07.31.09
Posted in I.T tagged web browsers at 12:51 am by kyrias
I used to like Mozilla a great deal.
Right now though, I’m rather frustrated by it. As of right now, I have decided to swap to using Chrome and ceasing my Mozilla addiction.
The thing is, Mozilla has been crashing a lot lately.
For those that know me and how I use Mozilla — I tend to have a lot of tabs open. Say about 50+ open at any given time.
The thing is, I never used to have Mozilla crash constantly the way it does now. Sometimes it would freeze up and crash after the 100th tab or so, but never like what it is doing now. I think I had Mozilla crash about three times in half an hour today, and that’s just not normal.
Perhaps it’s because I now have more than one Mozilla window open, instead of the 50 or so tabs in one window that I used to do.
Perhaps it’s because Mozilla is now unstable, I have no idea. It certainly seems like it started doing this after the recent patches.
What was really funny today was that Mozilla wanted me to send a bug report and then that crashed and didn’t work. Multiple times.
Chrome is working out ok for me right now. I don’t like that it doesn’t save your tabs for you when it does crash — but considering that I’m not expecting it to, I’m not terribly worried about it. Also, I love how it opens a new link that you click on right next to the original page, so things are more or less better organized than they are in Firefox.
If Chrome ever comes out with a tab saving addon or somesuch, I think I might just abandon Firefox.
So Firefox — fix it, yo.
Now, that’s just special.
Permalink
07.29.09
Posted in Cooking, Produce and products tagged knives at 2:13 am by kyrias
I totally sliced up my fingers deboning a chicken the other day. To be clear and not utterly fear-mongering, I bled on one slice and merely had bits of skin pared off on other fingers.
This, people, is what happens when you use the wrong knife to debone a chicken.
I was using a chef’s knife to debone and the combination of the larger and therefore unwieldy blade and it’s lack of flexibilty was causing me problems.
So I decided I really need/want a deboning knife.
Zack’s mother had gifted Zack and Azora with some really superlative knives. They are amazing. I have made many declarations along the lines of telling them that I shall steal said knives if we ever break up house.
I knew somewhere that they were probably somewhat pricey, but I never quite realized just how pricey they were until Googling for a deboning knife from the same company.
For the uninitiated — cooking with dull knives is a pain. It makes the work go so much slower and I tend to cut myself more because dull knives slip more often. Especially when slicing onions into paper-thin slices.
So. I looked for the knives and found that:
The lovely chef’s knife that I so adore? It’s $99.95 dollars, bought on its own from Amazon.
The vegetable knife that is also lovely to work with? $69.95.
The nice little paring knife? $51.95.
You can also buy them all in a set for slightly cheaper! $195.95!
I think my jaw dropped when I saw the prices, and my heart with it. I really wanted that deboning knife — but definitely not for $107.95. Not at this point in time at least.
So Azora, Zach…any chance Zach’s mother will be wanting to gift you guys any cookware anytime in the future?
Or maybe I don’t need the heavyweight boning knife.
I’ll settle for the flexible boning knife for $87.95.
If all else fails, I guess I can settle for the flexible utility knife for $67.95…
I have to say though, I’m really, really, really lusting after this sashimi knife for $127.95.
As the convo with Thene went:
Thene:
but still. $100 for a knife is obsecene
especially if you’re not even going to kill anyone with it
teraninse says:
…looky this *links*
I’d totally kill someone with this
and enjoy it
Thene says:
ooh YES
teraninse says:
…you understand, this is good
Thene says:
sashimi <3
HUMAN SASHIMI <33333
teraninse says:
…I know, right?
I could TOTALLY perform the death of a thousand cuts with this
Alright. Joking aside. Before the US government decides to deport us two crazy women.
If it weren’t already clear, we were joking.
But still…
That is one sexy knife.
Permalink
07.23.09
Posted in life tagged hanfu, SCA at 12:01 am by kyrias
This or this is what I want to wear to SCA (society of creative anachronism) events.
So, supposedly variations of this style of clothing has been around since well before 1644, which is when the Manchus came into power and brought in their style of clothing. Thus, it should be well within the rules of the game — which is to have garb from before the 1600s.
Of course, it’s going to be sliiightly difficult to re-create garb off of descriptions and vague drawings like the following:
Hopefully Azora and I can make something out of those that looks vaguely like what these people (see below pics) can do. If nothing else, I suppose we’ll have massive amounts of fun doing it.
All below pictures are from 月蝶飞坊 and do not belong to me.
The thing about these garments is that I think I might be able to wear these around Boston on a usual day without arousing too much notice. They’re not that different from what I usually wear and they’re not that flamboyant.
As can be seen, these can be worn around the house and they wouldn’t be that much bother when doing chores or cooking without the outer robe. When you wear the skirt underneath the “shirt”, it looks relatively “normal”, but the overall feeling entirely changes when you wear the skirt over the shirt.
We’ll see. 
I’ll post more about our attempts at recreation if and when we have the money, time, and energy to get around to it.
In the meantime, if I ever want to be lazy and have a couple hundred dollars to blow, I suppose I can look here for quick options. Not that, you know, experimenting will be any cheaper, and if I intend on using real silk, then it’s probably going to be at least a couple hundred, not counting the labor fees that Azora might assess me.
About that cooking traded with sewing option, Azora…
Note: If you object to my using your pictures, please leave a comment and I’ll remove the pictures post-haste.
Permalink
07.22.09
Posted in life tagged solar eclipse at 12:01 am by kyrias
Mom just told me in a phone call that the longest solar eclipse in centuries is going to happen and for me to watch out for it.
…except that us buffoons in the US don’t get to see it at all because it’ll be happening during the night, our time.
Thanks mom.
Now I’ve got a severe case of eclipse envy — especially after knowing that the next one that will be that long is supposedly in 2132.
Sheesh! I’ll be worm food by then!
However, according to this map, the next solar eclipse in the US will be in 2017.
Now, I’m none too fond of Kentucky et al, and it seems that the next one in the US will be arriving at 2024.
So, anyone of y’all want to make a road trip up to either Montreal or Buffalo, NY? If so, I suggest ordering your tickets some time around 2020, because I’ve heard that all the trips to Asia are sold out to eclipse buffs.
Therefore, if we don’t want to camp out on the ground, mebbe we should do some planning? Although, really, Boston is so close to NY that assuming we still live here, we can just pop up for the day or something.
Anyone interested?
Permalink
07.21.09
Posted in Restaurants, Reviews tagged Vietnamese at 12:01 am by kyrias
I had take-out from Pho N Rice via Foodler.
I had this fierce craving for Vietnamese food. Banh mi, to be specific. So I was looking at what Foodler had to offer, and Mr P seemed to be interested as well.
After much deliberation, I ordered the beef salad, crispy chicken basil, scallion pan cake, and soft shell crab.
The beef salad was described as “Grilled sliced beef tossed with fresh mint, red onion, dried chili, lime juice and cilantro.”
It wasn’t bad, but we all found it a bit bland. Which, really, is a bit of talent considering the red onion, mint, chili, lime juice, and cilantro. Also, at $7.95 for the salad, the serving was really too small for the price.
Crispy chicken basil, marketed as “Thai style marinated crispy chicken topped with onion, scallion, bell pepper, snow pea, carrot, green pea and basil leave in Thai spicy sauce” for $10.95.
This was just sad. It wasn’t spicy, was slightly too salty, the vegetables were overdone, and the amount of actual chicken was pathetic. Total ripoff for the price they charged. Considering I can buy an entire chicken and the vegetables they had in that take-out box for about the price they charged plus tip? Definitely a no-go.
The scallion pan cake was actually pretty tasty, especially with their dipping sauce. I’d order this again, but at $4.95 it’s really a bit steep.
Lastly, the soft shell crab was supposed to be “Vietnamese style crispy twin soft shell crab stir-fried with onion, scallion in spicy sauce” at $12.95.
Meh. It was ok. Not spicy enough, and the execution just wasn’t a good medium for soft shell crab. Next time if I ever want soft shell crab, I’ll look elsewhere. Also fantastically over-priced, as with every other dish we ordered.
In conclusion?
I’m never, ever ordering from them again. The portions were pathetically tiny on top of being mediocre food. I could make something that perhaps would be as tasty in a different way for about a fourth the price.
Not recommended, period.
Permalink
07.20.09
Posted in culture at 10:08 am by kyrias
So I was in my psychology course the other day and it came up again.
The question of being “too nice”, applied both ways and again the question of why women fall for the bad guys.
People — start using your words carefully because otherwise you start to sound stupid, mmmkay?
From what I can tell, “too nice” happens when:
- Girl in question cooks and cleans and essentially slaves away for houseful of men who aren’t related to her and asks constantly if there’s something, anything, that she can do for them.
- Guy in question hears about girl wanting a specific type of food and scours Boston to find places selling it late at night and finally shows up on her doorstep with three or four servings from different places of this type of food.
- Guy who calls constantly, asking if there’s something, anything, that she wants to do.
- ….
Alright people.
You’re not complaining about someone being “too nice”. You’re complaining about desperation.
Which is fair. Desperation is never attractive.
Ladies and gents? Do keep that in mind. Desperation is never, ever attractive.
Desperados might be — but that’s for later.
The thing is, when a guy has nothing better to do than to incessantly try to revolve around a girl, that’s unattractive on many levels because:
- If he has nothing better to do, that implies he has no hobbies of his own, which is a no-no in my book. Anyone who relies on others to entertain him/her is just more work than I’m willing to handle and just might be a tad boring once the hormones wear off. It also implies a certain lack of maturity, I feel. If you’re a 20-something and you still don’t know what you like and what to do with yourself when you have no duties, I don’t want to date you.
- If he has no one else he can hang out with, that’s a huge warning sign. Either he’s incredibly socially inept and therefore has no friends, or he’s a jerk and has no friends and either way you probably want to steer clear. Or if he’s ditching all his friends to dance attendance on you — I wouldn’t put too much stock in someone who would drop their friends like that either.
- If he’s that eager to please, that implies that he very likely has a low self-esteem, too little love for himself, possibly that his self-worth depends on having a significant other, and that he needs someone else to actualize him. None of which are good traits.
So, onto why girls often fall for the “bad guys”.
It’s not about the being “bad”.
I’d get into the saviour complex that so many women seem to have because society expects it of them, but that’s another lengthy post by itself.
What is attractive is the confidence, the masculinity, the willingness to take charge and do something. That’s always attractive. The charm that most successful bad boys necessarily need to have to remain at large and not in some juvenile detention center doesn’t hurt either.
It’s really, really, really not about the potential abusiveness, the drug use, the machismo that can kick a women in her teeth.
If you’ll notice, this is why most athletes on winning teams have so many followers. Masculinity, confidence, proactivity, etc? Sound familiar?
To simplify it all into “women just fall for the bad boys” and glossing over the real issue with “she/he’s just too nice” is stupid and counter productive.
Permalink
07.17.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:41 pm by kyrias
Permalink
Enter your password to view comments
07.16.09
Posted in culture at 7:10 pm by kyrias
So we were learning about the psychology of the family, and it mentions somewhere in my textbook that in certain societies, it is considered standard and accepted for all elders of said society to educate the youth.
Alright.
Today I was on the bus, sitting in the section near the front, where they often have one blue sticker point down towards one of the seats asking people to give the seat to the elderly or handicapped. To be clear, the stickers points to one seat and says: “Please give this seat…” not “please give these seats…”.
What happened was that I was totally spacing out and didn’t notice an older woman getting on the bus. The first inkling I had that something was going on was when an African American woman stood up and told the woman that had just gotten on the bus that she could have her seat. I watched, somewhat bemused, because there was an empty seat opposite me and I wasn’t clear on why the woman would give up her seat when there was already one there. Besides, the empty seat was one with the blue sticker above it.
Then an elderly woman leaned over and snapped at me and a girl next to me: “You girls should be the ones giving up your seat.”
Utterly taken aback, I just said: “Sorry, I didn’t realize.”
At one point, I heard the black woman who gave up her seat complaining to an older white man beside her about the etiquette of people and so on…
At first I felt rather ashamed of myself. Then I thought about it, and got very confused.
For one, why would I be expected to give up my seat when there was a free seat available?
For two, I wasn’t sitting on a seat with that sticker above it — regardless of that we should give up our seats to the elderly and handicapped — what gave her the right to scold us in public?
For three, now that I think about it, a rather big girl was sitting on one of the seats opposite us, so that might have been why the elderly woman who got on didn’t sit down in the empty seat. However, why snap at us and not at the women who were sitting opposite us? Both of whom didn’t make any gesture to make room for the elderly woman? Were we just easy targets because she didn’t feel comfortable pointing out that the rather big girl was taking up more than her share of the seat?
For four, is it really still accepted in the US that random older people can call younger people to task if they feel like it?
Discuss.
Permalink
07.15.09
Posted in Writing at 10:50 pm by kyrias
Permalink
Enter your password to view comments
Posted in Writing tagged character sketches at 10:33 pm by kyrias
Caesura
Sex: Male
Sexual orientation: Straight
Vice: Gluttony
Virtue:
Weapons of choice:
Elements of choice:
Appearance: 3
Average height, average build. Dark blond/brown hair with green eyes.
Charisma: 3. Apparently has a good effect on people with authority though.
Presence: 3
Manipulation: 3
Composure: 3
Intelligence: 4
Wits: 4. Clever and funny in conversation with incisive comments. Frequently entertaining. Sometimes crosses over into coming across as a troll though.
Perception: 3, but variable. Can pick up on social and emotional cues if paying attention, but either cannot with regards to people he doesn’t care about, or doesn’t care to. Often comes across as a troll as a result.
Resolve: 2 and somewhat variable. Often neglects duties, although usually has above-par performance at work. One assumes that he uses all willpower on completing his duties and thus fails at other areas.
Leadership: 3
Confidence: A low 3. Has improved since doing well at his job, but still doesn’t appear to be fully past his previous failures.
Self-perception: 2. Subject is not wont to examining his emotions to determine their true cause. Neither is he clear on his strengths.
Common sense: 3
Strength/athleticism: 4
Permalink
« Previous entries