There's a million better bands and a million better songs

Journal is 90% friends-only.

Ok, so there's this trans 101 advice article: scarleteen via rhrealitycheck
and on vagina_pagina, someone takes major offense to the article.

The thread on v_p is frozen so I can't ask the (totally flipping out) poster why it's problematic. Beyond the problems in a cisfemale explaining trans stuff, what's the issue? (As for the breadth of the reply, I thought it was appropriate for her to take the opportunity to explain about the gender non-binary and such.)

So color me naive and unenlightened, I guess. But anyone want to enlighten me?

My grandmother called me the other day to dictate to me the recipe for my aunt's almond roca. It's the first thing to disappear from our boxes of Christmas cookies, and when I told my dad I was starting to make candy, he immediately requested this. So, when I'm done with grad school essays, I will make it.

aunt beverly's almond roca
1 lb butter (grandma: not margarine!)
2 cups sugar
1 cup coarsely chopped almonds (plain, not roasted, not salted)
1 cup finely chopped almonds
3 4.25 oz size hershey bars, broken up into small pieces

melt butter slowly in heavy 4 qt saucepan. Add sugar while stirring and boil for 5 minutes on medium heat, stirring CONSTANTLY. Add coarsely chopped nuts, stir until hard crack using thermometer. (Have a backup stirrer because it takes so long.)

Pour into greased jelly roll pan, spread out. Break chocolate bars into pieces and distribute evenly across candy. When they hit the hot candy, the chocolate will melt. Smooth chocolate over entire pan. Sprinkle with finely chopped almonds. When cool, break into pieces using point of a large knife.

Enjoy!

note: though Beverly doesn't toast the almonds, toasting does make them easier to cut. It will only take a few minutes, so I think I shall.

Name a thing you like, beginning with the letters “Q” or “K.”

Kittens! Quiche! Anyone else?



I'm done with a hat but I don't understand the instructions for the knitted tubular cast-off I was going to do. I guess I'll have to do a sewn cast-off. Any ideas for a k1,p1,k1,p1,k2,p1,k2,p1 rib? Yes, that's right. It alternates 1-1 and 2-1, so poo. (I was going to just pick up a stitch between the k2s for the 1-1 cast-off.)

Also, I realized I like Lady Gaga if I don't have to watch the video. I'm a little surprised because her image is ridiculous (she doesn't wear pants! she has crazy theatrical getups allllll the time! her videos are insane!) but damn, the music's addictive.
But I still can't stand Katy Perry. Even though there is a song Raechel gave me in a mix that I like, Katy Perry still irks me.

So, also: What song/artist/genre do you like despite yourself? I think of this as different than a guilty pleasure, somehow.

I just finished watching Iron Jawed Angels and oh my god, you should go watch it. I'm not a huge enough history buff to know how true to life it is, but really, does it matter? It's still brutal in parts, and wonderfully happy in others. Hilary Swank, Anjelica Houston, and other awesome actresses I don't immediately recognize are in it. My only complaint is that the soundtrack is overwhelmingly early 21st century pop, which takes me out of the story. (I don't know why it worked for Marie Antoinette, but it doesn't work here.) Years ago, Bust magazine had an article on pop culture's representation of women in politics, and between Commander In Chief, The West Wing and Iron Jawed Angels, the movie came out the best of the three.

If the megavideo link works for you, it didn't for me, you can watch it there: http://www.megavideo.com/?v=CH9IVM45
If you can't watch it at megavideo and can deal with the nonregistered product watermark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZt9p3addIU&feature=related

In non pop culture, life is going well.

Ok people. After waking up to this wankitude about judges being "too fat" for the Supreme Court and this classy interview with Joe The Plumber, I wondered if today was just the day for obnoxious articles and news items.

Can you find an even more obnoxious article published this week?
Criteria:
1. Obnoxious doesn't necessarily mean depressing or offensive.
2. It should be from either an "actual news" site, a well-established blog or news aggregator.
3. The Onion doesn't count. FOX News and wingnutsdaily (whatever that site's actually called) do count, dubiously so.

One of the preschool teachers this morning: I don't watch the news anymore. Maybe FOX, when I want a laugh or...to see the other side, but only sometimes.

#1, as posted from Facebook: My dad and grandparents like to put potato chips on sandwiches, preferably tuna fish or open-faced peanut butter. My coworker's grandmother reportedly liked open-faced sour cream and brown sugar sandwiches. What weird sandwich combos does your family or friend circle actually enjoy? (Weird combos null if the eater is pregnant.)

#2: If you could keep only one non-herb food plant, and that plant would produce waaaay more of the food than you could ever use, what would it be?

#3: What should I do with ~1.5 c leftover chicken? It's moist but way too salty, and still has some uninteresting curry sauce on it. (On a related note, Rice Junkies curry bento is boring.)

Intersex horse!
Sam Adams is a Wal-Mart greeter, for all of ten minutes.
Reinforcing spider silk with metal
Rockstar energy drinks are owned by Michael Savage and his son. Ew.
Three mostly cool things about marriage equality in Iowa.
Folk story anthropologists, you'll appreciate this archive.
This Google trends graph cracks me up.

I just got back from an amazingly fun and informative science workshop! ( moreCollapse )

Now I'm going to dope myself up with Nyquil and try to get adequate sleep before my morning shift tomorrow. Stupid sickness.

On Friday, I called Marika and asked her to talk me out of making pie and talking about pi with the kids. She declined. So we got the older kids to help us explain about circles, calculated some diameters and circumferences using pi, and then let them mash graham cookies into tiny bits. We topped the graham crust with frozen strawberries (and sugar and cornstarch) left over from another project and baked them all in muffin tins.

One dad listened to Marika's explanation of 3.14 and asked us what we were doing to celebrate 420.

First of all: Everyone who didn't go missed out on some damn good pie. And, there would be photos if my card reader didn't suck.

I made veggie pot pie, starting from this recipe, omitting the cauliflower and green beans, adding peas, thyme and rosemary and putting it all between crust containing a good amount of Salt & Ground Pepper potato chip crumbs.

I also made Schadenfreude Tarts in crust leftover from work. They taste like molasses cookies! (Ginger would go nicely.)

Other pies in attendance: Tyler's lemon meringue (her first meringue ever!), Jordan's chocolate mousse, Lily's key lime, Rachel's pecan and Marika's apple-cranberry. I only had one slice of the apple-cranberry before it was mostly devoured and then whisked away. Sad!

I realized that I don't really like hosting parties. Rather, I like having people over and I like setting things up, but I'm not the kind of person who facilitates social interactions. I'll introduce people, but after that, I expect people to handle themselves. I also get bored with sitting in one place and chatting, which is why I rented Pushing Daisies for more Things To Do.

Pushing Daisies is adorable and colorful, and I never realized how much that gets repetitive when you watch more than one episode in a row. There's a lot of cleavage, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Mmm, now I want more pie.

A frathouse stages a counterprotest when Westboro Baptist Church comes to U of Chicago. Okay, it's a DANCE PARTY.


Old baking videos from Rose Levy Beraunbaum, the author of three comprehensive baking books.



In which some graphic designers wank about how groundbreaking and Important their new Pepsi logo is, and it's amazing.