I'm recording this down here since I want to toss my paper copy of this recipe. It's a recipe I found on the packaging of a Keebler Chocolate Crumb Crust, and I've made it a ton of times for potlucks and parties because it takes only take 5 minutes to make and everyone seems to like it.

( White Chocolate Hazelnut (Pudding) Pie )

So after work, I decided to go to the market to work on my fruitless quest to start bringing lunch to work and stop wasting so much money. I was calling my roommate to ask if she needed anything, and at the same time I was putting things into my purse. I put in my wallet, keys, etc, then I was like, Where is my phone??. It wasn't in my backpack, and I hadn't put it into the purse already, so I went around checking everything around the apartment two or three times again. After my roommate told me she didn't need anything from the market and ended the call, I was like...Oh hey...the phone appeared in my hand....oh wait. *Feels like an idiot* Sort of like the "Omg, where are my sunglasses??" when they were on my head. Not sure which is worse.

Had my 4th wine class today. We covered New York, Washington, and Oregon wines and had seven tasting samples. I'm definitely liking white wines more and more. I liked all three whites we tried well enough so I'm recording them here, in hopes that when I'm back in California for break I can maybe find these again (Pinot Gris, King Estate, Oregon, 2007; Hermann Wiemer, Dry Riesling, Finger Lakes, NY, 2006; Chardonnay, White Label, Lenz, North Fork, LI, NY, 2005) I definitely liked the Riesling the most due to its hint of sweetness. I was a bit less excited about the reds. Once again, we tried a Pinot Noir, which I didn't like too much. The Syrah was....interesting, as well as the Cabernet Franc. I think I might like them better if I had some food with me to tone down the astringency. (Pinot Noir, Argyle, Willamette Valley, Oregon, 2006; Syrah, Hogue, Columbia Valley, Washington, 2003; Cabernet Franc, Palmer Vinyards, North Fork, LI, NY, 2003). Lastly, we tried a wine made from a native Labrusca species (Lake Niagara, Semi-Dry, Widmer Cellars, New York, NV) and it totally smelled like Welch's Grape Juice or something related, and it was yummy and sweet too. I guess I'll never have a very "sophisticated" taste for wine :(

Gave my field seminar today, finally. I'd barely finished my powerpoint slides by yesterday, and I hadn't actually practiced the entire talk before the actual thing :x Amazingly though, it wasn't too horrible and no one asked too many hard questions. I even got through some technical difficulties like powerpoint freezing when I tried to show my fly seizure movie.

I'm just glad that I'll be able to sleep now (and play ffxi) and that it'll be another half year before I have to give another research talk.

I had my 3rd wine class today too, and today's topic was California wines (yay cali). I think I'm already starting to appreciate white wines more since I didn't really like them before I started this course. One thing that sort of got to me was that both last week and this week, we tasted two different Pinot Noirs, and everyone in the class seemed to like them a lot. I didn't particularly like them over the other wines we tasted. Maybe I have weird tastes? I did really like the Cabernet Sauvignon (Beringer), though of course I had to choose to like one of the most expensive ones we tried today >.>

Thanks everyone who offered consolations for Jin, I appreciate it. I hear that Susie is rather lost without the boss dog around. I guess after having lived competing with each other their entire lives, she doesn't have much to do these days...


On a totally different but not unexpected topic, my computer finally arrived! It's exactly one month since I placed the order, and it has been pretty difficult (though socially enriching) trying to survive the ordeal. First I couldn't connect to the internet so I couldn't do much besides install Office. I'd forgotten what a pain it is to start with a new computer. I'm still a bit worried because of the defective gpu. Don't be surprised if I suddenly disappear off the chats for months at a time again -.- Anyways, I'm hoping to do some updating for ffxi while I sleep, so that I can start losing hours of my life into that game again :x

This picture is from the last time I spent time with Jin, during my visit home last summer.

Jin was found paralyzed in her legs very early in the morning between Sunday and Monday. My family isn't too sure what happened, but it seems to be a combination of fighting with Susie and the cancer spreading too much, probably into her spine. She was put down last evening at an emergency vet clinic. They confirmed a spinal injury that probably couldn't be treated at all.

I'll miss Jin so much :( She was a wonderful friend and companion all the way from my high school years, and so even-tempered with all people. We'll miss her tapping on the back door to beg for treats, hiding in the garage from the scary 4th of July fireworks, running around the house to the gate to greet my parents home from work, and many other things. My brother says that Susie keeps running around the yard, seeming to wonder where Jin has gone. It'll be strange when I go home for Christmas and not see Jin waiting there.

Yay! I got into the university hotel school's Introduction to Wines course. It's a class with a great reputation and even though I'm not all that into alcoholic drinks in general, I think it'll be a good experience. Thanks to everyone who kept me company on aim and gmail on Sunday as I sat in lab alone waiting six hours for the wines class waitlist signups to go up online lol.

My new computer's being held up in production due to a lack of some component, so I'm still waiting on it, even after over two weeks since putting in the order :( And despite spending a ton on a new computer, I've also been shopping more often due to being bored at home. I destroyed my hand-held mixer while trying to make whipped cream a couple days ago. I started to smell solder and the mixer started sparking and smoking and eventually stopped working :( I can't complain too much since I got it for free at a kitchen purge in my old house/dorm in college and it's lasted me five years. Anyways, this time around I got a nicer KitchenAid hand-held mixer, and also convinced myself to buy some other gadgets for the kitchen :x

So what else have I been wasting time on....I finally got the rainbow pudding in ff4, a couple of them actually, in the course of trying to kill princess flans for a pink tail. The safe travel augment is so awesome. They should be in all ff games, like this one and the moogle charm. I think I'm going to give up on the pink tail and just try to kill Zemus/Zeromus to see the ending.

I also watched Kiki's Delivery Service yesterday. It was pretty cute though I was annoyed by the subtitles. I should never try buying these sets from overseas Chinese groups since in this case they put in the closed captioning instead of subtitles. Something I did notice though, from reading the closed captioning, is that the English version puts in so much filler conversation, while in the original Japanese there are lots of segments with no voices, which would allow you to just enjoy the scenery. Wonder if that's true for a lot of the movies.

I decided that I really needed the Treasure Hunter augment so that I could try for some of the rare items, so I took a mad dash through the Lunar Subterrane dungeon with Edge, Cecil, and Rosa set to Auto-Smoke/Teleport to run from all battles. I skipped all the treasure chests since I'm low enough a level that most of the enemies hiding in them would probably kill my characters. Things got a little scary when one of the Evil Masks did some laser move that killed everyone but Cecil. Thankfully, he lived long enough to cast Teleport and escape. When I FINALLY reached the end of the 11th floor, right before the teleporter to Zemus, I completed the map...and got no Treasure Hunter. I was totally panicking and thinking that I must have missed some bit of map in one of the unrepeatable maps, like the Tower of Babil. In desperation I started walking back through every dungeon, including the Lunar Subterrane, the Bahamut Cave, the underworld dungeons, and had no luck (note this was like at 3 am, so I stopped there and tried to sleep, and couldn't fall asleep due to worrying about the maps XD). Finally, when I went through Eblan caves, I found one map where when you entered, the area in the doorway didn't automatically register on the map, so by taking a few steps back, I finally completed that map and got my Treasure Hunter augment. Now to spend many many hours to get the rainbow pudding and tails...

I guess it's sort of a good thing that I've been computerless for the last two weeks. I've been getting out and doing stuff I normally don't do. Jen's cousin was visiting this weekend so I tagged along to go hiking at Watkins Glen, blueberry picking, and out to play some board games with friends (I'm a really boring player in Apples to Apples).

I've also been working through a bunch of DVDs and VHS that I bought awhile back and never got around to. I have four sets of Best of Discovery Channel that I'm working through one by one. The Mythbusters bloopers dvd was pretty funny, and the documentary on the birth and first year of the panda Tai Shen at the National Zoo was really cute too. I also watched the first three episodes of the remade Doctor Who while Jen laughed at me for needing subtitles since I couldn't always keep up with the dialog due to the British accents >.> It was pretty interesting and weird. I've never seen the series before, but it was on my recommendations list from Netflix so I tried it out.

Wii Fit has been amusing as well. The yoga and strength exercises are pretty boring, so I haven't tried them much, but the aerobics and balance games are fun. The lamest of the aerobics/balance games was probably the one where you're supposed to "meditate" by sitting on the balance board and not moving for as long as possible to keep a flame alight. I always twitched a little and blew out the flame too fast. My solution was to sit and play around with my cell phone. I found that having something to occupy my attention stopped me from fidgeting and almost quadrupled my score :x

Though it's been nice overall, I really do hope I'm not computerless too long, since I have a department seminar to give in a month -.-

Since I don't have a computer or ffxi to occupy 80% of my at-home time, I've been doing some baking. Last week I found this scone recipe in one of the cookbooks I bought from the campus store's bargain table. I left out the sliced almonds since I didn't have any, and I reduced the amount of almond extract because I'm not a huge fan of almond flavor. It turned out pretty well and people seemed to like it. It could probably do without the egg wash since it feels sort of like a waste of an egg. Photo of the scones is still on my camera, and I'm too lazy to drag the thing over to work.

( Dried Cherry Scones )

I also ended up making some brownies because I accidentally bought a bar of unsweetened chocolate, not realizing I still had unsweetened chocolate at home and actually needed a bar of semisweet chocolate. I looked up recipes that used unsweetened chocolate and chose one to try from epicurious.com. I have to admit, these aren't my favorite type of brownies. I really like the ones from box mixes that turn out chewy, but these are really dense and cakey. Hmm..I wonder if it just needs more butter or something.

( Dark Chocolate Brownies with White Chocolate Chunks )

When I arrived at home yesterday, I saw a multitude of firetrucks and ambulances surrounding my apartment building. I had no idea what was going on but as I walked toward my apartment from the bus stop, I could see that my apartment's door was open and I started getting really worried. My neighbor, as I passed by him, said that there had been a fire in the apartment right below mine (I live on the top/second floor). I sort of tiptoed into my apartment, and while there was glass all over the entranceway from the door being forced open, the rest of the apartment looked fine, to my huge relief.

I found out later on that there had been an explosion in the kitchen below due to a leak from the gas pipe to the stove. It could have a whole lot worse, but one of the neighbor's kids had been bicycling around and noticed that the apartment was on fire and his dad called 911. I haven't seen the damage to the apartment below, but one of my neighbors told me that the entire kitchen is pretty much ruined and blackened from floor to ceiling, and the stove had turned into a piece of scrap metal. The people living downstairs probably won't be able to move back in until some serious repair and remodeling have been done.

I'm so amazed that the three other apartments in the building weren't affected (or so I hope), especially mine, since it's the closest x.x I can smell smoke and burnt stuff when I'm in my kitchen and bathroom, but that's the extent of it. It's like one of my nightmares almost come true. It was pretty scary last night though, being alone in the apartment with a busted front door and paranoia of fires restarting. A maintenance guy came by today morning and blocked off the holes in the door with plywood and inspected all the stoves in the apartment building. I didn't really want to leave home today in case anything else happened, but I have a gcf event to go to, and plus I needed to come to lab to access a computer to check email and stuff -.-. Sigh :( I was going to bake this weekend but now I'm scared to use the oven.

Well, my computer was up and running for about two days, since Friday morning, but as of today at noon, it seems to have re-died -.- My department's IT person was able to successfully boot up the computer on Friday and update drivers and BIOS and I thought it had helped, but I guess not :( My brother found out that the problem with a certain line of nvidia video cards has been a recognized problem in certain models of Dell (including mine) and hp laptops. And while hp responded by extending the warranty of those computers by a year, apparently Dell won't help anyone whose warranty has expired......blah @ dell. I guess it's just my normal bad luck to have my warranty expire last week.

Guess I'm back to looking for a new computer again. Whichever I get this time is going to have a minimum 3 year warranty -.- I'm hoping for some good deals to appear soon since it's back-to-school season.

My one-year-old laptop stopped working today -.- It booted up just fine when I got to work. I checked email and stuff, then went to lab to work. When I got back half an hour later, the screen was blank. When I rebooted the computer, I could hear the computer booting up and everything, and the screen turned on but still stayed blank. An external monitor didn't help either...so it seems to be pointing to something wrong with the graphics card, at least according to people I talked to. I really liked this computer too, since it was a gift from my dad and brother :(

The worst thing? The warranty expired a couple days ago!! >:( It's so frustrating. My computer is sort of my lifeline, since over half the people I talk to on a daily basis are online friends, so knowing I won't have one for awhile is a scary thought.

My brother tells me to just get a new computer, though Jen recommends trying to get it repaired. I don't know what would be better...my 4-year-old laptop is still sitting in my office unfixed because the repair person told me it would cost $800 to repair it. If it costs that much to repair this one too, then I may as well get a new one :\

So now I'm sitting on one of the lab computers now that everyone else has left because I won't have any internet at home :x No FFXI (the likely culprit for my computer's demise), no TPPC, no emailing, no chatting....whatever will I do with all that time now lol. My brother's on the hunt for a new laptop for me, but we're waiting a bit and hoping there'll be some good deals appearing soon.










On the bright side, if there is one, I did get a ton of work done today due to having no distractions ; ; Maybe this enforced break from FFXI and other online stuff will let me actually do other stuff...like cleaning, reading, going out places, or playing some of my poor dusty video games.

Got to play FFIV a few minutes before going to sleep last night. Some random comments...

( Small spoilers ahead )

So I swung by Gamestop today to get my copy of FFIV, and as the lady there was ringing up the sale and started to ask for my ID for the reservation, the other guy next to her said not to bother with the ID since he remember seeing me there a ton of times >.> Clearly it's a sign that I've been shopping at Gamestop way too much...and perhaps I should go back to using Gamestop online to fade back into anonymity :x

I haven't actually started playing FFIV yet, but I did do a quick flip through the instruction booklet, and I really liked the artists' rendition of the different characters. Also, once again we're presented with the puzzling phenomenon where male characters have to wear full body armor yet the females have what must be all-powerful swimsuits. I also saw a few other improvements, one minor one being a save point that is now a sparkling starburst shape thing, instead of big "S" on the ground like it used to be XD I think Tactics will be put on hold for awhile while I try out FFIV.

On a very unrelated note, I've finally made myself cook something after work, which is rather amazing since it's been over a month or so of not cooking dinner :x I found the recipe online and a lot of people commented how they liked it, but then I realized the recipe was taken straight off a box of StoveTop stuffing >.> The recipe was really bare bones, so I added in some veggies as well. It turned out decently. The next step is to actually get motivated to make myself get past box mix stuff and make some real food lol.

( Bruschetta Chicken Bake )

And yes, I still have pics from vacation that I haven't put up :( I'll get to them...someday.

I was pretty excited yesterday when my copy of the FFXI Piano Collections came in. I wonder if you reach a new level of geekiness when you buy soundtracks to the games you play >.> I certainly wouldn't mind having the soundtracks to a lot of the FF games that I've played over the years. I sometimes find myself humming melody lines from FFI at random times, sadly enough (the Ice Caves music was my favorite). It just tells you how much I played that game, even though I was only like in 2nd/3rd grade when my dad got it for the NES system >.< I remember a lot of the music from FFII(US)/FFIV(Japan) too since I played that game to death as well and is still my most favorite FF storyline. On a side note, I'm SOOOO excited that FFIV is coming out for DS with added storyline. Just one more week... :) It'll be hard to decide if I should put FFTactics A2 on hold to play it or try to finish A2 first.

Anyways, back to my new CD, I enjoyed listening to the piano renditions a lot, maybe because I played the piano as well (just like 90% of all other Asian girls). I especially liked the Mercenaries' Delight and The Cosmic Wheel tracks. I couldn't figure out where the first one came from, probably some mission cutscene, but I'm pretty sure the second one is from West Sarutabaruta (S). I like the Wings of the Goddess track too, I think I've never really listened to the whole thing during the game opening scenes before. The Fated Strife - Beseiged music was pretty amusing, as well as The Grand Duchy of Jeuno, both of which I've heard way too much in the game. I think listening to these makes me appreciate the in-game music a bit more. I wish they had a rendition of my favorite city music, Bastok, but it probably goes best with brass instruments and not on piano.

Well, normally I'd post stuff like this on my FFXI journal, but since I need to keep up with my posts-per-week score on this journal...here it is.

OMG, I actually managed to get a recording from the muscle of one of the fly larvae I dissected yesterday. After trying to get this to work in our lab for the past two weeks and failing due to random mistakes, crappy dissecting, and lots of problems with electrical noise, I was so excited to see those lines appearing on the screen. I really hope I get somewhere with this part of my project. I've been getting rather antsy due to hearing about how so many of my yearmates are planning to graduate within a year or so, and I haven't even published once yet! I really need to get motivated :(

Anyways, Linda's been trying to convince me to post more often since she's started to post on LJ again. I guess I'll see how long my posting spree lasts.

I've been slacking off on my posting once again (not to mention slacking off at work too, sadly). It's been really hard to get myself motivated lately.

My dad and my brother got me a new digital camera last week so I've been fiddling around with that a little. It's leagues better than my old one (which I got near the beginning of college), and I don't have to charge it every day because of the crappy battery. I went to buy a carrying case for it, though it was annoying that a lot of the "girly" ones on sale were so impractical. Oh well, I was never much for being stylish anyways. Oh, and the day after my camera arrived, apparently my brother found the exact same thing for $100 less >.> Such is my normal luck.

Independence day was pretty boring since I just stayed at home, not due to lack of invitations to events. I'm just antisocial I guess :( I hope my parents were able to deal with Jin and Susie since they go absolutely crazy when they hear fireworks. I don't know how Susie stuffed herself under a metal shelf that was literally about half a foot tall a couple years back.

I started reading a new series this weekend: John Flanagan's Ranger Apprentice series. I'd wanted to read them awhile back but didn't want to spend money on a books that would only take a couple hours to read (though, with that kind of attitude, I shouldn't buy manga either >.>). My solution was to just sit at Borders and read, which worked out fine. For a children's book, it still took a good chunk of time to get through it. I really liked the story even though a lot of the names sounded like they were warped out of LoTR books. It's basically a "coming-of-age" story set in in a fantasy world. I liked the different characters a lot, especially the poor Baron who tries to be funny but fails again and again. Most likely I'll try to read the other stories in the series as I have time to spend in a bookstore, but the Temeraire series also awaits on my bookshelf.

I had a dream last night that I had to write a draft of a paper for some English/Writing class by today, and had totally forgotten about it. I had two hours before class and I'd just come back from camping (o.O) so I had absolutely nothing to turn in, not even a paragraph. The feeling was so horrible and I felt like I was going to hyperventilate.

Then as I slowly woke up, I realized it's summer vacation, and I haven't taken a writing or English class in almost seven years >.>

I'm such a nerd.

Yeah, I've been totally lazy about posting, even though I've been at my parents' home pretty much doing nothing except sitting around the house, going out to eat, shopping, and playing ffxi. There's some interesting stuff that happened, like my brother's graduation and a family outing to Long Beach, but otherwise it was pretty boring and relaxing (just the way I like vacation). No pictures yet, but I'll do some additional posts tomorrow or after I get back to my apartment with various pics.

( Big blocks-o-text about vacation )

Only about 24 hours left in California ; ; I wish my vacation was a month longer or something.