Spring is springing

These aren't the first ones I've seen, but I took this picture in my yard this morning. With the cellphone. Pretty, no?

It got up to about 60F today, with shiny sun and breezy breezes.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

A slippery slope

Oh my. I gotta tell youall that capitalism is dangerous. Not news? Yeah, well, I just kind of got reminded of it. See, a few months ago, I got this TV set that my neighbor was getting rid of. I brought it in the house and it just sat there for a while, facing the wall. And then I got a sofa, because I'd been wanting one, but also I though it would be nice to sit on the sofa and watch teevee. Plus then with the sofa I got a table that was just right for the TV set, so I put it there in the corner, but I didn't plug it in or anything, just set it on the table, with some stuff in front of it.

I was thinking I'd kind of like a DVD player to watch movies, eventually.

So last week I finally got around to getting a DVD player on eBay. I was holding out for one that had an open country code, but then I found out that you don't have to pay extra for that -- you just have to find out from the manufacturer how to re-set the country code (check the manufacturer's website and you should be able to figure it out) and I got one for pretty cheap.

So it sat there for a while and I watched my very small collection of exercise videos and some so-called girl-o-centric porn that I'm kind of, frankly, bored with, and decided last week to join one of those places that send you DVDs and you watch them and return them and they send you more. On Julie's recommendation (she is a librarian after all, and librarians know everything) I chose Blockbuster over Netflix, but really didn't see all that much difference if you wanna know the truth. So last night I got my first two movies.

The first one I watched was the new-ish Leonard Cohen tribute/documentary/concert video called "I'm Your Man," which is totally fucking great. Or at least if you love Mr. Cohen like I do, anyway, it's great. I'm not exactly objective about this kind of thing. This is one movie that I will watch over and over again, and it's on my wish list at amazon.com if you want to buy it for me.

I was disappointed only in that there were two songs on the soundtrack (which I already have) that weren't included in the film but that I really really loved and was hoping to see. One was Martha Wainwright's performance of "Tower of Song" (that link is not to the same performance as on the CD, but it's also very good -- that girl can fucking sing) and the other was Teddy Thompson's "The Future"(click on the song title wherever you can see it). But the rest of the movie was good, with some highly excellent performances, and some sweet interviews with Mr. Cohen. Other performers (and interviews/commentary) include Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Linda Thompson w/ the Handsome Family, Perla Batalla, Nick Cave, U2, Jarvis Cocker, and a whole bunch of others.

The other movie I saw last night was "Kissing Jessica Stein" which was funny and goofy and queer and ultimately I guess not queer but I don't want to wreck it for you. Which I guess I already did. It was kind of just a phase for Jessica, being queer, but it was a good phase, and the ending is happy enough. I didn't find it disappointing or offensive in any way. But then I'm bisexual, so I don't think it's really all that big a deal no matter who she ends up with. It's funny also if you're Jewish and got to a certain age without marrying anyone, or if you've ever dated someone who's Jewish and you're not.

So, but there I am watching these movies and thinking "gosh it would sure be nice if I had an endtable or a coffee table type thing to set my wineglass down on." Because you know how it is if you're innocently holding a wineglass in your hand, and the glass is all full of wine, and the dog jumps up on the sofa and causes you to spill it all over yourself. Sort of a bummer, and wet. And then there's no more wine.

So it's like I got this one thing, the teevee set, and then I had to get the DVD player, plus the sofa, and now I need a fucking endtable?

When will it end?

It's just evil.

Friday test results: the da Vinci version

You are Leonardo Da Vinci. You are artistic, and incredibly intelligent. You look at the world in a different way than most people, and you are very imaginative. Things that seem impossible to most people are easy for you. Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Another one I can't remember where-all I found it, but there you have it.

I don't do tech support..

... but the guy in the office next to mine does, and when he's not at his desk, people come in and ask me for help with their technical difficulties. Sometimes the solutions are pretty simple, and I can help them:



[UPDATE: The video linked to above seems to have been taken away. Here is another copy, but without the subtitles. It's just as funny without the translation.]

Chilling effects

Salon.com brings us Amanda's take on what happened to her and Melissa over at the Edwards campaign; Melissa has her say over at the Guardian. Check out the comments, too. The vitriolic sputtering from their detractors doesn't surprise me any more, but I'm a little irked with so-called progressive types who are accusing them of "caving in" too soon, and how they should have seen it coming. Some lame-ass thing about certain kitchens and the heat in them, etc. More than a few of these dudely dudes even dismiss the numerous threats of violence, much of it of a sexual nature, as just part of the price one has to pay for trying to play with the big dogs.

Or something. I'm not sure I follow.

And speaking of tip jars (as I was in my earlier post), I still don't have one, but both Amanda (at Pandagon) and Melissa (at Shakespeare's Sister) do have tip jars, and they could probably use your support.

Oh, and if you do go over to read Amanda's piece at salon.com and you're not a member, you'll have to watch a short ad. If you feel ripped off having to sit through that just for one article, you can always read Camille Paglia's piece about how wonderful it is that she's back writing at salon once again.

I hadn't noticed she was gone, to be honest.

Changes are good, right?

First off, I changed to a different template, because I'd messed up the other one so much trying to make it do what I wanted, and failing. This one doesn't do everything I want, but I'm liking it OK. Comments welcome.

I also added a thingy over there on the right, underneath the archives, that is a widget I agreed to beta-test. It's that AutoRoll box, and you can learn more about it at their website. Maybe it's totally bogus, but we'll see, I guess. It accumulates links based on the other sites that my visitors visit, and ranks them according to how frequent the visits are. Or something. I have it set to only display one link at a time, until it accumulates a little more data. It will only ever list other AutoRoll members, though, so I guess it's one of those "join us" type deals.

And another thing is I'm still on the fence about having a blogroll. I got kind of soured on the whole idea back during a recent skirmish in the ongoing feminist wars, where some bloggers didn't want to be on the same blogroll as other bloggers, and then I lost the password to my blogrolling account, so it was a major pain in the ass to keep up with that kind of thing, as well as with keeping links up-to-date and adding new stuff, etc. And then there's been some discussion about blog rankings, and how they're based on links and how it's all just a big old popularity contest out there, plus I know that ad revenue depends on rankings and links and so on. And ad revenue is important to a lot of folks. So I don't know what I'm gonna do about it.

I'm certainly not going to police the blogs I link to in order to make sure that I agree with everything they say and that they're all getting along with each other. And if people want to de-link to me on account of my potty mouth or my occasional patriarchy-blaming or they don't like my recipes, that's cool. I don't have any ads, and won't be adding them any time soon. It's not like this is a really high-traffic site anyway. In fact, I accidentally deleted my site counter a while back (like, sometime in December, apparently) and just noticed that it was gone a couple days ago when I checked to see if there'd been any amusing search strings lately. There hadn't.

And the last thing is that a couple people have asked me lately where's my tip jar and whether they could advertise something or another on my blog. There is no tip jar, and no, I won't advertise your products. I also don't want review copies of books or CDs. If you feel I should be showered with gifts, my wish list at amazon.com might help you choose something.

Friday test results: What's your major?

This one's been around a while, and I'm not sure where I found it, but it certainly wasn't very helpful; I had to do a tiebreaker on account of a multi-way tie. Which probably explains why it took me like seven years to graduate, and why I changed my major so many times. Also interesting: the lowest score on this list is the only field, of those listed, in which I've ever been employed. I don't think I ever took any journalism classes, though, not as an undergrad. But I was a philosophy major for a while, and English, and I gave serious thought to art and psychology, and German. I think I was a humanities major for a while there too. I'm not sure what to think of all the science & math, though, as I never took calculus. Or Algebra II, for that matter. Maybe I should have.

My undergraduate degree is in Linguistics, in case you were wondering.

You scored as Engineering. You should be an Engineering major! Biology 100% Chemistry 100% Mathematics 100% Dance 100% Philosophy 100% Theater 100% Linguistics 100% Psychology 100% English 100% Art 100% Engineering 100% Sociology 92% Anthropology 92% Journalism 83% What is your Perfect Major? created with QuizFarm.com

I like reading the candy hearts, anyway

This post pretty much sums up my feelings about Valentine's Day. I like the little hearts with the dopey messages on them. The rest of it I can live without.

The only other VD-related message in my inbox was from Julie, who sent a link to this article It's a fluff piece, sure, but its author, Julie Enszer, isses an interesting challenge: go the whole day without revealing the gender of your sweetie. No reason to set aside Valentine's Day to do it -- but hey, whatever. Her point is that it's inconvenient and awkward and makes you feel like you're making way too big a deal out of something that's really after all kind of irrelevant. It can make you feel kind of nutty, and like you're hiding a Big Secret.

But it's also essential information, in a certain way.

Straight people often say it's OK with them if people are queer, but why do they have to bring it up all the time? Well, the answer is that, in real life -- if you're at all forthcoming about who you are and what's important, even in a casual context, you might just happen to mention your sweetheart, if you have one. Or a spouse. Who is an actual human, with a gender, and all the pronouns & things that go along with that.

For most of my adult life, I have made little effort to hide the gender of my Significant Other. If/when I had one. If I knew it would be a huge issue for someone and I just didn't feel like educating them right at the moment, I might not mention it, but when I was a sweet young thing, I was a Serious Lesbian, and I didn't care who knew it. I didn't care if my co-workers "found out" because mostly I worked in places where it just wasn't all that interesting to anybody. My family just sort of got used to it and never really made much of a fuss. I was never in any kind of faith community, so I didn't have to worry about getting tossed out if they found out I had a girlfriend and not a boyfriend.

I didn't come out of the closet so much as I just never felt I had to go into one.

And then I was in a long-term, happily-ever-after type thing with the woman who eventually became my lovely ex-wife. We left the Big Gay City of Minneapolis for rural Minnesota and then North Carolina -- not reputed to be exactly hotbeds of gay-acceptance, if you see what I'm saying. But I never made a big deal about hiding it or making sure people knew about it, and when I did say something, I rarely got any kind of response other than an embarrassed "oh, sorry -- you're wearing a ring, I just assumed it was a guy you were married to. Of course it's OK to bring her along." Or maybe a surprised "Oh, wow, I didn't realize you two were, um, oh."

I'm sure there were folks who disapproved or were shocked, but they never said anything mean or nasty to my face.

Yes, I know that I've been lucky. I know a lot of queer people have had to hide this information lest they get beat up, thrown out of the family, kicked out of their church, or fired. All that is real, and horrible; that was not my experience is all.

But then a funny thing happened after the ex and I split up: I started seeing a guy. Nothing serious, but there were times when I'd be talking to certain friends and they'd ask whether I was dating anyone yet. I wanted to tell them that I was, because I knew that the next question was did I want to meet their [neighbor, cousin, sister-in-law, co-worker's niece] who was really cool and -- get this also a lesbian and of course you two have so much in common.

So I'd say that yes, I was seeing someone, and then laugh at myself as I went through all kinds of grammatical contortions to keep from revealing his gender, and then change the subject as quickly as possible. Because even worse than being fixed up with The Other Lesbian I Know was the bullshit I feared hearing (and eventually heard) from people I thought I knew. I was not ready to discuss it.

I did not want to hear the "see it really was just a phase" gloating from my mother; and I really didn't want to hear any bullshit about selling out to the hetero hegemony or cashing in on my "straight privilege" from my lesbian friends. And I really really didn't want to find out which of my straight friends would turn out to have been a closet homophobe all along -- and a couple eventually did; they knew I hadn't been a real lesbian.

And then, I mean, what if I decided to go out with a woman next? I knew that -- fun as it seemed at the time -- what I had with that particular guy was mostly just a rebound-type fling, certainly not a happily-ever-after scenario. I totally dreaded having to explain that, no, it was the guy thing that was just a phase -- I renounce my straight privileges, give me back the mantle of heteronormative oppression -- oh and sorry mom, didn't mean to get your hopes up again about grandkids & all that.

And what if after that relationship ends, I wanna go out with a dude again? Because I might. In fact I have.

Some people might say I'm thinking too hard about it all. In fact a lot of people do say that. It's one of my charms, really: overanalyzing everything. But I still catch myself being vague about the gender of one ex-sweetheart or another, depending on who's listening and whether I'm in the mood to talk about it. Bisexuals are really scary, apparently. More so even than lesbians.

And I still haven't told my mother about all the boys I've dated; it's only been like ten years.

UPDATE: Here's a candy heart generator!

Why I won't vote for John Edwards in the Dem. primary

It's not because I was unhappy with his response to the criticism levelled against the two bloggers he hired to run his campaign website. I wasn't thrilled by the tone of his response, but I was pleased that he did not cave to the nutty fringe's accusations of anti-catholic bigotry on the part of Amanda Marcotte (of Pandagon) and Melissa McEwan (Shakespeare's Sister). Say what you like about those two, but I don't think a close reading of their work supports any of the accusations being thrown at them. Except maybe potty-mouth, but who the fuck am I to criticize someone about that?

[UPDATE 2/13/07: Amanda has resigned.]
[UPDATE 2/14/07: Melissa too.]

It's also not because I think Edwards is a hypocrite for pretending to be for the "little guy" while building an extravagant -- 'presidential,' even, according to some reports -- new house here in North Carolina. I mean, that's not how I live, and it's not how I expect the people I elect to live, but everyone is entitled to make their own choices here in America. And Paul Wellstone is dead, bless him. And Sheila, and everyone else on that plane. But Mr. Edwards is rich enough & everything. Let him build whatever house he wants.

Because wherever he lives, and however he lives, I really like his ideas about health care, and he seems pretty solid in his ideas about addressing the vast economic injustice that exists in this country. These are ideals I share, and I admire him quite a lot for speaking up about it. And I agree with what I'm hearing about his position on Iraq.

Mr. Edwards would have my vote in the primary, if I had one to give. Edwards is, in fact, my guy and I would support him wholeheartedly at this point if I were a registered Democrat. Which I'm not; I prefer -- strongly -- to remain unaffiliated with any party. See, the only reason I won't vote for him in the primary is that NC has a closed primary and I am not a registered Democrat, so I don't get to vote in the primary.

Having said that, however, I am pretty pleased with all the leading Democratic candidates so far. But then, I would vote for a big yellow dog if the Dems ran one for president in 2008. A yellow dog with Sasquatch as a running mate, even.

I don't know how I missed this

I guess all the fuss about the potty-mouthed bloggers on another candidate's website had me a little upset and distracted. Somehow I missed the Weekly World News' coverage of the Clinton campaign. Fortunately, Zeno over at Halfway There was all over it. But I guess she's planning to run a certain media-shy Yeti as her running mate, if nominated. Seriously. Bigfoot. Check it out. It was, after all, WWN who brought you that excellent coverage of Mr. Clinton's secret meetings with space aliens during his adminstration, so you know they have inside sources.

Relic of an empire: Mulligatawny

This is a fabulous Anglo-Indian soup. Excellent in cold weather, and equally good in hot weather, especially if you use spicier spices. I hadn't made Mulligatawny in ages, so I looked up a few recipes and they seemed to differ rather wildly from each other and from what I recalled from making it before, so I mostly ignored them. The goal here is a rich, thick, stew type of chicken soup, with curry and apples and peanuts, although some of the recipes I found left out the apples and/or the peanuts. Which, I mean, what's the point? Some recipes call for heavy cream, or coconut milk, or tell you to thicken it with butter and flour; some recipes even want you to add rice (yuck) or noodles.

I did make some dumplings for this, on request, and they were pretty good. I just used the regular old dumpling recipe from The Joy of Cooking. I've never served this soup with noodles, but it's probably perfectly good. If I didn't make the noodles from scratch, I'd use plain old egg noodles.

As always, if you do add rice or noodles or dumplings, I caution you to cook and store them separately or you'll have yourself a gummy, gloppy mess. It'll taste OK, if a bit starchy, but it'll be ugly, and it will get gloppier and uglier every day that you leave it in the fridge.

I always make the chicken stock from scratch: for this particular recipe I wanted it a bit spicier than usual, so I put a couple of serrano peppers and one jalapeno pepper (all sliced in half) into the pressure cooker along with a whole chicken, a large onion, a couple of carrots, a couple stalks of celery, a few cloves of garlic (peeled and cut in half), some bay leaves, and some peppercorns. You don't have to worry much about how you cut up the onion, carrots, & celery; you're just going to toss them when they're done. Don't add salt until it's done (and in fact I don't add salt at all until the stock gets added into whatever I'm using it for, but I'm kind of a low-salt fanatic). Cover with water and cook at high pressure for 10-15 minutes (longer if the chicken is really big). Bring it up to pressure again for a few minutes if the chicken isn't totally done to your liking.

If you're not using a pressure cooker, just simmer the whole thing for an hour or so, until the chicken is tender and falling apart.

Take the chicken out and let it cool, strain the broth and toss the vegetables (add them to dog food for very happy dogs). When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the skin & bones and cut up the meat however you like it. You might use it all for the soup, or you might have some left over for chicken salad or something, depending on the size of the chicken.

You can use ready-made chicken broth or stock if you prefer. Just be careful that it's not too salty, especially if the curry powder or peanut butter you're using is really salty, and some of them are. I use the kind of peanut butter that's just ground peanuts -- no salt and no sugar, but I've used regular commercial peanut butter in this recipe before with no ill effects.

Measurements are approximate, at best:

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 large onion, chopped fine
• 1-2 leeks, chopped fine (optional - but toss em in if you've got some)
• 3-4 ribs celery, diced
• 4-5 carrots, diced or cut in slices
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced (also optional)
• quite a lot of mild curry powder (and/or garam masala, if you have it) -- 1/4 cup or so, or to taste
• 1-1/2 to 2 quarts chicken stock
• 1 large-ish potato, cubed (you can use more potatoes if you want; that's all I had)
• 1 granny smith or other tart variety of apple; peeled, cored, and cut into chunks
• 1 cup or so of frozen peas (optional)
• 3-4 cups cooked chicken, bones and skin removed (I used all but about a cup of the meat from the whole chicken I used to make the stock)
• 1/4 cup (or more) peanut butter or ground peanuts
• part of a bag of spinach that you have in the fridge that needs to be cooked right away today (optional)

Saute the onion in the melted butter in your soup pot. If you're adding any leeks, add them shortly after the onion. When the onions are almost done, add the celery and carrots and saute for a few minutes. Stir in the garlic and curry powder right before you add the stock. Start with a quart or so. Then add the potato and apple. Add more stock if necessary to cover the potatoes.

Let all that cook for a while. Add frozen peas if you want them. Add the chicken when the potatoes & peas are nearly done. (Again, add more stock -- or water if you're out of stock -- but only if you need it -- the texture should be somewhere between a soup and a stew.) Then take a 1/2 cup or so of the broth out of the pot and put it into a bowl and mix it with the peanut butter; return that to the soup pot when it's all smooth and melty. This is also when you'd add something to thicken it, if you wanted to, or some milk or cream. Toss in the fresh spinach if you've got some. I'm not sure I'd bother with the spinach if I were using peas, or vice-versa.

Let it simmer gently for a bit longer and then serve. You can garnish it with snipped scallions or cilantro if you like that kind of thing. Salt and pepper to taste, etc.

Friday test results: The Monday edition

Who knew?

I am: James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice B. Sheldon)
	In the 1970s she was perhaps the most memorable, and one of the most popular, short story writers. Her real life was as fantastic as her fiction.

Which science fiction writer are you?

Via Mary at Pacific Views