What-What?! Week of July 12th

This week was okay.  We spent mostly just doing the normal stuff.  The husband worked a bunch of overtime and had other things, though.  Friday, he left the house at 9:45am, then didn't come home until after midnight.  He had a dental appointment, then other errands to run in town before going to work.

Lowe's Build and Grow

Rubber Ducky stands guard in the background.  Osric's has no stickers, because they were too eager to put it together. :P

Yesterday, I took the big kids to the Lowe's Build and Grow event, where I met up with another mom, and we took all the children over to her place to play and put the kits together.  Only Corwin built his, though, because Saffron was too busy playing on the trampoline. :P  The mom I met up with also homeschools in the same style, has kids the same ages as mine, and conveniently lives across the freeway from us.  So we're planning on doing some more activities together.

Corwin built this maze, filled it with monsters, then put a hero character at the beginning.  All he needed was some dice and character sheets for full DnD nerdity. :D

Next weekend, my parents are visiting!  It will be the first time we've seen them since we left in June of last year.  Everyone here is quite excited. :)  I gotta think up some activities for us to do, though.  I'm sure that the kids will beg to play some board games, though, so we'll do that for sure.

What-What?! Week of May 18th

This week was HOT HOT HOT.  Three 100 degree days in a row.  At work, the kids were all restless and grumpy, partly from being kept inside, and partly because, when they went outside, it was too hot to do much of anything.

I posted Tuesday about Whole Foods Market and its recent troubles.  After reading up some more on the grocery industry, I started working on a paper about the top companies in the industry, somewhat similar to my current eBook.  I should have that ready to publish in another two weeks, maybe.

Reddit:  What is a Hobby You've Always Wanted to Explore?

Lately, I've spent some time browsing on Reddit, and have been pretty impressed with the community.  I'm more used to the comments on Cracked and news sites, which tends to have the scum of the internet spewing all over, but because of Reddit's upvote/downvote system, most of the rude replies get hidden, leaving only the positive and helpful ones.

One of the best threads I've seen since starting was one asking about hobbies that people want to try, but haven't because they don't know how, can't afford it, or just aren't sure where to start.  I started looking through the thread, and there is so much great advice, it's impressive.  From scuba diving, robotics, fencing, sailing, and even crazy stuff like wingsuit flying (!!!).  It makes me want to have all of the hobbies.  All of them.

Kickstarter: Mythica: A Quest for Heroes

This film stars Kevin Sorbo.  Kevin Sorbo.  Yes, the guy who played Hercules on the TV show of the same name, and Captain Hunt of Andromeda, the sci-fi show.  I grew up watching these shows, and Sorbo has a special place in my heart.  This film definitely fits into the realm of things I'd like to see him doing.  Looking at the cast of characters, it seems to check all the necessary boxes for a fantasy film: Good and evil mages, a half-elf dude who is also a thief, a fighter guy (I'm calling him Madmartigan, okay?), and a priestess.

This is the first film of the trilogy, and currently has a Kickstarter, which ends Monday (tomorrow!) at 4pm PST.  $15 will get you the digital download of the film.

I'm ridiculously excited, if you can't tell.

(images via robbieandbobby.com, Kickstarter)

4 Funniest Non-Show-Accurate Toys Ever

It seems like every time I turn around, I'm finding more ridiculous movie and TV show toys and collectibles.  I've collected my favorite finds here.

Best-Lock Stargate "Lego" Toys

Photo via 8of5multiverse.blogspot.com.

First up, these terrible Lego knockoffs that I featured on my blog a few months ago.  At first blush, they look good; the vehicles, DHD, and stargate are accurate enough.  However, when you start looking at the figures, something horrifying appears:

For whatever reason, the artist decided to use old man faces for all the characters.  Did the artist ever look at pictures of the characters, or the actors?  Did they just guess?  I do appreciate that Daniel's expression is a bit incredulous, as it seems most appropriate in this instance.

Hasbro Muscle-Bound Star Wars Figures

Muscle man Luke versus original issue Luke.  Photo via Razyor of nightfallunlimited.com.

These are undoubtedly a classic.  Released in 1995, these action figures came out when I was a kid, and I was admittedly pretty excited about them.  Compared to the films, and even the original figures, these "heroic" sculpts are just ridiculous.  Why does Luke Skywalker have muscles on his muscles?  The "force" is really just steroids?  ...Yeah, didn't think so.

AHI Parachuting Spock

Spock... with a parachute!  Photo via plaidstallions.com.

I've included this mostly because I think the very idea is funny.  Just think of all the ways that the Star Trek crew could use this to their advantage: Need to escape from ravaging monsters in a hurry?  Use your parachute, Spock!  Have to escape from the Genesis effect (The Wrath of Khan)?  Use your parachute, Spock!  Infiltrating behind enemies' lines?  Use your parachute, Spock!

Limited Edition Harry Potter Dolls

Undead Harry versus Alive Harry.  Photos via ebay.com, listal.com.



Last, but not least, undead Harry Potter and drunk Ron Weasley.  Seriously, Harry's lips are blue.  The above picture isn't the best, but you can still see that the skin tone is also off, making him look kind of pasty, while his glasses have been enlarged by an errant spell.

Drunk Weasley versus Wistful Weasley. Photos via entertainmentearth.com, harrypotter.wikia.com.

Undead Harry Potter is then followed by the drunken Weasley.  I do appreciate that the doll maker at least attempted to get his hairstyle right (much more so than Harry, above), but the expression on his face just makes him look drunk.  What was the artist going for?  Ambivalence?  Embarrassment?  Apprehension?  Of course, if I went to a party in that getup, I'd probably have a few drinks beforehand in order to start ahead of the game, so to speak.

What-What?! Week of January 12th

This week is mostly a collection of random bits and bobs that I've collected over the past month or so.  I did get a great list of steampunk children's books put together, which you can also see using the links above.

News:  Paramount Citrus replaces Cuties brand with Wonderful Halos via The Packer

This past week, my coworkers and I were talking about food, and we wound up talking about clementines, and the new Wonderful Halos brand.  While locally all I've seen are these, I know that the Cuties brand is also available in the next town over.  Interested to see what on Earth happened with the sudden disappearance of Cuties and the immergence of Halos, I turned to the internet.  Apparently what happened is that the companies Paramount Citrus and Sun Pacific had been partners, but this partnership ended, and as part of the deal, Sun Pacific bought the Cuties brand and logo.  Paramount Citrus then introduced the Wonderful Halos as a replacement for Cuties, and the company has spent about $20 million dollars in advertising the new brand in 2013.  There's been a lot of pushback from some of the Halos commercials ("ungrateful brats" was one description of the commercial), and after seeing the commercials myself, I understand why.  I think I'd rather buy Cuties.  I don't need my fruit to be angelic, you know?  I'd rather it be cute.

Nightingale Floors via Wikipedia and Youtube

On account of a Mythbusters episode, I was reading about ninjas, and came across these nifty floors.  They are made in such a way as to squeak when someone steps on it, thus becoming a ninja deterrent.

Wizard Quest, via Vice.com

Wizard Quest in Wisconsin Dells, WI, is described as a "13000-square-foot fantasy-themed labyrinth".  Attendees solve geeky riddles and puzzles to "free" 4 trapped wizards, and if they manage to complete the quest within the time limit, they get a prize.


From the looks of it, this is cheesy in a pretty awesome way.  Some of the creatures and setting look cheap, but other portions, like the puzzle chest room, are quite well done.  The tunnel/ball pit thing makes me a little concerned about safety.

Apparently, there's also a little kids version called MagiQuest as well, which also seems really cool.  It actually might be cooler than Wizard Quest.  Unfortunately, the nearest one is in Centralia, Washington.  I want to go. >.>

What-What?! Week of January 5th

It's January!  That means I've been doing this blog for a nearly a whole year.

We were all sick again this week, so that's been somewhat miserable.  The rest of us just have colds, but the baby has a double ear infection AND acute bronchitis.  We woke up in the middle of the night, and he was having trouble breathing, so it made for another trip to the ER.  Luckily, at 3:30 in the morning, no one is at the ER that doesn't really want to be there, so at least we didn't wait long.  Less than 8 hours before, and all he had was a mildly runny nose.  Blah.

Oh!  I had an article published -- 4 Ways Sears Gets It Wrong via Yahoo! Voices.  I'm also working on another children's book collection post which I'll publish sometime this next week.

Horrific SG-1 "Lego" Toy Found at Target

Growing up, I watched the original Stargate film, as well as the TV shows, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis (Stargate Universe does not exist in my world).  So when I saw this monstrosity of a toy at the local Target, I was both intrigued and disgusted.  When you first look at this Best Lock Jack on Abydos set, it doesn't seem so bad; the Stargate and DHD look true to the films, but then... then you get a look at Jack:

What's up with his face?  What happened?  Did the designer truly step back and say "that's exactly as I Intended"?  Had the designer ever actually seen a human before?  I have to wonder who on Earth gave Best Lock the license to make these toys, considering that the brand itself is third-tier knockoff Lego, with extremely poor reviews on Amazon.com.  Don't be looking for this too hard in your local Target, though, because the reports I've seen say that it was part of the Christmas seasonal section.

(When I was organizing images for this section, I could not stop laughing at the juxtaposition between Jack and his Best Lock counterpart.  What the what, indeed!)

Fashion: Victorian Star Trek:  The Next Generation Dresses

This is totally nerdy.  These ladies made themselves Victorian-era costumes of Kathryn Janeway and Data for seeing a sneak preview of Into Darkness, and possibly also for the WGT convention in Leipzig.  I like the cut of the top on the Janeway cosplayer a bit better, though the slightly-puffed shoulders on the other one is very cute.

I found this via Fashion It So, which is a Star Trek: The Next Generation fashion blog.  It's worth a read if you have lots of time to kill. ;)

(imgs via ebay, needlessessentialsonline.com, truhe-der-genovefa.blogspot.ca)

What-What?! Week of October 6th

After much talking and thinking, the husband and I have decided that we will be relocating to Washington state, specifically the Seattle area, sometime in the next year.  Because I continue to be unable to find fulltime work, we think it would be prudent to move on to greener pastures, as it were.  There are actually many reasons to choose that area, enough that I actually wrote an article discussing them.  Funnily enough, since writing the article, I keep stumbling into more and more information that goads us towards the Seattle area.

On another note, I am now registered for the BehavioralEconomics class at EdX; it’s being offered by the University of Toronto Extension, and will start in just over a week.

Film:  Mean Girls via Amazon.com

This week, I watched Mean Girls.  Yeah, it stars Lindsay Lohan.  No, I’m not a Lohan fan.  However, the film is entertaining, and well written.  Rachel McAdams is delightfully evil, and I appreciate the awkwardness that Lohan brings to the role of a homeschooled student thrust into conventional high school.

Books:  Super Hero Philosophy via Amazon.com

This is a pretty cool book that I’ve been reading; it’s a collection of essays that look at philosophical elements that exist in super hero media.  The first essay, which discusses the concepts of justice and mercy in the Thor comics, was a particularly interesting read, considering that I am now responsible for a class of 19 children, and I frequently find myself having to decide how much mercy to give a rule-breaker.  I tend to be on the lawful side when it comes to alignment, which in my experience tends to favor the justice side of the justice/mercy balance.  Some essays are definitely more interesting than others, both because of writing style, and because some of these topics are ones I’ve considered before.  Overall, I think it is a worthwhile read, especially since the book is currently free.  If you don't currently have a Kindle or other reader, I suggest downloading the PC or smartphone (Android?) app from Amazon, which is also free (yay for free things!)

Food:  Chicken Tetrazzini Casserole via The Pioneer Woman
Now that’s getting colder here, I’m looking forward to eating comfort foods, hot dishes, soups and stews. Thursday, my husband made a really great sausage, potato and broccoli chowder; it would have been good anyway, but what really kicked it up a notch was some Worchester sauce. It added just the right amount of umami.

Friday, we took the family to Costco for our monthly shopping trip there, and bought a rotisserie chicken for an easy dinner that night.  We had enough leftover chicken that I made this delicious tetrazzini casserole yesterday, and we’ll be eating the leftovers for dinner tonight (if you’re not cooking for a crowd, I suggest halving the recipe).  This is good, basic, comfort food.  Yum!

I’m also looking forward to more baking, as well.  I bought a 4-pound sack of chocolate chips while we were at Costco, and I’m looking forward to making chocolate chip cookies and muffins with them.

What-What?! Week of July 28th

This week, my eldest ruined my couch.  Then my youngest threw himself off of it.  We no longer have a couch, and I'm not sure what we'll replace it with.  Possibly floor cushions, or bean bag chairs.  Maybe we'll make the living room into a giant ball pit?  It'd keep the kids busy, that's for sure.

News: Firefly Videogame Announced via Kotaku
I like Firefly.  I named one of my children after a character from it, I have a rare piece of paraphernalia from the original fan ‘site (that Nathan Fillion frequented, oh yeah!), and so on.  However, the headline that most summed up my feelings about this game was: “Firefly is Getting a Video Game, But Not the One You Want”.  This will be a multi-player online social game specifically for cell phones and tablets.  The setting of Firefly would make a wonderful action roleplaying game, a first-person shooter, even a card game, but not this.  While there is the possibility of this social MMO being good, it’s pretty slim – Fox never understood Firefly before, and it doesn’t look like that’s changed much.

Product Review: Chex Vanilla
My family eats a lot of cereal, and that’s actually one reason that we tend to eat new cereals as soon as they come out – through coupons and sales, these new varieties are usually what I can get the cheapest.  This past week, I bought a few boxes of General Mills’ Chex Vanilla, because the other specialty varieties of Chex we’ve tried (Apple Cinnamon, Honey Nut) have both been pretty good.  The first bowl of this Vanilla variety I had blew me away.  It is so sweet.  Looking at the nutrition label, this is what I found: 8 grams of sugar for a 30 gram serving.  Cheerios have 1 gram of sugar for about the same serving size.  Eating this dry is like eating “puppy chow” – you know, during the holidays when you douse cereal with chocolate and powdered sugar.  It’s not bad if you consider it as an indulgent snack, rather than a breakfast food.  However, the vanilla flavor is sadly lacking, so mostly it just winds up being sweet.  Overall, I think General Mills had a miss with this one.

Review:  Captain Bogg and Salty’s Emphatical Piratical via Amazon
Emphatical Piratical is Captain Bogg and Salty’s most recent album, self-published in 2009.  Unfortunately, there is little on the internet available for this band, so I actually had to buy the album (spend money, what-what?!).  The husband and I really liked this album, and my children very much liked it as well, though I will say that I probably wouldn’t have bought it if I’d heard it first.  It is kind of odd, but entertaining, mildly historical, and a good, fun romp.

Luckily, I was able to find the song Emphatical Piratical on YouTube, though without a video:

At this point, I would like to point out the word “paralogical”, which means:

Paralogical:  Of or relating to a form of reasoning that does not conform to the rules of logic.

I think that this term is itching for a comeback in modern use.  I hereby pledge to use it more often in my everyday speech.

The other song I found on YouTube is from their 2005 album, Pegleg Tango, titled “Pieces of 8ight” – my kids especially liked this video.

If you imagine a hybrid of these two styles, that’s about what the rest of the album sounds like.

Portland’s Pirate Festival
In researching Captain Bogg and Salty, I stumbled upon Portland’s Pirate Festival.  Most years, it is a fine festival full of music, and so on.  However, this year the event has been canceled, due to a member of the crew passing away, and the group’s replica pirate tall ship (the Royaliste) having had been almost completely destroyed by the Portland Sternwheeler (though these events were not inter-related).  The group has my sincerest condolences, and I hope they are able to repair their ship.  They are planning on having the event next year, which I would love to attend, though that will have to wait until the children are older.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to work on my scone recipe (kept forgetting to buy flour), but hopefully I’ll be able to work on it this coming week.

What-What?! Week of May 26th

This week has been pretty slow.  I’ve spent a few days visiting my parents, which has been nice because I lived like a hobbit for the last month or so of school.  Today (Saturday), I managed to get some items ready to be listed on eBay, which is an achievement considering the last few days.  Thursday, my middle son threw up while at my parents (still no idea why), and since that evening, my littlest has had a fever ranging from 101-102+ degrees.  He’s been fussy, but otherwise okay.

I applied to a few jobs locally, and have another possible opportunity in the pipeline, so that’s good.  I am anxious to get some kind of employment, with the hope of being able to leave behind apartment living.  I genuinely, truly hate the thought of moving, but living in this apartment is the pits.

WoW: Pandaland Review

This last Saturday (Sunday?), the husband installed the newest expansion of the World of Warcraft franchise, The Mists of Pandaria, which I’ll refer to as “Pandaland”.  It’s my opinion that Pandaland was old before it was even released, due to the popularity of Kung Fu Panda way back in 2008.  The public has already had martial arts panda characters.  Give us something new.  Along with the expansion of the world setting, the Blizzard team further streamlined talent trees and abilities, which creates less flexibility for a character; it does prevent you from inadvertently breaking your character, though.  Since we’ve only been playing less than a week, the husband and I have yet to get into the new dungeons, challenges and scenarios, as well as the pet battles.  The pet battle thing also makes me sad; it’s like Neopets.  Or Pokemon.  If I wanted to do those things, I would go play Neopets or Pokemon, not WoW.  Why did Blizz do this? Why?  The more I look at Pandaland, the more I think that a bunch of execs got into a room and said “this would be cool, let’s do it!” without really examining the ideas closely.

Also, for whatever reason, the male pandas are quite rotund, while the female pandas are slim.  Mind you, by "slim" I mean "normal person", but compared to most of the other races, she is a plus-sized model.  The male fanbase demands sexy women, thus the female panda is curvy rather than appropriately plump.

So far, I am not so impressed with the newest expansion.  Will update next week.

TV:  Ramsay’s Best Restaurant

I ran out of the British Kitchen Nightmares series on Netflix, so I started on Gordon Ramsay’s other series, in which he searches for Britain’s best restaurant.  I would be watching the U.S. version of Kitchen Nightmares, but it isn’t subtitled, which is a requirement when watching it with children about.  Ramsay’s Best Restaurant is all about pitting one restaurant that serves traditionally styled foods versus one that pushes the envelope; these restaurants serve the same types of foods (Italian, Indian, Thai, etc.), but how they go about it is vastly different.  Each restaurant is put through a series of tests, like feeding 30 diners at once, and being visited by a difficult undercover agent, then one restaurant is allowed in to the semi-final.  Nearly all of these restaurants have service issues, which is pretty staggering considering that these are suppose to be some of the best in the country.  Part of this is because service is hard to measure, while things like quality and taste of food isn’t.

Not much else goin’ on this week.  Next Saturday is my birthday, and I will make sure that I take photos of the special cupcakes I’m making. :D

What-What?! Week of May 12th

This week, I will be graduating.  Thursday I have my final business strategy presentation, which should be very good.  I have been pretty pleased with our results and I think that our findings and recommendations are convincing.  I’ve spent almost everyday this week going to school to prepare, and I expect this next week will be the same.  This past Monday, my husband took my middle child and had his hair cut for the first time – it is very odd still, seeing him with short hair after having it long for his entire life.  It’s good, though; the baby isn’t pulling his hair anymore, and it’s a lot easier to keep ice cream out of it, too.   I went grocery shopping yesterday, and managed to forget a bunch of stuff.  Now I have to go back if I want to cook anything interesting this next week.  Sigh. :P

Cooking:  Saint Stephen’s Day Pie

This is a variation of cottage or shepherd’s pie, only using ham instead of beef or lamb.  Peter and I thought this was delicious, though I think that it needed a little extra something; Peter suggested mushrooms, which would be a great addition.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cup Diced ham

• 1/4 – 1/2 Head of cabbage, chopped

• 1/4 Onion, chopped

• 1 large Carrot, chopped

• 1 small can Chicken stock

• 2 tablespoons Flour

• 1-1/2 to 2 cups Mashed potatoes (about 4 servings)

• 1/4 cup Shredded cheddar cheese

• A few tablespoons Oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In an oven-safe skillet, sauté the cabbage, onion and carrot until almost cooked through, then add ham until hot throughout.  Stir in flour and let cook 1 minute, then add half the chicken stock.  At this point, if you’d prefer looser gravy, add more chicken stock.  Top it with mashed potatoes and sprinkle with cheese.  Bake for 30-45 minutes, until top is browned.

News:  Amazing Lost “Atlantis” Survives Beneath English Sea via Yahoo! News

This is pretty awesome; the Medieval town of Dunwich was previously nearly as large as the current City of London, but was slowly swept out to sea after a series of storms.  It now lays covered by 10 to 30 feet of muddy water, which is why it hadn’t been investigated sooner.  It fascinates me to read news like this, as ruins and history is one of my personal interests.  Head over to LiveScience for more pictures.

 

Food Review:  Kirkland Signature Chewy Granola Bars – Chocolate Variety

 

I picked these up at Costco the other day, because I like to feed the kids granola bars for snacks on days when we get home late or there isn’t a lot of time.  In comparison to Quaker Oats bars, these are made up more of oats and less puffed rice, giving them a chewier, more rustic texture.  The amount of chocolate is just about right, maybe even a bit much.  I think they are good, and prefer the more rustic texture and flavor to Quaker Oats brand granola bars.  I checked out the nutrition statements, and the bars seem about the same, as well as being the same weight.  This box of 80 Kirkland bars was about $8, compared to the Quaker Oats, which were $12 or so for a box of 60.  Overall, delicious and a good value.

That's it for this week.  I'll be so busy this coming week, I don't know how much of a post I'll have.  Happy mother's day everypony! :D

What-What?! Week of May 5th

I woke up yesterday morning and realized I hadn’t written a word for this post.  Normally I start about Thursday or so, writing about whatever I’ve already got.  This week, though I’ve had all my major papers due and that has made the week rather nutty.  I have feedback for two of my papers already, though, including my final capstone paper, which got a score of 97!  Whooo-yeah!  My teacher had to go through half the paper before he found a mistake. :D

Shopping: Merona Red Trench Coat

This week at Target, I went shopping for a new pair of slacks for my capstone presentation.  While I did buy a pair of slacks, the highlight of the trip was this beautiful red trench coat, on clearance for $18.  I put it on, and my husband made the comment that all I needed was a red hat – then I could be Carmen Sandiego!  So now Pete and I are planning on dressing up as Carmen Sandiego and one of her goons for this coming Halloween.  I’m voting Peter dresses as either Baron Wasteland or Baron Grinnit – an aristocrat with an eyepatch, or a fighter pilot.  Either way, I think it will be brilliant.

After picking up the coat, I went a-Googling for photos of goons.  I gotta say, you find the oddest things searching for Carmen Sandiego, like this review for a film titled The Limits of Control, directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, and John Hurt, among others.  Overall, it doesn’t sound like a film you’d watch on purpose, but the author of the review points out that the meaning of the film is open to interpretation – so he preferred to imagine it as a live-action Carmen Sandiego.  I suggest you follow the link to the review and read this section of it, because it is hilarious.

Girls Who Code via Take Part

I accidently came across this nonprofit, which is funded by large tech companies like Google, Twitter, and eBay.  The idea is to encourage young women to pursue education and jobs in the tech sector by teaching them programming, robotics, web design and so on.  I think this idea is a really great avenue for getting women to take that first step towards a tech career.  As a previous computer science major, and someone who still loves coding, I think programs like these are incredibly important.  This year, they are operating programs all over the U.S., including here in San Jose.  The organization’s website is a little obtuse, and I’m actually kind of annoyed that there isn’t a more direct way to get in contact with them to volunteer; they only seem to have options if you are currently working with an organization or company.  Maybe this next week I can work on finding contact information about this, because I would really love to volunteer.

TV:  Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares via Netflix

I started watching this show on Netflix on a whim.  I have to say as a warning, though, that if this show were bleeped out, there would be very little dialogue left.  However, I like that it looks at the restaurant as a business, not just looking at the quality of the food.  Gordon Ramsay goes to these failing businesses and looks at the management, the marketing, and the operations.  He looks at whether the restaurant is selling food that the local people want to buy, if they are overpriced, if they are using ingredients or wasting them, if they have local, inexpensive sources for food, if the staff is managed well, and so on.  It’s pretty interesting to watch from a business student perspective, and I think it’s entertaining as well.

That’s it for this week.  Tuesday my littlest will be turning one!  I don’t know that we’ll be doing anything formal for him until school gets out on the 16th, but I was planning on cooking him some oatmeal and banana cookies.

What-What?! Week of April 28th

Hear that wooshing sound?  That’s me finishing ALL the papers.  In the next week, I have all my major papers due for all my classes.  I’ve spent a lot of this last week trying to get things as ready as possible, so that I can just concentrate on completing these papers.  In another week, it will be my baby’s birthday, and then two weeks after that, I will be done with school forever.  Also, then I will be unemployed; I am not having much luck finding internships or jobs or much of anything. :[

News:  The Marketplace Fairness Act (HR 684, S 743) via Wikipedia

I happened to read an opinion piece on this act, and went looking for more.  Unfortunately, Wikipedia seems to be about as neutral a source as I can find for more information on it.  This act would allow states to impose a sales tax on items sold in that state, regardless of where the retailer is located, so long as the retailer has at least $1 million in gross receipts per year; this act is specifically targeting online retailers, which do not have to collect taxes in most states because they are not required to. 

Supporters say that this bill will create a level ground with small businesses that operate brick-and-mortar shops that have to collect sales taxes.

Opponents say that this would then make online-only retailers responsible for collecting and remitting as many as 10,000 different sales taxes, and compromises state sovereignty by allowing some states to tax those beyond their borders.  A more interesting point that WE R HERE, a coalition of small businesses, has made, is that the definition of small business used in the bill is totally incorrect; in trying to protect small businesses that are online-only, the bill is written to only apply to those businesses that have more than $1 million in gross receipts.  According to the IRS, the definition of a small business are those with less than $20 million in gross receipts, while the Small Business Administration defines it as businesses with gross receipts under $30 million.

I’m opposed to the bill because of the above reasons, but also because it taxes businesses in places where they use no resources; if a business resides in California, then it is using California resources, and it makes sense to tax that business on sales they do within the state.  If that business then sold an item to a person in Oregon, it doesn’t make sense to impose Oregon sales tax on that transaction, because the company hasn’t used any of Oregon’s resources.

Also, I would like to express how utterly irritated I am that Amazon is supporting this bill.  I like Amazon, but the only reasons its supporting the bill is to build barriers to entry, and because they now offer a service that collects and remits sales taxes for their clients.

The bill passed the senate just a few days ago, so it’s looking like this might just come to be.

Cooking: Stuffed Oven French Toast, via Kathie Cooks

Oven French toast is one of the first things I made when I really started cooking for us as a family.  It has a special place in my heart as an easy, tasty, crowd-pleaser breakfast or dinner -- While the directions here are to let it sit overnight, you can easily make it in the morning and let it sit all day.  This variation calls for layering cream cheese in between slices of bread.  I used plain cream cheese, figuring we’d get all the sweetness from the maple syrup.  Instead of cinnamon swirl bread, I used a loaf of French bread, which Peter thinly cut for me.  I also made mine in a 9 x 13 inch pan, using 9 eggs and a dash of milk, vanilla extract, nutmeg and cinnamon.  The only issue I have with this recipe is that it calls for baking it uncovered; we did this, and the consistency of the top layer was too crispy.  Next time, I will cook it covered for at least part of the time.  Overall, this was a delicious breakfast that I will be making again.

(This week, I also made blueberry scones again, which continue to be delicious!)

Geeky Stuff:  Jarreth Riding a Unicorn, anyone? via Etsy

This came up on one of the mommy boards I frequent, because this woman was trying to decide what would be best for her brother for a wedding gift.  This was one of the options, and what an option it is!  I have no real reason to bring this up, other than to show its awesomeness.

Cooking:  Tea Bag Sugar Cookies via Le Petrin

These guys are also adorable, and would be great in a gift, along with a mug and maybe some real tea.  The website linked above is in French, but I did find some great tutorial and recipe on the Compulsive Foodie blog.

Until next week! :D 

What-What?! Week of April 14th

This week has actually been busy, on account of having the internal analysis due, as well as a bunch of assignments due for another class (those ones involve watching videos, which I hate; reading an article is so much easier with children around).  Apparently, I now have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal; I don’t know if I signed up for a promo subscription, or if someone gifted it to me, or what.  I never received anything in the mail about it, but it is definitely coming to my apartment (it’s been stuck in the plumbing directly underneath my apartment number).  I like reading the WSJ, though, so that’s cool.  Today, we’ll be visiting the San Jose Fantasy Faire, which I have high hopes for, especially given that it looks more kid-oriented than the RenFaire in Casa de Fruita.  It’s also way cheaper, so even if it turns out to be a bust, we’re not out as much money.

 
News:  Steampunk Advertisement in WSJ, via the WSJ paper edition

I don’t normally look at the ads in the WSJ very closely, because it’s usually fancy cars, watches, jewelry, or financial planning services that I cannot afford nor have desire for.  But this one caught my eye, on account of the steampunk "foresight goggles".  The only thing that really puzzles me about this, is location appropriate for their target market?  If this company is trying to get younger customers, then the ad itself is fine, but is the Wall Street Journal the most appropriate place for this?  According to a source I found (which I can't seem to find the link to now...?), the median age of readership for the WSJ is 45.4, so half their readers are younger than that, which is more like it.  However, it seems to me that Invesco hasn’t invested much into online advertising, which would tap better into a younger market.

Fashion: Kate Upton in the May issue of Harper’s Bazaar

Okay, so Kate Upton is probably best known for her cover of Sports Illustrated, in which she wore a pair of undies and a coat.  But, I am in love with the kind of British explorer vintage quality of this latest shoot, the Bazaar Animal Collection.  My favorite piece is the dress/coat combination shown above, which is by Christian Dior; it’s got some nice draping around her hips, all the while avoiding being a bustle.  I liked the combination of textures created with the wool coats, cotton dresses, and silk coordinates.  Also, those big soft curls in Kate Upton’s hair are just beautiful.

Product Review:  St.Dalfour Wild Blueberry Preserves

After seeing this on clearance at Safeway, I picked it up to try; I am a sucker for blueberry preserves, but more so a sucker for jams and jellies made without corn syrup.  I grew up on my mother’s homemade jams, and eating anything made with corn syrup tastes wrong.

The ingredients are:

• Blueberries
• Fruit juice concentrate (apple, grape)
• Fruit pectin
• Lemon juice.

Generally speaking, this brand is expensive, about $4-5 for a 10 ounce bottle.  The flavor is fantastic, sweet without being cloying, with a nice mix of whole berries and jelly.  If I find it on clearance again, I will be stocking up.  If you are looking for something similar, but less expensive, I suggest trying the Welch’s Naturals strawberry or grape jellies, which have similar ingredients, though it is much sweeter.

'Til next week. :)

What-What?! Week of March 31st

This has been a pretty good week; probably the slowest week I’ve had in a while, including over Spring Break.  I’m pretty sure that my capstone class will be a cakewalk for the rest of the semester, now that we’re through the external analysis paper.  My team’s currently working on the internal analysis, which is made up of a lot of educated guesses, but it’s the best we’ve got.

Shopping: Geek Shopping via Amazon

My husband just had his birthday on Thursday, and I got him some geeky things.  One book I bought him is this one, Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure, by Arthur Conan Doyle.  This book is Conan Doyle’s diary from his six month trip in 1880, as ship’s surgeon on an arctic whaling ship.  I first read about this book from a New York Times article back in November, and was planning on buying it for Pete for Christmas, but unfortunately, the book sold out at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Now, though, it’s back in stock and only $25!  :P

 

Interwebs:  Me on FB, also TG and Princess Celestia

The big news this week is that I’ve started a Facebook page for this blog!  I will try to keep it updated, but I really want to limit the amount of time I spend on FB.  Starting that page was pretty interesting, especially when I decided to like some peoples.  So, I liked Epbot, because who doesn’t, and then I got to Princess Celestia, who I didn’t like.  This is why:

 

Then, after you go to the actual Princess Celestia page, it is fanboys and rude humor.  So, I decided not.  I found that the Stig has more likes than Jeremy Clarkson’s fan club page, though Clarkson’s page is much more entertaining to visit.  Clarkson’s real page ("Power Hungry Clarkson", LOLz) is kind of ho-hum, though interesting to see his thoughts on Top Gear episodes.  James May has a fan-run page, and no others.  Richard Hammond has a page, and more than that, his personal official website is www.thehamsterscage.co.uk.  It is brilliant.

Cooking:  Ham and Cheese Scones via Tasty Kitchen 

This week I also made these delish scones.  I left out the onion, and I doubled the amount of ham, and it made for a great lunch along with some apples.  This time, I decided to use my KitchenAid mixer to cut the butter into the flour, and that worked brilliantly.  It was much, much easier than doing it by hand.  The husband liked it, as well as my daughter, though my middle son didn’t much care of it.  All in all, I am definitely making these again.

WTH: Elise Andrew, of “I F###ing Love Science” via The Marie Sue

This woman has been in the news recently, for something that utterly surprised me; Elise Andrew is a science blogger who runs the Facebook page, “I F###ing Love Science”.  When she set up her Twitter page, she let her fans know about it, so they could follow her.  Then everyone found out she’s a woman, and all heck broke loose, with people saying “whoa, you’re a woman?!” and so on.  It just staggers me that our society has yet to recognize that a person’s interest in science has nothing to do with their gender or attractiveness.  As a society, we have spent years trying to get young women and girls interested in science, and now we act surprised when women promote it?

I absolutely recommend checking out her page, or the PG-13 version, “Science is Awesome”.

Oh, this week I also saw this, which is made by Crazy Dog T-Shirts:

Geek trollin', huh?

'Til next week. :)

(images via Amazon, Facebook, Zulilly)

What-What?! Week of March 24th

Not too much this week; spring break was a nice change of pace.  I’ve actually had the energy to do some cooking, though not much by way of new recipes.  I did still have to meet with my capstone team to practice our presentation so far, which went pretty well.  I think our recent meetings have really improved our communications and reduced friction within the group.  So that’s nice.

Shopping: Buy all the Ponies! D:<

The other night, I went looking on Amazon at My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic stuff.  That was a huge mistake, though I didn’t actually buy anything.  I did find this Rainbow Dash soda, Fizzy Cherry Splash.  I have no idea where you buy it, but there it is on Amazon, for $9.00.  Another thing that I’ve looked at for a long time is the Twilight Sparkle boombox, which is awesome, but poor quality.  I think that it would be better to put MLP stickers on a nicer radio, so you could get some decent sound.

Cooking:  Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sounds brilliant, doesn’t it?  Bananas, chocolate chips, and cookies?!  I saw this recipe on Pinterest, and it’s taken me a couple of days to track down the original source, which happens to be the Burlap Bag.  I did this because it’s got two ingredients, bananas and oatmeal, and I had all of them.  Then I threw in some chocolate chips, and baked ‘em.  I thought these were good, but not very cookie-ish.  The kids were totally sold on them, though, and I think they’d make for a great, healthy snack.  If I was looking to make them more like a cookie, I’d add one-quarter to one-half a cup of flour, a bit of baking powder, and some vanilla.  Maybe some peanut butter or an egg.  This is what I will do next time, whenever I next have old bananas.  Also, I kept finding people writing banana’s, rather than bananas.  A banana’s what?! xP

Local Living: Monterey Friday Farmers Market Review

This past Friday we did go to the Monterey farmers market; this market is open year round, Fridays from 10-2pm, at Monterey Peninsula College.  I had been interested in going, because this market is operated by the Monterey Bay Certified Farmers Markets association, whose markets I had never visited before.

Sadly, this market actually kind of disappointed me.  Finding the place was somewhat difficult; there were no signs at the street or entrance to the parking lot.  It is held at the Monterey Peninsula College, which apparently offers classes on Fridays, making it even more confusing as to where to go, because you can’t simply look for a grouping of cars and people.  There were no garbage cans whatsoever, the porta-potties were placed oddly in a planter, and I didn’t see anyone who looked like a market manager the entire time we were there.  Granted, I could have just missed him/her, but there was also no booth specifically for information about the market or to meet the manager.  One of the vendors also had dogs with them in their stall, which is a huge no-no.

The mix of vendors was also a little odd; there were numerous flower and plant vendors, but relatively few vendors with staple foods.  I did like the vendor that was selling walnuts and dried fruit (did not get the name), and it is always good to see Beckmann’s, but when I decided to buy cucumbers and green onions, the only vendor in the market selling those items was all out.  Keep in mind that this was right about noon, so only halfway through the market time.  There was a surprising amount of organic farmers in the market, which was nice to see.  I think the problem with this mix of vendors is the time of the market; at an evening or afternoon market, like the Tuesday market in old Monterey, the emphasis is on hot food and entertainment, while morning markets tend to have an emphasis on general grocery shopping.  This market was not good at either.  Overall, I’m not sure I’d go back again; it does have some great vendors, but nothing unusual enough to make the special trip.

Until next week!

(images via The Burlap Bag, Amazon and the MBCFM website)

What-What?! Week of March 10th

This week hasn’t been good either.  A lot of this week has been nose-to-the-grindstone, just trying to get this external analysis done.  Meanwhile, we’ve had issues with our client, I have had issues with my teammates, I’ve forgotten important projects for my other classes, and so on.

Food:  Cheese Twists via The Frugal Girl

I made these this weekend, using my Kitchenaid mixer.  Delicious!  I actually did not follow this recipe, though I did use the method; I simply used my regular bread recipe, and added cheese.  Next time, I will add cheese at the end of mixing/kneading it, because adding the cheese at the beginning macerated all the cheese into tiny pieces.  I was looking more for chunks of cheese in the bread, which I didn’t get, but it still tasted very strongly of cheddar.

News: #SequesterThis via the Wall Street Journal

This is an article that criticizes the USDA for partially funding the California Small Farm Conference, which occurs this year on March 10-12 in Fresno, despite having to lay off meat inspectors due to the sequester debacle.  I have a few problems with this; everyone knew that there would be a chance for the two percent spending cuts, however when they made the decision to fund this, I’m not sure sequester was even on the table.  Also, although the article paints a picture of the conference as being all about fine dining and frilliness, it does deal with some important subjects, like food safety,  smart water usage, how to choose crops, and information on new WIC requirements for farmers’ markets.

According to the USDA, the number of farmers’ markets in the United States has increased 49 percent from 2009-2012.  With this increase comes a greater amount of consumers buying produce from small farmers; therefore, it makes sense to foster food safety strategies for these farms.  In addition to this, the increase in farmers’ markets and small farmers benefits the economy, brings in revenue to the state, and encourages local entrepreneurship, especially by minorities.  Is it worth laying off meat inspectors for this?  I am not sure.  However, I think it is a mistake to present this conference as nothing more than wasteful government spending.

Wasting Time:  Princess Celestia as The Stig

I was talking with my husband, and somehow this came up.  So then I made it, when I should have been working on my paper.  It made me happy. :)  Though, I would not go to Google and type in "princess celestia as the stig", because there's fanfic.  I was too scared to look at it, because of Rule 34.  I've already had one Rule 34 experience while looking up pictures of the Stig. xP

See you next week!

(images via The Frugal Girl and the California Small Farm Conference)

What-What?! Week of February 23rd

So, ordinarily I start working on my blog post about Wednesday of every week.  As I’m starting to write this, it is Saturday.  This week, in my capstone class we had our first major paper due; the history and overview of our client, Monterey Language Services.  This paper was pretty easy, especially in comparison to our next paper, which is the external analysis of the industry and competitors.

The other thing I’ve been working on is my portion of the community scan for my ethics class; I’ve been working on a map of Seaside and Sand City, with all the food pantries and other services highlighted on it.  The result has been pretty horrible; Sand City is one vast swath of nothingness, and Seaside is lacking some pretty basic resources as well.  In the image above, you can see what's there; what you don't see, is that all of Seaside north of Coe Avenue has nothing in it, other than what is at CSUMB.  Mostly it's golf couse, anyway.

Crafts: Paper Dolls

Last night, Saffron asked if we could find some paper dolls to print out for her to play with.  Looking on Google, I found many interesting and horrific ones; there are lots of skanky, big-headed, tiny-waisted, Bratz wannabes.  On the other hand, I did find some steampunk paper dolls, as well as some other historical ones, which is pretty cool considering that I’ve been reading the Felicity Merriman series of American Girl books.  The bestest one I found, though, has got to be the Girl Genius paper doll of Zeetha.  Get a load of all those daggers!

If you’re interested in this or other GG paper dolls, the Foglio’s have a whole page devoted to paper dolls.

Below is the one that I wound up printing out.  I was looking for one that wasn’t colored, because printer ink is expensive.  It was only after I printed this doll out that I realized it's Lucy from the Narnia series.  The website that this is attached to is actually kind of awesome in a geeky, not overly-Christian way.

 

If I wasn’t worried about ink, though, I would’ve printed out these great dolls from the 70s.  I love their clothes!  Particularly that yellow/green dress thing.  I dig those puffy Renaissance sleeves something fierce.

Writing: Tazo’s Redesign

One of my other projects that I’m slowly chugging away at is a paper/infographic critique on Tazo’s recent packaging redesign.  I think the greatest problem they face is that all their teas now look something like Wal-Mart’s Great Value brand.  The new design for the chai tea concentrate mix is particularly bad; it is very difficult to read the text, especially since Tazo opts not to pay high shelving fees, so the product lands on the highest or lowest shelves.  Look for a more complete critique and graphics soon-ish.

Geeky Stuff: Things to Buy
I have spent this week finding things to spend money on.  Don't ask me why, but they have just appeared this week.  Things I have found include an awesome orange/turquoise purse (makes me think of Jen from Epbot), and teacup-shaped muffin cups.  So cute!

Art: Octopus and Crab Art
I spotted this great piece of art while trolling Cracked; there is an artist name on it, but I can't make it out. :(



(images via all the places.)