Wishing you all a world of possibilities and adventure in 2009!
Monthly Archive for December, 2008
photo by araswami
I am a notoriously bad pancake maker and have long resigned myself to restaurant pancakes. Not any more.
These are the best pancakes ever, and I wanted to share the recipe (from Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2007). I used unsweetened coconut flakes in mine.
Overall, Cooking Light puts together an amazing cookbook of their previous year’s magazine recipes. Some of my favorite recipes hail from their publications.
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp flaked sweetened coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 (13.5 oz can) light coconut milk
1 tbsp butter
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine coconut milk, butter, and egg, stir well. Add coconut milk mix to flour mix, stirring until smooth.
2. Pour about 1/4 c batter per pancake onto a hot nonstick griddle or nonstick skillet. Cook 3 minutes or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Carefully turn pancakes over, cook 2 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned.
Yield 4 svgs, 3 pancakes each
300 calories/29% from fat; 9.7g fat, 7.6g protein, 46.6 g carb, 1.4g fiber, 60mg chol, 521 mg sodium, 14mg calcium
photo by ajawin
A friend is one to whom one can pour out all the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keeping what is worth keeping, and, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.
-Arab proverb
It seems the larger the company, the more likely the holiday baking contest.
Next year, making basic cupcakes, but wow with the presentation.
Bakerella provides detailed instructions on how to create a snowglobe cupcake scene featuring the ever popular seasonal polar bear and coke bottle combo.
It’s absolutely ingenious, creative, and festive!
Throughout the United States “Good Samaritan” laws are in place to provide legal protection for everyday citizens that choose to help someone that has fallen ill or is injured in an accident, whether roadside or at the office or any other place you could imagine someone needing immediate care. Under these laws you can’t be sued or arrested for “assisting,” as long as you’re acting within reason.
For almost a decade now, I’ve been CPR certified. During my last CPR certification renewal, I also completed a First Aid course that is good for 3 years. As someone who teaches in a gym, I’d like to be ready, just in case. I’m happy to report that it’s training I’ve never had to use.
But a California Supreme Court decision makes me reconsider my Girl Scout-esque preparedness.
A woman pulled her co-worker from a vehicle after a car accident on Halloween 2004. As a result of her injuries, the co-worker was left paraplegic. The woman is being sued for damages for her contribution to the injuries inflicted.
The woman and her lawyer fought the lawsuit arguing her Good Samaritan status.
The Supreme Court has sided for the injured party in a decision that could discourage people from helping those in crisis situations. Essentially, only the medical actions taken are protected under California law. So while you’re OK if you perform CPR or the Heimlich maneuver* or apply a tourniquet to gushing wound (knowing help is hours away), if you pull a person out of the middle of the road to administer that care, you can get sued for any damages caused by that act.
From a dissenting judge:
“One who dives into swirling waters to retrieve a drowning swimmer can be sued for incidental injury he or she causes while bringing the victim to shore, but is immune for harm he or she produces while thereafter trying to revive the victim,” [Judge Marvin R.] Baxter wrote. “Here, the result is that defendant Torti has no immunity for her bravery in pulling her injured friend from a crashed vehicle, even if she reasonably believed it might be about to explode.”
Instructors in the courses I’ve taken have always reminded students to follow several rules
- You never move the body when a neck injury is suspected; always suspect a neck injury.
- If the options are a) possibility of a dead body or b) move the injured body to prevent it from being a dead body, you’re better off alive than dead
Because of this legal finding, it appears I’m actually unable to help anyone unless they’ve fallen or landed out of danger and in a bodily position that doesn’t require much shifting before applying my first aid training. Moving a body won’t necessarily be protected as medical care, so I’d be risking civil liability.
Hopefully, the California State Legislature will redefine Good Samaritanism to include all non-medical action required to save a life. Otherwise, it seems that the only crisis safe to handle is applying adhesive bandages to paper cuts.
* The American Red Cross no longer refers to choking victim rescue as the Heimlich maneuver, but as “abdominal thrusts.” I’m told the Heimlich family wanted royalties for use of the name. Seriously.
photo by akeg
photo by mike9alive
The average professional work day runs 8am-5pm or 9am-6pm + any overtime. But given our global economy, which allows people in multiple time zones to contribute to the same project, are those arbitrarily selected work hours really necessary anymore?
I know plenty of people who can be at work wide awake pre-8am. I am not one of them. While I can easily work til 2am when need be, my body rebels against early mornings even when I get a full night of sleep. And for my early AM peeps, they struggle with late nights and would much rather get up even earlier when needed.
So it comes as a bit of a relief to see my high school struggle to focus in an 8am French class explained by new research. Researchers are encouraging high schools to start an hour later, allowing night owl teens to get the extra hour of sleep they need to function and focus at school the following day. In trials of a later school start, students not only got more sleep, but number of car incidents caused by teens dropped, as the rate rose in surrounding districts not participating in the trials.
But what of adults who are naturally inclined to wake up a bit later and to do their best work later in the day? Projects are due when projects are due, regardless of when you’re working on them. Isn’t there some wiggle room for the work days of individuals who aren’t high functioners at 8am?
Given the obsessive use of email communication and taking advantage of Indian outsourcing to see project work continue after Western hemisphere businesses shut down for the night, if a manager trusts you enough to hire you, shouldn’t he trust you to get the job done regardless of your work hours? Wouldn’t that flexibility improve job satisfaction and potentially productivity?
I hope I get to answer those questions some day. Until then, it’s dual alarm clocks for me.
Fake sugar is not any better than real sugar. . . Here’s why you should be checking ingredient lists.
photo by drp
Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find it out.
Frank A. Clark
Vienna theater actor possible target for murder:
An actor slit his throat on stage when the prop knife for his suicide scene turned out to be a real one.
Daniel Hoevels, 30, slumped over with blood pouring from his neck while the audience broke into applause at the “special effect”. Police are investigating whether the knife was a mistake or a murder plot. They are questioning the rest of the cast, and backstage hands with access to props; they will also carry out DNA tests.
Instantly reminded me of the ending of The Leading Man, a little seen indie from 1996 starring Jon Bon Jovi, Anna Galiena, Lambert Wilson and Thandie Newton. Anyone else see that movie?
photo by mdu2boy
I hesitate to write this post at the peak of greeting card season, but it’ll be less relevant come January 1st.
I’m as tech obsessed as the next member of Gen Y, but I’m disappointed in the sharp decline of holiday appropriate stationery greetings.
I sent out about 45 Holiday cards this year. If I get 5 back from non-family members, I’ll be surprised. What I do expect is a massive influx of text messages on Christmas day sending out well wishes to all with a cell phone number, and likely a barrage of festive greetings as FaceBook status messages.
It’s just not the same.
There’s something inherently thoughtful about written holiday greetings. Someone has to take the time to pick out cards that fit his or her own personality before writing out cards and labeling envelopes. It’s personal.
A text message is a perfunctory last minute missive. I hate to get all Martha Stewart on the world, but a text message is not a greeting card.
If the $25-$30 a holiday mailing costs is too much, you’ve got a few options.
A) Plan ahead. The day after Christmas the price of all holiday cards are slashed in half, by mid-January they’re 75% off to get them off the shelves. You can be ready for Christmas 2009 for under $10.
B) Try an e-greeting card. There are lots of free options out there ( I tend to use Hallmark for greetings to people that don’t have a mailing address for.) Though not as personal as an actual paper greeting, it does offer the option of picking a card that reflects your interests. The more ambitious can personalize the card for each recipient, the less so can send a generic greeting out to everyone they know.
Given we spend so much time sending impersonal emails and text messages, leaving voicemails and generally minimizing personal interaction to streamline our work, the holidays are a perfect time to reconnect.
Send a few cards this month. . . and for birthdays; thoughtfulness at birthdays would be nice too.
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