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.
So in this post, I want to talk a bit about the stresses of modern life, and a possible antidote.
I just lost my job of two years at Princeton University. It was a glorious opportunity, but it was not for me. There were certain skills that particular job required that I did not have. The skills that I do have and thrill in using, including playing with technology, media, consulting, training, graphic design, presenting, and other creative skills were not the ones that caused an issue. There were a lot of necessary skills related to short-term memory, intense and tight focus, methodical and diligent site testing, and political sensibility that I do not, and may not ever own. In the end, it comes down to a misunderstanding on my part about what the job was going to be, and despite that misunderstanding, a need for that job to be done and done well in the way that they wished. Writing styles, working styles, and other stylistic differences also contributed. I wish them very well and continued success, and they did the same to me.
So, what to do now?
One of the things that had happened more often than I would have liked is having to turn down consulting work. An endless schedule of a nine-to-five job often eclipses the flexibility needed to succeed in consulting work. One of the outcomes of this change is that I am very free to pursue consulting work now. If you are interested in following my effort there, please visit https://www.facebook.com/lemasneycreative
Another thing that has become quite clear is that I do not need, nor want all the stuff that I have acquired. In my separation and later divorce, moving from a single home to a studio apartment, two cars to one, alcoholism to sobriety, obesity to fitness, and lots of money to very little, I have learned many things, but chief among them is that more is not better. In fact, to the contrary, losing all of those things has been a struggle in change, but a relief in the gloriously simple result.
I have also gone deeper into my embrace of nutrition via simplification and minimalism. One of my favorite things now is to grab 2 or 3 fresh whole vegetables from the fridge, like potato, tomato, and broccoli, and gathering it together into a delicious, simply prepared, subtle beauty of a meal. I have recently closed off my television service. I have stopped voluntarily going out to eat at restaurants. I have increasingly moved towards a whole-foods and local-seasonal nutritional lifestyle, going so far as to throw out my Splenda tonight, and realize with certain joy that I’ve drunk only a variety of loose leaf teas over the last week or so.
This is leading somewhere. I’m developing a new budget that eradicates my credit debt, maintains my living space, supports my family, maintains my auto insurance, and allows me to eat. Eventually, I’d like to get rid of my car and rely more strongly on walking, biking, and public transit. As a final goal, I’d like to own a very small plot of land (40’x40′?), with a tiny structure (20’x20′) to eat, sleep, meditate, play, think, and work. The world will be my yard.
So I finally got in! I’m excited about my brand new CSA share. Let me explain what it is, why I’m excited, and why you should try to get one if you are interested in economics, fitness, or food politics.
A few years ago, before my nutritional ideas began to guide my eating, politics, and concerns, I heard about the idea of a CSA, or a Community-Supported Agriculture program. I found out that it is a local farm that requires up-front consumer purchase of a share in a set of crops that are then distributed throughout the season. At the time, it seemed like a neat idea, something that crunchy granola types did. Over time, and with knowledge, I began to realize what an important idea it is. In fact, I’m going to try to see if I can use this share as the only source of food at home, aside from coffee, tea, and eggs. I might be crazy, but I think I’d know by now. The most often-stated con of this arrangement is that the consumer takes a risk in that the crop that they have paid for is subject to pests, weather, and other unforeseen factors. I think that the risk is far outweighed by the potential. Now, the upsides:
There are many benefits:
Supporting your local area by purchasing products made there. Not the next state over. Not the next country over. Here.Â
The overhead of shipping is nonexistent, because the food goes from the field to the table, where you can walk or bike (or take the bus, or drive) to pick it up.
The cost effectiveness (the number one excuse-response when I suggest a whole food nutritional lifestyle over a processed food one) is amazingly high.
The food could not possibly be fresher.
The food is usually of an amazing variety, and suggests that you learn how to cook and enjoy new foods.
The food is un-packaged, un-processed, whole food.
Since the farm makes food available at harvest, the food is by default seasonal, which promotes seasonal eating, and deprecates the idea of year-round tasteless tomatoes, for instance.
The farm makes the bounty available each week, and a typical weekly individual share (shown below) is usually more than enough for one person.
The local farm provides local jobs, and often provides opportunities for labor in exchange for part of a share.
You get fresh farmed food every week from about June to October, at least here in the Northeast.
A single week’s fruits and vegetables from community-supported agriculture share: peppers, okra, tomatoes, beans, potatoes, garlic, eggplant, squash. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
How it happened for me.
So, I became interested years ago in the idea of joining a CSA, but there was not one locally available to me until my recent move to the Princeton area, where the Griggstown Quail Farm offers its CSA. You can read about their particular program at their CSA site. I had the pleasure of sampling a Griggstown share while a friend was on vacation last year, and the experience was glorious. The food was fresh, the people were nice, the market was close, and the food was simply waiting for me to come and pick it up.
It works for me, personally. YMMV.
There are a couple of things that make it especially sensible for me, though these are by no means a set of reasons to not consider a CSA if you think differently:
I am mostly vegetarian, meaning that in situations where meat is not a part of the only good and reasonable option, I will eat vegetarian. I eat meat about once a week, mostly out of convenience, and typically as a condiment, such as chicken broth in soup where there is no vegetarian option.
I am very interested in my health and fitness, and so I think of whole foods like nuts, whole grains, beans, legumes, vegetables and fruit as a key part of maintaining that fitness. I believe in the value of whole foods over processed foods.
I am very supportive of ecological efforts, locality, reasonable consumerism, and saving money.
I cook my own meals when I can. I really love to cook.
Costs and value.
It is the beginning of March, 2013. I just spent $300 for a full personal share. I will not see the food for weeks. However, when I do, here is a typical share of the crops I should expect in July (as an example), though the crops will start to become available in June:
1 pint of Arugula, 2 cucumbers, 1 eggplant or fennel, 2 onions, 1 bell pepper, 2 jalapeño peppers, 1 banana pepper, 2 Hungarian hot wax peppers, 1 romaine lettuce, 1 bunch of scallions, 2 zucchini, swiss chard, 3 tomatoes, basil, oregano, parsley, sage and thyme.
Other items I should expect this year are peas, beans, beets, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, greens, radishes, spinach, turnips, choi, broccoli, winter squash, celery, pumpkins, melons, potatoes, watermelons, cut flowers, cherries, tomatillos, tarragon, rosemary, cilantro and dill.
I can not imagine another instance in which such an amazing nutritional, ecological, and social value could be had at such a low price.
Venn diagram of nutritional management by lemasney
The Three Necessary Gauges of Fitness by John LeMasney via http://lemasney.com
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This is an infographic I made to try to explain the simplicity of the approach I used in order to lose my hundred pounds. All it takes is a dashboard.
If anyone is looking to shed pounds (for free, without a gym membership, with whatever food you like) it requires gauges.
Your body is like a car, and food is like fuel. If you’ve ever had a broken or missing gas gauge, you know what it’s like to be the average eater, putting in too much gas, not having enough, not knowing when you are about to overfill, run out, or underfill. I also like the analogy of having a budget where you have, let’s say. 1800 calories to spend. No one likes being broke, but if you got a few hundred bucks for taking a walk, that would be great.
If you have a recent smartphone, it probably has a pretty good pedometer built in. That’s your output gauge. I use Google Fit. Many gauges exist, but this one is free.
If you count your calories, using an app, a notepad, or a very good memory, that’s your input gauge. I use MyFitnessPal (MFP), which has a fabulous food database. Many gauges exist, but this one is free.
The only thing remaining is to know your weight, height, sex, and intent. The nice thing about MFP is that if you plug these things in, and track your weight, it will tell you exactly how many calories you need on a given day to lose, gain, or maintain your weight.
Without it, it’s easy to overfill. With it, you have a reliable way to know how much you should be eating to have certain outcomes.
Quality of food is a different matter. My philosophy is to eat what you wish, as you like, but count it, and stop when you run out of calories. Pizza? Donuts? Soda? Have what you like, but understand that higher nutrition will lead to better health, function, and thought.
Knowing is better than not, and these tools help you know.
I have realized that there’s something that drives me to do the things that I do, and let go of the things that I don’t.
For example, I am an advocate for open source software, like the gimp and Inkscape, when the rest of my creative friends bemoan my choice over adobe products, saying that they could not get their work done without them. The reason is clearer to me now why I can.
I am an advocate for calorie counting and whole foods and vegetarianism and light exercise, like walking. Many of my friends think that calorie counting is too much work for them, that whole foods are bland and tasteless and that they could not possibly adopt the lifestyle, or that they could never live without meat. They feel that you can’t get proper exercise outside of a gym. I have evidence to the contrary.
I use a Chromebook, and feel that I am working towards a chromebook- and mobile-only computing style. I still have some needs, such as archival storage, video editing, and DVRÂ that will keep me tethered at some times to a traditional desktop or server, for now, but that is changing. My friends say that they couldn’t get by without their tower.
I gave up drinking in April of 2012. I believe that I will never drink again. I was not able to stop until I believed it was possible. Until I envisioned living without it successfully, I didn’t, and so I couldn’t. I have friends that are deep in the grip of alcoholism. They believe that there is no other way. This is obviously not true, and yet, they persist.
In the face of oppositional ideas, harder paths, and seemingly unobtainable goals, I believe that I can achieve, which makes it possible. When I don’t, I can’t. If you can’t bring yourself to believe that something is possible, that you will never gain the benefits from it, or that it’s not worth the effort or time, then you are assuredly right: you can’t in your mind, so you won’t in reality.
It is impossible to surprise yourself in your beliefs when you are both the non-believer and the non-actor. Though not guaranteed, it is possible if you believe that it can be. Until you can say out loud that you believe that you can, and believe it, you may want to hold off trying. Without belief, doing may be impossible.
One response I’ve gotten to this idea is that it is so hard to believe that which you do not. I would say that this perceived effort is a sign that belief is not likely at this time, and that when you are ready to believe, it will be easy. You will have some key evidence that the seemingly impossible is possible. The evidence may be the result of things going to far down the opposite path. You’ll have some break in the clouds to hold on to long enough to believe. Seize it — it’s the difference for me in acting and doing, or not.
In this diary, I sometimes write on extended health, and ideological nutrition. Amongst my key personal brand tags, I always list open source. If you and I have had a conversation about technology, chances are that I have tried to sway you on the benefits of the open source model, or libre software, or standards over proprietary solutions.
Open Source Software is a simple concept, often misunderstood, and often because of biases we have in our capitalist society. Open Source is a rather communist idea, in its most ideal form, but whatever bias you have about communism, please set it aside for this article. Open source requires an open mind. Open Source licensed software usually gives away the source code for users making beneficial changes to the software to suit their own needs, and demand that the code changes come back to the project for re-use. It has security benefits, in that more eyes see the code, check the code for issues, and report the issues, often with fixes in hand. It has equity benefits because it is most often offered for no monetary exchange, allowing any who are interested to partake in its use. It has utilitarian benefits because if you want a feature that is not present, you have the code to build upon or pay for changes to by a developer.
There are many benefits, and if you are interested, I’d love to explain the all. For now though, I wanted to share a chat that I had with a particularly entrepreneurial friend about the topic, part of a longitudinal conversation on open source, design, and potential projects. In the discussion, I was able to answer what I think are some basic concerns and misconceptions about Open Source, easily cleared with discussion, but a discussion does not always take place.
5:40pm My friend: what are your top three complaints about open source software?
5:41pm JL: bias against, forking, those who use the terms without the understanding.
5:52pm My Friend: Do you think open source software should be monetized?
5:55pm JL: It is. I have paid for Inkscape. with money, time, effort, and support. Other projects would die an immediate death with a pay wall. You ask the wrong questions: My top three benefits of open source software include that ‘payment is optional’.
6:00pm My Friend: I know people pay for open source software. Many projects are dual licensed. I’m just trying to wrap my head around the pros and cons of open source vs just paid vs hybrid.
6:00pm JL: It is contingent on the project. My selection of open source is ideological, not capitalist. open source and paid do not work. The selection for many of open source is because it is free. Take that one off your list. Hybrid is fine, and viable. I support Kaltura, which has a hybrid model.
6:02pm My Friend:Isn’t your selection of open source a means to an end? No matter what your ideology food shelter and clothing still cost money.
6:02pm JL:Free makes the most sense. Make money off of support, membership, donations, and education. I have a job. It does not affect my software choice. Most of my work in regards to open source is paid for by libraries, schools, and other educational orgs. or done as a volunteer. Probably 50% of my training is free. in my consulting work. The volunteer work often results in new leads. I pay back to Inkscape in advertising, education, and training in my networks. BTW, this is going to be a blog post.
6:21pm My Friend:Great. Let me know when it’s done I’ll be happy to promote it. I’m finally ready to start on my idea. The reason for my questions in case you were wondering. I want to pursue open as a way of life and business. Don’t want to rely on my job for income. My thesis is that you can create more value through open products.
6:24pm JL:Yes! My next tattoo will be the word open. We agree.
6:24pm My Friend: Capital value as well as social value.
6:28pm JL:There is much capital value in the work that I do regarding open source.
6:29pm My Friend:Alright. Well I’ll keep you posted on my progress. I think it’s time to evolve capitalism.
