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hermionesviolin[Advent day 13] Luke 1:29-33
While waiting in line at lunch I heard a couple students talking about The Sociopath Next Door -- apparently 1/25 people completely lack... whatever it is that sociopaths lack... and just mimic -- though only some of those people actually turn into serial killers.
polls thanks to lunchtime conversation:
[Poll #630775]
7:30 Singspiration was canceled. Which I suppose is understandable as the performers have to travel and many of the attendees are older. And this does mean I can go to bed early tonight.
~2-4pm it was blizzardish -- much snow and wind -- but then it cleared up, like sunny and everything. At 4:10 the weather.com hour-by-hour changed to have "snow" at 5 and "heavy snow" from 6-9. But, um, the snow had stopped. (The 6:10 one had remedied this.)
Oh, and during that blizzardish we f'r serious had thunder and lightning. (Sam links to this.)
I left work about 10-15 minutes early 'cause usually I hustle to make my train and hustling in the snow is not a good idea. I made it a point to walk slowly and carefully, but I still slipped at times. The sidewalks were plowed but not shoveled, so you had solid flat walkon with ice underneath. You need to shovel down to the ground. (I learned that this is easier said than done when I came home and helped my mom shovel the walkway/stairs as my dad wasn't feeling well. As long as it's just patches of dusting with the ground mostly visible I think it's okay, though.)
I actually made really good time, arriving 10 minutes before I usually do.
Oh, I forgot to mention in my morning entry that the Charles was muchly iced over, which was interesting to see.
They canceled the 5:33 Readville shuttle. Readville and Hyde Park could board the 5:40 Franklin Line, but Upham's Corner and Morton Street had to wait until the 6:06 Fairmount train. That sucks for them.
Going to bed early? Oops. I watched Smackdown.
They had a promo for WWE that I actually thought was the credits -- which was a touch confusing, as it was lots of old skool moments.
They had a lengthy Previously On (even though they didn't call it such) going through the whole Randy Orton/Undertaker thing, most of which I'd seen 'cause I watched last week and last week also included some flashbacks, but this time I got to see Undertaker's actual return at Survivor Series.
Tonight, Orton called out 'Taker, which struck me as a ridiculous idea. "I'm tired of the smoke and mirrors." That really summed it up for me. Yes, Randy's terrified of facing the Dead Man at Hell in a Cell, but he also wants to get this over with; he keeps thinking it's over (that he's killed 'Taker) and the wrestling match rather than the psychology session is where he feels at home. Randy played the descent into pitiful well. I kept thinking, "The Big Man's just gonna play head games with you. He gains nothing by coming out and having a wrestling match with you now."
And sure enough, we get the gong and the lights and the voiceover. A number of titlecards with quotations in nice white font on greyish background, read by the Undertaker, and interspersed with scenes of carnage caused by the Undertaker -- including repeated showings of him throwing Mick Foley into the announce table from the top of the steel cage, which was interesting because last week I was reading stuff about the guy who plays Undertaker and that was one of his scariest moments 'cause he really didn't know if/how Mick Foley was gonna recover. They also showed Big Boss Man hanging from a noose, which goes back a ways.
The gates of hell are open, night and day. - Virgil
The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul. -John Calvin
To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Abandon all hope, you who enter here. -Dante
By the end, Randy was sitting down resting on one of the lower ropes, and "overwhelmed" isn't quite the word I would use, and I wondered if this had been his plan all along -- to face the darkness again so that it's less of a shock come Armageddon. (I seem to have been wrong, but I still like the idea and it still feels reasonably in character.) He also looked almost vacant, like he was possessed.
"I wouldn't wanna be in Randy Orton's head," Michael Cole kept saying. But we see what he sees -- even so far as the bloodied head of his father. Oh the blurring of the conceit of this not being a scripted entertainment.
Okay, the Boogeyman has gotten lame now. Last week I wondered if maybe he embodies people's deepest fears, but he did the worms again tonight so clearly it's always the same stuff and it just freaks people out. I was thinking about Fear of the Other, and it occurs to me that I think he codes as some sort of African primitive, and of course WWFE has a bad history with African characters -- though I was noticing tonight that it's improving: Booker T, Sharmell, Orlando Jordan, Lashley... we've got a range of characters and of course they're problematic but what WWE character isn't?
[I do in fact watch WWE with delusions of writing pop culture essays on it.]
Tazz: "I just hope it's a Smackdown superstar who wins the Royal Rumble."
They've really been playing up the Smackdown/Raw rivalry as of late. I wonder if they're taking their cue from the intense political party divisions -- noticing how polarized and intense those are and how that seems to be the kind of spectacle people love.
The Raw recap? Damn I feel bad for Eric Bischoff. (And I never even liked him before. Controversy=cash is so the mantra of WWE -- McMahon in particular -- so Bischoff was so right, but of course Vince boots people all the time, and because this was public spectacle you know it's gonna be a continuing plotline.)
Not sure how I feel about the interviewer being possessed by 'Taker. It feels too supernatural, too powerful. I know, I know, this is Undertaker we're talking about. But still, it feels like too much to me.
After Smackdown my dad got the weather report at the beginning of the news, and it included snowfall totals -- 9 inches in Cambridge.
Okay, sleep. 'Cause I have a full day tomorrow. (library, MFA, Huntington -- must print out fic to work on during my downtimes)
29Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."This has been something of a calzone week for me (3 in a row) so I knew that today we'd be back to meat calzones and lo, we were, so I got the pasta special without the chicken -- elbow pasta with artichoke, mozzarella, garlic, and oil. It was okay. I've really gotta figure out yummy & filling portable sandwiches I can make from grocery stuffs.
While waiting in line at lunch I heard a couple students talking about The Sociopath Next Door -- apparently 1/25 people completely lack... whatever it is that sociopaths lack... and just mimic -- though only some of those people actually turn into serial killers.
polls thanks to lunchtime conversation:
[Poll #630775]
7:30 Singspiration was canceled. Which I suppose is understandable as the performers have to travel and many of the attendees are older. And this does mean I can go to bed early tonight.
~2-4pm it was blizzardish -- much snow and wind -- but then it cleared up, like sunny and everything. At 4:10 the weather.com hour-by-hour changed to have "snow" at 5 and "heavy snow" from 6-9. But, um, the snow had stopped. (The 6:10 one had remedied this.)
Oh, and during that blizzardish we f'r serious had thunder and lightning. (Sam links to this.)
I left work about 10-15 minutes early 'cause usually I hustle to make my train and hustling in the snow is not a good idea. I made it a point to walk slowly and carefully, but I still slipped at times. The sidewalks were plowed but not shoveled, so you had solid flat walkon with ice underneath. You need to shovel down to the ground. (I learned that this is easier said than done when I came home and helped my mom shovel the walkway/stairs as my dad wasn't feeling well. As long as it's just patches of dusting with the ground mostly visible I think it's okay, though.)
I actually made really good time, arriving 10 minutes before I usually do.
Oh, I forgot to mention in my morning entry that the Charles was muchly iced over, which was interesting to see.
They canceled the 5:33 Readville shuttle. Readville and Hyde Park could board the 5:40 Franklin Line, but Upham's Corner and Morton Street had to wait until the 6:06 Fairmount train. That sucks for them.
Going to bed early? Oops. I watched Smackdown.
They had a promo for WWE that I actually thought was the credits -- which was a touch confusing, as it was lots of old skool moments.
They had a lengthy Previously On (even though they didn't call it such) going through the whole Randy Orton/Undertaker thing, most of which I'd seen 'cause I watched last week and last week also included some flashbacks, but this time I got to see Undertaker's actual return at Survivor Series.
Tonight, Orton called out 'Taker, which struck me as a ridiculous idea. "I'm tired of the smoke and mirrors." That really summed it up for me. Yes, Randy's terrified of facing the Dead Man at Hell in a Cell, but he also wants to get this over with; he keeps thinking it's over (that he's killed 'Taker) and the wrestling match rather than the psychology session is where he feels at home. Randy played the descent into pitiful well. I kept thinking, "The Big Man's just gonna play head games with you. He gains nothing by coming out and having a wrestling match with you now."
And sure enough, we get the gong and the lights and the voiceover. A number of titlecards with quotations in nice white font on greyish background, read by the Undertaker, and interspersed with scenes of carnage caused by the Undertaker -- including repeated showings of him throwing Mick Foley into the announce table from the top of the steel cage, which was interesting because last week I was reading stuff about the guy who plays Undertaker and that was one of his scariest moments 'cause he really didn't know if/how Mick Foley was gonna recover. They also showed Big Boss Man hanging from a noose, which goes back a ways.
The gates of hell are open, night and day. - Virgil
The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul. -John Calvin
To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Abandon all hope, you who enter here. -Dante
By the end, Randy was sitting down resting on one of the lower ropes, and "overwhelmed" isn't quite the word I would use, and I wondered if this had been his plan all along -- to face the darkness again so that it's less of a shock come Armageddon. (I seem to have been wrong, but I still like the idea and it still feels reasonably in character.) He also looked almost vacant, like he was possessed.
"I wouldn't wanna be in Randy Orton's head," Michael Cole kept saying. But we see what he sees -- even so far as the bloodied head of his father. Oh the blurring of the conceit of this not being a scripted entertainment.
Okay, the Boogeyman has gotten lame now. Last week I wondered if maybe he embodies people's deepest fears, but he did the worms again tonight so clearly it's always the same stuff and it just freaks people out. I was thinking about Fear of the Other, and it occurs to me that I think he codes as some sort of African primitive, and of course WW
[I do in fact watch WWE with delusions of writing pop culture essays on it.]
Tazz: "I just hope it's a Smackdown superstar who wins the Royal Rumble."
They've really been playing up the Smackdown/Raw rivalry as of late. I wonder if they're taking their cue from the intense political party divisions -- noticing how polarized and intense those are and how that seems to be the kind of spectacle people love.
The Raw recap? Damn I feel bad for Eric Bischoff. (And I never even liked him before. Controversy=cash is so the mantra of WWE -- McMahon in particular -- so Bischoff was so right, but of course Vince boots people all the time, and because this was public spectacle you know it's gonna be a continuing plotline.)
Not sure how I feel about the interviewer being possessed by 'Taker. It feels too supernatural, too powerful. I know, I know, this is Undertaker we're talking about. But still, it feels like too much to me.
After Smackdown my dad got the weather report at the beginning of the news, and it included snowfall totals -- 9 inches in Cambridge.
Okay, sleep. 'Cause I have a full day tomorrow. (library, MFA, Huntington -- must print out fic to work on during my downtimes)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-10 04:05 am (UTC)1. Buy a bagette--the real kind, all super hard on the outside and fill it with mozzarella (real mozzarella that comes in the rounds), sliced tomato and basil leaves. Salt, pepper, etc. The hard bread will keep it from getting too soggy.
2. Grocery stores have kick-ass humus now. Buy whatever kind you like and add tomato, olive, sliced red pepper, cilantro, whatever.
3. Do a fancy schmany PBJ with crunchy PB and nice jelly. You can even add a little cream cheese for extra
caloriesyumminess.no subject
Date: 2005-12-10 04:23 am (UTC)I keep forgetting to seek out hummus -- also falafel -- as I know I am in fact a fan. Vegan sandwich options get extra bonus points as I would eventually like to go vegan (which means I have mixed feelings about the fact that I've recently been acquiring more of a taste for cheese -- 'cause it expands my Ms. Picky Eater food eating options, but it's not something I wanna sustain longterm).
no subject
Date: 2005-12-10 04:27 am (UTC)I would say do stuff with portabella mushrooms, but I think those are kinda gross when they're cold. If you have access to a microwave, you could sautee or grill or bake some up the night before and put em on sandwhiches with red onions and tomatoes and garlic, etc.
How about soup? I'm much better with soup recipes. If you have a big thermos, that'd be portable.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-10 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-12-11 06:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 02:52 am (UTC)What you can do for the plain kind, though, is just make you up a baggie of dried spices. Stuff like basil and parsely and garlic salt are good. Put all that in the water with a tablespoon of olive oil and bring it to a boil. Dump in the couscous, cover for five minutes and eat. As you add in the couscous, you can also add in all kinds of things--diced tomatoes, pine nuts, chopped olives, chopped red peppers. It's really tasty.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-11 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-12-12 02:46 am (UTC)First off, you can now buy vegetable broth or stock at the grocery, either in cans, cartons, or bouillon cubes. I find the cubes cheapest, easiest to work with, and easiest to store. That broth should serve as the base for any soup you make; it'll make it richer and more flavorful.
I think the best way to do this is to really experiment--you'll discover which spices you like and in which quantities, etc. I almost always use garlic {I prefer the kind you buy in a jar; it's really easy to work with), parsley, thyme, and celery salt in everything.
I'd also invest in some chile oil. I got mine in the Asian section. It gives soup a nice depth; it's not too hot, but it does give it a little warmth without it tasting like Tabasco. I love Tabasco, but it does have a vinegary taste you don't always want.
1. For a general veggie soup--buy a bunch of veggies and don't skimp on the tubers (carrots, potatoes, parsnips, turnips). Sautee onions, garlic and celery in olive oil until they are relatively soft. Dump in as much broth as you want and then put in the other veggies (cut up rather small). Then boil the hell out of it all and towards the end, add some salt, pepper, and what ever other spices you want. If you like your soups thicker, let it boil longer. You could even crock pot it; put it all in in the morning and let it go all day. It'll be ready for supper and lunch the next day.
2. I had a brilliant soup today at a Greek restaurant that I think I can see how they did. Sautee up onions, garlic, celery in olive oil. Add the broth, some chile oil, diced carrots and cabbage. There was also some parsely in there too. It was so good.
3. If you have a blender, I love curried soups. You can do them with squash or carrots. Basically just dice up the vegetable and boil the hell out of it in the broth. Then blend it up and add curry spice, garlic, and swirl in some non-sweetened yogurt.
I didn't realize marshmellows *weren't* vegan. I thought they were made of styrofoam. LOL
no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 03:10 am (UTC)Damn, now I can't find my bookmark from which I can order vegan candy -- though Googling, I think it's veganessentials.com.... though it only has vegan marshmallow creme and not actual marshmallows in vegan form... oh, veganstore.com has vegan marshmallows. (And PETA has a list (http://www.petakids.com/candy.html) of vegan candy.) And this link-dumping is so entirely for my own convenience. But because I am Research Queen of Links, here is The History of Marshmallows (http://www.candyusa.org/Candy/marshmallows.asp) for you.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 04:54 am (UTC)Also, what about baked potatoes? (You may be utterly tired of this subject, so sorry, but food is one thing I can on about. *g*) They bake in about five minutes in the microwave. I put soy sauce on mine, but I know I am way weird.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 02:21 pm (UTC)Baked potatoes are good (http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?int=potato+products), though they often come out too dry for my taste.
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Date: 2005-12-10 09:42 pm (UTC)Carnage!