The life and times of a normal university student

27 June 2012

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!

08 June 2012

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.

07 June 2012

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.

05 June 2012

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.

04 June 2012

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.