But I love the smell of burning rice...

In some respects, I am a well-oiled organizational machine. If I latch onto a thing, I organize myself and other people, make spreadsheets, create e-mail groups, plan meetings with prepared agendas so they'll run as efficiently as possible, contact necessary players in the community with polite and motivational messages...

In other respects, I am a complete space case. Always have been, always will be. There's a story from my childhood about how I entered a room to take a test at school, and proceeded to walk across every single chair in the room in order to get where the proctor was. Certain things about normal, everyday life just don't click in my mind.

My mother knows this about me. She's a good mom, so when she saw that I had posted more than one facebook status concerning burnt rice -- instead of judging me and ostracizing me, she decided to love me for who I am instead and bought me a rice cooker.



My environmentalist brain rarely shuts off, so while I am emotionally pleased with the gift (very pleased!! ^^), my brain is ticking away. Having more gadgets doesn't simplify - doesn't it create more clutter and involve more energy to make more things?

This is true. The rice cooker is a product that took energy to make.

However, the rice cooker is also designed specifically to do one thing, and to do it well, wasting less energy than a pot on the stove. The stovetop is not a great energy-efficient way of doing things, unfortunately - it's beaten out by the microwave and pretty much anything else designed for one purpose, like a rice cooker or a hotpot.

So the trading point is: am I going to use this gadget? How much am I going to use this gadget? Is it a worthwhile investment of the planet's energy, or would it be best in someone else's hands?

Fortunately, since my eco-friendly lifestyle involves eating copious amounts of brown rice (less processed = less energy + more natural nutrients + happier digestive system), the rice cooker is totally worth it. I made a big ol' mess of brown rice and it didn't even burn. Also, I steamed some broccoli and it was really tasty.

Thanks for following me through that weird thought process. Here's to the end of the days of burnt rice ^^