College Fashion "Packing Hotlists"

I thought these packing lists for college men and women were pretty good. They seem a little conservative so I might find another list to add a little more edge. Also this blog-style post was made in August 2005 so some updates are in order. Feel free to post some suggestions!

Bad Eggs and OK French Toast

I had the urge to make French toast this morning but the eggs in our fridge have a "Best Before" date of May 4th. Seeing that I was too lazy to get changed out of my pajamas and walk the couple blocks to the grocery store, I decided to check online to see how long after the Best Before date these eggs could be safely consumed.

According to the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education:

How long can we keep eggs that are past their expiry date?

According to the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency, the Best Before date on the egg carton is an indication of the length of time for which the eggs will maintain their Grade A quality. After this date, they are still safe to eat for the next two weeks if they have been properly stored in the fridge and safely handled. They will not maintain their shape as well however, so are better for scrambling and baking rather than frying and poaching.

http://www.canfightbac.org/cpcfse/en/cookwell/ask/eggs/#1251

Ok, so I figured it was only two days after that two weeks after the Best Before date. So I went ahead and made French toast. By the way, I learned that if the French toast is still soggy and not browning correctly, turn up the heat on the stove. And real maple syrup is key!

Well, now my stomach is rumbling a little so perhaps I did push the limit of the eggs' quality. I should have tested the eggs by placing them in water:

When an egg floats it means that it is an old egg. The air cell in the large end of the egg has grown very large, an indication of a low quality egg. A fresh, high quality egg will remain at the bottom of the pan of water.

http://www.canfightbac.org/cpcfse/en/cookwell/ask/eggs/#520

And on a related note, it seems I wasn't off when I told someone that "French toast" is called "pain perdu" in France, which means lost bread. However, in the movie Bon Cop, Bad Cop some French-Canadians referred to French toast as something else. Does anyone know what French toast is called in Quebec?

explorASIAN - Asian Heritage Month

Oops, I forgot to post this earlier. Here is the link to the event calendar for:

explorASIAN 2007 - Celebrating Asian Heritage Month in the Lower Mainland

The Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society celebrates its 11th Anniversary in 2007!

[The festival runs from April 21 to June 17, 2007]

And here are the events for this weekend:

Friday May 18
PERFORMANCE:  Vietnamese Water Puppets
CELEBRATION:  Chinatown Night Market (on-going to Sept 9)
DANCE:  Andrea Nann with Sarah Chase
COMEDY:  VACT 8th Annual Asian Comedy Night

Saturday May 19
SPORTS:  9th Annual Asian Mens/Womens 6's Invitational Volleyball Tournament
WORKSHOP:  How to Appreciate Chinese Opera Workshop
CULTURE:  Japanese Tea Ceremony
PERFORMANCE:  Vietnamese Water Puppets
DANCE:  Andrea Nann with Sarah Chase
DANCE:  Bhangra Nation West Mela/Youth Bhangra & Giddha Championship
COMEDY:  VACT 8th Annual Asian Comedy Night
COMEDY:  The A-list Comedy Tour 2007

Sunday May 20
SPORTS:  9th Annual Asian Mens/Womens 6's Invitational Volleyball Tournament
CULTURE:  Japanese Tea Ceremony
TOUR:  Exploring CHINATOWN
PERFORMANCE:  Vietnamese Water Puppets
DANCE:  Bhangra Nation West Adult Bhangra Championship

Other Facets of the Flintstones

This is a webpage that I have had in my "BLOG ME" bookmark folder for a while and I figured I would trot it out now:

Weirdomatic: Legendary Cave House

"A strange place to live in, a mixture of fantasy and reality, it is impossible not to remind us of the wonderful Flintstone Family’s House from Hanna-Barbera famous cartoons. Without any wacky inventions and without the funny Flintstones, the real house is still astonishing due to a prehistoric atmosphere combined with modern furniture and facilities."

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And to continue the Flintstones theme:

FARK.com Photoshop Theme: Flintstone appliances not shown on the TV show

* Warning: link contains images with bad-taste and adult themes. Any extremely graphic images are labelled "NSFW (Not Safe for Work)" and you must click on them to view them. I am not responsible for any need for eye bleach.

Easywash: Sounds too good to be true

So I'm searching for locations in Vancouver to wash Brett's horribly dirty car and came across Easywash: The World's Most Eco-Friendly Carwash (and Petwash!).

* The price list is easy to understand and way cheaper than hand-wash locations.

* True, it's more expensive than the do-it yourself or the gas station car washes but I haven't had very good results with those options.

* Bonus: I'm a sucker for clean and colourful data tables.

* I'm really curious to see the Automated Dog Wash in action. They should post some pictures of the equipment and dogs actually being washed in it.

* The "Cats are welcome too" prompts me to a) advertize if anyone would do this to their cat and b) sell tickets (with the proceeds going to the kitty's and/or owner's medical bills, I suppose).

* Here's the explanation of why they are so Eco-friendly: Easywash and the Environment. What do you all think?

** Photo from http://pub.langworth.com/talks/cadubi/images/wet_cat.jpg

"I've lost my confidence in academic endeavors. Can I get it back?"

This question was asked on Ask MetaFilter: querying the hive mind "a community weblog" on March 14, 2007.

I seem to have lost my mojo.

I seem to have lost nearly all my confidence in academics in the last few months. Over that time I've failed many of the classes I've taken, to the point where I expect to fail almost every class I take. Since I wasn't making any progress in school over the Christmas break I decided to get out of school and get a job, with a night class on the side, with the intention of regaining my confidence, but to no avail. The same outcome seems most likely in this class as well. I've often thought that maybe I'm in over my head and that I need to lower my expectations a bit, but I know that I'm capable. My marks in other classes before I had this problem were good to very good, but have eroded over time. My main hurdle in every class I take is that I suffer from ADD and CAPD, among other things, which means it can take me a long time to learn things well, if at all. What can I do to regain my confidence?

The answers may be informative for those also struggling with similar issues. Most importantly, just posting this question and some responses brings more awareness to this issue, which is has been affecting me for about a year. If you have any suggestions or resources, feel free to point them my way.

I wish a box could make me this happy

I know it sounds corny, but watching this video makes me feel a lot better.

"Kitten and his box"

"Kitties playing around. Music Called "Sister Jack" by Spoon. The kitten in the background wants to get back in the box soooo bad. But this kitten took over. :p

PS - He's not stuck in the box. :P If you notice at the end of the clip he starts to get out....
I think most people who owned a cat for a while would agree that if the cat was REALLY stuck in a box it wouldn't be all playfull, and gleeful...it most likely would freak out."

Happiness Quiz

Errm. So I can't sleep. Long story short is that I have a lot of things on my mind, and I am still sick with a lingering cold. What do I often do when I can't sleep? Cruise the internet. through searching for some info on exercising and eating well for one's body type, I stumbled upon a whole slew of quizzes on iVillage.co.uk and they amused me for a while.

This "Happiness Quiz/Test" was actually eye-opening for me. I recommend it for 20 and 30-something women who like to check in on their well-being every once in a while. If you don't fall into that category, I still think the quiz is worth a look.

For some reason, the British slant on the writing was refreshing and although the choices were straight-forward, they helped me think about myself more honestly.

The Happiness Test by Susan Quilliam

Note that there are lots of ads and at least one pop-up but it does go away after you tell it to begone.

Here are my results:

Must Love Jaws: A Love Story that Bites You and Doesn't Let Go

Me and BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder)

It's been pretty bad lately, guys. I feel bad about not posting all these things that I have wanted to share, and then I remember that I'm doing this because I enjoy researching and sharing information.

The following article outlines the greater issues with which I am struggling with right now. I really am Borderline, folks. If you know me well, you will see this through and through. If you don't know me well, I probably come across as kind of odd, but this underlies almost everything I do. If you don't know me at all, this doesn't mean I am a homicidal maniac. Give me a full day and I am very likely to confuse you or withdraw from you or charm you or infuriate you. Or all four.

My next steps involve tough decisions about graduate school, work, relationships, identity, history, present, future, guilt, patterns, changes, apologies, boundaries, commitments, personal mythology, fears, self-concepts, expectations, and recently a battle with very strong suicidal impulses.

I might not be posting very often.

---

By Ann Appelbaum, M.D. and Frank Yeomans, M.D., Ph.D.

The symptoms of people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are similar to those for which most people seek psychiatric help: depression, mood swings, the use and abuse of drugs and alcohol as a means of trying to feel better; obsessions, phobias, feelings of emptiness and loneliness, inability to tolerate being alone, problems about eating.

But, in addition, individuals with BPD show great difficulties in controlling ragefulness; they are unusually impulsive, they fall in and out of love suddenly; they tend to idealize other people and then abruptly despise them. A consequence of all this is that they typically look for help from a therapist and then suddenly quit in terrible disappointment and anger.

Underneath all these symptoms, therapists began to see in the borderline condition an inability to tolerate the levels of anxiety, frustration, rejection and loss that most people are able to put up with, an inability to soothe and comfort themselves when they become upset, and an inability to control the impulses toward the expression, through action, of love and hate that most people are able to hold in check. And, furthermore, what most defines BPD is great difficulty in holding on to a stable, consistent sense of one's self: "Who am I?" these people ask. "My life is in chaos; sometimes I feel like I can do anything - other times I want to die because I feel so incompetent, helpless and loathsome. I'm a lot of different people instead of being just one person."

The one word that best characterizes the borderline condition is "instability." Their emotions are unstable, fluctuating wildly for no discernible reason. Their thinking is unstable - rational and clear at times, quite psychotic at other times. Their behavior is unstable - often with periods of excellent conduct, high efficiency and trustworthiness alternating with outbreaks of babyishness, suddenly quitting a job, withdrawing into isolation, failing.

Their self control is unstable - ranging from the extreme self denial of anorexia to being at the mercy of impulses. And their relationships are unstable. They may sacrifice themselves for others, only to reach their limit suddenly and fly into rageful reproaches, or they may curry favor with obedient submission only to rebel, out of the blue, in a tantrum.

Associated with this instability is terrible anxiety, guilt and self-loathing for which relief is sought at any cost - medicine, drugs, alcohol, overeating, suicide. Sadly, oddly, self mutilation is discovered by many individuals with BPD to provide faster relief than anything else - cutting or burning themselves stops the anxiety temporarily.

The effect upon others of all this trouble is profound: family members never know what to expect from their volatile child, siblings, or spouse, except they know they can expect trouble: suicide threats and attempts, self-inflicted injuries, outbursts of rage and recrimination, impulsive marriages, divorces, pregnancies and abortions; repeated starting and stopping of jobs and school careers, and a pervasive sense, on the part of the family, of being unable to help.

Sometimes, severe and chronic chaos in the family life plays an important role, but one has to differentiate the objective behavior of the family from the subjective experience of the individual with BPD.

And, of course, the effect of the illness upon the life of individual suffering from this condition is equally profound: jobs are lost, successes are spoiled, relationships shattered, families alienated. The end result is all too often the failure of a promising life or a tragic suicide.

- http://www.bpdresourcecenter.org/what.htm