Here's an odd fact: "pencil lead" is made from graphite, not lead. This soft, black form of carbon has come a long way since the English used it to draw on sheep five hundred years ago. Because graphite sticks to regular grinding equipment, pencil manufacturers break it apart in rotating drums, or bash it together with jets of air. Colored pencils are made with wax, pigment, and clay instead, with no graphite involved. Mix china clay and water into the graphite, and you get a vat of grey sludge. This sounds simple, but it can take an entire week of mixing and drying to get the right consistency! China clay gets its name from the first people to use it for pottery. For centuries, only Chinese craftsmen knew which clay to use, and how to turn it into porcelain. It's a little less mysterious now that it's used to doodle on math homework. Machines now push the paste through a small metal tube. The long rod that comes out is cut into pencil-sized pieces. Finally, these enter a kiln heated to about 2,000F (1100C), to make them hard and smooth. Meanwhile, at a lumber mill, durable wood is cut into slats half the width of a pencil. In North America, pencil manufacturers usually use incense cedar wood from the west coast. If you see short or thin pencils for sale, the wood they came from probably had a defect. The mill cuts off the weak or damaged areas and tries to use the rest for these "weird" pencils or other purposes. The wood may also be waxed and stained to make the color uniform, and to make the pencils easier to sharpen. The pencil lead and lumber finally get to meet. After carving grooves in the wooden slats, machines insert the graphite rods into each one. A second layer of wood clamps down over the graphite and gets glued on tightly. The factory now saws the wood apart into separate pencils. The final batch of machines trims these to uniform length, paints them, and stamps them with a company logo or other writing. If an eraser is attached, the factory crimps the end of the wood to get the metal band (ferrule) to stay in place.

Summary: Grind graphite into powder. Add clay and water. Heat the mixture into hard rods. Cut wood into thin slats. Sandwich the wood and graphite. Finish the pencils.

Heat 4 tablespoons (55 g) of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Carefully dice one small onion and mince one garlic clove with a sharp knife. Add these to the pot of melted butter. Saute the onion and garlic for 3 to 5 minutes. The onion should be tender and almost translucent. The garlic should be fragrant. Stir in 1/4 cup (20 g) of flour to the sauteed onion and garlic. Continue to stir and cook the roux for 3 to 4 minutes. It should thicken up and turn pale in color. Slowly whisk in 1 cup (240 ml) of half-and-half until the mixture is smooth. You'll need to stir or whisk the roux constantly to avoid lumps. If you do end up with a few lumps, don't worry since you'll be pureeing the soup. Whisk in 4 cups (1 liter) of vegetable or chicken broth along with 1 bay leaf, salt, and pepper (to taste). Once the soup begins to bubble, reduce the heat to medium-low so that it's simmering. Simmer the soup for about 10 minutes. Keep the soup uncovered as it cooks and stir it occasionally to keep the soup from sticking to the pot. Chop 1 1/4 pounds of broccoli florets and stems. You should end up with about 4 cups of diced broccoli. You'll also need to peel and dice 1 large carrot or two carrots, if they're small. Add the chopped vegetables to the soup and simmer the soup for 15 to 20 minutes. Taste the soup at this point and add salt and pepper. You can also take out the bay leaf. Puree the soup using a blender or handheld immersion blender. Make the soup as smooth as you like. Pour the soup back into the pot on the stove and add 8 ounces (about 2 1/2 cups) of coarsely grated sharp cheddar cheese. Whisk the cheese in till it melts. Since the broccoli should be completely tender, you can leave some chunks for a more textured soup.

Summary: Saute the onion and garlic. Make a roux and add the half-and-half. Stir in the broth and seasonings. Add the broccoli and carrot. Puree the soup and add the cheese.

There are many types of meditation, so finding the one that works for you is important. Meditation has been shown to lower blood pressure, lessen anxiety, and much more. If you're looking for a way to rest without actually sleeping, meditation is a rewarding and mindful way of achieving that goal. Rather than laying on the coaching tossing and turning trying to feel rested, practicing meditation can actively improve your quality of rest. Work breaks into your day before you start to feel exhausted or overtired. If you keep pushing yourself until you actually start to feel awful, it will make it much harder to recover and feel rested. Work breaks into your life on a daily basis, a weekly basis, a monthly basis, and a yearly basis. Everyone needs time to recoup and recharge. This can be as easy as sitting outside for a few minutes before going back to work, taking one day to yourself a week, or a relaxing vacation. We all have a strong habit of discursive thinking, which means one thought flows to the next and then the next. This can be exhausting, and if you practice not thinking you can give your mind a valuable break. Open your senses to what is happening around you and pay attention, but don't think about them. Just experience them. When you find yourself drifting back into a line of thought, notice this and go back to paying attention to what you are experiencing. Sleeping is the one time when we are really able to give our minds a rest. Although meditation can help, sleeping is absolutely necessary to feel rested. Don't sacrifice sleep for other activities because the odds are they won't benefit your well being and happiness nearly as much as those extra hours will. Sounds like running water, birds chirping, and even storms can help you relax and stop stressing about whatever is going through your head. You can find playlists of these online. Other great options include gongs, chimes, or whatever instrumental music you might like. The brain always wants some sort of sensory input , and by supplying these sounds you might be able to let go of the more stressful input that you are supplying.
Summary: Meditate. Take incremental breaks on the micro and macro level. Practice not thinking. Try to get an appropriate amount of sleep. Listen to instrumental music or ambient noise.