pho ramen soba: [New post] Abstraction, funky flowers and cake mix cookies

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Abstraction, funky flowers and cake mix cookies

by JoAnn

Psychological abstraction, good or bad?

One of my new favorite words—or anti-words—is abstraction.

The other day I was watching a TedTalk on YouTube. Now, some TedTalks are really awesome and informative, and others... not so much. While watching one, this term abstraction fell into my head from out of the clear blue sky.

Too many dang abstractions! Give me something concrete and specific I can ingest. Did you think I wouldn't notice?

Abstraction connotes dealing with ideas or concepts rather than specific actions or facts.

Words associated with abstraction: theory, preoccupation, absent-minded, daydreaming, distraction, generalization, speculation, hypothesis.

Sounds like this could be bad, depending on the context of course.

When it comes to psychology, abstraction is thought to be a good thing however, and an advanced stage of thinking and learning. Carl Jung philosophized about it and plenty of psychologists have psychologized about it.

My question: Can too much abstraction be a bad thing? Too much of anything is never good for you right?

Is this one of my big downfalls? Meeting life's goals requires specific actions. Perhaps abstraction can be like a false positive type thing. I think I'm getting somewhere, when all I'm really doing is thinking about getting somewhere. Perhaps abstraction can become like a crutch of choice for the social anxious person.

Less abstraction. This is my goal! Make concrete, specific and realistic goals and then work to meet them. Seems simple when it gets said like that!

By the way, I think I would like to change my name to Clarity. Isn't that a great word, too!

Colloquially known as the peacock flower, I encountered these caesalpinia pulcherrima on the same visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Port of Spain as when I photographed the majestic bougainvillea for my previous post: "Moody Monday: What happens when memory suppression ends?".

They are quite remarkable aren't they? So intricate and showy. Native to Asia and introduced to the West Indies, this plant is sometimes considered invasive and weed like. Aww, poor thing! It's quite wonderous I think.

Cake Mix Snickerdoodles

I love scratch cooking, but it's not always feasible for me right now for one reason or another. Cake mix cookies provide a nice way to cheat--a zillion kind of cookies can be made with a simple Betty Crocker cake mix.

One I make often is to whisk together 1/3 cup oil or butter (Betty Crocker says 1/2 cup, either works) and 1 egg. Dump in a cake mix and mix well until cookie dough is formed. Refrigerate for at least a couple of hours.

Flavorings like vanilla extract or cinnamon can be added as well as flaked coconut or chopped nuts. Once the dough has chilled it can be rolled into balls (using a small ice cream scoop is ideal) and then rolled in additional ingredients like cinnamon sugar or finely sifted powdered sugar.

Snickerdoodles are one my favorite combos. This time I decided to add an additional teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter as well as roll them in cinnamon sugar. I do love cinnamon! I also added almonds, sliced and chopped, to both the batter and the cinnamon sugar.

They were delicious and I was happy to get my baking fix on!

I do hope everyone is doing well. Looking forward to catching up with all of you!