hummingcrow: one squall voice » New Year

Resolution

cherylcolan — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 05:04:33 +0000

My last video of 2007. I’ve done it. I’ve posted a video every day since the start of NaVloPoMo! Two whole months! Ok, I’ve got nothing on Rox, this is true. But I exceeded what I thought were my limits. Makes me wonder what else I can do! So. I will vlog on. Maybe not every day, but every week at minimum. And I’ll do my best to be a better person.

What I Learned in 2007

cherylcolan — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 06:38:16 +0000

I learned more than this. But these were the highlights I thought of while reflecting today. You’ll notice cuts, but all I cut out were the many long ums and uhs.

I want to thank my NaVloPoMo pals for being my teachers during the month of November. I learned too many things to list! Heath taught me to open up, and Bekah taught me to make no-knead bread, and Croma taught me to trust my eye, and David Howell taught me that I can change my agenda whenever I damn well please, and Ru taught me not to smack myself around so much, and GoGen taught me baby fingers can be dangerous, and Valdez taught me to sleep less, and I taught me to fear less, and, and, and – I can’t name them all, folks, but it was such a privilege!

what up, new media?

cherylcolan — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 03:34:55 +0000

I now present an opportunity for an organic conversation. I’m sure it will get me into trouble, and I’m very sure I haven’t expressed myself to the best of my ability. But if I wait to do it right or perfectly, it’ll never happen. And while this video is mostly saying what I don’t like right now, I do believe in “be the change you want to see in the world.” So I’m going to find a way to put my vlog where my mouth is, and launch a new project early in 2008.

Comments and video responses welcome. Talk to me.

Keep it in context, too. Check out the sites I mentioned:

new year’s resolution: mayonnaise

cherylcolan — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 04:22:45 +0000

This vlog shows you my first attempt at making my own mayo, and gives you the recipe in case you would like to try it yourself.

Almost every mayonnaise on the market is encased in plastic, and I’m sick of it. My husband is the type of person who keeps a spare of everything. We always have one jar of mayo in the fridge, and one in the pantry. Over the last year we have watched our choices of brand diminish as more and more of them switch to plastic jars.

We bought some mayonnaise in a plastic jar exactly once, when we had no other choice in the grocery store. By the time it went from our pantry to the fridge, three weeks tops, it had gone bad. It smelled, well, wrong, and we dared not eat it. Now, the only place I can get mayonnaise in glass jars is the local organic or health foods stores, where it is approximately twice the cost of regular grocery stores, at least here in my neighborhood.

Glass is better for two huge reasons. First, it isn’t permeable like plastic, and your mayo won’t go bad, at least not in the next several years. Second, you can reuse the glass jar for a long time, and then you can readily recycle it. (Phoenix only recycles #1 and #2 plastics, and not all plastic food containers are accepted.)

So one of my resolutions this year is to drop out of the mayo market. I am no longer a mayonnaise consumer. I am a mayonnaise creator.

Oh, and in keeping with another new year’s resolution, this video is compressed using the h.264 codec using the multi-pass setting, as per Freevlog‘s latest screencast. It’s still iPod compatible, and I can do it from my MacBook Pro.

Happy New Year, everyone!