"bah, humbug!" no, that's too strong 'cause it is my favorite holiday...

I have to admit that I've become a bit disenchanted with this holiday. I still love Christmas music, all kinds, and I love the decorations and the idea of the "Christmas spirit," but I guess that's where my Christmas lovefest has taken its biggest hit in the last few years. I'm not Christian--imagine, no religion--but I do think there are some good ideas to follow with the whole "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," "love thy neighbor," "don't be an a$$hole" (oh wait, that was probably Dan Savage, not Jesus... good ideas work in mysterious ways).

This post is likely too late to make much of a difference for your gift-giving plans now, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway in case the man/woman/kid/uncle/second-cousin-three-times-removed in your life's birthday is coming up and s/he's got everything they've ever wanted already and you really can't imagine spending money on another Louis V bag/wallet/perfume/sock (just the one, for the budget-conscious). I've written about it before but I think it's worth mentioning again that I think a GREAT alternative to gift-giving is giving the money you would've spent on a gift to a charity that has meaning to the recipient.

This year was a little tight, so I haven't made any monetary donations to any of my favorite causes (the usual suspects include: This American Life, NPR's Storycorps, Planned Parenthood, KPCC, Cup of Joe for a Joe, and Democrats Abroad), but I have recently started volunteering my time (a commodity I find myself with less and less of as well these days) with HaitiCorps International, a group whose mission is to economically empower Haitians through fair wage employment and training. I am particularly interested in their latest (and first!) endeavor, The Handbag Project--low-income women in Haiti who have been affected by violence are trained to make handbags, from start to finish, in leather and fabric. They are paid a fair wage and this little-project-that-could will hopefully turn into a self-sustaining social enterprise that not only continues but is able to expand using the funds from the sales of the bags they make. You can "like" HaitiCorps International on Facebook and follow @haiticorps_intl on Twitter. Unfortunately, the twitter feed is a little dead right now, but the founder, Brent, will be heading back to Haiti in January to deliver more materials and check on how the program is going. Things will pick up then.

Okay, this post has become a bit rambly (no, really, that's a word...). Over and out.

twitter me this

I'm sure you're all avid followers of my Twitter feed (@mikinoguchi, thanks for the follow!). You may or may not have noticed that most of my posts are international development related--there's a shocking lack of updates about the latest level that I've unlocked in whatever is the top-rated app game or where I ate lunch today (I'm sure it was underwhelming and filling). I've talked about this before a bit, but I wanted to expand on it a little now that it's been a couple years since I was roped into this whole Twitterland.

If you're interested in international development, but have no idea where or who to start with, these are the Twitter feeds that I began with and still pay a lot of attention to:

• Alanna Shaikh (@Alanna_Shaikh) -- Alanna is an international public health development practitioner currently based in Tajikistan, but she's been all over the 'Stans and Eurasia. She has very accessible writing, lays out the current issues facing development on her feed and on her blog, and is very interactive if you have any questions. 
• TalesFromThHood -- a humorous take on life as an aid worker, his Twitter descriptor says it all, "Aid worker since 1991. Aid blogger since 2006. Cynical since Ronald Reagan. Smartass since birth. Don't hate." He has a blog too.
• TMSRuge -- He's a Ugandan photographer and co-founder of Project Diaspora, he usually has a biting perspective on development news.
• TexasInAfrica -- A political scientist at Morehouse College. She/he (I think she's a she...) again stays current on the latest news in Africa and gives her take on them, always an interesting perspective and often the first one I see posting about a new topic. She also has a blog.

This is just a short list. Honestly, if you want a good selection of blogs to start with, check out my Twitter feed and see who I retweet the most and who I'm following. I have put a list together on Twitter that has all my international development related feeds on it, but it probably needs some updating, so buyer beware.

Social media has really allowed me to gain a perspective on ID that seems much more relevant and fresh than some more established fora might give. That said, these are all people's opinions and ideas, unfiltered and un-fact-checked, so take the Twitterverse with a grain of salt, even for these more serious topics. 

a (word)hero for the 21st century

and a modest one at that... ;)

So, I've got the editing down pat (except for my whole to/too Achilles heel... damn you, Greeks!). And I've got the Twitter and the FB and the Hootsuite and the LinkedIn and the Blogspot (hi there!) and the Friendster... oh, wait, that's not 21st century. Anyway, I've got all that other stuff, right?

So what better way to bring all this lexicographical, grammatical, technological awesomeness to the rest of the world?

Work as a social media editor!

That's right, I am here and available for hire for all your social media editing needs.

We all know how it can be sometimes. You communicate more via text and IM than paper and pen or even regular email. You start automatically writing "thx" and "ur" in notes (even handwritten ones!) and "btw" has become an acceptable way to begin a sentence on the post-its you leave for your roommate... and the emails to your boss... and the articles you submit for your company's blog (!!)--for the record, btw, that last one is really probably a no-no, unless you work for a cool social media-type company where people get from their bean bag cubicle to the solar-powered filtration, locally-sourced, naturally-packed-with-electrolytes water cooler on a Segway. Otherwise, if these errors sound familiar to you and your company, get in touch with me! I'm expanding my freelance editing from focusing mostly on development economics research to a variety of topics in social media, including blogs, where, sadly, typos are all too common and do detract from the overall polish and credibility of the article (I've found problems on posts/sites ranging from fluffy fashion/relationship magazines to those with more gravitas like certain large institutions that shall remain nameless).

I think this blog gives you a pretty good idea of the tone I am capable of in writing lighter pieces, but lest you worry that I'm only good for writing about Obama and posting MC Hammer flash mob videos, do keep in mind that I've spent the bulk of my professional career editing books like "Infrastructure for a Seamless Asia" and OECD/ADBI working papers, and writing articles for Tokyo Journal, Tokyo Weekender, and Being A Broad magazines.

baby, it's all about the hustle

This post was originally entitled "hustle, hustle," but the new title sounds cooler and more Pulp Fiction-esque, don't you think?

I'm deep in the trenches of networking... it's as if my life depended on it. Actually, my livelihood does depend on it, so you can imagine that I'm feeling the pressure. I've only really just begun my full-time job search as this last year was dedicated more to freelance work, grad school research and prep, and travel. While I look for full-time work, I'm also hoping to build an NYC client base to add to my Japan one and so, the hustle.

Unlike when you work a full-time, salaried job, with generally structured and paid for working hours, when you work for yourself, every minute of every day is a potential minute when you could be getting paid. The great thing about being a freelancer is that you can work any time you want, all hours of the day or night. The bad thing about being a freelancer is that you can work any time you want, ALL HOURS of the day or NIGHT. So, while that can be great for a night owl like me, it also means that you always feel like you have to be out there, hustling up business because no one else is gonna be doing it for you.

There are pros and cons to both sides of the work spectrum (full time/salaried to freelancer flyin' by the seat of her pants), and I've enjoyed working in both contexts, but they are definitely very different emotional experiences. Just ask my stress bumps (aka pimples).

Click on the other links throughout this post for some more hustlin'.

the hunt

I'm sure there's an "Eye of the Tiger"
reference I could make here if I'd ever
seen the movie "Rocky."
(Taken in Chiang Mai, Thailand. October 2010.)

So, I'm back to that old problem of tackling my "To Do" list (always capitalized... so annoying).

Luckily, this time I'm not in a winter-in-Tokyo-induced funk, so everything is definitely more manageable and, at the end of the day, even when it seems kind of overwhelming, I remember that I'm only a hop, skip, and a jump (a.k.a., a short 30 mins on the train) to the City (always capitalized... very cool).

Next up on my things to do is "FIND A JOB!!!" (in ALL CAPS and with punctuation... frustrating, but good motivation).

First things first, if you're out there, reading this (Hello! Welcome to my blog!), and you are looking for an editor (especially one specializing in development economics research with international managing editor experience), please contact me!

Second, I'm looking for all kinds of editing work, including in fields that I've actually had more writing than editing experience. I like writing, I really enjoy it, but I LOVE reading. Now how cool would it be to find a job reading topics that I love too? Not that development economics isn't the cat's (er, tiger's?) pajamas, but, let's be honest with ourselves, it isn't exactly a topic that shows up on the New York Times' Bestsellers List very often.

Third, I'm looking for writing work. I've written for women's lifestyle magazines, Tokyo lifestyle magazines, food blogs, photo blogs, and my personal blog (Hey again, how you doin'?).

Fourth... oooh, gotta run! I'm networking all the time now and the train waits for no (wo)man!

"healthy-ish-er" mac 'n cheese

There's pretty much no way to do healthy mac 'n cheese, let's just be honest with ourselves here. But you can at least do a little finagling to dress that wolf's food up in some sheep's healthy-ish clothing. Here's how I usually jazz up my store-bought mac 'n cheese, adding a little more flavor, texture, and nutrients (or so I've convinced myself). When I am living overseas, I usually buy a couple boxes of mac 'n cheese when I'm home and bring them out when I need a little bit of home--America in a box and it never goes bad.

Here's what you'll need for your healthy-ish-er mac 'n cheese:

1 medium or large saute pan
boiling water, if you have 4 or 5 cups (about a liter) ready to go, you'll have more than enough I'd say
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion (size to taste... if you like more flavor, use a bigger onion), diced small
2-3 cups fresh spinach, or 1-1.5 cups frozen spinach
any other veggies you want to throw in that you have lying around (I've used red pepper, frozen broccoli, cauliflower... veggies with a little structure. Much to my disappointment, eggplant doesn't work well in this recipe)
1.5 cups veggie meat crumbles
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 box store-bought mac 'n cheese*
1/2 vegetable bouillon cube (optional)
Red chili flakes or cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
Parmesan cheese to garnish (optional)

All my measurements are estimations, so feel free to adjust the oil

You're basically creating a skillet casserole, but you're working it like a risotto almost. I've been doing this technique for a while, out of sheer laziness of not wanting to wash an extra pan, but then Mark Bittman gave my technique legitimacy. You don't need any of the vegetables to be completely cooked before you add the water, you just want them to be about half-way or three-quarters cooked if you want them to still have some crunch when you're eating.

1. Start heating the water, either in a saucepan or kettle. You're only going to be dirtying up the saute pan, so you just need to boiling water in a separate vessel, boiling and ready for when you'll need it later. Don't salt the water, there's pleeeeenty of sodium in the mac 'n cheese cheese sauce and the parmesan, so adjust the salt later.
2. Heat the oil in the pan, add the onion. How you cook this is to your preference. I like the flavor of the onions when they're a little browned, but if that's not your thing, keep the heat low-medium and just let the onions get translucent.
3. At this point, add any non-spinach veggies (including fresh garlic; if using garlic powder, that comes later). If you're just working with the spinach, add that here. Spinach cooks super fast whereas other veggies take longer, so the principal is to get in the things that will take the longest to cook in first. Let these get slightly browned/toasted if you like that flavor (I do). 
4. Add red chili flakes or just a tiny bit of cayenne pepper now. If you haven't used cayenne before, be careful! It goes a long way. The red chili flakes are a lot more forgiving on spicyness, so go for that if you just want a mild kick.
5. If you haven't already, add the spinach. Let cook for a minute or two.
6. Add the veggie meat crumbles, let brown/saute for a couple minutes. I've tried this with veggie chicken, but it's not as good as with the veggie ground meat. If you're working with real meat, you'll have to use your own judgement of when to add the meat in as I'm not sure about cooking times, etc., and you don't want to take meat cooking advice from a long-time vegetarian if you want to avoid food poisoning. Just sayin'.
7. If you want garlic flavor, sprinkle with garlic powder now. 
8. Add the dry pasta, stir, let it get infused with some of the flavor that you have going on in the pan. I usually let the pasta get a little toasted, get some color on it, but that's just my flavor preference. You don't have to and the dish will still turn out fine. 
9. Add just enough boiling water to cover what's in the pan and throw in vegetable bouillon cube if you're using it. Stir to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan and to scrape any flavor bits off the bottom.
10. Stay by the pan and stir every once in a while, keeping an eye on how done the pasta is. After the first initial water dose, you just want to add water a little at a time, because you will not be draining this out. The water will need to be completely absorbed by the pasta, veggies, and fake meat, so don't overdo it on the water, otherwise you'll have mac 'n cheese porridge. 
11. When the pasta is just this side of done, lower the heat and add the cheese packet (see my note on preferred mac 'n cheese brand below). Stir until the cheese melts in and everything is coated. Turn off heat, let sit for a minute (otherwise you'll reeeeally burn your tongue, that cheese gets hot!).
12. Serve up and sprinkle with parmesan if you like.

Bon app!

*As for my preferred store-bought mac 'n cheese, it's confession time, I guess: I've found that the best for this recipe is Velveeta Shells 'n Cheese. If it makes you feel any better (it definitely helps me feel better), they do have a whole wheat version. The shell shape of the pasta stands up to the cooking and is a good shape for eating with the other ingredients. I've also found that the Velveeta itself, thanks to its simple heat 'n serve consistency, is the best for this recipe because you don't need to worry about the extra ingredients called for by other store-bought mac 'n cheese, which can make the dish a little mushy. I've tried this dish out with Kraft and Trader Joe's versions with their powdered cheese packets and it just doesn't turn out as well. Yes, Velveeta is basically edible plastic cheese. But I figure that my few moments of plastic cheese weakness are more than made up for the by the countless MickeyD's plastic cheeseburgers that I haven't consumed in the past 16+ years. Whatever, it's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)