What Teachers Make

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Asheyna

So with the beginning of September I had fully intended to start posting regularly again… Tuesdays and Thursdays. Done ok so far considering the month is only half over but I missed Tuesday. And the reason I missed posting on Tuesday is actually the subject of this post. See, I’m not going to do the “oh I’m sorry I was real busy” thing, I want to talk about something really important this time of year.

Teachers.

I’m sort of a teacher. I work in a homeschool teaching some really amazing kids and working with their mom who is just fantastic and has become one of my dearest friends. This Fall will be my 3rd year working with them and it’s been such an honor and privilege to see them grow up. Tuesday night I had a meeting with the rest of the team. We discussed strategies and goals for how to work with the kids over the coming year. One of the things that struck me is that the plans included as many social and behavioural points as they did academic.

My other job is as a tutor for a local company. I contract to them and work with all sorts of students. This job was the reason I was late for the aforementioned meeting. Earlier I got a call from one of my student’s dad and he asked if I could please come out because his daughter who had just started attending regular school was freaking out a little bit. Turns out her teacher is rather tough, not very willing to give extra help (despite saying in a letter to parents that he was available).

At the meeting the teacher that I work with got a phone call about one of his students. The family was in a bit of a situation and he stepped a few times to take calls from them. After the meeting (about 9:30PM) he left and went to support them.

All this got me thinking about teachers. In particular what an impact teachers have on students. A bad teacher can really destroy a student’s will to work. I’ve heard horror stories about teachers telling students they’re stupid, not smart enough for the class, etc. Not urban legends; crying students (and sometimes parents) explaining their frustrations to me. On the flip side a great teacher can leave a lasting impression that inspires a student well into adulthood.

This leads me to the video that I borrowed the title of this post from:

(fair warning there is a tiny bit of swearing in this video)

 

I’d like to call out a few teachers who I think embody the kind of teacher talked about in the video:

Annie Cristina, Adri, Josh, Pat, April and my dad (Dwayne)

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Back to Basics

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Asheyna

Anyone who has been following this blog knows that for the last several months I’ve been on a quest to get back to a healthier, less chemical-filled, lifestyle. Ever since getting my own place this has meant a focus on making more food as opposed to buying processed ickiness.

It started with breadmaker bread. Since I moved here I bought one loaf and that was made at a bakery lol. But I could never get the whole wheat bread recipe quite right. It was missing a little something-something. So the search continued. Finally I came across a recipe from Joe Pastry which required a lot more work than the bread machine one but promised to rid the bread of that yeasty/cereal taste. After prepping the starter and soaker the night before I set aside a morning to bake the bread. Was it worth it?

Hehe you tell me! The bread turned out great, and even if my arms were a little sore from the kneading (doing that by hand is not easy!) I think it was worth it. The toughest part about this recipe is that it requires the starter/soaker which means planning ahead.

Which brings me to a great point. Planning ahead is a huge part of going back to the basics when it comes to food. I try, I don’t always succeed but I try, to sit down once a week and plan out 7 day’s worth of food. Mostly that just means having a general idea of breakfast (toast, waffles, cereal, eggs, coffee) and then ideas for lunch and dinner each day. What I try to do is work in as many co-ingredients as possible. IE: using left over taco fixings to make a spaghetti sauce, that sort of thing. The whole concept of premade, packaged, processed food revolves around a culture that doesn’t make the time to put effort into making food.

In a great case of failing to practice what I preach I never got around to making a fresh loaf of bread this week and needed something quick(ish) and easy to make for minime’s lunch tomorrow. I’d already been toying with the idea of making her quesdillas but that meant I needed wraps. So, buy wraps? Or make wraps?

Heading over to my favorite recipe site, Allrecipes.com (seriously great site!) I looked up a recipe for flour tortillas and found this one.

Now, I didn’t want to make 24, which is what the recipe quantity is, but they have this nifty ability to change the quantity and it readjusts the recipe! (Note: sometimes a recipe can’t divide a certain way so some… fidgeting… might be required.) Decided to go for 4, figured it gave me enough grace to make it work. The other thing I changed was that I used salt-free margarine instead of lard.

Given that I was only making 4 the stated cook time of 45 min was grossly out of wack. I figure start to finish it took me about 20 min tops (I really should have paid attention). The recipe was easy, although because of lack of a proper rolling pin (yeah I know… basics right?) I couldn’t get them as flat as I wanted and wound up only making 3, which was fine.

How did they turn out?

Not bad for a first attempt I’d say! Definitely going to be repeating this recipe, and probably playing with it to make different flavor wraps.

All in all the quest to get back to basics is going really well! Nothing drastic but little changes here and there for a healthier, more involved, lifestyle.

Posted in Personal, Recipes | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Not So Awesome Anymore

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Asheyna

Before anyone decides to jump at me for this one, I’m a sometimes offender of the crime I’m preparing to complain about. But now that we’ve got that out of the way let me just say…

I hate the word “awesome.”

Not because I have issue with the word itself, the word “awesome” is by weirdo circular definition awesome, however thanks to modern culture it’s just not awesome any more.

Let’s take a look at the word and what it actually means. Awesome means to “be in awe” of something, commonly used to refer to deities. A concept which truly is awe inspiring. It’s akin to a spiritual experience.

The Grand Canyon is awesome. The Colosseum is awesome. Fast food is not awesome.

The problem is the word has been dumbed down. Reduced to it’s lowest common denominator. Now instead of picking words that actually mean precisely what we want to say to express how great something is, they’re all just awesome. Words like: magnificent, grandiose, wondrous, etc are being removed from our vocabulary and replaced singularly with the word awesome.

It’s a crying shame. Yes, I really just said that. Words can be rich and beautiful. Using precisely the word you mean can convey layers upon layers of intent. While I’m not against a language evolving (although even if I was there really isn’t anything that I can do) I am against a language with a plethora of colorful words being shrunk down to a single descriptive adjective.

As mentioned I’m as guilty as the next person. However I shall endeavour from this point forward to only use the word “awesome” in situations of truly awe-inspiring magnificence.

For reference:

Awesome

Awesome

Not Awesome

 

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The Silver Lining of Stress

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Asheyna

Sometimes, just sometimes… life really sucks. I’m not talking like little sucky stuff… I’m talking about those moments where you’re sitting there and you just feel like everything pressing down on you.

Those moments.

We all have them, and they’re tough. They hurt and they can be caused by SO many things it’s impossible to protect yourself against all of them all the time.

Getting a little personal here… my stress usually revolves around money. Money is evil. The last couple years have been really tight financially and I wouldn’t have made it without the support of the people around me.

Which brings me to the less depressing part of this post… the silver lining.

Stress has one, trust me does. It’s actually a really fantastic one too.

Friends

“I get by with a little help from my friends, mmmmm gonna try with a little help from my friends…”

Ok spontaneous singing moment over. Back on task. When we go through really stressful times in our life, and everything seems to suck our friends come around us and help. Sometimes the help is in an actual way, in my case donations of house stuff or a loan til the silly cheque shows up etc.

Sometimes the help is someone sitting there listening to me complain. Not telling me to stop, just letting me vent. Odds are I know things aren’t quite as bad as I make them sound, or maybe they are. Either way I need to say the words out loud to get them out of my brain. Then I can start to problem solve.

Sometimes it’s a random message from someone telling me they appreciate me. Or that they miss my writing, or blogging, or whatever… those things mean a LOT! It’s nice knowing someone noticed you weren’t around. And a little thing like that has the ability to lift stress, if only for a moment.

The last time I was going through some rough stuff (financial of course) I stood back for a minute and realized how incredibly blessed I was. Thanks to the internet I’ve met so many people who I can’t even begin to find the words to describe their fantasticalness. People I’ve never met face to face have come to mean a lot to me.

This blog seems to have appropriate timing as a few of my friends are going through some tough things at the moment. I hope they feel encouraged to see the silver lining that is friendship.

And if you are reading this and you think you don’t have any friends… I’m always looking for more :) Leave a comment or something… I make a GREAT email penpal!

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The Sugar Rush Stops Here

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Asheyna

I really love candy. Seriously… nom nom nom. Jelly Bellies, Skittles, Candy Corn, the list goes on. Also chocolate, especially any kind of chocolate that also has peanuts. You could say I was born with a sweet tooth.

A post from a friend on Twitter today got me thinking though. Was very simple and not directed at me at all. She said, and I quote:

I need to stop eating junk food, like actually.

My response was a heartfelt “Amen, sister, Amen.” Cuz, let’s face it… it’s true. When I moved into this house I said I was going to stop eating so much processed garbage and do things more naturally. For the most part I’ve succeeded, except in the area of treats. Cuz I do love my some sugar, also chips… taco chips with salsa… NOM.

Basically I like treats. And her tweet has inspired me to give them up. No, not forever… that’s like… insane crazy talk.

Aaaaanyways… I’m giving up treats, sugar in particular for one week. Now, I’m not going super insane hard core and like checking labels for hidden sugars and stuff. There’s sugar in bread and what not. I’m talking about the stuff that’s like 99.99999999999% sugar.

Why am I blogging about this? Well, other than needing something to blog about today, I’m also kind of hoping a few of you will join me on my quest for madness healthy eating habits. Personally I will be starting on Monday, that gives me time to enjoy all sorts of sugary goodness during my Harry Potter marathon with my sis on Saturday :D

So, who’s with me?

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It’s The Simple Things

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Asheyna

You ever have one of those moods where it wasn’t any one thing pissing you off you’re just generally GRRRR? Well if you don’t you might be a freak, but anyways I’m having one of those nights. This is kind of ironic to me because before going to bed last night I decided that today’s blog post was going to be about the simple things in life that really make me smile. I opened up my browser, typed in the above title and then left it blank, planning to write the post today at some point.

This probably won’t be as long of a post as I was planning on. But I will share with you lot some of the simple things that I really do enjoy.

I’m not sure what I would do in a world without coffee and books. I know many people drink coffee to wake up, me? I drink it to relax and calm down.

Over the years I’ve grown more and more adventurous with food and have really begun to appreciate the multicultural city I live in!

No, I did not do this. It was found that way at work by my sister. But c’mon… how does that not make you smile?

I discovered the joy of a pedicure a few years ago and now I kind of have to go every few months. I mean the world probably wouldn’t end if I didn’t, but really… why risk it?

Since I stopped getting fake nails I’ve enjoyed the headache and fun of growing my own. They break a lot but I’m working on that, thank you OPI Nail Hardener! Mostly I enjoy changing the color every 3 or 4 days lol.

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Game of Thrones – Review

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Asheyna

So I finally got around to reading that “fantasy” book everyone (at least on my twitter feed) has been talking about. With the airing of an HBO series based on the book it’s gained even more attention.

Mostly I tend to avoid books that get mass rave reviews because let’s face it… public opinion is pretty, well yeah. Let’s just say that I don’t trust the populous to decide if a book is good or not. However several people whose opinion I trust couldn’t stop talking about how awesome it was so… I gave it a shot.

Hoping this review won’t have any spoilers. If you’re really picky about knowing stuff about books then you’ll likely not want to read it. That said I won’t post any plot points or anything I’d perceive as a spoiler and I am so picky!

All the way through the book I had mixed feelings. The first thing that threw me was the names. Already the book is a bit confusing because there isn’t one main character there’s a bunch. You’d think with that many characters the author would make a point to keep them straight for you. Not so much. For example, one of the characters is named Eddard, however in the book he’s called Ned. Little bit confusing… Personally I found that in several cases the author sort of implied who people were rather than being clearer. This would be ok except the mass number of people you had to chose from. I didn’t follow the first part of the book as well, mostly I was confused trying to sort them out.

It was frustrating that I cared a lot more for some of the characters than I did for the others. Was tempting on many occasions to skip the chapters about the meh-characters just so I could get to the “good stuff”. I feel like the book could have been a whole bunch shorter but a few friends have suggested that some of the minor things become important later on.

Once I got the characters sorted for the most part the book was a bit boring. There were enough snippets of interesting plot that I kept reading but it didn’t captivate me. Certainly wasn’t one of those “can’t put it down” things and I wondered often why I was still reading when nothing much was going on. Then, about 600 pages in (the book is 800 total) it started to pick up. Stuff started happening and I read it every chance I could.

When the book finally finished I was dying to know what happened next. But I couldn’t shake the feeling of being played. It felt a little bit like the author knew exactly what he was doing. Get you hooked and then leave you at the end of the book with so many questions so you have to buy book 2.

Another thing I wasn’t expecting was how sexual the book was. I’m not really sure that the majority of them added anything to the story. Although it’s rare I ever feel that a vividly described sex scene is necessary. They were easy enough to skip though and I don’t think I missed anything as a result. As a side note I’m not surprised HBO picked it up with all that in it lol.

All that said you’d think I wasn’t a fan of the book. I have to be fair I’m still not sure. Odds are I’ll read book two and the whole time I’ll read it I’ll be mad that I got played. But I have to be honest, I’m dying to know what happens.

PS. This is my first attempt at a review of any sort. I hope you like it and you found it someone informative. Have you read GoT? I’d be curious to know what you think!

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DIY Bread

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Asheyna

After some fiddling and tweaking with a recipe I found online I’ve come up with a bread recipe that makes really great bread every time. Since moving into my new house a few months ago I have not bought a single loaf of bread and both minime and I have been enjoying it! In that time I’ve also come up with a few tips that may help you.

First, you will of course need a breadmaker. I was given mine for free and after attacking it with baking soda, salt and a dollar store toothbrush it works good as new!

Bread Machine Whole Wheat Bread

  • 1 Cup Warm Water (the warm is important!)
  • 2 Tbsp Sugar
  • 2 tsp Yeast
  • 1/2 Cup Oil
  • 1 1/2 Cup White Flour
  • 1 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
  • Dash of Salt

First… Add the water, yeast and sugar. You need to let this sit for 10 min to activate the yeast.

You can use instant yeast, I’m not a fan… guess I’m just old school. Also. Some bread machine recipes will call for 1 package of bread machine yeast. This is not necessary. Just use 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast, although as you can see I’ve lowered this to 2 tsp. That extra 1/4 made the bread taste way too yeasty.


Then add everything else. You can play with the ratio of white to whole wheat flour.

The more whole wheat the heavier the bread will be. Still working on a 100% whole wheat recipe. Also, like before some will tell you that you need to buy special bread flour. You don’t. I use normal all-purpose Robin Hood flour and it works just fine!

Now at this point you can just click Start (once you check that you’re set to bake and normal) and walk away. I don’t suggest doing this, at least not until you’ve tweaked the recipe and you’re sure you have enough water. The amount of water you need varies a lot with weather, altitude, etc.

If it looks like the picture above then you’ll want to add water. NOT a lot. I think I added like maybe a Tablespoon to the bread above.

Couple more things. Bread machines need a lil while to warm up. So if when you press start nothing happens for a while, don’t worry! Sometimes it takes like 10+ min to get going. When I make bread I figure it’s gonna be about 3 hours total from start to finish.

When the bread is done you’re gonna want to pull it out of the machine right away and tip it out of the pan to let it cool. Otherwise the heat cools into water and the bottom of your bread is soggy instead of nice and crispy.

Lastly, I cut the bread in half because my maker (as you see above ) is rectangular. This gives me two loaves of bread. Often I freeze one and use the other. It doesn’t last too long in our house!


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Too Cliche? Or Not Too Cliche…

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Asheyna

True to my word I’ve been working on my outline for the story I plan to write for Camp NaNo next month. Being completely lost for plot on the story I’d been working on I decided to switch and work on another that I’ve been toying with. Until I ran into a road-block. The story is pretty cliche.

There’s nothing groundbreakingly amazing about the plot, although in my personal opinion some of the characters are cool. Although if I’m being honest, it’s all been done before. A few months ago I came across a checklist for fantasy writers including several cliches/tropes and thinking back, this novel includes a few of them… This worried me for a little while until I realized something quite liberating. Are you ready for it?

You sure?

Positive?

Here it is:

I don’t care.

True story. I don’t care if the story is cliche. Like I friend of mine said to me today:

They exist as cliches for a reason, by virtue of their beloved status in the mind of the reader

Honestly that about sums up my feelings on the matter. But for the sake of writing a proper blog post allow me to expound upon this for a moment. A story or plot becomes cliche because of overuse, and overuse typically only happens due to success.

Now before you draw and quarter me, I’m not writing to become a success. Surprised? It’s true. And it’s also another reason why I don’t care if my story is cliche or not. I don’t write with dreams of quitting my day job and having lunches with JK Rowling (totally not gonna turn it down if it happens though, just sayin’). The reasons I write are varied and best saved for another blog post I think.

I read books for amusement. Interesting word that, amusement I mean. Ever considered what that word actually means? Let’s start with the root word.

So got that? Muse means to think. Now the prefix “a” is significant as well. It turns the word it’s attached to into the opposite.

a + muse = no thought

Ooohh now that puts an interesting spin on things. Stuff we do to amuse is stuff we do to turn our brains off. And that’s how I view reading. I don’t tend to over-analyze and over-think the books I read. Rather, I enjoy them for what they are. Predictable stories can be nice.

Let’s face it. A lot of time the world and real life suck the big one. Mr Right turns out to be Mr What-The-Hell-Was-I-Thinking, the perfect job never comes along, etc etc etc. It’s kind of nice to read stories that aren’t completely realistic. Not saying that it always needs to come right in the end for me to enjoy a novel, but I’m ok with cliche and predictable.

Obviously too over the top is a bit much to handle. Especially if they actual writing is cliche. I heard once there’s only like 12 plot lines and that all stories are essentially just variations on the themes. I could go with that.

But of course, all that’s just my opinion. What do you think?

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Changing, Again

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Asheyna

So a few things have changed around here, keeping in step with my previous blog post. First is the banner designed by an amazingly creative friend of mine, Annie Cristina. Secondly my other amazing friend dark is now hosting the blog for me. So very much appreciated! (PS. Not all images got transferred over as it was a rush job on my part. If there’s a picture you’re looking for that was on here just let me know)

Life continues to change around here, the only constant of the universe really. Although I have to say things are settling into a nice equilibrium which is a new and awesome experience for me.

The change is more internal, realizing some things about my writing habits. I was procrastinating writing today by watching Youtube videos. And as irony would have it they were videos about writing, specifically the vlogs of the inspirational Jackson Pearce. One video led to another and I found myself watching the following:

Talk about a good kick in the butt when it comes to how I look at my writing. So often “Writer’s Block” is actually a code name for “I’d rather be checking twitter and playing Sims than writing”. There’s nothing wrong with either, but it’s not Writer’s Block it’s a lack of desire to work on my story.

That reluctance to write usually comes out when I’ve hit a wall with the story. I reach a point where I’ve written myself into a corner and I have absolutely NO idea how to get to the middle and eventually the end of the plot. Enter the second video:

Now, I enjoy writing by the seat of my pants but I have to be honest, I have piles of unfinished stories laying around because I never got around to “figuring it out”. There is something to be said for those moments of unplanned creativity but sitting around waiting for them isn’t being a writer. I need an outline. Maybe not everyone does, I do.

Having failed very miserably at CampNaNo this month I have, a Plan. It gets a capital letter so that you know it’s important. See how that works? Anyways, the Plan is to spend the next month getting an outline together so that in August I can use said outline to write. See, told you it was an important Plan. The second part of the Plan is to spend roughly a half hour a day during the week working on the outline.

I have the time, easily, it’s a matter of using it.

Posted in Personal, Writing | 3 Comments