I decided to make Mexican hot chocolate cookies. I have no idea where this craving came from, but I’m glad it happened! I browsed the internet for recipes and knew that the one at Post Punk Kitchen would be the best. I had just made the rosemary chocolate chip cookies [pictured] from PPK for Thanksgiving, and they were everything I hoped and dreamed. Continue reading →
When I work at my second job, I usually listen to TED Radio Hour. It’s a great way to have something going in my ears that isn’t totally mindless, but doesn’t require so much attention that it would be problematic if I stop listening for a moment because something at work is requiring extra attention. Continue reading →
I love my job. Well, I have two. I have two part-time, paying jobs. I’d say I’m faring pretty well compared to a lot of people in my graduating class. I like them both a lot, but I’m going to talk about the one that doesn’t make me get up early on Sundays. Continue reading →
Clearly it has been a while since I have posted here. Personal websites are interesting things. Today I went to a symposium showcasing the projects of several interns of the IU Office of Sustainability. It was great to see what bright minds could put together to make IU more sustainable! Continue reading →
I don’t really think of myself as an artist. I don’t think of myself as very creative. But the reasons I don’t think of myself as artistic or creative is because I have been stuck thinking about creativity as strictly painting, sculpting, writing music, writing stories… I can’t do any of those things well (in fact, I’m so bad at writing that it takes me several days just to write one of these posts). But I can make a damn good chocolate chip cookie from scratch, with my own recipe. And I can start with just some chopped onions and create a savory mushroom soup. And I can tweak ingredients and work with what I have on hand and explore new methods. Sometimes I make mistakes, like trying to make a cheese sauce without first making a roux *YUCK*, but I learn from those mistakes and improve next time. All of this takes creativity and I just never realized it. Continue reading →
This has been sitting in my drafts folder for a while. Where do I begin? The title describes my feelings pretty well. Eating dead animals really does make me feel weird (in my mind, not gastrointestinally). I am going to try to lay out my journey to officially claiming the title of “vegetarian” as opposed to “flexitarian“. Continue reading →
Sprawl is a problem. Sometimes called “Urban Sprawl” and sometimes called “Suburban Sprawl”. There are a few types of urban sprawl, but we know it best as low-density residential communities on the edge of urban areas [1]. This recent article from The Atlantic Cities quantifies the high costs of sprawl.
Compact development costs, on average, 38 percent less in up-front infrastructure than “conventional suburban development” for things like roads, sewers and water lines. It costs 10 percent less in ongoing service delivery by reducing the distances law enforcement or garbage trucks must travel to serve residents (well-connected street grids cut down on this travel time, too).[2]
It’s a huge problem, and being mostly minimalist and against consumerism myself, I don’t understand why Americans think they need all of that space. I grew up in various suburbs and it sucked. To get to what little community events there are you have to hop in a four wheeled petrol-guzzling machine. The four to eight lane roads are bordered with chain restaurant after chain restaurant. If you walk or bike somewhere people think you are out of your mind. Continue reading →
More Resources:
The grocer I frequent has a nifty manager’s special rack. All the things that didn’t get sold at their full price and just aren’t selling enough at general discount prices get tossed in this pile and marked way down. Sometimes even down to 99 cents. As you can imagine, cream of celery soup ends up there frequently. What the heck are you supposed to do with cream of celery soup? I can think of some casseroles, but I prefer cream of mushroom for those. Continue reading →