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PopLite Hot Air Corn Popper

Best hot air popper! Convenient, natural and light! Pops regular or gourmet popping corn with hot air, not oil, for a healthy, low calorie treat! Fast! Pops up to 18 cups of gourmet corn in less than 2 1/2 minutes. Leaves virtually no un-popped kernels.

This popular corn popper pops with hot air, not oil, for a healthy, low-calorie treat. It offers a faster, healthier, and more economical choice than microwave-bag popcorn. Use regular or gourmet popcorn with terrific results–virtually no unpopped kernels. Up to 18 cups of gourmet popcorn are popped in less than 2-1/2 minutes, up to 40 percent faster than other leading hot air poppers. Butter melter doubles as a handy measuring cup. One-year limited warranty. 120 Volts AC, 1440 Watts.

Review

Plug in Presto’s PopLite and the party begins. In less than 2-1/2 minutes you’ll have up to 18 cups–two large bowlfuls–of fluffy popcorn with virtually no unpopped kernels. And because the machine uses hot air instead of oil, the resulting snack is healthier and lower in calories. That’s not to say you can’t add butter; in fact, the 1/2-cup measuring cup on top of the popper doubles as a butter melter. Simply put in the desired amount of margarine or butter (room temperature is best), and it melts from the heat produced during the popping process. The clear plastic cover and cup, which must stay on during popping so the popped corn doesn’t fly all over the room, easily remove for hand cleaning with warm, soapy water. No other clean-up is required. While a few unpopped kernels spring out the chute as the machine begins to heats up, the chute does a good job of directing the popped corn into a bowl. The popper measures 14 by 9 by 6-1/2 inches, and is identical to Presto’s Orville Redenbacher Hot Air Corn Popper except for color and logo. Presto covers the PopLite with a two-year warranty. –Ann Bieri

THE SABRINA STRONG SERIES by LORELEI BELL

Book One: Vampire Ascending [More Info...]

Book Two: Vampire’s Trill [More Info...]

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I found a recipe for Pain au Levain in Daniel Leader’s book Bread Alone, and modified it. As a professional baker, Leader’s methods are meticulous, and if you are not able to follow them to the last detail, you won’t be able to replicate his baking. It starts with the right ingredients (e.g. he frequently uses 20% bran wheat flour, which is usually not available in your neighborhood) and continues with measuring and maintaining the exact temperature.

Almost needless to say, but my version of Pain au Levain came out very differently to Mr. Leader’s bread for the simple reason that I don’t have the exact ingredients and the professional equipment. Nevertheless, the result is an extremely tasty Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread, and it doesn’t require a high level of sophistication to replicate it.

First, I followed Mr. Leader’s method of creating the sourdough. Instead of his suggested 20% bran wheat flour I used regular Whole Wheat flour from King Arthur. It takes a full three days to create the sourdough (or as Mr. Leader calls it: Levain). Yes, the process takes time, but not effort.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup Whole Wheat flour
• 1/2 cup cool water
• Pinch of dry yeast

Combine all ingredients in a plastic container with a lid and stir well to make a thick, soft dough. Cover and keep in a warm place (ca. 70°F) for 24 hours.

On Day 2 take the same amount of ingredients and add them to the existing dough. Stir well, cover and keep in a warm place (ca. 70°F) for 24 hours.

On Day 3 take the same amount of ingredients and add them to the existing dough. Stir well, cover and keep in a warm place (ca. 70°F) for 24 hours.

At this point, at the end of Day 3, you can use and keep the dough like any regular sourdough. In my case I took 1 cup of the dough for the recipe below and kept the remainder in the fridge.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Whole Wheat Sourdough
• 1 cup Whole Wheat flour
• 2 cups regular wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups cool water
• Pinch of dry yeast

Combine all ingredients and knead by hand thoroughly for 10 minutes or even more until the dough feels elastic and sticky, but does not stick to the surface. If necessary add either water or flour to get the right consistency.

Form the dough into a loaf and put it into a dutch oven (or a large aluminum foil pan) and cover it. Let sit for about 8 to 10 hours in a warm place (ca. 70°F), then bake (with a covered pan) at 420°F for 35 minutes, remove cover and bake until golden brown (another ~20 to 30 minutes) or to your liking.

Note: I did not dare to use a full 3 cups of Whole Wheat flour, because I trust regular Wheat (7% Gluten) to add the necessary elasticity and fluffiness. It is, nevertheless, possible to use Whole Wheat flour alone.

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“Good bread is hard to find and easy to make,” says Dan Leader as he draws you into the ancient world of traditional bread baking. Unlike any other bread book, Bread Alone will provide you with a comprehensive guide to creating—at home—the country-style breads that have consistently captured the imagination and the taste buds of the world.

In a richly told tale, Leader chronicles his crossings of America and Europe to locate the most vital ingredients at the source, to learn from the methods of the world’s great bakers, and to perfect their traditional techniques. His recipes are ones that have been used for centuries: large sourdough ryes, rich and dark raisin pumpernickel loaves, real French pain au levain, big round wheats with walnuts, crusty baguettes, high and airy breads, and more. Made from organic, stone-ground grains, these breads are slow-leavened, hand-shaped, and baked to perfection on heated baking tiles. As you read through the recipes, you can almost smell the ancient aroma of baking bread. And as you begin to bake, you will learn the importance of the primary ingredient in great bread: your own observations.

These are some of the breads and techniques you will master:

• In the chapter “Becoming Bread,” you will learn to identify and shop for the highest quality flour available. And you will seek it out because you’ll taste the difference.
• Making a poolish will become second nature to you as you master the Learning Recipe: Classic Country-Style Hearth Loaf and its delicious variations.
• Whatever your schedule, there is a bread for you. In the chapter “Straight-Dough Breads: Traditional Breads for a Modern Life-Style,” you are shown how to start and finish a recipe in five hours, or morning-to-night, or night-to-night.
• You will bake sourdough bread in its many forms. By gently introducing the concept of sourdough—how it is made, how it is maintained, and how to get the best flavor from it—Leader demystifies it and makes it accessible to you.
• Discover the wonders of rye bread: From the dense and chewy Finnish Sour Rye to the fragrant Danish Light Rye, everyone’s tastes are served.
• The mystery of pain au levain, French for “bread from a sourdough or wild yeast,” unfolds into an understandable, user-friendly process. From My Personal Favorite Pain au Levain, a typical large Parisian loaf, to Pain au Levainwith Pecans and Dried Cherries, the “Family of Traditional Pain au Levain” includes some of the best loaves baked around the world.
• A perfect baguette is a beautiful thing. From shaping to scoring, you will learn how to make the authentic French baguette at home.
• The purpose of an organic certifier—find out how and why one farmer becomes dedicated to his role as land steward.
• Brioche, Chocolate-Apricot Kugelhopf, Panettone, and Semolina Sesame Rolls are a few recipes you will find in “A Family of Breads Inspired by Traditional French and Italian Breads.”
• Finally, when a quick bread is all you have time to bake, you will find recipes for such delights as Vanilla Bean Butter Loaf; Dried Pear, Port, and Poppy Seed Loaf; and Provolone Sage Corn Loaf.

Bread Alone is the bread book that cooks and bakers have been waiting for. From the wheat fields of the Midwest to the hot and steamy boulangeries of Paris, you will travel the long and delicious road to flawless bread baking. You will emerge a better baker and with a deeper understanding of what it takes to make perfect loaves. Bakers entertain you with stories of their love of baking (even in the most adverse situations). Bread Alone is the bible of bread books and a must-have for bread lovers everywhere.

About Daniel Leader

Daniel Leader is the owner and baker of the Bread Alone Bakery in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Dan’s food career began when, nine months short of his undergraduate philosophy degree from the University of Wisconsin, he realized his need to work with his hands as well as his mind. He enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, graduated at the top of his class, and, worked as a chef for some of New York City’s hottest restaurants, La Grenouille and the Water Club. Then, after eight years of cooking food “too fancy to eat,” he became obsessed with the idea of creating something wholesome, timeless, and beautiful. Great bread and Bread Alone were born. Dan lives in Boiceville, New York, with his wife, Sharon, and four children, Liv, Nels, Octavia, and Noah.

Editorial Review

Here is a wonderful collection of delicious recipes and bread lore. Leader, a former New York City restaurant chef, runs Bread Alone, a popular Woodstock, New York, bakery well known for its breads baked in wood-fired brick ovens. Blahnik is a food writer and editor. Leader is an example of the dedicated artisans described in Joe Ortiz’s excellent The Village Baker ( LJ 12/92); as he became increasingly fascinated with bread-making, he traveled to Europe and throughout the United States to uncover the secrets of the craft. The results are his traditional and “tradition-based” breads such as Country-Style Loaf with Herbs and Onion, Sourdough Rye, and Pain au Levain with Olives and Rosemary. The recipes are extremely detailed, and the accounts of Leader’s adventures in the world of bread bakers are both readable and fun. Highly recommended. – Library Journal

Don’t be fooled by the description! If you are, like me, a bread enthusiast, and you want to drool about bread, this book is for you. If you have the enthusiasm, time, and, most importantly, the professional equipment like Daniel Leader, this book may be for you. If you are a hobby baker, like me, and you are looking for some good recipes and baking methods, this book may be a little over your head. As a professional baker, Leader’s methods are meticulous, and if you are not able to follow them to the last detail, you won’t be able to replicate his baking. It starts with the right ingredients (e.g. he frequently uses 20% bran wheat flour, which is usually not available in your neighborhood) and continues with measuring and maintaining the exact temperature. I do like that he describes his methods in all detail (including the kneading). After all, in my personal opinion, methods are the key for successful baking. Over all, it is a good book, but it is definitely not suitable for the hobby baker. – Wilfried F. Voss, Editor FrogenYozurt.Com

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I found the original recipe in the King Arthur flyer and modified it. The King Arthur recipe made a sweet (non-sourdough) bread, and it called for a lot of maple sugar, which doesn’t comply with my sourdough philosophy. My recipe results in a large, dark-colored loaf with a pleasingly nutty taste. After all, it includes a cup of chopped walnuts.

For more information on sourdough baking, please see my section Greenfield Sourdough on this website.

Ingredients

• 1 cup sourdough
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
• 1 1/2 cups cool water (may even be cold)
• 2 tsp. salt (sea salt or kosher salt is best, regular will do, too)
• 1 pinch instant yeast
• 2 Tsp. maple syrup
• 1/2 cup steel cut oats (regular oats will do, too)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

A Few Remarks

The amount of water needed may vary with the location. I usually go with a 2:1 ratio between flour and water, i.e. each cup of flour calls for a 1/2 cup of water. It works here in New England when the humidity stays in a normal range. It may not entirely work in New Mexico (low humidity) or Florida (high humidity). The best rule is to check the dough. It should feel slightly sticky but should not stick to the kneading surface. If the dough doesn’t feel right, you can compensate with more flour or more water depending on the dough’s condition.

Please be aware: As with all complex bread recipes, following the method as described in the following takes total priority over the exact measurement of ingredients. The baking success depends 99% on the right method of preparing and baking.

Method

First of all, I do recommend starting the dough on a late afternoon or early night and plan the baking for the next day. Sourdough bread comes out best when you let it rest (and work) for quite some time.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, and mix and knead them by hand until you have a soft smooth dough. The kneading time is not important as the dough will rest for several hours. I do not recommend a mixer or a bread machine. The dough may be too tough, unless you have a very strong mixer.

Cover the bowl and let it rest for 12 to 16 in a preferably cool place. Alternatively, you may transfer the dough into a plastic bowl with a tight cover.

After 12 to 16 hours carefully remove the dough and form into a loaf. Put it on a pan and let it rest and rise for about 2 hours in a warm place. The dough should rise somewhat, but please be aware that the dough will rise even more during the baking process. I personally use a dutch oven instead of a pan, but you can use a deep aluminum foil pan (you get them in the supermarket) and cover it tightly with aluminum foil.

Place the pan into the oven, heat it to 450°F (no pre-heating required) and bake for about 30 minutes, then decrease to 400°F (simulating the effects of a traditional brick oven). The total baking time depends more or less on your personal taste, i.e. how you like your crust. For a thin crust, remove the bread as soon as it turned golden brown on the surface. For a darker and thicker crust you should keep the loaf in the oven, but not more than 30 minutes after decreasing the temperature.

In case you use a dutch oven or the aluminum foil pan, remove the cover before decreasing the temperature, meaning bake for 30 minutes at 450°F with cover, then remove the cover and bake at 400°F.

Enjoy!

Fortunately today, OCD is well recognized, so most people have heard of it. However, without personally experiencing the horror of OCD symptoms, it’s unlikely that others will understand the serious grip that OCD has on a person. This is only made worse if your particular set of symptoms falls in the embarrassing end of the spectrum, like the woman who avoided seeking help for twenty-four years because she was too embarrassed to reveal she thought she had semen on her hands.

To add insult to embarrassment, gathering the courage to describe your OCD symptoms out loud can be a huge anti-climax.  Words are insufficient and do little more than trivialize the agonizing vice-like hold that OCD thoughts and compulsions have on your brain.

To quote from A Life Lived Ridiculously:

I just didn’t see how I could possibly explain all this to another person such that they would get it. ‘Hi, doc, I’m here because I don’t like the lampshades in my apartment and I can’t decide where the TV should go.’ ‘I’m a doctor, not an interior designer,’ is the response I would expect. ‘Yeah, but it really bothers me.’ ‘Well, my wife won’t let me take the pool table out of the basement and that really bothers me.’

.
So here are some ways that you might use to broach the subject of your OCD:

1) Introduce the conversation by talking about some of the many famous people who openly have OCD. David Beckham, Miley Cyrus and Daniel Radcliffe have talked openly about their struggles with the condition.
Well respected historical figures, such as Charles Darwin, Samuel Johnson and Florence Nightinglale, were also thought to have OCD.
This allows you to gage whether your audience knows about OCD and also allows you to get some clues as to whether your audience is likely to be sympathetic or not.

2) Draw people’s attention to the well known TV programs that deal with OCD.

• Detective Monk television series
• Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets.
• Obsessed

3) I read an interesting article / novel about OCD. With so much information online and in bookstores, it’s easy to inform people. Some great memoirs about OCD include:

• Devil in the details by Jennifer Traig
• It’ll be ok: How I kept OCD from ruining my life by Shannon Shy
• Memoirs of a Born Shlepper: Never Give OCD a Third Thought by Rod Fadem
• Rewind, Replay Repeat: A Memoir of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by Jeff Bell
• A Life Lived Ridiculously by Dr Annabelle R Charbit

Reading a memoir allows your audience to gain a deep insight into what it’s like to live every day with OCD.

4) It happened to a friend of mine. Talk about your symptoms as though they were someone else’s, Then gage the reaction of your audience.

5) If you don’t wish to speak face to face with someone, you may always email links about OCD.
6) Explain to others that OCD is a physical illness, no less so than hypothyroidism or heart disease. Understand that OCD is a biological disorder of the brain and learn the neurological pathways (the OCD circuit). Eg the error centers of the brain are overactive due to a lack of serotonergic activity in the orbitofrontal cortex. Some great resources include:

• Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder by Jeffery M Schwartz
• Getting Control by Lee Baer
• Tormenting Thoughts and Secret Rituals: The hidden Epidemic of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by Ian Osborn

7) Join online forums and support groups, and practice talking about it with other sufferers until talking about it becomes second nature.

• OCD Tribe
• Neurotic Planet
• OCD Action
• Psych and Mental Health
• Support Groups
• Social Phobia World
• Stuck In A Doorway

You may also encounter persons with more moving ways to describe their daily torment, which you can adopt when describing yours.

Will any of these tips make your audience really understand your pain? Probably not. But it will help you to inform others in a way that is easily accessible to them and hopefully not so embarrassing for you.

Dr Annabelle R Charbit

Author of A Life Lived Ridiculously: When a girl with obsessive compulsive disorder, falls in love with a sociopath, she must fight for her sanity and her life

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WHAT  MAKES A SOCIOPATH?

The Absence of Feelings: Sociopaths may seem to laugh or cry but they present with no depth of emotion. While easily provoked to frustration or rage, their display of feeling is little more than a momentary, isolated temper tantrum. To the sociopath, other people are tools to get them what they want: money, sex, a job or other possessions. They live in their own amoral world where nothing they do has any consequences and where they owe no one anything. They have no empathy. Thus, they elude all responsibility for their actions, and can easily turn the tables, blaming their partner without guilt or shame.
The Relentlessness of Deception: Sociopaths lie all the time. As they don’t view their spouse as a thinking, feeling person, they do not see this behavior as wrong. Their only quest is to serve themselves and, if this entails lying, cheating or even murder, they will do so. If one catches them in lies, they are brilliant at changing the subject, placing the onus on the other person, denying their involvement or trying to make their spouse seem crazy. They are even good at deceiving the police and the court system; sociopaths rarely end up in prison for their actions.
The Impulsiveness of Action: Sociopathic individuals rarely plan ahead. They undertake actions on the basis of momentary whims, often devious ones. Every act seems isolated in its own amoral universe. Thus, they cannot keep promises or repair the damage they’ve caused to others. When they lie, cheat or steal, the act exists solely for them; they believe it should have no repercussions or real world effects. They often appear to have “forgotten” they did something shortly after it happened. Their need for excitement encourages them to get involved in one night stands, shady deals and ill advised engagements.
Sociopaths have no sense of commitment to their spouses, any children they may have together or the future.

HOW TO SPOT A SOCIOPATH

Sociopaths have impressive social skills, thereby making them extremely hard to spot. They are charming, funny and exciting. This is why we need to be aware. If your new romantic interest exhibits all or most of the following behaviors, be careful. He or she might be a sociopath.

1) Charisma and charm: They’re smooth talkers, always have an answer, never miss a beat. They seem to be very exciting.

Their manners are impeccable; they are well groomed; they fulfill the codes of romance and courtship to a tee. They are likely to be eloquent talkers who lace their speech with impressive sounding facts and figures. They may be fun, laugh a lot, sweep their partner off their feet with their sweetness.

2) Enormous ego: They act like the smartest, richest or most successful people around. They may actually come out and tell you that.

3) Overly attentive: They call, text and e-mail constantly. They want to be with you every moment. They resent time you spend with your family and friends.

4) Jekyll and Hyde personality: One minute they love you; the next minute they hate you. Their personality changes like flipping a switch.

5) Blame others: Nothing is ever their fault. They always have an excuse. Someone else causes their problems.

6) Lies and gaps in the story. You ask questions, and the answers are vague. They tell stupid lies. They tell outrageous lies. They lie when they’d make out better telling the truth. If you probe deeper, you’ll find that their stories never stack up.

7) Intense eye contact: Call it the predatory stare. If you get a chill down your spine when they look at you, pay attention.

Move fast: They quickly proclaim that you’re their true love and soul mate. They want to move in together or get married quickly.

9) Pity play: They appeal to your sympathy. They want you to feel sorry for their abusive childhood, psychotic ex, incurable disease or financial setbacks.

10) Sexual magnetism: If you feel intense attraction, if your physical relationship is unbelievable, it may be their excess testosterone.

Some doctors call them sociopaths, others refer to them as psychopaths. Either way, the terms are used to describe individuals who have a range of personality disorders. These people are NOT certifiably mentally ill; they are biological carriers of socially and personally problematic traits. Such traits may have been manifested from childhood in acts of cruelty to animals, property or people. These characteristics can disrupt relationships, create financial and emotional crises, and, at their worst, lead the person to callously undertake acts of vandalism, theft, rape or murder. Being aware what constitutes a sociopath can help one resist their charm and the errors inherent in establishing a life with them.

Sociopaths know exactly what they are doing, and most of them never kill anyone. But they are social predators who exploit just about everyone they meet. They have no heart, no conscience and no remorse.

You can’t ‘cure’ a sociopath or help them to see the error of their ways. They can’t see the world as we do, and the only thing you can do, is save yourself and walk away.

Dr Annabelle R Charbit

Author of A Life Lived Ridiculously

When a girl with obsessive compulsive disorder falls in love with a sociopath, she must fight for her sanity and her life…

www.ridiculouslife.net

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Bring the kids and check out our program!

You will be given a chance to meet current families, and there will be activities for the children to participate in. Come and meet our staff, see our facility, and learn about our program.

Come learn with us!

Where: First Church Nursery School – 43 Silver Street – Greenfield, MA

When: Saturday, January 21st – 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm

We are EEC licensed and NAEYC accredited. We provide multi-aged classrooms with flexible scheduling.

For more information call 413-773-3068.

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Look here for my mac and cheese recipe… 

1/3 cup margarine

1/3 cup flour (GF flour works great!)

2 ¼ milk (warmed in the microwave)

1/8 tsp. pepper

½ tsp. dry mustard

8 oz. shredded cheddar

3 Tbs. dried breadcrumbs (flavored are fine, or omit)

Additional cheese for sprinkling

8 oz. small pasta cooked (GF works well)

Start the pasta cooking before you make the cheese sauce.  In a large saucepan over medium high heat, melt margarine.  With a wire
whisk or slotted spoon, stir in flour until well blended and smooth, cook for a couple of minutes.  Gradually add milk stirring constantly until mixture is thick and bubbling.  Add salt, pepper, mustard, and shreddedcheese.  Remove from heat and gradually stir in cooked pasta.  Pour mixture into a greased 13x9x2 or similar pan.   Sprinkle breadcrumbs and remaining cheese on the top.  Bake at 350° for 25-35 minutes or until
bubbly.  This can be made ahead and refrigerated until ready to use.  Then bake for approximately one hour or until bubbly.

So much better than the blue box!

For a nice variation, add chopped ham to the cheese sauce.

For Gluten Free mac and cheese, substitute GF pasta for the small pasta and use GF flour in place of the all purpose flour.  I usually omit the bread crumbs when I make this and we don’t miss it!

Pretty much everyone knows that a healthy mind, body and soul involves living squarely within your BMI (body mass index).

Well everyone except residents of New York City, it seems. Walking down the streets of Manhattan, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve stumbled into a concentration camp. It’s an endless catwalk of underfed females, and when you think it couldn’t possibly get any thinner, you turn a corner and bam, another skeleton clicks its way by.

Women are fighting fat like it’s the devil’s curse, never mind that our brains are 60% fat and our important organs such as kidneys require fat to hold them in position and allow them to function. If you are a single woman living in New York City, fat is evil and must be exorcised at all costs.

I understand that New York City has a disproportionate ratio of women to men, that competition is steep and it’s important to look one’s best. I understand that some women feel the need to wear cocktail dresses in the middle of the day and that for certain woman the monthly make up bill is higher than the rent. What I don’t understand is women who believe that starving themselves to dangerously low weights increases their chances of ensnaring Mr Right.

I mean come on guys, don’t you desire a girl who is happy, healthy, able to hold a conversation and has the shape of a fertile woman who might some day bare you children? Or does it really turn you on to date a girl who throws up after every meal, is cranky from lack of food, has the bone density of an eighty year old and faints every now and then?

Frankly, ladies, a guy who wants to date a skeleton is anything but Mr Right. It makes me mad to see well fed males strolling proudly alongside their starving girlfriends. Since when was a skeleton a status symbol?

On an anthropological level, it would make sense for a man to be drawn to the girl who demonstrates, health, stability and fertility, but clearly that isn’t the case in New York City, where women who look like twelve year old boys are ranked higher than women who look like women.

Has something gone seriously wrong with this society? Or is this just nature’s way of redressing the balance? After all if enough women starve to death, then New York City may one day see an equal male to female ratio. What other explanation could there possibly be?

Annabelle

A Life Lived Ridiculously
When a girl with obsessive compulsive disorder falls in love with a sociopath, she must fight for her sanity and her life.
http://www.ridiculouslife.net/

Well my last house guest did not make herself quite as at home as I had hoped. Sure she ate my food and commanded the remote control, but compared to her own tidy home, where shoes are not allowed, she clearly felt that my home was not worthy of the same regard.

June arrived off the plane with a nasty sniffle. Blowing through an entire box of tissues, she explained that she must have contracted some form of the Black Death from those nasty Petri dishes known as airplane seats. I certainly empathized. After a flight, my first instinct is to strip, shower and apply fresh clothing.

As her nose turned red, her eyes black and the rest of her a scary, post-mortem green, she asked to lie down. I pointed her to my bedroom, handing her a bath towel and showing her the location of the bathroom on the way. Meantime I continued preparing the bed in the guest room.

I had expected that she would either stop to shower, or perhaps remove her outer clothing, before flopping onto the bed. But when I returned to the room an hour later, I found June under my sheets, fully clothed except for her shoes. Fighting back the urge to retch, I woke her and sent her to the spare room that was now ready with fresh sheets, whereupon she jumped under the covers still fully clothed and returned to her slumber. Three days later both my husband and I were sick, which was not helped by the fact that I was eight months pregnant.

In the following days, June’s level of cleanliness did not improve. The kitchen seemed to spontaneously explode just by her entering it. Chocolate powder never quite made it into the glass, butter never quite onto the bread, and when the soup bubbled out of the pan, she made no attempt to clean the stove. Instead, she grabbed her tenth box of tissues, blew her nose and slumped off into the living room.

And finally there was the dog. We repeatedly asked her to keep the fuzzy little creature off the furniture, but were ignored every time. Anyone who lives with children knows what it’s like to nag someone a hundred times, only to have them ignore you. It turned out that June had decided that the dog on her lap, was not the same as the dog on the couch. Well silly me.

Eventually, the dog, having figured out long before its owner that it was unwelcome on the furniture, chose to settle on a tapestry that lay folded on the floor. As I entered the living room to find the dog clawing into the beautiful wedding gift that we had planned to hang on our wall, whilst June ignored the whole thing, I finally lost my cool.
“What is she doing?” I yelled.
“Burrowing,” replied June. “It’s what she does. She has terrier in her.”
“Well she’s gonna have a knife in her if you don’t get her claws out of my tapestry.”
Did my house guest apologize? Absolutely not. She fixed me with wounded eyes as she lifted the dog back onto the couch.

Finally June left, at which point I would have heaved a sigh of relief were my nose not so blocked that I couldn’t breathe.

June came and went without leaving us gift.

In spite of everything, I was sad to see her go. Not because I enjoyed having my house treated worse than a rock star’s hotel room, but because she is a friend whose company I enjoy. When I was not busy wondering whether rats would move in, I enjoyed scouring the city together in search of the best hot chocolate. And being chocoholics is just one of the many things that bind us, not to mention how much I enjoy our conversations that last for hours. All of this is why we became friends. My husband has officially banned her from the house, and I certainly agree with him, but can I realistically ban her from my house without banning her from my life?

If I tell June that she was a terrible house guest, she will no doubt be offended, justify herself fiercely and artfully turn it around so that I wind up in the wrong. Isn’t that what we all do when faced with criticism? To quote Dale Carnegie, “Let’s realize that the person we are going to correct and condemn will probably justify himself or herself, and condemn us in return.”

With that in mind, I have chosen not to confront June. And though she thinks our friendship is intact, I can’t help but resent her. Not so much because she disrespected my home, as because she would never admit to it or apologize for it. Having said that I am pretty certain that one pleasant visit with June on neutral territory, is all it will take to cure my anger. After all, she is charming and I’ve already mentioned that I like her. But even when I am ready to forgive her, I know my husband never will be, and that June will have to remain forever banned from our home.

No good will come from criticizing me...

Annabelle

A Life Lived Ridiculously
When a girl with obsessive compulsive disorder falls in love with a sociopath, she must fight for her sanity and her life.
http://www.ridiculouslife.net/

The clutter phobes, however, really do obsess about their space and their stuff, organizing, counting, arranging, rearranging and purging, constantly feeling cluttered even though they live in minimalistic, Spartan conditions.

Do hoarders even have the obsessions and compulsions that are so integral to OCD, or is their hoarding mindless? Most hoarders will tell you that they don’t even know how their hoarding got so out of hand. Is that the meticulous attitude of someone with OCD? I don’t think so! It’s a mystery how hoarding ever got labeled as OCD. Less than 1% of the population hoards, and 2.5% of the population has OCD. According to the Mayo Clinic, many people who hoard don’t have other OCD-related symptoms. Furthermore, according to Dr Staab of the Mayo Clinic, “recent functional brain imaging studies suggest a different pattern of brain activity in patients with hoarding versus other OCD symptoms. All of these data support the separation of hoarding from OCD.”

I therefore propose that we debunk the hoarding myth and get the world to understand that clutter phobia, when taken to it’s extreme, is a real and distressing symptom of OCD that deserves to be recognized.

I am using the term ‘clutter phobia’ to describe people who are so strict about what comes into and what remains in their home, that it causes major distress and/or disruption to daily living. I have also heard it called Obsessive Compulsive Spartanism, which is good news, as the first step to recognizing something is naming it. Sadly though, The American Psychiatric Association does not officially recognize obsessive compulsive spartanism as a psychiatric disorder. Even more frustrating is that, in the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) IV, hoarding has been categorized as a symptom of OCD. Thankfully and finally hoarding will be classified as a separate illness in the DSM V edition, due to be published in 2013.

It is very important to note that obsessive compulsive spartanism has NOTHING to do with contamination OCD (cleaning, hand washing etc). And that just like cleaning and checking, clutter phobia can stand alone and cause plenty of distress as is.

I would suggest that clutter phobia (or obsessive compulsive spartanism) manifests itself as follows:
1) Need to have minimum things in your home.
2) Need to have specific numbers of everything that you do have in your home.
3) Everything must fit into a category, or you cannot have it at all
4) Everything has a very specific place.

The OCD part is the constant editing: Is this the right shelf for my books, why do I have 6 pairs of trousers, maybe I should have five? A screwdriver doesn’t fit into any of my acceptable categories, so I won’t have one even if it means constantly bothering the neighbor to borrow theirs. I know I’m about to miss my flight but I can’t leave the house until I am happy that my kitchen cabinet doesn’t look cluttered.

Because this brand of OCD never appears in any of the textbooks, and is never spoken about, it is likely there are many sufferers out there struggling in silence and wishing they had any other more famous OCD symptoms instead, just so they wouldn’t feel so weird and alone. Some unfortunate souls probably have no idea they have OCD at all, and that treatment is available, just as it is to other OCD patients.

Hoarders have recognition of their suffering, obsessive compulsive spartans do not. If there are enough out there, then we need to get together and raise serious awareness about this type of torment. Perhaps it is far less interesting or scandalous than hoarding, but it is torture, as only an OCD sufferer can know.

Think about it. There’s:

• Contamination OCD
• Checking
• Ordering
• Counting
• Hoarding !!!
• Scrupulosity (religious OCD)
• HOCD
• Sexual OCD
• Pure O
• Skin picking

Everyone’s pain is recognized, except for the obsessive compulsive spartans! If you are a clutter phobe, this should make you furious.

Time to come out of some very neat closets

And hoarders, please go away, get out of our space and get your own diagnosis. OCD belongs to the clutter phobes!!

I mean seriously, which looks more like OCD to you?

Annabelle

A Life Lived Ridiculously
When a girl with obsessive compulsive disorder falls in love with a sociopath, she must fight for her sanity and her life.
http://www.ridiculouslife.net/

Some of the companies orchestrating these scams are even considered reputable, yet they freely get away with theft at no repercussion to themselves. Meantime the users whom they scam are left to wallow in their own impotence and frustration, with no way to defend themselves or to ever get redress.

Below are details of some of the top websites that offer payment in exchange for work, and the methods they use to perpetrate their scam.

CashCrate.com 
CashCrate claims to pay users for signing up for offers, trying new products, completing surveys and getting cash back on purchases made at hundreds of your their online retailers.

CashCrate’s offers include registering for wardrobe makeover sweeps, signing up for auto insurance quotes and chances to win desirable prizes such as a year’s worth of diapers, airplane tickets, or thousands of dollars in gift cards from places like Target or Costco.

All the user has to do is “fill out the form with valid information and participate.” What this really means is that the user will be asked to:
1) provide an email address which will be sold to numerous third parties, thereby generating hundreds of spam messages to your inbox every day.
2) fill out a form that needs to include a cell phone number. The moment the cell phone number is divulged, the user will receive text spam at a cost to the USER of $9.99.
3) complete any two offers. These offers may seem free (such as a free trial to whiter teeth), but users will be asked to reveal credit card details in order to cover shipping and processing. Mostly this is a nominal fee of no more than one dollar, but the point is that CashCrate and its advertisers will acquire credit card information that may then be used in any one of a number of credit card scams.

If all the steps are not fulfilled, user participation is considered incomplete and the account will not be credited. Furthermore there are no real surveys on CashCrate, just endless pages of offers, designed to confuse the user and extract as much personal information as possible. CashCrate is visibly a scam and a dangerous one at that. Stay well away!

InboxDollars.com 
Googling InboxDollars will bring up mixed reviews. As with Cashcrate, InboxDollars, which is owned by CotterWeb Enterprises, works using offers and surveys. The surveys are considered impossible to qualify for, as the survey companies are very specific in the demographics from whom they want information. 

With InboxDollars, users earn five dollars for joining and can cash out at thirty dollars. Other than offers, users also receive paid emails, which pay two cents just for clicking them, plus hundreds of addictive games, also with a cash payout. Many users have reported dedicatedly playing their favorite games for several weeks, before realizing that no money has been added to their account. Upon inquiring with the support center, users are typically told that InboxDollars is not responsible and that payment will happen if and when the game hosts ever confirm their having played.

The offers aren’t any better, though they are more attractive, as many do not require credit card information in order to be considered complete. However, once an offer is completed InboxDollars closes the page, leaving no record of it having been completed. Many complaints have been submitted by users claiming to be owed credit on numerous offers on which they wasted valuable time and offered up their email for spam. Again, contacting the support center seems to be fruitless, and many are met with rude responses from scammers whose job is to absolve InboxDollars from all responsibility towards the user. 
Finally, of those who have made it to the thirty dollar payout threshold, many have complained that upon requesting their payment, InboxDollars mysteriously canceled their accounts and their money was lost. 
In conclusion, InboxDollars appears to be a scam, with its main aim to collect email address to sell to third parties, leaving the user with nothing but an inbox full of spam to show for their efforts.   

SnapDollars.com 
SnapDollars is basically the Canadian version of InboxDollars. The offers are identical; users get five dollars for joining, cash out is at thirty dollars and paid emails are sent every day. Users who have signed up for most of the offers on InboxDollars, will be unable to do the same on SnapDollars, as the advertisers already have the information and understandably don’t wish pay twice for the same account. So the message here is to choose either SnapDollars or InboxDollars, but there’s no need to sign up for both.  

As with InboxDollars, reviews of SnapDollars are mixed, with the negatives including complaints about bad customer service, compensation never received for completing offers, and difficulty in qualifying for surveys. One particularly worrisome complaint comes from users who claim that SnapDollars refuses allow them to cash out their thirty dollars until they first spend fifteen dollars on offers. Others complain that SnapDollars mysteriously loses their mailing address and then removes the cash out button from their page. Basically it seems, from the enormous number of complaints that SnapDollars will do anything to wriggle out of paying its users.

On the upside, if there can be an upside, SnapDollars lets its users know which offers are one hundred percent free, so that they’ll know in advance which offers can be completed  without ever being asked for credit card details.

In conclusion, the SnapDollars scam is identical to InboxDollars, with SnapDollars being just a little more imaginative in the excuses used to avoid paying users their dues.

Panda Research.com 
PandaResearch has nothing to offer anyone who is not interested in divulging their credit card information. The surveys range from one to five dollars, which is more generous than the fifty cents offered by Cashcrate and InboxDollars, but every one of these surveys is attached to a free trial offer that must be completed with credit card details.  

Panda Research also offers paid emails which pay two cents just for clicking on them, but it might not be worth joining just for that, as their cash out threshold is one hundred dollars. On the upside, it won’t take long to figure out that Panda Research is a waste of time, as users will not even be able to begin a survey without first signing up for a free offer using a credit card.   

GlobalTestMarket.com 
Before users can even begin completing paid surveys, GlobalTestMarket requires completion of a “profile survey,” which is made up of ten detailed surveys with questions ranging from household income, to travel choices, to auto insurance, to detailed information about every piece of technology in the home and workplace, to career, purchases and interests. Once users has divulged everything there is to divulge about themselves and every item that has ever come within a ten mile radius of them, they are deemed ready to begin the surveys.   

Users typically complain that, upon completion of their “profile survey,” they are forever unable to qualify for any of the paid surveys. GlobalTestMarket emails a paid survey everyday, however upon answering a couple of questions, users are immediately told that they did not qualify. It seems that many users have never qualified for surveys, and why would they when they have already given up so much information for free?

GlobalTestMarket is a scam that extracts all the information it needs using the “profile survey,” and users will never qualify for a paid survey. There are no real paid surveys on this site, do not waste your time.

Mommytalksuverys.com 
Mommytalksurveys targets new mothers, claiming, “Shared experiences between you and your baby are the most rewarding. Now earn cash rewards for sharing your opinions with us.” Earnings for most of the listed surveys range from one to three dollars, and cash out is at twenty five dollars. 

But there is a catch. Just as with GlobalTestMarket, users have complained that following a ten minute pre-survey using questions closely related to the actual survey, they have been unable to qualify for the actual survey. It is now thought that there are no paid surveys on the site, as the pre-surveys provide all the necessary information required by the client company. 

Based on reviews like this, it is recommended that no one wastes their time signing up to Mommytalksurveys.  

MyPoints.com 
MyPoints offers the opportunity to earn points for doing what you already do online: shopping, reading emails, playing games, searching the web, taking surveys, and more. Users can then covert those points to gift cards for stores and restaurants of their choosing.

However, upon reading the fine print, users will learn that no gift cards will be dispensed until they sign up for at least one “sponsored offer.” And of course these “sponsored offers” require credit card details. Again, as it is not advisable to divulge credit card  information, it is not worth joining MyPoints.

There have also been a number of complaints about MyPoints mysteriously closing user accounts as soon as a payout is requested. Based on the volume and consistency of negative reviews alone, it seems reasonable to say  that MyPoints is a scam.   

MySurvey.com 
MySurvey, which is owned by the consumer research company, Taylor Nelson Sofres, pays users to participate in consumer research surveys conducted by various participating companies. There is also a referral system that allows users to earn when they recruit new users to the site. 

MySurvey.com actually pays in points, which can then be traded for cash, with one thousand points equaling ten dollars. Ten dollars is the minimum cash out amount.

Referring new users wins a user one hundred and fifty points ($1.50) for each person who qualifies and actively takes surveys.

The reviews for MySurvey mainly consist of users complaining that the payout per completed survey has dropped drastically from seventy five points ($0.75) to just ten to thirty points ($0.10 to $0.30), regardless that some of their surveys can last up to forty five minutes. This certainly places MySurvey in the slave-labor category. 

ReviewStream.com 
ReviewStream allows users to earn money by writing reviews about anything they desire, including homes appliances, toys, companies, hotels, politics, cities, stores on your street, or even your neighbor’s pets. ReviewStream will pay $2.50 per accepted review. Many join ReviewStream, reasoning that as they already review for Yelp, they might as well get paid for it instead.

Well that’s not quite how it works. Reviews first have to be approved, and when they are not approved users will never learn why. Instead users are directed to a page that states, in capital letters, “Your review is not valuable, we are not interested in it.” After much searching on line, you’ll uncover testimonials from previous users revealing that this is ReviewStream’s way of refusing any reviews that fall under two hundred and fifty words. This may be the case, but nowhere on the site does ReviewStream state that reviews are subject to a minimum number of words.

Reviews may also be partially approved, in a system called “bulk reviews”, whereby users get paid “the bulk rate” of one fifth of the going rate (fifty cents) for a review that is considered mediocre, but not bad enough to dump entirely. ReviewStream encourages users to include personal opinions in their reviews, but what eventually leads them to accept, partially accept or totally reject a review remains a mystery.

The cash out threshold is fifty dollars and many reviewers complain that, since most reviews are only accepted at the bulk rate of fifty cents, they may have to write up to one hundred reviews before reaching that cash out. Many users have also complained about not being paid and being met with unusually aggressive responses from staff when attempting to chase up their dues.

The other complaint is that although ReviewStream claims to respond to submissions within seventy two hours, they will more often than not take considerably longer before letting users know whether they plan to accept or reject their work.

Finally, looking at their Whois records, it appears that ReviewStream is hiding their real address by using a US proxy to register under a US address. Yet a brief email exchange with the ReviewStream staff and their poor grasp of the English language, will raise the question, where in the world is this site really based?

In conclusion, ReviewStream does not inspire trust, their business practices are questionable and user complaints are practically viral on the internet.   

Constant Content 
Constant content is touted as a high quality site for serious writers. You may write about anything you please, so long as it contains useful information, is not written in the first person, and expresses no personal opinions. To guarantee greater success, you are welcome to pick a title from a list of requested titles. You may also name your price per article, and some of the requested titles are priced anywhere between twenty dollars and two hundred dollars depending on the number of words. 

Knowing that Constant Content accepts only the very best and most thoroughly researched writing, users toil late into the night, researching the story and minding their grammar. And then they submit. And then they are rejected.

Many users complain of articles being rejected for reasons including a missing comma, a misspelled word, a minor grammar adjustment, citing of references, use of words like ‘may be’ which apparently indicate opinion, and many more. Of course grammar needs to be perfect and guidelines need to be followed, but it seems, based on the following evidence, that Constant Content is looking for reasons to reject.

Firstly the rejection email with the explanation about the missing comma requires more effort on the part of the editor than simply inserting the comma and accepting the article. Users may certainly resubmit the article, though no more than three times according to the rules. Then it is banished forever.

What raises the most suspicion though, is that, instead of informing users of all the errors in the first rejection, Constant Content will sniff at the missing comma in rejection number one, complain about the use of ‘may be’ in rejection number two, and finally highlight a misspelled word in rejection number three. The question therefore is why did the editors not list all the errors in the first rejection, thereby maximizing the chance of accepting the article?

Constant content doesn’t want the work, and will never accept the articles. Or more
specifically, constant content wants informative and well researched articles, but doesn’t want to credit the user for it. Don’t be surprised if you later find your hard work published in some reputable site or paper, slightly modified and under someone else’s name. That’s right, constant content’s mission is information theft. They lure users to do the research, reject it based on unreasonable expectations, and then sell it quietly, claiming all the booty for themselves.

Google Adsense 
Google Adsense is one of the biggest money making opportunities advertised on the net, yet it now turns out that it may also be a total scam. The cash out threshold is one hundred dollars, and a rumor is circulating that Google terminates accounts just before they reach their cash out threshold, claiming invalid clicks, and then refusing to respond to the user’s pleas. This is extremely unsettling, as Google is a huge, reputable company and the last place where most of people would expect to be scammed.

It is not uncommon for subscribers to link their Google Adsense accounts to all manner of online publishing websites such as Helium, Hubpages, Triond, Xomba, RateItAll and many more. In spite of this it is nearly impossible to make a significant income just by relying on others to click on the ads.

However, knowing that your efforts will never bear fruit, it is probably for the best that your content rarely generates income. Still, this is the most disturbing of all the scams, as Google is strong and reputable and has no need to steal from desperate individuals. 

Conclusion 
Let’s start by stating the obvious; if it sounds too good to be true, then it is too good to be true. Many online money making sites lead you to believe that you will get rich quickly in exchange for minimum work. However this is never the case, and most websites sell your email to spammers, resort to multiple ways to avoid paying you, pay very low rates, or simply rob you after they have accessed and sold your credit card details to other companies. 

The most popular credit card scam involves acquiring your credit card details, supposedly for a small shipping charge, but buried in the fine print is authorization for negative option subscriptions. Negative option subscriptions are when a merchant subscribes you to receive goods that you never requested. It is then up to you to decline these goods, otherwise it is assumed that you have agreed to purchase the goods and your card is charged. The other common credit card scam is when you are enticed to sign up for free trials using your credit card. In this case the companies are counting on you to forget to cancel the card when the free trial period is up. And if you do remember to cancel, then you’ll be made to jump through hoops before the cancellation is complete. Finally there is the risk of credit card information being stolen by individuals masquerading as companies, in a scam known as phishing. Then you have no choice but to cancel your card immediately, as your account will simply be drained by thieves.

The other key scam to avoid is being asked for you cell phone number. Do not, under any circumstances provide this information, unless you are prepared to throw money out of the window. At first you might think the worst that can happen is you’ll receive some text spam. What actually happens is that you receive text spam at a cost to you of around $9.99, as demonstrated by the example phone bill below. Of course you won’t know any of this until AFTER you have provided the information or received your phone bill at the end of the month.

Certainly sites exist that can earn you money, but it will never be very much. Any site that pays a decent salary will require hard work and a certain amount of personal abuse. Take Demand Media for example. There is no doubt that they pay. But most users are unable to sustain a writing career with them, as, at fifteen dollars an article they require well researched content with titles such as, ‘The Fuel Pump Location in a Mercedes C280,’ ‘The Driver Compaq Lite on the LTR482 Will Not Write,’ and ‘How to Hook Up a Tiller to a GX335.’ Unless you are a mechanic, electrician, plumber, computer engineer, or rocket scientist, writing for Demand Media will require at least an entire day of research and referencing. Fifteen dollars per article may sound good, but fifteen dollars for an entire day’s worth of hard work with no guarantee of acceptance at the end, doesn’t compute quite so well. Furthermore the internet is littered with complaints of the contemptuous and dismissive manner of Demand Media editors towards their writers. As such writers rarely stick with Demand Media for long.

So before registering with a “money-making” site, bare in mind the following: Firstly, in Google search, type the site’s name followed by the word ‘scam’ or ‘review.’ This will take you to blogs and forums filled with the opinions of previous and current users of that site. If the opinions are consistently negative, assume that the site is a scam. Secondly if anyone requests your credit card details or worse still, your social security number, immediately close that page and walk away, they are most likely trapping you into a credit card scam, as detailed above. And finally be smart. If you wish to try out a site, open a new email account for all the spam you’ll receive and keep your expectations low. None of these sites will make you rich or be a suitable replacement for your regular job.

New sites, such as those mentioned in this article are being born every day. There doesn’t appear to be any effective regulation to prevent them, so it is up to you to be vigilant and be aware that many websites that promise to pay, are in fact scams.

Annabelle

A Life Lived Ridiculously
When a girl with obsessive compulsive disorder falls in love with a sociopath, she fights for her sanity and her life.
http://www.ridiculouslife.net/

Welcome to my Cooking Blog!

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Welcome to my Cooking Blog!

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Welcome to my Cooking Blog!

Welcome to my Cooking Blog!

Welcome to my Cooking Blog!

Welcome to my Cooking Blog!