Exploration 2: Snake River Alliance

Exploration 2: Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover
I experienced an epiphany observing Snake River Alliance for the second time. I realized that they are an influential group in several ways. During this observation, I simply observed their office environment while they worked on a typical Thursday. I noticed flyers about the meaning of the peace sign, protecting the environment, the Idaho Energy Collaborative, all the different threats shown on a U.S. map, the types of energy we are currently using, and many others. The room was actually cluttered with posters, flyers, photographs, and things such as those. The variety of flyers and posters made me wonder about how many things Snake River Alliance was involved with. Snake River Alliance is mostly known for their opinion on nuclear power; they are referred to as the “nuclear watchdogs”. But, were they just an “anti-nuclear” group? This question made me curious about their reputation as well. I wondered how other people and organizations viewed Snake River Alliance. From what I observed, the Snake River Alliance was definitely more than an anti-nuclear group. I was actually surprised to hear about all of the things this organization does. Although Snake River Alliance oversees what is going on in the nuclear industry, they are also working towards a clean, renewable energy source. They deal with energy policy on city, county and national levels. They analyze nuclear proposals. They analyze cost, benefits, risks, and probability on new energy developments. They are supportive of other environmental groups and put on events or memorials with them; such as the Idaho Peace Coalition. Overall, Snake River Alliance is really spread out.
In the office I also noticed that all of the members were extremely busy; on conference calls, searching for things they needed, or working quickly at their desks. There were also certain items that interested me. There was a large home-make wind mill with different questions related to nuclear power. It was used as an activity to find out how educated people were on nuclear power. The most organized and interesting thing in the room was a long table full of different forms of information. The Snake River Alliance magazine, many different handouts, books they recommended, newspapers, news articles, current events, interesting facts about energy, and many more. They had a small library in their office. I was shocked to see so much information. At that moment I realized how important it was to Snake River Alliance to spread their knowledge and education. It wasn’t that they were spreading an opinion, but just general information on things people don’t usually think about. Such as, where does my electricity come from?
This observation really expanded my image of Snake River Alliance. I don’t think people realize how spread out Snake River Alliance is. They truly believe in making change, and they are doing everything in their power to be successful.

Explore more

For my second exploration I would like to point out that now I am done with my observation portion as well as have both of my interviews done. From this I have been able to answer many of my previous questions as will be shown in my final paper, but it does not mean that I don’t still have more. It is getting into the research using articles and such that I am now focusing my efforts on. Some of the more surprising things that I have found through my observations but more than anything, my interviews is that chefs tend to have a lot in common. They are much more a community then my original idea, in fact there are many things I found just from my interviews of two types of chefs that are shown. A large portion of this comes from just personality traits. Some of these can include their ability to not only cope with stress but rather strive in an environment that promotes it. This similarity may seem small until it is applied to how a kitchen works. It seems that this personality trait may be one of the most important things that makes a chef due to how incredibly stressful the kitchen can be, and how if you do crack or get flustered under that kind of stress, you will clearly not be in that line of work.

Some other questions that were answered and I am seeing similarities in are things like why did you choose the profession that you did. This is a very broad question that I found had a more limited answer then I would of thought. Many of the questions that had arisen in my first exploration that were very important to the basis of the community, were easily answered with the second one because I was able to interview someone from a more gourmet line of cooking, and then I took someone who ran a lunch trailer and their answered were still quite similar. Some questions though that I am still going to try to find out is what kind of personality is one that thrives so well under stress? If that kind of personality can be shown in other ways then just stress? I am still trying to find out what kind of accreditation is needed to for jobs, if it tends to just be on merit and skill alone, or if culinary institutes really hold that much on if someone is looked at for a job or just dismissed. Without going into too much more detail in my just second exploration it is seeming that with my specific community I am having much more luck with the interviews that with just looking for articles and such because there are a lot of personality traits that drive into that profession. I have begun to narrow down what I am looking at so that I can present a much more focused point in my paper, thought questions are still there I will have to find them out through print media, but I feel much more focused then from my first exploration.

Preface: Through out my research/observation, I found several every day words that were either used differently, or carried significantly more importance than what one would generally give them. I also found (unsurprisingly) that several terms are medical in nature and revolved around various medications and alternate methods of therapy. Below is a list of the terms used most often.

Glossary

Applied Behavior Analysis (A.B.A): A method of therapy that focus on reinforcing appropriate behaviors through rewards. The goal with A.B.A is to replace inappropriate behavior with something more acceptable (consider it another form of conditioning through positive reinforcement).

Asperger: This is, in fact, another disorder very similar in nature and related to Autism. The difference stems from the “preservation of linguistic and cognitive development” (Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome)

Aspy/Aspie: A term used to refer to those with Aspergers Syndrom; My child is an Aspy.

Diagnosis: A term that is generally well understood by all, it has taken on increased importance within the Autistic community. Families can tell you the exact date Autism OFICIALLY came into their lives and is something of a defining moment (one might compare it to how people describe the date Kennedy died or 9/11). Even though symptoms did not go away upon finding out, diagnosis is considered to be something of a relief and is an incredibly sensitive subject.

High Functioning: A term used to describe both individuals with Aspergers and Autism who are able to function relatively normally in society.

Individualized Educational Plan (IEP): Mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), schools are required to make an individual educational plan for children with special needs. Districts are must provide their students with a “Free and Appropriate Public Education” (FAPE) and it is the aim of an IEP to accomplish this; however, many districts lack the resources and/or are too ignorant to provide workable programs for Autistic Children.

Mainstream: used as a verb, ‘mainstream’ is used to describe the act of assimilating into regular life with other neurotypical individuals. My son can successfully mainstream.

Neurotypical: This is a term used to refer to those who fall out side of what is generally considered Autistic. More often than not, the term is applied to fully functioning individuals without any neurological abnormalities.

Sensory Defensive: is the negative reaction to what would generally be considered harmless (e.g. being unable to eat red things).

Sensory Integration: an issue had by many who deal with autism, it is an issue sorting sensory input in its relation to the body. As a result, Those with Sensory Integration problems find it difficult to operate effectively in the workaday world.

Glossary of terms

The culinary arts community has a very unique way of communicating some of the things that have to happen in a kitchen. They developed a large ammount of terms so that you could read a recipe or be told what to do and as long as you understand the terms you should have no problem doing that action. Unlike the example trucker glossary, they do not take every day terms like comic book and create their own meanings for them. Instead they created their own words to describe the actions at hand.

Blanch- briefly immersing food in water or fat.

Confit- Cooking meat such as duck in its own fat.

Deglaze- a technique used by adding a liquid such as a cooking wine to loosen the particles at the bottom of the pan, often used to create a sauce

Maillard reaction- the phenomena that occurs when heating proteins in meats to 310 degrees and causes them to turn brown

Mirepoix- A combination of onions carrots and celery used to add flavor to stocks or dishes.

Poach- Cooking something in a liquid between 140 and 180 like eggs.

Roux- a mixture of equal parts fat and flour used for thickening sauces

Simmer- cooking something in a liquid ranging from 180 to 205

Sweat- To cook vegetables or other food in a small amount of fat over a low heat usually covered.

Saute- took cook something briefly over a high amount of heat.