Une Petite Pensee: Parasols

Richard Emil Miller "The Pool"

Parasols, the proper brass and cloth kind, speak in muffled creaks as you walk. Much, I think, like the sails of a ship.

On Disconnecting

Steampunk phone from Ivan Mavrovic

Many people have documented their own experiences in disconnecting- removing themselves from the internet, phones, texting, computers- anything that we have come to depend on in the modern world.  It is time to add my own experience.

For the past week, my phone was dead. For anyone who knows me, my phone is a near constant companion. Clock, mobile email, pseudo-connection to family and friends- vanished for eight days. Granted, I still had my computer and internet, but it was a significant change.

Here are a few of the pros and cons I've experienced:

~ It was very freeing. I felt as though I had a private, independent existence for that week. Not being connected to people or feel the need to use texting as a local twitter feed was liberating.

~ It was disorienting. My phone is my clock. With it gone, time vanished. In some ways it was nice- hours could vanish reading without me gauging the time every few minutes. However, waking up for nine o'clock classes without an alarm? Thank gods, my windows faced east. 

~ It improved my attention span. Not being distracted with texts, emails, or other notifications every time I reached into my pocket, concentrated my focus. 

~ It was much harder on friends and family than I realized. I'm an introvert and don't need much conversation to feel connected. It's not the case for some of the people I regularly call. There were several worried voice mails and texts. 

~ It was less dangerous than I was worried about. A phone is a safety net. A way to call for help when in trouble. For the first few days, I was worried about going outside in case I ran into trouble. By the end, I didn't care. Granted, lack of danger is no guarantee of safety. But it's good to have a confirmation that this is not a malevolent universe. 

Now, I'm going to use my phone less. Turn it off for a greater part of the day- especially when I'm reading or studying. Not feel the need to stay so glued to texting. Hopefully, this will conserve the positive aspects of the event, while actually having my phone diminishes the negatives.

Have you ever experienced a time of disconnect? Willingly or unwillingly?

Aristocrat in the Kitchen: Layering Food

Annie Rose Laing (nee Low) "At the Breakfast Table"

On Saturday I mashed sweet potatoes.
That night for dinner, I had an artichoke and a bowl of mashed sweet potatoes.
On Sunday, I chopped up a tomato, avocado and sweet onion salsa
That night for dinner, I had a small bowl of sweet potatoes and toast with salsa.
On Monday, I made strawberry jam from discounted strawberries at the store.
That night for dinner, I had a small bowl of sweet potatoes, a slice of bread with salsa, and a slice of toast with jame for desert.
Yesterday. I chiffonade and roasted Brussels sprouts
That night for dinner, I had a small bowl of sweet potatoes, a slice of bread with salsa, and a small side of Brussels sprouts.
Today, I made leek and bacon white sauce.
This night for dinner, I had a small bowl of sweet potatoes, a slice of bread with salsa, a small side dish of brussel sprouts and a few bites of the leek and bacon white sauce.

William Henry Hunt "Plucking the Fowl"

This is not my attempt to try and rewrite "The 12 Days of Christmas" with much less entertaining or rhythmic verses, but rather me trying to put a theory into practice.

Often, as is the course of most grad students I've met, I will work right up to the point past hunger, run down to my refrigerator and throw it open only to realize I have nothing to eat. Oh, there is food there, but it all takes at least thirty minutes of preparation. In sadness, I stuff myself on popcorn.

Or, I only have enough time to make one item of food which leaves me hungry and lacking many nutrients.

All in all, it shouldn't have taken me very long to come up with my new idea of layering food. The concept is very simple:

Every night make one largish batch of something new. For dinner, eat a little of that and a little bit of all your other food for a more balanced meal.

In short: continual leftovers.

Pieter Aertsen "A Cook with Poultry"

This is working for me for several reasons:

~ Cooking is mostly scalable. Cooking five sweet potatoes to mash doesn't take a considerable amount of more effort or time than cooking one.

~ Cooking only one dish a night is incredibly freeing. Rather than needing to plan a new menu every night and cook up a protein  vegetable, and starch. I can just cook one thing and add it to the repertoire.

~ There is a greater variety of food in my fridge. When you only eat a little of a dish, it lasts for longer than when you consume half of it as your whole meal. (Though, I do admit I am learning the downside of this with the sweet potato)

~ I know I am getting a better variety of nutrients, flavors and vitamins with each meal. I've heard that the body isn't full until you've had one of every flavor. This ensures you don't have to break your back doing that.

~ If I run out of time and skip making a meal one day, I'm not going to resort to junk food. There is enough food in the fridge to tide me over for a day or two until I can cook some more.

It is this final point that appeals the most. For the sake of my pride, I'm not going to mention how many dinners were little more than popcorn or chips, just because I was too hungry to cook by the time I went down to the kitchen. Now, even on the days I'm stressed or distracted, I won't be skipping a nutritious meal.

It's not exactly an anti-fragile. However, it is far less fragile a system than before.

A Confession...

Wearing alternative fashion is scary.

The Goths, Steampunkers, and Lolitas, who go out dressed to the nines in their chosen aesthetic, are incredibly courageous. I've always acknowledged this case, but it never really struck me how brave these people are until last Thursday.

Last Thursday, I finished my Victorian Walking Skirt. Despite the small details to adjust, I was excited to go out for a long promenade  After all, what use is having a walking skirt if you do not go for walks? I would take my newly acquired parasol, a pair of gloves, and Ivan Turgenev's "On the Eve" on a quest to find a quiet place by the river to read. Then, afterwards, I would head off to the mall to search for a new phone chord as mine had broke.  Idyllic, no?

However, I couldn't do it.

My normal outfits are hardly typical, yet never exceed the bounds of eccentricy. My parasol, my gloves, a frilly lolita blouse, gothic lace up boots- yes, each of these had been featured in a daily outfit on their own. But to wear them together and take that step into the truly daring- with a floor length skirt no less? No. I couldn't bring myself to step outside my room.

Instead, my head was filled with images of the amused, contemptuous expressions everyone would have as they saw me striding down the street. Or worse, pretending to walk by having seen nothing at all.  I've read the blog posts of suggestions for dealing with unwanted attention or comments. I know that the best way is to keep your head high, remain polite and courteous and ignore them in turn.

And yet, I couldn't do it.

It is strange running into one of your limitations headfirst. It's taken me nearly a week to fully realize the fear. I want to say now to everyone who dresses up in fanciful clothing with elaborate makeup and extraordinary accessories:

You are brave. Braver than you realize. Take pride in your courage.

How to Store Your Winter Wardrobe

I've always wondered what mothballs smelled like. They are always described as the signature scent of musty old uncles and batty aunts in children's stories, but I never knew what it meant. Now, dear readers, I know what moth crystals- if not moth balls smell like and- there's a reason my window has been open all day.

Yes, the time has come. The last sweater collected from the dry cleaners. The canister of moth crystals has been purchased. And, with the weather remaining a balmy 70 degrees, it was finally time to collect my various winter garments that were strewn about my room and put them away.

Now two boxes stand beside my door, ready to be carried down and stored in the basement until next fall. I thought it might be helpful to explain the process. It is pretty simple.

You will need:

~ Your winter clothes (These are the sweaters, long underwear, hats, mittens, scarves, and socks worn in cold weather. Also include though the long sleeves shirts, woolen skirts, and winter dresses only worn in the colder months. Why have them clutter up your closet?)

~ Boxes

~ Plastic garbage bags.

~ Moth Crystals, moth balls, cedar blocks, etc. (You want something to deter pests, especially if you are storing wool or other natural fibers)

~ Tissue paper

A very well organized basement storage

What you will do:

~ Collect all of your winter clothes. This is, for me, the hardest part. Hats seem to be hiding in strange corners, socks are unpaired, skirts forgotten in the closet. Take a week perhaps and just pile everything into the middle of the room while you collect them.

~ Clean everything. Wash it, if you can. Dry clean if you can't. Remember to scrub down boots too.

~ Sprinkle some of the mothballs or crystals on the bottom of the box. Then open a garbage bag inside. Both box and garbage bag alone have their disadvantages. Boxes are susceptible to damp and garbage bags are fragile. Simply combine them together. Plus, the moth crystals will deter the moths without, hopefully, penetrating through the plastic of the bag.

~ Though this step isn't necessary in the slightest, I wrapped all my garments in tissue paper. Why? They looked nice? An added layer of protection? The excitement of unwrapping them in the fall? It was a fun and easy step.

~ Place everything neatly inside the garbage bag. Don't squash them to make everything fit.

~ Close the bags, sprinkle some more moth balls on top, close up the boxes themselves. And store them in an out of the way place generally safe from excess damp, humidity, or light.

Voila! You are finished. Maybe you have a single box. Maybe you have a dozen. But your winter wardrobe is stored which gives your closet plenty of room to store your spring clothes.

On an Aristocrat's Bookshelf: Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev in a Beautiful Library

Turgenev is not one of those names that spring readily to mind when most think of great Russian Literature. (At least, in my circles, this is the case.) Perhaps this is for a reason- Turgenev does not have the same sweeping grandeur or philosophical treatises as Tolstoy. Perhaps he does not deal with matters so weighty as Dostoevsky nor as shocking as Nabokov. No devil has yet appeared in human form in his books- that I have recognized. If anything, he is the Russian Jane Austen.

Despite this, in the past few days Turgenev has become one of my favorite authors.   As part of my Summer Reading, I've been choosing a much wider variety of books than normal. Turgenev's First Love sat on the local library shelf. I picked it up on a whim, read the back, read the first couple of pages, and was sold. A book about Russian Aristocracy, dealing with concerns of love and well created main heroines? What isn't to love?

Turgenev's main strength is how accessible he is- much like Austen. The Penguin Classic's translator is lucid and, apparently  does great credit to Turgenev's writing. His characters are well formed and interesting. Their conflicts- mostly internal struggles- are exciting to read. Just enough is left out of the exposition that the reader has to work to fill in some of the details- a trait missing in many American authors.

But what charmed me the most about First Love is that his charming characters are actually charming. Too many times have I read stories where social, charming, captivating characters are so not because of their actions or words, but because of their descriptions or the rather false reactions of other characters. I actually liked Turganev's heroines- which is a feat for writing about the 1840's. Their actions were charming, I could see why they ensnared the attentions of many men. Yet, they weren't obnoxious or cloying.

In short, I highly recommend this author. You have the satisfaction of reading a classic, but reading it for pleasure rather than obligation. His characters are delightful to observe and you feel a real pathos.

Eco In Black's Good Goth Keeping Challenge 1

“A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

In my stumbling through the interwebs, I have been lucky enough to happen across the blog "Eco in Black." Among the various, lovely posts is a New-Samhain resolution of "Good Goth Keeping"- a series of tips and tricks to help Goths come to terms with famous Delphic instruction "Know Thyself!"

Though this lacks a post to itself, the first principle of self-knowledge is shared between the Greeks and the Neo-Aristocrats. If your interior world is unmapped, then you stumble blind through the world- victim to your emotions, whims, and biases. So, it is wonderful when we can find other travelers down the road to self discovery. After looking through some of the tips, I've decided to follow down the path of Good Goth Keeping and post how my process is going.

The first tip was: Assess your physical baggage and the psychological will follow.

I have a lot of clutter. Is this because as a grad student the contents of 23 years of life are shoved into one room? Or because I really do have clutter. Either way, I followed Eco's suggestion of assessing my room and have come up with several lists. First, what the clutter is comprised of:

~ The floor of my closet where my shoes and laundry reside.

~ Papers- be they letters to be sent, written, read or filed. Be they school work, research work, or random scribbling.

~ Clothing- at the moment, it is very bad since today is laundry day, the winter closet has to be packed away and my summer wardrobe is yet to be properly sorted away.

~ Various craft projects, unfinished or un-started ideas, odds and ends for sewing or knitting. Etc.

~ Books. Since starting my new summer reading goal, I've returned from the library with 18 new books to read. Between these, my school books, and my already owned books I am slightly drowning in piles of books.

~ Tea supplies. Pots, cups, and a ridiculous number of actual tea.

Next, where do these piles accumulate? Where are the very messiest parts?

~ Bottom of my closet.

~ Lower level of my dresser

~ To the side of my work desk/ book shelf.

~ Next to my radiator.

Further investigation has revealed a set of practical goals to finish by the end of this summer to clear away mess and create better, less mess creating habits.

~ Find a new way of storing my shoes rather than a large box. (This will help with clothes and the bottom of my closet.)

~ Use up, pass along, or throw away tea that I don't really like. I have a lot of half empty tins of tea that I'm saving for some inexplicable reason. It might take about a week to finish off the last few crumbs and cut the tea paraphernalia by half. (Helps with lower level of dresser and tea)

~ Create a several new storage boxes from cardboard and cloth for filing and holding other objects. (Helps with papers- if I could have all my letters in one nice place- and finishes up project I've been waiting on.)

~ Organize my crafts: make a list of projects I want to create, materials I need, bag materials together, throw away away useless scraps, package everything else up and store in the basement. Actually finish those projects that I want to make.

~ Be on the look out for cheap bookshelves or innovative storage methods for everything else. Possibly shelves on the wall.

Such for the physical clutter. The psychic clearing will come once I actually begin to do these projects, rather than just have them there. This was a good exercise. It's given me a good set of goals for the summer and made me aware of problem areas. Not quite the same effect as Eco's decluttering process- but very useful never the less.

Over the summer, I'll continue to comment on and try to apply the Good Goth Keeping challenges and the progression of these projects should any interesting revelations arise.

What have other people discovered when looking at the clutter they accumulate?