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.
Showing posts with label Homework. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homework. Show all posts
06 May 2012
29 April 2012
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.
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.
03 April 2012
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.
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.
09 September 2010
Thirty Third Post
Well, school has started.
As has the deluge of homework. Well, it's more like "dormwork" or "coffeeshoppework" or "librarywork" or "Kraftwerk" in my case, but whatever. In any case, it's a flood of Biblical proportions, thanks to my class schedule. I believe I was moaning about it in apprehension, but a few of my professors turned out to be crazy enough that my expectations were exceeded.
Would you all like a summary of how my day went? Of course you would!
Here's a slightly-edited copy of the email I sent my curious parents last night, which is a slightly-edited version of the long series of IMs that I sent a friend while he was offline, resulting in a glut of notifications when he logged back in.
(From) Bored College Student
(To) Mom and Dad
(Subject) First Day of Class in Summary Complete With my Feelings at the Time
What I Did Today:
Wake up. Bleh... Although I did get 11 hours of sleep, I'm kind of sick.
Go to core and make it on time, but only barely. Yay, no public spectacle!
Core lasts 70 minutes instead of 50. NOT OKAY.
Have to forgo breakfast of coffee and scone. *Murderous rage*
German- Awesome professor, Frau Buxton, pretends to scare us off (the thick accent helped), and later says that one student is "legit" because his name is for real (it wasn't on her master list, hence her skepticism, plus it starts with two Zs). Day considered salvageable.
Lunchtime. Food, yay!
CREAM OF BROCCOLI SOUP FOR THE WIN! (Best lunch EVER!)
Irritating classmate from high school (who I thought was long gone) finds me and drags me to her table. Day no longer quite so awesome... Lunch slightly ruined.
Discussion group for core. Meh...
Late for organic chemistry. Blugh...
Forget iclicker. Ugh.
Get headache from closeness of room and from professor's voice. Boo...
Discover whereabouts of cookies (previously removed from room; primary suspect- classmate from high school that helped me with physics last year, but makes a general nuisance of himself as a rule). Yay!
Drink cider. Good stuff, that...
Hang out with a friend from high school who is fun to hang out with for a bit, but tends to grate on my nerves after too long (who invited herself to my room). Good up to a point.
Discover that I am totally high on being sick. Woohoo!
Karate! I love karate...
Skip meeting for shower. Win!
Break shower handle. Water is freezing.
Fix shower handle! Water promptly scalds me.
Type up long, rambling email.
To Do Later:
Do german homework? Maybe... (I did some...)
Stress a little about the fact that I have gobs of homework already? Absolutely. (Yep)
Psych myself up about having a peaceful breakfast at 7:30 in the morning when all I want to do is sleep... (Not so much. And I took to long to get ready and had to put off breakfast until I got out of class at 9:30.)
All in all, it worked out to be an okay day, and today was pretty good other than an epic battle with my printer, which wasn't (note the past tense, cause I won) speaking to my computer, and an ongoing battle with a homework site that won't accept my login.
But tomorrow's Friday! That means that I can trudge through class and then try to get a random assignment for my o-chem class posted to a (different) homework site (that works). Then I get to avoid being dragged around by the friend from home who grates on my nerves but didn't steal my cookies (you know who you are, cookie thief!). She needs to make her own friends. I have my own things to do; she has hers. With luck, this will become apparent to her soon.
Anyway, I've stalled on copying down my German wortschatz for long enough, and we have a vokabelquiz on Monday.
As has the deluge of homework. Well, it's more like "dormwork" or "coffeeshoppework" or "librarywork" or "Kraftwerk" in my case, but whatever. In any case, it's a flood of Biblical proportions, thanks to my class schedule. I believe I was moaning about it in apprehension, but a few of my professors turned out to be crazy enough that my expectations were exceeded.
Would you all like a summary of how my day went? Of course you would!
Here's a slightly-edited copy of the email I sent my curious parents last night, which is a slightly-edited version of the long series of IMs that I sent a friend while he was offline, resulting in a glut of notifications when he logged back in.
(From) Bored College Student
(To) Mom and Dad
(Subject) First Day of Class in Summary Complete With my Feelings at the Time
What I Did Today:
Wake up. Bleh... Although I did get 11 hours of sleep, I'm kind of sick.
Go to core and make it on time, but only barely. Yay, no public spectacle!
Core lasts 70 minutes instead of 50. NOT OKAY.
Have to forgo breakfast of coffee and scone. *Murderous rage*
German- Awesome professor, Frau Buxton, pretends to scare us off (the thick accent helped), and later says that one student is "legit" because his name is for real (it wasn't on her master list, hence her skepticism, plus it starts with two Zs). Day considered salvageable.
Lunchtime. Food, yay!
CREAM OF BROCCOLI SOUP FOR THE WIN! (Best lunch EVER!)
Irritating classmate from high school (who I thought was long gone) finds me and drags me to her table. Day no longer quite so awesome... Lunch slightly ruined.
Discussion group for core. Meh...
Late for organic chemistry. Blugh...
Forget iclicker. Ugh.
Get headache from closeness of room and from professor's voice. Boo...
Discover whereabouts of cookies (previously removed from room; primary suspect- classmate from high school that helped me with physics last year, but makes a general nuisance of himself as a rule). Yay!
Drink cider. Good stuff, that...
Hang out with a friend from high school who is fun to hang out with for a bit, but tends to grate on my nerves after too long (who invited herself to my room). Good up to a point.
Discover that I am totally high on being sick. Woohoo!
Karate! I love karate...
Skip meeting for shower. Win!
Break shower handle. Water is freezing.
Fix shower handle! Water promptly scalds me.
Type up long, rambling email.
To Do Later:
Do german homework? Maybe... (I did some...)
Stress a little about the fact that I have gobs of homework already? Absolutely. (Yep)
Psych myself up about having a peaceful breakfast at 7:30 in the morning when all I want to do is sleep... (Not so much. And I took to long to get ready and had to put off breakfast until I got out of class at 9:30.)
All in all, it worked out to be an okay day, and today was pretty good other than an epic battle with my printer, which wasn't (note the past tense, cause I won) speaking to my computer, and an ongoing battle with a homework site that won't accept my login.
But tomorrow's Friday! That means that I can trudge through class and then try to get a random assignment for my o-chem class posted to a (different) homework site (that works). Then I get to avoid being dragged around by the friend from home who grates on my nerves but didn't steal my cookies (you know who you are, cookie thief!). She needs to make her own friends. I have my own things to do; she has hers. With luck, this will become apparent to her soon.
Anyway, I've stalled on copying down my German wortschatz for long enough, and we have a vokabelquiz on Monday.
27 April 2010
Twenty Sixth Post
Ah, the joys of a university with a semester system. I get out of school before my high school's prom, for crying out loud.
It's weird.
Granted, I'm just a freshman, but I'm also 16 days away from my last final.
This is a good thing. It signals the last physics final of my life, possibly the last time I ever have to read a poem out loud in front of 25 other people, most of whom I don't really know, and the first of many chemistry finals. I have no doubt that my situation will not improve in the chemistry department, but it really can't get any better than not reading poems out loud and not taking physics.
Scratch that, it can. I could not be in a class with stupid people.
Have I posted about stupid people? I might have. I shan't rant for too long.
But seriously, have you (i.e., the amorphous cloud of readers that doesn't exist, other than some brazilian agency checking to see if my site is "up or down". I think they might have interns, personally. Really, really bored interns.) ever had a class with a stupid person? They are the ones who ask the questions that everyone else quietly answers in their head or by looking in the book. Or that would be answered within ten minutes even if they had not asked. At the 100-level classes, the professors don't actually assume that you know everything. They assume you read the material, which may or may not be true, but they do not assume you are a clairvoyant genius. That, I believe, comes later. For guys, it might come when you get married.
Ahem.
Also, sorry about that parenthetical paragraph in the middle of my sentence. But it's after 23:00 on a tuesday night, and this week is only going to get longer. Deal with it.
Speaking of longer week, a leadership class containing a close friend from church and school who now goes here is running an awareness/money raising event for Haiti. "Goats and Magic and Get Hungry For Haiti!" or something to that effect. I am participating in the two-day fast (Get Hungry) and going to the magic show because I don't actually do anything on Friday nights. The fast is from Wednesday lunch- if it cuts me off before my english toffee latte and raspberry scone, there will be consequences- to Friday dinner. Nothing from the dining hall, the cafe, or the coffee shop. Luckily, I have been stocking up on orange juice. I can live on it for limited amounts of time. And they're giving us rice.
Very civil of them, really. If they're going to take away meal plans, the least they can do is give me rice. I am decidedly fond of rice, especially with properly-done stir fry or in decent fried rice. But plain rice will suffice in lieu of food.
Likewise, they're giving us Starbucks ®, ™, ©, or whatever should follow a company branding. Not really sure, but I don't want them to sue me. I have no money. But I suspect that its just black coffee, which, I may have stated on a previous post, gives me a hangover. No need to get into that.
Really, what I need to get into is writing a paper that is due in a week and a half, doing a research project that is due in a week, or preparing for any number of classes in the morning. (For the record, I already did and gave up on physics homework)
With that in mind, I will cease typing my heart out to the cold, uncaring internet.
Cheers.
24 March 2010
Twenty Second Post
Spring Break!
I am well into my spring break, actually.
And no, I'm not off on some exotic adventure.
I'm at home.
Sitting on the couch.
Because all my friends are still in school.
In any case, I can make lots of cookies...
Honestly, it was time for break. I could feel the readiness of the student body. Heck, I was ready. I had three exams- one for each lab class- last week. I was very much done with school for a while. And, thanks to the exams that made my life something of a hell, I don't have homework over break!
I like break.
14 March 2010
Twenty First Post
My blog can legally drink in the US.
But more exciting than that, it's pi Day! I'm even typing this post before midnight, so it's still pi Day. It's the "3.14th Post" I suppose, but whatever.
To celebrate pi Day, I walked to a grocery store and bought an apple pie. I would have made it, but aside from not having any filling, I don't have the makings for a crust, either.
It was a good pie, for a store-bought affair. I'm used to pies made by mother or either grandmother with fresh apples (and lots of them), but it's been a long time since we've had one of those.
On a completely unrelated tack, do any of you readers know anything about electrical physics and equilibrium chemistry? I'm swamped in impossible homework that's all due tomorrow... You know, the usual science major stuff.
03 March 2010
Eighteenth Post
Today, I went to lab. And then I took a nap. And then I went to work. And then I ate dinner. And then I went back to my room and did homework for about six hours. And that's why this is an especially boring post. And now it is time for bed. Because I am braindead and have an exam tomorrow... Today... Oh, God...
18 January 2010
Seventh Post
At my school, we have these evening activities in the lounge for each dorm. Ours is "Cultural Leaders," which I find rather lame. I'm actually not really sure why that had to happen.
In other news, I actually had my own friends (just because I have a blog it doesn't mean I don't have friends) over to my room. I felt kind of like I had a life. So, to combat that feeling, I am typing up a new post and fighting with an essay that's not due until tuesday. I'm actually kind of enjoying the paper-writing, since it's the first time I've had to write a real paper with correct references and all that in college. I'm a science major- we don't really do that much writing. Just note-taking and lab write-ups, and those don't have citations required. We do have gen-eds required to graduate, which mostly ensures that we are "well-rounded" and fit to go to grad school and med school and make the school look good. I love my school, but that doesn't mean that I'm not cynical.
To tell the truth, I'm really frustrated with the paper. I would try that super cool awesome full screen distraction-minimising feature in Pages (mac word processor), but I need at least three other things up, including the internet to write the darn thing. Therefore, I go on the internet with every intention of looking things up, but it just doesn't happen. I'm extremely unmotivated to write, since I don't really believe in doing assignments before the night before they're due. I think this is proving that I'm constitutionally incapable of doing otherwise; perhaps I should get a start on other tuesday assignments so they don't all hit me at once tomorrow night at about midnight.
Americans- enjoy MLK day. Yay world peace and post-racial life.
There. I've been politically correct and whatnot.
To be honest, I think that a lot of minorities just kind of scrape by because they don't want empowerment, they want free stuff. I don't want to knock the people who have been successful, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, and changed the world, but I think that anyone who doesn't even want to get a job because they won't get government handouts anymore deserves all that life throws at them. For anyone who thinks I've just been a horrible racist bigot, I am talking about white people, too. I am a true post-racial citizen because I don't care if you're white, black, yellow, blue, green, or red- you should learn to respect yourself and reach for greatness. Not everyone can be president- I certainly wouldn't want to be- but everyone can have a better life than they have now. But the government isn't going to give it to you- you have to go out and find it.
Sorry about that little soapbox speech. It can be argued that this is how boring university life is- I have time to think about all this.
EDIT: This is Raeann from three years later. I would like to apologize if I sounded like a total prick up there. I still agree with the basic sentiment of what I said, that anyone who just wants handouts is a pain in society's ass, and they make us as a society (and I do mean everyone, especially including people who started in the same place and made something of themselves because they wanted to) look bad. However, having lived a little with people who (gasp) aren't exactly like me since writing this post, I feel that I'm really not a "true post-racial citizen" because I'm basically the product of a society that really, really isn't post-racial. There are little things that I do, that a lot of white people who never went hungry when they were a kid and who can afford to go to college do because society is governed by us, really, that I don't even notice, and certainly didn't notice when I was an itty bitty freshman.
The only reason I came back to this post -- I don't even remember writing that paper, much less this post -- is because it is coming up pretty high on some google searches, and I'd like to not seem like a racist moron in front of the whole internet. Whether or not I am a racist moron is probably debatable, but I just wanted to make it clear that I don't endorse other racist morons.
I mean, wow, do I sound angry then! I've been thinking about freshman year a lot, especially in light of having only one year left before I'm turfed out into the real world, or the world of grad school, and I was a very angry freshman. I scowled and dozed my way through all of my classes. I look back on the year with fondness, but I don't think any of my professors thought I liked them, except in my women writers class, which, incidentally, is part of what made me who I am now. When I wrote this post, I'd enrolled in the class, but hadn't started yet.
Pro (i.e. slightly less amateur) tip: don't be angry all the time. It'll make it that much easier to come back to your accomplishments a few years later without blushing.
In other news, I actually had my own friends (just because I have a blog it doesn't mean I don't have friends) over to my room. I felt kind of like I had a life. So, to combat that feeling, I am typing up a new post and fighting with an essay that's not due until tuesday. I'm actually kind of enjoying the paper-writing, since it's the first time I've had to write a real paper with correct references and all that in college. I'm a science major- we don't really do that much writing. Just note-taking and lab write-ups, and those don't have citations required. We do have gen-eds required to graduate, which mostly ensures that we are "well-rounded" and fit to go to grad school and med school and make the school look good. I love my school, but that doesn't mean that I'm not cynical.
To tell the truth, I'm really frustrated with the paper. I would try that super cool awesome full screen distraction-minimising feature in Pages (mac word processor), but I need at least three other things up, including the internet to write the darn thing. Therefore, I go on the internet with every intention of looking things up, but it just doesn't happen. I'm extremely unmotivated to write, since I don't really believe in doing assignments before the night before they're due. I think this is proving that I'm constitutionally incapable of doing otherwise; perhaps I should get a start on other tuesday assignments so they don't all hit me at once tomorrow night at about midnight.
Americans- enjoy MLK day. Yay world peace and post-racial life.
There. I've been politically correct and whatnot.
To be honest, I think that a lot of minorities just kind of scrape by because they don't want empowerment, they want free stuff. I don't want to knock the people who have been successful, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, and changed the world, but I think that anyone who doesn't even want to get a job because they won't get government handouts anymore deserves all that life throws at them. For anyone who thinks I've just been a horrible racist bigot, I am talking about white people, too. I am a true post-racial citizen because I don't care if you're white, black, yellow, blue, green, or red- you should learn to respect yourself and reach for greatness. Not everyone can be president- I certainly wouldn't want to be- but everyone can have a better life than they have now. But the government isn't going to give it to you- you have to go out and find it.
Sorry about that little soapbox speech. It can be argued that this is how boring university life is- I have time to think about all this.
EDIT: This is Raeann from three years later. I would like to apologize if I sounded like a total prick up there. I still agree with the basic sentiment of what I said, that anyone who just wants handouts is a pain in society's ass, and they make us as a society (and I do mean everyone, especially including people who started in the same place and made something of themselves because they wanted to) look bad. However, having lived a little with people who (gasp) aren't exactly like me since writing this post, I feel that I'm really not a "true post-racial citizen" because I'm basically the product of a society that really, really isn't post-racial. There are little things that I do, that a lot of white people who never went hungry when they were a kid and who can afford to go to college do because society is governed by us, really, that I don't even notice, and certainly didn't notice when I was an itty bitty freshman.
The only reason I came back to this post -- I don't even remember writing that paper, much less this post -- is because it is coming up pretty high on some google searches, and I'd like to not seem like a racist moron in front of the whole internet. Whether or not I am a racist moron is probably debatable, but I just wanted to make it clear that I don't endorse other racist morons.
I mean, wow, do I sound angry then! I've been thinking about freshman year a lot, especially in light of having only one year left before I'm turfed out into the real world, or the world of grad school, and I was a very angry freshman. I scowled and dozed my way through all of my classes. I look back on the year with fondness, but I don't think any of my professors thought I liked them, except in my women writers class, which, incidentally, is part of what made me who I am now. When I wrote this post, I'd enrolled in the class, but hadn't started yet.
Pro (i.e. slightly less amateur) tip: don't be angry all the time. It'll make it that much easier to come back to your accomplishments a few years later without blushing.
16 January 2010
Sixth Post
My favourite part of weekends is sitting around in my room and not leaving all day. I didn't actually eat until about 19:00, simply because I wasn't very hungry. I did leave the building when I took my incredibly full trash bin out to the dumpster, but I consider that to be a part of the dorm. It was a nice, relaxed day. I finished reading the book for an assignment, and felt victorious. The assignment is due tuesday, so I have plenty of time to formulate ideas and look up passages, or I can save it all for monday night. I find that right now, I'm totally ambivalent as to which one, possibly because I was up past 03:00 for the third night in a row. Tonight, I have decided, will be different. I have an infusion (which tend to make me tired) that I will drink by midnight if I'm not tired. I am absolutely determined to get sleep tonight.
I'm certain that this makes me a bad college student. But I don't care. On that note, I'm doing homework, so I'm already a miserable failure of a student.
I'm certain that this makes me a bad college student. But I don't care. On that note, I'm doing homework, so I'm already a miserable failure of a student.
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