A Rube Goldberg machine: accomplishing a task as inefficiently possible.
Also known as metaphor for my approach to writing essays. Especially lately.
It's amazing what you can accomplish when you have essays to write. Otherwise boring things become super interesting. It's not that I'm deliberately looking for distractions (okay, maybe I am...)
It's just that the Internet is full of stuff that's not my essays. And it's calling my name.
I make playlists for all sorts of things. Driving songs, study songs, running songs, and the occasional I-just-need-to-lay-down-on-the-floor-and-think-this-out songs. So when I saw the forecast said rain for the next week, I started thinking about making a new rainy day playlist.
Rainy days can go one of two ways for me. Sometimes they're peaceful. I'll stay in my sweats, put on some tea, curl up with a book, and listen to the rain. I like those days.
But other times, and this usually happens when there hasn't been sunshine in a while, rainy days can be gloomy. Or there might not be a single drop of rain falling outside, but life just feels grey. Those are the days I really need a good rainy day playlist. The right music can turn gloomy into peaceful; grey into reflective. And when I'm feeling peaceful and reflective, I usually wind up being grateful. And that's a good place to be.
Here's what you can expect to find on my list if I feel a little gloom coming on (in no particular order):
That is, after I conquer the 5 essays I'm working on. These babies are seriously limiting my ideas for randoms, because thanks to them I'm not going anywhere fun or learning anything new.
Oh wait, yes I am. I'm going to the kitchen to make more tea and learning loads about the construction of online identities and how to do critical discourse analysis.
But that doesn't count.
To maintain some semblance of sanity, I've been taking time off every so often to watch old episodes of The Office online or hit refresh while staring at Twitter...you know, so I can live vicariously through all you lovely people and the neat stuff you've got going on.
Did I just say neat? Anyway...
So until I have something exciting to tell you, I'm going to try not to waste your time. Or mine. Because I've seriously got to get these essays done.
In the meantime, I'll leave you with this picture, because it accurately sums up how I feel after pounding away at my poor keyboard for hours upon end:
This year, my birthday and Easter were only a few days apart, and most of the gifts I received shared a common theme: chocolate.
I've now got an impressive amount of chocolate in my life. Girl Scout cookies, Oreos, Cadbury Flake bars, a giant chocolate egg, a personalized chocolate champagne bottle (the girls said they'd planned to get me the teddy bear, but it wasn't enough chocolate...aren't they the best?), and a big bag of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips -- but those are for baking, not eating -- you name it, I've probably got it here somewhere.
The giant egg and the Flake bars were courtesy of Hannah's fam. I think they felt sorry for me since I don't get to be home over the Easter holidays. Gotta love orphan points.
I'm totally not above sympathy chocolate.
I'm trying to have some self control, but being stuck inside working on essays all day keeps me within an arm's reach pretty much all the time.
It's Easter Sunday -- a day I love, but a day that seems really strange and confusing for a lot of people. The whole concept of God dying a physical death? Weird. That this Jesus guy rose from the dead? Impossible. And, yet, it's what the whole of Christianity clings to.
Today, I want to share with you an excerpt from a sermon by Matt Chandler. The context is Colossians 3, and I love this part in the middle where he talks about what the cross means for us:
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...the Scriptures say, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” So here’s what you’ve got to do if you’re a serious thinker. What is the joy set before Christ in the cross? That He was purchasing for His Father many sons and daughters. You and I, in this strange way, become the joy that is set before Christ on the cross. He is, by His wrath-absorbing sacrifice on the cross, purchasing for the Father many sons, many daughters. It was with joy that He endures all of this.
Why? Because He loves you. That’s why. You have to grasp this truth (and it’s a big one) that He loves you. Not only does He love you, but He knows.
You see, that’s the thing that makes it hard to believe. We’ve got this weird compartmentalization thing that happens where you don’t think that God sees all that you are. Or we think that if He could have known who you were going to be, He wouldn’t have gone to the cross. Listen, God knew you were going to be messy. Christ knew that you were going to be messy. God knows that you’re going to screw up often. He knows that you’re going to be drawn to things that are wicked. He knows.
That’s what the cross is all about. The whole point of the cross is that you’re going to fail, you’re going to stumble and you’re going to feel dirty. The whole point of the cross of Christ is that there be this mighty picture of His love and pursuit of you despite you.
So the cross is necessary because of you, but it’s also the picture we have of just how far God is willing to go because He loves you.
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And so something horrible becomes something beautiful. But it doesn't end there. He is risen! And the resurrection of Christ means death has no power. It means victory. It means hope.
I'm a big fan of pasta. I'm also a big fan of easy, which meant that until recently, I'd rather buy a jar of already-made pasta sauce than even think about attempting to make my own. It's just so much easier. But that was before I found this gem of a recipe.
It's simple and tasty. What more could you want?
Lazy cherry tomato pasta
Ingredients:
pasta (I'm a fan of whole wheat spaghetti)
2 tbsps (ish) butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 cup (ish) sliced mushrooms
1 quart cherry tomatoes
basil, salt and pepper to taste
white wine
Directions:
The first thing you'll notice is that I put "ish" a lot when it comes to ingredients. That's because I tend to make things up as I go. The best part about cooking (as opposed to baking) is that you can get away with not using exact measurements. Just keep adding a little at a time until it tastes good.
That being said, here's what you do!
First, melt some butter in a medium-sized sauce pan. Add garlic, onion and mushrooms, and cook over medium heat.
Once the onions are translucent, add the cherry tomatoes. Just toss them in...unless they're on the vine, in which case you should probably remove the stems. Just sayin.
Right about now, your kitchen will be smelling awesome. Give everything a good stir, and leave it on medium heat until the tomatoes begin to burst. I recommend checking them every so often and giving them a good stir, just so the onions won't stick to the pan, but no need to be overly attentive.
Now's a good time to start boiling the water for your pasta.
Once the tomatoes are tender (after about 10 minutes), you can mash them up a bit with a fork. Turn the heat down to medium-low for another few minutes till it cooks together into a fairly thick paste.
Add salt, pepper and basil to taste. Then pour in some white wine (a couple of tablespoons to 1/4 cup, a little at a time). This will give your sauce some flavor. Let it reduce down on low heat. By now, you should probably have added your pasta to that boiling water...
Keep the sauce on a low heat until the pasta is ready. If it gets too thick, you can add a little water from your pasta to thin it out...but don't add too much too quickly! We want to keep it fairly thick. This sauce isn't supposed to be the drippy, pourable kind.
Drain your pasta and add it to the sauce. Toss to coat, and serve! Add some Parmesan if you want to take it to the next level. Which you totally do. (Trust me.)
We've got the next few weeks off from class, and most of our neighbors have already gone home for Easter. But one guy was still around yesterday. So, by default, he became our April Fools target.
Hannah and I bought 300 plastic cups from Tesco. We filled them with water and placed them outside his door. Then we waited for him to wake up.
Simple, but effective.
When he opened his door, he faced a blockade. We just stood there and laughed. We thought we'd used enough that the thought of trying to jump over them would be ridiculous. And it was.
But he did it anyway.
Somehow, he managed to clear them, knocking only one over in the process. So he got out. But ultimately, he had to take the time to empty out each cup or be faced with having to perform crazy athletic feats just to get in and out of his room.
First of all, it's already April??? How did this happen?
Second, it's April Fools Day. Which means Google's got some fun things up and running. Here's what I've found so far:
8-bit maps for NES.
This is for all of you gamers who still have your Nintendo Entertainment System tucked away somewhere in the back of your closet. Google is launching Google 8-bit maps for NES, boasting “low-res graphics, simple and intuitive controls, and a timeless soundtrack.” It will soon be available, but for now, you can check it out on the Google Maps page by clicking "Quest" in the top right corner.
Control the weather feature
This is the one I most wish was real. Google Weather Control. Simply search for the weather for a particular city, and this option will appear. "Don't like the weather? Now you can change it in your region by selecting from the dropdown to change precipitation and setting your own temperature." But this feature isn't one that should be taken lightly. So as soon as you hit "Update Weather," you're met with a popup. After explaining that it will take approximately 45 minutes for the changes to take effect, it warns you to exercise caution while setting extremes and asks you to check a box signifying your agreement to take responsibility for the weather you've just selected.
The YouTube Collection on DVD.
The official YouTube blog asks, "Loved a video so much that liking it, favoriting it, sharing it and even subscribing to the channel wasn’t enough? Just had to hold it in your grasp and never ever let it go?" Well today, you're in luck. They're making The YouTube Collection available on DVD. Clicking the order now button takes you through a series of steps: Selecting the genre (viral highlights, how to, kittens and puppies, dubstep remixes, etc.), preferred method of delivery (shipping trucks, freight vessel or the postal service), gift options, alternate formats (stick with DVDs or choose videocassettes or laser discs), and finally, confirm your order. Expect the price to be at least $50,000. After placing your order, you get your expected delivery date (mine was June 16, 2043), and a tiny note below wishing you a happy April Fools Day.
Brilliant.
Click-to-Teleport feature.
This little feature allows you the option of teleporting to whatever business you like! Unfortunately, there's no "teleport back" feature...
Google Really Advanced Search.
Google Really Advanced Search: The smartest way to search. Narrow down your queries with fields like "subtext or innuendo for," and even something as detailed as "the words , but not , unless they contain either the intersection of phrases , , and or a gerund in which case the disjunction of and will also be taken into account (on Tuesdays)." Then narrow it further based on font, embarrassing grammatical mistakes, and whether or not the content is true.
At the bottom, there's even a link to search by odor! But, sadly, when you finally click to search, you'll be redirected to Google's results page for the term "april fools." Bummer.
Hannah and I pulled our own little prank, but I'll tell you about that later.
