Blog changes…

I have changed the title of the blog to my name.

The reference to Jean-Paul Sartre will remain.  Google it.

The run-together abbreviated title was partly due to matching the domain name of my active site (marshansen.com) after losing my eponymous site when I was not well a fews years ago and partly a way of hiding. Well, it’s not a very clever disguise considering I have blogged enough information for the average seventh grader to pinpoint my home on Google Earth. The blog address is the same – http://marshansen.wordpress.com/

This may affect someone’s search on Google but I think it will be okay. Anyway, more transparency will result in more accountability.

There are more revisions coming with appearance, contents organized, tags simplified, Art and home projects more detailed, etc.

Any thoughts?

Marshall

More sadness. Peppers and Nightshade poison…

20090928 images added

I blogged recently about nightshade poisons and my attraction to pepper tastes and burns. Over the past 48 hours I conducted a subjective experiment to see if my sensitivity to the nightshade poisons was greater, the same or less than it would be if the peppers were cooked or raw.

The conclusion was reached at about 3:00 pm today when my elbows then hands and knees began the joint pain after eating a large quantity of the One Pepper Beans over basmati rice with a dollop of Philly cream cheese at about Noon.

All of this is subjective – the pain is not a pain in the compound-greenstick-fracture sense, it is not even a pin prick. It is similar to Tennis Elbow. It is an awareness of a change of physicality (if that can be a word applied to pain).  Like the way you become aware of the swelling in a sprained joint. The sensation of the swelling is not the pain of the sprain. It is still uncomfortable and since it is systemic it is not a pain like Tennis Elbow where it is in one location. Imagine it in every joint, including fingers.

Another analogy would be drinking alcohol. I know I feel the threshold has been crossed after the third Ketel One martini. Two tumblers, each with one ice cube, sipped slowly is nice and the third makes me feel intoxicated and uncomfortable. The analogy is made more perfect by the simple fact ingesting peppers is eating a poison and drinking alcohol is drinking a poison. A person does not have an “allergy” to alcohol in any clinical sense (though many claim it). A person is not “allergic” to peppers or tomatoes. Your body reacts to the poison a certain way at a certain level. Joint pain is typical with nightshades.

If I do not eat nightshades I will not have this joint pain.

There it is.

Mars out.

20090928 images added

Hot Banana Peppers, orange 6 1/2", red and new greenish-yellow below orange

another Hot Banana pepper plant w/ red, orange, yellow stages

Red and green jalapenos and serranos

Habanero peppers - orange to green

Habaneros - if only these were candy...

enjoy!

FWIW, You might have noticed the low/lack of insect damage. I plant a marigold in between every plant in the garden and I think this arrangement is more effective than the typical row of a few marigolds at one end.

Mars out.

“It’s just The Smiths”…

Saying this is the easiest way for me to move on, kind of like “lost in translation”.

How soon is now? just played on XM.

Two examples from last week:

I was at a friend’s house working on something and Sponge Bob Squarepants was on the TV. She asked if I thought Sponge Bob was funny. I smiled immediately and said yes, very funny. She said she didn’t know why. That yellow dork makes me laugh but she didn’t get it. Well, okay, I thought to myself with a chuckle “it’s just The Smiths”.

An acquaintance was telling me a story of woe. His paycheck was garnished 25% and this would continue for six months. “It’s not my fault, they should have… blah, blah, blah.” I loved the irony of a story of being financially irresponsible and the hours-old large tattoo prominently visible on his forearm. I figured at least $150 but didn’t ask. Add cigarette smoking, alcohol, cell phone charges and other indulgent habits which come up in his conversations and my only response is to say “Well, you’ll think of something” and think “it’s just The Smiths”.

I do not have a finger on the pulse of Emo/Goth whatever The Smiths are. I don’t understand Morrissey but that’s okay. I know when I hear a snappy acoustic guitar strumming in a Major key I’m going to hear a whine in minor. It makes me laugh.

It’s just  The Smiths.

Mars out.

Gene pool…

I’m not an entomologist so I’m not sure if there is a species of insect which feeds on car paint.

I was walking near the Jimmy when I saw something fly away from the rear door and then saw these eggs. The area covered is about one half inch square.

Maybe the larvae fly away as adults when hatched. Hmmm. Probably not.

Maybe the insect world does not need a continuation of the family line where vegetation and car paint are the same.

Who knows,

Mars out.

Marshall’s diet secrets…

As I close in on the goal of weighing 177 pounds (wt. 1yr after HS)  from a high of 213 two years ago I owe it to two things: smaller portions and just a little more daily activity.

Pretty simple. I quit buying the burrito sized torts about a year ago and now just use the soft taco size. I still eat two but now I have a veggie salad or more yogurt.

Also, I just felt like typing something.

Have a nice evening,

Mars out.