Summer Fun

Summer has arrived...well, as much as it can in the Pacific Northwest! I so enjoy the warm summer days around here. Not a big fan of high heat -- or desperate cold, for that matter!

I think I've got a handle on the meal planning business...I think! Got 30+ pages of "info" (large font-filled pages) for my webpage off to my website creator Spice Girl G; tweaked the recipes to look more appealing (to read!); figured and added nutritional information to the recipes; re-did my meal plan packet; professionalized the forms and such that go into the intro packets; and generally messed up the side table with piles of papers! Next? Work with some clients!

Now, I'm ready to do some cooking of my own! My mid-life crisis has requested that I amble off into some different and fresh Asian inspired dishes...maybe it's my palate that is directing this shift from down-home comfort food?! Needless to say, I've been browsing a bazillion (yes, I do mean bazillion) food blogs and picked up a stack of cookbooks to peruse from the library and have found a couple that look promising...

Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors, by Andrea Nguyen; Quick & Easy Vietnamese: 75 Everyday Recipes, by Nancie McDermott; and Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Samosas, & More, also by Andrea Nguyen.

 

What else? Oh, yeah, with the slightly better weather that we've been having, I've scheduled some walks into my life. I have to start walking, before I can run, yes?

New Direction...Am I lost?

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;


Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that passing there
Had worn them really about the same,


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Have been praying and mulling over what direction God has for my outside-the-home-job-life...What to do? To whom do I talk to? Do I need to update my resume (which I haven't done in 13 or so years!)?

With a simple status update on Facebook on meal planning for my own family, God gave me a new direction...meal planning for other families! I've had 10 people talk to me about meal planning for them!

With a little prayer and creativity, I've created my own personal cottage industry! And my personal "Spice Girl" has offered to be my webmaster! Thanks to my guinea pig EC, too!

God is good.

Now, let's hope I don't get lost.

Self-Organized Criticality

So, on my mid-life crisis world tour, I’ve decided that I REEEEALLLLLY need to get organized. I like to think (or bluff my way out of) that I am organized…to an extent. I know where the general location is of the form I was working on is in a PILE on my desk/coffee table/floor next to my bed/yada yada yada. In my head, I’m pretty organized. On my desk, not so much.

Thus, in my quest to find a definition of organized, I found this term “Self-Organized Criticality.” Sounds like it might apply to me. Read on for the definition:
“In physics, self-organized criticality (SOC) is a property of (classes of) dynamical systems which have a critical point as an attractor. Their macroscopic behavior thus displays the spatial and/or temporal scale-invariance characteristic of the critical point of a phase transition, but without the need to tune control parameters to precise values…SOC is typically observed in slowly-driven non-equilibrium systems with extended degrees of freedom and a high level of nonlinearity. Many individual examples have been identified…but to date there is no known set of general characteristics that guarantee a system will display SOC.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organized_criticality

Huh.

Here’s MY definition:
In Rosabella’s physical [and emotional] life, self-organized criticality [SOC] is a property of her dynamic system of welfare which has a critical point [midlife crisis] as an attractor. Her macroscopic behavior thus displays the spatial [desk/coffee table/floor next to bed] AND temporal [brain function filing cabinet] scale-invariance characteristic of the critical point [again, midlife crisis] of a phase transition, but with the need to tune control parameters to precise values [based on her own sorting and understanding]…SOC is observed in her slowly-driven non-equilibrium life system with extended degrees of freedom [from daily life obstacles] and a high level of nonlinearity [that would really be easier to do if life was more linear]. Many individual examples have been identified [SHEs, Emilie Barnes, OrganizedHome.org]…but to date there has been no known set of general characteristics that GUARANTEE a well-received organizational system will display SOC in Rosabella’s life.
[Parentheses and italics and bold font are mine]

WTF?

According to wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn , organized is defined as: “methodical and efficient in arrangement or function; ‘how well organized she is’; ‘his life was almost too organized’”

Yeah, right. Like I’ve heard that before.

Procrastination

PROCRASTINATION refers to the counterproductive deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite such behavior as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision. Schraw, Wadkins, & Olafson [Who the heck these dudes are, I have no idea. But they were quoted in Wikipedia, so they must be important.] have proposed three criteria for a behavior to be classified as procrastination: it must be counterproductive, needless, & delaying.

Procrastination may result in stress, a sense of guilt & crisis, severe loss of personal productivity, as well as social disapproval for not meeting responsibilities or commitments. These feelings combined may promote further procrastination. While it is regarded as normal for people to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it impedes normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a sign of an underlying psychological disorder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination
[parentheses mine]

So, I’ve been procrastinating about my midlife crisis.

According to the above referenced Wikipedia article, it looks like I might be showing signs of an [or another, as the case may be] underlying psychological disorder.

Sheesh.