19. Reflection and Energy Drinks

I’ve been having a serious reflection about this particular project. I spoke with my friends the other day and we wound up on the topics of politics. Healthcare, legalized discrimination, the way the army lets veterans slip through the cracks, our stalled Congress and House of Representatives, that kind of stuff. I usually avoid politics because I’m woefully ignorant about it. But hearing my friend rattle off unnerving fact after fact kind of shook me.

So what have I been learning about in the past two weeks of this blog? How to sew, cook, and clean? Moaning about how I don’t have time for hobbies? Underwear? Holding a mirror up to my interests has made me feel rather shallow of late. I know I should learn something every day, but shouldn’t I be learning something important every day? Something that would actually improve me as a person rather than just being a fact cluttering the closet of my brain? I can have days for learning parkour terms and music websites. But that should be balanced with learning about history and politics, the sciences and arts. And you know what? Why wait? Here’s a post about the topic I’m researching for my stats class- how energy drinks might actually be evil.

First of all, there is such a thing as caffeine intoxication. It’s in the DSM IV and everything. It can happen if you about 250 mg of caffeine. That’s about 5-6 cups of black tea, 3 cups of coffee, and for some energy drinks or shots, just one will get you there. Then the symptoms start, ranging from jitteriness and stomach aches to more serious ones like muscle twitching, rambling thoughts, and uncontrollable movements. But one of the most important criteria of the current DSM is that it impairs your abilities, like if suddenly in class you can’t concentrate on the lecture. (Yeah, I think I must have been the case for me a few days ago.)

But I’ve been recently looking at energy drink research and found there’s a troubling trend that goes deeper than being twitchy for an afternoon. One of the articles I read was called “Energy Drinks, Race, and Problem Behaviors Among College Students” by Dr. Kathleen Miller, and she found that white college students who consumed energy drinks tended to engage in more risky behavior. This includes legal and illegal drug use, driving while under the influence or letting someone else who is drunk drive them, and sexual risk taking. Here’s the take home message in her own words:

“Frequent consumers [those who had energy drinks 6 or more days a month] reported drinking and having alcohol-related problems more than twice as often as less frequent consumers or non-consumers, and were approximately three times as likely to have smoked cigarettes, abused prescription drugs, been in a serious physical fight, or done something risky on a dare in the year prior to the survey.”

                                                                                        -Miller, 493

Now this isn’t to say that drinking Monster makes you stupid. These drinks are targeted towards a demographic that might just take more risks than other college students. They’re usually sold as “X-TREME ENERGY FOR BADASSES ONLY”. One drink is straight up called “cocaine”!  So people might be lumping energy drinks along with other “extreme” actions such as doing a stupid dare or doing other drugs. As is often stated in science, correlation does not equal causation. We can’t say whether people do stupid shit because they drink monster, or if they drink monster because they do stupid shit.

This isn’t even touching the physical aspect of this issue. It has been suspected that these things could harm your heart, and definitely have way too much caffeine for pregnant women and children. Not to mention the horror stories that happen when you mix an energy drink with alcohol (which a disturbingly large number of college students do). Four Loko was banned in some states for a reason. Not only are there more heart problems, but it makes you think you’re less impaired than you really are and reduces the negative symptoms of drinking. Think of the worst case scenario. Someone doesn’t notice the signs of the body telling them “for the love of god, stop drinking!” and consume more. Then they might think that they’re ok to drive at the end of the night because they’re not tired. This doesn’t happen every time someone drinks a vodka and red bull, but even one time is too much.

We know alcohol is bad for you. We know smoking is bad for you. But it’s unnerving to know that there’s a product on our shelves that MIGHT be bad for you, but we’re not sure. If anyone is looking for a research proposal like me, why not study a drug that hundreds of thousands of young adults drink every week? I myself am curious as to how my research paper goes and what I’ll learn by the end of it.

oh, and because I'm a good scientist:

Miller, K. (2008). Energy drinks, race, and problem behaviors among college students. Journal of Adolescent Health 43, 490–497

18. Telling if Food's Gone Bad

Let me tell you something about cooking. If you live on your own and are attempting to feed yourself for the first time, you will often find that you don’t eat some of your food right away. That pack of chicken might have been sitting in the fridge for a day or so, or you forgot how long that container of hummus has been out on the counter. On the one hand you don’t want to waste ten dollars’ worth of groceries by chucking it in the bin, but you certainly don’t want food poisoning. What’s the best solution?

I do three tests on my borderline food. I check the date on the package first. If it’s waaaaay past due, then it’s out. A few days to a week past and I’ll double check with the other two tests before I pitch it. It’s because I found out that it’s not really an “expiration date”, it’s a sell by date. That means stores can’t sell it because it isn’t considered fresh anymore. It may be a little funky, but it’s probably still edible past that date. Just use a little common sense. Your corn flakes might be fine two weeks past the date, but definitely not your ground beef.

Sight and smell is next. Discolorations or mold are easy to spot, especially on an old loaf of bread. Smell is second, and that works with dairy and meat. I was at a loss for what good meat smelled like for a while until I got used to cooking it myself. For chicken, it’s pretty much scentless until it’s bad. Either that or a faint bloody/meat smell. At least that’s what I’ve found. Any meat with a tangy smell or a grey color to it is probably bad.

Finally, if all else fails, there’s the Google test. I can’t tell you how many times my mind has been made up by yahoo answers, where people post these questions all the time. Just today I found out to my dismay that Ice cream can in fact go bad. Apparently, I don’t eat it often enough to get a huge box of it and I had to throw out half a container of vanilla. It was the same with wine. I bought a huge bottle of white wine thinking I could keep it in the cupboard and use it for cooking. The other day I found out with a search that wine goes sour and gets vinegary after a few days. Still safe to drink, just tastes like ass. Now I have a jar of bad wine in my fridge that I hesitate to use, but am too proud to throw out. Maybe I can hide it in a casserole or something.

One of the most unfortunate things is that fresh, homemade food invariably has a shorter lifespan that processed foods from the store. Of course it doesn’t last as long, it hasn’t been pumped full of ten syllable long chemicals that keep it preserved. But I am learning fast that the freezer is my best friend. It’s not just for meat and vegetables, practically anything can be frozen. Some dough for baking, yogurt, even eggs.  Yes eggs, but you have to crack them first. To do it, you have to break the yolks gently, so as to not incorporate any air into them. Then people suggest adding a little salt if you plan on using them in savory dishes, or sugar if you want to bake with them. Just make sure to add to the package just how many eggs are in there. Unless you’re making an omelet, most recipes requiring eggs need to be at least a little precise. I tried it and it worked out wonderfully!

Ah, life is a mess, particularly when you’re working in the kitchen. I think learning how to cook is way more about experience and knowledge than skill. Maybe after five years of cooking for myself I’ll stop making rookie mistakes with expired food.

17. Keeping a Clean House

I am disorganized. Very disorganized.

It’s a bit discouraging really. Once I’m by myself I begin feeling like I can live as messily as I want. Currently, after two loads of dishes, my kitchen sink is still overflowing. I believe I might have used every dish in my cupboard before I started cleaning today. Half of my room is covered in sewing supplies. Underneath my bed are at least three boxes overflowing with scraps from old and current projects. I have piles of homework, old tests, and other handouts lying around the living room and stuffed into drawers. I haven’t seen my dining room table in weeks. Both of my closets are hazard zones that I fear to venture into.

How do people de-clutter? I’m so afraid of suddenly realizing I’m buried under piles of what I call “crippy crap”. It’s that junk, like old batteries, pens, pieces of toys, scraps of this and that, that you never know what to do with. Usually people keep them contained in one junk drawer. But lately I feel like I’m living in one big junk drawer.

I know what I need to do. I need to haul everything out into the daylight and start sorting. But ugh, you know what that leads to. About two weeks of an apartment even messier than it is now and then finally stuffing everything back in place out of frustration. So I went out in search of an answer that might help my cluttery woes.

I found one tip I really liked. If you have stuff you are unsure you want, let time sort it out for you. Place the unsure stuff in a box and date it. Put it out of sight for a whole year. If you’ve left it undisturbed for so long, you obviously wouldn’t miss it much. Out to goodwill or the garbage can it goes. I could definitely get behind this. Especially, since in one year I’ll be moving. I’ll certainly be on the lookout for things I don’t need to move into a new apartment.

I find a lot of suggestions for plastic bins, shoe hangers, and double closet hangers. I suppose throwing money at a problem is one way to deal with it. I do most of my storage in cardboard boxes, because hey, I’d rather be cheap than well organized. What I really need to do is not reorganize my closet, but reduce it by about half. It’s hard when you have sentimental value to a lot of your t-shirts, but I know that some of them really belong in a thrift store by now. You only need 2 or 3 for pajamas, and I have about 6. I also have an unfortunate tendency to buy cute dresses when I know I’ll probably never wear them. I’m the most comfortable in cargo pants and loose shirts. I either need to give my closet or my fashion a serious overhaul.

I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before, but I really should just give myself a chore list. Big dry erase board on the fridge, different duties every day. I guess because I never had chores growing up that this didn’t occur to me. Getting a schedule down would certainly help me out with the dishes and sweeping. But schedules have let me down before. I would have to stick with it for weeks before I would get used to it.

Bleh, so this is what happens when I try to do two blog posts in a day. I start whining about how dirty my apartment is. I’ll try to keep up on this particular schedule so you guys don’t have to go through this again. Well anyway, I did learn some nice tips on how to de-clutter and clean my home. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more inspiring.

16. Parkour

Oops, first slip up of the blog. I’m falling behind a bit in my posts due to playing Majora’s Mask during the day and hanging out with friends at night. Well I’ve been going for two weeks, and honestly that’s longer than I expected to last. I’ll try to up my count and post two pages per day until I’m caught up.

Enough of that, today I want to talk about parkour. I wanted to create a character named Anna that was agile, flexible, and fast. So I figured she would have a hobby that would teach her those skills. At first I was leaning towards her being a gymnast. But then realized the character was such a loner she probably wouldn’t last on the team for very long. So after spending a fair amount of time a month ago researching uneven bar and floor routines, I come back again to start looking into parkour techniques.

Parkour is a French term, meaning “the art of displacement”. This sounds a lot more like something studied at Hogwarts, but it’s cool none the less. To my surprise and happiness, a person who does parkour is a traceur. A majority of the terms in parkour are French, with a lot of different ‘sauts’ or jumps, and words like ‘demi-tour’ for u-turn and ‘passement’ for vault. I never learning such an active hobby could sound so fancy!

But I had to clear away a few misconceptions first. Parkour is separate from acrobatics. Acrobats do the fancy flips and spin around in the air. They like to have a flair of style when they perform. Parkour is all about getting from point A to point B, and a building or a fence happens to be in the way. Traceurs focus more on the economy of movement and getting past obstacles. I think I prefer the parkour mentality. It also helps that while researching this topic on the Nerd Fitness website, they keep mentioning that parkour is great for escaping zombies. Here’s the website, which is a very informative read: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/08/12/the-definitive-guide-to-parkour-for-beginners/.

There’s also a lot of philosophy tied into this sport. One of the primary founders is Williams Belle, and he describes this sport as a form of expression. It means becoming one with the world around you rather than just passing it by. It also means overcoming mental and emotional obstacles along with the physical one. Erm, I can take or leave the philosophy. I can understand being passionate about something, and finding peace in a hobby. But that sounds like a little much for a beginner to swallow. I do however believe that it improves confidence, critical thinking, and, of course, physical fitness. You have to have all three or else you would probably have a lot of bruises and pulled muscles by the end of the day.

But perhaps the one thing I learned from this is the dedication to the craft. You’ve probably seen dozens of videos of awesome parkour, free running, and acrobatic moves. But the fitness website from above outlines the basics needed before tackling 6 foot high walls and 5 foot jumps. First comes the exercise (I read that with a little groan.) with sets of 10 squats, 10 leg lifts, 10 push-ups, 10 pull-ups. Then comes ramping up the number and sets, moving up to 100 of even more difficult exercises, like box jumps and clapping push-ups. Looking at the traceurs do jumps and flips with ease is apparently not as effortless as it appears.

I liked learning about this sport a lot. And this particular blog post has helped me with my character Anna a lot. Understanding the dedication necessary for parkour gave her a determination and confidence I did not imagine her having. As well as a lovely quirk where she throws herself out of windows in front of others. I look forward to developing her more, and perhaps learning a bit more about basic parkour.

15. Underwear

Well what can I say. Sometimes I learn something and I don’t think it’s particularly prolific. For example, today I learned how to make a pair of underwear. This is in case I ever need to make a super hero costume and I want to make a pair of undies to go over my tights. Or if I decide to stop being lazy and make myself a swimsuit instead of being forced to buy an ugly tropical print one at JC Penny. 

But yeah… underwear. Not exactly inspiring. But you know what? If I learn something stupid, let’s go all the way with it! Panty research- full steam ahead!

First of all, here’s a link to the YouTube video making the underwear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JisxjcQRUYE&playnext=1&list=PL988C32DAE4C64D06&feature=results_main .It’s not a particularly stunning product, but it gets the job done. I think it would come out better if you doubled up the fabric so you wouldn’t have to worry about finishing the edges. I would especially do a double layer for a swim suit.

And there’s always the entomology of a word. One of the earliest words for underwear was pantaloons, which we derive the word pants from. So you used to put on a pair of pants first, then a pair of trousers. I can only assume that this is where the word panties came from. It’s strange, because pantaloons were long, ankle length men’s undergarments. Pretty much the opposite of what they are today.

An interesting thing I found is that until the westernization of Japan (around the 1950’s) women didn’t wear underwear. If a woman were wearing a kimono, they would have just worn another wrap called a koshimaki underneath it. Probably more to protect the clothes from sweat rather than hide anything away. Men wore fundoshi, or loincloths. You can still see these in use during sumo wrestling matches, festivals, and probably some old samurai flicks. I do think it’s a little funny. Some of Japan’s greatest warriors might have been wearing thongs as they went into battle. Overall it’s an interesting juxtaposition as to what was going on in other parts of the world. I would much have rather worn a flowing and easy to move in kimono rather than be subjected to three layers of underwear and corsets of Victorian England.

I also wanted to check something that had been bugging me. In the picture Brave, we see the heroine struggling with a corset. Isn’t this the best metaphor for female enslavement to a male dominated culture? Well, the writers didn’t do their research very well. Before the 1800’s, corsets basically had the exact same function as bras. Support, and if they were longer, helping with posture. They even had an empire style corset, which only went s little below the breasts. Meredith probably wouldn’t have used a corset at all, instead wearing a Kirtle, a long shift with sleeves. It wasn’t until the Victorian era that corsets became torture devices to squish women’s innards. Man, the Victorians just ruined underwear for the rest of us, didn’t they? And how could the writers of a multibillion dollar empire mess up one simple fact that took two minutes on Google to correct?

So even on a lazy day where all I do is look up videos on YouTube and surf the web for wiki articles on knickers, I feel like I can be well educated. I mean, now that I know that there’s good information about ancient clothing on the internet, I can make my writing more historically accurate. I won’t fall into the same trap as the Brave writers. Or if I write about ancient japan, I will definitely keep in mind that the culture was way more… let’s say free than I would have thought. Expanding for a page even the humblest of garments can be a wonderful learning experience.