So, I've been very busy. The plus side is that I now have a re-organized kitchen and (finally) a toaster oven (microwaves are the devil). Still need a couple things, but those are more of a convenience thing. But, what do I find while visiting /. one day? This:

http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/288425.html

This is quite possibly one of the most idiotic things that I've ever seen. Here's one of the true and funny posts on that blog posted by vanillacokehead:

"""
Idiots. Pure and simple. Looks like a proctologist needs to visit the offices of 6A and examine the staff there for signs of "rectal-cranial inversion". I bet he or she would be busy for days, if not weeks.
"""

I love that: "rectal-cranial inversion" LOL!

But, perhaps someone will post something in the link above and I'll get warned or (most likely) banned (without warning) because I linked to something that violated LJ's ToS.

Now I knew that LJ was a little sketchy going in, but this is going a fair bit beyond what I find acceptable. Especially, since LJ has... poor turn-around time with suggestions (they have yet to approve/deny one that I've made and it's been almost 3 weeks), many others are in the same situation and they have a history of saying one thing and then doing another (according to many who have been here longer than I).

At any rate, I haven't been here very long, but in the words of Cartman: Screw you guys, I'm going home.

I'm not sure where I'm going, but Wordpress is definitely an option and provides a feature that a lot of people here (myself included) need, but hasn't been implemented on LJ (even though it's been requested several times). There's also my own site, but I really don't want personal stuff on there as that is far from the purpose of the site. So, probably Wordpress.

I'll update this when I decide.


EDIT: Wordpress was the one I wanted but, the only non-cryptic name that I wanted was taken by a guy that was holding it for ransom. This resulted in an email with the hope that I was going to get the name, but no go, it was just killed.

So, I had a decision to make. I could do the research and see which blogging site are _not_ insane and have the feature(s) I need, or not. But, in the end, I just plain don't care. I could give a long post about this long terrible road that got me here, how much blame is mine at the various points, etc etc etc. But, what would that solve? I'd still be in this situation, etc (yes, I'm talking about my life in general and *not* just this dying site).

Basically, I'm throwing up my arms and saying fuck it. It's not like I have anything to really say since my life is basically at my computer or couch in a little ~ 2.5x1.5m space. And this is how it will remain for at least about a calendar year, if not longer.

@twg:

Thank you for all your support over the years. It really has helped. Please continue to project some sunshine in others lives as I have no doubt that they appreciate it at least as much as I have. I wish you the best.

Because I can't make it to the grocer very often, long lived veggies are a must. The butternut squash is one that I found out about a while ago, but only recently tried for myself. Apparently, it can last up to a month on the shelf and after it's cut, about 5 days or so in the fridge. For me, this means that I can have this well into the week without worrying about things going bad.

So, yesterday I julienned one, cooked some up and put the rest in the fridge. Should have enough for a couple days :)

How I cooked it was putting one or two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a pan with a handful or so of the julienned butternut squash at med, med-low heat. It took about 15-20 minutes to cook it.

I didn't put any salt or anything on it, just had it plain. But, it tasted somewhat sweet. Quite good :)

Let's do a bit of a comparison. We'll assume that one does the prep like I did above and disregard the prep time as ovens do take a fair while to heat up.

The butternut squash takes about 15-20 minutes to cook and we know that frozen fries take about 20 minutes or more to cook in the oven. So, about the same time till it hits the plate. When it comes to cleanup, again, they are about the same. The squash needs a pan and the fries needs a baking sheet. Both need something to flip the stuff around half way.

So, what we have here with the butternut squash is a potential snack (or side dish) that is way more healthy than the frozen fries! Weeeeee!

Just got an email from a buddy of mine; John Backus has past away. This is the man who lead the team at IBM that developed Fortran. A language that is still in use today and isn't in any real danger of being supplanted any time soon.

It's sad to see these true Computer Science Pioneers pass away. And I hope that should a better place exist, that he is in it.

Busy, busy, busy. Well, at least for me ;) I'm actually sore from all the walking around. it's both good (as in exercise) and bad (as in stinky ;)) that I've come back wet from the sweat after being out and about. I'm quite thankful for showers (baths were never my cup of tea).

I've baked more muffins (which resulted in a touch of burnt finger), figured out and fixed some issues with my site, gotten an application to renew my passport (just in case Harper goes all crazy and I have to leave the country ;)), cleaning up the apartment, several trips to the grocer, etc (it sucks having to walk everywhere) among many other things.

On the to do list is, getting pictures for the passport and sending that off, more cleaning, more work on the site, hopefully making some Focaccia bread and most importantly, re-starting some math (easier with a clean desk ;)).

Off I go :)

So, the weirdest thing happened today when I was cooking rice. I put the normal amount of rice and water in at the normal temp. But, after the normal amount of time cooking, when I took the lid off, pretty much all the water was still in the pot!

I'm thinking that it has to do with that I just washed the lid and didn't dry it before use. So, the water at the edge of the lid formed a seal. But, this still doesn't make much sense as the lid has one of those vents on it. And even though it was closed, it is never fully closed.

At any rate, I'm pretty much at a loss. It's just plain weird.

Well, sort of a Calzone. This recipe originated from one posted by tforawesome elsewhere on the net. Since that posting I've ate it a fair bit, and have made some modifications so I wasn't eating the exact same thing all the time. This recipe is one of them.

( The recipe )

Obviously, be careful as the inside basically becomes a creamy sauce that's quite hot. Enjoy!

So, I read Terry Tao's blog. Very interesting, but typically above me. But, this repost of this blog is just pure insanity!

The jist of it is that Ali Nesin has been arrested for, and get this, "education without permission". The charge was due to the fact that he has given (for a while now) a mathematical summer school for undergraduate students just for the pure enjoyment of it. There's no degree or any such thing given, just learning. Apparently the local authorities have taken exception to this.

Apparently, the Prime Minister of Turkey and the Governor of Ismir are involved here. If you want to help please sign the petition!


For those that are thinking, why should I care? There are three main practical reasons:

1. What starts somewhere has a nasty tendency to appear elsewhere.
   
2. The clear Orwellian overtones (given (1), the whole civil rights thing).
   
3. Math is the fundamental element of all Science. Without it, we wouldn't have computers nor any other modern convenience. Stunting math, will end up hurting us all.
   

There are other more abstract reasons why we should care, but those will come about down the road via the slippery slope.

Is it weird that I was/am listening to The Matrix OST when I found out about this and wrote this blog?

I've found that I've had to make my breakfast now as I can't really buy it anymore. The grocer around the corner (the only one remotely acceptable that I have regular access to) used to make some good stuff but is currently failing in that regard. My former breakfast (blueberry loaf) got smaller and smaller and then was baked such that it went bad really quickly. The other breads that I would have wanted taste like plastic. The only way I can really think that this would happen is if they put the bread in the bag while it's still really warm or hot. Needless to say, I don't buy breads/etc that are made there anymore.

But, I cannot tell you how much I hate cooking/baking/cleaning/etc in the morning. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to washing a newly bought muffin pan nor did I make them last night. So, this morning, to have breakfast, I had to clean and bake. Totally my own fault, but I'm still not happy about it. At any rate, it wasn't too terrible and the recipe was rather simple.

The recipe I made can be found here. It's quite dense and I think I baked it a bit too long, but it's still decent for breakfast and rather healthy :)

Still looking for other muffin recipes. So, if anyone has one and is willing to share...

I hate shredded cheese. Well, not so much the cheese itself, but the clean up afterward. It's that those hand cheese graters are rather difficult to clean properly by hand. So, what is a boy to do if I want to make pizza or something else that requires grated cheese? Julienne cheese!

We have one of those cheese cutters with the wire on them (not sure what they're actually called). Looks kinda like a sling-shot except instead of a Y the top part is more like a square. The top part being where the wire is an just below it is where a roller is such that nice slabs of cheese come out when used. It's also really easy to clean.

What ya do is take your stick of cheese and run the cutter along the top to make slabs of cheese, rebuilding the stick of cheese as you go with the slabs. So, now you turn the "stick" of cheese on its side and on the end, run the cutter down. You should now have a few "match sticks" of cheese. Repeat.

Well, that's my low mess way of shredding cheese. Perhaps it's useful to someone else.

So, I finally bit the bullet and got one of these things. Pretty much tired of post anonymously, etc on the blogs/communities. That and my last blog was attached to a community that changed in such a way that I really didn't like being there anymore.

Here, you'll find my blogs of a more personal nature. Get your mind out of the gutter. You know what I mean ;) Perhaps some recipes, or other things. But, not sure if I'll be posting much beyond that. Perhaps some math. We'll see though.