Today is a Good Day:I found Me Time

So I haven't posted anything in a while. Sorry about that. I've been seriously preoccupied with school. Taking 15 hours, working part time, babysitting, and balancing anything else can be extremely stressfull. All of this can wear you down and cut down on your me time. I've been there. The solution is relatively simple. Randomly do something for yourself. If you just got paid and you have a little overtime money or something, stop after work and get your nails done or a pedicure. Pedicures are usually only about $15 to $20. Or take some workout clothes and hit the gym after work.

That's what I've done this week and I feel much better. I just feel good in my skin. I had my nails done a few days ago and today I stopped by the gym this afternoon. It took an hour or so of my time, each stop, but it feels good. There are two benefits of this. A) You feel good because you did something for yourself. B) the Gym is healthy. I ran a mile and half on an elliptical, lifted a bit (mostly bench), and swam six laps in the pool. It cost me $5. Even if it's only once a week that you go, it is bound make you feel better in your skin. Exercising of anykind releases endorphins. Endorphins give you the feelings of happiness.

Chocolate releases endorphins but it adds calories, exercise releases endorphins but it burns calories. Getting your nails done doesn't release endorphins, but it does make you feel like you've done something for yourself, and you have. Primping just because you can and going out with some friends is also something for yourself. It doesn't take an over amount of scheduling. You can do some of this randomly. Take my advice, do something for yourself at least once a week, even if it is sitting down to read a book. You'll feel better for taking time for yourself. :)

That's all from me for today. I'll catch you all on the flip side.

So I Made Some Tinker Bell Shoes -- ;)

Hello all! Thank you Sam for following my blog!! I was super excited when I saw your name!! That being said, on to my blog. :)

So yesterday when my sister, mother, and I were all in town, we went to Hobby Lobby on 71st street. While there we saw some very interesting characters; but that will possibly be saved for another blog. Keep posted for that one. We went there to get a few things for my sister for a project she was working on. Unfortunately they did not have what she was looking for, they were out. Instead we wandered over to the yarn section.

My sister found a pattern book full of crocheted house shoes. Well there were several pairs that caught my eye, but there was one in particular. They looked really fun and goofy. They looked much like a ballet flat with a strap across the top with a little fuzzy ball on the toe (my family and I call them rinky balls). I was looking at yarn to make them, because my sister and I already had determined how we were both going to make a pair. I found some black yarn that had been wrapped with a irridescent green thread wrapped around the yarn. I started to pick those, with a lighter green with the same irridescent thread wrapped around the lighter green yarn.

When I was about to put my skeins in the basket, I saw some white yarn with a clear irridescent thread interwoven. I got this brilliant idea. You see everyone, I'm kind of obssessed with Tinker Bell. I got the idea to take off the strap off the top of the shoe, do the body of the shoe in the light green and then the rinky ball in white. They turned out fairly well. I finished one shoe body last night, and then the other this morning. I sewed the rinky balls on about an hour ago. I really, really love them. I'm kind of a dork, but it was the first project I'd been excited about in quite some time. 

So I know that this blog is really short today, but I wanted to share the fun experience. If anyone wants the patter, email me at Classy_Lassy88@yahoo.com. The pictures here at the bottom are of course the houseshoes. :) I hope everyone enjoyed the pictures.

America to Redeploy Troops to Asia?

For sometime now, I have been greatly interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and America's part in our relationship with Israel. This last semester, I took a class over American Foreign Policy and one of the requirements was a 9 to 10 page paper of a foreign issue of our choice. I chose the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that led me to several newspaper sites that I still check on a regular basis out of habit. For those of you who are not interested in Foreign Affairs, I might suggest you wait for a new posting.

As mentioned above, I was introduced to many newspaper sites that helped me in the writing of my policy brief for my AFP class. I check three on a regular basis -- The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, and AlJazeera -- and when I began to do so this morning I found an article on the JPost that greatly intrigued me and caught my eye. For anyone politically inclined, they may have noticed that Chinese President Hu Jintao was invited to the White House by our President for a visit. It seems as though North Korea was served as the main course.

For those of you who may remember, Pyongyang sank a South Korean ship in disputed waters in the fall of last year and little to nothing was done. In November, Pyongyang shelled a South Korean island. This meeting/dinner between the two Presidents (American and Chinese) was to discuss what each country might do to bring all nations concerned back to Six-Party Talks.

According to JPost they got their information from the New York Times for their article, not truly doubting JPost but knowing some might, I looked up the article on the NYTimes which came out in todays paper. Both articles say the same thing: if China does not step up its involvement (i.e. reprimanding Pyongyang for their sinking the Cheonan and their shelling of a South Korean island) the US may be forced to redploy American forces in Asia. The official who gave this information to the NYTimes, is choosing to remain anonymous. Which brings to mind the question, just how accurate is this information?

If the information is by chance true, here is my humble opinion -- is our President our of his mind?!?!?! The last thing we need to do right now is tick China off. Let us not forget that China holds most of our debt at this point and if they were to call in that debt, America would be dead in the water. Now if by chance we were not stretched out so far in the Middle East, we could potentially back up that threat of redploying troops to Asia. However, we are stretched out to far in the Middle East and since it is likely that we will still be involved there for sometime, this gives China enough time to continue it military build up. This would present further problems for the US if we were forced to back up this threat.

I have posted the URLs to the two articles where you may browse at your leisure.

New York Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/world/asia/21diplo.html?scp=2&sq=Hu%20Jintao&st=cse

Jerusalem Post article:

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=204630

Why I Love Bollywood and Baking Bread

There are two things I would like to talk about today. Firstly, why I love Bollywood and to give my first Bollywood suggestion. Secondly, to give you one of my favorite all time bread recipes that I have tried.

So firstly, why I love Bollywood. For any of you who do not like crass humor, nudity, and major language Classic Hollywood and Bollywood are totally for you. Bollywood is amazing because they are adult themes without the horrible language. One of my more favorite Bollywood movies (as of right now) is called Wanted-- not the Angelina Jolee and James McAvoy movie in 2008, but a movie with Salman Khan (one of the Kings of Bollywood) that came out a year later in 2009.


The synopsis is as follows:

Radhe is a hardcore ganster. A sharpshooter with a sharp brain, he works for Gani Bhai, the dreaded Mafioso, but on his own terms. Totally fearless, Radhe single handedly eliminates Gani Bhai's enemies one by one; making more enemies int he process than he bargained for... He's astounded when the young and pretty Jhanvi professes her liking for him. Inspector Talpade's lustful eyes fall on Jhanvi. He doesn't know that Jhanvi has developed a soft corner for Radhe. Whether it's the Golden Gang or Data Pawle's Gang; everybody wants the biggest piece of the lucrative cake that is Mumbai and the only way to get it is to eliminate whoever gets in the way. As Mumbai reels under bloody gang wars, Commissioner Ashraf Khan vows to make the city crime free and starts his campaign by arresting 200 criminals in a single day. It's free for all with gansters from rival gans out to get each other and the police out to get the whole lot of them. And in a surprising twist, Radhe becomes the most wanted man in Mumbai. Wanted dead by the gangsters because he knows too much. Wanted alive by the police because they're desperate to know what he knows.

The twist isn't overly surprising if one pays attention, because whoever is attentive will notice things in Radhe that will spell the surprise out. It is a wonderful movie. There are musical numbers so if you don't like musicals you may want to steer clear. The fight scenes are very comic book esque so it kind of appears a little hokey, but if you like traditional comic book stuff then go for it!!!! Salman Khan is one of my more favorite actors in Bollywood followed closely by his brother Sohail Khan and Salman's close friend Hrithik Roshan -- who I will mention in following blogs I am sure.

I'm not entirely sure that it is available in Netflix. I know that you can save it to your Queue for when it becomes available, which should not be too awfully long. :) It is an amazing movie. This is one of the many pictures from it. Piece of trivia: The bracelet that you see him wearing, is actually his (Salman Khan's) he wears it in every movie I've ever seen him in, it is good luck charm.



Secondly, which is what I'm sure most of you would rather see. I bake bread on a near constant basis. One of my two followers as of right now can attest to this as they know me personally. :) The first recipe I'm going to put up is actually one of the better basic bread recipes I've found. It is only a basic white, but I'll get to some more festive recipes later.

Pain Ordinaire (Plain or Basic White Bread)

Ingredients

2 tsp dry yeast

1 1/3 cups water

3 1/2 cups unbleached flour, sifted

1 1/2 tsp salt

Step 1: Sprinkle yeast in bottom of small bowl and pour 1/2 cup water in a circular motion onto the yeast. Let it sit for 5 minutes to disolve and then stir evenly distribute the yeast throughout the water. Mix the flour and salt ina large bowl. Make a well int he center and pour in the disolved yeast.

Step 2: Use a spoon (wooden is best) to draw enough of the flour into the dissolved yeast to form a soft paste. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and set it somewhere warm (for instance on your stove). Let the past "sponge" until frothe, loose, and slightly expanded, this takes about twenty minutes.

Step 3: Pour about half of the remaining water into the center fof the well. Mix in the flour from the sides of the well. Stire inthe reserved water, as needed, to four a firm, moist dough.

Step 4: Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, knead until smooth, shiny, and elastic, about 10 minutes.

Step 5: put the dough into a clean bowl and cover with a dish towel. Let rise until doubled in size. This usually takes about an hour (the recipe book says 1 1/2-2 hours but in my experience -- and I've been baking for about nine years -- it only takes about an hour). After it his risen punch it down and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Step 6: Shape the dough into a long loaf, about 14 inches in length. Place the shaped loaf on a floured backing sheet and cover with a dish towel. Let if double in size, about 30 minutes.

Step 7: (Optional Cutting) -- Cut five diagonal slashes, each about 1/4in deep, across the top of the loaf. Bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes at 425 degrees until golden  and hollow sounding when tapped underneath. Cool on a wire rack.

Note: If you would like to make this as a whole wheat it is possible; instead of using 3 1/2 cups unbleached flour use 2 1/2 cups unbleached flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour. Whole wheate flour is too heavy to not substitute unbleached flour. It should be about a sixty/forty ratio of unbleached flour/whole wheat.

This is an easy recipe for anyone. :) Enjoy!!!!

So This Is New For Me

As the title suggests, this is new for me. I've never done a serious blog other than something like on myspace, which let's be honest everyone...kinda fizzled out. ;) I'm not even sure what to talk about in this thing. I guess mostly what I'll be posting is stuff over being one of the few Messianic people I know in my region of Oklahoma, maybe a few cool recipes (because I love to cook, although I usually focus on baking bread), news articles I find interesting (wether they be simply quirky or historical/political), I may also be inclined to put up a few movie and book reviews. I was inspired in this whole thing by my firend Lyndse, who is also blogging on here. Check her out at http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blondeoklahomagirl.blogspot.com%2F&h=6468a5RbRGB6w7I7HOJ_wxyVo-g She's kinda amazing! :)
I can't guarentee just how much I'll blog and post, because I work part time and go to school full time. I have about two semesters before I'm going to be teaching so I'm fairly excited to be almost done. Almost done, being said, it is crunch time for this student. But I will post as much as possible. I hope you like the blog! :)