Vegetable Soup

I'll post the final photographs for the Daucus carota experiment. Yep, we only talk about vegetables on this blog, be they carrots, peppers, or zucchini. The carrots got pretty disgusting and looked like they were moulding by the end of it; I think the difference between them became more pronounced. I did make vegetable soup, but not with the experimental carrots. Nope, these babies went to get composted.

I found out recently that Superman's Metropolis was based on the city of Toronto, even though it's often represented as New York, or maybe sometimes Chicago or somewhere in Kansas. Apparently, the original artist was from Toronto, and worked at The Toronto Daily Star which The Daily Planet was based on.

I've been wondering lately if ideals are dead in this world. Does anyone really like having an idealist around? What a drag. Who wants to be reminded of such lofty principles when they have to face a grim reality? Perhaps it's futile to think that ideals could ever have a place.

The Great Unwashed

Latest Results from Daucus carota research

Hour 93: Superman visits my laboratory and commends me on my research, then insists on posing for a picture with the infamous carrots. Superman remarks on how powerful his muscles are to be able to bend the carrots with only one locomotive hand. For the sake of his ego, I neglect to mention my observation that both carrots are considerably flexile. Surface of W carrot appears quite white and wrinkled, with little vibrant orange colour. Dirty carrot's skin is still orange with sporadic white spots.Hour 148: W carrot is developing dark streaks along with increased white wrinkles on skin and is getting quite soft and spongey. Dirty carrot has dry white spots and is becoming less rigid. Both are distinctly unappetizing.

Both my lab assistant and I conclude that the washed Daucus carota is more shrivelled than the dirty one. The dirty root matches the firm. Mr. Scientist admits defeat.

Next up: Carrot soup taste test.

The Carrot Experiment

I am undertaking research on the effects of dihydrogen monoxide on the Daucus carota. Do the unwashed survive longer than the washed? Does cleaning hasten the effects of old age? Basically, my friend Mr. Scientist, bet me that a washed carrot does not shrivel up faster than an unwashed carrot.

Materials:
Hydrogen oxide
Two whole samples of Daucus carota of approximately equal size, from the same source
Sharpie black permanent marker

Procedure:
1. Wash one specimen in dilute hydrogen oxide.
2. Label both specimen.
3. Store both in same location and record results.

Observations:
Hour 0: Both carrots similar in appearance. Lab Assistant labels control specimen "Dirty" and washed specimen "W" near tops.

Hour 45: Skin of W carrot has light white lines on the surface and appears a bit dry. Dirty carrot appears fresh on the surface. Both carrots fairly firm.

Hour 72: W carrot looks dry, with more whitish lines crossing the skin. Skin of W carrot feels soft and wrinkled to the touch. Dirty carrot remains firm.

[to be continued]

Blame it on the Jalapeno

The season's over and the garden was a miserable failure. Out of all the jalapeno plants, I only got one stunted little pepper out of it. But, I have to admit he was a hot little guy -- Spiced up an eggplant dish all by himself! For the second year in a row, I couldn't get any tomatoes to ripen, even though I think I started the tomatoes early enough this year. I seeded them indoors, and then transplanted the seedlings. I got numerous green tomatoes but was too tired of them to even enjoy the ones I did harvest, so most of them ended up rotting. I got one or two yellowing-to-light-orangey tomatoes late in the season, while it was starting to get frosty, but the squirrels had taken big chunks out of those before I could beat them to it. Maybe I'll do better next year, if I don't give up on growing veggies during our balmy 10 degrees Celsius summer season.

I have started an experiment based on a bet with my friend who is getting his Ph. D. in Chemistry. I mentioned that a washed carrot will shrivel up faster than an unwashed carrot and Mr. Scientist disagreed. The bet is on: Two carrots marked, one washed, both placed side-by-side back in the fridge. More to come!

Only Fruit

A belated garden update: About a week after my first pepper, I was looking at my garden wilting and suddenly saw a huge zucchini on the ground, a good 40 cm long, 10 cm in diameter and heavy. I have no idea how long this gigantic fruit had been growing clandestinely under the leaves, but either it'd been undercover for a while, or the plant had an abrupt growth spurt and died, leaving all its energy in this single mammoth squash. I detached the fruit, which fed me for the next two weeks, but nothing I could do would revive the wilting plant. I have a feeling that this is the only zucchini coming out of my garden this year. I wonder if I realize how many parents sacrifice their lives when they bear offspring.

It's been a cold summer.

It's not summer anymore.

Cast Iron

I played MAGIC: The Gathering for the first time ever! I've heard all about it for 15 years or so, but never knew how it worked until my boyfriend taught it to me last week with some Ravnica starter packs. Apparently, a single game is supposed to take 20 minutes, but ours were running around 2 hours each. (Poor him!) I'm happy to report that I, the neophyte, won both games against the seasoned veteran... although to be fair, I think he let me win on Game 2. Game 1 was played open-handed and I got lucky by drawing my favourite card in my deck, Spectral Searchlight, early on, so I trounced him good. Hey, the Searchlights cost only 50 cents each! Imagine what I could do with 10 of these. Hmm....

+++

A few days ago, I got a physical checkup. I now have a name for the shooting pain I get in my knees sometimes, when it feels like my legs are going to buckle under me: Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome. I'm not sure what causes it, but at least I now know what it's called. I hadn't realized how much the Health Care system in Canada has declined. Since I tend to get sick whenever I visit the doctor (waiting room contagions), I've been trying to avoid doctors' offices in Canada for the past 5 years or so. Opthamologist's Eye exams are no longer covered. Call me a bleeding-heart liberal, but it seems to me that it's pretty important to EVERYONE for EVERYONE ELSE to know when their seeing is going. Maybe we don't have enough Canadians dying in traffic accidents, so the government figures it's best to stop checking our eyesight. Apparently, if I had better health insurance, my doctor could order x-rays and see if I need physiotherapy for the knee thing, but since it's not covered, I went home with some photocopies. Good ones, though!

I don't like needles, especially the kind that takes more than it gives, so I haven't done any bloodwork for over a decade. The doctor who gave me my last physical just handed me a form for the bloodwork to bring to the lab and said I didn't have to do it when I asked about it. So I didn't. Stuffed it in my bag and let it go. My new family doctor, though, is sure keen on all that health and medicine bunk, so she convinced me it was critical to check the blood. Wouldn't take No for an answer. So I went with the consensus... down to the laboratory in the basement and let them jam a needle into my arm. The doctor's office called me the next day. Apparently, I have an iron deficiency and need to make another appointment with her for that. I'm not sure where this goes next... I could go to the doctor again, and either need to take vitamins or eat better, and then what? They take more blood to see if it worked? When will the bloodshed stop?

The Ex

We went to the Ex for its last day, to check out everything we missed when we went on the first day back in mid-August. It was Labour Day so the Air Show was on, but I was too late to catch any of it, although we still did see some other shows. I didn't bring my camera, but I'll post something from the first visit.

This time, we were able to catch an aerial acrobatic and ice skating show. One skater did an Inspector Gadget routine that I loved -- he had this great energy and charisma and the choreography reminded me a bit of Kurt Browning's Charlie Brown routine with its humour and charm. Most of the other skaters were mediocre and just did formations and some low jumps. We also checked out the Arts and Crafts pavilion where I bought a few (too many?) things.

Last time at the Ex, we went on a ton of rides and I learned that my body's constitution is not what it used to be when I was young. We saw a cabaret called Cirque Envol, which took place in a beautiful building with a huge dome. Lit up, it was perfect for a circus/acrobatics show. Take a look at the pic!

+++

I realized I might have to limit comments on this blog to registered users, since I got my first spam comment today. Not that there are a lot of comments here, but I don't feel like having this blog being used to sell every Internet product/service/website out there. But, for the sake of entertaining free speech, here's the comment text for anyone who is interested: "Hey, check out this site - these guys pay you up to 30 percent money back for all of your normal online purchases! How does it work? They give you the money they earn from their affiliates whenever you buy through them. Click here for more info". Not very exciting, is it. Thank you, Anonymous! Perhaps I should give another chance to the other Anonymous commentators out there who have more relevant remarks to make.

My First Pepper!

I haven't been able to sleep all night, so I finally took the birds outside for a morning stroll in the garden. It had just rained during the night, so the morning was fresh and cool. The birds fluffed up immediately and Charley started singing a mating song. He hasn't sung it so fully in weeks; lately, he's only been singing a few truncated notes at a time before losing interest. They like being outside.

Anyway, I've been trying to grow a veggie garden for two years now. This was the first year I successfully got my sweet peppers to sprout and grow into plants. I just read up on peppers, and found that I'm supposed to harvest the first central fruit to encourage bushier growth and more cropping. I had been saving my one good-looking pepper, hoping it would grow large and eventually red/orange/yellow. But, after reading that, I decided to go outside and harvest my one pepper.

My first pepper!

Maybe I'll post photos if I can figure out how to do that later. I hope the cropping works! I need some vegetables going here. All season working on the garden, and all I've had so far is two and a half heads of lettuce and a zucchini the size of my pinky. The spinach, eggplant, other lettuce, broccoli, bak choi, gai lan chinese cabbage, jalapenos, onions and tomatoes have all flopped so far.

Last year, I was able to get broccoli, basil, a bit of dill and coriander, and green tomatoes, so if the sweet peppers crop well, and I can get both last year's and this year's successes, then I'd almost have a real honest-to-goodness productive garden next year! I'm very excited!

Why Blogger Sucks

-Despite my deliberate failure to include a First Name and Last Name in my Blogger profile, Blogger somehow pulled my name into my blog posting and published my blog with my full name included, even though my Display Name was given as "S".

-I filled in First/Last name with some other nonsense words to try to republish it, but no matter how many times I saved and resaved my profile, Blogger still displayed my full name (that I never gave the website!) on my blog.

-I deleted my blog post, and republished the content, hoping that the Display Name would finally show up as "S". Wouldn't work.

-I checked the Help section, but no information was given on how to correct this, and I couldn't find a contact email or phone number for support.

-I deleted my entire blog, resaved my profile a few times (the First/Last Name fields NEVER had my real name in there, so I don't know how Blogger pulled that information), reposted and republished and reset all my options, and now, 7 hours later, my private info seems to be gone. Finally. I hope.

Hey BLOGGER! If you tell your users that something is "The name used to sign your blog posts", please actually use that field to sign the blog posts, and not whatever info you got with whatever spooky ways you use to invade our privacy instead!

A Day of Worsts

This is an experiment. I've never blogged before, and stopped diarizing years ago, so I figured I'd give it a go.

Today has been the worst technology day I've had in a long time, and of course, it happened at the worst possible time, since today was the one day I needed a certain document for an early appointment tomorrow. Thinking that the bulk of the work (finalizing the document) was finished, I procrastinated until well after midnight to print it out.

My little blue Epson Stylus wouldn't print.

Okaaaay -- I figure I just need to run it through some Printer Utility tests to clean the heads, check alignment, check the nozzles. I run the nozzle tests, and from a few little gaps, it looks like I just need some head cleaning. So I clean the head a few times.... but it still won't print. I'm getting blank pages printed out. The ink wells are about a half or a third full.

So I give up on the little blue guy, and decide to try my old PC's laser printer instead. Before wasting my time retyping the document, I do a few test prints. Everything seems to be working fine. So I start retyping the document and suddenly the keyboard stops responding. The CAPS LOCK, NUM LOCK, and SCROLL LOCK lights start going wild, blinking on and off. The computer emits a little wail, intermittent at first, then it's a constant screeching. It sounds like a little bird in pain. I reset the computer, hoping it'll clear up the problem... But no, now the PC won't even load up Windows at all, since it gets stuck on the start up process, giving me a "No Keyboard or Keyboard Broken Error" type message. Stupid me. I should have printed out what I had before resetting the thing. Resetting, rebooting, resting, yelling, moaning, begging... Nothing works to bring back my keyboard.

I'm back to the blue guy, my Stylus. I run some more tests, try some more test prints, hoping something will turn up. Nothing, until I try printing everything in purple which gets me 1.5 printed sheets before the purple runs out and fades to a faint cyan. I guess the ink monitoring utility isn't too accurate, or something is wrong with the ink jets. Though purple and cyan aren't the most professional ink colours to print documents with, I guess it's better than showing up empty-handed. I can always pretend it's International Purple Day.

+++

I tried to watch The Passion Of The Christ today. I spotted the DVD at the library and decided to borrow it; having heard loads about it, I was curious what the buzz was all about. The Passion now has my vote for the MOST BORING MOVIE EVER. I suffered through an excruciating 10 minutes before deciding to fast-forward to see if I could find anything of interest. Even at a fast-forward speed of 2x, it was too monotonous to bear so I had to compromise by fast-forwarding at 4x speed. This took me to 18 minutes into the movie, at which point I decided to slow down to normal speed and do a survey. With nothing promising on the horizon, I wandered out of the room to clean up the kitchen a bit. Have to admit it's pretty bad when cleaning seems more interesting to me than watching the movie.

On the possibility that I wasn't giving The Passion a fair chance, I decided to check imdb.com reviews to see if there were any secret tips for surviving the movie. Maybe other viewers with higher thresholds for total boredom would have some sage advice to the tune of "Stand strong through the mind-numbing ennui of the first 19 minutes -- once you get past that trial of character, the rest of the film is brilliant!" Nothing so optimistic greeted me at IMDB; the first review I saw acknowledged that The Passion might hold special interest for those who are religious, but evaluated it as an utter failure in terms of being a film.

Love it or hate it, like or dislike, I think art must always interest the viewer. We have to stick around long enough to experience the work. And while I only saw the first minutes of this one, I'm pretty sure I'm not the target audience. At least not today.

I'm open to change, though. So if anyone has any sage advice for me on how to appreciate The Passion Of The Christ, whatever it is (Do you think fast-forwarding at 8x speed will do it?) please let me know!