Pearltrees.com: A cool idea with uncool practices

Pearltrees.com is a neat little site/Firefox addon that allows you to bookmark pages of interest in an interconnecting web-like layout. You can explore other users' "pearls" (bookmarks) and lay down lines to connect your interests to theirs, and so on.

It was picking up interest and some cool features were being added, but then they blew it. I received an annoyed email from an online retailer I had dealt with ONCE, telling me to stop sending her invitations to join Pearltrees. Apparently, Pearltrees invitations "ghostwritten" by me have been going out repeatedly for months. While I may have clicked the "invitations" option on Pearltrees once to send a message to a friend or two,  I NEVER sweepingly approve sending automated stuff to, say, Brenda from Neighborhood Flower Market. So it appears that PT ransacked my Google contacts and took the liberty of contacting EVERYONE I have an address entry for. Not just once, but repeatedly. Very bad form for an otherwise nice program.

This is a seriousness enough breach in internet etiquette, but then about a month after I wrote an official complaint to Pearltrees and demanded they stop sending email that pretends to be from me, another friend forwarded me an invitation he had just that day received. So not only did they steal my Google contacts, they kept on spamming everyone without so much as ACKNOWLEDGING my complaint.

From now on, I will only maintain one single Pearl on my account, and it will lead to this whistle-blower page. Pearltree users, double check that you NEVER authorize "invitations", and take immediate action (including possibly deleting your account) if you discover your contacts have been receiving these invitations from you. And of course, you are all free to snag and pearl this page as well to spread the word.

 On a final note, if you do find out your contacts are getting Pearltrees invitations, advise them not to  trust the "click here to stop receiving these invitations" link within the email.  

Recommend that they add the domain  pearltrees.com to a spam filter or ignore it through a blacklist. 

*sigh*.... bummer. Peartrees was kind of fun, too. Way to blow it, guys.

(click for fullsize image of The Invitation That I Did Not Ask For)

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A speaker at the conference in Santa Fe put this very succinctly: We spend so much time "doing". We also need to spend time just "being". As Sinatra would say, dobedobedo...

From http://dreamstudies.org

About the author:
Julie Stiles holds an MA in Consciousness Studies from John F. Kennedy University. She has a background in education and technology, and currently works as a writer helping professionals articulate and shape their ideas for publication. She is looking for a publisher interested in her manuscript on the process of transformation of consciousness. She can be reached at jlstiles24 at gmail dot com.

A friend recently wrote in an email; “I’m coming to realize that this transformational path I’m on isn’t exactly productive. I don’t know what it is but productive it’s not.” Her comments, coupled with my own experiences of times when I am not accomplishing as much as I would like, caused me to reflect on the relationship between outer productivity and the inner work of self-growth and transformation.

Living in a society that values productivity as highly as ours does, it can be disconcerting to find ourselves blocked. This non-productivity may manifest in different ways. You might just not be inspired or motivated to do much. Nothing interests you; a feeling of boredom pervades your experience. Or, you might lack energy to do anything; you feel tired a lot and just want to rest.

If we do try to accomplish things during these times, making our lists and checking them off, we might find that our actions seem to lead to dead ends. We do not get any feedback from the steps we take. No doors or windows open in front of us.

In terms of what we expect to be able to get done in a day, we may feel very unproductive. These barren and uncreative times can be hard on us; our sense of self-worth and self-esteem might take a beating when we aren’t producing as much as we are used to, or as much as we think others expect of us. If we are trying to move forward and do not yet see the fruits of our labor, frustration or even depression can set in.

Sometimes when we feel tired and bored, an internal shift is going on under the surface.

Yet when we are going through deep change, the kind of change where we are letting go of old aspects of ourselves or belief systems that no longer work, outer productivity may be counter-productive.

I know that there are times when I feel exhausted and uninterested in doing much, and it is generally a time when some internal shift is occurring. Similarly, friends have suggested that in their times of transformation they find they have to let go of wanting to accomplish much in the outer world.

The Natural Cycles of Productivity

It’s important to remember at these times that much of transformation happens “under the surface.” We are not consciously aware of the real work that is taking place, or we are aware of it indirectly, perhaps through our daytime and nighttime dreams, our lack of energy, or the subtle ways we begin to feel different.

What we do in the outer world emerges from the state of our inner world

Of course, this inner work of transformation is easy to discount. Most of us don’t get paid for doing inner work, after all! There are no Nobel prizes for it, no accolades, nothing to put on the resume. Recognition and salaries come for outer work.

Yet that inner work has an affect on our outer work. It may be indirect, and it will probably be difficult to convince others that fallowness can have a positive impact, but in allowing ourselves the time and space for the inner work to take place, our outer work will benefit. After all, what we do in the outer world emerges from the state of our inner world.
Is it Inner Work versus Productivity?

So, are outer productivity and the inner work of transformation mutually exclusive? Probably not, but how we go about our endeavors will make all the difference. If we are judging and struggling against our inertia, it is less likely that our activity will be helpful to our transformative process. When we can make what we do be in service to our inner being, we may find that they reinforce each other.

Let’s be honest, in times of less output and inspiration there’s also the possibility that we’re just lazy or need to rest and recover from a period of particularly intense outer work. Still, if you find that you are struggling to accomplish things against a tide of inactivity, it might be a time to stop. Do some artwork or writing, move your body, pay attention to your dreams, and see if through these methods you can catch a glimpse of shifts happening internally.

When we know that what seems like stagnation is actually producing something, we can stop fighting it by trying to be outwardly productive and more easily relax into it, trusting that a time of new accomplishment is just around the corner.

Johnny's World-Famous Pumpkin Pie Recipe

My friend Johnny is famous in certain internet circles for making the best pumpkin pies known to man. Assuming I can get his HTML to format correctly, I am reposting it to help spread his fame. My only point of contention with Johnny is that he doesn't make his own crusts. Crusts are tricky; however, I spent one whole summer making cartloads of peach pies in an attempt to perfect a crust recipe and technique. When I find my notes from that summer, I'll post them here as well. In the meantime, get yourself some ready-made pie shells, some "pie pumpkins", and get to it!
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So you want to make the best pumpkin pie known to man hhhmmm? Well here's how you do it.









First off, you need pie pumpkins. The little pumpkins... They are smaller and sweeter than large pumpkins. This recipe will produce two 9" pies. You will need one pie pumpkin.



This is what they look like.





To cook pumpkin, wash and cut it in half crosswise. Remove seeds and strings.



PRO TIP: the seed and goop scooper that comes with Pumpkin Master carving kits works great for prepping the pumpkins.



Your pumpkin should look like this.





Place it in a pan,
shell side up and bake it in a 325deg (162.7C) oven for 1 hour or more, depending on size, until it is tender and begins to fall apart.



Like so:





Scrape the pulp from the shell and put it through a ricer or strainer or blender.



PRO TIP: This isn't terribly important... Once I scrape all the pulp from the shell into my mixing bowl I'll sometimes take a plain ol potato masher and mash them around a bit. I actually think this adds to the awesomeness of my pumpkin pie. But sometimes the pumpkin especially large pumpkins can be a bit too chunky so blending the roasted pumpkin up a bit with a hand mixer solves that.



===============================================



As for pie dough goes, pie dough and I don't get along... Never have, and probably never will. So I just pick up two
premade keebler graham cracker crusts. They rock, everyone loves them, and you could probably pass them off as your own if you really wanted to. If you really want to make fresh pie dough, you're on your own because I have no clue.



===============================================



Line a pan with a pie dough.



Preheat oven to 425deg(218.3C)



Mix until well blended:

2 cups cooked pumpkin or squash

1.5 cups fresh creme

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cloves

2 slightly beaten eggs





Pour the mixture into the pie shell. Bake 15 minutes at 425degs(218.3C), then reduce heat to 350degs(176.6C) and bake about 45 minutes longer or until an inserted knife comes out
clean.


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PRO TIP: once you roast your pumpkin(s), set out all of your ingredients. Then when you add each ingredient, put it away right after you use it. This way you won't accidentally double dose on something and ruin your precious pie that you worked so hard to make!



Also, I've found that you can add up to three times the amount of cinnamon if you so choose to. This batch I decided to add two teaspoons of cinnamon instead of the recommended one. But whatever.... I dig cinnamon and all that jazz...



So, Check it out...



Here is a cooked and scooped halve pumpkin. Notice how I still left some on there, you don't want to get too close to the rind, but you know, don't worry too much about it, a little won't hurt... It's just that the rind is bitter and not as tasty.





Here we have the pumpkin pulp which I've mashed up a bit with a potato masher.





Here's all the ingredients ready to be added together.





Here we have the pumpkin pulp and the brown and white sugar.





With the creme and spices added.





Some of you might not know what beating actually means. It's different than mixing in that you are actually hitting your substance hard enough to toss air into it. With "slightly beaten" we only want to beat our
eggs around 20 times or so. They should look something like this, not quite consistent, but not too separated either.





With the eggs added.





And here we have all of our ingredients blended together.





The pie filling poured into our pie shells.





And finally, our finished pie. Beautiful isn't it?





And if you're sexy like me you can roast the pumpkin seeds while you are making your pie filling...

Left Foot on Danger

My iPod decided to shuffle directly from Laibach to Snatam Kaur this morning, which suddenly gave me one of those common-sense epiphanies... you know, things which are obvious, but which if you actually stop to think about seem kind of profound.

It really is amazing the different planets people live on. There are people who live their new-age or Buddhist or mellow lives, striving for and dwelling in peace and gentleness every day, drinking their chamomile tea and smelling flowers and smiling a lot. All the time. There are people who live their anger, stomping about in their combat boots and rivets and chains and drinking their Jager. Every day.

I think, personally, it's a far more interesting life to have one foot on each end of the spectrum. In fact, I think my life is basically laid out on a Twister board. I've got fingers in so many pies and facets in so many directions... one day I will meditate to Tibetan singing bowls for 3 hours and be very quiet. One day I will laugh and shimmy and be raucous. One day I will rage. Call it moodiness if you like, I call it diversity. And yeah, like a complicated game of Twister, when you've got appendages planted all over the board, it feels off-balance sometimes. But I think I wouldn't trade this for any kind of consistently immersed daily routine.

The only problem is that we only get one go-around in this lifetime, most of us. Decisions have to be made. I panicked when I was about 5 and asked my mom when I had to make a solid decision about what I wanted to be when I grew up. She laughed and said I didn't have to worry about it until at LEAST junior high when I started deciding which schools, programs, and classes I wanted to be in.

By age 19, far past that time, I was still all over the place. There were days when I forsaw myself married to a French-speaking diplomat, playing politics and the role of the good first lady and walking the grounds of some European estate with gardens. There were days when I saw myself living in a tree house with some crazy architect, fully hippie-fied. Days when I saw myself striding confidently down some metropolis avenue with a latte in one hand and that day's court briefing in the other. Or perhaps parked in some uber-modern Bay area anti-cubicle, riding my Segway from one end of the compound to the other as I helped revolutionize the world online.

I guess I've settled, in that degree. I am not going to be Mademoiselle Wendy des Jardins. Nor "Wendy, the funny lady who carves windchimes on the house up the mountain". Nor Wendy, esq. Nor Wendy, CEO of eTalk Velocicompany.

But this is ok. At the end of high school--which I'm not going to lie, was a brutal time for me (and not in the metal sense of the word)-- I was lying an a hospital bed and my sister brought me a mixtape. I haven't listened to it since because it makes me cry. It's got the song from "The Fox and the Hound" on it: "When you're the best of friends." It's got "Winter" by Tori Amos on it:" When you gonna love you as much as I do." But most profoundly for me was one of Tori's lesser known songs called "Girl".
From in the shadow
She calls
And in the shadow
She finds a way
And in the shadow
She crawls
Clutching her faded photograph
My image under her thumb
Yes with a message for my heart
She's been everybody else's girl
Maybe one day she'll be her own
Everybody else's girl
Maybe one day she'll be her own

It was true. I had been everybody else's girl for far too long. And now, I may be teetering on a Twister board, but by god, I'm my own.