Pineapple Shrimp Curry

What do you do when you have nothing to eat, no time or money (cause you are a broke college student and its finals week) and a bunch of random ingredients laying around the kitchen? You get creative and make the best out of being broke. So little heads up, I have no measurements for any of the ingredients because my dad starting teaching me how to cook at a young age and well I was being adventurous and creative... Measurements suffocate creativity haha! Anyways just eyeball the portions and add more or less depending on what you favor. Anyways here is the recipe, in a cast iron skillet saute thinly cut celery and carrots (ceramic knives are excellent for this task), onions and garlic. Let that cook down a bit before adding corn (frozen or canned is fine) and precooked shrimp (mine was frozen but fresh is ok too). Next add lemon juice, black pepper, salt, pineapple and any juice from the cutting board (cut into bite sized chunks), if you don't have any fresh pineapple you can use canned, but try to not get the syrupy kind. Let that cook down a bit, then add a generous amount of normal curry powder and again let it cook down until no longer watery and full cooked. I put it on top of a multi-grain rice that I got from a local Asian market and then topped it off with a handful of thinly cut green cabbage. The multi-grain rice adds a nice texture and the green cabbage adds a nice crisp crunch plus it makes it look kind of pretty.

This is the finished product, let me assure you its as good as it looks! & that ladies and gentlemen is the ramble.

Curious things to ponder:

1) what is in a name? Not like the whole Shakespeare name thing, but rather how did super get his name super man, why is batman batman? just because he likes black and bats? Hawk girl isn't really a hawk and a girl, just a girl with wings, and the Green Lantern isn't really a lantern he is a black man, what makes William Wallace so much more brave than any other brave man that he gets brave in his name? Was Abraham Lincoln the most honest man to ever live? Probably not, yet he is known as Honest Abe. Why am I constantly called Sweet Emaleigh and Sweet M. People don't even know that's what other people call me and that is what they call me. But why? What makes me sweeter than any other that I should be called and introduced as Sweet Emaleigh? Why am I described as sweet, kind, genuine, wide eyed, old fashion, something from a story book, a little hun, pure, innocent, and gullible?
2) Why does it pour when it rains?
3) Why does chocolate have to have so many calories?
4) Why do people worry about me so much? Given I have my fair share of medical problems but I am a big girl, I can take care of myself... Ok I am not a big girl, I am a very short girl whose feet can fit into kids shoes but I am an adult after all... I can look after myself.
5) Why is a damsel in distress so attractive to guys, and why do they want to be the knight in shining armor
 so badly?
6) Why don't I like avocados unless I am craving them, and then I prefer Florida avocados to the regular kind?
7) What makes a perfectly wonderful guy look at a normal girl and think that she must be some sort of pure angel, to be put on a pedestal? & that he needs her to make him a better person? I mean as endearing as that is, being way up there on a pedestal can be awfully lonely, not to mention sooner or later she is bound to fall... & then what?! No, it is much better to put her smack dab beside him, to work together, to grow, and build together.
8) Why can't it be true that if you eat the ice cream out of the container then it doesn't have any calories?
9) How can things be perfectly fine one moment and then horribly wrong the next?
10) Why do I dislike any candy that tastes artificial except for skittles?
11) How are you supposed to live life to the fullest if you have to slave away to afford living?
12) Why don't people say what they mean and mean what they say?
13) Why don't we tell people what they mean to us, how much we love them, while we still have them here with us?
14) Why is silence so deafening?
15) Why to we keep secrets?
16) Why is it so scary to tell someone how much they mean to us, how much we love them?
17) Why is it so hard to be happy?
18) Why is it so easy to fall in love but so hard to feel loved?
19) Why is it so hard to lose weight?
20) Why don't I just run away from all life stresses and troubles and find a find a nice little cottage by a pond some where in the middle of nowhere? Maybe with a weeping willow tree next to it....
21) How can you go by without seeing someone for months, and then they die and the world seems so empty without them?
22) What makes someone naive?
So many curious things to ponder... & the list just grows by the minute... & that ladies and gentlemen is the ramble

One of a Kind

Still inspired & full of more things to say about yesterdays post, but not wanting to unleash anymore of my fury against the education system (to which I had another upset about today) or my on current education position, I have decided to go in a similar but different direction lol. It is that despite our learning abilities and/or disabilities as some call them, no one is truly "common" to the core. We are all different, all unique, and all individuals not to be categorized and put in a box.
 I have green eyes, the rarest of all only 1-2% in the entire population have green eyes. My eyes can change colors, only 10-15% of the populations eyes can. On the Myers-Briggs Personality Test I scored an INFJ personality, that is the rarest type making up less than 1% of the population. I am 23 but have the mental maturity of a 57 year old. I am 5'2", 20.8% of girls my age are that height. I have a genetic blood disease that is estimated to affect 1%-2% of the population. I have a chronic pain condition, that was induced by trauma to the nerves in my foot, to this day very little is known about it. When writing this I could only find stats on how many suffer from it for the country in England (1 in 4,000). All this took me less than 10 minutes to discover the stats for, and this doesn't even begin to cover half of what makes me me, or who I am.
In this world everything is analyzed, everything is categorized. But no one is the exact same as the other, you can't categorized a person in their entirety. Why? Because "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you." -Psalm 139:13-18

Disabled or Enabled, Classify Me.

In this world we live in today, it seems like we have to put everything in a box and say this is like that, therefore it is that. We do this with organizing our houses, our gardens, our workplace, and even the people surrounding us. Choosing which to invest in, which to prioritize and which to improve in. Levels of each vary depending on what it is, and our own way of calculating these things, which can be from emotions, intuition, history, previous examples we use as references, statistics, critical thinking and analysis, etc. The point is, every time someone makes a decision, they do so in a different way than any other person in the world, and no person makes a decision in the same exact way every time. Yet we continue to categorize people, as if we are all the same.

 I think differently, and see the world differently than most people, so I am told I have learning disabilities. School has always been difficult for me, because teachers teach in one way, the way they always have taught, but I don't learn like that, so on an assignment that takes the "average student" a hour to do, it will take me at least 2 hours to do. I don't see things the way others do, so after class I have to go back through the materials and pick and dissect the content until I understand the meaning of it, but even then I usually will place importance on different factors, do the assignment in a differing way than others, and understand the methodology in ways others do not. So I am disabled. Growing up I didn't have recess, because I had special tutoring, I got horrible grades even if I worked twice as hard as my classmates on the assignment because I could not conform to the common way of seeing and doing things, I learned differently, and at a different pace than my peers. I grew up ashamed of being dyslexic (& of course I am different in this too, because instead of flipping back and front like most do, I look at the middle of a word, then the back and then the front), of having to take medicine at school to help me pay attention and concentrate because of my ADD, and fully aware of all my inabilities and shortcomings. I literally had one of my "special teachers" whose job it was to help me overcome my speech impediment, dyslexia, and learning disabilities tell me that I would "never amount to anything" and that she didn't even think that I would graduate high school. Guess what? I did. Not only did I graduate, but I graduated with honors having almost a 4.0 GPA, and went on to college, being part of the honors program there. I will graduate in a year. But I am disabled. 

Alexander Graham Bell, Napoleon Bonaparte, Richard Branson, Erin Brockovich, Terry Bradshaw, Cher, Agatha Christie, Tom Cruise, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Benjamin Franklin, Danny Glover, John F. Kennedy, Bill Gates, Whoopi Goldberg, John Lennon, Steve McQueen, Thomas Jefferson, Louis Pasteur, George Patton, Nelson Rockefeller, Jay Leno, Leonardo da Vinci, Robin Williams, Woodrow Wilson. Jules Verne, and George Washington; all these accomplished people have been diagnosed or are believed to have had some form of learning disability. So are they any less than the "common, non-disabled" person? No, they are more, that is why they are great. I found this list (click here for list) by just Googling "list of famous people with learning disabilities" and there are a ton of famous people that I didn't even list who have disabilities. No one can say that these people did not live up to their full potential. No one can say they were good but if they were not hindered by their learning disabilities they could have been great. No one can say that in some way, these people did not impact the world. But they are disabled. Why? Because we are different from everyone else, so that in some way makes us less than everyone else?

The older I have gotten, the more I have come to realized that I have nothing to be ashamed of. I am different, I am unique, I am special. I see things no one else sees, and I learn and think differently than everyone else. That does not mean I am less than anyone else... In fact I think it makes me better. While school has always been and will always be difficult for me, and in school the disabilities do hinder me, its not my fault, its the U.S. education systems fault. Look at the statistics, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2.4 million students, that is 41% of all students are diagnosed with and receive special educational services for their learning disabilities. 2.4 million students, 41%, and what is our educational outcomes? The NCLD reports that:

• Close to half of secondary students with LD perform more than three grade levels below their enrolled grade in essential academic skills (45% in reading, 44% in math).³
• 67% of students with LD graduate from high school⁴ with a regular diploma vs. 74% of students in the general population.⁵
• 20% of students with LD drop out of high school⁶ vs. 8% of students in the general population.⁷
• 10% of students with LD are enrolled in a four-year college within two years of leaving school, compared with 28% of the general population.⁸
• Among working-age adults with LD versus those without LD: 55% vs. 76% are employed; 6% vs. 3% of adults are unemployed; and 39% vs. 21% are not in the labor force partly because of lack of education.⁹

What kind of future outcome is that for the 2.4 million students? Furthermore, if 2.4 million students who are plagued with learning disabilities are the future of the U.S., what kind of future is that for our country? If this generation is made anything like the people I mentioned above, then I think our future looks pretty good. However, there is no excuse for statistics like those, we are not inept of learning, we are not stupid or not capable, we just aren't "common". Although, by making up 41% of the student population, I would say we are pretty "common". But the U.S. education system just categorizes us, puts us into boxes, and sends us out to have additional instruction and additional homework, with our "special teachers". Well here is a revolutionary idea, how about changing the education system, the way we are taught, the way we are supposed to learn, and the standardized testing that ultimately only tells us what we have already been told a million times; "You are disabled, less than your fellow classmates, and unable to be successful in academia, no matter how hard you try." Do that, and then see what kind of future outcomes there are for those 2.4 million students.

George Will once said "The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement." In trying to perfect statistics, and having "No Student Left Behind", the U.S. education system has in fact, left many a students behind, and those that it did not, it has further injured with its standardized testing, scoring, and categorizing. I am fully aware of my capabilities and my inabilities, I am fully aware I think differently than others, I am fully aware that I suck at any type of testing, especially standardized testing, but I am also fully aware that no score the government gives me from a standardized test can define who I am, how intelligent I am, my potential, or my abilities. Furthermore, despite all this, I know that once I get through the "if you want a decent job, and a good future" prerequisite that is a standardized college education, I will be an asset to my employers, a breath of fresh air, and be the source of revolutionary, innovated ways of doing things because I am different. I see things no one else sees. I think differently than others do. When I come to a problem I find a solution no one else has ever thought of, or would ever, because the way I solve it isn't the "common" way. So I will be disabled, I will bask in my disabilities, I will continue to work hard for a good education, and then I will forget about everything a standardized test has ever told me. I will reach my full potential as defined by me, I will be my own success story, and when the time comes that I breathe my last breath, I will be happy with myself, with what I have done, I will go out with my head raised high, and no one, no one will be able to say she could have been so much more if it hadn't been for those learning disabilities that made her unable to be successful. & that ladies and gentlemen is the ramble.

*For further (and interesting) reading, read this article by ABC News

Reuse, Regrow

I hate to throw things out, especially if they can be reused for something else. This does at times worry me that I may become a hoarder one day, but the fact that I also have an OCD personality then reassures me that I could not stand a dirty, cluttered house. Anyways that ramble and rant is for another day. Today is about gardening. The picture above is the latest addition to my already growing garden. Nifty trick that will save you a buck, when starting plants from seeds, instead of buying those horrible tray seedling planters and then having to ever so carefully get the seedling out when transferring them into their permanent home, plant them in egg shells. To keep the egg shells intact when cooking, just tap the top with a butter knife until it cracks and pull off the top bit. From there just put a little soil in the bottom, then your seeds, and then top it off with more soil and water. Because I usually start more than one plant from seeds at a time, I also make sure to mark mine so I know what is what. Today I planted Swiss Chard, Grape Tomatoes, Strawberries, and trying to grow some Blood Oranges from the seeds of some I ate (hopefully not modified to not reproduce and that will grow). Once the seedlings are big enough to replant all you do is plant the whole egg, plant and all into the pot or portion of your garden you have planned to plant it in. As the plant grows, the egg will decompose and simultaneously fertilize the plant. Additional bonus is that you don't start out growing your plant by fertilizing it with all those harsh chemical fertilizers! & that ladies and gentlemen is the ramble.

What would you do for your phone?

How much does your phone mean to you? What would you do to retrieve your phone? If you dropped your phone in the sewer, would you go down the sewer to get it back? That is what this girl did, and to make matters worse she got stuck going down and turns out her phone was broken anyway. Now I joke about my phone controlling my life, I have my entire schedule on it, all my friends and family's contact info (very little of which I actually have memorized), a ton of alarms to wake me up, remind me to leave or do something, and a app to do just about everything else. But at the end of the day, it is a phone. A material possession, made of plastic and metal and well I don't know what else, but everything is replaceable. Throughout my life though I have continually noticed people getting more and more attached to their phones, thinking of it as an extension of their body, and choosing to buy the latest phone with a huge data package and unlimited texting over using the same money for necessities like proper medical care, or healthy food for their family instead of fast food. So what is it about phones that makes it so essential to our lives that we would "die" without one. Not to mention does your 8 year old child really need the latest smartphone so they can be looking at who knows what and talking to complete strangers for all you know?! For centuries people lived without phones and survived. We can too. & that ladies and gentlemen is the ramble.

Good Weather = Good Health

Warm weather in Atlanta today! Finally after what seems like months of cold, wet, dreary weather the sun has come out and it looks like to stay (this time)!  Have you ever noticed how your mood can change after you walk out of the house and the sun is shining, flowers blooming, and birds chirping? Everything seems good right? Or how when you wake up and look outside at the pouring rain and just know that its going to be a long, hard day. Well, in January the Huffington Post published this article The Surprising Ways The Weather Affects Your Health And Well-Being. In this article the author Carolyn Gregoire outlines 8 things to know about how the climate and weather changes can affect you mood, health, and over all well-being; they are:

1) Wintertime can bring you down

2) Extreme weather events contribute to mental health problems

3) Extreme weather can bring out our empathy

4) Day-to-day weather does affect your mood (if it's already a bad one)

5) Violent crime rises with the heat

6) Suicide incidences have been tied to seasonal factors

7) Warm climates have a lower risk of death

8) Temperate weather, happier people?

I know weather affects my mood, but can it really do all that? & that ladies and gentlemen is the ramble.