tylik

And after all my fuss, the World Taiji Day event we were going to attend... wasn't held this year. And we couldn't find another. And we figured this all out late enough in the game that there wasn't time to set up our own. (I'm not certain that I want to... but seeing all my Seattle friends posting pictures has me feeling the right sort of ornery.) So we are all dressed up with no where to go.

Though there's apparently an Asian festival next month... on, of course, the same weekend B will be staying with us while he's in town to become Dr. B. Hmm. (OTOH, if it turns out to be demo appropriate, and the times don't conflict, he was one of my students and maybe we can drag him along.)

On the up side, it turns out the Cleveland now does have an Ethiopian restaurant. So I'm thinking of setting up some kind of go out and eat good food night. (Of course, there's also a new and good Sichuanese restaurant. Maybe next time.)

It's interesting to me to hear both West, TX and Boston, MA described as looking like war zones. In Boston, because no one but police are out and about, and in West because an area of some blocks in diameter has been more or less leveled.

So, it got me thinking, what do we mean when we say "like a war zone"?

Are the children not in school?
Is there no school?
Abandoned buildings? Repurposed buildings?
Is there a great deal of sexual violence?
Are children being recruited for militias?
Are people scalping food? (I know there's another word for this...)
Is there a dearth of luxury goods?
Have people become innured to the sounds of gunfire or bombings?
Propaganda? Jingoism?

...help me out here, folks...

Part of me wonders if we should put cities in lock down if they have factories that have not recently been inspected and house dangerous chemicals...

(This message brought to you by my firmly turning off the radio now. And I'm something of a news junkie, but right now I could so do with a friendly episode of "Wait, wait, don't tell me...!")

So I've been thinking a little about print journalism.

I live in Cleveland. I don't get a newspaper - I haven't for years, even when I still preferred paper books I sought out online print media. Oh, and I kind of hate the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I'm still not sure this is because of their content, or just that I really don't like their web site. Periodically, I try to like them. Or at least read them. And then I get stabby and go elsewhere.

Sometimes I read the Seattle Times. Now, I've never been a huge fan of the Seattle Times. But I liked the Seattle Times web site. Still... it's not my primary news source. It's more something I check more often than not because it doesn't entirely suck and it's nice to see what's going on in the old town.

So, the Seattle Times is looking to put up some kind of paywall. And I find myself conflicted. Because really, I just don't read them enough to justify buying their subscription. And yet... I'm pretty willing to pay for my news. For all my love of blogs, and my tendency to get a lot of my news from twitter, I value old fashioned print journalism (well, except the paper part.) Citizen journalism is great, professional journalism - especially local professional journalism - still has something to offer. I think. Citizen journalism is also pretty random, and I'm happy to pay for some consistency. (Yeah, there are problems. Still.)( Read more... )

I'm trying a week off of wheat.

This... is kind of a non-issue with my diet. I will not eat soba noodles (well, at least not ones with wheat), I will eat rice. I will not eat bagels... oh, that kind of sucks, we have brunch tomorrow, and I do like the bagels. I am highly tempted to not start things until after brunch. But I kind of started today, so guess I'll just deal. Anyhow, in terms of the vast majority of what I eat, no big.

At the farmers' market today there were new folks, and the new folks were selling zucchini and green beans and snow peas. OMG. So I got a once again short order of greens from Rainbow, and the above items, and I have greens and broccoli... After a couple of weeks of having barely enough fresh veggies (er, by my standards) at any time, I'm back to where I'll have to work at it. My favorite.

Inclusive of which, one of things I've been doing recently (which I might have mentioned) is buying a pound of mushrooms from the mushroom man, cooking them with garlic an olive oil, and then added a few spoonfuls to whatever else I'm making. Except last week, between the cranky barometer in my spine and trying to get a bunch of things done I never cooked my pound of white oyster mushrooms (whites usually aren't my favorites, but Tom has this new straight and they are really luscious, with this delicate almost fruity flavor). So I just cooked a pound of white oysters with a head of garlic, and then a pound of shiitake with a head of garlic.

So I really must figure out dinner... shiitake and peavines, perhaps? That's not really enough greens, though... I suppose I could do shiitake and peavines and snow peas... ;-) (And chick peas and brown basmati rice...)

( and the result... with a zucchini )

I was seriously not in the mood for my usual baking for brunch after zazen and teisho. But I had a bit more than half a loaf of stale whole wheat bread, and a bunch of chiogga beats.

So, I did the obvious, and roasted the beats. And then soaked the bread in water for a bit, wringing it out when it was soft enough to wring, and breaking it into chunks. Then I peeled and chopped up the beats. To this I added quite a bit of olive oil, artichoke hearts, and capers. And then a bit of dried oregano, more dried basil, and garlic. And then salt, vinegar and allepo peppers to taste.

Pretty darned tasty.

Honestly, I still think some nice green olives with a good bite would have worked even better. But I didn't have any. But this worked well, the tart balancing out the sweet from the beats.

I am ridiculously tired. Especially considering that I got a nap today, and yesterday. Like 35 minutes each time but hey, I'm starting to get the hand of this nap thing. I just have a ways to go. Must practice hard! Okay, I possibly didn't really get enough sleep Saturday or Sunday nights - but not by much, and, nap. See? Oh, and I have a mild sore throat. Which could just be tired - sometimes I get sore throats when I'm tired - but it's a disturbing trend, y'know?

The thing is, I'm pretty sure I've caught every bug that's in circulation at the moment. I mean, how many can there be? I've had, like, two, in the last month or so (okay, flying while getting over one cold is probably like hanging up a "vacancy" sign.) That must be all. So even though the labmate I went skiing with was pretty clearly coming down with something, it's got to be something I'm safe from.

Also? I just ate a giant pile of okra and kale, with hot peppers. I mean, seriously, any self respecting germ is going to look at that kind of nutrition and pretty much just concede the point, right? I mean, okra AND kale. And hot peppers, and garlic. (And chick peas and soba noodles, for that matter. Mm-mm. Gods but that was tasty.)

You're totally buying this, right?

Signing off, on the theory that if some bug is menacing me I am going to get so much sleep that my immune system* will be super-charged and the bug will flee in terror.

* Hey, I do have a functional immune system now. I mean, it's a bit of a beater, but way better than it was, say, last fall.

Inspired by elisem, I just used the Up-Goer Five Text Editor to produce a description of my job. (Seriously, I was all "No can do!" But then I had to try. And it was easy.)

I study the brains of little soft animals and how they move and eat. Sometimes I cut pieces out of the little soft animals. I look at what the pieces do, and I look at how the animal acts without the pieces. Sometimes I use computers to help me see what the animals are thinking and trying to do. Other times I make moving pictures of how I think the animal moves and thinks on computers.

I also tell students about my work, how to do work kind of like my work, and about how human bodies are put together and how they work.

I like my job a lot, though sometimes I'm sad about hurting the little soft animals. I like them a lot too.

I didn't know Aaron Swartz. I knew of him, and admired his work. It turns out that a number of people I know did know him, and his suicide has hit the community hard, not only in terms of friends and friends of friends, but in terms of all of the people who were inspired by him, and were horrified by the governmental response... and all the people who were just horrified that he killed himself, for whatever reason. I'm there, on all counts.

Even more than I am saddened by the dead, I am frightened for the living. And yeah, while I personally see Aaron as someone who was fighting the good fight, and who went down tragically (and I think it's entirely possible to do this even if you don't entirely agree with someone's aims) what haunts me is the near certainty that just as he was not the first member of my community to take his life, he also will not be the last. There are also plenty of ways of running around and taking a lot of damage that don't involve death. I've been holding off on writing this post for a bit now, hoping that I'd come up with a good way of saying what I want to say. Lacking that, I guess I'll just pound on the keyboard some.( Read more... )

Last night I was already in bed with the lights out and my reader (well, my phone) put away when I realized we hadn't set up the zendo for morning sitting. So I got up, mentioned my purpose to K and we set things up.( Read more... )