the dirt on fert

weddingthanksjmg

2011-04-06T10:16:00.001-07:00

Classic Collage 3x5 folded card

Create cute birthday cards, valentines and more at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

carnie fish

2010-10-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

Best first pet, ever! No need to feed, scoop poop or even pay it any attention. Cross-posted in Ravelry.

random

2009-09-25T11:38:00.001-07:00

how a sewing machine works

why no blog, jog?

2009-09-01T17:49:00.000-07:00

My initials are JOG. I'm mostly just glad it's not another vowel in the middle. O's are pretty innocuous. But enough about the initials. You might be wondering why I haven't blogged much lately. Yeah, I don't know either. There's a lot to blog about, actually. I just haven't had the gumption to blog about it. I've started, cursed at, and finished a couple of knitting projects, sewing projects and have finally painted that YACK (yet another chalkboard kitchen) wall. I've also found a couple of places I'm considering having the wedding reception at in LA. Multitudes of wedding ideas and all this other stuff, that if you stick with me, I'll eventually blog about.

So if you want those blog posts, you gotta talk to the powers that be (otherwise known as the editors and reviewers at Nature Neuroscience) to just go ahead and print my journal article so that I can go back to harassing the internet for more hours than my boss should know about.

me gusta

2009-08-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

Go check out some of the other china settings. Do you see where the bride' and groom's names are in each of them?

pip pip, cheerio.

2009-08-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

cute etsy pouch for everyone's inner nerd

2009-08-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

somebody finally used felting needles....

2009-07-20T19:53:00.000-07:00

more to come...

soap sweater

2009-06-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

Jukki came to visit and we felted some soap sweaters! Fun, quick and easy!

zai jian zao

2009-06-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Just to stick with the Asian food theme, Jukki (who is visiting from LA) and I had lunch at Zao's Noodle at U Village. Though I've lived near a Zao's since college, I've never (I think... maybe once in Vegas...) gone in. And now that I've been, I'll never go again. Food sucked.

So maybe I should change the title of this post since zai jian means 'until I see you again' because I ain't ever going back. So... sayonara Zao.

ooh... need to be home on tuesday...

2009-06-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

Marination Mobile

rice cooker

2009-06-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

Speaking of Asian food, I just had to rave about having the bestest rice cooker ever. One of many craigslist finds in SF bay area, this sucker cost me a whopping $100. Some may sneer and gag at the thought of spending that much money on a rice cooker, but really, it makes any crappy rice found at 99 Ranch Market edible and yummy. Thank goodness for japanese businessmen who win prizes at golf tournaments and then proceed to sell their winnings on craigslist.

rocking wok

2009-06-16T13:50:00.001-07:00

Seattle, for all its Asian population, has terrible Chinese food. Those in the know usually go over to Bellevue for good Chinese food. So it was nice to find that the new owners of Rocking Wok haven't screwed the pooch. I had this craving for 皮蛋瘦肉粥 and while Rocking Wok's wasn't the most spectacular, nor the most authentic, it was decently flavored and not bad for $4.75. It's nice that it's walking distance from home, too.

new seattle sugar

2009-05-28T17:25:00.000-07:00

curio confections
the yellow leaf cupcake company
(via daily candy)

kyuto!

2009-05-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

Mairuru's handsew-it-all blog!

wedding bands

2009-05-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

Though I still love the idea of mokume gane, making our own wedding bands sound kinda cool, too. GE and I learned of this from a woman at Fusion Beads. We were taking a silver fusing class (once my camera gets back from its trip to Vancouver, I'll post pictures of the hammered bracelet I made) and the woman in the know was sitting beside me :)

say it ain't so...

2009-05-20T11:38:00.001-07:00

Has it really been that long since I've written here? I blame it all on graduate school. I'll be better soon... really.

To prove I haven't been slacking in the crafts dept, though, here's a sweater and matching booties I made for LN and SN's new baby, May. And may I say, FINALLY, one of my friends has a female baby. Let the pink fluff flow forth from my needles and the flowers be crocheted! Next up: sweater for GL' and JL's similarly aged little girl.

**and I have no idea why blogger's decided to cut off the picture where it does...

if i had time

2009-04-27T20:32:00.001-07:00

i'd go geek it out!

tatting

2009-04-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I wanted to learn to crochet is to be able to tat (this is a verb, tatting:knitting) beautiful items like this (butterfly from digital leaf studio). There's a tatting group on Ravelry that has quite a few wonderful finished objects to gawk at.

fiance asked me...

2009-04-07T13:34:00.000-07:00

... whether I would want his brother to be a bridesmaid. Though funny, I doubt MG's bro would shave his pits for a strapless bridesmaid dress. So, probably not, MG. Probably not.

tacky weddings
(via weddingbee)

procession songs

2009-04-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

Bach's Unaccompanied Cello Suite in G Major (if only I could get Yoyo Ma...)
Wagner's Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral. Here's a drum corps version. There's also a couple of solo piano versions on the internet (here's a sample, yes that is Hitler).
Forrest Gump theme for piano. Heck, I know three people off the top of my head that can play this well on the piano.
Kissin's Pictures at an Exhibition, for a weightier entrance.
(Darkhorse) Gustav Holst's Mars would kinda be fun, too. Though the subtitle "Bringer of War!!!" isn't really conducive to weddings, I guess.
That one song in high school that we played but whose name escapes me. I might have to go back to the band classroom to look it up in the library.

So all you instrument-playing friends of mine, get yo arses ready to be put to work. Unless all you can play is Canon in D. Then you're already fired. Because the world doesn't need another wedding with someone playing that song. Speaking of which:

Pretty Songs Nixed Due to Overplay

Canon. Though this song always reminds me of My Sassy Girl, it seems everyone and their mother plays this song at their wedding.
Appalachian Spring. Lovely, but also gets around like Paris Hilton.
Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring. I loved playing this song on the oboe, way back when.
Ave Maria. Unless someone can write "Ave Fert"

want...

2009-04-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

... an illusion vase. Or any of illusion products at Uncommon Goods.
... and ice orb.

pug portrait

2009-03-31T16:24:00.000-07:00

So last night, MG and I attended a charity silent auction for Pawsitive Alliance. And I bid on a custom pet portrait. Lo and behold, we won. Our downstairs neighbor (who is on Pawsitive Alliance's board) joked that the artist would have to draw a pug and then smear it every which way since Hemi never holds still. And then my coworkers joked that I'm becoming one of those crazy pug people. I told him that the sanity train left the station a while back.

engagement story

2009-03-25T16:04:00.000-07:00

Since there was a contest on engagement stories, I quickly entered ours:

MG and I got engaged last September. He had been carrying the ring around since May of that year and was waiting for the right moment to pop the question. And after waiting five months in vain for said moment, he decided to make one.

MG had told me early that day that we were invited to watch Super Troopers (his favorite movie) at his recently-singled friend's place. Little did I know that he was going to propose at Gasworks Park (Seattle) and had made reservations at a fancy restaurant. Thus, when we were getting ready to leave, I put on some sweats and flip flops in preparation. I was a little surprised when MG commented on how casual my outfit was. I do believe my response was, "Dude, we're going over to ***'s. He doesn't even have dishes, just piles of used paper plates covering the counters." He looked quizzical for a moment before responding, "Fair enough."

When we got into the car, he concocted another story about having to pick up some friends from "a wine bar across the street from Gasworks" (which if you know the area around Gasworks is a statement akin to *I'm going to Nebraska for good Chinese food*). He lured me into the park area by saying that the friends were probably walking drunkenly in the park and that we should go find them. It wasn't long before my flip-flopped feet started getting muddy and gross (as Seattle will do on any month except July) and MG said that we’d turn back for the car after he tied his shoelaces. While he bent over, I started turned to look at the city across the water and when I turned around, he had the ring out.

Later, while we were at the fancy restaurant, he mentioned how nervous he had been because there had been so many holes in his story. He kept thinking that any moment, I would realize how ludicrous half of his assertions were. And in looking back, I wonder the same thing considering that I’ve bought all his shoes since we started dating and all of them were slip-ons.

baroness beret

2009-03-24T15:21:00.000-07:00

Just finished the flower. It's for someone that has a one biological child, a crapload of non-biological children and three jobs. For those days that there's absolutely no time to brush or shampoo.

lemon candle

2009-03-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

I had a dying champagne Illuminations candle. We also had fish for dinner last week that required only half a lemon. And when these two worlds collided, that leftover lemon and the leftover wax became a Martha project.

wavelength

2009-03-19T22:54:00.000-07:00

I've started a crochet project! I've been meaning to learn how to crochet so when I saw the wavelength pattern, I just had to try.

lv luv pug

2009-03-18T00:09:00.001-07:00

I made Hemi a jacket with fabric I found in Hong Kong a long time ago. It's reversible with a really happy pink and orange striped fabric on the other side. The velcro and trim are from Pacific Fabrics. I used one of his other jackets as a template and wish I knew how to properly trim sewing stuff. I'm going to have to redo that ugly buckle on the back one of these days. But isn't he an adorapug?

how does one say "whine" in german?

2009-03-15T19:11:00.000-07:00

A certain skipper was complaining about having all the posts be about wedding shiznit and stuff, so to appease that bugger, here's a picture from our Christmas Eastern Europe trip. Yep, MG and I found the Google offices in Munich. It was relatively close to a bunch of hofbrauhauses.

endpaper mitts

2009-03-15T19:03:00.001-07:00

Finally finished after hibernating my Endpaper Mitts for around five months. What finally motivated me to finish? Toronto Craft Alert's giveaway to inspire people to finish their projects. And my, are these babies warm! Perfect for the typical March in Seattle.

all unfinished projects

2009-03-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

So many... unfinished... projects! thank goodness I've accumulated a bunch to be able to enter this contest. The Toronto Craft Alert is to be hailed as the great craft-hurry-and--finally-finish-it idols. My brief list:

Endpaper Mitts
Redo the buckle on Hemi's LV jacket
YACK (yet another chalkboard [wall] kitchen)
Millenium Rogue (since it might actually take a milenium to finish)
Sister's duvet cover
The ugly knit bathroom rug
Felt-lining my green knitted hat

Next week, I swear, I will make headway into these projects.

inspiration board

2009-03-12T09:00:00.001-07:00

There's a contest over at weddingbee to make an inspiration board with a Kathlin Argiro bridesmaid dress. Since the grand prize consists of five custom bridesmaid dresses, I had to give it a go. So I spent a good amount of last night (i.e. submitted at 3am) putting together this board of stuff I would love to have were I to win the lotto. Whaddya think?

mokume gane

2009-03-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

MG got me a beautiful engagement ring with clean lines and a very sparkly bauble. To complement it, I think I'm leaning towards this kind of wedding band. The woodgrain design is made with traditional Japanese metallurgy techniques, mokume gane. I like the idea of having more a more structural design without any stones to compete with the main sparkly.

everyone and their mother

2009-03-03T14:32:00.000-08:00

So when Mike and I got engaged, we were sandwiched by quite a few friends getting engaged. In fact, there was an engagement every week three weeks prior and one week after (for a total of five weeks in a row). And it's been great! So many people to talk to about wedding crap! And now I have another person to harass! Notmartha! Congratulations, M!

Why do it yourself?

2009-02-26T16:26:00.000-08:00

When someone's already made all these inspiration boards for you?

wedding dresses...

2009-02-13T15:52:00.000-08:00

Gotta start thinking about planning stuff. So here's a couple of styles of wedding dressed I've come across today. Three drastically different silhouettes but each dress has its plusses and minuses.

OMG, TGIF

2009-02-11T16:38:00.000-08:00

That "F" in TGIF stands for funding. The stimulus passed with the Specter-Durbin (Republicans!) Amendment intact. We might not need to deport the non-US citizen post-docs that are in my lab :) And people will be funded to find the cure for Alzheimer's or Parkinson's!

back in the saddle again

2009-02-09T15:15:00.000-08:00

Yarn dominance. These two words are going to be the end of me. Halfway through the second Endpaper Mitt, I've realized that I've been holding the wrong yarn in the dominant position. So the balance of green on white has been disturbed. There may be a frogging of four inches worth of mitt in the near future. Sadness.

yes my friends,

2009-02-06T13:10:00.000-08:00

It's been a while. Life's gone a bit gaga with trying to get a (scientific) paper together, Christmas in Europe, a conference in Colorado and this whole thing about keeping my place from looking like a pig sty. But I promise to start blogging again. Really.

But I have been doing some craftiness... witness the hats we're wearing in the picture above. I made those! Because it was friggin' cold in Vienna after we ran out of glühwein for the fourth time.

And another place to learn to cook from in Seattle:
Culinary Communion

comments on the veep debate

2008-10-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping up on the national polling at 538.com. The proprietors of that site as well as most of the mainstream media are liveblogging. I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon.

Overall, Sarah Palin didn't do badly. But that's like saying the last Star Wars movie was "better." Joe Biden also didn't do badly. I was hoping for a NASCAR-like wreckage, though. I'm pretty sure that there isn't much that would sway people's minds or hearts toward one way or another.

Hey Jackie, Collette, John, Gary, did you hear that? Your reward is in Heaven!

(Look, I'm LIVE-blogging!)

excel

2008-10-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

=IF(AND(D22="left", C22="C"), COUNTIF($F$5:F21, ">0")+1, "")

This has now taken over as the most complex function I've ever written in Excel. It's a baby step in my attempt to learn to program. Eventually, I'd like to be sufficient in Matlab and possibly Python. And though it isn't really that complicated, it took me an hour or so of staring and googling to figure out how to twist Excel functions to do my bidding. Probably would have taken 3 minutes in Matlab or python....

how to make friends on the internet...

2008-09-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

Bribe them. Of course, they get to bribe you back. Mutual friendship ensues. So if your WOW friends don't send you enough real stuff (that +2 sword doesn't count) then maybe some crafty friends can be made via swap-bot. Who knows, maybe some new swap-bot friends can be convinced to start playing WOW.

in n out

2008-09-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of pictures of In N Out. MG and I went twice while in LA. Beats Dick's any day.

brunch!

2008-09-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

Ain't it great to have friends who are glad you're home? While MG and I were in LA, VG (nee H) made this scrumptious brunch for a lovely get-together :)

fly screen

2008-09-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

A couple of friends are finishing up a year of anthropological interviews in southwest China. They've gotten lots of really cool pictures of their stay including this one of someone's front door. Paper-wrapped clips have been strung together to form a kind of screen. I don't think the flies in this area of China get so big that they wouldn't be able to get through the holes, but this idea might be repurposed for some other d.i.y. project.

doom doom doom... another one bites the dust

2008-09-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

I got engaged this last weekend! MG proposed on Saturday evening at Gasworks Park while I was wearing flip flops, sweats and a zip-up hoodie. We went to Etta's and had cioppino and albacore tuna steaks. The next day, we went to the jeweler to look at settings for the Canadian diamond MG had so carefully chosen. He was very careful to make sure no African children were exploited or hurt in the making of the diamond. So the pug, MG and I are happy as can be at the moment. :)

science! in politics

2008-09-18T22:05:00.001-07:00

Obama reveals his science advisors. Two Nobel prizers, former director of AAAS, and a former dean at Stanford (boooo!). While he gets some flak because of the heavy life science influence, I'm particularly happy with the fact that I might actually get funding sometime in my future! Hurrah!!!
On the other hand, McCain is not revealing his advisors. Eight years ago, I would have given him the benefit of the doubt but at this point in time, his advisors might includes Michael Behe.

nut shots (safe for work)

2008-09-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

In college, whenever I told someone that I grew up in Walnut, California, that person usually cocked their head and said, "Creek?" Walnut Creek is a much bigger, much more well-known city in Northern California. Walnut (no creek) in Southern California is a little bedroom community that I grew up in. It's heavily Asian and Hispanic, has very few houses under 500k, and lots of church-going family-folk. My parents still live there and go to St. Lorenzo Ruiz every Sunday (and a couple other days of the week, too).
Can you tell from the picture that it's a Filipino-heavy congregation? Though I don't know if electric prayer candles are strictly Filipino.Last week, I took MG for a walk around my old high school. Towards the back of the high school, we found this sign. Did I mention that Walnut was considered a model city of diversity? ... and just in case the students don't speak English, Spanish, Chinese or Korean, there's a little picture to show you what not to do.

jujube

2008-09-17T23:12:00.001-07:00

My parents have a lot of fruit trees in their backyard: two lemons, fig, asian pear, kumquat, peach, guava, and jujube. Of all of them, the last is probably one that most people have not had. But people should! Because jujubes are yummy! The taste is between persimmon and apple. They've got an apple-like texture when ripe, too. Refreshing and portable!

btw...

2008-09-15T17:01:00.000-07:00

I've been on vacation. Many of my Los Angeles friends had never met MG before. Last Christmas, I promised a couple of them that they would meet him before this Christmas. So MG and I went to my friend's wedding in the outskirts of LA and met a bunch of my high school chums. And by meet, I mean, we ate with them. Because when on vacation at home and showing someone around, what you're really doing is eating with a bunch of different people. So the next couple of posts will probably center on food... the food that has made me rolly-polly overweight. Really. Fat. FAT.

Starting with the menu for the wedding banquet:
Oh yeah, some very basic Chinese banquet fun facts and some etiquette...
(in order of how they appeared in my head)

The banquet is usually nine courses of lots of family-style food.
That lazy susan in the middle shouldn't be spun quickly. And move your tea cup.
Which way should the lazy susan go? Age and gender. Old grannies always first.
1st dish: cold appetizer sampler which might include jellyfish (that yellowish gelatinous stringy stuff)
Do you need to try everything? If you have to ask, chances are you are not at the head table and that lazy susan isn't going to hurl food at your plate. So, no.
Do I have to finish everything my neighbor put on my plate? Sometimes, Asians like to put food on each others' plates (see me putting jellyfish on MG's plate). Don't make a big deal of it, but don't put it in your mouth unless you want to. Plates are changed every few courses, so you won't have to stare all meal at that fish eye that the little grandma sitting beside you put on your plate.
Why would I need rice/noodles at the end of the meal? The penultimate/ultimate dish is invariably a starch-laden tub of rice/noodles. This is actually not supposed to be finished. Though you may eat it, leave some of it in your bowl. This is an expression of fullness and goes to show that your hosts are good hosts for feeding you until you're comatose.
At many restaurants, when you see the waiters taking away a half-full plate of lobster, don't despair. Usually, they just want to put it on a smaller plate so that they can fit the other eight courses onto the table.
Slurping is OK. When you're eating soup in southern China in July, slurping it the only thing that will cool that soup down. So slurp away. Tea ceremonies in southern China also usually include a lot of slurping; it aerates the tea and gives it a different flavor.
The secret to eating rice with chopsticks: put it in your soup bowl. Smaller bowls are OK to lift from the table. Chinese people usually lift the bowl up to their mouths and shovel rice into their mouths with the chopsticks. This trick is very useful when you've got your rice drenched in soy sauce.
When you put your chopsticks down, lay them down. Do not stick them into anything (like a bowl of rice). If you do, Buddha will come and smack you upside the head. Chopsticks sticking out of a rice bowl looks like incense sticks used to pray, many times for the dead.
When you're out of tea, unless you're at a REALLY formal affair (black tie gala, or red dress gala in Chinese), lift the lid of the tea pot and set it askew. This is a universal Chinese waiter signal that you need more hot water for your tea. They won't refill tea leaves (which means the next batch will have minimal caffeine in it) but they'll add more hot water to the existing loose tea leaves.

I need to get back to work.

project runway, philippines

2008-09-14T16:19:00.001-07:00

Really! Project Runway Philippines! From the country that has the most deaths per automobile accident brings the wreck of VERY bitchy asian men and women (Mara) who can't sew. Half of the show is in Tagalog (Filipino language) and the other half is in heavily accented English. Also, half of the names are normal and the other half, in Filipino fashion, are stranger than anything Hollywood can come up with... "Lorymer, you're out. Apple didn't like your outfit." I guess I should just be happy that no one's named Luzvizminda (a relatively popular name comprising of the three main areas of the Philippines, Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao). So if you like bitchfest with an accent, catch the youtube episodes. No one--- except for maybe Thailand--- can be catty homosexuals like Pinoy homosexuals.

On a slightly more serious note, I just gotta say that there isn't a culture more accepting of homosexuality than the Filipino culture. When my friend Jack went to meet his boyfriend Gerby's family in the Philippines, he was welcomed with open arms and treated like he was already part of the family. And (unless they're Chinese in the Philippines), for the most part, if some Filipino guy wants to dress like they're looking for a John, his legs better be spectacular and have his heels sharpened against comments about how his dress didn't accentuate his skin tone enough.

onward...

2008-09-03T17:07:00.000-07:00

Well, hopefully Hemi's well enough to get on a plane tomorrow. Because we're going to LA for a friend's wedding. Did I mention that everyone and their mother (well, father... MG and I have friends who got engaged and within a week, the to-be-groom's father got engaged, too) is getting engaged? I have *doom doom doom, another one bites the dust* playing incessantly in my head. I realize *doom* isn't quite the right onomatopoeia, but it works so well...

Edit: nope. No dog. He's staying in Seattle. We have given him another cough suppressant and he's so chill right now. I don't even recognize him.

sick pug

2008-09-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

Hemi keeps coughing... he coughed all. through. the. night. We have to take him to the vet tomorrow if it doesn't get better. MG and I can't tell if he's got a cold or he has something like aluminum foil (don't ask) stuck in his throat. Poor pug.

EDIT: it's kennel cough. He sounds like he's coughing up his spleen.

stamps

2008-08-29T10:07:00.000-07:00

So after Hemi climbed up on the dining table and ate a slice and a half of pizza this morning, he puked a little of it up on MG's pillow. But since we didn't catch him in the act, it's hard to discipline the little bugger. Argh.

On a different note, I found an etsy seller, foryoo, that makes customized stamps. There are a lot of coolio designs that would make a great housewarming present. Strangely, there aren't any cute pug stamps.

aphid update

2008-08-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

Well, my ladybug friend did not kill the aphids. There are still some lurking around my poor little basil. But my ladybug friend's children might! I found ladybug eggs that will hatch ladybug larvae that also eat aphids. Them little tykes plus a little soapy water might save the day! Since I've started spraying the plants with very dilute dish soap, there are a lot less of the little buggers. We'll see.

ice cream for non-eggers

2008-08-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

According to Food and Wine and AT, the place to be for ice cream is Columbus, Ohio. Ice cream mastermind Jeni Britton has three stores in Columbus that serve seasonally-flavored frozen goodness. And not only is the ice cream purportedly delicious, it's gotz no egg in it! Hey BJ, when you visit home, got room in your carry-on for some dry-ice packed ice cream?

roost

2008-08-26T10:24:00.001-07:00

Oh how I love the various designs from Roost. There's just that beauty-in-nature thing that they've got down. I received this set of champagne glasses (picture above) from a friend for my birthday a couple of years ago now. Of course, due to the large clumsy-bf:glass-fragility ratio, they've never been used. One day, though, champagne will be poured into these glasses and thus rationalize buying more Roost products... such as these that I love being sold at Velocity.

ikea trip list

2008-08-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

Just a couple more items to have around the filled-to-the-brim condo. Gotta pick up some more picture frames and a new stuffed toy for Hemi, too.

aphids...

2008-08-24T08:14:00.000-07:00

Two of my basil plants have aphid infestations. AAAAHHHH!!!!! So far I've just plucked off very infested leaves and cleaned off the sugary trails that they leave. I knew when I noticed the little buggers that it would be hard to get rid of them without pesticides and stuff but thankfully, today, I found a little ally. While squishing a smaller than usual morning crop of aphids, I found a ladybug under one of the leaves. I don't know how these guys got into my second-story window, but it's been an interesting little twist I wasn't expecting.

the other lab

2008-08-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

I attended The Lab again last night. It was really fun and inspiring to see the creativity that abounds in Seattle. I'm sure that the uber-great Velocity folk will have links and the podcast for last night's event up soon so that everyone can see the coolness being made. I won't list all the sites of all the participants last night but here's a small highlight of the stuff I really liked:

www.cakespy.com (which I won some cute cards from! i really need to buy a lotto ticket)
www.suspectandfugitive.com (artwork from non-archival material)
www.gogreendesign.biz (follow the life of a tree)

LS on bread pudding

2008-08-20T09:32:00.000-07:00

The Wallingford Bakery sells some leftover loaves on the weekends for cheap (like, a buck). So LS was able to pick up a lovely orange zest loaf to make some bread pudding. By the time I heard of the bread pudding, it was a distant memory. So like any good termite (a.k.a. mooching friend), I twisted her arm into making some while we roasted corn and ate peanut butter noodles. It, like the noodles, was uber-yummy and will require further arm-twisting to pry away her recipe. The crust was all caramelized and the center was just the right sweetness... I'll stop describing now to keep myself from drooling all over my keyboard.

peanut butter noodles

2008-08-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Randomly saw LS at the bus stop a couple of days ago. So I invited myself over for dinner. We ended up making peanut butter noodles with bell peppers and shaved zucchini. Topped with cilantro, it was ab fab. I'd post a recipe but we kinda just threw stuff into the sauce as we saw fit. But for a list of ingredients, this recipe comes close. We served it warm but a Taiwanese version is served cold (with blanched chicken and julienned cucumbers... delish, too). We used Hong Kong-style egg noodle but in retrospect, spaghetti would have been better (less absorbent). Not that I am a proponent of spaghetti in Chinese dishes, it's really hard to find the exact kind of Asian noodle needed for certain dishes. Spaghetti just seems better for this particular dish. Yummy no matter what, though.

view from our balcony in vancouver

2008-08-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

but you were doing so well...

2008-08-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

I'd say that I've been pretty consistent with blog posts until this last week. For the last couple of days, I've been at a conference in Vancouver. And while I appreciate my coworkers and love our work environment, I did NOT want to share a suite with them (five males) in the UBC dorms where six bedrooms are assigned a common bathroom with two showers and ONE toilet. And for those of you who do not work around doctors, you might not know how often (medically speaking) one can go drop a deuce. For those of you who don't want to continue along this conversation topic, now is a good place to get off the train. Anywho... the range that many are taught in medical school is between once every seven days to seven times a day. It's a big range. And let's say that some of my coworkers apparently fall towards one (the less friend-friendly) side of that spectrum. So I stayed with Brett. Which is good because then it left my bed unoccupied for others to pass out on. No one parties harder than neuroscientists.

But I'm back in Seattle now. So posts will now resume!

artsy-techy tutes

2008-08-08T21:41:00.000-07:00

photoshop illustrator
drawing people
powerpoint template

just trying not to forget...

decor8 loot

2008-08-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves. Thanks Holly and all the contributors! I tried to take pictures of every layer of goodies.

And lastly, here's the pile that the goodies made on my table.

daily deals

2008-08-06T14:09:00.000-07:00

Some daily-updated sites ranging from doodads to t-shirts.

delight.com
undrgrnd.com
steepandcheap.com
woot.com
shirt.woot.com

dopamine and neuroeconomics

2008-08-06T10:46:00.001-07:00

Anyone ever see the movie Dopamine? The movie implies that dopamine mediates love and other warm, fuzzy feelings. How did anyone come to the conclusion that dopamine has anything to do with love? Becuase small, furry critters (prairie and montane voles) showed different amounts of dopamine activity (really, dopamine receptors). In the wild, prairie voles form pair bonds. Often, one night of mating can lead to a lifetime together. Montane voles on the other hand, are promiscuous and never call when they say they will. Bastards. But if you tweak dopamine in the right brain area in the right way in montane voles, voila!, they become pair-bonded. Thus, tweaking dopamine can be construed as giving a vole a love potion (as illustrated in Nature).
Too bad, though that pair-bonded voles aren't really monogamous. Sexually, they're promiscuous, but then raise any pups in their pair-bonds. So really, dopamine mediates Catholic guilt.... (mostly kidding).

What brought on this rant on dopamine? Well, this morning, AT posted how dopamine is a "chemical in the brain that triggers sensations of pleasure when you buy something new." That's about as correct as dopamine mediating love. True, for a couple of decades, most scientists believed that dopamine=pleasure. But this isn't really the case anymore. It's so not the case that the guy who originally posited that dopamine=pleasure doesn't believe it. Easiest, lay person's example of dopamine NOT mediating pleasure is a Parkinson's patient. Clinical symptoms of Parkinson's don't develop until about 80% of the cells making dopamine are dead. Yet people afflicted with Parkinson's do not have any problem experiencing pleasure.

So if not love or pleasure, what does dopamine do? That's the million-dollar question. Actually, it's probably the trillion dollar question, considering how all drugs of abuse as well as a crapload of prescription medication (Ritalin, anyone?) affect the dopamine system. And the answer, is, of course, 42.

In other words, lots of scientists have lots of ideas and are doing lots of experiments to figure out what dopamine is doing in the brain. And no one doubts that it's doing a LOT of different things. Primary symptoms of Parkinson's include the inability to begin or control movement and the slowing of movement. There are other symptoms, though, that are less visually obvious: cognitive impairments, memory issues, sleep issues, mood disorders. And when patients take L-DOPA (which is one of the more well known Parkinson's medication), some become pathological gamblers.... These patients take risks with their money similarly to how hard-core drug abusers risk their lives for a high.

So dopamine might also have a role in decision-making (which was implied in the previously mentioned AT post). Should I buy that? Is it worth it? Will the wrath of my significant other be too much to bear? What does the dopamine spiking in my brain have to do with how I'm going to decide? And how is this decision-making process altered by drugs (both prescription and illegal) or disease? Do we really know anything concrete about what dopamine's doing in the brain?

Hopefully, I'll know more in the next couple of years.

scarier than how they wax?

2008-08-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

This, my friends, is a nail file made from the scales of a monstrous Brazilian fish. It works pretty well. In the six or so years that I've had it, I've barely worn down one a small area while the rest of the thingiema-scali-file has stayed as abrasive as the day I bought it. Not bad for less than $2.

This file was one of those i'm-at-the-counter-oh-what-the-bob-is-this purchases from Body Time. Whenever I get back to the Bay Area, I go to a store and stock up on the antioxidant hydrating serum. The only thing I've found that's similar to its weight and what it does to my skin health is Creme de la Mer Face Serum (I got a sample... I definitely CANNOT afford Creme de la Mer).

canadian wares

2008-08-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

I have a serious crush on this smocked top. In the words of the female- Shakespeare- loving- sidekick from 10 Things I Hate About You, "We are involved." Alas, as fortune (literally) would have it, I can't afford it... making our relationship more Romeo and Juliet than Taming of the Shrew. But for those who have the dabloons, you can find this top and a bunch of cuteness at the recently launched GoodEGG Industries shoppe!

Aside: Since GoodEGG is Canadian, would GWBush consider spending my economic stimulus money on this top unpatriotic?

mango lassi

2008-08-04T12:25:00.000-07:00

Easy Peasy Mango Lassi

1 cup mango chunks (frozen from Trader Joe's)
1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt (also from TJ)
1/4 cup water
Sugar to taste

Mix yogurt and water in blender. Slowly add cold (but not frozen) mango chunks. Blend until smooth. Add sugar to taste. Did I mention it was easy?

doodle stitchin'

2008-08-03T20:36:00.001-07:00

Doodle Stitching is a wonderfully inspiring book! I was inspired enough to try a bit of embroidery myself. Being 9pm on a Saturday evening, though, meant no quick trip to the craft store for embroidery thread or canvas. So I took around eight inches of leg off of MG's ripped corduroys and some leftover lace-weight yarn to start doodlin'. Not quite sure what this little doodle will end up as... maybe stretched over a frame, sewn into a small pillow, made into a little bag... any ideas?

urban squirrel

2008-08-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

The first of many projects made with spoils from the decor8 inspiration give-away. He's a little squirrel. Didn't quite come out the way I wanted because the paper can't be wet to make curves. And to try and make the image a little more interesting, I experimented with recently downloaded brushes on Photoshop. More come including a layer by layer pictography of the package of goodies :)

diy decor

2008-08-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

light switch cover (but probably not in the shape of a buzzard)
pebble mat (I'm thinking bathroom project)
fabric decals
vinyl decals
crocheted orb (I know, it's all over the web but I really liked the idea... lace weight yarn... flowery patterns)

gardening, meat and bluegrass

2008-07-31T10:26:00.001-07:00

So being the horrible graduate student that I am, I left work early yesterday. A couple friends and I attended a herb gardening in containers class that answered quite a few questions for me. On the way home though, we had a hankering for meat. So we stopped by Roro's (formerly Rowdy Cowgirl) to try their pulled pork and brisket sandwich. We also had the Seattle succotash, some potato fries, BBQ beans and cornbread. While everything was good (especially drenched in the six different sauces at the table) the only thing I'd write home about was the succotash. Strange how the yummiest was the one thing that was healthy...

After a brief stop at home, a bunch of us celebrated a birthday at Tractor. Of course, the appropriate music to listen to after pulled pork and all was bluegrass. The Hackensaw Boys opened for Trampled by Turtles. It was a blast... even with only one tallboy of PBR.

before i forget

2008-07-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't some of Santiago Ramon y Cajal's drawings be great on a wallpaper?

ricotta

2008-07-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

Using the AT recipe. When Fred Meyer doesn't sell enough milk, it just sits there and sits there and then gets a lovely sale tag. So I bought a quart of milk on super-sale and took this recipe for a spin! Out came the pot to heat the milk while I squeezed the lemon. And after all was said and curdled, I came out with the expected 3/4 cup of lemony ricotta... a little too lemony for my taste. So the next time, I think I'll go with the 101cookbooks recipe for ricotta. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to make ricotta gnocchi with it.

(That's toasted soy nuts in the background. Bought a jug at Costco and is super-yummy on salads or just to eat by itself)

new way to recycle stuffed toys

2008-07-29T23:57:00.000-07:00

In front of a vendor's stall at the Fremont Sunday Market :)

i won?!?

2008-07-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

Really? I won?!? Thanks to Holly for collecting and sorting and hosting and sending and everything else she did for such a cool give-away! When my googlereader hit the new decor8 posting, the first thing I noticed was that my screen name was somehow in the middle of the post... then I noticed the title... and then I choked on a little cottage cheese and spat some all over my computer monitor (Note to self: must find internet article on cleaning lcd screens).

So now I am eagerly awaiting a package of goodies and noticing how many people are clicking to this blog. Hello everybody! A special hello to the contributors. Maybe I got something beefy?

knitting eunny

2008-07-27T16:04:00.000-07:00

I used to always read Eunny Jang's knitblog. That is, until she stopped writing in it (probably because she became the head cheese at Interweave Knits). Thankfully, her blog is still up and contains a couple of the coolest knitting patterns. I've been meaning to make her endpaper mitts since I saw them years ago now. And I'm finally doing it! I've started with knitpicks palette yarn in cream and teal and some size 1 and 2 dpns. Unfortunately, I've already messed up one little area:

basil pesto: take one!

2008-07-25T16:24:00.000-07:00

Finally busted out the food processor to make some pesto! Pretty yummy with all that parmesan, pine nuts and basil but I kinda wish I had a mezzaluna so that I could be like an italian grandmother. For future reference, I would put a lot less olive oil into the pesto. Instead, I would put it on top of the pesto to prevent browning in the fridge. I guess browning is one of those things you gotta look out for in fresh pesto.

Speaking of freshness, I bet you wonder about the basil plants from whence the basil came from. I pinched off the tops of a lot of the plants (I have ten or so at the moment) and collected around two cups of basil leaves. After collecting the leaves, some of the plants looked like bald little buggers. Look at what the oldest basil plant looks like now:
PS See the jar of alfalfa sprouts sunning beside the cut basil plant?

but where would i put it?

2008-07-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

pug a(le)rt

2008-07-24T22:16:00.001-07:00

Pug art by dumpr. I think he's a work of art, though he had another seizure last night. MG and I are taking him to the vet for bloodwork tomorrow. Since this is only the second time this year that he's had an episode, we're not all that worried. He just gets so confused and upset when it happens, we'd like to know if there's any reasonable thing to prevent it. Thankfully, after the seizure passes, he's pretty much back to normal (i.e. insane or asleep). The episodes only happen in the middle of the night and last about ten minutes. If'n anybody knows anything about dog issues, lemme know.

wordled dirt

2008-07-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

Have you seen wordle? It's spiffilicious! It's an online java app that takes words (you can type them in or input a webpage) and plunks them onto a background. Larger fonts correspond to words used more often. The image above is with words from this blog!

alfalfa sprouts from seeds

2008-07-24T00:17:00.000-07:00

Idea was from AT. I found that PCC sells alfalfa seeds in bulk. A couple tablespoons of seeds cost less than a dollar. When all is said and done, I think this will yield around six cups of sprouts. We ended up eating them in a sandwich with pesto and left-over brie. It was surprisingly yummy-licious.

the skip and the storm

2008-07-23T00:03:00.000-07:00

Sometime in the middle of her Summer '08 Seattle vacation, Jukki was sitting still. It gave me the opportunity to plant a knitted flower on her head. I don't remember where it started, but Jukki illustrations usually include flower-headedness. The flower is from a Nikki Epstein book. Jukki's flower was attached to a wire and wrapped with flower tape (both courtesy of Linh). Brett was spared a flower to his head, though. It was very nice to see them both and very kind of them to visit.

We ended up eating and doing a lot of fun things this last week. And though Brett came for a good amount of time, he missed most of the home-"cooking." I made a batch of no knead bread (this time with bread flour, but forgot to proof) the night that Jukki came. We also sprouted some alfalfa and harvested some basil for a pesto. Be happy you missed that, Brett. The sprouts had a distinct smell by the time they were grown.

Juk also bought herself an i-phone! She stood in line (where, in true Seattle fashion, she got to know the people around her but will never see them again) for three hours at University Village. So, of course, I had to knit her a little cozy for it. That's an owl in cables on it.

were you having a productive day?

2008-07-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

If you were, click here to stop it.

seattle free classes and school

2008-07-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

seattle tilth
seattle free school
spl free opera previews

Seattle has a lot to offer. I'm wanting to go to a bunch of these classes starting with the tilth container herb gardening class. :) There are a bunch of festivals and block parties happening over the summer, too. This last weekend, we went to the slightly disappointing International District Festival. I should have known better since the ID is puny and does not contain much good food. Though the one booth with decent food at the fair was the Filipino booth. So we got ourselves some halo-halo (which literally means mix-mix). It's a Filipino dessert of crushed ice, various beans and jellies, a bit of ice cream, ube paste, flan and evaporated milk.

totoro

2008-07-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

The forest that inspired My Neighbor Totoro is right on the edge of Tokyo. With the expansion of the city, the forest is constantly in danger of being demolished. To save it, a collective of artists and animators are raising money by auctioning Totoro-inspired pieces. The auction will be held in Emeryville, at Pixar Studios. Man, I wished I could go and have a wad of cash to spend on some of these beautiful pieces. Even if you don't like anime, go check out the gallery of WONDERFUL illustrations and sculptures up for auction. Though etsy and the internet is full of great artists that sell their wares, some of the artists auctioning pieces are really genius and professional. I'm blown away by the sheer imagination of the artists' interpretations.

basil - wk 4

2008-07-14T15:01:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking in another week or two, I'll be able to make a nice big batch of pesto! This particular plant is my favorite. We'll call him Guiseppe since he's Genovese. Guiseppe was sown at the same time as his siblings but he's leaps and bounds bigger than his siblings. He's actually made up of four plants, one of which will soon be - in Sicilian terms - sleeping with the fishies. There's not enough room in the pot for four plants. Three's pushing it. I'd love to have bigger pots so that the basil can really spread their roots, but I don't want to spend any more. G's lovely blue pot was found on the street with a "free" sign on it.

Two of G's siblings have found new homes. I brought one over to Berit's place on Saturday. We'll call that one Umberto. I'm sure Umberto will grow to be a big bushy basil! The second basil plant I'll call Cristo since I strapped him to a fence in the alley behind my building. Since he's at the top of a fence, Cristo gets oodles more sunlight than all the other plants. I consider it a small scientific experiment to see how much the sun will help basil growth.

Things I've learned about basil farming this week: though lots of nitrogen can make big beautiful leaves, it can compromise the basil flavor. So G and his siblings are going to get balanced fertilizer from now on. Root damage from transplanting can really stunt the growth of the plant but not really kill it.

man, why did i skip portland?

2008-07-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

In my great northward migration, why didn't I live in Portland for even one summer? I would have loved to go to a block party like this. Next year, small daytrip!

pictures

2008-07-10T17:46:00.000-07:00

I can't find this print except for one store on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley: Ansel Adams' West from the Big C. That barely-seen building on the upper right of the picture (above the grassy area) is where I worked for most of my undergrad. If the picture were to be extended ever so slightly to the right, that grassy area would be where my apartment would (will) be. I miss that area.

I don't want anyone to think I'm not happy in Seattle, though. In fact I have lots of fun in my neighborhood here. I don't even have to leave my building to have fun. Our neighbors (beside and below) are great and MG and I just randomly go over to their places all the time. In fact, one of the reasons we got a pug was because our neighbor's pug was so cute. Though Lucas the pug's lethargy turned out to be a misrepresentation... here's a magnificently magnificent picture I took of Lucas a couple of days ago. Worthy of the Getty Images (which is recruiting, btw).

basil - wk3

2008-07-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

So the basil has been planted in eight separate planters. I will probably start giving some of them away as hostess gifts :) I can't believe that they're actually thriving under the supervision of my black thumb. Though it might be because I am so obsessed about how they're growing that I stare at them for half an hour each day. They can feel my brain waves willing them into growing faster.

Notes: It's genovese basil. I pinched off the apical growth on most of the plants after the second true-leaves. From accidentally breaking off a branch on the big basil plant (furthest in the picture) I've learned that pinching the stem off exactly at the leaf node (thus not leaving a branch above that leaf) keeps new growth from happening at that point.

really?

2008-07-08T15:28:00.001-07:00

kodamadness

2008-07-07T19:50:00.001-07:00

kodama
Originally uploaded by jerygan

A while back, I knit this for Jackie. It's a wood spirit (kodama) from the movie Princess Mononoke. When I finished it, I brought it in to work to show a fellow crafter. I left it on my desk for a bit and got some puzzled looks from my coworkers. Not one had seen any Hayao Miyazaki movie. So when I got home that day, I went to my pathetic DVD collection to find my copy of Mononoke but when I opened it, there wasn't a DVD inside the case. I lost it somewhere between Seattle and San Francisco. So if you are driving somewhere in Oregon and find some ragged old DVD on the side of the highway, let me know. I have some Europeans to educate on non-pornographic (did I mention all my coworkers are male) japanese animation.

The next iteration of the little guy will include a rattle inside. I want to make one sitting indian-style and a taller, skinnier one.

don't downshift to 1st

2008-07-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

So this Christmas, my family, bf, and I will be taking a cruise down the Danube (River, in Germany). After the cruise, we plan to spend a couple of days in and around Munich. Since there will be six of us, we decided that it might be good to rent a car to be able to see the areas outside of Munich, too. But, being the cheapskates that we are (the whole family), Terence (brother) decided to reserve a car with a manual transmission. So while this saves hundreds of dollars, the problem becomes who's going to drive it... since none of us know how to drive stick.

Thus, within the next six months, I need to learn and become comfortable enough to drive stick in a foreign country. I started last night in my friend's Nissan Maxima (Max). While faring better than I expected, I haven't quite made it to the point where I can reliably get the car going from a complete stop without lurching or stalling. At least I can handle shifting and braking. We'll see how the next six months go :)

backs against the wicket

2008-06-28T17:34:00.000-07:00

Today, I conned a friend into helping me move a gargantuan sideboard/hutch (the two are permanently attached). In the process, I strained my back a smidge. Sadly, the next thing on the agenda was a friendly game of cricket... you know, that game where everyone wears white and plays baseball all funky. Since my back was slightly wonky, I wasn't able to play :( So I worked on getting rid of my unsightly farmer's tan from wwkip. Afterwards, some of the cricketeers busted out a huge propane-powered pot and cooked Louisiana style crawdads! They were delicious little water-bugs. And now, after cleaning a bit at home, we'll be going to a couple happy hours to send off a good friend leaving to start a new post-doc in Irvine, California. Hopefully, I won't be too hung over to blog tomorrow.

seattle inspiration (and maybe portland?)

2008-06-27T11:18:00.000-07:00

Two very nifty fairs that happen in Seattle.

the lab at velocity

A very inspiring creative get-together/networking meeting.

It's slightly amusing how Seattle and Portland are subtly competitive about their art (and craft) scene. John jokingly prodded Matte Stephens about moving to Portland when he moved out west. So Portland must be a pretty 'cultured' place that I kinda want to experience. Since it was passed over during my great northward migration, maybe a little backtracking is in order. Well, we'll see where post-doc jobs open up.

pig ear for the pug ear

2008-06-25T09:36:00.000-07:00

Hemi and I just got back from a(n expensive) vet visit. The poor little bugger has an ear infection. And let me tell you, pugs are not the most cooperative little patients. Both the vet techs who showed me how to put the topical medicine onto the infected areas chuckled at the thought of having to administer the medication daily for the next two weeks. But I think it won't be too bad as long as we bribe him with his favorite treat: pig ears. He likes it when we hold his chew toy up for him to gnaw on, so hopefully we'll be able to sneak the medication in while he's happily gnawing away. At least this is slightly less disgusting than his bout of giardia.

i [heart] fremont

2008-06-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

This last weekend marked the beginning of a badly needed summer in Seattle. This last spring was so wet and cold that this will be the best river rafting season in decades (in the Pacific Northwest). So it was glorious to see the sun this past weekend... especially since squinting because of the sun is a great scapegoat when you're watching a bunch of nekkid people parading down the street. 'No, no, it's just the sun. I'm not trying to make out what animal is body-painted on that guy's ass.' Yes, my friends, I speak of the 20th annual Fremont Solstice Parade. It's where the drag queens march (in HEELS) to legalize marijuana and the belly dancers shake to promote breast cancer awareness. Not to say that everyone who participated had an agenda. The Fremont Fair is mostly just to have fun and celebrate... naked (for some people). It was fun to watch.

After the parade, we went over to the Buckaroo Tavern. Best dive/biker bar though I didn't get into a barfight, nor do i think I got hepatitis. After the obligatory PBR, I walked across the street to Urbanweeds. I picked up an ecoforms pot urn to try to separate some of the basil seedlings. I love how these pots look and the ecofriendliness of them.

So with pot under my arm and face flush with the asian-glow, I walked (not staggered, one PBR wasn't enough) the two blocks home and reflected on what a great neighborhood I lived in. Other than the porn video store outside my livingroom window, there's great food (by Seattle standards), great bars, shops and color around Fremont. How long it's going to stay this lovely little neighborhood is uncertain though. This year's parade drew an estimated hundred thousand people, some watched the parade between the heads of ten rows of people, and the fair afterwards was sheer madness. In the throngs of the crowd, it's hard to imagine that six years ago (says an old-timer in my lab), everyone had a front-row seat to the parade and mostly it was a neighborhood thing. The gentrification of this little neighborhood didn't start that long ago. And I feel lucky to live here at this time, when Fremont still has a bit of the small neighborhood feel but with businesses that I love walking to and browsing.