Tinypliny's Journal

12/13/2010 22:42 #53269

Hispanophile!!!
Category: the odes

I am ALWAYS mistaken for a Hispanic at Pricerite by someone or the other especially when I am hovering in the Goya section or near the root vegetables, wondering for the nth time what one does with them.

I don't think I look particularly Hispanic but I admit it - I would LOVE to be able to speak fluently in Spanish. I think the language is so poetic and sounds so much like my mother-tongue.

My favourite band has always sung in Spanish and I know most of their lyrics by heart - even though I have no idea what they mean.

(well... not exactly, I have looked up translations in the past and know the gist of their songs. But yes, if you ask me for a word-for-word translation, I would probably just blink dully at you.)

I also love MarÃa Dolores Pradera beyond a healthy limit.

Oh, and let's not forget the latest addiction to Salsa that I seemed to have sponged up.

I think this was just inevitable. ~~Friends, Romans,~~ Mum, (E:peeps), you are now reading the journal of a bonafide Hispanophile!

tinypliny - 12/15/10 17:59
yeah, but being from Spain also makes you Hispanic.

metalpeter - 12/14/10 17:36
I'm guessing that you looking at the Goya stuff people just Assume...... The thing with being Hispanic or if you or others don't agree with that term South American is there are so many skin tones. As an example some whom I knew when he was growing up got the nick name Chico He was Italian but dark so he looked Spanish .....................................................

tinypliny - 12/14/10 00:15
Hmmm.. the Portuguese did come somewhat close to where I think my family is from but I would extremely surprised if they anything to do with my family.

Yep, white rat. :^) So many connotations...

uncutsaniflush - 12/13/10 23:51
You are, of course, ignoring the possibility that you are Hispanic. The people have spoken. After all, you don't have to understand Spanish to be Hispanic.

Of course, on the Indian subcontinent, Portuguese would be . . .

White Rat, indeed.

12/12/2010 22:35 #53255

Wake up?!
Category: the odes

The lamp is on a deal at Amazon. This promotional video made me laugh!

I can totally see myself as part of that geeky little team of technicians cheering at 3 AM because a rooster crowed early. lol

12/12/2010 13:54 #53247

Baking without recipÃ©s. Finally!
Category: eating in

I made this.

A super-tasty spice and nut bread.
Without a recipÃ©.
Without eggs.
Without butter.
Without sugar - well... added sugar, that is.

With plum jam, flax seed, almonds, milk powder, 100% whole wheat and a tonload of wheat bran. It is SUPER-delicious out of the oven, can be toasted to perfection and is divine with just about anything. And one slice meets 50% of my daily fiber AND protein requirements.

This may look like a small baking step, but its a big leap for ~~mankind~~ ME!

I never follow recipÃ©s and can't remember any of them anyway. I don't have measuring paraphernalia, refuse to let my life be ruled by tablespoons and cups and hate non-metric units that everyone seems to be obsessed with! And I really dislike that eggy smell that surfaces once in a while when you don't want it to.

Well...not anymore!!!!! You won't smell the fear of baking ever again in my kitchen! You will only smell cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg and a ton of triumph... and maybe a bit of banana since some of those have been ripening on my table for ages.

libertad - 12/12/10 19:56
I doubt I would ever bake without a recipe. I just don't have it in me.

tinypliny - 12/12/10 14:01
Oh I am not that extreme. I really like milk - besides, that's where most of the protein is coming from.

paul - 12/12/10 14:00
If you could just get rid of the milk powder it would be vegan.

12/12/2010 11:43 #53245

Grouponoids
Category: buffalo

I was wondering about just how many Groupon-like online daily discount deal websites exist for Buffalo, did a quick web-trawl and found five.

1. Groupon

2. LivingSocial

3. SocialBuy

4. Deal of the day

5. WGRZ discount deals

One of these days, I might be persuaded to get a mani-pedi and a swedish massage or maybe I could go y0ga-craZy and try out every flavour of class down Elmwood.

All of the other zillion grouponoids cater to posher cities and of course, NYC - regardless of wherever they are based. I even found some European ones from UK and Germany that had NYC listed as one of the deal cities! Buffalo doesn't seem to be that popular...

tinypliny - 12/12/10 13:26
They might have been a tad bit foolish there. $6 bn was waay overpriced. Google must have had grand plans for Groupon... and now I am sure they will start something similar and topple the company or force a sell at a lower price.

paul - 12/12/10 12:52
They should have sold to Google. Can you imagine turning down 6 billion dollars? All it would take is for Facebook to offer the same feature natively and they would lose their value.

12/11/2010 16:33 #53237

The evil shadows of Facebook.
Category: the odes

At my department party yesterday, someone from the department that I didn't know very well knew me from some of my pictures posted by her boyfriend's friend who is on facebook and went to the same baking workshop as I did. Minutes after the party, I ran into (e:enknot) who said he finds (e:strip) boring nowadays because it's the same old 5 people posting. And something to the effect of facebook being a much more dynamic connection to the planet.

On the detour-ridden walk home through smoky downtown, I really missed my dance class (we are on holiday break and classes resume January) and the absolute joy of salsa beats. To make up for the vacuum and erase an overdose of lady blabla and the impersonal nature of electronic music, I dropped by Club Barcelona hoping to catch the latin jazz project and Ibrahim Ferrer in the making. Turned out they had taken a leave of absence just for yesterday.

As I walked two other annoying points came to mind. My Ã¼bercool salsa teachers are on facebook and nowhere else. And not just that, my primary citation manager is now suggesting that I "like" articles and login with my facebook login. To give in or not to give in to facebook-it's-so-cool pressure? That was the irritating question.

I don't want a connection with the planet. I like my own little flow of thoughts here and I completely love the new interface of the site. Big thumbs down to Dr. Evil. I am not filling in the mini-me shoes anytime soon.

tinypliny - 12/13/10 22:23
THEY were right THERE in downtown on saturday. :::link:::

DAMN, you fb. Don't want to join you and yet everyone I am seeking is with you. Aaarrgh. Wish I had seen this sooner - I would have headed straight to the Pucho Olivencia Center on Swan after the party!

tinypliny - 12/12/10 11:52
haha - I think the dangers and distractions of joining outweigh the pleasure of stalking my teachers. I don't think I am quite at the desperate stalkerish level yet. May in a few months... :-)

I tried twittering and it totally wiped out my desire to write here for a bit. When I was twittering, I felt like I was frittering away my thoughts in 140 characters and being even more vain and trivial than I usually am... I see facebook as a similar, if not worse, experiment.

metalpeter - 12/12/10 11:38
I think you should join and also stay here. Maybe connect with the dance people and try to get them to Join Here?

metalpeter - 12/12/10 10:52
Well the thing that is funny about facebook is that I have friends on there that I have meet at (e:strip) parties that I'm not sure if they are on (e:strip). Or if they are I don't know there user names..............

uncutsaniflush - 12/11/10 21:53
(e:paul) - I think your analysis is spot on. If people put in as much energy here as they do on facebook, estrip would be a different place.

I'm a member of facebook but I don't really very much there at all.

I like the idea of a blog better than the idea of immediate social networking. The only places that I've blogged are estrip.org and wordpress. I like the control that I have over the look of the interface on wordpress. But I also really like the new estrip. I've decided that for the nonce if I'm going to blog only in one place, it will be estrip.

Ironically enough, as the internet has gotten more into the social side, I've become more of a recluse. I used to be on irc, on usenet, on aim, on icq sometimes all at once. It was great to be able to talk to someone half a world away. It seems less cool to talk to someone online that you just saw at work. But that is just me.

I've been thinking that I'm going to post links to my estrip stuff on facebook. Go figure.

I think that I might be a bit of a Luddite or some sort of dinosaur destined to die when the next social networking comet hits the earth.

tinypliny - 12/11/10 19:42
"you entire friends, family, and coworkers are here"

That FREAKS me out. I am SO glad I am boring and don't want to be poked or liked. I use (e:strip) almost as a personal reference. I wish I had kept a regular record even earlier when I was in med school. My life was so jam-packed with craziness then and now I can't really identify with that crazy person anymore...

paul - 12/11/10 17:19
You don't have to feel guilty and I don't think they are evil. (e:enknot) is right, estrip is boring now because no one posts anymore besides a very few of us. Its especially boring if you are the type of person who is always on the prowl for "La fille du jour" or the internet meme of the day.

For me I prefer the longterm journal nature of a blog than the immediate feedback of of a whole slew of semi random acquaintances feeding each other links and brief status updates. I mean its fun to have other people participate in your life but even if everyone one else left I would keep writing as I love in my blog as I love being able to flip back through my life.

At the same time, I can understand wanting move to a more immediate feedback environment if that is the type of thing someone is looking for - especially for more social individuals. There is really nothing estrip can do to compete with the "you entire friends, family, and coworkers are here" and they all want to "like" what you say and poke you to make you feel special that face book has. I guess unless that is what you were not looking for in the first place.