1000 Journals Documentary

Weil ich weiß, dass mindestens eine Bio-Studentin hier mitliest ...

http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2009/11/biology-cookies-lab-mice.html

Und die gehen auch als lustig für Leute mit weißen Kitteln im allgemeinen durch ...


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We've been up to our eyelashes this week in computer issues--check out kateslover 's journal for the grisly details, unless computer stuff makes your eyes just glaze over entirely!



My ancient custom-built critter really was on its last legs...didn't realize how close to kaput it was till we were trying to make the transfer between machines and first the graphics card died and then the old monitor blew up with a great puff of smoke! Happily, we were home and quickly dealt with it...

So here's the handsome new baby in our household...a powerful HP laptop . J. did lots of research and decided that as many graphics as I deal with, and heading toward videos, I needed something built at least in this century. It's PRETTY, it's compact, and it's lightyears ahead of my old machine in RAM and storage capacity. Faster, too..

And did I mention compact? My desk actually has ROOM now.

I MISS XP, though--the new baby is Windows 7 and wants everybody to be as modern as it is. Doesn't want to play nice with my venerable and dependable programs...so I'm learning A LOT, FAST.

We're still not all the way back to letting me actually get my WORK done efficiently, but we're getting there...

So since it's been frigid the last couple of days I decided comfort food was just what I needed. Beans and ham, and grandma's cornbread, YUM. My husband is not fond of this stuff, but I am, so for a change I made something just because I wanted it, with an offer to fix him anything he wanted, too. (He DESERVES it, with all the work he's been putting in! My hero...) He even braved the snow for me yesterday and brought back dry beans, which I soaked overnight.

Um. Well.

I had some rather robust smoked ham that was a bit much, by itself, so figured I'd use it in the beans. We bought organic yellow onions, couldn't find the lovely sweet ones--they're a tad strong . I forgot to pour off the bean-soaking water. Some combination of elements resulted in an incredibly NASTY mess! The aroma rising from my longed-for pot of beans smelled more like lighter fluid!

Joseph said "er...does that really smell good to you??"

NO, it smelled AWFUL. Chemical.

I tasted it.

Seriously AWFUL.

We decided it was the ham, so our local raccoons are going to have a feast tonight! The rest can compost!

I had half the bag of beans left, and I just started over. Soaked the beans in hot water, brought them to a boil, used up the last of the hog jowl browned a bit, and still needed ham.

This time I braved the cold, dug out the Jeep, and ran to the local mom-and-pop for a plain, lovely, lightly-smoked ham steak.

I diced about 2/3 for the beans, added a bay leaf, and let it simmer.

Meanwhile, I mixed up a batch of my grandmother's cornbread and popped it in the oven...

He Who Doesn't Care for Beans and Ham had two bowls, plus two pieces of cornbread. :-)

We NEEDED that comfort food! It's been a solid week of messing with my computer switchover, in addition to teaching my class and writing lessons and PDFs. And I can have cornbread and milk for breakfast.

You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl!

... and fingers of clay, that's me.

Originally Andie and I had planned to go to the Medieval Christmas Market in Siegburg (= larger than the one in Cologne, and free of charge even when you show up after 2 pm), but she got ill. So I was home sooner than expected.

For some reason I don't remember I still have Drachenfest coins in my pencil case, and during the not overly exciting Gothic Shakespeare lecture I not only managed to draft most of my presentation for next week but also chanced to look at those coins, and thought that I could make a nice and easy Christmas present for my brother from one of them.

My brother is also a LARPee. His character's a baronet from a Renaissance-ish fantasy realm that features in the unfinished fantasy blockbuster he is currently writing (like half the people I know, I suppose), and this Drachenfest he also became embassador for the Grey Camp (which is what we're playing, working and fighting for - shut up, Grey's totally in style).

So I figured it'd be cool if he had a Grey Camp pendant thingy for his chain of office. You know, them heavy necklace thingies that all the important people in The Tudors are wearing. That kind of thing.
There's a coin-cutting jeweller at the big Medieval Markets in summer, whose services of course I cannot really afford, but hey. All he does is take an existing coin, drill some holes in, and then with a goldsmith's saw takes all the stuff between the rim and the image out.
I do not have a goldsmith's saw, but I have a jigsaw, which is totally the same thing except perhaps more clumsy, right? And I don't really have experience with metalwork, but you get experience by trying, right?

So I spent the evening hours making a pendant for the brotherthing. I used a "copper" coin because I don't have many silvers and no golds and the copper's the most dispensable anyway. I should gild (or pseudo-gild, at any rate) it - the rest of the chain is gold, so copper would look kinda silly - but not today. I will also have to do some more fiddling with the wings and tail, but I was getting fed up with it, so I figured it would be better to put it aside before I ruined it completely in my impatience.


(The real coin's there so you can judge the size, because otherwise it'll look huge which it isn't.)

I did another pendant (not for the brotherthing) from a copper sheet we still have lying around from trying to make LARP coins ourselves. Wouldn't have used copper if I had a choice, really, but you try to get silver or gold sheets without being a jeweller and without paying a hand and a foot for it. (Oh, it's easy enough to get silver or gold-coloured metal sheets, which will in fact be aluminium and brass. At least the copper is real copper.) Because a coin is really just a round metal plate with an image on it, right? So you can as well use a blank metal plate and draw something on it and then cut it out, right?



Well, technically yes (though it was of course presumptuous to make a Feanorian pendant of all things with my poor skills). I tried this before once, years ago, and this one is at least slightly better (at least it is presentable from both sides: The one from 2007 only has one good side). \o/.

Obsessed? Me? Nevah. :p

many, many BPAL imps and 1ml decants up on ebay

please go, take a look and get rid of some of them please!

For fans of The Princess Bride and Star Wars...The Best of Both Worlds

Every year is a new year, and it's always good to remind myself. Because every year starts my next thirty years.

( The end of an era, turning of a page... )

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Most of you probably know I'm writing my diploma next year. I have to apply for it now. As in, by 14th of december, I think.
And, well, to be able to apply I had to take a certain amount of courses and seminars and whatnot in the last years. We had to collect signatures from the professors to get the points, we had to hand in these slips of papers with the signature, so everything goes to a person called Mr. G., who in the end will say 'Yes, you may give it a try' or 'No, you still need to take this and that class'.
I KNOW I was late with handing in some of the slips. But not totally, totally late. My last slips I handed in ... last thursday, I think.
Well, today I went to Mr. G. to ask him if he got everything.
It was not something I had to do. I calculated probably a hundred times if I took all the right courses, if I didn't miss anything, if I managed to cover all subjects. And well, he took a slip of paper and marked on it what I have, what I need to have etc. And in the end there were like three courses missing and I was like WTF?! I saw two slips from thursday were still missing, but only one of those covered a needed course and I was all OMG! WTF! What if I did something wrong?! But I checked everything a hundred times! What am I going to do now?! Did I really take the *wrong* courses?! As in, it was not that I didn't have enough, just it seems, not the right ones.
Oh well. Yes, as you can guess, in the end he was just too stupid to count correcty (Me:"You don't want to tell me these courses don't count because I did MORE than I had to prior to my pre-diploma, do you?!") and I did everything right, he just has to get the two missing slips and everything is fine. But gaaah, panic attac!

Also: Christmas is too close! I barely got any presents done! *more panic*

... kann man Pistazien in der Mandelmühle mahlen, oder sind sie dafür zu weich/ fetthaltig/ sonstwas?

*teuflische Pralinenpläne*

does anyone know if you can use linseed oil on naked wood and then put wax on top of it and have it actually take? Obviously, the oil would need to be fully dried before the wax application.

Erkältung #7 and counting...

Haha, this is an old video now, but I thought I'd show off my domestic abilities by way of nerdy cupcakes. They looked good when we left Bristol, but the entire journey up to Manchester took its toll and, sadly, little was left in the way of desirability.

Still, they tasted nice, even if Spiderman's face became grey goo.

I'm making TF2 cookies for when I visit my 'clan' buddies on the 21st. I kind of hope they come out as unique as the cupcakes.At least the cupcakes were memorable.

Just this Friday I was talking about exam nightmares with vout, and I said (truthfully) that I still had nightmares about my Abitur exams.

Well, this night I had my first Magistra nightmare!

It must have been one of those dreams that somehow anticipate the coming week and try to prepare you for it. Not that I am going to take any exams this week: But I finally signed up for Prof. N.'s office hour to beg ask her to do my literature exam stuff even though I never actually took any of her classes (well, not quite true: I did a class on Medieval English drama waaaay back, and I'm sitting through her "Gothic Shakespeare" seminar now; but I didn't take any exam-relevant classes, nor write any papers for her) and my topics are only marginally related to her foci, but hey!

In my dream, on the other hand, it was already May next year and I went to take the written exam - without ever having spoken to her about the topic. And I only remembered that I should discuss the topic with her about five minutes before taking the exam.

...
...
...
Thank you, subconscious. Now I am scared of the mere office hour.

At this point I still believe that signing up for the exam is harder than taking the exam. Of course I'm certain I'll think otherwise in half a year.

You know what I hate the most about people who cheat welfare? They screw up the system for people who actually need it, because the immediate knee-jerk reaction is that 'everybody on welfare are bums, and we should just get rid of the entire program.'

Millions wasted on welfare: Ontario auditor general

The problem with many things isn't the concept, it's the execution. And remember, while the numbers seem large in the aggregate, they're positively tiny per person - a single person on welfare, if they follow all the rules, can get a maximum of $7000 per year. If you're disabled, that $12000 per year. (Source).

Which does bring into play the idea that the only way to actually get any sort of minimal living wage out of the welfare system is to cheat.

Versprochen :)

Last chance for Holocaust justice?

Justice? Or Vengeance? I don't know what the answer is in this specific case.

In general though, at this point in history, I do think there would be more justice by making sure that the current crop of Holocaust deniers, and those that want to follow in Hitler's footsteps, are constantly fought against with the historical truth. That, at this point in history, there should be the beginnings of transfer of efforts from punishment, toward education and prevention. You fight bad truth with good truth, and events such as Rawanda, the Congo, or Sudan indicate that there's plenty of bad truth out there still, that 60+ years of war crime trials hasn't prevented new crimes from happening. Going after 80 year old men around the world won't stop a dictator from decreeing the death of an ethnic group. A strong international system of justice, applied in a just, even handed and rigorous fashion, immune to political manipulation, will. (Or at least, will have a stronger deterrent effect, I think.)

At some point, you have to let the anger go. My concern now turns to the hunters - when you spend your life in hate (a totally justified hate, to boot), what do you have left when there's nothing left to hate? Hate is probably the most powerful of the emotions, and thus the most useful when life and honor are on the line - but it's also the most destructive to oneself. And most destructive in an insidious way, as people don't realize how damaged their souls have become. Until one day, they wake up, and their hate is all they have left inside.

Example: what happened to certain people after 9/11.

Forgive and forget is the hardest of Christian values to master, because it goes so against our monkeyness. I think we all know individuals who, on one hand, preach Christian love -- and then on the other hand, preach about whatever group they want to punish and condemn. (The idea of 'just war' for example. War is sometimes necessary, and may produce just results, but war itself is never just. But that's a different post.) And I don't think you can apply it naively - to do so is to merely make you a target, and I doubt that was the point. I think there's a middle ground: I do think it can and should be applied, even if in a rather haphazard fashion. Because, in the end, I think 'forgive and forget' isn't about the Other -- it's about yourself.

From a man who has walked in darkness, and at one point never expected to come back out: at some point, you have to let the darkness go, or the darkness will get you.

Of course, it's not easy. The worthwhile things never are.

I'm not saying its time to stop. But, to borrow from Churchill, it's no longer the end of the beginning. I think it's time to think about the beginning of the end.

Last Christmas, my mother-in-law was given a voucher for a whisky tasting at "Germany's best whisky bar", which, for some indescernable reason, is near the main station in the city to which my birth town belongs. (Complicated story, and the inhabitants of my birth town still haven't gotten over it 80 years later.)

Anyway, she got a voucher for a whisky tasting.

It's always awkward to be given something for Christmas and still not have used it up a year later, so today we went to the "Pre-Santa Claus* Tasting".

Jörg, Ingrid and I drank seven whiskies each. I am so drunk.

I am now on a mission to prove that just because you're drunk doesn't mean you have to lose the ability to type a) correctly and b) comprehensibly (we will see what it looks like tomorrow), so I shall now copy our tasting notes. For posterity, science, entertainment and anyone interested in Scotch single malt (&cask) whisky.

Or something.

Anyway!

Thus speaketh the wise tasting notes sheet:

1. Bladnoch, aged 17 years. Distilled 1993. Outturn 298 bottles. Cask Type: Refill Hogshead. 56.1%vol.

In glass: condensed milk; a slight sting (desinfectant?)
In mouth: pepper, bread, almonds; with additional water: peach, lemon
Finish: medicinal

2. Linkwood, aged 18 years. Distilled 1991. 46%vol.

In glass: sweet & rich. baked apples or cider, toffee.
In mouth: very mild and round, woody
Finish: quickly weakening, but continues to be slightly woody

3. Pittyvaich, aged 19 years, 54,9%vol.
Hard to judge.
In glass: oak wood, somewhat like fruit schnapps
In mouth: hay, lavender
Finish: ?

4. Bowmore, aged 8 years. Distilled 2009. 57,9%vol. Bourbon barrel.

In glass: peat, medicine (perolinizet, ointment); with additional water: vanilla
In mouth: smoked bacon, once warmer: fruit cocktail
Finish: chlorine, green pepper

5. Springbank, aged 10 years. Distilled 2008.
I had the Springbank aged in a port cask, which was ok albeit unexciting.
In glass: Walnut
In mouth: Plums, Mon Chéri, salt water
Finish: dry, swiftly weakening
Jörg and his mom had the one aged in a sherry cask and didn't like it.
In glass: Rum raisins; bitter orange
In mouth: dried fruit
Finish: scratchy

6. Caol Ila, aged 10 years. Distilled 1997. Outturn: 288 bottles. Cask type: Refill Hogshead. 59,9%vol.

In glass: algae, smoked bacon, sea-spray
In mouth: Uni sushi (that's sea urchin. I don't fucking know why nobody believes me that that's what it tastes like. How is it my fault that you never ate real sushi? dammit.)
Finish: salty; burning peat

7. Bunnahabhain (peated), aged 11 years. Distilled 2009. Cask type: Refill Hogshead. 56,9%vol.

In glass: peat, toffee, wet leaves
In mouth: toffee, malt, salt
Finish: seaweed


... it was funnier an hour ago.

We were sharing the table with someone who was apparently a professional whisky taster (and slightly annoying; but I managed to surprise him with my astute observations (note: when Freud said that you are unable to remember/imagine tastes, he was talking bullshit, as in fact he could've found out by asking any somellier) and Jörg discussed whiskies with him very professionally despite not being paid for bullshitting about whisky) and a quite friendly but very quiet guy. Also this was one of the GOOD tastings where you get free bread and cheese and smoked sausages and dark chocolate and water.

Tomorrow: post-brother's-birthday dinner with the paternal side of the family. Prepare for a lot of "So how far along is your thesis? So when will you take the exams? So what will you do afterwards? Say something in Japanese!". >_>

Speaking of Japanese:
I found Furoshiki-man!
Let me explain.
Japanese tv is notoriously bad, and it certainly was bad while I was there, but at least they had Doctor Who on Tuesdays.
And just before Doctor Who - every week - there was the above-linked spot. I don't even know why. It was very random. Amusing though. And of course it got linked in my brain with Doctor Who, which is a good thing.
I pretty much forgot about it, but arwensommer and I were talking about furoshiki just now, so I remembered Furoshiki-man, and had the insanely clever idea of looking whether by any chance anyone had uploaded it to Youtube. Of course someone had. Everything's on Youtube.
Furoshiki-man! Furoshiki-maaaan!

<--- this is not to blame on the whisky: This is to blame on arwensommer for reminding me, and on Furoshiki-man for existing.

- - -
*For those un-versed in Hagiography: Santa Claus' day is December 6th. Don't ask me why many traditions see Santa Claus giving gifts on Christmas day. I blame it all on Coca Cola.

It was a really good day. I felt a lot of love and support around me--unusual for me.

Thank you, Mrs. W., her M, and the students you brought. (R, M, and K)
Thank you K(2) for your constant support and love and for bringing M and S.
Thank you Miss A. and P. for coming just to support me.
Thank you V for being awesome and being there.