Author: lemsy

John LeMasney (lemsy) is an artist, graphic designer, and technology creative. He is located in beautiful Nelson County, VA, but works remotely with ease. Contact him at: lemasney@gmail.com to discuss your next creative project.

Categories
affiliations professional activities professional experience references research interests teaching experience technology

Just added to PPL Lineup: Google Plus Hangouts

Instagram Google+ Hangouts Screen shot
Instagram Google+ Hangouts Screen shot (Photo credit: Robin M. Ashford)

 

In this session, John LeMasney will show you how to use Google’s Hangouts feature to video conference with up to 10 people, share screens, broadcast yourself, and archive the recording, all from your computer, tablet, or phone. John uses the technology to create a series of shows on using technology in customer service, educational technology, and graphic design, known as Neckbeard Networks on YouTube.

 

Come and learn how to use this great free technology to connect with people about your favorite topics.

 

When: Wed , 3/20 from 7-8:30 pm
Where: Princeton Public Library Technology lab
Skill Level: Intermediate

 

No registration necessary

 

Related articles

 

Categories
photography

Playing with pancakes: A traditional recipe and a no-flour recipe

In this post I’ll talk about two pancake recipes. One has seven ingredients, and one has only two, but they both have merit.

So I love pancakes. I really enjoy the fluffy texture, sweet flavor, and crisp edges of a well-done pancake. I always choose to avoid mixes for the task because the from-scratch (I mean, I’m not stone grinding wheat or anything) recipe is so simple and easy to remember:

Traditional Pancake Recipe

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 egg, whisked
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 Tbsp oil

Mix the ingredients in a medium bowl, cook a quarter cup of batter per cake in a lightly greased nonstick skillet over medium high heat until bubbles form, flip and cook through for another minute or until lightly browned on bottom. Ignore first batch’s sadness and failure.

Keep hot in a 200 degree Fahrenheit toaster oven while cooking rest of batch. Serve with real maple syrup.

Simple, right? (about 800 calories for the batch) Well, it’s also delicious, but me being lazy, I decided to try the no-flour alternative I had seen in a couple of places, where a ‘pancake’ is made with two ingredients.

Two ingredient no-flour pancakes

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 banana, sliced

Mix by hand if you dare, but a small food processor will make this far easier. Place into a 8-10 inch buttered skillet on medium heat. Cook until firm, flip and finish cooking. Serve with honey, peanut butter or fresh strawberries.

Although I do not have celiac disease, and don’t subscribe to a gluten-free nutritional lifestyle myself, this is gluten-free.

The 2 ingredient version is more of a sweet dessert tortilla than a pancake, but the texture, sweetness, and flavor are not far off. Maybe the best part is the 240 calories for the batch!

Related articles
  • Oat Bran Pancakes (kennybakes.com)
  • German Pancakes (tuffmotherondarun.com)
  • Whole Wheat Pancakes (thefauxmartha.com)
  • Banana Oatmeal Pancakes (thefitlifejournal.wordpress.com)

 

Categories
insights photography

On baking over buying: Simple cornbread recipe

bread by lemasney
bread by lemasney
Fresh baked bread on a Sunday morning by lemasney
Fresh baked bread on a Sunday morning by lemasney

Baking cornbread rather than buying it

I have decided recently to stop buying baked goods like cornbread and start making my own. Flour, sugar and other raw ingredients are far cheaper than the packaged, processed breads, crusts, and other baked goods. The act of cooking gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment. The fact that I know exactly precisely what is going into my baked goods means that I have control and agency with it. I have been doing a lot of stove-top cooking lately, and I decided that it was time to begin learning more deeply about the baking side. I’ve made plenty of breads in the past, and so I knew how easy it was to do and what great rewards came from it.

I was looking for a reasonable idea for dessert for my boys, who I visit with a few times a week, and cornbread seemed like just the  thing. I recently told them that we were going to stop getting donuts and pretzels at Wawa for snacks, and start making most of our own food during our visits. Not only did they understand the financial reasoning behind it, they genuinely love to help me cook, and seem to enjoy the food that they helped to make far more than the processed foods we used to purchase. This may have started as a temporary fix to help pinch some pennies, but it is making more nutritional, philosophical, and emotional sense now too.

Simple Cornbread

This recipe has some great nutritional value: it’s vegetarian, low in fat, low in sugar, has whole grains, good oil, and is a great vehicle for nuts, fruit, or greens, like sauteed spinach.

  • 1 cup stone ground corn meal
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 cup raw sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp baking powder
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 egg

In two bowls, combine the dry ingredients separately from the wet ingredients. Then slowly mix in the wet into the dry. Do not over-mix  but mix until smooth. Pour into a oiled loaf pan and bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes.

Enjoy with tea, coffee, or as part of a meal.

Categories
affiliations professional activities professional experience references research interests teaching experience technology

WordPress Camp at Princeton Public Library

WordPress
WordPress (Photo credit: Adriano Gasparri)

In this session, I talked with new, excited WordPress users about the various ways they might want to use WordPress, including content management, subscription, sharing features, video and image publishing, discussion, and more.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-UtuHCCsOalOZRicHFTBlVIW-Phpq5GWCJ1GZIoVlwQ/edit?usp=sharing

Related articles

 

Categories
professional experience research interests teaching experience technology

The Technology and the Design: On Color

English: A full adaptative indexed palette
English: A full adaptative indexed palette (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In this episode, I decided to focus on color as topic. I explain how you can use a dollar bill in order to create a palette that subtly reminds the viewer of prosperity and wealth, how you can use photos as a source of palette, and sites that you can use to see lots of palettes that people are sharing to convey emotion and message without one lick of text.

Related articles
Categories
photography

Loose Tea Review: Ujinotsuyu Genmaicha Tokuyo

genmaicha-tea
genmaicha-tea
genmaicha-tea
genmaicha-tea

This genmaicha tea from ujinotsuyu is traditionally called ‘the people’s tea‘ and combines green tea and toasted rice, the rice being a kind of filler to make the tea less expensive, though it also gives the brew a distinct flavor which is surprising to anyone who’s only ever had tea or rice separately. It’s also called popcorn tea because some kernels of rice can pop in the toasting process.

The color of the brew is typically a light yellow, but I thought it was reminiscent of flat mountain dew, a very neon green.

The flavor is subtle, nutty, and tastes of brown rice, of course. It is a nice contrast to richer teas and an awful lot like a thin, unassuming broth.

The aroma reminds me of fresh-baked bread. You can smell the toasted rice, but behind it is a slight grassiness of a meadow. A very nice scent.

The tea is rather dry, and has a light lingering finish near the back of the tongue. There is very little viscosity.

Related articles
  • Teas of the World: Japanese Teas, Round 2 (englishtea.us)
  • New Organic Assam Tea Launches Today at The Tea Spot Completing Their Selection of Organic Indian Black Teas (prweb.com)
  • New Tea Menu (reneeclaireblanchard.com)