That · Wellington · Crowd

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There's water, water everywhere in National Geographic News's most popular space coverage of 2009: A probe proved there's water on the moon, a Mars lander's leg got all wet, fishlike life may swim a Jupiter moon's seas, and more.

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I also schlepped into the city and shopped. Found a rather good fabric store in the garment district. $48 on fabric for presents, $40 for totally unnecessary dance veil fabric. Whoops. But one was a tie-died orange that I could hardly just LEAVE there, and one was a printed red with white roses silk chiffon that I just... oh, it had to be mine.

Also went up to the Times Square Muji for a few things I needed and a few things I didn't. I really wouldn't mind a skillet of the same quality as the one saucepan I bought from Muji, but they don't have any cookpots at that Muji. Will have to try getting to the Soho one sometime this holiday season; that's where they have pots.

It was raining and sometimes snowing and people were charging around in the rain and the snow and it was COLD but I was in layers and with actual closed shoes on, so I was quite comfortable.

I am EXTREMELY pleased with the pockety notebook thing I bought at Muji for $4.25. The pockets are large and soft and hold the pieces of paper I've been working with in the kitchen for almost a year on which I've scribbled recipes or made notes on the recipes I use most often now that I'm doing the whole-wheat, no-sugar thing. I am very pleased to have it all in a wipeable plastic notebook, and NOT in a sheaf of wrinkled, stained papers shoved up on the top shelf of the cabinet where they come sliding down on your head every time you open the door.

In honor of this, I am going to post now a version of the Cookie 2.0 recipe. There are a few versions - it did some branching without strict version control - but this is the most common one, I think, now.

raqs' Cookie 2.0

1/2 stick (1/4 C) butter
1/4 C coconut oil (can just use butter for this too)
softened and mixed with
1/2 C. applesauce
3/4 tsp pure stevia extract POWDER
1 tsp vanilla
3/8 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (can use less or leave it out if you like)
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 C. almond flour
2 tbsp wheat gluten
2 tbsp whey protein
2 tbsp oat flour
about 1/4 C raisins or what you like
1/4 C pecan pieces
1/4 C rolled oats

bake at 425 degrees F for 12 minutes.

I made myself a batch just now... and I've just realized that I've left out the eggs. Er. I hope they're edible. Drat.

Current Mood:

accomplished

http://feeds.theonion.com/~r/theonion/weekly/~3/Hfq2-McvFfU/christ_turns_down_3_year

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And I won it fair and square by beating Fonzie in an arm wrestling contest while injecting computer viruses into an alien mothership using a Tesla coil apparatus developed by Batman and David Bowie.

http://feeds.theonion.com/~r/theonion/weekly/~3/AjVRL4b0OkU/labor_dept_available_labor_rate

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The Anxiety is also making our total lack of money in the run-up to Christmas more irritating than it needs to be. I am trying to ignore it, and focusing on the fact that Evil Work owes me £3000, which really they ought to Pay Up at any time. Thankfully the "bagel" (as the recession was called on West Wing) has made our mortgage payment much more affordable. Truly it doesn't affect our lives as much as I feared -- we have become much better about budgeting and I have a large fabric stash and Dr M has more comics than he could ever possibly hope to read, and Charlotte just got a lot of birthday presents. But it is Annoying, for sure, especially when the big six-monthly bills come in. However when the thesis is done, I can go back to work, right? Somehow the prospect is also not very appealing.

Regarding the thesis, term ends next Friday. Ackity ack ack ack ack. Goodbye now, faithful blog, I have work to do.

Are there any code people who might look at this and tell me if it will cause serious problems?

#!/bin/bash

# init
function pause(){
     read -p "$*"
}

for f in `ls multipart/`
do
  if [[ "$f" == *.zip ]]
  then
    echo "Processing $f file..."
    mv multipart/$f multipart/__temp/    # Move zip file to temp dir.
    unzip multipart/__temp/*.zip         # Unzip archive.   
    rm multipart/__temp/*.zip            # Remove the old zip archive.
    rm multipart/__temp/._*.mp3          # Remove the Apple "._" files.
    zip -r multipart/__temp/$f *.mp3     # Zip the mp3 files to a new archive.
    mv multipart/__temp/$f multipart/    # Move the new archive back.                   
    rm multipart/__temp/*                # Remove any other temp files.     
    pause 'Press any key to continue...'
  fi
done

Dr. Johnson to Boswell: “Do not fancy that an intermission of writing is a decay of kindness. No man is always in a disposition to write; nor has any man at all times something to say.”

(Yoinked from The Wreck of the Henry Clay, the tremendous paper and ink version of Caleb Crain’s Steamboats Are Ruining Everything.)

Delia's gone to bed, as she has to get up at 3 a.m. to wake up in time to do Hour of the Wolf at WBAI downtown at 5:00 for Interfictions. So here I sit, trying to get sleepy, or at least to write something.

This was tech week. It kicked off with a post-Thanksgiving rehearsal on Sunday night - yep, we work'em hard. The director knew she needed to ease everyone back in - and besides, we couldn't get onstage because they were still hammering away at the set. (Yeah, I've got photos. Somewhere.) So first they did a speed-through, where everyone just delivers their lines as fast as they can, to show they know them and their cues cold. Then came the improv: We ran the show, complete with blocking (but not toe-dancing), in the lobby, and every few minutes the director, Linda Ames Key, would shout out a different style for them to act it in. It started with Greek Tragedy, which went very well with the Family Party where no one is really getting along. I can't even remember all of them, but I don't think I've laughed so hard in ages. One highlight was "Lord of the Rings!" - they fumbled for a bit, and then Sarah turned into Smeagol, hunkered over her Precious with lines like, "But how do we find the Dreydl Princess?" and it was actually a scene in which the Fool is asking her riddles - priceless! This actor is so great to watch: her focus is so strong, and she's so flexible - she also delivered a Trailer Trash finale with a shirt stuffed down her belly, and a side-splitting E.R. & Film Noir with others. The exercise stretched our young actors in all sorts of ways - when the guy playing a comic old man who can't plant his Carob Tree did it as "Western!", he suddenly developed a sombre gravitas that actually will serve him in the part. A very delicate little ballerina suddenly turned out a huge, brawling "Housewives of New Jersey" in a voice we'd never heard before, which was actually perfect for her role! That was the Magic: it wasn't just hilarious and fun, but it loosened everyone up, slipping under their guard to give useful tools for the show.

Can't say how grateful I am to be allowed to witness all this. I never studied drama formally, always wanted to, and now I feel I'm getting a crash course in practical theatre by keeping my mouth shut (mostly). I am occasionally asked for an opinion, and sometimes for a rewrite, but mostly I just try to stay out of the way. Though I'm also learning how to voice opinions in ways that are useful (always a weakness of mine!).

Today was final dress rehearsal, and it was the traditional trainwreck. I'm not worried; once the Queen of Sheba's Attendants have gone offstage in the middle of a scene premarturely and neglected to come back for their lines (because they can't find the costume change they're supposed to bring on), leaving Sara & the Queen to improvise desperately, it can never happen again . . . right? Bits of the Fool's costume fell off every 5 minutes, and the Peacock's feathers were bent. But a lot went right, too - and a good thing, as we'd invited about 90 local schoolkids (1st & 2nd graders, mostly) to attend for free. They were riveted. But I'd forgotten how nutso I get when I'm observing a show from the back with an actual audience. I lose my focus on the players, and am utterly attuned to the audience reaction: Did that joke get a laugh? Are they "seat-wriggling"? Why aren't they applauding here? Maybe because I'm a performer myself, I just go to That Place automatically, but of course, being at the back of the auditorium rather than the front, there's not a damn thing I can do about it except wonder if I need to revise more, or beg the director not to let that actor ever ever do that bit again. Last year I was on at the beginning & end of the show as Tante Miriam, and stood at the back the rest of the time for nearly every performance, alternately suffering torments and crowing with glee. It's early days yet. This year's is a very very complicated show, and I know we'll all burn into it - even me. I must say that the sets & costumes are gorgeous beyond belief. No complaints there. And our ensemble is superb. Now, if only I could have an audience full of people who do exactly what I tell them!

Hmm. Still not sleepy. Better go to bed anyway. I could just pretend to sleep....

I made split pea soup this morning and it was a great success. It shall, with some refinements, appear in other venues eventually.

I am of course very intrigued by the idea of baking in one, but since my most reliable bread recipe right now is a very high-heat quick-baking one, I don't see that happening in a vessel that cooks, at its highest, at half the temperature. Still, you know I'm going to try it.

I'm having trouble with my bread sticking in pans (when I bake it in pans,) but I finally remembered that I have a few silicon pans, the kind that could be peeled right off a recalcitrant loaf of bread. Gonna try that when I do sourdough again.

Anyway, the crock pot. It took less than ten minutes to load it up this morning and I let it go all day. I was worried about this. I have a couple of friends who claim to love their crock pots, and when I bought mine I emailed them and I was all "How does this even work? I can't leave meat in the pot for a couple of hours before I start it, and these recipes are all for, like, five hours, and it's at least nine hours before I can get home from work." And what I got back was... zilch. Nada. Like my emails had gone into the ether. Which made me think there's some sort of conspiracy surrounding the fabulousness of crock pots and that my friends were being held by men in black who had gagged them as soon as there was the possibility of them breaking the code of silence and revealing the true drawbacks to crock pots.

But it worked. I tried it first with a recipe using a ham hock because that wasn't going to go bad, even though this recipe could be cooked for 8-10 hours fine. I will be interested to see how it does with beef or pork. I may try starting with frozen beef or something at one point.

So THAT worked, and made the right amount for me and the eater and some leftovers.

Feel free to tell me your crock pot recipes, as long as you don't mind that the men in black are going to come and gag you.

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With its first data from a particle collision, the Large Hadron Collider has "taken off safely," one scientist says. But the trip isn't over yet—and higher-energy collisions could come before Christmas.

deliasherman & I will be the (no longer)-SuperSecret Guests at this year's Georgia Filk Convention in Atlanta, Jan. 8-10, 2010!

Are you going? Have you been? What's it like?

Recently I've come to accept that I'm even more pathetic. Because if I had a time machine, I'd go back to the heyday of the Manchu Court, become Emperor of all of China, and then outlaw lipsmacking at mealtimes under pain of death.

http://www.dorktower.com/2009/12/04/dork-tower-friday-december-4-2009-mayadamus/

http://www.dorktower.com/?p=4181

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Poll #1494497 pick one
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when would you like to meet-up