FINALLY, I am finished with my six weeks 100 pushups challenge!  Yes, it did take me roughly six months.  Since I started out unable to even do one, I did the program with “girly” pushups, where you put your weight on your knees.  When I wrote about it in March, I was on week 3.  I’ve had a couple of set backs since then, most notably banging the heck out of my knee so that I could not put weight on it at all for two weeks.  I did a couple of weeks twice.  But I’m finished!  I did all 100 today!  On pushup 11 or so, my left shoulder twinged a bit, and I thought some bad thoughts that today wouldn’t be the day; I could stop at 50.  I pushed through, though.  I rock my face off!

Also today, Apollo‘s comment calling himself an idiot was my 100th on this blog.  I’m pretty sure he’s not an idiot, but still, that’s just too cool.  Thanks for all the conversation, everyone!  Y’all are great!  And I’m definitely all sorts of awesome myself!  Let’s go take on the world!  RAWR!!

Sunday I chillaxed with some girls, watching Disney movies.  We’ve all been running on empty, so one of my friends invited us over to just watch our favorite cartoons and veg.  We were also supposed to discuss A Clockwork Orange, but strangely that didn’t exactly fit in with the rest of the day.  I’ll try to make up for that by writing about it later on this week.

For my contribution I brought cookies.  They’re from a super simple recipe from an old cookbook.  I was (am) low on groceries, and didn’t really have enough white sugar or milk or all sorts of ingredients for most of my recipes, so I went off searching and found something that was brown sugar based and wouldn’t require a whole lot of improvising.   The cookies were a hit, and the book is out of circulation now.  It’s a shame to let something so simple and yet so yummy go to waste.  Plus, I was asked for the recipe.  Here you go!

From A Collection Of The Very Finest Recipes Ever Assembled Into One Cookbook, 1979:

Brown Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup shortening
• 2 cups light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1. Cream shortening and sugar; add eggs, water and vanilla.
2. Sift dry ingredients and mix well.
3. Shape into cookies.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes at 350°.

Note: A vanilla or caramel icing is good; or sprinkle brown sugar or coconut on top before baking.

Maybe you can already tell that they’re basically a cookie-biscuit hybrid.  Yum!  I didn’t have enough shortening or butter to complete the recipe, so I subbed butter for half the shortening.  (I’ll get groceries soon, I promise!)  The photo I’d planned is unavailable due to their nomminess, so I’ll describe them.  I could have gone the cookie cutter route because the batter would have been perfect for that, but instead I made tablespoon sized balls that I flattened with a spoon and topped them with green sugar crystals.  Visually, they were rather boring, being a dark beige color.  They really would have benefited from nice contrasting icing or more colorful sprinkles.

What’s your favorite Disney movie?  I’m not really sure what mine is, but I picked Sleeping Beauty.  I particularly love the stylized look of that one, plus Maleficent is one of the best UBGs* ever! I’m glad that I picked that one, too, because we gravitated towards newer ones for the rest of the day.   After skipping the television for a week, five movies was quite a pendulum swing.  A full 24 hours later, my brain is still stuck singing Disney lyrics, especially Beauty and The Beast.   Sometimes you just need a day to zone out and eat junk.

*Ultimate Bad Guy (aka Big Bad or Boss Monster)

Today I read a Paste Magazine interview with Felicia Day.  She is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses. She’s unconventional — beautiful, smart, witty and has gorgeous eyes and red hair!  Yay!  She’s a gamer nerd chick, with smooth pale luminescent skin glowing from lack of pigment and too much computer time.  She’s got freckles!  She was born in Huntsville.  She was home schooled and then went on to college and double majored in mathematics and violin performance.  After she graduated, she moved to California… to become an actress.  What’s not to love?

Felicia has been here and there, most recognizably playing Vi on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But I became really familiar with her through her online work, particularly Penny in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Dr. Horrible is Joss Whedon’s hilarious and wonderful online musical, created during the writer’s strike last year.  Did you ever see the Buffy musical episode?  Dr. Horrible is definitely a close relative.  It chronicles a young hopeful’s rise to stardom in the world of super villains.  It’s only 43 minutes all told. I was a  big evangelist when the episodes originally debuted.  I’ve memorized it by now, because I have watched it at least a dozen times.

As I began researching the actress who played the lovely Penny, I discovered that Felicia Day actually was brought to Dr. Horrible largely because of her experience with her own online project, The Guild. The first season of The Guild was very easy to find Youtube.  I immediately watched them all, enjoying the instant gratification. Before you click “play,” I should warn you there is some strong language.

There, the first one’s free. Actually all of them are. Just travel over to the Guild’s website.  There are only two seasons so far, so catching up won’t be hard.  It’s very different than Dr. Horrible, which created for mass appeal.  Obviously, it’s very much a niche oriented video, with jokes geared toward online gamers.  World of Warcraft players will especially enjoy it.

Felicia had tried to sell The Guild as a more traditional show, but it was too much of a niche market.  Too many people didn’t understand the jokes.  So she turned to where the audience that would appreciate her work hangs out all day every day, and began making Youtube shorts.  By the end of the first season, the donations that were pouring in actually made it possible to pay the actors.  For the second season, after much wooing from many angles, the perfect solution to return to her pet project and actually make money while retaining her creative autonomy.  From the Paste interview:

Then, Xbox and Microsoft came in and were like, “We love the show, we want you to do what you do with it, we just want to help you produce it and make it and roll it out really fast.” They created a revolutionary business model, because not only did they get a sponsor on board, but they distributed it over all the Microsoft platforms so you can download it for free off of Xbox live and HD which is basically like downloading a TV show. So our little independent, shot-in-my-shed show is essentially one click away from 30 Rock.

How cool is that?  She had the idea for a nifty show about gaming, got rejected everywhere, and decided to go ahead and do it.  And now she’s enjoying incredible success by turning a small independent venture into something that is reaching the whole world because niche marketing actually works so well on the internet.  Joss Whedon was right to seek her simply for her skills as an internet guru for Dr. Horrible.  The fact that she can actually sing and act was simply a bonus.

Apparently, I’ve come of age in the blog world!  I’ve won a Major Award™.  Okay, maybe not, but Apollo passed along The Lemonade Award to me this week.  (Sarah also won! She wants pictures of your Chuck Taylors, by the way.)

Assuming we’re all playing the Whisper Game right, The Lemonade Award is “an award given to sites which the giver shows either great attitude and/or gratitude.”  That’s kind of weird wording, but okay, I’ll take it!  Apollo has been reading and commenting on my blog regularly, and he’s certainly shown me much more appreciation than I’ve expected so far.  As a part of my award, I get to share with you all six unimportant things that make me happy.  Oh, this is very difficult! If it makes me happy, how do I say it’s not important?  Alas, I’ll try to see what trivialities I can dredge up.

1) Braids!  I most especially love them in my own hair.  The first picture is a five strand Dutch Crown Half Updo, and to get them, I had to hang my head upside down for about half an hour at ye olde Renaissance Faire.  The second picture is of my own handiwork, a pair of messy Dutch braids.

2) Footwear. I tried to narrow this down, but to be honest, I really just love most things that go on feet.  I like funky toe rings, and have a crazy collection of socks.  Shoes especially can get me in trouble.  In my younger years, I worked in a shoe department, which was not really best for my financial health.  Once my shoe wardrobe reached 74 pairs, I had to admit that I had a problem.  I miss having all those shoes!

3) Fireworks!  I love to go watch them, or launch them myself.   From the smallest sparkler to grand July 4th celebrations on the water, they all thrill me.  The smell smoke, the pops and bangs and sizzles, and the gorgeously blinding light show.

4) RuneScape.  I think I might have mentioned it.  Here’s LadyGlutter, decked out in her fancy church-going outfit.

5) Blackberries that have ripened in the sun instead of a warehouse are just barely this side of heaven.

6) Lightning bugs!  My brother would flush them down the toilet.  I always played catch and release, and still do to this day.

Now, I’m supposed to share the love.  But the majority of the people who actually read this blog don’t have blogs of their own.  How about this?  If you want a Lemonade Award from me, all you have to do is comment.  You’ll definitely get my gratitude.  You can post your list in the comments section, or on your FaceBook page, or wherever you like.  Just send me a link.

Today we celebrate the beautiful planet we call home! All over the world, Earth Day celebrations are planned, concerts being held, and donations being made.  Disney is releasing Earth,the first movie in its nature series today.  I can’t wait to go see that one!  The trailers for that are gorgeous, and it looks so interesting !   Since you’ve probably already seen that, though, I’ll share this look at the Earth from the international Space Station, courtesy of NASA.

Around our house, I’m going to do some talking with the kids about why our family makes some of the choices we do.  Walking to school is normal for us. We always use tap water instead of bottled water.  The thermostat is completely off, and we’re trying to acclimate ourselves to a broader range of temperatures in the house.  Alabama has moody springtimes, so this has been a bit of a struggle lately. I’ve been compromising by only running the fan when it gets stuffy, unless we have company.

There is so much room for improvement, though.  Today will also be a good time to make a few changes.  My family hasn’t been recycling lately, and that bugs my conscience to no end.   I finally found out the hours for the local facility, and we’re going to remedy that situation immediately.  We’ve already spent some extra time outdoors enjoying the gorgeous spring weather, but I’m planning a bit more.  We’ll go walking later on, armed with trash bags and focusing on cleaning up the paths as we go along.  It will be a fun, simple way to share some constructive time with the kids.

Are you doing anything in celebration?

When April’s National Geographic came in the mail, I ripped into it eagerly.  I flipped through the pages, looking at the breath-taking photography, and saw an article on the worldwide frog crisis.  Immediately, I started talking to the Spousal Unit about the article, and how I hoped to learn more.  I was expecting him to already have the basic knowledge that I had.  After all, he works for a research university, in a department that specifically deals with animal research. He also sends me cool science articles, plenty of them about ecology, on a regular basis. Plus, there’s a huge wall of information about this very topic at our local zoo. Still, if he didn’t know about it, I realized that what I considered to be common knowledge probably is not. I’ve done a lot of reading on this issue, so I’ll do my best to give a layman’s summary.

Since the 1980s, the worldwide amphibian population has been disappearing.  This isn’t an isolated issue in certain regions of the world, or only previously known threatened or endangered species. This is a mass extinction, where the biodiversity of the world is being destroyed. Yes, local issues play a part, but around a third of all amphibian populations are threatened. In particular, the frog population is diminishing at an astonishing rate. The problem has many roots, and isn’t completely understood by scientists.  A few known factors are habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, and disease.

Since amphibians are affected by changes in both land and water habitats, they are doubly at risk when their world is polluted.  Amphibians take in needed oxygen through their skin. Deforestation deprives many of these animals of a home. Humans hold most of the blame for habitat destruction and pollution that is devastating their lands, of course. Several diseases are rampaging the populations as well. The introduction of non-native species, such as trout, also contributes to the decline.

The chytridiomycosis, or chytrid, fungus is particularly virulent. (Actually, can I really use the word “virulent” to describe a fungus? Oh well, I just did. Onward.) One theory is that the disease originated from African clawed frogs. These frogs were initially exported for pregnancy tests and make up the majority of frogs used in research at many universities today. Human scrambling of ecosystems strikes again. Chytrid has spread to every continent amphibians are found. It does not kill carrier infant populations, but adults are dying everywhere.

Amphibians play a vital role in the food chain, controlling rid of insect populations and providing food for other animals. That web is a delicate balance, and tampering with it can have unforeseen effects on humans down the road. Frogs, especially, are used widely in medicines. They are filled with substances that are of use to humans. Amphibians are used in all sorts of research, teaching us about the world. They are considered bioindicators. That very fragility that makes them susceptible to changes in the environment is also used as an indicator of general health. If all the frogs are dead, well, we’ve pretty much fouled things right up, haven’t we?

Humans may be to blame for many of the causes, but we’re also working on solving the issue. For the common person, the most responsible step is to reduce your “ecological footprint.” We should all be mindful of the way we’re walking through the world in general anyway. Research into other issues, and integrated solutions are escalating. Now that chytrid has been identified as a major culprit, there are some promising advances in treating by capture and rerelease into the home environment. Since tadpoles can be carriers, this is very hopeful. The Amphibian Ark project focuses on protecting a captive population of 500 species to be released whenever the crisis seems to have stabilized. Scientists are working on regenerating homes for these froggies. The video I linked to yesterday is an example of the types of work that will be necessary to make ecosystems for ready amphibians to reinhabit.

Since both Earth Day and Arbor Day are this week, it’s a perfect excuse to speak on some important “green” topics.

In the following video, Willie Smits talks about his quest to help the orangutan after finding one dying in the market in Borneo.  Early on in the talk, he tells how there are almost 1000 babies at his centers, and then scolds the crowd for their applause.  He reminds us how awful it is that there’s even a need for these centers.  He discusses the devastated habitats of the orangs and the process of reforesting the area.  Instead of having a singleminded approach, the cultures and economics of the people of the region had to be integrated into the whole plan.  By focusing on the people, instead of disregarding them, real change was possible. The efforts have regenerated a rainforest, renewed an economy, changed the temperature and entire climate of the region.

In the comments on the video, Willie Smits answers questions about how this was all possible:

An other issue that was brought up was how was this project financed and how much did it cost. It was financed from donations and adoption of square meters through the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation. Total costs over the last 7 years for the almost 5000 acres have amounted to some 2.5 Million Euro. This included buying the land. This land was actually still expensive due to its proximity to an economically important oil city. So the model is quite feasible, but does take well educated people to execute.

How’s that for a reminder that we’ve all got a part to play?   The video is 20 minutes, so save a time when you can really relax and watch it.  It’s amazing to watch the satellite imagery of the area he’s discussing, and how it changes from a stripped yellow nothing to thick verdant forest so quickly.  It’s a great message of hope, and I was so excited to hear something so positive to start out the week!

I am still planning to limit my screen time this upcoming week, even though I’m really enjoying the TED videos. I listed the wrong dates.  TV Turnoff Week starts tomorrow and runs through the 26th.

A while back, I was thinking of putting up a summary of what’s happened so far in the Friday night D&D game.  Then every Saturday or so, I’d put up a post-game summary.  It works for some other blogs I’ve read. I know a few of you quiet ones out there are wondering what’s going on with this, so I thought I’d update you real quick.

Last Friday, Newby joined the group.  He made himself a character, and Chris threw him into the thick of the action.  When he encountered us, we had to sum up the story so far.  This part of game night took roughly 5 hours!  There were 4 players plus the DM giving information, and I know that poor Newby’s head had to be overflowing by the end of it.  We closed up with me promising to compile the information in a readable narrative.  My overwhelming thought was, No wonder I’ve been procrastinating on this. This is going to be one heck of a long write.

After some discussion with the players and Chris, we’ve all come to the conclusion that the DM needs to take a heavy part in writing this novella. Here’s how it’s probably going to work.  Chris has a website parked for the purpose of his game world, anyway.  We’re not sure what format it’s going to take, but the game summary to date is going to go on his page.  We’re going to update it, probably in blog format, together.  Comments will be open for all, especially the players to discuss and replay their favorite battle scenes. We may have sections on Kuralia’s boards to talk about it, and we might even have other guest bloggers.

I’m much more comfortable with this decision.  It was going to take a good week of writing to get everyone up to date.  The flow was also off to have an ongoing narrative every Saturday, broken up by my climbing on soapboxes or squeeing about books or whatever it is I’m doing here.  Although I love talking gaming, and several people were very enthusiastic about having a written record of our mayhem out there, it just felt wrong for me to be doing all the writing and then putting it on this blog.

There will be an announcement and updates to let you all know when it’s starting to get up and running.  Currently there’s no real timeline, so don’t hold your breath.

Every year, there are two weeks of voluntary TV Turnoff Weeks. April 19 launches the first one for this year.  Is anyone else participating? Families with young children are the real target, so I’m sure most adults that are outside of the Mommy and teacher circuits haven’t even heard of it.  Grownups could benefit from it, too.  We all can be over-connected and use this in as a chance to clear out the noise and reconnect with life outside of a screen.

Laziness is the greatest of the virtues that television can teach us. A little vegging is good and relaxing, but in general, Americans are way overdoing the couch potato act. Physically, we’re becoming more inactive, and watching the TV is about as sedentary as it gets.  Nope, getting up to get a soda or some chips doesn’t count as activity, sorry.  Imaginations are actually stifled when someone else does all the thinking for us.  Children learn very little socially from watching characters on a television interact.  Even the best quality programming is no substitute for actually living life.

Another pervasive reason to watch out for the television is how cutthroat the competition is for your child’s influence over your pocketbook.  Children are extremely impressionable.  I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been begged to order a Buxton Bag, so I can remember — “butter, milk, eggs.”  Like I don’t already have my own homegrown mockingbirds to repeat the same phrases over and over to me.  “No, Mama, you NEED a Buxton Bag, it will make you so much better!”  Sigh.  Many kids shows are nothing but half hour long commercials for overpriced plastic toys that sit in the toy box, wasting away while the kid watches the commercial.

Personally, I am bored with a lot of current television programming.  Most of my television series or movies come to me through my Netflix queue.  While I adore NetFlix, that queue is even limited to one DVD at a time. I don’t have premium channels on my cable, and we only have one television in the house.  I am still guilty, just the same.  My own screen time is spent on the computer, and usually Mommy’s computer time lines up just right with the boys’ television time.  No, I won’t give that up entirely over the week, because blogging isn’t established firmly enough as a habit for me to completely cut off the computer.  I still will be pulling back a lot that week, and setting strict limits.  Being a good example is important, of course, but really, I’ll have little choice.  The kids will be bored and asking me to entertain them.  There won’t be room in my brain for reading articles, constant social media, playing online games, emailing friends, and whiney voices.  Something will have to give.

We’ve done this week break before, and after the initial withdrawals, it’s actually very good for the family.  Hopefully we’ll all read some books, do some family fun stuff, and get some much needed exercise and sunshine.  After about seven days, we’ll be all nice and detoxed and a lot less dependent on screen time to entertain us.    I’ll be excited to catch up on my shows, especially Survivor, but then I’ll be disappointed at Heroes again.  When we get back to plugging in, hopefully we’ll be a bit more conscientious and moderate in the way we fritter our time for just a little while.

This started out as reply to some really good, discussion provoking comments to my earlier article about taxes.  Once my response grew past 3 paragraphs, it was time to move out of the comment box.

Like many issues in politics, the Catch-22 involved in reforming the tax code is apparent to everyone.  A huge overhaul of the system as-is would require so much effort and money to enact that it seems insurmountable.  On the other hand, things can’t go on like this much longer.  Tax revenue is becoming more precious than ever, and it is being lost in the morass of complexity of the current tax code.  My belief is that the Catch-22 doesn’t exist, really, beyond a marketing ploy to reinforce the status quo.  The lobbying industry is very good at spinning information the way it needs to go, and they would be largely extinct without the current tax code.  Our legislators have a vested interest in keeping things as muddy as possible too.  Transparency is one of those key terms that is talked up a lot, but really, lawmakers have absolutely no interest in pursuing it.

An astronomical amount of money funds the IRS and millions of dollars go to simply deciphering and complying with the existing code.  That energy could be converted to transferring the system to either of these programs or even another grand idea that hasn’t been thought of yet.  Of course, then, eventually, we’d be seeing government bailouts for ex IRS employees.  Both the Fair Tax and the Flat Tax plans are far better than what we’ve got out there, largely because they are simpler.  The plans would also do a lot of loophole closing and general tax evasion.  Each plan would do that in very different ways, but either would get rid of a lot of corruption as well.   This would lead to more tax revenue by itself.

As I stated yesterday, the Flat Tax plan generally is proposed as a 17% flat rate for everyone, business and individuals alike, with nothing but a personal exemption.  Dick Armey has been pushing for a flat tax plan since the early 90s, and Steve Forbes developed his own plan recently thereafter.  Both plans are very similar and use that same 17% rate.  The way the plan is laid out, it would be mildly progressive because of the personal exemption.  Those below the poverty line would not be taxed.   Globally, other nations have been adopting a flat rate, as do some of our states.  It’s a far simpler, easier system than what we have, but the current hatred of the rich makes it a hard sell.

From my personal experience, the Fair Tax seems to be an even harder sell, and that may be its downfall.  There are no deductions or exemptions for the Fair Tax.  Yes, there would be some ability to exert control over how much taxes you pay in a year, because everything sold at retail level is subject to it.  (Everyone would get a monthly “prebate” to offset the cost of basic expenses at the poverty level.) So, yes, if a family didn’t want to give a single penny to the government, they could find ways to buy second hand or be self-sustaining.  The flip side of that is that sales tax is much easier to enforce than income tax.  Never buying retail is a very rigid stance to take, and far more people currently evade income taxes than would bother to go to that extreme.   It also completely does away with the income tax altogether, and is simply a sales tax, just like is already collected almost everywhere. Since those mechanisms are in place, it shouldn’t take much after the upfront changeover to add in another tax at the register.  The back end of collection would mean a different way of collecting federal taxes, but there is existing infrastructure that could be converted to easily tracking the numbers.  If the 16th Amendment is repealed, then there will be plenty of IRS officers looking for a new job.

The reason that the Fair Tax wins out over the Flat Tax for me, is that the Fair Tax is not an income tax.  Income taxes are problematic for a number of reasons.  Some people have equated them to slavery.  While I wouldn’t go quite that far, stating that the return on my labor is owned in part by the government does chafe a bit.  Philosophically, I’d much rather the tax be collected on purchased goods.  The real issue is defining “income,” however.  Income taxes can double tax some, and allow others to simply pass with no enforcement at all.  That’s one of the reasons that what started as a fairly simple, temporary measure grew to be the monstrosity of tax code we see today.  A flat tax today could be tweaked and coddled into growing back into a mess.  While a national sales tax could be susceptible to over-legislation and corruption as well, it would not be as easy.

This crisis is the time to make some bold moves, no matter how scary it might be.  Doing away with income taxes altogether might just be a bit too much change, and so the Fair Tax might not have the realistic shot that a Flat Tax would at being passed. I’m sure that many will argue that, at best, I’m idealistic and naive to believe that any bumps in transition from our existing income tax scheme to one of these simpler, superior ones would be shortly righted.  I still want to talk about it, though.  The types of change I’m ready for, the country isn’t, and I know that won’t change unless all those people getting mad and “teabagging” tomorrow start endorsing solutions that pull even more people in, so we can reject more of the same.