the quantified cook Infographic

After tracking my time all semester, it was finally time for me to gather all my data in to one large infographic. I originally envisioned a large line graph with clickable pictures linking to my blog entries. But, when I went to design the chart, I had so much data it was impossible to decipher the pictures! Rather than scrap my blog, I decided to show the final infographic here...on the blog! 

I wanted the final graphic to have a homemade, vintage feel like it was torn from an old recipe book. I found a great grunge paper texture and added even more stains on top of it. I'm a very messy cook! 

I thought I would find that I tended to cook much, much less the more I study. When I ran a linear regression (and, as you might notice I mention in my blog entries), the correlation was fairly low! I  think my willingness to cook might depend on the errands I ran that day (I grocery shop on Mondays and wash laundry at the laundromat on Wednesdays. Can you tell I'm Type A?) and whether J is traveling or not. It appears that there might be a slight correlation on both fronts. 

It was extremely interesting to track my habits and see what factors do (and don't!) influence each other. 

Sell! Sell! Sell!

A few week's back, my Media Theory class talked about Juliet Schor’s Overspent American. (She also made a video, which I shared, above....fancy!)

What I found particularly interesting about Schor’s book was the concept of “downshifting.” Schor discusses how we as Americans have become caught up in a spending war always searching for bigger, better and more expensive. As she points out, some are rejecting the “traditional” concept of more-is-more in favor of “downshifting” or what Schor describes as living on less, hand making more items and, perhaps, even taking a job that makes them feel more fulfilled and is one that they actually enjoy rather than whatever career makes them the most money. 

I agree with Schor’s that downshifting is happening. I’ve witnessed the turning back towards a “simpler” way of life across the Internet. Downshifting has moved from a conscious counterculture paradigm shift to another one of Hebdige’s commodified counterculture of conforming non-conformists. This trend has become even more pervasive as the downshifting is shared across social media, blogs, Instagram especially as these mediums allow for the connection to other people with similar ideas whether or not they are in the individuals specific locality. The mothers and wives I read about very well could want to lessen their footprint, make homemade jam or eat all organic, free range brown eggs from happy chickens, but, overall, these choices have all become just another marker of downshifting. A way of keeping up with the “crunchy” Bobo Joneses. (And I write this with the full disclosure that I would love to do all those things...) 

What’s more, these supposed ways of downshifting can require their own set and checklist of “essential” items for a happy life. Where the traditional consumer seeks after the latest computer, biggest TV, bigger house or what have you, these consumers seek after that must-have Vitamix, the amazing sewing machine or other gadgets they “need.” How else can they perform downshifting activities such as making themselves a healthy dose of green juice (they care about their bodies and health!), hand make their child’s dragon costume (boycott the Big Box stores!) or feed their baby handmade all-organic baby food (do you know what’s in that store bought Gerber jar?!)? It is interesting to note that this lifestyle trend extends all the way to the food purchased. (The Bobos in Paradise description is apt.) It’s no longer appropriate to shop at the likes of Stop and Shop. Grocery stores contain “levels” much like the levels of traditional retail stores Schor mentioned. Can’t get on the list for your cities co-op like the hippest and crunchiest of your favorite bloggers? Live in an area devoid of farmer’s markets? Whole foods will do in a pinch. Can’t afford Whole Foods? A downshifter can shop at Trader Joe's. Still too much? There’s an Aldi for those who can only look into the window of Whole Foods and dream of local ostrich eggs, Bob’s Red Mill oat flour and growlers filled with locally brewed kombucha. 

From keeping up to keeping down, rest assured that someone will find a way to commodify it, package it up and sell it to you.

Pizza! Pizza!

 

Studying Time: 2 hrs
Cooking Time: 30 min
Recipe: Pizza picked up from good old Uncle G's

When J and I first came to Long Island, we entered into a small Italian grocery store. And in that grocery store there was a wall of cheese. A whole wall dedicated to sweet goat, sheep, and cow milk goodness. That place was Uncle G's.

We go there a lot, especially when we need something quick to eat. Why we needed something quick to eat when I didn't spend much time studying is beyond me. Unfortunately (or strangely enough?), I'm not seeing a trend in the data I'm collecting! We'll see.

Today's dinner brought to you by the letter G.

Helvetica (or Cereal for Dinner)

Studying Time: Ten hours
Cooking Time: 0
Recipe: Yeah, does cereal count?

Seriously.

J worked a twelve hour shift today, so my brain basically had mild panic attacks as I mocked up web pages, watched Helvetica and worked on a semiotics project.

Downside: J is gone all day. Upside: getting a lot of work done.

I highly recommend watching Helvetica. It was a great look into the most popular font of all time. Maybe one day I'll get the hang of graphic design. All of the type designers were extremely passionate about their work.

I think the only I like that much is reading.

And eating.

Reading while eating?

There's nothing better than a great meal. Which is possibly why our registry consists almost exclusively of things for the kitchen. I can't design a home to save my life (especially 3B...it lacks any sort of straight line), but give me a good stainless steel pan and...I'm not sure what I could do. I've never used one, but I feel like my skills are now such that I could. Also, a Le Creuset because life is not complete without a dutch oven.

Sly Fox

This design assignment was the most difficult assignment as I had never used Illustrator before. It took a long time, but I learned a lot! I'm very experimental with projects. I find it keeps me open to ideas and not completely married to something that just won't work. I wanted to create a logo for a bookstore and I decided it would be called sly fox. Beyond that I was open to whatever it might look like. I googled a few pictures of foxes for inspiration. Next, I watched the tutorials in our lecture notes so I could have a better idea of what Illustrator really is. I had some understanding of the tools since they are similar to Photoshop, but didn't really know what the difference between the programs was. After I watched the tutorials, I image traced a picture of a fox. I didn't like the way it looked, so I (clumsily) drew my own using the pen tool and brush tool. It turned out okay, but it was too busy and it didn't look realistic. I decided to use the outline of the fox I had traced with the pen tool and make a silhouette instead. My silhouette looked boring, so I created a border using the rectangle shapes tool and the eraser tool. I turned the background black to give the logo an art deco feel. I decided my fox needed a tail, so I watched an Adobe tutorial on using the pen tool to create curves. I knew how to use it to create vector points, but I always got so annoyed with it that I never learned how to really draw anything other than basic shapes. Once I got the hang of it, I drew a simple tail and adjusted it so it was more in proportion to the rest of the fox. I added the sly fox bookstore in Josephine Slab because the font is simple, yet elegant. 

Sameness

This week for Media Theory, we discussed Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s arguments that within the culture industry “something is provided for everyone so that no one can escape….” and the argument that we ourselves are becoming commodities because of the spectacle of mass media. Everyone, be they business, individual or subculture group, has a price and a point at which they become part of mainstream either because they desire more of a profit or because mass media has essentially sold them out and depicted them as a simple trend to be appropriated. This argument combined well with Dick Hebdige’s idea that even though subcultures start out as unique movements challenging the mainstream ideas, through hegemony and media depictions, the subcultures eventually all become part of a mainstream trend--the non-conformists simply conform to another set of “non-conformist” ideas.  As stated by Hebdige (particularly discussing youth cultures, but this idea can be extended to any subculture), “Youth cultural styles may being by issuing symbolic challenges, but they must inevitably end by establishing new sets of conventions; by creating new commodities, new industries or rejuvenating old ones.” 

These ideas were timely and brought to mind an internet “subculture” I frequent called Offbeat Bride. This subculture prides itself on going against mainstream wedding ideas (what they call the Wedding Industrial Complex), incorporating various forms of non-traditional subcultures into their weddings. Subcultures from steampunk to rockabilly to Wiccan are featured on the site and it prides itself on its “offbeatness.” What I found particularly interesting given the context of this week’s readings, was the article the site ran recently discussing how “offbeatness” had become not so offbeat. The author of the article recognized that there had become certain markers of an offbeat bride (a red wedding dress, converse sneakers, a birdcage veil, just to name a few) that were so well known they no longer seemed unconventional. Rather, they seemed a way for other so-called Offbeat Brides to identify themselves, to mark themselves as “non-tradtional.” Some users of the site even get upset when other users don’t fall within the offbeat norms not recognizing that they are conforming to their own non-conformist vocabulary. Furthermore, as Horkheimer and Adorno state, “there must be something for everyone...” and even the offbeat tribe can not escape the commidification of culture. Small business retailers such as those found on Etsy have begun to cater to these offbeat trends offering items that fit within them. While I don’t think the small businesses catering to those “offbeat” trends is necessarily problematic (they definitely don’t dictate trends as largely or nearly as rigidly as the traditional wedding industry), I did find Horkheimer, Adorno and Hebdige’s arguments very apt in describing what has happened to a once extremely unconventional group of ideas. They certainly aren’t completely mainstream (and I don’t know that they will ever be), but the styles found within the site, despite trying to avoid creating a new vocabularly surrounding weddings, have inevitably demonstrated Horkheimer, Adorno and Hebdige’s theories and created new sets of offbeat conventions and commodities.

Surrealism

In non-cooking news (that's the study portion of this blog, after all!), I was assigned to work on creating a surreal image for my Media Design class. I originally created the image on the bottom right, but my professor suggested cropping the photo for a more balanced image (left). It definitely makes the image stronger. 

I really like surrealism, so getting the opportunity to create a surreal image was enjoyable. To complete this assignment, I used Photoshop.  I used a photo I took while driving cross country as the background. There was a huge lightening storm and I captured a lightening bolt. I then used the polygonal lasso to "grab" my fiance and our puppy from a picture I took for the original photo assignment and moved them into the background image. I wanted them to look like they were floating, so I also copied over their shadow as a layer. I wanted the picture to look spookier, so I rendered some clouds and adjusted the levels a bit. Then, I was enjoying the assignment, so I decided to take a shot of my fingers that I took from the original photo shoot and put them into the picture for more emphasis on scale and proportion. I like that it looks like the image I created is one photograph and that I am trying to "grab" them from the outside.