A to Z Learn Something New Every Day

April 30, 2015April 30, 2015 zoe21 Comments

ZEN WISDOM

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

Thanks everyone.

Enjoy one last little video!

A to Z Learn Something New Every Day

April 29, 2015April 29, 2015 zoe12 Comments

AK FARMING IN TIBET

CHIGAGO TRIBUNE (source)

July 24, 1990|By Marc Kaufman, Knight-Ridder Newspapers.

In Tibet, The Gentle Yak Pulls Its Own Weight-and Then Some

XAGME, TIBET — They are the tractors of Tibet, the trucks.

They provide Tibetans their daily drink and their weekly religious offerings. Shoes, boats, cooking fuel-all come from this treasure, the incomparable, irreplaceable yak, found only on the “roof of the world“

“If there was no yak,“ said a dusty farmer, walking behind his shaggy animal, “there could be no Tibet.“

Most of the roughly 6 million people native to the vast sweep of the Tibetan plateau are farmers, coaxing wheat and barley from a dry, unpromising soil. Tractors are a rarity, and even trucks are seldom seen. The people, as they have for centuries, rely on farm animals for survival.

Much of habitable Tibet is two to three miles high, and the rest even higher. The winters are brutally cold and windy, the summers scorchingly hot. The air is so thin and vegetation so scarce that few animals can survive.

Enter the yak.

A relative of the ox, massive, strong, and yet gentle, the yak is among the few animals that thrives in the harsh world of the Tibetan plateau.

Covered by thick hair, it can withstand temperatures well below zero, and can climb above 20,000 feet.

So suited to Tibet is the yak that it barely can survive anywhere else. A few reside in the world`s major zoos; otherwise they seldom are found away from Tibetan highlands.

“Some Tibetans have tried to take yaks to India . . . but they don`t like it there,“ said Pasang, a Tibetan tour guide who also has lived in India. “They can`t do work, and then they die.“

The yak wouldn`t loom so large for Tibetans if there were an abundance of other creatures. But trees and bushes are scarce; except for goats, sheep and some hardy dogs, few other animals are here. Yaks must provide almost everything.

The yak chiefly is a beast of burden, but almost as important is the female`s milk.

Yak milk usually is congealed into yak butter and sold in blocks often weighing 50 pounds.Families keep them (never refrigerated) in their homes to make the staple drink, yak-butter tea.

The thick, sometimes greasy and frequently salty concoction is consumed in huge quantities by virtually all Tibetans. Yak butter, kneaded with a barley powder at the table, is breakfast, lunch and dinner for many.

If yak butter provided only this nourishment, it would be important enough. But melted yak butter also is central to the practice of Tibetan Buddhism: The faithful burn it in front of statues of Buddha and other shrines, filling the air with a heavy dairy smell that Tibetans consider divine.

“The butter of yak,“ said one monk at a Lhasa monastery, “is the sweetest smell in the heavens.“

Although the yak is central to Tibetan life, it is not venerated as the cow is in Hindu parts of India.

The yak can be slaughtered and eaten. Its skin is used to make clothing, tents and even the few boats found in Tibet. Nothing goes unused. Children scoop up yak droppings and women shape them into small patties and put them out to dry. Dried dung is the main fuel of treeless Tibet.

Given their importance, yaks are not inexpensive. A full-size yak, which weighs at least 500 pounds, costs all a farmer might earn from a good harvest.

At one time, the farmer couldn`t even buy a yak. All were owned by the state, collectivized along with other private property during the harshest years of Chinese rule.

China annexed Tibet in 1950. After an independence uprising was crushed in 1959, Beijing instituted a tough campaign to stamp out the distinctive Tibetan character. In addition to the abolition of most individual property, the Chinese forbade the burning of yak butter in prayer.

That experiment with harsh communism proved to be an economic and political disaster, and individual ownership was gradually restored by the Chinese after 1980, along with limited religious tolerance. Villagers, however, still speak bitterly of that time.

“What kind of people would take the yak from a family?“ asked a farmer contemptuously in Xagme, a small village in the Xigaze valley.

Today, many yaks seen in Tibetan fields are healthy and evidently well-cared for, but also are decked out in bright, embroidered garlands and pompons. Usually red and white, the decorations make the shaggy yaks look less like work animals than like huge stuffed toys.

“This is Tibetan tradition,“ the farmer said.

A to Z Learn Something New Every Day

April 28, 2015April 28, 2015 zoe8 Comments

YLOTYPOGRAPHY

xylotypography — Printing using the medium of wooden blocks.

MY BROTHER JOHN DID THESE THREE WOODBLOCK PRINTS AS PART OF A SERIES FOR AN EXHIBITION.

ELEPHANT WITH TARGET BALANCING GOAT

HORSE WITH DOG

“Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples fromChina date to before 220, and woodblock printing remained the most common East Asian method of printing books and other texts, as well as images, until the 19th century. Ukiyo-e is the best known type of Japanese woodblock art print. Most European uses of the technique for printing images on paper are covered by the art term woodcut, except for the block-books produced mainly in the 15th century.” SOURCE

“Technique

The wood block is carefully prepared as a relief pattern, which means the areas to show ‘white’ are cut away with a knife, chisel, or sandpaper leaving the characters or image to show in ‘black’ at the original surface level. The block was cut along the grain of the wood. It is necessary only to ink the block and bring it into firm and even contact with the paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print. The content would of course print “in reverse” or mirror-image, a further complication when text was involved. The art of carving the woodcut is technically known as xylography, though the term is rarely used in English.

For colour printing, multiple blocks are used, each for one colour, although overprinting two colours may produce further colours on the print. Multiple colours can be printed by keying the paper to a frame around the woodblocks.

There are three methods of printing to consider:

Stamping: Used for many fabrics, and most early European woodcuts (1400–40). These items were printed by putting paper or fabric on a table or a flat surface with the block on top, and pressing, or hammering, the back of the block.
Rubbing: The block is placed face side up on a table, with the paper or fabric on top. The back of the paper or fabric is rubbed with a “hard pad, a flat piece of wood, a burnisher, or a leather frotton”.
Printing in a press: “Presses” only seem to have been used in Asia in relatively recent times. Simple weighted presses may have been used in Europe, but firm evidence is lacking. Later, printing-presses were used (from about 1480). “SOURCE

A to Z Learn Something New Every Day

April 27, 2015April 26, 2015 zoe15 Comments

AKEFIELD in the WILD

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine, the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers… no not really, but any definitions on this post are stolen directly from that blog*. I would recommend you hitting the link below and getting over there if you want to officially learn about the Doctrine.

WAKEFIELD DOCTRINE

*”The Wakefield Doctrine maintains that everyone is born with the capability to experience life in one of threeworldviews (personal realities), characterized as that of ‘the Outsider’ (a clark), ‘the Predator’ (a scott) and the worldview of ‘the Herd Member’ (a roger). Depending on which of these three a person ends up in, we say that a person is a clark or a scott or a roger.  When we say, ‘experience the world’ we don’t just mean things aboutyou, we mean the way you see the world, the assumptions you make, how you feel about other people; in other words, how do you relate yourself to the world around you?”

ROGERS

*”The ‘premise of identity’ for a roger is that of group member, similar to those in his group(herd), definately different from nearly all other not members of the herd she might see, in the world at large. There is a (self-awareness) of being emotionally capable, perhaps even superior.”

CLARKS

*”The ‘premise of identity’ for a clark is that of outcast, different from those around, separate and apart from everyone (and everything). There is a (self-awareness) of being intellectually capable, perhaps even superior.”

The gal below could easily be a scott as seen by her death stare into the camera… perhaps just the gal in back is a Clark…. the unusual footwear is throwing me off.

MOST LIKELY A FEMALE CLARK... NOTE THE FOOTWEAR. — MOST LIKELY A FEMALE CLARK… NOTE THE FOOTWEAR.

SCOTTS

*”The ‘premise of identity’ for a scott is that of predator/hunter, the world consists of those who appear either as clearly weaker and inferior or equal and therefore require challenging. There is a (self-awareness) of being physically capable, perhaps even superior.”

NOW THAT YOU HAVE THE IDEA… HOW DO THEY ALL INTERACT?

SEE THE ROOSTER IN THE BACK? You would think by the nature of his being a rooster he would be scottian… he is a clark… looking in and dressed unlike anyone else.Our guy tends to be standoffish and shy with the ladies. Daisy (the white gal in the forefront) also a clark, note she is looking off outside the group… you may need to know her for this, but she has a very strong secondary scott. She took on the defense of one of the baby chicks that was being picked on by all the rogerian chickens. She can take on a whole pack of genocidal rogers. That gal looking at the camera… she’s a scott.

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN! WHO’S WHO?

Thanks goes out to Progenitor Clark. Now that you’re an expert you clearly know he’s the guy in the middle.

A to Z Learn Something New Every Day

April 24, 2015April 23, 2015 zoe4 Comments

NUSUAL WEB SITES

INANE, USELESS, RIDICULOUS STUFF:

http://hackertyper.com/ lets you pretend to be a hacker

http://www.findtheinvisiblecow.com/ find the invisible cow…no really… find it.

http://eelslap.com/ slap the guy across the head with an eel

http://procatinator.com/ cute cats set to music

http://heyyeyaaeyaaaeyaeyaa.com/ just promise you won’t think less of He-Man

http://www.rainymood.com/ listen to the rain… thats it.

http://nooooooooooooooo.com/ ummmm. It’s a Nooooooooo button

http://anasomnia.com/ Keep the lights on to see it better

FUN STUFF

http://www.linerider1.net/ really useless fun

http://shutupandtakemymoney.com/ stupid stuff you don’t need (all the other sites are free… technicaly browsing this one is too, but I bet you find something so stupid you may be tempted)

http://www.recordtripping.com/ You will need a mouse with a scroll wheel

http://tholman.com/texter/ draw things with words

http://www.mapcrunch.com/ random google map shots

RELAX

http://thequietplaceproject.com/thequietplace you need to use the space bar to enjoy the quiet cues

http://thenicestplaceontheinter.net/ be sure to click between hugs to progress

EDUCATIONAL

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html daily NASA shots

https://www.duolingo.com/ learn a language for free

http://lizardpoint.com/ fun quizzes

http://www.sporcle.com more fun quizzes

A to Z Learn Something New Every Day

April 23, 2015April 21, 2015 zoe12 Comments

hirty Second Memories

Let’s play Thirty Second Memory!

What you do is:

scroll down to the collage below this paragraph .
Study it for 30 seconds
Then write down how many of the objects you can recall (without looking) in another 30 seconds.
After 30 seconds of writing, go back and check your answers against the picture.
The person who recalls the most is the obvious winner!

This is one of those silly party games that women used to play at baby and wedding showers before they became big catered affairs. It’s also a fun memory challenge if you need to improve your memory. I made quite a few of these collages for my sister after she had a stroke. It really did help improve her memory. At least we thought it did! If a collage isn’t available, a very busy magazine or newspaper page works as well. For a more 3D game you can just put a mess of random junk out on a table top and do the same thing.

READY?

SET?

30 SECONDS ON THE CLOCK PLEASE!

GO!GO!GO!

There are 25 pictures in this collage, but there are many more images in it!

A to Z Learn Something New Every Day

April 22, 2015April 22, 2015 zoe19 Comments

PECIAL DIETARY NEEDS

Hey everyone, it’s that enviable time for every blogger when a guest writer takes over for a day and gives said blogger a much desired (if not necessarily needed) break. Not to mention, that when you get an expert in the field you were hoping to learn about… BONUS!!! So without further ado I give you Lisa from The Meaning of Me. I will let her do the talking, but take my word for it… it’s worth the listen! ~Ivy

Raising a child is a permanent learning process.

To say my Husband and I learn something new every day is a gross understatement. From the moment our daughter was born, we have been learning. We learned how to clip baby toenails, her secret sign that tells us we are 36 hours from ear infection, how much bubble bath is too much, and whether a rash is worthy of a call to the pediatrician.

Of all the things we have learned as parents, one of the most detailed has been how to feed our child. Getting nourishment into your child should be a relative no-brainer. Parents have been feeding their young since the beginning of human existence. So far, we hae managed to survive. The human race has not died off from lack of ability to find food for the young of the species. It’s instinct – animals do it, too – and for a large part of the earth’s history, no one needed a parenting book or a nutrition label to do it.

But things change.

Early Modern Humans were likely not concerned with things like allergens or preservatives. They did not wonder about the sugar content or genetic modification of their breakfast cereal. How and what we eat has evolved, just as we have. For better or worse, our foods are a far cry from the simple diet of our early ancestors.

Over a period of time, we learned that our daughter has strong adverse reactions to artificial food dyes. I won’t detail it all here. (If you’re interested, you can contact me via Ivy or my blog.)

That was the easy part of this learning adventure.

The next level of our education required that we find a new way to select our daughter’s foods. I am not here to either discuss or recommend any particular “diet” to you. There are dozens of options out there, and every person has to find the eating plan that works for them. My goal here is to share with you how we learned to detect, avoid, and replace the food additives that we did not want our daughter to consume. Our particular scenario is about artificial coloring. Much of what we have learned is also applicable to other food sensitivities and allergies.

One of the first things we had to learn was where food dyes lurk. The short answer? Everywhere. It is amazing where artificial food coloring likes to hang out. We soon became experts on finding the dyes on the ingredient lists. We learned to spot the obvious ones – red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6 – as well as more vague words such as “artificial coloring” or “coloring.”

We learned to scan labels for the “good” coloring – terms like “natural coloring” are helpful. Words like “beet juice” or “spinach extract for color” are pretty specific. But we also found words like “carmine” and “annatto” on labels. We researched those, too, so we knew exactly what they were.

We learned that you can not make assumptions about whether a dye does – or does not – exist in a particular food. We learned to always assume we are dealing with an offending dye until we investigate and determine otherwise.

We learned that our supermarket’s website provides label and packaging information including ingredient lists. We still spend a fair amount of time reading labels in the aisles, but this website feature has saved us hours of guesswork – and footwork.

We learned about particular brands and products – more than we ever imagined possible. We can tell you which variety of a particular major macaroni and cheese product line is “safe” for our daughter and which is not. We learned which food brands are safe across the board.

We learned to ask questions. This happens mainly in situations where we eat away from home. If we are not sure of ingredients, we ask. We have learned about the products and ingredients restaurants use and know which belong on our “safe” list.

We learned that higher-quality restaurants tend to be better options when eating away from home. These places tend to have fresher ingredients and fewer pre-made products. An inexpensive chain simply won’t have the tools to offer you something out of the ordinary or off the menu. A restaurant that shops daily for ingredients and has fresh, whole foods on hand can do amazing things.

We learned that the more people who are aware of our daughter’s food needs, the more they can help.

We learned that most people are willing to help. Classroom moms and cafeteria staff at our daughter’s school provide us with food information and look out for her. Servers and managers in restaurants are happy to check ingredient lists and talk with us about their food. Even our daughter’s friends keep an eye on her.

We learned that our daughter has to be able to make choices for herself when we are not with her. She knows how to read food labels. She learned which ingredients are on her “safe” list and which are not. She learned to ask an adult in charge if she needs help deciding what.

We learned that there is a substitute for just about everything – or at least something close. It is rare that we don’t find something to use or provide for our daughter when there is something she can’t have.We have even found safe food coloring made from vegetable extracts.

We learned that the more people who are aware of our daughter’s food needs, the more they can help. We learned that most people are willing to help. Classroom moms and cafeteria staff at our daughter’s school provide us with food information and look out for her. Servers and managers in restaurants are happy to check ingredient lists and talk with us about their food. Even our daughter’s friends keep an eye on her

We learned how to eat better as a family. Because of the foods our daughter has to avoid, my Husband and I avoid them as well. It just makes sense. As a rule, we choose whole, organic, and unprocessed foods as often as possible. We learned that these better eating habits benefit us all in many ways.

If you have stuck with me this far, thank you! And thank you to Ivy for sharing her space with me today! I could go on for many more words, but this is already quite a lot of information. I am always happy to share what we have learned about food dyes, substitutions, and more. If you have any questions, I’ll be glad to talk with you.

Lisa is a wife, mother, and newly self-employed recovering high school English teacher. She lives with her Fab Hub, her daughter Kidzilla, and three Rotten Cats. She spends her time stacking the pile of books to read ever higher, wondering if she should have been a chef, and trying to figure out where she last left her damn cell phone. Lisa blogs about life and all its fascinations and banalities at the The Meaning of Me.

A to Z Learn Something New Every Day

April 21, 2015April 20, 2015 zoe6 Comments

unes

…okay, it’s the alphabet, but do I know how to swing a synonym or what?

The site at the end of this paragraph has very detailed instruction on how to make these letters. Me? I say this. If you know the letter has a curve there- fold the corner over. If the letter has a space there – cut a line and fold the corners away from the line you just cut. Otherwise If you feel the need for a straight edge and an exacto – go here- Make Folded Letters.

None the less, whatever method you choose… it makes for nice quick signage in a pinch!

A to Z Learn Something New Every Day

April 20, 2015April 19, 2015 zoe12 Comments

UITE A SURPRISE! THE QUINTESSENTIAL AVOCADO QUICK BREAD RECIPE

**Thanks goes out to Josie for introducing me to the idea!

The first time I baked it just as instructed, and it came out great!

2cups all-purpose flour
³⁄₄cup sugar
1 ¹⁄₂teaspoons baking powder
¹⁄₂teaspoon baking soda
¹⁄₂teaspoon salt
1large egg
1avocado, mashed
¹⁄₂cup buttermilk
¹⁄₂cup pecans, chopped

DIRECTIONS

Pre-heat oven to 375°F.
Grease a 9 X 5 inch loaf pan.
Combine dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl, beat together egg and avocado; stir in buttermilk.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and blend well.
Stir in nuts.
Pour into pan and bake 50 minutes to 1 hour, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

The next time I did this for my gluten-free friends and it came out great!

3 cups of gluten-free baking mix
1/2 cup honey
1 ¹⁄₂teaspoons baking powder ( I didn’t cut down on leavening as I might with traditional baking mix because of the gluten-free the more leavening the better)
¹⁄₂teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1 avocado, mashed
¹⁄₂cup buttermilk
1 cup of dried cranberry, raisins, almonds and sunflower seeds (this was a homemade trailmix I had left over)

DIRECTIONS

Pre-heat oven to 375°F.
Line a 12 cupcake pan with paper liners
Combine dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl, beat together egg and avocado; stir in buttermilk.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and blend well.
Stir in trail mix.
scoop into cupcake tin and bake until they are brown and spring to the touch. About 20-25 minutes.

BONUS*******Later you take the pits and rinse them off. Put toothpicks into four sides and hang them so that their root is in the top of a glass of water. Leave them in a sunny spot and keep adding water as needed.

They will take root in a week or two and them plant them in a pot leaving the top of the pit exposed where the plant will grow. Once the plant is large enough you can put in more dirt and cover the pit.

TToT and A to Z Learn Something New Every Day

April 17, 2015April 17, 2015 zoe25 Comments

TToT

I’ve been feeling a bit sentimental about friendships lately. Maybe it’s my age (52) and all the organic emotional upheaval that comes with it and hot flashes, maybe it’s my health issue which seems to be on a slow train but steadily picking up speed and then reversing so I never know where the next stop is going to be or for how long. I suppose it could be a whole host of things I don’t need to roll out here or it could be that I just happen to have fabulous friends. I mean, there are the bloggy ones who say things like:

” …(I) want to take you and Doug home with me and take care of you.”
…or they send cards, custom-made pens, entire cd collections, hats, packages, Scripture, glitter bombs, jujubees, and Welsh dictionaries to each other and to me
who keep me up on WWF and text messaging, despite my utter refusal to use most forms of social media
Who send emails, guest posts, memes
…or I put out the cry for help and they reply with a resounding ” YES!”
Perhaps something positive happens after a long haul and what do I get? Happiness all around. People truly happy for me… sigh.
People extend the love to my friends…like Doug for instance. or to my buddy who is new to this blogging thing and just wants to share some gorgeous photography.
Source: R. Hoebel Photograpy
There are those, who despite my lack of persistence in keeping up with them, so graciously keep up with me! I can think of at least four or five! ***hangs head in shame***

Then there are people I know in real life. Old friends most, although it is funny how some I still think of as new because they are my newest old friends at 18 years. These friends will do things like say:

” You deserve a vacation. You need a vacation. Let us help you take a vacation. “
or, they include me in their plans, “Hey I was thinking of doing a project… any interest?” or ” when can we do lunch?”
These same friends drop hundreds of dollars on my desk or in the mail and while they are naive to think I will take it, they still do it in hopes I have lost all my scruples. They honestly want me to take them up on the offer…no payback necessary. (Please don’t lecture me in comments… not taking anyone’s money.)
Friends who see me driving a tank four hours to and from Boston for medical appointments and offer me their car for the trip.
Friends who have given me their old car.
Friends who helped me through loss.
Friends who take care of my very elderly dog and even let him sleep in their bed so he won’t be lonely .
Friends who are willing to help me with end of life decisions, and are willing to live with my resolve despite how uncomfortable it may be for them.
…and for all the little things… the laughs, the race for FRIST, the ability to meet outside the internet , soup when I don’t feel well, picking up my car if I end up hospitalized unexpectedly, giving me a ride to the mechanic, a mechanic who is willing to be bribed by gluten-free cooking, a shrink who is willing to judge my silly contests, a doctor who taught me to shoot skeet… I can go on forever…

I’m certain there are more reasons to be thankful for my friends, these are just a few… but all are worth mentioning. If you’re reading this, you fit in here somewhere, Thank you.

oodle

This is a video repost from last year. I hate to use a video only once… it’s more work than it’s worth so you may remember this but hey, you probably saw The Wizard of Oz at least twice and this is just as good… right?