It's the end of October, but not the end of gardening yet!

It is nearly Halloween, and the best gardening news I have right now is that, yes, there is an appropriate vegetable to be growing this time of year here. It is a round zucchini varietal, and I am chuffed to see a few that are well on their way!

I have 4 plants in one of those self watering planters from gardener's supply. The roots aren't so big on squash and these plants really love their water. They look like they are doing awesome in this setup. They were planted in the last few days of September. I will definitely add this variety into my seasonal rotation. They are absolutely thriving in my backyard.

I would like to add, I normally have the worst time with powdery mildew on any type of squash, and the problems have been minimal with this "(Cucurbita pepo) (aka Eight Ball, Round Nice)" variety. 

Invite the nanny state to spy on you?

I tried to email someone (admittedly over a month ago--- extremely late post, Sorry!) and this "Spam Arrest" program that they actually paid for popped up. It asked me to agree to their terms of service and give identifying information before being able to send a simple email to the person in question. Naturally I needed more information prior to agreeing to such terms. This is what I found.

Sounds link a pretty open ended, catch all, save your ass for whatever information you send to other entities clause to me.

So......some people are actually paying for a service that has and uses the ability to scan, filter, and read each and every email that attempts to enter their inbox? Do people not even care about their 4th amendment rights anymore? I do. No thank you. A BIG no fucking thank you to your email pre-paid pre-screening. I honestly could not in good conscience write a letter with such forewarned surveillance to the person in question. I found another way to contact this person. Spam arrest? You should be ashamed of yourself. That's before you get burned at the stake for your crimes against patriots, fellow humans and good citizens.

HAVE to recommend this cookbook!

I recently received this cookbook in the mail. It is truly awesome for a few reasons if you ever plan to live out of your garden.

1) The recipes uses only one or 2 of anything:
   
I don't know about you, but since my yard is pretty tiny, I don't have 3 pounds of any one thing lying around. If a recipe calls for 2 carrots, 2 beets, and 2 rutabagas, that is more in line with what is ready to be picked at my place at any one time.

2) The recipes are more method than masterpiece:

Improvising. Improvising is exactly what you need to do when trying to eat what you grow. You might have an awesome recipe you just love, but unless you can adapt it to what you actually have on hand in a tasty way, it does you no good. The book talks about substitutions, and offers similar recipes using different veggies you might have on hand.

3) There are a lot of vegetarian recipes that are NOT COVERED IN CHEESE. 

This might not mean a lot to you, but it does to me. I LOVE the fact that there is a maple-balsamic vinegar root vegetable recipe, a coconut-jalapeno butternut squash recipe, and 100 more recipes that are flavorful and reasonable enough in calories and nutrition to use on a daily basis. The number of vegetarian recipes that are put out there that are 1000+ calories per serving are as offensive as they are uncreative and unoriginal. Anyone can take a piece of zucchini, slather it in cheese and spices, and make it taste good. To take vegetables and flavor them in a way that is different and interesting without taking the easy way out and covering them with fat, salt, and cheese shows a great amount of creative effort. I would like to give a big finger wag of shame to those of you (and you know who you are) who throw a cheese covered veggie casserole or lasagna into you cookbook or on to your website and think that is good enough to widen your audience.

The number of unhealthy pizza-tarians out there is offensive and insulting, not to mention confusing to the omnivore population when they are trying to make a suitable menu item for the "other people" tagging along in a group at a restaurant. And no, I am not claiming to be a vegetarian again. My previous dietary post is still accurate. However, subbing mass quantities of cheese in lieu of meat is unacceptable and unhealthy. If you don't want to eat animals that is fine. If you think food is unpalatable unless it is covered with butter and cheese, you shouldn't call yourself a vegetarian, because you don't actually like vegetables. You like cheese and butter. Pick a new title. 

Enough with that rant.

4) There are TONS of recipes. This isn't one of those cookbooks with a dozen or so recipes with stories, pictures, and anecdotes filling the rest of the pages. There are so many recipes, it is almost guaranteed that there will be more than a few you will want to immediately try.

I recommend this book to ANYONE AND EVERYONE who gardens, forages, eats seasonally or would just like to start paying less taxes into the machine by becoming more self sufficient or buying less processed foods. 
  

Why everyone should mask their Identity on Blogger (If not everywhere else as well))

In the name of truly free speech and a free and interesting internet that hopefully never comes to bite me at my place of employment or elsewhere, I try to remain about as anonymous as necessary for the application at hand. 

To that end, for those of you who have not become quite as paranoid as I have yet, I would like to point out a few reasons to use a proxy/ VPN and use an alias if your blog contains or may contain anything more than mindless drivel and everyday ho-hum.

1) Go0--gle User data Requests: Notice that the percentage of data requests fully or partially complied with is 93% in the United States, which is the highest percentage on the list as of this post. That tells me that any privacy you do not create for yourself is most certainly not afforded to you nor even considered if you live in the US.

2) Go0---glee Search logs: So you say to yourself: Well, what information could they really hand out anyway. Well, you may want to know that unlike many search engines that save previous searches via cookies on  your computer, where you can delete them at will, the good old people at the Goog store the time, date, IP address and search data on their computers where they can recall the information with precise detail for up to 9 months, and in less detail after that (Until they change their TOS). 

How creepy is that? And that's when they aren't cruising down the street taking pictures of your house and neighborhood.

The information is tied to your email or blogger account, so any searching you do while logged in is both tied to you and compiled in the database. Don't worry, if there was a request for data about your internet life, there is only a 93% chance Goog will hand over the information. With stats like that, one can almost be certain the requests are not all tied to warrants like they should be.

3)  If you aren't anonymous, surprise, YOU AREN'T ANONYMOUS! You would be shocked at how many people use similar monikers for their everyday lives as they do for their "secretly complaining about their husband account" or whatever. Just about anyone with enough time on their hands can put the pieces together and read all you dirty little secrets. I know I read them! 

Protect yourself, your friends, and you public image. What passes for free speech today may have you placed in a giant electronic file folder tomorrow.

I'm disappointed in you Mojang

Admittedly, I did not know there was going to be an upcoming Minecon. I don't live near close enough to go anyway. Mojang, WHY, I ask, would the most open and free spirited game on the planet, with possibly the most reasonable and unoffensive or privacy invasive TOS I have ever read, have it's Con at DISNEYLAND. Disney is a copyright hoarding, lawsuit-mongering, child-brainwashing machine of a company, that rolls down the road of entertainment, attempting to absorb anything of trend and value and pervert it into its own brand of escape-proof and over marketed, over trademarked entertainment.

I started playing Minecraft perhaps about 6 months ago, after getting the impression that EVERYONE on the bitcoin forums was playing, and not understanding the true genius and potential of the game. Everyone else seemed addicted, but the screenshots seemed so cheesy. There had to be more to the game than was visible from the surface.

Now that I have given it a fair chance, I really feel that it is one of the best games ever in terms of letting you express your inner creativity, inventiveness, and personality, all while scaring the poop out of you with creepy noises that exceed the graphics by about 100 fold. There is plenty of hoarding for the hoarders, and no backlog of missions on your to do list preventing you from having fun in life.

I would like to add a mini-boo to Threadless.com They are running a contest, with the top 3 artists winning a trip to Minecon. Aside from the Disney factor, I have vowed never to travel via airplane again anyway because of the TSA. 

That aside: Threadless, why does the winner win ONE ticket and airfare to Minecon? Don't most contests let you win A PAIR of tickets? Are you assuming people who play Minecraft have no girlfriend, boyfriend, or anyone that would be pissed if you won and went to Paris by yourself? I understand intercontinental airfare is expensive, but alternatively you could have offered fewer winners that could have brought their significant other instead of facing their wrath.

Boo. You just lost 2 points.

I suppose you can have one back for this though.

 

While still on the topic of Minecraft, I just gotta get me one of these necklaces.

Word of the Day: "Panniculus"

While strolling randomly through the internet and Wikipedia today I came across this word of the day: Panniculus

Panniculus: a dense layer of fatty tissue growth, consisting of subcutaneus fat in the lower abdominal area hanging downward.

It is antipose tissue and is basically referring to that wrinkled saggy skin with no hard belly fat-fat that droops creepily from the stomachs of either people that have lost a lot of weight in a short period of time (gastric bypass), or people that just seemed to grow a panniculus one day when other forms of expansion have already been explored. I have really needed a word for that phenomenon.

Be sure to place it in your "unknown parts of the body" dictionary somewhere prior to weenis.

Sadly, I don't have a stock photo of a panniculus but we have all seen them. I'll scoot around the internet and put one up later if I can find a good one because we all know posts with pictures are just better.

MOST DISTURBING THINGS I HAVE FOUND ON ETSY.COM YET

COMPLETELY off topic, but......

Ok. I'd like to think I am pretty art tolerant of just about anything, and I certainly don't go out actively searching for stuff like this, but seriously, WTF?

The face and doll is creepy and disfigured but alright except for the weird penises bumping into the overly cartoony face on th kid's stomach. The "hand painted portrait inset" as he calls it, doesn't even appear to match styles or talent with the rest of the sculpture. Does it have anything to do with why the guy's left leg is broken, bandaged, and bleeding? I like the belly button detail below the flying penises. It adds that "realistic" touch.


It gets worse. Let's look at another gem this guy is peddling:

Rub a dub-dub. Why is there so much blood in the tub? According to the artist, this has been displayed in his bathroom for years. That's worse than meeting a guy and embarrassingly having to ask him why there is no trash can liner in the bathroom trash can for...um...

What would you even say if you saw this next to the soap dispenser?

Watch out for this guy next time you are in NYC. He plays a regular guy eating baked beans when he isn't recreating repressed memories and dreaming about future crime scenes.

Diet Update (Since it seemed to be a popular post)

The Enerhealth shakes are really working. I don't actually have a scale, but my waistline is definitely  improving. Bigtime. So much so that I think that I might have only needed one month to achieve my costume goals instead of the two I allotted. I have been adding a little more water, so it has been 1/2 cup milk and 1-1/2 cups water to 2 tablespoons of meal replacement. With the added liquid, it keeps me full 5-7 hours, and is only about 150 calories. I highly recommend it. It could probably be worked into a regular CRON diet as well I would imagine. I have been using it for 1-2 meals a day, and eating a regular sized(for me) dinner.

Shame Time Warner, Shaaaame

I received an unsolicited phone call today from my local cable internet provider, Time Warner Cable. The conversation went somewhat like this:

Hello?

Hi, This is Time Warner cable. We noticed there are a few slow connections in your neighborhood. Probably a lot of streaming. Streaming and downloading. We would like to offer you a new modem that could improve your connection today.
----I'm thinking at this point he is trying to get me to pay the extra $5 for "faster internet" again----
It has a battery backup, which can keep you on the internet even in the case of a power outage. It also has a special 911 emergency jack in the back.

911 only? 911 calls are always monitored. Is this some sort of back-door wiretapping device into the modem?

Umm, well, that certainly isn't it's primary purpose.

WHAT? (That sounds like a yeah, you busted us to me!)

The guy glazes over my concerns and continues making his pitch.

I don't want your wiretapping super modem thank you.

Well, uh, thank you for your time. Goodbye.


Now, the big question is, did everyone on my block get a call like that as the conversation implied? Or am I being singled out for a new free wiretapping modem because I frequently encrypt my internet traffic and hide my location? Am I just being paranoid? I decided to do some research.

ARRIS Touchstone™ Telephony Modem TM502G

Application
The Touchstone TM502G delivers two lines of primary line Voice over IP (VoIP) along with
High-Speed Data Access. The Touchstone Telephony Modem TM502G uses a single
battery slot with two battery pack options to support telephony service during extended
power outages.


Optimized Performance

The Touchstone TM502G continues the ARRIS strategy of a single firmware platform for
all Touchstone Telephony Modem models. This ensures consistent quality and
performance of all Touchstone Telephony Modems. Do not put your trust in reference
designs that cannot deliver the performance and requirements for your telephony service.
When it comes to high-speed data service, subscribers will accept occasional lock-ups or
momentary loss of connectivity that may require them to reboot their cable modem. This
behavior is not acceptable for telephony. Telephony customers demand 99.999%
availability

All ARRIS Touchstone Telephony Modems support a wide variety of class features
including three-way calling, call waiting, caller ID, Emergency 911 and regulatory
requirements for wiretap under CALEA legislation.

Looks like I was right on the money. On another note, some people on Amazon have actually been PAYING $180 or so for the newest version of this lovely device.

It is no secret that the government has been angry over VOIP, it's anonymity (when used properly), it's rising popularity, and it's difficulty to wiretap (illegally or otherwise). 

I recommend just sitting back and waiting for the commercials telling you how only your cable company can give you the best VOIP and how you can get one of these sparkly new modems absolutely free when you sign up.  

Time Warner, you're on my list.  

Finally posting some gardening pics

I've been meaning to get some pictures of my garden up to hopefully inspire people to start one if they haven't, as well as welcome some helpful hints my way. I have a crap-tacularly small city yard, and have been trying to do the best I can with the space. To that end, there is a 3ftx3ft self watering planter from Gardener's Supply that is just amazing. (I don't receive any kickbacks for saying that.) The plants seem to grow almost twice as fast and you can fit more plants in a smaller space with self-watering containers because they don't compete with each other as much for resources.


Here's what I have in it right now:


In the center third, I have 3 vertical towers with 8 "oh so sweet" watermelon plants. I may sling the melons for support soon, but for now the vines seem to be holding up fine.

In the front third of the planter, I have some beets and carrots. The beets are just about done. I have a few chickens running around willy-nilly in my backyard and although the planter has chicken wire and a row of buckets surrounding it, they still stretch their neck out and sample the beet leaves a little. I've decided I can live with the amount of damage since the setup still keeps them from causing any catastrophic damage.

The back third of the planter has 2 grape tomato plants. To keep them from overcrowding the planter, they are woven through the chicken wire into the asparagus bed. Only the roots are in the self watering planter. It seems to be supporting them pretty well too.

Here is the asparagus bed with the tomatoes poking in to. It is about 3ftx4ft. I would like a bigger one, but that's all the room I have unfortunately.

In the corner of the self watering planter between the tomatoes and the fill tube there was just enough room to squeeze in a couple of basil plants. I put them there because I read it would ward off tomato hornworms. I haven't had a problem with them this year, but cabbage moths seem to like the basil plants:( Just need to keep the cabbage moths away now. Still working on my no-pesticide approach it seems.... 

 
So that's it for now. I feel that is a lot of garden for the space, and I highly recommend these planters. I have more going on in other containers and on the side and front of the house. I will post more later. Anyone reading this tell me what you think!

It has begun

I went to see The Watch today, and as I was exiting the theater after the show, my UDP/ boyfriend tapped me and said, "I'd hate to be in that line." I look over and at the front of the line for Batman is a guy in a suit, wanding people as they enter the theater!

Not only is this ludicrous because the odds of another shooting at a batman movie are about a billion to one, but the line getting wanded was already inside the theater and past the ticket-taker. So in other words, only the people in line for the Batman movie would get searched, even as everyone else seeing any other movie waded past and around them.

If I would have been able to snap a photo I would have to post it here, but my phone was still off (from being in the movie) and we were already arousing suspicion by staring and questioning the necessity of the man in the suit aloud.

The really sad part is, no one in the line looked offended. Some appeared mildly irritated that they had to stand in a line, but no one seemed angry. Some were even standing calmly and unmoved as if it was perfectly normal to be wanded before entering a movie theater. 

I might be getting ahead of myself, but the day I have to stand in line to be wanded, frisked, or body-scanned just to see a movie is the last time I will be seeing one in a theater. Is this a temporary overstep in attempt to quickly calm the masses to ensure Batman makes it's millions, or a window into what will come as we transition into an East German totalitarian dictatorship with checkpoints at the theater, grocery store, and every major road "for our protection"?

Diet starting today

I have a costumed event coming up in about 2 months, and to lose those last few pounds, (because I just have to show up the 20 year olds) I am going on a no alcohol and no sweets really low calorie diet. I really want to look better this year. I decided to try these meal replacement shakes so I could lose even more weight then when I count calories and stop drinking normally. The ingredients seem legit and in line with my diet, unlike most other diet drinks that are simply chocolate flavored clever combinations of the top 3 GMOs, cottonseed oil and aspartame.


Amino Acid Omega Balanced Natural Meal Replacement Ingredients:
Coconut Milk Powder, Chia Seeds, Sprouted Mung Beans, Sprouted Chickpeas, Organic Spirulina, Organic Chlorella, Sprouted Black Beans, Organic Vegetarian Nutritional Yeast, Sprouted Green Peas, Organic Purple Dulse, Organic Kelp, Organic Spinach, Organic Amaranth, Organic Alfalfa Leaf, Organic Barley Grass, Organic Wheat Grass, Organic Rose Hips, Sprouted Millet, Organic Beet Root, Organic Orange Peel, Organic Winter Cherry Root, Organic White Asparagus Root, Organic Dandelion Leaf, Organic Lemon Peel, Wildcrafted Papaya Leaf, Organic Horsetail, Organic Barley Grass Juice Powder, Organic Wheat Grass Juice Powder, Organic Cardamon, Organic Cinnamon

I tried the first glass just with water and stirred it with a spoon, and I ended up with a large, really gross tasting clump at the bottom when I was done. The drink itself was not great, but completely tolerable.The second glass I had I stirred 2 tablespoons with one cup of milk and one cup of water and threw it in the blender. It was MUCH better. There was a bit of a foamy island of unmixed drink at the top, but it wasn't so bad.


The best part was, it actually made me feel full for about 3-4 hours,at only 155 calories(with milk added)! It must be the coconut milk, or the fact it has poop-loads of nutrients in it. I'm going to bring a jar to work so I can continue there as well. We'll see how it goes.




 

You know things are getting bad when....

......................You need a coupon to buy Top Ramen.

A diet by any other name

You're a vegetarian, aren't you???    ...My diet has been an avoided topic lately, and it really shouldn't be. I've been responding to questions like that with "It's complicated", mostly because the average person doesn't actually want any answer to a question that takes more that 1-2 sentences. I've been a vegetarian twice, for over a year each time, and would be one today if I was single. Cold turkey does not work, and the last time I went full veg I had weaned myself off of meat product so slowly in fact that my boyfriend did not even notice until an awkward shopping trip to Costco where not wanting any of the suggested products resulted in him calling me out forthright "Did you go Vegetarian!?!?!" ...So, that lasted a year, until what I like to call, The Great Compromise.  I agreed to eat grass fed and pasture raised meat if he agreed to only eat the same. Honestly, I made out like a bandit. Due to cost constraints, we each eat meat maybe twice a week. He came down MUCH more that I went up into the meat direction. He learned a lot of new and interesting recipes to boot. 


...But the point of this post is, what do I call my diet?

-I would rather not eat meat at all, but you can not preach that farm animals should be treated with respect and not buy the products that meet your standards. There is no motivation for change without a market, and I seem to notice the food market changing every day in my favor:) That is the reason for buying and eating grass fed beef and pole caught tuna.
-I do not buy processed food that contains foods likely to be a GMO. That means nothing with soy, corn, or canola, except for salad dressing, unfortunately, until at least one brand stops putting it in there.
-I do not eat gelatin. Sorry, that's just gross, above and beyond the fact I wouldn't eat a factory farmed meat by-product.
-I try to garden to the best of my ability and to the extent my tiny backyard will accommodate. This is really the only way to ensure your food really meets your standards. I'm not a saint, but I only want poisons that I intentionally ingest in my body.
-I will eat organic when I can.

I know I shouldn't need a label, but people seem to need a label on you or they feel uncomfortable for some reason. I was thinking Eco-tarian? Is that taken? I feel very similar to when I discovered I was an anarcho-capitalist. I really thought I did not have an identity, as I was outside of the 2 established boundaries. I thought I just wasn't political. then I realized not only were there other options out there, but they had labels too. I really just want coworkers to stop staring at me trying to figure me out. Why is food/ diet so important to people that they ostracize you when you don't fit in? Who cares if I don't want any of the smoked whatever everyone chipped in for? What are they scared of?

Do Ladybugs eat Milkweed bugs? Yes they do!

In addition to a minor aphid problem on my anise, I had hoped and guessed that ladybugs would help me with a milkweed bug problem that was forming again this year. Last year they completely DEVASTATED my milkweed, and that milkweed was for the monarchs, not the milkweed bugs:( There were some extremely sad and undersized caterpillars eating what few leaves remained after the infestation. I bought 2 tubs of ladybugs today and sprinkled a few on the milkweed as a test, and ha! I caught 2 humping while the one in front was eating a milkweed bug, with another eating one right beside the happy couple. Check it out!

Note: I apologize for the less than perfect photo. My camera was not really intended for macro shots, and the ladybug instructions said to release them after ideal lighting conditions when it is cooler.

Hoarding: Not just for Hoarders anymore.

I've always been a hoarder......

• First baby toy-got it. 
• The sweatshirt I was wearing when I told my mom she wasn't allowed to wash my clothes anymore-got it. 
• The stuffed dinosaur I received as a gift the year I discovered there was no Easter Bunny-yup, got that one too.

I even admit that sometimes, when stuff comes boxed in an exceptionally nice box with a cool design, or the folded paper part of the packaging that is stapled to the item containing bag below just looks too cool to throw away, I've stored it away to look at later. I've even kept shirts with holes in them if I can remember something I did while wearing them or......well, you get the picture.


Now that I'm a "prepper", as people are terming us these days, hoarding is OK! and I've put my finely tuned skill to good use. I've directed all of my hoarding potential towards materials, food, supplies and tools for useful skills when it all breaks down. It's as if I've been training my whole life for this: Learning to tetris those cases of beans ever so neatly in the closet, leaving maximum potential for more. Pretending I don't have an internet shopping addiction. How can my boyfriend be mad when our very survival may depend on my ability to hoard??

Offensive Product Warning!

If you watch late night infomercials, you have probably seen this product. It's Tria!  The home laser hair removal system. For $395 you can zap yourself hairless, just as God intended you to be. 

I admit, I have often dreamed of hairlessness, and decided to bite on this one. I waited patiently at the mailbox, and when it arrived.......

WTF?? "Activation"? I called the number, and well, long story short, the "purpose" of said activation is to make sure the user is medium to light skinned, since the product is only approved for those people. My big question was, "How exactly do you activate it? Is there a mini cell phone in there? How in particular is the company able to zap this product active, and what other creepy properties or abilities does this product have by default? Can it track my location? Record and transmit me talking? I don't know!!! The lady on the phone was neither amused, nor helpful, and simply said "Ma'am, this is a medical device. We have to verify some information about you before activation." Repeating the questions did not help. By the way, the bottom of the device has a window you are supposed to press on your skin to verify you are medium to light skinned before it turns on (which was easily fooled in testing by a nearby bedsheet). I'm not sure who they think they are fooling. Anyone can claim to have the correct colored skin over the internet and by phone, so the creepy satellite induced activation must serve some dastardly alternate purpose. I likely will not take the laser out of my house traveling with me, and as soon as I am hair free it is to be shipped elsewhere. 

Creepy!!! Anyone else agree?