Life after Work

Foody Friday: Tandoori and Enchiladas!

2009-11-06T06:00:00.000-06:00

Chicken!!! :) Here are two dishes I produced over the past two weeks:

1. Chicken Tandoori
For some reason I wanted to play with yogurt last week, so using this recipe as a guide, I embarked on my first ever tandoori chicken experiment.

Not having all the ingredients, I made do with what I had: click the above picture you might to see the variety of spices I mixed in with the yogurt and lemon juice, and compare that to the "guide" :D

The chicken was then refrigerated for a day and a half, marinating.

Next came a big lesson: when the recipe calls for grilling/roasting, it might be a good idea to do the same... For some reason, I decided to just use a skillet instead. Hmmm... there's A LOT of water that emerges, the chicken looked to be pathetically drowning! In the end I kinda scooped out as much of the water as I could, and then let the "gravy" thicken. Of course, because it had been so wet, I let it thicken for too long, and burned the bottoms of the sauce & chicken! And I had to reuse the pan to heat up the accompanying roti pratha (no, not naan) too! Aaarrgghh!! (No photos at this stage because I was very upset at how things seemed to be turning out)

In the end, this was what was served:

Despite the burnt parts, it was actually quite decent: it had the correct taste, perhaps a little dry, which would have been addressed by an overlooked cool white sauce (recipe didn't call for it, so I totally forgot!), but some ranch dressing did the trick, phew!

I don't think I'll repeat this in the near future... but hey if you're inspired to try it out, please tell me how you fared, k?

2. Enchiladas
Okay, not just any enchiladas, but creamy chicken with chile enchiladas!

I've been craving "Mexican" for a while now... so when cans of Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce called out to me on one of my shopping trips, I totally succumbed, grabbing two different cans -- a mild with chile and a hot red. After looking at online recipes which seems unnecessarily complicated, I decided to just go with the recipe on one of the cans' label: creamy chicken enchilada.

one brick of cream cheese

End product:

Kosh and I had 1.5 each, with a side of shredded lettuce and some sour cream.

Verdict:
ZOMG
It was sooooooooooooooooooo good!
Seriously, like restaurant quality good.
This is something I could serve guests (once I get us a proper glass baking+serving dish!), without hesitation!

Changes I would make: try ground/minced chicken instead of having spend all that time cutting up those thighs, although I wonder if it would "go" with the creaminess. Oh, and maybe try a low-fat brick of cream cheese instead?

So, are you tempted to try this recipe out? If you do, please tell me how it went: I do hope you enjoyed it as much as Kosh and I did :)

Have a great weekend, y'all!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Music Monday #22 (my #2): Meat Loaf

2009-11-02T11:00:00.003-06:00

I've been knocked out by a nasty cold since last Wednesday, resulting in this blog being just a wee bit neglected. I did participate in the third World Blog Surf Day with my take on Holidays & Festivals over at a malaysian abroad, you are invited to drop by and surf around the world :) I've only made my way through half the entries myself, no worries!

Today marks my second entry in Music Monday (#22), and this time around it's my pleasure to introduce perhaps my favouritest singer EVAH, Meat Loaf!

Depending on your age and/or exposure, you may have first heard of him due to Paradise by the Dashboard Light (from Bat out of Hell), or from the mid-90s I would do Anything for Love (But I won't do That) (from Bat out of Hell II). Today's featured song is the title track of the 2003 album Couldn't Have Said it Better, a very special album to me in so many ways. Ironically, this album might have totally escaped my attention if I hadn't stumbled across this particular song/music video while accessing Malaysia Airlines' inflight entertainment channels on a flight to Switzerland.

I could barely recognise Meat Loaf: he had aged, lost weight too, but there was no mistaking that voice!!

Once I got back to KL, I went a-hunting for the album... finally found it, put it in my car's CD player, and o.m.g. I had goosebumps and shivers all throughout the first few songs, that's how much they resonated with me.

I hope it does something for you, too :)

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

it's kapgar's fault...

2009-10-22T07:25:00.001-05:00

... that my neighbours might think I'm crazy. I was laughing out loud at 6:45am! Many times!!

Here's what started it:

Then I moved to the Food Court version:

"He's the most singingest janitor I've ever seen!"

So what's this all about? These two are among the nearly 100 "missions" carried out by Improv Everythere -- with a tagline of We Cause Scenes, you will find they are not limited to musicals - they've had a 5-minute Frozen Grand Central Station, and hold an annual No Pants Subway Ride, for example. While usually occurring only in the New York area, there was a North America tour of the mp3 experiment (see Toronto & Chicago editions).

Very cool.

Here's another. I roared with laughter at around the 1:00 mark (getting pulled by the "dog") and 1:30 mark (walking a whole bunch of them!). Be prepared!

Hope this got ya laughing!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Music Monday #20 (my #1)

2009-10-19T08:45:00.003-05:00

I was prompted to participate in Music Monday today, thanks to a tweet by Miracle Laurie (you may know her as Mellie / November in Dollhouse) that pointed me in the direction of the song used as the theme for Dollhouse. ... it's kinda weird to be hearing words instead la-la-la-laaas (and they are eerie lyrics!)! Anyways, so here is Jonatha Brooke with What You Don't Know featuring the unofficial Dollhouse video. Enjoy!

I'm hoping Joss Whedon will at least be able to finish off Season 2 before FOX cancels the show (yes, it's just a matter of when, not if) ... to help, please watch Dollhouse on hulu or at Fox.com.

~~(I think I'm supposed to get some code from MckLinky, but don't know how... in the meantime, do drop me a line in your comments to point me in your Music Monday direction, kthnks!)~~

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Foody Friday: Cornbread!

2009-10-16T12:05:00.000-05:00

Inspired by Kim's Chili and Cornbread post, I gave in to the call of carbs and fixed us some cornbread this week. (Chili is also in the works, maybe I'll do & write it up next week -- this cold weather is pretty much demanding for chili to be made and consumed!).

It was left a bit too long - we were too caught up reattaching the oven handle to its door!

Me being me, I experimented a bit, using Kim's vegan recipe and other variations I found at about.com as guidelines, not instructions. The main variation was the addition of two heaping tablespoons of a hot giardiniera relish and what was probably 1+ cup of shredded 4-type mexican-style cheese.

It was steaming hot and yummy good!

The bread certainly had some zing to it thanks to the aforementioned hot giardiniera relish, but the only viewable proof of its presence was the occasional red strip of pepper. No sign of its green counterpart. Weird.

I couldn't identify the presence of cheese: perhaps if I'd used sharp cheddar?

A strip of red pepper skin lies in wait within the cornbread-with-bite

I've got enough cornmeal for perhaps another two batches of cornbread: if anyone has a favourite cornbread recipe you'd like to share or would like me to experiment with, feel free to point me their way in the comments, k?

In the meantime, have a great weekend!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I am also a malaysian abroad!

Pssst! Spread the Word!!

2009-10-15T14:00:00.001-05:00

. . . . . .

I have three great causes I'd like to do my small part in spreading the word about. Please read on!!

First: Help a PhD student!

Who:

ah ok lah

Adam Ok Dot Net

What:

Where:

My Research Methodology

What's in it for you:

Next: Help purse-less students in Springfield!

Who:

MochaMomma

What:

Where:

One Small Thing. One Small Purse

http://tinyurl.com/tinypurse

What's in it for you:

epitome

NOT!

a leather backpack styled thing

Finally: Help Heifer International!

Who:

Patrick Rothfuss

What:

The Wise Man's Fear

Heifer International

Where:

So You Want to Be a Hero?

What's in it for you:

visited one of my pottery albums and left a message

cojones

I thank you for your time, and hope you will at least consider following-up with one, two or all three featured bloggers and their causes. And no, I'm getting no kickbacks from this, I just want to do my part to spread the word... it is Blog Action Day after all, even if this doesn't talk about climate change.

Image Credits:

Businessman by surely
Bags by salsachica
Pat Rothfuss in cat ears taken from Tobias Buckell's post.

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

R2D2 in Springfield!

2009-10-14T10:25:00.001-05:00

Back in May 2007, in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the debut of Star Wars, the United States Postal Service had a stroke of major creative genius and converted a select few of their mailboxes into R2D2.

I was reminded of these nifty mailboxes last week when I scoured sxc and flickr for images of Malaysian, Swiss and US mailboxes to complement a post about World Post Day, and was pretty geeked out by how cool these R2D2 mailboxes were.

Way back when, I had heard rumour that one such mailbox was somewhere in Chicagoland: seeing as we're at the end of 2009, I figured all R2D2 mailboxes had since been transformed back into their 'usual' colors, and I kicked myself for not having looked for one when I had the opportunity.

... so imagine how overjoyed I was to stumble upon R2D2 here in Springfield!!

Pity about the graffiti, though.

Have they no respect?!!

If you want to see this for yourself, head on over to downtown Springfield: R2D2 will be waiting for you on the south west corner of 5th and Washington.

HAPPY HUMP DAY!!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Cat Tales: hissy fit update

2009-10-10T15:00:00.001-05:00

If you recall, the other day I typed at y'all about our cat's hissy fits in relation to visiting outside cats ... so guess what sight greeted me this morning as I was about to leave to meet some Springfield Tweeters and Bloggers?!

Yes, there she is, on her favourite perch, totally unfazed that Cat#2 is lounging around on our back porch!

OMG, cat... You decided you like visitors now? Or does the closed window "solve" the batting and scent problems?

"Why u clutching at your eyes, mommy?"

... because I rolled my eyes at you so hard they hurt!

I'mma let you finish, but my previous post was the best post of all time!

2009-10-09T17:45:00.002-05:00

yes, it's a little stale by now, so sue me!

Kanye West is ... from GraphJam

have a good weekend, everyone!

under construction ~again!~

2009-10-08T08:10:00.003-05:00

Okay I finally got tired of my half-done template with one too many columns... please bear with me as I get things back in order!

Green Hard Hat by melodi2

Template credit: The Greenery Template by Ourblogtemplates.com

Header image credit: adapted from DualScreen Wallpaper by the folks at OurBlogTemplates.

UPDATE:
As much as i ~heart~ OurBlogTemplates, I do wish they'd go back and fix their older templates, so that I don't have to do the following every time I switch:

I like the Blogger NavBar!
I want the quick edit pencil!
Ditto the "email this post" icon! (same as above, look for "email-post-icon" and replace with icon18_email.gif)
Do I have to fix comments every. single. time?

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Cat Tales: hissy fits

2009-10-07T10:45:00.000-05:00

This morning, the cat had a huge case of the hissy fits.

This had happened once before, and it had been really disconcerting for me to be jolted out of bed by loud thudding in the back room. Kosh had been closer by when it happened, and reported he'd heard hissing too. The cat was totally freaked out, tail all poofed up and all. Based on the sound, we wondered if the cat had trapped herself in one of the many boxes and freaked herself as she struggled to get out.

A few days later, we found out the real reason:

During another hissy fit, Kosh caught sight of a cat batting at our cat through the window screen! That was the thudding sound we had heard ... well that and the noise made by our cat freaking out on the window sill, batting back and retreating.

I'll have to check with Kosh about the outside cat's coloring, because now I'm not sure which of today's two visitors that one was.

That's right.

This morning, this orange tom came a-visiting, stalking up almost to the window as our cat hissed up a storm, scaring the bejeesus out of me as I sat nearby.

The sight of me halted the tom before he reached the window; after engaging me in a staring contest (he won, of course), he then retreated to the stairs where he proceeded to ignore me, back turned, while our poor cat sniffed and sniffed the air coming in through the window for his scent, hissing every once in a while, and overall acting quite put out.

But then Mr Orange Tom left, so the cat and I settled back to our preferred locations - she on the window sill, and me at the computer 2 feet away from her.

The next thing I know there are loud yowls and thudding screens and our radio tumbles down as the cat scrambles away from yet another visitor, this time a darker striped cat.

Not sure if it was male, this one - it didn't immediately strike me as male, anyway. Silly me, I tend to observe the shape of the face and hips, instead looking for the telltale balls!

So with this visitor, our cat was extremely frazzled. In the end, she stalked off to the front of the apartment. Don't blame her at all, heck ~i~ had a case of major heart thumpage going on just from having been closeby when it all went down!

Figuring the poor thing could do with some attention -- once she'd calmed down, that is! -- I ended up giving her about 30mins of lap time accompanied by major purrage (her, not me!) while I watched some tv.

She's not come back to the window sill yet, though.

Poor thing.

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

an update from Springfield, IL

2009-10-02T12:25:00.001-05:00

The naranek household has been in Springfield for almost a month!

... so, what have we got to show for it?

On the social front, Kosh and I met up with Mocha Momma again (we'd met once, a little over a year ago, at Davecago; she'd also helped me stay slightly sane while doing the apartment hunting!). We should have met more/other Springfield twitterers but were a little late getting there :p Hopefully time will be on our side next time!

After the meet-up, we walked around a bit of downtown historical Springfield: we'd missed the Farmers Market, but there were plenty of other booths due to the International Route 66 Mother Road Festival going on that weekend. I'll be doing a small write-up of this at a malaysian abroad soon, stay tuned!

Later that day, we also dropped by one of Kosh's colleagues who had invited folks over to watch some college football game. By the time we got there (do you see a trend here?!), the score was 0 - 30 so the 6 or 7 couples who were there were just chatting over hors d'oevres instead. It was a bit painful. Didn't help that almost all the ladies were in various stages of pregnancy: guess what the main topic of conversation was? :p

... and in case you were keeping track, yes, all that happened in the one day, LoL! What about all those other days we've had since getting here? They've been spent slowly unpacking and settling in: partly procrastination, partly strategy to not activate my allergies.

Here's the pile of "to be whittled down one box at a time whenever Kosh has the time" boxes that's taking up a whole bunch of space in what is the dining room (or extended kitchen) area. Most other boxes are pretty much unpacked and torn down already, and this place is certainly coming along well.

More, better, photos to come.. later... In the meantime: have a great weekend!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I am also a malaysian abroad!

Hey EC, read my lips: "No 15% ads"!!

2009-09-23T02:30:00.002-05:00

Calling all of ya'll who are dropping by via Entrecard... did you read and understand the latest announcement? I read it, but to tell you the truth I didn't "get" it until I saw something about it on Jackie's blog recently.

The announcement went something like this: effective 28th September 2009, 15% of EC's entire ad network inventory will be set aside for sponsors.

Translation: Come Monday, 15% of my site's page loads will show a paid ad on the EC widget, and not a legit/regular ad by fellow EC bloggers ... ads that I have no control over ...

they say they will "screen all sponsor ads to ensure that they meet our guidelines. All sponsor ads WILL be family oriented, and will not promote nudity, violence or anything illegal." Hey remember when everyone who agreed to run paid ads had that gross "yellow teeth" ad on their widget? It made EC dropping a horrible chore. Seriously, those teeth were g.r.o.s.s!!
they also say there is a feature coming soon that would enable users to disable/reject ads "that conflict with your blog" ... riiiiiiight, how to go about proving that any ad would conflict with a mixed-bag blog like this one? How about if they conflict with the blogGER, with his/her opinions and beliefs?? I have a feeling many if not all of my rejections will get overturned... or they'll add a limit to the number of ads you can reject in a month... or something....

so you know what? I'm done.

After over a year with EC, it's finally time to part ways for reals.

The widget will be removed once the current ads in my queue run their course.
(should bring me to Sunday, if my math is right)

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

EC visitors, please consider subscribing to my feed, bookmarking this site,
or subscribing via email if you've enjoyed your time here at Life After Work
(or my other blogs!)
You can also follow me on Twitter, I am a bit more active there nowadays!

Emmys Schemmys!

2009-09-21T00:21:00.000-05:00

Back when I was a teenager, I did watch the Grammys for a year or three... but in general I really couldn't be bothered with all those award shows, acceptance speeches, etc etc. This year is no different: even knowing that Dr Horrible was being honored even if it's not technically a tv show (it was, after all, a 3-part web series) didn't move me to watch the Emmys tonight. I knew Neil Patrick Harris was hosting, but I've not gone out of my way to be a fan, tho I did enjoy his horribility in said web series.

... and I'm glad that when NPH's evil alter ego hijacked the Emmys live feed, folks were smart enough to make it available online so that people like me could enjoy it without having had to sit through all those acceptance speeches, etc.

So in case you missed it, here's Dr Horrible's hijacking of this year's Emmys:

And in case you have been residing under a really large and heavy rock, here's where you can get acquaint yourself with the horrible goodness that is Dr Horrible.

Have a great start to the week, y'all!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Raaaaaaarrrrrrmadhan is ovarrrrrrrrr!

2009-09-19T13:30:00.000-05:00

Ahoy there, me mateys!

t' computer be now up and runnin'! Arrrrrrr! ... and just in time for International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

... although for me, it's TYPE like a pirate day, LoL!

... shiver me timbers, ain't me keyboard a wee bit overkill compared t' this Pirate version above?

(and why do I read this in me head with an Irish-like accent?)

Have a good weekend, everybody!

And for those celebratin' it, happy Aidil Fitri!
(& please don't overeat!!)

Cheers,
*lynne*

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Goodwill Treasure?!

2009-09-10T17:05:00.000-05:00

A Miami hotel recently donated a whole bunch of stuff to the South Florida Goodwill: furniture, mirrors, lamps, paintings, etc. One of the items included a 2 ½ ton life-size bronze statue of a ballerina. Turns out it's one of only 10 made decades ago, each fetching half a million dollars way back then.
Rather than attempt to sell/auction it off,
Goodwill informed the donor and returned the statue. (full story here)

We're going to be hitting Goodwill this weekend: somehow I don't think the 12-year old mattress and box spring set, the ancient rowing machine, or the tv entertainment center we're planning to donate will fare the same, LoL!

... and yes, we survived the move... internet service just got reconnected... a gazillion boxes still to unpack... but we are now residents of Springfield, Illinois!

More later.

Ciao!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

it's Kit Kat time, again!

2009-09-04T22:10:00.001-05:00

Hey, remember back in late June I said that the naranek household was moving? So THAT time, we were moving about 2 blocks West from where we'd lived for almost 3 years in Chicago.

Now, we're moving about 3.5 HOURS ...
... SOUTH ...

Springfield, here we come!

... and it should be home for many years to come.

We move this weekend.

Hopefully U-Haul has a van we can hire at such short notice.

[... in case you were wondering, we knew the move was pending, but the actual green light and be-in-Springfield-by-this-date was sprung on us this morning... so we've got this Labor Day weekend to pack & move ... F. U. N. !! ... thankfully we managed to find us a place to move TO .. it's not on Evergreen Terrace tho, d'oh!!]

so once again, Life after Work will be taking a break for about a week or so.

See y'all on the other side!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

BEWARE! CAPS EMAILS MIGHT GET YOU FIRED!

2009-09-02T10:50:00.002-05:00

HOW IRRITATING IS IT WHEN YOU RECEIVE EMAILS WRITTEN ALL IN CAPS? OR WORSE, CAPS AND BOLDED, AND/OR COLORED BRIGHT RED?

How about if you were to receive such emails from a person at work, the contents of such emails being very stern and detailed instructions on how to properly fill up certain forms?

Would you consider such emails "confrontational"?
Would you fire someone for such emails?

Vicki Walker was.
For causing "disharmony in the workplace"!

(You can read more about it here and here)

Ms Walker had been working for New Zealand's ProCare Health for two years - whether or not the "confrontational emails" were also produced throughout the two years, or if they were a recent development, the articles do not say. All we know is that Ms Walker was sacked without warning in December 2007.

She sued.
She won.

I guess that's fair -- the articles do not mention any attempts to advise Ms Walker on toning down language, or pointing out that CAPS = SHOUTING, so if she was fired because of emails she "didn't know" were offensive, it certainly would be wrongful termination. ... although... puh-leeeze... in this day and age, how can one plead ignorance of general email etiquette??

... and then you have this Employment Relations Authority spokesperson who states "ProCare did not have a style or etiquette guide for employees using email, so it was not clear what was regarded as unacceptable communication," further enabling the "ignorance" stand.

Yeah, I can just see it: another framed A4 paper hung next to the company's core values, vision, mission, quality statement, and all that jazz... and that would be after months of drafting the damn thing, unless, of course, consultants were called in to do it, for a "reasonable" fee, since they are experts and all.

Ouch my eyes hurt from all that eye-rolling!

Anyone else have some 2-cents/sen/centimes to share?

NOTE: fired fortune cookie image obtained from here.

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

please don't SMS me!! (& pls sponsor my phone?!)

2009-08-28T10:00:00.001-05:00

Oh man, when it rains, it pours!

So I check my phone this morning -- I usually check it like once a week -- and see three messages: one from bro, one from mother, and the most recent one from my dad, who is alone in PJ while my mom is in Switzerland for a few weeks.

Guess who essentially checked himself into hospital because he wasn't feeling well? [read: "I was wondering if I was having another stroke"].

So I started to reply to those messages... and by doing so, I must have used up the last few Ringgit of my prepaid phone (it costs RM2 per SMS, whether receiving or sending, while IDD/roaming), because I started getting "please top-up!" error messages.

Usually when my phone runs low/out, I ask my parents to top up for me (they keep a running tab, and I pay them back whenever I'm back in Malaysia)... but my mother's in Switzerland and my father's in hospital!

Hmmmm... how?

For the moment, for those who know my Malaysian h/p #, please don't SMS me: it won't reach. I sent a "sponsorship plea" via Twitter/Facebook, hopefully some/any of my pals see/s it and is/are willing to help! I usually have my parents top up RM100 at a time, it's more than enough to last a few months; I would hope that ~RM50 is something my pal(s) would be able to help out with. ... Y'all know I'm good for it.. I'm just halfway across the world from any resource right now! :(

... wait, we're not done!

While I was texting, the phone gave a lot of problems, wasn't "seeing" the correct keys/letters I was typing in... I know that had happened before, when the little nubbin broke off.... oh hey guess what happened?

The little nubbin broke off!!

GrrrRRrrRRRrrrr!!!

(Yes, I'm still using my ancient Sony Ericson P800. Not for very much longer, one would hope, seeing this latest development!!)

Things come in threes, they say... well, I count three, but all this happened before 9am... I'm just wondering what ELSE is awaiting me today... either nothing, or another set(s) of three!! AArrgghhhhh!!!

Hope YOU have a good weekend!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

The Guild: better late than never!

2009-08-25T12:50:00.003-05:00

Patrick Rothfuss made reference to The Guild a few times on this blog. The Guild is what helped inspire Joss Whedon to create Dr Horrible during that writers' strike. And recently both Pat and Wil Wheaton were gaga over a music video released to publicise Season 3 of this web-series.

Curiosity finally got the better of me, once Kapgar also posted the video.

I hit play. And I was hooked. Why don't you try?

My fave line is: "You’ll touch my “+5 to dexterity” vest."
And yes, I'm geeky enough to appreciate this, even if I've never been sucked into the MMO world.

If Felicia Day looks familiar to you, you might recognise her from Buffy Season 7 (she was one of the many Slayerettes), or from Dr Horrible (his love interest). I've not seen the "missing" Dollhouse episode (Epitaph One), but she's in that too. Yes, she has done non-Whedon projects, I just haven't seen 'em. You can read more about Felicia and The Guild here (a Wall St Journal article!).

Anyways... so this The Guild thing... a series of webisodes about a local ~~group~~ guild of gamers who end up interacting in real life... to rather disastrous results. I've watched Season One, and will be move on to Season Two soon. Season Three just came out today.

Try it out!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Too good to be true on CraigsList

2009-08-24T11:00:00.000-05:00

Have you heard? We might be moved to Springfield in a few weeks' time!

So I'm looking around for possible apartments / houses to rent there... among other places, I try CraigsList. Here's one of the postings I responded to - way too good to be true, and more than we actually need, but hey, can't hurt to shoot an email, right?

Located in a working professional neighborhood, we're available to service your needs 7 days a week with 24 hour on-call facilities services.

Community perks include indoor fitness suite, fitness classes (like Pilates and yoga), pool and jacuzzi, fitness center, business center with hi-speed Internet , pool table, coffee bar, gathering area with flat screen television, locker rooms,, walking path, gazebo with flower garden, and attractive landscaping and waterfalls.

Apartments feature private entrances, laundry machine available, oversize garden bath tubs, walk-in closets, French doors, large windows with venetian, media, wired for high-speed Internet connection, built-in bookshelves and TV/media shelf, electric fireplace, ceiling fan hook-ups, arched doorways, ice-makers, dishwashers, screened-in porches or balconies, and ten foot and vaulted ceilings.

But now I am SO pissed... almost immediately, I received a reply:

ya i got some pics they're on my profile .. well i'm 5'7, long brunette hair, tight body and good sense of humor .. yaaa perfect :-) so tell me a little sumthin about you

ps: there's one little important thing i didnt mention in my ad .. umm hit me back and i'll tell you :-)

--
----------------------------------------------
Luella Mason
My Homepage <--- this was a link to a cliqmeet site
"Some people come into our lives, leave footprints in our hearts, and we are never ever the same."

take a closer look at the first line of the ad:
- working professional
- service your needs
... ummmm... okay, I was wondering about some choice of words, now I know....

I've already forwarded the reply to abuse@craigslist.org. I also pointed them to another similar posting (same words, different image) that is most probably another false post.

Let's hope the other two postings I responded to are genuine!

And in the meantime, I'll look at other more legitimate sites.

:p

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Gawd but do I lurve the internets!

2009-08-20T15:30:00.003-05:00

So I'd stumbled upon this concept of "literal music videos" a few months ago when the version for A-Ha's Take On Me made its rounds through the internet. ... Then thanks to a tweet by @redeyechicago today I was pointed to The Huffington Post's article on The 7 Best Literal Music Videos of All Time, which contained not only the A-Ha vid but six others, some of which were absolutely hi.la.rious.

If you're not sure what I'm talking about... "literal music videos" are essentially voiced-over music videos, where the song now describes what's going on in the video.

Still confused? No worries! I'd like to feature three vids (only one of which is in The Huff's list, so don't worry, you can enjoy all those AND these too!) which I think are hella awesome :)

[There's a pop quiz question at the end, so pay attention!]

First, Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart:

Second, Meat Loaf's I Would Do Anything For Love:

Pay special attention to what's said at 6:55-7:10ish :D

Third, Air Supply's Making Love (Out of Nothing at All)

.. and now the question: what do these three songs have in common?

Submit your guesses in the comments :)

.. and have a great weekend everybody!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

"George R. R. Martin is not your bitch"

2009-08-14T15:10:00.002-05:00

For those not in the know, George R. R. Martin is the author of the as-yet-unfinished series A Song of Ice and Fire. I've blabbed about the author and series before: bottom line is if you want an engrossing gritty realistic non-cookie-cutter epic fantasy series with flawed heroes, redeemable bad guys, and many intertwining plotlines, this is for you!

The "issue" some people have with George R. R. Martin is that it took forever to release Book 4 (A Feast for Crows), and that this ended up being Book 4 Part 1 because there were so many storylines to keep in mind and expand that only half the characters were advanced in Crows; the other half will be explored in A Dance with Dragons - which so far has had its release date changed/delayed quite a few times already.

So someone writes in to Neil Gaiman, asking his opinion on whether fans should be angry that GRRM seems to be working on other projects instead of churning out Book 4 Part 2 and however many books more to complete the series.

Neil's reply? George R. R. Martin is not your bitch

Bwaahahaahaha! Of course, Gaiman says more than just that, and it's a great read, but wow, George R. R. Martin is not your bitch kinda stayed with me.

As it did with other people too, obviously.

So much so that someone wrote a song about it. Please follow the link and give it a listen. If you like it, it's free to download. Serious.

Have a great weekend, y'all!

But don't blame me if the tune gets stuck in your head the whole weekend, k? :D

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

.. so it's Chicago's fault?

2009-08-13T12:20:00.000-05:00

Good news!

Tuesday afternoon, Kosh and I hopped in the car and were out of town for about 24hours. Upon waking up yesterday, my hives and itches were practically non-existent!

That's pretty telling: whatever that was triggering the outbreak, it's something(s) I'm exposed to in Chicago / the apartment.

Can't say it's just the new place tho, because the flare-up started in mid-June, while we were still in the previous apartment. So it's something we brought with the move (dust! old cushions, pillows, mattress?); or perhaps something in the Chicago air that's been at a higher than normal level since mid-June?

Something to discuss with the allergist, definitely.

Anyways.. I'm continuing with the pills regimen that previously was struggling to clamp down on the outbreak: hopefully it'll now be able to keep any outbreaks at bay. I have noticed one or two new hives appearing today.

Time for Xyzal and Benadryl!

Ciao!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

going potty: a forest in a bag, and other tales from the deck

2009-08-04T22:00:00.002-05:00

After just about a month in the new place, things have settled down enough for me to then look at the deck and the legacy of pots left behind by the landlord. The previous tenant had said that she had not bothered with them at all. Most of them are in bad shape:

full of dead stuff

broken

cracked

A few weeks ago, I had gotten my hands on some spider plant offshoots, and had put them in water in order to grow out some roots. Today, most of them looked like they were plantable. Well, they had to be - the cat had decided she wanted to eat the leaves...

Here you can see how the leaves had suffered from the cat's attention! Hopefully they'll survive... spider plants are supposed to be really hardy things... right?

As I was doing my "gardening", I remembered vaguely a friend of mine from college saying something about baking old dirt / potting soil before reusing it ... heh... whatever - aren't spider plants supposed to really hardy and hard-to-kill? :D

So I've (re-)planted two small and two large pots with spider plant offshoots. Some of the pots are filled with (new) peat moss. Others are using the old soil that was in there, but totally crumbled and mashed up and mixed with another pot's soil. Again: spider plants are supposed to be really hard to kill, so hopefully they'll survive what I've done to them, LoL!

Had a great surprise when opening the unopened bag of potting soil that had been sitting on the deck for a year or three:

Yeah, it's a jungle in there!

Kinda cool, I suppose that bags of soil still have random spores/seeds/roots that can sprout? I know these bags usually have small holes in them, so water can get in... but I guess sunlight -- even if it's through the plastic -- was also sufficient for growth?

There are still many pots to tackle, but until I have more spider plant offshoots to pot, or other hardy herbs that might come in handy, I'll probably let them be for the moment.

If you have any suggestions about what else I could plant out there, by all means leave me a comment :) Take note that since the cat can't be trusted not to gorge on them, I can't bring them inside during winter, I don't know if that makes any difference in suggestions.

Thanks!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!