Archive
Friday Fun! (Soup Season)
Hello my lovely readers! It’s alternating between a pleasant 40-something degrees and so fucking damn cold that you just want to curl up under your pile of blankets and stay there forever. This clearly means that it is soup making season.
The great thing about soups is not only do they warm you up, but they also actually taste better when reheated than the first time around. Plus when you make a huge pot, there’s enough for dinner, lunch the next day, and some leftover to freeze for a busy evening later in the month. As such, I’ve been making soups non-stop yo.
I have a plethora of options for actual soup recipes, as opposed to what I did in previous winters which was dump boullion, veggies, and pasta or rice in water and call it good enough. No, no. Now I’m making such things as Thai Butternut Squash and Lime Soup or Kale Potato Soup or Root Veggies Red Lentil Dal. It’s divine. It’s awesome. It’s healthy. It’s one of the pluses to cold weather. I mean, seriously, I can’t imagine downing that dal in 90 degree heat. Just would not work.
Of course, when the soup doesn’t cut it to warm you up, gin always also helps. (Yes, I know technically it thins your blood so you get colder, but you still *feel* warmer, and that’s the point, isn’t it?)
Happy weekends all!
Friday Fun! (MIT Mystery Hunt)
Hello my lovely readers! Sorry I missed Friday Fun last week. Since nothing that exciting happened last weekend or this week, I thought I’d tell you about the MIT Mystery Hunt I participated in the weekend before. That was the original plan for last week’s Friday Fun anyway. ;-)
Team Unicorn friends Jeremy and Amy invited me to participate in their team in this year’s MIT Mystery Hunt. Basically, every January a bunch of groups of nerdy people get together and solve a series of mystery puzzles in a competition to win the coin and the hunt. That winning team then wins the privilege of designing the next year’s puzzle. It lasts from Friday mid-day to sometime on Sunday. I was pretty nervous going in, because I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Also I’d heard the people who participate are brilliant, and while I consider myself to be intelligent, I never claimed to be a genius. ;-) Plus, the teams are fairly large (I think there are 30ish members? Correct me if I’m wrong, Amy and Jeremy), and I only knew two team members going in….so yeah. I was nervous. But I was also excited!
I arrived after work on Friday and walked into a room full of tables of groups of people crowded around their laptops, as well as a few people at chalkboards and a table of food in the corner. I delayered from coming in from outside, tossed my bag of chips onto the communal pile, and kind of hesitated for a second. A gal I didn’t know immediately started talking to me and invited me to join the puzzle she and a couple of other gals were working on. It turned out that the puzzle had to do with musicals, and well, none of them knew much about musicals. You guys. Musicals have been my forte since I was 5 years old. So I jumped right in and started learning how the puzzling goes about.
A burrito run, some chit-chat, and some solving later, and I found myself totally engrossed in the world of puzzling. Not only were the puzzles really challenging, but the way they’re designed you need a group of people to work on them. A combination of everyone’s strengths. It naturally leads to group work in a way I never experienced in the classroom. Plus, everyone I met on the team was super-nice, friendly, and welcoming. They were funny and fun to hang out with. Shortly I found myself talking off-topic with one of the gals and found out we live in the same general area of Boston. We hit it right off discussing zombies and True Blood, and I felt right at home. I wound up showing up for each day of the puzzling, even though at first I wasn’t sure if I’d like it enough to. I also may have ordered a team tshirt and promised to come next year as well. ;-)
It was a real blast, and I encourage any nerds to participate. You can participate from a distance via internet connection if you want, so you don’t have to be local to play. Thanks a bunch, Amy and Jeremy, for encouraging me to come play! It was one of my best weekends I’ve had in Boston.
Friday Fun! (Creepy Sprouts Guy Update)
Hello my lovely readers! It’s been a long week for me what with being sick and all. I’m afraid I’ve been rather dull this week, so I thought why not update you all on Creepy Sprouts Guy?
I got on the bus a morning about a week or so ago and was floored to see Creepy Sprouts Guy sitting in one of the two-person seats and not eating sprouts. I know. Shocker, right? He was instead eating pine nuts. At least, they looked like pine nuts. Personally, I think that’s kind of an expensive breakfast, but whatever.
I carefully situated myself in one of the sideways-facing seats for optimal viewing. Would someone sit next to Creepy Sprouts Guy now that he was eating pine nuts? What’s creeping people out about him? Him or the sprouts? Well, sure enough, two stops later a 20-something, most likely grad student, woman plopped in the seat next to him. Creepy Sprouts Guy responded by giving her a look of shock and horror that I’ve only seen replicated in zombie movies when a non-zombie sees a zombie flailing itself at the window.
How DARE someone sit next to Creepy Sprouts Guy?!
Jesus, it was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud.
The next day, Creepy Sprouts Guy was back to eating sprouts and being left alone.
People, the mystery has been solved! Creepy Sprouts Guy eats sprouts to get a seat alone on the bus.
Friday Fun (The Hill)
I’ve mentioned previously that in spite of an intense desire to be athletic, I am not, nor have I ever been. I’m not talking about fit or in shape; I’m talking about that ability to just run up a hill or jump into a basketball game and not get hurt or…well, you get the picture. Even at my most fit, when I routinely biked at least 15 miles a day and had rock-hard abs, I still got hit in the face with the ball playing backyard volleyball. Heck, even when I would go running I certainly didn’t look good doing it. When it comes to fitness, I am not gracefully athletic. I am awkward.
Anyway, as part of my bid to get back in shape and relieve my anxiety and do good things for the planet, I’ve been biking to work. Well, not all the way to work. I can’t make it that far yet. It takes two city buses to get to my job, so I’ve been biking to the bus connection, which luckily is just about half-way to work. I live partway down one side of a very large hill. In the mornings, I have a nice, gradual slope up for a couple of blocks followed by around five blocks of downhill easy awesomeness. I’m sure you can see where this is going.
In the evenings, I hit the hill at the end of my ride. It’s like a giant middle finger taunting me about how much easier this all would have been if I’d just taken that second bus today. I’ll be riding along, feeling pretty fit and great, passing all the cars stuck in stand-still traffic and happy in the knowledge that I’ve cut my commute time nearly in half. Then the landmarks start popping up to remind me that the evil hill is nearly upon me. Now this hill is not just a hill. The top of it also happens to consist of a bridge, and bridges in Boston for some unearthly reason are narrower than the roads, which means cars that used to be arms-length away are suddenly at your elbow. And this isn’t a pretty bridge over a river or a gully or anything. No, no, it’s over the lovely commuter traffic on the Pike (translation: interstate, highway, Autobahn with a speed limit).
So, I’m at the end of my ride, tired, hungry, sweaty, and there’s the hill. I dutifully switch down a gear, but something’s fucked up in my bike’s gears and it won’t catch when I go down from 6 to 5. I have to go 6 to 5 to 4 then back up to 5 for it to catch. This makes me wobble for a moment in a way that makes the cars near me worry that I’m about to tip over into them. (This is a fair concern as I did tip over into a car once when I was in highschool, but that’s another story). Anyway, so after the wobbling, I try to regain my speed, generally to no avail. And there I am, moving at a pace that eventually becomes so slow that pedestrians are passing me and giving me that “Why don’t you just get off and walk the bike?” look. No matter how many gears I’ve moved up since starting this project (5, thank-you-very-much). No matter how much faster I get. No matter what, this hill is always just as difficult, and I always reach a near stand-still at the top of it.
It just refuses to get any easier. It refuses to stop making me look like an out-of-shape loser. In a way, this hill reminds me a lot of my anxiety. I want to just breeze through the day perfectly happy and not conjuring up new things to worry about and not get stuck in a loop of obsessive thoughts. I want to get up that hill looking powerful and athletic. But no matter what I do, no matter how I start the day, no matter how many times I tell myself this is going to be an awesome day and I’m going to do the right things and I’m going to treat the people I care about with the peaceful trust and respect they deserve, I still wind up sitting at home or in my cubicle at work with a racing heart and panicky thoughts powerhousing through my head.
My anxiety is just like that hill. It makes me look like an idiot and makes me feel real shitty about myself, but nothing I do seems to make me able to conquer it. And yet, I get up each day and say “today is going to be the day I beat that goddammed hill.” And that’s what I say every day about my anxiety too. Someday I am going to power through the ride and realize at the end of it that that hill felt non-existent, and someday I’ll be at the end of the day and realize that my anxiety is non-existent too.
Friday Fun! (Exercise and Zombies)
Hello my lovely readers! I hope you all had lovely weeks and are enjoying your Augusts. Remember that scientific studies have proven that you’re more likely to have a bad Friday the 13th if you believe in the curse, so just don’t believe it. ;-)
I’ve had a busy, but fun week. As a way to try to strategize against my anxiety until my doctor’s appointment next month (where I’m hoping to finally get some anti-anxiety meds), I’ve been seriously increasing the amount of physical activity in my week. If I’m exhausted then maybe I’ll be too tired to be anxious, eh? Well, it worked in uni anyway. So I started doing the 30 Day Shred
One of my pepper plants is blooming! But the blooms tend to wither up after one day and die. I have no idea if this means I’ll be getting peppers or not. Are the blooms supposed to whither? Anyone know?
So I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the increasing zombie trend. (If you haven’t heard much about it yet, trust me, you will be). Where is this obsession with a global pandemic coming from? I think maybe, on some level, everyone knows that the way we’re going right now isn’t sustainable. We have too many people using too many resources. A key element of a lot of the zombie lit is that it wipes out the population to a sustainable level, and the survivors are forced to return to the ways of our ancestors–growing their own food, going to sleep when it’s dark out, being physically active, etc… So people clearly know that two of the main issus are overpopulation and over-use of resources, and yet most people do little to nothing about it. What used to be a key element of our survival as a species–the instinct to reproduce as much as possible–is now our downfall. Whereas we used to lose a lot of people in childhood (seriously, as a history major I can tell you, kids were so disposable, some families named all the boys the same name because statistically only one would survive. It was that bad), now you pretty much have a really good shot at living a long, healthy life as long as you live in a western nation. And of course there’s that problem on top of the overpopulation problem. We currently have plenty of resources, but they’re unevenly distributed. I’m not saying there’s something wrong with there being some variance in the levels of comfort, but it’s so incredibly wrong that we have some people with multiple million dollar homes and an entourage they pay for and clothes that cost thousands of dollars while other people are living on the street or in dirt huts or are starving to death. And the thing is, I think everyone knows that the world is fucked up, but we’re tired and we’re beaten down, so we just figure the world is coming to an end, may as well have fun imagining it. My friends and I started talking about whether banding together to fix things was possible or if it’s just too late. One of my friends thinks it’s just too late. I’m inclined to agree with her. I think there’s just too many people who would rather live in happy ignorance than face the facts they know and make drastic changes to fix it. Of course, that’d be a lot easier if so much of the population weren’t debt slaves…., but that’s another rant for another post.
Anyway, so that’s what’s been going on here this week! Lots of physical activity and lots of philosophical discussions, lol. Oh also, I bet you’ve figured out by now that there’ll be a review of a zombie book next week. Those of you who follow me on Twitter already know which one. ;-)
What do you guys think about zombie lit? Where’s the popularity coming from?
Happy weekends!
Friday Fun! (Being in Your 20s)
Hello my lovely readers! Sorry for the relatively small number of posts this week, but I do hope you enjoyed them! Things will be back up to snuff next week. I’ll have at least two book reviews plus my very first product review for you all in spite of the fact that I have a rather large homework assignment due next week. Yay!
Last weekend was pleasantly relaxing. I went shopping with one of my friends, primarily for shoes, as I tend to wear through mine like nobody’s business. I blame the large amount of walking that’s necessary when you live in city. I also saw Dinner for Schmucks (definitely worth the ticket price) and had Thai food. Yum, Thai food!
Last night I was hanging out with two of my friends and we got to talking about our experience with being in our 20s so far. We all started our 20s highly idealistic and determined to change the world (samples: hippie tendencies, tv is evil mentality, save the planet, etc…) only to now have fizzled a bit on that. We got out of university and encountered the real world and the real world kind of beat down on our aspirations. Now we don’t want to save the world; we just want to be happy. I’m wondering if the next phase of our 20s will be some sort of moderation between the two: helping the world but striving for personal happiness and improvement simultaneously. That sounds like a happy medium to me, but I guess we’ll see. Anyone currently in their 20s or someone older who wants to reminisce on the experience? I think it’d be interesting to hear.
I hope you all have lovely weekends! Anyone have any special plans?
Friday Fun! (Scott Pilgrim, How I Met Your Mother)
Hello my lovely readers! I hope you all had great weeks and got some time in for reading. To my fellow Scott Pilgrim fans, I hope you got your hands on the final installment already. If not, best get to it before the movie comes out next month, eh? I don’t know if you’re aware, but the movie adaptation of the graphic novels was started before O’Malley had decided how the story was going to end, so the script writers kind of wrote their own ending. O’Malley says he’s happy with the film ending, but I’m curious to see if I will be as well. I was surprisingly happy with the ending of the graphic novel series. Generally I can find something to gripe about at the end of series, but not this time. I’m not sure if the movie can live up to it, but oh the third trailer has me really hopeful.
I was sick the beginning of the week with some sort of stomach thing, so I wound up watching a lot of tv. I started watching How I Met Your Mother and in that sick haze, wound up getting almost all the way through the first four seasons. It’s not a bad show. A few of the episodes are hilarious, such as Slap-Bet. The rest are at least entertaining. I have to admit, though, if I knew the main characters in real life, I would absolutely hate them. That doesn’t make it a bad show, but I doubt that’s the writers’ intention, since they based two of them on themselves. Obviously the womanizing Barney is a character we’re supposed to love to hate, but I don’t think that’s the case with the rest of them. Honestly, they’re all basically those people who just pick on anyone who isn’t exactly like them and apparently have no actual goals in life or morals. It seems like kind of an empty existence for characters who are in their late 20s to early 30s, but oh well. It’s good entertainment, but Friends is still better.
You can tell I spent a substantial portion of the week in bed, as I’m mostly yakking to you about tv shows and movies. Hm….oh! One of my pepper plants appears to finally have buds! I may have blossoms soon! I’m rather stoked.
Are any of you guys Scott Pilgrim fans? How do you feel about the upcoming movie? Any other thoughts on How I Met Your Mother? I hope you all have lovely weekends!
Friday Fun! (On Thursday!)
Hello my lovely readers! You are getting this week’s Friday Fun a day early because tomorrow’s my birthday, and I took the day off work and will be staying far away from the computer all day! I’m turning 24! I have to say, ever since I turned 20, I just feel like I’m improving with age. Like wine. Only with a lot more work than it takes for wine to get better with age, because let’s face it, they just stick that shit in a cellar somewhere and abandon it, whereas I work damn hard to get better. Anywho.
By some awesomeness two of my best gal pals also have tomorrow off, so I’ll be spending the day with them, getting bubble tea, going to a farmer’s market, and probably hitting up a bookstore too. Of course one of my favorite veg restaurants will also be visited. Because of the fact that my birthday falls on a holiday weekend I tend to get my presents early or late or get informed of what I will be getting. My dad contributed money so I could get my a/c unit, and my brother informed me he’ll be giving me homemade goat cheese he made himself from his own goats. It’s a whole bunch of awesomeness. Also, tonight I’ll be going out to dinner with my third best gal pal (there are three of them), so the celebration is nicely spread out.
I know, you guys do not care this much about my birthday, but I get four days off for it and am EXCITED!! Plus, I freaking love the 4th of July. I mean, one of my majors in uni was US History. Plus! The fireworks! The drinking! The bbq’s! The music! Did I mention the fireworks? The fireworks!!
Ok, that was a ridiculously excited post, but I think that’s warranted if only for the fact that I have a four day weekend. Four. Days. Wheeeeee!
Happy weekends, everyone! What will you be reading? What will you be doing for the 4th? *waves*
Friday Fun! (My Dad, Amazon Associate)
Hello my lovely readers! The invasive species removal on the Charles last Sunday was lots of fun! It was overcast, so we weren’t sitting in the direct sun for hours, and the river was so peaceful and beautiful. Removing the water chestnuts wasn’t so hard, but it did give me some splinters and blackened my fingernails, so I wound up with manicured fingernails for once this week to cover it up, haha.
The rest of the week was a bit rough for me. My dad had a triple bypass last year, and when he went in for his annual cardiac check-up they decided to check him in as an in-patient. He had a bit of an angina and other symptoms they were worried about. They put a camera in his leg up through to his heart (a procedure he’s had many times) and checked out his heart. Apparently some of the arteries that used to be completely blocked up now are losing blockage due to the bypass, so they put in stints. After that, they adjusted his meds and warned him he needs to quit his job as it is bad for his heart. He’s now home on short-term disability and trying to figure out if he can get long-term disability or change to a type of job that wouldn’t be bad for his heart. He’s spent his whole life doing machine tooling/carpentry/construction all of which is too stressful for his heart, so it’s unlikely he can find a job that won’t be bad for him. Although it all turned out well, the original phone call from my brother certainly sent me into a panic as we only knew that he’d been checked in, and the last time that happened he wound up getting the triple bypass. Given my mental issues, it takes me a bit to calm down and return to normal functioning after being that level of worried. I’m still a bit off today, but I expect the weekend will smooth the last bit of anxiety over.
In other news, I have a brief blog announcement. After a lot of consideration, I’ve decided to become an Amazon Associate. I waffled on this for a while until I saw that several book bloggers I highly respect are Amazon Associates. Additionally, if a reader decides they want to buy whatever it is I have reviewed, it will be easier for them to do so with one click than by opening another tab and going off to wherever they buy from. My reviewing style will not change beyond adding a link to buy the item. My reviews will stay the honest, cheeky style they’ve always been, and I promise to keep any Amazon links as unobtrusive as possible. I hope you all understand my decision and will still respect me as a blogger.
Happy weekends all!
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