en route

Trotting this globe thing
As far as the sun reaches,
I search for ...


Got that?  It's an interactive blog post.  You get to choose how my haiku ends.  :P  You get two syllables.

So right now I'm chillin in YOW (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada).  I bid a fond farewell to Olex, Julius, and Patrick at O'Hare today, as well as to my grandparents and aunt and their dogs at the house this morning.  I said goodbye to Bloomington and the Llama school yesterday, and my parents the day before that.  It's a sad time.  :(

I did get my visa, though, which was supremely exciting.  I've never had a nifty sticker in my passport before!  I'll post a photo of it on CERNtainly, which I have decided will be my new blog (thanks, Venus!).  I also have met some kind people already on this trip: a woman who was seriously jonesing for cigarettes (which she had been denied since entering LAX this morning at 10 a.m.) and gave me and a girl from Mexico headed to college a little cheer; a security worker who told me that in French they say, "Simple is fashionable," and that I was dressed very nicely; bag throwers (I didn't actually meet them) who ensured that my bag was THE FIRST ONE OFF THE CAROUSEL FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER (BEST DAY OF MY LIFE); and a little girl who gave me a big, bright smile when I was just getting bummed out about leaving everyone.

Agh!  There are so many adventures to report!

The trip to Chicago?  Great success!  We watched the fireworks at Navy Pier for the New Year and rode home in a limo first thing in 2010, and we spent some time in the fabulous Museum of Science and Industry and famous Gino's.  There was also city exploring and German card games and random fun.

After that?  I brought Julius and Olex back to Columbus, we saw Avatar and my friends from high school (hi, guys!), then headed to the Llama School to hang out with Patrick, Roy, Thabang, Sean, and Amethyst.  They experienced caving (Patrick and Roy, too; also photos of that should appear on Sean's Flickr page soon) and Torchwood, and we did karaoke and general hanging out.  We also had some fun adventures just cleaning the clothes from caving; they'd frozen into amusing shapes.

Anyway, this is it for this blog, y'all.  University was a blast.

<3

the end

For the holidays
You can't beat home, sweet home!  But
From here?  Who can know?

It's all settled.  My graduation is done; I had a million cords dangling off my robe, hoping to trip me.  Projects and finals are finished, grades are in.  The CERN thing is formalized (assuming I can get a Swiss visa in time... eek).  I even did my sprint to the end: across all five terminals of O'Hare to catch a flight that I missed, anyway.


Now comes, I hope, a chance to relax and enjoy not doing anything for a little while.  Well, unless you count my grad party or extended family Christmas or visit from my German friends or packing as "anything."  It seems there really is no rest for the wicked.


Since I guess I've missed a fair amount of time between posts here, there are a few things I want to share, first is recipes!


Lentil Loaf (taken from My Vegan Cookbook) :

Tomato Topping Mixture
• 1 6oz Can Tomato Paste
• 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 1/2 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon Onion Flakes
• 1 Teaspoon Garlic Salt
Lentil Loaf
• 1 Cup Old Fashioned Oats
• 1/2 Block Extra Firm Tofu
• 1 Cup Chopped Onion
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Green Pepper
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Red Pepper
• 1 Tablespoon Tomato Topping Mixture
• 3 Tablespoons Plain Yellow Corn Meal
• 3/4 Cup Cooked & Drained Lentils
• 1 Tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1/4 Teaspoon Thyme
• 1/4 Teaspoon Cumin
• 1 Teaspoon Chili Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Dried Parsley
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Teaspoon Sugar
• 1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Salt
• 1/4 Teaspoon Onion Salt
• 1/4 Teaspoon Dried Mustard

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the tomato topping mixture together first because you will need a tablespoon to mix into the lentil loaf. The rest will be set aside to coat the loaf when completed.

Add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil to a skillet on medium heat, add chopped onions, red and green bell pepper and let cook until onions are transparent (about 5 minutes), stirring frequently.

In a food processor chop oats for 5 quick pulses.

Drain tofu well and press with hands until all excess water comes out. In a mixing bowl mash tofu with a fork or use grater to coarsely grate.

In the same mixing bowl combine, cooked onions and peppers, 1 tablespoon of tomato mixture, oats, corn meal, lentils, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, 1 tablespoon olive oil, thyme, cumin, chili powder, parsley, garlic and onion salt, dried mustard and mix until well combined.

Spray a large sheet of tin foil with cooking spray to form loaf on, place on cookie sheet. On top and in the middle of tin foil form loaf mixture into loaf that is 2 1/2 inches tall and 4 1/2 inches square. Coat top and sides with tomato mixture (you will probably have some left over to spoon on later).

Cook loaf for 20 minutes, then cover with tin foil and cook for another 10 minutes. After cooking let cool for 10 minutes before cutting into it.

Red Lentil Stew (modified from 101 Cookbooks) :

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 shallots, chopped
2 teaspoons red-pepper flakes
6 cups good-tasting vegetable stock (or water)
2 1/2 cup red lentils, picked over and rinsed
1/2 cup brown rice
1 tsp curry powder
as much fine grain sea salt as you need

In a big soup pot, over medium heat, combine the olive oil, onion, shallots, and red pepper flakes. Let them brown, and caramelize a bit, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the broth, bring to a boil, then stir in the lentils and rice. Also add any delicious spices you feel like (but mainly the ones that are mentioned in the list). Simmer for about 30 minutes or until the rice is very tender, and not at all toothsome. By this time, the lentils will have collapsed into a thick slop of sorts. If you need to add more water/broth at any point do so a splash at a time, until the soup thins out to the point you prefer.

Eggplant chips (invented on the spot) :

Ingredients:

• 4-ish Japanese (long) eggplant, sliced into thin disks
• enough oil to fry them in
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon black sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter (creamy is better)
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• vigour

Whilst frying the eggplant slices (they should be really shrinky and crispy when you're done), combine all the rest of the stuff in a bowl with a fork.  The peanut butter is hard to combine, but super worth it.  After the eggplant is sufficiently fried, which is around 10 minutes (if I recall correctly), just put them on a paper towel to soak up some of the excess oil before dousing them in sauce.  Yum!

Stuffed portobellos (also made up) :

Ingredients:

• 5 portobello mushrooms
• 1/2 lb whole barley
• 3 figs
• some brandy
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1/4 lb walnuts, chopped
• 300g feta cheese
• some olive oil
• some parsley
• seasonings you think are interesting

See, this is why I don't write recipes.  Anyway, do the boiling thing with the barley until it's nice and mushy.  Then mix the barley, onion, and walnuts together.  Crumble in the feta, shred in the parsley, and drizzle on some olive oil (not too much or it'll be greasy and gross).  Pull out the stems of the portobellos and lump this stuff on top, as high as you like.  Bake these delicious dudes in the oven at 425 for 17-ish minutes.  While that's happening, heat the brandy in a skillet over medium heat, slice the figs into 5 pieces each, then throw them in and light that stuff on fire.  I've never made a flambé before, but it's pretty great fun.  When the mushrooms are done, put the figs on top and make them pretty.

Okay, I think that covers it for recipes.  What have I been doing?

• Throwing computers off parking garages (and giving lessons about what's inside)
• Learning how to skid on a fixed gear bike
• Nerfing my friends with tacky-ass nerf guns
• Making gingerbread teepees and trucks
• Hanging out
• Watching Doctor Who
• Finishing Silent Hill
• Playing Metal Gear Solid
• Shopping for pots
• Gearing up for Switzerland (and I do need gear!)
• Wearing silly earmuffs and hats
• Christmasing
• Practising dive rolls
• Movie-ing
• Re-learning chess strategies
• Playing a bit of piano (only a bit... urgh)

....maybe that's all.  I'm sure there're things that have been left out.  Oh, I've been trying to think of a name for my new blog (for when I go to Switzerland I need one with a new name!).  Any ideas?  I'm thinking about "Swiss ABCs", where A = Alps, B = Black holes, and C = cheese, clocks, or chocolate.  Hrm.  But nothing's really springing to mind....

Addition: "Cerntainly" has been suggested.  I kinda like that.

Agh!  Things are so close!

Happy holidays, all!  And possibly happy new year, too, if I don't get off my bum and write this stuff more often.  <3

decisions, decisions

Tiny digital things,
Good, bad, display, art, SCIENCE,

Slipping through cells.

I have been reading a lot of cool biotech sorts of articles on my Reader recently, and some of it's been really inspiring.  Well, maybe that's not quite the right word, but anyway it might be a direction that I may consider thinking about following for a while... perhaps.  Gasp!  It's, like, approaching life-decision time!  GRADUATION IS IN A MONTH, Y'ALL.

A couple of the things that I thought were particularly awesome were the LED tattoos being developed at the University of Pennsylvania and the digital tattoo board that is actually not currently being developed, but is instead in the thinking phase.  They're sort of similar concepts, but I think it's awesome that the second one is powered by glucose in one's blood that is converted into electricity.  Sweeeeeeet.

Actually, for the interview that I had to do for the Churchill scholarship a while back, one of the questions that the board asked me related to where I think technology is going in the next few years (and, you know, how I want to "ride that wave," or whatever).  One of the things that I monologued about was how I think that people will need to come to accept it as more a part of life...and themselves.  The way that people are using technology now, it's essentially an extension of their own learning systems.  There've been a few studies on it, even.  I know my dear friend Mathieu would be a poor, lost boy without some way to outsource his knowledge and help with his tremendously bad memory (hi, Mathieu).  Why not keep that shit in-house?

I guess that means I may be spending spring semester (when I am graduated!) learning about a lot of life-science things that I've been skimping on for three and a half years.  But, I mean, the making of cool doodads is totally worth some hours with a book.

Oh, goodness, it seems to have been a long time since I posted anything on here.  I guess that means that I haven't talked about my play; we performed last weekend (to a pretty fair-sized crowd: I think around 200 people came over 4 nights) and are performing again in Indy today.  There was a pro-ish photographer dude (Robert Baxter) who came and took photos one night, and you can see them all on his Flickr page.  The photo embedded here is shamelessly taken from there.  :)

Uhhh... tonight is the opera!  Die Zauberflöte is being performed at IU, and a few of my friends/roommates are in it.  I'm purdy excited.

I guess it's time to shove off.  Thanksgiving break is next week, and I'm totally stoked.  Sean's coming home, Evan's coming to visit, I'll see Venus for the first time in months, and I get to play with my doggies.  ^_____^

Cheers, y'all.

temporary insanity

A bay and a boat
And a sunset with the boys:
Those Canadians.

Visiting Evan and Jeff and Jeff and Ben is always a killer time, and this past weekend was no different.  I flew out to SF for a couple days at the beginning of what is probably the busiest week I will have in college.  URGH.  But I had the tickets and needed a break.

Friday Jeff and Evan and Jeff's friend Adelaide (sp? She is from France) collected me from SFO for a tour of Napa and dinner at the Culinary Institute of America.  Expensive and delicious.  :D  I picked up a few bottles of wine (the dessert wines were amazing!) to bring back, but sadly they are currently camping in (other) Jeff's apartment.  Along with my camera.  :(

That night, Evan and I went to hang out with other Jeff and his girlfriend, Em.  We had delicious wine and cheese and chilled in their hot tub; Anton came over later and showed off these thingies that he has that are called Freelines.  They're super cool!  They're sort of like a Ripstik with no connector.  Anyway, he seemed to be pretty good at them, and it was neat to watch.

We also tried to see The Men Who Stare at Goats, but the showing started at midnight, and I had already been up for 23 hours and traveling and... well, Evan said it was good.

The next day I had been invited to go rock climbing with my friend Joe, but that didn't end up working out.  *sigh*  So Evan and I did some city exploring and hill climbing and met up with Ben to go out for sushi in Japan town.  We also got... bubble tea!  Woo!

After that, we were ON A BOAT.  Sailing through SF Bay for Em's birthday was quite a treat; as Barrett mentioned in his album, "much singing of the Lonely Island ensued."

I got to go clubbing in SF that night, but, alas, not at the DNA Lounge.  I'm pretty sad about that.  :(

Then it was pretty much time to go!  Eek!  So Evan and I had breakfast at a little jazz cafe (sic) in the Mission.  It was a pretty fun weekend, I gotta say; and I'm super excited for when Evan comes to visit at Thanksgivingtime.  Now back to the salt mines... with play performances 4 nights this week and two major projects due, I really shouldn't be writing this blog post at all..

>.<

trick || treat

Cackles and giggles
Intermix, seep through the dark,
On All Hallows Eve.

Happy Halloween! Well, I guess now it's Rabbit Rabbit day instead, but that's almost as good.

So at 21, I'd never been a Valkyrie for Halloween before.  I figured it was time, so I got together some sort of ridiculous looking pieces.  Grey bikini with silver studs?  Check.  Fur cape?  Check.  Fur leg warmers?  Check.  Gold gauntlets?  Check.  Oh, and the hat.  I didn't take a camera with me, and the only picture that seems to have surfaced so far of the thing is sort of silly-looking (i.e. my facial expression is sort of odd), but here you have it: me posing with Boba Fett and a mop masquerading as a spear.

My roomates kept me busy going to their shows this weekend; Patrick and Dan performed and Patrick DJed and Dan and Peri performed and Patrick performed.  It was noise-tastic.  :D

At the Mad Scientists' Ball (the CS/Info/CogSci/Psych/SLIS/Phil/Math Halloween party that I was on the committee for), there were slews of interesting costumes.  There was also another Valkyrie... she was a folklore and ethnomusicology major or something, and she wussed out and wore a flesh-coloured body sleeve under her swimsuit stuff.  I was jealous of her sword, though.  I wound up beating out Marie Antoinette and a Scotsman for sexiest costume and am now the proud owner of Saw II and Treehouse of Horror on DVD.

The Bloomington Annual Zombie Walk was this weekend, as well.  Roy and Jill came over.  We dolled ourselves up in two kinds of fake blood: corn syrup + maraschino cherry juice + Sriracha (which combination was admittedly less than successful... sticky and foul-smelling? ew) and Elmer's glue + red glitter.  We also had Twinkies, inspired by Zombieland (which you, dear reader, should certainly go see!).  Unfortunately, we were a bit late for the walk, and the police had already broken it up by the time we arrived.  *sigh*

The Twinkies came in handy, though.  One solitary group of trick-or-treaters graced Llama School's porch, and I guess they had been jaded by visiting too many college student houses.  Instead of "Trick or treat!", we were simply asked, "Is there any candy here?"  Little bastards.  :)  We gave them Twinkies, though.

I also went to see a Haunted House that a friend of a friend had set up in his basement.  It was actually not bad, and I had a lot of fun.  Sadly, that activity represented a failure to go see Paranormal Activity, which made it tragic in any case, but at least it was sort of enjoyable.

Anyway, the Llamas had a good night of mischief.  Chas was Gumby, Sam a caped clown, and Dan and Peri were Ponyo and Sosuke.  Adorable!  Patrick decided to be the grown-up and not go in costume, but I think he had fun, anyway.  I guess maybe I'll be sensible and boring someday, too.  (Just kidding, Patrick.)

Also, I really like this image that someone shared with me this morning.  XD

possum couch

Raindrops stripping leaves,
Beautiful melancholy,
World of cold puddles.

Rain settled on Bloomington today, after a gorgeous weekend.  I wound up going back to the railroad trestle on Sunday with Chet when he got home, and we brought a proper camera this time.  Some of the photos we got are sweet.


Then fall turned wet today, and with a vengeance.  It's sort of gorgeous to look at, though; all the leaves are a sort of uniform yellow now, and people are wandering around with a vague look of helplessness as the drop date looms and midterms conclude.

There was a sweet adventure at our house this weekend, which I unfortunately missed most of.  Patrick discovered that there was a possum living in the couch on our porch, and was evidently impassioned enough take up our snow shovel, brandish it at the creature, and shout, "I DRINK ON THAT COUCH!"

The possum's name is Kevin.

(p.s. there are a lot more photos here)

a few photos

Soaked to the skin, up
To my neck in water and
Advertising.  Ha!

 

the tubes: no longer clogged

O, Internet, o!
Wherefore art thou digital?
A rose... whatever.

So I didn't actually feel like finishing that haiku.

Anyway, we once more have the Internet flowing through the tubes to the Llama School, and that means an update!

For my cooking night this week, I made bagna calda, which seems to be a pretty unknown dish, at least among the people I associate myself with.  It was a staple (oh, Lordy, no) in my childhood, and it's pretty delicious.

For one batch (I made three to feed 7 hungry college students):

1/4 cup of butter or margarine (that's one stick of butter)
2/3-3/4 head of garlic (chopped up or run through a garlic press)
2 black olives (chopped up... usually this is anchovies, but we're veggie here)
splash olive oil
1 pint half and half
1 pint heavy whipping cream

Basically, melt the butter and let the garlic simmer in it and get all yummy.  Then add everything else and let it reduce--this took about 2 or 2.5 hours for my batch--over low heat until it's really thick and saucy.  Eat it with chopped vegetables and bread.  Voila!  It's a dip.  :D

Anyway, that stuff's awesome.  I don't have too much else to say... I posted some photos on Picasa of the Bloomington Bike Project and stuff.  Guess that's all for now.  Those of you who are in Bloomington should come to the HHC Coffeehouse Night at the Art Museum tonight: I'm hosting from 19:45-20:45, and you get free delicious Haitian coffee and snacks.  ^____^