Hackbright Day 17: Wherein I fundamentally misunderstand jQuery

Today was challenging, and I'm going to blame my inability to quickly digest syntax and the fact that I haven't been sleeping for more than like 5 hours per night. I'm usually fine on little-to-no sleep, but now that I'm old, I need to sleep for like 6 or 7 hours at least every once in awhile. Lame.

We talked about jQuery and AJAX today. jQuery (and I'm probably stylizing the name wrong, but whatevs, I wasn't even going to post tonight) is a javascript library that lets you do things in a much more succinct way than "vanilla" javascript. It seems like it's used in conjunction with AJAX to modify the HTML + CSS on the fly, make get and post requests (I'm still fuzzy on post syntax), and generally interact with different parts of your webapp. The fact that this is about as specific as I can get with jQuery and AJAX means that I definitely failed in absorbing the lecture this morning.

And now I need to PTFO.

And here's a picture of two motorized wheelchairs outfitted to be electric horses. Because San Francisco.

Oh hai.

So. I'm still here. I've intended to resurrect the blog so many times that I've lost count, but I'm pretty sure that it's going to be mostly dormant between now and when I defend. By the way, my defense is scheduled for August 11th. Please don't tell me how many weeks away that is, because I might have a full blown anxiety attack. I had an over-caffeinated freak out this afternoon, but I talked it out with Kyle. So I'm good, as long as I don't think too long about how much I have to accomplish (and do well!) between now and then. In fact, I'm required to give a draft of my thesis to my committee by July 11th and that is entirely too soon for my tastes.

If you'd like to watch my thesis meltdown much closer, I'm on instagram (again). I'll be taking pictures of pens and lattes and the odd picture of the back of Ramona's head.

It's a very cute head.

I'm still alive

I'm still here, though I've been hit with a case of the busies. There's a post in the making, but I need to find my camera cord and decide what I'm going to do about running over my Picasaweb limits.

In the mean time, I'm making this colcannon tonight.

Stay tuned.

too late

Sometimes I take food pictures and write about them a long time after the meal.  Usually this isn't too big of a deal, but in this case, I waited too long.  This was taken in February.  It was some sort of mushroom tart from Bistrot Mirabelle, a French bistro restaurant in the Far West area.  It closed in June and was slated to reopen as some sort of American-style concept restaurant last week.  I don't know if it ever did or not.  It was a good meal and I hope that they do reopen.  Meanwhile, I'm still here, trying to make sure that Ramona doesn't get into too much trouble.

You can totally see the mischief in her eyes.

hi again

This is a picture from a really terrible meal that we had last week.  It's actually a plate from a Mother's Day brunch buffet from a restaurant that we've eaten at twice before.  The first time we went was actually for Restaurant Week and it was really good.  I was sooo disappointed, in part, because I wanted to love it and then blog about it.  Unfortunately, the meal wasn't good so I don't really have anything to say and I'd rather not take a giant crap on a restaurant that I think is probably better than what they served up here.  It'll probably be awhile before we go back, but it's never going to close because, even though it's basically empty every time we've been there, it's part of a hotel.

but at least I'm a cute money pit

So herein lies the problem.  I have nothing to write about.  It's not that I don't eat.  I do, every day, in fact. It's just that recipe creation has been tough and given that we now have a giant money pit, we've been trying to scale back the restaurant eating.  We've been going with tried and true recipes.  The one time I tried making something new, it took forever and I felt like I was neglecting Ramona (she fell asleep in her swing almost immediately so it seems like mommy guilt is a natural progression from Catholic guilt) thus, we've stuck with quick cooking meals since then.  So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm here and I'm eating and I just needed to write something so I could remember what it felt like to write a blog post.

science. ugh.

This is why you don't get a real post today:

Actually, I have to give a talk on Wednesday about this, which is for realz why.

Wherein the posts get a little thin towards the end of NaBloPoMo

I should probably post something, eh?

I don't have too much to say, except that for once, I'm okay with the University of Michigan not screwing up a game because Michigan State is going to the first Big Ten championship game.  Yay!

Hello, December.

It's been awhile.  It seems like I've been blogging a lot lately, but that's just because I've actually kept with my research blog posts.  Thanksgiving was a blast.  It was only Colby, the babydog, and me and we never left the house.  Our turkey was delicious and I highly recommend heritage breed turkeys for those of you who actually like to eat turkey with flavor, not to mention the fact that these turkeys have pretty okay lives for something bred to be eaten.

Since Thanksgiving, though, we haven't been cooking much.  Our kitchen is still recovering.  It's kind of a sad state of affairs.  We've either been eating out or eating things that require little to no effort.  I'm under the gun on this paper that I'm trying to write.  I need a draft in the next two and a half weeks, so it's going to be kind of nuts.  In addition, I've started to try to run again and let's just say that there's a reason why I run at night when everyone else is asleep.

And now my new goal is to have either a picture or a link in every post.  This might get challenging for my recipe posts, but it might also mean that I figure out how to use my camera phone to its fullest potential.  Or something.

Found on facebook: Medical Researcher Discovers Integration

Pro Tips from a Pro

I'm spending the first part of halloween weekend writing up my Ph. D. Thesis proposal. I might post parts of it here later if it gets approved. If it doesn't get approved, I just might quit astronomy and open a food truck. I don't see how I can lose.

So before spending the next half hour proofreading and just finishing the damn proposal, I've decided to bestow upon my awesomely large readership of like 2 people some life lessons (that they probably have already figured out).

Pro tip #1: Turning the slow cooker *ON* is a crucial step in making slow cooked anything.

Pro tip #1.1: Plugging it in also helps.

Pro tip #2: Just because you can make a plot (oh snap, it's an infographic... run and hide!), doesn't mean you should include it in, say, your PhD proposal

Pro tip #3: Feeding your dog ice cubes as treats == giving your dog excessive amounts of water returns true.

Pro tip #3.1: You have to expect peeing on the carpet to follow.

Pro tip #4: The only thing on your computer that works with the emacs command system is... dun dun dun... emacs.

Pro tip #4.1: ctrl+x ctrl+s will cut whatever you have highlighted and then save it in most text editors... unless you're in emacs. Remember this.

Pro tip #4.2: ctrl+k usually does nothing.

Pro tip #4.3: but no matter what emacs >> vi.

Pro tip #5: When choosing a wedding band, the prettiest is usually the most uncomfortable.

Addendum:

Pro tip #6: Just because you can add in white space with abandon in LaTeX, doesn't mean that you can do that with any other text publishing software you want. *ahem*

Growing up in a time zone in which you had no right to be in sort of screws with your head. It turns out the Michigan should probably be in central time, but it's not so right now it seems obscenely bright for 630 AM. Granted, I'm in Boston so it's super east, but I'm not used to dealing with this much daylight for such an ungodly early hour. And this state of being awake for 24 hours probably isn't helping.

Alas I am leaving the great state of Massachusetts for the comforts of home and excessive air conditioning, but I'll be back in August to finish up this paper that I came to work on. More posts later on Boston, the restaurants, and the Museum of Science after I get home and sleep for about a day.

I'm not currently dead

I've been working hard and playing hard and eating lots of tasty food. I'll post more when I get home, but so far, I've been to Armando's Pizza, Turner Fisheries, Simon's Coffee Shop, the Otherside Cafe, Le's Vietnamese Restaurant, and Bartley's Burger Cottage.

Pictures, reviews, and stories to come!

Excuses

I have so many half-written posts, that it's even more unreal than the tournament. This is partially because I've been on a diet and all the foods that I've been making for myself, while extremely edible, are rather repetitive and boring (e.g. baked chicken/salmon with brown rice/quinoa and spinach/broccoli/brussels sprouts). I have made a few interesting dishes, but mostly I've been crazy busy.

You see, this semester is the one in which I present a defense in order to pass into doctoral candidacy. That sounds super fancy, but it really amounts to a shitload of work and with my guilt complex, means that I'm pretty much done with blogging until I finish my thesis, which should be some time in May (I hope). I'm going to try to post sporadically, but it's definitely not going to be more than a few times between now and then because I won't have time to really cook or write (aside from my thesis).

blahbityblahbity

I've sort of given up on NaBloPoMo... although this technically extends my streak. This week I have to present at Stellar Seminar, make a Thanksgiving dinner for the in laws and resist the urge to run screaming from my own house.

Musashino is Japanese for yummy

The closest that I've come to preparing food today was either when I washed the apple I ate at 10 am or when I almost set my office on fire when I microwaved my soup for too long. Dinner at Musashino was holy crap amazing, but also crazy expensive. Oops. Oh well, sushi should probably be one of those things you splurge on because cheap sushi makes for terrible nights.

so basically, I'm phoning this entry in because I'm supposed today and I'd really just like to hit the sack.

Oops.

okay, so i've been absent lately. I blame this on getting pretty sick last week and on the stresses that are involved with moving, taking tests, and trying to dedicate my life to something that I really hate at the moment. Since I'm not going to post anything of substance until after my interstellar medium test, I'll leave you with amusing tidbits daily:

(12:58:45 AM) Chris: I need to eat dinner
(12:58:51 AM) Chris: also: decide what I want for dinner
(12:59:22 AM) julie: turkey sandwich with brie, field greens, fig spread, red onions, roasted tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar
(12:59:35 AM) Chris: yeah, my life isn't cool like that

hiatus

A bunch of my favorite food blogs are posting about different weight management tactics that they're currently employing. I feel like I should do the same, though, I'm not sure that I'm actually doing anything well enough now to claim that I'm trying to be healthy, but I did join a gym. In reality, I've come to a point where the only way for me to deal with every day life is to eat... probably more than is good for reasons of emotional and physical health.

I've come to the conclusion over the past six months or so that the game is up and I'm no longer good at or willing to pretend that I'm any good at this science business. I've mostly come to the decision to try out something new after I get my masters, but it's not going to be easy getting to the point where I even get my masters. Since this isn't livejournal, I won't go into the gory details of my state of mind, but sorting out the day-to-day stuff is why I haven't been posting. I've cooked a bit and even made a bunch of desserts, but I never took any pictures.

I'll post in the future when I get my shit together, but for now, I think I'm on hiatus. :)

Lazy-man's Alfredo Sauce

So given that I had all this leftover pasta, I wanted to do something with it because, mostly, I had been watching cooking shows all night (with the wonderful exception of a two hour stint of Law & Order SVUUUU) and so I kind of wanted to cook. This ended up being alfredo-y and not that good, but I have a feeling that it could be easily modified to != suck.

What I did:

2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
1 tsp kosher salt

some amount of chicken stock
some amount of milk
3 cloves minced garlic
~1.5 oz grated Parmesan cheese
2 slices provolone

so I melted the butter+flour+salt to make the base of a roux, added in the wet ingredients, let it thicken, add in the garlic, added in the parm cheese because it was the rest of a container that i had sitting there, and then decided that it was too salty, so I added the provolone, more chicken stock (realized that that made it saltier), more milk... boil boil stir stir. It's edible. Maybe not for me what with the dairy, but it's not spectacular.

This is my theoretical Lazy-Man's Alfredo

2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
1 tsp kosher salt

1 c heavy cream
3 cloves garlic (because, hey, who doesn't like garlic? [also, CLOVES, Kyle, CLOVES])
2 oz Parmesan
2 oz Mozzarella
black pepper to taste

mix mix mix stir stir stir. It should come out way better. Also, sauteed mushrooms would make this better

Graduate applications are a pain

So in the past month, I've made risotto, chicken, some sort of dip, cheese straws, holiday cookies, milk chocolate (by accident), more bread, cream biscuits with cheese, roast lemon chicken, green beans, and mashed potatoes. Also a couple drop biscuits here and there. I've also been working on my application to grad school and that's kind of awful... so more updates once those are done.

Also

http://loltonbrown.blogspot.com

Oops

Okay, so I haven't updated in forever, but I have intentions of updating again soon. Tomorrow looks like "experiment with polenta" day and also, I have a new cornbread recipe that I'd like to test out. I suppose I just got super busy, but the problem is that I'll make something and it'll last me a week because I'm one person and my stomach is not a bottomless pit. I made curry again, this time with non-light coconut milk and saw almost no difference. I did, however, impress one person enough. I also made mashed potatoes for the family thanksgiving with brie, garlic, and fresh basil. Those came out nicely too and this time I roasted the garlic which was different and made my aunt's house smell yummy. I'm currently campaigning to get Christmas Eve dinner and cook it with my brother. I'm thinking roasted chicken with risotto. Any thoughts?

this is why I'm lame

I haven't posted in here in forever because I didn't feel that Cream of Wheat or salad merited an entry. Also, I've been busy as allgetout; thus, I have not been able to cook. However! I have chicken and hope. So hopefully I'll be able to figure out a way to cook something and post about it. Oh, and this lack of time to bake things is draining my soul.