collectionquest

Artichokes

thatgirl — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:51:37 +0000

Artichokes can be healthful and delicious, as long as this doesn’t happen to you! Don’t get all artichoked up!

My recipe said that if you don’t have a steamer, you can boil artichokes, placed upright and arranged snugly in saucepan with a few inches of water. I think there was a typo, and what it meant was if you don’t have a steamer, don’t even think about boiling artichokes, placed upright and arranged snugly in saucepan with a few inches of water!

From All Artichoked Up on Simpson’s Paradox.

Narnia Movie

thatgirl — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:50:00 +0000

Stick and I picked up the Narnia movie from Gua Ye (now that I know her name, I should probably stop calling her DVD Lady) the other day. Neither of us had seen it, and I was hoping to use The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, as morphine for my Harry Potter addiction. You know, so I could still get my fix of adorable British kids saving magic land from Evil, without boring poor Stick to death.

If I didn’t live with Stick, I would fall asleep on the couch every night watching one of the Harry Potter movies. I try to tone it down for him, because unlike my wonderful roommate Kristine, he can actually get sick of Hogwarts (I fast forward through the muggle parts).

What do you think?

Via Simpson’s Paradox » The Lion, The Witch, and The… German Fighter Pilot?.

Bridal Names

thatgirl — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:49:32 +0000

“Why not?” I asked him. “Lots of people hyphenate!”

After you’re married, do you plan your keep your name, change your name or combine your name? Or do you, like Simpson’s Paradox, want to do something completely different? Are you going to keep one name for professional use and another for social use?

Crazy Perfume Samples

thatgirl — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:11:55 +0000

I saw this and wanted to share with you all: the site WeirdFragrances.com is offering samples of zany perfumes! I’m not entirely sure what their deal is, since the site says that the scents aren’t available for purchase, but the fragrances are things like Fresh Bread, Fourth of July and Grease Monkey.

What do you think?

Via Bertie Botts Every Flavour Perfumes on Simpson’s Paradox.

Wasting Time

thatgirl — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:09:23 +0000

Some of my students will learn English whether I’m a good teacher or not. They are the most fun to teach, and they ask the most interesting questions, but I spend most of our class time on the middle of the bell curve, the ones who are progressing and struggling and need a second explanation. I can’t take credit for my dream students’ progress, but I love hearing my middle students ask and answer “Where is your verb?” or “Who’s doing this action?” or any of the other things I repeat in class. That’s when I feel like I’m doing a good job.

Via Simpson’s Paradox » Academic Triage.

That’s Not How It Goes!

thatgirl — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 12:56:59 +0000

On Chinese Taxi Drivers…

One of them suggested 100 RMB to go home, and when I said that was too expensive, he asked me to say a price.

“60 kwai,” I said.

“10,” he responded.

“No, no, you’ve got it all wrong. You say the higher numbers, I say the lower numbers,”

Read the end at Simpson’s Paradox:International Trade Relations on Simpson’s Paradox.

Captcha

thatgirl — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 12:50:09 +0000

But a Captcha at the end? Seriously? A check to see if I’m human after all that? Turbo, honey, if there were a program that could find my gross income from last year’s return, the employer numbers from a half dozen 1099s, my date of birth, my social security number, my special TurboTax pin, my routing number and bank account number, and then put all those numbers into the right little boxes on a hundred different pages… well, if there were a bot like that, I don’t think it would be thwarted by a Captcha image!

Via The TurboTax Turing Test on Simpson’s Paradox.

New Games

thatgirl — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:54:03 +0000

What makes Nancy Drew: Lights, Camera, Curses! a girls’ game is the female protagonist. It’s not pink, it’s not cutesy, there are no magic animal friends, there is no shopping. Let me repeat that in case you were skimming. This game is not pink.

Via Nancy Drew: Lights, Camera, Curses on Simpson’s Paradox.

I was predisposed to like the new Wizard 101 game. It’s not exactly a secret that I love Harry Potter, and the game promises to be a wizard school MMOPRG. The game is adorable from the first loading screen. They’ve got a Wizard 101 gallery on the website, but it doesn’t do justice to the fantastic sketch drawings and handwritten notes, or the cheery game characters.

Via Wizard 101 on Simpson’s Paradox.

The new online kids’ game GardenParty World is almost ready, and Victoria from Asylum was nice enough to send me an email introducing me to the beta.

I checked out the game, which is billed as a safe, multiplayer world for kids. Garden Party is a collection of minigames, which can be played interactively or alone, at which you win the local Garden Party currency, Orbs. The concepts of the games were cute, and able to be played interactively or solo, but I’m not really the target demographic, so I found them a bit repetitive and simplistic. I didn’t really like the ratio of orbs to mingames, as I felt forced to play boring minigames to make the cash for the fun part of Garden Party, the garden. I don’t really need a game for the opportunity to do something not-so-fun to make money to do fun things… I think that’s called having a job.

Via Garden Party World on Simpson’s Paradox.

Herobits is a new CCG about heroes who – no, wait, it’s not exactly a collectible card game. Although it has many of the elements of your usual CCG, there are no booster packs and no looking for rares in sealed packs (known to jaded gamers as kidding gambling). To play, you need two players, each with one fifty-card deck.

Via Upcoming Herobits on Thumb Gods.

About Wiz 101

thatgirl — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:34:03 +0000

I was predisposed to like the new Wizard 101
game. It’s not exactly a secret that I love Harry Potter, and the game
promises to be a wizard school MMOPRG. The game is adorable from the
first loading screen. They’ve got a Wizard 101 gallery
on the website, but it doesn’t do justice to the fantastic sketch
drawings and handwritten notes, or the cheery game characters.

I was asked not to post screenshots, (edit 8/25: that’s changed, my W101 pictures are here)
as the game’s still in beta, so you’re just going to have to believe me
that one teacher is a qipao-clad animated cow. And there’s an attack
leprechaun! Even the menu screens are draw like classroom doodles. If I
could post just one screenshot, it would be the stick figure cartoons
on the map and in the margins… a girl and a boy who are always getting
into mischief. Also, I would put a pair of glasses on the girl!

Via Wizard 101 on Simpson’s Paradox.

Unaabi Grill

thatgirl — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:37:01 +0000

A review of the new Unaabi Grill on Kildaire Farm Road.

We were intrigued by the new restaurant Unaagi Grill, but honestly, we were not impressed with the outside. Unaabi Grill is in a converted Pizza Hut, and from the street, it looks it. But Unaagi Grill turned out to be like many of the hidden gems we found in Beijing, the inside is all carved screens, flowing curtains, shining polished wood and bright Afghani fabrics, so peaceful and pretty that we felt a bit underdressed.Our waiter, Driss, was very knowledgeable about the different dishes, which was great because neither of us had tried Afghani food. We like Middle Eastern food and love Indian food, so according to the map, we’d like this.