tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84065450592906611272011-07-08T10:46:55.335-04:00for unfair actsexitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.comBlogger911100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-41351872902998195222010-01-29T19:23:00.004-05:002010-01-29T19:31:35.148-05:00

Here we have a correct caduceus, with a slightly incorrect tie to hospitals in the article:http://www.universalhub.com/2010/caduceus_wild_downtown

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-19176622288000964562010-01-23T14:47:00.006-05:002010-01-29T19:31:09.235-05:00

I've been wanting to make this cake since we got one from a Russian bakery near Coolidge Corner last year for Bill's birthday. They sell them by the pound. I was interested in what went into a cake like this. I suspected that there was a reason people generally buy them instead of making them, and I was right. This cake took probably five hours to make, and a whole lot of arm strength.It

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-54178623272901043242009-09-14T18:20:00.006-04:002010-01-29T19:31:55.330-05:00

I recently learned from Steve that the caduceus, which I thought of as the symbol of medicine, is in fact completely misused. The real symbol of medicine, the rod of Asclepius (or the asklepian, as it's apparently called), doesn't really register with most of us as being a separate thing, or if it does, it looks like a caduceus that's a little weird.The caduceus is not a symbol of medicine, but

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-17794493005644121412009-08-23T20:38:00.006-04:002009-08-24T10:18:24.074-04:00

So I finally got Joseph's computer fixed. Here is a rundown of the process. You'll notice that this could have been streamlined by omitting the parts where I made large mistakes or where I failed to pay attention to something and had to do it over.The goal was to consolidate two computers into one. The first was a pre-fab Dell with a copy of XP installed. The second was a lovely DIY machine

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-57399333202183807822009-08-16T13:47:00.007-04:002009-08-17T01:20:50.803-04:00

Yesterday I spent the day at Developer Day, which took place at the Microsoft NERD Center. This was an extremely intimidating experience for me, since I'm not really a developer, and I only went because I figured I could learn something. And it was cheap, for a conference.I did learn many things, but the intimidation factor never really lessened, even when I ran into my cousin, who possibly (

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-24069598324736127412009-08-03T18:20:00.010-04:002009-08-03T18:45:12.743-04:00

Inspired by this article and its many respondents, I whipped up this little guy, which blogger won't let me add to my post.Super-fun.I feel like this could easily be adapted to create names for episodes of Star Trek.

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-82341543688392862622009-08-02T13:42:00.003-04:002009-08-02T14:54:29.144-04:00

Yesterday was the first of August, which as I understand the situation, is around the time when wheat is generally harvested. Apparently this is has been a holiday of sorts for quite some time, and since I ran out of regular holidays to blog about a while ago, I figured I'd go with an obscure one for a change.Lammas, also popularly called Lughnasadh by neo-pagans, is a celebration for the

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-67409031915827914752009-07-28T00:05:00.004-04:002009-07-28T00:34:26.792-04:00

behold my procrastinatory abilities, in all their glory:http://www.google.com/ig?skin=http://igoogletheme1.googlecode.com/svn/steampunk_theme/steampunk_theme.xmlyes, i made all the images. i made the gears, and the steel plate with the nice drop shadow, and the screws on the steel plate, and the texture of the background. yes, i should be working on my project. but still, i'm kind of proud of

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-50686412861243757902009-07-14T13:31:00.003-04:002009-07-14T13:45:40.724-04:00

No Crisis For Boys In Schools, Study Says - Washington PostWhy Are School-Age Boys Struggling? - NewsweekSingle-gender Education Gains Ground As Boys Lag - San Francisco ChronicleThe Truth About Boys and Girls - Education Sectorok, let's take a moment here and really think about this.to suggest that boys are suddenly doing worse because school is more regimented now is to ignore how education

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-21822340290362275792009-07-03T15:09:00.005-04:002009-07-03T16:34:35.672-04:00

I haven't posted anything in forever, so I thought I'd just give a quick overview of some of the things I've been doing:1) Fun with DD-WRTI installed new, open-source firmware on my router, which lets me do all kinds of fun things, like actually log what my firewall is doing. I set it up to use DNSMasq, which is a cool little bit of software that allows DNS forwarding for networks using NAT, so

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-85565343912657159362009-04-15T23:26:00.003-04:002009-04-15T23:33:54.901-04:00

Well, I finally got it working - in fact, I'm typing this from my openSUSE virtual machine! I am rapidly running out of hard drive space, but it sure is fun. So, as my way of giving back to the community (and by community, I mean the three people who read this), I'm reposting the fix. I found it here:http://www.tipstrs.com/tip/8159/Getting-the-mouse-working-in-an-Ubuntu-VirtualboxIt required

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-2698137453488956662009-04-15T02:14:00.005-04:002009-04-15T02:42:52.351-04:00

Installing and playing with virtualbox is one of my two halfway decent accomplishments this week. See? I have goals. They're just stupid.So here's Windows 7 Beta running on my Linux machine using virtualbox (thanks Sun! so cool!):Of course, I am still having terrible, TERRIBLE trouble getting my mouse to work with virtualbox. I really have to fix this at some point, but at the moment, I'm

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-16986741262212269692009-04-03T19:43:00.003-04:002009-04-03T20:07:53.185-04:00

Well, someone finally said it better than I could.I dug this up after I read an excerpt from it in Jessica Valenti's new book. (Her blog, Feministing, is linked in the right menu, and is awesome.)The operative paragraph:"Did feminism kill chivalry? I don’t think so, but I wouldn’t complain if it did. There’s a difference between being chivalrous and being nice or polite. Opening a door for

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-16337098981860889232009-04-03T01:42:00.006-04:002009-04-03T02:11:57.436-04:00

I realize that it's bad to eat at night. But sometimes, like tonight, when I'm stressed and certain people and cats are restless, I really want something to munch on while I try to decide what the hell to do with myself.I often wind up making fried rice, because I usually have everything in the house to make a good meal out of it that doubles for breakfast as well. It's fun, because it's

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-13929159640732106462009-04-01T20:39:00.005-04:002009-04-07T01:28:24.812-04:00

This is just a word of warning: if you are trying to make a bootable flash drive, be prepared.It turns out that when you do this, at least with Ubuntu Hardy, it can kinda sorta mess with the master boot record on your hard drive. A little.I really feel the need to reiterate these instructions, in hopes of being even a little helpful to someone else, maybe preventing the several moments of sheer

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-51228145515823775392009-02-27T19:56:00.008-05:002009-02-28T20:33:22.243-05:00

Here it is, at long last:First of all, credit where it's due.The icons: http://aiolorwile.deviantart.com/art/Icons-of-the-Library-70721899This is an awesome set of icons originally designed for Mac OSX that I co-opted for my nefarious Linux purposes. They're really gorgeous; I highly recommend checking them out.The Metacity theme: http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Walnut?content=57232&

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-68274951465737962372009-02-21T15:59:00.004-05:002009-02-21T16:11:29.323-05:00

Ever see something like this on your beer?It's the "ale on lees" part I'm interested in (if you were wondering, this is from a bottle of La Fin du Monde, which is delicious).It took a while of seeing this before I finally looked it up, but as it turns out, "lees" is another word for sediment, so an ale on lees is just a bottle-conditioned ale that has yeast sediment at the bottom.Now I know. And

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-27954047937237609172009-02-21T13:11:00.004-05:002009-02-21T15:47:46.795-05:00

After my attempt at a Leopard desktop, I decided it would also be hilarious to try for various Windows themes. I downloaded an XP theme, Windows fonts, and a set of icons from gnome-look, and this is what I've got so far:As you can see, it's not perfect yet, but I also don't quite know what I'm doing with gnome yet. I should, of course, be working on my assignment for XML that was due yesterday

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-28211131349945166622009-02-16T16:02:00.004-05:002009-02-16T17:33:52.431-05:00

Before you decide that I've finally snapped and started murdering my enemies and turning them into ethnically-themed soylent green products, take a look at this.The back story is that since Christmas, I've been trying to remember the weird name for rutabagas that I read in a BBC recipe. I say this as though rutabaga isn't a weird name, but I had never seen the name they used in the recipe. I

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-75409000835995357032009-02-11T00:40:00.001-05:002009-02-11T00:41:42.788-05:00

Remember how I said I had no sugar in the house?Bill found a five-pound bag in one of the cabinets the other day.Yep, I'm an idiot.

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-23671758529823405132009-02-01T20:31:00.006-05:002009-02-01T21:02:25.008-05:00

So I got Bill an ice cream maker for his birthday. It was either that or a popcorn air-popping dealie, but as he just had a bad dental experience with a tortilla chip, we decided that ice cream was the better choice. He's always wanted to try making jalapeño ice cream, which I'm pretty interested to do as well, but we haven't tried that yet. Instead, since I had almost no ice cream-related

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-7485362896690539812009-01-23T01:54:00.005-05:002009-01-23T01:59:17.865-05:00

Check out what I did while I was busy not getting useful things done:Click on it for a full-sized image. Isn't it hilarious? Instructions are here, although I had to do some digging and tweaking and use a slightly different version of AWN because it didn't work for me at first.I think it's a riot; everything looks and behaves pretty much just like the Leopard desktop does. And yes, I really am

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-86812324823351117912009-01-11T00:41:00.004-05:002009-01-14T21:35:28.749-05:00

I made some delicious puttanesca sauce in the crock pot the other day, which got me thinking about some things. The sauce got me thinking, I mean (dangling modifiers are hilarious). Before I get into the thinking, though, I'll just give you the recipe, because it was so easy and delicious.1 large can diced tomatoesChopped kalamata olivesCapersWorcestershire sauce (okay, I admit it, anchovy

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-49964943501871575572009-01-05T15:46:00.008-05:002009-01-14T21:41:30.621-05:00

I was really, really excited for Fallout 3. Excited enough to get it when it was first released, but unfortunately my busted video card and lack of an appropriate console precluded this. However, now that we are the proud owners of an XBox 360, I have been playing Fallout 3 for what seems like three days but is probably closer to two straight weeks. I am fairly sure that I stopped for sleep at

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-71763730382636423622008-12-15T18:10:00.000-05:002008-12-15T18:11:06.886-05:00

I mentioned a while back, in my list of baking challenges, that I wanted to experiment with choux pastry. So when I had folks over for election night, I decided to make gougères. For those unfamiliar with the name, gougères are basically cheese puffs. They look like this:I didn't get a picture of the finished ones I made, because everybody ate them.The basic process here involves making choux

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-51876143941901050562008-12-15T12:12:00.002-05:002008-12-15T12:41:51.398-05:00

Holiday baking is upon us.

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-3986642006535894812008-12-09T15:46:00.003-05:002008-12-09T15:53:08.634-05:00

As you can see, I've made some adjustments to the look and feel of the blog. This is for one of my classes, but I'm thinking I may keep it like this, so feel free to weigh in if you think the red is hard to read, or the link strikethroughs are distracting, or it doesn't work in Internet Explorer. I am now convinced that nothing ever works in Internet Explorer.I'm finishing up the last of my

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-2467070801445188462008-11-03T11:14:00.005-05:002008-11-03T12:21:42.092-05:00

I believe I mentioned this one a while back, but I bet you didn't think I'd really do it.Shows what you know.I don't know how many people have really heard of Indian pudding; it might be a New England thing, or it might be just a Durgin Park thing, or maybe everyone in the country eats it every fall. I have no idea, so I'll go with a slightly lengthy description just in case.Indian pudding is

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-58934941059371725132008-11-03T10:34:00.004-05:002008-11-03T11:13:08.374-05:00

So I've gone on a streak lately where everything I try to cook comes out absolutely terrible. Obviously I sometimes make terrible food, but never so much in a row, or for such weird reasons. Consider this: in the course of a week, (1) I made turkey soup that somehow had glass in it, (2) I made poison apple butter, (3) I made roasted potatoes that were so oversalted as to be inedible, (4) I

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-81403750352422410142008-10-13T12:24:00.003-04:002008-10-13T12:27:43.035-04:00

Been meaning to post this for a while. It's really worth reading.It's a librarian's response to a patron who went through the challenge process for the book "Uncle Bobby's Wedding".

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-45269174216086642372008-09-23T19:15:00.006-04:002008-09-23T19:27:42.773-04:00

This is what I've been doing all day, but I don't get to do anything this clever.

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-91540082209493767462008-09-16T18:47:00.010-04:002008-09-16T20:29:53.945-04:00

So I realize that I've posted next to nothing in the past few months, and for that I apologize. In my defense, it was nice out some of the time. Also, I blog best when I'm procrastinating, and for the past month, I've only had one lousy website to procrastinate about, so there was no incentive for me put things off via blogging.Anyway, now that it's unofficially fall (FINALLY!), I felt that I

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-78324171416233213962008-09-15T19:30:00.001-04:002008-09-16T21:21:21.852-04:00

The weekend after Labor Day, I finally managed to get out of the city, something I've been trying to all summer. Bill & I went to Marion to stay with Caitlin & Andrew for a weekend. We were supposed to get a hurricane, but all that happened was that it rained slightly and we lost power for a few hours. I think I speak for all of us when I say, "Stupid ocean! Is that the best you've got!?!?!"

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-5167769582260442802008-08-18T17:23:00.003-04:002008-08-18T18:15:50.741-04:00

Good news, everyone! The peaches are here!For those of you who don't know, our landlord planted a peach tree in the back yard several years back, and in the past three years, it started to bear fruit. The upshot of this is that there is a gigantic bag of peaches in my kitchen right now, and there will be many peach-related foods happening in the next few weeks. You really have to cook with them,

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-32354136117130179362008-08-02T18:18:00.002-04:002008-08-02T18:20:59.737-04:00

I love this comic anyway, but this one in particular . . .

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-10813082143828709332008-07-13T13:27:00.009-04:002008-12-08T22:33:47.450-05:00

I've been baking for a while now, and I've undertaken many different projects of varying degrees of complexity. I've made everything from simple muffins and quickbreads to popovers to fancy yeast breads that take days to be ready. I've made plain cakes, layer cakes, cupcakes, things with filling, and things with frosting. I've made cookies held together with little more than oats, and cookies

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-87267409778867769002008-07-09T14:14:00.005-04:002008-07-09T14:35:19.697-04:00

I came across this in one of the books I've been poking at lately. I say "poking at" because most things I read usually require extensive internet searches and lengthy conversations with my father until I can cram at least the crude details into my thick skull. Anyway, first of all I had no idea what RFCs were, and most of them don't make a great deal of sense to me yet, but I'm (slowly)

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-31788238379005845762008-06-29T21:47:00.001-04:002008-12-08T22:33:48.637-05:00

Of course, the farmers market is always fun, but this weekend I got to make three kinds of pesto, so I figure it was a pretty good trip. I also finally got my delicious eggs, and got ragged on for not picking up the eggs I ordered two Sundays ago.Anyway, moving on, I got a whole bunch of other delicious food. Today's haul included my usual salad greens (red leaf, green leaf, and arugula) as

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-59458399604925059532008-06-29T19:29:00.003-04:002008-06-29T19:36:59.059-04:00

It's happening!Blizzard announced Diablo III.I'm guessing that Duke Nukem Forever will be hot on its heels. Also the Hurd, I would imagine.(FYI - I started playing Diablo II in around 2002, and it wasn't a new game then.)

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-11618770976281611152008-06-09T00:00:00.003-04:002008-12-09T00:15:14.848-05:00

So I decided a long while ago that I would put together a post on beer, with a little bit of history, a little bit of current info, and a little bit on general beer categories. I realized that it couldn't even be counted as a drop in the bucket; there is a huge amount of actual historical literature on beer alone, to say nothing of alcoholic beverages in general. When I began this entry,

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-47996211769104539062008-06-08T19:02:00.004-04:002008-12-09T00:15:15.738-05:00

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-58429822066281048242008-06-01T13:02:00.005-04:002008-12-09T00:15:16.137-05:00

So it's time again for another graphic novel. In case you haven't noticed, I don't bother mentioning the ones I dislike, because I feel like there's little point in alerting people to their existence. I like to review the ones I love in hopes that more people will read them. Everything I've read lately has been pretty mediocre, and nothing really grabbed me until I finally got around to

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-89909962683029616862008-05-26T15:22:00.003-04:002008-12-09T00:15:16.342-05:00

This sangria is modeled on one that I had at my birthday dinner at The Savant Project (which was really good all around, by the way). It should really sit overnight (although you can do a quickie version of it), so bear that in mind. Here's the finished product:The base is sauv blanc. I'm not one to really give a crap whether the wine I'm using is any good when I'm mixing it with other stuff

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-28245709748854170032008-05-18T14:14:00.002-04:002008-05-18T14:15:26.358-04:00

I couldn't pick one to embed in this post; I just like them all so much.Take a look.

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-69605708803695925852008-05-17T20:00:00.015-04:002009-08-16T15:09:41.032-04:00

Today Bill attempted to answer an important question which I think we've all wondered about from time to time:How do you turn this . . .. . . into this?Yes, that is an extremely large, whole, uncleaned squid. Well, I suppose as squid in general go it's not that big, but for an eatin' squid, it's definitely on the large side. And here's what he did with it.Wow! Look at them go!Anyhow, the first

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-85239396726511942372008-05-13T19:24:00.002-04:002008-05-13T19:28:29.279-04:00

I realize that I'm not going to get a response to this, but I'll post it anyway.Anybody know where I can get information on the cost of dev kits for major gaming systems? I've been reading stuff lately about how there are lots and lots of terrible games for the Wii, and how all the good games come from Nintendo itself, and lots of speculation about why this is.My first thought is that Nintendo

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-24010416742751080462008-05-03T21:21:00.005-04:002008-12-09T00:15:20.840-05:00

So this is really more Bill's thing than mine. His favorite thing, to be specific. I would estimate that around 70% of his food-related conversation involves Cajun dishes; 90% if you include southern food generally. Here's what he made for dinner. Behold it in all its glory:Clockwise from top: grilled Cajun catfish (from Morse Fish, of course; pre-seasoned), crawdads, red beans and rice,

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-76613720179757327002008-05-02T08:54:00.003-04:002008-05-02T09:02:02.497-04:00

This link came from one of my professors, Candy Schwartz. It's sort of mesmerizing. I didn't think I could be entertained for this long by what's essentially a virtual paper doll.In other news, my work is pretty much all done, so I'll be writing a lot more unless Warcraft holds me hostage. And speaking of Warcraft, it really runs extremely well under wine. I'm impressed enough that I might

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-50350929789497408132008-05-01T19:48:00.004-04:002008-05-01T20:28:36.108-04:00

I really wish I had a picture of these, because they were absolutely gorgeous.You will need:3 large or 4 medium portobello caps, de-stemmed, de-finned and rinsedOlive oilA sprig of thyme, choppedCrushed garlic1 sweet onionCrumbled blue cheeseShredded mild cheese of some kind (I used the low-fat Mexican blend)Arugula(Whole wheat hamburger buns or rolls)Heat some olive oil in a skillet/grill pan/

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-9473446234786540712008-05-01T13:15:00.004-04:002008-05-01T13:29:36.846-04:00

Now that Trader Joe's has started carrying bagged, washed, cut frisée, this is my new favorite salad. It's really quick and easy, and you can prep everything in a few minutes for several days' worth.Base: 1 bag of frisée mixed with 1 bag of . . . well, I forget the name of the mix. It's baby spinach, baby arugula, and baby lettuces. I like to empty the two bags into a big ziploc and mix them

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-89535716794490680192008-04-29T21:06:00.003-04:002008-04-29T22:30:24.267-04:00

I've decided the whole "slow food" thing could be pretty fun, delicious and healthful. The other day I asked Bill if he would come for a pre-dinner drink with me, and it turned out that Pho Republique has teeny tiny tapas-esque appetizers on weeknights. I love the idea of many little tiny foodstuffs eaten over a long period of time, so I had my drink, and I also had a teeny tiny seaweed salad

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-24657671373819609392008-04-24T11:28:00.005-04:002008-04-24T12:22:10.207-04:00

I've always been frustrated with the way the media often reports on scientific studies. They'll talk about anything with a good hook and twist it to make it even more exciting, and before we know it they're telling us that chocolate and beer make us healthy (and here I was trying to use them in moderation!), exercise is bad (it could damage my joints and muscles!), driving an SUV is good for the

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-27866606232587683832008-04-12T20:42:00.005-04:002008-04-12T21:11:46.149-04:00

I no longer need Windows Vista!!!! HAAAAHAHAHA!!!!!It's still sitting there on its partition, but I can finally do everything I need to do with Ubuntu. Including playing World of Warcraft.I did some setting up today, and I got my sound card and my fancy graphics card working. After a protracted battle, I got DVDs to play (this, like most things in life, was a DRM problem). World of Warcraft

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-5837539658889838802008-04-10T10:39:00.004-04:002008-12-09T00:15:21.536-05:00

Number one: Baby spinach and arugula with sliced red peppers, crumbled bacon, avocado, and honey fig Wensleydale. It would have been really good with a nice blue, also, so that's something to try in the future. I dressed it very lightly (I usually don't dress my salads at all, so a little goes a long way) with a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, honey, salt, and mustard powder.Number two:Baby

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-91295499381827219832008-04-08T13:52:00.003-04:002008-04-08T13:55:34.748-04:00

How many catalogers does it take to screw in a light bulb?More than three, but only one gets the credit.a) I really hope no one got that joke.b) I hate my life.c) Don't bother saying it; I am already hanging my head in shame.

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-80173314696076796652008-04-06T00:10:00.002-04:002008-12-09T00:15:22.081-05:00

Well, fish burritos, since I couldn't find any whole grain taco-sized tortillas that didn't have hydrogenated oil. Whatever size they were, they were extremely tasty, and although they're not completely healthy, they're a little bit better than average.The fish was tilapia. We cut it into good-sized nuggets, then breaded it: flour, then egg, then whole wheat panko. Then we pan-fried it in

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-18705455771661538302008-04-05T22:10:00.005-04:002008-04-05T22:44:04.087-04:00

So here's something I think every feminist and every information professional should be interested in. Of course, it was a librarian who discovered this.The gist of the article is that POPLINE, a reproductive health database, made the word "abortion" a stopword. It seems to have been rectified, but the story is rather disturbing; I suggest reading about it via the links above (Feministing links

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-59773785423352221112008-04-01T15:16:00.005-04:002008-12-09T00:15:22.388-05:00

Okay, so I've been really busy with end-of-semester projects and all manner of other things lately, but I couldn't resist making a quick post for this one. First, to prove I'm not lying, here it is in context:I doubt it's visible in that screenshot, but here's the relevant bit:Yes, it's a handy visual aid to help you determine whether it's time to get a new reduced-fare ID card. Like, for

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-6325350161734368972008-03-24T16:08:00.004-04:002008-03-24T16:22:11.625-04:00

Feministing blogged it and so did Feministe. The original article ran in the NY Times here.Just fucking charming. I love that people allow themselves think this is an anomaly, too. I'm pretty convinced it isn't.The real kicker for me was the brief mention at the end of the article that the woman's husband had left her and she wasn't sure if he was coming back. Right. Because, no doubt, it

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-82567764654301478752008-03-24T10:10:00.002-04:002008-03-24T10:18:54.253-04:00

I just found out that Zugg has released a new MUD client. I might have to give it a try. I'm the only person I know who used to play MUDs, and they still have enormous appeal for me. I don't know whether it's the fact that they were the very first RPGs I ever played (back when I didn't know what an RPG was), or whether it's the fact that I've never been a particularly visual person to begin

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-87082500036071379212008-03-11T17:34:00.005-04:002008-03-11T18:57:16.563-04:00

I promise I'm gearing up for a massive entry later this week, but in the mean time, here's Bruce Schneier talking sense again. The nerve of that guy . . .My favorite thing from the comments section was this.

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-75765037598709224702008-03-09T14:33:00.004-04:002008-03-09T14:45:16.500-04:00

I mentioned this when I was recording all my foods, but in case you missed it, I discovered that lots of things that don't say they're MSG are pretty much MSG. Apparently, so did the NY Times.I think this is just more fodder for my theory that as soon as I become interested in something and read about it, major news outlets pick up on it, not through the old-fashioned "they're reading my

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-2443217971048179932008-03-06T16:03:00.003-05:002008-03-06T20:24:18.114-05:00

Turns out I wasn't the only one who caught this episode of that terrible polygraph show. Feministing dug up an article from the NY Post (who else? well, maybe the Boston Herald . . . ) which tells us that women are liars. And we're not even that good at it.Where do I start?Well, first of all, anyone who says of a contestant on a reality TV show, "It supports my thesis that women are talented

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-50806853548240552272008-03-04T10:07:00.003-05:002008-03-04T10:25:25.110-05:00

Okay, I don't usually like to just flat-out link to other people's stuff with absolutely no content of my own, but I got a good dose of angry really early this morning, so I figured I'd share it. Spirit of giving and such.http://feministing.com/archives/008721.htmlIt's odd, I suppose, that of all the things Feministing finds to enrage me, I'd pick this one to post right at this moment, but

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-3094931350922705162008-03-04T10:00:00.000-05:002008-12-09T00:15:24.538-05:00

This past week, I made mince pie for my father's birthday, because for some reason he's been obsessed with mince pie for the past few months. His incessant chattering about mince pies in the weeks leading up to Christmas (in the course of his fully successful effort to get mince pie to magically appear at Christmas dinner) got me interested in the history of mincemeat.I've always thought of

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-28269688172351372062008-03-04T09:46:00.002-05:002008-03-23T16:37:32.376-04:00

I knew that this existed, but until finding a link to this article in one of Bruce Schneier's entries on profiling, I didn't know there was a name for it. Cold Reading is what psychics, astrologers, FBI agents, and others use to assemble a profile on a person without the person (or audience) knowing it's happening. As I said, I've always known that people did it. It never really escaped me that

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-10387488989805265952008-02-27T14:36:00.003-05:002008-02-27T15:48:22.516-05:00

Today I learned how to query DIALOG, an extremely powerful (and extremely expensive) database aggregating service. The first few things we were told: Make sure you select a database (using the "begin" command) before starting. Databases cost a certain amount to use per hour (this varies by database), PLUS some other undefined amount per query, per record, etc. Some databases will wind up costing

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-52283717604200966302008-02-26T10:07:00.009-05:002008-02-26T13:19:14.967-05:00

Unfortunately, FOX got left on in the living room unnoticed last night. Well, unnoticed until that ridiculous lie detector show came on and we started to notice what was happening to the contestant. It was a young-looking woman, married to an equally young-looking guy (and I mean they both looked younger than me) being asked various humiliating questions, which is pretty much what the show's

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-79948921136024928302008-02-21T17:22:00.005-05:002008-12-09T00:15:24.826-05:00

So today I made Veganomicon's Tangerine Baked Tofu and Chickpea-Quinoa Pilaf, courtesy of Jil at Decoupage and Demitasse (linked in the right-hand links bar as well). I made a few changes. Here's what it looked like:I didn't put the tomato paste in the pilaf, but I did put in chili-coated dried mango, which I think was a good addition. Also, I think I defeated the entire purpose of the recipe

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-52700894985817023282008-02-21T14:10:00.004-05:002008-02-21T17:20:33.388-05:00

Well, I did it for five days, and I have to say, it's a major pain in the ass to photograph, analyze and post everything I eat. I did learn a few things from the process, though.First of all, food is not at all what I expected. I thought the pre-fab tuna curry was bound to have something awful in it, but the breadcrumbs would be fine, and I was completely off base. I thought the hash browns (

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-73194112419135687202008-02-17T10:54:00.012-05:002008-12-09T00:15:25.718-05:00

Omelet with Jalapeño Chicken Sausage, Peppers, and Shredded Cheese.Shredded "Lite" Cheese: see 02.14.08Jalapeño Chicken Sausage: skinless chicken meat, water, roasted red peppers (red peppers, water, salt, citric acid), seasoning (salt, turbinado sugar, spices, jalapeño pepper, onion powder, garlic powder), jalapeño peppers (jalapeño peppers, water, citric acid)Hash Browns (cooked in vegetable

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-68736729116075614572008-02-16T13:38:00.010-05:002008-12-09T00:15:26.391-05:00

Coffee and Almond Milk (and WoW)Almond Milk: filtered water, evaporated cane juice, almonds, tricalcium phosphate, natural vanilla flavor with other natural flavors, sea salt, potassium citrate, carageenan, soy lecithin, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D2, D-alpha-tocopherol (natural vitamin E)Grape TomatoesPeppers and Chipotle Hummus (see 02.14.08)(as everyone can now see, Saturday laziness has

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-652114395874917922008-02-15T15:05:00.013-05:002008-12-09T00:15:27.467-05:00

Eggs with sundried tomatoes, broccoli, shredded lite cheese, and goat cheese.Pomegranate JuiceCoffeeTomatoes: see 02-13-08Shredded Lite Cheese: see 02-14-08Goat Cheese: see 02-13-08Pomegranate Juice: pomegranate juices from concentrate and natural flavors(Didn't get a picture, but I had some gum during class. It was Ice Breakers, which was my only choice. The Hershey's site doesn't list its

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-49470783552956209982008-02-15T12:34:00.016-05:002008-12-09T00:15:28.988-05:00

Eggs with spinach, sundried tomatoes in oil, goat cheese, shredded "lite" cheese blend, and broccoli florets.Steel-cut oats with molasses, pecan pieces and flax seeds.Coffee (if I neglected to mention it before, this particular coffee contains peppercorns, cloves and cinnamon, and sometimes I add cardamom too.)Tomatoes: see yesterdayGoat Cheese: see yesterday"Lite" Cheese: reduced fat cheddar (

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-36355129061285119812008-02-13T14:32:00.020-05:002008-12-09T00:15:30.178-05:00

Main ingredients are listed next to the corresponding picture. Sub-ingredients (or extremely long ingredient lists) appear underneath the corresponding picture.Eggs with spinach, sundried tomatoes in oil, goat cheese, shredded "lite" cheese blend, broccoli florets.Steel-cut oats with dried berries, molasses, pecan pieces, and flax seeds.Tomatoes: tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, herbs, spices,

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-78806712009611832162008-02-13T07:28:00.006-05:002008-12-09T00:15:30.593-05:00

Ahhhh, breakfast: meal of the gods. And humans.Here we have eggs with baby spinach, sundried tomatoes, broccoli, goat cheese, and "lite" three-cheese blend; steel-cut oats with dried berries, pecan bits, flax seed, and molasses; and of course, coffee.The steel-cut oats go in the slow-cooker before bed; they take around 7 hours to cook that way. It's a lot better than half an hour in the morning

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-23752043010994740082008-01-30T15:04:00.000-05:002008-12-09T11:14:20.503-05:00

The other thing I managed to get mostly right for Bill's birthday was the cake. I made a bad-ass red velvet layer cake with cream cheese buttercream frosting, and Steve was kind enough to document the process for posterity. Following is a pictorial essay/recipe describing the cake-making and cake-eating process.The first step was to prepare the pans, which as you may or may not be able to see,

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-79769700238580122562008-01-29T16:03:00.001-05:002008-12-09T11:14:20.725-05:00

So it was Bill's birthday on Sunday, and I didn't do anything really great for him (also, I failed to do the one thing he asked, which was to call his friends, because I hate calling people). I guess this makes me some kind of horrible, birthday-ruining jerk, but I did manage to make two things happen. One was this:(This is actually a picture of the strategy guide, which we also own, but you

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-30646006979223787292008-01-16T15:45:00.001-05:002008-12-09T11:14:21.375-05:00

No, really, this is important information we all need to know. Otherwise it wouldn't be at the very top of the Wikipedia entry on black holes. Duh.Seriously, though, thank god for screen captures; otherwise I wouldn't have been able to share this bizarre little gem:It's really too small to see, so I took the liberty:I, for one, am shocked. How recently did scientist find this out, and why

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-44344167845578388252008-01-16T15:24:00.001-05:002008-01-16T15:41:37.833-05:00

It's like some sort of disturbing yet intriguing cross between H.R. Geiger, Disney animatronics, and those build-your-own-dinosaur-skeleton model kits.I don't know when, if ever, I'll get to France, but if I do, this is the first thing I'm going to see.This link, of course, did not come out of the ether. Bruce Schneier, author and security guru, has a blog (also on my links list at right) which

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-2296639095487274512008-01-15T12:47:00.000-05:002008-01-16T15:45:44.404-05:00

I told you Black Hole was a big fucking deal.

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-64430191530024795142008-01-14T14:53:00.000-05:002008-12-09T11:14:21.592-05:00

Aside from my laptop, this was probably the best present I got this Christmas. This book is fabulous. It will tell you everything you ever wanted to know (and lots of things you didn't) about what humans eat. This book will tell you, for example, that pumpkin seed oil made from heated seeds contains both carotenoids and chlorophyl, and as a result looks brown in a bottle but emerald green in

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-84959846948075768852008-01-12T20:35:00.000-05:002008-12-09T11:14:22.274-05:00

Well, I promised to share more of the fabulous stuff I've been reading, watching, and otherwise interacting with, so here it is.And regarding the last sentence, I have no problem ending a sentence or clause with a preposition when it's quite clear what its object is, I have no problem splitting an infinitive and I think that the reasoning behind that rule is specious at best (and at worst simply

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-57735968986867718082008-01-10T09:04:00.000-05:002008-12-09T11:14:22.464-05:00

Okay, so I've barely blogged since I left school, but now I'm back. I've been reading, watching and learning some great stuff lately, and although I can't possibly get to all of it today, I want to alert you all that I'll be showing off all this great stuff in this and future posts. But before we get to anything else, it's imperative that I show off my new computer. It's shipping to my parents

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-7941989217548424392007-10-04T13:06:00.000-04:002008-01-10T14:08:07.363-05:00

***UPDATE 01-10-08*** Not only did I start a new job, but I decided that both Halloween and Christmas were too ambitious for me at the moment, what with their rich and colorful histories. Gooooooo MITHRA! So for the moment we'll leave that alone, and maybe someday I'll get around to them (and hell, Thanksgiving might prove fun too, or boxing day . . . who knows?). For now, just continue

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-79619484296976682552007-05-29T19:48:00.000-04:002007-05-30T08:25:08.835-04:00

So I seem to have been slightly obsessed lately with questions of identity, agency, and society. Probably I'll write a little more about this later because it's some pretty interesting stuff, but for now I'm mentioning it because of a crazy article I read for one of my history classes. Just to make sure I give credit where it's due, here are the facts: the article, entitled "Avgai Khad: Theft and

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-68520165974655363722007-05-29T18:11:00.001-04:002007-05-30T08:25:27.805-04:00

In keeping with my holiday theme, I thought I'd write a bit about Memorial Day and how it came to be. As you may know, U.S. history is not my favorite, and I prefer writing about holidays with disturbingly pagan roots. Although Memorial Day is a U.S. phenomenon (and a fairly recent one at that), its roots actually do extend quite a ways into the past, back to ancient Greece. Waterloo,

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-23656897020782355162007-05-28T17:28:00.000-04:002007-05-30T08:29:38.871-04:00

N.B. - Again, this is an old blog from Myspace. It was written on March 17th.As many of you may know, today [March 17th] isn't just a day to commemorate St. Patrick's Christianization of the Irish. Here in Boston, we celebrate the evacuation of British forces from the city in 1776. Now, I know what you're probably thinking: wasn't that when British forces on Bunker Hill were defeated by George

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-43784517971699950292007-05-28T17:26:00.000-04:002007-05-30T08:41:43.183-04:00

Now, I don't celebrate Valentine's Day myself, but as a historian, it's my duty to shatter all your deeply held convictions about what's traditional and what isn't. Valentine's Day has a pretty interesting history, although much of it is not in line with the stories we've all heard about Saint Valentine the Christian martyr. It seems, however, that it's a little older than other "traditions

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-84933916227365500252007-05-28T17:01:00.001-04:002007-05-30T08:26:31.964-04:00

So I've been trying to get this blog up and running for a while now, but I've been too lazy to repost my Myspace blogs here. I actually have readers on Myspace, so it's going to be a difficult transition. The first few entries here will all be reposts I've been meaning to take care of, and in future I'll be posting in both places. The one directly after this is my rant about people who refuse

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8406545059290661127.post-45040554304610602382000-01-01T23:12:00.012-05:002009-08-16T13:45:45.135-04:00

Human creature with thoughts for writing down.Very generally, I like to write about food, computers, and feminism.More specifically, I am currently a grad student at Simmons GSLIS, where I enrolled after the panicky realization that an undergraduate degree barely qualified me for work as an administrative assistant. I enjoy playing with computers and networks, doing web developer type stuff,

exitquotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528768933938854499noreply@blogger.com