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I'm a designer in Vancouver, Canada. I work at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, am a director of the 221A Artist Run Centre, and a member of Fieldwork design collective. I'm an Emily Carr and University of Victoria graduate and have worked in the Philippines, Indonesia and the Netherlands. I'm a cycling advocate and race on the Garneau Evolution team.

Daily Activities, March 17, 2004 12:21 PM 2 comments

Phalange Neglect

I just poured boiling water over my thumb! Pretty much by accident. See I bought this 500 g little tub of Canada No.1 White Unpasturized Liquid Honey and I hate it when sticky food stuffs leak, like syrup bottles or 2-litre Cokes, and dribble down the outside of their walls and form tar pits of crescent-shaped residue on my counters/cupboards/desk. And I'm always really careful to catch any dribblies trying to gum up a cap or leap onto the counter or, the worst, run down the side. Lo-behold after only three days of uncorrupted service this brand-new bottle of honey, shaped you know like a cylindrical beehive with a yellow pop-and-squeeze lid, probably during the night it leaks on its own from some miniature hidden fissure under the cap that escaped my attention and so oozes like a cave formation down the side and come the a.m. – I like honey first thing – but so get my hands sticky and I'm trying to keep the mouse/keyboard stick-free, and there's an environmental cleanup on kitchen counter 1.

So anyhoo I was making tea just now and had this left-over 100 C water in the kettle, which I usually splash the rest of onto maybe some dirty dishes lying around to break up some post-breakfast fried egg gremlins and whatnot but today dangle the honey tub over the sink with my left hand while the right tries to make gracefully-angled pouring passes with the steaming kettle around the perimeter, letting the searing irrigation works pretty much just cascade over the tub's ridges and rings and wrap under the bottom and so do all the work for me and wash away my worries.

Actually, I've been rather nonchalant lately with my digits around sizzling elements, treating them more like blunt tools than sensitive instruments, envy of the animal kingdom, deserving of some decent respect and responsibility. Ex: Instead of reaching for and dirtying and then washing a spatula, I of course shortcut and flip my quesadillas and their hot yellow cheese grease by hand in the fry pan, lunge hot plates from the microwave, slosh the boiling water carelessly around my tea cup to heat it up first, inevitably splashing a bit.

And ya, about the honey cleanup, poured a good stream right over the left hand's opposing. And wasn't really much concerned at the time. Except now it really sucks the throbbing and red and cooked feeling.