What I've Learned

Guide for Growing an Avocado Tree from Seed

2024-04-02T05:18:34.173000Z

Growing an avocado seed into a tree is just simply fun. And don't you hate throwing away all your avocado seeds? Well, start collecting them so you can get these avocado seeds to sprout!

Avocado saplings are incredibly hardy when they are still attached to their seeds. The seeds provide the saplings with an abundance of nutrients and spirit for life. They can be a great houseplant for anyone nervous about having a brown thumb.

(Warning: Germinating avocado seeds is known to be addictive. If you take on this endeavor beware that you are at risk of ending up with too many avocado saplings. Be careful!)

Prepare the Avocado Seed for Germination

The avocado seed has a thin layer of skin on it that needs to be removed. Gently cut the skin (or look for where it may have been cut when the seed was cut out of the avocado) and then peel it off the seed. Doing this under running warm water can help. Remove as much of the skin as you can.

The seed will appear as pale yellow with some brown spots.

Avocado seeds are at risk of fungal and bacterial infections, so the seed should be sanitized.

Wash the avocado seed with soap and water and scrub it with an abrasive sponge
Wipe, spray, or dip the seed in alcohol and leave wet for 10 minutes
Rinse off the alcohol with soap and water

Your seed is ready! The seed will now have spots and lines of orangered; This is a normal reaction (and a useful dye! People are trying to get a process going to turn avocado seeds into dye on a mass scale so all of the disposed seeds can be made useful!).

Increase Your Odds: Prepare Many Avocado Seeds

A third of avocado seeds are duds and will never sprout, or even rot. Another third are very slow growers. Prepare a lot of seeds so you can pick the best ones.

Fill a large container with water
Submerge avocado seeds in the water after you sanitize them
Replace the water once a week (the water will take on an orangered tint)
Throw away any seeds that turn a color other than pale yellow and orangered (such as tinted green or grey)

This is a compact way to start the germination process for many seeds to prevent avocado seed duds from wasting your time.

The first stage of a germinating avocado seed is splitting in half. An avocado seed that has split in half is a prime candidate to grow into a sapling.

Germinate an Avocado Seed

Avocado Seeds have such a variation in speeds at each phase of germination (splitting, tap root, and sprout) that it is too difficult for a lay person to identify the quickest method. The time range for each phase can range from 1 week to 6 months or more (I give up at 6 months). The only reliable way to get an avocado sapling as quickly as possible is to start the germination process for every avocado seed you can get your hands on.

An avocado seed only needs its bottom half to be wet, and top half relatively dry in order to germinate. There are an unlimited ways of doing that; I have tried many different versions and have identified two of the best methods. To pick the best approach to germinate an avocado seed, first answer this question: Why are you doing this?

Watching an Avocado Seed Grow will be Fascinating

If you want to see the tap root grow and branch and the sprout emerge from the seed, then you will enjoy the method where you suspend an avocado seed in water.

Use a tall clear container (if it's too short the roots could spiral and make planting awkward)
Identify the top and bottom of the avocado seed. The top is pointed, while the bottom is more flat with a small "knot" in the center (or an undulated edge in a split seed)
Stick 3 toothpicks equidistant around the equator of the avocado seed (plastic to prevent rot)
Place on mouth of container with the top of the avocado seed facing up
Fill the container with water until it reaches halfway up the seed

Replace the water every week. Keep it out of the sun until leaves appear.

Important: Keep an eye on the water level so that all parts of the roots are always under water.

When to pot the avocado seed: You can stop this method and pot the seed at any moment, there is no such thing as potting too soon. When watching it grow is no longer interesting, then transfer it into a pot. To minimize problems, pot the seed before the roots start to turn within the container or become thick and difficult to bend. However, avocado saplings are so incredibly hardy that they can bounce back from any root or stem damage.

Simply just want an Avocado Tree

If watching the germination process isn't important, then you can skip to something easier: the wet paper towel around an avocado seed method. This method is particularly useful if you're germinating a lot of avocado seeds because it minimizes the use of supplies and maximizes the use of space.

Take a half sheet of paper towel and fold it in half length wise, and repeat until the height of the cloth is roughly ½-¾ the length of the avocado seed
Wet the paper towel and squeeze so it is not dripping, but still wet
Identify the top and bottom of the avocado seed. The top is pointed, while the bottom is more flat with a small "knot" in the center (or an undulated edge in a split seed)
Wrap the paper towel around the bottom half of the avocado seed
Place in a ziplock bag (multiple seeds can share one bag)
Store somewhere dark and warm

The avocado seeds will not need any care during this phase. Check on the seeds about once a month to see their current status.

When to pot the avocado seed: You can stop this method and pot the seed at any moment, there is no such thing as potting too soon. The biggest concern is to not let the roots or sprout get too large and start to be deformed in the confined space. Planting when the tap root has extended out of the avocado seed is a good time.

Pot an Avocado Sapling

There is no such thing as potting an avocado seed or sapling too soon. You can pot the seed as soon as you cut it out of the avocado, or wait until it has a full root system and sprout.

Note: Avocado sprouts have a tendency to die back the first time they are potted or repotted. Their leaves may shrivel, or brown, or may all completely fall off. In a worse case scenario, the stem could turn brown and completely die off. Don't panic! As long as the seed isn't turning brown or green or shriveling up, your avocado sprout will come back. Avocado saplings are so hardy they can bounce back from anything as long as they still have a healthy seed attached to them. I have not identified which sprouts are vulnerable to die back and which will continue growing without a hitch. Some avocado sprouts simply seem to be more hardy or delicate.

Type of Pot for an Avocado Sapling

I recommend potting any sapling in a pot that will provide "air pruning". These will be pots that are not solid on the sides or bottom so that when a root reaches the edge of the pot it will stop growing instead of turning and growing circularly around the pot. This encourages the sapling to grow more individual, branching roots, and finer roots. The benefits are:

Larger plant and smaller root ball because the roots are more efficient. Great for house plants.
Prevent girdling roots which can stunt or kill a tree. A solid pot will cause all the roots that reach the bottom to become root bound and will have to be cut off, requiring the plant to grow that root mass once again.
Increases chance of successfully establishing when planted in the ground. The roots will be ready to optimize every square inch of ground they are placed within to absorb the water and nutrients the tree will need to survive.

A normal solid pot is perfectly fine. Trees were grown in solid pots for ages.

Pot Size for an Avocado Sapling

When an avocado seed is first germinating and producing its first sprout, it doesn't require much space. To maximize use of space, use a 3" pot to start with (mesh pot lined with a coffee filter when air pruning). Trim any roots if they grow out of the pot.

Being a tree, there isn't a pot that is too big for an avocado sapling, so choose your pot based upon your space, time, and financial limitations. Use smaller pots and incrementally repot the saplings into larger pots to save the most space. Use larger pots to minimize the expense of purchasing pots and the time required to repot a sapling when it has outgrown the pot.

My balance of space, time, and money is using three pot sizes as the avocado sapling grows towards its final destination: 3", one gallon, and 5 gallon.

Most of my avocado saplings are being used as houseplants. I pick the best pot for the space the plant will live in, and plant it in that pot once the root ball is ready for it. I give people saplings destined to be planted in the ground in one gallon fabric pots.

Potting mix for Avocado Saplings

Any potting mix is fine for an avocado sapling, so don't worry about it. However, a potting mix that more closely resembles Al's Gritty Mix is best. An important goal of this type of mix is to have less than 10% fine particles.

Each potting media has different benefits and consequences. Organic media can retain more water (maybe too much) and provide trace nutrients, but also needs to be replaced regularly because it will break down and kill roots. Inorganic media retains less water (maybe too little) and never needs to be replaced, but requires supplements of trace nutrients. Fine potting media can easily transfer moisture throughout the pot, but can suffocate roots if over watered. Course and chunky potting media prevents suffocating roots, but dries out quickly and need frequent watering. Each type of plant has different preferences growing better in different ranges of moisture and air pockets. Different potting mixes do better or worse in different environments and personal care routines. It can get complicated, so you'll likely want to begin with prepackaged potting mixes or follow potting mix recipes.

Avocado saplings are super hardy and adaptable, so just start with a potting mix that seems best for you in terms of access and maintenance then change and tweak your mix once you learn more.

Expose or bury the avocado seed? I haven't noticed a difference. I prefer to leave the seed partially exposed so I can easily see if it is healthy. If you don't want to see the seed, bury it.

Do not remove the seed from the sapling! The seed is the avocado sapling's safety net and key to its hardiness.

Avocado Sapling Potting Mix that I Use

This is the recipe for the potting mix I use for my avocado saplings. Keep in mind this is optimized for the materials most accessible to me and my care routine.

Bark fines (⅛" or smaller), 2 parts
Sphagnum moss (broken into 1" pieces), 1 part
Hydroton (LECA), 1 part
Charcoal (horticultural), 1 part

The bottom most layer of the pot is 1" of full strands of sphagnum moss (that don't count towards the potting mix recipe), and the rest of the pot is filled with my avocado sapling potting mix recipe. The pot is placed in a pot saucer l, and I water by filling the saucer. The bottom layer of sphagnum moss absorbs the water and the 1" pieces of sphagnum moss in the mix will take up the water from the bottom layer and spread it throughout the mix. My care routine is to just keep filling the saucer whenever I see it empty.

In most cases I use self watering planters filled with potting mix the same as I outlined above. Routine care involves just keeping the reservoirs full. I use self watering planters with clear reservoirs for most plants so their care (watering) needs can clearly get my attention.

I also have some saplings that are in only LECA, an inorganic media, because I don't intend to ever repot them. They are watered sort of like semi-hydro: I fill their container with water and then refill it when there is about 1" of water left on the bottom.

When to Repot your Avocado Sapling

There are two triggers that indicate a time to repot an avocado sapling: Root ball size and aging organic media.

Organic media will decay over time and change the PH of the media to be more acidic. If the media is too acidic, then roots cannot absorb nutrients any longer causing the avocado sapling to become stunted or start to die. The decaying process will start to break down the media, reducing it to fine particles that will suffocate and kill roots. Regular quality potting media will need to be replaced between 12 and 18 months, while high quality media can last for 3 years. Remove as much media as possible from the roots when repotting because the remaining pieces will become acidic.

Inorganic media rarely, if ever, needs to be replaced. There is no need to remove inorganic media from the roots.

A sapling is ready for a larger pot when the roots have reached throughout the pot it is currently in. The roots will first grow down and expand from the bottom up, trapping the potting mix within its network of roots. There are two indications that the roots have maximized use of the pot:

When the root ball is removed from the pot, the potting mix is firmly attached to the base of the sapling as well as the bottom of the root ball (potting mix will easily fall off when there are no roots to hold it together)
When air pruning, roots start to peak out from the upper portion of the pot (fabric pots in low humidity won't have roots extending beyond the pot)

Avocado saplings are not required to be in larger pots once its root ball has expanded throughout the pot. If you want your sapling to stay small then put it back into the same pot.

Caring for your Avocado Sapling

Avocado trees are thirsty! They like to have plenty of water. I have never over watered an avocado sapling, likely due to the gritty potting mix I use which is very porous preventing suffocating the roots. Some saplings will be "expressive" and their leaves will droop when thirsty. Other saplings, though, will have roots die on them if they become too dry with the only indication being shriveling leaves. When in doubt: water.

Avocado trees want as much bright light as possible! Saplings not getting enough light will grow tall and lanky. A 2' to 3' sapling with three to four leaves is starving for more light; Plants "reach" and grow long when searching for brighter light. An avocado sapling with good lighting will be about 12" to 18" when it has four to 7 leaves. However, fresh avocado sprouts are delicate and can get sunburned or dehydrate too quickly in the bright hot sun. Don't put avocado sprouts in direct sun until they have thicker mature leaves (feel your avocado sapling's leaves, they're great!).

My avocado saplings love my southeast windows; it is too bright for the new sprouts, though, so I keep them 1' to 2' away from the window. They also do great under artificial lighting.

General fertilizer works well for avocado trees. You don't need to be overly concerned about fertilizer while the seed is still attached to the sapling because it will continue to provide nutrients. But at a certain point, your avocado sapling is going to need fertilizer or else the leaves will be at risk of infection. Start fertilizing as soon as you're ready.

There are two approaches to fertilizing: constant, or increments. It is most common to fertilize plants in specific increments, like once every two weeks or once a month, so you can safely follow the instructions that come with your fertilizer.

Constant fertilizing is best used when the potting mix is wet most of the time (like when using self watering planters). In this case, always mix fertilizer in the water prior to watering your plants. The dose of fertilizer is half the weekly dose. Since each fertilizer's doses and increments are different, this requires a little math.

When your fertilizer's instructions are given in increments of:

Once a month, divide the dose by 8
Once every two weeks, divide the dose by 4
Once a week, divide the dose by 2

I personally use the always wet method for avocado saplings -- therefore always fertilizing -- because they are so thirsty.

When in doubt, use a bit less fertilizer.

Flush the pot once every 1-3 months when feeding fertilizer. Unused fertilizer ("fertilizer salts") will build up in the potting mix and can cause root burn. Flushing the pot is no problem when using a gritty potting mix. However, if your mix has a significant amount of fine particles, then the roots could suffocate. In that case, remove the root ball from the pot and put it on a towel over night so the water can be wicked away.

What to Expect from your Avocado Sapling

Avocado trees grow based on the length of light it receives every day. The longer days of spring, summer, and fall will have the most vegitation growth, while the shorter days of winter will have the least vegitation growth. The roots are always growing, though. Using artificial lighting might encourage year round vegitation growth.

Avocado sprouts can have between one and four stems. A "stem" in this case is a sprout that comes directly from the seed, as opposed to a branch from the primary atem. Most common is one stem, uncommonly two stems, rarely three stems, and exceedingly rarely four stems. Two stems have a high chance of keeping them both, while saplings with three or four stems tend to lose one or all but one. Every four stemmed sapling I have had has lost their 3 extra stems.

Energy and nutrients for growth is distributed between the two stems. If you want a fruiting avocado tree as fast as feasibly possible, identify the most vigorous stem and cut off the others. If speed is not a factor, leave the stems be and enjoy its unique beauty.

Avocado leaves look different as they mature. They can start as light grass-green, or with a light brown "tan" over green (I suspect the "tan" protects from sunburn). They can start matte or super glossy. They can be tissue paper thin, or feel normal. Ultimately, leaves will grow to develop a matte surface in grass-green, and feel stronger than paper. Sometimes they are an opaque dark green, but usually are lighter and semi-translucent with their veins having varying degrees of prominence. Their size can range from 4"x2" up to 12"x4" or larger. Their leaves grow in sets of three, with an occasional single leaf. A new set of leaves can grow differently from the previous set. An avocado sapling can look super funny with three or four 4" leaves with two enormous 12" leaves at the top looking like a floppy eared bunny.

Leaves on an avocado tree last for about one year. The older leaves will dehydrate and fall off. Depending upon the seasons of its first year since sprouting, this means their leaves might start to turn brown on the edges before new leaves grow.

When younger leaves start to turn brown or dehydrate there is something wrong with the roots. Some possible reasons:

Shock from repotting has caused root die back. Just wait for the avocado sapling to readjust.
Not enough water causes the roots to dehydrate and die. Improve your watering routine.
Roots are suffocating from sopping wet fine particles. Adjust your watering routine or change the potting mix. If the potting mix is old, then repot with fresh media.
Roots have fertilizer burn. Flush the pot more often or use less fertilizer.

In all these cases, the roots have become damaged. New roots will have to grow and new leaves sprouted. Wait for the avocado sapling to recover. If its seed is healthy, it will recover.

Another possible cause is a nutritional imbalance, but that would likely be rare when the avocado seed is still healthy and attached to the sapling. If you aren't fertilizing, start. If you are fertilizing, supplement with calcium and magnesium.

Tips and Tricks when Growing an Avocado Tree

You don't need to chop off the top of a new sprout. Completely unnecessary. Air pruning pots will optimize root growth, and cutting the top won't encourage multiple branches. If the avocado sprout is too tall, give it more light.

It is possible to force an avocado sprout to create a new branch. At the very tip of the stem or branch is a lighter-green pointed cone. Bend the stem so the cone points directly downwards. Use bonsai wire. It will initially fight against you, continuing to grow beyond the wire and turn upwards, so keep an eye on it and readjust the bonsai wire as needed. Eventually, the plant will be convinced to stop directing new growth towards that growth cone and will send the energy elsewhere. It can take a long time to convince the plant to grow a new branch, especially worse if it extends over winter.

This light-green cone is where new growth comes from. The cone eventually forms three leaves and separate, growing a new set of leaves and another growth cone. The avocado sapling sends growth hormones to the highest viable growth cone. If the cone cannot grow upwards, then it will no longer be considered viable, and the growth hormones will be redirected to a differ growth cone.

Potential branches can be identified
by a small green cone appearing on a node of the stem. A node is a thickness or bump in the stem, and has (or had) a leaf attached to it on avocado saplings. The budding growth cone will emerge from the nook between the leaf and node. You'll have better luck encouraging the growth of new branches when potential growth nodes already exist.

Summary about Growing Avocado Seeds into Trees

Avocado seeds have such varying degrees of viability, growth speeds, and delicacy, you will probably want to sprout several seeds simultaneously.

Avocado sprouts and saplings are incredibly hardy and can bounce back from what could appear as death. As long as the seed is still attached and looks healthy, the avocado sprout will make a come back. Don't fret about leaves falling off or turning brown and crispy on the edges. The avocado sapling will adjust and bounce back better than ever.

Using an "air pruning" approach to potting avocado saplings is the best potting method. A Gritty Mix for the potting mixture is best for root health, but avocado saplings are incredibly adaptable so amy mix will more than likely be fine.

Enjoy your new lovely avocado saplings and form a bond with them knowing you nurtured them from seed. Just beware the risk of growing too many simultaneously where they take over your home and yard!

I encourage you to leave a comment with any questions you may have or suggestions to improve this article.

This guide will continue to be updated with my current recommendations or expanded information.

Recipe for gingerbread cookies

2023-12-17T19:46:41.509000Z

This is the recipe for the absolute most delicious gingerbread cookies I have ever encountered. They have a great texture, and a mild spicy taste. I got this recipe from my grand aunt Mary, and following these instructions does reproduce the wonderful flavor.

I recommend making the cookies a little thicker so they're a bit fluffy to eat and a great texture. But if you want something closer to a ginger "snap", roll the dough thinner and bake them on the longer side.

Tools and Ingredients

Ingredients:

Flour, all purpose (3 cups)
Baking soda (1 tsp)
Cinnamon, ground (¾ tsp)
Ginger, ground (¾ tsp)
All spice, ground (½ tsp)
Cloves, ground (½ tsp)
Salt (½ tsp)
Black pepper, freshly ground (¼ tsp)
Butter, unsalted (8 tbsp / 1 stick)
Vegetable shortening (¼ cup)
Sugar, light brown (½ cup, packed)
Molasses, unsulfured (⅔ cup)
Egg, large (1)

Tools:

Bowl, dry mix
Bowl, wet mix with electric mixer
Electric mixer, wet mixing
Spoon, thick wet mixing
Plastic wrap
Rolling pin
Cookie cutters
Cookie sheets, non-stick, 1x-4x
Non-stick spray
Cooling racks

Note: Dough needs to be chilled in refrigerator for 3 - 48 hrs before baking.

Make Gingerbread Cookie Dough

Mix dry ingredients: Sift the flour (3 cups), baking soda (1 tsp), cinnamon (¾ tsp), ginger (¾ tsp), allspice (½ tsp), cloves (½ tsp), salt (½ tsp) and pepper (¼ tsp) through a wire sieve into a medium bowl. Set aside.

All dry ingredients thoroughly sifted together

Mix wet ingredients: In a large bowl, using a hand-held electric mixer at high speed, beat the butter (8 tbsp) and vegetable shortening (¼ cup) until well-combined, about 1 minute. Add the brown sugar (½ cup, packed) and beat until the mixture is light in texture and color, about 2 minutes. Beat in the molasses (⅔ cup) and egg (1 egg).

And while you're cooking with molasses, learn about the Great Boston Molasses Flood. If that caught your interest, watch the 20 minute documentary.

Butter and shortening beaten together

Brown sugar, molasses and egg added to the butter and vegetable oil

Combine dry and wet ingredients: Using a wooden spoon, gradually mix in the flour mixture to make a stiff dough.

Tip: Add a little bit of the dry ingredients at a time and continue to use the electric mixer. Once it becomes too thick, then use the spoon while continuing to add a small amount of the dry ingredients at a time.

Dry and wet ingredients combined to create a stiff dough

Chill dough: Divide the dough into two thick disks and wrap each disk in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until chilled, about 3 hours up to 48 hours.

Gingerbread dough separated and wrapped in plastic wrap, ready to be put into the refrigerator

Bake gingerbread cookies

Oven: Preheat to 350°F. Position racks to top and bottom third.

Cut cookies: To roll out the cookies, work with one disk at a time, keeping the other disk refrigerated. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature until just warm enough to roll out without cracking, about 10 minutes. If the dough has been chilled for longer than 3 hours, it will need more time.

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and sprinkle the top of the dough with flour. Kneed dough over the floured surface repeatedly until it is soft, pliable, and has minimal cracking on the sides. It is OK if the dough continues to absorb more flour from the table.

Roll out the dough 1/8 inch thick (or thicker for softer cookies), being sure that the dough isn't sticking to the work surface (run a long meal spatula or knife under the dough occasionally just to be sure, and dust the surface with more flour, if needed).

Using cookie cutters, cut out the cookies and transfer to nonstick cookie sheets, placing the cookies 1 inch apart. You can use a cooking spray on the sheets, or rub a thin layer of the leftover vegetable oil on them.

Gently knead the scraps together and form into another disk. Wrap and chill for 5 minutes before rolling out again to cut out more cookies. Thinner cookies will require more chilling to keep them from falling apart, while thicker cookies will retain their shape easier and may not need to be chilled at all.

Gently removing a cut gingerbread man from the flattened dough

Cut gingerbread cookies ready to be baked

Bake: After 5-6 minutes, move trays: Swap top and bottom trays, and rotate each 180° for the back to now be in the front. Continue to bake until edges become set and crisp, about another 5 to 6 minutes. Remove trays and let them cool for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Tip: When testing the cookies directly from the oven, remember that they become about twice as firm once cooled.

Gingerbread cookies fresh out of the oven. Let rest on tray for 2 minutes before transferring

Gingerbread cookies cooling on a rack

Note: In the photo above, there are both cracked and smooth cookies. The cracked cookies are from dough that was not let to warm and kneaded thoroughly enough. The smooth cookies are when the dough was kneaded quite thoroughly and became soft and pliable.

Thicker cookies baked for a total of 10 minutes are soft and almost fluffy, while cooked for 12 minutes will become more crunchy. Thinner cookies will start to be crunchy after 10 minutes of baking, and continue to get more crunchy from there. Bake time and cookie thickness will entirely be up to taste! I prefer thick soft cookies, while my friends prefer thin extra crunchy cookies.

Enjoy!

Cookies last about 1 week when stored in airtight container.

I support Universal Basic Income

2018-11-19T08:30:55.973000Z

I see a time where there aren't enough jobs for everyone. This will drive down wages and drive down quality of life. In fact, we may already be in this situation, but we can't see it clearly because it has been such a gradual decline -- much like a frog in a pot that was brought up to a boil.

With universal basic income, I see a culture of arts, and innovation, and much much more people investing their time helping others. I see this culture, and I see how innovation and quality of life will grow by leaps and bounds. I hope I can witness it within my lifetime.

I know you'll read this and think it's an unrealistic fantasy. However, I spend much time in communities for financially trapped parents and those who are disabled. I see UBI lifting all of these people from these financial constraints and bounding out into the rest of society spreading the fruits of their productivity. We have a large untapped section of our population. UBI could unlock their potential.

I became convinced of the potential of UBI when I saw a peek into how much New Zealand helps their people. A young man was in an accident and became paralyzed from the neck down. New Zealand's system gave him plenty of healthcare and devices to maximize his quality of life and potential productivity. They provided him free round the clock nursing care -- giving jobs to those nurses, and freeing his family to continue their own jobs and maintain their productivity. They gave him food and shelter since it was so difficult to for him to earn an income on his own. And then that young man took all the freedom New Zealand had invested into him and used it to develop ground breaking software. He used his time and helped people around the world.

That was just one young man. Imagine what could happen if everyone had the freedom to realize their potential and give back to society.

Our society would improve with each successive generation because children will be raised with home and food security, have parents that are less stressed and therefore be less stressed themselves freeing up mental space to explore and learn. With UBI our children would be raised by a village. These children will be more mentally stable, have absorbed much more of their education, and have more exposure to elders and learn of their experiences.

Imagine what an entire generation of children raised in that environment would bring to the world. Imagine the potential of the generation raised by people who grew up in that environment. For the first 100 years each generation will produce so much more then the generation before it. Just imagine the advancements that could occur.

I see that and it's exciting. I want all these people freed from their financial struggles and then witness what they give back to the world. I believe what we would see would be amazing.

Kathleen's Eggplant Tomato Sauce Recipe

2018-04-13T21:25:13.588000Z

This is my famous hodge podge sauce. It started as a combination of chicken cacciatore and pasta alla norma, but has since taken on a life of its own. I basically lived on this sauce as my primary diet for a few years.

The biggest take-away is to try making an eggplant and tomato sauce. If you sauté eggplant slices and add it to a tomato sauce, the eggplant will completely dissolve and blend into the tomato sauce. It creates a very thick sauce that tastes great.

Cook time: 4 hours of active cooking, then another 2 hours of simmering while mixing every 20 minutes. Plus about 30 minutes packing it into containers.

Experience level: Intuitive. You should have an understanding of what you like in food and feel comfortable adjusting recipes to fit your tastes.

Make it vegan: Remove the chicken and butter, and it still tastes just as great!

Make it gluten-free: Don't put flour on the chicken, and serve over rice noodles (I actually only eat rice noodles these days).

Note: Adjustments will occasionally be made to this page as I figure out better ways to do things.

Ingredients

Tomato sauce (56oz)
Diced tomatoes (56oz)
Tomato paste (3oz)
Eggplant (3 medium)
Chicken, thighs (2lbs)
Green pepper (2 large)
Mushrooms (1lb)
Garlic (1 bulb)
Onion (2 medium)
Olive oil (12oz)
Butter (2 tablespoons)
Flour (1/2 cup)
Red wine (4+ servings)
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
Basil
Paprika
Bay Leaf
Sugar

If you follow the suggested quantities, you'll be able to feed a single person for a month, or a family of 4 for a week.

I cook this dish entirely by eye and taste. I like a thick, meaty sauce so I adjust the tomato sauce and various meaty ingredients until it looks just about right. After it has boiled at the end of assembling everything, I will taste it and adjust ingredients as needed. See the troubleshooting section for how I decide upon adjustments.

Suggested tools

Large pot for the sauce
Medium pot for the pasta
Large sauté pan, ideally cast iron
Cutting board
Large plastic bag
Small sauté pan (optional)

Overview

Put the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and spices into a pot. Simmer. Details>
Sauté the garlic in olive oil. Add to sauce. Details>
Sauté the tomato paste with olive oil until caramelized. Add to sauce. Details>
Sauté the mushrooms and onions with butter. Add to sauce. Details>
Slice the eggplant, sauté, and add to sauce. Details>
Add sliced green pepper and red wine. Details>
Cut chicken into bite sizes, flour, sauté, and add to sauce. Details>
Boil for 20 minutes. Simmer for a few hours. Mix frequently. Details>

Serve over pasta with parmesan cheese.

Details

The order is designed to minimize cook time, minimize washing dishes, and avoid spreading contamination from the chicken. Keep using the same cutting board and sauté pan for each step.

The sauce will splatter when boiling. Use a lid and a very tall pot. Before removing the lid or sticking your hand in to mix it, lower the temperature for a few minutes to minimize splattering and protect your hand from burns.

Step 1: Prepare the sauce

Put the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes into the large pot.

Add in the spices. I usually put a thin layer across the entire top of the sauce then mix it in.

Step 2: Garlic

Dice an entire bulb of garlic. The more garlic the better. The garlic permeates into the sauce better when there is more cut surface area, so dice it up as finely as you can manage.

Sauté the garlic in olive oil on low heat. It can be easy to burn, so carefully watch as it cooks.

Pour all of the garlic and olive oil into the sauce. The olive oil will have absorbed the garlic flavor.

Step 3: Tomato Paste

Sauté the tomato paste with olive oil. It takes a long time to caramelize the paste, so I use a separate pan and check on it frequently and stir it. Add more olive oil as needed so that it doesn't burn to the pan.

The tomato paste is caramelized once it has turned darker and starts clumping together. Don't skimp on this step. Non-caramelized paste will make the sauce extremely tart, while properly caramelized paste will mellow out the flavor. If in doubt, sauté it a little longer.

Step 4: Mushrooms and Onions

Slice the mushrooms and onion. Melt some butter in the sauté pan then add the mushrooms and onion. I usually use about 2 tablespoons of butter.

Continue to sauté until the juices come out of the mushrooms and onions. This is very important. There are natural sugars in the juices which is critical to mellow out the taste of the sauce.

Pour the mixture and all of the juices into the sauce.

Step 5: Eggplant

Slice the eggplant about 1/2" and arrange in the sauté pan with add olive oil.

The eggplant is hungry for olive oil. It will completely soak up the olive oil several times.

If you don't want that much olive oil in the sauce, then try baking the eggplant before adding it to the sauce. Don't put raw eggplant directly into the sauce: it won't dissolve in the sauce.

Flip the eggplant slices every few minutes. Keep sautéing and flipping the slices until they are toasted, soft, and flexible. In the photo above, the ones on the right are done, while the ones on the left need to be cooked a little longer.

Don't worry if you burn them. I burn them all the time and put them in the sauce anyway.

A cast iron pan will cook it much faster. Consider using multiple pans if you have access to more because this is the longest, most boring part of the recipe. Each pan-full takes about 15 minutes to cook.

Once toasted on both sides, add the slices to the top of the sauce and let them sit so they further soften. Mix them into the sauce after a few minutes.

Keep repeating until all the eggplant slices have been sautéd and added to the sauce.

Over time the eggplant will just dissolve and leave the skin behind. Even the skin will continue to thin out and dissolve into the sauce. Keep mixing regularly to facilitate this process.

The strings of eggplant skin are edible and provide additional nutrition, but they can turn people off. Some people will separate the skins from their meal and leave them on the side of their plates If you don't want the skins, try picking them out as you stir the sauce (picking them out when the eggplant is half dissolved is easiest). You can try peeling the eggplant before cooking, but I found it makes it more difficult to sauté and flip the eggplant slices.

Step 6: Green Pepper and Wine

Cut up the green pepper into bite sized pieces and mix it into the sauce. I use a green pepper for contrasting color. Use whichever pepper you like best. Also consider celery. I add in the green pepper at this later stage to keep it more crispy.

Add in about 4 servings of red wine. The wine is important for mellowing out the sauce, so don't be too stingy. I've actually added up to a bottle and a half of wine when trying to work out a tart flavor! (So... buy really cheap wine) I think adding the wine later in the process makes it more effective for countering a tart flavor.

Note the string of eggplant skin hanging off the handle. This will happen often, but the skins will get thinner and smaller the longer the sauce simmers.

Step 7: Chicken

Cut up the chicken into bite-sized pieces and put into a large plastic bag. Chicken thighs are best for a tomato sauce as they are more tender and have additional intrinsic flavor. But feel free to use any chicken type you prefer.

Add some flour 1/8 cup at a time along with some salt and pepper. I zip up most of the bag then blow in some air before sealing it to give the chicken room to move around. Shake well. Add more flour, salt, and pepper until the chicken is thickly coated.

Add the chicken to the sauté pan with some olive oil as nneeded. Sauté until chicken is lightly toasted. Add a lid to the pan to make it easier to cook all of it more evenly.

Cut a large piece in half and make sure it is white. The goal is to have moist tender chicken that is white in the middle.

Pour in the chicken and mix it into the sauce.

Step 8: Simmer

After adding the chicken, put on a lid and bring the sauce to a boil for 20 minutes. Lower the temperature before removing the lid so you don't burn your hand (I speak from experience), wait a few minutes for it to stop boiling then thoroughly mix.

Set it to simmer and mix it every 20 minutes so that the sauce doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot.

Simmering time depends upon your preference. The longer it simmers, the more the ingredients dissolve into the sauce.

Shorter (1-2 hours): More chicken pieces, onion strips and eggplant skins
Longer (2-4 hours): Less chicken pieces, no onion pieces, smaller pieces of eggplant skins
Longest (6-8 hours): Chicken fully dissolves, risk burning the sauce

I usually simmer for one hour after the initial boil before serving, then let it continue to simmer during dinner. After dinner I'll turn off the heat and let it cool for 2-3 hours before putting into containers (OK, in reality I'm exhausted by that point and stick it into the fridge and put it into containers a day or two later).

I taste the sauce every 20 minutes and make changes according to the troubleshooting section to adjust the sauce. Generally my goal is to get the sauce to be less tart, so I add more sugar and wine to compensate.

Serve

I much prefer this sauce served with a string spaghetti than a different type of pasta (like penne or bow ties). Put about a cup of sauce over each serving of pasta. Don't forget the parmesan cheese.

Storage and leftovers

The entire point of the recipe is about the leftovers! Although I did have a system of making this one-serving at a time back in college, I now make this once a month and eat the leftovers for the whole month. Saves a lot of time cooking throughout the month!

Spoon the sauce into containers. Keep about a week's worth in the fridge, and put the rest in the freezer. Put a frozen container into the fridge about a day or two before you'll need it.

I eat the left over sauce by putting 3 heaping tablespoons of sauce onto a plate and microwave it for 1 minute on high. I put freshly cooked pasta on top of the sauce, mix it up, and serve.

Troubleshooting

Keep tasting the sauce every time you mix it during the final simmering period. Make adjustments as needed so that the sauce tastes just right.

Sauce is too tart

Tartness is the biggest problem. It should taste mellow and feel comforting. Try adding more wine or sugar. Let simmer for another 20 minutes and test it again.

Additional mushrooms may help, too. Sauté them longer than usual so they get very small to extract as much of the juices as possible. Add the mushrooms and juices to the sauce.

Burned the sauce!

Believe it or not, it's possible to save a burned sauce! I tried simmering this sauce over night and completely destroyed it by both burning it and then mixing up the burned bottom into the rest of the sauce.

Tip: If anything is burned to the bottom of the pot, do not scrape it off and mix it into the sauce. Leave the burned sections and gently remove the sauce from the pot without touching the burned sections. Discard the part burned to the pot.

But if you've totally messed up and mixed in all the burned flavor into the rest of the sauce, it's still possible to save it.

The miracle ingredient is peanut butter.

Yes. Peanut butter.

I added 10oz of peanut butter to this large quantity of sauce I make and actually managed to save the sauce. It definitely tastes different, but it is totally edible. You might even like it. One of my friends actually really liked the peanut butter version. There is apparently a tomato sauce and peanut butter Filipino dish, so this isn't so strange after all.

The peanut butter appears to blend into and disguise the burned flavor, somehow masking it. You end up tasting neither the peanut butter nor the burned flavor.

Mix about 2-4 tablespoons of peanut butter into the sauce and taste after 20 minutes. Continue adding more peanut butter until it tastes just fine. You may need to add more red wine and sugar if bitterness arises.

How Living with an Overly Judgmental Person Can Cause Suicidal Ideation

2018-03-30T02:40:05.728000Z

From my understanding, suicidal ideation comes from two paths: 1) extreme pain, and 2) depleted self worth. When pain becomes so extreme, suicide can seem like the only way to make the pain stop. I think this is the type of suicidal ideation that most people are familiar with. Suicide is more understandable for a person in a physically injuring situation who is fearing of future injuries. It makes more sense for that person to consider suicide as they are attempting to escape actual physical pain.

The depletion of self worth and the suicidal ideation that comes along with it is much more difficult to understand. We like to think that our self worth is completely within our own control, and the idea that someone else can effect that in any significant way is difficult to comprehend. But, its true. One's self worth can regularly fluctuate and it can be directly influenced by those who surround us and how often we come in contact with these self-worth-draining people. I go into more detail about the origins of our self worth in my post Exploring Insecurity and Self Worth.

Defining our value in society is not clear cut. There are such a huge plethora of different ways to bring positive value to society; many of which are incredibly difficult, if not downright impossible to quantify. We therefore have a tendency to fall back upon a few objective traits you "must have" in order to be a "worthwhile member of society."

This post will focus on the dynamics of living with people, and the traits you "must have" in order to be a "worthwhile member of this household."

Sharing a household

Maintaining a house and living together is a group project. Entropy is inevitable so things need to be cleaned and repaired. People need to eat. Food and household supplies need to be purchase. Additionally, people live their lives in this space. People watch TV. They walk around. They work on projects. They listen to music. They figure out the ideal temperature for themselves.

In a group of healthy people with a respect for sharing living space with each other, this isn't much of a problem. They figure out how to share household maintenance, cooking, and shopping. They figure out how to share the living spaces so everyone can peacefully enjoy their lives. They figure out how to share the temperature so everyone can be comfortable. The default appears to be to try to share everything equally: everyone does each chore in rotation; they agree how to split up and share the living spaces, and have noisy hours and quiet hours; they have a discussion about temperature management. Others do things more organically, just automatically evaluating each person's strengths and weaknesses. One person does more shopping and cooking, another person more cleaning, and while another person still may have much fewer duties because they are sick or in school or struggling with an important project at work. Generally these people are flexible and sympathetic for each other and automatically adjust around each other's needs. When someone feels overly burdened or things are unfair, they'll speak up and have a rational conversation about it.

When an equilibrium cannot be found, the problems maintaining one's self worth abound. One way this can happen is when one or more people are inflexible, don't have the capacity to understand other people as unique individuals, and/or inflate their own experiences as more important than others. In this case, the inflexible person (or people) have a rigid idea of how household maintenance and living spaces should be done, and any deviation to that means you're not pulling in your fair share.

Not pulling in your fair share means you are a drain on this household community. You are not giving enough to be worth the imbalance. No matter the reason why this imbalance occurred, you are, right off the bat worth less than the inflexible person dictating the rules. It's a shot against you, it's a piece of damage against your psyche and now you have to repair it. You have to take some time to repair that damage. Time that an inflexible person likely doesn't comprehend that you need. They'll just shoot you again before you've repaired the prior damage.

The problem is when these inflexible people don't have the capacity to see why you aren't "doing your fair share." It could be because:

Their expectations are impossible for even above average people to achieve.
There isn't enough time. Everyone has their own life and responsibilities that are separate from the household. W
e all have our own things we need to get done to maintain our life.
You don't have enough energy. Some people have an almost never ending supply of energy, and they just don't understand people who have a finite supply.
You're sick.

To an inflexible, judgemental person, none of that matters. You did something wrong. You didn't meet their expectations. You're at fault. Something is wrong with you. You're flawed. You are worth less.

Every time the judgmental person points out that you're not holding up your "fair share" of the household duties is like a slice against your self worth. Every time this happens, you need to take time to repair your self worth -- but when you're living with such an inflexible person, it is very easy for the damage to outpace the repairs. Once self worth becomes too damaged, suicidal ideation starts up. Once one's self worth has been completely depleted, death occurs. Humans are social creatures. Why exist if one cannot be a net positive to society?

Another form of damage to self worth is the inability to share living spaces. It's exposing how much of a burden your existence is to another person.

It is a very rare household where everyone can live their lives without disturbing another person at all. Therefore, households generally figure out how to minimize irritating each other so they can all live their lives. If there is a conflict, they gauge the harmfulness and/or helpfulness of the action between each effected person and figure out a solution. Sometimes it's limiting activities to certain times, or the effected person removing themselves during the activity, or even banning the activity because it is deemed the harmfulness greatly outweighs the helpfulness.

For the inflexible person, however, especially one with difficulty grasping the experiences of others, there is no discussion. The action is wrong, their experience regarding the action is all that matters, and therefore you are at fault. You are flawed. You are worth less.

Socializing with members of the household

Judgmental people can also have problems with just normal socializing. The same inflexibility in managing a household can often appear when socializing. They may have more likelihood to outright state what they think is wrong about you. This can be additionally harmful to your self worth because you are in frequent contact with the people you are living with.

Some examples of anti-social behavior of a judgmental person:

Always needing to be right, and tending to be argumentative.
Doesn't allow you to contribute to the conversation.
Prevents you from earning social recognition, such as by not reacting to the fact that you've said anything at all and block any one else from being able to react to your statements.

To the judgmental person, you're not only worth less because you don't take on an appropriate load of the household, you're also worth less because nothing you do has any value. The judgmental person strips you of both your objective and subjective value.

Unfortunately, these types of people are much less likely to actually demonstrate praise. It's all about what you do wrong. Those random receipts of praise are critical for building and healing up someone's self worth.

How does self worth work?

We are social creatures, so of course our self worth will be modified by those around us. When we are children, growing up and learning about the world, the definition of our self worth is directly created by the people who are around us. As we get older we learn to take on stewardship of our own self worth, but it will always have an opening to be modified by others in the outside world. Apple can't completely secure the iPhone from hacking, and we sure as hell can't completely secure our self worth from being poked and prodded by others.

We experience injuries to our self worth on a regular basis. This is healthy and necessary in order to grow and become the best contributors to society as we possibly can. We make mistakes. We break things. We hurt people. We do this all the time, and we feel bad about it. This shame is a major driving force to make us all in a society work together.

Our self worth gets injured, we take some time to fix it, and we take some time to figure out how to be better next time so our self worth doesn't get hurt again. Then we move on. This is a healthy and necessary part of living in society. This is how we become better people.

The problem comes when the injuries to our self worth come at us faster than we are able to repair or defend it. When you're living with a particularly judgmental inflexible person these injuries can be flying at us constantly. Even when the person isn't around, the injuries can keep piling on; their words linger in our thoughts. Our self worth wears thin, and we begin to seriously question, "Why am I alive right now? I am a net drain on society. I am hurting people by being here. I am suffering from a shame attack by being here. Maybe I should just die."

There are objective and subjective values people have that define their self worth. Subjective ones are impossible to quantify or measure, and can even be difficult to truly grasp and understand. Objective values are much easier -- they can be measured and counted and their values compared more easily. People have a tendency to cling to these objective values as all important and even go so far as to completely reject subjective measures of value.

Society often wishes you could just withstand the barrage of damage to your self worth just to make the judgmental person feel better. But its OK if you don't. It's OK to be different. It's OK to live life a little differently. It's OK to have different needs. It is the judgmental person who is providing negative value to the world by restricting one's potential in order to fit into their rigid view of the world, not you.

How I Manage My Self Worth

My self worth is an issue I struggle with daily. Objectively, I have very little value because of my illness. I can barely take care of myself. I will be dependent upon other people to help me survive unless medical science can finally figure out what's wrong with me and cure it. Because of this severe dearth of objective value, I need to heal my self worth by focusing on my subjective value:

I'm supportive. I can quickly identify when people need support and figure out the best way to help them. I help other people to heal and grow their own self worth, enabling them to go out and create more objective value in the world.
I'm helpful. I try to spread my knowledge whenever I can. I take time to explain things and teach people. I continue to learn things so I have more information to spread. I believe in Open Source and Open Documentation so anyone can access anything I learn or do and use it for themselves. This helps me to enable other people to create more objective value in the world.
I'm creative. I love making things, everything. Art helps make the world a better place.

These seem like small things, but I truly believe they make huge impacts. My husband is basically my care taker, but I think he's OK with it because he values so much the support, helpfulness and creativity I bring in to his life. I open a doorway to joy. To him, cooking my meals and cleaning dishes is a small thing for him to have a subjectively better life.

I browse the internet and I send off these little messages here and there because maybe, somewhere, some person, even just one person, might do a little better for having read something I wrote.

These small, yet powerful, values I offer are difficult to keep tangible and within my grasp of understanding. If I were to live with an overly judgmental person, it would be so easy to get flooded with reminders of how objectively worthless I am and completely forget that I can provide any value at all. It makes it so easy to get lost in the din and start to truly believe that perhaps I have no worth left and perhaps it would be better to die.

Why is it inappropriate for men to watch My Little Pony?

2018-04-13T06:24:12.459000Z

The latest version of the My Little Pony TV show actually isn't half bad. It's basically the Golden Girls with a dash of loony toons. It just takes looking past the fact that its My Little Pony in order to see that it's actually a decent show. It somehow ended up with a good idea with great writers.

So, if you didn't know, there is a huge adult community that loves the show, dominated by men. And there is a backlash by general society saying its fundamentally wrong for anyone who's gone through puberty to watch My Little Pony show - especially men. If a man watches the show and isn't repulsed with it, there is something wrong with them - and its quickly seen that something is wrong with them sexually.

What is it about masculinity that makes us think we can enforce a stereotype? What is it about masculinity that makes us think everything has an underlying sexual motivation for all action and behaviors? Why is it considered absurd for a man to watch a TV show without it being arousing for them with violence or sex?

The TV show isn't bad, and I have a low tolerance for shows. Even popular shows, I can't seem to watch them. Bones is shallow and forced characters. Doctor Who is so dumb (people are going to hate me for that one, I know). That 70's Show was like nails on chalkboard to me because they were always so mean to each other. Other TV shows seem so dry and mechanical. I'm saying all this to try to emphasize that it can't possibly be a ridiculously cutsie girly TV show if I can not only withstand it but gladly put on the next episode.

One reason given why adults like My Little Pony is because there isn't a lot of drama or violence, giving people a period of low stress while watching it. And they're right. I watch high stress movies and shows all the time; I seek it. But after watching a few episodes of MLP, I found I preferred watching another episode than to switch to one of my horror fallbacks. The show is just so soothing.

Another reason given for watching the show is that it's taught them how to function better in the world. I certainly understand that motive! I watch horror to try to figure out what is important in life. What is the boiled down raw vital reasons to live to another day. I LOVE The Walking Dead because every episode is exploring what is important to live or to die for. It's inspired me and given me understanding of the bare essentials to be motivated to live. I say all this to explain that it really resonates with me that people can watch a show so deeply because it is teaching them something. The average age of a My Little Pony fan is 20, and that makes sense because it is that age where you're trying to finalize your relationship with others - how to act, perceive the world, and identify critical aspects of a quality relationship with those who are close to you. And that is exactly what My Little Pony is all about. It's putting a normal everyday stressor on these characters and figuring out how to get through it while upholding the essential values needed in a quality relationship. If I need a TV show to guide me through why we live, I believe it is perfectly valid to value a TV show because it guides them through why and how to relate with others.

If the medium was an anime of human characters there wouldn't be such objection to post-pubescent people watching it. But somehow because the show has a cutsie feminine veneer does society sneer at anyone - especially men - willingly watching the show. Why do we so harshly judge "a book by its cover"?

Just because I like the show doesn't mean my tom boy card should be revoked.

Failure is like a little boy

2018-04-13T06:24:12.389000Z

I was feeling terribly anxious and needed to do something about it. I decided to attempt to embrace the anxiety and feel it all, completely, without fear. This is based on my theory that emotions need to be felt in order for them to dissipate.

I meditated. I explored the different anxieties I have and felt them. I shifted from one to the next letting it fill me, feeling all the pain with it. Then I came to the anxiety about failure. I was tentative. I tried to embrace it, but I kept resisting. I coaxed myself to keep trying and I slowly broke down the resistance to touching it. Then I held it close, tight, and let it all come through me.

When I finally embraced the anxiety of failure, it turned around and faced me. It was a little boy, 6 to 8 years old. I was kneeling in front of him and we could just see eye to eye. Behind him was a bicycle. We were in a suburb on the road near some trees and a fenced off area of woodland. In that moment, I realized that failure was just a little boy. A boy who plays, and rides his bike, and falls, scraping his hands and knees. Then he gets back on his bike to keep on playing. He plays hard, fails at something, gets hurt and goes right back to playing. He is going to keep playing, riding his bike. He is going to keep adventuring because that is what he is intended to do. He’s a little boy.

We embraced again and I asked him to squeeze me tight. I wanted to squeeze out all that anxiety so it could dissipate. When we let go, he was wearing a helmet, kneepads, and elbow pads. Of course. Play hard, but play safe. Even with this safety he could still get hurt, but the risk was worth taking. He has to play hard.

I watched him ride around. He occasionally fell: But got right back up. Right back to riding his bike.

I am still getting occasional pangs of anxiety. I am trying to remember that failure is a little boy. I’m trying to remember our embrace and the feeling of the anxiety dissipating away.

This post was made possible by the editor, Nikki Phillips.

Even as adults, we have comfort objects

2018-03-30T02:35:47.406000Z

Anna Walters wrote a fantastic article, "Did you have a 'Blankie' as a kid? Here's what that says about you." It is an exploration into transitional objects while growing up, and admitting that even as adults we likely have comfort objects!

Me as a child, cuddling with both my blankie and my cat, Sunshine

I had a blankie. It kept getting lost and we'd buy a new one. I don't have any memory of the final separation, but it's probably mixed in with my memories of all the other separation events.

I very quite likely transitioned from my blankie to my cat, Sunshine. She was always there for me. Is that why I have such a need to have a pet? Has it become ingrained that cuddling with a pet is my method to soothe myself down to neutral?

I am intrigued with the insight that adults use comfort objects all the time but just aren't completely aware of it. Our purses? A necklace? Ring? And for goodness sake, now our phones!

I've been doing more research into mindfulness and meditation. Just this morning I was starting to think that perhaps the key aspect is taking time to regularly unwind and self soothe back to neutral. I have been thinking about the ramifications of NOT regularly getting to neutral and staying in a tightly wound state for extended periods. What if that's the key to emotional stability? Unwinding every day?

This theory that adults have comfort objects makes me think this is related to the benefits of meditation. If the comfort object helps to unwind, or resist winding tighter, is it possible that regular meditation helps to make our own mind a comfort object? Therefore, we end up with a comfort object that is always right there by merely closing our eyes.

Take a moment to think about this. Do you feel wound up? Do you feel you take time to unwind yourself? Do you think you have any objects - or even rituals - that you go to perhaps because they help to unwind you, even if just a little bit? What if you did take time to unwind yourself every day?

I'm going to keep thinking about this stuff.

Advanced theming for Postach.io

2018-04-13T06:24:01.863000Z

I have gone through all of the themes offered by Postach.io and pulled out all of their theme elements and significant syntax. The goal is for this to serve as reference and make it easier to add and modify aspects of a theme when modifying the source code.

HTML provided is for context only to make it easier to understand where a code snippet is intended to be used.

Overall page elements

These are the primary elements that would appear on each page of the blog.

<html prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#" xmlns:og="http://ogp.me/ns#">
  <head>
    <title>
      {% if is_login %}Login
      {% elif is_home %}{{ site.author }}
      {% elif is_tag %}{{ tag }}
      {% elif post %}{{ post.title }}
      {% endif %}
      | {{ site.name }}
    title>

    {{ header_meta }}

    
    {% if site.analytics %}
      <script>
        var _gaq = _gaq || [];
        _gaq.push(['_setAccount', '{{ site.analytics }}']);
        _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
        (function() {
        var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
        ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
        var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
        })();
      script>
    {% endif %}
  head>
  <body>

    {% if is_login %}
      {{ login_form }}
    {% else  %}

 
      {{ site.name }}
      <img class="avatar" src="{{ site.avatar }}" alt="{{ site.author }}" />
      {% if site.cover_photo %}
        <img src="{{ site.cover_photo}}" />
{% endif %}
      {% if site.bio %}<p>{{ site.bio }}p>{% endif %}
      {{ account.email }}

      
      {% if site.twitter %} <a href="{{ site.twitter }}" title="Twitter">Twittera>{% endif %}
      {% if site.facebook %} <a href="{{ site.facebook }}" title="Facebook">Facebooka>{% endif %}
      {% if site.googleplus %}<a href="{{ site.googleplus }}?rel=author" title="Google+">Google+a>{% endif %}
      {% if site.linkedin %}<a href="{{ site.linkedin }}" title="LinkedIn">LinkedIna>{% endif %}
      <a href="{{ site.atom_url }}" title="RSS" target="_blank">RSSa>

      
      <ul>
{% if pages|length > 0 %} <li><a href="/">Homea>li> {% for page in pages %} <li><a href="{{ page.url }}" class="{{ set_active(page.url) }}">{{ page.title }}a>li> {% endfor %} {% endif %}

      

      
      {% if posts_recent %}
        <ul>
        {% for post in posts_recent %}
          {% if loop.index <= 6 and loop.index > 1 %}
            <li><a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.title }}a>li>
          {% endif %}
        {% endfor %}
        ul>
      {% endif %}

      
      {% if site.tags %}
        <ul class="tags">
        {% for tag in site.tags %}
          <li><a href="/tag/{{ tag.name }}">#{{ tag.name }}a>li>
        {% endfor %}
        ul>
      {% endif %}

      <footer class="footer">
        
      footer>
 
    {% endif %}

    {{ footer_meta }}

  body>html>

Change display according to current view

A Postach.io blog is composed of several views: the listing of lastest posts, a listing of posts from a tag, a blog post (which has several types), and pages.


{% if is_home or is_tag %}
  {% if is_tag %}
    {{ tag }}
  {% endif %}
  {% if posts %}
    
  {% endif %}


{% elif post %}
  


{% elif post.type == 'page' %}
  {{ page.title }}
  {{ page.content }}

{% endif %}

Iterate through posts

The listing of recent posts on the homepage, and all posts of a specific tag, are generated by iterating through all available posts.

{% if posts %}
  <section itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Blog" class="posts">
    
    {% for post in posts %}
      <article itemprop="blogPosts" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting" class="blog-post">
        {{ post.title }}
        {{ post.url }}
        {{ post.created_at|format_date }}
        <time datetime="{{ post.created_at }}">{{ post.created_at|date_format }}time>

        
        {% if post.photos %}
          {% for photo in post.photos %}
            {% if loop.index == 1 %}
              {% if photo %}
                {{ photo.width_600 }}
                {{ photo.square_75 }}
                {{ loop.index }}
              {% endif %}
            {% endif %}
          {% endfor %}
        {% endif %}

        
        {% if post.tags %}
          {{ post.tags|format_tags(humanize=True) }}
        {% endif %}

        
        <p class="post-comment-count">
          <a href="{{ post.url }}{% if site.disqus %}{% endif %}" class='dsq-comment-count comment-link commentslink'>a>
        p>

        {{ post.content }}
      article>
    {% endfor %}
  section>

  
  {% if site.disqus %}
    <script type="text/javascript">
      var disqus_shortname = '{{ site.disqus }}';
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Post display

An individual post's permalink view.

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Miscellaneous syntax

Alternate methods to display data, and other edge-case scenarios.


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<a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.title|truncate(40, False, '...') }}a>


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Draft carting with your dog

2018-04-13T06:24:14.789000Z

A fun and useful activity for you and your dog

Peter McCormick’s dog, Odin, helps to bring home a freshly-cut Christmas tree [Photo by Martha McCormick]

My dog, Taedyn, and I have a symbiotic relationship. We go everywhere together, work together, play together and help each other out whenever we can. We have a doggie backpack so that we can both share the load of carrying the things we need once we reach our destination. When my back went out -- preventing me from even being able to carry a purse -- we (awkwardly) modified the backpack so Taedyn could help bring my laptop and other essential items to and from work.

Taedyn wears her backpack holding our food and water during our hike in the Adirondacks [Photo by Kathleen Murtagh]

Taedyn and I met over 4 years ago at a SPCA shelter. The intensity of our bond struck immediately and caused me to burst into tears when she asked for a head rub -- the only dog who made me cry during my entire search. I tried to approach finding my next partner in a pragmatic fashion and decided to not adopt her despite my tears. Taedyn was classified as a “counter surfer" -- a six year old dog who had a puppy’s abundance of seemingly unlimited energy. After the third time we met and the third time I burst into tears, emotion took over and Taedyn and I went home together the next day.

A San Francisco blogger caught Taedyn carrying my laptop [Photo by Adam Lang of Dogs of SF for the Dog of the Day]

I’m not going to tell you that working with Taedyn was a walk in the park in those first few months of living together. In fact, we could barely walk to the park because her insatiable excitement for the world and everything within it drove her to try to reach everywhere simultaneously, making it virtually impossible to actually get anywhere. But, I directed that energy towards the work she needed to do for me and her voracious curiosity was funneled into a driven passion for work. We’ve since taken road trips across the United States several times and rarely ever are parted. She accompanies me every day on the MUNI and slumbers at my feet while I work.

Over time, however, we began to hit the limit of how much Taedyn can comfortably carry when slung over her back. Once we moved to the city and I abandoned my car, we encountered an increasing number of situations where she was simply unable to help me out. Grocery shopping, taking out the laundry, and heading out with a pro’s-quantity of photography gear -- a mere backpack just couldn’t cut it. The thought began to take seed in my mind, “What if I could put some stuff on wheels so she could pull it?" And that is when I discovered dog draft carting.

Jules demonstrates draft carting to his new puppy pal, Pryce [Photo by Martha McCormick]

Dog carting has a significant community around it. Anyone aiming for titles with a Bernese Mountain Dog, Newfoundland or Swiss Mountain Dog has probably taken up dog carting. It is an important job for these dogs to help pull a load, and so part of the breed conformation is to ensure the dog can do that job. Owners of powerful dog breeds have also engaged in weight pulling to help their dog enjoy the thrill of using every part of their muscles to pull a heavy load (I picture this as much like the thrill bodybuilders achieve when they competitively lift weights). Some take up carting as a fun activity while being a part of a parade or taking small children for a ride around the yard.

The object being pulled can be a cart (two wheels), a wagon (four wheels), or a sled (on skis). A simple cart could support one or two plastic crates, or -- my favorite -- a collapsible crate. A more sophisticated cart could be designed like a carriage with a seat to fit a small child.

Collapsible dog draft cart, custom made to fit Taedyn by Steve Diers of Draft Carts for Dogs [Photos by Kathleen Murtagh]

The cart is pulled by traces. These attach to the cart and facilitate transferring the force of the pull onto the dog’s chest and shoulders. The traces are generally attached to an intermediary called a single tree which spreads the traces apart near the cart and minimizes the jerking movement from walking by transferring the force of each step into one smooth pull. A spreader bar is a similar device that serves the same purpose but is integrated with the harness and rests inches from the dog’s rear.

One or two shafts (multi-dog and single dog, respectively) attached to the cart rest upon the dog’s harness to facilitate braking and prevent the cart from hitting the back of your dog’s legs. The shafts generally rest within loops attached to the harness and can freely move back and forth. The shaft is prevented from moving too far forward by a larger item affixed to the shaft -- such as a screw or large washer -- which is too big to slip through the loop on the harness. This is what will brake the cart to ensure it stops when your dog stops.

Now, you may think that you can throw a set of wheels on a crate and be ready to go. However, the last thing you need to be aware of is the balance of the cart. Carts are carefully designed distribute the weight so it is not front or back heavy. The goal is for the shafts to not have a significant force pulling them up or keeping them down. It should be effortless to move the shafts up and down, which will allow them to shift along with your dog’s canter with negligible force against the harness.

The job of the harness is to transfer the force of the pull onto your dog’s chest and shoulders. Although you could probably modify a typical harness for draft use, it would be best to use a harness made specifically for drafting if your dog is going to pull any significant amount of weight. You will see in these pictures that Taedyn’s harness has wide straps, and shorter-haired dogs would want to take advantage of padding along the chest and shoulder straps.

Taedyn sporting the hand-made modified siwash harness by Martha McCormick of All Things Bright and Biothane [Photo by Kathleen Murtagh]

There are a multitude of different types of harnesses, each optimized for different use cases. The most all-around-useful type of harness is the siwash harness (and variants called modified siwash harness), which provides uninhibited movement around the shoulders and is versatile enough for a wider range of applications and body shape.

A siwash-type harness can be identified by the three straps meeting at the front of the chest -- two over the shoulders and one under the chest. The strap under the chest splits into two and attaches on either side of the abdomen to both the straps that had gone over the shoulders and the traces that attach to the cart. This is the structural part of the harness facilitating the pull of the cart, and are sometimes referred to as traces of the harness. Some harnesses will secure these straps in place by a belly band, which runs the circumference of the abdomen.

A chest strap goes around the circumference of the dog’s chest just behind his armpits and provides a brake for the cart so it stops when your dog stops. The traces of the harness may be adhered to the chest strap, or lay over it unattached. The cart’s shafts rest loosely in loops attached to the sides of the chest strap which are large enough for the shaft to slide back and forth, but too narrow for the brake of the shaft to fit through. When the cart does brake against the loops the chest strap will prevent the harness from slipping over your dog’s head.

I have told you all this because I was incredibly confused when I ordered the cart and harness, so hopefully this article will arm you with enough knowledge to make informed choices. Fortunately, I got great help from Steve Diers and Martha McCormick as they patiently walked me through the details.

Steve Diers, of Draft Carts for Dogs (http://www.draftcartsfordogs.com), made a collapsible cart specifically to Taedyn’s measurements. The shafts are bent in such a way that they will come up to Taedyn’s midsection, and slant slightly inwards to be slightly wider than Taedyn herself. The length is cut to be as long as Taedyn with enough room for her gate in the rear.

Taedyn’s exquisite harness was made by master craftswoman, Martha McCormick, of All Things Bright and Biothane (http://allthingsbiothane.com/). I had a lot of fun working with Martha to design a great looking harness. Although I was aiming for a purely utilitarian harness, I fell smitten over Martha’s portfolio on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-Things-Bright-Biothane/146288622095785?sk=photos), and we designed a harness together. I provided Taedyn’s measurements so the harness would be perfect for her body shape. The siwash harness, however, is adjustable so I should be able to continue using the harness with any future companions I may have.

The McCormick’s in the news [Clipping from The Chronicle, Willimantic, CT]

Martha McCormick has integrated draft carting into her life. She has put her dogs to work helping her bring items back and forth to the farmer’s market and hauling Christmas trees for both herself and others. Her dogs have also brought a lot of joy to her community while prancing in parades and participating in fund raising walks. Martha expresses her artistic talent through the equipment she makes and provides additional flare to their normally purely functional purposes. Martha’s hand-crafted harness and traces has Taedyn trotting down the San Franciscan sidewalks in style.

Both Steve and Martha resurrected the collapsible crate cart after Martha discovered the original version was discontinued and no longer available for anyone to purchase and use. Steve strengthened and optimized the original design and has created a cart that comes completely apart -- wheels, shafts, crate and all -- and makes it easy to store or put in the trunk of a car. The collapsible crate makes it easy bring it up and down narrow staircases and lean the fully assembled cart up against a wall. Steve now builds, sells and ships these carts to anyone in the US and Canada. My cart travelled from New Hampshire to California in impeccable condition.

Martha and Peter McCormick march in the parade together with their dogs pulling the collapsible cart Steve and Martha designed

Training your dog to pull a cart is straightforward if you are well accustomed to dog training, so it took Taedyn and I no time at all getting started -- Taedyn, bless her heart, will do anything I ask of her. Our goal was to ensure Taedyn was comfortable being between the shafts and having something rolling behind her. She was a bit put out by the latter! She didn’t immediately understand why this thing was following her, and was a bit peeved at having her mobility hampered by the shafts when she tried to check what was behind her. We took things one step at a time and by the end of the first evening she was padding her way up and down the sidewalks watching me intently for more treats.

The next step is working on turns with the cart. The shafts and type of axle of your cart will determine the complexity of your turns. With the two-wheeled cart I got, turns need to be taken with an extra bit of care. The quickest way to start turning is to go wide. In order to make more narrow turns, you will have to teach your dog how to pivot around the cart. The primary movement to train is moving sideways with a cross-step. This is better shown than written, so checkout this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1500-VtHbM

The final step of training is backing up with the cart, which is important when training your dog for more utilitarian purposes. The very first time we set out to work with the cart we encountered a need to back up! Fortunately again, Taedyn had already understood that the word “back" means take one step back. During one of our random clicker training sessions, I rewarded her whenever she got frustrated and backed up to display her impatience. Very quickly I shaped the word “back" to that behavior and she’s stuck with it ever since. On our very first trip we got to put to put that training to good use. I had brought her inside to drop off the laundry, and then she was able to back right up and out the door like a champ.

Taedyn is ready to head out and pick up our laundry! [Photo by Kathleen Murtagh]

During our first trip, Taedyn showed that she was confused as to what in the world we were doing. It was one thing to walk up and down the block, but for what arcane reason were we travelling out of home range in this confining device? She looked up at me on several occasions with a look I could only interpret as raising one eyebrow in a quizzical expression, “What are you thinking, Kathleen?"

Once we dropped off the laundry and started heading home, I saw her entire demeanor changed. She had that same proud look and lightness in her step like she does after she’s accomplished something that took a lot of work -- like searching through the house and finding the ball hidden in a drawer. My takeaway is that once she saw me drop off the laundry she had put all the pieces together and realized she just helped me carry the laundry. She has stood by on countless occasions and watched me struggle and groan as I heaved the bag of laundry down the street, limped home and then sprawled flat across the floor whimpering about my poor back. She may have realized that her work had just saved me that discomfort. And what working dog wouldn’t be proud of that?

We could quite possibly be the only dog carting team walking the streets of San Francisco. Fellow pedestrians have so far just let us pass by while frequently commenting what an awesome dog Taedyn is. Yup. Taedyn is awesome. Engaging in dog carting been one great step forward to improving our work together.

Want to learn more? Check out these resources:

A version of this article originally appeared on Dogster as How Draft Carting with my Dog Helped my Injured Back

My dog's bloat survival story

2018-04-13T06:26:36.341000Z

Taedyn was diagnosed with cancer in the beginning of March, 2011. She’s had surgery to remove the tumor, and chemo to eradicate what is left. It has been a week and a half since her second dose of chemo, and I noticed she was feeling slightly restless yesterday. This has not been unusual. She has been having diarrhoea on and off and so has been feeling somewhat upset. Her stomach has been grumbly and she’s had gas (both burping and farting) for weeks. I thought yesterday’s minor discomfort was merely related to the general intestinal discomfort she’s been having.

This morning we went to an office for some contracting work, and she shortly became quite restless and would keep moving to lay down in a different spot. I finally put her in a down stay, which gets her to calm down when she merely needs something to focus on. She obeyed, but whined up a storm. I released her, and she wandered around some more, stopped, looked at me and whined. Seemed like the typical, “I have diarrhoea, let me out to poop!!" look, so I promptly took her out. She immediately had a loose stool, and I figured that had to be the problem.

A few minutes after we both settled down, Taedyn started to retch. I ran over to put a trash can under her. She tried and tried, but could not produce anything. My co-worker and I thought she swallowed the vomit. I thought she would try to vomit again, so I sat with her, gently running my hands on her to try to sooth her. She retched again, and again did not produce anything – but this time she started to drop thick, clear drool right before retching. I laid her down on her side, and ran my hands gently down her body hoping that relaxing for a bit would help settle her digestive track. She then got up, and had a series of walking around, laying down, getting up, retching, licking lips, laying on her side, sitting up, head down, head up, and whining – basically, she just could not get comfortable.

After she wretched a fourth time, I got her to calm down a bit and lay on her side again so I could run my hands down her body again. This time, however, her stomach visibly looked different than it had the previous time I had her lay down. It looked like it was slightly larger than it just was. I ran my hands over her stomach, and it just didn’t feel right. I’ve felt her stomach so many times grooming her and just petting her. On top of it, with the chemo and special diet, she has been losing A LOT of weight, so she generally has had a concave appearance, but now she seemed to be just starting to be convex.

I immediately thought, “crap. She has bloat." My co-worker is also a dog owner so I asked him, “What’s the symptoms for bloat?" “I don’t remember." “Can you look it up? Like… right now?" All I remembered was that it was very serious and minutes mattered. He rattled off the symptoms and we both agreed it was very likely she had bloat. So… now I had to get to the vet!

I had no car, so I asked my boss if he could drive us. He was busy, so I asked my co-worker – he took the train today! At that point I just called out to the office, “I need a car!" Another co-worker did have a car today, so we rushed out. I didn’t even pack up my stuff; I just grabbed my phone, wallet and leash and ran out the door!

When we arrived, I told them I suspected she had bloat. He paged the triage nurse. I told her Taedyn has been having unproductive retching and a distended stomach, and she whisked her in the back. A few moments later she came back with a graven look, “Do we have your permission to do x-rays?" I nodded vigorously. They came back confirming it was bloat and that she needed surgery. They also said she was doing amazingly well, and everyone kept asking, “How did you know??"

I put her in a down-stay at around 10:25 (I happened to look at the clock). I thought it was serious enough to ask my my partner to drive us home at 11:03 (he was busy). I checked Taedyn into the vet at 11:30. I walked out of the vets at 12:10. All in all, very fast.

She’s out of surgery and doing great. Her stomach had twisted and they put it back and pined it. There was no damage to any of her organs. Taedyn is very fortunate that I was able to figure it out and save her a lot of pain! She’s also fortunate that I have a “for emergency use only" credit card because the surgery cost $4k!

She’s staying overnight, but everything points to her having a full recovery. I’ve been reading stories of other dogs that have bloat, and its been scary how many have gotten into surgery and died on the operating table.

This was originally written May 10, 2011, and has been shared in multiple locations.

Through the eyes of a dog

2016-03-16T05:03:24.083000Z

It's amazing at times what insight you can get at how an animal perceives the world. I discovered recently a peculiar perception Taedyn has of elevators. She apparently doesn't understand that its purpose is for transportation.

She likes to carry things, and will pick up a rock or stick on the way to the office and bring it inside. On this particular day she dropped the stick while we were waiting for the elevator door to open and didn't collect it again before we entered. When the doors opened on the 8th floor, she started frantically searching in front of the elevator. I think she truly thought the stick would still be there!

It then dawned on me that she doesn't realize that the elevator is transporting us up to another floor of the building, allowing us to skip the stairwell. She thinks it's just part of the ritual of entering and exiting the building. There is a window in the elevator to the outside, and I had tried showing her we were moving, but it doesn't seem to have registered with her.

It would also explain why she gets particularly fussy when she really wants to leave. It's like she's saying to me, "Lets just GO!! Lets just skip this silly formality of entering and exiting the little room, because it has no purpose! Lets just go down the stairs and get out of here!"

It probably causes even more confusion for her because you do need to go down a half flight of stairs to get to the exit of the building after using the elevator (yeah, not very good for handicap access, eh?). There are times when we do go down the stairs and she's been awfully confused as to why there are even more stairs instead of the exit.

Silly dog.

Using an Existing System vs Creating One from Scratch

2018-04-13T06:26:36.638000Z

The question has come up debating if one should use an existing content management system (like Drupal) or widget (like Prototype Window), or create their own custom system from scratch.

First of all, you need to evaluate your website’s feature requests, and your development team. The variables to consider are:

Quantity of features
Complexity of features
Size of development team
Diversity and experience of development team

In general, the higher quantity and complexity of features will demand a greater size and diversity in your development team. Although one or two developers could conceivably create a feature rich website, the time it would take to do it would be prohibitive. If your given resources would mean development would be longer than a year and a half, then don’t bother trying. Technology moves too fast and it would be obsolete once it went live. Either that, or you would spend too much valuable time updating the system to new methods and continue to slow down development.

The difference between an existing system and creating a custom system is the rate at which a given set of features demands a growth in the development team. An existing system would enable a smaller development team to add a larger quantity of features in a more timely manner than if that same small team attempted to create each feature from scratch.

But, an existing system has limits. Only so many features can be crammed in before the code becomes, frankly, ass backwards because it simply was not developed with such needs in mind. Additionally, only so many developers can easily work in a distributed development environment within the constraints of the existing system (this especially applies to content management systems).

Why are existing systems great for small development teams?

It’s like having a larger team. You gain all the benefits of having a large, diverse and experienced development team even when you’re working alone.

Whether it’s open source or proprietary, there are people dedicated to solving specific problems. Security gurus are scouring for holes. Javascript ninjas are creating cool stuff. Database wizards are focusing on the optimal schema. Performance experts are tweaking and optimizing the speed. Testers are finding bugs while developers are fixing them and adding new features. Usability experts and graphic designers are… Ok, usability and design is lacking, so thats your team’s job!

While your team is working, sleeping and living their life, there are other people working in the background. Either you can take advantage of someone else’s work that was done before you started, or you can take advantage of that bug fix that was discovered and patched while you were working on something else. These are all the same advantages that larger development teams have when working together.

Unless you have several geniuses in your small development team, you will have holes of expertise. There will be something that none of you know well enough and it will ultimately make your project suffer for it. The smaller your team, the larger the potential holes.

Whats worse? You may not even realize it. You could deploy your site and never realize you left yourself open to a injection attack, or it slows to a crawl due to an unnoticed performance or scaling issue. Taking advantage of an existing system will also take advantage of their experience and help reduce potential problems due to your team’s expertise gap.

Why are existing systems bad for a large development team?

It’s like having a larger team. Yup, for the same reason why it’s great for small teams is why it’s horrible for large teams. Imagine your current (presumably large) development team and multiply them by 10. All of those voices and hands in the code would make it extremely difficult to get anything done efficiently. Communication would hit rock bottom, progress would slow to a crawl and the number of bugs would hit astronomical levels.

Presumably, the size of your team was created because of the vast quantity and complexity of features that are needed. Since your project is already overloaded with features, you do not have the space to be dealing with extra features that an existing system would have in order to accommodate a larger audience. More features equals more potential bugs, so you don’t want to include any more features than you absolutely need.

You have very specific (albeit a large quantity of) needs and you need to be focusing on those features. Besides, you have the team that can handle it! Why install a widget with 10 features when you only need one or two. Why install that same widget when you still have to hack it in order for it to work to your specifications? The assumed “time saving" of installing a 3rd party widget would be lost by the bugs created when integrating it into your feature rich application.

I mentioned it earlier, but I’ll mention it again: Existing content management systems especially will have difficulty in scaling a distributed development environment to a large team. Many existing systems are designed for a general audience and have general needs. The general audience doesn’t have a large development team! Drupal, for example, stores the vast amount of it’s configuration settings in the database, making distributed development amungst a larger team quite difficult.

So what should you do?

Small teams should seriously consider using existing systems, while large teams should start from scratch. If you’re in that in between state where you have a medium sized team and need to figure out how to proceed, here’s a method to figure out which way to go:

What is your time span? Your maximum time span should fit within one year (so you have another 6 months of “oops" before you hit the dreaded year and a half mark)
Gather as much information as possible for feature specifications
Create an estimate of how much time it would take to develop from scratch
Research on the different existing systems out there that also meet your needs, and decide which ones would be best
Create an estimate of how much time it would take to develop using the existing system(s)

Once you’ve gathered that information, you can then weigh the pros and cons of each method. In addition to evaluating time, also consider your team’s expertise, learning curves, development team growth, potential feature creep, version control, development environment, etc.

What if you’re a small team with a small amount of features? In general, you should not use an existing system if it provides more features than you would possibly use. More features equals more bugs and more maintenance. You do not want to spend the time on supporting too many useless features.

For example, I had originally developed the Public Display website in Drupal envisioning that it would make it easier for people in the company to change the text as needed. However, it turned out to be too many features than was worth maintaining. Version control was awkward because of the database, and the team balked at the idea of being restricted to an input form that was confined to effecting a small section of the page when making modifications.

Ultimately, I redid the Public Display website as just static . The site is small and so it’s still easy to maintain with static, and everyone working with it has an expertise with to tweak it as they need. Reducing the amount of features and simply creating the site from scratch was good in this case.

Choosing your development path is not a simple answer, but this discussion may help guide which way your team should go.

The domain real estate business

2018-04-13T06:24:09.642000Z

Yup, thats right. Domains are real estate. And it's in a bubble. Buy low, sell high - REAL high. Profit margins are in the hundreds of thousands of percent, or at the least, hundreds of percent. And I just contributed to it in order to maintain the value of my property.

A new neighbor moved in next door, and he was one of those hicks with the three cars on cinder blocks in the front yard types. It was so bad I considered moving, only to remember when I first moved in here, I couldn't find any better neighborhoods. Instead, I found out the damn hick just bought the place to temporarily store his broken down cars while he tried to find someone who would buy the property for a higher price. I sucked it up and bought the damn property so I could retain the value of my own.

Metaphors aside, this is what really happened. In 2005 I got a domain to be my photography website. I couldn't get the .com version as it was currently being used by some other photographer with the same initials as I. That was cool with me, so I got the .net version. I knew people would still go to the .com, but I figured they'd quickly realize their mistake when they saw the completely wrong name in the logo, and it'd be no big deal.

The other day a company sent me an email informing me that the .com version of my domain was about to go back to the open registration market, and that for a fee they'd snatch it for me. I think that this was automated because when I inquired about pricing, I never got a response.

Now the nail biting began. Because the .com was being used and had page ranking, it's value was quite high and would be snatched by a spammer. They have tools that I just don't have access to nor can afford ($200+) that will snatch the domain name the moment it becomes available. At the last minute, I decided to make at least some effort to acquire the name by back ordering it through GoDaddy for $20. I figured $20 was worth the money to a) try to get a .com and b) make sure it doesn't fall into spammer's hands and c) make sure it doesn't fall into a pornography spammer's hands.

My $20 spent was utterly futile, and not only did I not get it, it fell into a spammer's hands spamming pornography. I was quite pissed off, but hoped that perhaps, just maybe, it wouldn't have an effect.

The porn spam went up on Saturday. By Monday I received three complaints that "my" website was pointing to pornography. Ugh.

I sent a formal request to remove all pornography links from the website as it was effecting my website. No response, of course. Now I start to seriously consider moving my website to another domain to get away from the porn site. But I already went through the whole domain thing back in 2005, and simply could not think of anything better than original domain I got. Why in the world would things be better today? It's not. I'd have to compromise the quality of my domain name in order to move somewhere else.

I looked around further and found that the domain was up for auction! For a hefty price of $60. Ouch! I sucked it up, though, and put in the min bid. I figured $60 was a small price to pay for having to relocate my website.

$60 wasn't the small price, though... it's ultimately $90. $60 auction + $20 failed backorder + $10 to move it to my preferred registrar.

I have sadly contributed to the multi billion dollar industry of domain real estate.

Infrared Photography

2016-03-15T20:08:24.595000Z

Infrared photography creates an interesting effect where greenery is white, skin is porcelin and eyes are very black. It can be done both digitally and with film, each with their pros and cons.

Infrared on film

Film is more hazy due to a lack of an anti-halation layer, and grain caused by a higher ASA. This is often times considered a positive because it gives a very heavenly or nostalgia feel to the photograph. An anti-halation layer is present on most film, preventing colors from mixing, but is missing in infrared causing a haziness.

Although infrared film is pricy ($13/roll where I buy them) it allows you to capture faster shots. But, then this becomes quite a bane because additionally, metering for infrared is difficult so you could very well end up with a lot of bad shots.

I have found I can meter through the camera and get good shots. In fact, I got 57 "excellent" shots out of 111 in my last batch. That's pretty good, considering the non-excellents included not only poorly exposed, but poorly composed as well.

You can shoot infrared without a filter, but it's not recomended. Infrared film is still sensitive to visible light, so the "infrared effect" will be dimished without a filter. The first step would be to utilize a Red #25 filter. Although you're placing a filter in front of the lens, it's only blocking visible light - not infrared - so the infrared film will still be exposed by it. If you're metering through your lens, and subsequently through the filter, you'll want to compensate by under exposing to make it as though you're shooting without a filter at all.

Although I haven't tried it yet, my next step will be to take a sheet of Red #87 filter and attach it to the back of my camera so it will be between the shutter and film. Given that the Red #87 filter only lets in infrared, the effect will be enhanced. With it located between the shutter and film, it will elminate the pain of dealing with an opaque lens filter.

Digital infrared

Digital creates very crisp and clear shots. The greatest advantage is being able to see immediately if the shot was exposed correctly. No need to wait days for film development - you'll know right away if your settings are correct for the environment you're shooting. Given how strange infrared is, and how unnatural it's lighting and effects are to us visible-spectrum-seeing-creatures, this is a huge benefit.

With just the investment of a Red #87 filter, one can start taking infrared shots with their digital camera. But not so simply.

The #87 filter is opaque, meaning you have to meter and compose without the filter, and then put the filter on. Plus, the CCD/CMOS is sensitive to infrared, so the manufacturers have put an infrared filter on the sensor, so you have to use long exposures in order to bypass that.

The benefit of this method is that you can take one color shot and one infrared shot and then merge them together to create interesting effects.

In that case, simple cheap digital infrared photography will be limited to long exposure tripod shots. Many people have done this and create great photos, but what if you want something a little quicker?

You can convert a digital camera to shoot infrared. This is sometimes permenant, but always extremely inconvenient to switch so it's advised to have just one old or cheap camera to be a dedicated digital infrared camera. Not everyone has the money or resources to do that, but I've heard of people converting anything from cybershots to Canon 10Ds.

Converting a digital camera to shoot infrared would allow you to take normal speed shots with the infrared effect -- people, pets, anything you can think of. For more information, you can read up on Life Pixel's digital infrared conversion services.

Silly Italian boys

2018-04-13T06:24:02.224000Z

While I was in Europe, I traveled around a lot, of course. In Italy, I was regularly popping around the country on their excellent and inexpensive train system.

One day we waited awhile for the train, and were the first, by a long shot, to get on the train. We sat in the first coach car, being between the first class car and the second coach car. As we were waiting, we became apprehensive as to why no one was boarding the train, but then noticed a growing crowd gathering outside the train.

A rowdy, loud, obnoxious crowd.

Of kids.

Escorted by riot police.

Oh shit.

The kids started boarding, and sitting huddled around us. Our fears promptly heightened. Once a police officer boarded, he noticed we were there, and forced everyone into the second coach car - by violent force because the kids would not obey!

Four police officers and two conductors battled off the crowd of kids who were trying to sit with us, shoved them into the second car, and locked the door between the cars.

The conductors and police officers then proceeded to have a fight over the door, the conductors motioning that it is not strong enough, and the police officers ignoring them.

Two police officers leave the train. The other two move into the first class car, leaving us vulnerable in the buffer zone between the crowd of violent kids and protection. Our fears peak and we decide to prepare ourselves for the absolute worse!

We gather all our money, and divide it in multiple locations, our pockets holding 40EU each, because if they're going to mug us, they won't be satisfied unless they get some cash!

The train has since been moving, so we sit back and prepare for a fight.

Bang.

Boom.

They're in.

A crowd rushes through the cabin straight to the first class cabin, while a handful stays to hit on me. I angrily bat back roaming hands and admonish them in Italian.

Seconds later, the two police officers rush in and battle the crowd back into the second car. One leans on the door to keep it closed with all the banging, while the other retrieves a conductor so he can lock the door again.

They have an animated discussion about the door, but come to no conclusion, and then return to the first class car.

Bang.

There really is nothing we can do, and so we just sit there. From my position, I can see the door quite clearly and there is a crowd of people drooling at us. Er. Me.

Bang.

Boom.

The door slams open, yet no one comes through immediately this time. An attempting suave young man saunters into the cabin and greets me as gentlemanly as possible, and his slimy friends slyly slither in and sit across from us.

I nod, with an obvious look of agitation on my face.

He asks me where I am from in Italian, and I shake my head. He asks me where I am from in English, and I shake my head again. He then asks me if I even speak English, and I just simply shake my head.

By now some have scrambled over to the first class car and got the attention of the police, who push them back into the second car. This time police officer has the key handy, and he just promptly locks it.

Like it lasts long.

Moments later they have broken through the door once again. Why bother locking it anymore? And what? The police officers couldn't sit next to the door with the rest of us? Er... just us, as we were the only people in the car. Everyone else must have had inside knowledge of this situation or something because they all had first class tickets!

Inevitably they come back, but avoid for quite some time disturbing the precious first class car. Their chaos penetrates our cabin as the crazies pace back in forth exhibiting their maniacal natures. Several ask for money. A bunch sit across from us and stare at me.

Eventually, Mr. Suave saunters back in and addresses me once more. I have made the decision to not speak to him in English. God forbid what will happen if he realizes that we can communicate! I was familiar enough with Italian to speak with him that way.

He repeatedly asks questions. He tries to sit next to me, and I admonish him in Italian. Eventually he becomes absolutely fixated on what in the world my nationality is. After much pestering, I decided to tell him I was Czech!

Once I did, a look of utter shock and defeat washed over his face. He looks at his friends and tells them I am Czech. He sits down and looks perplexed for awhile.

I look at my companion, and say some randomness in Czech, like what would translate to, "A quarter handful thank you." We had lived in the Czech Republic for 3 months, so we were vaguely familiar with the language. It's a tough language, though, so of course none of these boys would have any idea what we were speaking to each other was actually random mixed and matched Czech phrases with a handful of Kat-ish.

The boy stands up again with a new energy. He asks me a question. I ignore him. He asks me again, I say something to my companion in Czech-Kat-ish. The boy then gingerly, ever so carefully reaches out his hand, index finger pointed out and almost touches my hand. Almost. To anyone else observing the situation, you would swear that he touched my hand. But he did not! Ever so closely, but not quite. His hand actually quivered while hovering over my hand.

I looked at this with mild amusement, but then went back to frustration. I knew if I communicated too much with this guy that he or his friends would pose a greater threat, so I looked up at him with utter contempt. He grabbed his hand back as if I had just bitten him. The fear he had was so hilarious, I almost laughed. I did not. I seemingly maintained my laughter, although the suppression almost drove me to tears.

Of course at around the same time, the trouble making crowd invaded the precious space of the first class car, and the police officers beat the growing crowd back into the second car, and locked the useless lock.

Strangely, they did not beat their way back through the door this time. I wasn’t quite paying attention at first, but I did notice a crowd at the door. And there was one guy in the front, who looked rather… distracted. While staring at me. Panting slightly. His body jerking just slightly up and down, while through the side window I could see his arm jerking back and forth…

sigh

After all this, all I could do is just rest my head on my hand in astonishment. I remained in this state until the train stopped. Several other police officers boarded the train and escorted the kids off the train. As they passed by, one exclaimed, “I love you! I love you!!" while being dragged by a police officer.

I had never been so happy to get back to my apartment before in my life.