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Sep
24thGinger Tax
Years on the equator. There have been plenty of tribulations involved with living and being in Africa, but one that most others don’t have to concern themselves with is the impacts of the more direct sunlight that hits the equator. Weekends at the coast include others frolicking in the pool at noon, while I hide in the shade until 3pm or 4pm. Mornings at the beach usually include setting a timer for ten minutes to limit the duration of my exposure. When friends wanted to walk along the beach at noon to go and get gelato, I had to decline. My one friend was really pushy, and I had to outline, clearly, what an hour-long walk on the beach meant for me. It was still tough; not only did it leave me alone, but they all sent me photos of eating (very delicious) gelato. I’m the only person on safari in a long-sleeved shirt and hat. When I ran the Lewa Marathon in 2014, I did so in SPF 70, a long-sleeved SPF shirt, and a hat. Careful. Proactive. It’s never enough. In 2010, right before my wedding, I had an irregular mole on the back of my right arm. It was excised, and found to be malignant. There I was, mere months away from my wedding, with cancer. It was terrifying. I remember foolishly checking the internet for my prognosis. They’d told me it was Level 4, but the internet showed me results for Stage 4 Melanoma […]
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Apr
14thDay 1 – iControl
God, a gallon of water is SO. Much. Water. I empathize with others who have done the 30 Day Water Gallon challenge now, who feel weird and bloated and strange. And the peeing. Of course, the peeing. The good thing is that I have to keep up with so much water drinking that I don’t really have the “space” to drink much else. I drank a can of Coke Zero last night with dinner and then I was so behind in water drinking that it just didn’t seem worth it. The Water Drink Reminder app has kind of a neat gameification element, in that it has a “subtle” little arrow on your progress bar that lets you know where you should be during the day’s consumption, so if you’re behind, well, yea, it can be a little stressful, but it did help me prioritize my beverage consumption. I was almost reticent to drink my tea this morning, but I realized that it’s nice to start the day with a hot beverage. Having water with me is suddenly becoming essential — I forgot my bottle at a meeting today (Day 2) and was immediately regretting missing out on the time to drink more. I liked the reminder that it was time to go to bed, and realized even on the first day that bedtime is something that creeps on me out of nowhere. Having the reminder from Sleep As Android that, if I wanted to get my eight hours, that it was time […]
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Apr
14thiControl
There will come a day when I completely combust and lose my shit, but, if there’s some technology around to help me, I’m aiming for that day to be NOT today. My life feels out of control. Between my more-than-full time job, my distance Masters programme, being a good friend, being a better wife, caring for an elderly and very beloved cat, and editing a novel for my agent and keeping up with publisher’s requests, I don’t know when I find time to sleep, let alone breathe. To top it all off, my fancy Samsung phone had broken and had only just been “repaired” and returned, so, with my technological lasso/lifeline, I resynced my watch and decided it was also time to resync my life. There’s an app for that. Mostly because there’s an app for almost anything now. I am going to make changes and give the reins over to my phone, that will push commands to me via my watch, and my life will get more structured and better. Am I crazy? Probably, but the idea of letting “someone else” make decisions for me for a while sounds like bliss. Drinking I am a Coke Zero addict. Once I have one,I have one chug, it rapidly becomes 100 ounces in a day. I sleep with a litre bottle next to my bed and chug from it first thing in the morning. It’s probably bad for me, because most things are, so I’m going to try and replace it with water and, […]
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Oct
23rdGender Blender
I’ll begin by saying that I love the Rocky Horror Picture Show. And, to be fair, I am not a huge fan of remakes. All those facts aside, I have issues with the recent news that Laverne Cox has been tapped to play Frank N’ Furter. As a small tidbit of background, I used to go to Rocky Horror at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. It was a staple of my teens and twenties, and the raucous energy of the 12th Street theatre in New York was intoxicating even on a slow night. I recently got to go to a Rocky Horror viewing party here in Nairobi, where my husband and I were among some of the only people who were actually dressed up. And, bless his heart, I got to fulfill a dream of making up someone as Frank. And it was beautiful. Of course none of the non-Americans in the room had any idea what was going on, and I was literally the only person doing the call backs, but the fact that it’s a film with staying power, that transcends oceans (the host of the party is a huge fan and he’s French), really says something about it. Who would have thought that the cast (mysteriously missing creator Richard O’Brien) would have been on the Today Show forty years later, talking about the anniversary of the film? It’s indicative of how far things have come in society and its embrace of what had previously been considered “fringe” culture. Much to my […]
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Oct
12thThe Silent Sadness
This post isn’t for you. But if I don’t buck up and talk about my feelings, they will literally consume me, and the only reason I haven’t talked about them is because no one does. It was a beautiful, happy week. I had friends visiting from Dubai and Doha. Every day, my house felt full, and vibrant, and excited. These three friends had never been to Kenya before, and were absolutely enchanted, having just come back from the Masai Mara and having seen the great migration firsthand. And, after months of trying, I had just discovered I was pregnant. Funnily, I had only taken the pregnancy test to exclude it from my self-diagnosis of exhaustion, nausea, and fatigue. But just the morning I’d taken the test, it was confirmed by doctors at the urgent clinic. My husband was over the moon, and I was…processing the experience. I hadn’t expected it; I was in shock. I have a challenging, intense job in a rigorous career track. I am writing a book. I am in graduate school. I have pleasantly complicated interpersonal relationships. We told his mother, and mine. Everyone was excited. We couldn’t help but tell our house guests. they were excited. Ever a knowledge hound, I took to googling what I should and shouldn’t eat, what I needed to stop, what was best for me, and for whatever this little thing inside me was going to be. The knowledge acquisition was the most exciting part, and slowly, I started accepting what […]
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Mar
28thGirls in Gaming: Finding a Role that Doesn’t Require a Costume
Cosplayers Left & Right, Geek girls have an awkward place in the nerd society. We’re the minority in a primarily male-driven pasttime, and, as our numbers have grown, there have been some conflicts brought to light that are not new, but are newly publicized. In my mind, the idea of the Fake Geek Girl and the Cosplay Consent issues go hand in hand. For years, gaming companies have used the idea of “HEY BOYS, BOOBS!” to lure gamers over to their booths or to buy their games. Girls, how many cons have you been to where companies hire models and put them in Slave Leia costumes and send them out into the aisles with the sole purpose of bringing <s>men</s> customers back to the stall? “Booth Babes” are a common tactic and it’s only recently that certain cons have forbidden their use. Are guys probably inappropriate with Booth Babes? Lewd and awkward? You bet. But those girls were paid, essentially, to be leered at, so, like women in other ogle-intending-industries, they probably just grin and bear it. It’s these girls that I think of when I think of “Fake Geek Girls” — they’re not at the con because they love Saga or love Bioshock or love Neil Gaiman (though they might anyway). They’re there because they’re being paid. For female gamers and nerds, having paid models in costume is frustrating because it feels like a gender-based double standard. Sure, male nerds found a niche where they are allegedly valued for […]
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Feb
10thChocolate Chip Ginger Cookies
THINGS YOU’LL NEED 1 cup butter, softened 1 cup Splenda .5 cup dark molasses 2 eggs 3 teaspoons vanilla extract 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons hot water 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips 1 TBSP ground ginger Yields about 30 cookies Preheat oven to 350°. Cream together the butter, Splenda and molasses until smooth Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and ginger. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans. Bake for about 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.
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Feb
10thChicken Pot Pie from Scratch
So here’s what you’re gonna need: about 2.5 pounds of skinless boneless chicken breast, chopped into ~1 inch cubes 2 cans of chicken broth 1 can condensed cream of broccoli soup 1 can condensed cream of celery soup ~14 ounce can of cut green beans ~14 ounce can of corn kernels ~14 ounce can of sweet peas ~7 ounce can of carrots ~4.5 cups of dry hearty egg noodles FOR THE CRUST: stick of butter 2 cups of biscuit-making powder (I used Jiffy) 1.5 cups of milk SPICES: oregano cayenne pepper basil rosemary sea salt Preheat oven to 350°. Take your egg noodles and put them in boiling water for about 5-7 minutes Drain all of the cans of vegetables. Combine everything into a big mixing bowl except the ingredients for the crust, including the egg noodles that you’ve boiled and drained Spice quantities: 2 TBSP Rosemary 1 TBSP Basil .5 TBSP Oregano .5 TBSP Sea salt .5 TBSP Cayenne Pour chickeny goodness into a 9×13″ baking dish that you’ve greased. You’ll likely have extra fixings so we just made a second mini-casserole too Melt the butter. Mix it with the biscuit stuff and the milk until it’s smooth. Slowly pour it over the top of your chickeny goodness that’s in the dish Cook for an hour. Delicious!
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Nov
2ndAutomatic Autoharp: Post OneI’m going to teach myself to play the autoharp by learning a new song every week and practicing it until I can perform it on video. My first week is Dream a Little Dream of Me. My favorite version is by Mama Cass of The Mamas and the Papas. Primary chord transitions are C to B7, A to A-flat, and a G-m to G-7 to C quickie please feel free to suggest a song for next week!
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Nov
2ndThe Last Hurrah of Sad Bananas
Several months ago, APK had some sad bananas, and instead of throwing them away, I decided to pull out his copy of The Joy of Cooking and make some banana bread. I was on a baking spree! The Joy of Cooking recipe was woefully lacking any sort of spices or flavorings or anything, so I indiscriminately added spices and have made several banana breads since, trying to duplicate my original banana magic. And now I have! Do you have sad bananas? Two or three? Here’s a great way to give them a last hurrah. Preheat oven to 350 ° Bowl One 3/4 teaspoon of salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 4/3 cups of all-purpose flour Whisk these things together. I used a fork. Bowl Two 5 1/3 tablespoons of unsalted butter 2/3 cups of sugar, but I used Splenda I put the butter into the microwave for 30 seconds and it made this process much easier. These two things should be beat together until it is creamy. At first it will seem like little clusters of brown snow, flakey, but eventually it will get smooth. I used a fork, but I’m sure fancy people can use a mixer. Bowl Three 2 eggs, lightly beaten Bowl Four About 3 medium-sized sad bananas, mashed. If you’ve got larger bananas (and don’t ask me what constitutes a “large banana” because you can probably guess), just use 2. Mix together Bowl One and Bowl Two. Once it’s blended, it should be sort […]