shelf life vs. real life vs. normal life

I’ve finally finished bread that I bought long ago. On the package it says “use before Nov 21 (2007).” When I ate it today it was absolutely normal bread, just a bit dry. There was no mold; there were no any changes in taste. Basically, shelf life of this bread could be much longer, although when I bought it I though it was long already (something around 2 weeks). But really it can be up to a month (or up to 2 months in my case). I wonder if people through away stuff when is past due date? If yes – they are throwing away some things that are still good. Aren't they just make you buy more by making unreal short shelf life (too different from real life)?

As for bread, is it normal to stay OK for more than 2 months? I wonder what kind of preservatives they add to keep it fresh that long. Back home bread can be fine in regular plastic bag for maybe a week, definitely not a month. For me 4 days life for milk and one week life for bread are normal. But US products go beyond any expectations. That is so scary. What do they add there?

Wanna be famous? Sure... no problem!

My friend said that he wanted to be popular and famous. I’ve promised to help him. So here’s my little story.

My friend’s name is, let’s say, Peter Harryskins or Henry Pottkins (doesn’t really matter… just don’t want to mention his real name. I won’t use my blog to make him famous). Every time I would get on a ski lift with someone I don’t know I would (at some point in conversation) ask if they ever heard of Peter Harryskins. Right after their negative reply (sorry Peter, right now you are so far from reaching your goal), I would say “lots of people today on the lift were talking to me about him. They’ve told me that he is such a good snowboarder.” Their reply would be – “or really? Didn’t know.” I’m sure my mistake was my sampling procedure. I’ve talked only to skiers. How would they know about famous Peter Harryskins-snowboarder?!? But even with lousy methods I was successful. One guy, on my question if he ever heard of that famous snowboarder, said YES. He also told me that this is the guy with red hair, and he is in fact a really good snowboarder. Isn’t that wonderful? My friend is already famous and is with red hair. (still laugh every time I think of something that is somehow related to red hair).

See Peter, my methods worked… there’s at least one person who is sure you are famous, others have just heard of you and learnt that people think you are a good snowboarder. And now they are questioning themselves how come they’ve never heard of you. But I’ve repeated your name several times with every person… just to make sure that they’ll remember.

As one guy said yesterday “our only limit is our imagination”. I’ve imagined that you are famous and you were. So… never stop imagining.

I had so much fun.

special breed of people

I thought to learn more about Americans you should go the US, because info that you get from Hollywood (at first I typed “Hollyweed”…) movies is so incorrect. But (… there’s always “but”) if you come to the US, your perception of American culture is strongly affected by places you go and things you do. People are different and same people tend to stick together. I’ve been around Americans for such a long time so I’ve learned that there are so many people who never traveled outside the country… and even within the country. Yesterday at the ski trip, every single person I’ve talked too (YES, EVERY SINGLE PERSON!) has been abroad. And I’ve talked to many. I couldn’t help but wonder how this can be. Thanx to one guy, who opened my eyes on thing that I’ve already known. “We, skiers, are a special breed of people”! Eureka! It’s the same everywhere… even back home those who do skiing is a different breed of people. They’ll never be representative of all the people. So if you happen to communicate just with those you got to know just them, you cannot judge the whole nation by them. There’s no perfect picture of nation! Not at all! You can use statistics, but statistics is black and white art, you lose so much information in grey areas. So I guess movies do represent America, you just need to figure out the angle.

look at me, I'm a skier! can you tell?

There are several reasons why we consume certain things. We can consume them because we need to satisfy our needs. That is when we consume lets say “the main function” of a good (the reason why the product was invented). For example, we feel cold we buy boots, hats, etc.

Another way of consuming is status consuming, where through the process of consumption we identify ourselves with a certain social class, group of people, family, etc. For example, your car can demonstrate your social status, your well-being; certain hair style will identify you with a certain youth culture, etc.

I went skiing yesterday. I had all the fun I could have… or almost all. That’s why my heads still hurts today. Anyway, the story is about consumption, so let’s stick to the topic. There were so many people and many of those were equipped a very appropriate way for skiing or snowboarding in conditions of very windy and quite cold weather of about -13 to -5 F. The thing is, it was not very windy and the temperature was around 34 F. It was a wonderful very warm day for a winter So people who were wearing masks or super-feature-rich warm pans looked kinda weird. It felt like they were screaming out: “look at me, all these skiing goods, I am a skier”. Poor guys, these masks make you sweat at your face when it’s warm (I’ve got one back home and use it when it’s cold or extremely windy only… otherwise it’s not comfy). Some of the stuff that I saw on people yesterday was worn not for the sake of necessity, but for the sake of identity. And wearing some was definitely uncomfortable. Poor are people, who are ready to torture themselves just to make sure they look like professionals (when it comes to get dressed as a skier… not to ski). I’m sure their identity consumption gave them some sweat in some places… :)

slowly cooked to perfection toast

Today my friend had to wait more than 7-10 minutes for a toast at a restaurant!!! I thought they just had to put bread on the grill!!! And it takes less time than 7-10 minutes to make a toast; otherwise it would get burn completely. Oh how mistaken I was! I'm sure these people have invented a new way of getting bread to the condition when you can call it "a toast". You slowly put the bread on grill and take it off immediately, then put it slowly again and take off… and you repeat the whole thing several times… Then you run your knife through it with the pace of a snail… that would make a perfect slow toast. Make sure the whole process takes long time and your customer or guest get bored and pissed waiting.

And then...Enjoy! It’s right on time, when you’ve given up waiting.

math communication

In the world of international everything can happen... even math comm.
Here's the story:

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday. I’ve mentioned that I’ll graduate this May. She asked me what my degree would be. I’ve said MA in Journalism and Mass Communication with concentrating in PR and also I’ve added that I had truly believed that it would be just Mass Communication with concentration in PR. I was not really happy with the word “journalism,” because that implies in stereotypical way that I’m good at writing and not very good with numbers. I think I am the opposite. I love numbers and truly wanna do some marketing stuff.

My friend is also an international (misunderstanding may happen)… so after I’ve told her all this about numbers she asked whether my degree was in "Mass communication" or "Math communication." She was sure that it was math comm., since I’m good with numbers. Funny. But that kind of communication is that? Communication about limits, theory of probability or relations of triangle’s sides? Communication to whom? To the ones who hate math?... Math promotion? Nevertheless… interesting opportunity. Isn’t it like those ads around Atlanta area promoting science as a good path for the kids?

spam (in the mail, not in the store)

I usually go to the spam folder only to empty it, but I do run through the headlines/subjects.
Today I got among others "enlarge your male machine"... I am a girl... what machine should I enlarge?
I was thinking that tailoring spam messages just a little bit would probably improve their effectiveness.
and what's wrong with sexuality in this country? Why there are so many messages about Viagra and stuff? Problems or lack of self-confidence?

how severe is normal?

There is “severe weather alert” on yahoo weather web site for some counties of Georgia. The reason for it is “...WINTER PRECIPITATION POSSIBLE ACROSS NORTH GEORGIA LATE WEDNESDAY THROUGH EARLY THURSDAY... ” Wow [silent for a while… thinking… checking calendar… thinking… reading again]. Is winter precipitation during the winter time something severe? I though winter precipitation for winter is normal, while winter precipitation for summer would be a severe weather condition. Oh wait… is al already summer? [pause… checking the calendar again… hmm… not according to my calendar]

Well, maybe ice and snow is something unusual for Georgia, but then why don’t you just refer to them as ice and snow??

to worry, not to worry? be anxious

Both worry and anxiety can be translated into my native language with the same word. They are basically synonyms. Both words are quite familiar and I would never think I would learn something new about them.

Today in the church we’ve discussed both of these words. Yes, they are synonyms, but “worry” turned out to me stronger and more serious than “anxiety.” Worry is something more long-term, while anxiety is short-term.

When I was learning English I’ve learnt both words, but since the word “worry” was used very often I always thought of it as being “somewhat less serous state of anxiety.” So I was sure that since the word anxiety is not commonly used it is the most serious of the two… I was wrong (in case if what I’ve learned today is correct). But then, why would you use such a bad/strong word as “worry” so often in books written for those who study English as a foreign language?

bleached... and still not white

I know that technology of beaching flour was invented to achieve amazingly white color in flour, especially if it is made with not the best type of wheat. It is logical to use this type of flour in pastry where batter should be white, for example in angel smth cake. It makes sense, isn’t it?

Today I was craving for bagels. I could not do a thing, all my thoughts were about a bagel with some cream cheese. Nothing could help me… just bagels… so I had to drive to the grocery store just to get a pack of bagels. I bought the one with cinnamon and raisins. These bagels turned out to be sooo good, especially for me who was craving for them.

As they are with cinnamon they are dark, they look like they are made with whole wheat flour. Well, it turned out that they are made with (regular) bleached flour. What?? Why?? They are not even white! They are dark!!! Why did you use bleached flour there? It doesn’t really make any sense to me.

math

I always thought hat math is some kind of a hard science. Whenever we do something in a certain set of dimension 2+2 would always equal 4, 1 would be more than 0 etc.
I'm reading "Media Economics" book by C. Hoskins and others. On p. 23 they try to explain concept of elasticity (Elasticity of demand is relation of percentage change in quantity to percentage change in price). Their example: price changes from 10$ to 8$. Quantity changes from 70.000 to 80.000. They said that there was 13.33% change in quantity and 22.22% change in price. "The change in price of 2$, as a percentage of the average price of 9$, is - 22.22%." What???
Aren't we supposed to calculate the change in price of 2$ as a percentage of the original price of 10$ ???? Than it would be -20%. Price dropped 20%.
Seems like math on the other side of the world follows completely different rules.

I'm just shocked!

are you working tomorrow?

Here is a little funny story about me.
I went to a store today to develop the film (and yes, I still use film camera). They could not do it within one hour so I said I'll pick it up later, maybe tomorrow. Then I've realized that tomorrow is Saturday and a store maybe closed so I've asked "Are you working tomorrow?"
The guy gave me a bit funny look and replied "Am I personally?"
That's when I got it! Of course I've said that I was interested in store hours of operation (and that is true).
In my language "you" may refer to plural or singular and in my question I used it as a plural referring to all the people in that place and place itself. I'm happy I've learned something today.

And now I understand why librarian told me about when he worked when I've asked him the same question. I was really confused then and was sure he was about to ask me out and what trying to figure out what time works better for me...

go natural

I’ve noticed that American population use a lot of chemicals for all the possible things.

For example, food: almost everything has some chemicals in it either for flavor or color or preservation purposes (sure you would need that if you buy milk by gallons). It came to a point when kids prefer some artificial drinks and snacks to fruit.

Another thing is cosmetics and body care. There is a trend of going natural – all the organic stuff. But the majority of products still have so many chemicals in it. It is mostly chemicals. When there is a problem people rush to the store to find a solution for it. That’s surprising.

Traditional methods are still so popular back home. Some of them provide you with wonderful results, though sometimes they are more time consuming. Instead of buying special creams and medicine for reducing dark circles under eyes and “curing” red eyes you can use regular black tea. To make your hair shiny you wash them with some herbs, egg yolk or with black bread. (I was looking for a certain herb this summer for my hair. One lady I was working with suggested me to go to herb cure store. Well… they carry mostly pills… and I was looking for herbs in form of dry leaves, seeds, etc. When I told store manager about that she gave me such a look as if I was from a different planet where creatures still don’t know anything about our technology of putting everything in pills).

I truly believe the more natural – the better. And you don’t have to shop for expensive organic stuff. Learn from wisdom of previous generations. Their methods still work!

me

I've got to the point when I'm not saying things that I want sometimes to say because I'm not sure if it is culturally accepted. Before saying something I may ask some of my American friends if that is ok to say. It's like being constantly edited. Purity is lost.
And when I do mistakes I do learn. But for some reasons some of my friends think that this cultural dissonance is not acceptable and offensive for me, so if they know that I'm wrong they do not correct me. Knowing that I double check so many things now. I feel like I'm doing double job for no result.
I feel like I'm saying some important things too late and responding not timely sometimes. And all these things just to make sure I won't hurt anyone. And still I do.
Weird...

pregnancy issue

Apparently I have a totally different sense of humor. Some of my American friends got really offended with things that I think are funny.

I have a friend who is trying to lose some weight, although he does not look fat. He actually looks good. Nevertheless, me and my other friend used to have fun calling him kinda fat (he has a little extra, but just a little). But sometime he has a really nice belly. Looks like he’s pregnant.

The other day I’ve asked him when the baby was due. The reply was “Auch.” I though maybe he didn’t get the question and repeated it. The same reply. And just today I’ve learned that a question like that is extremely bad for guys. Well… sorry… I didn’t know. Guys back home would give some kind of a funny answer which should mean “never.” For example, “after rain on Thursday.”

Didn’t work with an American guy. I have to ask sorry again… I’ll do it.

I’m doing mistakes and I’m learning.