Friday, March 31, 2006

Hat


Hat
Originally uploaded by yanajenn.

And my parents wonder why I'm so messed up. Maybe if they hadn't plied me with cigars from a young age...

Really, they're just plastic cigar tubes.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

*cough*

Rundown of symptoms:

Chest tight, cough starting up. Sniffly, throat getting more sore. Body aching, and not from Monday night yoga. Eyes scratchy, burning. And I'm feeling a bit loopy and unfocused, which means it must be time for a Spring cold to kick in.

I'm going home, stopping at the public library (have to pick up my holds before they expire) and my favorite Chinese place for hot and sour soup and steamed dumplings, my favorite "I need comforting" foods. Hopefully I can beat the cold into submission before it sets of my asthma, which would at least double the length of my being sick.

Gee, wonder how many people I've managed to infect today (sorry classmates, coworkers, and library patrons). Just sharing the joy!

Friday, March 10, 2006

More on stupid smart filters

Another great BoingBoing story today, this one about the apparent inability of SmartFilter to catch what to most people would obviously be porn. Or at least, not appropriate for children.

...while Smartfilter "overblocks" non-pornographic sites like BoingBoing as "nudity sites" a quick check of their filtering engine reveals that some of the more popular "Adult Baby" fetish websites do not appear to be blocked as adult content: babyapparels.com, diaperproject.org, adultbabycamp.org, and ldfashions.com, for instance. Some contain erotic fiction, some are indistinguishable from regular kid-ware stores. But they're not Toys-R-Us, they're fetishware sites for adults.
...Further proof of SmartFilter's lack of smarts.

Friends of mine will know immediately why I find this incredibly hilarious.

Friday Funnies

We're all slacking off at work since the boss is out sick (we're not really, Mary, no worries), so I thought I'd share the following webpages. Warning: do not drink anything while reading, you may choke to death.

Chinese menu in broken (seriously broken) English. Mmmmm, fragrant spring onion sauce explodescow son, my favorite.

The last menu item is the best: "Fuck the salt(beautiful pole) duck chin"

"and with that, I'm stuffed. Duck Bukkake always makes me feel full."

More pages:
Another Chinese menu

Episode III: The Backstroke of the West

And just to assure everyone that I'm all far equal opportunity cultural embarassment, here's a collection of mangled Chinese and Japanese symbols. Usually tattooed on someones ass.

http://www.hanzismatter.com/

Of course, I shouldn't poke too much fun. After all, I have two Chinese (Japanese?) dragons tatooed on my left hip. Who knows what that signifies. :-)

Sunday, March 05, 2006

2006 Me


2006 Me
Originally uploaded by yanajenn.

Or it might be a very late 2005 me, I can't really remember. Either way, compare this photo to the one in my profile (the black and white one) and, damn, I actual *have* lost weight! Yes, I know that from my weekly weigh-ins, but sometimes it takes one of your student workers telling you that you don't look much like your photo on Facebook to really underline the fact.

Time's a wastin'

Yesterday:

Got out of bed around noon. Granted, I did lay there and read for awhile, but still...

Got showered, dressed, and headed out to get rolls of quarters from the bank (stupid laundry day) before it closed. Stopped at Schnuck's for doughnuts/pastries/things to eat that I didn't have to cook. Wandered by their "housewares" section and amazingly, surprisingly, found some cooking gear that I had been in search of for the past few months. Very serendipitous. Went home, ate "breakfast" and settled down in front of the computer to ostensibly decide what I was going to do for my Museum Informatics class project.

A round of the Sims, an episode of Carnivale, several hours of trying to figure out why I couldn't load the Second Life module onto my computer (still haven't quite fixed the problem), and a lot of dinking around the web later...and I still hadn't decided on a project. No big surprise there, unfortunately. And Second Life might have had bearing on my deciding on a project, dammit. Earlier in th eweek I had watched a taped epsidoe of Samurai Champloo, so I also just *had* to make absolutely sure that there was one more episode left in the series, because if there wasn't, I was going to just *die* from Wednesday's cliffhanger ending.

Things I actually accomplished:


  • went to (finally) check and see that the water heater was turned down to 120 degrees and discovered that a previous tenant made off with the thermostat face. No idea what temp the heater is at, so that task got checked off my list.
  • Gave up on copying yet one more craft project from various books and put said books by the door to return to the library on Monday.
  • Deposited a refund check at the bank. And got quarters for laundry.


Today:

Well, it's 2:00pm and I'm on the computer again, you guess how I'm doing. At least I've eaten breakfast. At 4:00 I go over to my yoga instructor's place to set her up with a website (she's also a massage therapist, guess what I'm doing this in exchange for) and at 6:00 I head to Carrie's for Oscar Night. Not much time left to decide on a project (the needs analysis is due on Tuesday), and the dishes still need washing. And I need to do my taxes. And I need to look over my to-do list and see what else is coming up that I need to accomplish. Bah.

But I'm alive, and healthy. I've got friends and cats who love me. A roof over my head, heat on a snowy afternoon, a full belly, and a place of my own. Life's pretty good.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Recipe for Fruit Pizza

I figured that since I've been procrastinating for, oh, about 4 months now , that I might as well put it on my blog, so that I could just tell people where to go (...) when they wanted it. So, here is the perennial favorite, the dish that won second place in the 2005 Library Holiday contest, the dessert that leaves you crying out for more (and it even makes good breakfast eatin', if there are actually any leftovers), the Miller family's famous Fruit Pizza.



Fruit Pizza


Crust
1/2 cup butter or margerine
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cup flour
1 t cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 to 1/2 cup ground nuts (almonds preferred)

Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in egg. In separate bowl, mix remaining ingredients together. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and stir well until blended. Press in to greased pizza pan. Bake 10-12 minutes at 400 degrees, or until golden brown. Cool.

Topping
1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 small can pineapple slices or chunks
1 can mandarin oranges
1 banana, sliced and dipped in lemon juice to prevent browning
1 pint fresh strawberries
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Drain canned fruit, reserving the juice.

Blend cream cheese, sugar, and 2 tablespoons of the reserved juice together. Spread on crust, not quite up to the edges.

Slice and arrange fruit in a pleasing pattern on top of the cream cheese.

Combine remaining juice with cornstarch. Heat in microwave oven or on stovetop until juice has thickened slightly. Drizzle mixture over fruit.

Cover Fruit Pizza with plastic wrap and cool in refrigerator for at least 3 hours.



Serve and stad back!