Fixed

Comments work again. It turned out that my MT-Blacklist stuff was too big, and was killing it.

Things I Left Behind After Drinking At My Friend's House Last Night

1. My car.
2. My phone.
3. My gin.
4. A copy of The Annotated Lolita I was going to borrow.

I can already tell today is going to be awesome. Also, my head hurts.

PS. I am aware the comments are broken, I'm trying to talk to my web host about it, but they have yet to get back to me.

Cooky McCookerton

My new year's resolutions have sort of been floating around and gelling in my mind for the last eleven days, and I've finally solidified them. (Fortunately, neither of them are to be punctual.) I have two related resolutions.

1. Eat at the Price Center a maximum of twice weekly. The Price Center is the place on campus where there are a lot of fast-food style food counters, and I ended up eating there about six times a week last semester. Things should be easier this semester, since I no longer have class until 8 twice a week. Still, I am hoping to be better about bringing my lunch.

I have not eaten at the Price Center yet this week, so this one is doing well so far.

2. Make at least one, but hopefully two, actual real meals using a cookbook weekly. (Meals inspired by cookbook recipes also count. Basically, anything fancier than combining items from various cans and jars.) I started trying to do this last semester. I've been buying ingredients for at least two recipes every time I go shopping. How long it takes me to use the ingredients varies, but my track record is not super. I've been mainly cooking things from the Moosewood Cookbook. (Your vegetarian cookbook recommendations are appreciated.)

This week I made pasta with asparagus-mushroom sauce. I kind of messed up by adding the asparagus way too early, but it turned out pretty tasty.

The Birds

IMG_2946, originally uploaded by pinkhairedcyn.

One of the highlights of the zoo: watching the human consternation resulting from a group of guinea foul swarming a stroller in the aviary. This caused a very small boy to repeatedly run at the guinea foul screaming at the top of his lungs, while the birds ignored him and curiously pecked away at the stroller. Eventually the dad mustered the courage to just roll the stroller away from the birds, and the situation resolved itself.

Rock the Hawk, Mr. Pig

IMG_2927, originally uploaded by pinkhairedcyn.

My roommate's sister is in town, so we all went to the zoo this Sunday. The San Diego zoo is all world famous and shit, and I enjoyed looking at all the animals. I learned that when applied to a species, the word "dwarf" generally means "as cute as possible."

Also, how freaking awesome is the hair on that pig?

The Title of a Recent Email to My CS Account

"CSSS Seminar:Software Development in an ever-changing Environment, **lecture room changed**"

Well, they're certainly not lying about the ever-changing part.

Broccoli Chicken

IMG_2881, originally uploaded by pinkhairedcyn.

While in Philly, I ran into this tiny little art installation in Chinatown. It was a series of small sculptures of broccoli and chicken, clearly inspired by bonsai trees. It was displayed in the window of one of those little shops that sells asian tchotchkes, and there was a sign on the wall next to it explaining the work.

I found it delightful, a little whimsical unexpected work of art.

(More pictures on my flickr page.)

School/Sandwich

It's the first day of the quarter, and I'm on campus because I felt guilty not being on campus. But really, I'm just goofing off in my office instead of my living room, since I all my classes are Tuesday/Thursday this quarter.

So far I've while on campus I've dropped a class, printed out my schedule and figured out where my classes are, discovered they messed up my keycard so I can't get in and out of my office (for the third time!) and the lady who fixes it isn't here until tomorrow, and compiled a list of the days that bands I like are playing shows in San Diego. Later I plan to go to the bank and attend a robots meeting.

Before I left my house today, I made The Best Sandwich Ever.
Ingrediants:
Garlic-Cheddar Sourdough bread from Trader Joe's, toasted in the Hello Kitty Toaster Chris gave me for Christmas
Tomato-Ginger conserve, made by Purlewe
Savory Baked Tofu, from Ranch 99
English Cheddar with Carmelized Onions, from Trader Joe's

Somehow, all of these flavors combined perfectly, and it was a little bit of sandwichy heaven. The best thing that's happened to me all day.

What Hank Does While I'm Gone

My car started a pine needle collection while I was out of town.

I fixed it by driving around until all of the pine needles fell off. It took a surprisingly long time, but the freeway did the trick.

Makes Typing Easy

This is how we roll around here: lap = cat + computer.

What I Learned This Morning

With proper placement, you can use one of those stick-on name tags to completely cover the spot where you spilled coffee down your front.

Attack of the Outdoor Mall

I went on a hair-dye obtaining mission today, which ended with me at the Hot Topic in the mission valley mall.

The first step was getting there, which a process that involved several u-turns, a couple of abrupt lane changes, and a lot of cursing. Plus driving around in circles. And this was with the help of written down google maps directions and a GPS system. One of the many things I miss about Philly is how easy it was to find stuff there: In Philly, the streets form a grid, and the street numbers are systematic, and if you need to get to 1028 Pine Street, you just go to the intersection of 10th and Pine and work from there. Here, the streets are quite possibly based on the meanderings of cows or drunken railroad workers or syphilitic Spanish monks. Where's Benjamin Franklin when you need him?

I haven't been in a Hot Topic in about four years, and I think I'm at least two years too old for their target demographic. The guy who sold me my hair dye was probably 18 and gother than heck. He managed to give me just enough attitude to prove he wasn't a slave to the man while actually providing decent customer service. I just wanted to pinch his little cheeks and go, "Oh, honey, you'll look back on this in five years and giggle. And burn the photos."

Now that I think about it, I'm sort of worried about the possibility of him getting heat stroke. It was 80 degrees today, and he was wearing a lot of black. I should have told him to make sure to hydrate well and wear sunscreen. The truth is, seeing anyone in San Diego who isn't blonde & tan sort of makes me feel better about my life. I want to make sure they stay healthy enough to fight the conformity factory.

Then I wandered into Torrid and unexpectedly spent sixty dollars on skirts. It's like my brain has decided that since I spent the quarter ensconced in my office and living like a monk, I need to spend my entire vacation shopping. My brain needs to hurry up and get on the "grad student salary" tip.

Is This Thing On?

Today, I discovered that the headphones/line out balance on my powerbook was adjusted so that 90 percent of the sound came out the right headphone. It's been set this way since I bought it.

Before I made the radical decision to check my sound settings, I spent an eight hour plane ride listening to the Gilmore Girls out of only one headphone. And I was all like, "Why don't my headphones work? They work with my iPod. Do I need special powerbook headphones? Is my computer broken? What's going on?"

I spent half an hour googling things like, "12 inch Powerbook headphones" and "Powerbook headphone balance" and getting nothing before it occurred to me to check my settings.

I imagine they'll be giving me that PhD any day now.

Update!

Sorry about the complete lack of posts, but I've been partying Philly-style. I can't express how awesome it's been to be back here with all of my friends. Originally I was all, "Ten days? I have so much time! How the hell will I fill ten days?" Actually, it turns out that ten days is nowhere close to enough time to do all the things I want to do and see all the people I want to see.

I have a chart, on which I have written everything I'm doing at every point in time. I'm sort of absurdly dependent on the chart: I constantly reference it, and when people try to change where they are on the chart, I become enraged and yell at them.

Now that I've seen all of my Philly friends again, I just want to make them all come living in San Diego with me. Philly peeps, are any of you willing to be kidnapped by me? I promise to not tie your ropes too much, and to feed and water you at least once a day.