the pretty things are going to hell

i love basic instructions:

why does everyone tell me how their cat died a horrible death whenever they find out i like cats? wtf, people?!

have old glasses or unused contact lenses? donate them!

mulder is 3 today!

tyler in the crx:

a few days ago at work i had my 90 day review. other than being pathetic at soliciting credit, it went really well. i received the highest marks possible on everything, even dress code, though my manager had to think about it for a moment:

she stared at me intently for a second or two, looking at my pink and black hair, my half-sleeve tattoo, my studded plaid wristband, and my skater shoes.

“well, you wear your nametag!” she chirped, and circled the highest score.

[http://catversushuman.tumblr.com/post/748449969]

this article makes me hate anthony bourdain a little less.

this is so me. sadly.

i thought my gospel gossip shirt was lost back in portland.

nope. turns out it was in a box in our garage.

messing with layouts.

meh.

i’ll fix colors and such later.

1,000 microroentgens equal one milliroentgen and 1,000 milliroentgens equal 1 roentgen. So one roentgen is 100,000 times the average radiation of a typical city. A dose of 500 roentgens within 5 hours is fatal to humans. Interestingly, it takes about 2 1/2 times that dosage to kill a chicken and over 100 times that to kill a cockroach.

in the end times, only the chicken and the cockroach will survive.

office of the public defender: for rent.

snowing in may.

eggless chocolate cake with maple buttercream frosting:

4 1/2 cups flour
3 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa
3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups water
3 tbsp vanilla

1/2 cup butter
2 tbsp maple extract
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tbsp milk

i made eggless pumpkin pie last night!

* 1 can pumpkin
* 1 can condensed milk
* 2 tbsp cornstarch
* dash of bourbon vanilla extract
* a bunch of pumpkin pie spice

400^o 40 minutes

tonight, i am going to try making an eggless chocolate cake with maple buttercream frosting.

i will be graduating through portland state university (someday), but am taking a class through oregon state university this summer. hopefully. i got accepted as a non-degree student, but now some random error won’t let me register, saying i am not “student for the selected term” even though i am. wtf.

so… sent an email. i hope someone gets back to me quickly, as the class i need only has 10 more open spots.

Most salt eaten by Americans – 77 percent – comes from processed foods, making it difficult for consumers to limit salt to healthy levels, experts say.

hard to limit? uh, no. just quit eating so many processed foods.

i found another site to write for. one that pays money up front, and then royalties. i can write about pretty much anything i want, which means my short articles will be academic/research-focused.

cultural differences in regards to color.

i’m amazed and flattered. it’s weird writing for this site, too, as it is not the type of writing i usually engage in/find most interesting. my focus is more on academic, scholarly writing. whether or not i am proud of my work all the time, it is good to know others enjoy it. nice to get paid for it, too!

between this and having the top poem on deviantart once, i guess i’m not too bad a wordsmith, eh?

i’m a sucker for anything cupcake.

my ‘brunch’ this morning consisted of brown jasmine rice, cheddar cheese, broccoli, and green beans. after i eat, i usually offer my bowl/plate to kitten, as she loves cheese, and likes to eat what little bit remains. today she did that, but also picked the last little bits of green beans off my plate and ate those, too.

Florida urologist Jack Cassell posted a sign on his office door reading, “If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your health care begin right now, not in four years.”

[link]

via jezebel, another amazingly crazy pro-lifer:

According to Jason Trahan of The Dallas Morning News, Lo went to the courthouse in Plano and formally filed a document stating his intention to go to the Southwestern Women’s Surgery Center and “use deadly force to defend the innocent life of another human being.” He also requested a restraining order against police, barring them from using force to try to stop him.

. . .

In March, Lo sued the nine members of the Supreme Court, requesting … “that IMMEDIATELY all murder of an innocent human life in every single case, abortion, be rendered ILLEGAL by United States law.” He also requested damages in the amount of $999 trillion. He says, “Ultimately, I will win this case without any doubt[.]

. . .

I accepted Christ into my life when watching TV. Some guys were really strong and breaking ice. They invited me to accept Jesus into my life and ask him to forgive me for the ways I sinned. I did so, and I was changed.

. . .

I challenged President Barack Obama to a public debate on abortion, which he lost by not responding. He must have accepted my challenge before March 26, 2010 at 5:00 p.m. Therefore, he lost, I won, abortion is wrong, abortion is evil, abortion must now and immediately be made illegal everywhere in the world

[his website!]

two bella kitty photos blayne took:

the first, with her looking cute:

the second, bella looking senile:

margaret atwood is on twitter. wow.

happy birthday, blayne!

went for a drive, and found out a gate was in our way…

help some animals without having to do much of anything.

watch this youtube video (or, just open it in tabs and ignore it).

Help Nutrena by sharing this video with your friends. If this video is viewed 10,000 times by April 30th, 2010 we’ll donate another truckload of pet food to pets in need. For more info, visit www.nutrenaworld.com

i realize it sounds like those stupid chainmails going around saying bill gates will give you money if you forward that email, but, i promise, this one is actually real.

the cats exploring the porch, their new favorite place to be:

Read more! »

scarf!

since i am wearing it, you cannot see the numerous errors i made. it is better this way.

The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, compared the responses of Westerners to those of the remote and culturally isolated semi-nomadic Himba people of Namibia. The experimenters discovered that vocalizations expressing the six basic emotions - anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise - were recognized by both groups, indicating that they, like facial expressions, are universally evolved functions.

However, when an additional set of positive emotions was introduced - achievement, sensual pleasure and relief - they were only reliably recognized by the Western subjects. The cultural variations discovered by Sauter et al suggest that the vocalization of some positive emotions may be learned socially, rather than representing products of evolution.

interesting.

Buried deep in the health care legislation that President Obama signed on Tuesday is a new requirement that will affect any American who walks into a McDonald’s, Starbucks or Burger King. Every big restaurant chain in the nation will now be required to put calorie information on their menus and drive-through signs.

…

The legislation also requires labels on food items in vending machines, meaning that anybody tempted by a king-size Snickers bar will know up front that it packs 440 calories.

i know many people will certainly ignore the posted calories, but i really think it will help. hopefully it will at least make people stop and think before they eat an entire day’s worth of calories in one meal.

mulder playing with one of her favorite toys:

Read more! »

progress:

i allowed the cats out on the porch today. they were very excited. kitten even made it down to the basement with me. the second time we were out there, i heard terrified little mouse squeaks. there won’t be mice for long…

well. i have an interview at target.

my aunt missy taught me how to knit today:

i got paid for an article the other day, and this is the note the editor left with my payment:

Phoenix, this payment is for the following article: That Rug/The Big Lebowski Thanks. Your article made me watch the film with my wife last Saturday night - her first time too. She loved it.

i wanted some good, healthy food, and something i could cook in only one or two dishes. we currently lack running water, and most of my pots and other cookware i use were dirty… among the clean items i had were a pot, and a cake pan.

in the pot, i dumped a cup of brown jasmine rice (i considered adding lentils, too, but decided against it), a can of vegetable broth, and started that on the stove. while my rice was cooking, i dumped in a chopped onion, and some chopped green pepper.

after that finished, i mixed in a can of cream of celery, then mixed in a handful of shredded cheddar.

i dumped this in the tinfoil-lined cake pan, and then added a layer of cheese on top. i then stuck it in the over for 30 minutes, at 350^o.

…quite good.

it took the jury only 37 minutes to convict dr. tiller’s killer of first-degree murder.

menstrual psychosis

ARGH.

super frustrated right now. we are watching my mother-in-law’s puppy for her tonight, and he is an annoying hellion. bounce bounce bounce goes the miniature poodle puppy. jump on us. bite. pee on the floor. harass the cats. jump on us. jump on furniture. bite stuff. steal stuff. bounce bounce.

tonight was the night i was going to knit. i’ve never knitted, and was excited to learn. well, i feel crazy stupid right now because i can’t figure any of it out. i can’t cast on, i can’t do the knit stitch. i can barely do the slip knot! i was already incredibly frustrated going into this thanks to puppy, and now i give up on knitting for the evening, i think. i bought a book for beginners, but i just can’t quite figure it out. i probably need an incredibly patient person to teach me, but i shall try again maybe tomorrow. minus puppy. grr.

happy 10th birthday, bella!

i was reading about eye color this morning, after staring at my eyeballs in the mirror for a while. my eyes are gray, but i never really know what color to say. i used to say blue, as they tend to appear bluish gray a fair amount of the time. gray is usually not an option on most forms, either (i say blue). my husband doesn’t know what color my eyes are.

so… my eyes are gray, not blue. it’s decided.

Gray eyes have less melanin than blue eyes, even though they are considered a darker shade of blue. Gray eyes are most common in European Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Baltic States. It can also be found to a lesser extent in parts of India. Under magnification, gray eyes exhibit small amounts of yellow and brown color in the iris. Ultimately, there are at least two things that could determine gray eye color. The first is the amount of melanin made, and the second is the density of the proteins in the stroma.
A gray iris may indicate the presence of a uveitis. However, other visual signs make a uveitis obvious. Gray iris color, as well as blue, are at increased risk of uveal melanoma.
Visually, gray eyes often tend to appear to change between the shades of blue, green and gray; this is because gray eyes are extremely light, as mentioned before. The color change for gray eyes is usually influenced by the lighting and the colors in the surroundings (such as clothes, makeup, etc.).

since lentils are so healthy, i’ve decided to try and incorporate more into my diet. so, i tried this recipe tonight. i took a few liberties (steamed some veggies, used frozen veggies, added a little cheese on top) but otherwise followed it. and, surprisingly, it was actually pretty good. and holy crap, is it filling. plenty of leftovers for tomorrow.

grumpy bella.

mulder watches my husband play left 4 dead:

chuck palahniuk & anthony bourdain at voodoo donuts.