Synchronicity, Cilantro, and Flashlights
Aug. 7th, 2009 10:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mniOr:
1)Love It!
2)Hate It!
3) Need Them.
1) About a week and a half ago, I enrolled (i.e. paid for) in four online Teach-yourself-at-your-own-pace ASL Courses (you get a discount if you buy in bulk). They're far from intense, especially since you don't actually have a live person there telling you whether what you signed is intelligible or not. But so far, it seems useful in booting up the ol' memory circuits in the brain. So today, I finished up the last "class" in 'ASL 101'; I'll go back through it and play with the practice sentences some more, and take the "Final Exam" tomorrow or day after. So -- what documentary is my local TV station airing, on Sunday night? This one: Through Deaf Eyes, about the history of the Deaf in America. It first aired in 2007, and I watched it and enjoyed it then. So, yes.
Doncha just love synchronicity, like that?
2) I'm one of those people who cannot enjoy cilantro. Whatever has cilantro in it tastes like soap -- specifically, Ivory Bath soap (without the fun and frivolity of lather) -- to me. I've tried to learn to like it. But so far, it hasn't worked.
And now, one of my favorite vegetarian frozen food makers (Amy's Kitchen) has just started to put CILANTRO (!! yes, it deserves shouty typing !!) into one of their Indian curry dinners. They didn't used to. I didn't find out until I started to eat one of the ones I'd bought for dinner. Why?! Why did they do that to me?!
Of all the frozen dinners I bought last time I went shopping, it was that now-tainted curry dinner that I got two of (Because it used to be my favorite). I'm feeling very put-upon.
3) I need flashlights. I have none, and I need some for when the power goes out. But I cannot carry a flashlight in my hand and drive my wheelchair at the same time, especially not when I'm transferring in and out of my chair.
So the other day, I went Googling for flashlight options, particularly, the stick-up LED kind (I was thinking I could buy maybe ...five, total, and if I place them in strategic places around the house, give myself just enough light to be safe. I found some. And some had rave reviews. But I didn't buy any, because, among the bad reviews, someone woud inevitibly mention that they go through batteries at a ridiculous rate, even if the bulb is long lasting, and the batteries are difficult to change.
That Googling took all day, and sapped my energy, and left me feeling blah.
So now, I'm debating whether to take my chances with those LED lights, and hope I'm one of the 80% of people who are happy with them, but risk being stuck with something practically useless because I can't change the batteries in the dark.
Other options:
Buy a more expensive LED flashlight, and rig up some kind of wall sconce for it, so I can turn it on, put in place where the cats can't knock it over, and be free to go to the bathroom, or fix dinner or what have you. Buying enough of these to strategically light the whole house would set me back ~$200.
Buy regular flashlights that are cheaper, (but burn out faster), and rig up the same sort of wall sconce thingies.
Buy LED Christmas lights -- the kind that meant to go outside on Wreaths. They're expensive, but they're also designed to shine all through the night for several nights in a row. ... Maybe... I haven't really researched that, that's just an idea that popped into my head.
Help me decide?
1)Love It!
2)Hate It!
3) Need Them.
1) About a week and a half ago, I enrolled (i.e. paid for) in four online Teach-yourself-at-your-own-pace ASL Courses (you get a discount if you buy in bulk). They're far from intense, especially since you don't actually have a live person there telling you whether what you signed is intelligible or not. But so far, it seems useful in booting up the ol' memory circuits in the brain. So today, I finished up the last "class" in 'ASL 101'; I'll go back through it and play with the practice sentences some more, and take the "Final Exam" tomorrow or day after. So -- what documentary is my local TV station airing, on Sunday night? This one: Through Deaf Eyes, about the history of the Deaf in America. It first aired in 2007, and I watched it and enjoyed it then. So, yes.
Doncha just love synchronicity, like that?
2) I'm one of those people who cannot enjoy cilantro. Whatever has cilantro in it tastes like soap -- specifically, Ivory Bath soap (without the fun and frivolity of lather) -- to me. I've tried to learn to like it. But so far, it hasn't worked.
And now, one of my favorite vegetarian frozen food makers (Amy's Kitchen) has just started to put CILANTRO (!! yes, it deserves shouty typing !!) into one of their Indian curry dinners. They didn't used to. I didn't find out until I started to eat one of the ones I'd bought for dinner. Why?! Why did they do that to me?!
Of all the frozen dinners I bought last time I went shopping, it was that now-tainted curry dinner that I got two of (Because it used to be my favorite). I'm feeling very put-upon.
3) I need flashlights. I have none, and I need some for when the power goes out. But I cannot carry a flashlight in my hand and drive my wheelchair at the same time, especially not when I'm transferring in and out of my chair.
So the other day, I went Googling for flashlight options, particularly, the stick-up LED kind (I was thinking I could buy maybe ...five, total, and if I place them in strategic places around the house, give myself just enough light to be safe. I found some. And some had rave reviews. But I didn't buy any, because, among the bad reviews, someone woud inevitibly mention that they go through batteries at a ridiculous rate, even if the bulb is long lasting, and the batteries are difficult to change.
That Googling took all day, and sapped my energy, and left me feeling blah.
So now, I'm debating whether to take my chances with those LED lights, and hope I'm one of the 80% of people who are happy with them, but risk being stuck with something practically useless because I can't change the batteries in the dark.
Other options:
Buy a more expensive LED flashlight, and rig up some kind of wall sconce for it, so I can turn it on, put in place where the cats can't knock it over, and be free to go to the bathroom, or fix dinner or what have you. Buying enough of these to strategically light the whole house would set me back ~$200.
Buy regular flashlights that are cheaper, (but burn out faster), and rig up the same sort of wall sconce thingies.
Buy LED Christmas lights -- the kind that meant to go outside on Wreaths. They're expensive, but they're also designed to shine all through the night for several nights in a row. ... Maybe... I haven't really researched that, that's just an idea that popped into my head.
Help me decide?
no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 03:32 pm (UTC)2. So sorry you have the cilantro = soap program in your mouth. Is this familial?
3. Bicycle lights for the wheelchair?
no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 05:35 pm (UTC)2) I have no idea. My mother died before it became widely known. And my dad died 3 years ago. I only started noticed it being ubiquitous in the last year or so. Last night, I was googling for stats so I could write a complaint to Amy's Kitchen -- along the lines of: "Did you know that 1 in 5 people (or whatever) people hate cilantro with a passion? Why are you putting it in every damned thing you make?" I found no stats (maybe it hasn't been around long enough for nutritional scientists to take notice). But I did find this story from NPR Getting to the root of the Cilantro Divide, wherein the reporter does a casual experiment that suggests people who can't stand cilantro simply cannot perceive the aroma and taste that makes others go "Om-nom-nom! More please!" -- we smell and taste every other compound in cilantro except the one that actually tastes good.
This is a sensory impairment you can't get govt. support for. But it makes me more unhappy than my mobility impairment does, when ruins my dinner.
3) Ooh. That's an idea.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 07:14 pm (UTC)I think one can have the best of all worlds: bikelight headlights w/ crank chargers.
Yes, Through deaf eyes is wonderful! Our PBS station played it, to my delight. YouTube has really enabled an ASL web presence--there's tons of intriguing stuff to watch. (now if I only had a web connection faster than 750k).