I saw a few friends doing this, so I'm copying -- this year has been kind of insane on that front! Let's see if I can remember everything.
San Francisco, CA
Philadelphia, PA
Durham, NC
Albuquerque, NM
Los Angeles, CA
Tucson, AZ
Houston, TX
West Palm Beach, FL
Baltimore, MD
St. Loius, MO
Orlando, FL
Gainesville, FL
Miami, Fl
San Antonio, TX
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Seoul, South Korea
Chicago, IL
Minneapolis, MN
Odessa, TX
Texarkana, TX
Nashville, TN
Harrisonburg, VA
New York, NY
I think that's all, though I may be forgetting Mountain View, CA in there somewhere. Also, the first 14 all happened last January...
San Francisco, CA
Philadelphia, PA
Durham, NC
Albuquerque, NM
Los Angeles, CA
Tucson, AZ
Houston, TX
West Palm Beach, FL
Baltimore, MD
St. Loius, MO
Orlando, FL
Gainesville, FL
Miami, Fl
San Antonio, TX
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Seoul, South Korea
Chicago, IL
Minneapolis, MN
Odessa, TX
Texarkana, TX
Nashville, TN
Harrisonburg, VA
New York, NY
I think that's all, though I may be forgetting Mountain View, CA in there somewhere. Also, the first 14 all happened last January...
Although I've been doing a few big canning projects (the results of some of which I've shared here), I've had a hard time sticking to a cooking plan and budget in the last few months. The combination of a full-time job and my dissertation has made it difficult to have energy for anything more complex than throwing a few things in a pan. Even that doesn't always come together, so we end up going out more or eating random stuff. Mu has done a lot to pick up the slack, but he also has a full-time job, so take-out happens more frequently than we'd like.
I will be defending my dissertation in less than a week (weee! eeeeeek!), so I think and hope that starting next month, I'll be more able to get back to cooking regularly. I think I'd like to do a challenge of some sort, since that kind of structure helps me stick to a plan, but I haven't decided what exactly. There are a few options that other people have done, and of course I can always create my own.
Eating Rules, one of the food blogs I enjoy, does a yearly project called "October Unprocessed," which encourages people to pledge to eat only unprocessed foods, with no ingredients that can't be reasonably made in a home kitchen, for the whole month of October (or for as much of it as they can manage). I did part of it last year, but it just wasn't happening this year, between the dissertation and work and all. However, I'm wondering if this might be a good project for me to do next month. It would help me focus on cooking and also combine with my desire to eat more locally anyways. I'd have to cut out my red bulls (or make a specific exemption for them) and figure out a few other substitutes, but it shouldn't be horribly difficult. It wouldn't be super easy, either, so it may be just the balance I need. The downside would be that I wouldn't be able to use anything with sugar, which includes my own canned goods. I could make a specific exemption for that, of course, but the point of the challenge is to not make too many exemptions!
Another project I'm contemplating, though this seems like it would take more planning and perhaps more effort than I'm able to give right now, is the Snap Challenge (very brief summary here). Since I would be doing it less to raise awareness and more as a personal challenge, I would probably modify it a bit and make some exceptions to allow for more flexibility. Still, I'm not sure I can do it in November -- not enough mental space between now and then for the necessary planning. Also, given that Thanksgiving is coming up and we're probably hosting people, this wouldn't be very reasonable.
Alternately, I could always do what I attempted when I was starting this blog several years ago, which is to cook a certain amount of new dishes over the course of the month. I had originally tried to do 30 new recipes, but I don't think that would be feasible given my work schedule. I could set a goal of 15, perhaps, and see how it goes. The upside of this challenge is it would get me experimenting in the kitchen again, which I enjoy. The downside is that I do like the ease of cooking old favorites. I suppose I could make the goal more broad, like cooking 15 different dishes rather than 15 brand new ones (or make it 20 if I'm not doing the brand new thing).
Anyways, that's what I'm contemplating right now. Suggestions are welcome!
I will be defending my dissertation in less than a week (weee! eeeeeek!), so I think and hope that starting next month, I'll be more able to get back to cooking regularly. I think I'd like to do a challenge of some sort, since that kind of structure helps me stick to a plan, but I haven't decided what exactly. There are a few options that other people have done, and of course I can always create my own.
Eating Rules, one of the food blogs I enjoy, does a yearly project called "October Unprocessed," which encourages people to pledge to eat only unprocessed foods, with no ingredients that can't be reasonably made in a home kitchen, for the whole month of October (or for as much of it as they can manage). I did part of it last year, but it just wasn't happening this year, between the dissertation and work and all. However, I'm wondering if this might be a good project for me to do next month. It would help me focus on cooking and also combine with my desire to eat more locally anyways. I'd have to cut out my red bulls (or make a specific exemption for them) and figure out a few other substitutes, but it shouldn't be horribly difficult. It wouldn't be super easy, either, so it may be just the balance I need. The downside would be that I wouldn't be able to use anything with sugar, which includes my own canned goods. I could make a specific exemption for that, of course, but the point of the challenge is to not make too many exemptions!
Another project I'm contemplating, though this seems like it would take more planning and perhaps more effort than I'm able to give right now, is the Snap Challenge (very brief summary here). Since I would be doing it less to raise awareness and more as a personal challenge, I would probably modify it a bit and make some exceptions to allow for more flexibility. Still, I'm not sure I can do it in November -- not enough mental space between now and then for the necessary planning. Also, given that Thanksgiving is coming up and we're probably hosting people, this wouldn't be very reasonable.
Alternately, I could always do what I attempted when I was starting this blog several years ago, which is to cook a certain amount of new dishes over the course of the month. I had originally tried to do 30 new recipes, but I don't think that would be feasible given my work schedule. I could set a goal of 15, perhaps, and see how it goes. The upside of this challenge is it would get me experimenting in the kitchen again, which I enjoy. The downside is that I do like the ease of cooking old favorites. I suppose I could make the goal more broad, like cooking 15 different dishes rather than 15 brand new ones (or make it 20 if I'm not doing the brand new thing).
Anyways, that's what I'm contemplating right now. Suggestions are welcome!
My haul of tomatoes
Saturday, I went to another canning workshop, this time on tomatoes. I've been both excited and scared about tomatoes -- they seem to be some of the most useful and versatile things to can, but also the most associated with the possibility of botulism. So, I've been reading and doing research (there's a super handy infographic here if anyone is interested), but I also wanted to go to an actual class so I could ask specific questions of a knowledgeable person.
The class was great for a couple of reasons. First, as expected, I got to ask specific questions and get some food safety reassurance. Second, I learned that canning tomatoes can actually be super easy! I was expecting to have to spend a lot of time pre-cooking or making sauce, but it turns out that, while you can do those things, you don't have to -- you can just pack whole tomatoes (peeled and cored and with added acid) and then turn them into whatever you need later. Both methods have upsides and downsides, of course. This way is quicker on the front end, and a little more versatile, but does require more work and thought on the back end. The trade off was worth it for me, though.
Coring and scoring!
So, on Sunday, I went to the farmer's market in search of tomatoes for canning and found a farmer who sold me 27 lbs of tomatoes for $15, which comes out to about 55 cents/lb! That was great, even though I had to lug it all home, uphill. :) I spent pretty much the rest of the day, on and off, working on the tomatoes. It was about 3 hours of hands-on work spread out over about 9 total hours. Lots of time, but I got 25 pints out of it! I just learned that I could've used the peels and cores to make a few pints of thick tomato sauce, but I didn't know that at the time. Ah, well, next year. I think it was worth it, despite all the effort.
I have some more observations about the whole canning thing. :) Some of these are from the tomato canning, some are from things I'm reading, and some are just thoughts from the past month.
Mountain of peels and cores, and some peeled tomatoes waiting to be packed
Tomatoes are a lot less scary than they seem. From the reading I've done (and the info from class), it looks like there are 2 main things to worry about -- botulism due to acidity levels not being high enough and general spoilage from not having a good seal. The seal bit isn't actually that worrying -- mold and other nasty things of that nature are easy to notice, so if your seal is bad, the outcome is annoying but easy to see. Your food will have issues you can see or smell, so you can avoid eating it. The botulism risk is scarier since it can be invisible, but it's actually pretty easy to solve -- make sure your tomatoes are sufficiently acidic! The official USDA recommendation is to add either citric acid (which I didn't have) or bottled lemon juice to make sure it's a standard acidity. I went for the latter, but I really don't like the taste of the stuff. In the future, I think I'll get litmus paper so I can use fresh lemons and just make sure the juice is acidic enough. The other strategy is to use a pressure canner, but they're expensive and take up space, so I'm unlikely to get one any time soon.
There's a lot of conflicting information out there! One reason I'm not putting any recipes here is that I'm by no means an expert, and I don't want to add to the amount of random-seeming stuff that exists when one searches for canning (or tomato canning specifically). My take away has been to use recipes developed and tested after the mid-80s because that's when the USDA issues its home canning guidelines. The USDA itself has good resources, as does the National Center for Home Food Preservation. I think canning is a lot like baking -- you have to be relatively precise, but once you know what you're doing (and really understand the process on a deeper level), you can do some improvisation.
Tomatoes take a long time to process. In the class, we did raw whole tomatoes packed in water, and those needed to be processed at a boil for 45 minutes (that doesn't include the time spent in the water as it gets up to a boil). At home, I did raw whole tomatoes packed in their own liquid, which means they were more densely packed and had to be processed for 85 minutes! It wasn't too bad, since I had other things to work on while the tomatoes processed, but it's certainly not a quick activity.
I don't know about tomatoes, but jam makes for great host gifts! Mu and I have stayed at several people's places and brought them jam, and everyone seems happy about it (though I suppose they could be faking, heh). I suspect it may also make good holiday gifts. ;)
Wide mouth jars are more convenient for whole tomatoes than regular jars. The class used the former, and it was messier and more difficult to pack the tomatoes in, especially without squishing them. I had the latter at home, by accident, and I intend to keep using them in the future. The only downside is that the half-pint jars I've been using are regular mouth, so I can't use the same lids for both sets.
Final outsome: 25 pints!
I'm done with tomatoes for the season -- while I could probably use more (I use a lot of canned tomatoes when I cook), I simply don't have time to do more canning before they're gone. Next up is a workshop on apples!
Saturday, I went to another canning workshop, this time on tomatoes. I've been both excited and scared about tomatoes -- they seem to be some of the most useful and versatile things to can, but also the most associated with the possibility of botulism. So, I've been reading and doing research (there's a super handy infographic here if anyone is interested), but I also wanted to go to an actual class so I could ask specific questions of a knowledgeable person.
The class was great for a couple of reasons. First, as expected, I got to ask specific questions and get some food safety reassurance. Second, I learned that canning tomatoes can actually be super easy! I was expecting to have to spend a lot of time pre-cooking or making sauce, but it turns out that, while you can do those things, you don't have to -- you can just pack whole tomatoes (peeled and cored and with added acid) and then turn them into whatever you need later. Both methods have upsides and downsides, of course. This way is quicker on the front end, and a little more versatile, but does require more work and thought on the back end. The trade off was worth it for me, though.
Coring and scoring!
So, on Sunday, I went to the farmer's market in search of tomatoes for canning and found a farmer who sold me 27 lbs of tomatoes for $15, which comes out to about 55 cents/lb! That was great, even though I had to lug it all home, uphill. :) I spent pretty much the rest of the day, on and off, working on the tomatoes. It was about 3 hours of hands-on work spread out over about 9 total hours. Lots of time, but I got 25 pints out of it! I just learned that I could've used the peels and cores to make a few pints of thick tomato sauce, but I didn't know that at the time. Ah, well, next year. I think it was worth it, despite all the effort.
I have some more observations about the whole canning thing. :) Some of these are from the tomato canning, some are from things I'm reading, and some are just thoughts from the past month.
Mountain of peels and cores, and some peeled tomatoes waiting to be packed
Tomatoes are a lot less scary than they seem. From the reading I've done (and the info from class), it looks like there are 2 main things to worry about -- botulism due to acidity levels not being high enough and general spoilage from not having a good seal. The seal bit isn't actually that worrying -- mold and other nasty things of that nature are easy to notice, so if your seal is bad, the outcome is annoying but easy to see. Your food will have issues you can see or smell, so you can avoid eating it. The botulism risk is scarier since it can be invisible, but it's actually pretty easy to solve -- make sure your tomatoes are sufficiently acidic! The official USDA recommendation is to add either citric acid (which I didn't have) or bottled lemon juice to make sure it's a standard acidity. I went for the latter, but I really don't like the taste of the stuff. In the future, I think I'll get litmus paper so I can use fresh lemons and just make sure the juice is acidic enough. The other strategy is to use a pressure canner, but they're expensive and take up space, so I'm unlikely to get one any time soon.
There's a lot of conflicting information out there! One reason I'm not putting any recipes here is that I'm by no means an expert, and I don't want to add to the amount of random-seeming stuff that exists when one searches for canning (or tomato canning specifically). My take away has been to use recipes developed and tested after the mid-80s because that's when the USDA issues its home canning guidelines. The USDA itself has good resources, as does the National Center for Home Food Preservation. I think canning is a lot like baking -- you have to be relatively precise, but once you know what you're doing (and really understand the process on a deeper level), you can do some improvisation.
Tomatoes take a long time to process. In the class, we did raw whole tomatoes packed in water, and those needed to be processed at a boil for 45 minutes (that doesn't include the time spent in the water as it gets up to a boil). At home, I did raw whole tomatoes packed in their own liquid, which means they were more densely packed and had to be processed for 85 minutes! It wasn't too bad, since I had other things to work on while the tomatoes processed, but it's certainly not a quick activity.
I don't know about tomatoes, but jam makes for great host gifts! Mu and I have stayed at several people's places and brought them jam, and everyone seems happy about it (though I suppose they could be faking, heh). I suspect it may also make good holiday gifts. ;)
Wide mouth jars are more convenient for whole tomatoes than regular jars. The class used the former, and it was messier and more difficult to pack the tomatoes in, especially without squishing them. I had the latter at home, by accident, and I intend to keep using them in the future. The only downside is that the half-pint jars I've been using are regular mouth, so I can't use the same lids for both sets.
Final outsome: 25 pints!
I'm done with tomatoes for the season -- while I could probably use more (I use a lot of canned tomatoes when I cook), I simply don't have time to do more canning before they're gone. Next up is a workshop on apples!
So, um...it's been a while. I'm in a different part of the country, doing different things, and working a full-time job like a real adult (except without the real adult salary, but there we are). Anyways, I make no promises about the keeping of this blog, but I've discovered a new set of projects for myself, and it seems sad not to write them up. My latest thing? Canning!
I'd been thinking about learning how to can for a while, and then there was a local (to Baltimore) kickstarter for a series of canning workshops, and the rest was proverbial history. There, I learned some basics about how to can and practiced making blueberry jam (which I haven't tried yet because it seems sad to open it now). Since then, I've done peach/nectarine jam twice, and have plans to do more workshops and more canning in the fall. I want to learn how to do tomatoes and apples, and also how to pickle things.
I figured what I'd do here is write about what I've learned so far, both as a reference for myself and in case anyone else is interested. I'm keeping fairly detailed notes in a google doc (which I'm happy to share with anyone), so this will be general observations.
So, then, what have I learned about making stone fruit jam so far?
The bigger the fruit, the easier to deal with it (and then less is wasted when it's peeled and pitted)
What the recipe thinks the yield should be isn't necessarily what the yield will be. We've made the suggested amount for 10 half pints each batch, and so far, the batches were 7, 8, 7, and 7 half pints.
Peeled stone fruits are slippery buggers! Not a surprise, that, but I hadn't really thought about the logistics of chopping a peeled round thing with a pit inside. Heh.
It takes a lot of space to can! We had to be really creative in our tiny kitchen, using every possible surface to hold things. I knew, distantly, the amount of stuff necessary, but it hadn't really registered what that would look like in real life.
Although it feels like it takes a long time, it doesn't really -- we made 3 batches in about 3 hours. It's not a minor project, but we didn't actually use the whole day, either.
At this point, it's unlikely that we'll do more stone fruits this summer. We have a lot of jam as it is! I think tomatoes are next, after another workshop and some more reading. Perhaps I'll put up a list of resources I've been finding helpful, if anyone is interested.
I'd been thinking about learning how to can for a while, and then there was a local (to Baltimore) kickstarter for a series of canning workshops, and the rest was proverbial history. There, I learned some basics about how to can and practiced making blueberry jam (which I haven't tried yet because it seems sad to open it now). Since then, I've done peach/nectarine jam twice, and have plans to do more workshops and more canning in the fall. I want to learn how to do tomatoes and apples, and also how to pickle things.
I figured what I'd do here is write about what I've learned so far, both as a reference for myself and in case anyone else is interested. I'm keeping fairly detailed notes in a google doc (which I'm happy to share with anyone), so this will be general observations.
So, then, what have I learned about making stone fruit jam so far?
The bigger the fruit, the easier to deal with it (and then less is wasted when it's peeled and pitted)
What the recipe thinks the yield should be isn't necessarily what the yield will be. We've made the suggested amount for 10 half pints each batch, and so far, the batches were 7, 8, 7, and 7 half pints.
Peeled stone fruits are slippery buggers! Not a surprise, that, but I hadn't really thought about the logistics of chopping a peeled round thing with a pit inside. Heh.
It takes a lot of space to can! We had to be really creative in our tiny kitchen, using every possible surface to hold things. I knew, distantly, the amount of stuff necessary, but it hadn't really registered what that would look like in real life.
Although it feels like it takes a long time, it doesn't really -- we made 3 batches in about 3 hours. It's not a minor project, but we didn't actually use the whole day, either.
At this point, it's unlikely that we'll do more stone fruits this summer. We have a lot of jam as it is! I think tomatoes are next, after another workshop and some more reading. Perhaps I'll put up a list of resources I've been finding helpful, if anyone is interested.
We're off on our delayed honeymoon/anxiety-management trip to Thailand, with a detour to Seoul for 12 hours on the way there and back! So excited! We're blogging about this over at our travel blog from last time, here: http://elainemutravel.blogspot.com/
Follow along if you feel like it, and we'll see you in a few weeks, with an update about internship. I will know on February 21st. Fingers crossed!
Follow along if you feel like it, and we'll see you in a few weeks, with an update about internship. I will know on February 21st. Fingers crossed!
I'm still looking for suggestions for the 2nd half of my list! I've gotten a few, but I'm not quite at 30 yet, so there's room for more. Thanks to all my friends who came up with interesting things for me to try, btw.
Anyways, since I've already done two things on the TaT (Thirty around Thirty, yeah?) list, I figured I should post about them here. The first one, baking bread, happened before I actually created the project, but since it was something I'd been wanting to do for a while, it seemed to fit.
So, why baking bread? Well, I love bread, and you can get really great artisanal bread, but it's so expensive! Plus, I had just gotten a dutch oven (this lovely one, for a fraction of the price of a Le Creuset and with great reviews!) and I needed something to do with it. When I googled "vegetarian dutch oven recipes," one of the ones that came up was this one for no-knead bread.
I won't retype the recipe here, since it's a pretty clear original, but I'll tell you my modifications and results. First, the bread came out great! As you can see in the photo, it looks like real bread from a store! The only thing I would change about the recipe itself is to add more salt, or some flavorings. There just wasn't enough salt in it, even for me, and I don't like things very salty. From a bit more googling, it sounds like other people had similar comments, so I plan to try something slightly different next time.
A few other caveats/impressions. First, although the recipe is easy and takes very little effort, it does take time. The dough has to sit for 12-18 hours, and from what I read, 12 is not actually great. I let mine sit for about 16. Then, however, you do 15 minutes of stuff to it and then it has to sit for another 2 hours! I was glad I noticed that when I did, otherwise I would have been unpleasantly surprised and rushed. I ended up letting mine sit for about 3.5 hours on the second rising, and it seemed fine (when I told my hair lady about the second rising, she exclaimed, "zombie bread!" It was awesome.). So, it seems that the timing is flexible, but definitely long. Second, you can use active dry yeast if you don't have instant yeast, but if you do, you have to stir it into water first, then add water and yeast to the other dry ingredients. I suppose I don't know what would've happened if I hadn't done that, but according to the internet, it would've been sad. Finally, next time, I will use a little less flour on the outside, because it didn't need quite that much not to be sticky, and I don't like how it got everywhere.
So, overall, a definite success and a recipe I will certainly use again!
Anyways, since I've already done two things on the TaT (Thirty around Thirty, yeah?) list, I figured I should post about them here. The first one, baking bread, happened before I actually created the project, but since it was something I'd been wanting to do for a while, it seemed to fit.
So, why baking bread? Well, I love bread, and you can get really great artisanal bread, but it's so expensive! Plus, I had just gotten a dutch oven (this lovely one, for a fraction of the price of a Le Creuset and with great reviews!) and I needed something to do with it. When I googled "vegetarian dutch oven recipes," one of the ones that came up was this one for no-knead bread.
I won't retype the recipe here, since it's a pretty clear original, but I'll tell you my modifications and results. First, the bread came out great! As you can see in the photo, it looks like real bread from a store! The only thing I would change about the recipe itself is to add more salt, or some flavorings. There just wasn't enough salt in it, even for me, and I don't like things very salty. From a bit more googling, it sounds like other people had similar comments, so I plan to try something slightly different next time.
A few other caveats/impressions. First, although the recipe is easy and takes very little effort, it does take time. The dough has to sit for 12-18 hours, and from what I read, 12 is not actually great. I let mine sit for about 16. Then, however, you do 15 minutes of stuff to it and then it has to sit for another 2 hours! I was glad I noticed that when I did, otherwise I would have been unpleasantly surprised and rushed. I ended up letting mine sit for about 3.5 hours on the second rising, and it seemed fine (when I told my hair lady about the second rising, she exclaimed, "zombie bread!" It was awesome.). So, it seems that the timing is flexible, but definitely long. Second, you can use active dry yeast if you don't have instant yeast, but if you do, you have to stir it into water first, then add water and yeast to the other dry ingredients. I suppose I don't know what would've happened if I hadn't done that, but according to the internet, it would've been sad. Finally, next time, I will use a little less flour on the outside, because it didn't need quite that much not to be sticky, and I don't like how it got everywhere.
So, overall, a definite success and a recipe I will certainly use again!
OK, the "30 around 30" list is now half-complete! Here's the first half, I'll do another post when it's all done. I'm still looking for more suggestions! I'll link to the individual posts once I've got the master list up. Cindy suggested that things I've done since about October or so can count for this challenge, since it's "around 30," so if I can't come up with enough things to fill out the second half, I'll add a few of those. I'd really like to come up with more, though!
1. Bake bread (done on 1/28/13, post to come)
2. Try aerial silks (ongoing, started on 1/28/13, post to come)
3. Sew a skirt
4. Bake meringues
5. Write a fantasy short story (let's say 10,000 words-ish)
6. Learn how to play the wooden flute
7. Learn Italian!
8. Knit a scarf
9. Make an origami moose (apparently, it's possible!)
10. Run a 5K (maybe? I'm scared of this one...)
11. Host a sit-down dinner for 6-8 people (this would require having a place to do so, though)
12.Try Bikram yoga
13. Have a real Do Nothing But Read day
14. Create and keep up a sleep-related website/blog/thing
15. Paint an accent wall (if we move and it's allowed)
PS If you're reading this in my LJ, I'm sorry if you're confused! I think I forgot to mention that I have this blog that I sometimes update, and now I've set it up to cross-post!
1. Bake bread (done on 1/28/13, post to come)
2. Try aerial silks (ongoing, started on 1/28/13, post to come)
3. Sew a skirt
4. Bake meringues
5. Write a fantasy short story (let's say 10,000 words-ish)
6. Learn how to play the wooden flute
7. Learn Italian!
8. Knit a scarf
9. Make an origami moose (apparently, it's possible!)
10. Run a 5K (maybe? I'm scared of this one...)
11. Host a sit-down dinner for 6-8 people (this would require having a place to do so, though)
12.Try Bikram yoga
13. Have a real Do Nothing But Read day
14. Create and keep up a sleep-related website/blog/thing
15. Paint an accent wall (if we move and it's allowed)
PS If you're reading this in my LJ, I'm sorry if you're confused! I think I forgot to mention that I have this blog that I sometimes update, and now I've set it up to cross-post!
Well, obviously, I've been not so good at the whole blogging thing. I think part of it was a lack of time, and part was a lack of projects that I wanted to share. I'm still cooking, and sometimes it's new stuff, but somehow, it just hasn't seemed that exciting. But, I have a new set of projects and some new ideas about keeping the blogging going, so maybe it can work!
What is this new thing, you may (door may not) ask? Well, inspired by Cindy's "30 before 30" project for this year, she and I decided that I should do a "30 around 30" project of my own. Since I'm turning 30 in March, the whole "before" thing wasn't gonna happen, but this seems like a good compromise. So there we go! I'm also going to try and get back into the blogging thing in addition to this project, but at least it'll provide some structure,
So, what 30 things am I going to try this year? This is where you come in! I'm looking for suggestions for new projects to attempt! So far (and yes, these will be their own blog posts), I've baked bread and taken an aerial silks class. What else should I do? I've taken trapeze and I've gone both skydiving and bungee jumping, so those are out. Already on my to-do list are sewing a skirt and baking meringues (which I know isn't supposed to be that hard, but has always felt terribly intimidating to me). But now I need 24 more items to do! Thoughts?
What is this new thing, you may (door may not) ask? Well, inspired by Cindy's "30 before 30" project for this year, she and I decided that I should do a "30 around 30" project of my own. Since I'm turning 30 in March, the whole "before" thing wasn't gonna happen, but this seems like a good compromise. So there we go! I'm also going to try and get back into the blogging thing in addition to this project, but at least it'll provide some structure,
So, what 30 things am I going to try this year? This is where you come in! I'm looking for suggestions for new projects to attempt! So far (and yes, these will be their own blog posts), I've baked bread and taken an aerial silks class. What else should I do? I've taken trapeze and I've gone both skydiving and bungee jumping, so those are out. Already on my to-do list are sewing a skirt and baking meringues (which I know isn't supposed to be that hard, but has always felt terribly intimidating to me). But now I need 24 more items to do! Thoughts?
Test post to see if the cross-posting works.
I haven't updated in a long time, have I? This isn't really a real update, but I wanted to point you all to 
dircery and my travel blog for our upcoming trip. We've posted a few pre-trip things already and hope to keep it going while we're traveling.
I will try to do my year in review stuff on lj, but it'll probably come in January, after we return.
dircery and my travel blog for our upcoming trip. We've posted a few pre-trip things already and hope to keep it going while we're traveling.I will try to do my year in review stuff on lj, but it'll probably come in January, after we return.
I appear to not have time this year for my customary year in review post, which, if I remember correctly, happened last year, too. So, have an interim post, and I will do the in review one in early January, since I enjoy doing those.
It's been a crazy year for me, and for some of you from what it would seem. I hope everyone has a wonder New Year's Eve and a great 2011. I wish you all whatever you wish for yourselves in the coming year!
It's been a crazy year for me, and for some of you from what it would seem. I hope everyone has a wonder New Year's Eve and a great 2011. I wish you all whatever you wish for yourselves in the coming year!
Are any Bay Area folk planning on having a New Year's party? dircery and I will both be in town and would love to go to something with friends, but I'm not really feeling like hosting my own...
dircery and I will both be in town and would love to go to something with friends, but I'm not really feeling like hosting my own...There's an xkcd book now! Look! And part of the proceeds go to charity! And it starts with volume 0, which is typical and should amuse many of you. :D I haven't yet purchased it, but I'm going to do so shortly, once I decide if I want an xkcd shirt, as well, or not.
...have my yearly yom kippur post!
yom kippur starts in a few hours, so i'm busy in preparations -- hydrating, eating a biggish lunch, contemplating which lights need to be left on, telling people i won't be reachable...and, of course, trying to get into the yom kippur mindset. as always, apologizing to people is hard. i try to be a good friend, and a good person in general, but i know i fall short of that. so i'm sorry to everyone i have (or may have) wronged -- especially, i apologize for not being good at keeping in touch and for neglecting people when i feel too busy. it's easy for me to get wrapped up in my own stuff and whine and complain and forget to be there for people. so, i apologize for that.
going into this yom kippur, like the ones for the past several years, i find myself a little on the fence. on the one hand, there are things i'm repentant for, of course. on the other hand, there are things religion would tell me to be sorry for, but i'm not. it's always a tough balance for me, so we'll see how the day goes this year. and, on a less spiritual note, it's supposed to hit 101 tomorrow. full fast, no water? meep.
logistics: i will be unreachable between 6pm-ish today and 8pm-ish tomorrow. i'll check my email before services start, and then again as soon as it's sundown tomorrow.
if you're fasting, i hope you have an easy and meaningful fast.
yom kippur starts in a few hours, so i'm busy in preparations -- hydrating, eating a biggish lunch, contemplating which lights need to be left on, telling people i won't be reachable...and, of course, trying to get into the yom kippur mindset. as always, apologizing to people is hard. i try to be a good friend, and a good person in general, but i know i fall short of that. so i'm sorry to everyone i have (or may have) wronged -- especially, i apologize for not being good at keeping in touch and for neglecting people when i feel too busy. it's easy for me to get wrapped up in my own stuff and whine and complain and forget to be there for people. so, i apologize for that.
going into this yom kippur, like the ones for the past several years, i find myself a little on the fence. on the one hand, there are things i'm repentant for, of course. on the other hand, there are things religion would tell me to be sorry for, but i'm not. it's always a tough balance for me, so we'll see how the day goes this year. and, on a less spiritual note, it's supposed to hit 101 tomorrow. full fast, no water? meep.
logistics: i will be unreachable between 6pm-ish today and 8pm-ish tomorrow. i'll check my email before services start, and then again as soon as it's sundown tomorrow.
if you're fasting, i hope you have an easy and meaningful fast.
was out of town all weekend, with no internet. yay! so nice to have been disconnected! i owe lots of people emails, comments, and other manner of replies, and will definitely get to those over the next day or 2. also, updates. :)
for those of you who haven't seen this already on facebook, here is me, flying!
( scary and awesome trick!Collapse )
( scary and awesome trick!Collapse )
"What have I always believed? That on the whole, and by and large, if a man lived properly, not according to what any priests said, but according to what seemed decent and honest inside, then it would, at the end, more or less, turn out all right."
any bay area folk wanna go to a free concert in the park tomorrow afternoon? radio alice, 97.3 fm, is holding a concert tomorrow, noon-5. more info is here. i was thinking of going around 1pm, even though it starts at noon, and hanging out for however long it was fun. text me or send me an email (or leave a comment, same effect) if you're interested!
i realized, to my dismay, that my list of things to do over the summer doesn't include any books! i have found a few while browsing amazon, but i need more! so, wise friend list, what books should i try to read over the summer? suggestions of all genres are welcome!
books i think i might want to read:
on food and cooking (harold mcgee)
the legend of sigurd and gudrun (tolkien)
godel, escher, bach (douglas hofstadter)
how doctors think (jerome groopman)
on the line (eric ripert)
blue shoes and happiness (alexander mccall smith)
stumbling on happiness (daniel gilbert)
as you can see, it's a short and eclectic list and could use many more suggestions!
books i think i might want to read:
on food and cooking (harold mcgee)
the legend of sigurd and gudrun (tolkien)
godel, escher, bach (douglas hofstadter)
how doctors think (jerome groopman)
on the line (eric ripert)
blue shoes and happiness (alexander mccall smith)
stumbling on happiness (daniel gilbert)
as you can see, it's a short and eclectic list and could use many more suggestions!
so, i wanna take an aerials (more specifically, trapeze) class this summer. the circus center in sf offers such things and is conveniently located, but they're kind of expensive and they won't let me take an actual trapeze class as a beginner -- it's an "intro to aerial skills" thing, which sounds fun but not perfect. on the other hand, trapeze arts in oakland has specifically trapeze classes on the flying trapeze, is cheaper, and seems willing to take complete newbies. they are, however, in oakland. this is problematic...palo alto would've been better, since i'll be working at stanford 3 days a week, but oakland? i wish cindy still lived in san leandro, then i could stay at her place overnight once a week, or something! meep. what to do?
A very brief post to tell you all that I now have a crackberry! It's pink and properly girly, and I love it! Weeeee!
the album is incomplete, since cin has a bunch more pictures, but here are some photos from our trip a few months ago!
here they are!
here they are!
i didn't realize quite how much i missed ballroom dancing until tonight, at peter's (my old dance coach) studio, when i got to dance with some of the people i used to spend all my free time with. i miss them, and i miss the dancing, and it's all a little bittersweet. meep.
quote from student:
"It is used when experimenters want to examine/analyze the cause of a cause. When the want to find what cause it & what caused the caused. A way to look at the steps that lead to a the cause which can lead to the way."
this was hand-written, and i've left all words and typos in. it doesn't even matter what question this was supposed to be answering, since it doesn't answer anything! i kinda like the conclusion, though. it can lead to the way! philosophically deep! it probably didn't help this child's score that i was grading at 2am...
"It is used when experimenters want to examine/analyze the cause of a cause. When the want to find what cause it & what caused the caused. A way to look at the steps that lead to a the cause which can lead to the way."
this was hand-written, and i've left all words and typos in. it doesn't even matter what question this was supposed to be answering, since it doesn't answer anything! i kinda like the conclusion, though. it can lead to the way! philosophically deep! it probably didn't help this child's score that i was grading at 2am...
- Current Mood:
amused
for all that i wasn't too excited going in to the election, i'm happy to have been a part of it. this is a pretty amazing thing, and i'm willing to suspend my misgivings for the moment and hope that obama can prove me wrong. i'm very unhappy about how prop 8 is going, and can only hope that it somehow changes over night. still, i'm feeling positive overall.
however, i've learned my lesson. in the future, when i rant, i will either lock comments or filter my posts so as to avoid situations in which i ask people to back off and then they don't. i'm still angry, and trying to avoid swearing.
however, i've learned my lesson. in the future, when i rant, i will either lock comments or filter my posts so as to avoid situations in which i ask people to back off and then they don't. i'm still angry, and trying to avoid swearing.
i don't need to have the last word.
i've refrained from ranting (here, at least) about things for most of this election season. why did i start up today? dunno. oops. probably should've just kept my mouth shut for one more day.
i'm not exceptionally political. for the majority of this election season, my feelings have been of annoyance and anger, with only mild moments of positives. i'm not a huge fan of obama, i like mccain even less, i hate palin, and i have no opinion on biden. but today, seeing the grinning people at my polling place, and the grinning people with the "i voted" sticker on campus, and hearing about record turnout and voter patience in the face of long lines and glitches, i'm happy to be a part of it. this is probably silly and sentimental, but it's a big day, whether i like any of the candidates or not, and i'm glad to have participated.
also, i was happy to vote no on AZ's version of the gay marriage amendment, prop 102. i have no idea how it's doing in the polls, though. i sincerely hope it fails, but the thing i'm really worried about is prop 8 in CA.
also, i was happy to vote no on AZ's version of the gay marriage amendment, prop 102. i have no idea how it's doing in the polls, though. i sincerely hope it fails, but the thing i'm really worried about is prop 8 in CA.
i will be glad when the elections are done. still, it boggles the mind that so many people are supporting prop 8 in CA. i have such a hard time figuring out why, other than baseless hatred, this is any sort of issue.
ETA: there are certainly people who don't vote yes on prop 8 due to outright hatred. however, the end result is the same. is the intent more important than the outcome? i don't think so.
ETA: there are certainly people who don't vote yes on prop 8 due to outright hatred. however, the end result is the same. is the intent more important than the outcome? i don't think so.
reposted from leora
1. Go here and choose any TWO of the 2/$44 bras.*
2. NEXT, go here and select ONE panty in white, ivory, buff, pink, or black (cotton). ONLY THESE COLORS (in cotton) WILL WORK.
3. NEXT, go to your shopping bag and ticky the box for offer codes. You'll go through a few intermediary pages before coming to the page to enter your offer codes. Fill out those pages...
4. FINALLY, enter these three offer codes:
FA814857 for a free bag with a $50 purchase
FA813789 for $10 off any bra
25PTY for $25 off any two bras, and a free panty
Your total after taxes and shipping will be around $20.
*Note: You can alternately select two bras from here at 2/$40, but you'll need to add a filler item to get to the $50. Order an extra panty or find something in the clearance section.
for me, the total, with taxes and shipping, came to $19.45. that's hard to beat.
ETA: It seems like the free bag offer is no longer working, but the 2nd and 3rd offers, for $ off bras, are still good.
leora1. Go here and choose any TWO of the 2/$44 bras.*
2. NEXT, go here and select ONE panty in white, ivory, buff, pink, or black (cotton). ONLY THESE COLORS (in cotton) WILL WORK.
3. NEXT, go to your shopping bag and ticky the box for offer codes. You'll go through a few intermediary pages before coming to the page to enter your offer codes. Fill out those pages...
4. FINALLY, enter these three offer codes:
FA814857 for a free bag with a $50 purchase
FA813789 for $10 off any bra
25PTY for $25 off any two bras, and a free panty
Your total after taxes and shipping will be around $20.
*Note: You can alternately select two bras from here at 2/$40, but you'll need to add a filler item to get to the $50. Order an extra panty or find something in the clearance section.
for me, the total, with taxes and shipping, came to $19.45. that's hard to beat.
ETA: It seems like the free bag offer is no longer working, but the 2nd and 3rd offers, for $ off bras, are still good.
let's have another bad-good-random list, shall we? it's a good way to summarize my life.
( yay, a list!Collapse )
( yay, a list!Collapse )
brief update: dad is feeling better, i didn't have to drive to sf. my back is feeling better, as well. didn't get an x-ray, since it felt significantly better by monday, and i was pretty sure i hadn't injured a rib or a kidney. it still hurts to do much more than walking or laying down, but sitting is less bad, and it bugs me much less overall.
on a positive note, i cooked for my friends yesterday (turkey things, like chicken things that cin knows and loves but with turkey, and potatoes with dill and garlic) and everything was yummy! success!
on a positive note, i cooked for my friends yesterday (turkey things, like chicken things that cin knows and loves but with turkey, and potatoes with dill and garlic) and everything was yummy! success!
this short weekend trip to LA, which wasn't gonna be so much fun anyways (going to someone's memorial is a rather somber affair), is turning out decidedly NOT FUN. so, the plan was for my parents to drive down and pick me up at the airport, then drive to a family friend's house to spend the night, attend the memorial tomorrow, drive me to the airport tomorrow night, and drive back up to sf on monday. their drive down was fine -- quick and uneventful. my flight was also fine, pretty turbulence-free, and i didn't even take a xanax. however, in the 10 minutes between landing (when i spoke to my parents and all was well) and when i found them at the airport, it was determined that my dad had a high fever, probably in the vicinity of 40C (104F). this, as you might imagine, changed our plans a bit. our family friends went to a motel a block from their house and reserved us a room so that we wouldn't infect them or their elderly mother, and i got behind the wheel, very glad that i hadn't taken that xanax after all.
got there ok, met up with the friends at the motel (they brought us food and medicine and such so we wouldn't have to go out) and went to park the car. parking lot was one of the most ridiculous lots i've ever seen and my dad, feeling better after having a tylenol, parked the car since i'm not good at backing into tight spaces. i went around to the back to get luggage out, tripped on a curb of sorts, and went sprawling backwards, pretty much directly into a fire hydrant. couldn't speak for a few moments after the impact, having the wind knocked out of me. got up, went to our room, looked at the scrape and developing bruise in the mirror, and got super shaky. meep. went to family friends' house so she could help me disinfect my back and bandage it up. not fun, since the peroxide and the general touching made the whole thing burn, but that's ok. the worst part is now. the surface doesn't hurt much anymore, but walking is painful, moving is painful, sitting incorrectly is painful, and i'm terrified that i broke a rib (which seems unlikely) or hurt a kidney (which also seems unlikely but more possible) or something. i will have to get an xray when i get home.
on top of all of this, we're not sure what exactly is going on with my dad, and my mom is terrified of driving on freeways. if he's not suddenly better tomorrow (which appears unlikely), we're gonna have to think about how they'll get home. it's possible that i will cancel my flight, drive them home, and fly back from sf, missing monday's classes. this wouldn't be the end of the world, but still, not something i necessarily want to do.
so, meep. send hugs!
got there ok, met up with the friends at the motel (they brought us food and medicine and such so we wouldn't have to go out) and went to park the car. parking lot was one of the most ridiculous lots i've ever seen and my dad, feeling better after having a tylenol, parked the car since i'm not good at backing into tight spaces. i went around to the back to get luggage out, tripped on a curb of sorts, and went sprawling backwards, pretty much directly into a fire hydrant. couldn't speak for a few moments after the impact, having the wind knocked out of me. got up, went to our room, looked at the scrape and developing bruise in the mirror, and got super shaky. meep. went to family friends' house so she could help me disinfect my back and bandage it up. not fun, since the peroxide and the general touching made the whole thing burn, but that's ok. the worst part is now. the surface doesn't hurt much anymore, but walking is painful, moving is painful, sitting incorrectly is painful, and i'm terrified that i broke a rib (which seems unlikely) or hurt a kidney (which also seems unlikely but more possible) or something. i will have to get an xray when i get home.
on top of all of this, we're not sure what exactly is going on with my dad, and my mom is terrified of driving on freeways. if he's not suddenly better tomorrow (which appears unlikely), we're gonna have to think about how they'll get home. it's possible that i will cancel my flight, drive them home, and fly back from sf, missing monday's classes. this wouldn't be the end of the world, but still, not something i necessarily want to do.
so, meep. send hugs!
I was reading about the Hadron Collider and stumbled upon a wikipedia article on particles called strangelets. There are many things that amused me in that article, but the best section was one titled, dramatically, "Dangers." The first paragraph reads:
"If the strange matter hypothesis is correct and a strangelet comes in contact with a lump of ordinary matter such as Earth, it could convert the ordinary matter to strange matter. This "ice-nine" disaster scenario is as follows: one strangelet hits a nucleus, catalyzing its immediate conversion to strange matter. This liberates energy, producing a larger, more stable strangelet, which in turn hits another nucleus, catalyzing its conversion to strange matter. In the end, all the nuclei of all the atoms of Earth are converted, and Earth is reduced to a hot, large lump of strange matter."
Rest assured, however -- we don't know if the strange matter hypothesis is actually correct, and evidence is leaning towards not. Still, I giggled for a little while, especially at the fact that the Earth might be reduced to a hot large lump of strange matter.
"If the strange matter hypothesis is correct and a strangelet comes in contact with a lump of ordinary matter such as Earth, it could convert the ordinary matter to strange matter. This "ice-nine" disaster scenario is as follows: one strangelet hits a nucleus, catalyzing its immediate conversion to strange matter. This liberates energy, producing a larger, more stable strangelet, which in turn hits another nucleus, catalyzing its conversion to strange matter. In the end, all the nuclei of all the atoms of Earth are converted, and Earth is reduced to a hot, large lump of strange matter."
Rest assured, however -- we don't know if the strange matter hypothesis is actually correct, and evidence is leaning towards not. Still, I giggled for a little while, especially at the fact that the Earth might be reduced to a hot large lump of strange matter.
NY times caption of photo of michael phelps, right before the finish to that amazing race: "Michael Phelps, in lane five, takes his last breath as he hits the wall for his 7th gold medal in Beijing."
his last breath? honestly, now, folks, do we not know what that usually means? silliness.
his last breath? honestly, now, folks, do we not know what that usually means? silliness.
yes, it is in fact 4:20am. this is because thunderstorms knocked out power in (apparently) many parts of tucson this evening, and my complex didn't have electricity from about 8:30 to about 2:00am. this was rather inconvenient, given that i wanted to watch swimming and the men's gymnastics all-around competition. so, the logical solution was to go to bed, be awoken by all the lights turning on at 2 (oops!), and get up to watch nbc's primetime replay, amusingly brought to us by ambien cr (a sleep medication).
i have many thoughts about the games themselves, most of them too hyper or too whiny or too pedestrian to want to write down, so i will instead share more amusing quotes from the NY Times, which has become my main source for articles about the olympics.
this entire article, about the completely amazing and sometimes distressing bodies of the olympic athletes is pretty great throughout, but several parts made me actually giggle out loud:
"Here are the gnomish female gymnasts, seemingly more compact than ever, more muscularly developed and yet at the same time troublingly arrested, to judge from the lack of secondary sexual characteristics like breasts.
Here is Dara Torres, the 41-year-old swimmer with the blister-pack abs and the padded deltoids, her stupendous physique attained, she says, through Herculean training, and now unquestionably resembling that of a cover boy for Men’s Health."
"Even in the classical world, the range of forms at the Games was broad enough to encompass lean bodies suited to running, wiry wrestlers with bantam bodies, refrigerator-size hulks capable of feats like lifting a young ox (and then consuming it later: certain athletes at the ancient Games gained laurels, while others won all they could eat). A mosaic floor in a fourth-century villa at the Piazza Armerina in Sicily depicts three female athletes playing some sort of ball game and wearing bandeau bikinis. One of them looks distinctly like that Diana of beach volleyball, Kerri Walsh."
"What the Games also frankly accommodate is a taste for the spectacle of straining young bodies, an appeal that was not lost on the ancients. The crowds at the early Games, according to the historian Nigel Spivey, were as excited by the “boys with slim waists, broad shoulders, neatly proud buttocks and springy thighs” as they were by the lofty ideal of the Games."
oh, dear. springy thighs? neatly proud buttocks? what does that actually mean, and do i really want to know? i'm sad though, that while the article briefly mentioned michael phelps, it didn't really talk about male swimmers who, to me, have the ideal male body type. also, cin, this picture (from the accompanying slide show) is for you. :)
this article about china winning all the diving golds thus far isn't really funny in and of itself. however, i find it fairly awesome that the picture accompanying it is not, in fact, of divers, but of tennis player roger federer. huh? this may be corrected, so sorry if it's not funny by the time some of you read it, but i'm very entertained.
ok, it is time to actually sleep. man, i'm on a weird schedule these days!
i have many thoughts about the games themselves, most of them too hyper or too whiny or too pedestrian to want to write down, so i will instead share more amusing quotes from the NY Times, which has become my main source for articles about the olympics.
this entire article, about the completely amazing and sometimes distressing bodies of the olympic athletes is pretty great throughout, but several parts made me actually giggle out loud:
"Here are the gnomish female gymnasts, seemingly more compact than ever, more muscularly developed and yet at the same time troublingly arrested, to judge from the lack of secondary sexual characteristics like breasts.
Here is Dara Torres, the 41-year-old swimmer with the blister-pack abs and the padded deltoids, her stupendous physique attained, she says, through Herculean training, and now unquestionably resembling that of a cover boy for Men’s Health."
"Even in the classical world, the range of forms at the Games was broad enough to encompass lean bodies suited to running, wiry wrestlers with bantam bodies, refrigerator-size hulks capable of feats like lifting a young ox (and then consuming it later: certain athletes at the ancient Games gained laurels, while others won all they could eat). A mosaic floor in a fourth-century villa at the Piazza Armerina in Sicily depicts three female athletes playing some sort of ball game and wearing bandeau bikinis. One of them looks distinctly like that Diana of beach volleyball, Kerri Walsh."
"What the Games also frankly accommodate is a taste for the spectacle of straining young bodies, an appeal that was not lost on the ancients. The crowds at the early Games, according to the historian Nigel Spivey, were as excited by the “boys with slim waists, broad shoulders, neatly proud buttocks and springy thighs” as they were by the lofty ideal of the Games."
oh, dear. springy thighs? neatly proud buttocks? what does that actually mean, and do i really want to know? i'm sad though, that while the article briefly mentioned michael phelps, it didn't really talk about male swimmers who, to me, have the ideal male body type. also, cin, this picture (from the accompanying slide show) is for you. :)
this article about china winning all the diving golds thus far isn't really funny in and of itself. however, i find it fairly awesome that the picture accompanying it is not, in fact, of divers, but of tennis player roger federer. huh? this may be corrected, so sorry if it's not funny by the time some of you read it, but i'm very entertained.
ok, it is time to actually sleep. man, i'm on a weird schedule these days!
the olympics are here, which means i'm watching pretty much all evening, at least while swimming, diving, and gymnastics are on. by the end of the games, this will probably be more tv then i've watched in 4 years, since the last summer olympics, since winter olympics don't attract me in quite the same way.
i have no cable, so everything varies from a little fuzzy to annoyingly fuzzy, depending on some random behavior of the bunny ears. i'm also watching a lot of video from nbc. yes, i've downloaded the stupid plug-in from microsoft. i will uninstall it when the games are done, but really, whatever. i could go on a very long rant about nbc and the olympic coverage. however, i'm gonna choose to enjoy the games and that means not ranting too much, lest it spoil my own fun.
so, instead of ranting, let me share with you some entertaining quotes i've found in some of the many olympics-related articles i've been obsessively reading.
from an NY Times article about how much Beijing has been cleaned up:
"People have been urged to quit smoking and spitting, and to adopt the Western custom of standing in line for a bus, instead of jostling."
"...nor were they [the government] able to make good on their promise to teach all the cabdrivers basic English."
"Traffic has been cut in half by allowing only cars with license plates ending in an even number to drive one day, and cars with odd-numbered plates the next."
hee. i'm really a fan of the traffic-reduction strategy. not sure why i was so amused by this, but it just made me giggle.
from the same article:
"At the Tianhua Primary School in Beijing, for example, the students were becoming experts on Botswana; they knew that the people ate corn and that their favorite animal was the bull. Some were learning how to cheer — it is a good thing to applaud when the Botswanans play well, but not when the other team stumbles — and to sing Botswana’s national anthem."
i didn't know the botswanan favorite animal is a bull! that's very random.
from another article about Michael Phelps:
"He is the reason NBC strong-armed the hosts into running swimming finals at the bizarre hour of 10 a.m. local time, to satisfy the prime-time audiences in America, Phelps’s home country."
heh. yeah, that did seem a little odd, and it's both entertaining and distressing.
another swimming article
"But Kitajima, the expressive son of a butcher, once again won the race that mattered most..."
the expressive son of a butcher? really? that's exceedingly random.
all right, more to come, i'm sure. i'm slightly obsessed with the games.
i have no cable, so everything varies from a little fuzzy to annoyingly fuzzy, depending on some random behavior of the bunny ears. i'm also watching a lot of video from nbc. yes, i've downloaded the stupid plug-in from microsoft. i will uninstall it when the games are done, but really, whatever. i could go on a very long rant about nbc and the olympic coverage. however, i'm gonna choose to enjoy the games and that means not ranting too much, lest it spoil my own fun.
so, instead of ranting, let me share with you some entertaining quotes i've found in some of the many olympics-related articles i've been obsessively reading.
from an NY Times article about how much Beijing has been cleaned up:
"People have been urged to quit smoking and spitting, and to adopt the Western custom of standing in line for a bus, instead of jostling."
"...nor were they [the government] able to make good on their promise to teach all the cabdrivers basic English."
"Traffic has been cut in half by allowing only cars with license plates ending in an even number to drive one day, and cars with odd-numbered plates the next."
hee. i'm really a fan of the traffic-reduction strategy. not sure why i was so amused by this, but it just made me giggle.
from the same article:
"At the Tianhua Primary School in Beijing, for example, the students were becoming experts on Botswana; they knew that the people ate corn and that their favorite animal was the bull. Some were learning how to cheer — it is a good thing to applaud when the Botswanans play well, but not when the other team stumbles — and to sing Botswana’s national anthem."
i didn't know the botswanan favorite animal is a bull! that's very random.
from another article about Michael Phelps:
"He is the reason NBC strong-armed the hosts into running swimming finals at the bizarre hour of 10 a.m. local time, to satisfy the prime-time audiences in America, Phelps’s home country."
heh. yeah, that did seem a little odd, and it's both entertaining and distressing.
another swimming article
"But Kitajima, the expressive son of a butcher, once again won the race that mattered most..."
the expressive son of a butcher? really? that's exceedingly random.
all right, more to come, i'm sure. i'm slightly obsessed with the games.
i'm keenly aware today of how much i both love and hate the fact that i have several friends who i will forever have a small crush on. love, because it's great to know such awesome people, and it's somewhat comforting to know guys like them do, in fact exist. hate, because, well, it's annoying, given that i'm not dating any of them. heh.
this entry brought to you by the letters S, O, R, and D and the number 1.
this entry brought to you by the letters S, O, R, and D and the number 1.
back in san francisco, hooray! i love traveling, but it's nice to be home, too, especially after being in transit for insane amounts of time. i have so many stories and pictures, but no energy to deal with any of it yet. let me share a story about israel to tide you over.
cin and i spent a day and a half in jerusalem, staying at the house of relatively random people who my parents met a year ago on their trip in norway. getting to jerusalem was an adventure. we borrowed my aunt's car and gps, which was great, except the maps on the gps are about 2 years old, which in israel is really outdated, given that there's basically permanent construction. we eventually made it to the people's house (with a few phone calls to them and some moments of panic on the part of both us and the gps). on the way back to tel aviv (i'll post more about jerusalem itself later), we asked the people for the best way to get to the freeway, since getting from the freeway to their house was such a problem. they told us about this brand new overpass thing and told us how to get there, and to ignore our gps until we were on the freeway. we turned it on, anyways, but were prepared to not listen to it. now, when the gps got confused, it would think about things for a few moments and then say, somewhat annoyed, "route recalculation" and rethink things. this time, though, when we got onto the overpass, the gps got very quiet, and, after a minute or so, said to us, "make u-turn where possible!" hee! and then it gave up on us entirely, assumed we were either driving through a forest or flying, showed our location in the middle of nowhere on its map, and sulked in silence until we got to a stretch of freeway it recognized, at which point it ordered us, with some relief, to drive 37 km. we'd never had id tell us to make a u-turn before! it was just so confused and offended, the poor thing!
anyhow, i'm off to...i dunno, read or something, since i'm pretty lethargic. i'm in sf 'till the 14th, so hopefully, i'll get to see lots of you before i go back to tucson! more posts and a ton of pictures to come soon!
cin and i spent a day and a half in jerusalem, staying at the house of relatively random people who my parents met a year ago on their trip in norway. getting to jerusalem was an adventure. we borrowed my aunt's car and gps, which was great, except the maps on the gps are about 2 years old, which in israel is really outdated, given that there's basically permanent construction. we eventually made it to the people's house (with a few phone calls to them and some moments of panic on the part of both us and the gps). on the way back to tel aviv (i'll post more about jerusalem itself later), we asked the people for the best way to get to the freeway, since getting from the freeway to their house was such a problem. they told us about this brand new overpass thing and told us how to get there, and to ignore our gps until we were on the freeway. we turned it on, anyways, but were prepared to not listen to it. now, when the gps got confused, it would think about things for a few moments and then say, somewhat annoyed, "route recalculation" and rethink things. this time, though, when we got onto the overpass, the gps got very quiet, and, after a minute or so, said to us, "make u-turn where possible!" hee! and then it gave up on us entirely, assumed we were either driving through a forest or flying, showed our location in the middle of nowhere on its map, and sulked in silence until we got to a stretch of freeway it recognized, at which point it ordered us, with some relief, to drive 37 km. we'd never had id tell us to make a u-turn before! it was just so confused and offended, the poor thing!
anyhow, i'm off to...i dunno, read or something, since i'm pretty lethargic. i'm in sf 'till the 14th, so hopefully, i'll get to see lots of you before i go back to tucson! more posts and a ton of pictures to come soon!
Cin and I are back in athens, after s lovely few days on gorgeous Santorini! It's a beautiful island, with very blue water, gorgeous cliff views, black-sand (or, really, black-pebble) beaches, and lots of antiquities. Cin and I spent our only full day there on the beach, bobbing around in the rather strong waves and laying under an umbrella, reading. We also spent a lot of time wandering about Fira, poking around the shops, taking in the views, and eating yummy Greek food. Best lamb ever! Also, best baklava ever. Yum! Yesterday, we had a half-day before our boat, so we went to the small and very informative museum of prehistoric Thera (another name for Santorini), then took a bus to Akrotiri. Sadly, the excavations have been closed for a few years since something collapsed and killed a visitor, so the only thing left to do was to hike, in our sandals and skirts, to the Red Beach. A bit of an adventure, but we seem to have made it ok! Then, we got back to Fira and immediately hopped on a bus to the Volcan Wine Museum, a really cool little museum on wine-making on Santorini. There was an audio tour and some entertaining robotic figures, and we got to taste yummy wines! I even bought a bottle to take back -- relatively inexpensive, yummy white wine! Then we went back to Fira and were taken to the ferry, where I, miraculously, didn't get sea-sick, despite how terribly rocky it was for some of the time.
Today, we discovered that we lost our guide book at some point yesterday -- not sure when or where, we had it on Santorini, so it got lost between then and now. Made a little trip in search of a new one, which was frustrating but successful in the end. Eventually, we made our way to the National Archaeological Museum, which has all sorts of cool, excavated stuff -- very cool, though we were somewhat overwhelmed by the end. Vases and statues of various gods and humans are very cool, but after 10 rooms of each, they all start to look the same. Still, pretty awesome.
Tomorrow, we're off to Delphi for the day, and then we fly to Israel at 2am! Meep! Should be a fun day, though!
Today, we discovered that we lost our guide book at some point yesterday -- not sure when or where, we had it on Santorini, so it got lost between then and now. Made a little trip in search of a new one, which was frustrating but successful in the end. Eventually, we made our way to the National Archaeological Museum, which has all sorts of cool, excavated stuff -- very cool, though we were somewhat overwhelmed by the end. Vases and statues of various gods and humans are very cool, but after 10 rooms of each, they all start to look the same. Still, pretty awesome.
Tomorrow, we're off to Delphi for the day, and then we fly to Israel at 2am! Meep! Should be a fun day, though!
weeee! cin and i are finally in greece! getting here was a bit of an adventure -- due to the worse than incompetent United staff at SFO, we ended up missing our outbound flight and being rerouted to a completely new, random one. so, instead of going sfo-calgary, calgary-frankfurt, and frankfurt-athens (the original version) we flew sfo-lax, lax-munich, munich-athens and got to athens at around 11pm instead of 6pm. this meant that we had enough time to take the bus to our hostel, shower very quickly, and take a 3.5 hour nap before getting up before 5am to take the metro to the port, where we got on an 8-hour ferry ride to santorini. that actually wasn't too bad -- i didn't get motion sick at all, a rarity for me, and we even slept a little. our hotel in santorini is pretty cute, and the island is super pretty. still, jet lag is catching up and we're both pretty out of it, especially me. ah, well. we're staying in fira, the capital of santorini, and right now we're in oia, a city on the northern edge of the island. it's famous for its sunsets, so we're gonna watch one and then catch the bus back to fira for dinner and sleep. tomorrow, the plan is to take the bus to kamari, which has one of the famous santorini black-sand beaches. so exciting!
anyhow, we're off to wander about some more and possibly drink more iced coffee. it's so hot here!
anyhow, we're off to wander about some more and possibly drink more iced coffee. it's so hot here!
i have a ton to write about, and no clue where to even start. it may or may not happen today, and if it doesn't, it'll have to be next week, since i'm going to mexico tomorrow and will be totally out of touch.
anyhow, i wanted to let you all know that i'm alive and well and super happy with life. hopefully, i'll post more soon!
anyhow, i wanted to let you all know that i'm alive and well and super happy with life. hopefully, i'll post more soon!
woohoo! it's so nice to be out of tucson for a bit! flight over was ok -- pretty turbulent, but the xanax worked its magic. the city is awesome, though -- it's very much a city, with skyscrapers and everything! and now i'm at toly's studio, smack in the middle of downtown, trying to convince my body that it's midnight and not 10pm, and that it's time to go to bed, since i'll be getting up at 8 tomorrow. but i cooked a yummy meal for toly and myself (he didn't even have salt in the house! meep!) and i'm looking forward to this weekend, and life is grand!
i can't tell if i'll be spamming lj all weekend, or if it'll be radio silence. i guess we'll see.
the only reason i want to go back to tucson is to hang out with the boy with potential. is that silly? i dunno. but he has potential, and i don't want to miss out on that because of the bad timing! i guess it'll figure itself out.
i can't tell if i'll be spamming lj all weekend, or if it'll be radio silence. i guess we'll see.
the only reason i want to go back to tucson is to hang out with the boy with potential. is that silly? i dunno. but he has potential, and i don't want to miss out on that because of the bad timing! i guess it'll figure itself out.
yes, everyone has posted about this, but it's worth posting again: go CA supreme court! finally, anyone who wants to can get married in the state of california! of course, it'll get appealed up the wazoo, and there's already talk of a constitutional amendment on the november ballot (another reason to vote absentee for me, i can vote against it) but this is such an awesome step! woohoo!
a few more kitty pics here!
so much stuff coming up! at the end of may (21-26, i believe) i will be in chicago for APS. i will then be going back to sf sometime around the june 3rd or 4th, and then flying to baltimore for the sleep conference a few days later (7-12). then, cin and i are flying to greece on th 18th! i get back on july 4th, will be in sf for a week or so, and then back here. also, i'm trying to figure out if it makes sense (mostly financially) to fly to sacramento for a friend's party in a few weeks. so much travelling!
so, my post a few posts ago, about the possibility of an email being lost in the vastness of the internet? it gave a completely unexpected result. a different friend, not the one i was referring to in the post, called me today because he thought i might have meant him (since it could've applied to him, actually, but didn't)! it was really good to hear from him, we haven't talked in a while. so, yay! always nice to hear from friends, and it was surprising and unexpected, and thus extra happy. weeee!
and now i have to write a "short 10-page" ethics paper, which will probably end up being about 6 pages.
and now i have to write a "short 10-page" ethics paper, which will probably end up being about 6 pages.
what are the chances that an email gets lost in the vastness of the internet? i emailed someone a while ago (more than a month), in response to an email from him, and haven't gotten a response. now, it's entirely possible that he either forgot or chose not to write back, i've done that before myself. still, i had a moment of paranoia yesterday, like, what if the email got lost and he thinks i'm terribly rude for never writing back? how likely is that? my technical knowledge in this matter is lacking.
if i sign up to do the susan g. komen 3-day breast cancer fundraiser walk next november, what are the chances that i'll be able to raise at least $2200 by then? that's the minimum required to do the thing...and i've done this before, i raised around that much last time i did the walk (6 years ago? maybe), but that was with my parents and sister helping me fundraise at work, and i'd like to not have to rely on that.
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