Minor Differences

What I *think* I will look like with dreadlocks:

What I *actually* look like with dreadlocks:

Don't worry. I remembered I'm a white girl from suburbia and washed them out : ) But fun for about 20 minutes.

*Also, these were only temporary dreads that I did myself so I didn't spend massive amounts of time or energy on them, in case you were worried.

*And, I kinda like the angle of the first picture of myself. I look like I actually have cheekbones!

Exploding Lakes: Less Fun Than They Should Be

So I was going to write a post complaining about Daylight Saving Time and how I hate the darkness but then I realized that I do that every year and you are probably as sick of hearing about it as I am of having to live with it. And I also promised to write about exploding lakes quite some time ago and as I was reading a little more about them I realized that my first world problems kind of pale in comparison. So I will just say that if you are interested in learning about the cost benefits (or lack thereof) of DST, you can watch this interesting video here.

Now on to the lakes. When you hear the term exploding lake, you might picture something a little like this:

But actually, it looks a little more like this:

Sort of. Those are actually before and after photos of Lake Nyos in Cameroon, one of only three lakes in the world know to have the potential to "explode." There are two others in equatorial Africa and all three are known as limnically active lakes. (That's sciencespeak for "exploding").

What happens in a limnically active lake is that carbon dioxide (CO2) from rotting materials, such as occur at the bottom of a lake, or from another source such as a volcanic vent, dissolves in the deepest coldest layers of the lake. The pressure from all the water on top keeps it there where it builds up and builds up. Eventually the lake gets so saturated with dissolved CO2 that when something disturbs it (like a landslide or an earthquake) it bubbles out of solution and escapes to the surface forming a giant deadly cloud and you get yourself an exploding lake.

This is only known to have happened twice in modern history, both times in the 1980s. The first was at Lake Monoun and the gas cloud that arose from the lake killed 37 villagers and countless livestock in the surrounding area. The second explosion at Lake Nyos was even more deadly, killing between 1,700-1,800 people.

Perhaps the scariest part was that nobody really knew what happened. A giant cloud from the lake descended on the valleys below and everyone in its path lost consciousness. When the survivors awoke they found their neighbors and animals dead and the normally placid blue lake a frothy brown.

The government at first suspected terrorism but the numerous geologists arriving from all over the world put that theory to rest and figured out about the CO2. They also came up with some pretty ingenious solutions to prevent future eruptions. They installed CO2 monitors around the lake attached to alarms and told the villagers that if the alarms ever sounded they needed to get to higher ground as quickly as possible. They also installed a giant straw (basically) in the lake that brings CO2 rich water to the surface so the pressure doesn't keep building up. So far there haven't been any recurrences, though it would likely take quite a while longer for enough CO2 to build up again for another explosion anyway.

You may be wondering what you should do to protect yourself from the body of water nearest to you, but you shouldn't worry. Lakes in areas where the temperature fluctuates throughout the year naturally de-gas themselves. The water at the surface gets colder and heavier and sinks to the bottom, displacing the CO2 saturated water at the bottom and bringing it to the surface where it dissolves into the air. So I guess we should count our blessings that Daylight Saving Time, though annoying, is at least not deadly.

OCD

I was making fun of my mom today because apparently for the past 30+ years of her marriage she has always had to have matching towels for her and my dad. I don't know where I have been all these years but I only recently found out about this quirky little habit of hers when I used one of the new towels she purchased and was informed that I was not to use it again because then she would not have a towel that matched my dads.

I was thinking this was pretty weird but then I started changing my blog background, as you may have noticed. And I spent forever picking out the colors and trying different combinations before I settled on the ones that I did. And only after altering the HTML in blogger did I decide that it still isn't quite right and I am going to have to make more changes.

Which I guess is just to say that I probably shouldn't make fun of my mom's slightly OCD towel issue when I myself have OCD tendencies toward color schemes in blogger. But I still reserve the right to blame her genetics for giving me the OCD tendencies in the first place : )

Also, those posts I told you about are coming, but they just may have to wait until the background is how I want it. Or as close to it as possible. Well see if my OCD wins out again : )

Buddies

Evan and Toby are friends. Even if Toby isn't always sure about this.

Also I promise I will write soon about my trip to Chicago, Exploding Lakes (unrelated), and my new shoes, which are much more interesting than they sound : )

In the meantime I just thought I would let you know I am alive and looking forward to visiting that cute little boy again soon.

Discoveries

So I am probably waaay behind the times here but I have just discovered two awesome new things that I feel the need to share with the world. (My world being kind of small and consisting mainly of the readers of this blog...)

Anyway the first discovery is gummy vitamins for adults! This is great for two reasons. (Well, three if you are an "adult" like me who still has a sweet tooth and likes cheapo candy.) The first reason is that I no longer have to start the day gambling on whether I will yet again gag on a giant horse pill vitamin with a delicious yeast coating. (Really, they should take a cue from Mary Poppins on this one and maybe try a sugar coating. Yeast? Come on!) Instead I just chew on a yummy gummy and swallow it like I do everything else.

The second reason is that a full serving is two gummy vitamins, which is great for me because I no longer have to saw horse pills in half every day. Instead I just take one. See I never take the full dose because really you should be getting the majority of your vitamins and minerals from your diet anyway. But my diet isn't always perfect so I like to take a multivitamin to make up what I miss. So now I just take one gummy vitamin and I'm good to go. No gagging, no chopping, just a little sugar for breakfast. What's not to like : )

The second discovery has to do with that expensive radio/pedometer I purchased a while ago. I still haven't downloaded any music to it because I am cheap and don't want to pay for it but I am also too guilt ridden to download it illegally. But that's ok because now I don't have time for music. I am too busy listening to the Stuff You Should Know podcast!

Some of you may remember a show on the discovery channel called "How It's Made." It was an interesting show detailing how everyday items like bowling balls and snowboards are made. Its only downfall in my opinion was the monotone narration. They needed somebody with a little more oomph to narrate it. Anyway, the show was based on a blog called How Stuff Works that was started by a college professor a few years back. It gradually gained popularity until it was purchased by the Discovery channel and now they produce several podcasts, blogs and the website.

My favorite of these, as I mentioned before, is Stuff You Should Know. It basically consists of two of the site's writers talking about stuff such as how food cravings work (its not your body telling you to get certain nutrients), whether flouridated water is a good idea (maybe not, since flouride is technically a hazardous waste), what happens when you get decapitated (hint, its not as quick an ending as you would think), how fear works, the history of freemasons, and how headhunting worked (that one was a little gross). There are over 300 podcasts already, since they started in 2008, and they release two new ones a week. So I am pretty much set for entertainment for the next little while : )

I think the best part of these podcasts is the chemistry between the two writers. It's pretty much the opposite of the narrator of How It's Made and it makes it really fun to listen to. Anyway, I would highly recommend it and for your convenience the site can be found by clicking here for the blog or here for the general website.

I think if I were wanting to pursue a career as a writer and wasn't opposed to moving to Georgia I might consider applying for a job with them because it would basically involve doing what I already do on this blog only more consistently. (Which is nice for you the reader because if you have a burning question about how something works and I am too slow to answer it you can search for it on their website and chances are they will have a page explaining it.) How cool would it be if your job were to find out about all sorts of interesting stuff and then share it with the world? Awesome.

Anyway, those are my latest discoveries. Hopefully they are as exciting for you as they are for me, though considering my low entertainment threshold I have my doubts. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go learn about how addictions work. I may need help kicking one if these podcasts keep coming : )

Dirty Little Secret

I have a confession. I haven't washed my hair in several months. I stopped using soap for awhile as well but I have picked that up again. (You're welcome) No, I am not in some sick contest to win a year's supply of shampoo or something. In fact I'm not sure I will ever really use shampoo again so it would be a kind of pointless contest for me. No, my dirty little secret all started out as yet another in a long line of experiments.

It started back in January when I read about paleolithic man. He's a guy who decided to eat like our paleolithic (read caveman) ancestors because he figured it was healthier. I think you could argue that either way but he says it works for him and he feels great so more power to him. Anyway, after eating like a caveman he got to thinking and decided to bathe like a caveman too, which meant no soap, no shampoo, no poofy bath sponge. Basically the opposite of a spa. Just water and his dirty little self.

And guess what? He doesn't stink. And his hair isn't greasy! I even saw a picture and it's true, his hair looks perfectly normal. They still haven't invented smellographs so I couldn't tell you if he smells or not but he seems to still have friends so I'm gonna go with he's probably telling the truth.

All of this got me to thinking, so I started doing some research. It turns out there is a bit of a "movement", if you will, toward not using shampoo. It's called the No 'Poo movement and aside from really needing a name change it actually has some merit to it. Your body tends to be pretty self-regulating and shampoo is a fairly modern invention so really it's not a stretch to think that you could live without it.

In fact, the No Pooers say that shampoo is actually bad for your hair and that getting rid of it will make your hair healthier. This is because shampoo is a surfactant, a type of chemical which strips your hair of its natural oils, leaving it dry and brittle. Hence the need for conditioner to put moisture back in it. In fact, conditioner wasn't even invented until after shampoo became popular and basically then as a remedy for the damage shampoo did to your hair. (Fun fact: people actually used to use the excuse "I can't, I'm washing my hair" in all seriousness because shampoo used to be so harsh that you only used it once a week or so and it was a big process.)

As I was reading about the evils of shampoo I was intrigued by all the No Pooers who said that it also made their hair more soft and manageable as well. So I knew it was time for an experiment.

I decided that I would clean my hair and my body using nothing but the mechanical power of my hands.

That lasted less than 24 hours, during which time I felt so gross I showered twice. The No-Pooers had warned that the first week or two without shampoo your hair would get really greasy but that if you toughed it out it would all be worth it in the end. So I thought maybe I should give it another go. Several websites suggested slowly "detoxing" from shampoo by using baking soda for the first few days. It scrubs the grease out without stripping your hair. So I decided to go for it. And thinking that I would probably need to employ the baby step method for "detoxing" from soap I decided I would start by not using soap on my legs. Then I would gradually work my way up until soap was a thing of the past.

Well, the no soap on the legs was fine. I was actually surprised that I didn't cut myself shaving more often but no problems there. So I kept it up until eventually I wasn't using soap at all. And you know what? I didn't stink. In fact, parts of me that were particularly smelly before, that I expected to stink more, turned out to smell better than when I was using soap. Counter intuitive, no?

As for the baking soda...well...it worked. Sorta. My hair did feel clean but holy static! You'd think I rubbed my head on a thousand balloons a day! Ah, but the No-Pooers foresaw this and were ready with a recommendation: Vinegar.

Now, let me tell you something about vinegar. It stinks. This is true after it comes out of the refrigerator or the cupboard. And it is even more true when you pour it onto your head in a hot shower and it combines with the steam to create a deathly choking vinegar cloud. Talk about chemical warfare. I had to crack the window and stick my head halfway out just to be able to breathe. Forget stripping your hair, at least shampoo doesn't burn your lungs!

But for some odd reason I was bound and determined to see this experiment through. Probably because I am lazy and cheap and the thought of never having to buy shampoo again was pretty tantalizing for someone of my inclinations. So I went back to the No-Pooers to see if they could recommend something besides vinegar, preferably something not in the condiments line. And they did have something: Lemon Juice.

If I was concerned about vinegar I was doubly apprehensive about lemon juice. I have some not very fond memories of cold lemon juice being poured on my head after my hair had turned green from too much time spent in swimming pools. (It wasn't until years later that it even occurred to me that we could have warmed it up a bit in the microwave. Duh!) But I decided it couldn't be worse than a vinegar bomb so I gave it a shot.

And the results were pretty good. My hair felt and looked pretty normal. No more grease or static than with shampoo. So I kept it up. And have continued with it since February. And will probably continue with it indefinitely.

My reasons for doing so are mostly economical and not because it worked wonders on my hair. It is pretty much the same as it has always been. The one exception is when I curl it. My hair is naturally wavy so it can hold a curl if I use lots of product and scrunch it up a lot, etc. But I did notice that after using the baking soda and lemon juice it holds curl much better and with significantly less effort on my part. (part, ha ha). So I like it better than shampoo for that reason.

Like I said before though, I did go back to using soap. This was mostly because I have always used a moisturizing soap anyway so my skin was never as dry as it can get with regular soap. So I didn't notice much of a difference between using soap and not using soap and since I like the smell I figured I would keep using it. (In fact, I always wondered why they don't make men's colognes that smell like soap. Waaaay better than musk, and don't even get me started with Axe. Blech. ) But I still don't use it on my more odiferous areas because weirdly I smell better if I don't. Can't quite figure that one out.

Anyway, I may eventually get to the no shampoo, no shampoo substitutes stage but for now I am pretty comfy with my baking soda and lemon juice routine. I can get a giant box of baking soda for less than $3 and a bottle of lemon juice for the same, but the lemon juice gets diluted so its even cheaper. I don't have to spend time on the shampoo isle analyzing the latest products and smelling every bottle to see which scent I like best. I don't have to feel guilty about spending too much money on a salon brand specialty shampoo and I don't have to deal with the irritation of having the shampoo run out before the conditioner does. (Why!?! I use both in the same amounts so how do they not even out? I think they must be in cahoots with the socks lost from dryerland. Grrr.)

So that's my latest experiment. If you want to recreate it for yourself the basic instructions are as follows: Put an amount of baking soda about the size of a large grape in your hands then scrub it through your hair, especially your scalp and the crown of your head. Rinse. Put two tablespoons of lemon juice and a cup of water into a squirt bottle and spray it on the length of your hair (you can put a little on the roots and scalp, but mostly focus on the rest of your hair.) Rinse. Dry and style as normal. Ta-Da!

I would love to give you more information about this subject but I'm afraid I can't, I'm washing my hair. Oh wait...

A Dearth of Posts, A Deluge of Definitions

So because I am a dork I am very excited about my latest investment, which is a dictionary. (Actually, my latest investment is an ipod but have I downloaded a single song on it yet? No. I have essentially been using it as a very expensive radio and pedometer. Sigh) But the dictionary? It's practically dog-eared, and I bought it new.

Ok, thats an exaggeration, but I have been using it quite a bit. I didn't think I would use it all that much, because I tend not to read things that are over my head, but since I have been keeping it close to the books I am reading I find myself more apt to look up the definitions of words that I don't know. Even words that I thought I knew. Like cataclysmic. I use that word all the time but if I had to pin down it's exact definition I would be hard pressed to come up with it. But thanks to my trusty Oxford American Dictionary I can now define it as a violent upheaval or disaster. Here are a few other fun definitions that I have found:

Penury: poverty

Colliery: a coal mine (did we really need another word for that?)

Baize: the green felt on a pool table ( I didn't even know that had a name!)

Tam-O-Shanter: one of those Scottish beret looking hats with a pom-pon on top that golfers wear (and yes, it is pom-pon)

Soporific: causing drowsiness or sleep (which I'm sure this post is likely doing to many of you)

Gamine: a girl with an attractively boyish appearance (Uh...what?)

Punnet: one of those green plastic baskets that raspberries are sold in (not to be confused with Punnett of square fame)

Agapitic: kind, unconditional love

Muscovite: a person from Moscow

Weft: the threads on a weaving loom that go up and down (The ones that go side to side have a name too but I forget it)

I also recently learned that English is one of very few languages that uses a thesaurus. I always assumed that every language had a thesaurus but no. English is kind of unique in that sense because it is rather old and has incorporated a lot of words from other languages and dialects. This is why the dictionary is so big and why we have need of a thesaurus. Pretty cool. Or neat, awesome, boss, keen, swell, etc., etc.

Anyway, while you digest that I am going to go grab my pricey radio-pedometer and head out. Because the dog won't walk himself.

New Job, New Rule, New Animal

Ok so there really isn't a new animal, but it rounded out the title. I will tell you about some animals but lets get to the other stuff first.

So I finally got a job in my field! Hurray!! I am now employed full time as a Family Service Specialist with Mountainland Head Start. I get real people wages, health insurance, and the satisfaction of knowing that I am helping people. Also lots of stress and confusion for the first few weeks, but I'll get through it : ) Basically I work with the families of kids who are enrolled in Head Start making sure their needs and the needs of their child are met. So it's kind of like social work in a sense. I also enroll new kids in the program and conduct basic health screenings like blood pressure, height, weight, etc.

So far it has been pretty good. Lots of stress in figuring out the specifics and what is required of me, but I think it will really help me determine what direction I want to go in the future. When I graduated USU I was pretty sure I wanted to go to grad school to become a Physician Assistant. I haven't ruled that out yet but I am also keeping my options open and figuring out what the best fit for me will be.

So that is the new job. As for the new rule it is this: Boys are no longer allowed to make fun of girls for trying to do things for themselves that people don't teach them how to do because they are girls. For example: When I am trying to put air into a flat tire on a car and struggling to get the hose nozzle onto the valve on the tire because it is so deflated it has sunk inside the hubcap, you are not allowed to make fun of me for not knowing that the hubcap can be removed for easier access. Guess what? Nobody ever told me that! Because I'm a girl and nobody teaches girls about cars except maybe to change a flat tire. So when I try to educate myself by experimenting you can either keep your mouth shut or help me learn. In return, I will not make fun of you when you turn the oven to broil to cook a pizza, wonder why the dryer won't start when the lint trap is overflowing, or try to iron a silk shirt on a cotton setting. Deal?

(As a side note, I think there should be a class for girls specifically dealing with how cars work and how to conduct basic maintenence. I have just recently begun learning how an internal combustion engine works and it is interesting stuff. It makes me wonder what else I could have learned long ago had somebody expected me to learn it. But alas, nobody has great expectations for girls in regards to automechanics. Also, while we are offering classes, I think there should be a a set of classes required for basic life skills like managing money, understanding insurance, and what the heck a 401k is. I was marveling the other day at how bad some people are at managing their money when it dawned on me that money management isn't a part of puberty. It's not something that just comes to you with age. So I really shouldn't be surprised that some mid-lifers really suck at finances. )

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, which since we have covered new job and new rule is new animal. Like I said, the animal isn't new but it may give you a new take on an old one.

This is an Opossum:

And this is a Possum:

You will notice that the Possum is significantly cuter than the Opossum. At least in my opinion.

I was reading a book set in Australia the other day and they mentioned that Possums are marsupials, which came as a surprise to me because I thought that Australia had the market on marsupials. They generally do, with over 70% of species being found in or around Australia, but South America has a few as well, and North America has one: the Opossum.

Now, you may be wondering, as was I, why the "O". The word Opossum comes from the Native American (Algonquian) word apasum, meaning white animal. Like a lot of words in English it got Anglicized to Opossum but most people pronounce it possum. This was the case with Captain Cook's botanist who called the animal he saw in Australia a possum because he thought they looked alike. I think he had been at sea too long. Either that or he mistook another animal for the American Opossum, because trust me, once you have seen a dead Opossum with its snout curled back around it's razor sharp teeth you don't soon forget it. *Shiver*

So, now you know about the new job and the new rule and have a new perspective on two animals. And as an added bonus you now have a redeeming quality about Australia, as I promised earlier: their possums are cuter than ours.

Dingos Eat Babies and Post Office Boxes Eat Mail

I was thinking the other day about that line from Seinfeld in which Elaine says to a friend "maybe the dingo ate your baby." I think most people have heard that line, even if they have never seen an episode of Seinfeld. But I don't think most people know the real story behind it. Well, here is your chance! (Though be warned that it is a pretty sad story.)

It comes from a landmark murder trial in Australia involving a woman named Lindy Chamberlain. She and her husband, a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor were on a weekend camping retreat thing with their 3 children at Uluru (Aka Ayers Rock, aka that giant red rock in the middle of the outback that you may remember from such films as The Rescuers Down Under. At least that's where I first saw it. Unless maybe it was featured in a terrifying film I also watched in my childhood called Fortress about the kidnapping of an Australian Kindergarten class. True story also but that's a story for another day, after I complete therapy from the effects of watching said film as a 6 year old.)

Anyway, Uluru is located just under the bird's beak here.

So sometime during this camping trip Mrs. Chamberlain left her 2 month old daughter Azaria asleep in the tent. She was only gone for about 10 minutes but when she came back the baby was gone, apparently taken by a dingo. Police conducted a massive search and found some of the baby's clothes and evidence that she had been killed but they never recovered the body.

You would think that would be the end of a sad story about the dangers of wild animals but police then went on to charge Mrs. Chamberlain with the murder of her daughter. No big deal, right? I mean, people don't go to jail in America when their kids are killed by bears so why should this be any different? Unfortunately for Mrs. Chamberlain she was convicted and sentenced to life in prison! She actually gave birth to her fourth child, a girl, while in prison.

Fortunately there is a slight upside to the story. After 4 years in prison a piece of clothing belonging to baby Azaria was found buried near a dingo's lair, which more or less proved that the dingo really did eat the baby and Mrs. Chamberlain was released from prison. Her conviction was later overturned.

Her story was later turned into a movie starring Meryl Streep called "A Cry in the Dark," which played several times on TV as the Saturday afternoon movie, which is where I first saw it as a kid (along with a whole host of B-grade movies). This is why when I first heard the line "maybe the dingo ate your baby" I thought it was slightly odd and wondered if there was a connection. Sure enough there is. And now you know too, which may ruin the line for you from now on. Sorry :(

Seems like everything I know about Australia is a bit less than inviting, unless you happen to find blue earthworms fascinating, which of course I do. But otherwise you have all sorts of deadly animals, crazy kidnappings and baby-eating dingos to contend with. I will have to see what sort of other redeeming qualities I can find about it to post later, so as to not give you the wrong impression of a very interesting continent.

In other news, and just so that you know that I do occasionally turn off the TV and get out of the house I think that we need to redesign post office drop boxes. I was walking to the post office the other day to mail some bills and after I dropped them in the box I sort of started panicking. The reason for this was that I felt like I had just put something very important into a trash can. A trash can with a welded on lid from which I could not retrieve said bills and could be charged with a federal crime for attempting to do so. I managed to calm myself down and remember that even if I had forgotten a stamp or mislabeled it it would kindly be returned to my house by a postal worker until such time as I could be a responsible adult and correctly learn to use the postal system.

Still, it got me thinking. It seems like there are only two instances where you insert things into a receptacle and don't get anything in return. These are the trash and the post office box. In every other instance you get some sort of product or confirmation when you insert something. Vending machines take money and give you candy. Gas pumps take money and give you gasoline. ATMs take cards and give you cash. They even give you your card back eventually. So it seems to me that the same should happen with post office drop boxes. They ought to dispense some sort of evidence that your important documents are safely houses within the confines of its dark blue interior. It doesn't even have to be a receipt per se. It could be a small paper with your fortune printed on it. That would make the prospect of going to the post office much more fun I think. Even a little blinking light would help. Just something to let you know that you are not crazy when your heart suddenly drops into your stomach after inserting your mail.

And in that vein, since you have invested your time and brain power into reading this post I would like to present you with the following token of appreciation and acknowledgement: Your many hidden talents will become obvious to those around you. Have a nice day.

A Proposal

From me to you:

Yes you, the Greatest Spokesman in the World. You are just my type: Tall, Skinny, and Dorky. You make me laugh. You love your job at Nationwide Insurance and your enthusiasm is contagious. It makes me want to be enthusiastic in everything I do! And the cute dimples don't hurt either. Yes, I think we were meant to be together. And I am sure that if I call for a quote and then ask you to marry me you wouldn't think it was too forward. In fact, you would think it would be the greatest idea ever! We could be Mr. and Mrs. Nationwide and live happily ever after with our vanishing deductible. What do you say?

Perhaps this is a sign that I watch too much tv or that my love life is, as ever, dry as a desert. That is all true, but I think that if you were to try to come up with the ideal person for me you couldn't come much closer than this. Although Lacey told me once that I should marry this guy:

Yes, that's Numa Numa Guy. He definitely hits the dorky category but he could stand to work on the tall and skinny category. Then again, so could I. So maybe if things don't work out with Mr. Nationwide I could become Mrs. Numa instead. That has a nice ring to it. And a ring would be nice : )

The World is Awesome

Did you know that this:

actually exists? In that color? Naturally? And nowhere near a toxic waste dump either. It actually lives in a very specific part of Australia and is pretty rare. They sometimes get dug up when new roads are being constructed or after heavy rain. It's an earthworm, in case you weren't sure, and no, it is not the only unusual earthworm in Australia.

This is a Giant Gippsland Earthworm and it regularly grows to be 10 feet long. The longest one ever recorded was 14 feet!! They also live in a very specific area of Australia (but not the same one as the blue worms) but similar worms are found in other areas of the world. (Anyone want to help me excavate my backyard?) Anyway, all this is just to say that the world is awesome. Just thought you should know.