Such an awkward-looking object, but has there ever been such a handy kitchen tool, I ask of you?
And does the humble potato stomper even come close? Yes, (and I hear you protest), that is, in fact, its technical name. Stomper. I mean, c'mon. "Masher" is such a lame term. It's just so much more satisfying to stomp on something than to merely mash it.Think about that, the next time you "mash" some fallen leaves with your feet.
I didn't have to hunt far for this one - it's in the sample pictures included with Windows 7.
For some reason known only to my inner brain workings, the title needed to have that piece of punctuation. But anyway, I digress. Of late I've been baking my own bread. It's definitely an art that needs more practice, because no matter how I tweak the recipe and follow instructions, mine comes out sadly heavy and dense. The annoying (or good, I suppose) part is that the bread tastes fantastic. There's no problem with the flavour. The crust is awesome. The damned bread just needs to be eaten while still warm, because come the morning, it is hard enough to use as a brick.It reminds me of the time that we went over to Rich's place and his mother had attempted a cake, and her (failed) cake was sitting abandoned on the kitchen bench. This, too, was hard as a rock. It ended up being kicked around the front yard and stayed disturbingly intact. In fact, when it finally experienced its structural failure, it only broke in half. And each half was still capable of inflicting a bruise through the toe of my Doc Martens.
Too good not to share!
As the title indicates, today I'm not featuring an individual game per se. Nor am I bringing this post to you as a message from our sponsor etc. (Of course, if you'd like to be my sponsor, I'll accept whatever currency suits you... ;))For years now I've been a subscriber to GameHouse, and later RealArcade. The latter has owned the former for quite a while and they've now merged, so it's back to GameHouse I merrily skip. Lo and behold, they now have a daily freebie game that you can grab the full version of, which allows you to play your head off at any time. Yes, it's ad-supported, but hey the price is right huh? And if you download it on any other day, you only get to play the games for one hour before it's locked.I would love to show you some screenshots just now and give an unbiased opinion on the game's merits, but since I don't know when you're reading this, I don't know what the game is! Today it just happens to be a card game, but yesterday was a "find the hidden object" one and the last week there was some fashion concoction, which my daughter has been playing for days on end.Click for Today's Free Game
So I've spent considerable amounts of time over the last few months, lamenting my current lack of creative motivation. I simply haven't felt "in the mood" for writing. I know from experience the kind of work I produce in that sort of emotional quagmire: boring, drawn-out work, far too big on quantity and sadly lacking in quality. (You're reviewing an example right now, I guess.)But a moment ago I looked at my regularly-neglected list of draft posts, and forced myself to start a draft of anything, just to do something. And while I won't identify which (future) post it is that I wrote just a moment ago, I think it was good. It wasn't just good... it was On Fiyah. Then a long-forgotten maxim reared its head in my almost-dormant psyche. The number one rule for a improving as a writer is: Keep Writing.How could I seriously have been so thick? At what point did the number one rule just up and poof into the thin air evidently abundant in my hibernating intellect?(While the last two sentences were intended to be rhetorical, feel free to post whatever comes to mind.)
Nice flowers scene
This image came from the MySpace profile of a guy named Tim. I've no idea who the actual pic belongs to, but I really like it. BONUS: It's big enough to have centred on my Desktop. Win!
...the 14th of May. This poor blog has been sadly neglected, and for far too long indeed. I've also realised I have a bunch of drafts that are yet unpublished; perhaps I should spend some time sorting through them? And perhaps release one or two into the wild wide yonder?
Decisions, decisions.
In other news, I've been thinking about my spending habits of late, and while nobody would call me Spendy Spenderella, I think there are some ways I could cull the cash exodus here and there. I'm going to try that there thing called the Library more often. I LOOOOVE owning books, but really, there are only so many books I can realistically read again one day (and that would be IF I even picked them up again once I've read them the first time). The reality is that most of my books end up doing naught but decorating bookshelves. And besides, libraries let you read them again later on too!
It's time to try to tone down this addiction. For the first installment I have Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes (because she is a good author) and Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange (because like I said, libraries let you read stuff again).
Wish me luck.
I've just been invited to the umpteenth good cause on Facebook.Ordinarily, these things either send me to sleep or make me see red. In this case however, I was too busy giggling. Apparently there's now a wizard of some sort to make these things. It includes a place to automagically show how much has been raised so far. Dynamic and stuff for the win.This cause (while actually being a worthwhile cause, I might add) had gathered more than 10,000 members. 10,000 Facebook 'players' who all thought that this... this... topic... was important, and righteous, and worth getting indignantly angry over, or passionate about, or worth going forth with pitchforks and holy fire over. 10,000 people who thought they were making change by banding together with fellow-couch-potatoes who had an interest in the same issue. I won't mention the cause by name, just to protect its poor, sad little existence from suffering further embarrassment. But...This worthwhile cause had generated $0 so far.I believe this is a worthwhile illustration and would teach Facebook 'players' quite a lot, if only they were willing to use their brains before using their index fingers on the JOIN NOW button.Parents, tell your children! etc. Hammering a button on a website does nothing to cure cancer. Visiting a forum won't reduce the amount of pesticides in your food. Playing the free Red Ribbon game will not earn a cent in HIV research money. Clicking on "Like!" won't make more kidneys available for transplant. Joining another Facebook cause won't stop the next kid being abused. INTERACTION makes things happen. Start a discussion with a friend. Donate. Wear the ribbon. Buy the fridge magnet. Sponsor a kid. Send a goat.
There's nobody to blame for this one but me.I am regularly failing at this because I get greedy and take risks. But I keep playing. I must be a glutton for punishment!Mortgage Meltdown Game
In honour of all the good songs that time (almost) forgot, I have been putting together some YouTube playlists for different moods.Today's offering is a bunch of mostly 80s - 90s rap... the way it should be. Yeah, these days the styles have about 238,472,093 other names instead of rap, but screw that, back then it was just rap and people just did it. There was also a whole lot less of b!tches, homies, yo yo sup word as well.From the beginning... House of Pain. Make sure you check out the whole playlist here. Word.
...it's one of the essentials of life, in my opinion. And since this is my blog, mine is the only opinion that matters! Muahaha.DID YOU KNOW? ...it is possible to have your coffee plunger more than half full of coffee grounds and still produce coffee by adding more scoops and more hot water? I didn't know either, but it's something that you learn when you do not enjoy washing out your french press. Consider yourself enlightened.I did actually empty it once I realised there was no longer any room to physically depress the plunger. My garden will be thrilled with such yummy compost. Hey, plants love coffee too, they have great taste.
...because everyone needs more of it in their lives.
Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.A reader sent me a message this week in regards to the boiling urine incident. Turns out that I'm not the only one to have experienced the amazing smell sensation of pee cooking in a powerboard. Turbo's Human had it happen as well, thanks to Siberian Huskies. (You should go visit.)And in a disturbing case of déjà vu, the surge-protector powerboard, again, did not trip while it was shorting out and perfuming the room.Admittedly, I'm still not sure whether these things are supposed to protect against something like this. I was fortunate not to have destroyed my PC; I count the loss of the powerboard and one kettle cable as a fair price.Anyone out there know more about these devices?
Beach in the Bahamas, thanks to Trip Advisor
