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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Saturday, November 14th, 2009 |
redbird
|
7:47p |
signal boosting: Scraps
TNH just posted on Making Light that ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) baldanders may be having another stroke. And she wanted the word spread, so I am. We wait, and hope. I will update as I know more. ETA: 7:52: They’re at New York Methodist Hospital. NY Methodist is good; that's where Soren was last year. ETA 9:27 pm: Elise reports "Update: just heard he's lucid and bitching mightily about wanting to go home. This is a VERY good sign, I am told. Also, Velma says everybody should get some sleep." Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://redbird.dreamwidth.org/1180227.html), where there are  comments. Please comment here, there, or both. Current Mood:  worried |
auros
|
2:26p |
|
anonymousclaire
[ ang_grrr ]
|
9:15p |
|
redbird
|
3:34p |
Another apple review: Spartan
The sign at the farmer's market described this as being like Mcintosh, but "sweeter and crisper." It seemed worth a try. I am reminded that Sparta was never known for its food. Crisper, maybe. Sweeter, possibly. But also blander. To be fair, this has been sitting out on a counter for a few hours, drying off (it was raining this morning). I just wiped the other three with a towel, just in case, and put them in the refrigerator. I like my apples chilled, but do not have high hopes for this variety. I think next week it'll be gala, mcintosh, or macoun: apples I know I like. (Unfortunately, both Esopus Spitzenburg and NY 652 are early-season apples that don't store well, so those are gone until next September.) Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://redbird.dreamwidth.org/1179787.html), where there are  comments. Please comment here, there, or both. |
intelligentrix
|
12:02p |
Questions redux
The last question I was asked (only one from this person) is one which calls for a thoughtful answer, and I have been thinking on it. The question, from pameladean, is " What are your favorite forms of art as part of the audience, and what are your favorite forms as the artist?"
At first I was thinking rather literally about the term audience, and contemplating the various theatrical and live music forms, finding little satisfaction in either. I do enjoy movies, theater, music, but I seldom attend. I used to be able to completely immerse myself in the narrative of a good movie or play, but lately I've been finding that difficult to do, and therefore find myself avoiding watching them at all. Perhaps for fear of disappointment or boredom.
Then I realized I was taking the term audience much too literally. Of course, I can't think of a term that would work better for what Pamela was trying to convey; consumer seems much too commercial. End user, perhaps, or... no, I suppose audience is right, in the sense of the intended viewer/reader/watcher.
The answer, of course, is books. From the moment I could read I have immersed myself in the written word. And from the very first I've been drawn to the literature of the fantastic. Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books, Narnia, Greek, Roman and Norse mythology, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings -- these were works I returned to over and over again. Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series was another. I loved the macabre and mysterious. I loved the idea of hidden worlds and hidden rooms and the possibility of escape and adventure. That I lived in a house with a tower was a start, but I spent hours mapping the interior and exterior of the house, looking for unaccounted-for spaces. I never found any, but there were semi-secret drawers built into the wall of my bedroom, and a loose floorboard in the tower under which I stored my treasures. There was also a very dark, very cobwebby, excavation under the front of the house where the furnace squatted, sending out its tentacles of ducts and vents. There were ledges carved out of the earth that extended under the foundation farther than my flashlight beams could reach. Of course, this was where my Mama Cat decided to have her kittens one time. But I digress.
I still relish the feeling of total immersion in someone else's world, far from my own. Only now I have extended that world to include worlds that bear great resemblance to this one -- the worlds of what is often called mainstream literature. But even these are chronicles of alien places, the best of them, for they take me inside minds that are at once familiar and alien to my own, and involve me in lives that are as fantastic as those of any space or time traveler. Isabel Allende's strong and passionate women, Margaret Atwood's brilliant explorations of memory and childhood and the nature of subjective reality, Doris Lessing's intense explications of madness and human relations, all these take me to unknown places and make them as familiar as home.
Ultimately, the books that draw me in deepest are ones in which I can live inside the characters. Stories that rely primarily on concept with poorly drawn characters can be a momentary diversion, but I never lose myself completely in them. And that is what I love most about reading; that is the ultimate hidden world, the secret door, the alternate dimension which I can visit as often as I like.
And so to the second part of the question, which is much more difficult to answer.
I'll start with generalities and hope to move on to specifics. I love to create things with my hands. I've always been someone who makes things -- from origami to drawing to metal to glass -- I find intense satisfaction in producing tangible work. And I have some skill in it; I've always been dexterous. My frustration lies in the inspiration, or rather, the lack thereof. The hardest part of creating for me has always been what to make. I feel like a finely designed tool for which there is no user. I've never had the flood of inspiration I see in all the artists around me. In art school I struggled, not with technique, but with image. I feel stuck on the ground floor, reduced to hunting images in books and falling back on decorative, literal work. I've struggled with this all my life and it is my greatest source of frustration and despair. I have tried various programs of exercises designed to tap into that well of creativity, but it feels as if my well is a shallow stream--there simply isn't anything there to get to.
My writing has taken a similar course. My stories are small and finite and descriptive beyond all else. My poetry excels at evocative imagery, but whenever I strive for anything deeper it tends to fall short. Once again, my skill with the form is there, but there are no ideas with which to give it life.
Well. That turned out a bit darker than I intended, but then, I hadn't gone into this with everything thought out ahead of time. Did I mention I can't plot worth a damn?
In any case, I hope that was a satisfactory answer to your question, and again, thank you for asking and for giving me something to write about. |
| Sunday, November 15th, 2009 |
bakebakebake
[ radbiscuits ]
|
1:17a |
The Ace of Spades.
It was one of my best friends' 18th birthday last Sunday, and she refused to have a party or do anything to celebrate it, in some part thanks to the fact that it was in the middle of our university's exam week. Yuck. So I took the responsibility upon myself to bake a cake and take it to last night's post-exams party of the uni Pantomime Society*. It was my first real attempt at decorating a cake. I cheated and used packet mixes for the cake (vanilla on the bottom, chocolate on top, with vanilla icing in the middle). I don't know any fancy icing techniques, so I just used what was in the box, adding more icing sugar to the vanilla to make it whiter, and less butter to the chocolate to make it darker (I also put extra vanilla essence and some All-Spice into the vanilla icing, but I don't think you could taste it). The writing is in melted white chocolate with pink food dye :P. ( Cake! )*Pantomime is different to mime. It's basically a silly/smutty play with audience participation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime (The 'UWA Pantomime Society' mentioned under the Australia section is us!) |
| Saturday, November 14th, 2009 |
anonymousclaire
[ ang_grrr ]
|
2:16p |
|
| Friday, November 13th, 2009 |
bakebakebake
[ nephelite ]
|
6:20p |
Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cake
After trying numerous times to bake a red velvet cake... I have finally done it! I listened to everyone's suggestion and bought a creme based food dye from Wilton. It was the U.S. red color and not Canadian (stupid pink tones!), the cake finally turned red! However, I don't think I let the butter or cream cheese get completely to room temperature as it was a little bumpy after mixing. Nonetheless it was wonderful!  ( Recipe) |
whumpdotcom
|
11:51p |
Uh, "Proud Mary," uh ... um...
I'm still picking my jaw off the floor after watching the end of the current episode of Glee.
ETA: not only did they go there, they discovered water ice, and built a colony.
|
bakebakebake
[ potthead ]
|
4:17p |
Buttercream recipe?
What is your favorite recipe for buttercream frosting that is stiff enough to decorate cakes/hold its shape? I tried my hand at buttercream frosting, but it got all melty before it hardened ( see bottom border on this cake). I'd really love a good recipe that can be my go-to for all my cake decorating needs! Thanks! |
| Saturday, November 14th, 2009 |
sbisson
|
2:01a |
|
| Friday, November 13th, 2009 |
redbird
|
7:46p |
catching up
Monday I went to the gym after work (and am not going to bore you with numbers this time, but it was a decent workout). Tuesday cattitude, my mother, and I went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. I ordered duck in a green peppercorn sauce, and they both ordered a salt cod dish, so I can add that to the list of things I've eaten. It didn't taste all that interesting, and I don't think I'm going to get it again, given the state of the cod population. Cattitude also sent flowers to my office, a very purple bouquet, which was nice to look at this week. I didn't have the energy to go to the gym tonight, alas. Wednesday and today I've felt as though I had a cold, but yesterday I didn't. But I got some chocolate cake on the way home, which is a comfort on a windy night. Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://redbird.dreamwidth.org/1179531.html), where there are  comments. Please comment here, there, or both. |
intelligentrix
|
5:28p |
More Questions
OK, then. Onward and upward. hnmic demurred to ask questions, while posing the questions he wouldn't ask, so I won't answer with "just let me know in advance" and "Coop's". richardthe23rd asked the next set of questions, as follows: 1. Still in NOLA, then? Yes, still in NOLA. For whatever reason, and contrary to the opinions of at least one of my friends, this is an amazing place and it has its hooks in me. It would be paradise on earth if I could make enough money to travel. As it is, it's still pretty good. 2. What's on your Christmas list? I don't have a Christmas list. I don't have a local family or a group of friends with whom I celebrate and I've gotten out of the habit of buying Christmas gifts due to a lack of money or people to buy them for. It may sounds strange to say I envy people who talk about their holiday shopping, but I do. I miss buying things for people and figuring out what I think they'd like. And I don't like wishing for expensive things because for one, my family never bought expensive presents for each other, and two, I don't have the resources to get fancy things for people in return and the imbalance makes me uncomfortable. If I could get one thing for myself, though, it would be a Kitchenaid stand mixer with a really big bowl. Or maybe a small Hobart. 3. Did you know my workplace blocks websites in the category "Tasteless"? No. No I didn't. I may not make a lot of money, but at least I don't have to put up with my internet being censored. Ugh. When I worked for the company in Seattle which had just been taken over by Bayer, I could access lj on my work computer, but nothing that could possible be construed as a game. I managed to play Free Rice for a few days before they found out and shut it down. Bah. Not that I have time to play games or anything else at work these days, but it's nice to know I can. And my boss just sent me a text thanking me for putting a shortcut to her AARP game page on her desktop. What a difference! |
bakebakebake
[ jbberish ]
|
3:49p |
|
intelligentrix
|
4:07p |
Three Questions, Part the Second
Oops. I owe cynnerth an apology. I accidently identified the next questions as coming from cynthia1960, whose lj name is next on the drop-down menu I use in Semagic.
So the next three questions are from cynnerth.
1. What's the story behind your LJ name?
Well, I have always had a rather over-inflated view of my own intelligence, especially after growing up in a very small mid-western town and after discovering fandom and my own geeky tribe. That combined with my great interest in etymology and on-again off-again involvement with BDSM made intelligentrix the logical choice. Of course, now that I've been on lj for a while now, I have re-evaluated my relative intelligence and rather wince a bit at my hubris. Still, it flows well and I like it.
2. What book are you reading?
At the moment I'm reading Ravens in the Library, which is an anthology of stories published as a fund-raising effort to help defray the medical expenses of a fabulous singer/songwriter/performer who had been hit with a very sudden and very expensive hospital stay. Her name is s00j (aka SJ Tucker aka skinnywhitechick.com) and she is well worth checking out. I met her and her partner K when they came to New Orleans as part of the Palimpsest train journey with Cat Valente and they have become fast friends. The anthology is beautifully illustrated and contains some excellent writing by a large number of people, including Neil Gaiman.
3. Do you have a bedtime routine that helps you fall asleep?
I'm embarassed to admit that my current routine involves watching TV until I either get very sleepy or decide it's way too damned late. At that point, it's usually something on the Food Network or HGTV or the Science Channel. When I climb into bed I put in ear-plugs and snuggle under the covers and pretty soon I'm asleep. I used to read myself to sleep every night, but I'm in a kind of TV-ish phase at the moment. Sometimes I'll play a computer game while the TV is on. In any case, I generally go to bed around midnight unless I haven't had enough sleep the night before in which case I've been known to hit the sack around 11. Oddly, I think of 10:30 as bed-time even though I almost always stay up later.
Goodness, that was a boring answer wasn't it? I used to suffer terribly from insomnia, so my routine used to be something like: go to bed, read for three or four hours, realize that I'll only be getting 5 hours of sleep at this rate and turn off the light. Toss and turn. Lie in bed trying to relax. Turn on the light and read some more. Fall asleep just as the sun is coming up. What has changed for me, I think, is the ear-plugs. I found that even the tiniest sound would keep me awake, and with multiple cats, there are a lot of noises in the night. With the ear-plugs I can literally tune all that out.
Thanks for the questions! I hope my answers weren't too boring. |
auros
|
12:56p |
|
bakebakebake
[ otherwisewasted ]
|
10:20a |
|
intelligentrix
|
11:55a |
Questions, Part the First
In response to my ask me questions plea, bifemmefatale stepped up to the plate. Here are my answers to her questions.
1. Where did you grow up? Tell me a little about it.
The first 5 years of my life were spent on a farmette near Ames, Iowa. We had a dog, a cat, 100 chickens and two welsh ponies. There was a thistle field and a small stream running along the back of the property. The farmer next door grew corn. It was paradise for me. I would sneak out of the house on summer days and climb the fence and call for one of the ponies, Sally Brown. She would come up close enough to the fence for me to climb on her back. I would hold on to her mane and ride around. My Mother always scolded me for not wearing shoes, but I held to the logic that I didn't need them as I always got on and off her back at the fence and never stood next to her hooves. I still maintain this position.
We moved from there to a small town in Wisconsin where we lived until I was 15. Whitewater was a university town but it was also very small and the other kids in school were mainly farmers. Despite my love of the farm where I lived in Iowa, I found I had nothing in common with them. There were things about that town I loved and things I hated. I loved being able to ride my bike all over, especially out of town to Spring Brook and its meadow and marsh. I could hang out on the old stone bridge playing Pooh sticks or sit under one of the weeping willow trees watching the fish dart in and out of the shadows. I could walk into the marsh and gather wildflowers or just sit under a tree and daydream. I could spend hours out there. Another mile or two down the road was an artesian well and the ride there was pleasant, with a cold drink at the end. Sometimes I went with gallon jugs in my bike baskets and filled them up for my parents.
I also loved the house we lived in. It was built in 1856 of yellow brick in an Italianate Villa style, with tall ceilings, arched windows, and a tower. That tower was my sanctuary and my bedroom during the warm months of the year. It was un-insulated and un-heated, though, so when the frost came I had to move down to my regular bedroom.
The town itself was small, but it had its charms. The old library was only three blocks from my house and I spent many hours in its cool confines. There was a fabulous old house right behind it that fueled my fantasies for years. Downtown had a 5 and dime, a drugstore, a hardware store, one movie theater (The Olde Towne), a general store where we went to buy my girl scout uniforms which was dark and crowded and had shelves piled high with boxes covered in dust. There was a building half a block off Main St. which served as a bus depot for the rare bus that came through. The waiting room was also dusty and jumbled and looked like the remnants of some other business that had folded years before, which it probably was. There was a huge white malamute who spent his days dozing in the sun. There were three small lakes, a cemetery on the hill overlooking one of them, a swimming area in another, right next to a milk processing plant. Most days there was a faint sour milk smell that hung in the air, and the stream just down from the swimming area was cloudy with discharge from the plant. Between the two there was a spillway with a footbridge over it. I loved to stand on the bridge and watch the water flow over the thick layer of algae that coated the stone. The idea of getting too close to it when swimming gave one a little thrill of danger, but there was a thick wire fence all the way down to the bottom and lots of lake weeds, so no-one ever did get too close. The lake was cool and had a raft in the middle where the older kids would bask in the sun. The lifeguard made everyone get out at regular intervals and wait a half-hour before we could go back in. I have no idea why.
There were also more churches per capita than most other places I'd heard of. Our house was at the corner of Church and Center streets, and there were at least four churches in the block of Church St. between Center and Main. (Imaginative street naming was not a part of my town's history.) My family was Unitarian and our fellowship didn't have a building so we rotated meeting at people's houses. We had a large living room, so we had meetings fairly often at our house.
The not-so-good part came from my inability to find friends at school. I remember playing with kids at home, though I can't remember their names. But I only remember one or two people from school who I could even talk to. For the most part I was singled out and tormented by the other children. I dreaded going to school and used every excuse to avoid going. My absentee rate was very high. Finally, in the middle of my freshman year in high school, I convinced my parents that I was not going to survive in that atmosphere and they moved me to an alternative school in Madison. It literally saved my life. I went back to Whitewater for three years for college, but having a car and being able to escape was a key factor. After a while, though, I had to go back to the relatively big city of Madison. Small towns--so not for me.
2. What's your favorite place to hang out in NOLA?
Well, that depends on what I want to do. If I want to people watch, I like hanging out down in the Quarter, at Cafe du Monde or the French Market. If I want to avoid people, I go down to the river at the Fly -- the park behind Audubon Zoo -- or out to the lake. I have to say though, that I don't do a lot of hanging out, per se. I'm not very good at it. I guess I do most of my hanging out at home, really. When people are in town I enjoy taking them on tours and down to the Quarter and out to eat. Sometimes I take the streetcar to go downtown, and I love the ride.
3. Give me your recipe for your favorite thing to cook or bake.
Hmmmm.... That's hard to figure out. I enjoy baking and once I would have said my favorite thing to make would be my poppy seed bread. But these days I rarely bake and to tell the truth my day-to-day diet is pretty boring. The other day when I had a friend over for dinner, though, I made a stir-fry which came out very well, so I'll attempt to quantify it for you.
2 shallots
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 zucchini
2 yellow squash
1 each yellow, orange and red bell pepper
2 handfuls of snow peas
6 oz pre-cooked chicken breast
1-2 T toasted sesame seeds
dollop each Hoisin and Oyster sauces
some white wine vinegar
pepper oil
Mix together in a small bowl the sauces and vinegar, to taste. Cut up the chicken breast and put it in a bowl along with half the sauce. Stir to coat the chicken and set aside.
Slice the shallots thin and cook them with the garlic in a wok with a bit of pepper oil, if you have any. If not, any high-temp oil, like peanut oil, will do. When they become soft and translucent, remove to a bowl and set aside. Add all the vegetables to the wok and stir frequently, occasionally covering the wok. Meanwhile, spread the sesame seeds on a cookie sheet and put under the broiler to toast. Watch them carefully, and remove when brown but not black. Keep cooking the veggies until the squash starts to soften, then add the chicken. Cook some more, until the veggies are just about done to your taste, then add the rest of the sauce, the shallots and the sesame seeds. Finish cooking, then serve in a bowl. You can serve over brown rice, if that's something you like.
Of course, you can adjust the seasoning, adding hot peppers to the sauce, or soy sauce, or whatever other things you like, or using your favorite veggies. That's the beauty of a stir-fry -- it's totally flexible.
If you'd like the poppy seed bread recipe, I'd be happy to share it.
OK, so that was the first batch of questions. I have three more from cynthia1960 which I will answer later, after I go do the errands I need to do today. Thank you, bifemmefatale, it felt good to be writing again without worrying about how to catch everyone up on my life so far. |
sbisson
|
2:01a |
|
| Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 |
bakebakebake
[ dithie ]
|
8:44p |
Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée
... also known as French Onion Soup. I've been making this for years, but kind of according to my own recipe, which was good. But tonight I took a look at Julia Child's, and I have to say she totally kicked my ass. I'm really not surprised though - the woman did write a few cookbooks, after all.  I used to use red wine to fill out the broth. Julia's uses vermouth and brandy - a distinct improvement. However, it did mean that I was stuck with some "superfluous" red wine. On a Wednesday, no less! :) ( Recipe! )See more at The Cast-Iron Darling! |
bakebakebake
[ missusgeek ]
|
11:39p |
3D fondant cake: muay thai boxing gloves
 This was my very first 3-dimensional fondant cake, and my very first working with a Muay Thai theme. Even though Muay Thai has quite a following here in Singapore, I've never had any requests for such theme, in comparison to boxing. It turned out to be so much fun, and I must say that I find it so much easier and less daunting than the tiered wedding fondant cake I've done before :P Each glove was approximately 8-inch, and they're basically moist chocolate butter cake layered with a rich chocolate frosting, and covered with fondant. The client wanted to incorporate the message "HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY, YI XIANG", and to be honest, I had no idea how to incorporate so much onto such little space, so I ended up including a towel to put the message :P Drop by my foodblog, or after the jump for more photos :) |
bakebakebake
[ layers_of_eli ]
|
12:01a |
Gâteau aux Noix (French Walnut Cake)
I drove my boyfriend to another city this past weekend so he could take his math subject GRE. I wanted to make it a special trip, so I hunted around for a simple, elegant, no-fuss cake to pack up and bring along. My friend sent me this recipe from Orangette's blog: Gâteau aux Noix, or French Walnut Cake. This cake has a subtle flavor of white wine, and the toasted walnuts are absolutely delicious. If you're looking for a simple, quick cake to grab a hunk of after dinner, this is the perfect choice. 
( recipe and photos )To read more of my thoughts about this cake, view more yummy photos, or just to listen to me brood about my holiday schedule, please head over to my baking blog, Willow Bird Baking! x posted to food_porn, cooking, and bakebakebake |
| Thursday, November 12th, 2009 |
faanboy
|
4:45p |
my spouse and the pedestal that gives her nosebleeds [my fault]
The following started as a short reply within my facebook account to something Robin SMOF was writing about, but I got carried away and cut and pasted this response that expanded into, well, all-out accolades and huzzahs on my part. So if you are not interested in me proclaiming Lori to be more than human [I miss Theodore Sturgeon now] then just skip this posting. I thank you and above all thank her for giving me a life worth living. Hmm, I might just reprint this on next Mother's Day. Or maybe not. If I remember... I seem to be constantly telling Lori not to take on all the world's ills. I'd probably run out of fingers counting all the things she has done in recent years out of her own time and often at her expense, starting with Red Cross training and being the bridge between the area office/council or whatever they call the organization, and several local communities when it comes to homeland security. She knows quite a few area first responders by name and has been in the state underground civil defense center watching the walls of high-def screens showing video from across the state [we could walk there from our house if we wanted to hide out in the event of a natural or unnatural disaster--we could walk there but getting someone to hear our door pounding and acknowledge us and allow us in is another story], not to mention the blood she's given, the times she has responded calls to run the mobile Red Cross van when it comes to assisting folks who have lost their earthly possessions and dwellings to big fires and other local calamities, and even going down to Georgia for 10 days of post-tornado assistance. She's got some good stories. She has also spent several years counseling prisoners, both male and female, at several state penitentiaries [sp?], has been the surrogate daughter/friend to lonely elders in nursing homes [but they still died anyways--well they were in their 90s], and remember I have a terrible memory [Or did I say that already?] and there are probably as many if not more charitable things I don't remember. Wait, an activist advocating for the needs of hearing-impaired and deaf citizens throughout the state [insurance coverage for multi-thousand dollar digital hearing aids--never heard of it!], and at the same time creating a SIG [for enabling disabled to participate equally with all others] and heading it within her profession's international membership/organization. She is some fellow. Therein. Hey, am I getting close enogh to nominate her to become a Jewish saint? Peace Prize? Would you believe Good Conduct Medal. A state-proclaimed day in her honor? Well, she deserves that for simply putting up with and supporting me all these years, in many ways. Can you imagine my humor 24/7? I can almost hear you shuddering;) Current Mood:  thankfulCurrent Music: M is for the million... |
anonymousclaire
[ ceemage ]
|
8:59p |
|
coth
|
2:50p |
A Short Histtory of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson (2003)
Bryson knows his limits, and doesn't even try to explain the theories, but puts what was going on in context so that a lot of sound information slips down painlessly, and very entertainingly. Recommended for anyone interested in the history of science who doesn't want to have to pay detailed attention (especially to vicarage who was questioning the utility of non-current non-fiction, since I can't imagine that anyone has found it necessary to update this yet). |
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geeky