And all of that said, I still adore doing it (for the most part), and I continue to look for ways to get inspired, stay creative, and fiercely defend my personal time and my ideas against those things that would drag me down, make me frustrated and depressed, and get me bogged down in thinking about writing more than actually writing. That’s why this piece from Buffer founder Joel Gascoigne really resonated with me. More about this behind the jump.

In Five Realisations that Helped Me Write Regularly, Joel explains something that I think every creative professional–or even any professional forced to think creatively about the problems they work with–have come to understand: the more you think about it, the more you plan for it, and the more mental cycles you devote to planning and thought over it, the less likely you are to actually do it, do it well, and get through it with little hassle. Don’t get me wrong, speaking as a recovering project manager myself, there’s plenty of room for adequate planning and thinking about how you’re going to tackle a problem – there’s no excuse to skip it – but if you over-think, you’ll miss your window to act effectively, and you’ll lose your confidence. Here’s an example of what Joel means:

2. Delaying an article with the belief spending longer will make it better usually just means it won’t get written

I used to create a draft in Tumblr every time I had an idea for a blog post. Then I’d let it sit there for a while, because I believed the idea wasn’t fully formed yet, or I didn’t have enough points to share about the topic. I believed by delaying, the perfect post would eventually come to mind.

What I’ve realised is that there is no better time to write the article than when the thought first enters your mind. I should only write it at another time if I simply can’t open my laptop and write it all the way through right at that moment. The content is freshest when it first appears in my mind, and in that state I write the best posts.

I’ve gotten much better at this over time, but I have 10s of drafts lying in Tumblr from the early days when this caught me out time and time again. If you delay, the more likely outcome is that it just won’t get written.

This is something that even in my personal and professional writing career I can back up. The longer you have that item on your to-do list, the less relevant it’ll be to you, the duller your sharp feelings of inspiration will be compared to when you added it to your list, and the less likely you’ll be to tackle it at all. New ideas will have taken over, new thoughts, new things that have made you angry and inspired to pick up your pen. If you feel passionate about something, do it now. Doing it now is better than not doing it at all – and that’s something else Joel points out specifically: if you’re worried that you need to do a lot of research to make a piece happen, or to bring a new idea to the table, don’t–sometimes some is required, sure, but don’t delay; let your personal experience be the driving factor, and flesh out the details while you work.

Granted, this doesn’t work for research papers, but it’s great for articles and meeting ideas. Remember, if you’re wrong, you’re wrong and you can always go away from the table, take your lumps, study up, and come back when you’re ready to play ball. I’ll give you an example. At Lifehacker not too long ago, I ran a story on some of the best VPN service providers on the market. Granted, it was one of our Hive Five features, where we ask our community for their picks in a given category as the “best.” I collect them up, do some research, and put them together as a representative example of what our community thinks is the best in a market.

After publishing that piece, I got a firestorm of email from readers who complained their favorite wasn’t included (that’s normal), from other VPN providers begging to be included (that’s normal too), from service providers who wanted to alert me to some drama in the field concerning some of the picks that they thought I should be aware of (okay, that’s unusual), and one from an angry and insulting CEO of one specific company I won’t name, who accused me of not doing my research, rigging the poll, and overall poor writing and journalism, all because his company didn’t make the cut (okay, that’s just wierd.) Of course, my responses were few and far between, but after huddling with my editor, I decided to really dig into the topic, do some more homework–not that I especially needed to, I was comfortable in my own knowledge, but hey, more never hurts–and come up with my own recommendations, vetted by me, and researched by me, without the burden of (or the safety net of) the crowdsourced opinion.

I came up with this story, which I can happily say was a universal success. I picked the five listed, I vetted them myself, and if anyone has a problem with my suggestions, I can back them up. And by the way – that offending CEO? His company isn’t listed. In fact, over the course of my research, I found that his company was specifically bad, and deserves to be specifically avoided if possible.

All that said, I took my lumps, did my homework, and came back to the table ready to throw down. You don’t need research and data to put yourself out there, but when you do, remember to speak from personal experience, and be ready to do that homework if it’s called for. That said, if you’re driven to do the work, get started now.

Something else Joel mentions that really hit home for me:

3. We should fear not publishing articles, rather than fearing the bad outcomes of putting something out there

Over time, the concept of “shipping” started to really fascinate me. I forced myself to, despite it being uncomfortable, “ship” everything I did earlier and earlier. Whether a product, a blog post, a speaking opportunity, I’d quit delaying and just put it out there or say “yes” to speaking.

One of my biggest learnings in the last year is that there is immense power in doing a huge volume of work. If I write a blog post every week, I learn a massive amount about what works, and it gives me much more inspiration for more articles. Also, if I write each week, I’m gradually reaching more people, growing my connections on Twitter and Facebook, and putting myself in a better position overall. I know now, that if I don’t publish one week, I’m missing out on these benefits. Therefore, I actually fear not shipping.

There are a couple of things about this that resonate. First, Joel is absolutely right that sometimes you can’t obsess over something. “Fuck it, ship it,” as they say. Another way to put it is that done is better than perfect, something I don’t think many people would disagree with.

The second point that’s worth considering is that there are more forces out there that want you to shut up, that want you to be quiet, and that want to silence your voice than you really want to know. And because they exist, you have to keep talking. I won’t pretend that those people won’t be the first ones to cotton on to your work–they will. There’ll be a dozen people silently reading and thinking about what you’ve said, but one irritated person who disagrees and dislikes you as a result who’ll spend their precious time doing nothing but letting you know how terrible you are and how wrong you are, and how you should sit down, shut up, and stop challenging their perspective and opinion. Haters are always gonna hate, but in this case, when these people appear, they need to serve as a reminder of why you write, or why you’re creative, or why you’re bringing your own solutions to the table. Let them encourage you–there’s nothing in the world like doing something that someone else tells you that you shouldn’t, or can’t, do.

Ah, and before I leave you to ponder the rest of Joel’s piece, yes – I’m aware of number five. I’m working on it! Stick with me!

Header photo, “writing in the journal is by Flickr user Erin Kohlenberg. Iecond in-line photos are: Creativity is Not Device Dependent by Flickr user eliztesch, and Furiously Writing, by Flickr user Vinni. All photos are CC-licensed.

Like CHOW.com Senior Features Editor Roxanne Webber explains in this video, this won’t work for thick, or hard-bound cookbooks that won’t fit into the clamps of a hanger, but if you have a magazine recipe you want to make, or a simple printout of a recipe from the web, this will keep the recipe out of your hands, close to eye level, and hey – if you happen to have someone else in the kitchen with you lending you a hand (and honestly folks, nothing’s more romantic than cooking with someone else) – it’s a great way to share the recipe while keeping your hands free. To cook, of course!

Make your voice heard, speak up, call your congressional representatives, and let them know they must not support these bills.

For more information on SOPA and PIPA, head over to Lifehacker here:

[ Lifehacker :: All About PIPA and SOPA, the Bills That Want to Censor Your Internet ]

That all said, one thing that I do enjoy at one of those fancy meals is the opportunity to talk to a sommelier about the wine being served that night, or what would go best with the meal that we’re about to have. I’ve been lucky enough to have a sommelier save me from a less-than-stellar wine pairing with a meal more than once, and while in some cases I stumbled into it, in others it all came from knowing how to speak to him in an intelligent fashion. Here are a few suggestions.

Thankfully, the fine folks at Chow have some great suggestions for talking to a sommelier on their own terms, some that I can echo are invaluable if you’re in the position of asking a sommelier about the best wine for your meal. One of the first rules is to communicate your tastes and what you’re looking for as clearly as possible. Don’t just go with your passive instinct to sit back and say “bring something that works with our meal” and call it a day. Let the sommelier know what you’re interested in, or what types of wines you normally enjoy, or even if you’re in the mood for something specific. For example:

As Daniel Johnnes, wine director of Daniel Boulud’s restaurant group and one of the country’s most influential sommeliers, said to the audience on a recent panel I moderated, “I would love it when the customer would offer information: ‘You know, it’s hot out—I want something fresh and crisp and lively.’ [Customers] need to communicate and give as much info as you can.”

June Rodil, the sommelier of Austin, Texas’s Congress, agrees. “Some customers expect you to give them an experience by reading their minds,” she says. “We do our best, but the more detail they can offer up-front makes everyone happier: them and us.”

As Johnnes said, if you can articulate your own tastes even a little, it greatly helps the sommelier’s efforts to please you. What kind of a mood are you in? Do you want to gulp some lusty, full-throated, heavy red? Or are you in the mood for something lighter and punchier?

If you can’t describe what you like, one of the most valuable pieces of information a sommelier can have is what you drink at home. Some people go to restaurants to have their wine experience broadened, but many just want to drink something they’re comfortable with. Problem is, sometimes people are ashamed of, or worry about being judged by, what they drink at home. Rule one: Don’t lie. If you’re trying to impress your server and say that you drink mostly culty Napa Cabs, unless you explicitly say otherwise that’s what they may try to bring you. Rodil’s advice? “We’re seriously not here to judge you. So even if you drink Sutter Home white Zinfandel at home, that gives a huge clue as to what might make you happy.”

Good tips, all around – at the same time, I’d urge you to go to a restaurant and ask the sommelier to specifically expand your palate. If you drink Napa Cabs at home (and there’s nothing wrong with a good Napa Cab – they may be oaky, but they can be good!) let them know that, but let them know you’re interested in something with a similar flavor profile but you want to try something new and exciting that you may never have tried before.

Let them surprise you, and your palate, and experience something new and interesting that you may never have considered before. You never know, you may find something you want to buy by the case later.

The Chow folks also offer some help on one of the most sticky points when talking to a sommelier – price. I’m the type of person who’ll tell you that if you’re out for a meal at a place with a sommelier, the price of the bottle should be the last thing you’re worried about if you’re eating appetizers that are in the $20 range and full plates that are pushing $50, but still some people worry about the price of their bottle of wine. Just be honest about the price range you’re looking for, even if you’re on a date and don’t want to come off cheap. Even suggesting a few bottles in the price range you’re looking at from the wine list and asking the sommelier’s opinion is a good start:

And lastly, there’s that sticky issue of price. It’s the one basic, straightforward detail about a wine, yet it still causes so much tension. Everyone’s afraid of getting pushed over their heads on the cost of a bottle, but also fearful of seeming cheap. This can cause serious anxiety, especially as customers on a date or taking business colleagues out might be hesitant to declare out loud how much they want to spend. Sommeliers are trained to pick up signals. For instance, they’ll suggest that if you’re ordering the wine you just point to a couple of items on the wine list in the same price range to indicate what you’re comfortable spending. Or, as Johnnes recommended, “You can say, ‘We’re on the way to the movies after this,’ and it’s clear that it’s not time for the big guns.” On the other hand, Rodil says, “can we just please get over the shyness about price? We have good inexpensive bottles on the list and good expensive. There’s no embarrassment in wanting a less pricey bottle. Just blurt it out.”

Like they said before, they’re not there to judge you. While I can’t promise they won’t (I mean honestly, if you’ve ever worked service of any type in your life, you know that occasionally you do judge the people you work with, but the best part is that you’re usually so busy you can’t remember that person after 15 minutes, and you certainly won’t go home complaining about the guy who drinks Sutter Home and wanted a sub-$10 bottle of wine) I can tell you that if you’re the kind of geek I am and you go out to a fancy place and don’t know what to order or what to say, give the sommelier some basic information about what you’re going to have for dinner, what your tastes are, and let them decide.

Want extra points? Ask your date or friends at the table what they’re in the mood for, and if they have any wine preferences. That’ll get you a good ways, and it’s considerate too. Plus, the sommelier will have more information to go on, and hopefully bring you a bottle that works with both of your meals and both of your palates. Remember to thank them before you head out for the night, by the way – they may have just saved you, your meal, and your palate from an otherwise boring or worse, unappetizing evening.

images in this post courtesy of Flickr user James Williams (Wine Glass in Focus II), and Flickr user Chris (bottles)

Perhaps one of the most startling things about Dr. Greene is that he uses a Mac. When I was a physics and astronomy undergrad student, all of my professors were serious Unix people, most often with Solaris workstations in their offices, sometimes a Windows workstation with a Solaris box next to it.

Everything Greene does is done with an air of minimalism and professionalism. I’m impressed with how well organized and maintained his office is, but how much fun he seems to have working in it as well.

It’s been a while since we had a workspace contest. What does yours look like? What do you keep nearby to inspire you?

Frankly, other people have written far more eloquent memoirs of Steve Jobs and his massive impact on consumer technology, including but not limited to this personally touching piece from Walt Mossberg at All Things D, this inspired piece by David Pogue at The New York Times, and this very personal memoir from Bryan Lam, who may be better known for his role in the iPhone 4 leak.

All of these touch on the personal side of Steve, and many others focus on his broad impact to the technology world, the business world, consumer technology, and discuss his vision and drive, his passionate need to invent and make the future he saw in his mind the future in the real world, his compelling need to push technology forward and, in a very true way, change the world – make technology in his own image, and turn our tools into things that were smarter, faster, and easier to use. I never met Steve Jobs, and given the stories about how aggressive and opinionated he could be, I can’t say I ever really wanted to. But I was always fascinated by him for some reasons I’ll share here, with all due apologies for making the passing of a great man into a story about how that man influenced me personally.

To be fair, I’ve always been an Apple fan. I spent hours as a child and teen in school playing on Apple IIe computers, and the first computer to ever enter my childhood home was an Apple IIgs. I went on a summer vacation with my best high school friend one summer to Boston, and we happened to attend the last MacWorld to take place on the east coast – it was like being indoctrinated to a secret club full of cheerful people, vendors happy to hand out freebies to fans and people supporting their work and their platform, and people who all seemed to just be happy to be in one place together. Aside from a fun but largely uninspiring Windows 3.1 system that my Dad brought home at one point and then took back to work, that IIgs was the only computer I had until I was getting ready to go off to college, at which point my parents gave me a shiny new Apple Macintosh Performa 6400/200. That 200 indicates that 200Mhz processor, by the way. It ran System 7.5.3 out of the box, and it was a great system.

At the time, I had no real knowledge of the Mac vs. PC debate, and I didn’t care. I had used Macs at school, I loved my IIgs, and I felt that it was logical to get a system that I would be familiar with. I took my Mac to college, and used it for four years – with the first couple of years being the troublesome period that introduced me to the crash-course world of computer troubleshooting. It started when I tried to upgrade that Performa to System 8, and the poor thing just couldn’t handle it. In the first two years of college, my Performa was in and out of Apple Service Centers and our campus IT support department ore often than it was under my desk. I carried it around the campus, disassembled it myself, sat and learned while the campus IT department would work on it: the same people who would subsequently see that I had an aptitude for technology, and later offer me a job in their group – thus beginning my illustrious career in technology. Around the same time, my parents asked me to spec out and purchase their first home computer since the IIgs: a Bondi Blue iMac.

I didn’t get my first Windows PC until my junior year in college, and even then I used it as a secondary computer to my Mac. It was largely a gaming system, and that was the peg that got me into the PC world. The next computer I owned was a computer I built myself. I gamed on it, it was my primary machine, and I went out of my way to learn as much as possible when choosing the right components and assembling them. If you can’t tell, this is where I suddenly became a cross-platform person. I now had a self-built PC for everyday use and gaming, and my Mac was quickly becoming my secondary machine. I still hopped on Macs when I visited computer labs and other places where I had a choice, but I was thrilled to be able to quickly and easily move from one system to another with little trouble. By the time I was out of school, I took a job doing support for Apple, cruised through their training, and worked there for a few months before I had the opportunity to go back to work at my alma mater, again, as “The Mac Guy” who would go home and play video games on his Windows PC.

That reputation held for years: I inherited an old black PowerBook from my office at the University that I opened up and hacked to support OS X (even though technically OS X should never have installed) and I added an airport card by carefully selecting a third party card that used the same Wi-Fi chipset as Apple’s own airport and some hacked-together drivers. I still have it. In the very office where I did all of this tinkering, I was surrounded by Think Different posters, with the faces of people like Martin Luther King, Amelia Earheart, and Mohandas Gandhi all peering off the walls, designed and printed to inspire anyone who walked into the room.

I used that PowerBook until I finally purchased my first MacBook Pro, which suddenly became the computer I carried everywhere. I took it with me to work, used it at the office in lieu of my issued system. I studied on it, used it to get my Apple certification, and then used it again to get my PC-centric certifications. I traveled with it, and visited friends and family with it in my bag. If I had to stay anywhere overnight, it came with me. I’ve upgraded that MacBook Pro twice now, and I’m working on the third one I’ve purchased as I type this (having sold the first one to purchase the second one, and the second one is now proudly serving as a backup for the one I’m using now.)

Why do I share all of this? Because where some people see a cult of Apple fandom, I see a dedicated, guiding hand that refutes most of the common complaints about Apple and its products and instead served as a constant – a rock – that served as a grounding point for a rapidly expanding love of technology. Where most people complain that Apple systems are too simplistic and you can’t tweak them or get under the hood, I did it anyway because I wanted to and they were all I had on-hand until I found something else to work with (and when I found that other thing, in the form of common x86 Windows PCs, I found them incredibly easy to work with as a result.) The common complaint is that the OS is too restrictive, so I forced my will on it, hacked it, found the apps that did what I wanted no matter what. And yet, at all times, I had a safe harbor to go back to.

When I expanded my world into Windows and Linux systems, I did so fearlessly because I knew what it meant to be faced with something broken and only yourself to help fix it – and I knew that in the worst case, I could always go back to what I already knew, if only as a means to help me learn enough to fix the real problem I was facing.

What I’m driving at here is that Apple systems, and the vision behind them, driven almost entirely by Steve Jobs, the man who told us all to stay hungry and stay foolish, inspired me to do just those things. Sure, I had those qualities inside anyway, but if it weren’t for the way I was introduced to technology, the vision I was exposed to, and the thought that maybe technology could be more than an ugly beige box that was a simple tool to get a job done, a “solution” to a “problem,” I wouldn’t have been inspired to the same love of technology that I have now. For that, I can never adequately express my gratitude to Steve, and the people surrounding him who made those ideas come to life.

I’m not going to get into whether Steve or the people around him were good people, or get into the strawman debate about how Apple products are made, or compare him to other greats in the technology world who have recently passed (Rest well, Dennis Ritchie, I miss you too – and thank you for inspiring a whole other flame of love for technology that I have – the love I have for the insides, the hacking, the behind the scenes – it was your work that inspired me to look at code as an elegant thing, the same way I looked at equations and force diagrams as elegant when I studied astrophysics) because I think they’re all out of place. Ultimately I thank Steve not just for kindling my passion for technology products, services, and how technology can be used as a tool to inspire, create, innovate, and share, but I also thank him for having the drive and passion to live the life he saw in his head, to inspire me to do more to do the same with my own limited days.

Say what you will about Apple, and say what you will about Steve and how he’s being remembered, but I do hope that at the very least every classy geek that passes this remembrance can stop for a moment, reflect on one person’s story about how the invisible hands and ideas of a man whose name I never knew (at least, not until far later than I felt his influence) helped inspire him to put his thoughts and dreams into action, and will do the same.

Anyway, they have some great suggestions for gins that you can probably get at a local liquor store that you may not have even thought to try – I know I certainly hadn’t.

While Hendricks isn’t one of the gins in their article, I’ll have to toss it in because I’ve heard such wonderful things about it that I couldn’t bear to keep it off the list. People who drink Hendricks swear by it, and if you’ve never tried it, its worth expanding your palate to give it a whirl. Again, I’m following my own advice from my Must Have Bar Essentials guide: never buy to mix a spirit that you wouldn’t drink straight. Sure, it means you’ll spend a bit more money on spirits that will eventually be diluted and mixed into other beverages, but you’ll never worry that the beverage you’re making will taste awful because you put low-quality alcohol into it, thinking “it’ll all get mixed up anyway, I won’t be able to taste it.”

Anyway, give Hendricks a try if you aren’t familiar with it.

Moving on to the piece at The Kitchn, they propose four very interesting gins that I’ve never tried before, although I’d heard of some of them. Death’s Door, for example, is famous by name, but it’s not always easy to pick up. Here’s what they had to say about it:

Death’s Door Gin
Price: $35/750 ml
The Story: Hailing from Washington Island, Wisconsin, this gin is all local all the time. (Its ominous-sounding name doesn’t refer to the spirit’s after-effects, but to a nearby body of water.) Distilled from local wheat and malted barley and flavored with juniper berries that grow wild on the island, as well as locally-sourced organic coriander and fennel seeds. One percent of the company’s annual revenue go to Great Lakes causes.
Flavor: Clean, simple, and direct. Juniper-forward with notes of coriander and fennel.

Now that’s something I wouldn’t mind in a rocks glass straight, maybe with a couple of whiskey stones in it to give it a little chill. I also dig the nice play on the name – making it sound spookier than it is, but really referencing the area in which it’s made. Extra points for that.

I’m also intrigued by their next entry, the Farmer’s Botanical Gin, which comes in a bottle that looks more at home in an apothecary’s lab than in your liquor cabinet. It harkens back to the days when spirits like gin were more than frequently imbibed for their “medicinal” properties as well as their drunken-making ones. Still, the bottle is gorgeous, and if you can’t tell already, I’m a fan of interesting and unique packaging. Anyway, here’s what The Kitchn had to say:

Farmer’s Botanical Organic Gin
Price: $32/750 ml
The Story: From the makers of Crop Harvest Earth Vodka comes a certified USDA organic small-batch gin.
Flavor: The botanicals really shine through in this one: Besides juniper, we have elderflower, lemongrass, coriander, angelica root and other spicy, floral accents. Smooth, nuanced, and fragrant.

Smooth? Gin? Say it isn’t so, and why don’t I have a bottle right now?

I won’t spoil the other two for you, but I will say they’re worth a look. I’m a big fan of gin and I think it’s an incredibly underrated spirit, especially on the high end. Sure, if you don’t like the smell and taste of juniper berries, you’ll probably dislike much of it, but like many liquors and spirits, if you don’t mind the over-arching characteristics and can expand your palate beyond them, there’s a world of delicious nuance and other flavors underneath waiting for you to explore.

Plus, imagine how awesome you’ll feel when you go to a bar and order a gin and tonic with your friends, and then specify the gin? How cool will that be? Enjoy – before the summer’s over.

Seriously, we’re talking about bacon-infused bourbon, which immediately leads to something glorious. The first of which? Bacon-infused bourbon. Not only will it add a touch of salty/savory to your bar, but it also makes an excellent component in something far more grand: a bacon-infused Old Fashioned.

Oh no, if you thought bacon was “so done” on the Internet, I have a surprise for you – yes, it is, but every now and again you come across something so delicious, so savory, so bacon-tastic that it has to be shared, memes be damned. This is it – courtesy of the New York Times, a fabulous treatise on how to make bacon-infused goodness for your syrups and cocktails.

First of all, you’ll need to learn the recipe for the bacon-infused bourbon:

FOR THE BOURBON- BACON INFUSION:
3 or 4 slices bacon, or enough to render 1 ounce of fat (PDT uses Benton’s, but any extra-smoky variety will do)
1 750-ml. bottle of bourbon such as Four Roses Yellow Label

They even help us out with what kind of bourbon to buy! Honestly, I have to back them up on this one though – the smokier the bourbon you use, the better you’ll really get that bacon-inspired nose and flavor. Bacon fat itself is very rich and very savory, but it smells smokier than it tastes. By using a smoky bourbon, you’ll get a lovely combination of smell and taste that really will make you think you’re drinking alcoholic bacon – or something much better.

On to the Old Fashioned:

FOR THE OLD FASHIONED:
2 ounces bacon-infused bourbon
1/4 ounce Grade B maple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Twist of orange

Twist of orange, eh? Color me skeptical, but I know a little citrus is customary in an Old Fashioned – and many recipes go farther than that. Still, I like what I see here. The maple syrup is an excellent play to bring a little sweetness to the mix, and when you put it all together with the bitters, the bacon-infused bourbon, and the citrus, you have a drink that frankly, I would order at a bar if only to see how it tasted.

And if it tasted good? I’d order another. Check the video:

So why bother letting some fancy bartender do it when you can do it yourself at home and enjoy it, make them for your friends, and impress them more than laying down your charge card for a hefty bar tab will? That’s right – there’s no reason. Go for it, do it yourself. You can thank me later.

images in this post via Joy (Bacon Fat.)

Will you save money doing this versus buying it in a bottle off the shelf? Of course not. Is it still worth doing? Absolutely. Let me explain why.

First of all, with some condiments, specifically ketchup, whether or not it’s cheaper to make on your own is more than a little subjective when you break it down to serving size or price out different quality levels of the ingredients you plan to use. Use the top notch stuff? Of course it’ll be more expensive per serving – but it’ll taste delicious. Use the low-end stuff? It’ll be better, and possibly cheaper, but probably not enough to make you never buy a bottle again.

The biggest reason you should roll your own sauces and condiments is so you can control what goes in your face. After all, the first ingredient – at least here in the United States – for most condiments we enjoy is a little thing called High Fructose Corn Syrup, which is – I don’t care how much the Corn Refiners Association wants you to believe it’s some kind of “Sweet Surprise” and yes, “Corn Sugar” and HFCS are the same damned horrible thing – all around terrible for you. If you make your own, you won’t include that nonsense, and the end-result will be a tastier, more wholesome, and overall healthier product.

The other thing worth noting is that condiments like Sofrito and Harissa don’t have nonsense like that in them, so if you want to enjoy them, you’ll have to learn what they taste like or go buy packaged condiments from a nearby ethnic market. Still, why bother when you can make it yourself?

Each slide, from mayonnaise (which you’ll boggle at the fact that you’ve probably never made it yourself, its remarkably easy) to guacamole (which is remarkably easy and many of you probably already know it) to Nuoc Cham (a sweet and spicy Vietnamese dipping sauce that you’ve probably had but didn’t know) comes with a recipe to help you make it correctly.

The best part is that not only will you learn to make these delicious condiments yourself, but they go with virtually any type of food once you have a few of them mastered, and once you do, the next time you cook anything and make “your special tonkatsu sauce,” people will beg you for the recipe. Way to go, geek – now you’re interacting with humans like a boss.

One of the things you do learn when unpacking and putting a kitchen back together though is how you should go about handling sharp objects. Sure, sure, there’s the whole process of organizing a kitchen, and while I think that’s a great topic, it’s definitely one that’s worth its own post. Right now though, I want to talk about how you can make sure you can handle kitchen knives in a common-sense and logical way.

Check out a great video behind the jump with five very simple tips to remember when handling a knife in the kitchen, especially if someone else is around.

Thankfully no one was harmed in the assembly of the kitchen I proudly use to cook ramen for lunch. Still, even if you’re unpacking your kitchen all alone, you should exercise caution when handling blades. That goes twice or four times (or we can get exponential up in here) if there are other people in the vicinity helping you unpack or just keeping you company.

An old scouting trick that I just happen to remember goes like this: when you hand someone else a knife, you definitely pass it to them with the handle towards them. When they grasp the handle, they say “thank you” to indicate to you that they have a firm grip. Only then do you say “you’re welcome” and let go of the blade.

That way the other person gives you a clear signal that they have a hold of the knife, and you give them a clear signal that you’re letting go – the receiver doesn’t pull too soon, slicing open the hand of the giver, and the giver doesn’t let go too quickly, letting the knife clatter to the floor. Plus, you’re being super polite!

Give it a try sometime, kids. And make note of Jeffrey Elliot’s tips above too – that could save you or a loved one from serious injury.

That said though, I think you guys deserve to know where I’ve been the past couple of weeks, and I hope the shot above gives you an idea. I’m moving! Not only that, but keeping things going with the gigs over at Geek.com, ExtremeTech, AppScout, and of course, Lifehacker all take their toll, but they pay the bills.

So don’t you worry. As soon as I’m moved (moving day is this weekend!) and into my new digs, things will get back to normal here at The Classy Geek, I promise. Stay tuned, I’ve got plans, and I’ll make the wait worthwhile!

In the interim, why not follow me on Twitter? If you talk to me, I’ll talk back – promise.

After all, not only do I work full-time in technology, but I’m also a technology writer. It’s not uncommon for me to spend more time at a computer on any given day than I spend sleeping. So what can I do to make sure I’m not dying a slow and hunched-over death? Great question – it’s a question you should ask yourself, too, especially if you spend any significant amount of time at the computer.

Well, with the help of a little proper posture at your desk while working and some simple desk exercises, you can go a long way towards making sure you’re overall healthier and happier even if you have to spend the bulk of your day at a desk. That and some regular breaks to get up and walk around? You’re golden. Hit the jump to see what I mean.

Speaking of Lifehacker, last weekend I took note of some videos that Vodafone put together that remind us to sit up straight and make minor changes to our work environment that actually make a big difference in our comfort and long term health. Here’s one of those videos:

The beauty of it is that it only takes a few minor tweaks. No expensive new chair, no fancy new standing desk, just sit up straight, slide a little closer to your desk, and pay attention to the angle of your back, neck, and your elbows.

If you’re interested in taking it to the next level, over at Dumb Little Man there’s a list of great stretching exercises you can use to stave off bad posture that will help you stay limber and healthy. Some of the stretches, like the Superman, the Reverse Superman, and the Hip Flexors, are stretches you can do anywhere, at any desk, in any work environment. I wouldn’t suggest you start working the posterior chain on the floor at an office where you have to wear a suit, but hey – if your office has that kind of culture, I think a break may be in order.

The other important thing to note is that you can tweak your workspace and stretch as much as you want, but none of it is a substitution for getting up and moving around. Your body isn’t made to sit in one place for hours upon hours on end. You need to get up and move around: walk to get a glass of water or a drink, go get some face-time with a coworker you like talking to (if they’re not busy, of course,) or just walk a lap around the floor.

I keep a bottle of water at my desk for just this reason: I fill it up when I finish the coffee I bring to the office with me every day (you guys know I’m a coffee snob, so I’m not drinking from the push-pot we have in the office,) which makes me get up and head over to the water dispenser. Then when I finish the bottle, I get up and refill it almost immediately: it gives me an excuse to get up and move around.

Most ergonomics experts will tell you to take a 10 minute break from the computer every half-hour or so, but sadly most jobs would never be that lenient with time away from your desk. I say try to fit it in as often as reasonable and that doesn’t draw unwanted attention to yourself.

Between stretches, breaks, and making sure you pay attention to the way you’re seated, there are a lot of little things you can do to make big improvements in your health. Don’t write this one off, give it a try.

By the by, if you’re interested in seeing that “Sitting is Killing You” infographic, and haven’t seen the Lifehacker piece linked above, take a look here, and click to enlarge:

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

images in this post via Joe Loong (IMG_3771.)

So what do you do? You could take your pants or jacket to a professional to get the zipper repaired or replaced, but before you do that, you could give it a good shot yourself. It doesn’t take a ton of time or effort, and the video tutorial behind the jump can help you give it a shot.

Quirky crafty lady aside (her name is actually Debrah DeMirza and she’s a self-taught seamstress, so remember that the next time you start letting outward appearances cloud your perceptions) she shows you probably one of the most valuable lessons when it comes to making your clothes last longer.

After all, how many zip-up hoodies, jackets, and jeans have you lost to a separated zipper that just won’t work anymore? Worse than that, how many do you have in the back of your closet, waiting patiently for the day you “always meant to” take them to a tailor or dry cleaner that also does alterations for repair? Yeah, I thought so.

Debrah’s technique won’t work for every separated Zipper, but it’s a great way to get started and it’s worth a shot if the zipper on your favorite garment just stops working all of a sudden. Even if it doesn’t work, you’ll be better off for knowing the trick.

image in this post courtesy of noricum (http://www.theclassygeek.com/?p=1666 Now I love roast chicken. A lot. It’s easy, it’s flavorful, it’s so simple to make and so delicious when it comes out right…but here’s the catch; it’s also really easy to screw up. A lot of people simply don’t bother with roast chicken and go to their local grocery store or rotisserie to pick up a pre-made chicken because they know it’ll still be moist and they won’t have to deal with basting it and whatnot.