Everyday Amusements: Danger Men Drinking

This is a sign that the corner neighbors proudly display. And let me tell you, there is some truth to this sign, because there are constantly men out on this porch, and I don't think I have to tell you what they're doing. Fortunately, I have yet to see any danger, because they are very friendly. We knew it was spring when the Danger Men were seen out on the porch.

Has this become a baking blog?

The answer: no. It's just that baking seems like the only thing worth taking photos of lately. I do have some party pics that I just haven't gotten around to yet. Anyway, here is something non-bakey:

http://blog.firstascent.com/

Everest climbing season is underway and I discovered this great expedition blog recently. The First Ascent Everest team includes Ed Viesturs (star of the '96 IMAX movie) and Dave Hahn (who was on the '99 expedition that discovered George Mallory's body), among others. There are tons of Everest blogs out there, but this one in notable because they upload a very polished video dispatch every day. The "arrives Everest basecamp" dispatch from a few days ago includes some gorgeous footage of the icefall. I can't wait to see what they produce when the actual climb begins.

Okay, now that that's out of the way...I'm off to do some baking.

My favorite show is returning

Looks like we get both IMG and Himex this year:

Everest: Beyond the Limit

Why you can't trust Wikipedia

It's very hard to see, since this is a screen shot, but at the bottom of the article on James Lincoln Collier (a jazz scholar), it says, "i love nick jonas!"

Yes, you know Nick Jonas. Don't pretend you don't. He's that kid in the band on the Disney Channel. The big question is, how did an 11-year-old find her way to the article on James Lincoln Collier?

My Go-to Game

Nothing much new here. The semester starts next week so I've been scrambling to get syllabi done and lessons planned. However, there's always a little time for my favorite computer game:

http://www.wordtwist.org/

This game is like Boggle, except that you score points for the length and rarity of your word. It's actually on the hard side--there are some people who must have mighty typing and language skills, and they skew the average (skew--remember that one for the game! It could come in handy!). This game fully satisfies my penchant for words and general dorkiness.

You can call me Betty

A radio program about my favorite pop album:

Paul Simon talks about Graceland

Priorities

This article caught my eye--I see a lot of babies in strollers at work (usually expensive "travel systems"), but I found myself appalled for the wrong reasons. Please take a long, hard look at the photo in the article. Why is anyone worrying about the stroller when it is plain to see that the child has a mohawk? If you want to developmentally delay your child, screw the stroller, give him an unfortunate haircut. But that is nothing compared with the horrors of the parent--what on earth are those pants? Is that some kind of wonky zebra pattern? Could they really be MC Hammer pants? And the big question--why is he out in public wearing them, never mind allowing journalists to photograph him in them?

Sign of the Approaching Apocalypse

Oldies 103 has started playing Christmas music allllll day. On November 6th! Excuse me while I attempt to ward off a psychotic break.

Another link

This is a really fun game. I've been wasting copious amounts of time on it. It's called Fantastic Contraption, and if you play, show me your favorite design. My two crowning achievements are in "Up the Stairs" and "Four Balls" (click to see my designs. Press Play, Continue, then Start).

Zombies

I have a funny picture from Josh's Rock Band night to post but I just can't seem to get my act together enough to upload it. So instead, I give you Reasons Why Zombies are Better Than Stupid People. This is from several years ago, but do zombie rants really go out of style? I'm irrationally afraid of zombies but now I'm rethinking my position and instead may start locking my doors against stupid people.

Unforseen Purchase

Despite the fact that I pleaded with it to last *one* more year, my Nissan kicked the bucket this week. Last week, it started shaking when starting, and when I brought it in this Tuesday, the mechanic gave me the, "well, it's not good news. I don't know what you want to do..." You know when the mechanic, who sees every kind of car mess possible, mentions the possibility of sending the car to the Great Parking Lot in the Sky, it's bad.

Of course the stupid thing picked just about the worst moment to die. Now I'm convinced that cars can hear you when you talk about how much money is in your bank account, and act accordingly. They'd never die when you had oodles of cash floating around. Ah well. It was obvious that we'd need another car very quickly, so I went off to the Toyota dealership.

How'd I pick Toyota? Well, it's not too noble. I was picking between Nissan, our old friend, and Toyota, who showed up a lot on "dependability" and "best gas mileage" lists. I called Nissan first. The operator acted like I'd peed in her Cheerios or something. First she told me that she didn't know if they had any Sentras on the lot, and said I'd have to come down and see. I said, "well, I'm not going to come down if you don't have the car I want." Then she got all flustered and said, "of course we have Sentras, why wouldn't we have Sentras?" Yeah...did she not just tell me that she didn't know if they had Sentras? So, that was out. Then I discovered that I wouldn't even have to get on the highway to get to the Toyota dealership, which really cinched the deal, considering that my Sentra was quite obviously on its last legs.

Anyway. Long story short. I ended up picking a used '08 Corolla with 5000 miles on it. I saved a couple thousand by buying the used one. There was a used Mini Cooper that was pretty tempting, but I was feeling sensible. Here's the new ride:
They took a couple thousand for my trade-in, which was a surprise to me, considering it needed serious engine work, the back bumper was falling off, there's a dent in the front fender that I don't remember getting, the radio was cracked from my big accident in college, there was a rusty scrape on the side, the AC didn't work, and the upholstery was shot from me spilling, among other things, hot glue in the backseat. The funniest part was that the salesguy said that I obviously took good care of it. I wonder which car he was looking at. I had to pick up the new car on Thursday and I slept fitfully thinking that they were going to figure out that they gave me too much for the trade-in and change their minds.

So, goodbye Sentra. Goodbye power windows and doors and pretty blue color. Hello no more worrying about breaking down and no more repairs every three months. And hello to one more bill to add to the pile...

The Elegant Universe

Sometimes the internet leads you to weird places. Last weekend I was taking a short break from dissertation writing when I found a video that explained the tenth dimension. Intrigued, I googled for more information, and my searching led me to Nova, one of my favorite programs. Now, I usually willfully ignore science and math. I like Nova for the adventure programs. They've done several programs each on Everest and Denali. But this Nova program was different. First of all, it was long--three hours. Secondly, it was on physics. Physics?? I dumped science in high school before I got to physics, and I never felt even the smallest pang of regret. And now, ten years later, I'm watching a program on physics.

Anyway, the program was called The Elegant Universe. Starting way back with Isaac Newton, it detailed the search for a "theory of everything," which naturally led to eleven dimensions, complete with parallel universes and time travel. This theory of everything is called "string theory," or "M-theory," the M standing for many things, one of which being "meaningless."

It was confusing, since, as I've noted, I ran screaming from science and math when I was 17. It boggles my mind a little bit that someone can do a bunch of math and come to the conclusion that "Ah! This means there are jillions of parallel universes, all just a hop, skip, and a dimension away!" But it was strangely fascinating. The program originated from a book with the same title, which I've checked out from the library. Either I'll read it, become obsessed, and decide that I need to become a string theorist, or forget about it after one chapter and never read another page about string theory again. Jay is probably banking on the latter, as I don't think he's prepared to support me through another 11 years of college.

Here is the program, all of it viewable in 6-8 minute chunks, perfect for a little break after writing a page of a dissertation. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/

And here is someone else who also enjoys string:

Butterfly Friend

Look at me! I'm a beautiful butterfly!

Potato Leek Soup

Yield

6 Servings

Measure	Ingredient
5 large	Red potatoes; diced
4 small	Leeks; white part only, chopped
5	Cloves garlic; minced
1 pinch	Dill weed
	Fresh ground pepper; to taste
5 tablespoon	Flour
7 cup	Vegetable broth
½ cup	Cream or milk
¼ pounds	Cheddar cheese; cubed

1. Place the potatoes, leeks, garlic, dill weed and pepper in a 5- quart crockpot. Sprinkle with the flour and toss. Add the vegetable broth and stir to mix well. 2. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 8-1/2 hours or until potatoes are tender. During the last 5 minutes of cooking, stir in the cream and cheese, stirring until the cheese melts.