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July 17th, 2009
 | 11:03 pm - Pollyanna
Well, I finished Pollyanna today. Man, that was a good book. Better than I expected. It was almost too sweet at points, though not quite. The rest of the time, it alternated between really funny and really touching... I guess about what I would expect when a bunch of grumpy adults meet with a mature, innocent child, the kind that I call an angel-child. But for once, the angel-child doesn't die :O And there's a sequel in which she purportedly grows up! So I'm listening to that next.
Anyway, I recommend it. The only problem is that the narrator, who is generally good, is not good at acting grumpy/cross.
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July 16th, 2009
| 10:35 pm - Two Items on the Agenda
I guess I've learned one thing from being in a community garden plot: if a pest or disease exists for a given plant, it will show up in your garden. It's mostly true, anyway. On the other hand, good bugs like bees and ladybugs are quite present too! And probably good fungi, though they're not as visible, usually.
For the past few days, we've been finding just about no late blight on our tomatoes, so I reluctantly conclude that we're safe. Safe :D On the other hand, the bad bugs seem to be increasing. Examples:
-One of our spaghetti squash plants got vine borer larvae in it. They dig into the stem and hollow it out, killing the whole plant sometimes. It's especially bad since we built a trellis for our vines, so if they lose that one stem they have no other roots. Fortunately I think we caught it in time; I removed the larvae, packed dirt around the hole so it can make new roots, and the plant seems to be doing just fine.
-I had been noticing that our kale leaves were getting lots of little holes all over it, but I didn't think I could identify a cause, so I didn't investigate. However, when we were harvesting it today, Roz noticed a bunch of little green caterpillars on the underside :/ Culprit identified! It is diamondback moth larvae. They're supposed to be the most destructive of the mustard pests, but they haven't really done much damage to our plants, so it's good.
Overall feeling: Positive!
Secondly, ...oh yeah. When Roz and I go on trips to visit family, we've begun to like listening to audiobooks while driving. However, since our audiobooks are in digital format and I don't want to use up lots of CDs burning them to disk, and our car doesn't have an aux jack, we can't easily put them on the car speakers. We did have a workaround by getting a car-outlet-to-building-type-outlet adapter thing (like this), into which we could plug some computer speakers, but it still wasn't loud enough sometimes and it's kinda inconvenient.
So I was like, "I know!" And I went to dealextreme.com and ordered another headphone extension cable and an audio cable splitter, so we can just each plug our headphones into the mp3 player with plenty of cable length for both of us. Bam! Problem solved. And it's only like $3 :O I like dealextreme.com.
Overall feeling: Positive! Of course.
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July 15th, 2009
| 05:30 pm - Victory!
The pickled watermelon turned out to be a success! After I finished, I wasn't sure what to think of it... it wasn't what I expected. It reminded me of dried pineapple; more like candy than pickles. So I wasn't sure I had done it right. But then I gave some to some of Roz's Hebrew students, and one of them had had it before, and she said it was good! So I was happy. Roz liked it too. I don't plan to make much more of it, at least not until we run out of this. Maybe if we ever grow our own watermelons. Anyway, it's cool.
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July 14th, 2009
| 10:59 pm - From the Archives
I didn't realize how much fun chat bots could be.
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July 13th, 2009
| 11:52 pm - Virga
Well, I finished Sun of Suns, and I counted that it's my 29th book for the year. It was a pretty good book. I might want to read the sequel sometime.
( Sun of Suns review )
So I guess after I'm caught up with science podcasts, I'll listen to Pollyanna.
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| 12:59 am - Stuff
I sorta feel like we got a lot done today. A lot other than garden stuff, cos for once the garden work didn't take up the whole day (though it probably could have). We've lost three tomato plants so far, but I think we might not lose more than a couple more, because the number of infected spots we're finding is decreasing daily, almost. We found maybe... four? today total, when at first there were maybe four per plant. So it's good. Roz isn't as optimistic though, but the lack of rain really helps. Our plants look really good, even though we've been chopping off leaves and branches indiscriminately sorta, especially compared to the plants in some of the plots around us, which have brown leaves and big brown spots on their branches and stuff :/
So other than gardening, we... went shopping, and even got Roz some new shoes and t-shirts. For food we decided to get a watermelon, because they're awesome, and then we got a couple heirloom tomatoes to see if we could get seeds from them and use them to grow some weird tomatoes of our own.
Two different kinds: one looked very much like a bell pepper, outside and inside: when cut open, there was a wall of flesh on the outside and clumps of seeds all bunched in the middle. The wall wasn't very tasty, but the seeds were quite flavorful. Apparently it is a kind that is designed for stuffing. Stuffed tomatoes! Cool!
The other was kinda crinkly and pink, and was really tasty.
In the bread section of the store, we found some strange contraption that turned out to be a rice cake-making robot thing. It put in whatever it is that rice cakes are made out of, incubated for a short time, and then *POP* out flew a rice cake XD I couldn't help snickering every time that happened. We bought a package of the cakes, and they were tastier than the normal kind.
After we got home, we started doing stuff: we cut up half the watermelon, half of that for eating and the other half I sentenced to dehydration! Dehydrating watermelon is such an interesting idea. I would recommend that one NOT do it in the oven on a summer day with no AC though. Fortunately it wasn't that hot outside. It does take a while on low heat though, and it's hard to get it to the proper dryness; I burned some of the slices, and I think the rest weren't dry enough. A dehydrator would probably be easier. But it's so tasty! Like candy!
The other quarter melon we just ate straight, and then I took the rinds for pickling :D Sounds intriguing! I have a recipe but I am not sure about all the details. I guess I will experiment.
Other than that, we made a tasty dinner of udon with broccoli and ginger peanut sauce. Mmm. We also made a couple of stir-fries: one with some tiny broccoli leaves and a bunch of swiss chard leaves, and the other with swiss chard stems, snow peas, green beans, and some red bell pepper. Most of it was from our garden :O Man our chard is good.
Um. Yeah. I sense that this post is not as articulate as it could be, but whatever. I'm going to bed, anyway. Here is a picture of flowering milkweed. I can't wait for it to fruit so I can eat the stuff inside! Bwahahaha! Meanwhile, it's pretty.
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July 11th, 2009
| 04:16 pm - Photography Feature, July 11th
Click for larger image and description and such.
Feline Profile
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July 10th, 2009
| 08:11 am - Test your science knowledge!
See how you compare to the average American! Just for fun. It's short, too. And no math.
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July 9th, 2009
| 11:22 pm - Productive Produce
Man, basil just went from third to first in most productive stuff from our garden. Productive in a financial sense, that is. For pure volume, swiss chard is definitely winning. Chard is second to basil money-wise though, since it's so cheap at the store, and snow peas are third.
We've made decent "money" so far from the garden, though a lot less than we've spent on it so far :/ But there's still a lot to come. Hopefully a lot of tomatoes, if we can keep them from dying of late blight, the fungus that caused the Irish Potato Famine :/ It's all over plants in the plots all around us. But I think we're doing well controlling it. Ah yeah!
If they don't survive, we might do broccoli. I didn't realize what it was like! But a bunch of people around us are growing it, and seems like they're letting it go to flower a lot XD One person has a plant that's all exploded in yellow blossoms XD But apparently the leaves are edible, so it's not just good for a single veggie. Also apparently they make flowers more than once.
Did you realize that broccoli is probably the only vegetable in most grocery stores that's a flower? :O Though of course there are lots of edible flowers in nature. Milkweed has good flower buds.
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| 11:18 pm - Interesting Question
Hey, I recently thought of an interesting possibility for science fiction, or perhaps even nonfiction:
In a civilization that has technology for space travel and wormholes/teleportation portals, what would happen if someone pointed one end of a portal toward the Earth's surface and the other end somewhere on a spaceship? Would people on the ship get the effects of Earth's gravity when in front of the portal?
Seems like it could be one way to generate gravity on a ship. Just put a layer of portals on the bottom of a ship, pointing up, and put the other end in one place on Earth :D
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| 11:13 pm - Photography Feature, July 9th
Click for larger image and description and such.
Twisted Dreams
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July 8th, 2009
| 05:10 pm - Photography Feature, July 8th
Click for larger image and description and such.
Soaring Light
Oh and, happy birthday ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sontres!
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July 2nd, 2009
| 09:32 am - Internet Wisdom
This isn't related to anything in particular; it's just something I've learned from my time here on the internets that I wanted to share.
Whenever you put words onto the internet, you should make sure that you wouldn't mind if everyone in the world read them, especially the person you're talking badly of. There are ways to keep people from reading what you write, but in general this is a good practice.
It probably applies offline too.
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July 1st, 2009
| 03:49 pm - Audiobooks Now!
Well, I finished Plague Ship, and then the sequel, Voodoo Planet. That one was kinda weird: short, involving sorta magic and stuff, but not bad. I guess it could be said to be more scientifically accurate, except there was this weird stuff that might cause racial tension these days, or something. "Racial memory"? /:I (<-that's a unibrow guy raising one eyebrow, I guess.)
After that, A Letter Concerning Toleration by John Locke. Oh this was good stuff. Almost everything made such crystal clear sense. I love listening to stuff like that. It was all about how churches and civil governments have no right to impose or forbid religious practices as long as they don't affect people's civil rights and stuff. Good writing.
Next I plan to listen to some sci-fi novel I got for free from Audible.com somehow: Sun of Suns: Book One of Virga, by Karl Schroeder, apparently. Cos it was free.
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June 26th, 2009
| 01:47 pm - Photography Feature, June 26th
Click for larger image and description and such.
Nature's Pattern
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June 25th, 2009
| 10:04 pm - Something Cool
Generally I'm not that interested in prehistoric human history, but this caught my attention, especially the audio:
Archaeologists found a flute that seems to be 35,000 years old in a cave in Germany. Listen to this musician playing a reconstruction of it.
A fuller story is here.
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June 24th, 2009
| 04:39 pm - Books again
I've finally finished my backlog of science podcasts, so I have been listening to Plague Ship by Andre Norton. It's good old-school sci-fi, entertaining, and with a good reader. The science and technology is a little sketchy, which isn't surprising since it was written in the 50s, but the story is good.
Some examples:
-Pretty much every alien can interact in meaningful ways with humans. So germs can infect them and such. And cat aliens like catnip. Implausible, but not impossible.
-I'm not sure exactly, but the spaceship's records seem to be stored on magnetic tape.
-There is a big crater on Earth caused by atomic explosives, and no one knows what the middle of it is like, even though they have spaceships that can travel to other solar systems. No Google Earth, I guess.
-They have space armor with metal claws for hands XD
But like I said, the story is good. It's just interesting to see what people though about the future 50 years ago.
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| 04:32 pm - Answer to the thing
1. This is true. It could mean that Americans are actually exercising more than they used to!
2. This is also true. At least in the conditions of the study, burning plant material to produce electricity to run electric vehicles was more efficient than converting the plants to ethanol. Which might make corn-based ethanol an even worse idea.
3. This one was false. The lead actually helps clouds form, reflecting back sunlight and cooling the ground.
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June 23rd, 2009
| 12:15 am - Fact or Fiction: Another one!
1. The increase in the amount of food Americans eat now as compared to a while ago more than accounts for Americans' collective weight gain.
2. Burning plant material to produce electricity is a more efficient way to power vehicles than converting the plant material to liquid fuel such as ethanol.
3. The lead that used to be in gasoline is now in the atmosphere inhibiting cloud formation, contributing to global warming and such.
Which one is false!
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| 12:12 am - Wow, gardens!
We got veggies!
Our one bush bean plant is producing like crazy: we've gotten six beans from it so far.
And our swiss chard and kale are giant, so we finally decided to take some leaves: got about five kale and a whole bunch of chard!
I think some of our peppers are getting flowers, and the tomatillos are like huge with so many flowers, and the tomatoes are getting huge too, with flowers. The snowpeas have flowers too! The squash is growing like crazy, and hopefully it won't get diseased.
The basil is growing great too, and we harvested some today to freeze for later. We also discovered that we have some dill plants that we didn't plant! XD One in the parsnip bed and one next to the basil row.
What else... oh, I picked a cluster of milkweed flower buds from a plant near the garden.
Then we cut all the stuff up and Roz stir-fried it and it all tasted great.
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June 22nd, 2009
| 09:58 pm - Photography Feature, June 22nd
Click for larger image and description and such.
Amethyst Orbs
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June 9th, 2009
| 11:21 pm - Science quiz: Answer
1. True. Crazy!
2. False. Actually what the study found was that amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, aggravated pre-diabetes the most! So maybe, in addition to too much sugar and fat, people are eating too much protein.
3. True. It's pretty clever.
Congratulations to all those who got it right, and thanks to all who participated :D
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 | 11:07 pm - Growing Stuff
Yeah, Roz and I have been gardening recently. More than anything else outdoorsy, anyway. Our experiences and plants are varied, but almost all doing well. Our worst area of success is in herbs, for some reason: our chives and parsley both didn't come up. But the seeds were both pretty old and of mysterious origin, so it's not too surprising I guess, nor too disappointing. Hopefully the dill works though. No reason it shouldn't.
( Here are some pictures! )
Roz and I determined that we're not doing this to save money on our food bill so much as to be able to eat delicious vegetables a whole lot more XD We can just eat a tomato, instead of having to use it for something! Though we probably will save a lot of money, especially on the greens and the peppers. And herbs. Things we buy despite their cost.
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June 8th, 2009
| 12:14 am - Science Fact or Not Quiz #3: Biology!
Same deal as before: three science news items, you guess the one that's not true, and I'll reveal the answer in a couple days.
1. Rooks, a type of bird related to crows, have been found to be able to use tools, such as bending a piece of wire into a hook which they use to pull food out of a hole.
2. A study to determine which components of food contribute the most to insulin resistance (aka pre-diabetes) found that fats and fatty acids contributed the most.
3. Scientists have developed a new way of tracking Empire penguin populations using satellite imagines to see where the birds have pooped.
Okay now guess :D
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May 30th, 2009
| 05:19 pm - Answer to science quiz
The first one, about tornadoes, was false, I'm pretty sure. Isn't number 3 so strange? XD
Good job to all those who got it right!
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May 28th, 2009
| 09:56 pm - Plants are awesome
Man, all this foraging and gardening has given me a new appreciation for the awesomeness of plants. Not only can they make food out of light, air, and water, but they have incredible regenerative powers!
For example: One of our pepper plants (I wonder what color! Purple? White? Orange? How mysterious!) sprouted, but then the seed leaves got stuck to the seed pod and broke off, leaving just the stem. We assumed that it was a goner, but a few days ago I noticed that it was making tiny tiny tiny new leaves! I tried to think of what that would be like in humans, but I couldn't. Suffice to say, leaves are very important to plants. (Even so, I think we're probably not going to put it in the garden, unless we just have nothing else to put in its place and we want to experiment.)
One of our basil plants got chewed on by a bagworm. One of the seed leaves, one of the big true leaves, and half of the other true leaf got eaten before we removed the dang thing, but the plant is growing new leaves and flourishing like nothing happened. We put it in the ground yesterday.
And then there are all those weeds (like the mint we keep pulling up out of the garden) that can have their rhizomes all ground up and still grow from a stub.
Plants... mushrooms... bacteria... I'm starting to think that animals are the most boring kingdom! XD Except not really. They're just the most well-studied I guess.
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| 08:43 pm - Garlic Mustard again
Man, this stuff is so good. We've been using it in pretty much everything in which we usually put green leafy vegetables. It's so much cheaper than the kale, spinach, and swiss chard we would normally get! The only problem is it's kind of a pain to gather it up (even though there's a lot just across the road) and wash all the ick and bugs off. But for the flavor and price, it's quite worth it.
However, soon we won't need to use it so much, since we'll have greens from our garden! We're planting like everything: swiss chard, kale, lettuce, salad mix, spinach... and some of it is growing already! It's so pretty! I hope things stop chewing on the leaves though >:/
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May 27th, 2009
| 03:56 pm - Fact or Fiction quiz again: #2
Okay I'm gonna try this again. Three science news pieces, one of which is not true.
1. Meteorologists have discovered that the number of tornadoes in the US is decreasing, contrary to what they would expect from climate change.
2. Cosmologists have discovered that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, so millions of years from now, if anyone is around to observe anything, people on Earth will be able to see fewer galaxies then than they can now.
3. In order to study the quantum states of particles, physicists have developed a device that can simultaneously contain zero, three, and six photons.
What happened to biology? :O
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May 21st, 2009
 | 09:01 pm - What a brilliant idea!
In the Audible.com email, this book was featured: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. As far as I can tell, Seth Grahame-Smith took the original work and added zombies to it XD
Now I liked even the original, so I hope I get to listen to this remix someday XD Here's a quote from the description:
"Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read."
Maybe this sort of thing should be done more often!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankhappy.gif) amused
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May 20th, 2009
| 10:48 pm - Goings On
Remember that plant I mentioned a while ago, garlic mustard? Well, we finally got around to making pesto out of it. So far we had only done other stuff, like stir-fry and beans-and-rice-and-greens stuff with it, but it worked well in those.
But today we did it. We used this recipe since it seemed easy enough and nice, and made enough for one serving each. It was delicious! Best pesto I've ever had. After blending it up, Roz opened the food processor lid, and the smell of garlic wafted through the room. And, as you know, more garlic = more awesome. It's been scientifically proven. ...or something.
I didn't think to get pictures, but there are some on that site. Also, it seems to be rumored that garlic mustard leaves get bitter when the weather gets warm and/or they flower or something, but we used the biggest leaves from the biggest and most flowery plants, and the weather has gotten up to above 80 here, and I couldn't detect any bitterness. So who knows.
We used the food processor instead of a mortar and pestle because we're lazy. Or rather because we got back really late after searching a lot for morels in the forest :D And we found three! Or rather, Roz found three and I didn't find any ;_; But they're old and full of holes so we're soaking them in salt water overnight to convince all the stupid little bugs to get out of our delicious food. Then we'll see.
In other news, after studying the strategy guide, I took the Verbal section practice for the GRE (the test you take to go to graduate school). I got about 84%, which, if I calculated correctly, is around the 94-95% percentile, according to the strategy guide. So not bad, though I'd like to do better. Fortunately I have plenty of time and more practice tests to take. Also, it took me about half the time I was allotted to complete it, so I should have plenty of time to check my answers on the real thing. Now on to math! The fun stuff :/
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May 18th, 2009
| 02:58 pm - Photography Feature, May 18th
Click for larger image and description and such.
Unexpected Guest
So I woke up this morning and immediately went to check on our tomato plants. (That's a normal to do first thing, right?)
They were looking pretty good, and then suddenly, Whoa! There's a mushroom in one of the pots XD
It could be a problem, but more likely it's a good thing: the fungus might be breaking down nutrients, making them easier for the plant to absorb. It might also be symbiotic with the plant roots, helping it to absorb nutrients. Hooray for fungi!
I wish I knew what kind it is though XD
Check out the beefy stem on that cherry tomato plant!
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May 14th, 2009
| 05:58 pm - Answer to the Science Quiz
The second is the fiction.
The five-senses virtual reality is discussed here.
A podcast about pre-solar grains (by which I found out about them) is here.
Good job to those who got it right!
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May 12th, 2009
| 10:53 pm - Science or Fiction
After listening to science podcasts just about all the dang time, I impetuously decided to give Roz an on-the-spot Science or Fiction quiz just from things I had learned recently. And since it worked pretty well, I'm going to give it to everyone!
Rules:
I'm going to list three probably-recent science news items.
Two of them are true, and one is false.
You must guess which is false. No researching the matter allowed; use what you already know to guess.
Email me or message me or post a comment, I don't care.
I'll post the answers in a day or two, so stay tuned.
1. Some people have developed a virtual reality system that stimulates all five senses, contained in a helmet.
2. Scientists have discovered a species of primate that has been observed painting pictures of familiar objects on rocks and trees in the wild.
3. Scientists are studying tiny grains of material found in meteorites that were formed before the Sun came into existence.
Now guess!
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May 11th, 2009
| 11:24 pm - Science Podcast Review
Well, I've mostly finished testing all my new podcasts, so I guess it's about time I reviewed them in case anyone wants something neat to listen to while doing mostly mindless stuff.
( Cut now; didn't realize how long it was )
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| 08:34 pm - Dang, parsnips!
I think tomorrow I might be slightly incapacitated (is that possible?) due to soreness in my back. But it's not a problem this time, cos it's from gardening.
Specifically, planting parsnips. Our garden soil is really rocky, so we had to dig up about 20 cubic feet of dirt and then sift it back in by hand, removing all the bigger rocks. It took a total of 12 hours, 7 of which Roz was helping o.O But now the soil is all soft and fluffy and rock free, so the parsnips will grow big and round and not get forked!
I think a big part of the good stuff you get from gardening is the exercise. But as I said to Roz, I hope that's not all the good stuff we get XD
I'm all sunburned too, even though I put on sunscreen o.o Glad I did, else it'd be a lot worse. I probably will have glove tan lines XD
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May 6th, 2009
| 11:54 pm - I'm writin'!
I been putting other amusements on hold for the month, since I have to write the end of my NaNoWriMo story before June 1 so I can get my free proof copy from CreateSpace!
It's rather a novel experience for me... usually when I have a deadline it's for a certain number of words, say, 50,000. But this time I have a deadline of days in story-time, since it's supposed to fill a year, and I've only filled about 154 days. I'm almost tempted to skimp on words to make time pass faster! But I decided that it would be possible--and maybe even desirable, depending on how things shape up--to end before the year is complete. We'll see. Hopefully gonna finish before the 15th, so I'll have a month to study for the GRE.
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May 5th, 2009
| 09:13 pm - New plant, lucky!
Once again, I got lucky and discovered a new plant! See it!
It's called garlic mustard, and it is ALL OVER THE PLACE. Piles and piles of it. Because apparently it is an invasive species, and is taking over a lot of places, so no one should care if I take it all! I haven't tried cooking with it yet, but hopefully it's as tasty as it sounds from the name! Apparently the leaves are good, and the flowers too, and the seeds are edible, and if you can find a taproot it tastes like horseradish.
The story of how I discovered it is pretty cool. I had been seeing it ALL OVER THE PLACE and wondering what it was, because it looked like something else that is tasty. So then I was standing around the manure pile at the field where we have our garden plot, and a woman comes over with a tray full of this plant. I ask what it is, and she tells me. What luck!
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April 29th, 2009
| 11:38 pm - Some more
Went for another walk this morning!
( More nature blarg-ness! )
So that's all for now. There may be more later.
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| 09:00 pm - Photography Feature, April 29th
Click for larger image and description and such.
Tear Tower
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April 28th, 2009
| 10:16 pm - Yarrrrrr books.
Okay, I finished Heart of the World, and then read the first part of For the Term of His Natural Life. Only the first part, because the next is not yet recording; however, I am helping to fix that :D Two chapters already! And I wanted to know what the story was about so far.
Then I read Madonna of the Future by Henry James. It was alright, but not really the kind of thing I enjoy. I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be facetious or not either, which is not always a good position to be in. And the reader, who was supposed to be professional, I think, kept mispronouncing words -.-
After that, two H. Beam Piper stories: Omnilingual, and Oomphel in the Sky. I really like this author and the reader that does most of his stuff. The first title was especially interesting for me, as a linguistics enthusiast, and the second was pretty interesting too. I recommend them.
Right now I'm trying out a lot of new science podcasts: a bunch of general science ones, one about fitness, one about military science... Should be interesting. I wish there were a good one dedicated to bacteria :( But I guess diversity is good. Maybe sometime I will give a list of reviews of my favorites.
After that, I guess I will read some Andre Norton books. I'm looking forward to that.
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April 26th, 2009
| 10:17 pm - Photography Feature, April 26th
Click for larger image and description and such.
Explosion of Green
This is false hellebore. Isn't it pretty! It's also deadly poison, so don't eat it. Note the pleated leaves to distinguish it from skunk cabbage and wild leeks.
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April 25th, 2009
| 09:12 pm - Photography Feature, April 25th
Click for larger image and description and such.
Jungle Time
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| 08:57 pm - I am becoming a nature blarg!
I went for another walk this Friday, to see if anything exciting had happened since that other time, and also to gather some wild leeks to try eating them.
( Let me tell you my story! )
Larger pictures available upon request. More to come at some point!
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April 24th, 2009
| 08:40 pm - Photography Feature, April 24th
Click for larger image and description and such.
Mini Forest, Five Days Later
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April 22nd, 2009
| 09:18 pm - Photography Feature, April 22nd
Anybody know what these plants are? They're so weird!
Click for larger image and description and such.
A Miniature Forest
As an added bonus, here is a picture of wild leeks! Both the greens and the bulbs are supposed to be very tasty. Look them up! And remember: don't eat anything if you're not absolutely certain what it is. You might die! Also, don't eat all that you find: leave some to reproduce for next year!
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April 21st, 2009
| 11:22 pm - Awesome for the day
After work, I went to this nature area near my place to see if there were any morels yet and to see how the wild leeks I found were doing, and on my way back to the car I saw some weird blobs in a gross pond by the path. So I found a stick and poked one, and this is what I found:
I didn't have my camera, so I had to use my cell phone to take a picture. It isn't very clear, but if you look carefully, there are little dark green shapes inside the blob. I think they're frog eggs! It's so awesome. There are so many of these blobs in the pond too. And they're pretty resilient; I couldn't easily pierce this one with the stick. So neat!
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April 20th, 2009
| 10:42 am - A Molasses Mystery
I've been noticing something about the brown sugar I buy.
I've heard that real brown sugar is a product that hasn't been purified all the way to white sugar, and so has more minerals and stuff, which turns it brown and maybe makes it slightly healthier, but that most of the brown sugar you buy is actually just white sugar with molasses added.
With that in mind, I checked the ingredients of the brown sugar I get, which is store-brand (Wegman's). And sometimes it says "Ingredients: Sugar, Molasses", but other times it just says "Ingredients: Brown sugar"! And it's actually possible to tell the two apart without looking at the label. The "Brown sugar" is much more clumpy and sticky, and the "Sugar, molasses" breaks apart much more easily.
Isn't that interesting!
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April 15th, 2009
| 10:28 pm - I am helping now!
With my current lack of much work to do, I decided to volunteer to help make new audiobooks with Librivox.org. I didn't see any current projects that I knew anything about, so I just picked the first novel I saw. It is For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke, about convicts sent to Australia and such. So far I've finished reading a chapter! It's pretty hard, but fun! And my cat is annoying XD She can't stand people reading out loud... she has to come over and meow!
On the reading side, I'm almost finished Heart of the World. I think I don't like it as much as Haggard's Quatermain books for some reason... maybe the characters aren't as likable. I'm starting to notice that his novels all seem to have the same basic plot: explorers find a hidden people with unimaginable treasures, fall in love with the beautiful women (or some of them, and then the others get jealous and try to kill everyone), start civil wars, and then leave. Getting kind of old.
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April 13th, 2009
| 12:39 am - Weird Dreams
One time Friday night I dreamed that I was one of the Founding Fathers! Y'know, the one who was fighting the British and got seriously wounded when that soldier guy blew himself up with dynamite in order to kill me, but I survived for a while longer as my health gradually deteriorated? Yeah, that one.
Current Mood: amused
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