you're doing it wrong.

i'm sort of, in a rather desultory manner, watching the coverage of the inauguration on television, and i can't help wondering why only the tea party is doing it right.

i voted back in november.  there were at least 5 candidates for president on the ballot in my state (that i remember), representing 5 different parties for president.  but there were only 2 parties represented in all the other races, 3 if you count the tea party separate from the moderate northeast republicans.  i was just watching discussion of the president's stated immigration goal, and it sounds like the republican party is headed for a split between the very far right nutcases and the rest of the conservatives.

what is going on?

for some reason, the tea party is working the system right.  i wish the left in this country would stop chasing their damned egos and start paying real attention to how a multi-party system is working in this country.  it is working because whoever is financing the tea party is smart.  instead of waiting for 2012 and blowing all their money on the ridiculously expensive presidential campaign, they started in 2010 with the congressional races and especially with the house of representatives.

we have this famous check-and-balances situation in this country which forces the president to have to work with the legislative branch.  what would be the point of getting a hard-right president in power, or a green party president in power, and having no support for them in congress?  better to spend your money on those small, unglamourous legislative campaigns that will get voters in your corner and get legislative support in congress so that there is ready-made support for your presidential campaign.  not only that, but it will force true multi-party functioning in this country. 

if the greens and the communists are smart and more than that, serious, about affecting politics in this country, they should start finding house of representative candidates now and fund their runs for the 2014 congressional elections.  stop blowing your money on your presidential run ego, stop being fixated on "the presidency" and "the president of the united states" and get going with really getting the worker bees into the government.

holiday food.

so this blog is suffering from school and everything else.

but it is winter holidays!  time to eat everything made with fat and sugar so we can get through the dark months ahead.

to counter that, i have invented:

ridiculously healthy pumpkin muffins

* this is what i made this morning.  bonus points: use all organic ingredients

1 c organic sugar 
1 c organic canned pumpkin (bonus points: get an organic pumpkin from a local farmer and cook and puree it yourself)
2    organic eggs  (bonus points: local)
1/4  c oil
1/4 c water


1    c whole wheat flour
1/2 c white flour
1    t  baking soda
3/4 t  salt
1    t  ground cinnamon
1/4 t  ground nutmeg
1/4 t  ground cloves
1/4 t  ground ginger

minced candied ginger

1.  using an electric mixer, beat eggs with the sugar, pumpkin, oil, and water.

2.  add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir with a spoon until blended.  lumps are ok.  do not use an electric mixer for this step, the whole wheat flour will not be happy with you.  unless i guess you have a stand mixer with some kind of gentle attachment, but i don't.

3.  fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups, portioning out the batter evenly.  if making regular-sized muffins, cups will be about 3/4 full.

4.  top each muffin with some of the candied ginger.

5.  bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes or until a tester inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

yay.  they are yummy.  i would like to look up an ingredient substitute formula and see how they work with molasses, which i think might be even better.  they're like pumpkin pie, except muffins.  spicy, not too sweet.  for moister muffins, either use 100% white flour or more oil.  but then they're not as healthy.

happy (early) birthday to me.

so because he's as much a gadget fan as i am, i got my birthday present a few days after it arrived in the mail, and a few days before my birthday:  a nexus7. 

i have to say, i am loving the thing.  i am on the record (probably, somewhere) as saying tablets are useless, and i'm still divided about his ipad, but the 7" tablet is a great place between a laptop and a phone.  i can get email and actually read the attached documents on it, as well as web.  and google maps are just gorgeous.  it's thin and light and i can hold it in one hand, even with my small hands.

on the other hand, i am now carrying around 3 devices on a regular basis:  my phone, for text messages and email when there is no wifi, the tablet, and my sony reader, which i still see a use case for in the e-ink screen which is nicer on the eyes and the ability to make handwritten notes on articles for class.  if i add my laptop, it goes up to 4.  i don't usually carry my ipod, but this is all getting a little silly.

i never really thought there was a good use for a tablet until i went to japan this summer.  and then i saw how useful it would be to have a device to handle map and be able to show off all your pictures.  and now actually having one, it is being useful in class for looking things up and grabbing the scanned pdfs which are giant images that the reader doesn't like so much.

i am also a fan of these guys.  i finally got one of their wine bottle bags after wanting one forever, and i just got their sleeve for the nexus, which is really nice.

so whee.  stuff.  i guess i'll have to decide what to do on my actual birthday now.

accomplishments.

so about 20 years after i started playing it at a friend's house, i have finally finished loom.

i'm also in my last year (finally!) of my master's program.  whee,

japan trip 2012

japan trip 2012, a set on Flickr.

just got back from a trip to japan for my brother's wedding. here are 33/514 photos *grin*

what's for dinner?

i only get to eat my expensive italian tuna when he's not home.

tuna & pasta

1  5oz  can italian tuna (tonno) packed in olive oil
1 c       uncooked short pasta (elbows, rotini, farfalle, etc)
2 T      pesto (or to taste)
1 c      cut green beans
pine nuts to taste (i like lots of them)
grated parmesan cheese to taste
1-3 T extra virgin olive oil

1.  cook the pasta in water with a little olive oil.  drain the pot thoroughly and return the empty pot to the burner.  turn the burner down to medium.

2.  while the pasta is cooking, toast the pine nuts:  sprinkle them in a single layer on a baking sheet and place in the oven at 350F, shaking until brown.

3.  pout 1-2 T olive oil in the pan with a little oil from the can of tuna.

4.  add the cooked pasta to the oil and stir to coat.  this will probably spit, so be careful.

5.  add the tuna and break up into small chunks and flakes.  stir.

6.  add the green beans and pesto.  stir again to evenly distribute the pesto.

7.  add the toasted pine nuts, only to warm them up.  since they are already toasted, they will burn quickly (about 30 seconds).

8.  spoon onto plates and sprinkle grated cheese on top.

summer.

so, the solstice was 2 days ago.  and today is the 3rd consecutive day of  >90F degree weather.  welcome to summer indeed.

we have scored free tickets from his boss to a phillies game tomorrow.  neither of us have ever been to a professional/MLB baseball game.  come to think of it, i'm not sure i've ever been to a professional sports game period.  all i know is that you're supposed to eat hot dogs and beer, which is ok with me.  as long as the hot dogs aren't full of cancerous chemicals and mystery meat.  100% beef is good.

and hey, the tickets were free, so if we decide baseball sucks as much in person as it does on tv, we can just go home.

the peppers are coming!

i was quite suprised to see that my pepper plant survived the winter. these are hot lemon peppers, which make awesome salsa.

technical difficulties.

conversation with barclaycard customer support:

me: your website isn't letting me log in; i keep getting an error page

barclaycard guy: oh i think it's a system upgrade, oh my screen just froze, oh my screen just went black and now i can't see anything

me: so i guess it's a problem on your end, then.

good thing i was just trying to check if the card had been charged for a passport renewal and not trying to pay my bill.

the passport is necessary because we are going to japan in a month and a half for my brother's wedding.  whee?

what's for dinner?

just in time for memorial day, a new turkey burger recipe.  i made it up last night.  makes 2 burgers.

1 egg
8-10oz 93/7 ground turkey (depending if you want quarter pound burgers or 5oz burgers.  if you use 10oz, up the following spices slightly)
1/2 t kosher salt
1 t fresh ground black pepper
3 springs fresh parsley, chopped
1 t extra virgin olive oil

1.  beat the egg until all the white is incorporated into the yolk.

2.  mash the egg and ground turkey together until you have uniform consistency.  use your hands if you're not squeamish about raw meat like me.

3.  add the salt and pepper.  the kosher salt will start to dissolve almost immediately, so mix well and uniformly.

4.  mix in the parsley.

5.  mix in the olive oil  (this increases the fat content and keeps the burgers moist, but in a healthy way).

6.  divide the meat mixture into two portions and form into patties.  i suppose you could also divide it into 4 portions and make sliders.

7.  grill/broil/fry.  

eat.  yay!  they were yummy last night.  i ended up with little fat burgers because the potato rolls i bought were smallish in diameter.  these would probably be good with a white beer or a not-crazy-hoppy ipa.  the burgers are lighter in flavour than either roast turkey or burgers made with beef, so probably a lightish red wine, like a pinot noir would work too.  a sharp cheese would give you room to use a more robust wine, but i don't like cheeseburgers.