6/5/2022 Save Your Water, Eat Your Eggs!
I've discovered that I can still get terrific hard-boiled eggs with much less water than submerging the entire egg! I thought I would share photographic proof. I first discovered this when I decided to save time and water by plopping a few eggs in with the pasta I was making. Sure enough...the eggs do not need to be submerged, they just need to be exposed to heat while contained in their shells. Later, I thought I would try a batch of hard-boiled eggs by just filling the pot with water to only halfway up the eggs instead of letting the eggs swim in deep water. It worked, so several months later, I did it again but took pictures!
The procedure is the same as usual: boil water, reduce to simmer for 10 minutes, remove eggs and crack them open. I did discover that I needed a few extra minutes of cooking time, especially when I crowded the pot with so many eggs that a couple of them weren't even in the water. In this case, I simply rotated the eggs so that each one got some time in the water and added 5 minutes to the total cook-time.
On the occasion that I took photos, I was still learning the ropes of our new wood-burning stove, so I think I had the heat a little too high, and a couple of the eggs cracked which leaked some of the whites. I just went with it, and the whites cooked like normal with no problems. We just ate these eggs first.
So to save water, not only can you just use less of it when boiling eggs alone, but also, you can throw a few eggs in with rice or pasta or anything else you'll be simmering for at least 10 minutes. Hooray! 9/8/2021 Root Cause
What we have here is some delicious candied ginger root!! It's one of my favorite treats. I obtained about 2 lbs of ginger root from a local food bank, right at the start of our first triple digit heat wave this past summer. It was in a plastic grocery bag, and the gentleman handling produce offering it to me said, "Here do you want this? It's that..." he couldn't remember the name of it at first, and now I can't remember what he called it, but it was funny. Nor can I remember what I thought it was at first, but it wasn't until I got a look into the bag that I realized what it was: JACKPOT! I love ginger!!
8/31/2021 Tag Team
In need of a new t-shirt last summer, I found one at a thrift store that was just the ticket: a solid color, no logos, no designs, no nothin, 100% cotton, and just my size! While checking the fiber content, I noticed the "tag" was a large silk screened tree design. "Neat," I think. "There's still a company out there making solid color 100% cotton t-shirts." Fast forward a year and, at most, 12 washings, and the tag is starting to come off, revealing the disturbing truth.
Seeing the silk-screen tree, you're conditioned to think, "ohhh, a tree, environmental, organic, peace, love and harmony." Meanwhile, it's just repressing its true nature: it's a blank slate for a spiked-club carrying band of bloodthirsty hooligans with brain damage.
7/27/2021 Pattern: Squares Dancing in Harmony
Click here to download the .pdf directly. Pattern is also available on Ravelry.
Upon hearing my step-dad's comments on a blanket I had recently finished, I became inspired to create a blanket especially for him that incorporated one of the design elements from that original piece. I asked what he would like the colors to be, and he wanted Earth Tones. So I expounded upon the Earth Tones theme and designed Squares Dancing in Harmony to reflect various elements of nature and life...the ups and downs, the layering and mixing of different experiences and beliefs. As such, it incorporates both knitting and crocheting. Quick Facts: -sample uses Lion Brand Jiffy which is, I believe, discontinued. Any bulky yarn should suffice. 540 yds/491 m in each of two colors, and 270 yds/246 m in each of 4 colors. -sample uses 6.5mm hook and 6 mm needles for crochet and knit portions, respectively -each square measures 8"/20 cm for a 54x54"/1.35x1.35 m afghan -squares are seamed together and a border is crocheted in rounds around the piece 7/27/2021 Pattern: Ever Evolveeeng
Click here to download the .pdf directly. Pattern is also available on Ravelry.
Ever Evolveeeng arose from a continued study of the V-stitch. I designed it specifically to be used in the Squares Dancing in Harmony pattern but published the square as a standalone pattern. Someone on Ravelry created a scarf out of the pattern that gave me the idea to include instructions for not only a scarf, but also for a stole. Then while I was creating samples, I decided to add a border, so here we are! Now the pattern embodies its name even more than it did before! Quick Facts: -afghan square originally used about 50 yards/45 m of bulky yarn and a 6.5mm hook -scarf will take around 400 yards total and stole will take around 800 yards total -vary the hook and yarn size to alter the drape of the fabric -afghan square can be used as a gauge swatch if needed for the scarf/stole -in the words of the Ravelry user: it works up ridiculously quickly. I made the stole in about 3 days and the scarf in about 2, including piddling around with designing the border. 6/22/2021 Mild Plagiarism
They call me traveler. They call me adventurer. They call me nomad. They call me cyclist. That's not my name. That's not my name. That's not my name. THAT'S NOT MY NAME.
They call me homeless, but I just live here. Doing some camping, always the same. That's not my name. That's not my name. That's not my name. THAT'S NOT MY NAME. They call you worthless. They call you lazy. They call you immature. They call you dumb. That's not your name. That's not your name. That's not your name. THAT'S NOT YOUR NAME! They call you burden, but you're just breathing. Chillin' will cost you, always the same. That's not your name. That's not your name. That's not your name. THAT'S NOT YOUR NAME! 6/12/2021 De-Stigmatize
In the world we live in now, we can only act naturally when no one else is around. More specifically, we can only be silly and take creative risks when we are alone. Maybe around those closest to us, but even then, it must be done with tact and proper timing, or else you will fall flat before their raised eyebrows. It's not so much the falling flat that keeps us from being ourselves as much as it's the raised eyebrows.
I think what's even more sad than living that way in this world is that while we are all imprisoned in such a fashion, we are all simultaneously holding the keys to the prison cells that hold others. Everyone's doing it to everyone.. So why are we all doing this to each other? I think it's widespread, well-ingrained mental illness. The powers of denial and repression can be extremely strong. You could go your whole life thinking you are one thing but acting like another. In fact, I know a great many people like this, not only that, but I used to be one of them! So I think that denial and repression are tools we use to exclude ourselves from the "jailer" role and cement ourselves in solely the role of "victim." How is it, though, that each and every one of us is a victim of the oppression that prevents us from being ourselves, full out, in public, yet none of us is an oppressor? Something just doesn't add up there. So the only logical answer is that we are universally insane and using denial and repression to block out that which we do not wish to see in ourselves: that we are also the oppressors, sustaining this drab and suffocating way of life. Most people will read this and agree, and say "yes! This happens to me!" But their mental illness won't let them complete that thought. They won't look at the full picture which reveals the fact that they, too, are oppressive while being oppressed. You are in a state of denial if you don't believe you are guilty of this. No one wants to admit their faults, and therein lies our problem. So long as this willful denial continues, we will remain in hell. The choice is entirely yours. On the flipside, while a rare few people might look at themselves and be willing to admit to their oppressive, bigoted, prejudiced, malicious behavior, it is even rarer still that any one of them actually makes a stand and says, "I refuse." "I won't participate anymore, this is hell, and our only way out is to change." ...and then making the fucking effort to change. Some of the most stingey, closed-off, narrow-minded bastards I know are the ones who insist they are the most open-minded and accepting. And if you think you aren't one of them, think again. Then think again. One thing I've heard one of them say in reference to another of them is, "He'd give you the shirt off his back," but the truth is: he'd give you the shirt off his back then turn around and pay the salaries of the cronies who took your shirt in the first place. You see, in order to make the change, you have to be unwilling to support the system of belief, which includes the government, that upholds and enforces this behavior and mindset. When you stop supporting that system, and I know this from 14 years of experience, you get kicked out of your home, your belongings literally chucked out of your dwelling where the vulture-neighbors ransack it for loot, you are potentially arrested, but if you have a little money, they'll let you go. After they let you go, they leave you to die, and in some cases actually try to expedite that process, death. If you're lucky, you might have some relatives with wealth willing to set you up with some supplies so that you might live in a tent in the forest, but even then, you are scraping the bottom if dumpsters for food and wearing clothes until they are literally hanging from your body in tatters. We know this because we conceive, commission, pay for, and run the system that does this. No one wants to be treated this way, so they stay in line, upholding the oppressive principles that keep their very selves in shackles. So by all means, continue living your life in those chains. You'll never be yourself, you'll never realize your full potential. You can put that key in the lock and turn it. You can de-stigmatize yourself. You can take the creative risk, and you can allow others to do the same. I hope you do, but I don't think you will, but I don't pity you, for you are the one holding the key. |
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