Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[jhocking]

dude, if she has a bathroom explosion an hour later that would pretty well ruin your birthday.

[Jimmy the Squid]

Really? It would certainly make for a night to remember.

[nobo]

a) Guys, cooking directions depend very much on what exactly you're cooking.

Which brings up...

b) 10 hours? What the hell are you cooking?

Like, 5 hours makes sense for a roast ham or turkey or something, but roasting some pork chops just takes like 30 minutes.

Yep. The roasted chicken takes .5 hours, the beef roast takes about 3, and then the roasted pork loin takes about 2-3. 10 hrs = goulash in the crock pot.

[Lines]

Mmm, goulash.

[nobo]

Made it about 2 weeks ago. Just beef and onions, mixed in with some beef broth, garlic, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. And a bunch of teriyaki sauce. Now this teriyaki sauce was a mistake because I thought it was the Worcestershire sauce and it ended up dumping quite a bit in, but it turned out pretty good nonetheless.

[Lines]

My mom makes my grandmother's recipe sometimes and it's soooo good. It's a bit more stew-like than other recipes I've had, but I think we use beef, onions, paprika + other spices (I can't remember), and we add noodles. That's one of the recipes I need to get from her now that it's starting to get cold. She'd make it in the morning and let it cook throughout the day and when we had it for dinner, the meat just kind of melted in your mouth.

Must not drool...

[JD]

and then they didn't know during which years world war two occurred

Doesn't the start date depend on who you ask? It started in 1939 for Europe, 1933(?) in Asia, 1941 for the U.S.

That would be fuzzy on the boundaries I think.

[öde]

Dan what HOW?

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?

This wasn't drunk cycling again was it?  I thought we talked about that!

No, this time it was drunk sleeping on stairs and then falling off the stairs and not waking up!

I think I have concussion.

[Slick]

guys how good is my life right now? It is pretty good!

Like, I woke up at five, snoozed a bunch, got on my bike and biked through the dark and the rain on empty streets to get to class. I baked a whole wack of brioche and savarins, weighed and shaped a whole bunch of rolls (my favorite thing ever), and got all tasks done in jig time without worrying about putting another fold into my puff pastry/danish dough or anything.
Then I had an informative lecture on cakes and meringues, contributed to discussion on meringues (I have learnt a bunch about meringues), and got some good questions answered.
Then I had an excellent turkey dinner with some top-notch stuffing, mashed potatoes, and side veg (of late the culinary students have been really slacking and under/over cooking the veg or just leaving them fucking bland as hell) which included perfectly roasted mushrooms. I treated myself to a cup of coffee instead of a slice of apple pie because frankly I goddamn love turkey and coffee for lunchtimes, and the apple pie is just OK (I think the last pastry students made it in the spring and froze it? I don't know. It's good, just not stellar, and there is a lot of sugar and fat in there obviously).
Then I got my ServSafe test back and I was the best in the class (like it's not that big of a deal, I don't really care beyond passing it but that is nice anyways).
Now I am going to make a bunch of puff pastry so I can make apple bands tomorrow (still have too many got-dang apples). Or actually maybe snooooooozzze

[öde]

That's awesome! I'm really hungry after reading that though.

[Lines]

Yay James! Also your post is making me hungry.

[Barmymoo]

Or come to uni in the UK! It's a little less soul-destroying because it's still more about grades than money (we have a standardised cost which is fully funded by government loans) and also it's a shorter course. Overseas students pay a lot more than home students but I think it's still less than you guys pay.

Having said that, I just had the worst lecture I've ever been in. Last year we had a lecturer so awful that by the end of the course, of the 250 students taking the paper only about 15 were in the lecture hall on any given day, but this one was worse. Last year's lecturer mumbled and read straight off a fully-written-out handout, but at least we learnt something from reading the handout. Today's lecturer addressed the entire thing to the Lord Chancellor (WHO WAS NOT THERE BECAUSE HE IS THE LORD CHANCELLOR AND KIND OF BUSY) and we didn't learn squat, because advising the government on policy is very different from lecturing a law and sociology course.

Apparently the Criminology department have decided to lecture the entire year like this. I don't know if they're trying to be funny or if they genuinely believe that the Lord Chancellor is going to come to our lectures, but I am not planning on going again. Luckily they've given us a sheet with the breakdown of who is lecturing what, when, so I'll go to the lectures by the guy who wrote the definitive textbook (hopefully he will not demean himself with this juvenile and really, really irritating charade).

Grah. I'm so annoyed, disproportionately I guess, but I was really looking forwards to this course. It's all about why people commit crime and what we can do about it, but today's lecture was needlessly and pointlessly gimmicky and had no actual content, just the lecturer's politicised views about the current government. And if there had been anything useful I'd have missed it because I was so busy getting furious every time he said "and so, Lord Chancellor,..."

[tania]

EDIT: sorry may i did that thing where i deleted and rewrote my post again so now it's out of order and doesn't make much sense.

this is a pretty late reply to anna's thing, but my university experience also left me really jaded and disappointed on account i met so many people who basically had no interest in being there whatsoever and enrolled in university only so they could get a degree which would them help them to get a job later in life. i guess everyone has the right to pursue education for whatever reason they feel is appropriate for them, but nonetheless it really upset me how few people i could seem to find who were actually as interested in the subjects they were studying as i was, especially when i knew so many intelligent people from high school who would have loved to go to university but just couldn't afford to for whatever reason. to me meeting so many utterly disinterested and unremarkable people at school just seemed to epitomize the whole sorry state post-secondary education seems to be in now in that it's no longer really about the desire to learn, it's about getting the degree and putting up with four years of crap you don't really care about in order to get it. since almost every job seems to require a degree of some kind now this probably won't change anytime soon.
then i applied for a really competitive master's program in vancouver where it's basically impossible to get in unless you have a research project you are incredibly passionate about and you really really desperately want to be there, and now i am pretty much only surrounded by incredible people who are all about 1000x times more interesting and brilliant and talented than i am. these people seriously impress the living shit out of me every single class with how sharp and knowledgeable they are and it's really amazing.

i guess the moral of this story is that if you want to meet really smart people in school you should get into research. except grad school in the states costs an arm and a leg. get into research in canada!

[Cernunnos]

i applied for a really competitive master's program in vancouver where it's basically impossible to get in unless you have a research project you are incredibly passionate about and you really really desperately want to be there, and now i am pretty much only surrounded by incredible people who are all about 1000x times more interesting and brilliant and talented than i am. these people seriously impress the living shit out of me every single class with how sharp and knowledgeable they are and it's really amazing.

Oh man yes. grad school is so awesome this way. I get to work with some awesome, awesome people and be excited about what all of my classmates are doing! No slackers, no trust-funders, no people who are there to party, no fratboys. Just dedicated people who do their goddamn work and do it well.

I edit to add though that sometimes undergrad sucks to be in and from personal experience it's very hard sometimes to be all excited about what you are doing. it is okay to go to school because you want to be able to afford to have a family. it is okay to go to school because you want to be able to afford to have a wood shop in the back shed and build furniture all weekend. To act like people are supposed to be all excited about psychology 101 or whatever damn course you happen to be taking is just silly. sometimes figuring out your life sucks, and usually you are at school while it happens. some work through it, some don't. Never mind the cultural and familial obligations that usually drive one's choice to go to school. I haven't gone a week where i haven't doubted my carreer path and the time, money, and energy i might have just spent the last seven years wasting.

[squawk]

Thanks for the words and encouragement.  I will figure this out, and I def need to step up my game already... old habits die hard, but THEY WILL DIE, GRUESOMELY.

(I made a lot of time wasting mistakes yesterday.)

[allison]

EDIT: sorry may i did that thing where i deleted and rewrote my post again so now it's out of order and doesn't make much sense.

this is a pretty late reply to anna's thing, but my university experience also left me really jaded and disappointed on account i met so many people who basically had no interest in being there whatsoever and enrolled in university only so they could get a degree which would them help them to get a job later in life. i guess everyone has the right to pursue education for whatever reason they feel is appropriate for them, but nonetheless it really upset me how few people i could seem to find who were actually as interested in the subjects they were studying as i was, especially when i knew so many intelligent people from high school who would have loved to go to university but just couldn't afford to for whatever reason. to me meeting so many utterly disinterested and unremarkable people at school just seemed to epitomize the whole sorry state post-secondary education seems to be in now in that it's no longer really about the desire to learn, it's about getting the degree and putting up with four years of crap you don't really care about in order to get it. since almost every job seems to require a degree of some kind now this probably won't change anytime soon.

I think this is unfair. Maybe these people don't know what they're passionate about yet, or haven't found something that interests them as much as you're interested in criminology (which I am pretty sure is your area of study). It's not really nice to call someone unremarkable just because academia is not their particular strong point, I think that it's kind of elitist actually. Yes, people go to university to get the accreditation they need to get jobs - and you said that everyone has the right to pursue education for their own reasons, but following that with the point that you knew "intelligent people" who couldn't afford university implies that people who are not 100% dedicated to their studies are unintelligent.

I work my ass off to go to university. Since I started paying tuition fees, I've held at least 2 jobs down while studying, so it's not like I'm not dedicated. I still work hard, even though I'm not excited and passionate about my degree. I'm not sure what I'm passionate about at all yet, and I think that's okay, I have a whole life ahead of me to do things that are impressive and exciting. I require a degree to make a comfortable living, so that's what I'm going to do. Sometimes you have to build a house for shelter, not because you love building houses.

Edit - Dammit Jon said everything I was trying to say.

[Boro_Bandito]

I'm one of these people Tania, and honestly I'm just about ready to say you're right, I don't really belong here when there are certainly thousands of other people far more driven than I am who would kill for a chance at this degree, while I'm sitting around just floating through my fifth year (down to two classes even for the semester) and literally not doing jack squat. I haven't been excited about this degree or any of the classes I've taken for the past 2 and a half years, and yet for some reason I'm still here. Part of it is because my parents would disown me if I dropped out of school, partly because literally everyone I've talked to say that you have to have a degree to do anything in life, and that it doesn't matter what that degree is in for a lot of jobs. Part of it is simply because I haven't like the Academic setting since grade school, and I was enormously pressured into going, and by the time I grew any sort of spine to tell myself that maybe it wasn't the best idea for me to be here I'm finding myself in debt so far for a degree that if I don't get it I'll be paying it off for 20 years anyway and yet I'm still not motivated at all to push for it.

[bainidhe_dub]

I keep finding myself wishing I was still/back in school, but I have no idea what for. I'm thinking maybe I just miss the structure and paperwork and clear expectations. But I kind of want to go to grad school, but I don't know what for.

Instead, I'm still working for crazy people. I worked a full day in the office yesterday, and then I was supposed to do a setup that started at midnight, until about 6am this morning. I called lots of people to see if they could take my place, but nobody was free. I tried to nap for a few hours before I had to go to the setup, but ended up feeling crappier as the night went on and called out sick. It is too damn early in fall to be getting a chest cold.

[Drill King]

I have to say I am pretty darn frustrated with going to an art school with people who are there for the cool points/social expectations. I really like to hang out with upper year students for this reason because normally people who aren't passionate don't bother finishing it.

[tania]

it's not so much the interest specific classes that i was referring to, more the general mindset with regards to intellectualism and a willingness to learn. it's unfortunate that a university degree is regarded as mandatory for a lot of careers these days because it definitely does place a lot of pressure on individuals to sit through an environment they don't really want to be in and don't enjoy, bust most of my cynicism with regards to post-secondary education stems less from the growing emphasis on a university degree as mandatory for almost every occupation and more to do with the general disdain for intelligent thought and discussion that seems to be so increasingly common in university students, and indeed people on the whole. more and more there seems to be this real move towards a culture of anti-intellectualism in society that is definitely visible in post-secondary education, in that academic achievement and genuine intellectual discussion in school is often regarded with a sort of contempt whereas the indifference and drunken partying and barely scraping by with Cs and Ds that jon mentioned is increasingly glamorized. this type of attitude is incredibly discouraging when you've spent nearly your entire life feeling marginalized and outcast because of your desire to learn only to finally enter university (school you actually pay for!) and discover that, somehow, anti-intellectualism has become just as prevalent here as it is everywhere else and you're still just as lonely and alienated as you always were. maybe it is unnecessarily harsh and judgmental on my behalf to label so many of the people i went to school with as "unremarkable", but the unfortunate reality is that as a result of my increasing failure to meet anybody who was as interested in deep or meaningful discussion as i was (save for a few people during my last year), i spent the majority of my university career really disappointed in the experience and wondering where all the people who were like me were hiding, if they apparently weren't in university anymore. i am not a particularly smart person but i've always been in incredible awe of intelligent people and viewed education as one of the greatest opportunities anyone could ever ask for. again, everybody has the right to pursue education for whatever reason they desire, but if you can't even find like-minded individuals who have the same appreciation for intellectualism as you in university - which, again, is school you actually pay a lot of fucking money for - then there are a lot of things really dreadfully wrong with the society that we currently live in.

[Alex C]

Oh god, bullshit first world problems.

[Drill King]

So my step dad(like, basically my biological father) has prostate cancer and no one told me. they've known for over two months. wtfff

[Lunchbox]

I have a cold and I feel awful and my cat won't stop meowing and I'm flying to Melbourne this afternoon! Holiday fail.

[Allybee]

I think I'm just really lucky and that I go to a really awesome place (although people regularly poke fun at us) but I have met some of the most amazing, intelligent, creative and motivated people here. I have friends here who make me think and reassess and create. I love college a lot but I think it takes a long time (especially when you go to a big school) to find the right type of person - a year ago I was feeling like I didn't belong and it was terrible. anna, I'm sure there are people like you at your school. you'll run into them eventually.

[JD]

Problem: I need to feed the dog but I have no spoons to get it out with.

Solution: Use a can opener on both sides, use sheet metal scissors to cut down the side of the can.

I might do it this way from now on, it would save space in the dishwasher.

[Eris]

I decided recently that next year I am gonna go to TAFE and pick up sign language again, because I really liked it (and my linguistics stuff, which will probably be next) and it could help me get a job that would also be fun, like an interpreter, or helping deaf kids at uni understand their lectures. Plus if I only do one subjecty thing at a time I won't freak out and get super stressed and overworked (hopefully).


On the terrible job front, my boss sent me a text yesterday asking me to work last night and I told him no. So proud of myself! The obvious reasoning behind it was because he had only rostered himself and a barista on last night and didn't want to be at work for the whole shift (because he's a lazy cunt). He probably got someone else to work, but I can only think of one person who would have said yes, but I don't really care. I am working three nights in a row with the annoying new barista who was working last night, I didn't want to make it four nights in a row and end up working 6 days this week. Blah blah need a new job blah.

[Ozymandias]

Problem: I need to feed the dog but I have no spoons to get it out with.

Solution: Use a can opener on both sides, use sheet metal scissors to cut down the side of the can.

I might do it this way from now on, it would save space in the dishwasher.

Have...have you considered using a can opener on both sides, taking one side off and then using the other side to shove the food out?

[Zingoleb]

I just got in a debate with someone regarding marijuana. I have to share what she just said:

Stoned people are worthless to both themselves and society. We might as well just abort any baby that will become a drug attic.

[JD]

Problem: I need to feed the dog but I have no spoons to get it out with.

Solution: Use a can opener on both sides, use sheet metal scissors to cut down the side of the can.

I might do it this way from now on, it would save space in the dishwasher.

Have...have you considered using a can opener on both sides, taking one side off and then using the other side to shove the food out?

NONSENSE

[JD]

also I could cut my hand doing it that way.

[Barmymoo]

Andy, that's really sad Have you asked them why they didn't tell you? Perhaps they wanted to protect you (this is a noble but usually futile thing to do, I feel).

It isn't in the same league but I just had my bag snatched. I have no idea what was in the bag, it was a rucksack I'd stored at the theatre over the summer and the only thing I can think was probably in it was one of my favourite winter dresses. It was pretty heavy though, there must have been more in it than that. At first it was just really surreal, I had felt a bit wary of them for a second and then they snatched it and went "give us your fucking bag" which seemed pointless since he already had it, and ran off. I yelled "mate, it's only got clothes in it" and then realised what had happened and ran to the porters' lodge. The lovely night porter went to see if they'd dumped it anywhere (they will do when they see what's in it, but I just hope it isn't dumped in a bin or whatever so that I might get it back) but no luck. Now I'm all shaky and have been crying and damn I wish I could remember what was in it.

[tania]

a culture that promotes hostility and contempt toward intellectual thought and discussion while rewarding minimal academic achievement doesn't just limit the growth of knowledge for the sake of knowledge but removes any incentive for people to develop unique and groundbreaking levels of expertise and competence in their field, which like tommy said holds the potential to actually be incredibly beneficial to the rest of the world. the fact that western societies (including, at times, their educational systems) increasingly marginalize these people and treat them with disdain is definitely really worrying to me.

[jhocking]

I keep finding myself wishing I was still/back in school

I never wish I was back in school, but I frequently look back on it fondly. I guess that's how it's supposed to go? Now that I'm thinking about it, it seems illogical that I can like something and yet not want it back.

[Alex C]

The reason I call it a bullshit first world problem is because I think people approach this problem in precisely the opposite way you need to look at it. To put it bluntly, learning for learning's sake has historically been a luxury. Universities weren't created to to fulfill the general public's need for vocational training. But that's essentially the role that people have asked them to play, and as long as community college and vocational schools are treated as second rate establishments that require a "real school" to finish the job we will continue to have this problem. I refuse to resent people for not enjoying their tremendously expensive classes enough until that's fixed one way or the other. You can't establish a $30k a year gatekeeper and expect most people to like it even if that gatekeeper happens to be really interesting and has a great library.

[Drill King]

Andy, that's really sad Have you asked them why they didn't tell you? Perhaps they wanted to protect you (this is a noble but usually futile thing to do, I feel).

The various reasons I recieved were,
"You never call home"
"You seemed busy"
"If you would come home and visit more often you would have known"
"etcetc"

This is so incredibly frustrating, my sister who lives in bc knew before I did and they've known for sure for two months. It's prostate cancer and potentially quite advanced, my step father is a funeral director so normally he taught me to deal with death well, but all I can think about is that if he dies, what will happen to my mom. My mom was abused more or less her entire life and only just last year(after 8 years of dating) did she finally remarry and find someone to treat her right. They're supposed to grow old and die together.

[Alex C]

See my point of contention was more that people were disinterested and hostile to the notion of intellectual conversation. I've never been particularly academic either. I don't really care what your grades are like, that's up to you. I do however get bugged if I can't find any people who can either sustain a conversation not about popular culture or participate in social events beyond the obvious. For me it's not really an academic issue, it's more a social one. For some reason I expected to meet interesting and thoughtful people at University but it was even worse than being in High School.

I can sympathize with that to an extent, but well, I'm what my grandfather calls an odd duck. I kinda accepted that most people aren't interested in what I want to talk about around the time I was seven.

[Lines]

Stoned people are worthless to both themselves and society. We might as well just abort any baby that will become a drug attic.

Hehe, drug attic.

I went out to dinner with my mom and then went to her house to play with the kitty cat and get some recipes. I got to play with my Parker! I got delicious recipes that make cold months much better! Yay! And I have to wake up stupid early for work tomorrow! Booo....

[Inlander]

Hehe, drug attic.

Well if you've got a better place to store your unwanted stash that you might want to use later I'd like to hear it.

[Zingoleb]

Unlike you, I don't want to store my drugs in babies.

[Barmymoo]

Andy, that must be annoying and worrying I'm not really sure what to say, but there is always hope that he can get better, treatments are improving all the time. Keep hoping.

I remembered what was in the bag, I think, and it was a good £150, £200 worth of clothes. I'm going to ring the police this morning, I think.

[Lines]

I always thought secret panels were much nicer. People always look in the attic first!

Blog thread, how does one tell some upstairs neighbors to shut the fuck up at 2:30 in the morning without being rude? It is not a good idea for me to go up the stairs and bang on their door at that time, because then I'd wake other people up because I would be yelling through the door and that's not very nice to the other nice people in my building. But waking up to someone stomping around in heels, loudly opening and closing dresser drawers, and whining when I'm trying to sleep has gotten on my last nerve. (Oh, by the way, I wear earplugs when I'm sleeping.) So, yes, suggestions would be nice. Unless writing a note that says, "If it's between the hours of midnight and 6am, you need to shut the fuck up," is actually ok.

[look out! Ninjas!]

a) Guys, cooking directions depend very much on what exactly you're cooking.
Which brings up...
b) 10 hours? What the hell are you cooking?
Like, 5 hours makes sense for a roast ham or turkey or something, but roasting some pork chops just takes like 30 minutes.

Yep. The roasted chicken takes .5 hours, the beef roast takes about 3, and then the roasted pork loin takes about 2-3. 10 hrs = goulash in the crock pot.

10 hours at a low heat. At that heat, the heat spreads through the meat much more evenly because the outside takes longer to cook, and barely any of the juice comes out of the meat. There is no need for gravy or anything like that, because it's retained all the juice and is lovely and moist and delicious. Plus there's something about the proteins and all that that I don't really understand, but it makes the meat more tender.
What I am saying is if you try it you can never go back to throwing some meat in the oven for an hour and a half.

[Barmymoo]

A fair few times I've had to go and knock on doors to ask people to be quiet, and usually starting it with "I'm really sorry, but it's 3am..." is enough to make them start apologising to you and stop being noisy. If that doesn't work, is there a landlord or someone who you could bring it up with?

For anyone taking notes, I spent two hours at the police station this morning giving statements and describing things. I am fairly sure, after a night of thinking about it, that I know what was in the bag they took - lots of clothes, as in two of my best dresses, all my ice hockey t shirts (long sleeved but thin), couple of hoodies - all in all a fair amount of stuff. I'm concerned my cheque book might also have been in there, so I'm going to cancel that.

Ringin' the bank, ringin' the bank, jazzy hold music, feelin' good... also poor, I can feel my credit slippin' away...


Thrilling update to my exciting life: bank will not cancel my cheque book as I "got some security details wrong". No, I don't know the exact date the account was opened, I have had it since I was a child. I don't even know the year. Also, can't log on to online banking because I've apparently got the passcode wrong. I am starting to think someone has stolen my account, in a totally separate incident to the potential cheque book theft.

In addition to all of this my student loan still hasn't come in so I am about £130 overdrawn and about to go even further, I owe the college nearly £2000 which I don't have, and dammit I don't want to be a grown up any more

[KharBevNor]

Tommy, to blame your personal social alienation on a vast, all-encompassing fault within the society you live in is, at best, solipsistic, at worst kind of twattish!

[Barmymoo]

Perhaps you guys should take this to Discuss? It sounds like something that could become quite a good debate, and you are using up valuable space for whining and moping!

Although actually I am not going to whine and mope right now - I went into my church to make a phonecall to the police and someone overheard me explaining what had happened, contacted some friends who all have a shared account which they use to help people out when this kind of thing happens, and presented me with a cheque! The sheer loveliness of the gesture made me so much happier and also I now have some money to tide me over for a bit. Lots of people have been really nice and really helpful and reminded me that yes, two people did something pretty unkind and dented my faith in goodness, but lots and lots of people are frequently being lovely. The balance is tipped on the side of lovely

[nobo]

internet forum full of dorks

 

[Scandanavian War Machine]

speaking of dorks...

The Boss is out of town today so I've spent much of my day at work reading Heinlein shorts about time travel on the internet. Now my brain is broken and I can't take my own life seriously anymore (not that I took it very seriously before, mind).

so I'm thinking about moving to Tibet or something and becoming a monk. Monks don't talk or think about time travel right?

[Zingoleb]

Hovering somewhere between the stage of 'nom it' and 'vomit' and feel like this right now:

[Rizzo]

So given that I'm having brain surgery in approximately 2 weeks is taking E tonight an awesome or terrible idea?

On the one hand I'll have a good time most probably - savour the good times and all that

On the other hand it's going to deplete my seratonin and probably make me horribly depressed for a few days next week

I can't imagine any neurological complications on the 27th but who knows. Any guesses?

[JD]

I wouldn't do it.