Beauty and the geek 3

I very much want to blog about last night's show. But I don't have time.

Do yourself a favor. Watch the rerun tonight!

Does a trout live in fresh or salt water?, and other questions will be answered.

Blog-People

Not all librarians are crazy, technophobic freaks like our ringleader. Some are quite nice.

At this week's ALA convention there was a blogging Salon/ Roundtable thing. It looks like it was great fun. You know them from their blogs, now meet them in person!

I'd definitely like to be part of that in a few years. But I suppose in a few years, the dynamic will be completely different.

link to wiki link of ALA bloggers (see top link to download a full sheet of blog people labels)

Pictures

TTFN

It's a bad year for tigers and Winnie the Pooh Characters.

First Tony the Tiger, then Tigger, and apparently Piglet just died too. Pooh and the Narrator have been dead for awhile.

Pooh Mourns Tigger, Piglet

Things for Kids

My Herbie Review

Herbie was all in all fun enjoyable. I recommended it to someone in class yesterday who has kids 5 and 10 yrs old. That being said, I did mention that Herbie was a bit more sinister than I thought he should be. I've been thinking about it, and I guess it's just me. I'm sure kids are hardwired to know that Herbie is the good guy, so even if he does creepy stuff, it's funny, because they know it will work out in the end.

I'm used to my Disney stories where the villian is punished and the hero is treated well. We expect the junk yard guys to be squirted with oil and almost run over and stuff. What I don't expect, and what is completely unacceptable is that a young girl is trapped in a car who drives her around, fast and recklessly down the road. I choose not to listen to the reports that Lindsay is a party girl and such, and remember her large body of work as a disney kid star. You can't trap a girl like that in a car!

Besides Lindsay, Herbie is supposed to be a disney hero too. Disney heroes do not torture their allies! Herbie is really just a spoiled brat looking out for #1. I don't remember much about the original Herbie, was he that bitchy? Save the tortured, flawed heroes for literature. When it comes to Disney movies, I want black and white!

Even though we all learn a valuable lesson, and it all works out in the end, Herbie never gets a chance to really redeem himself. It's not like he does much of anything that benefits Lindsay more than it benefits him.

Unlike Kenny, I wasn't creeped out by the antenna boner. What I was creeped out by was the fact that Herbie, the sentient car, was in lust with what we are lead to believe is just a normal car. Granted, it must be a lonely life being a sentient car. But liking a regular car is like a person liking a mannequin, or a blow up doll. Kind of sad and creepy. Luckily, (and I hope this isn't too much of a spoiler) at the very end the other car winks at us, ha ha audience, you thought I was regular through the whole movie, But watch out! all cars are secretly alive and can torture you at will!

I've kinda had a thing for Justin Long since I noticed him as the kid in ED. It was nice to see him in a movie less crappy than his usual ones.

~~~~~~

Cartoons

To continue my trend of preparing for Anime Expo by only paying attention to non-anime cartoons, I went to Best Buy today and picked up Danger Mouse. Somehow I missed the memo when it was released on May 31, or I would have involved it in my birthday somehow. But I have it now. and as soon as 5:00 rolls around there's nothing stopping me from tearing home to watch my DM. He is the greatest, and he is magnific, quite possibly the greatest secret agent in the world. And it was a deal, $20 for 5 hrs. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to include Banana man or Count Duckula. But maybe if DM does ok, they'll release those two. I was really into Count Duckula, I even read the comic books.

I'll let you know how much better it is than I remember tomorrow.

Planning what to wear to AX is much harder than I expected, It seems that I've recently acquired an awful lot of cartoon t-shirts, along with other appropriate nerd attire. I need to make a note of this and stop buying them. It's really a good think I've been able to hold out on buying a Rainbow Brite shirt. I don't know how long my willpower will last though. I watch "what not to wear," I know I'm too old for that stuff. It doesn't stop me from wanting it though.

Friday I'll wear my Jem shirt. It'll be good. Tons of kids will ask me what Jem is, and I'll feel 100 years old. That way I can be super young the rest of the days and not mind.

I'll be sure to post pictures of my mystery non-anime costume that I'm wearing Saturday. I got confirmation today. They're expediting the shipping because the mistake was their fault. Let's hope I get it in time to make the necessary alterations.

their bottoms are made out of springs

A sad day for America:

Paul Winchell, voice of Tigger, dies in Calif.

Winchell was also an inventor with a patent for a prototype artificial heart he built in the 1960s in the same workshop in which he created his ventriloquist dummies, Blue Star said. He also created an "invisible" garter belt, a flameless cigarette lighter and an early version of the disposable razor.

beauty and the geek 2

My blog seems to be going through a small identity crisis, I hope it pulls itself out. I don't think I changed any settings, but it seems to have changed. Maybe it's throwing a tantrum because of the quality of my blogging lately. I think I'll delete yesterday's post, because I completely failed to make any points at all.

I was out wed. so I had to catch the rerun of beauty and the geek last night, and boy was it worth it. ---MAKEOVER!

The girls get sent shopping. Their task is to buy their partner new clothes, and to mix things up, their challenge is to spend as close as possible to $1000 (including tax) without going over. Oh boy, was my price is right gene perked up. Gosh were they adorable trying to figure out 8.25% tax in their heads.

Now, I'm not particularly good at math. I don't really know what happened, but I totally must have missed that day in elementary school where everyone memorized their multiplication tables. It's really embarassing actually. The basic concepts of math don't freak me out though. I love figuring out a good percent off. But I don't actually figure it, I estimate it. It works out fine for me, because I tend to round up, and then when I get to the cash register I'm pleasantly surprised.

The girls proved themselves very worthy. They squirmed a bit with the math, but (unfortunately) none of them are actually stupid. And they all took their treasures home to their boys.

Not only did the boys get a new wardrobe, but the girls directed a hair stylist too. And then it was time for the transformation. You could see the potential in some of the boys, obviously, not Richard, with his giant monkey lips and ears. But who knew under that unwashed geek exterior the other boys were actually attractive. I wish I could link to the makeover pictures, but I can't. Just rest assured that no one would ever mistake them for geeks (until they open their mouths). Mr. scout leader and Mr. dukes of hazard fan club VP, we almost hot. But there seems to be something about our tv geeks that prevents them from shaving. If I was the partner, I'd defintely put the smack down. Light hair and dark stubble do not equal hot.

Now that the boys are made over their task is to collect as many phone numbers from girls on the street as they can in 30 mins. So they drop them at a hot spot and they go at it. And this is where I disagree with the principal. I disagree even more than the TLC show where they make you over and teach you how to date, and then force you to date a stranger from the street.
Who does this sort of thing??? Obviously, it's widely accepted or it wouldn't be on so many tv shows. But I don't initiate conversations with strangers, and I also don't give strangers my phone number. Picking people up on the street used to be completely vulgar, when did it become acceptable?? Miss Manners says that you don't even have to acknowledge men on the street, because they are obviously talking to you for the wrong reasons: wanton intentions, not respect for you. I could continue this diatribe about strangers forever. But I'll stop out of respect for my aling blog.

The boys do a surprisingly good job, with the exception of Richard, of course. Really he was probably just an spoiled little bratty only child and he hasn't grown up yet. He's probably naturally smart about some things, but has absolutely 0 patience for trying things he's not good at. And when he's failing at something, instead of throwing a tantrum, he just starts to act up, pretending that he's really being very clever. I wouldn't be surprised if he was some kind of plant. He seems to be completely against learning any of the lessons the show is trying to teach. Gosh he's annoying. And he partner is so patient. If he was my charge there'd have been a stiletto through his skull long ago.

The numbers are got, I think, possibly, this is the first time in history geeks have collected so many phone numbers and won't call the girls. Now 2 teams have to go head to head, and one will be booted from the house. Girls have to do simple math, boys have to answer dating questions.
Math is pretty straight forward. whatever. But dating, that's just ridiculous. Granted the boys had a book, and they were supposed to learn the material in the book. But the questions were so retardedly subjective. "Who pays on the first date?" obviously the man, if he's worth his salt. But the 2005 answer is "whomever asks." whatever. In my world the man always asks (which may be why I'm single). The other question was "how much should you tip on a first date to show that you're generous" the show's answer was 20%. Bleh I say. Tipping should reflect service I say. Also, *showing* how much you're tipping is vulgar. If the girl isnt' paying, she doesn't need to see the bill. It's very much rude to show people what their gifts cost, and the dinner is a gift. There was another question, but I forget.

What did I learn from this show: not much. What ideas that I already have were reinforced from this show: 1. Nerd boys can be totally hot with the right attention.2. This modern dating thing is not for me. One of you had better set me up with a friend soon. Because I don't talk to strangers on the street, and I'm not about to start.

They're casting for season 2 now. I, unfortunately, don't think I qualify for the beauty part. I can only hope that season 3 will be reversed and hot guys will will take nerdy girls under their wings. I can definitely geek myself up for casting. I am an aspiring librarian with a closet full of cartigan sweaters, respectable length skirts, a cat, a blog, a love for tv shows that teach stuff who has been to yearbook, and anime conventions and doesn't talk to strangers. I'd be pretty ill prepared to teach my partner physics or something though.

Does my blog look weird?

someone help!

Too bad I can't sing, or dance

and I'm not freakishly skinny.

Mattel plans open auditions to find star of Barbie musical

Missing a phone?

Hi friends,

Apparently someone from a library (I don't know which one) called my house because my (house) phone number was in a cell phone they found. My sister took the message, and she's notoriously bad at receiving information over the phone.

So, if you've lost your phone, visit the most recent library that you've been too, and maybe they'll have it.

Aren't libraries great?!

land of the not-so-free

I try to stay away from posting about politics, and post pictures of cute animals instead. But today, step 1 went through (again) in a plan that will make me question my national loyalty (again). Lets hope it fails in the senate again. If not, I hear Toronto has a good library school.

House Approves Flag-Burning Amendment

Not satisfied with passing a law, they want to make it a constitutional ammendment.

Lovely rhetoric:
Ask the men and women who stood on top of the (World) Trade Center," said Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham, R-Calif. "Ask them and they will tell you: pass this amendment."

Good, evoke dead people who can't voice their own opinion. That's totally fair and totally legitimate. Let's hope those people are thinking more like this next guy.

But Rep. Jerrold Nadler D-N.Y., said, "If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value the symbol more than the freedoms that the flag represents."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't we supposed to have the freedom to protest the government without fear of punishment?

Frankly my dear...

It seems like the AFI has run out of stuff to do, and I'll it does is make lists now.

So here's the top 100 movie quotes of all time

The criteria is pretty vague:

CULTURAL IMPACT: Movie Quotes that viewers use in their own lives and situations; circulating through popular culture, they become part of the national lexicon.
LEGACY: Movie Quotes that viewers use to evoke the memory of a treasured film, thus ensuring and enlivening its historical legacy.

But at least they freely admit that they're full of crap:

Great movie quotes become part of our cultural vocabulary. When you consider that any phrase from American film is eligible, you realize this is our most subjective topic to date. We expect nothing less than a war of words as we reignite interest in classic American movies.

Even in the top 10 the entries are a bit questionable. I think the rules needed to be clearer if this was a list of impact at the time, or still relevant impact.

Looking at the list, there are plenty of relevant movie quotes that have become part of the language. Many of them would probably be unique SIPs, (if amazon was cataloging them).

But there are others that were already part of the language, and that's why they were in the movie in the first place. I'm pretty damn sure that "Houston, we have a problem" predates Apollo 13 by a few decades. And movies that were books: Sherlock Holmes, Gone with the Wind.... I'm no linguist, but I'd assume, based on the super popularity of the books that those quotes were already in the American conciousness before the movies...

Enjoy the list. At least this list doesn't make me feel stupid. I've heard of almost all of the movies.

Nobody puts Baby in a corner.

world roundup

Apparently it reached 86 degrees in China this weekend. This causes puppies to take naps next to frozen water bottles

Is that what the news is like in other parts of the world? Is a nice day in China equivalant to rain here? oh my gosh, there's heat coming from the sun, lets interview people on the street to see how they deal with it.

meanwhile, in Ethopia, a girl has guardian angel lions.

"A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they didn't eat her," Williams said.

Open all night

It seems MSN has made a list of establishments that are open 24/7

Seeing that The Kettle has made the LA list, I have good reason to doubt the quality of this list. Take them as partial lists of places open 24/7, rather than any indication of endorsement or quality. It seems that major chains such as FEDex Kinkos, Sav-on, and Denny's make the list. What? Denny's is open 24/7? shock!

Los Angeles

San Francisco

Las Vegas
Is Las Vegas really necessary? Isn't it harder to find places that close than places that will take your money 24/7?

Feel free to scorn your least favorite locations below.

Note: buy stock in Viacom

Viacom's MTV buys Neopets for $160m

Interesting bit of censorship

British farmers want 'couch potato' removed from dictionary

People have, on occasion, challenged libraries because there are "obscene" words in the dictionary, but I can't remember anyone actually protesting to the dictionary people. And never have I seen a "no couches" sign.

In other news
In an article interviewing Judy Blume about the 30th anniversay of forever the writer mentions some authors who wouldn't exist unless Judy Blume broke ground for them. So I decided to look them up.

Forever is really good, honest fiction. And Judy Blume is a fantastic author (for the children and YA set. Don't get my started on how disappointing her adult fiction is). Melvin Burgess, on the other hand, is just a smut peddaler.

Granted, I did get the most obviously titled book, hoping to run into my librarian (alas, no), and strike up a conversation about casual teenage sex. Anyway, Burgess' Doing It was about 300 pages of smut and 23 pages of halfway decent content. if you have any doubt about the content of this book based on the title, take a look at amazons SIP's--SIPs i may blog about later

I'm not against smut, but I would like it to be better labeled. I generally don't turn to the YA section for amatuer erotica. I try to give the book a fair shot, but along with being distractingly racy, the author is male, so he mostly writes from the boys point of view. And he's British, and the characters all live in England, and they say funny things. Some of the slang I'm not familiar with, and the use of the phrase (and SIP) "doing sex" is really distracting. And I have to start thinking about the connotations of "doing" vs "having." Doing is much more active, possibly more controling I conclude. Definitely a boy thing, and those retarded Brits...

The first third of the book I get through relatively easily. It's very sexually charged, yet the boys aren't quite having sex yet. Lots of fooling around. It's all in good fun. then the middle third problems start to surface. But they boys are such jerks (mostly) that I don't care. But at least they've mostly lost their virginities. I barely make it through to the last third, where they have the least sex, and the resolutions to the problems are less than satisfying.

The many 4 characters aren't developed much. Which makes the parade of disposable characters all the more annoying. And the student-teacher extended affair makes me pretty uncomfortable in my old age.

There's one character, the "fat girl" who got branded somehow early in her life and could never shake the label, even though many girls are fatter than her, who I really like. Even though we don't hear much from her, she's the best, most well rounded of the bunch. Her and the sensitive boy/long time friend/ new romance, finally end up together, finally in the end.

If you want smut, there's plenty free on the internet. If you want a story that brings back your angsty adolescence and makes you glad you're old now, read Forever. But maybe I'm just jealous, because I was not doing that stuff in high school.

I've heard of this (YA) book called Rainbow Party which is about teenage sex parties or something. Sex parties! The library doesn't own a copy, so I guess I'll never confirm how dirty it is. There is a lot of public outcry though.

Really though, I'm curious about male reactions to this book. Almost curious enough to take a YA class. Even though it will mean having to read and review 50 of these pieces of crap, all in the name of library science.

Fear and Loathing in Torrance

I have some pretty ok work friends. We go to lunch, we walk around the block. It makes the time pass quicker. Some days though, I just wish they'd be a little less retarded.

co-worker: It's earthquake weather, the weather is really weird. It's hot in the car, but cold outside. The sun didn't come out today? So why is the car hot? The heat must come from the ground. It's the heat from the ground, that's what makes the earthquakes
me: (quietly) ummm. no, that's not quite how it works. stop making stuff up and scaring yourself.

This lead to more talk of earthquakes, tsunamis and "the big one."

Being afraid of the those things is a perfectly reasonable fear, I suppose. They do actually kill people. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I just can't jump on the fear bandwagon. as long as my house isn't crumbling, I think earthquakes are pretty cool. It's like that thing at the museum of science and industry, (the science center, I think it's called now), only I don't have to drive my ass all the way there. Have I been in California for too long? am I jaded about earthquakes? Were my elementary school teachers so good that they disseminated knowledge responsibly enough that I learned about earthquakes without working myself into a tizzy? Is my elementary school earthquake knowledge outdated, should I read up more?

One thing is for sure, being scared of earthquakes isn't going to help anyone. After the general preparation is done, you can't change much. And until science makes some real advances, prediction is pretty much out of the question. Much like the doomsdayers, I want to punch people who insist that "the big one" is coming. Not the scientists who suggest there may be a large earthquake the the future, but the average guy on the street. Why are they so sure? What special knowledge do they have that our scientific community isn't privy to? aliens? God? that pet psychic guy? Where is the big one that was supposed to happen within 10-20 years from elementary school? I haven't died yet.

I prefer to fear much more mundane things, things that I can try to have some control over: children, animals larger than small dogs, ugly animals of any size, never getting married and never being able to afford a house.

Best Book Review Ever

The long and winding read

Just in case you were wondering

Apricot ice cream is delicious! the best ice cream i've made. it's better than that great apricot shake from that horrible apricot tree restaurant on the 5.

---AWESOME-- I've never been blogging during an earthquake before, 5.3, centered near yucaipa. The earth has not been happy this week. Take a look at the map. I felt the one on Sunday morning, and now this.

Back to ice cream: I'm going to start a paper journal of my ice cream making, so I don't have to chronicle everything here. Let me just say, apricots have a lot more stringy pulp than I realized. Luckily, most of it stuck to my mixing thing, and didn't get mixed through my delicious ice cream. yum.

4:00 UPDATE: they've downgraded it to 4.9

aprico-riffic

A quick unscientific Google search for apricot, and then apricot with other words that I associate with apricots reveals what I’ve come to believe. Apricots are completely underrated. America has very little love for the apricot. This may have something to do with the fact that everyone shops at supermarkets here, and supermarket apricots really don’t deserve to be called apricots.

For my first birthday my great aunt and uncle gave me an apricot tree, at the same time they gave my dad 24 years (and counting) of yard work. He’s not much of a gardener, but he’s learned to take pride in that tree, probably because I have never tasted a better apricot produced elsewhere. Unfortunately this year all the storms took all the blossoms off my tree, and we had a grand total of 3 apricots this year. This threw me into a depression for a while. It’s not really summer in my house unless there are more apricots than there is room to keep them. And if we don’t have at least 4 pies in the freezer, in addition to the ones we’ve eaten fresh, it’s a bad year. And don’t get me started about the fantastic jelly my grandma makes, and with very little added sugar, because the apricots are so good.

But things started to look up. My grandma’s neighbor invited us to pick some apricots off his tree, and they were almost as good as mine. But, I thought it was rude to pick a ton of apricots from some stranger’s tree, so I only got enough for eating. Then I went to the farmers market yesterday. They had beautifully orange, ripe apricots for $1.25/lb ( vs $4/lb for super crappy grocery store apricots). And lots of them. My co-worker probably thought I was crazy. I picked up like 4lbs. There was going to be pie and ice cream in my future. My summer was saved. This guy better come back next week, I need to buy some for jelly. They weren’t quite like homegrown, but they were still very good.

So last night I made a pie, I put in a bit less sugar than the recipe called for (usually we used a considerable amount less). And it turned out delicious. While my hands were slimy from cutting apricots I also made the recipe for apricot ice cream. This recipe requires a strange amount of refrigeration, so I mixed the ingredients, and it’s waiting to be run through the ice cream maker when I get home. I tasted it though, and I can see how it just may be the best ice cream ever.

~~~~~~~~~~
I put safeway select blue soda in the ice cream maker this weekend. It was fine, but it was no Icee. I don’t know if it was because the soda was slightly flatter than it should have been. Or if maybe the Icee is just magical. They say the Icee was inadvertently invented when some drug store owner put his coke bottles in a fridge that was too cold. But, I’m sure, since then the process has changed a bit.

can you and I be friends?

It's just before 9am. and the most emailed story on yahoo news is:

Teddy Ruxpin Makes His Return

This has been sent about 1500 times. about double of the next ranked story about the brief tsunami warning, and 6 times more than the schiavo autopsy.

Some days I love America more than others. Today is one of them.

The Video Game Librarian

This article is my library link of the day, today.

This guy is obviously not a librarian because in paragraph 4-5 he learns of the concept of permanancy of format for the first time.

That being said, once he's learned it, he remembers it. And he goes through exactly the criteria librarians use to pick materials for the collection without waxing poetic chapter after chapter, article after article. cost, format, accessability, what the patron needs vs what i want them to use, etc., etc., etc.

Yes, I'm finally going to say it. I spent my first year of library school all rosy eyed and giving it the benefit of the doubt. But that's it. I'm not learning much. I'm learning a lot more from my digressions when I'm researching than from my assignments. Library school, my program at least, is a big song and dance. It seems, the only way to learn to be a librarian is to try, or at least watch librarians do their jobs. I've finally accepted that, and I'll be a bit less rosy for the rest of my time in the program, and I'll pay my money, and try to keep out of trouble. Then one day, I'll be officially ready to accept a librarian job. And I guess we'll see how actually ready I am when the day comes.

pret-a-portea

Finally after, maybe, 2 weeks, I was able to catch a good portion of "the fabulous life of London" on VH1. Instead of saying how great some celebrity's life is, it focuses on London, and the rich and fabulous who live and visit.

I caught a glimpse of the show a while ago and was very confused because I saw what I thought was an Eleni's cookie (from New York).

But it turns out that the Berkeley Hotel in London has the Caramel room which also makes designer cookies. I can't get enough of this leg dessert. It's almost as good as a leg lamp.

The next time I'm in London, I'll definitely shell out the $70 for this tea. The name alone is worth it. Who wants to come with me?

Regal Palace

My performance review last month was very good. I was afraid that my 70/30 ratio of interneting/working would kick me in the behind. I was ready to fight for my profit sharing points, but I didn't have to. And my boss told me how glad she is to have someone competent like me, and said she'd take me out to lunch.

I also got a "teamwork" point gifted to me by someone in another department. I wish they'd tell me who so I could thank that person, but oh well. I guess they're happy with my work, even if I don't work all that often.

My boss took me out to lunch today, fufilling what I thought was an empty promise. We were supposed to go last week, but, well, you read my tums post last week.

After much debate, and her still not convinced that me as an American could really like Chinese food, We went to the Regal Palace Seafood Restaurant. This restaurant has $5-6 lunch specials, great looking dim sum carts (I didn't try any, this time), a light, clean, airy atmosphere, and is about 2 blocks away from the super mediocre Szechwan restaurant (the name, is szechwan) we always go when people visit the office. Why people go to that dark pit of mediocrity, I just don't know.

It seems at lunch time they emphasize the dim sum, and it took all the willpower I had not to pick little bits of fried goodness off the carts as they rolled by. They also have a large and cheap lunch menu.

Something stuck out, fried rock cod with sweet corn sauce. What this was, I had not idea, but my interest was piqued. I asked my boss if she knew what it was, and she didn't, but encouraged me to try it. That seems to be her mission in life, getting me to try new things like calling her customers in whatever strange country they're in, to traveling, to eating corn sauce, apparently. So I ordered it, not knowing what it was.

And I'll tell you what it was. A little bit of heaven, I think. They were slightly larger than chicken nugget sized pieces of fish, breaded in a lovely fluffy batter, and covered in an amazing sauce. It was like a cross between a thick egg drop soup and creamed corn. It came out looking like some kind of magical corn donuts. I've never had anything like it. And now, it's 4 hrs later, and I still can't stop thinking about it.

I'm sure my boss thinks I'm bizarre because I'm so giddy about this corn sauce, but whatever. It's good! And more importantly, I've never had corn sauce before, I've never even heard of it. I think my love of creamed corn is renewed. Think of all the things I can pour it on! And for sure, I'll be making corn ice cream one day.

I haven't posted about ice cream in ages

Since we last checked in, Icee the ice cream maker (named after the puppy i had for a week as a child) has made chocolate cheese cake ice cream (that's with cream cheese in the mix, not with cheesecake chunks) and mint cookie (from teh ben and jerry's ice cream book, unfortunately I thought we had oreos around the house, but we didn't and I just had to use regular chocolate cookies)

I'm not sure I'd make the chocolate cheesecake again, it's good, but I'm sure I can do better. The mint cookie, however, will be made again with real oreos. and I'll probably make a cookies and cream with the same package. The lesson we learn is that if you go through the trouble and cost of making ice cream don't skimp on the ingredients. the chocolate cookies just don't do it for me, the mint ice cream flavor is good though. unfortunately the ice cream is a disturbing brownish yellow color, i'm not sure if it's the fault of the cookies, or some reaction of and ingredient to some other ingredient or the freezer or what.

I need to make smaller batches, because I want to make ice cream constantly, but i can't just keep making it and not eating it. What I've been thinking about doing is makeing trip to Smart and Final or somewhere. if I buy a pack of styrofoam cups with lids I can give my ice cream away. Then I can make more.

I bought the gingersnaps to make a pumpkin ice cream, but I'm doubting my wisdom. pumpkin isn't really a summer flavor, and there is just so much fresh delicious fruit at the farmers markets. Maybe i'll add gingersnaps to apricot?

I also bought honey for honey-vanilla, but Ben and Jerry warn that it should be eaten with a day or the honey starts to get grainy, so I need an occasion for that.
I'm also very interested in alcholic granita sort of concoctions, but I'm not confident enough to work with alcohol. You know I mix my drinks strong, but you can't do that if you expect it to freeze.

this weekend i'm planning on dumping a can of soda into my Icee, and see if i can make an icee.

give me a sign

It seems that today isn't a particularly good grammar day for me, based on
some of the email I've sent, but I'll trudge on. Because you all need to
hear about my tv viewing. It's my duty.

Like Beauty and the Geek, I missed the bandwagon last week, and only tuned
in this week to NBC's Hit Me Baby One More Time. This show gets older bands
back together, they perform their major hit, and then they perform a cover
of some current song. Then the audience votes and one band wins a donation
to their charity of choice. simple enough. I hear it's based on a show in England, the host may be the same.

I'm not sure where they film, but the location is substantially large
(unlike that VH1 show bands reunited) and it's packed (at least the front
row that they film) with generically pretty young women wearing the tight
jeans, and simple yet asset emphasizing shirt. there must have been a
casting call. girls like that do not listen to these bands.

I unfortunately missed the beginning of the show so I didn't see the Knack
(my sharona) or Haddaway (what is love) (did you know he was black, and
australian). But reviews confirm what I would like to believe: the Knack
was good and Haddaway was, well, Haddaway.

I got to see Tommy Tutone (8675-309), and I thought he was fantastic. It's
probably been long enough that he's not sick of the damn song, and he put
some energy into it for an old guy.

Then the motels (only the lonely) who were also fantastic. Apparently the
lead singer is in some kind of weird cabaret theater in orange county. I
might look into it.

Then, vanilla ice (ice, ice baby), who apparently just goes by "Ice" now. and oh my gosh,
the generic sorority girl crowd went wild. There's nothing like a crazy
eyebrowed white rapper who was on a VH1 reality show for has beens to
excite a crowd. I suppose he wasn't any worse than he was in 1990, but he
certainly wasn't any better.

After each group performed their hit, then they cycled again to perform
covers.

The Knack did Jet's are you gonna be me girl. I don't really like the song
much, and I didn't particularly like them doing the song. But for being
that old they could pretty much still rock.

Then there was Haddaway's painful performance of Britney's toxic, complete
with him writhing around on the ground. uggh!

Then Tommy tutone did a fantastic rendition of blink 182's all the small
things. Even though he did mistake a lyric or two. He gave it a flair of
his own, and I respected it. Unfortunately KROQ's Kevin and
Bean didn't quite agree (i was very disappointed to hear their review this
morning)

But then, out of left field came The Motels with their "hyper-speed version
of Norah Jones' melodic ballad "'Don't Know Why.'" Oh my gosh, it was
fantastic! That lady can sing! and her rendition was great! I hate it when
bands cover songs and don't make any changes. What's the point?

and ice came back to do destiny's child's survivor, which, didn't impress me.
and the audience voted. Vanilla Ice won. bleh. The motels were by far the best. but ice got to come back for an encore of ice, ice baby. because, it seems, he only knows 2 songs. word to your mutha.

Next week we can look forward to a "fame" free Irene Cara and Wang Chung. I'm disappointed in the audience's bad taste, but I'll make it a plan to watch next week. Meanwhile, I'm going to look more into the motels. Maybe buy the greatest hits album

As if the genera needs more suggestions of sex

DARK HORSE COMICS TO PUBLISH HARLEQUIN NOVELS IN MANGA FORMAT

Let's make lots of money

there's so much good new reality tv, and it's just mocking me now that I'm back in school

I jumped on the Beauty and the Geek bandwagon one week late. But last night was pretty darn good. and it uses pet shop boys for the theme.

It's touted as being produced by Ashton Kutcher, although, apparently he's not going to appear on the show.

I missed the first episode which I imagine tells how the contestants got paired up and how the sleeping arrangements were made. So i've already filled the details in, in my head.

So, a handful of attractive, yet by no means spectacular women live in a house with and equal number of geeky men. Surprisingly, most of these men aren't hideous, they're just super geeky. One is president of the dukes of hazard fan club. One of the girls, in her confessional video said something like "if I hear one more thing about cars, or the dukes of hazard or video games I'm going to scream."

Each geek is permanantly paired with with a beauty. They sleep in the same bedroom, and at least one sleeps in the same bed. (how this got determined, i don't know). They compete in challenges separately, but as a team. Apparently, each week the geeks get a prissy topic and the beauties get a geeky topic, battle of the sexes style. This week it was car repair and massage. each team gets a massage book and a car book, and they're given time to study (and complain).

The girls have to change the oil and a tire. To do so they are given all the correct tools, and the very important pink midrif baring mechanic shirt with the name patch. The boys coach from the sidelines. I was rather impressed. I can't do that crap (although I've never tried).

The boys, however, are train wrecks. I mean really they're geekier than anyone I can possibly imagine. It's not like they're just smart, or a little maladjusted, they are seriously bizarre. Unlike regular reality shows that flash the chyron with name, occupation, and age. This show just flashes name and interesting fact. The two main freaks are the jewish looking one with giant lips "has never touched a girl" and the blondish, almost attractive, blank stare deer in the headlights "has never kissed a girl." Unfortunately we don't know anyone's age, but they're old enough to be on a reality show, which makes them too old for that kind of nonsense.

These two boys are by far the most freaked out by the whole massage thing. I was starting to believe that they thought girls had cooties or something and didn't want to touch them. Freaky large lipped guy's girl tried to massage him to give him an idea what he should be doing, and he freaked out. she barely touched him and he started feigning pain. oh no, you've hurt my shoulder, now i really can't massage. or maybe it was psychosomatic.

These boys were hilarious. A halfway decent massage is not hard to perform, assuming 1. you know what it's supposed to feel like 2. you're not afraid of/freaked out by/ disgusted with touching the person you're supposed to be massaging
Fufilling some writer's wet dream, the girls get into skimpy bikinis and blindfolds and the boys take turns massaging, and the one with the most votes at the end wins. And it turns out the same pair won the massage that won the car fixing. This means they get to choose the 2 teams that would compete in the Q&A round, one of them getting knocked out of the house.

and the Q&A comes. the girls answer the simpliest car questions ever and they each get their 3 right. Then the boys come out to answer the massage questions and they are clueless!
Q: "what is the roughly textured sponge..."
A: "massage rag?"
good gosh, the boy can't come up with the word loofah. and when the host says "loofah" it's like the boy has never heard of it. also missed were reflexology and shiatsu.

so, poor deer in the headlights boy and his girl get sent home, but not before a long teary sorority girl goodby. and apparently she started to like one of the geek boys in the house, and this was an epiphany for her. she likes a nice geek, instead of a hot loser jerk. I'm very disappointed because i like to watch the nerd boy get the girl. but apparently next week some geek makes the moves on some other girl, if you can believe the commercial.

It's gonna be good.

You know what's not good, though, is crying on tv. There is far too much crying on tv and I'm personally offended. Me and my imaginary children should not be subjected to so much crying. It sets a bad example and and encourages discontented behavior.

I'm getting ready to start my own foundation, PACT (people against crying on TV). I will write a form letter, and get a website so everyone can bombard the FCC with complaints.

You'll all help, right?

UPDATE: usually I like to keep my tv-ing and internet-ing separate, so I don't really read tv show sites. However, the WB website does have the ages of the contestants.

Happy Bloggerversary to me

It's been a year since I've started this blog. Let the festivities ensue.

This really was one of the best things I've done to keep in touch with y'all. Thanks for jumping on the bandwagon with me.

fluff

Filler so my creepy post isn't next to my bloggerversary post

Penn State goes online to catch cheaters

"We find about a third of the papers we analyze are less than original," Barrie said. "It's a pretty sad statement of what's going on."

could this possibly be true? 1/3 of the students are either blatantly plagarazing or too dumb to know how to cite sources? It sounds like high school teachers are doing and even worse job than I thought.

Creepy!

if you haven't heard:

There's lots of buzz about blogs breaking news stories or demanding people be held accountable and crap, but what about your own blog catching your own murderer. CREEPY.

I really hope this turns out to be a hoax.

Meanwhile, I should give someone my blogger password so they can turn off the comments if I die, or if I'm rumored to die.

r-e-l-i-e-f

So, apparently, www.tums.com is the official website for Tums, but you have to click through to learn about the antacid. What they're promoting the hell out of is the fact that tums contains calcium.

Seeing as I've been having minor heartburn problems lately, and left work yesterday because I had a stomach ache, calcium doesn't interest me at all. And, seeing that i've eaten a whole chalkboard full of tums, and I still feel a bit gross, my conclusion is that tums doesn't work, and it's stopped trying to pretend that it does.

the rolaids website does focus on heartburn, not one mention of calcium (even though the bottle clearly states it has calcium). even the website touts it's purpose: www.acidrelief.com. Yet it's about as equally unhelpful as the tums site. I don't really know what info I'm expecting to find, but it's not available where I'm looking. But I need more antacid, so maybe i'll try rolaids tonight, maybe rolaids spells relief. (most likely i'll just buy whatever's cheapest though)

this is what happens when you get old. Bleh!

awesome!

PETA performance art

Maybe they'll suffocate in there and save the public the trouble of scorning them again

Krispy Kreme Celebrates Doughnut Day

Stop by Krispy Kreme for a free doughnut of your choice on Friday, June 3

Today I'm going to be shallow

It's friday, I deserve it.

I heard about the greatest advance in technology since they invented the internet.
The Sling Media Slingbox Personal Broadcaster allows you to use your home tv set up to watch tv from anywhere in the world on your lap top computer. They don't say if you can watch something different from what someone else is already watching on your tv (so I suspect it's a no). but if no one is home, magic! You can also watch shows stored in your tivo, and program your tivo remotely if you want.

As soon as I get a laptop, I'm getting one.

~~~~~~
Hugh Hefner and I now have one more thing in common, besides the fact that we're getting old. I now have silk pyjamas. Granted his aren't Nicole Miller or disco diva print. But I've finally filled the gaping hole in my life that could only be filled by silk pjs. at $40 they were a bit pricy, but not compared to normal retail, I guess.

I have a new store of the moment because of my pj find. Tuesday Morning it's like Ross, only with many fewer clothes and many more housewares, including, like, 5 aisles of candles, like anyone needs that many candles.

I've been meaning to go to this store for over a year. But I found myself without my book,and with time to kill yesterday and I finally went. And I'm converted. In addition to the pjs I also got a great book on diner desserts. There's nothing like an old fashioned dessert made from fresh, high fat ingredients.

~~~~~
Tomorrow I will be dancing at the PV Street Fair. This will be the first time I'll dance in front of people. I'm actually nervous. Luckily it's at 11am, so it's likely that there won't be many people watching. Of course, I'm not ruling out the possibility of meeting a rich, hill-dwelling boy.

I probably won't eat beforehand. That way there'll be less belly and more dance. So there'd better be cotton candy and funnel cake afterward!

~~~~~
For those who haven't heard, they've finally approved the .xxx domain. I'm happy. and things that make me happy tend to anger my enemies. So, I'm happier.

I think we should all buy our names at .xxx. I'm sure it's just another commercial domain and you don't have to prove you're providing porn to get an xxx. I'm actually considering it. I think it would make a good site for a library blog in the future. although, now that I check, my *firstnamelastname*.com is available. maybe I'll buy both.

~~~

And while I'm being shallow, check out http://www.glamourdog.com/ for the oversized rat who has everything.

I can't get enough of this site, but I especially like the hats and costumes.

More on the list

So it seems I've found a new blog to read. Just what I need, right?

since you've shown interest, this post from pandagon is worth the read.

I will compose my own list of dangerous books soon, maybe. It will include books that teach you how to do dangerous stuff or that are dangerous themselves, like the DMV manual: car driving is dangrous, Chemistry books: if chem wasn't dangerous, the labs wouldn't have so much safety equipment, and the OED: seriously, if that thing fell on you from any height do you think you'd survive?

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Human Events asked a panel of 15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders to help us compile a list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries.

It doesn't say how the books are harmful, or the criteria used etc. It's not even a list of books these people dislike. It's a list of people who hold alternative viewpoints and therefore upset the judges.

Have any of these books been harmful to you? Know what books I think are harmful? the ones that give me paper cuts.

Honestly, the feminine mystique!