Kitchen Adventures 1 1/2: Bacon Avocado Muffins

  There aren't many things I know I do well - sure I know my internet memes, can talk Dr. Who forever and I can sing you a song by Sondheim, Gershwin and Cole Porter - but I'm talking applicable skills. I can sew on a button, but despite the recurring purchases of sewing/knitting materials I don't think I'm ever going to produce an actual garment any time soon. One thing, however, I would like to say I do well is food.  I love food. Really, all I ever actually think about is food. I could talk about food forever (those who know me I wil.) I love cooking food, eating food, everything there is about food.

So now I would like to talk about food.

First,  a little background...

Since we moved into our new apartment I would sit and dream about the kinds of food I could make in our new awesome, awesome kitchen.
Also since then I keep remembering that I live with two people:

My Mother - who is forever on a diet and eats portions I swear a mouse couldn't survive on.

My Father - who doesn't understand why I want to "bother" cooking when we could just go out or order in (now that we live somewhere where you can go out or order in.)  His response when I say "would you eat this is I made it?" is always "why trouble yourself?"

These two (three?) facts in combination made me a very sad person.

But recently I decided to just start cooking for myself. Its something I enjoy doing, so I'm going to just go ahead and make stuff. I've built up a following of some rather eager taste testers. Someone'll eat it.
So far I've made quite a few things, mostly for myself or  out of curiosity or necessity.

If you call a craving for Bialys a "necessity." I certainly do.

Things That Exist (or Thank you, Japan!): Mind-Controlled Cat Ear Headbands

 One thing my friends know about me is I love nearly everything Japanese - the food, the films, the animation, but most of all  I love unnecessary Japanese novelty items.  That's why one of my favorite things to do in Epcot is just wander around Mitsukoshi (read about the original in Tokyo over meah) - clear plastic 3D Unicorn Puzzel? Of course! Speaker system that looks like a mini-jazz band? Brilliant!

I also appreciate the thoughtfulness of this pre-emptive warning.

(No lie - first thing my friend said: "OMG Froggie Body Sponge!")

So, imagine my nerdgasm when I saw these over at Nerdist.com

Now, I don't necessarily want to own these, but I do want to play with them - so, so bad. Much the same way I want make friends with someone who owns a Mind Flex.
Anyway, these mind-controlled Cat Ears - called "Necomimi" - are made by a company called Nerowear  (visit their site  - in Japanese - over meah.) This is what they say about themselves according to their site as translated by Google

"Neurowear" is the name of our project to develop fashion items and gadgets

using brain waves and other biosensor with "Augumented Human Body" as the concept.

Other than the first project "necomimi", we are planning to development other various items. 

  Other various items, you say? What might those be, Neurowear? The obvious next step are tails - you'll make Cosplay and Renn Fair enthusiasts very happy and, lets be honest, Furries will rejoice. . . if they're not already.  But where do you go after that?  I say you update the grabber, Doc Ock Style. 

Come on! Talk about an awesome way to change a lighbulb.

You're bringing me down, Tampa.

  My parents just got a Netflix account and of course I've been the only one using it to death.  So I'm looking around the recommendations on the front page and I come to the "Local Favorites" section for Tampa. . . This is what was in the second set of recommended titles

   Tampa. . . you disappoint me.   Here I am, having a great time, auditioning, working on some films (posting soon), meeting new fun people,  and you go and make Yanni - one of the creepiest mustachioed unexplained-celebrities/pianist of the '90s - so popular so popular that Netflix thinks I might enjoy watching it by association. . .

Now go think long and hard about what you've done.

Things That Exist : The Shirt Plate

  

Gentlemen, have you ever made a sandwich or plate of nachos only to come back to the couch to decide you would rather lay down?  Ordinarily you'd have to choose between relaxation and eating your snacks while watching television.  But not anymore! Introducing - The Original Shirt Plate!

  Yes - no longer will you be forced to sit upright like a human being while you eat your. . .

Plate of non-brand cheese doodles!

Plate of Spaghetti! 

or

Giant Theme Park Turkey Leg!

 All Original Shirt Plates are Dishwasher Safe, come with a leveling attachement (for us ladies *wink*) and can be yours for only   

$14.99

to $28.99

prices vary by size

price does not include shipping and handling

Soon to be available in fancy new styles like: 

The Tux Style Shirt Plate (for cocktail parties)

The Game Day Shirt Plate (with love handle dip bowl belt clip)

and

Fine China Shirt Plate (for special occasions such as Thankgiving Dinner)

So stop on by ThinkGeek to order your Original Shirt Plate today!

any similarities to the Pocket Cup are purely coincidental

"It's polystyrene!" 

My favorite of the Hipster Disney Villian Meme

   Okay, I know this has been done to death - as all memes inevitably are - but I love Disney and especially Disney Villans. And hipsters. So I decided to group together a few of my favorites for what is definitely one of my lazier blog posts.  Enjoy.

More after the jump. . . 

And one for my theatre friends.

 

Hello, interwebs.  Buzzfeed.com alerted me to another unnecessary game this evening. This one, brought to you by and downloadable over at VectorBelly Webcomics, is based on Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. And it is jam packed with waiting action!   Here's a video of the compelling gamplay:

 What? No failed self hangings?  No Pozo? No Lucky? Shenanigans.

Alright, I can't say for sure whether those elements are ever brought up during gameplay and I do no intend to find out.  No, I am not going to play this game.  Mostly because I don't feel like downloading it, but secondly because I've read Waiting for Godot. And if you don't know Waiting For Godot, I wouldn't suggest you play it either (though please do go see the play if you get a chance.)  I would, however, suggest that you tell your non-theatre friends to play this game. . . best/cruelest prank ever. . . probably almost as good as telling your friends that Penn and Teller's "Smoke and Mirror's" (specifically Desert Bus) is the most riveting gameplay experience ever.  

8-Bit Great Gastby for NES. Best thing ever?

That's right, Nicole Campos over at Nerdist.com found this little gem online.

  '

It's open source and available to play right over meah. Okay, so first I have to admit I never read The Great Gatsby (its on my Nook reading list. . . at least it is now. . . shut up!) but I don't think that really matters. I love it and its pretty straight forward: find Gatsby. . . I think. . . or whoever that smug douche with the white suit, blonde hair and blindingly shiny teeth over there is. . .

                                                                 Shiny-teeth motherf*****


At least I'm pretty sure that's what's going on and that he'll be at the end of each level.  I think. Again, never read he book and to be honest I spent most of my time trying to get screenshots so I didn't get too far in yet.  Anyway,  you complete the levels by collecting flashing coins and martinis. Also by destroying all enemies with your second boomerang-like fedora I'm assuming you keep in your snappy little vest.

That butler shouldn't be on the bookcase with that martini anyway. Irresponsible, that's what that is. 

And by enemies I mean butlers, flappers, washed-out-white-faced-Uncle-Sams, small malevolent Blue Jays. . . you know, whoever's around.

                         Dancing on slippery brick walls? This whole party is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Oh and if you manage to grab a shiny gold fedora you'll suddenly dress snazzier/more like the mask for a minute. I can't really figure out the purpose of that, but again - does it matter? Not to me it doesn't! This game is nothing but good times. Except for the whole no pausing, no saving thing.  Dammit 8-bit.

Because I really did want to be Judy Funny when I grew up. . .

I found this list of key words/phrases in Beatnikese on good 'ol Tumblr.

Enjoy trying to fit those into your daily vocabulary. I know I will.   You dig?

Remy of FoodOddities.com is my ideal child

Now, all of my friends and even a few of people I vaguely associate with know at least these two things about me: 1) I remember where I've gone by what I've eaten and 2)  I will eat pretty much anything put in front of me.  If I could get a gig as the younger, female version of Anthony Bourdain I'd be the happiest girl in the world. Much like Tony, and his fellow traveling chef Andrew Zimmern,  I believe that food is the best way to experience and get closer to other cultures - not to mention a wonderful bonding experience. 

Another thing you need to know about me - my #1 fear about having a child is that they will be a picky eater. I'm pretty sure I've even had nightmares about it. I have never been a picky eater. Ever. I've been ordering sea snails and chicken feet in black bean sauce at chinese restaurants since I was 5 and using chopsticks on sushi since I was 3.  Waiters freaking love me; I make their day.  Going out to eat with my picky eater friends (you know who you are) and my friends' picky children (fortunately its only a few of them) is like slow torture.  I hate when people close themselves off to new flavors and experiences (don't even get me started on people who cover their food in salt without even tasting it first. What - what - what are you doing?) I imagine that having my own child be a picky eater would be as close to a living hell as I could have. 

So, imagine my joy today when I found 10 year old Remy here on Youtube.  To quote from his bio on his website:

"Remy is a regular 10 year old boy from the Midwest United States who discovered at an early age that he liked a lot foods that regular kids just wouldn't touch.  Like spinach. And asparagus. And Brussels sprouts, and sushi, and practically everything else he could get his hands on.

So he decided to test his limits online, trying food unfamiliar to most Americans and giving his honest opinion."

Here he is, younger, eating one of my favorites - raw oysters - at The Maine Avenue Fish Market is Washington, D.C.

And here he cooking himself some fried pig brains

AND another favorite, as previously mentioned, Chicken Feet

Oh my god, I love this kid!  Seriously! He's he's well spoken, willing to try anything and ADORABLE! I'd like to imagine that if I'd had the resources and Youtube as a child, I would have been motivated enough to do what he's doing. Go over to his channel on Youtube and subscribe, or go to his website. Right now.  DO IT. Seriously, it was hard to narrow it down to just those three videos. 

Bionic Eye is almost a real thing. Blind Mag, Anyone?

So I read this story, last night.  Some German company has designed a camera that can be implanted to help the blind see.


 "The device is designed in such a way so that it  fits under the retina and works like a digital film camera.

Here we have a 3mm sq array of 1,500 light sensors that sends pulsed electrical signals to adjoining nerve cells, which relay the messages to the brain."

Apparently, patients in Germany who have already had the implant are "now able to recognize tables and chairs and have developed the practice of walking." What an oddly depressing way to say the (formerly?) blind people can now walk into a strange room without bumping into something. 

But cameras implanted into eyes? Does that remind anyone of, I don't know, a couple different movies?  My first thought? Repo! The Genetic Opera

Yes, Repo! The Genetic Opera. The only movie I can think of to have Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton in the same frame AT THE SAME TIME. And also the only "human puppet" scenes I can think of in a musical.

"Want me to do this bit while drinking a glass of water?"

Halloween (spoiler) Nights

On Friday night, my friend Juliane and I got in the car and drove down a packed I-4 to get to Universal Studios to meet up with an old friend of mine - Dori- from summer camp and some of her friends. Meeting up with Dori was an awesome bonus and a great way of solidifying a date to actually go to Halloween Horror Nights. We had actually been wanting to go for a while, but picking a day was proving a problem. We had gone to Howl-O-Scream a couple weekends before and been decidedly un-frightened (don't get me wrong, I was entertained but not freaked out in the slightest) so our main reason for wanting to go to Halloween Horror Nights was to make sure our "fear switches" weren't broken. I'd been told that "Disney does Christmas and Universal does Halloween" and that when they do it, they do it large - so I was excited.

We stopped for lunch at Toojays because I decided I needed a large half-sandwich with some matzo ball soup and also that Juliane needed to try a potato knish. . . on a related note, no one seems to be able to explain what a knish is without thinking about it for a minute, saying "um" and then going on to say some things that make them sound entirely unappetizing. And apparently "delicious" isn't enough of a description for my friends.

"What is it? Uh. . . . . well . . ."

I then decided Juliane needed to try my favorite gelato place which was just down the road. When we pulled in I was extremely sad to find that it had closed down. I would have just gone right to the park then, but I was all set to creamy gelato goodness AND Juliane had never had it before (gasp!) and that simply would not do. So I half-unwillingly took her to the gelato counter in Whole Foods. I couldn't stop thinking about how much I miss that other gelato place. . . until I actually ate the gelato, then I was all good.

We got there a good hour before Dori and her posse did, so we decided to hit at least one house before hand. On our way there we passed through one scare zone. . . maybe two . . . I don't really know, that map was hella-vague. First there were commando guys with chain saws - who I loved. My favorite part? Them doing a good minute and a half scene to lull the audience into a

sense of security and draw them in closer, then ending it by playing hokey-pokey with their chainsaws and running at the by then über close audience. Hi-lar-i-ous. Then we walked through some other scene, the theme of which i really wasn't sure of - but there were a lot of sweet,

sweet costumes and a couple people on stilts in sweet costumes.

Then we made it to the first of two houses, Havoc and the Catacombs, and for god-knows-what reason decided to go into The Catacombs. Now, the theme of this house was pretty self

explanatory. I knew I'd be walking through catacombs. What I did NOT know what these these were catacombs filled with victims of the plague. I was only a little nervous until I saw a picture of this:

(after the jump)

Back to. . . normal??

Well, I am finished with the Disney College Program. Of course what always happens when I go go go happened - I got sick. I'm still sick, actually. Head's stuffed, can't hear out of my left ear, all kinds of fun. Plus its like 20 degrees out. This is Florida, right?

The last few weeks as a CP were pretty crazy. After a lot of back and forth, I was finally

approved to be a seasonal cast member - which reminds me that I still need to post my availability. I celebrated my birthday - or didn't really celebrate my birthday - by making "birthday dumplings" with Lily. I only got to mix the filling and try my hand at forming the dumplings (regular and won ton) as I had to go to birthday lunch with my parents at Bahama Breeze. But she brought them to work for me for dinner and they were pretty darn tasty. :-)

I had to work Glow that night, which I was dreading, but it turned out alright. I actually had

a lot of fun and came out with my lowest variance ever - go me! Then, after work, I went with Carmen Maria to Colton's for Christmas cookies and milk. Now, we thought he'd just bought cookies - but no. Apparently its his tradition to bake cookies, so he actually baked cookies. They were damn good cookies too!

They were some kind of amazing peanut butter cookie. To quote Colton: "They're called Jailbreakers. Its an inside joke between me and my sister. . . Actually, I don't really remember why we called

them that. . ." The night actually lasted for quite some while for I don't know what reason - it was a lot of fun but not a lot happened. For the rest of the program I

hung out at Colton's a lot, and I guess we were kind of "seeing"

each other? I don't really know what to call what was going on, to be honest. But I can say that I'm a little sad that whatever it was didn't start happening sooner.

I was terrified for New Years Eve. I'd heard horror stories throughout the whole program about

how terrible it was going to be - how crowded it would get and how messed up the stores would be (I was on a stock shift, so that bit of info was especially scary.) But New Years was honestly fun. Admittedly, I did have a bit of a panic attack when it took me 10 minutes to get back from

the shed to the store before the first set of fireworks (it usually take like 2 minutes.) Other than that it was nice. Don and I went outside to watch the special New Years Eve fireworks at 11:40 and I'm so glad we did, they were amazing! Other than that, the night was pretty uneventful.

Well, except for that huge group of Brazilians that came passed the store at around 1:30 - they had bongos and noisemakers, best party ever. After work we all met up at IHOP for what was not that good of a meal, but a lot of fun regardless.

In short, I kinda miss my college program experience - living with everyone, seeing people I enjoy being around every day - but I will not miss being treated like a CP. By that I mean I will not miss having a roommate IN my room, I will not miss inspections, I will not miss having to be out of my friend's complex by a certain time at night . . . though I suppose that actually means that I will not miss Price Management. So, I guess what I mean is - I don't miss the program, I miss the people.

Things are looking up

Well I talked to one of my mangers last night and it seems that it is still possible for me to go seasonal. Hopefully this will turn out to be true at the end of the month and I will be able to remain part of the company. Joy :-)
In other news I'm down to a Disney size 4. Double joy.

Last week was crazy. After seeing Paranormal Activity, going costume shopping and to Waffle House, I woke up at 6am - insanely ill. It was probably massive amount of popcorn I ate, but I was in no condition for the gym the next morning - or the morning after that. Basically I missed a whole week of training. This is something my body was not happy about yesterday, my first day of training since.

My friend Jake has joined Bally's now as well. We had a training session this morning where he basically cursed me the whole time. But, he did promise himself he wasn't going to go home in the same shape he left so I told him all the hard work would be worth it.

I applied to 3 (technically 4) Professional Internships. So far I've had an interview for one (two, rather: CP Alumni Only. Guest Relations and Vacation Club Sales Assistant.) and I've been rejected for one (Public Relations). I still haven't heard back from Internship Three - Social Media and Marketing - or Weddings and Youth Marketing. I hope I get contacted for an interview soon.

In family news, my Uncle Larry died last Thursday. My family is in Orlando right now, but I called off for Bereavement Leave so I can go back to Tampa with them to help clean out the apartment. I'm so glad my Managers are so nice and understanding, I love my area. But my parents want to leave around 10am tomorrow. So I'm going with Jake to do a double training session again at 7:30am, then stopping by Walgreens to refill prescriptions, changing super-fast then meeting the parents at the gate.

And now, I have to go shower and get to bed. Hopefully I'm not as light of a sleeper as I was last night.

Not too shabby

At the end of a crazy week (work-wise and family-life-wise) was a pretty good day.

Tonight I worked Glow - which I was dreading. I like Glow while I'm out with the cart, but once I get back something always goes wrong to stress me out and ruin the night. Well, I haven't worked glow in a few weeks and since then they've moved all of the stuff to Norway. No longer are week counting and/or building our carts in a sweltering hot container. Now we're indoors, not only in shade but in the cool air conditioning (or in today's case, the warmth - it was freaking cold today.) So, that was a nice change. I was also Glowing with Ron and Rebeca. Ron is a fun guy and really chill, and I love Rebeca. She is adorable.

After a stress free count of the carts and a delicious dinner break (thanks for sending me that chili recipe, Kelley) I rolled my cart over to Germany. It's the Food and Wine Festival right now in Epcot, so the number of inebriates has multiplied. Those that I encountered tonight were hilarious. Two guys loved wearing the Chomping Skulls so much they came back and bought the two I had attached to my cart so they could wear them on their back, too.

At 9:20 I rolled my cart back without much trouble and after all the counts were done for the evening I had made $980 and was only short $11. Amazing. Best night Glowing, yet.

Tomorrow I have class at eight in the morning, then a personal training session with Ally at noon. I also have to stop by Partners to deposit some money into my Savings and possibly open a checking account, depending on how much time I have. Plus I have to work on my resume and apply for those last two Professional Internships I want. BUT in the evening I'm picking up Brittie and we are going to see Paranormal Activity (mmm movie theatre popcorn. . .) then the two of us and some coworkers are going on a hunt for Halloween costumes. Oh my gosh I just realized I only have a week left to go to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween. Eek!

So much to do, so little time.

Someone decided to give one of our Glowers this - an ad for the Living Waters. Demented.

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Workin'

Well tonight I am stocking Kiosk and also running Glow . However, there isnt anything in stock that Kiosk could possibly need, so I am just sitting around until one of the Glow Carts needs me.

Trainer Ally weighed me today before our session. I lost 2Lbs which is right on track. I've almost finished the eight sessions I paid for when I joined but I would like to keep going if I can. I feel healthier, my stomache is flatter and I know if I keep it up I could do even better. We're supposed to talk about it on Friday, but I am worried about cost.

Ah well, time to wait for someone to need me.

Brand new

Well I certainly accomplished alot today. I joined Ballys Total Fitness and start working out with my personal trainer, Ally, tomorrow morning - I'm very excited. I went grocery shopping for more healthy foods. I also got my hair cut. I had to get most of the length cut off (*sniff*) because it was so damaged. I am a tiny bit sad but it's totally healthy now and love that. I'll post pictures later.

Working late today and in earlier than planned tomorrow.

Guess where I am

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Glowdammit

Working Glow f***s my life.

Off to Wendy's now for frosty and fries.