All posts by Mush

About Mush

I want to be a veterinarian because I love children.

First loaf of no-knead bread: OM NOM OMFG NOM.

Food, Recipes, , ,

In which I record my first-ever bread baking experience in great and tedious detail! Yay!

I am not a baker. I have never made a loaf of bread in my life (except for in a bread machine, and that can’t possibly count for anything). In spite of this handicap, I am going to bake a loaf of bread. And live-blog it. And hopefully be able to eat it.

In November of 2006, a recipe for bread was printed in the New York Times. It sparked some kind of bread revolution, apparently. There are thousands and thousands of blog entries about it, there are entire websites dedicated to variations on the method, tons of pictures abound online, and you can spend hours watching people on YouTube gush about how awesome it is.

I don’t know how much of a pain in the ass kneading really is, but judging from the response to this recipe, it’s freakin’ bad. Anyway, here’s the vid that sparked a baking revolution:

Continue reading First loaf of no-knead bread: OM NOM OMFG NOM. →

Higher Education

Admissions

In which I defend my degree-lessness. And whine.

I have six years of higher education to my credit, but no degree.

Although my grades at MHCC were only just above average, when I left MIU my GPA was comfortably over 3.5, and last term at WWCC I made the president’s list.

I’ve taken musical performance classes, operatic training, music history, vocal pedagogy, music theory, sight singing and ear training, basic piano, basic rhythm, and music composition. I’ve taken physics overviews, world history, classical Greek literature, composition, poetry, and in-depth courses on the American Transcendentalists. I’ve taken courses on Linux, Windows clients and servers, security standards and protocols, and am in the process of completing CCNA 1 – 4. There are probably hundreds of other courses I would be interested in taking for their own sakes, whether they’re related to music, English, or networking or not.

I like school and historically earn above-average grades. I like to learn and I like to think. What I don’t like is the year or more of stupid pre-reqs that one must pay for in order to qualify for a degree. Continue reading Higher Education →

THIS is what net neutrality really means, okay?

Soapbox, ,

In which I explain to you why you must be for net neutrality.

Egypt is missing. The entire country dropped off the Internet today (and the cell network as well), moments after AP video footage of a protester being shot in the head began to emerge. It looks like there’s one network left, Noor, and currently the assumption is that it was allowed to stay connected to the rest of the world only because it carries the country’s stock exchange traffic. That’s one pipe out of 80 massive, country-feeding connections:

At 22:34 UTC (00:34am local time), Renesys observed the virtually simultaneous withdrawal of all routes to Egyptian networks in the Internet’s global routing table. Approximately 3,500 individual BGP [border gateway protocol] routes were withdrawn, leaving no valid paths by which the rest of the world could continue to exchange Internet traffic with Egypt’s service providers. Virtually all of Egypt’s Internet addresses are now unreachable, worldwide.

The Internet was designed to be self-healing. It was built to carry data even after entire cities had been destroyed. If you understood even a little of how core routers work, you’d love the Internet eleven times more than you already do, and you would know how utterly fucked up it is that an ENTIRE COUNTRY has gone dark. 80,000,000 voices have been silenced. Continue reading THIS is what net neutrality really means, okay? →

Unrelated.

Health

In which I just realized I haven’t blogged in, like, ten days or something! Ack!

I watched all four-point-five seasons of Battlestar Galactica in the space of half a month. It was frakkin’ awesome.

I have been in bed for three days with an evil, mean, awful cold. I’m coughing like I’m in a TB ward and I can’t smell anything.

Why can’t I buy simple cotton long-sleeved fitted women’s t-shirts anywhere? How hard is it to make long-sleeved freakin’ t-shirts that aren’t fugly and boxy?

I still need to buy new underwear, but I’ve run out of Xmas money and I’d rather pay my cell phone bill instead.

Bento #219: Falafel & hummus

Continue reading Unrelated. →

Polaroid SX-70

Photography, , , ,

In which I tell you all I know about the Polaroid SX-70!

I have two SX-70s. One is a lovely silver and leather top-shelf SLR, and the other is a black plastic Model 3 (the non-SLR model). I’m lucky in that I got them both really cheap, and they both function beautifully and close completely. They’re really cool, compact, portable cameras.

SX-70s were made to take a particular kind of film (Polaroid SX-70 integral print) that is, of course, totally discontinued now, but the cameras can be altered to shoot 600 instant film (which has also been discontinued, since as of early last year Polaroid no longer manufactures any film at all). The 600 film you can still find is long expired, so buyer beware. If it’s been stored properly it will shoot just fine. If it’s been stored badly it might give you interesting, moody images, or it might not work at all.

Polaroid, picture, and cocktail Continue reading Polaroid SX-70 →

More of teh totes random crap you've come to expect!

Blurbs

In which…eh. Blah blah blah.

I’ve lost two pounds. I’m doing really well on the diet. In other news, self-discipline is not, as much as I wish I could report otherwise, really its own reward. I want to eat an entire wedge of brie RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.

I received my new fuzzy-lined Crocs yesterday. (Thanks, mom!) They have a tiny red spaceship on them, for which I paid an extra two bucks and which was totally worth it. They are fugly and comfy and I adore them.

New Crocs Continue reading More of teh totes random crap you've come to expect! →

Where to find a saint.

Love

In which I share the story I was given today.

1.
I went to a volunteer meeting at Helpline this afternoon. After it was over, I rushed across town for my CCNA lab, but class was canceled so I went and got my eyebrows waxed instead. Then I got invited to a jam session, for which I was going to be picked up at four. It was just past two. I decided to stop in at the P&E and say hi to everybody because I haven’t been there in weeks.

I told Susan, the bartender, what I’d learned today, which is that teens are the fastest-growing segment of our homeless population, and that we don’t have a teen shelter. Kids over a certain age aren’t allowed in the women’s shelter, and the men’s shelter and the motels won’t take kids under 18 for liability reasons. When it’s twenty degrees out, it’s important to be inside for the night, but there’s nowhere for them to go. Continue reading Where to find a saint. →

Fat. I can haz it. Gah.

Health

In which there’s dieting! Whee! Aren’t you glad you’re reading this crap?!

The little bastards over at Cocky & Rude are having another diet competition. The prize for the winner is probably a stinky old shoe and some gravel, but eighteen people signed up to compete anyway.

Including me. Because I’m fat. Fat, fat, fat.

My life of sedentary sedentary-ness wants very much to make me perfectly round, but due to my natural contrariness I just don’t want to be perfectly round! Pudgy’s okay, sure, fine, I can handle being pudgy, but in the past year I have totally moved past pudgy. Continue reading Fat. I can haz it. Gah. →

I totally went to Portland over the weekend!

Back To School, Family

In which there’s a little travel, and some work and school.

Toni agreed to drive me to Portland if I paid for gas. Since there was no bus service and the train was full, I was grateful she did so. We rolled out of Walla Walla on Saturday just before noon.

She dropped me off at Leila’s just after dark. (I went to high school with Leila. We lost touch for years, but found each other back when I was married and lived on a farm in Iowa. I’ve seen her a couple times since then.) Continue reading I totally went to Portland over the weekend! →

Christmas loot.

Gadgets, Photography

In which I tell you about the gifts I received.

For Christmas I got a Kindle gift certificate (yay moar ebooks!), a red goblet, candy (some of it filled with tequila, I kid you not!), a hand-made tote bag, cash, and a little herb garden kit.

I really wanna buy myself some sort of shiny new electronic device for Christmas (a new phone, Kindle, or iPod) but I’ll need to buy school books next week. After I’ve done that, I’ll be able to get myself something fun. I think it might have to be a phone, though, since mine now shuts itself off at random.

Last night, my brother and I walked over to Amity’s and stood around the fire on her patio and drank beer and talked to people. It was nice. I love having a friend five blocks away; it makes me feel like I really live here now. Continue reading Christmas loot. →