2011 was a crazy year, especially with work being affected by the Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and then the Thailand flooding. And slightly more family crazy than usual.
But overall it's also been a GOOD year. I got to meet new people in person like Aphelion Orion, and see old friends like Twig, Lunar and Flidget. I got to go to Japan. I learned how to do some basic wood finishing, and finished a dining room table, and put together a Tardis-blue shelving and cabinet set. I knit my first sweater. I even became a pseudo-aunty when friends had a lovely baby girl.
I even kept a resolution! I usually don't bother, since they last all of five minutes. But in 2011 I decided this was the year I would eat better. Not healthier. Better. So it's been a year of learning to cook. Getting my Very Tall Chef's Hat from the America's Test Kitchen DS game. Learning how to properly dice an onion, cook a roast, make a pan sauce, bake bread, make ice cream, bake French Macarons. I used real cream and butter, and whole milk. But I didn't gain any weight, I think because I was also using real vegetables, having smaller portions, and cooking without artificial preservatives, flavors, and other chemical enhancements. (It also doesn't hurt that after trying a really difficult recipe I was often too tired to bother eating it, and just had it for lunch the next day)
So the cooking things is definitely for keeps.
I'm looking forward to seeing what new and exciting things will happen/I can accomplish in 2012. I already have my sweater yarn on order for my knitting group's yearly challenge.
I hope this will be a good year for all of you, and everyone you care about.
Lots of love,
Ann
But overall it's also been a GOOD year. I got to meet new people in person like Aphelion Orion, and see old friends like Twig, Lunar and Flidget. I got to go to Japan. I learned how to do some basic wood finishing, and finished a dining room table, and put together a Tardis-blue shelving and cabinet set. I knit my first sweater. I even became a pseudo-aunty when friends had a lovely baby girl.
I even kept a resolution! I usually don't bother, since they last all of five minutes. But in 2011 I decided this was the year I would eat better. Not healthier. Better. So it's been a year of learning to cook. Getting my Very Tall Chef's Hat from the America's Test Kitchen DS game. Learning how to properly dice an onion, cook a roast, make a pan sauce, bake bread, make ice cream, bake French Macarons. I used real cream and butter, and whole milk. But I didn't gain any weight, I think because I was also using real vegetables, having smaller portions, and cooking without artificial preservatives, flavors, and other chemical enhancements. (It also doesn't hurt that after trying a really difficult recipe I was often too tired to bother eating it, and just had it for lunch the next day)
So the cooking things is definitely for keeps.
I'm looking forward to seeing what new and exciting things will happen/I can accomplish in 2012. I already have my sweater yarn on order for my knitting group's yearly challenge.
I hope this will be a good year for all of you, and everyone you care about.
Lots of love,
Ann
Back from Japan where much work and shopping was accomplished. It felt really good to be useful, and to know that my Japanese hasn't faded out. I'm just as sharp as I ever have been. This has been a huge worry since I can go two weeks at my job without having to use any language skills.
I am glad it only lasted a week though, since I was about ready to kill my coworkers by the end of it. But it's a shame we had to go right home and I couldn't find time to visit with Soranokumo, or anyone else I still know in Japan. We had one day of play...and I did get some shopping done, but I had to play tour guide so it wasn't really a good time to slip away and go find doujinshi or anything.
But I did get the one thing I really wanted to but couldn't on my last trip, which is an itunes gift card so I can get some new Japanese music. Which of course means I'm hoarding it and spending all my time on youtube trying to figure out which songs to get, since even 5000 yen isn't going to buy very much.
All this means that I ended up finding out that one of my favorite Japanese groups, Rip Slyme, did the ending theme for the Japanese dub of Spongebob Squarepants.
You're welcome.
I am glad it only lasted a week though, since I was about ready to kill my coworkers by the end of it. But it's a shame we had to go right home and I couldn't find time to visit with Soranokumo, or anyone else I still know in Japan. We had one day of play...and I did get some shopping done, but I had to play tour guide so it wasn't really a good time to slip away and go find doujinshi or anything.
But I did get the one thing I really wanted to but couldn't on my last trip, which is an itunes gift card so I can get some new Japanese music. Which of course means I'm hoarding it and spending all my time on youtube trying to figure out which songs to get, since even 5000 yen isn't going to buy very much.
All this means that I ended up finding out that one of my favorite Japanese groups, Rip Slyme, did the ending theme for the Japanese dub of Spongebob Squarepants.
You're welcome.
Wonder of Wonders
Nov. 29th, 2011 01:03 pmSo I had a wonderful week off hanging out with my parents and knitting up a storm. And then I got back to work only to find out that I am going to Japan.
Damn! If I had knows about that I wouldn't have taken the vacation time! I don't think I'll have really any time to visit SoraNoKumo, or old work friends this time, which is a shame. But I'm still really geeked to go.
What am I going to weaaaaar?
Damn! If I had knows about that I wouldn't have taken the vacation time! I don't think I'll have really any time to visit SoraNoKumo, or old work friends this time, which is a shame. But I'm still really geeked to go.
What am I going to weaaaaar?
Many Happy Returns
Nov. 7th, 2011 06:47 pmHappy birthday ![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
m_steelgrave !
May this year double everything that was good, and halve everything that was bad.
m_steelgrave !May this year double everything that was good, and halve everything that was bad.
Rollercoaster
Sep. 29th, 2011 07:51 amWhat a rollercoaster morning. I packed a delicious lunch (sage roasted chicken with glazed turnips and apples) got in the car, and Kate Beaton was on the radio!! I was so excited. I made viking hands.
And then I got to work to find out that the phone conference with the customer this afternoon...it's not a phone conference, we have to go there.
My coworker who's also in the meeting came by while I was making oatmeal, and I was so surprised that I poured all the water into the oatmeal packet. Luckily I had another packet at my desk, so all was not lost.
And then I got to work to find out that the phone conference with the customer this afternoon...it's not a phone conference, we have to go there.
My coworker who's also in the meeting came by while I was making oatmeal, and I was so surprised that I poured all the water into the oatmeal packet. Luckily I had another packet at my desk, so all was not lost.
Back to Who Ranting - River Song edition
Sep. 26th, 2011 11:53 amThis post was originally going to be about how awesome River Song was in comparison To Amy Pond. That shows you how long ago I started to plan this, because that was before the show did its best to ruin her.
( Spoilers Sweetie! )
( Spoilers Sweetie! )
Good Things
Sep. 25th, 2011 09:48 amI've been ranting a lot lately...and I'm not done yet. I have a few more coming up. But I'd like to take a break to share something good. I had to go to Chicago for work on Wednesday, and I managed to slip over to Mitsuwa, the big Japanese shopping center they have, which has it's own bookstore. And though they didn't have any of the Maru books (sadface) they did have the new Arakawa Hiromu manga 'Silver Spoon.'
I can't think of the last time I was this charmed by a manga. I mean, I adore 'Stepping on Roses' but half of my enjoyment is the overtop ridiculous melodrama. Silver Spoon is just plain good.
It's a 'Slice of Life' manga that takes place at an agricultural high school in Hokkaido. The protagonist, Hachiken Yuugo, is a total fish out of water here. He's basically spent his whole life studying, and now he finds himself totally unprepared for all the manual labor and animals and everything that all the other students are pretty used to.
It's got all of the Arakawa sense of humor, and I kept laughing out loud when... for instance Hachiken thinks he's stumbled on a group of guys looking at a porn mag...but they're really looking at a catalog of cows for sale. Or his reaction to finding out that chicken eggs and chicken shit come from the same hole.
But what really impresses me is the pacing. Of course, Arakawa is a HUGE name at this point, but it's still refreshing that the manga doesn't lead with a monologue of who Hachiken is and why he's ended up all the way in Hokkaido. At the end of the first volume we know that by the end of middle school Hachiken was basically burnt out from all the studying and juku, and looking to escape from his home life. But we don't yet know anything about that home life. And since all he's done is hit the books, Hachiken hasn't taken the time to really find out what he wants to do, and so now he's looking to figure out what exactly his dream really is. And I can tell these things are going to unfold slowly, and that's a good thing. Too many manga front load too much, then have problems when they need to figure out what happens next.
I really hope this one does well, and that it gets an official translation. And maybe an anime or live action adaptation >.>
I can't think of the last time I was this charmed by a manga. I mean, I adore 'Stepping on Roses' but half of my enjoyment is the overtop ridiculous melodrama. Silver Spoon is just plain good.
It's a 'Slice of Life' manga that takes place at an agricultural high school in Hokkaido. The protagonist, Hachiken Yuugo, is a total fish out of water here. He's basically spent his whole life studying, and now he finds himself totally unprepared for all the manual labor and animals and everything that all the other students are pretty used to.
It's got all of the Arakawa sense of humor, and I kept laughing out loud when... for instance Hachiken thinks he's stumbled on a group of guys looking at a porn mag...but they're really looking at a catalog of cows for sale. Or his reaction to finding out that chicken eggs and chicken shit come from the same hole.
But what really impresses me is the pacing. Of course, Arakawa is a HUGE name at this point, but it's still refreshing that the manga doesn't lead with a monologue of who Hachiken is and why he's ended up all the way in Hokkaido. At the end of the first volume we know that by the end of middle school Hachiken was basically burnt out from all the studying and juku, and looking to escape from his home life. But we don't yet know anything about that home life. And since all he's done is hit the books, Hachiken hasn't taken the time to really find out what he wants to do, and so now he's looking to figure out what exactly his dream really is. And I can tell these things are going to unfold slowly, and that's a good thing. Too many manga front load too much, then have problems when they need to figure out what happens next.
I really hope this one does well, and that it gets an official translation. And maybe an anime or live action adaptation >.>
I will eat them with homemade ice cream
Sep. 2nd, 2011 07:33 pmYorkshire puddings are the bomb. They are like cupcakes made of waffles.
Ahh, it's a good day after all.
Ahh, it's a good day after all.
Go Away Amy Pond
Aug. 29th, 2011 01:58 pmI "liked" Doctor Who on Facebook, which means that I get constant updates and video clips of old doctors and things. Mostly I ignore them, but the other night they had one saying "Do you love Amy Pond? In the next half-season there's an episode devoted to to her backstory that will break your heart!"
In a fit of "Someone is Wrong on the Internet" I clicked on the comments to say "NO. I don't love Amy, get her the hell off the TARDIS." And as I read through the comments I saw that there were two camps. The people who hated Amy...mostly women. And the people that love Amy, mostly men. The men were baffled at the Amy Hate, and decided that we must be either die hard Doctor/Rose shippers or just jealous because Amy's pretty.
Um. NO.
HELL no.
( And here's why. Warning, as River would say...Spoilers! )
In a fit of "Someone is Wrong on the Internet" I clicked on the comments to say "NO. I don't love Amy, get her the hell off the TARDIS." And as I read through the comments I saw that there were two camps. The people who hated Amy...mostly women. And the people that love Amy, mostly men. The men were baffled at the Amy Hate, and decided that we must be either die hard Doctor/Rose shippers or just jealous because Amy's pretty.
Um. NO.
HELL no.
( And here's why. Warning, as River would say...Spoilers! )
A Dining Room Set, Finally!
Jul. 29th, 2011 10:58 amOn Ask Metafilter, it's an unwritten rule that if you ask a question that relates to a cat, you MUST post a picture of that cat. So last night I dutifully posted a link to a picture of Roxy on my Flickr page. Holy Shit! Now I know how to get hits. I got something like 256 people going to check out my cat.
Anyway, going to my flickr page reminded me that I haven't posted pictures of my dining room set here. This is the bad thing about LJ vs Facebook or Google+, it's just so much easier to do that there, even though LJ is so much better for actual posts with meaty content.
Anyway2! My table!
So Dad had had the chairs stained & waxed and all those good things. I did the table, stain, 3 layers of top coat and wax. Mom put the new fabric on the cushions. I think it looks pretty good!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darjeelingt
(sorry, Flickr's not so good at embedding)
I've been good about eating at it ever since I got it. And it's actually prompted me to get more actual book reading done instead of eating in front of the computer. So people should come visit me, I have a place to eat food now!
I thought that was the end of my woodworking adventures. But last Sunday I went to Ikea and bought a huge shelving set with a cabinet. It's all in plywood instead of their laminate, so it was dirt cheap. But I think once I use my new skills to sand it, stain it and finish it, it should look pretty nice. I won't be able to match the mahogany of the table, so I'm going to stain this blue.
Anyway, going to my flickr page reminded me that I haven't posted pictures of my dining room set here. This is the bad thing about LJ vs Facebook or Google+, it's just so much easier to do that there, even though LJ is so much better for actual posts with meaty content.
Anyway2! My table!
So Dad had had the chairs stained & waxed and all those good things. I did the table, stain, 3 layers of top coat and wax. Mom put the new fabric on the cushions. I think it looks pretty good!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darjeelingt
(sorry, Flickr's not so good at embedding)
I've been good about eating at it ever since I got it. And it's actually prompted me to get more actual book reading done instead of eating in front of the computer. So people should come visit me, I have a place to eat food now!
I thought that was the end of my woodworking adventures. But last Sunday I went to Ikea and bought a huge shelving set with a cabinet. It's all in plywood instead of their laminate, so it was dirt cheap. But I think once I use my new skills to sand it, stain it and finish it, it should look pretty nice. I won't be able to match the mahogany of the table, so I'm going to stain this blue.
Ann Rants about Romance Novels Part 2
Jul. 22nd, 2011 12:39 pmI'm still on my romance novel kick. And still picky as all hell. When I was up in Detroit I went to a used bookstore in my parents neighborhood that I know specializes in romance novels and picked up a bunch of things.
Among them was Julie Anne Long's "Since the Surrender," the third book in a series. The first book in the series was awesome. The second book was just ok, with two brilliantly funny scenes. This third one was...
Ok, so 85% of the book was actually great. As good as the first book. Good enough that when I hit the first of my major problems with it I decided to give it a pass. But in the last 100 pages the whole thing crashed and burned and went radioactive. I'm going to pick this apart, and I'm not going to try and be spoiler free, because I AM SPARING YOU FROM TRAVESTY. I will, however, put this under a cut, because this shit is about to get long.
( Here is your cut. )
Among them was Julie Anne Long's "Since the Surrender," the third book in a series. The first book in the series was awesome. The second book was just ok, with two brilliantly funny scenes. This third one was...
Ok, so 85% of the book was actually great. As good as the first book. Good enough that when I hit the first of my major problems with it I decided to give it a pass. But in the last 100 pages the whole thing crashed and burned and went radioactive. I'm going to pick this apart, and I'm not going to try and be spoiler free, because I AM SPARING YOU FROM TRAVESTY. I will, however, put this under a cut, because this shit is about to get long.
( Here is your cut. )
The Social Network
Jul. 10th, 2011 07:33 pmI have, like, 5 posts I need to write up. But I just wanted to get this out of the way...
If anyone would like a Google+ invite, I have some. So far I'm pretty pleased with it in comparison to Facebook. But it's kind of like a fax machine in that it's only useful if there's someone on the other end with one too. So if anyone's interested, let me know.
If anyone would like a Google+ invite, I have some. So far I'm pretty pleased with it in comparison to Facebook. But it's kind of like a fax machine in that it's only useful if there's someone on the other end with one too. So if anyone's interested, let me know.
Bad Luck with Audiobooks
Jul. 5th, 2011 08:15 pmYou might remember that there were a few...incidents when I listened to Mary Roach's book Bonk on audiobook. My luck continues to hold.
I'm at my parents' this week, and I've been spending most of my time refinishing a dining room table so that I will finally have one of my own. While I work on the table I've been listening to Richard Dawkins' 'The Selfish Gene' on audiobook. I thought it would be less dangerous than leaving my music on shuffle and having parents/neighbors hear foul language and/or a grown woman who has Chipmunks music on her playlist.
So I'm putting the top coat onto the chair legs when my dad comes out to check my progress. And Richard....who's been talking about cuckoos and fig wasps and wolves suddenly launches into speculation on why humans lost their penis bone, and how a hydraulic erection could be a sign of fitness and health.
*hides face in hands*
I'm at my parents' this week, and I've been spending most of my time refinishing a dining room table so that I will finally have one of my own. While I work on the table I've been listening to Richard Dawkins' 'The Selfish Gene' on audiobook. I thought it would be less dangerous than leaving my music on shuffle and having parents/neighbors hear foul language and/or a grown woman who has Chipmunks music on her playlist.
So I'm putting the top coat onto the chair legs when my dad comes out to check my progress. And Richard....who's been talking about cuckoos and fig wasps and wolves suddenly launches into speculation on why humans lost their penis bone, and how a hydraulic erection could be a sign of fitness and health.
*hides face in hands*
Great Expectations?
Jul. 4th, 2011 08:09 pmI'm still on my romance reading kick, and ran across one that was a little different, and it made me think a bit. "Forbidden Magic" by Jo Beverly was interesting because it had a Manic Pixie Dream Guy. Usually it's the heroine in a Regency Romance who's like a Disney Princess on speed. She'll be the one who is overly familiar with servants, who of course adore her. She'll put up with the deaf butler and the elderly housekeeper because they're like family. She'll have the three legged dog and keep frogs in her reticule. (Srsly, I have read like 3 books now where the heroine keeps a frog in her purse, wtf?) And the hero will be very staid and proper, but he'll learn to love her joie de vie, yadda yadda yadda.
But in this book it's the hero that has the chaotic household. The maid has one eye, the dog has a perma-snarl, the footman has a limp... there's even an inappropriate parrot. He loves the heroine's little brothers and sisters and lets them eat ices for appetizers and plays with them. And of course the heroine who's had to have everything under tight control to keep her family out of serious trouble, learns to loosen up and enjoy life.
I was amused by the Manic Pixie Dream Guy, but what kind of surprised me is that making the Girl the uptight one made her almost unlikable. I'm so used to the heroine being immediately sweet and accepting that it's a little off putting when she balks at the ex-pickpocket working as a servant for her little siblings. Which is a bad reaction on my part. I would probably balk too. But it's interesting that it's an expectation that I didn't even realize I had.
But in this book it's the hero that has the chaotic household. The maid has one eye, the dog has a perma-snarl, the footman has a limp... there's even an inappropriate parrot. He loves the heroine's little brothers and sisters and lets them eat ices for appetizers and plays with them. And of course the heroine who's had to have everything under tight control to keep her family out of serious trouble, learns to loosen up and enjoy life.
I was amused by the Manic Pixie Dream Guy, but what kind of surprised me is that making the Girl the uptight one made her almost unlikable. I'm so used to the heroine being immediately sweet and accepting that it's a little off putting when she balks at the ex-pickpocket working as a servant for her little siblings. Which is a bad reaction on my part. I would probably balk too. But it's interesting that it's an expectation that I didn't even realize I had.
Meme Answers
Jun. 23rd, 2011 12:57 pmBelow the cut are answers to that 5 question meme. ( Read more... )
