Great Advice. Short but fulfilling. I especially love the last sentence. It is in my opinion the most important part of the entire post:
“Change can come in many forms in our lives. It might come forcefully like a tidal wave, or creep along incrementally like a glacier. It might come in the form of devastating tragedy, difficult choices, broken relationships, or even new opportunities.
But even though change is often difficult, many times it’s also for the best. Accomplishing anything great in life requires significant change that pushes us beyond our comfort zones. Many times, the only way to improve our lives is to force ourselves to undergo difficult change. That might mean breaking up and leaving a stale – but comfortable – relationship, leaving a mediocre – but stable – job, moving away from a nice – but uninspiring – location, or anything else that’s holding us back from accomplishing our dreams. Of course, dealing with uninvited change in our lives is often difficult and painful. In many cases, instigating major, but necessary, change in our life can be just as painful. But whatever change you’re dealing with, know that how you cope with that change will have an impact on your future.”
Ok, just had to get that out. I found an awesome website called Practically Functional. Here, Jessi gives neat DIY tips on various projects, such as how to better clean stuff. So anyway, I’m doing my usual scroll through the online community and was excited to find something that could help clean microwaves. For those of you who live under a rock, microwaves contain many crevices that require back bending work and are extremely boring to clean. I really hate to have to get down into it but it is a price I am willing to pay for clean. Microwaves to me are like unofficial clean house detectives. You can really tell how clean or unclean someone is just by how the microwave looks (on the inside people) because its one of those attention to detail thingys. If everything sparkles but the microwave looks like a bad science experiment then the person’s not as clean (or thorough) as it appears. That don’t mean yall can go around checking people’s microwaves now that you know the secret. ; )
I would have re-blogged Jessi but I couldn’t find the re-blog button and I’m not sure if there is a re-blog button. So I’ll just post the link here for you to check out. Below is the basic recipe. Yea, you’ve gotta visit the website for the extra stuff:
“Have you ever exploded pizza sauce in the microwave? Today’s post will show you how to clean a microwave using only water, vinegar, and steam! It’s easy to do, only takes about five minutes, and it works great! I was able to clean off dirt and grime I didn’t even realize was there! Mostly what I saw when I looked at the microwave were the big red pizza sauce spills, but after I was done cleaning I realized the entire thing had gone five shades whiter! Don’t just assume your microwave is yellow. It’s not; microwaves are white.
How To Clean A Microwave With Vinegar
Here’s what you need:
vinegar
water
one drop of Young Living lemon essential oil (optional)
a bowl
a toothpick (optional)
Fill a microwaveable bowl with 1-2 cups of water and add 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar. Add a drop of essential oil if you don’t want your microwave to smell like vinegar.
CAUTION: Liquids can get superheated in a microwave and explode. It isn’t common, but it can happen if you microwave liquids in a perfectly smooth container. Bubbles can’t form on a smooth surface, so the liquid won’t boil until it is jostled. This can cause it to “explode” into boiling when you open the microwave or try to remove the bowl. But don’t freak out! Most consumer bowls and cups are not perfectly smooth, and a microwave with a turntable jostles the liquid enough to allow it to boil. But, if you are worried about it, float a toothpick in your bowl. Bubbles will be able to form on the wood, causing the water to boil without exploding.
Put the bowl in the microwave and shut the door. Microwave the water and vinegar for 5 minutes. If your microwave is REALLY dirty, don’t open the microwave right away when the timer goes off. Leave the door shut for about two more minutes to let the steam continue to work. The steam will help loosen up caked on bits of food, and the vinegar will help eliminate any odors. When you open the door, be careful pulling the bowl out; it will be very hot! Remove the turntable tray (carefully, it will be hot as well) and wash it in the sink. Now just take a cloth or sponge and wipe down the inside of the microwave. The dirt and food will come right off!
If you don’t want to microwave a bowl of water and vinegar, you can also get a sponge soaking wet, pour about a teaspoon of vinegar on it, and then microwave the sponge. This doesn’t create as much steam though, so if your microwave is really dirty like mine was, use the bowl instead.
An article was recently published about the rise of Natural Hair among black women on TV. Below is the featured article. What are your thoughts? Is there a conscious awareness connected to the sudden surge of natural hairstyles from Blacks? Do you think it matters what state the hair is in?
The Problem with Natural Hair on TV
by Taylor Bryant
“If you tuned in to “How to Get Away with Murder” recently, you know that Viola Davis has spent some screen time without her wig on. It proved not only to be a raw and emotional episode, but it displayed a rare moment: a Black woman with natural hair on a mainstream TV network.
Turn back the clock 20 years, and you’d be hard-pressed to see a Black actress with hair that was anything other than just-got-out-of-the-salon laid. Flip through the tube in 1995, and you might find: the ladies from Living Single, all with straight strands (with some weaves thrown in), the freshly blowdried ‘do’s of Laura and Harriette on Family Matters, and Gina and Pam’s permed-out hair on Martin. Fast-forward a couple more years, and there’s some more representation with a two-for-one curly appearance in the form of the Mowry twins onSister, Sister. But, even their coils were straightened later in the series. As writer, fashion expert, and image activist Michaela Angela Davis points out, non-curly hairstyles that dominated the small screen in the ’90s were very much a sign of the times. “We were in a very conservative moment,” she says. “Relaxers were easier to get, easier to use, weaves came in…and getting straight hair just got more accessible.”
While we’ve seen Black women’s natural hair on the small screen before the present-day era — these kinds of landmark moments date back to Cicely Tyson’s ’60s role in East Side/West Side — it’s becoming more common, and the new movement has been a long time coming.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF ABC.
What does this modern evolution look like? Actress Tracee Ellis Ross has worn her curly crown in all its glory since 2000 on the (sorely missed) show Girlfriends, and continues to do so today, as the lead actress on ABC’s Black-ish. “I’m very conscious of how I wear my hair on the show, and yet it’s the way I wear my hair as Tracee,” she told Entertainment Weekly in December. “You hire me, you hire my hair, and you hire my ass. It’s all coming with me.” And, who could forget Davis’ wig-removal scene in earlier episodes of HTGAWM, which spurred many a think piece? According to Kent Nelson, the show’s hair-department head, Davis’ character Annalise is “unmasking” herself. “The armor and mask that she goes to work in every day is coming off,” he says. It signifies vulnerability, intimacy, and a shedding of society’s expectations. Which brings us to the problem with natural hair on TV right now: Yes, there are a lot more instances of it, but the way characters with it are depicted is not necessarily positive.
Take the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, where the characters embrace, arguably, the widest range of textured styles in a series today (with the exception of Laverne Cox’s character, who, let’s be honest, would look fabulous with any style). There’s cornrows on Taystee, a short TWA style on Poussey, and, of course, Crazy Eyes’ signature bantu knots. “We really haven’t seen that many characters [like the OITNB ladies] on TV before,” says lead hairstylist Angel DeAngelis. “I think that’s why the show is so relatable and popular; because these prisoners look like people that are out there.”
somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff
not my poems or a dance I give up in the street
but somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff
like a kleptomaniac workin hard & forgettin while stealin
this is mine / this ain’t yr stuff /
now why don’t you put me back & let me hang out in my own self
somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff
& didn’t care enuf to send a note home sayin
I waz late for my solo conversation
or two sizes too small for my own tacky skirts
what can I do wit something of no value on
a open market / did you getta dime for my things
hey man / where are you goin wid alla my stuff
I see ya hidin my laugh
I want my stuff back
my rhythms & my voice
this is some delicate leg & whimsical kiss / I gotta have to give to my choice
now you can’t have me less I give me away
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise on your lips
Silence is one part of speech, the war cry
of wind down a mountain pass another.
a stranger’s voice echoing through lonely
valley’s, a lover’s voice rising so close
it’s your own tongue: these are the keys to cipher,
the way the hawk’s key unlocks the throat
of the sky and the coyote’s yip knocks
it shut, the way the aspens’ bells conform
to the breeze while the rapid’s drum defines
resistance. Sage speaks with one voice, pinyon
with another. Rock, wind her hand, water
her brush, spells and then scatters her demands.
some notes tear and pebble our paths. Some notes
gather: the bank we map our lives around.
The PBS Blog 