Ask a Hopeless Romantic

CDK 100: Recipe 8

2010-07-10T14:52:00.001-07:00

Fresh Strawberry Lemonade

Ingredients

Sugar (to taste)
1 1/2 cup lemon juice
a quart of strawberries - I used fresh. Pureed.
6 cups of purified water

While a very simple recipe, first thing's first, campers. Prep work!

We hull the strawberries; the recipe called for either frozen or fresh, and I used the latter. I cut off the cups of the strawberries and put them aside in a bowl.

Then I took several lemons and began squeezing the juice out manually into a cup. I ended up going through them all and still not having enough, so I ran out to the store quickly to get more bottled lemon juice.

Then I took out the blender and pureed the strawberries until it was something resembling a Jamba Juice concoction.

By this time I put in the lemon juice through cheesecloth to get rid of the excess pulp and seeds and then added it to the pitcher with my six cups of purified water.

Once I got that settled, I took out the sugar from the pantry, put it aside, and then started to add the strawberry puree, saving about 1/4th in the blender. I stirred, tasted how sour it was (because I had added some lemon juice to the blender to encourage the puree-ing process) and began to add my sugar 1/4th of a cup at a time until I ended up at 2 1/2 cups (wow.)

Then I put in the rest of the strawberry puree, mixed it really well, and served. Since most of the ingredients were cold out of the fridge, it remained refreshing for summer weather.

This recipe was so delicious, mainly in part to the amount of sugar I put in. That's the great part about it - one can adjust how sweet or tart the recipe can turn out. I'm thinking next time I might puree some pineapple chunks in their own juices and add that in; that would make a super citrus vitamin C drink. Very, very easy recipe to follow at home. Definitely worth five stars! I would totally make this again.

And what does the boyfriend think?

Pucker those lips, darlin' and chug chug chug!

....Another satisfied customer! BOO-YAH!

His words exactly*: "You are brilliant and I'm gonna make babies with you someday because of this experience."

Yeah, I know, babe. Try not to make a scene over my awesome awesomeness. *rubs fingernails against collar of shirt* I can't help it if I substantially ROCK at making stuff.

His response was to guzzle more strawberry-lemonade.

*=He didn't actually state this outright.

Found via CDKitchen (Original Recipe: Fresh Strawberry Lemonade.)

High Fidelity: The Sensitive Man's Novel

2010-06-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

When I first saw High Fidelity three years ago, it was for a screenplay-writing class at college.

The movie itself, I thought, was great. Stupendous. Absolutely brilliant.

And then three years later, I read the book.

...And then rewatched the movie again.

...And now I am not so sure.

Okay, I know reviews have been done for this book. Professional reviews, wittier reviews, funnier reviews. Face it, I'm better off just posting any opinion I have on Nick Hornby's novel on Amazon.com for some house frau's browsing amusement -- but since I do have a blog which subsequently means I am entitled (read: self-inflated ego) to share it with the world, nay -- the universe.

Main Beef's:

1. High Fidelity's Rob Fleming is pretty much a straight guy's version of Bridget Jones. His neurotic nature led me to wonder, "Are all men like this?" After consulting with top experts (a.k.a. the boyfriend), my conclusion is "No, not all men are like this. Only some men. Only really neurotic men." Rob Fleming is the sort of bloke that would probably address a log entry "Dear Diary" rather than the stoic "Journal Entry (Blank#)."

Not to insinuate that our boy Rob is effeminate, or that being sensitive is a bad thing. If anything, he's a sensitive asshole. Yup. That's the way to put it. A sensitive, self-absorbed asshole who talked way, way too much and too long about certain subjects that I felt compelled to skim certain passages. How's that for an insult?

2. Despite his monumental fuck-ups, Rob still has all of his relationship ties in the end. How does this reflect real life whatsoever? Okay, maybe I'm not giving enough credit. There is a definite amount of realism in the novel. If it were me, I'd be totally and utterly alone. My ex wouldn't even let me speak to him/her if I did any of the things he did.

3. Versus the Americanized movie version, it's a tough coin toss to decide which one tells the story better. The one with the steamy and at the same time adorable John Cusack -- or the spastic literary man-boy you just want to say "bollocks" to. In the end, it's probably best to judge the movie and the book as separate creatures. While the book gave more depth as far as insight into relationship dynamics, the movie gave a better ending in my opinion. Hornby chose to make it 'real' by never letting Rob grow anything but perhaps a smidge emotionally but in all other aspects of his life, he's stunted. At least in the film version, there was absolution on all fronts. No happy-Hollywood ending by any means, but still, it's something!

If I had to say which I liked better, my answer would be this: "If I wanted feel-good and short, I'd pick the movie. If I wanted depth and occasional frustration, I'd pick the book." There were instances in the movie where dialogue was mishmashed, spliced, cut, in order to create a more streamless experience. They even cut out one of the "Five Break-Up" gals and just shoved Rob's on-again-off-again girlfriend Laura into the slot. A purist would've shot themselves in the head, point-blank.

4. The women. Oh-my-good-lord. Maybe it's a gender thing, you know, writing from a point of view... like how men seem harsher in a female's work. Maybe it's the same for male writers, making women into senseless caricatures. Hornby tried with Laura. He tried to make her at once sympathetic and a bitch. She just came off as a bitch (who didn't know what she wanted). And then near the end, she was just bossy. In total she was a manipulative person who I didn't exactly care for.

Marie DeSalle

I was actually rooting for Rob to shack up with Marie DeSalle rather than end up back with Laura. And then the Top Five gals weren't all that positive either. Most were dreary, almost all were shrill and sad. Hornby paints a really bad picture of women, at least the ones in the U.K.

But that's that:

I like the novel for the reason that the more I reflected on it, the more I came to realize that Hornby embedded some pretty deep things underneath all that annoying pile of fuckle Rob kept building. For instance, I came to realize who my "Alison" was... who my "Sarah" was... and especially, who my "Charlie" was. In that sense, Hornby was a good writer. He created these five, six if you count Laura, archetyphecal relationships that could be applied to a good majority of people.

1. The Needy Relationship Where You're Afraid to Be Alone
2. The Inequal Relationship Where You're Secondguessing Yourself All The Time (otherwise known as That Flame That Still Drives You Bonkers)
3. The First One, the Big One
4. The Rejection of All Rejections
5. The One You Can't Have - So Because of That, You Really Really Want Him/Her

It's not a book I would like to read again. It's not a book I would really recommend to others. Hell, even the musical notions of the book seemed to be stretched a bit.

But guys might like it. I'm just a chick. What do I know? (Holden Caulfield, he's got your number.)

Good stuff:

Movie: Jack Black. This was pre-sell-out phase, before Nacho Libre and Be Kind Rewind, before he got even more fat and disgusting, only to be replaced by Jonah Hill, before all that bad stuff. This was the essence of Black, like this part was written specifically in mind for him. Memorable moments: when he remarked on Rob's Cosby sweater. Brilliant.

Book: Marie DeSalle had a much bigger role in the book. Really good vibes from that character, especially since she was probably the best female character in the whole book. It is regretful that she wasn't utilized in the movie more, but c'est la vie -- 2 hours can be stretched only so far.

Ask a Hopeless Romantic Fridays

2010-03-05T18:28:00.000-08:00

I'm starting a new segment where I'll feature a question asked to me about romance, or any other sort of "problem" that plagues the everyday person. I'll post the articles on Fridays with my responses and the original question... and on the weeks I'm not asked anything, I'll just write about a random dilemma.

Looking forward to hearing your questions!

-HR

CDKitchen 100: Recipe 5

2010-03-05T14:54:00.001-08:00

AHA!

Bet you thought I was going to do another Violet Beauregarde plug, huh? Didn't ya? Didn't ya!?

But I gotcha, heh heh heh.

Nope, instead it is Bluebeard, Europe's own ever-eligible bachelor who just can't stop murdering his wives. (This picture does him no justice -- he had to have been a stud otherwise why would so many girls marry him?)

...And the reason I picked him is because his name sort of sounds like "Blue Bread."

I am so clever it frightens me sometimes.

Ending off the wonderful (terrible?) trifecta of blueberry recipes, I've got to say that out of the three, I ended up eating most of this recipe's product than any of the other ones (blueberry ones that is.) It was delicious, a sort of "staple" food that could work as dessert, breakfast, and a snack, and it even satisfied me when I had a sweet craving. It was really fun to make too.

Blueberry Bread

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup of margarine (I used butter)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk (I didn't have much "real" milk left so I substituted for condensed milk)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 1/2 cup blueberries

First, we're just gonna toss in both eggs, butter, and sugar, and mash it together until it's got a nice creamy substance to it.

Oh yeah, you know what Mama likes...

Even though the recipe said to alternate between flour/dry ingredients and milk, I just poured all the flour in...

...and then I poured the milk. (Oops on my part.)

Then add the vanilla:

Now it's looking quite marvelous if I do say so myself!

Take a loaf pan and grease it (I used some baking PAM)

Flour the pan

Pour in the batter

The finished product:

Is that a loaf in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Impressions:

It tasted more like pound cake rather than actual bread, per se.
The baking time given on the original recipe was way too long. Like, thirty minutes too long I think. By the time I opened the oven (about ten minutes early) it was a very dark brown. It was still edible, mind you, but I think it would've been tastier if it was a nice golden brown instead of a tan color.
It was easy to make which is a super huge plus in my book.
It was delicious, and I think I'll definitely make this again with revisions to it.

Found via CDKitchen (original recipe: Blueberry Bread).

CDKitchen 100: Recipe 4

2010-03-05T13:49:00.001-08:00

Let it be said that Violet Beauregarde (I never get tired of her as an example...) is probably the definition of a "muffin-top." I mean, just look at her: bloated, BLUE, her top is bigger than her bottom.

Jeesh. Someone definitely needs to visit the gym.

Aside from forcing beauty ideals on someone so young, this entry is dedicated to Violet's favorite treat: Blueberry Muffins. After having a surplus of blueberries from my last endeavor, I personally like muffins. They're nutricious, they're the perfect snack, dessert, breakfast combo.

But they're also really, really yummy too.

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter -- melted (like my heart, mmm)
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used the last bit of my organic stuff)
1 cups fresh blueberries
additional butter -- melted
additional sugar

First off, you're going to take your dry ingredients and mix them together in a bowl. This would include:

...flour

...sugar

...baking powder

...and salt

And mix it all up!

Take the butter and microwave it until it's liquid-y.

It doesn't suspect a thing.

In another bowl, beat your eggs (they're just askin' for it anyway).

Yeeaah, that's the ticket.

Blend in the milk

butter

nutmeg, and vanilla (both not photographed) into this bowl. Mix it.

Take this time to preheat your oven at 375F.

Pour into the dry ingredients

It lives... IT LIVES!!

...and mix just until moistened.

Pour in the blueberries.

Now it in the original recipe, it says to fold in the recipes. Learning from my previous mistake with the blueberry fritters, I looked up what folding was exactly and proceeded to do that with the blueberries in this batter.

Then I took a muffin pan and greased it up with baking PAM and filled it up.

Oooh yeah, let's get a close up of that.

Without much further ado, I put in the pan and waited about 20 to 22 minutes.

You see the missing one? ...I ate that one.

Blueberry goodness...

Mmm-hmm! They look so good.

After they came out, I brushed the tops with melted butter with my silicone pastry brush and sprinkled them with sugar. I used confectioner's sugar instead of granulated, which may have been a slight mistake because granulated would've given some nice texture to the muffins.

Still, it came out rather beautiful in a blueberry grotesque way.

Bon appetit!

Impressions:

I found that these muffins, while good, came out a little too nutmeg-y for my taste. Next time (and yes, there'll be a next time) I'll cut the nutmeg in half.
I added too many blueberries and it was painfully apparent. Less blueberries next time.
I might try whole-grain wheat flour instead of all-purpose for a more nutritional approach.
I liked the recipe, but I didn't love it. Maybe with revisions next time, it'll be bumped to "adore" instead of "meh."

Found via CDKitchen (Blueberry Muffins).

CDKitchen 100: Recipe 3

2010-03-05T11:53:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the gap in posts, but I HAVE been working on the recipes; just not uploading them. Bad me, I know. But I come bearing gifts! Lots of blueberry gifts!

I went to the local Farmer's Market and picked up a bunch of these little blue suckers for a nifty little price. I've been meaning to tackle blueberries for a while now, especially since they're not my favorite little berry (strawberry's got that title). I figure this challenge would be just the thing to give them a second chance.

I just hope I don't end up like Violet Beauregarde there. Gulp.

Blueberry Fritters

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons of confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 milk
2 eggs (separated, not divorced)
1 cup fresh blueberries

In one bowl, pour in all the dry ingredients.

Mix them all together.

Now after all that hard work, let's just forget about it and move on. We had our fun with it.

Time to separate the eggs.

The kids were never the same afterwards.

Be careful to save the yolk and beat the whites lightly in one bowl, like so:

In another bowl, put the yolks in and stiffly beat it to show how to take it like a real man, er, egg:

Yolk's on you - ha ha ha. ...Get it?

Going back to the soon-to-be-wet ingredients, take the bowl and make a sort of "well" or "indentation" in the dry mix and pour all the milk in.

Drowning microbes since 1988.

Add the whites and mix:

BUT LO! THERE'S MORE!

Here's where I made one of my boo-boos. Instead of putting in the blueberries first, I put the egg yolks in:

AND THEN I MIXED! OH NOES!

Well, it doesn't look too bad.

Ick.

Okay, NOW I put in the blueberries (I am ruining this recipe.)

Mix it around.

Let's get a close-up of that.

OH MY GOD, THAT DOESN'T LOOK GOOD. ...Those blueberries look sort of like chocolate chips to me. Hmmm.

Alright, we've done all we can. Now we let it chill for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, get the rack ready, ladies...

....Uh...

THIS SORT OF RACK, I MEAN

Don't forget paper towels, y'all.

And the oil! In the saucepan!

Heat it up, nice and hot.

Now here was my problem... on the original recipe, it says to take two spots and make a sort of "ball" for the fritter and then dip it in the oil to cook. I tried that and it was surprisingly difficult. But I managed to get through it. This is what I hate about fried foods though... I can never tell if they're cooked enough on the INSIDE or not.

So I always manage to burn them (I've learned to love this taste; others can't.) Someone once said you have to listen for a distinct crackle/popping sound... and me? Well, I've pretty much destroyed my hearing with my iPod.

Oh well.

Voila! Fini!

It looks...

It looks... burnt. And not appetizing. At all.

Yeah, you said it, Simba.

Oh boy.

But biting into it, it's not terrible, especially if you coat the thing in powdered sugar. Like really, really coat it.

So what do I think of this recipe? Not a favorite, for sure -- I may have done a few things wrong such as:

My cousin's chef friend said that I was supposed to use peanut oil instead of regular corn oil. It gives it a better taste. Also, there's supposed to be enough oil to completely immerse the fritters in. I was rather stingy and only filled it in halfway.
I didn't know how to "fold", and silly me, didn't look it up before I tried to "fold" on my own. My stirring probably made the batter heavier than it needed to be.
I left a few of them (okay, most of them) in the oil too long and probably made it more "burnt"/brown than they needed to be.

However, my better half says that they came out rather tasty; for me, however, they tore the roof of my mouth. Literally. Couldn't eat for a few days without wincing.

Do it again? Maybe, in some distant future when I'll forget why "fritters" strikes fear into my heart.

Find the recipe @ CDKitchen (Blueberry Fritters).

Stay tuned for blueberry muffins next!

Amir, oh Amir!

2010-02-17T23:36:00.001-08:00

I'm fairly certain I want to marry this man one day.

Why?

He's insanely, geekily cute. (Psst, is he taken? JK, JK.. SORT OF.)

Check him out in the vid below.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

CDKitchen 100 Challenge: Recipe 2

2010-02-14T12:45:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I'm not gonna eat that sort of bear claw (despite Pedo Bear's desire for you to put his limbs in your mouth...)

Today we're gonna treat ourselves to a more delicious, consensual pleasure bear claw filled with an entirely different sort of filling: chocolate.

Bear Claws with Chocolate Filling

Ingredients

Frozen roll dough from last post
thaw that mountain of goodness out
Flour, as needed
3 tablespoons of butter
1 egg, beaten (not stirred -- I will never tire of this joke)
1/4 cup of chopped pecans
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of organic semi-sweet chocolate chips

Now the recipe calls for shredded coconut and I absolutely detest coconut. I seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously, seriously dislike the stuff. One time I ate a cookie with coconut shavings and I spit it out as soon as I realized that crunchy stuff with a milky sort of taste was COCONUT, my ARCH NEMESIS. This common enemy has led me to have an alliance with a famous cartoon character: Angelica Pickles.

"Stupid babies... and coconut."

That aside, I think this recipe looks really easy, but then again I've never made bear claws before.

Gulp. This should be interesting.

First we're gonna start by taking out our mutual friend, Grandma's Sweet Roll Dough, made fresh last night and refrigerated overnight.

Gonna take off the excess packaging since I was terrified it'd dry up and haunt me for the rest of my life.

Gentleman, we have the technology.

Dust the (clean) countertop.

And now we're gonna pound it into eight little 4-inch circles.

Those don't look like circles...

Gah, I made them all different sizes.

After that, we're gonna take a small bowl and combine some butter, brown sugar, and chocolate chips (Coconut couldn't make it to the party cuz he wasn't invited, see.)

I had to wait a bit before it sort of thawed down and then I managed to mix it up really good, like so:

Place 2 tablespoons of the mixture in the middle of each roll.

Fold in half and press the edges to seal.

(This sort of reminds me of a dumpling process.)

Place on a baking sheet sprayed with a cooking spray. I use Slipat, which has seen better days, but never needs any sort of spray! I highly recommend them.

Take some scissors and cut into the folded rolls four times to give it a sort of "claw" look. Make sure you do this on the sealed edge side and not the other side.

Hopeless Scissorhands at your service.

Take out a brush (I used a silicone one) and brush the tops with egg.

Sprinkle with pecans for that nutty, pretty look.

Cover with a plastic wrap. Great, more packaging. Gag.

And let it rise like the Undead.

It's alive, it's alive! Mwahaha-*hack hack cough*

Wait 30 minutes for it to rise properly. Use this time to preheat the oven to 350 F degrees. In the mean time, let's go do something fun like have a drink or something.

When the time is up, take off the plastic (this is crucial if you don't want your bear claws to taste like melted Mattel toys) and pop it into the oven for 20 minutes.

Proceed to back to your drink and become smashed (but not too smashed.)

Don't tell me I've had enough! I'll tell you when I've had enough.

Set up a cooling rack on the counter and check every now and then until the bear claws look a nice, friendly golden brown color (the color of bears!)

Viola!

Mmmmm.. Satisfied customer. Now pay up. (He ate the big one in one sitting; talk about an appetite!)

Some notes: The dough took really long to thaw. Next time I'll just leave it on top of the turned off burner to expedite the process.

Another thing that was hard to do was to get an exact size down for the bear claws. Oh well! Because I made one super big, I ended up using an entire bag of organic chocolate chips instead of the recommended amount. Mmm. Chocolate-y.

The dough recipe I used gave me too much dough to work with and I didn't have another slipat to use so I ended up just make 1 super huge bear claw and four medium sized ones. I'll make more later.

All in all: good, good recipe. Compliments to CDKitchen!

Look forward to my next post on blueberry fritters, y'all! Happy Valentines Day!

(Original recipe: Bear Claw with Chocolate Filling, via CDKitchen)

CDKitchen 100 Challenge: Recipe 1: Grandma's Sweet Rolls

2010-02-13T17:55:00.000-08:00

...Grandma?

I'm pretty sure when the recipe for "Grandma's Sweet Rolls" was uploaded to CDKitchen, they didn't have this lady in mind (although she would've made for a pretty cool Grandma to bring to show-n-tell...) Nevertheless, I've never made sweet rolls before so the recipe (to me) might as well have come from that old lady from Dinosaurs.

Grandma's Sweet Rolls

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of sugar (check)
1/2 cup of vegetable oil (check)
2 teaspoons salt (check)
2 packages dry yeast (check)
2/3 cup milk (check)
...scalded (check...)
cooled (check...)
and don't burn yourself (OW! ...check!)
2/3 cup lukewarm water (ahhh...I mean, check)
2 eggs, beaten (not stirred)
5 cups flour

To follow the directions precisely, we start with the yeast: tear up the two packages into a bowl...
and pour in half the water with a pinch of sugar. Set that bad boy aside. I had to mix it up and it started to clump; do not worry (I think), this'll just go away if you stir it around for a bit. As for the water, that bit was confusing and involved a bit of math: how much is 1/2 of 2/3rds anyway? I just poured two 1/3rds into a 1 cup and then poured half of that into the bowl.

...And prayed.

Meanwhile, my milk overrunneth.

Ahhh!

Oh, ew, this is what happens when you don't watch your milk. You get this brown thing that mocks you with its putrid brown-ness.

Yeah, we're just gonna set that aside and pretend it never happened.

...Because it didn't.

Combine the cooled off milk, oil, sugar, salt, and remaining water.

Yeah, that doesn't look so good...

Stir in one cup of flour...

Then add the eggs (that I have beaten, mwahaha)

...and yeast mixture.

and I'm supposed to eat this eventually...

Mix in the remaining 4 cups of flour, and mix it around until it feels more like cement mixture than edible dough.

Clean off your work stations, boys and girls. Feel free to use either a disinfectant wipe ala Swine Flu fear, or if you're green, white vinegar works just fine too. And if you're me: a simple wet towel does the trick. Dry it off and dust with flour.

Slam that dough onto the counter

...and begin giving it a 2-minute massage it'll taunt its other girlfriends with.

"oh honey, I know -- men! pfft."

Roll it up in a cute little ball, and put it into a greased bowl to sit its timeout in.

You're not gonna remember a thing, heh heh heh.

Now, we gotta wait about 45 minutes (let's go watch House!)

Mmmm.... House.

Ding! 45 Minutes is up, which means you have to punch like it owes you money, and then when it comes back for more, you have several options to do with your dough:

Bake it into a variety of things, such as "sandwich buns" or "sweet rolls" for cinnamon and jelly, as per suggestion of CDKitchen.
Save it and freeze it, like how I'm going to for my next recipe post dealing with Bear Claws.
Go after its family in order to give the message across that you're not joking around. 'Cause you're not.

Come back tomorrow when I make chocolate bear claws out of Grandma's Sweet Roll Dough, nom, nom nom.

Some notes: This dough seems rather thick and heavy; I'm not sure if this is normal, since I'm not accustomed to handling dough. And the dough didn't seem to rise that much so I'm a little anxious that I either did something wrong or if there's something missing from the recipe. Anyone have a comment on this?

(Recipe found here: Grandma's Sweet Rolls, via CDKitchen)

The 100-Recipe CDKitchen Challenge

2010-02-12T14:24:00.000-08:00

I've been itching for pastries, particularly since I've been exercising more lately and as a consequence, wanting to eat more. I felt the hankering for some sweet baked goods and wandered down to CDKitchen.com. A lot of the baked goods I saw didn't have photos attached, let alone comments so I felt it my mission to do a self-challenge over the course of the year to try 100 baked good recipes from the site and to upload the photo process. We'll see how it turns out!

Challenge Details:

-100 Posts by the time the year is up (Deadline: Midnight of December 31st, 2010)
-100 individual recipes from CDKitchen.com
-Upload photo process and review for each individual recipe.

Next recipe/post to watch out for: Grandma's Sweet Rolls.

Parking Day LA DEMO

2009-09-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

It was so hot today at the demo spot (Madison and Santa Monica Blvd). So, so hot. I almost melted in my sneakers. I had to wear booty shorts because the thought of being restrained in anything more almost blew my brain out my ear.

School's starting soon, should be able to get a grip of cool projects. I will start my first sewing expedition (if all is well with the machine) next week.

:D

COME TO PARKING DAY L.A. SEPT. 18! I shall be in the LOADING ZONE group passing out delicious pie coins and cupcakes!

Sustainability Challenge: Cupcakes and Pie Coins

2009-08-18T00:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's not an easy challenge but it might save me money in the long haul. Jeremy asked me to participate in Parking Day LA, a public collective project with an objective:

"... bring together a diverse constituency of community groups, neighborhood councils, design & architecture firms, professional organizations, non-profits, cyclists & pedestrian advocates as they work together to transform numerous parking spaces & parking lots located throughout LA into ephemeral parks for the day. By occupying a parking spot and feeding the meter, volunteers will enhance the street with a sustainably designed pocket-park." - Parking Day LA, About Page.

I'm in the bandwagon with all the local Greensters, a cycling group that supplies a sustainable choice in the film industry.

I'm doing a cupcake cart, offering cupcakes by the cupboodles for every boy and girl in town.

Right now different ideas are being thrown around. The moment I suggested using bags or popsicle sticks, it was a definitive "NO!" So, hmm, how am I going to give out bundles of cupcakes and pie coins if I can't put them in a bag, or offer them individually on sticks?

He suggested I use reuseable containers for storage and to hand them out with gloves. I'm not sure what planet he came from, but on Planet America a lot of people would find it gross and give them a weird flashback to the icky lunch lady from the high school cafeteria. (Remember when you caught her picking her nose with the gloves ON?)

Food service is gross. No way around it. The act of eating food reminds us that we have to poop sometime, and the thought of poop makes us want to vomit, and when we want to vomit we often burp, and when we burp it makes us feel satisfied.

Weird [reverse?] circle of life.

Another suggestion he brought up was to have my cupcake cart (which is just a heavy cargo bicycle with a cardboard rendition of a cupcake posted on the front) be almost like an ice cream serving station with this scenario: I open up my cardboard cupcake, at the top tier will be a selection of cupcake flavors for which they'll have they choice and I'll slather on a delicious frosting.

Logistic nightmare for a long, hot day (which will be hot, since it's September, and it will be long since it's all day, biking across the city). The frosting will melt, the cupcakes may not stay, and it may still involve me handing out food in plastic gloves.

There's no real way around this but this sustainability crap is a pain in the pass. There are no biodegradable plastic "treat bags" or "100% recycled from newspaper" popsicle sticks. No "keep me forever" lightweight cardboard boxes, or decorative styles that coordinate with this demand.

I get the sneaking suspicion as if I'm doomed to fail. How can an amateur baker rise up to this challenge? It seems almost too difficult.

But a commitment is a commitment. And I foresee myself donning on those hot, sweat-inducing gloves. In reality, it comes down to a thought: disposable plastic gloves that will get dirty from a bike ride across the city, or the simple cleanliness of a cellophane bag?

Sometimes sustainability sucks.

Attempting...

2009-05-08T11:00:00.001-07:00

To do a project. I just got a sewing machine from a family member... now I remember that I don't know how to sew.

I'm so hopeless!

Support

2009-03-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of webcomic artists quitting their dayjobs and focusing fully on their art (mainly entertaining me) but even in these dire economic times, people are focusing on their wallets and not on donations.

So support Family Man. It's a realistic period drama that keeps me on the edge of my toes because I want to know who the damn werewolf is.

Also, Family Man's creator did NOT quit her job (it's not clear what happened, layoff/termination/etc?) but for whatever reason, SUPPORT YOUR WEBCOMIC MASTERS!

....they feed us, you know.

Officially Looking For a Second Job

2009-03-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

The Economic Crisis (recession, my ass. This is a Depression Remix) is getting us all in little bits. Several months ago I was contemplating leaving my job to find something better suited to a schedule for full-time college status.

Forget that. I can't even get a raise to compensate the rent increase for my studio. Who honestly raises the rent when everyone's getting laid off? They must be really stupid or really greedy (or both).

So now in leiu of finding another better paying job, I've just got to work on supplementing my income and work every living hour I've got off from work. Or work two part-time jobs. I'm actually considering the latter. I'd leave the 9-5 for the 4-10 or 7-12? I mean, it would free up SOME unconventional time for me to pay bills, do schoolwork, go to the library..attend class..

So I'll just submit my resume some places. Anyone else feel the same sort of crunch?

My mini-essay to a Nonprofit Organization hiring fieldworkers for transportation lobbying

Like many in my generation, I believe that a return to mass public transportation in the form of rail lines (light and underground) is a statement to the future. No longer can Los Angeles depend solely on roads and freeways; we need something else for those who care for the environment, who cannot afford luxuries like cars and the insurance and upkeep it requires, who want something easier than dealing with a daily dose of road rage.

I think there needs to be more pressure on these issues, probably more than one thinks. Ultimately if a large urban structure like Los Angeles operated primarily on rail - and to a lesser extent buses - and relied on cars as a secondary form of travel, several happy side effects would occur. For one, tourism would increase if there was easier ways to travel across the vast expanse of L.A. Another happy side effect: jobs, jobs, jobs. More rail, more jobs - in every sense of the word; jobs to operate and navigate mass transit, jobs to upkeep and take care of those operations, and jobs to build the machinery and infrastructure. Ultimately, I think that this route would make more sense than the senseless repairing of roads (not to mention all the potholes in L.A. that will never be filled in anyone's current lifetime) and would actually give long-term profit and make fiscal sense.

So I want to make a difference in this area and inspire others to take charge and remind them that above all, mass transportation has the most to benefit and offer Los Angeles (and the world) and its citizens.

Etsy Mania?...

2009-03-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

[These are so cute. I wonder though where to get that nifty ipod cover?]

[Annnnnd so are these.]

And I wonder if my boyfriend views me as this:

[Hubba, hubba.]

Or this:

[Meooooow.]

Perhaps something a bit more practical...?

[The Bike Burrito]

[... Not as tasty as it sounds.]

Also:

For those who have a sense of humor and know people who still call the saddle a "seat".
The "The Hipster Who Ironically Lists Off Bicycle Parts on His T-shirt" shirt.
For the fashionable lady on wheels.
Trashion knows its time, dontcha know.
Know your place, bike.
Sweet mother of god, someone get me this.
Even though the movie sucked, this leatherhead rocks.
Probably this truest button in the world.
I normally think bike necklaces are lame, but these are TOO CUTE!
So my bf's vibe.
If I remotely liked bells and horns adorning my bicycle, this would be it.
This bag actually looks hip.
Hot belt, bitch!

Etsy, you have impressed me, but you're oversaturated with crappy unoriginal overpriced tshirts and jewelry. Come on, now!!

Pigeons?

2009-03-09T10:37:00.001-07:00

My bf's neighbor brought up an interesting point: what about radio frequency dependant homing signals like the ones they use on homing pigeons?

Also: link. This looks promising.

Totally Random

2009-03-07T10:51:00.000-08:00

I know.

But, I found this interesting. Commoncraft is genius.

They've got a lot of different videos not just on the financial sector, but Blogs, Internet, and even a Green category. They can also make custom videos for your company!

Sa-weet!

It's like they're picking my brain...

2009-03-06T15:56:00.000-08:00

Oh My God.

They know me. I feel like they do.

Sometimes BikeForums can be redundant, but other times they're a true melting pot of ideas, especially for the project I want to persue.

Several people pointed out stuff I thought I came up with:

"I bet it would work pretty well inside a carbon frame. Inside the seat tube would be my suggestion as well, or simply fabbed into the frames on high end carbon bikes. The device itself wouldn't have to be that expensive - it's basically just a cell phone.The biggest problem I see with this is that it would require a battery that would have to be recharged periodically, meaning it would have to be accessible somehow." RazorWind
"...I know this may sound completely off the wall on first glance - but what if riding the bike actually charges the battery? Either through the motion of the cranks or... something... Again, it may be a little off the wall of an idea." Prendrefeu
"Seems like you'd have to design the whole bike around it in order to make that happen, and I think the battery would need to be replaceable, as even the best rechargeables wear out after just a couple of years...The people I could see thinking this is useful would be the folks who use bikes as transportation - urban dwelling freds and fixie-riding hipster doofuses. The fixie scenesters might be willing to pay for it, but I'm not so sure about the urban freds. I have a feeling it would be hard to sell them on a subscription service that costs more than a few bucks a month." RazorWind
"At a reasonable price it would be mostly oriented towards the commuters - but also anyone, really. I would pay a low fee per year for coverage. I mean, low fee to recover a bicycle saves time and stress if the bicycle is stolen - a lot of work, time, and energy goes into getting that bicycle just right for each rider/owner. Customization, fitting, parts... in a sense, it does become as 'valuable' to someone as a car. How low can the monthly fee be? Pretty damn low if the service business is set up on an intelligent and efficient platform." Prendrefeu
"stash it in a water bottle, or they should make one that looks like something else, like a bikepump, or u can hide it under something like that. they could also make it so it is a feature in a bike computer, or bike gps. u could also hide it under your handlebar tape too. and for the identification chip, i think i heard u an register your bike at most police stations, so if they find it they can know whos it is by the frame number or something or other." The_Spaniard
"put it in the steerer tube, sitting on the brake caliper mounting bolt and run the antenna through the fork.you can power it through some dyno type device." AEO
"Depending on the size of the technology, you could drop it into the down tube with the seat post removed. The antenna would have to feed through the seat post and somehow be adhered to the under-side of the saddle. ...at least that's one option. Great until someone rips off your seat/post.Yeah, but it could be really deep in the seat-tube. There's usually a lot of distance to cover/place a transmitter between the BB shell and the space where a seatpost would typically occupy." Prendrefeu
"Has this been attempted before? Does this service exist?Is there someone on BF who has the capital to start a company offering this service?I'd pay for it." Prendrefeu

Yeah, I hear ya Prendrefeu. But I know how people are. If you want something done, you gotta do it yourself.

And once you get the ball rolling and people want that ball - competition starts, more efficient models come out, we get progress...

And THAT is how America is supposed to work people. :D Free enterprise, dreams coming true, "the ball is rolling".

I'm gonna come back to this post and the BikeForum dialogue periodically. For now, I'll continue my research.

This would be a lot easier if I knew anything about Electronics.

A power solution?

2009-03-06T14:37:00.000-08:00

Bicycle Generator by Instructables user dbc1218.

I was hypothesizing last night to the bf (who rolled his eyes at my frantic efforts) that what if the best power source was not a clumsy large battery (or a small unrenewable one which would have to be replaced frequently) but.. THE BIKE ITSELF.

(dun dun dun)

I scare myself with my geniousity.

Truthfully, this is a fantastic option for those who are familiar with how a Prius works. Now, I'm not in favor of the vehicle because it still needs to be improved to run either on pure fuel cell or pure electricity (forget solar, unless you live in an arid area like Arizona that can take solar power and store it for cloudy days), but I digress, running away from my point.

A Prius (and any other vehicle modeled after it) works like this (link).

"The car is capable of driving just with the electric engine (the red one in
the diagram). When you get in and turn it on, the gas engine doesn't even
start up. That's part of what makes it so great in city driving: when
you're not moving, the engine isn't idling. It's completely off.

When the batteries run low, the gas engine (the blue one in the diagram) turns itself on. It doesn't drive the wheels, though. Instead, it just turns the alternator to power up the batteries.

The electric engine is fine at low speeds, and accelerates great, but it
isn't enough to drive the car at highway speeds. Around 40 MPH, the gas
engine turns on and helps to drive the wheels.

The other great thing about city driving in the Prius is "regenerative
braking". Instead of just applying brake pads, the Prius is capable of
running its engine in reverse, letting the wheels power the engine to turn the alternator to produce more electricity, which is stored in the batteries. That both slows the car and powers the batteries to start up again. A regular car just turns the motion of the wheels into heat, which is wasted. "

I think this project has the potential for establishing a good renewable source of energy. A battery that can be powered by a bicycle - which in turns powers the tracking device so even when you aren't biking, you can keep track of it. And when the thief nabs it, he unwittingly powers up his own demise: you finding the signal and catching him!

Yeah, sure, I gotta fine tune the schematics, but the concept IS genius, right?

Right.

Breakthrough?

2009-03-05T15:32:00.000-08:00

I haven't given up on my "tracking device for bikes" dream.

Every few days I devote myself to mindless wandering and then something will spark. An idea, a thought, a plan - a keyword: make.

Makezine is probably the best resource out there for DIYers. Sometimes I feel frustrated with the website because I remember way before when, when the zine didn't focus so much on the robo-microchip-fetishistic worship it does now. You know. When it used to throw a bone to the mainstream.

I guess now it's too concentrated and weird sometimes, but it's nevertheless an excellent resource. And I'm thankful now that they did get a wee bit techie, because it led me here: sparkfun.

See, I don't want to just buy a tracking device and pay a fee to have it monitored. I want something affordable. I want something small. I want something HACKABLE.

So this shows promise.

Also, a coworker informs me that there's lojack for laptops (how about a free version, yo? 40 bucks is too much).

If it weren't for the stunning logic that bicycles have no power sources, I'd declare this an outrage (aside from the lack of demand and price that prevents an average cyclist from getting the available yet undesirable tracking devices on the market).

I'll continue to update you. I feel I am close.

Also: bike alarm. I'm on the waiting list to hack this for my own devious means.

L.A. Times

2009-03-05T09:45:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I feel like the Opinion/Editorial section is the only place that matters.

Only now do they cover the election when it's actually, uh, over.

Sheesh. Let me hurrah the end of newspapers, because the end of the Times can't come soon enough.

Re-election

2009-03-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

I think elections should mean something. I think they're the perfect opportunity to express your voice.

If you don't like something, run for office.

And it feels like lately, there's nothing I like in Californian politics.

So I think next election cycle, I'm going to serious run against whoever is "unopposed". I want to ask questions and stir up drama.

But mostly, I guess I shouldn't be disappointed in the people of L.A. for not showing up in droves. A lot of them probably weren't aware that yesterday they had to vote (for Mayor, for City Controller, for a bunch of measures that shouldn't have passed yet did). I blame the media for not 'hyping' it up like they should've - afterall, if they can on a regular basis make mountains out of molehills, why not at least do some coverage? Do candidates need to do publicity stunts to get attention for their elections? Sometimes I'm disappointed in the city of L.A. So much potential, yet so little delivery.

So now they'll have to suffer the consequences. It only fuels my anger that we have to go through this (again, and again, and again).

But it all goes back to education: those that are educated about the tools they have available to use will most likely use them. And a good majority of Los Angelinos are not educated, let alone the percentage that are legal citizens.

So I guess the lesson here is guys: when your opponent is big and rich, 'underdog' it. Use the resources that you DO have available: the internet (twitter, blog, myspace, facebook, chat, IM, youtube), word of mouth (friends, relatives, random people), viral advertising (posters on poles, buses, freeways), and best of all - your diligence. Your strength and determination and pride are all on the line which is all it takes to gamble it all.

Go big or go home.

Seriously.

Wrap Me Up

2009-03-03T11:48:00.000-08:00

I'm a bubble gum enthusiast. The foil wrappers, the tangy artificial taste, and the numbing occupation of chewing for hours and hours on end.

Since I was a kid, I haven't kept up with my bubble gum chewing habits in a while. Recently though, Elixir gum made me rethink this.

It's not the flavor, kids. It's the wrapper.

Beautiful, brocade-ish, pink wrapper. I feel like I'm on cloud nine everytime I look at it.

And so the inspiration begins: this would make a beautiful fabric. Unfortunately, not many people believe in the ability of "thinking out of the box" as far as sewing together foil bubble gum wrappers. I believe in my heart of hearts I can pull this off (if only I knew how to sew.)

So I'd like to kick off my project outline: Candy Wrappers - The Unknown Frontier of Crafting.

Sure, everyone knows how to make Starburst Wrapper Bracelets.

Or you can shoe it.

Even a dress, hat, and really, that's it.

My ambition is to take it one step further. To actually make a dress out of bubble gum foil wrappers. Oh yeah, it's hard, but is it do-able?

Theoretically, sure - why not? Bond the individual wrappers, cut out a pattern, maybe even line the wrappers with a softer malleable fabric/material.

Maybe a mini dress like Pinto's.. or something like Belle's (which is a flippin hot pattern).

So I'm going to start to collect my wrappers! Squee!

In other news, I'm still eyeing this old chair I still have from my salvaging expedition four months ago from a Hollywood residential street.

I was inspired by this. Of course, I don't think I can pull off a duplicate without the whole thing screaming: KNOCKOFF!! But with this sort of chair "shape", patterns wouldn't work because of the 'curve'. So probably a solid color.

I just have difficulty picking a color, buying the fabric, and deboning the damn thing like I said I was going to four months ago. It's now unofficially the cats' hangout, happy to have something they can climb all over and scratch and ruin because it's already ruined anyway. And now I'm thinking about getting this chair (even though it's in CHATSWORTH of all places, and I have no real mode of transportation to get it to me). But it's sooooo coooooool looking and it's got potential up the ying yang to be OFF THE HOOK.

I mean, come on - I can tell it can be a REALLY cool lounge chair. And it's FREE (unless you remember the fact that upholstery can run up to 200 bucks even if you are doing it yourself.)

But I almost don't want to get it just because, well, I HAVEN'T EVEN REUPHOLSTERED THE OTHER ONE. I don't want my place to be FULL of chairs I'm not USING for sitting down (instead of a dump ground for papers, broken locks, and cats).

BUT IT'S SOOOOO COOOL LOOKING and I know how hard it is to find a chair like this FREE!

So I'm gonna stew on it til the end of the day and then beg whomever can pick this chair up for me (at a minimal cost, gadzooks!)

Every weekend, I tell myself: okay, I'm gonna do something, gonna do something, gonna get something finished.

And I almost never do. Not in the sense of physically putting together what's inside my head.

Like for instance, this past weekend was going to be focused on planning/building my kitchen table. The closest I got was doodling the dimensions on my sketchpad and handing it to the BF.

That's it. That's all I did.

And it's like, well look man... All I need is a table with four stools. A nice high bar-inspired table, rectangularish.. maybe a square. Small enough to be quaint in my kitchen - but enough space to put a few dishes on there, a game board, something like that. And I don't want to break the budget of $100 total.

Inspiration: Apartment Therapy's Katzies!

Cayenne Pepper Mistake

2009-03-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

Ooooh.

Never again.

Never never never again.

I don't even know why I even picked UP the cayenne pepper canister and decided "well, gee, this would make a nice spice rub for some shrimp.. and oh, why don't I just POUR MORE OVER THE TOMATO SAUCE? BECAUSE I'VE NEVER HAD CAYENNE PEPPER BEFORE!"

Foolish me, I forgot how it tastes. I normally have an aversion to spicy stuff. I'm more of a "light to heavy MILD, thank you." It's the white in me.

So when I decided to invent a tomato-spaghetti-shrimp sauce of my own (with udon noodles of course) I'm not sure what I was thinking when I added paprika (spicy), cayenne pepper (ouch), regular pepper (okay), and spied what was also JALEPENOS in the canned sauce as well. What was I thinking?

I'll post up the ingredients to the sauce anyway. No pictures, sorry!

SUPER NONROMANTIC SPICY SHRIMP TOMATO SAUCE

1 lb. raw deveined shrimp
Garlic salt
Sea salt
Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Paprika
Fish seasoning
Basil
(1) Canned Stewed Tomatoes
(1) Tomato Sauce
Garlic
Canola Oil

Directions

For the rub:
3 tbs. cayenne pepper (note: I would recommend you cut this back to 1 tsp., lol)
1 tsp. paprika
2 tbs. fish seasoning
1 tsp. garlic salt

First I lightly fried the minced garlic in canola oil before adding one by one the spiced-rubbed shrimp to the pan.

Then after all the shrimp is cooked, add the stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce. Stir.

Add spices to taste, as well as salt. Enjoy!

I could NOT eat this at all. I normally eat a plate and a half before I get full and this time I ate barely half a plate. It was way too spicy for me to handle. The BF gulped it down without much comment - because as he puts it, "spicy doesn't bother me like it does you."

*pout*

Right. Okay. Well, for now the cayenne pepper is on temporary ban because I am a little scarred.

Also, the ride was a perpetual disaster. Totally disorganized. Usually the criticism is that Critical Mass stops TOO OFTEN. This time they didn't stop ENOUGH. Two hours before a stop happened! We ditched before that happened.

Also noticed a good majority of literal drug addicts in the streets of L.A. Saw a homeless man's penis (please, don't ask). Saw at least three crackheads get in conflicts on the sidewalk/in businesses.

It's getting to the point where I'm really afraid to go out at night even with someone else. I really wish L.A. advertised women's defense classes more - that the government pretended to care about how women feel at night, alone - how we want to stand up and be independent, yet we need boyfriends to escort us home. It's ridiculous: how come we have ten billion dance classes, the majority on how to be a part time stripper---

BUT NO FLIPPIN' WOMEN'S DEFENSE CLASSES IN THE CENTRAL L.A. AREA? If I'm wrong, please, go right ahead, correct me.

It's really frustrating.

It's not enough just to carry a bottle of bear mace. There's a thousand scenarios I can think of where a woman is in a situation that mace could not fix.

I think the L.A. City Council needs to think long and hard about who pays their salaries. After all, women are graduating more on average from high school, we're slowly turning the tables on men as far as education, getting jobs (in most areas), and as powerful consumers/breadwinners.

I demand protection and education. Is that so much? (Yes.)

Search for Tracking Devices

2009-02-27T14:33:00.000-08:00

To fit inside a bike.

Last December, my prized bicycle was stolen from a Silverlake residential neighborhood. Granted, it was partially my fault for believing that area could be safe for overnight parking when you know, cars are frequently broken into. But I thought, hell, the rent is so high here, there's no way "riff-raffs" can afford to live in this neighborhood.

Ank! - wrong answer.

Truth is, even with a steel cable lock, your bicycle is not safe anywhere in Los Angeles, even in your own home. That's the sad fact: nothing you can do can prevent your bike from being taken away from you.

Last night coming from City College, a very somber upset 50 year old man was standing in the subway station, telling people around him that his bike (along with three others, including one locked with a kryptonite lock). It shook me up because it was just so sad and I felt his pain from firsthand experience. These people naively trusted their locks, the campus security, and the world that their bikes would stay there until they came out to get them.

It hit really, really close to home. I still can't stop thinking about.

Since that fateful December, I haven't ridden my new bike at all which I'm sad to say I don't "love" like I did my first bike. Maybe it's the style of the frame, or the ugly color to dissuade thefts, but I just don't feel that spark. Actually, the boyfriend had to convince me to buy it. It was a good deal, still is, but I just don't fawn and favor it. Where is my new bike now?

Sitting as a coat rack against a wall, dusty and ignored.

Everytime I look at it, I feel guilty. I can't even ride it around the block because I'm just so scarred by what happened before. The sensation of paranoia takes over me and my boyfriend's words come back to haunt me: No matter what you do, you cannot prevent your bike from being stolen.

So I sit here and I think, "God, why can't there just be this taboo on stealing someone's transportation?" I mean, it's heartbreaking, like someone's only car that they depended on to get to their work.

I've resolved to continue a search for a tracking device for a bike. I've come up with the following searches:

Memoryc.com
Pegtech.com - This is only available to Law Enforcement for bike theft sting operations.
Chinavasion.com - This looks a bit shady.
SurprisingGift.com
SpyHawk
Zoombak - I've heard hit and miss stuff about this. Inexpensive (relatively compared to others) tracking services, but it is not real-time and can actually promise more than it delivers.

Makezine also posted on a DIY tracking device, though I'm not sure how a Boost mobile phone can be incorporated on a bicycle, but it's probably cheaper than anything else out there right now.

The problem with this search boils down to several detterants:

Price
Availability
Usefulness
Effectiveness

It SEEMS like a genius idea: a tracking device to a bike would mean even if it got stolen, there's that chance you can find your bike and nab the guy who took it. But when you look closer at it, it's riddled with faults.

First of all, a GPS tracking system is expensive. Like at least 400+ USD. Second, the subscription to live tracking which is what you want (versus taking a GPS and logging it where it's already been - utterly useless if the bike is stolen with the GPS on it) could come out to 400-600 a year. So we're talking at least a $900 investment for say, a $600 bike.

For a practical, everyday, hardworking but not necessarily rich person, this price is ridiculous, especially now when layoffs are common and minimum wage is the median payroll.

So let's say we shove that factor aside and price is not an option, especially for someone who invested in a quality bike, doesn't have other financial commitments to tend to, and has a fairly well paid job: the availability for a bicycle tracking device is not there. It took me several hours of hunting on the web to find fairly good choices, but it's not like you can go into a bike shop and casually mention, "oh can you wrap up a GPS tracking system to go? I'm on my lunch break."

It's just not sound economics since the demand isn't there because the price is so high.

If we shove that factor aside as well, then it comes down to usefulness. You shell out the cash, you install the programs, you attach it discreetly to your bicycle - but guess what? It doesn't work!

Who's to say you'll even get your money back? If you will get your money back? Will it really prevent a bike theft or lead to bike recovery?

And of these tracking devices, very few I think could be retrofitted to a bike for minimal discovery, just because they're -well- huge.

Why can't it be simple? Why can't there be some sort of electronic microchip inside the bike?

The most you can do right now is this:

Get a quality lock. Probably two.
Do not leave it outside, overnight, anywhere, no matter what sense of security you have about the place.
Learn how to lock your bike correctly.
Get a bike license from your local fire or police station. Fee should be relatively low.
Know your serial number, write it down, keep it safe. Trust me, I wish I did this for my first bike.
Know the make, model, color of your bicycle, down to the wheels.
Do not let anyone "test ride" your bicycle you don't know well.
Write your name and serial number on a rolled up piece of aluminum from a soda can and stuff it inside one of the handlebars. Nifty cheap trick.
Take pictures of your bike and inventory the parts, their receipts and prices, just in case it is stolen.
Get renter's insurance. It can probably cover the theft of your bicycle and help pay for a replacement.

This advice only enhances the safety of your bike. It doesn't necessarily prevent the theft. Given enough time, any bike can be stolen, but if you put enough deterrants on there, the thief might go, "Aw, hell, forget this fixie, I'm gonna steal that Mountain Bike instead."

Recap:

Cable locks are only good if you live in a town of 100 people or if your bike is super crappy that no one would steal it, even if you advertised: "Steal this bike. Please. I have cancer."
By themselves, u-locks aren't perfect. And not all of them are created equal. But they're harder to break than just cable locks.
My boyfriend recommended that American Lock be used instead of a kryptonite u-lock to lock the New York Noose Chain. Sturdier, much harder to break, and well, American.

I'll keep my eye out eternally because despite its cons, I think tracking devices for bicycles should be available to the public at an honest price, that work well, that can be concealed and not removed easily, because if we want bicycle commuting to work and for automobile traffic to go down (as well as pollution, weaning gas dependency, establish a better relationship between drivers and riders), we have to give the same assurances to a cyclist that we do to a motorist that their bike has the same chance of recovery as a car, as well as the same protection.

Enough ranting for a day!

See you at the Critical Mass tonight.

Vegan Ghormeh Sabzi - Is It Possible?

2009-02-26T12:07:00.000-08:00

Probable. The thing about my favorite Persian dish of all time is that it's normally cooked with lamb meat (under other circumstances: chicken, beef, or even fish). Researching under the tags "vegan" "ghormeh sabzi" "recipe" proved to be an excruciating journey across the interwebs.

Why vegan? Other than the health benefits and the weight loss associated with the diet, I think I like the challenge of taking a "normal" recipe and substituting all the ingredients for vegetables/non-animal origin, trying to get as close or even better taste than the original. It's not that I'm a diehard vegan, but I like eating vegetarian/vegan stuff (especially since it can come out to be pretty cheap too compared to buying expensive meat).

So in my second attempt to get vegetarian/vegan ghormeh sabzi, let me chronicle my efforts. I don't have picture (sorry!) Next time I make this dish, I will. I took kat's recipe and made a few mods.

ROMANTIC FRESH HERB PERSIAN STEW

Materials
1 Stew pot
1 wooden spoon for stirring
1 knife
1 cutting board
1 ladle

Ingredients
1 white onion
sea salt
garlic powder (I had to use garlic salt, bleh)
2 cans of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
frozen spinach
1 bag of sabzi
water
olive oil
1 brown potato

Ideally, sure, I would love a meat substitute (like Quorn or TVP) but that stuff is out of my budget right now. BTW, Quorn is farkin delicious.

1. So first I chopped up the onion relatively fine, stirfried it in the olive oil in the stew pot.
2. I added hydrated sabzi (all of it, which may have been a mistake...) to it, as well as two whole cups of more water.
3. Then I added the potato and the kidney beans.
4. I cooked it on medium for a while (like 30 min.)
5. Served with basmati rice (the tahdig recipe, which I totally effed up. -_-;..)

So in conclusion, compared to my fenugreek-less ghormeh sabzi made from scratch, my first attempt of entirely fresh vegetables was more delicious than the 90% dried mix I used last night. The boyfriend was less than pleased and didn't even finish his plate. Luckily I actually like any form of ghormeh sabzi that won't give me food poisoning.

I think next time I make this, I'll add dried limes, reduce the dried herbs to 20%, bring back the fresh vegetables. But in the meanwhile, I'm left eating portions made for a LARGE AMISH FAMILY by myself. Boo!

I'm also thinking of exploring the option of cooking ghormeh sabzi (along with other Persian dishes) in a slow cooker because of my hectic schedule with school and work. I mean, who really wants to cook while they're already HUNGRY?

In other news: Trains are sexy back.

Blog direction

2009-02-25T13:53:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about this more recently about what this blog should be about.

Originally I wanted this blog to chronicle a novel I wanted complete sometime in the next few years called, 'Ask a Hopeless Romantic.' I wanted to set it up so that anyone who felt inclined to could send me a romance question and I could answer it. I wasn't exactly sure on how to set it up so the unquestionables couldn't ask me anything 'weird' so I ended up abandoning the idea even though the story is still in works.

Every so often when I peruse a blog entry, I go, "Gee, I should post something like that up." But I couldn't decide if I wanted a certain theme because the threat of choosing one subcategory would make it neat but ultimately confine to one category. If I went all or nothing, it'd be ecletic, yes, but also possibly confusing for someone trying to guide their way through my blog.

Maybe I should do a all-tutorial thing where every day or every week I post a tutorial on how to do something/how it works/so on and so forth. That'd be useful and create a theme, yet not restrain my curious soul.

I think what this blog's message is not to chronicle my life but give it a sort of record of the physical manifestation of my thoughts. I'd love it if it became popular, but even if it doesn't, I can look and be proud of what I created.

So yeah. I think it's a work in progress.

Please stay tuned for any last minute decisions or flighty plans.

I still

2008-11-12T08:51:00.000-08:00

Think about him. Even his picture inspires this sort of resurge of my heart. And I'm ashamed to admit that I think "Does he think about me too?"

Ask Me

2008-10-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

Tell me it's not hopeless, and I'll point out it is.

Whatever situation you're in - I've been there, done it, regretted, and did it again.

Ask me. And I'll tell you what it means to be a hopeless romantic; to always want, starve for, and need the impossible-to-attain.

Love,
HR