Finals are over

I had my last final last night and I made an A on it. I now have two of my weeknight back for the next three weeks.

Creative Commons member.

Today I became a member of the Creative Commons Network. My CC page is at https://creativecommons.net/maxolasersquad/ The Creative Commons group is the best chance we have at fighting the corrupt and technologically prohibitive intellectual property ideals we currently have employed in our legal system.

Facebook

I will be updating my Facebook status every day of this month. The theme is disdain for imposed unhealthy social expectations. I have about a week and half worth already written.

A standards compromise

I say we make a pact with the rest of the world. We will go fully metric if every other country will agree to drive on the right-side of the road. Automakers should definitely back this one as it would make their job much easier on two accounts.

Soup update

The soup I made last night made a good lunch. I committed myself to no salt, aside from what was in the bouillon cubes, so that did make it a little bland, but the veggies for very good. I am looking forward to next weeks lentil soup. I will try to make more next time so that Kim and I both have enough soup for lunch through the week.

Compost pile

Tomorrow I will start a compost pile. I have been wanting to do this for a very long time and I am committing myself to making this a reality tomorrow. I have the location picked out, all I've got to do is a little digging. I even have some scraps saved up already to start off. Being it is fall, getting leaves is easy, and a hose is right near the spot. I will hopefully have pictures up tomorrow.

Window frames

In our backyard we have a play house for the girls. It has been needing to make some improvements to it but have neglected to until recently. A few weeks ago I set installed carpet. Today I started building windows.
It already has holes cut, but there is no way to close the windows and so rain gets in. Today I started building a frame for the windows. I measured everything out and ran up to ACE Hardware and got some wood, nails, a hand saw, and some other materials.
Getting everything right is a lot of work. The measurements have to be exact and cutting without an electric saw takes a lot of effort. Especially if you are going to keep the cut straight.
This first frame is only half of what will be the first out of four windows. Another identical frame will have to be built and a glass pane glued in between them and nailed together.
These windows will be able to open out from the inside.
I have also bought some twine and beads to make a beaded entryway. I am looking for a cool pattern. I Googled for "Egyptian Pattern" and only came up with westernized patterns with Egyptian influence. I have asked Judith, Aurora's grandmother, for help finding something cool. She is a big math nerd and knows about all sorts of crazy mathematical patterns. I am excited about finding a good pattern and building it with the girls. Will will also eventually build a full door to keep the rain out that way as well.
The next job after that is to put in sheet rock and finish the walls. This should make for a really awesome play house for our girls and future children that may occupy our current residence after we have moved on.

Random Veggie Soup

I have been eating Tabatchnick soups for lunch at work for the last number of months. I have been wanting to make my own soups and today I finally took initiative to make that happen. I am starting off with nothing in particular. I simply boiled some water with some vegetable bouillon cubes. I added carrots, broccoli, yellow squash, brussels sprouts, asparagus, and a portobello. I then took all of the scraps and I am boiling them in a pan. Once the water has boiled in the flavor I will remove the scraps and add flour to make a sort of roux to add a little consistency to the soup.
I have absolutely no idea how well it will turn out, but I am sure it will be good. Next time I am going to try my hand at some lentil soup.

Mystery Tea

A few weeks ago Kim found a red tin in our pantry that had a large bag of tea. The tin is completely in Japanese except. I have no idea where this came from. My first thought was that Aurora's aunt Morgan, who lives in Japan gave it to us. Kim doesn't think this is true, and I asked Judith if she recalls giving us this red tin when she got a shipment from Morgan and she said she doesn't recall getting it. I have not yet asked Morgan, but I will.
But, if Morgan did not give this to us then I don't know where it came from. The stuff is damn good. It smells great and taste just as good. There is so much I don't know how I could possibly consume it all in a reasonable amount of time. I still have three other types of tea to go through as well. I can at least count myself lucky to have a healthy collection of superb teas making residence in my pantry.
Many intellectuals pride themselves on their knowledge or wines, spirits and bears. Others love to talk about their extensive knowledge of cheeses from around the globe as well as various other foods. For me it is tea. Okay, I don't really know that much about tea, yet but it is my tunnel in to the world of snobbish knowledge about bland subjects, so there.

The first sign of Obama fail

I am very concerned with the number of Clinton-era officials that Obama is appointing. This troubles me because it was Clinton, not Bush, that championed overseas offshoring, giving tax breaks to companies that moved jobs out of the US. He also championed the so-called "free trade" agreements that pushed out fair trade and sovereign independance to developing nations. These free trade agreements made profit king and human rights took a back seat. Obama ran a campaign challenging these ideas, but is appointing people to his administration that sat in while all of this was being hashed out.
Another major problem that Clinton gave us is the beginning of what became the housing crisis. Clinton held on to this lofty idea that some how home ownership (as opposed to renting) instigated wealth. So the idea is that if I purchased a home instead of rented I would be more likely to accrue more wealth in the future. This is idea is completely unfounded in research and so there was never any really good reason to pursue this ideal aggressively. Clinton started it, Bush brought it to fruition. Do we really want Clinton-era politicians running our future economy and foreign economic policy?
I hope Obama brings in differing opinions that are able to guide is in a new more healthy direction.