What to Buy Your Kitchen for Christmas

(NOTE: Printed in local magazine, Austin All Natural, at http://austinallnatural.com/december-2010 )

Consider for a moment that your kitchen wants to be useful. Its’ role is to support you in a positive and healthy way. It wants the refrigerator cold and its freezer like the Arctic. It wants plenty of shelving to hold all your food and simultaneously hoist small appliances in a circle-shaped hug. It wants to filter your drinking water and quietly wash your dishes through the night. (Hint: These are your first tips about what your kitchen wants.)

Now tap into the energy of your kitchen and ask, “What do you want?”

Not into Kitchen Quantum Physics? Then just acknowledge for a moment that we are all chefs. We all prepare food, or at least open the cans. So take a moment, look inward and ask yourself, “What type of chef am I?” And be honest.

Picture yourself preparing food that you like. Are you nibbling a stray veggie, or licking a spoon with joy? What are you making? A leafy salad? A casserole? Now, hold that thought.

The current image in your mind falls into one of these categories: Newbie, Salad Lover, Baker, Snacker or Raw Foodie Wannabe. So let’s explore what their kitchens would enjoy.

Newbie: You’re taking your first step away from prepackaged and frozen meals. For a smooth transition invest in a slow cooking crock pot to make beans and stew that are ready to eat when you get home. If you want to add more fresh foods to your new venture then get a large cutting board and a chef knife for fast and easy veggies. If you‘re ready to eat better, but not veggie-better, then get a personal blender like the Magic Bullet . Personal blenders make it easy to create sweet and healthy meals. Later on you can branch out and add Matcha green tea powder or plain powdered greens.

Salad Lover: You prefer eating leafy salads and no-leaf salads like pea salad. Your kitchen would enjoy a Lotus sanitizer on the counter. The Lotus kills bacteria and viruses, and neutralizes pesticides on your veggies by submerging your whole fruit and vegetables in a natural oxidant made from your tap water. Salad lovers will also appreciate a Benriner turning slicer to make nesting salads, sandwhich toppers and faux pasta. Zucchini “pasta” is a popular faux pasta. Spiraling jicamas make the perfect salad “nests” and are great fun for kids to eat. Great gift ideas are sprouting jars, and the standard lettuce spinner.

Baker: Over worshippers will be giddy over a complete set of stacking casserole dishes with lids for no-mess baking. Casserole dishes cook meats and veggies with minimal oil, juice or water. Healthy Bakers already use stevia instead of sugar in their cookies, pies and muffins. But are they enjoying baking with healthy flours? A grind mill creates flour from beans, rice and more. Grind mills are electric or hand turning. Imagine pizza dough made with pinto bean flour and brown rice flour! You’d never know the crust is wheat-free, gluten-free, and made from beans!

Snacker: You will easily be making fruit and veggie chips minus the palm oil and preservatives with your new food dehydrator! Your all organic granola bars, dessert bars, fruit leather and beef jerky will be the envy of your office. Eventually you’ll venture into making gluten-free crackers from ground seeds and beans. A simple companion device for your dehydrator is a Bodum press. Easily make hot drinks with loose tea, spices and fruits. You can even gather herbs from your yard like Dandelion and make medicinal teas with your Bodum press.

Raw Foodie Wannabe: Need a food processor for heavy blending of foods with just a little juice, and high powered blenders that pulverize fruits and veggies into drinkable liquids (not a juicer), and an apple corer for traveling light. Like the snacker, raw foodises need a dehydrator because it’s the closest thing to an oven that they are allowed to use. Gift deas for raw foodies are nut milk bags, glass pitchers, a knife sharpener, and a raw food cookbook.

Keep in mind your kitchen may want other things, so be sensitive to what it tells you. Have fun!

Nerissa Oden

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What Shirley MacLaine said When I Met Her

In 1996 I worked on the movie, The Evening Star, starring Shirley MacLaine. The Evening Star is the sequel to the Oscar winning film, Terms of Endearment. 

I was Second Assistant Editor and the film's Projectionist. Every day I put together the film dailies which had been shot the day before. At night I ran the two projectors which screened the 35mm film dailies for cast and lead crew.

As projectionist, I was the first to arrive in the screening room and the last to leave locking up the building after me.

One night Shirley MacLaine and her assistant needed to view several days of dailies after hours because they had missed the regularly scheduled viewings. They were rushing through the reels trying to not stay up any later than they needed. So before most film reels had run through all the way through the projector, I stopped the machines and unthreaded the synced picture film and sound film without scratching the film coating or the magnetic coating of the sound film.

In this setting the First Assistant Editor was routinely coming in the projection booth to communicate with me about starting the next reel. It was a hectic and stressful. There was no time to sit on my heels as I was constantly threading, starting, then stopping and unthreading before rethreading the next reel on both projectors! But I did it and quickly!

We went through about 25 rolls of dailies that night. When a daily roll is full the average run time is about 10 minutes. It would have taken us late in into the morning hours had Shirley MacLaine and her assistant watched the reels in their entirety.

After the last daily roll was projected, I was busy rewinding the half-shown reels I had placed on the floor temporarily to keep pace with the stars demands. Each picture reel and each sound reel had to be rewound separately and in proper order so as to be HEADS OUT and ready for the next use.

I was briefly interrupted by Shirley MacLaine herself as she burst open the projection booth door and started to say something. She stopped and caught herself. Her mouth was still open but she said nothing.

I can only imagine what she was thinking. She was seeing her projectionist (me) for the first time, and I wasn't exactly a typical Hollywood union projectionist. Projectionists were typically much older and male.

I was a young blonde woman who looked barely of legal drinking age. And I  had been at the helm of the two monster projectors that night and the recipient of her demands.

She looked surprised, caught off guard, and at a loss for words.

"Yes, Ms. MacLaine may I help you?," I asked, and  looking slightly confused myself.

I had heard Shirley MacLaine was tough and demanding. I no idea why she came into the booth. In my experience movie stars don't go out of their way to talk to you. I was also insecure and my first thought was that she might be about to yell at me.
But instead she said, "Thank you. Thank you for doing such a great job tonight. I appreciate you working late tonight." She smiled and left.

Nerissa Oden
http://nerissaoden.blogspot.com/
http://foodpowers.com/
http://healdysplasia.com/
http://thevideoqueen.com/
http://freevideocoding.com/
http://videocodemaker.com/

All writings here are copyrighted by Nerissa Oden. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

Wimberley Texas Voting System: Tracking How You Vote?

Voting in Wimberley, Texas uses eSlate electronic machines that can track how you voted. Here's how:

1. Your voter registration card or drivers license is scanned.
2. A unique 4-digit code is created from the same laptop that scanned your ID.
3. Input your unique 4-digit code to activate the machine (you can't vote unless you enter your unique code)

Of course Hays County poll workers say it can't. But obviously it can due to the process we have to go through to vote in Hays County. (outlined above)

In a TRUE democratic republic, no one would be able to know how you voted. And no elected officials would want too, and thus no elected officials would buy such e-voting systems. Here is an alternative that allows transparency and the speed of computer tabulation together--


Nerissa Oden
http://nerissaoden.blogspot.com/
http://foodpowers.com/
http://www.healdysplasia.com/
http://thevideoqueen.com/
http://freevideocoding.com/
http://videocodemaker.com/

All writings here are copyrighted by Nerissa Oden. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

Why I'm NOT Afraid of Creepy Crawlies Anymore

(emailed October 31, 2010)

Tonight is the PERFECT TIME to release my ebook.

Halloween night is for ghoulies, goblins, and nasty creepy crawlies. But I'm not afraid of creepy crawlies anymore.

I'm not AFRAID anymore.

Spooky spirits that sour our flesh into cancer ARE beatable. They can't hide anymore. I know where they live. And I don't have to see them to beat them.

Cancer. Fear ME.

Vigilante viruses shutter when "hearing" my words. This book is full of tricks and treats for them. Tonight I pass my knowledge and experience to you.

Enjoy the your last thrill of fear tonight, because hope will reign over fear after reading this book.

Download it now!
http://www.healdysplasia.com/


Share it tomorrow with friends.
Share the website http://www.healdysplasia.com/

Enjoy
With Love,
Nerissa Oden
http://www.foodpowers.com/
http://www.healdysplasia.com/
http://nerissaoden.blogspot.com/
http://thevideoqueen.com/
http://freevideocoding.com/
http://videocodemaker.com/

All writings here are copyrighted by Nerissa Oden. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

Old Sales Motto is Life Lesson Worthy of Applying

"Keep knocking on those doors," a close relative advised me when I entered the film business. She had been a successful sales person making tons of money and breaking glass ceilings during the seventies. "It's only a matter of time and numbers. The more doors you try, the better your chances of success. If you don't knock, you will never know if there was a 'YES' or a 'NO' behind the door."

I was horribly shy as a child and preferred animals to people most of the time way into late 30's. My relative's old sales motto kept me pushing and calling in my career. After all, rejections weren't personal, and a 'YES' was always around the corner.

My career was great! I edited numerous film and TV projects of various types using many different software and hardware. I LOVED the technical challenge and LOVED being on the cutting edge. I was unique and in demand in the Texas film industry.

It wasn't until September 2010 that I applied that old sales motto to my personal life. It seems so obvious now, but I had always thought that friends were just the luck of the draw. People unrelated to my road of success.

But now I know better.

It took one last noggin bop, but here I am.

So please, accept my advice. When friends, mentors, colleagues and neighbors don't nourish your soul, go knock on another door.
I kept people in my life who didn't support me emotionally and spiritually. I had been knocking on the same doors that kept saying 'NO.' And by knocking on the same doors all the time, I had limited time to try new doors.

I deserve better. YOU deserve better. Personal and career are interwined. Now I know exectly how to succeed in both.

Nerissa Oden
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http://videocodemaker.com/

All writings here are copyrighted by Nerissa Oden. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

DVD REVIEW - Ghetto Physics: Will the Real Pimps and Hos Please Stand Up?

I had the most wonderful opportunity to review a new movie by William Arntz and Raymond E. Brown called Ghetto Physics: Will the Real Pimps and Hos Please Stand Up?

William is the Director of the award winning independent film, What the Bleep Do We Know? released in 2004. What the Bleep Do We Know was the first mainstream movie covering the topic of metaphysics.

About a month ago I rewatched What the Bleep Do We Know on DVD. I was blown away (again) by its high quality film making, creativity, and trajectory. The ability to weave a traditional narrative film with documentary film making and multiple animation story lines was phenomenal. Through the main character's eyes we witness over and over again that what happens in our inner self is duplicated and experienced by our outer self.

The viewer learns, there is no 'OUT THERE' out there.

Ghetto Physics: Will the Real Pimps and Hos Please Stand Up? is like a class tutorial for the common man which focuses on the same inner and outer self construct from What the Bleep. Yet, Artnz dropped all the science stuff and focuses his audience on the power of the mind. Self empowerment. The inner game.

To focus a point, the movie's setting is inside an inner city high school classroom. But this classroom tutorial goes even deeper than that.



Ghetto Physics: Will the Real Pimps and Hos Please Stand Up? also demonstrates the self empowerment concept within the construct of "the other." What does your inner game look like as it interacts with the inner game of another person? Your marriage? Your family? Your culture? Your media?

People everywhere often refer to human relationships and systems as "a game." And most see themselves as powerless, helpless, and a victim of the game(s).

So what does the relationship between the inner game and the outer game look like? Is it definable?

Ghetto Physic's main lesson for you is to step out of the victim mindset and to see your powerful self within the context of ANY relationship, or game. Master and slave, rich and poor, powerful and powerless, parent and child, aggressive and passive, corporation and individual, and pimp and ho.

We learn that throughout history the game never changes, only the players do.

Ultimately GHETTO PHYSICS installs in us a LANGUAGE FRAME in which we can instantly understand our world, its influence on us, and our relationship to it.

There is also a call to action. The proverbial WAKE UP message.

By the end of the movie, the viewer has not only learned the concept of a paradigm shift but has also experienced a paradigm shift. And the imbued language frame for the paradigm shift is so simple, direct and brilliant.

Pimp and Ho.

The movie left me inspired, educated, and empowered.

I watched THE MATRIX right after watching Ghetto Physics. The back-to-back metaphysical concepts displayed within very different frames was staggering. For example, one cannot be told about Ghetto Physics, one must experience Ghetto Physics.

FREE YOUR MIND.

Nerissa Oden
http://nerissaoden.blogspot.com/

PS - I am one Ho who was definitely inspired stand up AND to pimp for Ghetto Physics DVD.

All writings here are copyrighted by Nerissa Oden. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.