Introduction to Blue Apron

Introduction to Blue Apron

I got my first box of Blue Apron today, and it is so simply to sign up. Note I am not Affiliated with the company, nor this was given to me to try. I purchased this subscription with my own money, but they do get you 2 free meals for trying it.

Everyone has an opinion….Can’t we Just Get Along

Comments, they are everywhere.  They are just merely opinions dialed down a notch, or are they?

I propose this question, swirling around in my head for one reason…. Raven Symone.  The last Cosby Kid to leave the nest, if the series had continued on for at least 8-10 more seasons.  Bill Cosby himself shut down production, after he wanted to quit while on top of Thursday night lineup.  I don’t blame him.

Fast forward, about 25 or more years later, and the youngest kid has given Miss Oprah Winfrey an interview to catch up viewers and fans on what she has been doing since the last episode of The Cosby Show.  She was on Hanging with Mr.Cooper, That’s so Raven, and other shows and other guest appearances and is a singer, but I’m not here to tell you about Raven’s many achievements, you can read about them on the web.  What I want to talk about is what she said in the interview.   In case you missed it, you can read about it here.   

Basically, she said that she did not want to be labeled, simply put.   What doesn’t she want to be labeled as?  She did not want to be labeled as a Gay and an African American Woman.  At first when I saw the interview, I said, “OK, your opinion.”  She wants to be called just “American”, no judgments is the name of the game.  By the way, she is currently dating a woman. 

The reason behind the “colorless” remark was, she does not know what part of Africa her people came from.  I can see that reason, because I, myself do not know what part of Africa my people came from.   When people see Raven Symone, They see a light-skinned black woman, which she does not mind people calling her, but she said that she feels she represents the Asian, white, and Indian American too.   I feel the same way too, because although people see me as a medium to dark skinned black woman, my bloodline is also Caucasian American (nationality unknown) and Cree American Indian.   Just like Raven Symone, my parents, parents, parents never discussed the origins of the African Slave trade with anyone in my family, to be passed down to me and my siblings and cousins, on what part our family played in, but that does not mean I am in denial of where my roots come from. I prefer ‘Black American’ as oppose to ‘African American’ for that reason alone.  But does it matter?  It should for this reason:  Actual Africans have come by way of plane to live here.  They are the ones who should be called African American.  Most of us, who are born in America, were mixed in with other races during the time of slavery.  Masters wanted a child or a side thing, without the little woman knowing about it.  After that, the slave woman was often shipped off to the next plantation, while the child was cared for by another slave.  They often became the ‘house slave’ so that the master can make sure that their offspring thrived without as much as a peep from the others.   Side note:  Did you know that Raven Symone played a young Queen in Alex Haley’s Queen, later played by Hale Berry?

So my next question is why light up Twitter?  I thought that Facebook or even Google plus would be a better arena for this little firestorm.   To me, that is Raven Symone’s opinion.  If she does not want to be labeled, let her be.  She isn’t killing anyone.  She just wants to be labeled “An American human who loves humans.”  I can see her point.  In other words, she does not want people to say, “You know, that Lesbian African American Woman who had a hit show on the Disney Channel.”  To that I have to say, “at least they are not calling her “Angry Black Woman”, and some of the other names people usually call black women, when they do not know your name.  I prefer, Miss Logan myself.  At least they have my last name right.

My point to the firestorm is this:  People have an opinion.  We all have opinions, and if Miss Raven Symone Christina Pearman (her full name) does not want to be labeled a Lesbian (the correct term for women who fall madly in love with another woman sexually) and African American (the correct term is Black American), do not waste my computer bytes by complaining about it, but then again, You have the right to your opinion, and the moral of the story is, at least she has you thinking about it. 

Vlogging it 2.0

I realize that life has given me so many battles during the past few weeks, until I did not want nor had the strength to post anything much.  This is what happens what happens when you are overwhelmed by the stench of what is known as grief for someone or something, financial woes, and just feeling sorry for yourself.  The very idea of sharing my life with people is still new to me, as I am a known introvert.  When something happens in my life, rather it is through my own doing, or something happening in someone else’s life to the point where it affects you, it will affect you hard, depended on what type of person you are.

To that end, this past month, I have projects that I did not get to because of the events of July, August and September, rather good or bad.  I have lost three months out of my life, which could have been productive, but due to me being too busy to stop, or my own sadness during these events, I am playing catch-up.  It is a good thing that none of it had due dates, except from me.  No clients were involved.   But were they?

In a way they were, but they were what I like to call invisible clients.  They were people, who happened to wander into my Etsy shop, and saw 5 notebooks for sale day in and day out.  I did not make any new cards to sell, nor scrapbooks, so I left my shop as is.  Making new products was one way to get new clients, who have not heard about you into your shop, rather it is online or brick and mortar.  They were people, who could have been looking for a new writer to create a document for them, their blog or website, or their business.  The document, post, or even a printable could have been just the thing to put their services over the top.  These were the people, who could have sent me that contract, which could have been of something big for me, but I was so into the stuff that brought me down, until I wonder if I have missed my blessing.   Let me tell you why that was not necessarily a bad thing…

I had friends who needed someone to reach out to them, and to say, “I’m here for you”.  I had things that I needed to take care of, but I was so busy trying to make my businesses work, until I felt drained and overwhelmed with the business and other personal situations.  I had a God who said to me, “you need to rest”, but I fail to see that I needed all of this, because I was going too long without it.  I was not focus on Him, but I was focus on stuff, to which, my friend is not good. 

The things I am saying to you, as a Christian woman, what good is it to accumulate all this stuff, if:

A)   You are not blessing someone in the process, and

B)    You cannot take it with you.

Sure, we need to eat, we need to interact, and we need to pay for all of this stuff.  So, I am glad I did not catch up with all the things I did not take care of in the product making business. This rest gave me a chance to make some changes, some that I will share here, while others I will share on my other blogs, because they fit the subjects I have on them.  I will not share them in this post.    I will share this:  I am vlogging again.  I have computer with a webcam and I am looking into getting a tripod for my regular camera and smartphone for tutorials.  When I bought my Sony Camera for my birthday, they gave me a mini tripod, which is not the friendliest tripod in the world (I have seen better brands), but it will do for right now.   I asked a YouTubber named Gabrielle Flowers Raider of Gabe and Babe TV and The Gabe Fix in her Google Hangout last night if she had any pointers for my channel, and she said to Be Consistent.  Start with once a week, and see how that goes.  So I have already made one new video before I asked her that question, so I will put up another one next week.

Anyway, I have ran over my time, so I will also be constant with my next blog post as well.

October 7, 2014: Tell us about your favorite autumnal edible treat.

OK, I have not writing in about a week.   The reason is I am was trying to gain some sales for my Longaberger business, and I am not dealing very well with being 50.  I will admit it, but I will save that topic for another time and place (if I feel like talking about it here.) Do not worry, I will get through it.

Today,  I want to talk about my favorite treat for fall. I am going to break it down into 4 categories:  savory, sweet, beverage, and all-time.

First for the savory…I love soups in the fall.  Nothing says warmth by the fire like soup.  I love clams, so my go to soup is a big bowl of New England Clam Chowder Soup.  I used to be a fan of Campbell’s regular NE clam chowder, but it does not have enough substantial pieces of clam for me.  I have gotten spoiled with the Chunky’s Soup line, but now even that does not do it for me.   I started eating Progresso’s NE Clam Chowder Soup, and I will stick to that.  Every time I go out, and the eating place has NE clam chowder for soup of the day, I buy it.  The treat is a big piece of bread, lightly toasted, so I can sop up all the sauce from the soup.

Now for the sweet… my mom’s Sweet Potato Pie.  I love it.  I do not like pumpkin pie, so this is my orange-colored pie, which is a great substitute.   What make her pies special?  It is a recipe that was handed down from my grandmother.  I do not know what all goes in other SP pies, but with my mother, there is brown sugar, nutmeg, clove, all-spice, evaporated milk, and butter, all mashed up in the sweet potato.   Next month is the month for it.

My beverage of choice is anything that I make in my Keurig Coffee machine.  I recently started back drinking Starbucks, but only when I travel, but nothing better than standing at the counter, sticking a k-cup in the machine, and hitting the start button.  While I am waiting (which does not take that long), I put in my cup some sweet cream, chocolate powder or syrup, and if I am good, and little bit of whipped cream (which has no calories, ladies, and only in moderation, my doctor says).  I stop putting granulated sugar in it. 

My all-time favorite fall food is…..Mac and Cheese.  There is nothing like melted cheese over a plate of noodles.  I am not talking about the box kind.  OH, NO!  I am talking about the kind where you make a white sauce and melt cheese in it.  While it is melting, boil the macaroni, don’t forget to salt the water, and cook it Al Dente.  Fold the mac into the cheese sauce, and you have loving in a bowl.   Now, I hate to admit this….bbbbuuuttt, my mom does not make that kind of Mac and Cheese.  She makes the kind that my grandmother (same grandmother who taught her how to make the pie), which is custard style.   I eat it, but it is not the same.  What I like about the cheese sauce kind, is you can throw in anything with the cheese sauce.  On The Kitchen, a show on The Food Network, I saw four kinds of Mac and Cheese being made, yummers!!   

Oh, I am going to the grocery store today, all this talk is making me go buy my favorites and have a theme dinner for tonight.

      

A random Video and a visit with Galaxy

This is my first video in a while, and I thought I would challenge my phone, the android version of Siri to see if she was as smart as Siri. Nope, they are both dumb on conversation.

Tell us about your favorite autumnal sound.

Hello, and welcome to October.  I have not officially welcomed anyone to September and the fall yet, so consider it late.  September was one of those months that rather not revisit at all. I have been in so of a depressive mood all month because of the different situations in my life, including the death of a couple of people, who I really had hoped would pull through, but God had other plans for them, and for one of them, I am still trying to wrap my finger on why she entered the world the way she did, and died just that quickly (yes, I am talking about a baby bared a day old).  I was hoping I would get to know her as she went through babyhood, into toddler, going to school, and I had hoped that I would get to see her get married and have a kid of her own, but again, God had other plans. 

I went through other things to during the month of September, and I realized that the world does not stop because a friend of yours lost a baby, a person you know collapses into a coma and dies a week later, or that you feel like you are stuck.  For that reason alone, I still needed to make my sales goals for the month (I was pulling a Hail Mary move at 2:30pm yesterday, a move I have not done since the 2012-13 selling season); The house needs cleaning (I will tackle that Friday); and finally I need to clean out my closet, put away the spring/summer wardrobe, pull out the fall/ winter stuff, and give or throw away the stuff I no longer can fit.  I also need to do a final spraying of the weeds on my patio so they will not come up, pull out the fall décor, and find some fall bedding. 

Despite everything that has happened last month, I need to do some things in the second bedroom to make it more livable (currently masquerading as a junk room), I want to talk to you about my favorite autumn sound.  It goes along with my favorite smell, Pumpkin.  That sound is sounds from the apple orchard.  It is people looking for that perfect apple and it depends on who is making that sound.  The sound could be, “mommy pick this apple”, “we can get 4 more to fit in this bag”, to no sound at all, just studying on how to get the apple.  I want to take my niece and nephews apple picking, but to be honest, I do not know where I want to go for this?  There is one, maybe two I can go, but I am not sure, since I have not been since my parents took me years ago.  While we are at it, we can pick that perfect pumpkin to go on the porch on my sister’s house.