September 2007 Archives

I've been wondering how things would be if our globe was pictured the opposite of how it is now—Antarctica at the top of the world, Canada and Russia at the bottom. Keep north pointing towards the top of the globe, and south towards the bottom. How has our/my mentality of the world been molded by how I see things laid out on a map, or a globe? Take all of your feelings, whether you're totally aware of them or not, about the north and south and swap them. Here are couple thoughts I've had about it, and some I just came up with:

• The North would have lost the Civil War, and us southerners would be just as thrilled (the Civil war is filled with fun swaps)
• North and South Dakota and Carolina?
• I might feel more distant from Santa's home at the North Pole
• It would be "Down Home Northern Cookin'"
• The majority of modern civilization would be in the South
• I wouldn't think the Southern Hemisphere's weather and seasons were all that weird
• Would people still have seen the boot in Italy, or just a weird shape?
• New England would be the southern peninsula of the US, not Florida

Those aren't really earth shattering… just… different. It's interesting to swap your thinking about something that is so universal (in our little world). Imagine the different take on things had that been the way. One reason I think the North has become the top of the world is only that it is where modern civilizations started. Once they figured out there was more than just their little village, they put themselves in the presumably dominant position - on top. I've never taken any sort of classes that would discuss things like this, but it was just something I was thinking about. Just wanted to share.

It's this easy: make the product easy to open. I'm not talking about certain types of products, I'm talking about all products (though Mother's (pink and white) Circus Animal Cookies are the product that made me write this). It's the worst when you're trying to open something, and not only does it open, eventually, but it opens a little excessively and either rips down the side of the bag, or essentially explodes, making stuff go everywhere. Chips seem to be a popular thing to cause these issues. Electronics are tough, but only the ones those plastic-stamped cases that require either a pair of super tough scissors, or an act of deity to open. I'm aware that some of the products are packaged in a way to either cut down on theft, or to make the product not burst open at some point pre-consumer consumption… but for all the money we spend on these freakin' things, you'd think they could invest at least a little in making the packages more friendly to consumers. Despite the serving size of 6 cookies, I have a ruined bag on my hands, and I'm not willing to let them go bad, just because Mother's can't engineer a decent bag.

Surprise!! I took the liberty to redo the recipe collection. I know that nobody asked me to do it, but I did it anyway. This represents some magical happenings by yours truly to incorporate the recipes into their own publishing system. I spent good time to make sure that the old recipe page(s) would automatically lead to their new home (don't forget to update your bookmarks). If it didn't… well… you got here somehow, so… maybe it actually did work.

You may ask, "Why?" and I would say… "Because.". Previously the recipes where housed in their own database, and weren't really all that easy for me to update (hence my lateness in putting up recipes sometimes). I'm kind of tired of doing that, and I wanted to take advantage of some of the cool features of a publishing system. So here's what you get out of the deal:

• RSS/Atom Feed - Tired of checking to see if I've put up the latest recipes? Subscribe to the feed for the recipes, and you'll know automatically when I put up new ones. Learn about RSS/Atom. I recommend Google Reader. I really like it (or NetVibes)
• Search functions. I tried out a Google Coop search engine for a few days… but I didn't really like it. Sure it fast, but I couldn't go "back" in my browser (thanks to the funky javascript). Kind of annoying. (Plus I, as a site stats lover. couldn't really track my search stats, and I want to know what you as users are searching for so I can hone my site a bit (plus I don't really like ads on my site, like Google did))
• The new system will also hopefully encourage me to edit those recipes to clean them up a bit. Don't keep your fingers crossed on that one—it'll take me a lot of time if I do it
• Print Formatting – I spent the time to make sure these things would print out in an acceptable format. I only know one person with a computer in their kitchen, and it's not me. We all want these things on paper so we can actually use them. Just go ahead and print. It won't look the same when you print it as it does on your screen. Don't believe me? Preview the print job, and see if it looks good to you. Just a little trickery on my part there (it also cuts back on storage for me not having duplicate pages).
• Last but far from least, Comments. To me, food is all about enjoying it with others, and it's nice to be able to leave comments on recipes. Share your thoughts about a recipe, or even ask simple questions. I'm game.

Hopefully you like the new features as well. If so, drop me a line letting me know. I very rarely won't respond, so keep your eyes peeled for that response from me. Happy cooking & eating! :)