La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Friends Only


About this Journal
I moved my writing journal elsewhere, it's sekrit, but this is still in use for various things.

( Books I Have Read... )

The Face of Tomorrow
"The composite face is strikingly handsome – much better looking than any of the individuals. It’s like there is an underlying beauty in each of us that has the potential to come through. In fact in every instance this seems to be the case – in each city the composite face is more beautiful than almost any of the individuals that make it up."

I think it should be a crime for textbooks to talk about a graph that is on another page, which makes poor students have to flip between the blah blah talking and the evil graph.

Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide!

Whhhhhy do I need a whole month all at once? Can't I have a couple of little breaks during "doldrum months"?

School: No

Even Swedish women need digital plastic surgery

Besides the T.S. Eliot introduction, the Dover edition of Pascal's Pensees is wholly evil. Why? Well the translation is bad enough that is draws all Bible verses from the Vulgate without translating them even in the appendix. Even four years of Latin can't save me.


Moral of the story: Cheap books sometimes are cheap for a reason.

Yesterday I made a wonderful trip to Evanston, where I wish I lived. I will confess to sometimes saying I do live there, not just because I live slightly on the border and it's way cooler than where I live, but also because it has less of the "North Shore" stigma.

Back to why it's cooler, it has my mecca, The Spice House, home of basically any spice you could ever want. Yesterday I bought some of their za'atar, which is quite good. It's an Israeli blend that is quite bit different from the Lebanese and Assyrian blends I have tasted. I think the difference is that the Israeli blend contains hyssop, which I guess makes it slightly less savory. I was also entranced by an African Spice titled "grains of paradise" with a rather tantalizing description. The lady working there let me try a few grains and biting into them revealed a peppery spiciness with undertones of ginger- black pepper 2.0. I didn't buy any, but I think next time I will. Supposedly you use it like pepper.

Next I stopped by TAGs bakery, which is right across the street. TAGs has the usual bakery fare, but I especially love their fresh baked golden croissants. Unfortunately it was late and they were sold out, so I bought a delicious mincemeat pie. Like Turkish delight and other maligned British foods, I firmly stand by the goodness of mincemeat pies. Really, if you don't like mincemeat perhaps you haven't tasted good mincemeat that is a nice blend of British fruits imbibed with a touch of alcohol.

Finally I made a stop at Wild Oats grocery store, home of the finest pretentious foods. I picked up a horrifically expensive slice of Old Amsterdam Aged Gouda, knowing only that I like gouda. It was worth it. When I got home, I cut myself a piece and enjoyed its rich, creamy, yet crisp flavor that was robust without being sharp. It's my new favorite.

I'm afraid that college has made me pickier than ever. I think that is because I've acquired a lot of "new" tastes and that dorm food has turned me off from certain foods forever. I can barely walk by the dorm entrees without gagging. That and the fact that I basically live in the library and walk a lot means that I've lost lots of weight. Oh, it also seems that my lactose intolerance has gotten, well...more intolerant. Previously cheese was one of my favorite foods, but now I don't eat it much, which really isn't terrible since I think Americans eat way too much of it though it's not terribly good for you. I've food more than enough good foods to replace it with:

-Açaí Juice: made from Brazilian rain forest berries. It is loaded with antioxidants, tastes like sweet blueberries, and it's sufficiently pretentious.

-Fresh pomegranates: Another food loaded with antioxidants and the fresh seeds are absolutely beautiful.

-Za'tar: I kept tasting this on Middle Eastern flatbreads and at fresh I thought it was the name of the flatbread. I was confused when my friend Fauzia kept taking about putting za'tar on other foods, but finally I realized that it's a blend of spices. I hunted them down and now I can add it to my own flatbread and other foods at home. It's a blend of sesame seeds and various other Middle Eastern spices that has a distinctive savory taste. Douse flatbread with olive oil, spirinkle with za'tar, toast, and you have a delicious snack.

-Naan and masala: I swear, I can't get enough of this. Unfortunately I don't know how to make naan or masala, so I have to buy them, but it's worth it. Naan is delicious puffy Indian bread and when dipped in spicy masala (or just about anything), it is especially delicious.

I am seriously missing livejournal, but finals has me in my usual psycho-studying-weirdo mess. My classes aren't even *that* hard, but tests make me slightly crazy. What will happen to me in later years when I'm taking graduate level courses?

Heads up: good CSL vs. Pullman article

( Melissa and the study plan of doom )

Some of those sound fun, some sound dull, but there are a couple in there that I have no idea about...like ecological numerancy. What is that? But otherwise it sounds difficult, yet exciting. The awesme thing is that thanks to AP tests I'll be done with geneds by next semester, so no worrying about having to take random useless classes.

Meat Comes from Animals: Deal with It, or Eat Vegetables: Good essay and the comments are good reading too.

Me, I'm not a vegetarian and I don't think I ever will be. I can't eat soy and I struggle enough to get protein as it is. But...I do believe disconnect from the food supply is a bad thing. As a rule, I won' eat anything I wouldn't kill myself. Yes, factory farming is bad for the environment, but vegan cookies packaged in plastic and shipped 1500 miles using fossil fuels are just as bad. My mantra: Eat consciously and locally when possible.

\

Die Fox die...
First you take Firefly from me and now Arrested Development? Whhhhhhhhhhy?

Haha...maybe it's out of sheer bitterness, but this letter from the administrators of a Catholic high school that canceled prom makes me happy.

( Read more... )

So...since I mentioned it and some people were curious, I feel like elaborating on the goodness that is Turkish delight. I did a bit of research and apparently it authentically Turkish, but it is called Lokum in the East. Loosely, the OED mentions it as being "a sweetmeat consisting of gelatine boiled, cubed, and dusted with sugar." The Anglicized versions of it typically are flavored with roses, lemons, or mint and are usually devoid of filling besides the common pistachio. By contrast, the more Eastern Turkish delight I've had is usually more exotically flavored and filled with more nuts.

It is possibly most famous in the U.S. for its inclusion in C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and the Waradrobe.

I tend to associate it with Christmas and with all things English. It probably won't change your life the way good Tandoori chicken or Nepalese food might, but it is extremely satisfying and yes....addictive, so the perfect choice for the White Witch to use on Edmund. Apparently some people are less than dazzled by it, perhaps being used to the more distracting tastes of candies like Snickers, but I firmly defend its goodness. I especially like the texture, which is enhanced by messy powdered sugar.

It's not terribly popular in the U.S., but I find it often at Cost Plus World Market, which is a large and expanding chain. They usually have the more Western versions there and of those I like Ling's the best. A non-traditional favorite of mine is Cadbury/Fry's chocolate covered Turkish Delight, which is a wonderful combination. I think you have to really hunt for the more Eastern varieties, which is a shame since they are very good. I got some at Trader Joe's (another chain) one year that was chock full of unusual nuts and flavors; hopefully they'll have it again this year.

Ten reasons NOT to run a marathon

I like number 1:
1. The first marathon runner, Phidippides, collapsed and died at the finish of his race.

I've always been anti-long distance running, mostly because I'm awful at it and I resent that rowing measured athlete by it, but now I can add ten more reasons to hate it. Because I was a coxswain I was able to refuse to do the running our rowing coaches ordered us to do. Instead I did running intervals- one block sprint run, one block fast-walk, repeat + tons of weight training. It was nice when I basically slaughtered everyone else on the Dyno strength test and stayed leaner than a lot of the rowers that were good at longer runs because it showed up my coaches and their bad training methods. At five feet tall, I was able to compete with people over six feet tall AND my method was a lot less painful and time-consuming.

But the coaches still didn't really change their methods- the idea that long distance running is a good indicator of athleticism is too ingrained in many coaches. Thankfully, most swimming coaches have abandoned that idea, as they noticed really good swimmers are generally the worst runners, even the long-distance swimmers.

Names for future dogs:
Osmosis
Swiffer

I remember when I went to swim camp at UGA that the food there was fantastic. Each dining hall had everything from international food to vegetarian cuisine. When I visited Wheaton it didn't have that much variety, but you could tell that there were using reasonably high quality ingredients at least.

Here at UIUC we neither have variety nor high quality ingredients. At least at lunch during the week I can go to the reasonably good vegetarian place and they do have "theme" restaurants that are open about once a week, but you have to eat most of your meals at the normal dining halls. Recently, out of disgust for the stringy icky meat, I have decided to be a vegetarian while eating at the dining halls here. That means that mostly my meals consist of various combinations of pasta, waffles, bread, and greens. I'm getting a little tired of it, but I wouldn't touch most of the "entrees" here with a nine foot pole.

My diet might actually be healthy, if it weren't for the fact that I eat hardly any real food and then I gorge on desserts, which are the one good thing here. Root beer floats, mint chocolate ice cream, cake with citrus icing, cheesecake, lemon meringue pie...mmm.

Last night I was excited that they had alfredo sauce, since that is one of my favorite indulgences at home. But no, it was not real alfredo sauce and it tasted a bit like sloppy butter.

Later that evening my friends and I headed for the teetotaler school sponsored party, where lo and behold I found my other group of friends from New Trier at the free Bhangra lessons sponsored by the Indian Dance Club. I was forced to join and eventually I was able to do Bhangra without being completely confused. Bhangra kind of reminds me of the English line dances a la Price and Prejudice, which means it's a perfect medium for flirting with the computer science majors that frequent school sponsored parties.

This morning I woke up so late that I had missed both breakfast and lunch. I think good organized back to school Melissa has finally left. I've managed to become so horribly disorganized that I can't find anything in my room and I keep missing deadlines for club meetings and class assignments.