently found. I really like that they put obscure transit juxtaposed with the main transit agencies so you can find out if there is a shuttle between the places where you want to go and how often it runs. I would love if there were more Eastern Cities on there so I'm going to see if I can help edit at least one city in and I call upon my East Coast friends who might have time to edit and share this potentially amazing and time-saving resource.
www.chegg.com
Not the newest site but definitely useful if your school's library doesn't have a rental aspect to their bookstore. Renting or buying textbooks can be a difficult toss-up because what if you need the information in the future? I've rented books mostly for General Ed's where the information was great and informative but I didn't really think that I would need the reference. It's always a good idea to keep your syllabi and maybe write down the ISBNs of the books so that you can get them from a library in the future. I've actually never used this site because I've only used my school's rentals but just make sure you read your whole rental agreement before you ship.
www.wolframalpha.com
The way to know the gods truly do smile upon us. This site is spectacular for most things math. I haven't used it for any other subjects but I think it knows about a lot of things, particularly science-y. It is really useful to see if the answer you got is correct though it doesn't always have a step-by-step explanation. It knows ALLL the math. It's pretty flippin' sweet.
www.amazon.com
I have a friend who worked for Amazon when they were "all a bunch of pot smokin' hippies on roller skates" and is still bitter they sold out. But Amazon has become quite an amazing resource for...just about anything. Of course, they have books but they also have a rather decent amount of food and gear for just about anything you want. If you have a safe mailing address and don't need something immediately, it is almost always cheaper to find a place to get it online. I know there are other places extant on the interwebs but I've had my credit card stolen so I don't generally give the number to places where I have a shadow of a doubt about their legit-ness. Amazon is pretty solid about that type of thing so it's cool.
www.khanacademy.org/
Hats off to Sal. Sal (and The Conductor) got me through PreCalculus. This site has little lesson plans on just about every topic I needed in Math and I think they have a pretty decent breadth of other stuff too. What I really really like about this site is that the "lessons" are very specific, short and well written. Sal, the narrator of the math ones, is very down to earth so at the beginning of the video you feel like he's just talking to you about nothing. And by the end, you know what the delta-epsilon definition of a limit is and you wonder how it got into your brain. Even if you're not in school, this can be a decent tool for learning small bits of knowledge on an as-needed basis.
www.pandora.com
The only reason I would want more than 500mb of internet. I am a strange sort of person who works 5097823640237 times better when I have music in the background. Not talking, just music. I love music like a drug and I need my fix. Pandora was one of my favorite internet discoveries ever. IF you've never used it, (after you make a free account) you just type the name of an artist or a song and it has an algorithm to find similar music. One trick my boss taught me is that you can't hit "like" too many times because it messes up the algorithm. If you have the free version, you get ads like broadcast radio but they tend to be the same ads over and over. (They really think I want a Veraggio ring.) The paid version, no ads, is only $4/mo but even that I can't afford so I just tune out for those 30 seconds. Considering I listen to broadcast radio the rest of the time, (upwards of 2 minutes of straight ads) it's not too bad. I've found some amazing new artists and some great gems which I wouldn't have ever happened upon and I love it a lot.
________________________________________________________
No Recipe this week, e-mail or comment me and I'll write you one!
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Midsemester Crisis
I have reached that juncture, the one I was afraid of the whole time. I thought it was just because my kitchen was making me gag but removing the trashcan mold and chicken fat (what? why? I don't know) seems to have solved that problem. Though, I still think my diet of breakfast sausage, peanut butter and jelly and samosas will return my tummy to normal soon enough. I hope.
No, that wasn't what I meant.
There is always this point in the semester where I realize I may or may not make it through. Not physically (though last year I questioned that sometimes), just, will I make it.
I took my second Physics midterm this morning. I was really proud of myself because I had studied a lot more, I had read the textbook thoroughly. I wrote what seemed sensible on my "cheat" sheet.
And then I got my ass handed to me. I've taken some decent whoopings; doing midterms at Big American Brand University in their hoity-toity Math department. Even though those were rougher than a blanket of pushpins, I still aced them. But this.....this was priceless.
I should point out that I'm not being a drama queen in this particular instance. If I fail this class, I cannot continue with my major. Physics is so integral to Geology (I'm obviously not Geophysics, but it's still important) that if I fail the class, I cannot continue in the immediate future. I guess that hit me like a piano full of bricks because for the first time I can clearly see a potential failure after 4 1/2 years worth of college. Well, second failure. The first failure was realizing that my initial path of Theatre would not get me anywhere. That hurt too.
It made me do some serious thinking today while The Little Bear threw tantrums and weeble-wobbles at me. What enabled me to get through those math classes? Mah Nishtana this class? Conceptually, it's not any harder. In fact, it's easier.
A few things did, all of which I obviously need to implement the hell out of if I wish to get my degree.
*Strong Learning Community*
One of the first things I did in my PreCalc class last year was find an additional class that taught me how to learn Math at Big American Brand University. This was taught by The conductor, an incredibly focused, pertinent and mildly intimidating man in a vest and a fedora. Perhaps it was tough love, but that man certainly was/is dedicated to his teaching. He would also say things like "Yeah...[some attractive actor] is ok but he's no Antonio Banderrrez." and "Math math math math!" (which literally startled me so badly I jumped and screamed).
He created a co-operative learning environment the likes of which I have never encountered. My classmates, despite being 5 years younger than me, worked together with me as a team pulling upwards of 20 hours a week studying together. The friends I made in that learning space are still some of my most inspiring and foundational friends.
PartnerPenguin and I were talking about it and Craptastic Colleges (please correct me if I'm wrong) have literally no student services. I have been tutoring this guy in trig because the tutors can only spend 15 minutes with a single student. The tutoring room used to be the Math Lab but now it's all Science studies and they don't know trig. It falls upon the students to gather and more importantly if it's a poorly taught class to somehow devine what they are supposed to be learning and teach themselves.
This is not the same as Big American Brand Uni, which isn't a whole lot better, but at least they decisively only teach theory in class and it is explicitly understood that you need to learn everything on your own. Here it is a weird in between where you're supposed to learn on your own but you can ask questions but they kinda get nowhere. Mostly, it seems, because that's where they expect their students to go. (Average grad rate for both schools I'm attending is 16%, average transfer is 8%)
*Clear, Concise and Do-able Planning/Time Management*
Time is finite. Figure out what to do with it.
Agenda planners are often helpful, I imagine smartphones could be too. One of my favorite techniques when I'm overwhelmed is to write out everything (EVERYTHING includes food, prep and eating time) that needs to be done in a 1-2 day period. Write next to it the approximate time you think it will take. I often overestimate, completely, by anywhere between 30 min to an hour, esp with Math or Science homework.
On a separate piece of paper, break down your day from henceforth. I write intervals of an hour at most, usually 30 minutes. Every 20-30 minutes I mandate a small break and every 2 hours or so a real break, usually including food. It is also necessary for me to schedule in walks since that's part of my physical deal but walks are one of the easiest ways to reduce stress and get a little exercise. Usually after 2 days of intensive planning like this, I get a general rhythm that I can work with for about a week, at least.
I also throw myself mini-dance-party breaks with songs like the two here.
Another thing we do is we set a duck alarm to tell us it's time for bed. When things are stressful, it's probably being compounded by lack of sleep and hygiene. So take a shower and go to bed.
*Acceptance of Simplicity*
While talking with someone recently, I thought about how sometimes meals just need to be cooked properly before you add the fancy seasoning. The basics need to be met. They do not always need to be surpassed. But they always need to be met and in my worldview they always need to be met in a manner that provides a strong foundation whether or not seasonings (or upper divs) are added later, when you're more comfortable.
*Clear communication with Partner/Friends/Family of What You're Going Through*
You can't get support if no one knows what's going on. I try to have as much in person interactions with my friends as I can. This means for me riding on buses for a long time but that's ok. Friends are worth it. I picked up Pyschology Today at the store and it confirmed that. In-person friends and strong interpersonal connections help you live better.
Sometimes you may not be coherent and may just need to blurb and blab and have someone ask you what that was all about in the future.
______________________________________________________________________
This recipe was made for Mama and Papa Bear (parents of The Little Bear) in appreciation of letting us borrow their laundry facilities.
Lentil Curry-ish Dish
1 clove garlic, diced
oil
most of 1 onion
Juilliened tomatoes (probably should have used canned diced ones, preferably from Indian food market or just un-seasoned if you don't have one of those)
about a cup of lentils
MDH Chana Dal Masala (brand I bought at an Indian Grocery store, I don't know the differences) I know Patak's is also a good brand, no MSG. PartnerPenguin is allergic to MSG and in general, it's not great for you.
In on pot: boil water. Add lentils, let simmer on low heat for about as long as it takes to watch a movie. Maybe a movie and a couple episodes of Gravity Falls (God I love that show).
You might want to wait at least an hour before doing this step because the lentils take a long time to cook.
In a pan: Warm oil. Add garlic and onions. Caramelize (make transparent but not quite brown) onions, garlic should just smell good but make sure you don't burn it.
Drain lentils, put in pan on simmering (low) heat. You may have to add some fresh water. Add tomatoes and about a tablespoon of the seasoning. You can add more or less, depending on your threshold for spicy. Simmer for about 10 more minutes. Or if you're PartnerPenguin, you simmer them all together for an hour because the lentils weren't done before adding. This option would incorporate the flavor of the onions more. As long as the lentils are cooked, these two steps shouldn't make too much difference.
I might add Sirache if I liked spicy. I'd probably serve over brown rice. (Brown rice is a 1:1.5 ratio rice to water. Boil for 2-5 minutes then let simmer for 40, covered.)
No, that wasn't what I meant.
There is always this point in the semester where I realize I may or may not make it through. Not physically (though last year I questioned that sometimes), just, will I make it.
I took my second Physics midterm this morning. I was really proud of myself because I had studied a lot more, I had read the textbook thoroughly. I wrote what seemed sensible on my "cheat" sheet.
And then I got my ass handed to me. I've taken some decent whoopings; doing midterms at Big American Brand University in their hoity-toity Math department. Even though those were rougher than a blanket of pushpins, I still aced them. But this.....this was priceless.
I should point out that I'm not being a drama queen in this particular instance. If I fail this class, I cannot continue with my major. Physics is so integral to Geology (I'm obviously not Geophysics, but it's still important) that if I fail the class, I cannot continue in the immediate future. I guess that hit me like a piano full of bricks because for the first time I can clearly see a potential failure after 4 1/2 years worth of college. Well, second failure. The first failure was realizing that my initial path of Theatre would not get me anywhere. That hurt too.
It made me do some serious thinking today while The Little Bear threw tantrums and weeble-wobbles at me. What enabled me to get through those math classes? Mah Nishtana this class? Conceptually, it's not any harder. In fact, it's easier.
A few things did, all of which I obviously need to implement the hell out of if I wish to get my degree.
*Strong Learning Community*
One of the first things I did in my PreCalc class last year was find an additional class that taught me how to learn Math at Big American Brand University. This was taught by The conductor, an incredibly focused, pertinent and mildly intimidating man in a vest and a fedora. Perhaps it was tough love, but that man certainly was/is dedicated to his teaching. He would also say things like "Yeah...[some attractive actor] is ok but he's no Antonio Banderrrez." and "Math math math math!" (which literally startled me so badly I jumped and screamed).
He created a co-operative learning environment the likes of which I have never encountered. My classmates, despite being 5 years younger than me, worked together with me as a team pulling upwards of 20 hours a week studying together. The friends I made in that learning space are still some of my most inspiring and foundational friends.
PartnerPenguin and I were talking about it and Craptastic Colleges (please correct me if I'm wrong) have literally no student services. I have been tutoring this guy in trig because the tutors can only spend 15 minutes with a single student. The tutoring room used to be the Math Lab but now it's all Science studies and they don't know trig. It falls upon the students to gather and more importantly if it's a poorly taught class to somehow devine what they are supposed to be learning and teach themselves.
This is not the same as Big American Brand Uni, which isn't a whole lot better, but at least they decisively only teach theory in class and it is explicitly understood that you need to learn everything on your own. Here it is a weird in between where you're supposed to learn on your own but you can ask questions but they kinda get nowhere. Mostly, it seems, because that's where they expect their students to go. (Average grad rate for both schools I'm attending is 16%, average transfer is 8%)
*Clear, Concise and Do-able Planning/Time Management*
Time is finite. Figure out what to do with it.
Agenda planners are often helpful, I imagine smartphones could be too. One of my favorite techniques when I'm overwhelmed is to write out everything (EVERYTHING includes food, prep and eating time) that needs to be done in a 1-2 day period. Write next to it the approximate time you think it will take. I often overestimate, completely, by anywhere between 30 min to an hour, esp with Math or Science homework.
On a separate piece of paper, break down your day from henceforth. I write intervals of an hour at most, usually 30 minutes. Every 20-30 minutes I mandate a small break and every 2 hours or so a real break, usually including food. It is also necessary for me to schedule in walks since that's part of my physical deal but walks are one of the easiest ways to reduce stress and get a little exercise. Usually after 2 days of intensive planning like this, I get a general rhythm that I can work with for about a week, at least.
I also throw myself mini-dance-party breaks with songs like the two here.
Another thing we do is we set a duck alarm to tell us it's time for bed. When things are stressful, it's probably being compounded by lack of sleep and hygiene. So take a shower and go to bed.
*Acceptance of Simplicity*
While talking with someone recently, I thought about how sometimes meals just need to be cooked properly before you add the fancy seasoning. The basics need to be met. They do not always need to be surpassed. But they always need to be met and in my worldview they always need to be met in a manner that provides a strong foundation whether or not seasonings (or upper divs) are added later, when you're more comfortable.
*Clear communication with Partner/Friends/Family of What You're Going Through*
You can't get support if no one knows what's going on. I try to have as much in person interactions with my friends as I can. This means for me riding on buses for a long time but that's ok. Friends are worth it. I picked up Pyschology Today at the store and it confirmed that. In-person friends and strong interpersonal connections help you live better.
Sometimes you may not be coherent and may just need to blurb and blab and have someone ask you what that was all about in the future.
______________________________________________________________________
This recipe was made for Mama and Papa Bear (parents of The Little Bear) in appreciation of letting us borrow their laundry facilities.
Lentil Curry-ish Dish
1 clove garlic, diced
oil
most of 1 onion
Juilliened tomatoes (probably should have used canned diced ones, preferably from Indian food market or just un-seasoned if you don't have one of those)
about a cup of lentils
MDH Chana Dal Masala (brand I bought at an Indian Grocery store, I don't know the differences) I know Patak's is also a good brand, no MSG. PartnerPenguin is allergic to MSG and in general, it's not great for you.
In on pot: boil water. Add lentils, let simmer on low heat for about as long as it takes to watch a movie. Maybe a movie and a couple episodes of Gravity Falls (God I love that show).
You might want to wait at least an hour before doing this step because the lentils take a long time to cook.
In a pan: Warm oil. Add garlic and onions. Caramelize (make transparent but not quite brown) onions, garlic should just smell good but make sure you don't burn it.
Drain lentils, put in pan on simmering (low) heat. You may have to add some fresh water. Add tomatoes and about a tablespoon of the seasoning. You can add more or less, depending on your threshold for spicy. Simmer for about 10 more minutes. Or if you're PartnerPenguin, you simmer them all together for an hour because the lentils weren't done before adding. This option would incorporate the flavor of the onions more. As long as the lentils are cooked, these two steps shouldn't make too much difference.
I might add Sirache if I liked spicy. I'd probably serve over brown rice. (Brown rice is a 1:1.5 ratio rice to water. Boil for 2-5 minutes then let simmer for 40, covered.)
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Obvious Secrets Young People (My Friends) Don't Seem to Know
Basically, it really boils down to read everything you sign. Except maybe on websites' terms of service because you'll realize that there are clauses such as the one in one of Game Stop's Terms of Service where they actually say the soul of the undersigned belongs to the company.
It's probably a combination of the fact that I worked over-full time years before my peers and the fact that I was horribly taken advantage of during that first job that it makes me super pissed off when my friends/family have decent(ish) jobs who take advantage of them. We are fortunate (so very very fortunate) to live in a country where fair working conditions are legally mandated. I think this rant is mostly aimed at my peers, those people in my graduating class (Oh EIGHT!) who are going out into the workforce for possibly the first time in their lives.
This is the way it works, that I've seen: a business (usually a large business with either over 100 employees or fewer, but more apathetic ones) will hire a fresh new face who is jolly and out of college and in a metric butt-ton of debt. They will hand the new hire stacks, literally, of paperwork and give a strict time limit for finishing them because they are paying for training and paperwork should only take fifteen minutes. The new hire is then pressured into signing everything without reading or digesting what contract they have just entered into. But everything seemed reasonable so it's all good. Besides, if you don't sign today, there are fifteen other people who will take the job so today has been a waste if you don't. (I have only had one job where they actually quizzed me on my contract, I liked that job a good deal.)
Work starts. All seems pretty great. The pay is good enough, maybe the work is tedious, maybe the work is frustrating.
Then the bosses ask once in a while for the new hire to stay a little overtime. The money for overtime is fantastic and the new hire is barely able to eat meat every week so of course they take it. Then overtime becomes regular. Then more time is added and there are threats that if the new hire doesn't take the hours, they will be fired. Subtle threats, to be sure, but extant.
This situation I recently found out has been happening to a friend of mine. She has been working 12 hour days of manual labor regularly with just one lunch break and four 15 minute breaks. She is so destitute that she has been thanking her luck for some extra cash.She is so exhausted that she was even perturbed at my outrage at how illegal that is.
Ok, first off, that's not legal. Unless you are in Hollywood, regularly working 12 hours in a 24 hour period is actually not kosher. Businesses use a power disparity and assume that their workers don't know their rights to allow for this to happen. Even if overtime is allowable in the contract (which is usually is, at one and half times regular pay), there it is absolutely, completely unacceptable to threaten someone's job if they do not agree to work optional hours. Especially not an additional 4 hours.
Another thing with the timing. By law, once you work over five and half (or six? I think it's six but it winds up being five and a half) you are supposed to have a 30 minute lunch. If you work up to 12, you certainly have to have a second meal, I forgot to look at the lower bound of that threshold. There is a Federal Law which states that you must have a ten minute break every 2 hours. If you work a 12 hour day, you should have a total of an hour of meals and three 10-15 minute breaks.
*This is just a separate issue but your bathrooms should also be useable. It's unsafe if they're not and CVS will soon be hearing my wrath because I had to change a toddler in their bathroom which was not fit for anyone to use, even meth addicts.*
Ok, but jobs can suck. (I'm really glad mine doesn't, if you're reading this!!) The next step is actually sometimes harder than enduring subtle threats and heavy lifting. The companies which exploit their workers in this manner know that they are so exhausted that they can't do anything about it. But if one can overcome this fatigue, it's really difficult who to turn to. Even harder is speaking the right language. Before going to anyone, have as much hard evidence as you can. Then you may get somewhere with your HR, Corporate or a department of government who deals with unemployment and employee fairness. But as I learned with my health saga, if you have hard evidence and someone backing you up, you will get a lot farther.
Some advice I learned today: If a girl is with a guy for four months and has never met his friends, she is not his girlfriend.
And here is an artist with a sense of humor about his music. I loved the original song since I first heard it but this I find this a signature of someone who takes imitation to truly be a form of flattery.
I can't decide which is my favorite part, the full chorus or the awesome rock guitar solo.
It's probably a combination of the fact that I worked over-full time years before my peers and the fact that I was horribly taken advantage of during that first job that it makes me super pissed off when my friends/family have decent(ish) jobs who take advantage of them. We are fortunate (so very very fortunate) to live in a country where fair working conditions are legally mandated. I think this rant is mostly aimed at my peers, those people in my graduating class (Oh EIGHT!) who are going out into the workforce for possibly the first time in their lives.
This is the way it works, that I've seen: a business (usually a large business with either over 100 employees or fewer, but more apathetic ones) will hire a fresh new face who is jolly and out of college and in a metric butt-ton of debt. They will hand the new hire stacks, literally, of paperwork and give a strict time limit for finishing them because they are paying for training and paperwork should only take fifteen minutes. The new hire is then pressured into signing everything without reading or digesting what contract they have just entered into. But everything seemed reasonable so it's all good. Besides, if you don't sign today, there are fifteen other people who will take the job so today has been a waste if you don't. (I have only had one job where they actually quizzed me on my contract, I liked that job a good deal.)
Work starts. All seems pretty great. The pay is good enough, maybe the work is tedious, maybe the work is frustrating.
Then the bosses ask once in a while for the new hire to stay a little overtime. The money for overtime is fantastic and the new hire is barely able to eat meat every week so of course they take it. Then overtime becomes regular. Then more time is added and there are threats that if the new hire doesn't take the hours, they will be fired. Subtle threats, to be sure, but extant.
This situation I recently found out has been happening to a friend of mine. She has been working 12 hour days of manual labor regularly with just one lunch break and four 15 minute breaks. She is so destitute that she has been thanking her luck for some extra cash.She is so exhausted that she was even perturbed at my outrage at how illegal that is.
Ok, first off, that's not legal. Unless you are in Hollywood, regularly working 12 hours in a 24 hour period is actually not kosher. Businesses use a power disparity and assume that their workers don't know their rights to allow for this to happen. Even if overtime is allowable in the contract (which is usually is, at one and half times regular pay), there it is absolutely, completely unacceptable to threaten someone's job if they do not agree to work optional hours. Especially not an additional 4 hours.
Another thing with the timing. By law, once you work over five and half (or six? I think it's six but it winds up being five and a half) you are supposed to have a 30 minute lunch. If you work up to 12, you certainly have to have a second meal, I forgot to look at the lower bound of that threshold. There is a Federal Law which states that you must have a ten minute break every 2 hours. If you work a 12 hour day, you should have a total of an hour of meals and three 10-15 minute breaks.
*This is just a separate issue but your bathrooms should also be useable. It's unsafe if they're not and CVS will soon be hearing my wrath because I had to change a toddler in their bathroom which was not fit for anyone to use, even meth addicts.*
Ok, but jobs can suck. (I'm really glad mine doesn't, if you're reading this!!) The next step is actually sometimes harder than enduring subtle threats and heavy lifting. The companies which exploit their workers in this manner know that they are so exhausted that they can't do anything about it. But if one can overcome this fatigue, it's really difficult who to turn to. Even harder is speaking the right language. Before going to anyone, have as much hard evidence as you can. Then you may get somewhere with your HR, Corporate or a department of government who deals with unemployment and employee fairness. But as I learned with my health saga, if you have hard evidence and someone backing you up, you will get a lot farther.
Some advice I learned today: If a girl is with a guy for four months and has never met his friends, she is not his girlfriend.
And here is an artist with a sense of humor about his music. I loved the original song since I first heard it but this I find this a signature of someone who takes imitation to truly be a form of flattery.
I can't decide which is my favorite part, the full chorus or the awesome rock guitar solo.
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