This space intentionally left blank

Testing, testing, 123 123. Is this thing on?

2011-12-10T12:15:00.001-05:00

I remember when I could just sit down and write for hours!

2011-12-05T20:44:00.001-05:00

So I'd hoped that buying a blogging app on the iPad would help guilt me into writing more...guess not! I blame Twitter.

Not really. I hardly even post there anymore. I still keep up (I'M ALWAYS WATCHING) but just rarely post anything but replies. Turns out I'm about 316% more boring as an "adult" than as a student and I don't feel like I have much to contribute. Which is bad considering I was a boring student and didn't contribute anything of value!Anyways. Time for quick hits...

Kittens got a final checkup: Ori is over her last upper respiratory infection and Key avoided it altogether. Both tested negative for feline leukemia, which is obviously pretty awesome. Key weighed 9lbs, Ori was at 8. We also got them a huge cat tower, almost 6' tall. They're enjoying it, to say the least.

Turns out when I visit the parents in Louisiana I eat like a freak for a week. I don't think I had even the slightest bit of hunger that entire week, and I still gorged the entire week. Bite me, coronary health.

Reupped my Slacker Radio subscription. Turns out I'm more of a grunge fan than I originally thought. Time to buy flannel I guess? I'm rediscovering Soundgarden and discovering how much Slacker's android app blows. Random music stoppage, with very little music restart-age.

Got a pair of MDR-V6 headphones by Sony. Great sound, comfort, design, price. My only gripe is that it has a ten foot long cord. I shouldn't complain as these are meant as a set of studio headphone...but daaaamn ten feet?!

The Gf bought us Red Wings tickets for a game against the Islanders in January. It'll be my first regular season NHL game and first time seeing the Wings in person.

Book reccomenation : Shades of Grey. Think of a mixture of The Giver and Canticles of Liebowitz. Fantastic book.

Speaking of books. Reading them on an iPad is weird. I don't hate it at all, but it sure isn't the same as a real book. (statements like that one are a good reason I can't write for a living!)

I'm actually considering shutting down this blog and starting a new more private one HOWEVAH that could just be delirium talking from a lack of sleep last night. Who knows.

Testing a new blogging app on the new iPad

2011-11-15T21:45:00.001-05:00

First post from the new iPad 2! Just got it activated on Monday, so I'm certainly still feeling it out. Haven't had an iOS device since selling my iPhone 3GS back in June or July...I have to admit that the iPad feels like a totally different beast. The good news is that the apps are still stellar; I actually bought a blogging app to help/guilt myself into writing more.

As nice as the onscreen keyboard is, I may have to eventually buy the bluetooth keyboard just to get the old laptop feeling back but I'll give it a shot for a while to see how it goes.

iOS 5.0.1 is pretty good...just remembered the multitasking gestures and I'm having fun swiping back and forth between apps and the notification center (swipe swipe swipe swipe).

Since this is mostly a test post for the Blogsy app that I'm using, I'm going to cut this one short and go play with the kittens.

Testing, attention please!

2011-10-25T21:43:00.001-04:00

Merged my Blogger and Google+.

Does it do anything?

New phone: HTC Thunderbolt

2011-07-03T23:14:00.000-04:00

I've had an iPhone since a few months after they came out; spent about 18 months on the OG iPhone, then two years on the 3GS. Loved every minute of it, and the love of that phone helped me get into most of the things I love now since I almost always had access to it online. However, I came to the end of my contract, and it was time to switch.

I had AT&T, and for most of that 3.5 years, I loved it. I had great data speeds, rarely dropped calls in NYC, and was a happy camper. The last year or so, however, was steadily getting worse. Dropped calls, slow/nonexistent data connections, and frequent loss of service. Yeah, forget that. I wanted an LTE phone. Since Verizon is the only network carrier with a true 4G network in the NYC area, they were my default choice. Did my research, played with the devices, and made a decision. HTC Thunderbolt was the eventual winner. I've had the Bolt for a little over 24 hours, and I'm gonna tell you what I think about everything. Just remember this is my first Android device, and first time on a 4G network, and ALSO my first time not being on Cingular/ATT.

I guess I'll start with the hardware. Looks like 90% of Android phones coming out nowadays. 4.3" screen is almost an inch bigger than what I've been using. Higher dpi (not the highest on the market, but it looks great to me). The kickstand is awesome, and I'm using it pretty frequently. Camera is a huge step up from what I was using before (is there a good replacement for the stock camera/camcorder apps?) Battery life isn't fantastic, but I found a battery that's triple the size for only $65 on Android Central. Pretty impressed by everything, but this isn't what I want to talk about.

I want to talk about Android. It's not going to make me hate iOS. They accomplish the same things in different ways. One of my favorite things about the iPhone was the jailbreak community. So many great apps and devs- many of their apps are getting worked into iOS5 which is fantastic. For the record, I'd still jailbreak for David Ashman's LockInfo and BiteSMS. The two best jb apps I've ever used.

Android is incredibly customizable. With HTC's Sense skin, I'm able to add a bunch of widgets to toggle Wifi, data, brightness, and pretty much everything else. My head's spinning with the amount of different things I can do. Already have a replacement SMS app (HandcentSMS) and DolphinHD (browser) but I'm not sure that the Dolphin is better than the stock browser. Using the official Google Reader app for RSS, but I want to try Pulse out. My favorite app right now is Google+; it's just a well-made app for a social network that is absolutely stunning to me...but that's another post. I'm getting used to having hardware buttons again- the back button is proving to be an amazing help but takes a bit of getting used to. Doubletapping the search key brings up my HandcentSMS quick text (something I learned to love from BiteSMS). Android has done a great job of task managing except for two times when I had to reboot the device to clear everything up. My main gripe with the entire OS so far is that scrolling and tapping aren't quite as accurate as they are on iOS- everything else I like as much if not more than iOS. And I haven't even rooted and installed custom roms! I'll probably wait until Cyanogen mod is officially supported for the Bolt before doing that.

4G is amazing. Stunning. Superlative. I'm constantly getting download speeds of well over 15mb/s. My wifi network at home rarely reaches 5. 3G on ATT was lucky to hit 2 constantly- and would never get above .5 on the upload. Coverage seems good- tested in locations such as Garden City, Murray Hill LIRR station, Woodside, Times Square, and Penn Station. I haven't tethered/used mobile hotspot yet but I plan to soon. Totally worth the 29.99 I'll be spending on it a month.

Overall, I'm thrilled to have the Bolt. I don't want to make a dramatic pronouncement and say I'll never go back to the iPhone, but I'm LOVING Android at the moment. I got to play with a Xoom and a Galaxy Tab at the store, and those were awfully nice too :D

Kitten update: Cautiously optimistic

2011-06-21T19:14:00.000-04:00

So Ori is doing well. She's not a fan of taking her medicine, but since she has to take it right after she eats she's usually pretty mellow and I get it done before she knows what's going on. She's still eating a ton (she loves turkey and giblets wet food) and playing a lot. She really only has four modes: Sleep, Eat, PLAY, and cuddle.

I was going to do a post on Key's health yesterday, but I was actually too bummed to write about it. She's still at North Shore and yesterday she lost her appetite and was dehydrated- had me very worried. Since then, she's eating and drinking again, though. Blood and stool samples have come back negative, and the vet in charge of her think it was just a case of dehydration and really low blood sugar that she's taken a while to get over. We went the cautious route and are keeping her there an extra day to make 100% sure she's ok before coming home.

I can't wait for her to get back. Even though we've only had her for a little over a week, I miss her a lot. Though we'll have to keep the two separated for a couple of weeks because of Ori's infection, it'll be great to have the two of them back home.

And here's a gratuitous photo of what we call "Ori(on)iskany's Belt": She's all white on her belly except for one little band of tan/spots.

No, she did not want to take that picture. I also don't want her playing with my ears at 4:30am, and we can't all get what we want!

Here is your (daily?) update on kitten health

2011-06-19T20:49:00.000-04:00

So Key's been admitted to North Shore hospital, but seems to be responding well. No vomiting/other issues last night, is eating like a pig, and is desperate for attention. That sounds like the Key that we brought home! She may be released tomorrow. I would really rather they keep her until Tuesday to give her an extra night to see if anything happens.

Oriskany started to sneeze while inside the exam room for Key yesterday. I'm not exaggerating: The vet stopped what she was doing and told us to bring her back if it kept up. Well...it kept up. She seemed ok, but was sneezing a lot. She was still playful, still ate and drank water. However, I brought her in today since it's easy to get from my apartment to the shelter. She has an upper respiratory infection, and we got antibiotics for her. She only needs .14cc's twice a day put into her mouth. Thankfully, she's small and got her claws trimmed yesterday (trimmed not declawed) so she can't really fight it too well.

When Key is released, we actually have to keep them separated for two weeks. This basically means there's going to be one kitten in the bedroom for two weeks, and the other kitten gets the rest of the apartment. Considering Ori is the more active one, I think she'll have the larger territory. We need an extra litterbox now! I just bought two cheapo ramekins to use as food/water bowls for her. She's been sleepy since she's had a rough couple of days- right now she's cuddled up against me, laying on top of my phone. I should have started a game to warm the screen up for her to keep her warm...However when she gets her naps in, she's just as playful and energetic as she's always been.

While this past week has been stressful, expensive (until the health insurance reimburses us) and there has been little sleep, I don't regret adopting these two kittens. They have wormed their way into my life and I miss them when they aren't here or when I'm not around. We're doing everything we can to make them healthy and get them back to being regular kittens. I hope that they'll get over their health problems soon, and I'll keep this blog updated (also my twitter) as frequently as I can.

Kitten update

2011-06-18T14:39:00.000-04:00

So we've had a rough few days with the kittens. Ori is getting big. She's growing, extremely playful, eats like a horse, all the normal kitten things.

Key isn't doing as well. She got dehydrated and still hasn't really gotten over it. We took her in overnight twice this week, and she was given IV fluids. She's getting better (and starting to eat as much as her sister), but she's still not as cuddly and playful as she was at first. Today we took her back to North Shore, and she's going to be staying for 2-3 days while they run blood work, stool samples (we brought our own- helpful to them, but yuck to me), and monitoring her vitals. This way, they can rule out infections, viruses, parasites, and most other things. After this, the only thing that'd be left really is congenital problems I guess. She certainly has been acting better, but we'd rather err on the side of caution and make sure she's going to live a long and happy life. Oh, also, the vet at North Shore said she had a case of VDA- vomiting, diarrhea, and anorexiqa (thanks to Ori for that little misspelling while she walked across the keyboard!). MY KITTEN HAS ANOREXIA?! She sure eats a lot to have it :D

If there's any advice you guys can give to us, please let me know.

Update on the new kittens

2011-06-14T21:19:00.000-04:00

After having the kittens for a few days, we're starting to get an idea of their personalities.

Oriskany is the more active one. She's capable of playing for HOURS and doesn't particularly care if anyone is around. She can entertain herself. One problem is that she'll play for so long that she forgets to eat, then gorges and can get sick if we're not careful. She's bigger and stronger than Key, but a total scaredy-cat. It also seems that she's growing already. I thought they were almost the same size when we got them on Saturday, but Ori now seems a lot bigger and heavier. I'm SURE it has nothing to do with the fact that she runs around for 6 hours a day playing with everything in sight....Today she's been a bit less playful (only a bit) and a little more affectionate. Because of the cats I've had in the past, this only makes me suspicious and wonder what she's done! I don't have a picture of her because she won't sit still long enough for a decent one. If you need one of her badly, it'll probably just be a white and tabby blur racing across the photo.

Key is the runt of the litter. She's smaller, weaker, less active one of the pair. However, she's incredibly intelligent and calm. She's slow when exploring, but she'll find out ways to do what she wants or get where she wants to go. She also seems to love our company. When she isn't shown attention or can't see both of us, she'll begin to cry- even if we're in the next room or she wakes up and can't see us from her vantage point. She has these big, sad eyes that just crush your spirit that make you have to pick her up and pet her. For instance:

As soon as you touch her, she starts purring loudly (they both do this actually) and won't cry anymore. She's a bit lethargic now and then, but she is getting her play time in. She won't win a fight against Ori outright, but she starts a few of them since Ori is such a pansy and will run away when attacked.

Healthwise, they seem fine. Both have vomited after eating way too much, so we're going to be keeping the amount of food they have access to way down. They're still on a mixture of wet and dry food, but we'll probably be keeping them mostly on wet for the time being. Still waiting on getting all of their teeth in, so I'm sure they appreciate that also. They've both become fascinated with my laptop, and have tried to "help" by sitting staring at the keyboard or batting my fingers while I type. I'm actually waiting for Ori to add her own sequence of random numbers and letters as she walks across the keyboard.

I'll have to get some videos of them up. I can (and have)_watched them play for hours. Who doesn't like kitten videos and photos?

Peanut sauce recipe

2011-06-13T22:43:00.000-04:00

Had a couple of requests for this on Twitter, so here goes.

It's my own version of an amalgamation of a bunch of recipes I've seen online. I'll give credit to them as I find them. There isn't really much specificity to this at all: I kinda just go with what I have and how much time I have. Today, I whipped a batch up in less than 10 minutes.

Take a few scoops of peanut butter in a pre-warmed small pan. This helps soften the PB. You don't NEED a lot, but the more you put, the more you'll like it I think. Add warm or hot water a few tablespoons at a time and whisk slowly on low heat (as low as you can go). The mixture will look awful, with the PB getting ribbony and nasty, but will eventually mix well. It'll then get lighter and fluffier, expanding quite a bit. Once you've reached the amount that you want (add more PB to thicken, water to thin)it, raise the heat to medium. It'll start to roast at the bottom: this is good. Let it cook down for a bit and darken on the bottom. Rewhisk and then add more water. Repeat the cooking down/roasting process one more time, and you're done.

This is the most simple version. I usually add spices (garlic, onion, chili pepper, sriracha) and a touch of oil- olive or sesame is great. Adding grilled chicken might change the recipe: if it's too dry, you'll have to make the sauce watery or just make more than you anticipated if you want the chicken to absorb the sauce. If you have any other additions, let me know.

Sorry for any grammar/spelling problems. This was typed up in a few minutes at the end of the day!

After five years, I finally have cats again!

2011-06-12T09:55:00.000-04:00

Growing up I almost always had cats. After leaving for college though, I had to leave them behind and only visit them during summer or winter breaks. After the girlfriend and I got an apartment together we decided to get our own.

I got a job this week working at an online auto parts store, and the owner got a cat from the North Shore Animal League in Port Washington, NY and said it was a great place to pick up a rescue. That pretty much sold me. So we went yesterday with the intention of picking up two young adult cats; the adult cats rarely get adopted, you know their personalities and health issues, and they're usually free! Once we arrived, however, the situation at the NSAL wasn't what we expected. Many of the adult cats had health issues that we weren't capable of dealing with...but there were also very very few adults! The NSAL encouraged us to adopt kittens in order to help thin out their population of kittens. We found two that were affectionate, playful, didn't have health problems, and that responded to us. We filled out a long application, had our references checked with friends, and were accepted. We were given medical histories of the kittens, were given free food, appointments to get them spayed (they're sisters), and everything you could need to know if you'd never known about cats before. The application process took a couple of hours and I think it was pretty thorough; there seemed to be quite a few families that weren't accepted for adoption. I like that their adoption process was very strict though, it's great news for the adopted pets. The only complaints I have about the place are not keeping the cats and dogs more separated (the dogs wouldn't stop barking!) and not having to pass through the dog adoption center to get to the cats (it smelled like dozens of wet dogs!).

And now, for their grand unveiling...here are Oriskany (white paws) and Key (black/brown fur)!

As you can see, they're pretty small. They don't even weigh enough to press a key when walking on the keyboard! They're about six weeks old.

We got a pet carrier for them, and Key was the first to be taken from the cage. When she lost sight of her sister, she immediately began this pitiful meowing that only stopped once Oriskany was put in the carrier with her. While we had no intentions of splitting them up, it made us doubly glad that we didn't. They seemed to be perfectly fine while driving, a first for me. Every cat that I've ever had has been terrified of cat carriers and cars. As I write this, Oriskany is asleep in the cat carrier so I don't think we'll have a problem with that. When we reached the apartment they were ever so slightly hesitant to leave the carrier. As soon as Key stepped out, she got over everything and began to run and play. Then Oriskany followed. For a couple of hours they ran and wrestled and played with toys and explored the room. We're keeping them in our bedroom for about a day to let them get used to us, but they don't really seem to need it. They're not afraid of us at all, and even slept in the bed with us!

As to their personalities, they're both pretty outgoing. Oriskany is the more playful one- she usually wins the fights over her sister. She can jump higher and further, and has been exploring. Key isn't as strong, but she seems to be smarter. She figured out the scratching post first, how to play with the toys first, and has been exploring more. She also seems to like tech. Already she's tried to play with my phone, she's sleeping on my battery pack right now, and she was trying to catch my cursor earlier. Oriskany, though, is incredibly playful. She runs behind me to hide then reattack...and has already drawn blood a few times.

They weren't eating at first...but not due to stress. They just would not stop running around for hours! The sound they make while galloping across the room is hilarious. I'm glad to say that they both seem healthy: both have eaten a lot, used the litterbox, slept, meowed, played, everything you expect a kitten to do. They seem to be very happy here. And now it's time to finish kitten-proofing the apartment so they can meet the rest of their forever home.

Cella shave stick

2011-05-18T22:35:00.000-04:00

Used the stick today...and I like it! Used a modified version of THIS method: rubbed Cella on the face, used wet brush. There was a criminal amount of lather. An artist's rendition of the suspect:

This method makes Cella great. I don't seem to be able to load enough soap from mugs of soap, so sticks are a requirement for me. I use more soap than is necessary, and this is doubly so for the Cella. I'm going to burn through this stick in no time flat. Not the most economic way, but it works.

Making Cella shave soap into a shave stick

2011-05-17T19:21:00.000-04:00

This has to be one of the easiest tutorials ever. I like Cella, but it seems to require a lot of product to work well. I don't particularly like having to lather from a mug because I find that shave sticks are more efficient at putting a lot of soap on the face in a much more repeatable fashion than mug/puck lathering. Since Cella is the consistency of a soft clay, I thought this would be a quick little project. It actually took me longer to find the plastic spoon in the kitchen than it did for me to finish this entire project.

Step One: Gather materials

I have my 1/4 pound of Cella in a small Old Spice mug. This is one of the later ones made. The stick is from West Coast Shaving . The "placemat" is a menu from this amazing Chinese restaurant that I ate at this weekend. Get the steamed pork dumplings.

Step Two: Start packing the soap

Dig a scoop of soap out of the mug, and pack it into the stick. Try and limit the amount of air bubbles in the soap since it is possible to have this soap go rancid after a year or two.

Step 3: Well....that's actually about all there is to it. Going to shave with it tomorrow and let you all know how it went.

I just finished grad school, and now it feels like I'm playing with Playdoh. Right now, I'm working on a post about a Chinese fountain pen that I just got. Hope to finish it up later tonight and post it tomorrow.

I've finished...

2011-05-11T16:49:00.000-04:00

Barring any bad grades from a couple of classes, it seems that I've finished graduate school and will be awarded my Masters of Arts in Government and Politics on Sunday.

I've been in grad school for three years. My school offered a program where if a student starts taking grad classes as an undergrad, these classes would count towards both degrees. The combined BA/MA degree means I took less undergrad classes, but was able to get my MA in only one extra year of school instead of 2-3 as is customary.

This took a lot out of me. I was taxed to the limit of my abilities; actually I was pushed way beyond them at a few points. One of my fellow grad assistants and I were talking and wondering if we had actually learned anything. Then, we started to remember how we are now able to talk about things: break them down, explain things, analyze everything, provide background on information, all that jazz. I'm very, very well educated now!

The parents are coming over on Friday (today is Wednesday...I think) and we're going to do the whole touristy thing again like we did last year. Plans for the weekend include: The Natural History Museum, USS Intrepid, a yarn store around Union Square for the mom, graduation, and a buffalo burger for my dad. Should be a fun weekend!

I'm looking for jobs, which to put it mildly, SUCKS. I keep seeing stories about the job market improving, so I'm keeping my hopes up. If anyone knows of any positions around the NYC/Long Island/Norther NJ area, I'd love to know about it!

I've said this a dozen times, but I'm really going to try and post here more often. Wetshaving, fountain pens, maybe a dabble in politics (gimme a break for not talking about it more, I just spend five years studying it!), job hunt, moving to a new apartment in Flushing, NYC. Interesting stuff like that.

If you have any requests as to what I write about, comment or drop me a message on the Digsby applett on the side.

Craig

Oops. Slipped already!

2011-02-04T00:30:00.000-05:00

School:So I've planned on writing summaries of my classes the day after they happen. I was doing a good job at first, but slipped this week. I'll update all three classes tomorrow.

Wetshaving update: Tried an open-comb Micromatic single edge razor. Really close shave! You have to be careful with this razor, but if you are you're rewarded with a close shave. Two new products in my inventory (or will be in a day or two): Speick shave stick and Cella Crema de Sapone; along with three new sticks of one of my top 3 soaps: Palmolive stick. Excited to try both new soaps and to have refills of an old standby. I did my first wetshaving video one Katrina's YouTube channel. It was kind of fun, and I look forward to doing a few more. I'm thinking about doing the different GEM razors and all of the different soaps and creams that I have.

Tech: I'm loving the Minimalist Gmail extension for Chrome. It hides unwanted elements from Gmail and makes the screen more clean and simple. I'm hopefully going to be beta testing Minimalist GCal beginning tomorrow, and will sign up for the same extension for Reader when it comes out in a few weeks.

Considering how much I like to do these little blurbs, maybe I should start using my Tumblr. Meh. I'll stick with this!

Snow Day

2011-01-26T20:22:00.000-05:00

With the lovely weather today, I had two classes cancelled. What was supposed to be my first class on Western European politics was cancelled again (first class due to illness) and the second International Law class. So no summaries of those tomorrow. And today's blog will be a few quick thoughts that I've been having

It just started thunder-sleeting. That's new to me. Staying inside, cooking, and drinking massive quantities of tea.

The tea I ordered from Upton Teas yesterday was packed within an hour and shipped by the end of the day. Right now, it's already in New York. Might have fresh tea by Friday!

I wish Blogger would incorporate itself into Google Apps more. It'd be nice to be in GMail and have links to Reader, Blogger, Docs, and Calendar; these are my most used Google apps.

Turns out I can jailbreak my iphone on the latest firmware. I'm going to spend the rest of the night checking the compatibility of my jailbreak apps to see if they'll all work on 4.2.1. Thanks for the tip, @iMuggle!

I'm going to be doing a review of a couple of different iOS calendars soon. I saw a Lifehacker article about WeekCal, and I enjoy it. I'm also going to be trying out Calvetica. So many links, so little space.

First Public Administration class

2011-01-25T22:08:00.002-05:00

There are three concentrations in my MA program: International Relations (mine and the largest), Public Administration, and American Government. I've actually never taken a PA class before; yesterday was my first session in Comparative Public Admin. The class is supposed to look at the history of PA and the current public administration of a few different countries; I'm most excited for learning about Japan.

This was the first class, so it was very basic. The political science "scene" changed around World War II from being more occupied with how things "should" work or should happen, to more oriented with specific institutions and their effects on how they affect policies.

Next, a small history of the two main schools of PA. The Wilsonian school (From President Wilson!) is focused entirely on administration: budgeting, hiring, HR, all the fun things like that. The other school is called (I think, my prof has a really mumbly voice) is the Bagehot school. This one focuses on how a bureaucracy changes. That's really about it. He kept telling stories to us and I couldn't really figure out what point was being made.

Anyways: The first week of a new semester is a KILLER. I'm half asleep, so if there's anything misspelled or incoherent, just let me know. Also, I just bought 750g of tea, so look for a few reviews of that coming up.

Class summary: International Law of Peace

2011-01-22T17:59:00.001-05:00

I'm going to try something different this semester...I hope. Since I only have three classes this semester I'm going to try to summarize each one the day after I have it. In doing this, it might help my retention a bit and hopefully you can learn something from it as well. I have classes on Monday and Wednesday, so hopefully I can crank out a post about them on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I had one class cancelled (Western European Politics) because of illness, but my Law of Peace class was a go. Here goes nothing:

Since it was the first class of the new semester, it wasn't very heavy on the subject matter. Basically the entire class was a summary of everything that we had learned in the previous Law class (Law of War and Neutrality). In most states' (when I say state, I mean country) governments, there is a centralized authority for prosecuting and trying offenders of the law. Courts, commissions, tribunals, trials, you get the general idea. There's nothing of the sort in international law. There are a few international courts (ICJ/ICC/UNCHR), but they're limited in the scope of crimes that they can prosecute, and limited in their actual ability to try suspects.

If (theoretically) I was to walk outside right now and hit someone in the head with a lead pipe because they're wearing Uggs (theoretically!), I'm going to be arrested, tried, sentenced, and thrown in jail. If I were to do that on an international scale, chances are there wouldn't be a prosecution. There are a lot of different challenges barring many cases from being brought to court, mostly because the courts have very narrow scopes in which they can prosecute, they have to wait to see if the state will prosecute the crime first, and they have to actually bring the state or individual into court. I'll leave this for now because I know it'll come up later in class.

International law got its start with Hugo Grotius, a Dutch scholar and one of the more interesting characters I've ever had to read about. Not many legal scholars broke out of prison, after all. He was one of the first to write about international law and the law of the sea (important to the fledgling Dutch empire, along with those of England, Spain, and Portugal). In addition to Grotius, the Treaties of Westphalia in 1638 are the basis of the state-based system we enjoy today. In ending the Thirty Years' War, the Great Powers of the day recognized that rulers of German territories had complete sovereignty over their land; they were able to choose the religion of their land and were responsible for that land. One thing lead to another, and the concept of the sovereignty of a German Prince to select the religion of his territory lead to the idea that each rule was the sovereign that held total control over all territory and citizens.

That's about it, honestly. It was a short class, and I was more interested in getting dinner at that point! Also, I have to get used to writing with a fountain pen after not really using them for a month. I smeared ink everywhere on my notebook. These Black and Red notebooks really hold up well, I've had two for over six months and they still look brand new.

First post in months. WOW.

2011-01-22T16:58:00.002-05:00

I'm not exactly what you'd call a "prolific" blogger, obviously. Being in grad school took a lot out of me last semester. This semester I have one less class to take which should be nice. I also have comprehensive exams (sort of a big exit exam) that I must pass in order to graduate; I have about a month to study everything I've learned while taking grad classes for 2.5 years. Three questions taken from my "major" International Relations/Comparative Politics and one question from either American Politics or Political Theory. Basically, profs write one question per graduate class they teach, and you're presented with a list of questions from the classes you've taken. If I had to guess right now, I'd say I'm going to answer questions from my classes in Global Politics, Politics of the Middle East, International Law, and the American Presidency. All three classes I took last semester, with the exception of the class about the MENA (Middle East/North Africa region) which I took in the my first semester of junior year of undergrad. It's a four hour exam; essentially we're expected to retake the final exams of four classes in half the time. Not my idea of a fun way to spend a Friday morning, but it'll be worth having a Masters in Government and Politics with a certificate in International Politics at the end of it.

I'm really not sure what I'll be writing about this semester. I'm nearly out of tea and whiskey, so there's no more reviews coming from that field until I replenish the stocks. I might do some fountain pen and wetshaving stuff, since I can do those pretty easily. I'd like to start summarizing what I learned in class; not only could you learn something, it'd be a great way for me to study. If there's something in particular you want to hear about, let me know! For now, here's a gratuitous picture of one of my texts that I have to know by heart for the final.

Latest Kitchen Misadventures

2010-09-12T22:16:00.000-04:00

Latest dumb things I've done in the kitchen:

Tried cleaning out my Thermos with soap and boiling water. I poured soap and water into it, sealed it, and shook it for a few minutes. Cleans it out perfectly. I knew water would be under pressure because of the soap, but thought I had my fingers out of the danger zone. NOPE. Burned the thumb, pointer, and middle finger of my right hand. The night before my first day of classes as a full-time grad student. BRILLIANT.

Broke the French Press that I use for tea. Not sure how I did it, but I broke the tiny little spout (it was a Bodum) that is used to pour the liquid out.

Just set the fire alarm off while reseaoning the cast iron. Forgot to ventilate properly! Also set the fire alarm off because a tiny, microscopic noodle fell right under the pot I was cooking in. It got turned into a tiny lump of charcoal by the time I got the fire alarm to stop beeping.

I'm going to start having a little bit of disposable income soon, so look for a review of either scotch or matcha soon. Not sure which- let me know if anyone would prefer either.

"If you don't write it down, it never happened"- Tom Clancy

2010-08-17T17:31:00.000-04:00

This little saying is from Tom Clancy's novel Debt of Honor. In it, the main character uses this phrase to restart the nation's economy after an attack by a formerly friendly nation.

What does this have to do with me? Well, late last night, I had a great idea for a blog post. It was either about tea, cooking, or the infamous Ground Zero Mosque. Since it was late, I decided to not write it then and there; who doesn't want to get a good night's sleep?

8 hours later- I wake up, make breakfast, brush my teeth, and get on my Blogger homepage. I put mental pen to mental paper and start thinking about what I am abou- oh no. No. *Star Wars Episode III Darth Vader voice* NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Yep, I completely forgot what I wanted to write about.

It isn't for a lack of ways to detail my thoughts either. I have an iPhone right next to my bed that is chock-full of note-taking apps (Evernote, Dragon Dictation, stock Notes app, Gmail, etc.), I have a notebook on the desk right next to my bed (complete with a couple of different fountain pens), and not to mention my two roommates who I could ask to remind me of my topic in the morning.

From now on, whenever I have an idea, I'm going to write it down. No matter how minuscule I think it is at the time, it'll be put down somewhere.

- Thanks to @rasagepoulin (look him up on Twitter) for the idea to write about this. He owns a business in Canada that sells some fantastic wetshaving supplies. I need to write a wetshaving post soon- Rasage Poulin will be one of my recommended retailers.

Adagio, I have wronged you.

2010-08-10T16:40:00.000-04:00

My first blog post on here was about a few teas from Adagio. I got a couple of samples, but one of them, I just didn't enjoy. The Xue Ya "Ballad" tea just smelled and tasted off to me. I kept the sample for a rainy day, but never drank it again. Last night, I decided to retry this tea. I'm very happy I did!

Here's my original review of Ballad:

The "Ballad" was my least favorite green tea from the sampler. It has a less strong/smoky taste that Gunpowder, which some may enjoy. I found it to smell extremely grassy before and after brewing. While I didn't enjoy that (in fact, it is a huge negative in my book), the girlfriend liked the smell. If you get this tea, just know that it will smell like a fresh cut lawn ("No, it doesn't! It smells like springtime!" - the girlfriend). The taste is very much like a very mild Gunpowder without the smokiness that I enjoy and thankfully without the grass taste that I expected. I will finish the sampler with no complaints but won't be ordering any more Ballad for myself ("What about me?" - the girlfriend).

I'm not sure if I have become more open to different tastes in tea, or if I just steeped the tea wrong the first time, but this stuff is good! The smell of the loose tea is still off-putting to me as it smells like seaweed or nori, but the brewed stuff has none of those smells. I made sure to let the water cool down to well below boiling (should be 170-180 degrees) and to only steep for 2-3 minutes. Once I did that, I got a nice yellow tea. Tasted a little grassy but in a very, VERY good way. Thankfully, I still have a few cups left in my sample to get into more detail about why I like it.

Also, the girlfriend finished off the other sample, the Kai Hua "Crescendo". She likes this stuff a lot, and I did make a good cup of it this time. It was very astringent compared to other times, but she said this was good. "Good for singing because it cleans out the phlegm in the back of the throat" was her review. Yuck.

Need to get back into the habit of writing

2010-07-26T20:59:00.000-04:00

Since full-time graduate school is only a month away and I need to get back into the swing of doing a lot of writing, here are some short thoughts I've been having about a few things:

Cooking: I honestly should start a food blog dealing only with the clumsy things I do while cooking. Today, I dropped a large knife and only barely got out of the way before it bounced off my arm and directly into the garbage can. That was after bruising my hand trying to unstick two chicken breasts that were frozen apart. Not counting the numerous times I've burnt myself cooking (who'da thunk a 500 degree cast iron skillet would burn my hand so much!), run into open cabinets, fell onto open dishwasher doors (my mom still hasn't forgiven me for this), broken at least a dozen cups/glasses/vases (two vases in the past 2 months), or just plain old screwing up whatever I was cooking. It could be entertaining! And would discourage me from ever trying out for a Food Network show.

Politics- Wikileaks published around 90,000 reports from the war in Afghanistan. Some media reports are saying that they aren't important or all that secret, but two things are very important. One, the unreported civilian casualties: even if most of these are caused by soldiers not wanted to be be attacked by suicide bombers (legitimate reasons if the civilians do not respond to warning shots), it still paints the US military as bloodthirsty occupiers. And two, the Pakistani ISI (think Pakistani CIA) may be aiding the resistance movement in Afghanistan against the USSR....See what I did there? It must be remembered that the government of Pakistan is "besieged" from the inside by the constant struggle between a corrupt and inefficient democratic government fighting against the autocratic military rulers who constantly take over the country. Externally, India holds a nuclear knife to Pakistan's throat over Kashmir. Because of this, having a modern and powerful military on both the eastern and western sides of Pakistan is deeply unsettling to the ISI. They have always fostered dissent in Afghanistan and India- terror attacks, funding resistance groups, etc.

Just about me- My girlfriend has recently become hooked on YouTube. She makes a video or two per day, and watches dozens of videos at a time. I was thinking about why she's so into making videos when I found something on StumbleUpon. It was an introvert's journal/blog. I've been an introvert my whole life- both the "quiet and shy" type, to the Myers-Briggs typological type that processes information internally. I'm wondering if this has something to do with it. I've always been someone who enjoys listening to people and gathering information for personal use as opposed to producing new things for other people. It could just be that I'm a more private person than most. Then again, it could just be my introversion and unwillingness to be public person. I did a video with her, and even on this, I was very soft spoken, and waited for her to ask a question before I spoke. Strange to see how two people can be so dissimilar, and yet be together nearly 3.5 years.

Cast Iron update

2010-06-08T19:48:00.000-04:00

The seasoning hadn't been perfect on my larger skillet, but I've been keeping it oiled and making foods like burgers and bacon on it to keep it nice and oiled. I made French Toast and eggs over easy today, and to my surprise, this thing got really non-stick really quickly! I had trouble getting my flipper/spatula thing under the eggs to flip them.

I think I figured out why though. Every time I use them, I give them a thin coat of Crisco just in case I don't use them for a while- doing this on cast iron is necessary especially if you don't plan on using them again soon. The stove at our apartment has two pilot lights, right in between the two burners on both the left and right sides. These keep everything on the stove warm- not hot, but I wouldn't park my face on it for a long period of time either. I think (but have no basis to believe it) that keeping the cast iron warm/hot with this oil coating might actually be a better way to keep everything seasoned than a big reasoning job once in a while.

Next time I go to Louisiana, I'll try this again by just leaving the blackened pots out in the sun. Maybe I'll be able to cook just with that heat!

New Obsession

2010-06-06T14:36:00.001-04:00

Cooking. I've been looking at cast iron cookware for a while because I had a nonstick pot (Teflon coated) that decided to flake off the coating into a really good pot of pasta I made one night. My dad was going to take me to a place near him that still makes them, but then remembered he had some laying in the attic.

Cast iron needs to be "seasoned" in order to work properly- basically you burn some kind of oil/fat onto the surface. This makes it rust-proof and nonstick, much like teflon. I seasoned them by coating them with a thin layer of oil and baking at 400 degrees, they all came out pretty black since they had been seasoned years earlier. I was only able to bring a skillet and frier (basically a deep skillet) with be because of weight restrictions on JetBlue; I had to leave the large Dutch Oven at home. That's probably for the best since the apartment I just moved into is...tiny.

I've cooked bacon and eggs in them (cooking fatty food such as bacon or burgers help season the pans). The eggs come out great (when I don't break the yolks) and so does everything else.

Cleanup is a breeze- just wipe it down while still hot. Usually, everything will come off. If not, a gentle scrubbing without soap is all it needs. Leave everything in the pan, and put it on a burner for a couple of minutes to dry it off if water was used to clean it. That's it- no soap, no scrubbing, and no teflon bits flaking off into my food anymore. Win, win, and WIN.

I'll be posting more stuff that I cook...at least that's the plan.

Edit: Here's an article from Serious Eats about Cast Iron. http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/06/how-to-buy-season-clean-maintain-cast-iron-pans.html