Clam-digging, oyster-shucking, shellfish-cooking fun

Here's my DOUBLE Operation Fear Liberation (OFL) snapshot for the fourth week of February and first week of March. Once again, I've forced myself to do something new.  

 

Week 8: Digging for clams and oysters!

Week 9: Shucking oysters and steaming clams!

A posse of oysters

Why they're on my list: I'm big on eating local food, and when you live on the Puget Sound, local food includes clams and oysters.  I like clams!  I like oysters! I like cooking! It also seems un-Pacific NW of me to have lived here for over 10 years without ever digging clams or cooking clams or shucking an oyster, and going on a clam dig has always sounded like a super fun weekend adventure.

I Fear Zombies!

Here's my Operation Fear Liberation (OFL) snapshot for the third week of February. Once again, I've forced myself to do something new.  

Week #7: Play a first-person shooter video game on an XBOX 360.

Why it’s on my list: First off, as far as I know, I have never played anything on an XBOX or an XBOX 360. So it is an official new thing. 

 Scary XBOX! (Photo by Wikicommons user Javier Donoso [CC-BY-SA-3.0])

"Pop! Pop!" - OFL Week 3

Here's my Operation Fear Liberation (OFL) snapshot for the third week of January. Once again, I've forced myself to do something new.  This one was edible.

Week 3: DIY microwave popcorn in a brown paper bag

Why it’s on my list: I love freshly popped popcorn with tons of sea salt and butter.  I often pop it in a pot on the stove top, but I worry that I’m damaging the bottom of my pot when I jostle it on my stovetop’s coil burner. True, I could pick up the pot to shake it, but that takes so much effort.  Plus, I still have to clean the pot afterwards. 

 

And I’m not really that mad about packaged microwave popcorn.  It just doesn’t taste as good.  This may be related to the fact that I burn packaged microwave popcorn 70% of the time, but I still find something lacking in the flavor department during the 30% of the time when my packaged microwave popcorn emerges without char. Plus, there’s the whole safety thing: a FDA report suggested that the chemical coating in the bags breaks down when heated into perfluorooctanoic (PFOA)—a likely carcinogen, according to the EPA.  And then there’s the debate about diacetyl, an FDA-approved chemical often used in microwave popcorn’s artificial butter flavoring. The extended inhalation of fumes from this chemical cause the debilitating respiratory disease commonly known as “popcorn workers lung” due to the number of microwave popcorn factory workers afflicted. 

Considering all of that, I’ve seen this simple recipe for DIY microwave popcorn in a brown paper lunch bag at least a dozen times over the years in cooking and DIY magazines and online.  No chemical coating, no artificial butter fumes, no processed flavor, no pot to clean, no strenuous jostling.  Plus, it’s loads cheaper than buying boxes of Orville Redenbacher Microwave Popcorn. 

My 2012 BAGs

I like big ass goals (BAGs).

For the last two years, I have challenged myself with quite a few BAGs.  These BAGs were clearly defined, with timelines and other parameters in place to give the BAGs structure and to hold me accountable.  In 2010, I committed to do, and did, at least 30 minutes of yoga for 360 straightdays.  In 2011, I challenged myself monthly to reduce my consumption of a different practice or item that I believe is unhealthy when over-consumed.  By and large, I succeeded at those challenges too. 

Challenges of years past: on my way to 360 days via half moon pose...

There was a time not so very long ago when achieving any of my BAGs felt unlikely.  I’d set a bunch of BAGs at once and feel pumped up about them for a few weeks, but then I would inevitably get overwhelmed by the first sign of difficulty or derailed by one of life’s endless distractions.  So I would cut myself a little slack.  As time passed, I’d push my BAGs further and further back on the shelf until I had all but forgotten them.  I had achieved nothing.

Deep down, I knew that dropping my BAGs every time the going got rough was no way to live.  If Eminem is right about how “you only get one shot,” then I was squandering my shot.  Instead of living my life to the fullest, I was loitering in a place of fear, self-doubt, and passivity.  I was particularly wary of change; I went to great lengths to avoid it at all costs.  But change is unstoppable; it has its way with all of us sooner or later.  In 2009, change caught up with me and knocked me on my ass.  When I managed to get back up, I decided it was long past time for me to start accomplishing some of those things I’d always wanted to do.