Vegan powers---activate!!

Hello, fellow internet dwellers! Life has been rather interesting lately. I've been hopping back and forth between school and my hometown, visiting friends and also volunteering at school since I am between summer class sessions right now. I also just finished reading the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels because a) they sounded awesome and b) I wanted to read them before the movie comes out. They were hilariously awesome and I 150% recommend them!

If you are not familiar with the Scott Pilgrim story, let me give you the basics which will lead me to the main point of this blog entry. Scott Pilgrim is a 23 year old Canadian slacker dude who plays in a band and falls in love with this girl Ramona. Ramona has 7 evil exes, as in ex-boyfriends (mostly), who Scott has to fight and defeat in order to keep dating Ramona. One of the evil exes is named Todd Ingram, and his superpowers come from the fact that he is....wait for it.....a vegan!!

BAHAHAHA!!! The reason I found this so funny is because about a month ago I read this book:



It is called "The Kind Life" and was written by the actress Alicia Silverstone, notably of "Clueless" fame. Half the book consists of literature/her personal story chronicling the health benefits of becoming a vegan or even of becoming a "superhero" (that's right, get it now? lol) by following a macrobiotic diet. The other half is recipes, which are (obviously?) all vegan.

One of the reasons that I read the book is that my awesome friend Holly (find her blog at http://meatlesswithmia.blogspot.com) recommended it to me. About a year ago (can't believe it's been that long!) we made the cupcake recipe from this book and it was SO good!! Completely vegan, i.e. no animal products involved, and they were SUPER delicious!! Most of you know that I am a (mostly) vegetarian who occasionally eats a hamburger or a steak (maybe once a month at most), but you may not know that I am super seriously considering becoming vegan for the following reasons...

Now, this next part might get a little personal and health-related, so if you're not one to be into topics that might be considered "too much information" you may want to skip the next paragraph...lol

Reason 1: personal health

I have never been a huge fan of eating meat. Like I said above, I'll have a burger or even a steak every now and then, but texture in food really affects me and I very much dislike the texture of meat. Despite this I do eat lots of food made with animal products, such as cookies, bread, cakes, muffins, ice cream, and most notably, cheese, usually accompanied by macaroni (lol). Unfortunately over the past 3-4 years I have noticed that animal foods, mostly dairy, have been giving me extreme stomach cramps and unusual....bathroom events, we'll leave it at that. These cramps and other symptoms have been getting worse and worse and worse, and I have also gained some weight which is bad for my back (a whole different story, but suffice it to say I have a herniated disc and being even a little bit overweight is not good). So, as a personal experiment, I followed Alicia Silverstone's suggestions and noticed an IMMEDIATE improvement to these symptoms. Because of this, I have decided (even though it may be hard for me!) to try to go vegan!

Reason 2: animals' health

I'm not going to get all preachy, but we all know that there are some less than ideal conditions in many factory farms and it pains me to know that any animal is being mistreated. I DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT condemn anyone for eating meat, I don't necessarily even think that it's wrong, but I would be lying if I didn't acknowledge that this is another part of the reason why I have decided to give up meat and other animal foods for good.

So there you have it! I will probably blog some more about recipes I try, any health benefits I enjoy, etc. etc. I highly recommend "The Kind Life" if you want to learn more about the benefits of a vegan and/or macrobiotic diet, as Alicia Silverstone does a great job of presenting her case without seeming like one of those crazy paint-throwing PETA activists, lol. Maybe I'll even get some crazy vegan telekinetic powers, just like Todd Ingram!!! hahaha :)

Library Math

There are many ways that math shows up in the world around us. For example, take a look at this:



I know, I know. Just from that sentence and picture you're thinking to yourself "Jess? Is that you? YOU DON'T MATH! WHO HAS YOU KIDNAPPED?!?" lol. And the best part is, that isn't even the entire equation! Here's the tail end:



Now to you folks who actually know math and stuff, this probably doesn't look like much. But when one of my professors earlier this summer put this on the board during a lecture I was like "I'm done for!" Surprisingly, this formula was actually pretty easy to understand once it was explained.

These mysterious equations are what is known in the library cataloging/bibliography world as a collational formula. Perhaps you are familiar with the term "collate" or "collated" when it comes to printing? The collational formula is a set way for bibliographers or catalogers to describe a book's physical contents in terms of # of pages, # of "signatures" or groups of pages, and some other factors. Let me break it down for ya'll.

Part 1: The beginning.



The "pi" symbol is used in place of what are called "unsigned leaves." Maybe you have opened a book before and seen blank pages at the beginning? Pi and the number "attached" to it indicate the number of "unsigned" leaves (or pages) at the beginning of the book. It is important to note that there could be things written on the pages; what is meant by "unsigned" is that most old, hand printed books had letters and numbers at the bottom of the pages so that printers and bookbinders would know what order the pages went in. But, since title pages, table of contents, etc. sometimes say the number of pages or page number where something appears in the book, they had to be printed LAST not first, which is why they were unsigned. I hope that made sense. Then the small letters a-c indicates pages/signatures that have been signed with these lowercase letters; again, these pages are likely a table of contents, list of illustrations, preface, forward, author's note, etc. etc.

Part 2: The text itself!




The A-K and K-U and U-Z indicate something interesting to note about hand printed books. As I mentioned before, printers had to have a way to indicate the order in which the signatures, or tiny groups of pages, would be stacked and then sewn together by bookbinders. They used the alphabet, "numbering" the bottoms of pages beginning with the capital letter A1 (usually; every printer had their own system, though). Then you will see A2, A3, A4, etc., usually until the fold or middle of the signature. Think of a signature like this: imagine a small stack of regular old computer paper, let's say 3 pages. If you folded that small stack in half you would then be able to "number" the pages A1, A2, etc., but ONLY on the FRONT of each page. So the "cover" of your tiny pamphlet would be A1, then the next page (NOT the reverse side) is A2, etc.

Wow this is kind of confusing to type out.

But anyway, the numbers after the letters indicate how many pages are in each signature, and the letters "J" and either "U" or "V" are always skipped because those letters didn't used to exist in the old English alphabet!

Part 3: the additional signatures



You may be thinking to yourself, "but what about long books with more than 24 signatures? how did they get to the end of the alphabet then keep going?" Additional signatures and their pages were noted by Aa, or AA, or aa, or whatever new combo the printer came up with (again, each one was different).

Part 4: The final notes!!



These notes tell us a little more about the book. For example, the (*4) indicates that there are 4 "signed" leaves in each signature. So, if we were looking at the book, in the first signature (again, a group of pages) we would see A1, then A2, then A3, then A4, and then nothing on the next few pages until we got to B1. The plus/minus "C" part indicates a cancel. A cancel is when somebody messed up while printing, or there was offensive material, or some unforseen problem with the text, so they would have to go through each and every page with the "cancellandum" or "error" and take it out, and replace it with a "cancellans" or "correction." It could be a letter, a paragraph, or even an entire page. The letter "C" indicates that the cancellans in this book was on the 6th leaf of the "C" signature.

So that is it!! Library math! It's not EXACTLY math, but to me it seems like math, so that's what I'm going to call it. Thanks for bearing with me if you've read this far......I think it's really interesting but I'm sure I'm the only one, lol! Bibliographers and catalogers use this formula to keep careful records of the structure of their books, especially if someone has to take them apart for repairs, digital scanning, etc. It makes it much easier when you're putting it back together to have a thorough formula to work from!

My car and more!

So my big news is...I got a car!! Long story short I got more money for the summer than I thought I was going to, so I used the extra that was outside my budget to buy a car. It was a little more expensive than I was planning on since the one I wanted to buy had already been bought, but I am happy with the outcome and hope it continues to run well for me! It is a 1997 Ford Crown Victoria, and it is blue and has wood on the inside! I am going to call her Agnes, because she reminds me a little bit of Gretchen, my first car, that was also a "grandma car" lol. Pics below!




I am also just sharing these for fun, I don't know if they will end up letting me do them or even like the ones I have made but I am making sample invitations for my brother's wedding. Below are pictures of some possible ideas....let me know your thoughts! Keep in mind that I am definitely not a professional paper-crafter/invitation maker, these are just my half-finished DIY ideas! I am really enjoying doing them, crafts are fun! lol :)

Etsy/Target Finds!

Among my close friends it is no secret that I'm sort of a peer-pressure-er when it comes to shopping! Seriously, I could probably talk you into buying just about anything. I've been trying to be good about keeping my spending under control, but I will admit that lately I have purchased a few items that fall more under the "want" than "need" category! Yesterday I bought 2 new pairs of shoes and 1 pair of pajamas at Target. Now, I know what you're thinking: did you really NEED two pairs of shoes, Jessica? Well, no, but my two pairs of brown flats had just about worn out. The insoles were coming up/had been chewed out of both pairs, and both of the soles ("out" soles?) were also coming away from the main part of the shoe. They also kind of smelled......gross. lol so I got one pair of "walking" flats and one pair of nicer brown flats for, obviously, nicer events. Though Target is mass-produced and might not exactly be the most ethical company ever, I am happy to report that both pairs of shoes are technically vegan, that is made without any parts from animals (like leather).

The pajamas were also a borderline want/need purchase, they are super cute! They are the Liberty of London for Target brand. I don't know if you have seen this around Target but basically most of their items are covered in adorable floral prints. I'd been eyeing this set of PJ's for a few months now, and they just went on sale so I bought them! It is really hot in my apartment and I mostly had sweatpants/long pants for pajamas so a pair of hot weather friendly PJ's was not entirely without purpose. Here is a link because I couldn't find a pic to post:

http://tinyurl.com/targetpjs

This next buy was totally a "want" purchase, though! Although I have never bought any really expensive jewelry before (and not that these are that expensive, just more than the $5 Claire's crap I would buy in like middle school!). I found both of these through an Etsy shop called "That Winsome Girl." Here is a link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/thatwinsomegirl

Her jewelry is just so adorable!! A couple of days ago she posted that the peacock earrings (that are now mine) were going to all be gone soon. Well. Even though I don't have my ears pierced I really wanted a pair!! I e-mailed asking if there is a way she could convert them to clip-ons, and she said she could. Huzzah!!! I also ordered this super cute "Oui" necklace :) I highly recommend buying from That Winsome Girl's shop, as her items are adorable, affordable, and totally awesome!!! :) See pics below for images of the earrings and necklace.

Papermaking!!

So today for my Paper in the Scholarly World class, we got to take a field trip! Our professor somehow contacted a local guy who has converted his garage into a home paper mill (handmade paper, that is), and we all drove over to see it and got to make our own paper!

For those who are unfamiliar, there are 2 basic ways of hand-making paper: the Japanese method, and the Western method. They both involve the same basic tools/supplies, which are the following:

1. A paper mold, consisting usually of a wooden frame with a screen in the middle, and a removable top "frame" called the deckle. It sort of looks like a window screen with a picture frame on the top. In the Japanese method, the deckle is hinged onto the mold, and the screen is removable, and in the Western method the screen is attached to the mold and the deckle is completely removable.

2. A vat or tub filled with water and other stuff, which I will get to :)

3. Fibers. Any kind of fibers at all. In the Japanese method they use plant fibers from the paper mulberry plant, also called kozo. In the Western method you can use pretty much anything you want, from cotton to linen to corn to soybeans to daisies to dryer lint, if you can get enough of it. You also need something to grind up or macerate the fibers. Where we went today the guy has his own Hollander beater, a machine used to beat the fibers, but you can also use a blender or literally beat them with a big stick for a few hours. In the Japanese method you also need a binding agent; they use something from a plant called the tororo aoi (pronounced toe-roar-oh owie), but there are also chemical ones. By itself when it is mixed it looks kind of like very runny egg whites, it's completely clear and does not color the water or fibers at all.

4. In the Western method, you need felts. Literally, many many pieces of felt. You can cut up an old army blanket or use synthetic felt, but you need lots of them. You also need some kind of press, for reasons I will explain later.

5. In the Japanese method, you need a large board/flat surface on which to dry your sheets.

So after you have gathered your supplies, you are ready to make paper! Basically you beat the fibers until they are broken up into thousands of tiny little individual fiber strands. Then, you mix the fibers with lots of water in a tub, so it's like over 90% water in the tub. In the Japanese method you add the binding agent to the tub; in the Western method, you can add dyes to color the paper, or other things to decorate the paper, into your tub. After you have mixed the fibers in the water they will sort of float there, but you also need to mix them around every once in awhile so they do not all sink down to the bottom of the tub.

After you have mixed up your tub of "stuff" (also called "furnish"), you then take your paper mold and hold it upright in front of you. You then dip/scoop it towards you in the water, and then lift it straight out of the water. To clarify: at first you will be holding the mold vertically, but as you dip it you turn it horizontal (so it is a flat surface for the fibers to settle on as the water drains down through the screen). In the Japanese method you can continue dipping as many times as you want to get a thicker paper; in the Western method, you just dip once.

I found I much preferred the Japanese method! I dipped my piece 3 times, then removed the screen from the mold by lifting the deckle (or top part of the hinged mold) and pulling it out. They had this nifty contraption that was a vacuum attached to a wooden box with a small slit in the top. I pulled the screen across the slit twice to pull the excess moisture out from the piece of paper (though at this point it was still pretty damp). After you pull out that moisture the piece of paper is sturdy enough to handle, so I took it off the screen and then used a brush to stick it onto a large "white board" to dry!!

I then tried the Western method, where I dipped the mold in the same manner into the tub just once. Either the mold was dirty or I did not have the deckle on sturdy enough, because my sheet did not come out as perfectly straight around the edges as others' had. After that I "couched" my sheet (pronounced kooched) onto the "couch" (also pronounced kooch!). The "couch" is a pile of felts and papers next to where you are dipping your mold into the tub. You start with a pile of water-dampened felts (maybe 2 or 3) so the surface is soft. After that you sort of roll your paper mold with the freshly made paper sheet on it and press down so that it stays on the couch. You then put another wet felt on top of it, and continue couching in a pile until you are done! After that you press the pile, which is called a "post." This guy had a press in his garage but he said that you could also just pile on some heavy boards or books and stand on top of it, lol! This gets a lot of the excess water out of the sheets, which can then be air dried or dried between pieces of blotter (heavy paper or other substance).

So, basically, that is making paper! I hope I have explained it well :) this was also a great review for my midterm tomorrow, lol. I really enjoyed it so I hope I will be able to make some of my own paper in the near future. Below are some pictures, which I will number in order here:

1. The Hollander Beater

2. The Japanese Setup (notice the box with the slit where I vaccumed the water out, and the mold behind it!)

3. The Western Setup (the couch is under that small pile of newspaper, which wasn't supposed to be there lol)

4. Me putting my Japanese paper up to dry! My sheet is the one the brush is over!

5. My sheet of Western paper after being couched. You can see that it is a little rough around the edges, lol!

The Wizarding World of the University of Illinois

I have found the entrance to the wizarding world, dear readers! Let your wildest Harry Potter fantasies come true at.......wait for it........U of I's library!! That's right, folks, simply by entering U of I's library stacks on floor 9.5 (you heard me right) you will be magically transported into the wizarding world, where you may contact Mr. Potter directly for assistance with any number of magical quandaries, including dementor attacks and where to find the latest Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products!



False. This will not actually happen if you go to U of I's library. lol but I was there yesterday and found it funny that there are many "half-levels" in the library stacks that the elevator also goes to.

Spunky Dunkers!!

So this has been an awesome weekend!! It was one of my very good friends' birthday, so a friend and I drove to Chicago to attend her awesome beach birthday blowout! Here is a picture of my friend's dog sleeping on the car ride home: she was SO tired after playing on the beach with other people and doggies!!



After we came home from the birthday party we chilled at home for a little bit, then my brother came by to sell us some awesome kitchen knives. I bought an ice-cream scooper, though :) so after we bought some kick-butt knives, we decided we wanted to go to this place that my brother has been talking about FOREVER called Spunky Dunkers! It is a donut shop, and let me just address this really quick, Blogspot is telling me that I am spelling donuts wrong lol but is it doughnuts or donuts? I prefer donuts.

Anyway. So this place was SO GOOD!!!!!!!!! Seriously the best donuts I have EVER had, even though I'm not really a huge donut fan. I got a chocolate cream puff donut, a chocolate donut, a vanilla cake donut with chocolate frosting, and......oh yeah, a chocolate buttercream filled donut! Are you sensing a theme? I really enjoy chocolate. They also had a HUGE selection of donuts, including one that was like a Girl Scouts Samoa cookie (chocolate/coconut).

Below are pictures of Spunky Dunkers! I really enjoyed the whole dive-retro feel of it, from the 50's style sign outside (with many letters burned out!) to the counterspace diner-esque part inside. It was very tiny and super inexpensive, and smelled even better than Krispy Kreme. Seriously. That combined with it being open 24/7/basically 365 makes it pretty much my favorite thing about the suburbs.