Below are the most recent 12 friends' journal entries.

Friday, January 8th, 2010
dmmaus	11:42a	Kodak Pulse The new Kodak Pulse digital photo frame has a really cool-sounding feature: You know how good it feels to come home to find an unexpected gift from a friend? That’s the same excitement you get every day with the KODAK PULSE Digital Frame. Now everyone can send pictures right to your frame, giving you continuous surprises. Create your own e-mail address for the frame to easily receive new pictures Send pictures from a computer E-mail pictures from mobile phones as soon as they’re taken—perfect for sharing on-the-go Now this actually sounds like a very cool idea. Take a photo while overseas on holiday, and want to share it instantly with your parents or friends? Send it to the e-mail address of their photo frame, and it'll appear on their mantelpiece or coffee table. Or if you know someone going on a trip, they can send photo updates direct to your photo frame on your desk. I'm just wondering if they thought about the obvious misuse of such a device... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
belfebe	2:18p	A Tip of the Hat and a Wag of the Finger Dear Food Network, A couple of days ago I gave Melissa d'Arabian a wag of the finger on her touting of sugar laden desserts as "healthy" in her otherwise fabulous show "10 Dollar Meals." Today, I must give a tip of the hat to Alton Brown for his episode "Live and Let Diet," of his show Good Eats, aired this week, and dedicated to healthy eating and healthy living. It is one of the best shows I've ever seen. Alton does not get preachy or unrealistic. And do not expect the "silver bullet" against overeating from him. He offers just good, straightforward information on proper nutrition and how this helped him shed 50 pounds safely. In other words, it is a general blueprint for adopting a healthy lifestyle. True, the show is not an encyclopaedia on nutrition (how could it? It's only half an hour), but it does give you the basics and he does it in his typical, entertaining Alton Brown style. I do hope that he does more shows like this one in the future, and that the rest of the Food Network chefs follow suit. Much love, Belfebe (4 Comments |Comment on this)
dmmaus	8:38p	Note that... [Note that] I'm getting more and more annoyed with the apparent explosion of writing being perpetrated with the words "Note that" being used to introduce sentences. [Note that] This is superfluous verbiage that adds no meaning. [Note that] To pick an example more or less at random: Wikipedia's page on Western dress code contains the following sentences: Note that the local interpretation of casual codes may look very little as illustrated. Note that the definitions listed above are the strict, traditional definitions, which may not be followed in common use. Note that the use of white tie and morning dress has become fairly rare in some countries [...] (note that the term morning dress is fairly undescriptive and has not always meant our modern morning dress) [Note that] Every one of these sentences can be written more simply and succinctly as follows: The local interpretation of casual codes may look very little as illustrated. (Let's leave aside the other grammatical weirdness in this sentence.) The definitions listed above are the strict, traditional definitions, which may not be followed in common use. The use of white tie and morning dress has become fairly rare in some countries [...] (the term morning dress is fairly undescriptive and has not always meant our modern morning dress) [Note that] It is never necessary to say "note that" at the front of a sentence. [Note that] The very fact that you are writing it down means that the reader should be paying attention and noting everything that you're writing. [Note that] If you're writing "Note that" at the front of a sentence, you're wasting your time and the reader's time. [Note that] If you really want the reader to pay particular attention to a point you're making in a specific sentence, there are better, and more specifically informative ways to do so. [Note that] If you ever find yourself introducing a sentence with "Note that", remove it. [Note that] Your writing will be improved markedly. (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, January 4th, 2010
belfebe	10:59a	Healthy Eating? Dear Melissa d'Arabian, First of all, let me tell you that I love your show "Ten Dollar Meals" at the Food Network. You put together home cooked, easy to prepare, inexpensive food, which in these days of recession, is always a welcome sight. The idea of ten bucks = meals for four people, is a brilliant one. Plus, you are always very entertaining. Oh, and your food looks delicious. Having said that, marketing inexpensive home cooked meals is one thing. Saying that everything that you cook is healthy is another. True, home cooked food made with fresh ingredients is generally better than random burger and fries purchased at a fast food joint any time. However, a dessert of bananas fried in butter and covered in sugar -- even if it is brown sugar -- hardly qualifies as healthy. Delicious? Yes. Cheap? Absolutely. The ideal thing to promote well being on a daily basis? Not so much. So please guys at the Food Network, be careful what you describe as healthy meals. It only adds to the confusion regarding nutrition that is so prevalent out there. Much love, Belfebe PS. I may give the fried bananas a try one of these days, as one of my once-a-week "cheat" meals. It looks and sounds really good. But do not expect me to serve it on a daily basis any time soon. (18 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010
chochiyo_sama	1:30p	January 3rd---It really ISN'T my fault. One of my goals this year was to write every day on my livejournal--and i haven't been able to do so--not because of any failing on MY part but because i have some weird electrical issues at my house. unfortunatley, they have not resulted in my house burning to the ground, but it has caused my internet connection to be non-functional. It is the weirdest shit ever.  I have electricity EVERYWHERE except in my stairwell and my upstairs bedrooms.  The bathroom, upstairs as well, is fine. It is not a circuit breaker issue.  The first issue I had with it, the lights went out, and about 35 minutes later, they came back on again.  They worked fine for several days.  Then, out of the blue, they stopped working again.  This time they were off for several hours.  They came back on again and were fine for at least two weeks.  Then, they went out again about three days ago, and have been out ever since--except for two brief periods, one of which was yesterday morning.  i think the light in the stair well stayed on for about an hour.  This really sucks. My friend Jim came over and looked at everything, but left clueless to why this should happen. i guess I will have to break down and call an electrician, and only God knows what that is going to cost me.  Sigh. I wish the freaking thing would just burn down.  But I want to be able to save my cats, my two vintage blue cookie bowls, and my favorite dolls first.  Then, who cares.  let it burn. I am at school at the moment, trying to tidy up the last of the moving clutter from my classroom.  I rearranged (with the help of my kids) right before Christmas vacation.  I had no idea I was going to be stranded at my mom's for several days, and that I would not be able to get in and get things put to rights earlier.  I really considered just leaving it until tomorrow to deal with, but I honestly feel that if I did that, the whole new semester would just start off too sucky--and quite frankly, I feel like i am barely holding things together as it is.  I would feel such a sense of failure if my room looked like shit the first day back...and I just can't handle any more Fail at the moment.  God knows there is enough of that at home right now. I have so much more to say, but I have to get on this room.  I am meeting DeAnn later at the theater to see Avatar.  We are not going to see it in 3-D because she gets motion sickness from 3-D.  I enjoy it, but it doesn't add anything to the story for me--in fact, it is a little distracting. I am excited for the story itself.  I'd also like to see the Merril Streep movie.  She cracks me up. Maybe next weekend. Current Mood: busy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
belfebe	1:45p	Of Gym Rats, Weather, Garb, Projects, and Lady Gaga (Feat. Cartman and Chris Walken) Wow. It's official. Gym rats like myself are certifiable insane. Despite the bitter winds (weather in the teens, but feels like -1 F in my neighborhood), the gym was packed. I managed to do a 40 minute cardio, plus a couple of rounds of shoulder routines and stretching. It felt good. Now I am back at home, all toasty and nice, and have no desire to go anywhere. Great opportunity to work on those projects. Currently, I am still working on new garb for my sweetie -- in this case a blue wool set of doublet and pants. It's been taking me forever since I chose to do it all by hand, flat lined and following strictly period techniques. Man, it takes forever. This is not to say that it's the first hand-stitched project I do. Not in the least. However, 16th C techniques, meaning finishing each piece first, and then stitching them together takes much longer than simply backstitching the whole enchilada and either bag line it or finish it with felled seams. However, the finished product looks and feels right for this particular period. But I'm sick of it. Luckily, I am sort of in the last stretch. Or at least in the semi-last stretch. I still need to attach the sleeves, the tabs (with bias tape to finish the inside of the doublet), decorate said sleeves and tabs, sew eyelets to the breeches' waistband, make an eyelet strip for the doublet, and weave small belt loops for the doublet. Oh, and points. Need to have points. I hate this project. I love how it looks. Oh well. In the meantime, I am working on a Pelican embroidered towel. Since my subject has already gotten a writ, it's not a secret and I don't mind writing about it. It's coming along very nicely, and a lot faster than the doublet. In fact, it's almost done. Thank goodness for that. At this point I need to be able to say "Hey, lookie here! I finished something!" And this person is very special, so I do hope he likes it :-D Then there is the next super secret project I cannot talk about. Oh, and making garb for myself, about which I can talk about. No rest for the wicked. I think that I am going to go cut myself a simple modern jacket for work. I can whip out that sucker in the sewing machine in an afternoon, and then feel accomplished. Here's to hope. In the meantime, I shall leave you with this video: Lady Gaga vs. Christopher Walken vs. Cartman. Since I have a girl crush on Lady Gaga, a crush on Christopher Walken, and a soft spot in my heart for the South Park kids, I find this a very appropriate manner to wish everyone a very happy new year. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
dmmaus	8:05p	England and Wales trip diary - Day 10: Tuesday 9 June, 2009 Abbey Lodge Bed & Breakfast, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. 20:22 We've had a moderately easy day, made mostly of driving. We got up and had breakfast at the Rhymney House Hotel, where a woman we hadn't seen last night cooked eggs and toast for us, and some very well-done crispy bacon for me. She had an Irish accent - very distinct from the Welsh of most of the people we'd met over the past couple of days. After eating, we packed, paid for our room and dinner the night before, and drove off, heading north into the Brecon Beacons National Park. We pulled over for photos of the majestic hills and valleys a couple of times. At one point we stopped by Cantref Reservoir. It had warning signs saying "thin ice" and "no swimming". It was cold enough that I was shivering in a jacket - I don't know who in their right mind would ever consider swimming there! At the north end of the national park, we stopped in at the town of Brecon. We paid £1 for two hours parking next to the tourist information office and got a street map directing us the few blocks to the historic Norman-era cathedral. This was interesting, though not as large or impressive as others we've seen so far. The key word here was sheer age, as the architecture and interior floors and walls showed. The ceiling was timber rather than the vaulted stone of more recent buildings. ( from Wales back into England, Shrewsbury Abbey, and Wensleydale cheese! ) (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
chochiyo_sama	12:11p	So, i hear Rush Limbaugh is in the hospital. Suffer, bitch. I wish you the same "charitable" thoughts you have had towards others, you scum of the earth. I hope they give him lots of painful, invasive, humiliating procedures....and charge him double for all of it. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
dmmaus	10:05p	Avatar Just got home from seeing Avatar (in 3D). ( impressions hidden, not really spoilers as such, but who am I to tempt fate? ) (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
belfebe	10:03a	Because nothing says Christmas like Chicken Vindaloo I am back to the Land of LJ(TM), after much merriment and running around. Christmas Eve was fabulous. For those who are not familiar with Latin American customs (particularly Mexican), our big celebration happens on Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day. Indeed, it is on Christmas Eve when you have your kickass dinner and then everyone stays up until midnight. Opening of presents occurs on Christmas Eve as well. Oh, and Midnight Mass, if you wish to do that (it's traditional!). (Small children will additionally open Santa's presents on Christmas morning, lucky little varmints.) We didn't do Midnight Mass, but we had a faboo time with my sweetie, my two boys, and the fabulous messydress. Dinner consisted on a turkey breast roast (no point in cooking a big hulking turkey for five people and then eat leftovers until Valentine's day), and all the trimmings. Plus my evil, no redeeming qualities, non-diet, melty brown sugar-topped, pinneaple upside-down cake. Man, that was evil. The scale was not loving me on Saturday. (More on that on a fitness post.) At any rate, the boys and Messydress stayed past midnight, and then they all merrily went home. Christmas day in Mexico means visiting friends and family and swapping leftovers. In this case, I realized early in the morning that my evil plan of not having leftovers had worked well. Entirely too well. Which posed the problem of what the heck are we going to eat now. Undaunted, we decided to do Chinese food with the kids and Messydress some time in the afternoon. My first choice was Peking Duck. I haven't had it in a while, and there is this awesome duck place on Rt. 7 that makes it like no one else. However, when I called them -- and trust me, you do have to call ahead -- we were informed that the earlier that they could take us was 9:30 p.m. Scratch that. To make a long story short, the five of us ended up at a small Indian food joint by Loehman's Plaza, which carries a kickass buffet. It was awesome. We ate, we laughed, we chatted until the joint started to get so packed that we had to leave and let other people sit down. Then we all parted since the weather had started to take a turn for the worse, and at that point a warm and cozy home seemed like a very good idea. But nothing says Merry Christmas like chicken vindaloo. I think that we have started a new family tradition. And I like it a lot. (16 Comments |Comment on this)
dmmaus	9:18a	Strawberries If you're in Sydney (or possibly anywhere in Australia) and you aren't eating lots of strawberries right now, why not?! They're amazingly good at the moment. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
dmmaus	1:05p	Christmas leftovers I started making a turkey sandwich for lunch. I found the loaf of bread we bought two days ago had gone mouldy. Not just a little bit on slice or two, but the entire loaf was riddled with mould. Darn humidity. So I went up to the shops to buy some bread. Everything was closed of course - the supermarket, the main bakery. I found a tiny Asian bakery open and bought a loaf of bread. Got home, cut two slices, put turkey on it. Opened the cranberry sauce jar... and it had gone mouldy. (1 Comment |Comment on this)