I'd almost forgotten how to blog, or at least had forgotten special features.

Now that I can link again, here is where I am going this summer:

Kushi Institute Summer Conference

Please forgive the cheesy running woman.

GREAT HOUSE, NOT CARE-FREE FOR CATS

I like where I'm staying, and am thankful to be here somewhat rent-free (I'm planning to get Brian's friends Beth and Loren a gift certificate to a restaurant they like called Astral Plane,) but this house is not as good in terms of puss-safety. There are many windows and doors, usually wide open, hence Lotti's sad confinement to our room (unless we are home to watch her every move. Lotti is ready to move.

I'm halfway throuogh Kevin Killian's Bedrooms Have Windows. It's pretty great overall though much different from the later Killian I'm more familiar with. More tomorrow. Brian has a half day tomorrow so I probably won't get quite as much work done.

I'm remembering that Brian and I also bought hijiki (seaweed) known for its particularly fishy odor and made this (4 stars out of 5, the fishy smell cooks down with the shoyu--we used tamari--and the mustard-tahini sauce helps keep the hijiki at bay):

Hijiki Summer Salad *

Serves 4-6

This salad is a wonderful way to get mineral-rich hijiki into your diet.

1/2 cup dried hijiki
Water to cover hijiki
1 tablespoon shoyu
Pinch sea salt
3 ears fresh corn
1/2 cup shelled green peas
1/2 cup bean sprouts
½ cup grated carrots

Dressing:

4 tablespoons natural prepared mustard
2 tablespoons sesame butter or tahini
3 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
1/2 cup water

Soak hijiki 10 minutes. Drain, reserving soaking water, and rinse hijiki in a colander. Slice into 1½ inch lengths. Slowly pour soaking water into a pot (discarding any sediment). Add hijiki and, if necessary, fresh water to almost cover. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer 35 minutes. Add shoyu and cook until water has evaporated (approximately 10 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside.

Bring another pot of water to a boil, add pinch of salt and corn cobs. Simmer 15 minutes. Take corn from water, allow to cool, then remove kernels from cobs. In the same water, boil the peas 10 minutes, and then the bean sprouts 1 minute. Place on a plate to cool after cooking. In a serving bowl, mix hijiki, corn, peas, bean sprouts, and raw carrot. Blend dressing ingredients together until smooth, then add dressing to salad. Mix well before serving.

*Recipe from Peter and Montse Bradford, authors of Cooking With Sea Vegetables.

wanted - - Co-author of a book about the world’s impoverished children

Reply to: see below
No contact info listed below? [
http://lags.cragslisp.net/?flagCode=30&postingID=160877264 ]Let them
know. Date: 2006-05-15, 2:30AM EDT


WANTED

Co-author of a book about the world’s impoverished children.

DESCRIPTION

I am looking for a co-author to write a book tentatively titled “the
Stories of the World’s Children.” You must be a writer - a seasoned writer
who is a published author or who is in the process of getting your book
published

Along with the research from now until the projected publishing date in
September to December of 2007, the co-author and I will write about the
lives, trials, and experiences of the world’s impoverished children, whom
I care very much about. The purpose of the book is to raise the awareness
of the conditions of the world's impoverished children.

I will, in August 21 to September 15 of 2006, be visiting Taiwan and
China. In June – Aug of 2007, I will visit many other countries in
Southeast Asia and Africa, to explore the lives and stories of
underprivileged children there. I am assembling a small team to go with
me.

The co-author will visit these countries with me and possibly a
photographer and videographer/cameraman at his/her own expense. If
possible, we would like to shoot a documentary and have a photo exhibition
along with publishing the book.

The income of the co-author comes from splitting the royalties of the
book. I will donate my part of the royalties from the book. You, however,
are not required to do so. I will be responsible to find a publishing
company to publish this book. As I am a published writer, I am not
worrying about finding a publisher.

REQUIREMENTS

1. A humanitarian who cares about the world’s poor children, wants to
visit them to experience first-hand the conditions in which they live, and
spread their message/stories to the world 2. Must be in good health, live
a healthy life style, and love to travel to experience other cultures and
different parts of the world 3. Must NOT be a smoker; must NOT drink
alcohol 4. Must be a team player, have a cheerful personality, and be easy
to work with 5. Must be a writer - a seasoned writer who is a published
author or who is in the process of getting your book published

If interested, please email joyowet@hotmail.com and attach your resume.

Compensation: commensurate to experience, to be discussed upon contact no
-- Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster. no
-- Please, no phone calls about this job! no -- Please do not contact job
poster about other services, products or commercial interests. no --
Reposting this message elsewhere is NOT OK.



160877264

Yesterday I spent a load more money than I intended to.

We went to Chinatown, hence the $15.38 for the following:

Set of 5 Kitty Chopsticks ($4.99)
A Pound of Pickled Ginger ($1.59)
12 oz. Dried Lotus Root ($1.95)
A Pound of Dried Shitakes ($2.95)
Fresh Ginger Root ($1.00)
Soba Noodles ($1.75)

That's what I remember. We should have bouoght more soba noodles. The lotus root was a superior value. The only thing we couldn't find was dried tofu.

I also bought subway tokens and the Kushi book mentioned below (for $9.38 at Molly's Bookstore in the Italian Market.)

I'm reading Michio Kushi's The Macrobiotic Way. The Spicer biography is waiting in the wings. As is The Lazy Crossdresser.

Brian and I are making pan-fried rice balls today. And our housemate is making mochi with adzuki beans. His mochi mix calls for sugar, which is somewhat disconcerting.

We are going to walk back to Whole Foods later today and see if they have more macrobiotic samples. They also had (veggie) hot dogs and hamburgers and ice cream and cheese and hummus and crab dip and butter pound cake and other stuff! I think they were competing with the Italian Market Festival (which we also walked through.) I'm thinking there's not a big overlap in clientel however.

My sister started a blog. Here's the link. I can't figure out how to link it on the sidebar yet:

http://pinkhairbow.blogspot.com/

Try this too:

Cannellini with Olive Oil and Parsley


Ingredients

30 ounces Eden Organic Cannellini White Kidney Beans, 2 cans, lightly drained
2 1/2 Tablespoons Eden Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 pinches Eden Sea Salt, or to taste
1/8 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground, or to taste
1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed
3 Tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
1/4 cup red onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced Serves 4

Prep Time: 0:05
Cook Time: 0:05

Nutritional Info
Per serving 252 Calories, 11g Fat (36% calories from fat), 11g Protein, 31g Carbohydrate, 0mg Cholesterol, 137mg Sodium


Directions

Place beans, olive oil, sea salt and pepper in a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the flame to low and simmer 2 to 3 minutes. Turn flame off and add lemon juice, parsley, garlic and red onion. Mix and serve hot or chilled.

$4.28 Cheap Pink Shower Curtain (Valu-Plus, Broad and McKean, South Philly)

$2.48 Bulk Olives (Italian Market)

$3.00 Lemons, Limes, Red Onions, Yellow Onions (Italian Market)

Had a great walk to the West Side. Ate dinner with Brian, Patti, and Patti's new girlfriend Vicki.

Make this if you get the chance:

Curried Carrot Soup


Ingredients

1 Tablespoon Eden Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium onion, diced
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
1/2 teaspoon Eden Sea Salt, or to taste
3 1/2 cups vegetable stock, or kombu dashi (see Eden's recipe)
2 pounds carrots, cut in 1" cubes
1 cup cold water
2 cups Edensoy Unsweetened, Edensoy Original, or Edensoy Extra Original
1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, finely minced Serves 4

Prep Time: 0:20
Cook Time: 0:20

Nutritional Info
Per serving 198 Calories, 7g Fat (31% calories from fat), 9g Protein, 27g Carbohydrate, 0mg Cholesterol, 309mg Sodium


Directions

Heat the oil in a 4 quart saucepan. Add the garlic, onion, curry powder, black pepper and sea salt. Sauté over a medium flame for 4 to 5 minutes until the onions are tender. Add the vegetable stock, carrots and 1 cup water. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the flame to medium-low and simmer about 20 minutes or until the carrots are tender. Turn the flame off and add the Edensoy and mix. Puree the soup in batches until creamy and smooth. Place in a medium saucepan and heat almost to boiling (do not boil as the soymilk will curdle). If to thick, add a little more water to reach the desire consistency and adjust the seasoning. Remove from the flame, stir in the lemon juice, ladle into serving bowls and garnish with parsley.

I'm interested in the conflation between identity and sexual orientation. These should be separate (I think) but orientation seems to (unfairly) dictate identity.

Any responses you have are welcome. I'm free associating at this point, using my own life, the lives of my friends, and a discussion with a queer theorist I recently met. I will anchor my object of study after a few more weeks of thinking.

This is a response to my friend Kristin, who asked why bi people are left out of LGBT. As a bonus, there is an easy miso recipe included here:

OK. So I am starting to think again. (What a relief.) I had a brief vacation from anything smart or academic. I've been mostly making somewhat weird macrobiotic meals. (Who knew that there were recipes for "Sweet and Sour German Style Macrobiotic Red Cabbage" easily available on the internet? The cabbage was really good actually.) C, one of the boys in my current housing situatioin (which I hope to be out of by Tuesday, not that it's so bad here, but I am ready to have my own space), lived in Japan until he was 12. He taught me that cucumbers smeared with miso are a summer treat for little Japanese kids. You should try this. It can also be done with high quality soy sauce, though the miso option is much richer. (We used barley miso.)

So back to bi. I was talking to C the other day (C is gay) and he mentioned that he went to look at an apartment and he talked to an "effeminate" guy for an hour and a half and was weirded out when the guy mentioned that he had a girlfriend. He wasn't interested in dating this guy. But he said something along the lines of his world not making sense in situations like these and how he needed or wanted it to. It's natural to feel upset if someone we thought was one way turns out to be another. (This is why H is upset when her exgirlfriends date guys. At least I think it might be one reason?)

Bi people have to be (or feel they have to be) chameleons. There is no heroic, grand threat of danger (which is part of what Halberstam seems to resent) as there is with trans people in public/hetero space who don't pass but blur gender. But bi people know that they will likely not be accepted in LGT communities if they try to date women and men simultaneously. This is a problem with the way in which we construct our dientity according to who we are oriented towards (who we want to date) rather than who we are.

I've always wanted to turn sexual orientation labels into identity labels. Hence, I would be a femme faggot. (Most people in Asheville called me a faggot.) It seems more fun to identify as who you are rather than who you sleep with.) This ends up happening a little bit anwaysy. I was really pissed off at a friend once when she told me that I wasn't a dyke. (I thought she was referring to my inbetween bi identity). She actually told me that she thought of me more as a lesbian than a dyke. (Dykes being tough and more butch? I don't know.) It then became more complicated when she told me I was a lipstick lesbian. Which is a somewhat derogatory term now that harkens back to 1950's femmes who lures butches in. (Actually it sounds fabulous as I describe it, but the label is somewhat dated and LGBT always seems to be caught up in the cult of the new.)

I'm going to stop talking now. I can see what JH means about trans undoing gender and bi stabilizing hetero and LG identities. (Because bi people move between genders and trans people occupy the inbetween perpetually.) But if we adjust our timeframe, then bi people can be seen as inhabiting an inbetween rather than shifting between two separate oppositional orientations.

Wednesday May 17th

$4.29 Fair Trade Red Leather Cat Coin Purse, Perfect for Subway Tokens (Ten Thousand Villages, Center City Location)

$1.00 Boston Guide for My Friends Brent and Crystal (AIDS Thrift Store, 5th & Bainbridge)

$1.10 4 Roma Tomatoes, 1 Huge Yellow Onion (Corner Store, McKean & 9th)

Read chapter one of Killian's Spicer biography. Killian writes very conversationally, a pleasure to read.

Walked four (?) miles. From 10th & McKean to 11th and Walnut (via Broad St.) to 5th & Bainbridge to 9th & South back to 10th and down to McKean again. Then later, to the corner store.

Switched over to read chapter one of Charlie Anders' The Lazy Crossdresser. Fabulous and trashy and fun. Smart too. This book will be useful for my "project" of discerning the overlaps between bi people and trans people.

I just realized that I stopped posting my thesis after a certain point. Both Steve and I finished though. I am heading out for the gayborhood soon. Window shopping and maybe reading Killian's Spicer bio with some actual glamorous gays surrounding me. I'm thinking of Millenium which I think is near 10th and Chestnut. (Or 12th?)

Brian and I are staying with friends, which makes me feel fairly isolated. Tomorrow is the big day. He works 9-9 (with classes and work). I will be at home making food etc. A perfect housewife.

6.50 Subway tokens (5 pack) at the South Philly Rite Aid

5.29 Yeast-free spelt bread and grain-sweetened chocolate-covered raisins (Whole Foods)

.50 Goya Chickpeas (South Philly Acme)

9:30-1:00 Transited to West Philly, walked back (4 miles) to South Philly, stopped at Rite Aid, Whole Foods, Acme

1:00-2:00 Drank tea, felt tired, read "Maine Well Being" newspaper, considered reading Kevin Killian's biography of Jack Spicer, emailed Brian to inform him that we are having Sweet Miso Soup with Squash, Leftover Cabbage, a mystery grain (Brown Rice?), and Fried Tofu for dinner

Too excited to nap. Am considering consolidating my student loans.