magedragonfire: (Default)
Finally. Not being able to post comments while I could see interesting posts on my friendspage was the most irritating thing ever. ;.;

For the past week, I've kind of been attempting a science experiment in my kitchen. Tonight I should have had some results, but alas, I've got nothing to show for it. I set out to make a sourdough starter, diligently followed all the directions in my bread-book, annnnnd... nothing. The dough hasn't risen one bit. It kind of smells like how sourdough should, but there's been no leavening at all - not even a hint of a rise - after three hours. If I baked it, I'd wind up with one hell of a brick, I think.

Heck, the starter itself never even doubled in size - as far as I saw - when it was in the plain ol' feeding stage. I got some bubbles in the first couple of days, but then it all kind of stopped.

Reading some other tales from sourdough-making-folk, I think I might not have been feeding it quite enough, in this warm weather we're having. Probably made for weak and starved yeasties.

Oh well. Just have to try again and dump more flour down the drain, sort-of-literally. Start it up again next Tuesday, I guess, after the long weekend. I'm glad I'm at least using the giant bag of flour from Costco. This'd be hella expensive otherwise.
magedragonfire: (Default)
1000 Awesome Things is a pretty fun blog, but after skimming through the front page, I came across one I sorta-kinda have to disagree with.

#254: Finding a chocolate egg way after Easter can have the potential to be awesome, sure. If it's a couple months and you haven't had any super hot days, great! That chocolate is still bound to be somewhat edible, and it's always nice to find surprise!chocolate.

However.

Occasionally, you'll come across eggs that you just know aren't going to be kosher.

Case in point: after I moved out of my parent's house and in with Trav, I was going through and putting things of mine away and kind of decorating a little bit with my mass collection of everything. A lot of this collection of everything is composed of candles (my mom and sister love candles, thus I end up with a lot of candles).

One candle, in particular, has a stopper on it and never gets opened, for good reason - one of these. It is huge, and potently smells of blueberries. Seriously, you uncork that thing in the living room for just a moment, and you can smell blueberries all the way at the other end of the apartment in the spare room.

Anyways, when I was living with my parents, this blueberry monstrosity lived on a shelf that was far away from my eye level, and I never, ever bothered to open it because I did not need my room exuding blueberry smell for months at a time. When I packed it away, I just threw it in a box without looking at it.

When I unpacked it and was searching for another convenient out-of-the-way shelf to put it on, so no one would have the urge to open it, I happened to take a closer glance at it.

Glint.

There was an easter egg, gaily wrapped in its colourful foil, trapped between candle and the stopper. The stopper is not one of the standard see-through lids, by the way - it's a statue of a wizard on top of some clouds. Quite opaque. The only way you could see the egg was to look at it dead-on at the right angle.

My father, at some point, had placed this egg in that candle, and I suppose I must have had a cold or something on that particular Easter, because I never noticed that my room smelled terribly of blueberries. He had done this at least two years prior to my finding the egg - there had not been an egg hunt the Easter previous, since he was away on a trip during that weekend, but there had been egg hunts for every year previous since my brother and I were small-lings. Nevermind that I was 23 or 24 at the time of the last one. Of course, the last couple of years had been significantly ramped up in difficulty with devilish hiding spaces - hence, egg in a sealed candle.

So. We have this easter egg, which is at least two years old - and it has been marinating in godawfully strong blueberry candle scent that entire time.

I love chocolate, but there was no way that thing was going anywhere near my mouth.

Finding easter eggs way after Easter - nooooot always awesome.
magedragonfire: (Default)
I spent way too many hours today relearning how to do things in the GIMP, and this is the result:



It probably only makes sense if you're a little bit familiar with Canadian politics.

(And yes, he was a professor for some time way back when at Ryerson.)
magedragonfire: (Default)
Fun fact - the original version of The King's Speech was rated R in the USA. Not because of gory violence, or sex, but because of the presence of a single scene where there's a whoooooole lot of very frustrated cursing. A version rated PG-13 was released after the Oscars in which this scene (which was rather funny and poignant) was cut.
We could only find a version rated PG to go see last night, Trav and I. We had known of the rating kerfuffle in the States, and assumed the same kind of thing happened up here. Boo for censorship, but the movie is going out of theatres and all, so there's not so much selection as there was. Disappointing to not see that scene, we thought, but I still wanted to see it (yay linguists!), so away we went.
And yet there there in the very PG-rated movie was the scene, in full glory. Canada's film classification people have their heads firmly on their shoulders. :)

Main game of Pokemon White completed as of a couple days ago. Just the vast task of filling up the PokeDex left. :3 I'm actually going to do it this time. No, seriously!
...It'll be a whole lot easier when Trav rigs us up a wireless router, though, so I can actually get to trading. If anyone who has Pokemon Black (or available Tepigs or Oshawotts) wants to get a thing going eventually, let me know~

And finally, for all the dudes on my flist here who do the RP thing, you may be interested in checking out the RP Repository - s'free, almost completely customisable sites for roleplaying characters, along with other neat things like group areas and forums and what-not. Have a Rhaetia, for example!
magedragonfire: (Default)
"Rydia obtained a TM76 Struggle Bug!"

...Oh they did not name a move that.

They did!

Oh, I'll take you for a ride in the ol' struggle buggy, Leavanny. *wink wink*

kitten~

Jan. 30th, 2011 03:32 pm
magedragonfire: (Default)
Guuuuys. We get kitten tomorrow~ Well, maybe. Either tomorrow or Tuesday. We went out looking for kitties at the shelters yesterday, and there was a cute-as-button one at the Surrey one who was all "Hey! Humans! I wanna sniff and see you!" the moment I peered into his cage. He's not actually a wee!kitten, being about four and a half months old - they're actually neutering him tomorrow which is why we don't have him already. But he is still pretty adorable (sort of like a marbled Bengal in colouring, almost), and looks like he has a good temperment so far.

The only problem is figuring out what to name him. The shelter (or his previous owner, I dunno) gave him the moniker of Simba (he has a sister in there named Nala, too), which is okay, but I'm not sure if it's just perfect yet. Any suggestions~?
magedragonfire: (Default)
Well, for the first time in almost a year, I have a cat nestled on my lap as I type. We got Eri-cat from my parents as a 'trial' cat, to see how Trav's (maybe ex-) allergies are triggered.

She's never left my parents' house since she was a kitten. She's two, now - not that bad, but still. She was very lost and confused, wandering around the apartment and finding all the hiding spots and sad-yowling.

At least she's calmed down now. She seems to remember what 'computer laptime' is.
magedragonfire: (Default)
Hnnng. So much unwanting to write.

Christmas was pretty good, not getting shopping done 'til the 23rd aside (and not getting baking done 'til the afternoon on the 24th, but whatever). I got entirely too much stuff. ...Not that I'm looking to get rid of any of it, or anything.

Obligatory list )

Trav really spoiled me with that second-to-last one. The only problem with getting a new system is that now there's suddenly this whole new library I have to pay attention to.

Funnily, I didn't get any socks (that weren't in DIY format). I could've used a pair or two, but I guess I can afford to buy myself socks now.

My job at Linmark came and went pretty smoothly. It's always nice going back there, seeing the gals again. Paycheque's pretty nice, too. It's just a pity they're so small outside of the busy season. I guess that means I should be back looking for another job, which I am nooooot looking forward to. It's either that or tear my hair out becoming frustrated by housewifely things again... Except not really, since we do need the money. Hoping to maybe stop renting some time within the next year or two.

...It's really just a matter of dragging myself out of this pit I've been in. I'm not exactly get-up-and-go at the best of times, but basically since this summer, I've had no motivation or passion for anything.

There's been things I've been thinking about doing for months now, but whenever I attempt them, I just... don't end up doing anything. Been wanting to get a character commission, but can't be arsed to ask the artist I want. Been wanting to complete profiles on the RP Repository for a few characters, but can't get the words out. Been wanting to check out a few RP sites I've been linked, but steadfastly ignore the URLs sitting in my inbox. Hell, I've been brushing off folks on Furcadia even though I do want to roleplay - I just don't know what the fuck I want to write. Frankly, I'm amazed I've managed to write this much so far on this stupid blog post.

It's not even a case of simple writer's block, either. Want to knit my sweater. Can't be bothered to look at it. Want to clean my dresser off and get it organized. Easier to turn a blind eye. Even just basic household shit - getting off my ass to get groceries, or cleaning the bathroom, or doing dishes - seems like pulling teeth. I can't get anything done before noon. Days when I manage to get one simple thing done seem like a victory, 'less-bad' days. Days where I sit around and basically accomplish nothing are far more common, even though I get frustrated, even though I beat myself up over it, even though I'm not trying to do anything out of the ordinary or difficult.

I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't seem to have any answers for myself. I'm lonely, and at the same time wanting to shun everyone and everything. It's...

Pfeh. It's frustrating, is what it is.

PLATUF

Jan. 1st, 2011 01:12 am
magedragonfire: (Default)
...I will eventually post an actual post here - probably with some Christmas listing and year wrap-upping and suchlike, but...

I just finished the story mode of one of said gifts, and... Were three whams in a row really necessary, Level 5? I would just finish wiping away tears and stifling sniffles and another would hit.

*runs off to cry into pillow until she can remember about future games in series*
magedragonfire: (amaterasu)
I know at least a couple of people on my flist here do work on or have accounts with FA, so I figure this is worth passing on:

Turns out Dragoneer is a beastiality and rape apologist, and Zaush is an alleged multiple rapist, and your private messages are open to all admins who care to read them. There's been a whole saga brewing over the past week, so I hear, but all of the pertinent details are summed up over here with links to screengrabs highlighting all of the above. I'm too disgusted to say much more about it, frankly, but I will say that it's high time the community found another spot for arts.
magedragonfire: (Default)
Our apartment is not small, but neither is it very big.

Right now, inhabiting our not-huge apartment, we have three fruitcakes.

Gods have mercy on us all.
magedragonfire: (Default)
ALRIGHT, THIS WHOLE BLOWING UP FAERIELAND IS THE BEST THING NEOPETS HAS EVER DONE

I seriously can't get over the image of Xandra and the fire and kabooms, agh. <3

/nerd
magedragonfire: (Default)
[Error: unknown template qotd]"Hurt" will never sound better by the Nine Inch Nails - it's pretty much Johnny Cash's song, now.

Same with "Hallelujah", after kd lang sang it - and Leonard Cohen agrees with that one, said as much himself.

Oh my!

Nov. 3rd, 2010 12:05 pm
magedragonfire: (Default)
Gordo the Magnificent Liar just resigned!

The announcement mumbled by on the radio about ten minutes ago, stating that he'd just resigned, but both Pam and I caught it out of the corners of our ears, and just stared, dumbfounded and wondering if we'd heard correctly, until we noticed our twin reactions and confirmed that, yes indeed, we'd actually heard that.

I hopped on Google News a split second later and there was already an article, whereupon everyone else in the office rejoiced.

There was some discussion of running naked down the streets to celebrate.

Yay~

Punkins!

Nov. 1st, 2010 02:37 pm
magedragonfire: (Default)
For it was Halloween, and Halloween means punkins~

Saving flists and whatnot )
magedragonfire: (Default)



THIS GAME CANNOT BE NOT AWESOME.

PERIOD.
magedragonfire: (Default)
NEWS!

Because I've been terrible about that shit.

a) I got a jorb! Well, returned to jorb. Back at Linmark for another busy season. Things're shaping up well so far. I has a paycheque, which is nice.

b) I made pumpkin ice cream and it turned out much fantastically better than earlier attempts at ice cream~ I think it's because the bowl got colder in the deep freeze than it did in the regular freezer. Not gonna lie, I made a mess of myself licking the dasher clean.

c) I have terrible writers block! Yay!

d) I finished knitting a sweater sleeve! Yay!
(Only another sleeve and body and hood to go! That'll take me like months yet!)

e) I can't remember anything else.

...

But anyways. As the post's subject kind of hints at, I've been a terrible clutz today. Somehow I managed to b0rk my foot on the weekend - stepping up hurts the outside edge. Can't dance tonight 'cause of it. Bah.
I've been dropping things all day. I hurt myself at work in a tiny dozen ways - putting my arm down on staples that somehow managed to have a point upwards, running into desks and banging into things, falling out of my chair (okay, look, I was just trying to retrieve the popcorn that was running away from me and hiding under the desk - turns out that bending that far forward means the chair's going to scoot backwards without me in it), etc... Got a terrible head and shoulder ache from work today. Choked on my dinner. And even aside from all that, my brain's out to lunch - I stopped at the bank to deposit my paycheque from Friday, and only then realized that I'd stupidly taken it out of my purse.

;.;

Maybe it is all a sign that I should just give up and go to bed early tonight or something.
magedragonfire: (Default)
I actually meant to do this last year - which is when I took all the pictures - but never quite managed to get it all together for some reason (lazy).

But! Just in time for this fall season, I give you -

HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN PIE

FROM FUCKING SCRATCH


(with pictures!*)

Cut to save your flists, because it is not a short process (in pictures). )

I took entirely too many photos. Apparently I am a neurotic git. Or really just liked taking pictures of unbeaten eggs. Or something.

* - Apologies for the shitty photo quality, but this entire thing was chronicled on my DSi. Not too bad, if I don't say so myself.**

** - Came out better than the time I took wedding dress pictures on my DSi, as we had forgotten the real camera. I must say, though, there's something*** to be said about a girl in a wedding dress holding a bright blue handheld game system being captured by the sixty billion mirrors in the bridal shop dressing room.

*** - "NERDY. NERDY NERD NERD DORK, WHY ARE YOU IN THAT GOWN? GTFO AND GET BACK TO YOUR BASEMENT."
magedragonfire: (Default)
So apparently Duke Nukem Forever might finally be at the end of development hell. I dunno. I can just see it stretching out for years yet.

The best part is, though, I have a friend who's actually working on it, and has been for a few months now, right when everyone thought the project was actually dead because of the 3D Realms failure. I can't imagine what it must be like to do that, and yet not be able to say a word to anyone about it. Augh, NDAs! On the other hand, this means I now get to tease him about being on a project that will never end, heehee.
Page generated Jul. 11th, 2025 01:19 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios