bellwether

I TA'd "Singapore Saturday" today at the New School of Cooking in West LA--this is my third stint at assisting, and I'm addicted. It's so much fun, despite student foibles such as lack of *any* seasoning, burnt Dungeness crab (which, omg, is quite unpleasant), and utensil theft. :)

The smell from the kitchen transported me mentally back to grade schoool in Indonesia.... The Gado Gado was fabulous! morganlf and I will have to make it, and then we'll post the recipe. :)

Holy cow. Christmas came early.

Damn, how much do I love the mobile device-social network intersection!

Google's OpenSocial
Google's Android

Anybody out there know how long frozen stock (chicken, turkey, etc.) will keep in the freezer? The web has a variety of answers--anywhere from two months to six months.

I'm also curious what would cause it to go bad in the freezer?

This is neat.

According to this article, depending on which hemisphere of your brain is dominant, you will either see the dancer spinning clockwise, or counter-clockwise.... You can focus and make her switch. I find it difficult to switch deterministically, but I can do it somewhat randomly. :)

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html

Wow! The Millenium Falcon Lego set.

That's really cool (well, cool and nerdy.) Not that I would have any place to *put* it, but still part of me yearns.... My favorite part of that is the "Limit 5 per customer."

Next time--before you move--check out Rotten Neighbor!

This is one of the most absurd things I've read all week.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20227400/site/newsweek/

Today's my last day visiting morganlf--it's been a whirlwind.

The day after I arrived, we whisked off to Wales, where we visited Aberystwyth, a Welsh "beach" town. The town hasn't changed much since the Victorian era, and the huge 19th century townhomes lining the ocean have been converted into B&Bs. The major attractions are the ruins of Aberystwyth castle, which was once occupied by Owain Glyndwr, an electric train that takes you about two hundred feet up a hill ("Come see the marvels of the next century!") and one of the largest camera obscura in the world. It ended up being a surprisingly relaxing weekend....

Photos from Wales are available here...

Last week was spent mostly at the British Library, where morganlf is working. I spent the days in their incredibly comfy chairs that have built-in power outlets working on one of my last major chapters for my dissertation. I'll be very happy once I get this monkey off my back! It was a wonderful place to work though, especially with the nearby proximity of the BL's cafe which makes some of the best coffee I've ever tasted! (Thank god for Lavazza....)

We also had some good meals out--for Alison's birthday, we went out with owlfish and her significant other to St. John, which in a London restaurant specializing in "nose-to-tail" eating. We had excellent appetizers, but the rest of the meal was a bit disappointing, particularly the desserts, at least as far as I was concerned... Thankfully, much better food was to come!

We had a lovely night out with fallowpastures, his significant other, and his cousins, where we consumed "Bishop's Finger" (love the beer names here), and found some of the best Indonesian food I've had this side of the equator. Don't get me wrong, I love Indo Cafe and Simpang Asia, but this was enak sekali!

This last weekend, morganlf and I visited Paris. We took the train across the Chunnel, which was surprisingly easy and uneventful. We stayed in the Marais district, just footsteps from the Seine. We took in most of the touristy sights--the Louvre, the Eiffel tower at night, Notre Dame--as well, as some others--the museum of the middle ages, the National Musem of Natural History with it's gardens, and as many of David Lebowitz's suggestions on places to eat in Paris as we could....

Pictures are available here...

I'll try to post more details and provide some context for the various photos after I get back to CA.

This weekend I'm back in Minnesota visiting my parents and attending a family reunion. Today and yesterday were filled with lots of mid-western food (a variety of hotdishes and "bars" were had in plenty.) I do love the Special K bars though--peanut butter and Special K cooked to a toffee consistency, and then topped with milk chocolate and left to set. Yum.

The house is zoo as well, since my parents have opened their doors to not one, not two, but three namesakes--a couple visiting from Australia (I was going to say Oz, but that somehow conjured up images of Tik-Tok and the Scarecrow), and a cousin of my father's from Florida. It's definitely a full house. Apparently, my little town in Minnesota and the even smaller town where the reunion was held is all the Aussies are to see of the States! I'm a little scared that that's the version of the USA they're going to take home to friends and family---hotdish etc.

I'm supposed to be writing right now, but I'm not finding home conducive to writing. Instead, I've finished off all of my reading material that was supposed to last me through my flight back to LA.

In the last few days I've read:
_The Secret History_ by Donna Tartt 4/5 -- Very interesting psychological drama set on a East coast college campus. In some ways it reminds me a bit of _Tamlin_ by Pamela Dean, but without the fantastic element. It also reminds me a bit of _Calamity Physics_, but in a good way. :)

_The Lost Fleet: Dauntless_ by Jack Campbell 3/5 -- This was a fun space opera, but the characters are very shallow. I'm hoping the sequels provide more depth to the characters. The world is interesting, and the premise, that a fleet lost deep in enemy territory needs to be lead home by a somewhat reticent captain, thought long dead and revered as a legendary hero. The most interesting part of this story to me is how the Captain must compete with his own legend.

_Old Man's War_ by John Scalzi 4/5 -- one of the best military SF novels I've read in a very long time. I'm looking forward to the sequels--I may have to pick it up tomorrow. I'm surprised I haven't read Scalzi before. His prose is excellent--humorous and well-paced.