Purdy

9-30-11

The view out my office window today. 

Bounty

9-29-11

I got home tonight to find this massive zucchini propped up against my front door. The zucchini in our garden have taken off to a disturbing degree, but this is by far the biggest one I've seen yet. I have placed a normal-sized banana next to it so that you may fully appreciate the scale of this monstrosity. Picking it up was like picking up a baby for cryin' out loud.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. We've had so much that so far I've made stir fry, ratatouille, and stuffed zucchinis. Perhaps zucchini bread is in order for this one...though I have a feeling it might be big enough to make a couple of things! Hmmmmmmmm....SOUP. It's going to rain next week! Soup would be the perfect answer to the rainy dreary (WONDERFUL) weather.

Working

9-28-11

After work I biked down to Philz to get some reading/brainstorming done. I just have a hard time doing it at home because when I get home I sort of want to shut off...which isn't bad, I think we all need time to be mindless/just relax. But I think I've been shutting off too much lately when I need to be productive. So since it was 92 degrees and sunny I sat outside and drank a delicious iced coffee and read the first 100 pages of The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker. It's fascinating so far! And he talks about Chomsky a lot (how could he not, right?!). 

I also wrote down any ideas/thoughts/questions re: research topics/ASL/signed language that came to mind as I read so that I would have a starting off point for writing my admissions essays. I know I have questions and interests but sometimes it's hard to articulate them so writing down my thoughts as I go is a good first step!

On Creativity

We can pick our teachers and we can pick our friends and we can pick the books we read and the music we listen to and the movies we see, etcetera. You are a mashup of what you let into your life.”
-Austin Kleon


For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this.
-Ira Glass

-Alex Noriega 

Every time we practice an old skill or learn a new one, existing neural connections are strengthened and, over time, neurons create more connections to other neurons. Even new nerve cells can be generated. ... Whether it is by learning a new language, traveling to a new place, developing a passion for beekeeping or simply thinking about an old problem in a new way, all of us can find ways to stimulate our brains to grow, in the coming year and those to follow. Just as physical activity is essential to maintaining a healthy body, challenging one’s brain, keeping it active, engaged, flexible and playful, is not only fun. It is essential to cognitive fitness.

-Oliver Sacks

Decision

No picture. No reason - I'm just lazy and didn't take one today...or yesterday...

BUT! I have been thinking. Grad school applications are going to be due before I know it, and here I am wasting precious hours of my life in the evening watching TV. Now, I don't watch a LOT of TV (though I suppose that's all relative), but I often will watch an hour or so after I get home from the gym, after work. It's a nice way to turn my brain completely off for a little while and relax while I eat some dinner (or a "snack of rabbit food" as Jess would call it). But...

I need to be reading.

I have all these books I want to read, and I am moving through them far too slowly.

I also need to be writing.

I need to be writing my admissions essays, and writing down ideas and brainstorming.

I only have so much time after work, and I'm sure as hell not sacrificing boxing/climbing/gym time. So, Mr. TV, you gots ta go.

I reserve, however, a special allowance for How I Met Your Mother, and the Amazing Race. And hour and a half a week of uncompromising tv watching. I think that's reasonable.

That is all.

Culinary Prowess

9-24-11

I've been wanting to make Shepherd's Pie for a while now because I just freaking love it but I rarely get to eat it and it seems so easy. So when I went to the store the other day I got some ground lamb (it has to be lamb to be authentically Irish!) thinking I'd try it out. I didn't even have this in mind, though, when I decided to make mashed potatoes this evening. I just had seen on Chopped how you can make mashed potatoes with cauliflower mashed in! I thought hey that's genius! And it makes the mashed potatoes healthier! I had a whole head of cauliflower and wasn't sure what to do with it because while I do like it, I don't LOVE it so a whole head is a lot to eat on my own.

So after I mashed it up with the potatoes and realized how MUCH I had I thought, wait a second, why don't I just keep going and use this for shepherd's pie? 

And that, my friends, is precisely what I did. It is DELICIOUS and nutritious! Here's the recipe I used: Shepherd's Pie. Besides adding cauliflower to the potatoes, I also put way more peas than it called for. I also used gluten-free flour (obviously), and I left the skins on the potatoes because, well, they're just better that way. I think I'd add green beans and corn next time, though. The more veggies the better I always say.

Yum yum yum!

Tuckered Out

9-22-11

She tired herself out playing with this roll of toilet paper.