The Final Post

Well finally I have come to my last post. I hope you have all enjoyed reading my blog ... if anyone is out there reading it! I hope I have allowed you all to understand the importance of cooking to me. Within this blogged I have looked at the practical considerations, affordances, ergonomics, ambiance and the need of cooking for me! During this course I have discovered and realised that actually I am starting to enjoy cooking. I have realised that there is a need in my life to gain excitement, satisfaction and enjoyment out of this activity. Cooking provides me with independence and challenges which I enjoy solving.

Here is a list of 6 references and quotes I used...

1). “The gathering of nourishment, however, is not only necessary; it is also endless. Once done, it must be done again. Answering as it does to the requirements of life itself, it can end only with the end of life. The purpose of this activity is to provide for the seeds of consumption: food is taken from the earth, after all, in order to be consumed” (Green, 1968).

Green, T.F. (1968). Work, leisure and the American schools. New York: Random House.

2). "In any home, the kitchen is often the place where friends and family congregate. Sure, it’s where the food and the drink are, but kitchens are seldom just refuelling stations. Conversations, gossip humour and ideas flow freely in the relaxed atmosphere of the kitchen" (de Lore & Brooke-White, 2000).

de Lore, C., & Brooke-White, J. (2000). Every kitchen tells a story. New Zealand: Harper Collins Publishers Limited.  

3). "Cooking has many functions, and only one of them is about feeding people. When we go into a kitchen, indeed when we even just think about going into a kitchen, we are both creating and responding to an idea we hold about ourselves, about what kind of person we are or wish to be. How we eat and what we eat lies at the heart of who we are as – Individuals, families, communities". (Lawson, 2004. p.7).

Lawson, N. (2004). Feast: Food to celebrate life. England: Hyperion.

4). Mahy (1988) writes “when I saw it, I said that’s art! I said, that’s what art is about. It’s a cake – yes – but not just a cake. It’s a statement in its own right. My dear, it’s got such passionate equilibrium.”

Mahy, M. (1988). The door in the air and other stories. London: JM Dent & Sons Ltd.

5). Visser (1986) states “Food is ‘everyday’-it has to be, or we would not survive for long”.

Visser, M. (1986). Much depends on dinner. New York: Grove Press.

6). Quote from the film Julie and Julia.

“I didn't understand for a long time, but what attracted me to MtAoFC [Mastering the Art of French Cooking] was the deeply buried aroma of hope and discovery of fulfilment in it. I thought I was using the Book to learn to cook French food, but really I was learning to sniff out the secret doors of possibility.” (Ephron, 2009).

Ephron, N. (Director), (2009). Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen [Motion picture]. North America: Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Here is the link to comments that I made on other peoples blogs.

Pip
Awesome story pip! I loved how by baking this cake, it lead and connected you to a whole lot of other things! The way you wrote the story showed how it’s not all about baking and had lots of examples of affordances within it. It would be good if you were able to unpick the examples of affordances out of the story so it would become clearer to the reader.


Rachael
WOW Rachael!! Your photos are AMAZING! You have a wonderful talent!! Great work! I really enjoyed this post on your blog. You really went deep into yourself and your feelings to bring out how photography affords itself to you. I love how you have analysed your activity very carefully and are posting such enriched information for us to read. It would be awesome if you were able to put in a quote or definition to explain and back up your ideas about affordance at the beginning?
Keep up the wonderful snapping :)


Matt
Hey Matt. I am loving your blog! It’s full of sooo much meaning and passion! You seem to have an awesome grasp on the ideas of communication, connection and the aspects on your activity. The information provided is really enriched and you can tell you have obviously put a lot of thought into it, which is awesome. To help this post make a bit more sense to the readers (people outside of our course) it may help to explain and give a few definitions about affordance as communication, connection and aspects are all a part of it. Keep up the good work J


Breanna
Hey Bean! Awesome job on your blog so far! I love how much quality information you have in this post around how cooking brings communication into your flat. Love how your flat has created a 'homely' feel! That must be such a nice environment and atmosphere to be a part of! Fantastic that you have gone out and found the reference about the movie chocolat. It could be helpful to you if you explain what affordance is and also talk about the other aspects of affordance- Connection and moral properties, good/bad aspects.
Keep up the good work :)

The Whitebait story

During the holidays by father gave me a pound and a half of whitebait to bring back to the flat in Dunedin. I was STOAKED! I mean whitebait is expensive... I could sell that off for $30, which I really did consider, however I thought that my flat would enjoy it. My bringing whitebait back to the flat, it allowed me to provide for the flat and give my share by contributing. My flatmates come from farms so they are constantly providing meat for us. I was so excited to be able to finally give something. Especially whitebait... I have full respect for the bag full dad had given me. Do you know how hard those little white slimy creatures are to catch! Whenever I have tried to catch them they NEVER swim into my net! So trying to get the whitebait back to Dunedin was a little bit of an issue. As it is a nine hour drive back I had to make sure I could keep the whitebait as frozen as possible. That involved wrapping it in newspaper with MANY layers!! And sourcing a little chilly bin! Luckily when I arrived in Dunedin it was still cold and well... half frozen! I was very excited to cook the whitebait for the flat, especially because I had never cooked it before. It was always mum or grandma who cooked it. A couple of my flatmates had never had whitebait before. It is very much a west coast speciality so I was very proud to be cooking them something that came from my home and a thing that had caused such a culture to arise in my area. Before I began to cook I had to ring up grandma just to check how I was to do it. Once I had sorted out the recipe... to my surprise I had never actually realised just how easy it was to make a patty! So I began cooking. I experimented with the size of the patties, how much whitebait I should put in and learning when the best time was to flip them. As much as I tried I could NOT at all get them to look as perfect as grandmas do! I tried and tried but my patties were certainly not circles. O well it’s the taste that counts. I decided that I would cook mash potato and minted peas to go with the patties as that’s what Grandma always does. I went outside and picked a lemon from the neighbour’s tree, you can’t have a whitebait patty without lemon. As I was doing that I suddenly thought to myself that we definitely need bread. Thankfully there was a fresh loaf there and it was WHITE! My mother says that you ALWAYS must have white bread with your patties. Once I had finished cooking I served it up to my flatmates. Some of them were eager to try and a few were a bit unsure about the eyes and fins looking up at them from their plate. Over all I think the whitebait was a success. Only one of my flatmates didn’t like it, which didn’t worry me as it gave me a whitebait sammie for the next day!! I was very glad it had gone well and very happy that I could contribute to the flat, bringing a speciality from home.

Affordances part 2!!

There are three more aspects of affordances that were not mentioned below. These are aesthetics, spirituality and health. These are three pretty important aspects for us to grasp to fully understand the affordances of cooking. So here’s hoping I can explain to you and help myself understand these important concepts.

Aesthetics- I was struggling to comprehend what this word really meant. Good old un-trusty Wikipedia helped me out by explaining that it refers to...

“A branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty.^[1] It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste.^[2] More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as "critical reflection on art, culture and nature" (2011).

When looking at the aesthetics of cooking we refer to things like- the presentation of the food, how it looks, how it tastes, the smell, the color of the food, its invitingness, how the food is culturally fitting.

You can look at aspects of cooking like the appreciation from others, the satisfaction in communication, the noisy and clattering of someone banging away in the kitchen, the beauty of fulfilling hunger, feeling just right, and even to that state of frustrated perfectionism.

Through cooking you can create absolute beauty, a wonderful work of art, which can be admired for a minute before satisfying our need to eat. Mahy describes how cooking can be and is art through the story ‘A work of art’. Mahy (1988) writes “when I saw it, I said that’s art! I said, that’s what art is about. It’s a cake – yes – but not just a cake. It’s a statement in its own right. My dear, it’s got such passionate equilibrium.”

Spirituality- This is a very difficult concept to explain. Spirituality can be defined and mean a whole lot of different things. In relation to affordances I found a definition off Wikipedia that states that spirituality is “an inner path. It refers to a person's efforts to discover the essence of his/her being or nature; or to the deepest values and meanings by which people live. Spirituality is often experienced as a source of inspiration or orientation in life”.  So in a sum up sentence spirituality is about looking at what is the potential for feeling connected with the universe through an activity, mine being cooking.

This could be things like...

·         Cooking providing a sense of meaning.

·         It provides an opportunity to serve others

·         Gratitude in giving/receiving and making for others.

·         It has sacred meaning

·         It can make people be at peace

·         Can provide connections to the land, through using and cooking food grown in the earth.

·         Celebration

·         Connection to ancestors through recipes and the passing on of knowledge

·         Belonging

·         Being connected to cyclical time – different foods are cooked at different times of the year, also different foods are grown.

·         Values/ethics of the activity/values eg- underpinning endurance and waiting for a meal

·         Grace before meals – part of gratitude

Health- In cooking, health is a major aspect and is constantly drained into society. The idea of healthy eating is pushed into our society, yet so many people out there do not do it. Food can provide energy, it gives vitamin and iron to the body, has antibiotic properties, can make you fat if you choose to eat the wrong foods, it can control conditions, and also can cause you to become sick. Cooking can be used in the way of health as a relaxing/de-stressing tool, can be therapeutic to an individual but this can also be in reverse for some people eg- increase stress etc. There are also other aspects like hygiene eg- washing hands before cooking and the prevention of catching bugs eg- keeping meat refrigerated and making sure it is well cooked so people to not catch things like salmonella and food poisoning. Food must be consumed in order for a person to live. Visser (1986) states “Food is ‘everyday’-it has to be, or we would not survive for long”.  For people to carry on living we must put this fuel, being food into our body in order to keep kicking.

References-

Mahy, M. (1988). The door in the air and other stories. London: JM Dent & Sons Ltd.

Visser, M. (1986). Much depends on dinner. New York: Grove Press.

Wikipedia. (2011). Aesthetics. Retrieved form http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesthetics

Wikipedia. (2011). Spirituality. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituality

The need and importance of cooking to me during this course!

The importance of cooking to me is a very difficult statement for me to comprehend. I automatically think... cooking pfft, I really do not like it! It’s long, boring and tiring! But when I truly start to think about cooking, my experiences and my skills I have around this activity I’ve realised that this automatic negative thought I get is really not that true. By participating in the activity of cooking for this class I have had to be mindful, conscious and aware of what I was doing, trying to really unpick the activity of cooking. Reflecting on my experience of cooking so far in this course I have discovered that my need during the weeks has changed. When I first began cooking for this course my need was to please my flatmates as peer pressure influenced this, and the need to be accepted. I disliked cooking and saw it as a chore that must be done, always looking for the easiest and quickest meal to cook so my job was over and done with. Now coming towards the end of this course and in the stage of reflecting back on my experience and really trying to draw out the meaning and importance of cooking, I have discovered that my views and needs at the start compared to now have changed immensely. I didn’t think that I would ever look forward to cooking dinner ever... but now I am constantly finding myself looking forward to and excited to cook. My need has changed from needing to cook because it’s something that must be done, which pleases my flatmates, into an activity that brings me excitement, gives me independence and a sense of defining me as an adult, it brings fun, lots of challenges to overcome and full fills a  need of enjoyment and satisfaction. Maybe there has always been a need for cooking to give me enjoyment and excitement in my life but I was not consciously aware of this. By engaging mindfully in this activity it has opened me up allowing me to feel these emotions and express this within the activity of cooking. Although my need is still to please my flatmates and provide them with yummy food and continue to belong within the flat, I think I have discovered that there is a deeper need within me that I am also trying to please.

This is a quote from the film Julie and Julia explaining the idea that cooking can be  more than just the doing. It statisfies needs of fulfilment and excitement.

“I didn't understand for a long time, but what attracted me to MtAoFC [Mastering the Art of French Cooking] was the deeply buried aroma of hope and discovery of fulfilment in it. I thought I was using the Book to learn to cook French food, but really I was learning to sniff out the secret doors of possibility.” (Ephron, 2009).

References

Ephron, N. (Director), (2009). Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen [Motion picture]. North America: Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Ambiance

Firstly this week I thought I would start this posting off with a story from my experience of cooking this week.

The Burger Story

Tuesday night was my night to cook this week. As I was feeling a little under the weather I decided to look through the pantry and freezer to see what the easiest meal I could put together would be. There I discovered patties, lettuce, cucumber, tomato and cheese. Dah dah burgers it is. However slight problem we had no buns! This therefore meant tracking down the flatmate with the flat money and wondering down to the supermarket, however to my advantage I did a little persuading and one of the flatmates went to get them instead (as she also needed a few things herself). This now allowed me time to prepare dinner. I first started with making fries. Potato is differently a favourite in my flat. So off I set cutting those potatoes into chips. I find very hard judging how much to cook for five people. This would definitely be one of my biggest challenges when cooking. If I cook too little then everyone starves, if I cook too much then we either fight over who gets the leftovers the next day or we eat way too much! My advice if anyone has this dilemma make too much so then at least your flatmates can argue with each other about leftovers and not argue with you about being hungry! Any way back to cutting those potatoes... have you ever thought about how many different ways there is to cut potatoes?? I feel a little sorry for my flatmates as when they received my fries they got fat ones, skinny ones, long and short ones, rectangles, squares, triangles and wedges! It makes cooking a lot more fun if you can be a little creative. Once all the potatoes were chopped up there was one last thing before they went in the oven to do. That of course is to get the flats secret spice... ok well maybe not secret just favourite- that is Moroccan.  This spice goes into absolutely everything we cook. I really do recommend the purchase of this, it really does give the food extra zing and yummyness! So next into the oven were the beef patties. These patties were the chunkiest, yummiest, REAL looking meat patties I had seen in a long time. We were luckily enough to get these from my flatmates parents who live on a farm. Compared to the skinny, fake, cheap, plastic supermarket patties we usually get, we were in heaven! Next step I did was to prepare the fillings of the burgers. I peeled and grated the juicy carrots, being very careful to keep my fingers away from the grater as I didn’t think my flatmates would appreciate orange carrot with red dots. Now onto cutting the cucumber. Cucumbers are very funny shapes aren’t they? I wonder why they grow long and skinny??. Now onto the slicing of cheese YUM and the washing of the lettuce. Just as I had finished preparing the fillings my flatmates back with the buns. Perfect timing! I quickly set the table and check the fries and patties are cooked. I put all the fillings onto the table along with the interesting looking fries and the hunky, juicy patties! SWEET dinners done. Phew that’s cooking over and done with this week!

Ambiance 

Ambiance is used as a way of describing the feeling that comes from doing the whole activity. It can be viewed in a way as the spirit and essence of the activity.

When looking at the ambiance of cooking, cooking fits under the idea of food. Food is something that must be consumed in order for individuals to carry on. The essence of cooking is a biological necessity and a cyclic process that is to be done.

When I am cooking the ambiance of cooking is primarily about the need to eat and consume in order to function and live, however secondly the feeling that comes from the whole activity of cooking is it provides me with a sense of accomplishment and achievement.

This quote here from Julie and Julia shows how the character Julie thought that by cooking all of Julia’s recipes would provide her with confidence and luck however when she looked more closely into the whole activity she found that the spirit or the feeling provided her with joy (ambiance).

“Julia taught me what it takes to find your way in the world. It's not what I thought it was. I thought it was all about - I don't know, confidence or will or luck. Those are all some good things to have, no question. But there's something else, something that these things grow out of. - It's joy” (Julie and Julia, 2009).

Reference

Ephron, N. (Director), (2009). Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen [Motion picture]. North America: Sony Pictures Entertainment.

 

Affordances

Week 37

Affordance is an outcome of an activity. It’s what ordinary activities bring about. Under affordances there are three topics i am going to look into in relation to affordance. These are communication (what does this bring about?), connections (how one activity leads itself to another. This is describing the story and what happened next), good and bad aspects- moral judgement.

Firstly i think i will tell you all a wee story about the last time i cooked and then i will clearly link the main aspects of this story into those three heading under affordances. Hopefully that will therefore make a whole lot of sense to you and help me actually understand what’s going on here too!

Story

As i was grabbing the chicken out of the freezer i was thinking of all the things i will have to do in order to create eatable curry which was the plan for tonight’s tea. I find cooking a long and tiring process so after i put the chicken in the microwave i ran over to the stereo to blast the sounds to try and get rid of my negative thoughts around the task in hand. So off i went chopping to the beat of those sounds, until by flatmates plonked themselves at the kitchen table which this therefore lead to a whole lot of chatting while i was preparing. This chatting sure lead to a whole lot of laughing, bantering and sharing as it always does in our chatty wee flat. Well you could put it down to 5 girls who love to TALK as we sure do! While i was about to put the rice on i had a flashback to last time i had cooked rice and lets just say that the white rice and grown some black freckles. This mistake has definitely made me aware for this time. As people always say trial and error is the best way to learn. Early that day i had rang mum to get her advice on how to cook it. However i was still uneasy about cooking it so i asked the flatmates for some input. By asking them i have discovered just how many different ways in which there is to cook rice. Every one of my flatmates had a different way or variation. Crazy huh! This therefore lead to a massive teaching session, in which every flatmate got the chance to explain and show how they would cook the rice. The way in which everyone cooked the rice was the way in which they had grown up having seen it or being taught it by family members. After all the knowledge and information getting thrown around the room stopped i decided to cook the rice the way in which my mother did it, as i have seen it done and know it does work! Before i new it dinner was nearly ready to be served up. I was shocked at how quick time and gone as i was thinking it would drain on forever. I realised that the time passed to quickly due to the social interaction of be asking for opinions and information from the flatmates, plus all the singing along to the radio as well. Setting the table i began to think what wonderfully weird conversation will get brought up while we are eating as something always pops up that we tend to argue and put our viewpoints forward. As we sat down the compliments of the curry were coming from all directions! Fantastic i had managed to cook the chicken and have all white rice and it wasn’t too gluggy! Wahoo success!

Through telling you this story i am able to unpin alot about affordance.

Communication

Through the cooking of this meal, it brought about a lot of things. Communication on this particular night was huge. Everybody just wanted to chat! We laughed at each other-about stories one another told, when one of my flatmates dropped the rice and at memories we have shared before. We joked with one another and  gave advise to each other when talking about the cooking of the rice and how we have been taught, what was the ‘norm’ way for our families to that activity. There was plenty of time to slip in a little bit of gossip as girls always need to do and we shared a whole tone of stories. We taught each other and learned copious amounts of knowledge around the way in which to cook rice.

"In any home, the kitchen is often the place where friends and family congregate. Sure, it’s where the food and the drink are, but kitchens are seldom just refuelling stations. Conversations, gossip humour and ideas flow freely in the relaxed atmosphere of the kitchen"  (De Lore & Brooke-White, 2000).

Connections

When thinking about this activity it leads itself to many things. The major thing it lead to was teaching and learning. Through the flat coming together and teaching each other different wasy of eating rice and learning how my flatmates came about cooking it that way gave as a greater understanding into each other and provided our knowledge base to expand. It lead to building memories as that was a significant night, all of the girls huddled in the kitchen talking about rice. It provided the swapping of information about the different methods of cooking rice and i used trial and error as the first time i had cooked rice i failed miserably and then through trying and asking i achieved success!

Moral Properties

This evening cooking provided everyone to share a part of themselves. This was evident when we all shared memories and ways in which to cook rice. This provided reward and allowed each other to express ourselves. It provided a way to honour people as my flatmate was taught how to cook the rice by her grandmother who had recently passed away. The moral properties of this story were positive, and I am struggling to find any bad aspects.

Cooking can bring about many things, affording and leading itself. This quote by Nigella Lawson (2004) describes wonderfully just how cooking lends itself.

"Cooking has many functions, and only one of them is about feeding people. When we go into a kitchen, indeed when we even just think about going into a kitchen, we are both creating and responding to an idea we hold about ourselves, about what kind of person we are or wish to be. How we eat and what we eat lies at the heart of who we are as – Individuals, families, communities". (Lawson, 2004. p.7).

References

De Lore, C., & Brooke-White, J. (2000). Every kitchen tells a story. New Zealand: Harper Collins Publishers Limited.

Lawson, N. (2004). Feast: Food to celebrate life. England: Hyperion.

ERGONOMICS!

Week 36

What is that you may ask? And what does it have to do with cooking?

Well ergonomics is defined by Caulton and Dickson (2007) as “constantly making slight invisible adjustments to an activity to adapt to the needs of those taking part and ensure that it continues to work for its intended purpose”.

Ergonomics is all about the ‘fit’ between the person, activity and the environment.  In other words it is about creating the best relationship between the environment where the individual carries out their activity and the skills they use and need when participating in it. 

Person

·         I bring minimal skills to cooking as my knowledge base of this activity is very minimal. This is due to the fact that I have very little experience in this occupation

·         My preference of what to cook generally depends on the easiness of the recipe. I like to cook things that are not to difficult but of course need to taste yummy.

·         I tend to have about  4 or 5 dishes that i rotate between cooking each week and i always like to follow the recipe as i don’t want to take this risk of it tasting yuck because of the pressure of the flatmates eating it

·         Financial abilities- we are on a student budget, so this means nothing fancy. You use what is there

·         There is a sense of responsibility when i cook as i want to provide and give back to the flat a yummy meal

·         Energy will definitely influence what i cook as i will choose something very easy and quick if i am tired and can’t be bothered

Activity

·         Most of my cooking still needs a wee input from the good old handy cookbook. However through experience i am now able to cook easy simple things without the need of looking at a recipe. I still rely heavily on recipes as they do help in not making mistakes

·         This activity can be performed at anytime of the day. I have been speaking of cooking at night time however i cook my breakfast, be that eggs on toast or porridge. Lunchtime sometimes includes cooking, maybe pasta or a toasty. Cooking can occur at all times of the day and can take a few seconds or a couple of hours.

·         By cooking for my flat this means that it is a lot cheaper. This is because things usually come in bulk and the more people the more money getting put in. Also by cooking as a flat that means i only have to cook once a week and i therefore receive 4 other meals that week. YUM

·         Cooking acquires equipment. Luckily my flats kitchen is bulging because of this

·         Cooking can be an individual or group task

Environment

·         The physical environment in my kitchen- lots of bench space, lots of cupboards, the kitchen has a small floor space which can create havoc if more than three people are in there bustling around

·         Have lots of equipment available

·         Depending on the seasons will depend on what we cook. Eg- soup and stew for the winter and salad for summer. Seasons also effect the type of fruit and vegetables that are around and the prices of items

·         Cooking in the kitchen can provide a social environment as flatmates are always popping in talking and tasting. I think that when you are cooking this creates conversation as others know you will have time for talking so they generally come for that purpose knowing you will willing  talk and will have time to. I no if someone in my flat is itching to have a big chin –wag they will usually pop into the kitchen and chat to that person cooking. This is because it is easier than knocking on someone’s bedroom door. The kitchen is a communal place and everyone feels comfortable there

Well i hope that made sense to you all! By for now .....

References

Caulton, R & Dickson, R. (2007). What's going on? Finding an explanation for what we do. In J. Creek & A. Lawson-Porter (Eds.) Contemporary issues in occupational therapy. Chichester: John-Wiley & Sons Ltd

Here we go... again! Participation in Occupation 2

Week 35

So to my surprise we have to do another one of these... just as i thought i wouldn’t have to bother with this faulty technology for a very long time, boom they drop us another one... fantastic!

Well this course is called Participation In Occupation 2!! During this course we are to pick an occupation familiar to us and participate in that activity two hours a week consciously and really get to understand and unpick that occupation and see what it means and how this connects and leads to other things. After a lot of mucking about with different occupations i have finally came to the decision of doing cooking!

Cooking is an occupation that must be done in order to live. Cooking of food must be done every day, day after day and again and again. It is something we consume in order to carry on. Green descirbes this idea of cooking very nicely, here is a quote that sums up the importance and meaning of this activity.

“The gathering of nourishment, however, is not only necessary; it is also endless. Once done, it must be done again. Answering as it does to the requirements of life itself, it can end only with the end of life. The purpose of this activity is to provide for the seeds of consumption: food is taken from the earth, after all, in order to be consumed” (Green, 1968).

Cooking is defined by the Oxford English dictionary as “preparing food or a meal by heating the ingredients, it is heated in order to become edible” (Simpson and Weiner, 1989).

I feel this definition is missing a lot of the important information around cooking and it only gives a very brief overview of what it is. Over the weeks of the course i am going to work on finding out what is really means to cook and help you viewers of my blog understand why cooking is such an important occupation to participate in. (giving the oxford dictionary a good run for their money).

Importance and meaning of cooking to me

Personally i am not that big of a fan of cooking. I feel it takes up a lot of time, its hard and rather boring! In class we were asked to come up with a few words that described the cooking for me. Mine consisted of... stressful, yummy, time wasting, hard, achieving, following recipes, tasty and not experienced.  As you can see by the words I am not the greatest fan of the occupation cooking. To me it is just something that just HAS to be done.

However if i put on my occupational therapy ‘cap’ i do easily understand how this form of occupation can be very meaningful for some individuals and how it makes for a great intervention technique.  Cooking can provide clients with yummy food to eat, engagement in meaningful activity, provide clients with sense of achievement, enables roles, gives independence, installs confidence, can work on life skills and fine motor skills, builds rapport and can create social interaction.

Practical Considerations

When deciding on the topic i was going to participate in during this course practical considerations was a biggy in me deciding cooking. The major issue of this was i had to perform this activity 2hours a week. I have a pretty busy schedule as it is and by having to fit another activity in there for 2hours i was much stumped as to what i could do. So cooking it turned out to be as i had to participate in this occupation during the week when cooking dinner for the flat and lunch making. So the major practical consideration of cooking for me is budget. As i live in a flat we have a specific budget we are to spend for food each week. This therefore puts pressure and does not allow that much freedom when cooking as the ingredients need to be all under the budget. Another practical consideration when im cooking is that i have to use whatever is in the fridge, freezer and cupboard. If someone has already used the meat this week then i will have to create another idea of what could be made. I have plenty of space and equipment in my flat kitchen which is fantastic and decreases pressure when i am cooking.

Here’s hoping that you all come back next week and have a good old read or laugh at my blog where  il be probably whinging about burning potatoes or something along those lines.

Happy cooking !

References

Green, T.F. (1968). Work, leisure and The American schools. New York: Random House.

Simpson, J. & Weiner, E. (1989). The oxford English dictionary (2^nd ed). United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

The End !

SO this is the end of this wee project i have been completing! So considering i thought i would absolutely hate blogging.. I have actually grown quite a liking to it! but for now i think this is enough from me! Who knows one day i may come back into the blogging seen. We will have to wait and see! I have learnt so much over this time ! Hopefully you have to.. haha that is if any one is reading this .... o well

GOOD BYE :)

O and i am also going to be using DIGITAL CAMERAS for my 2nd part of this assignment.. That no one will get to read apart from my lecturer! But dont worry ... if your lucky i'll let you no how i go :) ! Wish me luck !

HAPPY READING !!

Assistive Technology

So after alot of whining and procrastinating i have eventually got round to writing this post again. Again you may ask??? Yes! Blogger the unreliable online programme decided it didn't like me and deleted two of my postings i had completed grrrrr... But to pass my course i must complete the task.. so here is the painful post about assistive technology re written for all you lovely people to read :)!

Wikipedia gives a very good definition of what  Assistive Technology (AT) is. Its states that "it is an umbrella term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and also includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them. AT promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to or changed methods of interacting with the technology needed to accomplish such tasks". So pretty much to expand on that a bit more assistive technology is about any piece of technology that is used to improve the functional performance of a person who has a disability.This can be anything from eg- a wheelchair and hearing aids to software and hardware that allows people with disabilities to use and devices that allow communication (Cook & Hussey, 1995).

For course we had a guest OT speaker Dave Speden who explained how he uses assistive technology in the setting he works in and brought along assitive technology devices that we got to look at and have a play with. This was absolutely fascinating as there were sooo many different devices that could be used. One piece of technology that caught my eye was switches. I was amazed at how many different types of switches there were and how this little piece of simple technology could control sooo many things.
Switches come in all sizes and shapes. They can be round, come in many colours, made of gel, hard, in shape of toys, flash, vibrate and can be used by push or sensored. That's just a little example of the thousands of different types there are. Switches can be used for turning things off and on all the way to the use of them for speech. Switches range from $55 for a round switch activated by push through to a $1000 for things like an impulse switch which works by sensors reacting to muscle contractions.

The best way to understand  switches is to have a look around on this site. It provides good examples of different types of switches available to people. The site shows what certain switches do and how people use them. It provides great videos of people actually using the switches which will give you a greater understanding into the purpose and use of them. See - http://abilitynet.wetpaint.com/page/Switches

Here is another site which shows different types of switches but shows the price as its focus is more about the selling and the promoting of the switches to people so they want to buy them.  See -  http://www.gstsdesigns.com/AssistiveTechnologySwitches/SingleActionSwitches.htm

The best way to describe and show you guys how much switches increase the functional performance of people with disabilities is to link you to two video clips from you tube. They are both related to the individual using switches to communicate with people. These videos are amazing and i recommend you take the time to watch them as they have truly opened my eyes up to the purpose of these switches. I had no idea these things were even possible until watching these clips and it has allowed me to see just how technology is truly making a difference in peoples lives.

And is here another but this young boy uses an eye and mouth switch. FASCINATING :)

I hope this has given you guys a greater understanding into the idea of how switches work. I think its absolutely amazing how this assistive technology can provide so much to a person. By the time i graduate who knows what the next amazing device will be getting used. People are so CLEVER to design this technology that provides such remarkable changes in peoples lives.

References 

Cook, A., & Hussey, S. (1995). Assistive technologies: Principles and practice. St. Louis: Mosby

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Assitive technology. Retrieved May 16, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistive_technology

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Blogs of Interest and finally taking the big step of commenting on others blogs!

In this tutorial we got the chance to finally explore the wider community of blogging! We were to search and find other blogs relating to Occupational therapy. This task made me realise just how common and well used this blog business is. I mean I never thought of there being so many blogs with people expressing their opinions and sharing their knowledge to the world about everything and anything. By having the chance to explore it has made me feel much more comfortable writing on my blog as I have now realised that probably the only people that will read this is my lecturer and my classmates wanting to have a sneak peak at my work like I have been doing to them. I mean who in the world would really want to look at a student’s class blog ... I certainly wouldn’t when there is much more exciting, interesting and creative blogs to read and look at.

I have connected with 8 blogs which are to the right of the page under blogs of interest. I was only meant to have 5 but... i got to excited and wanted to connect with everything and everyones bloggs! So yet another great way to procrastinate and distract myself.

So now that I have became followers to the 8 amazing blogs I found... my next task was to comment on them. Now this is where I became shy and scared as I didn’t feel that confident to voice my opinion onto random peoples blogs so I stuck to the good old classmates which therefore meant if I made a fool of myself or commented wrong then it wouldn’t really matter and less people from the outside world would be able to see.

So those first initial thoughts of being scared and nervous to comment were actually... wrong! I ended up getting very carried away with commenting on other peoples pages and discovered it was much more fun providing feedback and positive reinforcement to them than it was posting blogs on my own page. Here is the link to examples of comments I posted onto pages,
http://jasminemoot12.blogspot.com/2011/04/video-production-sessions.html#comments 

And the second example from another classmates page -

http://kels17.blogspot.com/2011/03/information-technology-and-ethics.html#comments

Online Communities

I think Wikipedia sums up just nicely exactly what online communities are.
"An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual. An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content, such as a Bulletin board system or one where only a restricted number of people can initiate posts, such as Weblogs. Online communities have also become a supplemental form of communication between people who know each other primarily in real life. Many means are used in social software separately or in combination, including text-based chat rooms and forums that use voice, video text or avatars" (n.d.).

For this tutorial task i am to look at three online communities and i have chosen three that i participate in. These are

• Facebook
• Skype
• Trade me

Facebook is a social networking site which is about the communication and sharing of information between people. On facebook you have the ability to post information, share photos, chat with people you know and comment on peoples status's. Facebook allows the communication  between people who no each other. I'm sure most of  you have heard of facebook as it has pretty much taken over the world... ok well that's a bit of an exaggeration but seriously these days who doesn't have it! Personally on my facebook i have something ridiculous like 400 friends! i mean seriously id be lucky if i talk to a quarter of them frequently. But yet i no everyone of them. If it wasn't for this site creating this community i would simply lose soo much connection with people as I'm sure most people would. Facebook allows communication at a whole different level. It provides ease as it is now quick and easy to communicate with people over huge distances, people you wouldn't normally talk to and is easy to type a quick post compared to that of writing a letter or texting. By moving away from  home Facebook has easily allowed me to stay in close contact with my friends and family from home. It allows me to hear about what they have been up to and look at photos they have posted and also allows me to leave comments back. This clearly shoes just how interactive facebook is as there are always people using it and communicating between each other. The topics being discussed on facebook vary very very much. This is because there are soooooo many different conversations going on between people from them talking about the weekend, sharing information on traveling and places they have visited, telling jokes and sharing important information about for example an assessment. As there are soo many topics it is hard to share with you guys examples of the site. Pretty much people talk about EVERYTHING! These days facebook is not only used by friends wanting to connect but is used for advertising for example by bands and artists, TV programmes and bars and clubs. These groups use facebook to advertise gigs, events, specials and sales they have on. However these days facebook has become very popular in being used for telling people events they are running. These days there is no such thing as invitations or a phone call about a party, a trip away or a group lunch it is all done through facebook. If you don't quite believe me i'l give you a wee example: in the last couple of days i have been invited to two 21st, to play two games of netball and invited to three parties. So what would have happened if i hadn't of checked facebook... i simple would have missed out! Crazy huh! Facebook is pretty much controlling individuals social life! However because of this social networking site becoming so well-known it is increasing the online community. Facebook is now allowing people to become more involved as it is easier to invite people to events as their is now no need to have to have their cell phone number or address to send them an invitation. Facebook has allowed ease between communicating and connecting people together.

Skype is a computer programme that allows communication between people through the Internet by the use of video. On skype people are able to talk to one another along with using a web cam which provides the image of the person. Skype is a FREE site and is definitely a step up in technology. There are not many sites that provide communication through video which allows you to see the person and is free. Skype is becoming a very popular community to be a part of. According to Wikipedia "skype has 633 million users in 2010" and this is constantly expanding. Skype is a way to connect with people. It is used more often for the communication between people in different geographical locations. By skype allowing the use of video this enhances the way people are able to communicate with each other. Compared to talking on the phone skype allows the conversation to feel more like the people are together in the same location. This is because they can see the person, see how they have changed, see their facial expressions and gestures. I cant give you an example of what people talk about on skype as it is not recorded because it is conversations between people. But I'm sure you are all imaginative and can think of many things people could talk about!
Skype also has provides a thing called skype community. This is where people can go to chat forums and learn information.  On skype community it allows people to learn how to use skypeskype, allows discussion about general topics and provides areas where people can gather help. Along with people posting questions it also allows individuals to reply back with answers which may help. This gives people the chance to feel apart of the community by helping one another with questions answered and receiving information on what they have asked.
Skype has increased communication between people by allowing the easy, FREE connection between people in different locations. Before this connections people would have to rely on receiving information through email which is not as easy to share information as skype is and is not as personal. Skype has allowed a greater connection as it does not cost like phone calls do and does not take the time of writing a letter because you can receive the reply straight back from the person. Although skype is an AMAZING tool there is still much progress needed to be made as it can be very temperamental with the quality it produces and often can not work due to Internet connections.

Trade me is an online site where people get to auction items they wish to sell. It allows people to bid, ask questions about the items and buy them. Items being sold can range from a property, to a car, to clothing, to appliances. Pretty much anything a person would want to buy could be found on trade me. When selling an item people are to put all the information there is possible about it. Buyers have the ability to be able to ask any questions with the seller answering. Trade me is a very commonly used site. People have to make an account when wanting to buy and sell products. Trade me is hugely run and works well by users being truthful. Sellers need to be truthful when talking and explaining about their item they are selling. Buyers need to trust that this person is telling the truth. Photos are usually displayed of the products to provide more information to the buyers and show off their product so people want to buy it. An example of conversations being held on trade me are - "When was the last time the cambelt was done on this car?" the seller replied with "The cambelt was done at 101,00km". By having an online selling site it provides people to be able to sell and get more people interested in buying their items and get a higher price. Compared to that of selling items within the community they reside in. Selling online has allowed people to decide to sell items instead of giving them away or throwing away. By the creation of trade me it has decreased the connection and communication between communities through diminishing such things as garage sales. These days people see the ease of putting their items online instead of having a garage sale where the community can come check it out. This means trade me has stopped things like bargaining between people occurring and stoped the connection between the community that use to occur because of these family week-end events.

 Ethical Considerations.

The ethical considerations for Facebook and Skype are very similar. Both of them allow the users to provide personal information bout themselves. When using these sites people need to be aware of how much information they should provide. Facebook has the setting to be able to make your page private to only allow friends to see you photos and information. Facebook allows people to send requests to be peoples friend. This minimises any hassle of people having unwanted people on their site as they can simply chose to not accept the as a friend. Facebook is very much used for the displaying of photos. Consideration needs to be taken when uploading photos on facebook, thinking if the people would want their photo uploaded. Skype does not have many consideration needed to be thought about. This is because you can only talk to people who you have accepted as a friend. Ethical considerations that need to be taken into account is how much detail you should give to your profile as many people will be able to view this. Users of this site need to be aware that when buying you have to share important personal details like bank account numbers, addresses and phone numbers.

This is just a small example of 3 online communities that i personally use. All these communities i find are very useful and a great way to connect together with people.


References

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Online communities. Retreived April 22, 2011, from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_community

Video Productive session- youtube

You-tube is very well known. Im sure most of you have gone onto you tube to have a laugh, find information, listen to music, catch up on t.v shows, learn how to do something and watch something that you are interested in. You-tube has everything you could ever want to watch ! type in any-thing and im sure you'll find an answer!
Any one can post on youtube be that professional videos from large companys to people making home videos. Have a click on YouTube and go exploring. It is incredible what you will find.

I have been asked to find 5 videos on youtube that relate to one topic...  As I was struggling to decide what topic i should use, i received an email from the kayak club. I am going white water kayaking next week in murchison so im thinking as that is fresh on my mind, il give you some videos of an occupation i particpate in. Bare in mind that i am very new to this extreme sport and well actualy also very petrified about it! I have even got nerves searching for and watching these videos... eeeek four days untill i attempt it myself...

This first video  is of people paddling maruia falls! I picked this because in aproximatly 10 days i will be doing exactly the same! ARGH.... paddling off a 10metre waterfull.... crazy huh?. Apparently they tell me its safe? haha but unfortuantly as safe as they told me it was, last year i couldnt build up the courage to do it. So this is the year, the year 2011 of Grace's first decent off Maruia Falls. BRING IT ON !

The rest of my videos i will hyper-link just to save space on my blog. But i recomemnd to ALL of you that you look at them... Because they are awesome and have taken me years to find the perfect ones...

People Kayak all over the world and search for amazing water that has never been paddled before. This next video is of kayakers battleing water in Nepal - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vxVZ3ha_0Y

The next video i thought i would post is about "how to roll a kayak" one of the many videos on youtube that can teach you how to partcipate in a task. Kayak rolling is a very important skill to have. This skill i have mastered when rolling on flat water however i struggle to do this when in rapids. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rWjvAUSgWE

Here is a video when things do not go to plan - 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE5N52V3IRk

My last video is about three teens paddling around  New Zealand. So young but yet they have AMAZING skills ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F57awIjtbPU&feature=related

Hope you enjoyed those videos and maybe they have sparked an interest for you! Il let you no how my week of extreme kayaking goes... argh fingers crossed all will go well!