I do not think that means what you think it means: Etsy edition

If you are a denzien of the internet, perhaps you have heard of Etsy.com? The site is a global marketplace sort of thing where people post handmade, vintage, and wholesale crafty things on the internets for people to buy. With a seller account, you can post whatever the hell you want, unlike Amazon.com, freaking amazon, which only lets you post known items, for whatever price you want. You upload your pictures, add a title and description, and wait.
In my case, I type in a search term and spend hours and hours looking at stuff I don't need, and favoriting all of it. You can follow people and see their favorites.Yes, favorite is a verb; I favorited that item, I am favoriting things, I favorite the items that I like.
I got my iphone case, which has a cool owl picture on the back, from a reputable seller with good reviews and feedbacks regarding the style of case I got.

Anyway, where I was going with this is the use of "vintage" by sellers. The beauty of etsy, the ability to post whatever, means that you can call anything "vintage" and get away with it. My main issue is with people who seem to think that items from the 1990s count as "vintage."
This is not exactly true. Vintage (in the sense of items, not wine), according to Wikipedia and Merriam-Webster online, is not actually a thing. I know, right? It just means "from a time" but in popular culture can refer to retro or antique.
Let's start with retro. The officialish websites say that retro is "an outdated style that has returned to fashion". By this definition, I suppose that the 90s could be retro, especially given wikipedia's 15-20 plus year range. Still, I would maintain that the 90s styles went out of fashion for a reason and should not come back, with the possible exception of a few elements of certain sub-styles, such as punk, grunge, and goth. And for me, retro just makes me think of poodle skirts and diners.
If "vintage" means antique, the 90s are way, way too recent. I am not 102 years old, okay? To be an antique by the US customs law, a thing must be 100 years old. In antique shops, the rule is usually 50. The late 90s is only 13 years old or so, so I would maintain that a thing from the mid-nineties would just barely qualify for "retro".
NB: I am also not yet 52.
Another problem with categorizing "vintage" is that it's so widely used and yet undefined by authoritative sources as far as the popular definition goes. I've heard that hipsters like "vintage" everything, so I guess this makes sense. "I liked vintage before it was defined" and all that. It kind of seems like vintage just means "used stuff that's pretty old that isn't produced any more or is indicative of a bygone era." For example: a vintage star trek shirt that was produced for a few seasons of the original series (or, in 20 years, shirts from Doctor Who or Heroes or Lost or any other show playing now), or a vintage phone with a rotary dial (or anymore, a landline), or a vintage poster from when a movie came out 20 years ago, or a hat that you found in a thrift store that you've never seen anywhere else. A vintage bike would be one that was made years ago, although updated models may be made currently. A vintage scarf would be one that you found in your mother or grandmother's closet that she's had since before you were born.
As far as retro goes, I'd like to submit that it implies that high-up people are mass producing and selling an old style again. For instance, Nordstrom and Sears and JC Penny's are selling garments composed of geometric color-blocked knit and woven fabric, such as were worn somewhere between 1960 and 1980 (the Op Art era on this page, there's a picture of it about three quarters of the way down if you click the title). People were mass producing peasant blouses for a few years, which I think would count as retro, although if you could find a vintage peasant blouse, you were a lucky girl. For men, I'd say that fedoras and pea coats/great coats/overcoats can be vintage or even antique but are currently mass produced, making them a retro trend.

So, the conclusion I make is this: it's okay to call some stuff vintage, like my dad's university shirt from 1978-1982 (30+ years old) that I wear all the time because the fitted style looks good on girls nowadays, or the chair that I swiped from the neighbor's front lawn (garish yellow/green/tan floral print with orange accents) that probably came from the 70s or 80s because I sincerely doubt anyone produced items with this color scheme between 1990 and 2005 on purpose; these things are old enough to have belonged to this generation's parents when they were our age (by which late teens to early 30s). Although, I would actually argue that my chair is just garish and not vintage.
This means that the definition of "vintage" is changing all the time. In about 10 years, even I will not be able to complain that the 90s is too recent, and it will fall solidly into the realm of vintage for kids younger than 15 as of today. What I think of as vintage now, at age 22 in 2012, will all too soon become "antique" (if it isn't already; I freely admit that my definition is fuzzy).
The main thing I'm getting at with this whole post is that the 1990s aren't vintage, they're just old and typically out of style. 
Damn kids.

School is starting back up -- Eighty Second Post

I find myself in an oddly familiar state: Denial.
I get like this every time a big life-changing event comes around. I was in denial up until two weeks before high school graduation.
I can't afford denial this time around; I have to register to graduate (occurs in May) by late November. I have to take the GRE, which is not stuffed down my throat like the SAT was. I have to apply to grad schools, which will be considerably less easy than my "apply to one school with a special no-essay-no-fee early application, get in, and don't apply anywhere else because that's where you wanted to go in the first place" method from high school. I researched schools for about twenty minutes over two months that time around; I've been looking at schools far more intensely for a little while longer this time.
This is my last year of undergrad, come hell or high water. If I don't graduate, well, I'm out of money. So.

Anyway, this was all brought on by wandering around campus and seeing all the freshmen. It suddenly struck me how young they all look, and I realized that everyone on campus except the 1990 summer-born seniors and the odd fifth-year senior is younger than me. That's about five eighths of the university population. A lot of people are still the same age as me, but it's still so weird. SO. WEIRD.

I feel like this warrants a "what I wish I had known" post, but I honestly enjoyed my period of learning. For the most part. Except for the first half of first semester freshman year...
So here's the things that I would go back in time and tell myself.
1. You do not have to eat all the food in the cafeteria. I know there's a lot of food, but you just became vegetarian. You can't afford to get all your protein from cheese. Try for a salad with beans, even though you don't like cold beans. Just try it once a week. Maybe then you won't be crippled by a dislike of salads FOUR YEARS LATER.
2. College is harder than high school. I know you were the smart kid in high school. You coasted through and didn't actually pick up any study skills. Sure, you can write a decent essay and do some pretty good math, but your college professors aren't teaching classes of ten or twenty people. Lots of first year science classes are packed with non-majors, including yourself, and they aren't going to make review sheets with everything you need to know. You have to study, and you'll still get Bs. In fact, you'll fail some tests regardless of how hard you study. Get over it, princess. If you don't just roll with it and summon the willpower to do better on the next test, you'll have a breakdown in your adviser's office.
3. Study abroad. You already want to, now just do it and don't look back. Go with an open mind and a fairly empty suitcase and come back laden down with memories.
That one was cheating, because I actually did that. But you should, too.
4. Make sure you clean your hair out of the shower every time you use it sophomore year. You have really long dark brown hair, and it bugs the crap out of other people when you leave it on the floor. It's just polite to clean that up, if only so they don't blame you instinctively for the clogged drains.

There are lots of things I feel obligated to add, like "open up more in class" and "relax around other people" but I really don't want to. I like who I am and who my friends are now, and I look back fondly on the years before I met my current close friends. I'm kind of the quiet one in class; my housemate said she mentioned me in conversation with other chemistry majors in our year and had to describe me as "the quiet girl with the really long brown hair." This elicited an immediate "oh, yeah," response from everyone.
I'm okay with this. It might bother a lot of people, but I don't go to class to socialize. I'll sit with people I know and chat before and after class, and I'm friendly with people in the class, but I don't need my friends around to feel comfortable.
Introverts of the world, nothing is wrong with you. You don't have to be BFFs with everyone in your class, and you don't have to relax around large crowds if you don't want to. It's okay to be "the quiet one" as long as you're happy and comfortable in your skin. You do still need to learn how to deal with an extrovert-focused world, but you don't have to change who you are.

Running -- Eighty First Post

Dear reader(s), I have a confession. It's terrible, and it makes me a bad interneter. Sharing this will, in fact, have the potential to move this blog from its solid "random tidbits about my life that have little interest for anyone else (except that craigslist thing)" position to something more like a "fitness blog".
I know. Terrible. However, this blog also solidly reflects where I am in my life, and where I've been, and where I would never like to be again (in the case of a whole lot of my earlier posts). So here goes.

I've taken up working out to stave off the boredom of an exceptionally boring summer. Since I didn't have a job for most of the summer, I was pretty much stuck at home filling out job applications. All. Day. Long.
I turned to the internet, since I could take internet breaks from filling out applications and switch back in a heartbeat. Or not. Whatever. In the midst my pintresting, facebooking, and tumblring, I came across several workout blogs. I pinned a few workouts, did fewer, and then started reading the blogs.
This was a mistake. I was no longer content to just sit on the couch and watch Doctor Who all day. Instead, I picked up Buffy the Vampire Slayer because there was a "workout game" on my current favorite tumblr, Back On Pointe. Also, I ran out of seasons of the revamped Doctor Who and I'm stuck in the middle of the second Doctor because of missing episodes. Life in the first world is rough, let me tell you.
Anyway, I joined Fitocracy, which not only tracks your workouts for you (including compiling you a history for each exercise that you've done since joining) and has a thriving community of "fitocrats", but also has a points system that lets you level up, complete with challenges that give you extra points and allows you to "prop" other people's accomplishments and workouts. You can join groups made up of potentially like-minded people whose accomplishments and comments encourage you to work out more. It also has a cute little robot image that calculates your workouts; to close the dialogue box, you have to click the "I'm Awesome" button. Working out is both a game that can be won and a self-esteem booster.
Anyway, one thing led to another and I got into running. And it's not my fault. I tried at the beginning of the summer, and then I got shin splints from wearing heels when I went to The Dark Knight Rises as Catwoman. Admittedly, I was a slightly pudgier catwoman than Anne Hathaway, but still. Shin splints? Running was clearly not a good idea. Besides, I couldn't even run down my very short street without gasping and wheezing for breath. So I gave up on running "for the time being", figuring that I would try again when I was in better shape, with stronger legs, a stronger heart and lungs, and less flab to lug around.
I'm not an unhealthy weight: according to both my doctor and the internet, I have a perfectly healthy BMI. What the internet chart told me that my doctor didn't is that I'm right at the upper limit of healthy. I've been about the same weight, give or take 10 lbs, since ninth grade, and I haven't grown more than half an inch since eighth grade. The thing is that I'm not happy with the way my body looks. Don't get me wrong, it's a great body. It's taken me through a lot without too much griping, and it's put up with a lot of crappy food and piercings over the years. It's just that it could look better if I gave half a fuck.
Besides, I'll never be a Doctor Who companion if I can't even run down the block. Have you seen how much running they do?
So the summer went on, and I kept reading about workouts and working out. Eventually, I found my way to the "Couch-to-5K" (or C25K) site and realized that I could do that. It eases you into running and stresses the importance of not doing too much too soon. Running is hard on your body. It's very good for your body, but that's partly because it's so stinking rough on it. The thing with the body is that to make it stronger, you have to break it down. Muscles get big when you do strength training because the exercise breaks down your muscles just a tiny bit. The body repairs them when you rest, and they grow back bigger and stronger. Running builds up your bones because it's a high-impact activity, meaning that your bones jar against each other and break down a little. As long as you're not running all day, every day, your body will build those bones back up stronger. The problem is that people start too fast, run every day, or just run too much the first day, and hurt themselves. Most of my friends that run regularly enjoy it a lot, so why is it that I hate it so much?
According to the internet, it's because I get myself hurt. I start too fast and expect too much of my body. If I were to ease in, only run a few days a week and for shorter distances at a time, then I'd have a better shot at actually enjoying it. My little brother is on a cross country team, and he loves it. Clearly, running is hiding somewhere in my genes. Now it's my job to convince my body that this running thing is okay. So far, C25K is the best way I've found. Just reading about running, especially trailrunning and minimalist/barefoot running, will make me want to bolt out the door for a lap around the city, but I have to stop at the end of the street. I need self control, will power, and a strict plan to follow. You can buy a C25K plan for your smartphone, which would be nice if I had one, or just keep track of where you are on your own for free, which is what I do. I log my distances and approximate times to fitocracy and run on monday, wednesday, and friday, which should work well for school. I have easy tuesdays and thursdays, so I guess I could run tuesday, thursday, and saturday, but I'm not good at working out on weekends when everyone's around all the time.
N.B.: The people at C25K did not pay me to say all this.

So here's my tip to you: find a workout plan that you can stick with. Make it up yourself or find it on the internet, or both, but stick to it. Work out every day or every other day or even just once a week, but stick with it. Don't let a change in your life like moving or going back to school throw you off. And don't even worry about running if that was your least favorite part of those long-ago PE classes. There are lots of ways, impact or non-impact, indoor and outdoor, to get your cardio done.

I've been tracking my progress since july, and, quite frankly, nothing much has changed. I lose an inch here and there, then gain it back the next week. Granted, I'm more motivated now, but those love handles ain't goin' nowhere. I still can't do a real pushup, although for that I mostly blame my screwy shoulders, since I'm pretty good at tricep dips, knee pushups, incline pushups, and wall pushups, all of which put my arms at different angles but still use the same main muscle groups as real pushups.
That won't stop me from keeping on working out, though. I like working out. I like the way I feel after I've worked out, and I like logging my progress on fitocracy. I like being a part of the internet communities that work out, and I like the smell of my own hard-earned sweat. I like having an excuse to buy yoga pants and a new sports bra. I like giving a fuck about the way my body looks.
Also, I don't mean that I like the smell of not showering for three days, just that I like proof that I worked hard enough to break a sweat.

Craigslist Scam Tip Site -- Eightieth Post

Since this blog is getting some nice ratings on Google for searches craigslist scammers Ashleigh Loudon and Scott Doyle, I'd like to alert you all to a website dedicated to craigslist scams. It's called "Let's Get the Craigslist Scammers" and consists of posts regarding the various and sundry scams that people( lots of people all over the world) run across, not just the ones that I personally run across in my particular area in my particular interests (jobs, namely).

I'll still be posting any information I run across that seems scammy, especially screenshots of emails, but this blog is not dedicated to that. It's dedicated to my life, in all its boring glory, or at least the bits that I feel like sharing with the internet.

Happy Interneting!

Craigslist Scam! The Saga Continues with Robert Choice and Scott Doyle -- Seventy Ninth Post

So you thought that the medical-type reception job posting scam was over? You would be wrong, at least if you're me.
That posting is impressively linked to not just one, but three scammers, by my count. Ashleigh Loudon was probably the worst, but Robert Choice and Scott Doyle could probably do some damage. I'm holding out for a Nigerian prince.
I've taken screenshots of the emails for your convenience, but you'll want to click on them to actually read them. They're long enough that they're huge pictures. Also, I got these within a day of each other, although they were days almost two weeks ago. Sorry 'bout that. I got on a workout kick and couldn't be asked to blog.

Robert used too many line breaks, and I couldn't fit the whole email onto my screen. He finished with 'I will await your prompt response" and his name.

Other than line breaks and some minor details, it's the same thing. Eerie.

I should point out that none of the scammers I've run across so far have actually related their replies to the job posting, which is in fact the subject of the email. Robert and Scott actually have the exact same letter, with slight differences. The gist of it is that they want you to deliver stuff to foster homes "in your area" which will be paid for by money order or something as soon as you give him your mailing info and suchlike. Unfortunately, you can't meet Robert or Scott (or, presumably, their "lovely Wife and 2 Beautiful daughters") because Robert and Scott are both out of town for the month. Bummers!
Both use gmail accounts and want you to email them back with contact information, and Robert wants you to email it to "krgiggs@googlemail.com". The job sounds, you know, too good to be true, with $600 from Scott and $700 from Robert weekly, full benefits, etc., all for a part-time job where you work from home. The emails are almost identical (the only notable differences being the salary and where the contact info should go), as mentioned, with some alterations that are pretty obvious, as they didn't change the capitalization. It's interesting to note that they don't want PO boxes, which seems like a good place to send a money order if your house isn't your mailing address. Hmm.
I feel kind of angry that they use "FOSTER HOMES" as a hook for soft-hearted suckers. I'm incredibly grateful for my parents being sane, not on drugs, and alive through my childhood, and I think that losing or being taken away from your parents would be just about the worst thing ever. Being stuck with strangers would make things even worse, especially when you're a kid or teenager. Helping out kids in foster homes is a great thing to do. I rate it just below curing cancer and AIDS, sending vaccines to underdeveloped countries, and stopping child marriages in improving the welfare of the world. Doing away with One Direction is next.
I'm not really sure how this scam would work. How would they use this information against me? I guess that just proves that I don't have a criminal mind. If they were legit, the email wouldn't be a minimally-altered form letter and it would be listed under something more closely resembling "Help out foster kids" instead of "Vet Receptionist and Front Desk".

To report the scam, go to the craigslist main page, click "about craigslist" and then "contact form".  See if you can find the original postings so that you can report the post ID, found at the bottom of the page. I found this out from "Anonymous" who commented on my post about Ashleigh Loudon.
Here's the link in case you get lost: Craigslist contact form 
I've already reported the post as a scam for Ashleigh, so I'm not going to bother posting again. Unless I get really bored tomorrow, and then who knows? Crazy things happen when I get bored.

EDIT: If you're looking for more information on craigslist scams, try Let's Get the Craigslist Scammers.

80-Day Challenge -- Seventy Eighth Post

This is an 80-day health/weight loss challenge that I've found on tumblr, and I'm thinking about giving it a shot. I'll be skipping some days probably, since we don't have a scale at my house and I'm rotten at guessing my weight. I'm Raeann lbs, you know? There's a chance that I'll measure in waist circumference, since this is about me wanting to look good and live a healthier, more considered lifestyle, not me wanting to lose a bunch of weight and be skinny. If there's one thing the internet and my mom have taught me, it's that I'm more than a number. Also, I weigh less than Tyra Banks. If she's considered gorgeous at over 150 lbs, I can be gorgeous too.
I'd like to emphasize that this is not me thinking I'm "fat" or "ugly" but rather me thinking that I need to take control of my health. I'm vegetarian and try to be healthy, but my workouts and eating habits always fall apart during school. As such, I've decided that if this is going to change in this last, most jam-packed, stressful year of university, I will have to be very firm with myself about it.
I especially like this challenge for being very long term. It seems to be more about making you think about your lifestyle, asking questions about your goals and eating habits, and why you want to lose weight. It brings up new ideas for people who are used to boring, processed food that's all the same color and comes in a bag or box. To me, it seems to be encouraging people to take charge of their diet, be it disordered or just lazy. As someone who buys her own food all the time and is too poor for lots of pre-made junk but also too poor for lots of fresh stuff all the time, I already kind of think about what I'm eating. Unfortunately, it is mostly with regret, since boxes of pasta and jars of sauce are cheaper than fresh foods. So, I'm hoping that this can galvanize my flabby abs and equally out-of-shape willpower in time for me to be in full swing when school and work hit.
Without further ado, here's the 80-day challenge, found in various places by googling "80 day challenge":


1st week
1.    Write your current stats: height, current weight and goal weight. Why are you losing weight?
2.    Describe your dream/goal body. 
3.    Is your UGW in an “unhealthy“ range of BMI? 
4.    Have a vegan day today. No meat, no eggs, no dairy, no animal products whatsoever. Give it a try!
5.    What is your favorite healthy food? 
6.    What is your favorite unhealthy food? 
7.    What is your least favorite healthy food?  
2nd week
8.    Write your current weight. Have you lost anything in the past week? If not, what are your plans for this week?  
9.    What is your favorite type of cardio? 
10.    Do you count calories? If so, what is your daily limit?
11.    Today you will be cooking for your whole family. Find a healthy recipe online that they will also enjoy and show them how tasty healthy food can be!  
12.    What is your least favorite type of cardio?  
13.    What is your favorite type of strength exercise?  
14.    What is your least favorite type of strength exercise? 
3rd Week
15.    Write your current weight. Have you lost anything in the past week? If not, what are your plans for this week?
16.    Which part of your body do you wish to change the most and why?
17.    Do you have a special event/date you want to lose the weight for?
18.    Try to use as little salt as possible today or maybe even none! Don’t buy microwave meals and don’t eat foods high in sodium. 
19.    Are you losing weight the healthy (<2lbs/week) or the unhealthy (>2lbs/week) way?
20.    Who is your biggest weight loss inspiration and why?
21.    Do you focus more on getting „lean and mean“ or „tiny and fragile“?
4th week
22.    Write your current weight. Have you lost anything in the past week? If not, what are your plans for this week?
23.    How much water do you usually drink in a day?
24.    Have you ever had an eating disorder?
25.    Today you will try a new smoothie. Find a new healthy recipe online and mix & match fruits and veggies and enjoy! But it must be totally new and adventurous!
26.    Do your friends know about you wanting to lose weight? Do they support you?
27.    Does your family support you in your weight loss?
28.    What is your favorite type of snack?
5th week
29.    Write your current weight. Have you lost anything in the past week? If not, what are your plans for this week?
30.    Are you a vegan or a vegetarian?
31.    What are your favorite workout clothes you own?
32.    Try a new fruit today. Learn how to cut/eat it and enjoy! How was it?
33.    Are you on a diet or are you making this a lifestyle?
34.    Do you take your meals from home to work? If so, what do you usually prepare?
35.    Have you ever „fasted“? What was the reason for it?
6th week
36.    Write your current weight. Have you lost anything in the past week? If not, what are your plans for this week?
37.    Have you ever purged? If so, how did you feel afterwords?
38.    Have you ever binged? If so, what is your “binge food“?
39.    Try a new veggie today. Learn how to prepare it and enjoy! How was it?
40.    What is your body frame? Small, large or medium?
41.    Where are you from? Is your country’s diet healthy or unhealthy in general?
42.    How many meals do you usually have a day?
7th week
43.    Write your current weight. Have you lost anything in the past week? If not, what are your plans for this week?
44.    Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend? Does (s)he know about you losing weight? Does (s)he support you?
45.    Do you have a rest day when you don’t work out? Which day is it?
46.    Try changing your routine today. Don’t do the same exercises as the week before, learn a new move to cinch that waiste or to tone those thighs!
47.    Have you forbidden yourself any type of food?
48.    Do you reward yourself when you reach your short-term goal? What are your rewards?
49.    What do you usually have for breakfast?
8th week
50.    Write your current weight. Have you lost anything in the past week? If not, what are your plans for this week?
51.    Do you have a cheat day?
52.    What do you enjoy the most in your weight loss? What makes you happier than ever before?
53.    Try to eat nothing but raw food today. No cooking, no baking, no grilling. Eat raw carrots, canned tuna or smoked salmon, maybe even sushi! Just eat fresh, non-termal processed food. It might be weird and „unnatural“ but that’s actually the healthiest way to eat. Enjoy your healthy day!
54.    What is your favorite weight loss blog?
55.    Will you continue to write your blog after you reach your UGW?
56.    Have you ever been on a low-carb diet? How was it for you?
9th week
57.    Write your current weight. Have you lost anything in the past week? If not, what are your plans for this week?
58.    Do you believe in restriction or in moderation?
59.    Describe your dream outfit, the one you imagine yourself wearing once you reach UGW.
60.    Ditch sugar and ALL sweets today. For just one day promise yourself you won’t eat any candy, sugar, sweets or any similar food.
61.    Write your usual meal plan for one day.
62.    When watching TV, do you usually watch the „food channels“ or movies/TV-shows/series?
63.    What are your fitness goals? (Splits, hand-stands, push-ups…)
10th week
64.    Write your current weight. Have you lost anything in the past week? If not, what are your plans for this week?
65.    Post a picture of your goal body or a person you strive to look like.
66.    Do you have short-term goals too? What are they?
67.    Today is „no tumblr day“. That’s right, you will try just one day to be off tumblr, post your progress/food log/training schedule tomorrow, because today, you are going „back to basics“!
68.    What is your least favorite unhealthy food?
69.    Which part of your body do you like the most and why?
70.    Were you ever obese or underweight?
11th week
71.    Write your current weight. Have you lost anything in the past week? If not, what are your plans for this week?
72.    Do you eat the same meal as your family or do you eat specially prepared food?
73.    What do you usually order when eating out in a restaurant or at someone else's house?
74.    Today you won’t count calories. You won’t look at food labels. You will try to eat intuitively. What does that mean? Eat when you’re hungry, don’t look at the clock! Eat whatever your body desires! Just make sure it’s healthy. If you crave anything sweet, eat it! But a healthy amount. And remember, today you must forget all about calories!
75.    Do you have a „trigger food“? A type of food that is impossible for you to say no to or stop eating?
76.    Do you drink smoothies? If so, what is your favorite recipe?
77.    Do you enjoy eating healthy or do you find it being too expensive or that it takes too much of your time?
12th week
78.    Write your current weight. Have you lost anything in the past week? If not, what are your plans for this week?
79.    What was the most recent compliment/comment about your body?
80.    Write your current weight. Have you lost anything in the past week? If not, what are your plans for this week? + Today is the last day of this challenge. After writing your stats, describe how you’ll continue eating/exercising from now on! 

Lots of people post each day on tumblr, which I might do. I might make weekly posts here with the answers to each day's question, or I might not. I won't be doing daily posts, since there's no way I can keep that up, and weekly posts would require more commitment, in some ways. So, we'll see. Hopefully this isn't just another project that I start and promptly lose interest in.
For old times' sake, I would like to add that "eighth" is the weirdest word ever.

Craigslist Scam! Watch Out For Ashleigh Loudon -- Seventy Seventh Post

If you've been job-hunting on craigslist lately, you've seen the big scam warning that pops up before you get to the actual postings.
Guess what! I found a scam!
So far, it's come up on two medical-ish office jobs. They look pretty legit, but the email response sets off all the warning bells.
I took a screenshot of mine. My housemate, incidentally, got the exact same email response for a different job.

The first thing that got me was the bit about "a high financial environment". This is supposed to be a VET'S OFFICE. Sure, veterinary services are expensive, but not that expensive.
Second was the email address. What "head of the human resource department" uses her personal email for setting up interviews?
Third was the fact that they want me to fill out an online credit form, which involves a lot of my personal information. This was in the warning that craigslist put up.

So, I did a few google searches.
Ashleigh Loudon is common enough name that nothing came up for her. However, Numark Systems, LLC doesn't appear to be a real company. Numark Systems makes sound equipment. That link -- I clicked it in hopes that it wouldn't eat my computer, which reminds me that I should run a scan just in case -- redirects itself five times and drops you at a "get your credit rating FREE! It just takes a few seconds!" site.

I decided not to follow up on the job offer after discussing it with my dad, just to talk it out. I felt like my problem-solving skills had been proved when my housemate was wondering out loud (she conducts almost all of her thought processes out loud, actually, a concept that I kind of understand, but not really) about craigslist scams, and I excitedly informed her that I, me, her very own housemate, had received a scam email that very morning. [That was one hell of a sentence.] She demanded that I use my scam-spotting expertise and see if her email was a scam.
Lo and behold, she had the exact same email., word for word, from Ashleigh Loudon.
If anyone knows how to report scam job postings to craigslist even if no crime has been perpetrated against you, let me know. I'm too lazy to google it myself.

EDIT: To report the scam, go to the craigslist main page, click "about craigslist" and then "contact form".  See if you can find the original postings so that you can report the post ID, found at the bottom of the page. I found this out from "Anonymous" who posted the first and probably only comment below. Thanks to whoever posted that!
Here's the link in case you get lost: Craigslist contact form 

EDIT AGAIN: If you're looking for more information on craigslist scams, try Let's Get the Craigslist Scammers.

Toothpaste vs Acne -- Seventy Sixth Post

I just wanted to share this because it works.
If you dab toothpaste on your zits and then wash it off after a few minutes, say the time it takes to floss your teeth, they will get better. It might take a few days, but there's a small amount of immediate improvement. Doing this a few days in a row will pretty much vanish the zits.
One caveat is that it is possible to leave the toothpaste on for too long, allowing it to eat your face off. I suppose someone could do science and figure out how long it takes, but that requires having toothpaste eat your face off, so it won't be me. I just leave it on for only a few minutes and wipe it right off.
I've actually incorporated this into my morning and evening regimens; after washing my face, I put on the toothpaste and do my teeth, then wipe off the toothpaste. Bam.
I have a greasy face, and it works for me. I don't know how it is for dry skin. I'm also not sure why I've recently had a massive little breakout happening, and hopefully it's not the toothpaste's fault.
And that's enough TMI for now. Good luck with the spots!

Those Things You Wear On Your Legs -- Seventy Fifth Post

I have a bit of trouble with the term "pants" now. After new years eve in England, the guy whose house my friends and I stayed at dropped me off at the train station, seeing as I didn't have a car. We spotted some men's briefs in the parking lot, and he repeatedly corrected my calling them "underwear" to "pants".
So, now I have a hard time thinking about the word "pants" as applied to outerwear such as you would leave the house in. Like jeans, slacks, trousers, shorts (which I believe can also be british for underpants), capris, etc. However, I long ago attempted to instate "Fuck Pants Friday" on which I wore skirts and feel the need to bring it back. The problem is that I now feel like I'm encouraging people to go commando. You can do that if you want, but I wouldn't recommend it. And "Fuck Trousers Friday" just really doesn't have the same ring to it.
So, I guess I'll keep calling it pants, even if the english guy takes issue with that.
Actually, I won't do it this friday because I have great plans to use my housemate's printer and print off some new improved resumes and cover letters and go to some stores and fill out applications in great hopes of getting employed and stuff. I'll be wearing some of my fancypants, by which I mean slacks or trousers or something. "Fancypants" strikes me as something one would find in Victoria's Secret or La Senza or a similar sort of venue (i.e. lingerie store, if you're male and/or live in a hole).
I'll wear a skirt in the morning, if I bother to change out of pyjamas before noon. I have a fairly legit kimono, and it stifles my desire to wear real people clothes.
Because I need to share this with the whole internet, it's an awesome kimono. Sure, it's a little battered and also 100% polyester, and made by a costume company, but it's also got the funny extra bit that hangs down on the sleeves, and it has ties at the hips just like a karate gi (or will as soon as I get some fabric), and it's a really gorgeous red and gold brocade-style pattern with a pale yellow trim, and it won't be too hard to make a belt that has no velcro, won't attack the rest of the fabric, and will actually fit my waist.
Sentences die on my blogs... I really can't be asked to fix it.
 Back to the kimono, it's pretty well-made, and is even machine washable, if not dryable. It was also a whopping $8. I love thrift stores. Support your local thrift stores. It's cool now, and sometimes you find something really cool, then you wash it to get rid of the old lady smell ingrained in your $6 wool-polyester mix winter Coat that becomes so central to your wardrobe that it gains a capital letter. That one I had dry cleaned, it's true, but that cost less than buying a brand new coat even combined with the cost of the coat.
And I couldn't find a coat where I liked the style and the cut and the number of buttons and the weight and the color at all, even for exorbitant prices. I wore The Coat just about every day in England. I should probably get it cleaned again (support local businesses that way, too! Yay!) or I could buy the "dry clean in your dryer" packets that my mom found and that I used on a silk shirt to great results.
I'm always torn between frugality and being a good citizen. I also don't have a car or a working bicycle, which doesn't help. Not a whole lot of thrift within walking distance of my university, which is the main thing that I want to live within walking distance of given the lack of wheeled transportation; our buses are expensive and, in my opinion, infrequent for a university town. Plus, my uni starts classes at odd times within the hour (8:00, 9:05, 10:25, 11:45, 12:50, 13:55, 15:15, etc) and buses run on half-hour schedules at equally odd points in the hour. It also takes at least an hour to really get anywhere that's worth the bus fare.
So, I make an hour walking round trip every now and then to cheap groceries, and rarely buy anything of interest during the semester because I can't find interesting thrift stores within half an hour's walk. I could drag friends with cars along, but I hate grocery and thrift shopping with people. I bargain hunt, I comparison shop, I lug things around for hours then put it back, then leave five thrift stores with probably nothing but possibly a wall hanging, possibly a box for tea, or possibly antique Sherlock Holmes novels. You just never know. Most of my possessions that I care about were found at thrift or antique stores.
This has been a very strange, ambling post.
I'll just wear a skirt under my kimono. Maybe walmart will want to hire such a free spirited, bold person.

My Camera Eats Batteries -- Seventy Fourth Post

I'm telling you, this thing is like those old gameboys used to be. There was a battery commercial back in the day, by which I mean probably in the 90s, that illustrated this nicely. The electronic device turns into a giant, toothy mouth that chomps on batteries, going on a rampage and destroying everything while making weird growly noises. Finally, it comes upon the whichever brand batteries and is foiled, turning back into a peaceful device.
My camera ate its batteries in less than 24 hours. I took less than 20 pictures on it in that time.
This isn't the first time it's nommed on batteries faster than normal, but this is a record speed.
Duracell alkaline batteries always worked fine for me before...
After a quick, cursory google search, I went to the store. I returned with rayovak endurance batteries, and some rayovaks that allege high energy performance that were with some energizer lithium ion batteries. Google said that alkalines were bad, so I found the cheapest kind of non-alkaline batteries I could. We'll see.
And even if my camera continues its battery eating rampage, I'll still have five days' worth of batteries.

We're Making Sourdough! (Day 2) -- Seventy Third Post

I still don't have batteries.
Seeing as I set up Baker Out of Eggs and Butter last night, I'm going to continue this sourdough adventure over there.
We're Making Sourdough! (Day 2)

This isn't really a real post

This is mostly to say that I'm almost definitely going to make the new blog if only to give me something to do and a good reason to go to the store and get batteries and also apply for a job and maybe get some more applesauce and fancy flour while I'm there.
So, names! I'm sort of down to two options.
accidentalvegan is taken. It's even at blogspot.
I've never made a cranberry cup cake, or really anything with cranberries in it. In fact, I dislike cranberry baked goods as a rule, although I drink cranberry juice exclusively and would eat entire bags of the dried stuff if given the option.
So, we're left with thebrokevegetariancooks and bakeroutofeggsandbutter.
Basically, do I want a rhythmic name or one slightly more accurate.
Wait, the broke vegetarian cooks has a vegan relation on tumblr, and on blogspot, and a sibling in brokevegetarian.
It's decided: bakeroutofeggsandbutter I will be.

UPDATE!
Baker Out of Eggs and Butter: A Broke Vegetarian's Flirtation With Veganism is a thing now.

We're Making Sourdough! (Day 1) -- Seventy Second Post

I'm just going to pretend like this is the 72nd post even though it's somewhere in the sixties.
Anyway, I'm all moved and unemployed and stuff. Goddammit.
This leaves me with a lot of time to watch TV. I've watched all the seasons of the new Doctor Who (bow ties are cool and Matt Smith took the reins very handily, although David Tennant was definitely awesome) and Sherlock, the BBC modern-day show (really, really well done adaptation of the stories). Having run out of TV shows, it gave me a lot more time to think about how stupid it is that I can't find a job and even more time to grumble to myself about how I WOULD have something to do if someone would frigging HIRE ME.

ANYWAY.

With all this free time, I've decided that I can make sourdough starter, no problem. It's not like I have anything else to do, and if I can't remember to have a look at it every 12 hours, then I'm stupid and deserve for it to die. I'm following the instructions from Sourdough Home because it seemed fairly comprehensive.
Since I have a balance, I can do it by weight. Yay for being slightly non-american, I guess!

Day 1: Mixed about 50 g each of unbleached safeway brand white flour and tap water at 21:30.
I put it in a clean (large) applesauce jar, covered it gently with the lid (to keep out bugs, dust, and housemates), and put it on top of the refrigerator. I'll be scraping the sides and doing most of my mixing with a trusty red spatula.

I'll put up some pictures when I get batteries, hopefully tomorrow.
Right now, it's just a thick paste of flour and water. Woo hoo.

Oh, and, incidentally, I'm thinking about starting up yet another blog, this time for baking and for cooking in general. Name ideas include cranberryfairycakes, accidentalvegan, thebrokevegetariancooks, and bakeroutofeggsandbutter.
But I have one for study abroad, crafting, ranting about randomness, and even a defunct one for computer stuff; do I really need a fifth?
My train of thought here is that I could stick with this blog as a conglomeration of my university life, which definitely does not include anything crafty or remotely interesting, maintain my crafty blog over the summers, and continue ignoring the computer blog, while dumping everything that's not crafting or studying abroad here. If, by happy chance, I find myself abroad again, the study abroad adventures will start back up with quasi-regular updates. As it stands, it might be simpler to keep everything on this blog.
If you have thoughts, I'd love comments, but I'm really not expecting anything. Input would be valued, but ultimately ignored. Welcome to life.

Avengers Review -- Somethingth Post

First off, I can't remember how many posts there actually are. I think I skipped a bunch of numbers, but I can't be asked to go back and fix everything.
Know what else I can't be asked to do?
Homework. Yeah, it's finals. Yeah, I have four things due for one class and an exam in another tomorrow. No, I don't want to work on those.
So, here's what will hopefully be a largely spoiler-free review of The Avengers, the new superhero movie by marvel that all the kids are talking about.
Yeah, I went to the midnight premier even though I had an exam the next day. I've been waiting for this movie since the first Ironman whenever it came out (I was in high school then; I'm very nearly a senior in university now); I'm not going to let a little thing like an exam in my hardest class stop me from seeing this the day it comes out.

The trailers had been indicating that all these extremely strong, movie-carrying characters were going to be working together but still having issues and experiencing internal conflict due to their extremely strong personalities. This was encouraging. You don't get to be a superhero without being independent, strong, and forceful (unless you're that pansy, Spiderman), and superhero-type personalities don't mix well. Luckily, Nick Fury was a super-strong personality as well as being the purported leader of the gang, so no one was fighting over who got to call the shots, just who was, you know, right about stuff like who had the right to beat the shit out of Loki.
Who was played really well, by the way. I have a soft spot for non-satanic "bad guys" in mythology because they just tend to be misunderstood over time and disney. Hades didn't torment anybody, he just made sure everyone followed the rules of the underworld (which included the paradise-like afterlife and wasn't just a sort of greek hell). Zeus was a dick, though. Loki wasn't evil, just mischievous (well portrayed in Thor, I thought) in a way that sometimes came into conflict with everyone else.
The film really dug into the basic nature of humanity in the conflict between Loki and everyone else, making it interesting to watch from a philosophical viewpoint (one of my classes is dealing with some of the actual statements made in the film). It also dug into Tony Stark's hidden depths, since he mostly just developed compassion while still being a rich egotist in his other two movies.
While Bruce Banner was not played by the same guy as in The Incredible Hulk (2008-ish; I was in high school but it was after the first Ironman), this new guy did a great job of portraying Bruce Banner and the Hulk.
I was pleased by the tension between Captain America and Tony Stark. I was hoping for some, since Steve Rogers had pretty much been BFFs with Howard Stark, who Tony only barely came to forgive (for kind of being a terrible dad) in Ironman 2. There's a scene where Tony and Steve get into an argument and leave muttering angrily; Tony comments that if this is really the guy that his dad wouldn't shut up about, maybe they should have left him on ice. Still, they get over it because of a HUGE FUCKING PLOT TWIST OMG!
I won't tell you what it was, but Joss Whedon is a sneaky bastard who kills off his main characters and can't even be blamed for it by the end of the movie because it works out so perfectly.
Damn you, Joss Whedon. You kill people off and I can't even hate you for it.
We are all Joss Whedon's bitches, is what I'm saying here.
Another thing that impressed me was how there was no love story. All the others, including both Ironmans, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America, have had love stories that are sort of central to how the movie runs, how the main characters roll, and how the probable sequels might be set up. The only love story in The Avengers is between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, and it's really just a few scenes showing that they're in a committed relationship and that Tony really loves her a lot. Thor's lady, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman, if you've forgotten her name as thoroughly as I had), gets shuffled out of harm's way without us ever seeing her. He better have dropped by, because if I saw that my demigod man had saved the human race from devastation without even saying hello even when I'd been looking for him relentlessly after his einstein-rosen bridge had been smashed, well...
Well, I'd take him back, but he'd better be sorry.
Presumably, Captain America's lady is dead or very, very old with grandchildren. Not a lot of WWII veterans hanging around nowadays. My grandparents are in their 80s, and they were children during the war. She wasn't even mentioned, which I thought was a bummer.
Bruce Banner's love interest from The Incredible Hulk (Liv Tyler, of all people) wasn't brought up at all either. She really wouldn't have fit and the whole thing was a bit odd in the first place.
Basically, there was enough personal growth and team growth that they didn't need love stories to drive the action. The action was driving itself well enough.
A new story that popped up was Hawkeye and the Black Widow. There were romantic undertones, but you mostly get the impression that the Black Widow cares more for Hawkeye than she does for anyone else in the whole world because she owes him. I would watch a movie about those two, even if they didn't end up together. They could be best friends forever and I would be okay with that.
Also, Robin from How I Met Your Mother is a SHIELD agent.

Overall, the film is a great blend of action and plot, with great explosions and these fish things from outer space. I also suspect the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving's character in Captain America, you know, the guy with the creepy-ass red head who gets tesseracted out into space?) is involved.
There are slow spots at the beginning, but once it gets going, it's awesome. There's a lot of humour on both sides (neither side gets to have all the jokes) even in really serious situations. However, there are serious situations that are not appropriate for humour, and these were not made funny in the movie.
Stay to the end of the credits. Not only is the music pretty good, the final scene is hilarious. No, it doesn't set up a sequel, but it does reference a humourous moment from a serious situation and it's pretty hilarious. No, I won't tell you what it is.

Yay, so that's a review and I really do need to do homework.
Summary: Go see it. If you're too broke, pirate it as soon as you can and try to ignore the weird non-western alphabet subtitles. It's worth it.

Veganism -- Seventieth Post

I believe I posted a recipe for vegan apple pumpkin bread made out of random stuff I have in my kitchen, which at the time did not include butter or eggs.
It turns out that I'm quite fond of vegan recipes. This is probably because I frequently run out of eggs and butter (my housemates use some of my eggs, it's a long walk to a store that has cheap groceries, I have no budgeting skills, I made a chocolate torte that takes three eggs and half a stick of butter when I only had three eggs and a stick of butter left, and my baking cravings are unpredictable). Vegan egg substitutions are cheap, and it's fun to try recipes that don't have any cholesterol (yay, shitty heart issues!). I also stick with vegan milks because it's too hard to keep regular milk fresh and around with how little I use it on a day to day basis (mostly, a glug or so in my tea every morning when I can be bothered to wake up in time for tea, since I don't eat cereal hardly ever). I'm thinking I might try some vegan cheese just to see if it's quesadilla-worthy, even though it's probably more expensive.
Today, after a weekend of homework, I NEEDED to bake oatmeal cookies. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, I used most of my butter and all my eggs in a chocolate torte that is, quite frankly, pretty damn good for a first try and without a machine to beat my egg whites into stiff peaks.
So, I started hunting for vegan cookie recipes. Eggs I could handle, but the butter... I don't have any coconut oil on hand. I need some, but I am currently without.
I found one recipe that seemed pretty legit, although it didn't include oats, and figured I could just add in oats.
It worked okay until I added too many oats and dried the whole thing out. I also used brown sugar instead of raw sugar. I added 1/3 of a cornstarch egg (1 tbsp water, 1 tsp cornstarch) to moisten it up, and the result was a slightly dry but surprisingly soft and delicious cookie.
I did end up adding about two tablespoons of soy milk to the second batch, but they came out cakey. Another tablespoon of cornstarch egg would have been a worthy addition. Ground up nuts and applesauce might have been good as well.
I hope to make a review of milks for my own purposes at some point, but I need to try rice milk first. So far, almond milk is way too thin for use in tea but fine for everything else, and soy milk is great in tea; maybe a little thick.

Which reminds me, there was something else I was going to post a review on... I forget. Oh, the oriental hy-top stir fry mix is all beans and pretty much nothing else. Don't get that again.

Vegan Apple Pumpkin Quickbread -- Sixty Ninth Post

I've taken to cooking lately, my dear reader(s). I want to bake all the time. Homework? No, baking. Organizing recipes. Finding new recipes and trying them out right away.
One day, I found myself totally out of butter and eggs and desperately wanting to bake bread.
The problem: no breads, yeast or quick, can be made with the ingredients I have on hand. If it's not calling for butter and eggs, it's calling for 15 cups of flour or a bread machine or a loaf pan or something ridiculous like that. Yeah, my communal kitchen is understocked in some respects. We have five muffin tins, but no loaf tins or cheese graters. We have fifteen knives, but none of them for bread.
So, I turned to quickbreads, my preferred drop biscuits being out of the question due to their 5 tablespoons of butter.
Most quickbreads take freaking eggs.
My alternative eventually became apparent to me when I googled "quickbreads no eggs no butter" and pulled up a lot of links with "egg" and "butter" and about two that said "vegan".
AH!
I am not vegan, although I am vegetarian, but I'm a butter-and-eggless vegetarian at the moment, which renders me a cow-milk-consuming vegan for the time being. Not that I'm opposed to vegan milk options; soy, rice, and almond milks can be stored in the cupboard until opened, my friends with no fridge space and erratic milk-drinking habits. They are also quite tasty, although they are best, in my opinion, in cooking rather than in cereal. Soy's a lot thicker than skim. Rice and almond are more skim-y, and a mix of rice and soy makes for great box-bought mashed potatoes.
Anyway. I found this "vegan" apple bread recipe that didn't have applesauce (also not in my kitchen) or pumpkin (technically, the stuff in my fridge isn't mine, but I'm the one storing it, so I didn't want to use it). It called for an egg (goddamnit), but the Cook's Thesaurus provided me with a whole heap of egg substitutes. I used the cornstarch (1:3 with water) and added a bunch of oil and heaped my spoons of baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
It was super dry since I chopped the apples instead of grating them (it was about two of my favourite itty bitty apples that remind me of the ones I got in England and that are the perfect size for cutting and eating straight off the core), so I frantically added the last two tablespoons of my soy milk, a massive glop of raspberry jam (sounded better than plum in this context and is way cheaper than my other jam), and, in desperation, what was left of my friend's slowly going bad pumpkin puree. I then added a handful of dark chocolate chips.
Here's the recipe as I wrote it down:

Vegan Apple Pumpkin Bread
1.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
cinnamon and cloves, and other spices to taste
At least 1 cup shredded apple
1/2 cup raspberry jam (but any fruit jam would do, probably)
1/2 cup pumpkin (apple sauce or any other fruit puree would do)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp vanilla
squirt lemon juice
1 egg: 1 tbsp cornstarch, 3 tbsp water, glug (probably about a tsp, up to a tbsp) olive oil
2 tbsp milk (enough to moisten batter)
Handful chocolate chips (or more)
If you use less jam, add more sugar, or less sugar if you use a sweeter fruit puree (applesauce, for instance).

Preheat oven to 350 F; grease pan. I used olive oil and it worked okay.
Mix up dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately. I added the "egg" mixture last to the wet ingredients.
Gently, gently mix wet and dry ingredients just until there's a thick batter. Any more stirring and it might get tough.
Fold in chocolate chips (gently!)
Pour into pan with same capacity as a shallow 9" pie tin.
Bake for about an hour, checking periodically, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let it sit in the tin for about 10 minutes to cool, then tip it out onto a cooling rack. Flip it right-side-up when it's cool enough; no use having it break now when you've done so much work to keep it pretty already.
Not that it would be any less delicious if it broke.

The cornstarch egg worked well. The bread is fairly light, not tough, and flavourful. It's a little sweet, as I followed the original recipe and put in a full cup of sugar, but it's okay in small amounts. It's also incredibly rich; I believe that adding more fruit puree and less oil makes it lower calorie, but I don't know about richness. The chocolate chips probably don't help that, either. Using banana or zucchini might have improved the richness problem, but I really like the flavour without those. Again, any jam would probably work; whatever strikes your fancy. It would probably be good with cranberry, blackberry, apricot, peach, cherry, plum, or strawberry; but don't limit yourself. If anything sounds unappetizing with the pumpkin, swap it out for something else, like applesauce. Applesauce would be delicious in this (but I don't have any). There is definitely a nice pumpkin background to the whole bread, but it's not too overwhelming. The apple and raspberry are definitely present. I happen to love pumpkin, but banana would work as well. Also, mine is incredibly sweet because I followed shannonsrunning's recipe (which does not include mostly-sugar jam) and put in a whole cup of sugar. This was too much, at least if jam is used.
I would photograph it and post the picture for you, but my camera's batteries are dead and I'm too broke to buy eggs and butter right now, let alone batteries.
Just trust me, it's delicious looking.
According to my housemate's boyfriend, it smells like heaven. After eating a piece, he informed me that I was "doing the Lord's work". I've decided he can stay around; anyone who compliments my kludged up recipes is a friend of mine.

Back in the States

I've been back in the states for a few months now, and I'm really starting to get the reverse culture shock (whenever I have the time to think about something that isn't upper-division chemistry or speeches that I have to write and deliver, which isn't often; American uni is harder than British uni). I find myself walking down the street missing Sunderland, of all places (I had a distinct day where I hated the whole place down to the paving stones), missing pasties, missing people being able to pronounce pasties without sounding oddly profane... I miss people who say "to-mah-to" instead of "to-may-to", and I miss how oddly uncomplicated life is when you're living with people with whom you share no history.
I miss the days of the only drama in my friend group being that my roommate was being a bitch about something stupid or eating other people's food (I strongly suspect her of eating an entire half-package of soft cheese the weekend I went to Liverpool, and I was only gone for a night). Back here, one of my friends is turning uni back into high school, with her complicated, dramatic view of how friendship should work.
Here, for your viewing pleasure and also my personal ability to understand my life, is something of a schematic of why I miss my England friends:
Linear Complex Bio Major: is attempting to reinstate the clique mentality of american secondary school. Is not really speaking to High Valence Biochem Major. Fancies Unfortunate Biochem Boy. Bosses Distressingly Unknown Accountant and Myself as much as possible. Sees all decisions made by anyone in friend group as involving whole group; has a strong "we" mentality. Is enormously frustrated by single-ness; this manifests itself in her scaring off any friendly boys, much to her continued and compounded frustration.
Octahedral Biochem Major: has a much looser view of friendship. Is best friends with Unfortunate Biochem Boy. Is not really speaking to Linear Bio Major. Gets along fine and does not try to boss Myself or Distressingly Unknown Accountant, although she does tend to bulldoze the planning. Still, allows friends to be otherwise engaged without being offended.
Unfortunate Biochem Boy: is male. Is also most eligible junior science major bachelor who is determined to remain a bachelor. Does not fancy Linear Bio Major back; may or may not suspect that she fancies him. Is sometimes clueless about why the females that surround him are angry. Is a decent lab partner and generally decent friend in spite of some core dickishness, as revealed by conversations between Myself and Octahedral Biochem Major.
Distressingly Unknown Accountant: tries to avoid making decisions. Ends up being a bit of a pawn. Like Myself in this way, just times twenty thousand. Personal thoughts are largely unknown, but often professed to be known by Linear Complex Bio Major and English Major, her roommate.
English Major: is generally nice and sweet and a generally good friend. Lent Myself $20 and has not asked for it over the past month (guilt). Tends to follow Linear Complex Bio Major's theory of making decisions for others via the "we" groupthink. Tends to boss Distressingly Unknown Accountant, her roommate.
Myself: is pissed at the drama created by Linear Complex Bio Major and Octahedral Biochem Major's clashing. Misses simplicity found in England. May or may not fancy Unfortunate Biochem Boy; is flat-out determined not to actively pursue him. Is lab partners with Unfortunate Biochem Boy, wherein a reasonably good friendship has sprung up. Feels that, aside from not being awfully ready to pursue a relationship due to a need to figure out self first, most relationships that seem attractive would cause awkward tensions.

So. The main thing that's been unfortunately camping out in my thoughts is that, in England, relationships, even non-platonic ones, were socially simple. Logistically, not so much, but one could hook up with a guy without worrying about offending two of one's closest friends. Sure, the guy in question was my dearest England  friend's boyfriend's best friend, but that was all we had in common.
In the unlikely event that Unfortunate Biochem Boy asks me out, I will have alienated Linear Complex Bio Major, who would see not using my influence with him to nudge him towards herself as the deepest form of betrayal. She will in turn take it upon herself to alienate me from Distressingly Unknown Accountant, which will likely also alienate me from English Major. Also, since he is besties with Octahedral Biochem Major, that relationship might be strained. They talk about everything, which would not bother me in the slightest, since I understand the relationship, but I wouldn't want to harm their friendship. If Unfortunate Biochem Boy stopped being as close to Octahedral Biochem Major, I would feel really bad. Although it's not likely to be a problem, the implications loom over me like an upcoming doctor's appointment. They probably won't find anything horribly wrong, but what if they do? So I stress.
See? See what happens when people get histories? Much better when the only thing shared by all parties is the fact that they live in the same flat, or know people who live in that flat.

Other things that I miss are the smell of british tobacco smoke (which is emitted by tabs, not cigarettes or the hookah that stunk up my whole house tonight, and is generally smelled when hanging out with my British friend), pizza places, chips, pasties again, public transport, and the lack of daytime rain. The close proximity of grocery stores like Aldi (where real food could be purchased for £1, or less than $2) and the fifty million news agents, supermarkets, and fruit and veg stands that populated the three blocks surrounding my flat are also sorely missed. I have to walk ten minutes up hills to get even to a (british-type) supermarket, found in the states as convenience stores attached to gas stations. These walks are not associated with any sort of commute. The cheapest grocery store is also the furthest away, of course. 
I also miss drinking and dancing. Parties big enough to have drinking games are full of strangers that only want to play pong and who don't want to dance and parties small enough to want to play drinking games are populated by non-beer-drinkers. I miss the casual drinking, where you know that someone has got your back, even if they're just as drunk as you, and they won't leave you at the club. I miss the siren songs of dubstep and rave music pounding through my body as I relax in the anonymity of a club and allow my body to thrash around, not really caring if I can match the rhythm of the music or the person next to me. 


I'll be investing in air freshener to ward off any hookah stink that might make its way into my room (although keeping my door shut has done wonders so far tonight) and possibly also investigating the potential of Richmond cigarettes, the smell of which I didn't mind in England and which I rather miss, although I'd need to be stealthy and not get addicted or make my clothes stink of the smoke. That being said, I probably won't. I'm spending most of my disposable income, of which there really is none, on food and booze lately.