School Days

I'm sure you're all waiting with breathless anticipation to hear about my first days at school, so here it goes...

Friday I was just happy because I wasn't going to work. I wasn't sure about traffic patterns on the 91 freeway, so I gave myself 2 hours to get there. it took less than an hour. i was happy. this gave me plenty of time to pay for parking (only $4, everything is cheaper at the CSUs) and get the book I needed. After paying $2 over the list price for my book ($48 for a softcover book!!! it was much more palatable paying for used novels), I was good and ready to explore and try to forget how much money I just paid. I didn't get too far before I found a "Daily Titan" and decided to sit down and read. It was very strange. They were still in summer/weekly mode. And they didn't really know if they should report the news or publish very un-amusing supposedly humorous stories about starting school, or un-hilarious guides on how to get your roomate to move out. There was an ad for some bar in costa mesa that has 145 beers on tap or something. I definitely would like to see that place, so the daily titan wasn't a complete waste.
At this point I could have started reading my $48 book, but I decided instead to fill in the dates on my barbie pocket planner after unsucessfully looking for a better planner for the last week. This left most of my attention free to people watch. And the same thing happened to me that happened after revisiting Berkeley after a long absence. The people weren't necessarily hot, but they were young, and plentiful, and that made them hot. Also, there were copious amounts of hot 18 yr old boys who were too pretty to go to a good school. yea inland!

Library 200: Information and Society: can you possibly thing of a more generic title. Class was actually the easiest one I'd been to in years. The professor actually told us his advice was to relax through the semester. I chuckled, but he was serious. yea for laid-back soft spoken librarians.

After a lecture from a librarian who wasn't the professor he gave us a worksheet to do, but the wireless connection wasn't working right and he sent us home early 1:45ish rather than 3. This worksheet is about web searching. we actually have to use search engines, write down our searches and results using advanced and normal modes, as if you've never used a search engine before. We were all sitting there waiting for class to get hard, but it never did.

Saturday and sunday was Library 202: information retrieval. This prof. worried me a bit because she sent a rather angry email to everyone because a lot of people had emailed her to say they couldn't buy the book. But in real life she is very cool. And gave really good lectures. the people in my class worry me a bit, because we had a 5 minute discussion on what sunday at midnight meant. Honestly, she said it plenty of times, very clearly, but people just kept asking follow up questions. Maybe they'll be weeded out at the end of the intro classes and I won't have to deal with them later.

It's really a strange mix of people in my classes, they're each about 40 people, almost half of whom already have 1 masters. there's even a lady who has a phd in biology, and after her kids were born, decided it wasn't for her. About half of the people are 10 yrs or more older than me. Almost everyone is doing the program part time.

I'll find out soon enough how tough the program is. so far there seem to be an awful lot of little assignments, like weekly 2 page summaries of articles. This was the sort of thing I was told you didn't do in grad school. But I'll gladly do short assignments constantly in return for never having to write a thesis.

On Saturday and Sunday Fullerton was practically deserted. The bookstore was open, but nothing else in the student union plaza there. it was very strange. it makes it really hard to buy a cup of coffee that way. They say it's because it's a commuter school, and no one lives around there, but if more things were open, maybe more people would come.

Another strange thing about fullerton is that it has an information desk, tourist brochures and one of those phone things that only calls the sponsors listed above on a lightup board.
The one cool thing is they don't charge you tax at the little restaruants if you show your student id. It's my goal to accumulate not paying $10 worth of tax to make it worth the cost of buying my id.

I'm really bored of my story now, so i'll end it without re-reading and cutting out the boring parts. oh well. just because I post doesn't mean you have to read.

this is fun 

some pics to keep you entertained, since i'll be at school friday-sunday and won't be posting. i like my new computer. 

better late than never... if i post alton pictures like the cool kids, then I'll be a cool kid too 

alton is happily folding a sign a kid made for him that reads "you could out cook bobby flay in your sleep" awwwww 

wheee! 

Yahoo News: Virtual Girlfriend

Cell phone Girlfriend?

Wow, all of the nagging, and none of the benefits. And you can't even buy paintbrushes to paint them like princesses. Where can I sign up?

Rant and Rave: Heeled flip flops

Rant and Rave: Heeled flip flops or Shoe-fly don't bother me

I totally have a problem. I'm not a shoeaholic, because really, I hate most shoes. They hurt my feet and make me sad. But, I may very well be a heeled-flip-flopaholic. Yesterday I bought another pair of heeled flip flops. This brings my total to 4 pairs of heeled flip flops. Since May I've purchased 5 pairs. I took one back when I bought another thinking that for sure I didn't need 4 pairs. But I guess I do. I may die unless I get every color of steve madden heeled flip flops. Or at least that's what my hand that controls my credit card thinks. Also, my black pair squeaks (well, only my right shoe), and I would really like an additional black pair that doesn't squeak.

They make me uneasy, I feel pressure to buy them. I go into ross telling myself that I'm not going to come out with another pair, yet i do. I'm pretty sure this is a sign of addiction. I am sure that these are most definitely a fad that won't stick around long, and I need to buy all my shoes now for my entire life. I should also buy one pair one size bigger in case I ever get pregnant and my feet swell up.

I guess I should feel lucky that I'm addicted to $10 shoes and not $600 shoes. These flip flops really are the perfect shoe though. you can dress them up, you can dress them down. And this is California, you can wear them everywhere, any time, any season. Hmmm.. I should buy a white pair for my wedding...

Yahoo News: Free Donuts

Let's see how often Matt reads my blog

Donuts for grades. I see no problem with that. As long as the kid doesn't eat an entire dozen in one sitting. When I was a kid I got some card that got me a free bakery cookie every time I went to the grocery store, for no reason at all. It was probably good business to shut kids up by giving them cookies rather than have them screaming and bothering the paying customers.

Weekend update

Yesterday I was too bored to post, it happens sometimes.

Sunday I went to an Iron Chef pot luck party, or as a former roomate of mine might call it, a death party. Everyone brought something using the theme ingredient, and the theme ingredient was nuts. It actually led to some surprisingly good things, like a pineapple almond fried rice, pear and gorgonzola salad with candied walnuts, and chocolate hazelnut cheese cake. Now my friends have proven they can cook, and if I show up to another christmas potluck full of KFC and store bought macaroni salad I'm going to be very disappointed.

I made the pillsbury bake-off $1 million winning recipe, which was much better than It looked and sounded. Probably not worth $1 million, but better than I expected. Oat and Honey granola pie I had to go buy corn syrup for this recipe. it was $3.29. Now, I'm under the impression that soda companies flavor their soda with corn syrup because it's cheaper than sugar, even though everyone prefers sugar. So, I wonder, is there so much demand by soda companies who use the entire world's stock of corn syrup that the home consumer has to pay through the nose? Or is the cheapness of corn syrup a lie they tell just so they can continue making an inferior product? Or do they just know that there's only one brand that consumers can buy and fix the price artificially high?

On saturday I got my new computer all set up and DSL, or is it cable, installed. Now, I'm happy with my computer again, and ready to start school. I spent a good 3 hours playing neopets with my new computer. This lead me to find out that there's a new lizzie mcguire cd coming out at the end of the month. And its about 1/2 songs I actually like, including ces't la vie, the song from the disney "life size" movie featuring tyra banks and a younger Lindsay lohan. also, the perfect day song from legally blonde, and the that's what girls do song from something...it also features a karaoke track for some of the songs. maybe it'll go on sale at target when it comes out. who wants to sing lizzie mcguire karaoke with me?

The cap of my blue jones soda today said: Soon you will encounter a whole new world of opportunity. I think it's right. And if only the purple corduroy messenger bag was on sale it would be the perfect accessory for me to take to school, make lots of friends and find me a husband. oh well. If Lizzie McGuire is my only companion, so be it.

Also, Hilary Duff's new single " the math" is coming out soon. Although, apparently it's on the metamorphosis cd already. It features gems like "if you can't do the math, then get out of the equation" and "is it a minus or a plus, does enough equal enough." ahhh math.... i wonder if hilary duff has found a whole new following of 12 year old geek boys.

does this work? 

More deep frying

Last night my sister and I did some frying. We used the boxed tempura mix that you can buy at the 98cent store and added dry hidden valley ranch powder. You have to add a lot to get a big change in flavor.

We did all the usual stuff: zucchini, broccoli, onions. and then we tried what i'd been wanting to try ever since i got the fryer. a deep fried sandwich, Roast beef and american cheese on buttermilk bread. I cut it into quarters, battered and fried it. It was good, i'm going to have to work on perfecting it. It was great with a little garlic mayo i got from the garlic festival. And of course my sister dipped hers in ranch dressing.

Also, deep frying really does help freezerburned chicken nuggets.

Barbie @ Hallmark

Barbie

Also Barbie

If only my birthday and christmas weren't so far away.

I spent $54 on this stuff already, and I could easily spend another $50, more actually. So, please, when I'm with you, keep me away from hallmark stores.

Frying Update

This weekend salmon pieces were on sale $1.99 for a beautiful 6 oz piece. So, I thought i would try salmon fish and chips like they have at Rock Bottom Brewing in Long Beach. Well, not the chips. I used alton brown's batter recipe with trader joe's brown weasel ale as the beer, and it was good. It wasn't rock bottom quality, but it was only my first try. The salmon was actually of fantastic quality, maybe I should try a more flavorful beer, or maybe the temperature was a bit off.

The temperature wasn't off for the croquettes though. I don't know why but those things are delicious. I bought them frozen from the Japanese grocery store. They're as easy to make as those hash brown patties, and so much better tasting. I doubt I'll ever make croquettes myself, because I can't imagine them working out better. I tried pan frying mashed potato cakes once, it was kind of a small disaster, they just didn't stay together. they worked a bit better when i rolled them in panko, but not much. I guess it's just not in my blood. It's a good thing the frozen ones are so darn tasty.

My next venture is part of a series that my sister and I are using to test the theory that everything not sweet is made better by ranch, either the salad dressing or the dry mix.
we are going to try fish battered in a mix flavored with ranch powder, then also have the ranch as a dip for the cooked fish. I'll let you all know when I figure out the prize winning recipe for some kind of cook-off.

Yahoo news: Restaurant for Cats

as if meow tv wasn't enough...

Meow Mix Cafe

who wants to come with me to new york?

Fullerton

I went to Fullerton this weekend for my orientation. I'd never been to fullerton before. But it was kinda pretty much how I imagined it, although it was a bit newer.

Being that school wasn't in session, the campus was practically deserted, there were no people to watch, and unfortunately, the book store was closed. But I parked in a spot that would make anyone who has ever driven in berkeley drool. How far from campus was it? Oh, I don't know, 10 steps maybe.

Surprise, surprise, it looked like a college campus. I didn't do too much exploring being that it was about 90 degrees. The strange thing was that to advertise their shindigs or whatever, clubs but small paperboard sign on sticks and stick them into the ground, like those people who have the political signs in their front garden, or lawn. I don't understand, but I guess it saves the school money because they don't have to put up super expensive kiosks on sproul with glass cases that can easily be smashed or otherwise defaced.

The video conferencing technology was super awesome. You sit at long tables with microphones for every 2 people. and you press the button on you mic, the camera will find you and you can talk. It was cool! I wish I had asked a question so I could play.

The demographic of my program is younger than I was expecting. I'd say about half of the people were girls within a few years of my age. Then there were 35-40% older women and that leaves 10-15% for older men. And lets not forget the 1 male who fell into my age category. He was originally from England, now he lives in San Diego, and should be able to have his pick of any of the girls in his classes down there.

Nutrition Information

The tin of altoids i bought at the 98 cent store with the abominable snowman (labeled: abominable snowmint) on it is making my desk drawer smell like mints, so i had to switch it to a draw that didn't contain any other food. in the process i noticed that the serving size is 3 pieces.
3 pieces has 10 calories and 2 carbs. 2 carbs for 3 mints. now why would they ever make that sugar free crap if you could get something respectable like altoids at less than 1 carb per mint?

i fished the box of tic tacs out of my purse and found that one tic tac has less than .4 grams of carb. further investigation led me to find that 2 tic tacs are about the same size as 1 altoid, and that at 3 calories for 2 almost the same as an altoid.

now i'm going to find some buttermints. those must be worse for you, because they taste better.

Yahoo News: Sexy Names

What's in a Name?

something to think about.

Library School Update

I start library school at the end of the month, in preparation for that I have orientation this Saturday. And in preparation for that, I had to complete the "new student technology course" this week. This course consists of 6 short documents you have to read, one evaluation of fill out, one super short assignment basically there to make sure you know how to upload a word document, and free run of the new student message board, which, when you start class for real will be full of class discussion relevant to class, but is now full of pictures of people's cats. I totally thought librarians and cats were just a stereotype, a stereotype based in reality is more like it.

So the assignment was to write a paragraph about yourself in a word document and then send the word document via the electronic "black board" site. Really, really simple, I'm not sure how to even mess that up. So I sent in my paragraph yesterday, it was about me going to the garlic festival and trying garlic ice cream. And this morning I checked and I recieved 10/10 points. Yea for me. I can attach a file. And the person checking all the files wrote me back a few sentences so I could see where instructor comments go, how that works and stuff. She also said she'd always been curious about garlic ice cream. Nice, cordial response, the black board works fine. Great. Then I notice that the average class grade is 8.73. Not that the grade counts for anything, but really how do you do that assignment wrong? Are there just a few losers who didn't attach the file correctly who got a zero? and that brings everyone's 10 grade down, or are there people who get less than the full 10 points? or are the grades just random to show a reasonable class average? I don't know. But I can only hope that the rest of my assignments are 1/10 this easy.

Meanwhile, this internet thing is great an all, but I'm meeting these people on Saturday and I don't know what to wear. If I wear my cardigan will they think i'm some freakish librarian stereotype? (not like they don't all have their cats at home). Do I dress for school, or do I dress for business? Should I carry a backpack, messenger bag or a large purse? Some things are so complicated.

Rave: Ciroc Snap Frost Vodka

I think this link should take you past the first page where you have to enter your birthday

Ciroc

anyway, this is the greatest vodka ever. somehow, it's made of grapes, the special snap frost grapes, from france. or something.

anyway, i read about it last week in the la times business section. it was an article about how the california pizza kitchen guys are planning to change the mood of their late night dining. it will still be kid friendly by day, but by night they're trying to draw in a hipper, cocktail drinking crowd. and they're starting with this magical vodka. I don't know if it's available at the CPK near you, or anywhere yet. But I tried it at the LA Food Show (1 restaurant so far in manhattan beach) and it was amazing. I was a little wary about trying it in a cosmo, because i thought the other flavors might mask it, but it was the first drink on the list, and i couldn't have been happier with it. then the waitress left us for freaking ever, and i couldn't order a second drink. I wanted to try a ciroc and tonic to truly taste it. but my pocketbook thanks her for being inattentive.

I have yet to see this in a store, but I also haven't been looking yet. But, when I do find a bottle, I will own one.

My friends who tasted it with me tell me it's flavored like Japanese grape candy. I also need to try some of this candy.

Rave: mini dog

I saw the cutest dog this morning. it was a miniature collie. I'm pretty sure those don't exist, but i swear i saw one. Maybe it was some furry little lap dog that had the good fortune to be marked like a collie. But, that thing was cute. I don't think it could pull you out of a well though, nor would it even bother trying.

News story

Texas Sex-Ed Textbooks Face Contraceptives Battle

This is not really surprising news. but the news isn't the interesting part, this is:

They say the books are lacking. For example, one textbook under review advises that a good way a teen-ager can prevent a sexually transmitted disease is to get plenty of rest so he or she can have a clear head about sex and choose abstinence.

Rant: Splenda

Splenda did me in again. But I'm learning my lesson.

I went to the 98cent store today at lunch as I often do. And they got
in a lot of cool new stuff since I went last week. So I was distracted
and happy as I wove my way into the grocery section. And I was craving
something that was ridiculously flavored, and I stopped in front of the
Jones soda section in the fridge. Did i want blue, i always get blue, i
should try something else. how about green, hmm maybe. Vanilla cola,
could be good, but I'm in the mood for something fruity. chocolate
fudge, i remember trying a chocolate soda like 15 years ago and it was
the worst thing ever. then i see it. Watermelon, that could be great.
So i picked it up, avoiding the one with the kid making a funny face,
opting instead for a skateboarder. Wow, this was gonna be great! A new
flavor of jones soda!

In chosing Jones soda I passed by the large display of melon soda in a
super cool metal bottle, imported by Sangaria, Torrance. product of
japan. I pick up a bottle of that on my way to the checkout as an
afterthough.

And i pay, and get to my car, very excited about trying this new
watermelon flavor, i crack open the twisty cap, take a sip, taste the
watermelony goodness going down my throat, and pause. "Hmmm, something
is a little strange" i think. So i look at the front label. No, it doesn't say diet. So i look at the nutrition label. 90 calories, that's suspiciously low, but it does have 89 more calories than diet soda. then i start on the ingredient list. carbonated water, corn syrup,
color... splenda. the last ingredient is splenda. I bought Jones's version of C2. UGGH. I was so disgusted with myself I had to stop drinking, even though it wasn't horrible, just a little off...

Splenda, is slightly less disgusting than the other fake sweeteners, but not less disgusting enough. and really, why do they think they can just stick it in stuff and not have people notice. at least with nutra sweet and the like the packages are CLEARLY labeled. grrrr.

So, I'm learning my lesson. I will try to stop making horrible impulse purchases at the 98 cent store. I know that horrible bottle was meant for me because the fortune said "you will find much fufilment with someone special very soon" surely, that was for me.

Meanwhile, this melon soda is fantastic. I may have to go back and buy a case. This will not be a horrible impulse purchase if i still want it tomorrow.

Pictures: Bonfante and Garlic

http://photos.yahoo.com/bonafantegardens/

Not my pictures, but pictures of me nonetheless. The weekend of July 24-26, 2004.

Bonfante Gardens and the Gilroy Garlic Festival

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I wanna live forever