Tom's Views

Advantages

A well-designed convection oven is great, and has some advantages over more traditional ovens, which have no circulating fan.  

• Convection ovens offer more even baking.  Because of the fan, the heating is more uniform throughout the inside of a convection oven and this means more uniform baking of food.
• Also, you can put more than one item at a time into a convection oven without affecting the oven’s performance. 
• Convection ovens have fewer hot and cold spots within due to their more uniform heating characteristics.  Thus, the entire interior of a convection oven is roughly assumes roughly the same temperature. 
• Convection ovens are less impacted by lining their shelves with aluminum foil for example, to contain messes.  We did this once in our traditional oven, and wondered why it took so long to bake our pizza that night.  But sitting items on cookie trays or aluminum foil in a convection oven should cause no bake time increases. 
• Convection ovens generally brown foods faster than non forced convection types.
• Convection ovens run cooler.  The heating elements need not be heated to such high temperatures because more of the heat they produce actually reaches the food being cooked. 

Disadvantages

• However, with a convection oven, you have the additional fan motor(s) to worry about.  But that would not typically be an issue if the motors are of good quality. 
• Sometimes, the fans used in convection ovens can be either under- or over-sized.  An undersized one would essentially turn the oven into a traditional radiant style type, with the inherent disadvantages of that design in full force.  
• An over-sized fan system can cause too much heat to be forced out of the oven, making the surrounding area warm, and decreasing the oven’s overall energy efficiency.
• Opening the convection oven’s door during baking can drastically impact food cook times.  So keep the door closed until it’s time to take the food out. 
• Though you can cook more items at the same time in a convection oven, be careful of how you place the pans. To avoid choking off air flow, leave an inch or so of open space between each tray, dish, or other baking container.

Tom Hesley

The Dr. Phil TV show featured a story about a mom charged with   child abuse   in Alaska for supposedly subjecting her son to the rather cruel punishments.  She’s been dubbed   Hot Sauce Mom   because she “washed his mouth out” with   hot sauce   and routinely made him take cold showers for some lies she claims he told.

This is so wrong, on so many levels.  This crazy woman seems more like a “Monster Mom” instead of the euphemistic “Hot Sauce Mom” that she’s now known as, and provided a glaring example on the Dr. Phil show, of  child abuse.

What sort of medical problem would have been created if that hot sauce had gotten into that little boy’s windpipe? You know how torturous a bit of water in the lungs can be with the violent fits of coughing and gagging it can trigger. But imagine hot sauce!  One could make the case against Hot Sauce Mom that this is child endangerment.

True, Hot Sauce Mom finally recognized how utterly nastily she was brutalizing her son, and sought help for her serious problem.  But nearly a third of Americans approve of this sort of child abuse, and that’s scary because that means that nearly a third of Americans don’t realize that there are much more effective disciplinary measures one can take besides overly forceful tactics like hot sauce in the mouth.  Clearly, ignorance poses clear dangers when misinformed people are raising defenseless children.  Heaven help the children.  Come on folks!

I never cared for punishments that dominate, intimidate, or in Hot Sauce Mom’s case, frighten children into submission or capitulation.  Now admittedly, there may be a place for these extreme sorts of corrective measures.  But mostly, either unknowing or just plain evil people people way overuse them.  Case in point: I had house parents in school who ruled via fear-mongering tactics like this (except they used soap instead of hot sauce).  I was afraid of them, all the time, which meant that even when they treated me well, I could not open up fully and enjoy the good times with them.  I’d just keep wondering how long it would be before I’d do something they didn’t like.

As a once-child who grew up in the shadows of these constant threats of retribution, let me say that this is certainly no way to raise a kid, unless your objective is to keep him afraid of you. You might indeed get him to behave better by scaring him.  But this is a false-positive, and does not teach him the more lasting lessons of why it’s more appropriate to behave than to misbehave.  So if he   does   behave, it will be because he’s terrified of what you’ll do to him, not because he understands the hows and whys of good behaviors.  The immediate and apparently-good results that intimidation forms of child abuse produce, eventually give way to highly insecure and troubled teens and adults.  Thus, we need to stop overbearing people like Hot Sauce Mom from disciplining their children through fear.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• On Corporal Punishment

Other Hot Sauce Posts

• Frank’s RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce Review
• Great Value Louisiana Hot Sauce Review

The contents of this post have been revised, updated, and moved to   here.

Tom Hesley

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• Stop Loud Motorcycles

We’ve been talking the past few days about the   Tubular Bells  piece by   Mike Oldfield,   and these conversations have inspired me to look around on YouTube for others of his recordings. Here’s an updated (30th anniversary) version, called   Tubular Bells 2003;   the original version of which was released in 1973. This video is spectacular and goes quite well with the music. Enjoy. My only complaint: It’s too short. Unfortunately, the video I originally included in this piece has been deleted.  I’ll continue looking for a legitimate copy of it on YouTube and will link to it when and if I find one.

Soon, grasses and trees sprout as the tubular bell floats around overhead, presumably to oversee and guide this wonderful genesis.

I liked the time lapse for the growing grass. But it would really have been neat if they showed the trees growing from seedlings to full-grown postures as well.

Then there came flowers, falling leaves, birds, man, civilization, cities, and then cars.

Finally, the tubular bell floated for one final pass over the living, breathing planet it helped to infuse with life. Then it flew back out into space in its water bubble, perhaps to do the same elsewhere.

I so love this video. I so love this song! Perhaps the message that Mike Oldfield wanted to convey was that his Tubular Bells 2003 piece has godlike abilities in that his music livens up those who hear it, much as the tubular bellin the video brought life to a dead planet. Hmmmmm. What do you think?

Many folks prefer the original Tubular Bells 1973 version to this Tubular Bells 2003 remix version. Indeed for me, MOST songs are not meant to be revised; I usually dislike remakes and remixes of the original versions that I love.

But this piece is different somehow. I still think the original is great, and as much as I’m enjoying this 30th anniversary version, I still would not say that it’s is any better than the original. I suppose they both have their charms.  But Mike Oldfield did a terrific job modernizing this music.

Perhaps it’s the melodies and the pieces used from the original in this 2003 remix that make it as impressive as it is to me. The original 1973 version had a lot of pleasantly fitted together instrumentation; some of which got carried to the 2003 version. So, at least some of what I liked about the original has been included in this 2003 remix in fact. In this way, they’re both good in their own ways I think.

Yet if I had to give up all but one of the   Tubular Bells   versions that I own, I’d be hard pressed to do it. But ultimately, I’d choose to keep the 1973 classic, and then sneak off to YouTube to hear this 2003 rendition once in a while.

Related Posts

• Tubular Bells (1973 Original) By Mike Oldfield

References

• Mike Oldfield   on Wikipedia
• Tubular Bells 1973 Original   explanation of this music on   Wikipedia
• Tubular Bells 2003   explanation of this music on Wikipedia
• What Are Tubular Bells   definition on Wikipedia

I listened to the   Tubular Bells   piece by   Mike Oldfield;  all twenty-five minutes and thirty-one seconds. Fans of   The Exorcist   movie would know this 1974 hit. Way too long to hear over and over, as I often do with my favorite tunes like   Imma Be. But it’s got enough repetition to quell my over-and-overness cravings, but variation enough to exorcise boredom. Great tune.

I grew up with this selection. They played Tubular Bells all over the radio during the spring of 1974, because   The Exorcist   movie was big at that time, and some of this music was the movie’s theme song. Of course, they didn’t play the whole thing on the radio; just a few minutes of it. But I discovered the CD in 1989 that contained the unabridged version, and have been enjoying it ever since.

I never heard Mike Oldfield‘s LP record of this doleful yet pleasing   Tubular Bells  music. In fact, I didn’t even know there was a longer version until I happened across the CD in 1989. Now, I regret all of those 15 years prior that I could have owned the whole album. Darn!

So why did Mike Oldfield call this song   Tubular Bells   anyhow?  That’s always puzzled me because this instrument does not appear prominently in this piece until near the end, while Oldfield introduces the various instruments as they begin playing the melody.  Well, perhaps this was named so, so that us music fans would listen intently for the tubular bells through the rest of the music (a fair amount too) that leads up to them, and come to like those parts as well.  Well, that worked, at least for me.  I like the whole song and ironically, I do not consider the tubular bells part my favorite segment either.  There are much prettier sounding instruments elsewhere, starting with the piano at the very beginning.   

Tubular Bells always triggers memories of a wonderful teen-aged girl I met in seventh grade: [Molly].  Details   here.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Tom’s Love Quest –> The First  ‘I Love You’
• Tubular Bells 2003 By Mike Oldfield

References

• The Exorcist Movie    description on Wikipedia
• Mike Oldfield   on Wikipedia
• Tubular Bells   explanation about this music on Wikipedia

So who here supported abolishing  hospital bed side rails   in nursing homes? Let me at ‘em! We need to debate this again. Some people   need   those bed side rails.  Not everyone   views them as impinging on their freedom, which seems to be the assumption of the poponents of this movement to delete the rails from all beds in hospital settings. Some radical activist groups probably pushed for this; people that never spent one day in a nursing home, yet think they know best for the patients there.  While I agree that no one should be forced to have the bed side rails up if they feel too confined, it’s nonetheless ludicrous to completely remove these safety rails from all beds. 

We’ve been informed recently by officials at Mom’s new nursing home that it’s now state (PA) policy NOT to include hospital bed side rails of any sort; not even the very adjustable kinds. We’ve heard this from three facilities now, so it must be a trend.

Instead of removing all bed side rails, people should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to determine their ability to safely handle them. We should not assume that the   bed safety rails   pose a safety hazard for   all   who use them. 

Yep, they’ve taken this whole entrapment issue with hospital bed side rails   too far. Our Mom has polyneuropathy in her legs and she also tends to move around in bed while asleep. These two together can make for extremely uncomfortable times for her. Indeed, what has happened to her in beds without the safety rails to keep her legs in, is that they fall over the side while she’s sleeping. The resulting sudden bending motion of this causes her great pain; enough to make her scream out. She wants the bed safety rails but has not received them at her nursing care facility so far.

Sometimes, these bed side rails serve a useful and protective purpose for many patients. Some for example, require them to keep their legs from falling out, and to prevent a most painful situation for those experiencing various sorts of leg distress. No hospital bed safety rails at all is   by no means  a one-size-fits all solution therefore.  I find it unfathomable that of all the patients that used these rails in recent years, that enough of them had accidents because of them to justify their complete removal.  We do not stop flying just because one two, or fifty airplanes crash.  Instead, we make the planes safer.  The same should be done with these safety rails because for many folks, hospital bed side rails are safe enough.

Tom Hesley