International Women's Day

March 8th is International Women's Day. I spent most of the day (and the next day) being angry at people (read men) getting uppity at the fact and trying to explain why we need this day. I was going to blog along similar lines but figured I'd gotten all ranty fairly recently.

So I'm doing something different.

International Women's Day is meant to celebrate women and their achievements. So instead of a rant, you're getting a list of my achievements;

I successfully completed school with grades good enough to get me into my first choice university.

I achieved a good degree in a science related subject.

I got onto a PhD program at a time when funding is extremely tight, even in the sciences.

I have acquired a working knowledge of Unix type systems

I achieved my Grand Prior Award with St John Ambulance, the highest award achievable as a youth member.

I was chosen to be Cadet of the Year for my county, and represented the organisation at a national level.

I have successfully navigated living in my own home, away from parents, and all that entails.

I have gained, and am still working on, a healthy romantic relationship, despite the barriers society puts up.

I have nurtured a number of meaningful friendships.

I have achieved a healthy relationship with my body, despite the cultural oppression of body hate.

I learned how to juggle three balls, and then three clubs.


Achievements of any kind should always be celebrated. Achievements made by anyone. We shouldn't just celebrate the achievements of a select, supposedly elite few. But that is the reality if the world we live in. I believe we can change that, one celebration at a time.

Kony 2012, awareness and slacktivism

If you've been on the internet at all today, chances are you've heard of, seen a link to or watched a film called KONY 2012. Now, there's lots of things that have been said about this film, and the organisation that made it; some for some against. I've not seen the film, and haven't fully made up my mind about Invisible Children ,the group that made it. For now, I remain extremely sceptical, and wanted to talk about why.

I have a strong background in charity and charity work. I was a Scout for five years, and have been a member of St John Ambulance for over half my life; I've helped raise money for LEPRA, which helps fight diseases such as leprosy, and Dove House, a hospice specialising in end of life and palliative care; I've donated countless belonging to charity shops and for three horrible days I worked door to door raising money for the British Red Cross.

I have formed some very strong opinions when it comes to charity, many of which may clash with the majority, so feel free to disagree. I firmly believe that giving you time to a charity is much more valuable than simply handing over your money.

Anyone remember the Make Poverty History campaign? In 2005 it was at it's height, many of my friends were wearing the wristband, and I was extremely vocal in my opposition of it. Not the overall aim of the campaign, but I was extremely critical of the way in which they were trying to do it. It was the first time I'd ever really been sceptical of a charitable campaign and I remember telling my friends that throwing money and celebrities at a problem is never going to fix it. Fast forward to 2012, how many people are still wearing the wristbands? How many people are still actively campaigning for it and raising funds? Hopefully quite a lot, but it has lost the attention it received in its heyday of Live 8. Does anyone know where and how the money was spent? If someone knows, please link me to documents concerning this as I'd love to know how much of the money got through to where it was needed.

This is part of the reason I oppose just throwing money at a problem. There seems to be little accountability; the money could have been spent on a new mansion for Bono for all I know. And it highlights why throwing celebrities at an issue doesn't help; people only care as long as a celebrity is talking about the issue. If they stop, we forget, something else distracts us and the chance to really make a difference is lost.

Which brings me to another charity related bug bear of mine: raising awareness. This is what the Kony film is meant to be for, raising awareness, and the manner in which people have been 'raising awareness' reminds me of the various Facebook Breast Cancer awareness campaigns.

These 'campaigns' usually involve women (and only women) posting cryptic messages as their status in order to raise awareness of breast cancer. Usually something like the colour of your bra or where you leave your handbag. I find this method of raising awareness to be very problematic. Quite how cryptic messages are supposed to raise awareness I will never know. It also marginalises and excludes men who suffer from breast cancer, furthers the idea that it's a disease only women get and reduces the likelihood of men examining themselves or getting help early. Add to this the fact that the vast majority of people who can use Facebook will probably already be aware of breast cancer, and you have a campaign that seems riddles with problems and is unlikely to achieve the desired goals in my eyes.

Now, social media is a very powerful tool that can really make a difference, just look at Twitter's role in the Arab Spring. But I think it can also be very dangerous as it encourages what I've heard termed as 'slacktivism'. From what I can tell, the majority of people who post their bra colour on Facebook for Breast Cancer awareness will not go on to do other things for that cause. I would like to be proved wrong, but I see the majority of people taking part in this, and then feel that this is their good deed for charity. It allows them to feel smug that they've done their bit without really helping. This is how I see the majority of awareness raising in social media. Awareness is raised, but that only does some good if that awareness is built upon, instead of letting it fade away.

And awareness in and of itself is not always a good thing. Take any number of PETA's campaigns (none of which I am willing to link to). Many of their recent campaigns have been by turns, misogynistic, fat hating and trivialise domestic abuse. These are shock tactics they claim are designed to raise awareness of vegetarianism, veganism and the way animals are treated. For me they merely raise awareness of PETA being a bunch of twats. How many people have been converted to a meat free diet by their campaigns? I'd love to know the numbers. But even if millions of people have gone vegan because of their adverts, that doesn't take away the fact their methods were dubious at best.

Which brings me back to KONY 2012. The film is designed to bring attention to the problem of child soldiers in Uganda, and the atrocities committed by Joseph Kony and the LRA. I've not seen the film, and currently do not plan to watch it. I've seen the link to the film posted many times today, and there has been a lot of discussion surrounding it. My main worry is that the people posting the video are engaging in slacktivism, and think that their efforts at raising awareness are sufficient. My other worry is that people are posting this film on without investigating further into it.

As described by this article here, Invisible Children, the creators of KONY 2012, seems to be a deeply problematic organisation. Any person who believes in human rights should be against what Joseph Kony stands for, but this does not necessarily translate to supporting Invisible Children.

We need to have more conversation on this subject, more action. And we need to investigate any organisation we choose to support before supporting them. We should never be afraid to ask questions, even when a person or organisation seems to be doing good. If the focus seems to be more about what the organisation is doing for awareness than about the actual problem or solutions to the problem, then we should be deeply suspicious. This should be about Kony, not Invisible Children.

So please, if you have seen Kony 2012 today and been affected by it's content, I urge you, don't just share the video on Facebook or Twitter. Research Joseph Kony, and everything he's done. Investigate Invisible Children; find out who they are, what they stand for and what they're trying to do out there; find out how they work and how accountable they are. Find other organisations doing work in this area; find out what has been done in Uganda, what has worked and what hasn't. If you really care about this issue then put your time into some research. If after that you're satisfied that you want to support Invisible Children, go right ahead. But please don't think you're making a difference by sharing that film. Find out how you can really make a difference.

Pressing retweet or share takes barely any effort, and that's what make it so attractive; it's easy. But the easy road isn't going to help the children of Uganda, or anyone living in poverty or animals living in horrific conditions. Thinking carefully about which causes to champion, which organisations to support and which methods of supporting them is. We can make a massive difference to this world, but lets think before we leap and let's do it right.

Mountain Climbing

I hope to be able to climb walls like this. In the future.

Monday evening, Sam and I went and did a rock climbing course at the local climbing centre. We'd decided we'd like to be a little more impulsive when it comes to trying new things. Last week I had a hankering to go climbing, so I booked us in for a course.

I'd been climbing before, on exactly two occasions. Both well over five years ago. The first time I climbed was on a St John Ambulance summer camp. There were two sessions run, with the opportunity to climb either the 20 metre wall or the 40 metre wall. Of course, after carefully considering that I'd never climbed before, I chose to do the 40 metre wall. The climbing wall at this place was basically just a tall, narrow tower. Think Big Ben without the clock and the pointy bit. It was rigged up so that the guy on the ground was using a one way knot of some kind; it was impossible to fall, but also impossible to climb back down.

The idea was, you'd climb to the top, have a quick change over and abseil back down a different side of the tower. Which was all well and good, except there were a few people who decided they wanted to come back down.

I didn't have a problem with the height. My problem was twofold; lack of technique and lack of upper body strength. I wasn't using my legs to push up as much as I should and my arms weren't strong enough to drag me the whole way up. So about 10 metres from the top, my arms gave out, and I just stayed there for a bit. I was way too high to contemplate coming back down, so I had to make it to the top. I was half dragged the rest of the way up, but I made it after a few falls. Abseiling down the other side was one of the most exhilarating things I've ever done.

My second climbing session was also with St John, but at a much smaller indoor wall and was much less terrifiying.

Sam had never climbed before, and has a bit of an issue with heights, which sounds like an utterly disastrous combination for rock climbing. But he said he'd try it and along we went. I remembered how awesome climbing was and settled in quite quickly, though I didn't climb to high on the  first wall due to strength issues. Sam started off apprehensively but quickly got into the rhythm. He got to the top of the wall before I did and when he cam down he looked absolutely elated. We completed the course, and are now lifetime members of the centre. We can go back any time we want, and we plan to.

Today, I still ache in place I wasn't aware could ache. But it felt good to move my body, to exert myself and to sweat. And I want to get stronger and faster, so we'll continue to climb.

One day, we might even tackle the great outdoors.

Change of Focus

Note, pressing the button won't actually do anything.

You may notice that there have been one or two changes around here. There's a reason for that.

I've come to realise that I'm really quite rubbish at keeping a blog, and even worse at keeping a blog dedicated to a specific topic. Therefore, in order to try and stimulate my writing juices (ew!) I've converted my blog from one solely about my PhD to a general all purpose blog where I can keep thoughts on any topic whatsoever.

In addition to changing the focus of this blog, I've also closed my other blog, and imported the posts here. In fact, this blog now represents all of the combined blogging I've done in my life as I've imported my livejournal from way back when. Feel free to browse all the embarrassing content.

It's nice to keep everything in one place.

Expect infrequent ramblings that may cover topics including my PhD, Fat Acceptance, Juggling and random stuff I've found on the internet.

So, what's the new blog title all about. It's a bit of a silly play on two nicknames that I have acquired. Captain Raz has been my nickname since I was about 14, and it now my handle for just about anything I do on the internet. Raz has been a nickname for so long I don't really remember how it came about. All I know is that I became Raz because I had friends calling themselves Fraz, Maz and Gaz. You see the pattern there?  Raz was my most prominent nickname during the time I was in the Scouts. The Captain got added into the mix due to my propensity for wearing sailor's captain hat whilst kayaking. I even wore it whilst rafting in the North Sea. my raft got overturned by a wave, and when I resurfaced I was still wearing the hat. I still think that's one of the coolest things I've managed to achieve in my life.

Tonks has been my major nickname since I came to university. It is far more ubiquitous than Raz ever was; so much so that my boyfriend refers to me almost exclusively as Tonks, and I have friends who forget my real name because they didn't find it out until we'd been friends a few months. Doctor Tonks is a nickname I intend to take that far off day when I've completed my PhD. It's a hopeful title, as getting there is far from certain, but with a little luck some of that journey will get written down here.

Cooking Injuries (Not What You Think)

Originally published at Chuck-It Cook 28 July 2010

Food isn’t the only thing that gets cooked up in my kitchen, or rather, my mother’s kitchen in this case. One of the odder things I have a tendency to cook up is fake flesh and fake blood.

Yep you read that right.

See I’m a member of St John Ambulance and have been for years. A while back I did a course on casualty simulation (i.e. making people look like they’re injured) and its kinda become one of my specialities. I’m particularly good at making people look like they’ve chopped their fingers off.

In order to do this I have to make my materials. Now the stuff I use isn’t the sophisticated latex and bought stage blood. I make everything myself out of kitchen ingredients. Technically speaking you couldeat this stuff, but I often use out of date ingredients. And eating lots of the fake flesh would probably make you sick.

One of these days though, I’m going to make eating my severed finger my party trick.

I honestly can’t remember where I got this recipe from. I think the recipe came with the casualty simulation kit I acquired. But anyway, here are the recipes for fake flesh and fake blood.


Flesh

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Self Raising Flour
• 1 cup salt
• 4 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
• 2 Cups water
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• Liquid foundation to match skin colour (optional)

Add all ingredients to a pan, stir and cook until mixture forms a soft dough ball

This is a basic salt dough essentially. And although I primarily use it to create wounds I do also plan on cooking up a few batches of different colours and have my own (incredibly cheap) playdough.



Blood


Ingredients:

• 4 dessertspoons Cornflour (or custard powder)
• 2 cups water
• Few drops red food colouring
• Few drops yellow food colouring
• Teaspoon instant coffee granules
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup (optional)

Make paste of flour and a little water and blend in the rest of the water. Add the rest of the ingredients. Slowly bring to a simmer and stir constantly until mixture thickens and darkens.

Add water to thin.

I prefer a nice dark red colour, achieved by adding the coffee. The consistency I prefer is almost like jelly, which is really good for filling in the wounds. It can always be watered down to provide a stream of blood.

When I have my materials I use them to put together a few things like this;








Happy Cooking.

Green Food

Originally published at Chuck-It Cook 27 July 2010


My diet recently has been extremely green. I’ve been experimenting with green smoothies, after hearing so much about them on various food blogs. The first one was utterly delicious, the second one slightly less so. For the second on there was more green than other ingredients and I guess I need to strike the balance.


Green smoothies are ridiculously easy to make. Add fruit and milk/yoghurt to a blender as you normally would for a smoothie and then add in a couple of handfuls of some tender greens. I used baby spinach both times but I’m told you can also use arugula, parsley and even carrot greens.


The next green recipe I’ve been cooking up is something I dubbed Swamp Soup. It started out life as a way to use up some leftover kale and carrot from Sunday dinner, and turned into something utterly delicious that I’d definitely cook from scratch. So without further ado, I present you with the recipe;



Swamp Soup

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion 
• Curly Kale (about half a cup) 
• 1 Carrot (I had about 1/4cup leftover cooked carrots) 
• 1 stock cube (made up to about ¾ pin stock) 
• ½ cup cous cous 
• Butter 
• Herbs to taste (I used about 1 teaspoon of mixed herbs) 
• Pinch cayenne pepper 

Instructions

1. Chop the onion and fry off in a little butter. 
2. Add the kale and carrot 
3. Season to taste; add herbs and spices 
4. Add the stock and bring to the boil. 
5. If using leftover veg simmer for about 5 minutes. 
6. If using fresh veg simmer until carrots are tender 
7. Remove from the hob and blend to an appropriate consistency (I used a hand blender in the pan) 
8. Add cous cous and let stand (cous cous will cook in about 4 minutes) 
9. Either serve immediately or allow to cool and refrigerate until required.

Profiterole Adventure

Originally Posted at Chuck-It Cook 7 July 2010

I’m lead to believe that every cook has something that they’re nervous about making. It doesn’t matter how many people tell them it’ll be fine, or how easy it is to do, they’re still scared to do it. In my case it was choux pastry. I desperately wanted to try making choux pastry as it is an integral ingredient in one of my favourite desserts, profiteroles. And no matter how many times I was told how easy it was, I was still a little nervous. I’m not good with pastry.


I’ve tried my hand at a few pastries and they turned out exceedingly mediocre. I put it down to my having warm hands which isn’t good for rubbing butter and flour together. Anyway, that’s not a problem with choux pastry. What I was worried about was ending up with scrambled eggs.


But I took a deep breath and had a go. I’ve now made them twice and, to be honest, they turned out pretty well the first time, and even better the second. I don’t know if the second batch were so good because they were cooked in my mum’s halogen oven. I don’t think I’ll ever cook choux pastry in a conventional oven again, because that second batch was absolutely magical.


The second batch were also extremely fun to make because I had my first ever go at piping. The first time around I did the old cut the top of the pastry off and spoon cream in method. Which isn’t as good and I used whipped Elmlea, which really isn’t the same as whipped double cream.


The piping went fairly well though I did end up squirting cream all over the kitchen. There were one or two issues with getting the cream into the piping bag and then controlling the flow of cream into the profiteroles. The cream also kept squirting out the wrong end and hence all over the kitchen.


But the most important thing is they were damn tasty, and I’m now armed to be ale to combine my two favourite desserts to create the ultimate decadence of a profiterole cheesecake. I’ll keep you posted on that one.


The recipe I used can be found here, and I baked the profiteroles in the oven at 200*C (gas mark 6) for 10 minutes, then at 220*C (gas mark 7) for15-20 minutes. They went nice and golden brown and were utterly delicious.


I’d post pictures but I’m afraid they all got eaten before I could get a camera out!