Hazards of Modern Life: Hot food in to-go containers

I go to great lengths in normal life to make sure I don't ingest plastics. I never put hot food straight into plastic containers or bottles. Always let it cool first to room temperature in the pot, because I know that if it goes into the plastic hot then particles will heat up and enter the food. And then they will enter my body and become part of my body when I eat that plastic-y food later.

So at home I am mindful of this and careful. I am careful not to drink out of plastic or eat of our plastic china, whenever possible. Sometimes for the odd summer picnic or party I compromise and use plastic because that is what everyone is doing, but I feel bad because I know that is
not a valid reason. And I draw the line at putting hot liquid into plastic cups.

Anyway, last night my boyfriend and I made ourselves sick by eating food thoroughly contaminated by plastic. I feel largely better now, 12 hours later, but, really, am asking myself why I had to do that. The answer is that it was carry-out food from one of our favorite restaurants, Paragon Thai. We have gotten carry-out from them a few times before, and have eaten there many times over the years. It is always really good food, which is why I wanted to have it tonight.

We planned to eat at the restaurant, but then thought "why don't we just get it and eat here?" because then we wouldn't have to tip. Save $5 easily and then use it to buy some beverage at a grocery store nearby to go with the dinner. I thought of the disposable containers, but the bf said it was ok because we would reuse them. Plastic containers enter into our general store of 'tupperware' when they arrive at our place.

So we got the carry-out and some apple cider to drink, settled down to a nice candlelit dinner with soft music in our living room, and enjoyed the meal. But it didn't taste wonderful. In fact, one piece of lettuce I took a bit of tasted completely like styrofoam. I spit that bite out. It had been on the bottom of the container with the rest of the noodles and veggies piled on top.

As soon as I got home with the food, I had removed it all from the containers -- one plastic and one styrofoam -- but it was too too late. My mouth still tastes like plastic from that dinner last night, and now it is 8:30 the next morning. It made us both feel a bit ill too. After we ate we tried to watch a comedy on tv but just felt sick and it wasn't funny at all, so I turned it off. Then we sat and used the computers until bedtime. About an hour after eating I felt seriously sick. But then it started to slowly get better and is still slowly getting better.

From now on, I will seriously think before getting hot food as carry-out in plastic again. I am certain that they finished cooking it and immediately put it in the to-go containers, to stew in the plastic and styrofoam fumes. And then I ate it. :(

The anatomy of a psychology major

It is mysterious, doesn't give itself up to the casual observer.

The intro class does not reveal its mysteries.

Even with years of study, one still knows very little about this monster with so many specialties.

We learn about the branches of psychology -- the subareas, the fields of study, the PhD, PsyD, counseling, clinical, school, experimental.

Even when immersed in a specialty program, one does not learn in complete depth (it is simply too deep). One can learn in excruciating detail about their topic of research, maybe even their area of research.

And then, after almost 10 years of painful long nights typing papers, running stats, you finish your training officially -- terminal degree done, prestigious post-doctoral fellowship done, papers written and underway, lifetime path of research envisioned. And it is this darn recession, and you may not be able to find a job.

The long-promised payout of this terrible process of grad education in psych is a tenured faculty job. What happens when not enough are open when you finish?

This is a problem being confronted by a friend of mine. I am concerned for this person and upset at the system that created this problem.

Thinking back to my decision to major in psychology as an undergrad. Have the insight that this decision was based on knowing so little about it and basic curiosity. The low level courses didn't tell me much, but did prime my curiosity. So I had to take higher and higher level classes to try to find out why people act the way they do. And none of those classes really helped. But they were more interesting than other, more potentially profitable, majors.

I tried geology and environmental science -- both a bit dry. English seemed very impractical. International studies or poli sci were promising, but looked at the world in such broad brushstrokes.

I wanted something that took the individual more into account. But, it turns out, psychology is too far to the other extreme. It is a bit reductionistic, even when considering social influence. It tends to boil things down to stimulus and response.

Anyway, psychology is seductive in the undergrad years, but doesn't have much of a payoff -- whether you do the grad school route or the working world route.

Time Flies!

So I just started looking at photos from one year ago -- last February and March. It seems like ages ago in some ways, but I was looking at some of the exact scenes today. It is surreal.

Here is a scene that I saw today, but daylight savings time has started so I was walking in this spot one hour earlier (from getting off work an hour earlier) so it didn't quite look the same. But largely the same.



A year ago I visited a friend in Pennsylvania who I haven't seen since then. She now livs in Chicago and I don't even have an email addy for her anymore.

Here's a picture from visiting her in bellefontaine, pa. A very pretty city, even in the middle of winter.



I may have posted that picture before to this blog. Guess I was impressed with the tiny little city. Maybe I'll be able to visit her again soon in the new digs. It's sad when we can't live near friends. Ah well, they persist even if we can't be near physically.

I come from a long line of goofy

A book I'm reading asked me to recall "with all your senses, a memory in which you are happy and joyful."

The first that came to mind had to do with my boyfriend and times when I was so happy with him. Then I thought of sitting in the living room at home with my parents on christmas morning. Then, thinking of specifics, I thought of a time when my grandmother was still with us, when we got her a cool new touch lamp for xmas. She opened the box, looked at it for a second, then took out the lampshade and put it on her head. She looked around the room at us with a slight smile and we all burst out laughing!

At the time we were wondering why she would do something like that, and telling her how nice the lamp was in case she didn't look at it. But now I realize that she was just being goofy. Trying to be a clown, with much success. :)

Happy New Year! 2009 -- How Electrifying!

As the sun sets on 2008 and rises on 2009
Look forward to all of the possibilities of the new year.

It's a new year
Full of cheer...

I wish you the best in this continuing adventure!

Thank you to everyone I am friends with and to all the friends to come.
You make the world go round! :)

I will post more regularly in 2009. At least once a week. And I will exercise more regularly. We have a gym at work that I'm going to try using during these cold months. When it gets warmer, out on the bike I go again! The perfect workout is riding to and from work. Gets the commute done and gets my workout done at once! Amazing.

Ok, to you and yours, have a great year!

More on blogging

The Daily Show last night had an interview with Huffington about how to blog. She basically said that its a way to share your thoughts. As you would with a friend. A way to be close and personal without being actually in person with anyone. Interesting. That's the last segment of the show.

The first section of the Colbert Report from last night was pretty entertaining. Apparently NASA lost a spider on the international space station. Hmmm. :)

Some thoughts to share

I have found the difference between real organic butter and the land o' lakes variety. The organic stuff is much more yellow! I put some in the same butter dish and was amazed at the difference when they were right next to each other, unwrapped. Sheesh! I guess there's more chemical stuff in normal butter and more real stuff with natural color in organic butter...

Observation #2: I feel like a huge barbarian when I make chicken soup. Tonight, standing at the stove tearing the chicken carcass apart, plopping bits of meat into the boiling soup, I was transported back to the middle ages. I felt a deep kinship with women of that era standing in their hut, picking chicken meat off of a carcass and plopping it into a boiling pot of soup...

Thought #3 is that "The Word" section of last night's Colbert Report was really funny. You should go watch it now and laugh merrily. :P) Just go to this website to watch. The Word is almost to the first slash mark in the sliding bar at the bottom. Starts about 5 minutes in.

Andrew Sullivan on "Why I Blog"

Blogging is not dead!

This is a good article in the Atlantic “Why I Blog” by Andrew Sullivan. I saw it in the print version last month but hadn’t gotten around to reading it until I saw a link from the not-dead blog post referenced above.

The only part of this article I question is on the first page where he says that blogging doesn’t allow review or editing. I self-edit a lot. I usually write a draft, and then come back to it a few hours later to read through it and publish it on blogger.

I love this -- “The blogosphere, at its best, [is] a conversation, rather than a production.”

Starting on Page 3 is a fascinating history of blog-like writing.

The 4th paragraph, 3rd page is great! (this magazine won’t let me copy & paste text!) The idea is that blogging is like hosting a dinner party. Starting a conversation about an interesting topic, then allowing the guests to feel welcome contributing thoughts as well. This doesn’t apply to my blog, but does applying to several I often read...you know who you are Barbara, Sam, other dinner party hosts. :)

Blogging is different from print journalism in that “whatever authority a blogger has is derived not from the institution he works for but from the humanness he conveys.” I take issues with the generic “he”… I like a generic “they”… but I enjoy the sentiment of the line.

He talks about the miracle of email, which is a great way of putting it.

Says blogging is like cable news or talk radio. “People have a voice for radio and a face for television. For blogging, they have a sensibility.”

4th paragraph from the bottom on the 4th and last page, I really enjoyed. About how blogging interacts with his print journalism writing and how they are both part of the conversation and inform each other. Then he talks about jazz and blogs. I love it!

Yeah, a very good article. You should go read it now. :)

DC Visitor Center, Finally, & Saratoga New York Happening

After 6 years of construction, a new site to see on a visit to DC finally opens Dec 2...The Captiol Visitor Center! I'm excited because I've been walking past all of the massive construction for the past three years and now it will finally look nice! Just in time for me to move to a place where I no longer have to walk by it a lot. But it is good for everyone, and I'm happy. I just hope they preserve the grass. The fence was lower today that it has been before and now I'm afriad that it's going to look like some space-age construction. I think it should look old and dignified, to go with the character of the existing Cap Building.

And here's something a bit less high-brow, but entertaining nonetheless. This is a quote from a Gene Weingarten chat in the WaPo. I read them often but not religiously, looking for this kind of gem. CLOD means Clip of the Day.

"The second CLOD is a repeat from last week's update, because I want to make sure everyone has seen it. I cannot watch it, even repeatedly, without laughing. It is brilliant silent comedy, worthy of Chaplin, but the director here was a security camera. Note how the drunkenness of the participants contributes to the exaggeration of their movements. Note the use of cigarettes. Note everything. It's so great."

Hehe. :P

Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps

This captivating article is about a nonprofit group that gives free medical care to people without insurance and who are underinsured in rural areas worldwide. The article is about an event at a fairgrounds in Wise County, Virginia.

The healthcare providers are all volunteers, and they use a disaster model of care. What a godsend for the people getting care! And what good practice for the next big disaster! This group should replace FEMA. Or take over FEMA. How can FEMA expect to manage disasters if they don’t practice? I can’t imagine better practice than going into an area like this and offering free care.

People in need of care arrived the day before it started and got a number. They camped at the entrance and were there when it opened Friday morning at sunrise. The clinic went all day Friday and Saturday, and Sunday until noon.

An ex-actor and “adventurer”, Stan Brock, organizes the Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps and set up the Virginia clinic covered in the article for $26,000. This is the 9th year of this location. The facilities are cheap but functional. And very effective at treating acute problems and diagnosing larger problems. They say many patients have trouble getting follow-up care, but they try to help them. To get free care, they have to go to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, a 6 hour drive away. That’s pretty remote. Otherwise they save up and go to a local doctor or hospital.

Lions Club volunteers help organize people at this event. I've always been curious about what members of these secret societies do.

The results are staggering: for an investment of $26,000, by noon on Sunday, “2,670 people have received medical treatment worth more than $1.7 million. Hundreds of tests have been administered. More than 1,000 pairs of eyeglasses have been made. More than 4,000 teeth have been extracted.” They alleviate a lot of suffering with this program.

The larger question is why this mass of people don’t have health coverage or jobs. Can coal mining be a viable profession again? Can alternate industries be created for these towns?

To do tomorrow -- VOTE & eat for free!

Tell them at starbucks that you voted tomorrow, & get a free cup of coffee!
I found this as an ad on the Washington post so it must be real!

I also saw an ad in Express last week saying we can get a free donut at Krispy Crème for wearing an “I Voted Today” sticker tomorrow.

This great post outlines all of the freebies available all over the place!

Yes for democracy! Yes for free stuff! Yes We Can!

thoughts on environmental hopelessness; it's not that bad, really!

A psychologist just mentioned the idea of Transition Towns as a way
people can do something about climate change and improve their lives at
the same time. They can feel empowered instead of hopeless.

A problem that environmentally concerned people face in confronting
climate change is the fear that the public will "freak out" and/or get
hopelessly depressed if we share with them the truth about what's
happening. Sometimes I feel like this is true, but there has been no
evidence to support this idea.

The evidence created by this Transition Town model is that people will
act in the Earth's best interest when given an opportunity to do so.

The movement aims to decrease energy consumption. One motto of theirs
that I like is "Food feet, not food miles!" meaning that food should
travel feet, not miles, to our table. Plant veggies, have a community
garden plot, join a CSA (this site has lots of good links), and buy things from as nearby as possible.
This neat resource has suggestions on how to do just that.

The transportation of goods is a major bottomless pit for fuel, but
doesn't need to be this way. Eat local, buy local, support local
manufacturing as a way to save energy and prevent climate change. It's
all tied together.

Do you find the media (tv) overly negative and soul draining?

So does this group of people calling for a News Fast. They want us to consume life-affirming media only. I joined their facebook group and wanted to write about it here too.

Whenever I have the misfortune of watching the evening news, I feel unhappy. Depressed and despondent. A good friend of mine spends too much time reading the unmindful news on the computer. It makes him feel bad and depressed.

So we need to stop it. Stop making ourselves unhappy with this unmindful media and news. Now go read the website to learn more.

I'm a fan of ayurvedic indian food

Mmmm. They use no butter and less oil. More healthy ingredients. It's like healthfood, but so so so yummy. I ate a huge dinner and feel very good now anyways.

I tried this place called Indian Ocean tonight with friends. They weren't very busy at all either. Great food and right on the red line in Van Ness. Within sight of the metro stop.

This doesn't replace my favorite Indian restaurant of all time, of course, Udupi Palace in Takoma Park near Langly Park. So so sooooooooo good. Udupi has a wonderful buffet every weekend day for lunch. Amazing, really. You gotta try it.

It must be the season to try new things. For dim sum I usually go to Oriental East, in Silver Spring, and it's quite good. Some friends want to branch out though, so we're trecking out to East Falls Church tomorrow morning. Might bike it. We'll see how I feel about that in the morning. It's 10 miles each way.

One friend is seeking a dim sum joint that's less pork heavy. It seems like most dishes are pork-something at this other place. It will be fun to branch out! :)


Update 11/3/08: The new dim sum place was good! Called Mark's Duck House and excellent food. It was smaller than the usual place, but we got a big table right away and didn't feel rushed at all. I love that about chinese places. They could care less how long you sit there. It cost a little bit more, but still cheap for the amount and quality of the food.

We did indeed bike there on the Custis Trail to the W&O Trail. It took a bit over an hour and was really hilly, but good preparation for lots of food. I love the bike network in DC. I recommend the ride from DC to the Duck House. Just be sure to give yerself plenty of time. :)

Craigslist Adventures and Sitemeter Milestone

Yay! I passed the 6,000 mark on sitemeter! Thank you to all my dediated fans and family members. :)

In other news, craigslist works, but its people are cheap. A woman named Robin who works at the census bureau came today to pick up some bed risers I had listed for $10 per set. I had two sets and she wanted both. Fine.

I said meet me at my place at 530. She calls at 4:55 and says she's almost there and hopes she can pick them up early. I get the message at 5:05 and call back to say i'm leaving work now and will meet her at 530. She says, "I can't pick them up early?" I say "No, I couldn't leave work early for this."

So I get home at the already-mentioned 530, meet her, give her the goods, and she asks if i'll take $15, which is all she has. Who inconveniences me like that and then cheaps out? I said someting to that effect and she said, this is really all i have.

Ok, what ever.

Buying condo

Ah where to begin. Been riding my bike all over the city more. It feels really good to be able to whizz up hills now. My heart gets beating and legs feel it. It's real exercise! But also transportation for free. Lovely.

Moving soon, probably. I am also thinking of buying a place. A condo to live in and pay off slowly as an investment. I have no idea where else to put my money now that the stock market is blown to peices, so a condo seems like a great idea.

I'm looking into the program DC has for first-time homebuyers who don't make a ton of money. It's called HPAP. A few months ago I went to a seminar on first-time home buying that was offered by the DC government. It was informative, and they explained this low-interest HPAP program. But I'm having a hard time getting someone to talk to me about it now that I'm interested.

Six months after the course I decided to look into it. I first found a website saying to contact the Washington Urban League for info. Called them, told reception what I wanted, and got transferred to someone's voicemail, who hasn't called me back.

Second day, found another website listing 4 community based organizations through which one needs to go to get the loan and grant. So I choose the one that's most convenient to work, University Legal Services on I Street NE. I called and spoke to the receptionist who put me on hold, came back, and proceeded to take down all my contact info and salary, and said a housing counselor would call me back. That was Monday or Tuesday morning, now its Thursday evening and no call. Guess I'll call them back tomorrow to see how long it takes to get someone's attention.

Thing is, I saw a condo I think would be great online and it'll definately be gone by the time this loan process is finished. But I'm sure there will be more.

I might even go out of DC. I'm restricting myself to the district right now trying to get this loan assistance. They also waive your property taxes for the first five years, and cover your closing costs. All for being low or moderate income in a crazy-expensive place like this. So I want a peice of that. Not sure how long it'll take though.

A Look Inside The Avo-Mailbag

Ugh! Checking my avocad gmail address for the first time in six months... Got some strange notes from people there!

One email is from someone with a public relations agency in Los Angeles. "We work with the California Avocado Commission." They want us to know that "Ninety percent of the nation’s avocado crop is grown in California by more than 6,000 farmers who take a hand-grown approach. April through September marks the California avocado season"... Etc, etc. And she offers to send me unique avocado recipes, and tell stories about avocado farmers. Hmm, this website could get more avocado green if i'm not careful! This all must have been brought on by my recent post all about avocados. It's odd though, I posted that in March and got the email in June. Alrightythen!

Another of my favorites is from a person who set up a website of "uber cool slideshows for your blog." I found this one there, which is, indeed, uber cool. At least for me who is considering a trip to India this fall. Here are a bunch of Indian vacation spots.


Make Your Own Slideshow | More Slideshows

Another is from the "Scientific Fundamentalist" thanking me for reading and commenting. Seriously, I don't know why these places thank me by email instead of by a comment at my blog. That would be more appreciated...

There's one facebook invite from a friend I made in person at a blogger meetup, from April. Sorry for not responding yet! Yahh! Will do that tonight, using my other email addy.

Other than that I got a bunch of emails from the artomatic message boards, yeah, that email is signed up there, and some other random ones. Will go into them later. :)

Things to do -- One weekend in the fall!

Ok, here's some music for ya while you read my post. :) I love moby. What if aliens landed in hollywood?

Anyway, there's just so much to do! Only in DC to I have regrets from forgetting opportunities that there were, after a full busy weekend.

For example, this Sunday I went to the really cool yummy Greek Festival at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Great food, great fun watching and listening to the Greek and non-Greek people in attendance. Then, in the church basement about to buy and consume baklava, saw two people with Crafty Bastards bags and realized that that was that day too!

So the bf and I jumped on the bikes and high-tailed it over. It seems to have ended at 5, right about when we got there, but it seemed nice! Lots of craft booths. So many crafty folks here in the region! I think most of them much be hobbyists. There's no way hundreds of people can make their living from screen print tshirts and rubber stamps.

Then Sunday afternoon I see a sign for Barrack's Row festival, which was also that day. On 8th St SE, this is a quaint little annual fest.

Then today I realize from the Moffettblog that Saturday was also the National Book Festival. There's only so many festivals I can hit in one weekend people! Why can't these neighborhoods space them out a bit? Pretty soon it'll be cold November with no festivals and no daylight. Only stay at home huddled for warmth.

Just yesterday it was hot hot hot August. So hot and steamy here in the Districto. Daylight till 9 and humidity like nobody's business.

Right now it's September. The intermezzo. Intermission, if you will.

Timing Issues

I'm ready, I wait. He's ready, I'm not. I'm comfortable on the couch, he's ready to go. I'm standing with my shoes on ready to go out the door, he wants to do this first.

Why is this so difficult? Why does it give me this sense of dis-ease?

This is what gives me headaches.

Walden!

The abiding calm of Walden Pond in March.

Peaceful, half frozen, embedded in its neighborhood,
on a street that could be near any town.

Within view of the pond,
one finds themself
transported back in time.

So easy to imagine Thoreau,
seated on the bank,
lost in thought.

I paused often,
to absorb the place.

Political Stuff, Warning to Look Away if Your Head is Firmly in the Sand

Obama said, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

And he talks about "The fierce urgency of now." I like the way that sounds. Like we should be mindful of now and not let it slip away. Now is important. That is a quote by both Obama and Martin Luther King Jr.


I also came across this article about McCain that needs to be publicized! Did you know he left his first wife and family when he got back from Vietnam? She wasn't as beautiful as when he left. He cheated, then married a much younger rich and beautiful woman. I didn't know those tidbits till reading this! Hmmm...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1024927/The-wife-John-McCain-callously-left-behind.html

I don't like to drive, but nature is good

To be among nature today I borrowed my boyfriend's car, but it almost isn't worth it. Hard to get the drive back off my mind the whole time I was there. My mind is like a puppy, straying all over the place away from the task at hand -- enjoying nature while in the garden.

Lots of cherry tomatoes to pick today. Fresh and ripe in their redness and yellowness. One more butternut squash is there waiting, but I left it for another day because I really only need one in the fridge right now.

Tonight for dinner I cut up an onion from the garden and some garlic, and stir fried it with half of a giant zucchini. The skin gets really hard when it gets about 2 feet long. Things grow really quickly here in DC. Especially zucchini, gourds, and squash. They are prolific.

I am going to try my hand at gourd art with these nice little specimens we have now. The only problem is that to get them to preserve indefinitely (instead of getting moldy after a few months), I'm told that I need to scrub them with bleach water. I don't like using bleach for things since it's such a strong chemical. But if I do scrub off the gourds with bleach I'm told they'll stay firm forever. And we can paint the outside and use them as percussion instruments.

Thoughts on Population & Births

An article today about the low birthrate of European countries in today’s NYT piqued my interest. It spends the first 3 pages (in the online version) describing the fact that there is currently a very low birthrate in Europe among European people. It’s below the “replacement rate” of each woman having 2.1 babies. In many countries it’s near 1 baby per woman. This worries people who want to see the culture of each country continue to thrive. There was an amusing reference to all of Europe becoming one big EuroDisney.

They compare regions and find that Southern Europe (Spain, Greece, and Italy) have much lower rates than Northern (Scandinavia and the UK). They also analyze Eastern Europe (Romania, Latvia, etc) but can’t seem to reach any conclusion there except that those countries are messed up & have been since the fall of the USSR. They don’t venture a guess as to why other than the transition to a market economy. I think it might have to do with a general sense of depression. They are recognizing this and seeking ways to help (point in case, the recent decision in Romania to require that half of every news cast be devoted to good news).

Ok, back to topic, around page 4, the demographers ask why the birthrate differs between N and S Europe. I totally agree with their conclusions and paste my favorite parts below.

“Women who do more than 75 percent of the housework and child care are less likely to want to have another child than women whose husbands or partners share the load. Put differently, Dutch fathers change more diapers, pick up more kids after soccer practice and clean up the living room more often than Italian fathers; therefore, relative to the population, there are more Dutch babies than Italian babies being born. As Mencarini said, “It’s about how much the man participates in child care.””

They also touch on the seeming paradox that a higher percentage of women work outside the home in N Europe, but the birthrate is higher as well. Explained by men doing more of their share to help in the North, and society being more supportive (childcare is provided free of charge by the government, maternity and paternity leave is mandated to include a high proportion of regular pay, government bonuses to women who give birth).

Of the Southern European and Asian countries where the birthrate is very low, they say the following:

“All of these are societies still rooted in the tradition where the husband earned all the money. Things have changed, not only in Italy and Spain but also in Japan and Korea, but those societies have not yet adjusted. The relationships within households have not adjusted yet.”

There was a really funny part about how the Italian woman who gets no help with kid #1 and has to quit her job to take care of it is unlikely to want more, whereas the Dutch woman who gets lots of spousal and societal support and gets to keep working while the kid is at free child care is likely to see more kids as a viable option.


Of course, this all brings up the larger issue of how it is unfortunate that society has moved in the direction of two people having to work in order to support a household. I believe it would be better for one person to work to support the house and the other partner having the option not to work. It’s just that husbands haven’t wanted to leave the workforce as their wives have wanted to be in it. Imagine how nice it would be if wages from one job could still be sufficient to support a family – and either partner could choose to only work inside the home.

But instead, the market decided that if two adults are going to work in most families, they can cut the wages in half. Prices can be twice as high. It is draconian.


Back to the article at hand. Analysis of the US – we have the highest birthrate of the developed world. See page 6 for a discussion. In short, they say its due to the flexible nature of the US job market – that a woman can exit for a few years and reenter more easily here than in Europe. And the fact that dads are involved with childcare, and that society is ok with mothers working outside the home. In Italy apparently there is still a stigma attached to a mother having a job – how constricting!

“There are those who think that “lowest low” [birthrate] is not in itself a looming disaster but more of a challenge, even an opportunity. The change that’s required, they say, is not in breeding habits but thinking habits.”

Hear, hear, I say!


And a gem near the bottom of page 9:

“But while few locals themselves may feel religiously inclined, the thinking is that if religious pilgrimage is the best card in your hand, you play it. This notion — embrace shrinkage in order to revitalize your economy, rather than trying to coax women to have more babies — is, according to more than a few observers of the European scene, the right tack. … “It’s insane to consider low birthrate as a crisis,” he told me. “Basically every person I know in my section of the National Academy of Sciences thinks it’s wonderful that rich countries are starting to shrink their populations to sustainable levels. We have to do that because we’re wrecking our life-support systems.””

Biking in DC

Wow, is all I can say. After two weeks of biking around a lot, i have a lot more money on my smarttrip card than at the end of any other month, and i'm getting a lot better at the biking thing. More confident rolling next to cars even when there isn't a bike lane marked.

My $50 bike is still treating me well. My parents bought it at a garage sale quite a few years ago and then gave it to me when they got new bikes. It's dark blue with bright orange wires. A Huffy. I like it. I got a black u shaped lock for it that i'm getting awfully quick at applying and removing. Today I did it twice in the rain, in fact.

Yes, my first experience riding in the rain was this afternoon. Up the hill from the mall to NW, even. I stopped twice under cover when it was really pouring, but did continue on. Splashed through a few puddles.

So far it has been nothing if not interesting seeing all of the other bikers. Most of them are very friendly to their compatriots. Some people are wild, running through intersections when there isn't traffic for an instant, while I stand there waiting for the light. Some people are fast & serious with their bike shorts and review mirrors. A few people are like me and more laid back, having fun. Really, I don't want to do things that I don't have fun at. So bicycling should be the same way, I feel. At one point today I was not having fun, in the rain, with the traffic, but then I stopped. And then convinced myself to start again.

Hopefully I can judge better and not ride in rain anymore. I just want to have a pleasant happy life. It is a nice way to get around. Very self-sufficient.

Crossing Ohio When Poppies Bloom in Ashtabula -- A Great Sandburg Poem about Spring to Summer. Our current transition.

1
Go away. Leave the high winds of May
blowing over the fields of grape vines
near the northwest corner of Pennsylvania.
Leave the doorstep peonies
pushing high bosoms at passers— by
in northern Ohio towns in May.

Leave the boys flying light blue kites
on a deep blue sky; and the yellow, the
yellow spilling over the drinking rims
of the buttercups, piling their yellows
into foam blown sea rims of yellow;
Go away; go to New York,
Broadway, Fifth Avenue, glass
lights and leaves, glass faces,
fingers; go

2
Pick me poppies in Ohio,
mother.
Pick me poppies in the back yard
in Ashtabula.
May going, poppies coming, summer humming:
make it a poppy summer, mother; the leaves
sing in the silk, the leaves sing a tawny
red gold; seven sunsets saved themselves
to be here now.

Pick me poppies, mother; go, May; wash me,
summer; shoot up this back yard in Ashta—
bula, shoot it up, give us a daylight fire—
works in Ohio, burn it up with tawny red
gold.

— Carl Sandburg

Good Old Fashioned Pancakes

I tried this recipe over the weekend and the pancakes were perfect. From http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Good-Old-Fashioned-Pancakes/Detail.aspx

6 servings = enough for 2 people...despite what one would expect. I mixed together what they list, then added a little water until it was pourable. Must be able to pour the batter onto the pan. Serve with syrup, jelly, and butter (and fresh fruit and whip cream when available). Savor.

INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 2-1/4 teaspoons white sugar
* 3/4 cup and 3 tablespoons milk
* 1 egg
* 2 tablespoons and 3/4 teaspoon butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth.

2. Heat a lightly oiled (or nonstick) griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Goffy Video, Long-Awaited Movie, Weekend Bliss

More video fun, because it's 11:05 at night and I'm playing on youtube. :)



This one is funny. Must be from a movie. Hmm. It's such a catchy song though. "Take on Me" by "Aha". Love the 80s!

So this past weekend was my college 4-5-6 year reunion. I had been quite excited about it, but somehow the excitement wained as the event neared, and I didn't go.

Instead, went to a going away party for a friend, and saw the new movie "Sex and the City" on Opening Night! It was great. Such a sense of womanly companionship in the theater. I saw it in Union Station Cinema -- a big historic place with nice cushy seats. The place was completely full & sold out. At the end I looked around and there were 3 guys present. Kudos to them! The rest was ladies. :)

I was very happy with the movie. Tied up all the loose ends for me and gave me a warm fuzzy feeling as I walked out. What more could we ask. Now we need other series's like Seinfeld to come out with long-awaited movies. That'd be great too!

The other night went to a going away party for a guy I've known for 6 months. He's been living in DC that long, and is now moving again. Back to Africa from whence he came. This is indeed a transient city. But it's a city with life. Energy. Vibrancy.

Random thoughts from work

This article makes a good case for the importance of organic broccoli, fresh or frozen. I love broccoli!

I feel this way at work sometimes -- http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/post/31365506

I try to think this way all the time! http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/post/33888433

This is a great comment on profile pictures.

And I sometimes feel stuck in one of these, but not nearly as often now that I’m out of grad school. Once again, thank heavens for having the wisdom to leave that track. :)

The Washington Wardrobe, Wages, and Ambition

How much have things really changed? Sure, this article is poking fun at the “wife’s rating scale” from 1939 that it prints at the bottom, even saying “Of course, gender relations have come a long way since Crane's work,” but, really? Have things changed much?

I walk the city streets and can’t help but notice the huge difference between how men dress and how women dress. They wear identically cut pieces, in different colors, and different combinations based on the demands of their jobs. I.e., men walking around the street wear some combination of a button down long sleeve shirt, long dress pants, dress shoes (these 3 always), a tie, a suit jacket, and/or a bag/briefcase. Six items. Seems simple & easy.

Women, on the other hand, look so much nicer and more visually interesting in their variety, but this takes work on our part and is unrewarded. Women are expected to look nice in ways that men aren’t, and to wear a variety of clothes. Women who decide to wear color variations on a clothing “uniform,” like men do, are viewed as butch or un-feminine. This is a problem in professional life. We are expected to look put-together and “nice.”

We need a professional wardrobe that includes color and cut varieties of dress pants, dress shirts, sweaters, blouses, suit jackets, dresses, an occasional suit, some panty hose, jewelry to go with each outfit, shoes to go with each outfit, make-up, hair products, and a purse/briefcase. Twelve items.

Walking around Washington I notice that we comply with these social demands. Women wear the uniform, even though it’s twice as difficult for us than for men. In general the ladies I see walking around look a bit more pissed off than the men. Whenever I see a group of men all wearing the same outfit in slightly different colors, and I know that this is what they wear to work every day, and that they never have to even think for a moment about what to wear, I get a little bit frustrated. Maybe that’s what these women walking down the street are thinking about.

On top of the requirements to make society a nicer place by looking nice while we are walking around, women are ridiculed by the men in their life for taking longer to get ready. And women are judged by how clean and tidy their domicile is. While men aren’t. And we are told that we get paid less for the same jobs. And there are fewer of us in positions of power.

------------

Ok, as you may be able to tell, I was getting kind of upset typing the above. The Monster website had a blurb that made me feel a little bit better: “"Research shows that work/life decisions lead to men earning more and women working less and leading happier and healthier lives," says Warren Farrell, author of Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap -- and What Women Can Do About It. People who work 44 hours a week earn twice as much as those who work 34, according to Farrell's analysis of BLS data. Farrell says it's a mistake –- and disempowering -- for women to believe that gender determines pay. "When you look at men and women who have never been married and have no kids, women make 117 percent of what men make, even when you control for education, hours worked and years in the workplace," he says.”

There is a lot of bias out there against women. It’s often thought to be unconscious. The Slate article provides a fascinating analysis. My favorite new fact: “since the arrival of "blind" orchestra auditions, in which candidates are evaluated from behind a screen, the percentage of women hired by the top five U.S. orchestras has risen from less than 5 percent to 34 percent.”

Also, “Ambition depends on a host of factors: confidence, actual skill, and the fuel of external recognition. Studies increasingly show that bias corrupts each of these in turn. In doing so, it doesn't just bar a woman from the corner office, it causes her to take herself out of the running.”

Ok, I’m off to be ambitious now.

Comments on Careers in Science

Today I came across this blurb about how Congress is debating making a statement about how there should be more equitalble treatment for women in science.

One of the commentors left a link to this article, which is just great!

Apparently wages for professors used to be equitable with other high-IQ professions, but the business and medical fields have given themselves huge pay raises in recent years while wages academia has remained constant (adjusted for inflation). You’ll have to read the article for more, which I highly advise. Especially for any young college students considering the professoriate as a profession. Learn about this first!!!

Here’s a good definition from the article – to remember – “A good career is one that pays well, in which you have a broad choice of full-time and part-time jobs, in which there is some sort of barrier to entry so that you won't have to compete with a lot of other applicants, in which there are good jobs in every part of the country and internationally, and in which you can enjoy job security in middle age and not be driven out by young people willing to work 100 hours per week.”

The conclusion of this thoughtful piece is that women are more forward looking in their lives and are more rational in their planning of their future, therefore they are less likely to become graduate students and pursue an academic career.

Biodegradable What?!

I’m going out of town this weekend and couldn’t be happier! It will mean a long drive and risking traffic-related stress, but it will all be worthwhile when I’m sitting next to a crackling campfire in the woods with my family.

Today I came across this story about biodegradable home products like couches. On the 2nd page they get into some fascinating talk about “thing theory” and the idea that people define themselves and their “sameness” by the stuff that they are around. “I am me because I sit at the same dining room table every day.” And they say that the fact that biodegradable furniture is catching on suggests an identity crisis. Earlier in the article they say that it is evidence that we’re living in a hyperconsumeristic society. I see it more as evidence of the second view. We buy too much, hence we want something we won’t feel bad throwing out in a year. But, at the same time I think people who buy this stuff might be taking a longer term view. “I know in 50 years this will be junk, so I want to help Mother Nature decompose it when it eventually is in a landfill.” That’s what I was thinking upon beginning to read this article anyway.

Is there anywhere left in this area where a person can sit and not have to hear car noise?

I certainly doubt it. I think it would be nice if there were a spot.

Parks near my house are right along the freeway or surrounded on all 4 sides by little streets, i.e. the middle of traffic squares or circles. When I trek to the prestigious NW area there is a big park named Rock Creek, but it has a highway, parkway, running through its middle. Roosevelt Island offers a chance to get away from cars, but it's surrounded distantly by two freeways and it is in the flight path for National Airport.

There are nice bike paths along the parkways, but you're riding alongside traffic. There are picnic spots there too.

The closest spot I know of is along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Great Falls park, in VA or MD. One must drive there, but once on foot you can walk pretty far from the cars. Once N and I were there in the evening around dusk and there were only people every 5 minutes or so. We saw a deer across the river and a big bird. Then we got in the car and drove back to the city.

Here's one of my favorite photos from that evening. This is along the Canal Towpath. The canal runs from far North of the city, through its heart. You can walk along it in Georgetown too.

Ok, off to enjoy my morning now. Just needed to get the traffic noise gripe off of my chest.

This is what I'd like to learn how to do with videos on youtube.

Such a nice compilation of short shots, with music. Cool.