Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind
don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
~ Dr. Seuss
I adore these Indiana Jones toys already and I haven’t even seen them in stores. I shall treat myself to one package on my birthday, which is when the Hasbro site says they’re available.
What if the Death Star had a cafeteria? British comedian Eddie Izzard imagines the staff interaction with Darth Vadar, who apparently needs a tray before he'll be served. Hilarious!
LEGO provides a digital archive of all its kit directions. And thank goodness, because I couldn't find the parts listing for few items the child wants to build.
A guy reprogrammed his girlfriend's favorite video game, "Bejeweled," so a ring and a marriage proposal would show up on the screen when she reached a certain score. She said yes. Aw.
Zotero is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work -- in the web browser itself. It includes a number of default citation styles, such as MLA for any humanities work, or APA for my school and professional work. Very slick, though I wish it was available for Safari.
What if Star Wars action figures were reimagined with a steampunk theme. I've shared artistic renditions of Steampunk Star Wars, but now someone has actually made some very cool figures. Love Princess Leia's design... I'd totally buy the collection!
Hey, there are bowling events at the Special Olympics! It's too late for 2008, but next Spring, after some time in the kids league, Nemo might be ready to participate!
Boy, I miss this show!
Lego Indiana Jones is due out soon for Xbox 260 and the Wii. I wonder if Wii users will have to really shake that controller to crack Indy's whip? No matter the system, this one looks like a lot of fun!
These Gucci heels are absolutely hideous... maybe it's my bad sense of fashion, but for $795, I kinda expected something better.
More than 200 video clips from a childhood favorite of mine, Fame. The series doesn't hold up as well 25 years later, but as a kid, I really wanted to know that freedom in singing and dancing.
Bagel-fuls are frozen bagels sticks stuffed with cream cheese. This is almost as bad as the sausage wrapped in a chocolate chip pancake on a stick. I mean, ew... I like bagels and cream cheese, but not in a Twinkie-style package.
When I leave for work, the dog gets very upset. Sometimes she will howl by the front door and scratch up the linoleum in a desperate effort to chase after me. Other times, she will dash upstairs and whine or bark to alert the spousal unit that OhMyGodSheIsGone.Then she crawls on the bed to sleep. And there she stays until I get home.
John McCain's birthplace in the Panama Canal Zone has revived discussion about a Constitutional requirement that only a “natural-born citizen” can be a US President. Although individuals born abroad to two US citizens can still claim US citizenship, to date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.
Anatomy of a Stump Speech breaks down an Obama stump speech in rhetorical terms to accompanying a WaPo article on the topic. Oh, what timing... my students just finished the political speech unit and this would've been perfect. If I intended to teach again next semester, I'd have to use this. As it stands, I'll just file it away.
A "doomsday" seed vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars and natural disasters is located deep within an Arctic mountain in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. The vault will serve as a backup for hundreds of other seed banks worldwide. Dug into the permafrost of the mountain, it has the capacity to store 4.5 million seed samples from around the world and shield them from man-made and natural disasters.
The US Army has turned to Disney for help. "Service, Disney Style" is newly required for all military and other government employees at Walter Reed. Thumbs up! Disney customer service is the best I've ever experienced, and one of the main reasons we always stay on property when we visit.
The serial comma is the comma used immediately before a grammatical conjunction (nearly always and or or; sometimes nor) that precedes the last item in a list of three or more items. I rarely use the serial comma because I was taught the British and journalism exceptions. And I've never been docked in my college ENGL classes, so I guess the professors didn't care, either.
And for fun...
All about Star Wars from a little three year old girl who saw the movie one time and tells her dad about all the major points. Don't talk back to Darth Vader or he'll get ya!
When geeks have children, the results are hilarious. I love the Level 1 Human!
I vaguely recall trying zucchini when I was a kid and liking it somewhat, but not enough to eat it regularly.Now I can't get enough.
Whenever the staff dining room serves zucchini or summer squash, I have to get some. If the main courses are appealing, I might treat myself to a full lunch, but that can get expensive and overwhelming because of the limited food choices. Otherwise, I just indulge for eighty-five cents and twenty calories. Sometimes, I'll even get a double order because it's just so yummy!
I've thought about making squash at home. I'm not quite sure how to make it without rendering it into a mushy pile of yellow and green seeded flesh. Ideally, I'd slice it up and then use one of those steaming bags for tender-crisp delight. Now, I'd probably be the only one eating it, but that's okay because I like it so much I kinda don't want to share. :p
The spousal unit's review of The Lake House got me thinking about my favorite romantic comedies, the ones I always turn to for a couple of hours of feel-good, warm fuzzies. So here are my top five romantic comedies in no particular order:The American President - A precursor to The West Wing series, including several actors later featured in starring roles, this movie is smart and funny with mature and complex characters, stirring speeches and witty dialogue. Aaron Sorkin should smoke more funny mushrooms if he can produce stuff like this.
Notting Hill - I wasn't a Hugh Grant fan when I saw this movie, but he was quite endearing. An actress, trying to escape her stardom, falls for an ordinary bookstore owner, who's not sure how to deal with her high profile life. Supported by delightful secondary characters and a great soundtrack, this movie is one of my early favorites in this category.
The Lake House - This one is rather unique because the main characters don't actually appear in any scenes together until the end of the movie, but it's so lovely how the time travel component works to develop their relationship.
Love, Actually - I adore this movie as a holiday movie and as a romantic comedy. It's a complicated blend of multiple relationships representing different types of love. It's full of laughter and tears, and each time I watch the movie, I never know when I will be moved by a character or scenario.
Music & Lyrics - Last summer, I traveled to Texas and I saw this movie on the flight. It's another Hugh Grant movie, and he's a washed-up 80s pop singer looking for a comeback. When he has a chance to write a song for a major pop star, he finds an unlikely partner in a quirky poet who's come to water his plants. I adore this movie especially for its 80s-style pop music videos.
So those are my top five romantic comedies... what genre should I tackle next?
Original speech and transcript
Updated @ 8:54 am - Obama answers "Why should I vote for you?" from a participant at a Virginia town hall meeting. Invest ten minutes and watch these two clips.
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup natural sugar (I like Sugar in the Raw)
- 2 large eggs (preferably range-free, but regular eggs are fine)
- 2 sticks softened unsalted, sweet cream butter -- the real stuff, not margarine!
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 - 3/4 bag Hershey's chocolate chips (varies according to your chip preference)
Set oven to 375 degrees. Mix flour, salt and baking soda in bowl. Set aside. Blend softened butter, sugars, vanilla, and eggs in another bowl. If you use the microwave to soften your butter, be sure to let it sit for several minutes to cool down and add the eggs last to the mixture. Mix. I prefer a hand mixer, and I vary the speed from low to medium to high then back down to medium again.
Now mix dry with wet. Stir slowly with a strong spoon; I like to use wood with no slots. It may seem like you've got too much flour, but it's okay. Everything will blend together as you stir. Once you're done, add the chocolate chips. Sidebar on chip selections: Nothing against Nestle or the traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I prefer to use Hershey's chocolate chips in my cookies as well as the other, purer ingredients. The flavor and consistency just tastes better. Or, for a decadent treat, I use Ghirardelli. I always put my bag of chocolate chips in the freezer the day before and then add them to the mixture while they're still frozen. I can't explain the science like Alton Brown, but the chips just seem to handle the heat better. Back to the recipe.
I like to use parchment paper for ease of cookie prep, especially when I'm making big batches of this recipe. I use a large cookie scoop to portion out the raw cookie dough. This keeps the cookie size consistent. Six cookies per sheet, place in hot oven for 11 minutes (1st batch) and 10 minutes (all other batches) or until golden brown. Your oven may vary, of course.
Please Note: If you use a medium or small scoop, you MUST to adjust your cooking time. These cookies should be chewy, not crisp.
With my particular scoop, I only end up with 18 cookies per batch, but they're twice as big. I let them cool for an hour on racks, then store within an hour of cooling in plastic ziplock bags or containers. The cookies will remain tender and chewy, though it's unlikely they'll last more than three days with a hungry family!
Winter is nearly here, and it's COLD outside. You wore your winter coat, but you forgot to take your hat, your scarf and your gloves. Now your hands are stiff and burning, and it's not a nice feeling. So make sure you're dressed for the weather, and put the boy's hat on, too.
This message brought to you by the letters C and O and the number 37.
I stopped at 7-11 this morning to get a coffee. I forgot to take my coffee mug from home, and it was cold outside. There's only one place at work where one can get coffee, but I don't know the hours and it's two buildings away. So. A quick stop at 7-11 hit the top of my morning agenda.Usually when I get coffee from 7-11, I fill a 20 ounce cup to the edge of the 7's top bar, leaving ample room for milk. I like my coffee color to be tan, like coffee ice cream, but I don't like to add a lot of cold milk because then my coffee tends to cool down a lot faster. I could use those little creamer cups, but to fill up six or so ounces with those things would take a long time.
One day, a couple of years ago, I found at 7-11 had a steamed milk mix in its quick dispenser, which also has hot chocolate and a few other specialty flavors. I decided to try it, hoping I'd be able to simulate a simple latte, which is usually more milk than coffee. I certainly got the color and consistency I wanted, and the beverage stayed hot for a long time.
But, truthfully, I wondered how much sugar was in that steamed milk mix -- notice the extra word. It's not just steamed milk, but a steamed milk mix. I imagined water perhaps, but also some heavy sweetener. So today, when I made my coffee, I added skim milk instead, along with my splenda. Then I saw a few pumpkin spice creamers, so I tossed a couple of those in for flavor.
I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Not too sweet, and the pumpkin spice flavor was just enough to take away the bitterness of the coffee. And best off, I suddenly realized, there wasn't a funky aftertaste, which surely came from that steamed milk mix.
It's not about you, but rather what I can handle.
Coda to an Epilogue: Twenty Years Later, Or The Kids Are All Right (3 parts)
What It's About: When their sons go missing in a Durmstrang sewer, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy head down in search for them. Neither is happy to make this arrangement, but in doing so, both find answers long unknown about their roles, and that of their sons, in magical history.
My Thoughts: Post-epilogue in HP7. Good fic with humor, balance of byplay between the characters, and strong overall development in a post-series story. Nice reflections on Rowling's work, especially for the children.
Harry Potter and the Legion of Ghosts (in progress)
What It's About: Four years after the events of Deathly Hallows, people have begun to move on, even to forget. For one young soldier of the war, however, the past he laid to rest has begun to resurface, forcing him to question his conceptions of death -- and his sanity.
My Thoughts: Takes place between the final chapter of HP7 and the epilogue. I really, really like this one. The characters, the story, the reflections back to all seven books. I love how the characters have evolved from Rowling's imagination into these very believable young adults. Nice twists and turns so far... I eagerly await the next chapter, and plan to read more of the author's work.
Any suggestions?
An old grandfather said to his grandson who came in to him with anger at a friend who had done him an injustice, "Let me tell you a story"
"I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those who have taken so much with no sorrow for what they do; but hate wears you down and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking a poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times."
He continued, "It is as if there are two wolves inside me; one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way. But...the other wolf... Ah! The littlest thing will send him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all of the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing.
"Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit."
The boy looked intently into his grandfather's eyes and asked, "Which one wins, Grandfather?"
The grandfather smiled and quietly said, "The one I feed."
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