Lisa Johnson

NaBloPoMo 2023

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NaBloPoMo

Sixteen years! That’s how long it’s been since I first did NaBloPoMo. Way back in 2007. It was the last time too. I may have silently sworn to never do it again. In case you’re not familiar, NaBloPoMo is short for National Blog Posting Month.

It happens in November and was all the rage back in the day, which I’ve heard referred to as the golden age of blogging. Yup! The golden age. When I first heard that I felt like I was 300 years old. I wasn’t sure if it was still a thing. A quick searched revealed that it is, but on a much smaller scale.

Anyway, NaBloPoMo gave a blogging nod to NaNoWriMo, which is National Novel Writing Month. What they both do is give us writers a goal of writing every day during the month.

So why am I doing this now? Because of Vlogtober. I really enjoy Kay Patterson’s vlogs on YouTube. Kay, who lives in Boston, just finished Vlogtober yesterday. For Vlogtober, vloggers post a video each day during October.

I started thinking about how I’d like to blog at least once a week again. Blogging everyday would be a nice jump-start and would make once a week seem like nothing. NaBloPoMo is a marathon, not a sprint, and I know to pace myself accordingly.

Wish me luck and see you back here tomorrow!

Restaurant Rant: Not a Grain Bowl

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Allegedly a grain bowl.

Am I insane for thinking that a grain bowl should have a decent proportion of, uh, grain?

I went out to dinner with friends on Saturday night to a Dorchester neighborhood bar and restaurant. I’m not going to name it, because I don’t like trashing places. The one time that I did, they kept contacting me to go back so they could make it up to me. I didn’t want to go back and the whole thing was very uncomfortable. Lesson learned.

But this has been sitting on my mind and bothering me for days now. The only way to get it out of my system is to write it out of me.

Looking at this dish pictured above, does this look like a grain bowl to you? It does not to me. It’s a green salad masquerading as a grain bowl. I know it’s almost Halloween, but I didn’t plan on getting tricked by my meal!

When I read the menu it seemed pretty straightforward. Here it is below from the website with slight descriptive edits.

“Grain Bowl: couscous, chickpeas, baby kale, feta cheese, cucumber, cherry tomato, Kalamata olives, pickled red onion, and tahini dressing with pan roasted salmon.”

The salmon was an extra that I added on, so the whole meal was $26.00. Not cheap, but a fairly typical price for dinner.

As someone who cooks a lot at home, I’m always very hopeful that what I have at a restaurant is way better or at least as good as what I could have prepared myself.

Based on the menu description, I expected that at the very least, a quarter to third of the dish would be grains and chickpeas. I often make this type of dish at home. I love harvest bowls! There was literally just a dusting of couscous and very few chickpeas underneath the greens. It was basically all greens.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve had some not great meals at restaurants, so I haven’t written about them. But this just seemed ridiculous.

Overall, the meal was good. This green salad was good. It’s just not what I ordered and not what was described on the menu. I even told our server. She asked to take it back, but I said that a side of couscous would be fine. I expected to get a fairly generous portion. Maybe a half a cup? Instead, I received about a quarter cup, if that.

I was shocked. Did they run out of couscous? Rationing chickpeas? Was it a new cook who didn’t know what a grain bowl was and didn’t see the menu description? Good lord why?!

The place had a nice ambience, our server was very attentive and friendly, so I separated my thoughts about the meal from her tip. It wasn’t her fault.

I was so looking forward to a night out with friends. And the three of us had somehow managed to arrange this dinner at the last minute. It was like a miracle! I hadn’t seen them in a while and the most important part was our gathering together. With all that’s happening in the world, the news breaks our hearts a little more everyday.

But my sadness won’t make things any better. So it’s especially important to enjoy my loved ones while I can.

In the greater scheme of life, this grain bowl fiasco could not be more trivial. But the restaurant industry takes the customers as they find them and I was looking for at least what I had seen on the menu.

Do You Watch Eclipses?

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eclipses

Since I was young, I’ve been fascinated by eclipses. If anything can make you feel the mystery and wonder of life, it’s an eclipse. Also, my family, going back generations, has a history with them.

Eclipses are literally dangerous. Looking into one without proper protection can damage our eyes and even cause blindness. Although they are a natural wonder, maybe they’re also a sight that we shouldn’t behold. And that’s not just because we want to protect our eyes.

Even though eclipses seem rare, they happen every year and even have seasons. We’re heading into eclipse season tomorrow, which will be the first in the set, and a solar eclipse. Eclipses happen with new moons and full moons. So one eclipse follows the other. The second eclipse in this set will be with the full moon on October 28th, and a lunar eclipse.

On Chani Nicholas’s weekly astrology podcast, she dives deep into eclipse season. I’ve heard her take on eclipses elsewhere and find it quite striking. She doesn’t think it’s bad or good to look at them, but she prefers not to watch them and just lets them do their thing.

She discusses how eclipses are caused by the light being blocked from our luminaries, the sun and moon, which causes shadows. Basically the connection to our power source or energy is being interfered with and becomes unstable, so there are energy surges. Generally, when we think of things in shadow and power outages, that might not be something we want to invite into our lives. There is a lack of clarity and unpredictability. Things may not be as they seem and maybe we need to wait it out. Also we may feel drained of our energy. So if we’re feeling tired tomorrow, it’s to be expected.

Also, she says that eclipses are about the speeding up of endings and beginnings. The one tomorrow is about release and letting things go. This makes a lot of sense to me. As I mentioned in a post back in August, my federal student loans were forgiven. Which was wonderful, I didn’t have to make payments. However, they were still showing up on my credit report, so it didn’t truly feel like they were gone. The weight of them wasn’t completely gone. Today, they finally disappeared from my credit report! I can fully let them go energetically. They are really gone. Maybe the upcoming eclipse helped sweep them away.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a safer alternative to following tomorrow’s eclipse, NASA has you covered with their new 2023 Eclipse Explorer: Your Interactive Guide to the 2023 Annular Solar Eclipse.

Needless to say, NASA will be busy tomorrow. Did you hear that NASA plans to fire rockets directly into the eclipse’s shadow? Kind of wild. The article on the NASA website explains more.

“The mission, known as Atmospheric Perturbations around the Eclipse Path or APEP, is led by Aroh Barjatya, a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he directs the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab.

Some 50 miles up and beyond, the air itself becomes electric. Scientists call this atmospheric layer the ionosphere because it is where the UV component of sunlight can pry electrons away from atoms to form a sea of high-flying ions and electrons. The Sun’s constant energy keeps these mutually attracted particles separated throughout the day. But as the Sun dips below the horizon, many recombine into neutral atoms for the night, only to part ways again at sunrise.

During a solar eclipse, the sunlight vanishes and reappears over a small part of the landscape almost at once. In a flash, ionospheric temperature and density drop, then rise again, sending waves rippling through the ionosphere. …

The APEP team plans to launch three rockets in succession – one about 35 minutes before local peak eclipse, one during peak eclipse, and one 35 minutes after. They will fly just outside the path of annularity, where the Moon passes directly in front of the Sun. Each rocket will deploy four small scientific instruments that will measure changes in electric and magnetic fields, density, and temperature. If they are successful, these will be the first simultaneous measurements taken from multiple locations in the ionosphere during a solar eclipse.”

It will be fascinating to learn their findings and see the changes that this eclipse season brings.

Can I Be a Polyglot?

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YouTube‘s algorithm is strong. I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of videos. But it made me realize that I want to be a polyglot.

In high school, I studied French. I continued during my freshman year of college, but stopped after that. I regret not going further in my formal French studies. But it was not helping my already fragile GPA and I decided to cut my losses. I reached an intermediate level and really could have done much more with it.

Anyway, life happened and it wasn’t a priority. Over the past few years, I’ve noticed the season of my life changing and want to expand my language skills again. But my language focus has been Korean. The spring before last, I found a free online course with Coursera called First Step Korean.

The first week or so of the class seemed doable. But then it seemed like I was supposed to have already learned Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, within three weeks! Ha! No.

The timing was also not in my favor. I was in the process of organizing and clearing out my mom’s house to put it on the market. I didn’t have time for the class and decided to focus on selling the house and getting my mom moved. That process took most of my time and energy last year.

This year had its ups and downs, but things have settled down a bit. I decided to try a Korean class again, but realized that I needed a more solid foundation with Hangeul. So I found a class called The Korean Alphabet: An Introduction to Hangeul. I may need to take this class twice, but it’s a start. It’s not like I have a deadline or need to worry about my GPA.

I’ve also wanted to improve my French skills and truly become fluent. It could help with increased work opportunities and I would just like to be fluent for myself. But is it possible to study two languages at once? Especially such different languages. Is that a thing?

From watching dozens of YouTube videos, I’ve discovered that being a polyglot is a huge thing and yes, I can do it! There is a huge polyglot culture with people learning multiple languages at once and becoming fluent in all of them within just a few years.

So I’ve decided to jump in! Years fly by so quickly. It took almost a decade between when I first toyed with the idea of law school to quitting my job and doing it. I may take a long time deciding on something. But once I do, I persevere.

For French, I’ve started using Duolingo to help refresh my basic skills and get in the habit of practicing. There are three months left in the year, so by January I should feel more solid with my French. I may take an advanced online French class and/or possibly hire a tutor as well. I’m excited to see where this language journey brings me!

I’ve also decided to try again with a plant that I could never keep alive and eventually gave up on — African violets. I was over a friend’s house and she had two gorgeous ones. They are so lovely and I do so well with most plants. Surely I can grow these now! It’s been about 20 years, so maybe it’s a new season.

Korean Dramas & Air Quality in Massachusetts

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How did watching Korean dramas get me thinking about air and water quality in Massachusetts? Let me tell you.

During the pandemic, I dove into the treasure trove of Korean dramas on Netflix. After watching several, I started recognizing the sounds of certain words. I began matching them up phonetically with their English meanings from the subtitles and keeping a written notebook. I wondered about the daily lives of regular South Koreans and wanted to expand my vocabulary beyond written scripts.

YouTube provides an easy gateway into people’s lives. After watching many videos, I learned that South Koreans are very aware of fine dust. The first few times I heard it mentioned, I didn’t think anything of it. However, it was repeated so often I could no longer ignore it. I wondered, “Is this a thing?”

The vloggers I’ve watched check daily dust levels, wear masks outside, and often keep their windows closed. A Korean vlogger now living in the UK, remarked on the clear skies without fine dust. It’s definitely a thing.

Now that I think of it, I don’t recall any dramas mentioning fine dust. Sometimes you find what you’re not looking for.

A not so quick search revealed an article giving insight and noting the health hazards when fine dust particulate matter (PM) reaches certain levels. Since I’m interested in visiting South Korea at some point, I’ll probably do what the locals do and wear a mask.

In my normal daily life, I hadn’t thought about PM levels too much. Then early this summer, because of the wildfires in Canada, the Boston area received air quality warnings and advisories. Was this like the fine dust in South Korea?

I’ve been very COVID cautious compared to most and only stopped wearing a mask indoors this past winter, after the numbers dropped. Rising numbers still have me reconsidering.

As I’m writing, I looked up the air quality in Quincy a few times. Over the course of about 15 minutes, it changed from moderate to good. The moderate PM2.5 reading is “2.9 times the WHO annual air quality guideline value.” Should I be wearing a mask? I don’t know. I’m doing what the locals do and that appears to be nothing. Overall, we’re mask averse in this country and seem to live in perpetual denial.

But it’s not just air quality causing concern. It’s also the ocean. This summer, it seems like far more beaches than usual in Massachusetts have been closed for extended periods of time due to high levels of dangerous bacteria. That’s not even considering microplastics found in the water.

Then we have extreme heat causing wildfires. This record-breaking heat forcing people to remain indoors could be impacting mental health as well. Most of us have heard of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and how it impacts some during winter months. A summer version exists too. With wildfires in Hawaii forcing so many to lose their homes, some don’t even have the luxury of being indoors. Heat is becoming increasingly deadly, yet FEMA has never issued a disaster declaration due to heat.

Climate change is real. It’s happening now and seems that it will only get worse unless everyone in the world gets on board with solutions.

Hadassah Margolis will teach a new course at Brandeis University this fall called Climate Concerns: Eco-Anxiety, Grief, and Resilience. It will focus on wellness in the face of eco-anxiety. I’m glad I’m not alone in my feelings of environmental angst and that more people are talking about this. Misery may love company, but that doesn’t help the bigger problem. I wonder what solutions may be found in this classroom.

I’ve heard people describe the years we have left in our lives as the number of summers. As I inch closer to the end of my 50s, thoughts like this are more on my mind. How many summers do I have to enjoy carefree days out in nature? A walk in the woods by a pond or a simple beach picnic. How do we stay optimistic?

Some recent news inspires. In Brazil, the Wari’ people sought help protecting the Komi Memem River. Legislation passed giving the river personhood protection rights as a living entity. It’s a step in the right direction.

Michael J. Fox said, “With gratitude, optimism is sustainable.” Which feels like grounding in the present moment. And remembering that there are still a few more days left in this summer.