Earth Friendly Do-Over

...so the theme for this week's GBE post is "Do-Over"

This blog is an explanation of my favorite kind of do-over and even it you don't have a Rocket, you can do an earth-friendly do over in your own home (see link at bottom). Here is all you need:


#1. COLLECT YOUR SLUDGE (aka nitrogen producing organic material). Who said a healthy diet couldn't be good for you and the earth? Take your organic materials and set them aside in a container that doesn't offend you or your house guests - you can buy one online for cheap to keep close by as your prepare food in your kitchen or opt to use any air tight container (which is what I do because I am cheap). If you are lucky, as I am, you have earth-conscious friends who don't find containers of sludge above your sink to terribly offensive and you can leave them in view for easy access. They are also a great visual check for the type of things you have consumed during the week. No sludge - can trigger the "maybe I need to eat something green tonight health-o-meter."

(depending on the composter you can compost all organic material ... left over food scraps, peels, rinds, egg shells, and even q-tip brand q-tips. Some heavy duty composters allow for small splintering bones. But I pass on those.)

 #2. SELECT AN APPROPRIATE COMPOSTER. I am lucky we have one at work and I take my scraps weekly into the office and feed the "rocket" with my favorite compost buddy across the hall. This machine is hard core! There are smaller home versions that are more practical and far less expensive than a commercial grad composter like the one seen here. 

#3. DUMP YOUR GUNK. This really is the fun part! :) 

 #4. ADD CARBON. You remember this from chemistry class right? At its base all energy is a direct descendent of carbon and carbon is heat.

Here we use saw dust and chips from a local woodshop floor (yeap, it's all pretty darn "green" in the country). The darker the carbon the greater potential for heat. If you were composting at home spent bark (in fine chips), leaves, and mulch would be acceptable carbons to add to your compost.You could mix them and your scraps in a aerated garbage can or on a common pile (rodent warning)

 (the ratio of carbon to scrap really depends on how wet the mixture is. You want moister but too much water can make the end compost far too wet and slow down the decomposition process. finding the right balance in composting is mostly trial an error. For home composting there are kits that include chemicals that help to break down your organic material, so that you can get your composting down to a "science" and done quickly)













#5. ADD TIME AND ROTATION. Most home composters will require you to turn them occasionally by hand. The Rocket automates that process, siphons off excess water and "spits out" the finished compost.

 

#6. DO-OVER COMPLETE. Nitrogen rich goodness.

this blog is dedicated to a special 8 year old who reminds her papa to  "love the earth" :)

Frizzyisms

Let me say, I loved the idea of blogging a review --on Monday. Throughout my week I had a ton of inspiration for this post, everything from the mundane review of local eateries to the more obscure, "review of appropriate bathroom etiquette" crossed my mind. As my week is winding down I find myself with a dear friend hounding me to blog something and post it to GBE 2 before the deadline..I  also find myself pooped and no longer jazzed about writing anything. But then it happens.......said dear friend (doing the hounding) opens her mouth and lets a "frizzyism" fly and I am immediately struck with inspiration to write a review of, you guested it, "frizzyisms."

Let me explain, "frizzyisms," which I will not longer mark with quotations because after this blog it will be an adopted part of speech (my speech anyway). Such is the nature of words, they are created to explain phenomena and are purposed once they are necessary. No one knew what to call hip hop unit the 1980's, or  flip flopping before Gore, and I never knew I needed frizzyisms until I met my dear friend Frizzy.

Definition:
Frizzyisms (adj) - a. observations made verbal with sincere and honest candor; often erupting from the speaker without thought or effort [made popular by Frizzy (1971-present), 21st century African American female genius who often provides unsolicited insight on popular culture]. b. superfluous chatter best housed within ones interior monologue. c. Cerebral whit.

Now that you understand Frizzyisms, let me give a review of my FAVORITE, "Frizzyisms" (from today)

note: don't read if you get offended easily:

1.) While watching a Bollywood film: " I love Bollywood films they have so much energy, and Indian men have the best noses."

2.) When discussing my desire to organize an auxiliary group for young black inner-city girls with my sorority sisters: "Have you ever considered approaching the parents of young black girls in suburban school districts? You should, because black parents in the suburbs want to get their kids in organizations just like their poor cousins in the hood. Best yet, they will pay for the experiences that they don't have time to give their children."

3.) When discussing a co-worker who was not returning her calls for weeks because she was on leave for treatment of cancer: "Wow that is sad, but she is going to have that for a while so can't they get somebody to answer her phone?"

4.) When she didn't know that I hadn't hung up when I told her I had to let her go to write this blog after being hounded to do so: (in a low mutter) "Jerk."

5.) When I discussed that we should watch the movie "Diary of Tired Black Man" on Netflix: "Is he really tired?"

6.) When discussing Chinese movies: "I don't like Chinese movies, someone always has to die at the end. Now the Koreans they get it right ... I am crying while I am reading the subtitles."

7.) When I asked her if she knew how to swim: "Yes, I know how. But it take to much effort and I don't like my body. When I get it together I will buy a swimsuit and then think about it."



gan bei to frizzyism and long live my blogging inspiration, Frizzy!

Oh just apologize already....

I find it ironic that Jay Z publishes a song about how tragic it was to have a miscarriage, when he and his diva wife take over an entire floor of a hospital, reportedly restricting access to a parent of twin premature babies being cared for at the hospital. I guess empathy ends at the end of the Carters' own personal tragedies? 

Let me just say...

Although, I have never parented a premature child, I am sensitive to the emotional and physical demands of having premature babies having seen several mother go through the experience. Often these parents are discharged from the hospital (because of insurance limitation) without babies. If that is not a complete killjoy; they then spend, days, week, and often months recovering physically from labor, traveling anxiously to-and-from the hospital, and on pins and needles at every phone call.

Even if these weren't the parents of premature children -- there is something drastically wrong with the above the law, diva-inspired, and completely narcissistic behaviors of both the hospital and the Carters.  So I say to big nose and the diva, who covered up cameras so no one would see baby Blue (or more likely, not see the diva without her wig);  "issue an apology to the parents who were restricted from seeing their sick children while you decorated an entire hospital wing in honor of your healthy child!"   It is the human thing to do. 

2012 Korean Strip Clubs

I know its January 2, 2012 - a relatively new year - and I should do the obligatory "resolutions, predictions, or shout out post" in honor of 2011 and all my many blessings, accomplishments, births, deaths, lessons learned, close friends proved true, trials overcome, tribulations rendered obsolete by faith, car repairs in the nick of time, bad sew in weaves witness, hours of mindless entertainment watched, articles published, or some other matter of silliness. But the truth is, 2012 didn't inspire this blog! 

"What has inspired me to write?" Well, the Hooker and I went out Friday night and as I discussed a recent proposition that I quickly filed under "aint going to happen" in the love-life folder, she said "you really should write more on your blog." Obviously referencing said blog, she must think that someone wants to read the "tom foolery" I go through in my love-life. True, it would make a good comedy sketch or at least a snappy blog these days. But not today - you'll have to come back later for that dish. Today I have to talk about what did inspire me to write - Korean Hot Stone Bowls and Strip Clubs! 

Friday night me and the Hooker were rather indecisive on what to eat for dinner. We started discussing Sushi at 2p.m., by 6p.m. we diddled with Italian briefly before we considered low-carb diet restrictions;  flirted with American fair Five Guys before deciding their inconsistency in quality was rather insane since -- its a darn HAMBURGER; and we thought about Thai  briefly before a lukewarm final decision on Indian around 8p.m.

So we headed out to the choice of Yelp diners, Masala, which received  slightly more stars than Tandoor. On our way down Reynolds Road, the lights from a strip club caught our eye, and nestled next to the Boob bar,  in said strip mall was a small Korean restaurant. Like a stripper who notices a dollar bill on the floor we backed it up and headed over to Koreana, a place neither of us had been before which made it 100% agreeable! We were immediately greeted at the door and sat at the booth of our choice. (Likely because we were the only ones dining there that evening, which is the most tragic note in this blog). 

Our waiter was the owner of the restaurant. He quickly made a suggestion of  ginger tea and the  Duk Bok Ki appetizer...and well the rest our meal. The food was amazing!  Photographic evidence below:

The spice, flavor, presentation, and ambiance, were amazing, but surprisingly were not the most inspirational elements of our dining experience. What was supremely impressive was our WAITER, who was also co-owner with his wife. During our meal he treated us like queens, including a table side rendition of  "Silent Night" played on his soprano sax (and instrument he had started learning only one year earlier)! His service was a complete throwback to what it meant to have a dining experience, and stands in stark contrast to the modern day, 20 minute or less guaranteed of speed and no quality that permeates the service industry. In addition to playing for us, the waiter actually asked about us, not just the food. Through the conversation he discovered where we worked (former and present) and we quickly learned a mutual friend and colleague had been a student in his martial arts studio (second business we discovered he had during the conversation). Our degrees of separation narrowed.  After our meal the cook, his wife (who accordingly spends 4 hours a day making just the side dishes), let us know that her husband, our waiter, had crafted every table and cabinet in the ornately decorated establishment. 

Here is what inspired me most; in one trip the waiter/manager/owner/martial artists/sax playing/wood maker had cultivated a relationship with us substantial enough to repeat and talk about again!  

So often we miss opportunities to cultivate relationships with the people around us. We fail to listen and be inspired even when we are standing in the presence of a genius. We discount that the person serving us, working by our side, or standing next to us at the gas pump, was divinely created with purpose and power and that if he or she is walking in the light of that purpose, we are certain to learn something, and occasionally inspired! 

Even though this isn't a preachy 2012 blog, I am hopeful and I look forward to finding inspiration in odd places in 2012; eateries next to boob bars, complete strangers, and long time friends, alike! 

Here's to the waiter/manager/owner/martial artists/sax playing/wood making genius who inspired me to write for the first time in a long time!