First Friday: My first podcast ever goes live!

Last month I decided to do a series of interviews with people about their First Love and today I am releasing the first installment with my friend Nick!
I decided to name the podcast Durtee Lawndree in line with my blog, because it exemplifies exactly what I want my blog to be about and that is people "airing their truths." I had a great time talking with everyone and am super excited about releasing future episodes.

What I've learned through this first podcasting process:

#1. Interviewing is a learning process and I can only get better
     For those of you that know me, you probably know that when I start talking I can definitely hold me own, but when it comes to sitting with someone, asking questions and speaking with them, my nerves get a little itchy and inflamed. For this first session I had set interview questions because of this fear, which I think worked well for me. My hope going forward is that when I sit down and interview I will be able to sense the interviewee a little better and formulate questions as it goes along.
    

#2. Editing is a learning process and I can only get better
      I've pretty much only used my Garage Band and some Pro-Tools for light music editing, which means I have never been in the position of splicing and dicing a whole conversation.
For this first interview I cut almost 45 minutes down to about 20. It hurt my soul to take out huge chunks of conversation that I thought were interesting and funny. However, I knew that I needed to shorten a lengthy conversation that did encounter some stumbles as well as had information that wasn't necessarily relevant to our conversation.
This part of the editing process reminds me of when I'm editing my own writing and I think... this part is so intriguing and well written and I have to throw it in the garbage. Sometimes I can save the writing for later, but sometimes I can't because it would be too disjointed as its own.

#3. DON'T Interview at a super loud venue like... a coffee shop
      When I was scheduling times with people to meet there was no part of me that realized I needed to account for noise level. This is obviously the mistake of a beginning podcaster. In my mind, cafes are quiet and that's why people are always there studying, right?
In reality, cafes are quite loud with the bustle of the baristas making drinks, flipping book pages, conversations, spoons in coffee mugs, all stuff I realized is white noise that I drown out while working on a project. At least I know I don't have ADD.
Since at this point I don't have a real mic and was using my handy iphone mic, I don't have very much ability to isolate the conversation from the other noises, though I did use a variety of techniques to minimize it. I'm looking forward to getting a mic at some point for this project, but until then it's gonna be up to Carmen, my iphone, to help me with the interviews.

#4. Patience
      As with any new skill it does test a little bit of patience. Editing itself is not all that hard, but getting to know short cuts and accidentally pressing the wrong one, deleting a section and not noticing till later is a little trying. As I edited, things ran more steadily and the process became a little faster. There definitely are still elements that I have to learn like making cuts and transitions a little more smooth, but I'm sure that will come with more editing experience.

#5. Podcasting is really fun
      Though I write a lot and I have finished writing products, I realized there's nothing quite like having a finished sound product. Strangely it felt like I'd accomplished more in this 25 minute segment than in all the thousands of hours I've done writing throughout my life. I'm still not sure why that is.

If you have any comments, questions, concerns, want to be interviewed, want to give me free editorial tutorials, have a mic you want to donate or anything else is on your mind, email me: durteelawndree@gmail.com

Now here's the podcast!
If your browser has trouble loading the podcast go directly to Podomatic and listen from there.

Tasty Thursday: I suck at cooking but I do it anyway and so should you!

Most days the idea of cooking a meal is daunting and a chore. It's something I very much want to love, but when I look at a variety of ingredients my mind doesn't automatically figure out how to pair them.
For those of you that have friends that cook, as I do (I even have a friend that's a chef), it's often hard to relay to them your excitement about being a good cook while realizing you're terrible.

"Oh it's easy, you just put spice 1, spice 2, and ingredient in a bowl, mix them and voila!"

Whatever, friends that know how to cook; this is not what happens in my world. In general I'll add spice 1, spice 2, and ingredient and it turns into some either extremely bland yet colorful dish or an extremely over-spiced, palette confusing mess. Just like outfits and color coordinating I have no idea how to mix and match ingredients.

I've been told multiple times that I don't need to know how to mix ingredients, it's all about just mixing it up and trying new things and seasoning it to my taste.
The fact is that I don't even know what that means. If I don't know even the very basics of cooking beyond the difference between dicing and chopping then how am I supposed to move forward? Where do I go from here? Why even keep cooking?

Well, I've decided instead of listening to all that totally wrong advice for me from people who actually know how to cook that I would listen to myself. If I don't know how to pair things well, then I am just going to follow recipes exactly. When I say exactly, I mean down to the last grain of salt - sea salt that is.

Last night I decided to prepare a dish called Vegan Coconut Curry Red Lentil Soup that I found on Food.com. I chose this recipe because I knew that I had lentils and coconut milk in my cupboard, the only ingredient on the list that wasn't at my house was the cilantro, so this made it a cheap meal for me. However, for you, I decided to calculate the price per serving just in case you are wondering.

I try to find the best deals when shopping and so I tend to shop around, though do a majority of my shopping at Trader Joe's and Madison Market Co-op near my house. There were some things I didn't add because I'm assuming that you have some basic staples like oil to cook with, salt, sugar, and water. Usually these products are bought in bulk and so the cost is fairly negligible.
Below you will find the cost of the product on the left, on the right you will find a note if it was changed or if I am noting how it was purchased. 

Recipe for 12 Servings  (I was making the dish for my band)

($0)1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil      I used Coconut Oil because I don't use Olive Oil for cooking -ever
($.50)1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder   purchased in bulk section at Co-op
($0)3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
($.89)1 1/2 onion, chopped
($.79)3 carrots, peeled and diced              I included the full bag cost
($.50)3 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated       Uwajimaya 1.79lb 
($.50)3 garlic cloves, chopped                  Madison Market 1.99lb       
($0)3 teaspoons salt
($0)1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
($.99)1/2 cup tomato paste                     
($0)10 1/2 cups water
($1.98)1 (22 1/2 ounce) can coconut milk   Two 14oz cans - Used Light Coconut Milk
($1.86)3 cups red lentils                              Madison Market   1.86 per lb
($2.58)1 (22 1/2 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained (chickpeas)   Two 14oz cans
($0)1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
($.79)1 1/2 to taste fresh cilantro (for garnish)   Bundle for .79
($.39)1 1/2 to taste lime wedge (for garnish)  Bought one from TJ's for lime wedge and lime juice

Total: 11.77  

Additional Garnish: Avocado  (1.50)

This makes each serving approximately .98c   I did not make note of what things were organic or not. I buy some stuff organic and not others depending on my checking account. This is a fairly low cost meal, but I know people that can do it for cheaper and it can definitely get pricier by buying everything organic. This is a great recipe if you want a lot of meals to come out of it.

The original recipe says 1 serving is 469.5 cals per serving. I'm pretty sure that is reduced because I used light coconut milk but I didn't calculate it. 

How did it turn out?

It was amazing! Apparently following a recipe really works wonders, who'd have thunk? My band mates loved it and so did my roommies, so I think that I actually accomplished something.A step in the right direction.

I don't know if I'll ever be an excellent cook, but I certainly can follow a recipe like a champ and so I'm just going to continue doing this. I'm going to attempt to cook at least one new meal a week, so stay tuned for those. In the meantime if you can't cook like me, there is hope!

As the deadline approaches

It's getting ever closer to my This American Life submission date and I've only got one thing left to finish - My Resume!
Is there really anything more daunting than staring in the face of resume yet unwritten? Writing out accomplishments and all those skillz that have been accrued throughout the years of work. The only thing I've found more frustrating than a resume is the cover letter to go atop it. Making a cover letter and resume standout in pools of applicants these days is a lot like finding good Mexican food in Seattle, difficult.

Yesterday morning I decided to stare my enemy in the face and go all in because the worst that could happen is I come out at the end with yet another crappy unusable resume, but at least I'll have learned something throughout the process.

I googled at least forty different phrases that I thought might lead me to the description of the perfect resume and what I found at the end of my search is what I found at the beginning that "one size does not fit all." The articles told me that one resume is not enough and that I should have at least five resumes tailored to a variety of positions that I would like to pursue. Many compared it to having different outfits for different job interviews. Would you wear the same outfit for all of them they asked? My answer to this question is "hell yes!"  I know that's the wrong answer, but they are asking me, a girl that can barely pick out my own daily outfits because fashion sense isn't one of my gifts; I barely know how to match black with other blacks. I mean come on... if I can interview in one outfit, then that's definitely what I'm gonna do, but... I do see their point. I decide to think of it in terms of what other people would do and I suppose that means they surely would have separate interview outfits, so I guess this means that I need to start working on a variety of resumes.

Things to know about the resume I'm about to write: 
1. I have decided to "change careers"
Technically I don't know if I'm changing or actually starting. I've been stuck in admin positions for the past few years and it is definitely not where I want to stay it was mostly a place I landed when trying to make enough money to pay off some student loans after college. Now I'm changing to the career field of "writing, publishing, advertising, marketing, etc." in order to utilize my writing background a little more.

2. I don't actually have a varied background in my newly chosen career field so what do I do about the resume. Do I lie? 
Well that was a big question for me as I was writing because what does one do to spruce up a sparse resume?  It was in this instance that I realized I actually did have to rely on transferable skills. These are skills that you have already acquired via all of your other occupations, hobbies, volunteer experience, etc. I decided to create a list of all the skills that I am at least 70% sure I already have and even added a few that maybe I'm a little iffy on (because I'm 100% sure I could learn them quickly if needed). If you need a quick place to find lots of these skill sets checkout ONET.com.

3. I'm not sure if it should be a functional, chronological, or combination resume. 
After reading through a variety of articles for the career changer I decided to go with combination. A combination resume has the ability to show off your transferable skills as well as help you focus on all the practical things that apply to your future career. Going chronological keeps you a little more boxed in because it only showcases what you have already done, while going functional apparently scares some employers off because it looks like you've done nothing.

4. 1 page or 2? 
My previous chronological resume that was getting me no interviews was two pages long and I'm pretty sure that I've had enough career experience at this point to have two pages, but as I said the resume has gotten me nowhere. I decided to google search "best resumes of 2013" and came to this page. All of these beautifully designed resumes are only one page long and are probably getting more interviews than mine, so I decided to stick to a one pager. My favorite is the resume on fabric, I am contemplating getting at least one of those, but for this one I decided to go for design #7.

Once I picked a design I decided it was time to start going for it. I had my old resume in hand and was able to transfer at least a few things over, but for a majority of it I decided I needed to redefine some of the responsibilities I had, using better key words. There are plenty of skills checklists you can use, but here is an easy go to one provided by Rogue Community College.

After some researching and writing I came out with a resume in about four hours. The only thing I realized at the end was I didn't actually finish a writer's resume, I wrote one that's more tailored to Sales & Marketing, which is fine because I do in fact need those five resumes. Sales & Marketing is a direction I'm definitely okay with going, but this leaves me with a vacant writer's resume spot, which I will be attending to today.

This all just means that This American Life is going to have to wait another few days for my application, but my goal is to have it in by March 1st anyhow. By the way, if you know any TAL staffers, please feel free to put in a good word for me!

Anyways, here is yesterday's finished product sans my contact info!  Sample Resume

Snail March

On May 15^th of 1987, when I turn the ripe age of seven years old, it’s decided that in order to save money, instead of going to Chuck-E-Cheese or Great America I have to throw my birthday party at our condo on Palm Street with lots of red balloons, a slip-n-slide, and a triple chocolate birthday cake.

I really want a piñata, because I love the idea of being blind-folded, spinning around like a dervish, and striking out for the unknown. If the unknown is the right direction and you hit hard enough then there is a wonderful shower of bubble-gum, blow-pops, lime salts, and coins that spill across the ground and must be fought over and hoarded in pockets, socks, and overfilled hands.

I don’t mention the piñata thing to my mom because I’m worried about being seen with one as one of the only two black girls living in a mostly Latino neighborhood. Worried that Pepsi, one of our neighbors, might be mad and call me a nigger again. They have the market cornered on these things and so I decide that I must come up with something else.

If it’s going to be a house party then there should be plenty of games. There should be games where there are prizes at the end because every kid wants to win something, always. I don’t want to play just any game like red rover or tag, I want it to be mysterious, new, and ingenious, which means I have to make it up. I believe that I am a master of games because I of course have played every game of solitaire in the book of 65 solitaire games my mom gave for Christmas. I also successfully won a few games I made up like find Mr. Bear and hide and seek while playing with my imaginary friend Kimmy, though she wouldn’t be at the party, but my school friends would be.

My solution is a good game of Snail March. To play, someone must be blindfolded and cross a path filled with live snails and marshmallows while attempting get to the other-side without crushing the tiny shells or having a gooey mess of hot melting fluff between their toes.

The first seven year-old to cross the path without maiming an innocent snail wins a whole Hershey’s bar. To a seven year this is a big deal, just like a dollar when the tooth fairy comes is monumental. I lay out the thirty snails I collected the night before and a whole bag of marshmallows on the concrete path in front of my condo and it’s time to go.

Out of the fifteen kids at the party, fourteen of them accept the challenge and one after the other go blind-folded onto the path. Some kids start off believing they can construct a plan.

My friend Jane, another black girl like me but with big fro on her head is first and she tries to tip toe over them. Her first few steps are good, she passes 4, 5, 6 snails and numerous mallows, but on her sixth step she loses her balance and her right foot comes down like a mallet atop one of the shells. The crunching sound of the snail lingers in the air.

“Eew!” she shrieks and she is such a panic that she forgets her strategy  and runs across the path as quickly as possibly, leaving more death in her wake. After this, the game really begins.

Some kids open their legs wide like sumo wrestlers in an attempt to step around the scene. Some walk straight lines trying to remember what the path looked like before the blindfold went on. The problem is that the snails are scared and wiggling their way to the nearest bluff of grass. All the movement is making it worse for the kids and treacherous for the snails; if only they knew how to stay still. By the end, there is a mound of white puss squishing between our toes.

We all mutually agree that no one has won, and are ecstatic because my mom has bought enough chocolate for us all to get our own chocolate bars. We are happy as we wash our feet and devour the chocolate before demolishing my triple chocolate birthday cake a few minutes later.

When everyone leaves and the sun is setting, my mom says I have to clean the path where there are still remnants of marshmallow and snail carcasses. I stare fascinated by the scene, a veritable bloodbath. I try to hose down the path, but it’s no use, it gets worse, the remains grow stickier. I revert to using the straight edge of a dustpan to scrape everything off and this is when I really take notice of a single snail. I see his miniature eyes and tiny massacred body and start to cry.

I realize that I’ve ordered the killings of these poor defenseless terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks, well… I didn’t know that name at the time, but what I do know is that it’s not fair that they had no say in the matter. There must be a proper burial even though there’s not much left to bury. In order to soothe me, my mom says,

“Honey, if they didn’t die this way they would have died eating the salt I sprinkled around the yard.” This doesn’t help at all. I am seized by grief as I scrape the heaps of carcasses into a paper bag and scoop out a tiny grave for their burial that my mom attends and says a few words at.

That night in my journal I draw a snail and name him snaily. He becomes my mascot as I grow older even once I’ve forgotten the reason why. I draw him on everything from test papers to posters and sign him as my name is journals. I become dedicated to snail rights and try at any cost to keep my moms salt off the garden.

I think my mom decides it’s all a little too much. The next year she decides I can choose where I want to go for my party. I choose Great America that year and every year after until I’m an angsty teenager and realize that parties are for losers.