A brief follow-up from a topic that was hot several years ago that resurfaced recently. Coffee pots, specifically, this coffee pot.
We bought this coffee maker in the States before we left and brought it with us. Recall it being expensive at the time. Anyhoo, the design of the pouring mechanism frustrated me to no end as you could not pour a cup without it dribbling everywhere. Finally got so pissed that I banished it at least 3 years ago to the deepest corners of the supply closet and started using other means to get caffeine into my body.
A few weeks ago, the Center's industrial coffee pot broke and as they are researching new ones, tell them I have one I'd donate and do so with the caveat that it has a certain design flaw. Am sitting there getting ready for February Coffee Morning last week, an event when we have to make several pots in a row for the guests, and hear the people in the kitchen asking in a familiar frustrated tone if there is a way to pour it without spilling. I didn't laugh or say I told you so, but was glad in the knowledge that it wasn't my own shortcomings.
As for the coffee morning, due to circumstances we had to make a last minute adjustment to our speaker this month and had to run back Chinese New Year again, this time focusing on the Lantern Festival, which takes place two weeks after the New Year at the first full moon. Was a good show and not much to share except for an anecdote one of our speakers shared about the holiday's traditions. Lantern Festival is what you would imagine with lanterns being a big part of it. People shoot off massive fireworks, they send the environmentally damaging lanterns into the sky by the tens of thousands, and at a familial level, they have the kids walk around with lanterns too. Many of them are LED now, but back in the day, they were lit by real fire and the lady says that if a girl was carrying one and she 'accidentally' burned herself, that was considered good news because it meant that the mother would soon have a male child. I am gonna have to go through the archive and compile all these traditions and rank them from most endearing to child endangering nuttiness.
Here is another one from the "Chinese do the darndest things" file. Saw an article entitled China Social Media Erupts Over a Top Model's Freckles in a Surprise Ad. Seems Zara has an ad campaign for some cosmetic and showed a popular Chinese model with not enough make-up to hide her "pale dusting" of freckles and Chinese twitter went nuts at Spanish Zara for "uglifying China". Understand that all societies grapple with definitions of their own beauty, and to be fair there was push back from other users, but these folks have a long way to go. Read something by an Asian girl who is marrying a white guy and how she had mixed feelings with it being a cliché and a sign of Asian fetishism by white boys (she neglected to mention that perhaps Asian girls fetishize white boys too), but can you blame the Asian girls that look elsewhere when a significant portion of their own dudes have this icky outlook on what is truly beautiful?
Is this next thing related? Not sure how we got on the topic but the family is eating dinner together and talking about parents, mothers in particular and mother's careers even more specifically, and B-doll volunteers that most of her friends moms used to be flight attendants that met their (usually older) husbands while on the job. Eyebrows were raised. Have related this to some locals and long timers and they add a head nod to the raised eyebrow.
On a personal note, baseball season is in full swing here. Pretty sure I mentioned that the school needed to hire me legally to do the coaching I was volunteering for, which makes sense since they need to be covered legally to ensure there are no criminals or pedophiles around the kids. The great thing is that I am getting paid for it. Not a lot and not a salary, but I got my first "stipend' a few weeks ago and was not only delighted by the amount, but that I can now say that I am a professional baseball coach. I have my fair share of nicknames, but walking around campus and having people call me Coach is by far the most satisfying and puts a smile on my face every time.
Being around young adults is so educational and think that it helps with ones mental health. You can get insights into culture that are completely lost on older folks and interacting with the kiddies keeps ones mind working and heart young. Gonna be a sad day once Babydoll goes on her way in a couple years and I lose that direct conduit. For example, Babydoll is into dance, which is a great way to stay fit and keep busy in after school activities. Have seen a lot of her performances the last couple years and still get lost most of the time, but I am trying. She also watches a bunch of dance videos and tries to get me to watch some of them. Most of them make me confused and disoriented but one has stuck with me. While I typically can't interpret their meaning, there was no mistaking the gist of this clip from a French talent show. I got some mean chills.
Gonna spend a couple minutes on words. As usual, we're watching Let's Make Deal at dinner and B-doll says of the dress that the model that opens the curtains/doors looks "snatched" tonight. Do a double take and ask her to say that again cause that word has another connotation for me. It is not snatch, which apparently isn't used to describe a vagina much anymore, but snatched, which according to Urban Dictionary is a term primarily used by the gay community to describe good looks or fierceness. Hard to use some of the lingo these days but am definitely gonna try with this one.
Detour from the detour...we watch LMAD on the CBS website and get the same commercials every episode, and the first one is always for Rexulti. Rexulti is a drug that people who already take anti-depressants but are still depressed take to not still feel depressed. Got that? The ad was updated in the new year as the woman featured changed. The lady in the 2018 variety looked depressed before taking Rexulti, but looked disturbingly scary after she got on the stuff.
In the above research, saw there was one from 2017. There are three people featured in that one and while their before/after Rexulti faces seem far more normal, it was more diverse in that men and people of color were apparently depressed two years ago. Now it is only white women. I assume it has to be the Trump effect.
Have been on the offensive against the use of the word 'actually' for some time now to the point that whenever I am around a good acquaintance and that word is used, they turn their heads to me to see if I'm gonna attack. That's OK cause not only do I usually make a comment, but think that maybe am making some progress on eradicating its incorrect use. Another word I have declared war against recently is the word "pride". Here is how Merriam-Webster defines.
1
: the quality or state of being proud: such as
a
: inordinate self-esteem : conceit
b
: a reasonable or justifiable self-respect
c
: delight or elation arising from some act, possession, or relationship
parental pride
2
: proud or disdainful behavior or treatment : disdain
3a
: ostentatious display
b
: highest pitch : prime
4
: a source of pride : the best in a group or class
5
: a company of lions
6
: a showy or impressive group
Here is an article where the headline felt like it was screaming at me. "Chicago's most-ordered cocktail bucks the national trend and I couldn't be prouder." Seems that mojitos and margaritas are the popular cocktail in most of the US, but in Chicago, they like themselves an Old Fashioned. While I would always get an Old Fashioned over a mojito or margarita due to a couple past incidents of alcohol poisoning that left me close to an emergency room visit, the fact that your hometown chooses a certain cocktail gives you pride is all kinds of batshit inhalation. The author's sole reasoning for this pride is that being different is admirable (hipster asshole). Plus, if you were really a whiskey drinker, you'd have it neat or with a splash and not add sugar like its a breakfast cereal. Unless you are having it for breakfast and then you should be proud/signed up for AA.. If published authors are getting this so wrong, sorta understand that the rank and file are being led astray, but now that you know, knock it off and tell a friend. "Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those that take advice." Proverbs 13:10 I don't usually quote the Bible, but that book is lousy with anti-Pride sentiment. Is that why Christians hate the gays so much?
One more word that needs to be cleaned up, and soon, is when talking to people that are about to travel is wishing them a "safe trip". OK, that's two words, but still, this could be the worst thing to say to someone about to get in a car or plane. What if I don't have a safe trip? Not a lot of good outcomes if my mode of transport isn't safe, or if someone decides to open a door at 35,000 feet, or if my bus gets a blowout doing 65 on a narrow highway, or... When someone tells me to have a safe trip, I automatically start thinking about all that could go wrong and that sucks. Alternatives? Enjoy, Bon Voyage, Send me a postcard, Smooth sailing..
Speaking of smooth...have been on a new diet lately. Maybe diet is the wrong word as this eating plan entails eating dates . I love dates but don't come across them regularly, and the other day saw this article about what happens to your body when you eat 3 dates a day. It is likely this was written by the Date Advisory Board, but they are natural and I like them. The benefits touted increased cardiovascular flow as it breaks down cholesterol, a reduced risk of colon cancer, they provide quick and long lasting energy boosts and even improved brain performance. But as an unashamed aficionado of all things bowel movement related, the benefits there were appealing. I have fortunately avoided them, but dates are said to help with hemorrhoids and being fiber rich, help with digestion. For those that eat 7 dates a day for 21 days, an increase in bowel movement frequency and quantity. Count me in. Picked up the giant Costco sized bag of dates (at the Costco of course) and have been on the 7 a day regime for just about 21 days now. The results? While the long term stuff can't be known, I have been a bit sharper mentally and the frequency and viscosity of my movements has increased. Didn't think I needed help in that area as I'm as regular a fella as there is, but am up to 1.5 sittings a day. Have always touted my ability to 'park in front' as a superpower, but finally feel confident that I can add Superpooper to my list of skills.
I wish I had known this before our New Zealand trip, but researchers at the University of Aukland have identified the microbes in certain people's feces that can be used in faecal transplants to help others with certain digestive conditions. That's right, and am not making this up, they take the poop of some people and put it in bowels of others to cure them. I have no doubt that I am one of these Superpoopers and if you or any of your loved ones are in need, am here to put my feces inside you. I should get a cape, or at least a super diaper.
