August 16, 2008
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Research Mode
I don’t know if I’ve ever blogged about something I like to call “Research Mode,” but it is a huge part of my life.
I’ve always liked research. Test prep and studying was an activity I actually scheduled parties for. In school, while everyone else was groaning over assigned research papers, I was already making a list of off the crazy things I could find out more about. In the library, I loved the soft sound of the card catalog drawers, the buttery feel of the index. I loved walking down quiet rows of shared books, my finger grazing plastic-jacketed spines in search for a Dewy Decimal match. I’d let myself fall through the rabbit hole; one thread of ideas leading to the next, to the next, to the next.
Aside from learning new things, research papers made me happy because it was an excuse to write in classes other than English. History papers, science papers, sociology, economics, current events, theater, art–when you think that there was a time in your life that it was your job to soak up information on all these subjects and more it really makes you stop and realize that the life of a student is a pretty complex one. Loads of responsibility.
I’m getting off track…
Research mode has followed me into grown up life. When I travel, I keep a notebook at hand and jot down things that interest me; historical sites, archeticture, statuary, art, antiquity, words, phrases. Once I’m home, I do a bit of research on my listed items; its like going on the vacation all over again. Also, when I stumble upon something I don’t know much about in daily life, I research it to death. The first time Shaun and I lived in an apartment with a steam heater, it woke me up in the night with its clanking, clunking, screeching. It totally freaked me out and I spent hours in the middle of the night doing online research on the mechanics and history of the machine; I can’t even tell you how much I know about all the various breeds of cockroaches.
When my doctor’s office called yesterday to tell me I had a sluggish thyroid, I was thrown into hard core research mode. After using the internet and phone interview sources to write yesterday’s blog entry, I went to the Chicago Center for Psychophysical Healing to see if the practitioners wanted to weigh in. I also went to the library to look at medical textbooks.
The staff at the Center for Psychophysical Healing were great; I mentioned that it was not in my budget to pursue their services at this time and was invited to be a clinic patient for their students. A complete homeopathic workup will be done on me in September, under the supervision of the founding practitioners (who will actually be physically present). Also, when I explained my issue, I was told by the founder that I need to take this seriously but its good that I’m not delving into meds right away, as that very well could make things much, much worse.
She was also astounded that I’m asymptomatic but thinks that its probably because thyroid just started to misbehave and that significant weight gain would be hard for my body to do with the amount I go-go-go. I described my diet to her and she confirmed that I need to be eating meat daily (and not just fish–beef is the best way for me to get the amino acid boost) and she gave me pills with dried seaweed in them: Fucus Vesiculosus. The seaweed is good because it will give me a huge iodine boost, which will make my little thyroid happier. Little thyroid is hungry for meat and iodine! The Psychophysical Healing lady is having my blood tests faxed to her to use in the clinical work up. After six weeks on the seaweed pills, I am to get my blood re-tested to see how thyroid likes it. Practitioner thinks that all my body wants is some seaweed and meat and things should realign. I hope she is right; I’d rather eat seaweed everyday than drugs.
Anyhow, after I spent an entire day researching (really, I was in the mode from 8am–6pm), I took a long walk around the neighborhood with my camera. I was inspired by my lovely friend Beth’s new photo-blog and hanging out with my friend Nick, who never goes anywhere without his camera.
I was playing around with lighting conditions, shooting in early evening, through to dusk. Dusk + florescent lights is very pretty, but sort of difficult to get right.
Here’s some of the pics:
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These shadows are sort of what vertigo looked like to me.
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This owl crammed into a tree knot makes me laugh. It was so shady and dusk-like at this point that my favorite composition of the owl didn’t have the best apiture setting. I’ll need to take this into photoshop and make some adjustments, but I suck at that sort of thing (I am a stickler for maintining accurate colors/lighting conditions so I usually just end up getting frustrated with photoshop’s “brightness and contrast” tools). Any tips would be helpful!
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This is Mario and Sergio. They are construction workers that are often found smoking outside of a little pub by the hardware store.
Moon v. Streetlamp
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Shaun and Giles the Kittenfaced arrive Tuesday evening. For keeps. I can’t beleive we lived through this. We even managed to be productive and have a nice time of things. I’m proud of us. And happy to have my family back. Can’t wait!!!!!
Also–I’ve started in on Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, which is a slew of Young Adult vampire books. I keept seeing these books everywhere (the movie preview looks like a lot of fun, too!), but what really pushed me into making the buy was a girl on the subway. She was 16 or 17, wearing funky clothes with lots of crazy beads and barrets, and she couldn’t wait to tear one of the big, chunky Twilight books from her bag and delve in. Everything about her reminded me of who I was as a teenager. And after finishing a chapter of the Twilight books, I am surprised to emerge as an adult, with a husband and a career and bills and a thyroid problem and a place of my own. How did all this happen? I’m still so much a vampire-loving drama queen of a teenage girl.
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What are your feelings on research? How about vampires? Also: healthy beef recipies are needed! If you’ve got a favorite and time to share it, I’d love to give it a whirl. Going from eating no meat except for maybe some fish or chicken 1-2 times a week to eating meat everyday will be CRAZY!
Comments (13)
Hey there! I like your photos and now really need a plastic owl to stuff into a tree knot. awesome! Let me now how you like those Twilight books when you get further into them. I’ve gotten numerous comments from people telling me that one of my illustrations looks like it’s a scene from that book. My curiosity is peaked now. I love corned beef with cabbage and red skinned potatoes, maybe some carrots. Throw it all in a crock pot with water and whatever seasonings you feel like using. so simple, and nothing original, but so yummy. My parents made it a lot when I was a kid, so it’s like a comfort food for me and I crave it whenever I go to visit them… I may be conditioned.
Yes to research! It’s fun, and very exciting when you are able to connect information from different places into a bigger picture.Edited because this will not format correctly :For beef, I love potroast – stick that hunk of beef in a slow cooker on a base of finely chopped savory veggies (carrots, celery, onions, cabbage, turnip, you name it), herbs of your choices, and pour some wine over it all. Or a potroast with dried fruit – apricots and prunes – and some red wine.For fast, take a decent steak, cut thin slices, and stir fry. I’ve learned to make stir fry by cooking the veggies first, putting them aside, cooking the meat, adding a cornstarch based sauce and thickening it, and adding the veggies, stirring for just a minute or two to coat them with the sauce and get them hot. Here is a favorite stirfry from Jane Brody’s Good Food Book that uses ground beef:1 lb green beans (fresh or frozen); 2 tsp minced fresh ginger; 2 tsp minced garlic; 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (I use a tsp of red pepper/garlic sauce from an oriental grocery); 1/2 lb ground beef; 1 Tbsp oilsauce:1/3 cup water or stock; 2 tsp cornstarch; 1 Tbsp soy sauce or tamari; 1 Tbsp sherry or wine; 1 tsp good vinegarCombine sauce ingredients. Set aside.Heat oil, add green beans. Stir-fry for about 4 minutes over high heat, till tender-crisp & lightly charred in spots. Remove green beans & set aside.Cook beef, adding garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes or sauce. (I add them after the beef has cooked for a minute so that they don’t overcook). After beef is no longer pink, drain any excess fat.Stir sauce and add to meat. Cook until thickened. Add green beans, heat for one minute. It’s done!
I like some of the textures you caught. If you want a photo editor that is far simpler than Photoshop Picnik is great. It’s super easy. I took a screen shot of the owl and will fiddle a tiny and put it in my photo blog. I’ll be back to link when I have it done. I love to play with that stuff.The Twilight books get raves from my kids both male and female. They just started catching on last year with the anime crowd (all are avid readers and not only of the manga) and word spreads quickly. I am very glad to read your review as well.Oh research mode! Gotta love it. Online is for those quick fixes and I cannot resist looking up trivial bit of information, but archival research. mmmmmm. Much love but little time. And interviews are a blast too. I hate that we have such boring research papers to assign. Career research. And they all have to do it. No ther topics. Sheesh. The best research for them is the kind that they do willingly to find out things. If I could I would have them all write down one thing they would like to know more about and just fly with it.Scifiknitter got the pot roast! That one is killer and s excellent left over. if you don’t have a slow cooker Reynolds makes oven bags that do the trick too. Burgers are always good and topping them creatively can be yummy. But if you get a nice thick top sirloin and broil it to medium at least, you can carve it up into strips or chunks and use it in salads. It stores well in the fridge for a week or so and with the right seasoning it is excellent with the dark greens. (Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Salt is a good rub and they have other mixed seasonings that are also nice with meat. I think the rubs work better with steaks than marinades to avoid shoe leather texture and save time.)And if that gets old and there are still leftover pieces, they are nice additions to some soups. Oh and you can use it the first time for fajitas. One good cut can go along way.I look forward to seeing what you come up with. You have created some things that are yummage. I bet you’ll improve something wonderful.
First off, I looove the pictures. I really like the one of the two guys, not because it was particularly better shot then any of the others, but because I love when strangers agree/volunteer to be in pictures. It makes for an interesting moment. Secondly, oh my gosh!!! I freaking looooooooove the twilight series! I have all four books and I devoured them each in like a day. I’m a vampires/werewolves/wizards fanatic. I think it’s because I enjoy stories of things that supposedly go bump in the night. I did feel very teenybopper-y when buying the books. Haha. especially when the fourth and final one came out a couple of weeks ago. Third, recipe wise….hmm…I know a pretty simple one. It’s basically meat in sauce and it tastes pretty good with rice and tortillas. the sauce is easy to make.you take 1 large tomato, half an onion, some cilantro, a jalapeño (I like to only put in half and I take out the seeds and rinse out the inside so that it’s not so spicy) into a small pot. fill it about a quarter of the way with water. let that cook until the tomato is tender. then let it cool and blend it together. it’s pretty good. also you can make it with tomatillos which are the smaller green tomatoes and it gives the sauce a tangier taste compare to the red tomatoes. My fave is the green sauce! The meat (I like lomo, I think that’s skirt steak? I don’t know it’s really lean and good) grill it. Then in the same pan you’re grilling it in, pour the sauce in. Let it simmer and done. delish! With a side of rice and some corn tortillas it’s good. ooh and some fresh lime juice!!!! So good!
HERE is the photo edited. I just increased the exposure to 23 and did not touch anything else so the colors should be true.
truly,i love the pictures from around your ‘hood! they adequately show off all the character of what’s around. i am sad to see that mrs. hayward didn’t make it into the collection, though. ha hai can’t say it enough — SO GLAD YOU’RE BACK IN TOWN!!!
You were in my ‘hood! Devon and Clark is really close to me. I love Devon Avenue for all its ethnic flavor. I want to go there and get a henna tattoo.We still on for tea, girl? My next Friday is clear.Also, I have an underactive thyroid and it was making me LOSE weight, so you aren’t the only one. My doctor gave me Armour thyroid pills (she said to stay away from Syntharoid). She also said to eat adequate protein. She said probably I was losing weight because my body’s way of dealing with stress is to shut down and not eat–which is the opposite of most people. Just so you know you are not the only one. I’m fine now.Lynn
Oh, yeah, I didn’t think I’d like vampires, but I read a few vampire books and I love them.
Thanks for the mention, Truly! My favorite picture is the last one. Dusk is a difficult but irresistible time to photograph. My advice onphotoshop: skip brightness and contrast and use a “levels” layerinstead (and be sure its a layer instead of a straight level adjustmentso you can keep making changes without effing it up, then flatten theimage when you’re all done). Do some of that research you love so muchon histograms and levels become a cinch. Once you master that, you cantry your hand at a curves layer- not so much a cinch. You may want to talk to Heather about the thyroid. She has had problems as well and went the homeopathic route for awhile. I’m going to recommend Stuffed Peppers as a beefy food. Tomato sauce,rice and ground beef mixture scooped into cooked green peppers. Jaydoesn’t eat ground beef so I’ve never actually made this myself, butI’m sure you could find a recipe easily enough. It’s something my mommade, so you could start by looking in a Betty Crocker cookbook. And,like others have mentioned, nothing beats a good stew or chili,especially as the fall approaches. (Perhaps some hamburger chili atthe Taqueria el Chorrito!)Enjoy! BethPS. I would have commented on your blog before now, but I had it in myhead you had to be a Xangan to leave comments. Sorry! No moretrolling for me.
Alas, even after six years of grad school, I’ve never gotten into the full swing of research. There are some exciting highs here and there, like when you serendipitously stumble upon a source that turns out to be super useful. But for the most part, it’s kind of tedious and headache inducing for me. Unless, of course, I try to pass off watching bad tv as “research.” You know, since I’m positioning myself as a cultural theorist and all…
Great compositions. I especially like the Devon Avenue sidewalk shot. My favorite way to adjust pictures in Photoshop is to use the “Variations” tool. It really helps you see what you’re doing and where you’re going.As for meat, I’m kind of a marinated steak guy myself. The leftovers are great for steak sandwiches as well.
I love your pictures! Our ‘hood is totally beautiful. Is the church St. Ignatius on Glenwood?
Very nice post. Thanks for sharing…research paper topics ideas