Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Schools of Thought

According to Mythbusters, there are two schools of thought when it comes to dog training. One is to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior. The other is to reward good behavior and simply ignore bad behavior.

I would like to be treated in the second way.

That's something I have come to realize about myself. I like praise. If I'm told I did something well I'll continue to try to do it the same way, or improve. I don't like criticism. I accept that criticism is necessary, but I don't like it. Because I normally always know if I did something wrong so I'm not going to not try and avoid doing it again. I will work harder and more consistently to earn praise than to avoid censure.

But if there's no reward at all for good behavior, only punishment for bad behavior...Why try?

It would be like getting these comments after you threw a dinner party:

"The chicken was delicious. You have a knack with chicken."

"The chicken was so delicious it made up for the green beans tasting like feet."

"The green beans tasted like feet."

The first guest you share your recipe with and invite again. The second guest you'll hesitate before inviting again. And the third guest you show the door. You'll try a different green bean recipe the next time the first guest comes over, maybe go to the effort of testing different recipes beforehand, because you want to make food she'll enjoy. You'll make a different vegetable altogether when (and if) the second guest comes again because you don't want to be told it tastes like feet. And you'll avoid the third guest entirely because you don't like being insulted.

The annoying this is that even though I recognize this about myself now I haven't found a way to better deal with second and third guests.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Weekend Adventures

I wanted to go hiking yesterday but everyone was either busy or observant enough to realize the weather report was calling for rain so instead I walked to the drugstore that's further away from my house in order to get exercise. It did rain, so it was cold and my hair went absolutely insane but it was still enjoyable. I also got lost when I was coming back, which was kind of stupid. I mean, I was about a mile and a half north of my apartment between El Camino Real on the west (to the right) and California Ave on the east (to the left). I kept going straight (south) or right (what I thought was west), but ended up on California Ave, to the east! Strangely, I think I've done that before, too.

Besides the apricot scrub I'd gone for (finally realizing I don't have to bemoan my peeling face, they make products for that) I saw they had Helene's Mint Julep Mask. I remember Catherine using that at Tech. Because this is relatively memorable:



But that stuff worked! Afterward my skin felt great, really smooth. I'm going to keep using it.

That was my biggest activity for the weekend, since Friday, which was the book club with work people, wasn't technically the weekend. That was fun, though. The book was The White Tiger, a very unflattering look at India. Only about half the people there had read the book so we didn't get too deep into it. Sonali, the organizer, had also ordered Indian pizza which I'd never heard of before. Apparently that's what happens when Indian people buy a pizza place in the Mission District.

I also had cooking adventures. Yesterday I made baked bean soup, which I normally enjoy, but the hot dogs I had in the freezer were Safeway brand and they were awful. So bad I couldn't make myself eat the soup and threw it away. Luckily I'd used homemade vegetable stock so in reality I was only out about 88 cents of baked beans. Since I was horrified by the taste of the soup I needed something comforting so I made Kraft mac and cheese and artichokes. Artichokes might count as a vegetable but I've always thought of them as having more entertainment value than nutritional value. Plus there's so little actual edible on them I don't know how they could be good for you.

Then today I made really good pancakes. I used the recipe from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook and added some of the sweet dough emulsion my mom got me for Christmas. I think it added a subtle background that made the pancakes a little beyond the ordinary. Plus, I was really hungry by the time they were done which makes anything taste better. And I had Mrs. Butterworth syrup. I grew up with pure maple syrup and now I just love me some butter- and maple-flavored artificial corn syrup.

Today I also realized that I need to post on Facebook when I do social activities because for the past two weeks or more I have only commented about food.
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Monday, February 15, 2010

Coastline





Rather than just laze around (though I seriously considered it) I went for a walk along the Bay Trail today. I started at one of the bayside parks in San Mateo that I found out about when I tried to get home from Target on surface streets.

I think it was around two and a half miles round trip, so it counts as my exercise. I also took my camera and took pictures. I'd gotten some photography books out of the library, so these are me trying harder than usual to take good pictures. I think they're a step up from my usual.

In one of those "duh" moments I was marveling at how much more blue the water seemed than usual before I realized the sky was blue for the first time in a long time and that the two are undoubtedly correlated. Idiot.

After I came home I tried making a yellow cake with the Princess Cake Emulsion flavoring my mom had gotten me for Christmas. The Sweet Dough Emulsion was good in some rolls I made, but I can't tell if the Princess Cake one was because the recipe I used for the cake was too eggy. Bleh. It will be a donation to the magical "table off which food disappears" at work.

My parents came out yesterday for a nice visit. My mom brought me zombies, which are better than my usual zombies because she has a deft touch with bread dough that I do not have. They also brought with them my latest Amazon order, which includes a book the orthopedist recommended, "The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion," which is very interesting. I already had a packet of stretches and exercises the orthopedist gave me that are geared toward runners, but this book has extra exercises geared toward three different posture problems. Mine is "Condition III", because I tend to stand with my hands in front rather than at my sides. Hopefully the exercises will help me stop hurting myself so often when I exercise. Just the other week I strained a groin muscle on the elliptical.



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Saturday, February 6, 2010

Today was a pretty relaxing today for having to go work. I woke up strangely early around eight thirty so I got to work before eleven. I only had to do one media hold, which should be quick because you just pump media into a reactor, but the whole process takes closer to two hours because you have to wait around forty minutes for the media to heat up before you sample. With this experiment I have to put up a media hold each day for ten straight days so I'm very familiar with how long it takes. The other day I amused myself by calculating that the media warms up at .757 deg C/min.

Anyway, after work I bought See's candy with our company discount. One pound for Catherine because she's in grad school and it's stressing her out, so I wanted to send it to her with the Smart Shade foundation and blush I was intrigued by but found out really, really doesn't work on me, which she's willing to try. I'll try to think of something else to put in the package to try and cheer her up too. And then a pound of See's for me too because I love chocolate, and I've finally realized I'll eat less of higher quality chocolate because it's more satisfying. Plus, it's just so freaking delicious.

Then I wanted to stop at the used office furniture store I pass by on my way home sometimes, called Repo Depot, because I think the desk chair I inherited from my childhood bedroom isn't cutting it anymore. I can sit in my desk chair at work all day and not have a problem but in the one at home I end up in all kinds of crazy positions with the most frequent one probably being sitting with my right foot on the chair legs and my left leg on top of the desk. I've noticed my shoulder hurts most in the evenings when I'm at my desk and I think there's a connection, so I've decided to get a new chair. Anyway, there was a big "OPEN" sign outside the store so I turned into the parking lot to find it closed. Then I realized the sign says "Open to the Public" rather than just "Open." Slightly misleading. Plus, I could see the chairs in the window and not only were they outdated (understandably) they were very expensive (not understandably). Like one was $999. For a chair! For a used chair! That chair better make me breakfast for that price, I mean holy cow.

Since I was there and obviously wasn't spending time at the store I crossed the street to the public waterfront. I've walked on the bay trail at other points, more to the south nearer to my apartment and more north, at work, but this particular spot was new. I walked a little distance and it was nice and calm. Not quite waterfront, more like mudflats, and the main view is the airport, but still nice.

But what made my day most relaxing was that when I came home I didn't turn on the computer or TV and just read. That was just perfect. I did do a week's worth of dishes (yes, I'm disgusting sometimes) and put away last week's laundry (yeah, work was busy this week), and also started broth with vegetable scraps. And I salted zucchini to make for dinner, which improves them so much. And I made curry green beans, too.

So all in all it was relaxing AND productive. That's doing quite well.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Hair

Tomorrow I get my hair cut.

That's normally noteable, I only mention it this time because I haven't had it cut in four months. This was partially trying to grow it out and partially my usual stylist going on maternity leave, coupled with devout inertia. My hair is now the longest it has been since I grew it out sophomore year of high school, so I documented it this morning before work:




















Obviously should have done this before I turned all the lights off but frankly I'm not at my best at 7 am. That time I put the milk away right next to the cereal, on top of the refrigerator, is additional proof.

I'm hoping to tell the substitute stylist I want layers such that when my hair inevitably curls away from my head in the humidity that it looks like it was on purpose. Well, I should say I plan to tell her that, what I'm hoping is that she doesn't laugh at me. But I guess I've never had a stylist actually laugh at me. The worst was that one who nodded sadly when I described the haircut I wanted her to fix as "slightly mullet-y".
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