spacekadet

I am lucky.

Today Tim e-mails me at work to say I have surprise waiting for me at home. I half expect some yummy dark chocolate or my favorite guilty pleasure, Coke Zero (I know).

My surprises are better than chocolate and diet soda (which actually go very well together, I'm embarassed to admit). No, Tim has two things which will last longer than a fleeting bite of bittersweet chocolate: books!

Tim knows that part of my freedom dream involves writing, and he found two books on the subject at one of our local used bookshops (how lucky are we to have more than one?!):

Writing for Journalists by Wynford Hicks

and

Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson

The first is a practical guide on writing news, features, and reviews.

Troublesome Words is a dictionary of confusing words and concepts in the English language. Here's one:

decimate. Literally the word means to reduce by a tenth (from the ancient practice of punishing the mutinous or cowardly by killing every tenth man). By extension it may be used to describe the inflicting of heavy damage, but it should never be used to denote annihilation, as in this memorably excruciating sentence cited by Fowler: 'Dick, hotly pursued by the scalp-hunter, turned in his saddle, fired and literally decimated his opponent'. Equally to be avoided are context in which the word's use is clearly inconsistent with its literal meaning, as in 'Frost decimated an estimated 80 per cent of the crops'.

"Can you dethaw some beans from the freezer?"

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Message from me sent to mountfuji.co.uk:

Message:
Hi! I just wanted to let you know that the order I placed last Sunday arrived on time yesterday. I'm really pleased with the service and was especially happy to see that you use recycled newspaper and boxes for your packaging. I will definitely add a link to you on my website... thanks again for the amazing service.

---

Mountfuji.co.uk's response to me:

Dear Ms. Shaw

Thank you for your kind message. That made our day.
Also we are pleased to hear that you liked us using recycled news paper and boxes. We were not sure if our customers like the looks of used news paper...but we hope all our customers do not mind using recycled papers. Good thing about this is that our office neighbours are dropping their news papers and used boxes off for us to use for packing!

Thank you again for your mail. I will let our neighbours (who drops news papers off to us) know!

Yours sincerely,
Yoko

---

Here's my link to mountfuji.co.uk, the online Japanese food shop! My order enabled me to have yummy sushi for lunch today, with pickled ginger and everything. Happiness!

Posted by monica at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In March of 06 my partner Mikey and I moved from New York City to Truth or Consequences NM to join a pioneering spirit that was emerging in a small western town. In September of 2006 we purchased an RV park and mineral hot spring in the downtown hot water district to convert into an off grid hotel, venue and hot spring gathering place. Our goal is to build with as much re-use as possible, carefully considering our carbon footprint along the way. When finished, it is our intention to offer workshops, entertainment, yoga and a variety of cultural events at our on site venue. Like a Sufi Khankah, we are building a place where home, spirit and community come together in a harmonious whole.

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A little background: I discovered yoga last year in Austin at my gym's "hatha fusion" yoga class. For one hour, three mornings per week, I stretched, balanced, occasionally fell over, relaxed, lengthened my spine, twisted my body, breathed, and cleared my head of all the nasties.

My move to London put a stop to these regenerative mornings, so as soon as I got a job, I began beginner's Ashtanga at Yoga Home, taught by an insanely bendy person named Alex Thomas. This being London, yoga classes are way too expensive to attend more than once a week. But I have a great deal to learn, and a semi-regular dose of professional instruction is critical to my progress and motivation.

My strategy is to attend a yoga class once per week, and then practice the routine on my own in the flat before I go to work in the mornings.

Back to the present: Today was Day 1 of Level 2 "Ashtanga Style" yoga at the Bishopsgate Institute. The class meets for 50-minutes, once per week, for 12 weeks, and costs £69.

I arrived to class early and had a chance to talk to the instructor, Marina, who informed me that "Ashtanga Style" means we will use Ashtanga postures but will not follow the strict order of the Primary Series.

Of the twelve students, I am one of only two new students. I'm happy to hear people like the class enough to keep going back, but a bit intimidated by being the lone stranger in a group of friends. This feeling is silly, of course, because social pressure simply doesn't exist in a yoga class if the students are serious about their practice.

In my previous Ashtanga course, we jumped right into the sun salutes and the primary series. In Marina's class, we first warm up on the mat. This suits my creaky joins very well, and made the subsequent Surya Namaskura A a much more fluid and comfortable exercise. Also, the sound of other students' breathing helps me concentrate on my own breath.

We spent most of the class in introductions and paperwork, so the practice itself was short. But I felt invigorated afterwards. Marina assures me that we'll "kick it up" next class. I look forward to it.

Key take-aways for my home practice:

• Take some time on the mat before I start my practice to relax and prepare myself for the task at hand; there's no rush
• Pay more attention to my breathing; perhaps I can use that pre-practice mat time to really "connect with the breath", as they say
• Warm up on the yoga mat: lay on the mat, hug the knees and rock back and forth; practice the "cat pose".
• Take Savasana more seriously; again, there's no rush
• Remember: it's better to perform 5 minutes of quality, intentional yoga than 60 minutes of semi-distracted scattered yoga. There's no rush! Pay attention to the moment; focus on the task at hand.

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly. -- Buddha

Posted by monica at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everyone was screaming and running out as he jumped on a table, dropped his trousers and popped his penis out. Then he cut it off. I couldn't believe it.

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Tom Hodgkinson puts it into words better than I do in this piece in the Guardian:

More rubbish means more work. Less waste means less wasted time and, therefore, more time for the important things in life, like sitting around in the sun with a bottle of wine and a few friends.

Take your household rubbish. Dealing with it requires an an enormous amount of work. There is the work involved in filling the black bin bag and lugging it outside. There is the work for the dustmen in collecting the black bin bags and taking them to a big tip somewhere.

Then there is the cost of transporting the rubbish to some hideous toxic wasteland where it will sit poisoning the earth. All wasted effort, since all rubbish is unnecessary.

And where does most of this rubbish come from? Plastic. Plastic bags, plastic milk cartons, plastic wrap, plastic containers for everything!

Read on.

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Tim and I went to Brussels over the weekend for two days and one night of non-stop good times, barring one mayo-ridden cone of frites. Otherwise, it was a wonderful weekend of excess in all departments: walking, photography, comic art, and of course, delicious beer. The monks really know their shit.

Link to my Flickr photo set.

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But I still kick ass.

I've been a regular at the gym since August 2002. In the beginning, my goal was simple: work off all the Mexican food and beer I was consuming as a math grad student in Austin, Texas. But over the years, my objectives gradually changed. I wanted more than to negate my indulgent eating and drinking habits; I wanted to be strong and healthy. As my goals changed, so did my diet; I began to eat to support my exercise, rather than the other way around. I developed a particular liking for weightlifting. And then I started running.

Running changed everything. I revelled in its multifaceted pleasures: oxygen, the outdoors, running with people at a 5k race, running alone with an NPR podcast, a cold smoothie after a long run, the burning sun on an Austin summer day.

Early last year my ankle started giving me trouble and no amount of rest or physical therapy has succeeded in eliminating the dull pain I experience every time I run. In the absence of running, I rely on the gym's weights and cardio machines to maintain my level of fitness. But lately, the gym frustrates more than invigorates. I've lost sight of my goals. It's as if I use the gym to manage a phobia of reverting back to the soft and squishy math dork who couldn't run a mile without breaking for a Tecate halfway.

But these days, I don't want to simply burn beer calories; I want to enjoy the journey. That's why running is so glorious: the mind is invigorated along with the body. The feet connect with the grass (or asphalt, or gravel), the eyes absorb the passing scenery (rather than a TV screen), the nose takes in the fresh air (or not so fresh if you're running in London). Running feels like freedom. The gym feels like a scam.

So last week, when I discovered that my gym membership is 3-months delinquent, I took the opportunity to get out. So far, I miss my workout buddy, and I miss the action of lifting weights, an activity I found somewhat meditative in the amount of concentration it required. But I think I've found my goal: to maintain my fitness holistically. That is, to transition exercise from something I do at a gym to something that emerges naturally from my other life choices. In effect, the goal is to stop exercising altogether, but instead to be active in my day to day life.

I don't need the gym to achieve personal health and fitness. So what do I need? Stay tuned for strategy.

Posted by monica at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Something about my webpage was bothering me. It was too dark. Too oppressive. Too ugly!

So I've changed it.

Not wanting to spend the rest of my week in html and css, I grabbed the layout from The Style Archive, a repository of free blog styles for Movable Type, Typepad and Livejournal.

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Vegan Oat Bar
Originally uploaded by spacekadet.

Adapted from this recipe on Vegweb.

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Allen Galbraith shares two techniques for growing potatoes without a garden. Tempting - a "Potato Barrel" might make a wonderful conversation piece in the flat (not to mention an endless supply of roasting material.)

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Breakfast of Champions
Originally uploaded by Stompy.

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Chili and cornbread: my kind of comfort food.

For the muffins, I experimented with vegan cornbread, working with a Tennessee Corn Pone recipe from the Vegan Lunch Box. The muffins are nice, but a bit too salty. They certainly don't hold a candle to the traditional Southern cornbread recipe.

The okra is inspired by Susanv's roasted okra recipe. Nice finger food, but I think I prefer my okra smothered in tomato sauce or cooked in a stew (or breaded and deep fried, when I'm feeling sassy).

Chili is such a grand thing. Just combine your favorite vegetables in proportions that seem appealing, add a tin of tomatoes, some beans and tvp, maybe a hot pepper, some chili powder, maybe some cinnamon, salt, and there you have it. This batch of chili contains pinto and kidney beans, tvp, a tin of of roma tomatoes, carrots, celery, bell pepper, more okra, onion and spices. One word of advice: add the spices a little bit at a time, tasting the chili along the way. I've made miserably hot chili by adding a large spoonful of chili powder in one go. It's usually best to be subtle with the spices so as not to overpower the flavorful of all the wonderful veggies in the dish.

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"Stop working; stop buying; start living. Feast, drink. Eat capons and good hams. Drink spiced wines and fine ales. Make your table groan with food. Make jam and chutney. Play the hurdy-gurdy. Get a piano...Just as your anxiety is a product of your imagination, albeit influence by the commerical world, so your imagination has the power to replace it with good cheer."

From Chapter 1 of Tom Hodgkinson's How to Be Free

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Imagine coming home from a long day at work to the exquisite aroma of fresh baked bread and the most picturesque loaf of bread ever to grace your kitchen counter. Such has been my fortune over the past few weeks as Tim perfects his basic whole wheat loaf of bread. As thrilled as I am that Tim is honing his craft as a baker, I am also pleased that he's writing about his endeavours on his new "Internet Weblog".

This week he shares his "painfully simple" wholemeal loaf recipe. His description is succinct and straightforward, though use of gram measurements and a kettle may confuse his American audience. (To my American audience: get a digital kitchen scale and an electric kettle. Especially a kettle; imagine all you could achieve in life if you could quickly boil water!)

So how does the bread taste? Forget those nightmares about dense whole wheat bricks, Tim's recipe results in a soft, moist brown loaf, better than the Spence's, and my new choice for stock daily bread (provided Tim keeps on cookin'). My favorite way to enjoy his bread is smeared with mushed bananas and sprinkled with chopped walnuts. But I also love it toasted, under two of Tim's perfect poached eggs.

I don't know if he's taking requests, but I'd like a similar recipe write up for his basic tomato sauce. We had it last night, arrabiata style, and spent the rest of the evening mmm-ing and aaah-ing about our delicious dinner.

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I've been thinking about freedom. What exactly does freedom mean to me? And how do I achieve personal freedom?

The answer to both of those questions is probably a life-long project that will never have a definitive answer. However, I do know that one component of freedom is financial independence. So I've been toying around with t-shirts, reading a bit about web marketing, and experimenting with ways to make money on the internet. Now I'm going to see if I can combine my objectives by making a bit of independent income while writing about freedom.

Last night I set up Live Free, a new blog where I'll post all freedom-related musings, while also experimenting a bit with Google Ads, associate referral marketing, more t-shirts, and whatever else comes to mind.

So far I've I've made $0.03 off of 3 clicks from 15 page impressions. It's a start. My goal is to make enough money to pay my monthly student loan payment. So bring on the clicks!

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Flickr photostream

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One of the best things about living in London is the comparable relief of the country.

Not only is it Easter weekend, but the weather is unseasonably perfect. In the race to enjoy it, city-dwellers are cramming into planes, trains and automobiles, readying themselves for a grueling journey to something better.

Is it possible to escape from the city while still enjoying the journey? I say yes. My secret? The humble yet powerful bicycle.

I say this now having never been on a long bicycle journey in England, but tomorrow I take the first of what I hope to be many cruises in the country. Tim and I are headed 54 miles north to Cambridge, traveling along the River Lee and passing through Newton (home of Sir Isaac!). I hope we get to Cambridge in time to see a bit of the town, and perhaps enjoy a restful beverage at a "quaint" Cambridge pub.

In the meantime, here are some links I've found useful in my planning:

Route plan via Gmap Pedometer

GPX file of waypoints between London and Cambridge (note: the waypoints between London and Ware along the River Lee are rough estimates at best)

Sustrans - the UK's leading sustainable transport charity, has loads of maps of the UK National Cycle Network

Matthew Belmonte's London to Cambridge bicycle route

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I want to escape the rat race, to write articles instead of reports, to own my own house, to have enough land to grow my own vegetables and maybe have a chicken or two... I want to lead a low-impact lifestyle, to ride my bicycle as much as possible, to have a cat again.

I want to be free.

No Impact Man has similar dreams. He's freed himself of garbage, carbon emissions, elevators, subways, plastic, air conditioning, and television, just to name a few. It's all part of a 1-year experiment to lead a no net impact lifestyle. He eats only organic food, uses no paper, composts everything, buys nothing, and is dragging his wife and 2-year old daughter along for the ride.

No Impact Man, aka Colin Beavan, and his wife are both writers, which to me is about as free as you can get while still earning an income. As inspiring as their no-impact lifestyle is their ability to make enough money to perform this experiment in the first place.

How did they become free?

No Impact Man Blog
The Year Without Toilet Paper - New York Times, March 22, 2007

Posted by monica at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wonder if cravings can be contagious. My mother has been a cauliflower fiend for as long as can remember. She's got a few cauliflower tricks up her sleeve but they never rubbed off on me.

On a recent trip home, I arrived late and tired after a long flight. Any travel-related grumpiness was squelched by the indian feast waiting for me (how lucky am I?). Next to the channa masala was a plate of curry-roasted cauliflower, deliciously salty and wonderfully crispy around the edges. Ever since then I've been hooked.

My mom uses spray oil and garlic salt, while I use olive oil, salt and garlic powder. She also breaks up the cauliflower into florets before roasting, while I, for simplicity's sake, just slice the head in half and bake the two halves. Maybe that's why my cauliflower never turns out quite as well as hers. But I still can't get enough of it, and like my mom, I can easily eat a whole head of this stuff on my own. This is my kind of comfort food.

Curry Roasted Cauliflower

One head of cauliflower, sliced in half
Olive oil
Curry powder
Garlic power
Paprika
Salt

Pre-heat the oven to 375 F / 190 C.
Coat the bottom of a baking tin with olive oil.
Put some olive oil in your hands and give the cauliflower a good rub. Place the cauliflower flat-side down on the baking tin.
Sprinkle the cauliflower with the spices - a good helping of curry powder, then just a light sprinkle of the garlic powder, paprika and salt. The cauliflower should look quite "freckled" after applying the spices.
Bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes, until its brown and crispy.

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My friend and her boyfriend recently bought a house in Colchester and were
gracious enough to have me and J over last Saturday for a pajama-party sleepover. I spent a large part of Sunday morning chatting with the boyfriend about home ownership, DIY projects, and sustainable living. I must be growing up, because the older I get, the more I want to own a house. It's not about the house, though, it's
about owning a bit of land, free to grown my own food ("live sustainably" as their calling it these days), and free from the money toilet of monthly rent.

So in the middle of all this dreaming and scheming, the boyfriend hands me a copy of Paul Waddington's 21st Century Smallholder. Less of a how-to guide and more of an inspiration, the book is a sampler of how one can go about becoming self-sufficient. From the garden to the compost heap, Waddington manages to inject a dry sense of humor into his outline, which covers cost, space, and time considerations. For example, Waddington considers bees to be the gateway livestock drug. A beehive is cheap to set up, requires a small amount of space, and beekeeping is an easily attainable skill (however, they do require a great deal of patience and "tenderness", which is why women are often considered better beekeepers than men!).

I don't know if it was the book or the conversation or the instant coffee, but I really felt inspired that morning. I came back to Stoke Newington, bought some dirt (for lack of my own compost heap), and checked out a book from the library on vegetables and herbs. I also designed a new t-shirt.

Okay, "design" may be a strong word here. But there you have it: the "make compost not war" organic t-shirt, just in time for summer. There are some girly tees, too, at the Compost Heap shop.

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