5.29.2008

YOU Decide!!!

Which one is the chocolate chip, and which one is the rabbit poop?




While you are deciding, let me tell you about my new favorite fake cheese. It's called THE ORIGINAL Almond Chedder Style The Good Health Cheese Alternative by Lisanatti. Yes, it's made of almonds! Not milk, not soy, not rice (actually, it does have a tidge brown rice flour). And it is delicious. Here's a pic:



As you can see, I have eaten most of it. And, it Shreds, Melts and Tastes Great! While I cannot speak to the first two claims, I can tell you that it does, in fact, Taste Great!

Make sure to check back tomorrow when I let you know which is the chip and which is the poop!

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5.27.2008

Here it comes...


Look at Phoenix and its parachute, heading down to Mars. Super cute!

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5.22.2008

Who wants to be Kurt for Halloween?

I will go as Roland so I can wear the awesome ensemble (say frenchie-style) and do the awesome dance featured in the middle of this video. I believe this is the second time I have posted this.

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5.20.2008

I must have my young berries!

I remember watching this with my sister before school - we must have watched this movie at least a few dozen times. I think I had the pink one and she had the purple (or the other way around).

Behold the Hugga Bunch Movie (in which the grandmother who is staying with the family gives the best hugs evah but the mean nurse wants her to go to a home with other old people so the girl goes through the mirror to Hugga Bunch land and tries to get the young berries from the witch who guards them so she can stay young forever and there is also an elephant that cries):

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5.14.2008

Oatmeal

Tornado Warning
Statement as of 8:19 PM CDT on May 14, 2008


... A Tornado Warning remains in effect until 830 PM CDT for extreme
northeastern blanco... northwestern Travis... southwestern
Williamson... extreme southeastern Llano and southern Burnet
counties...

At 817 PM CDT... NWS meteorologists continued to detect a tornado.
This tornado was located near Marble Falls... moving east at 31 mph.

The tornado will be near...
Smithwick... 6 miles north of Spicewood and 9 miles south of Oatmeal
by 830 PM CDT...

The safest place to be during a tornado is on the lowest floor of a
building in an interior hallway... bathroom... or closet. Cover
yourself with blankets... pillows or even a mattress for better
protection.

A Tornado Watch remains in effect until 1100 PM CDT Wednesday evening
for south central Texas. A Tornado Watch also remains in effect until
200 am CDT Thursday morning for south central Texas.

Lat... Lon 3080 9823 3081 9822 3079 9817 3080 9815
3075 9787 3041 9807 3052 9840 3082 9826
time... Mot... loc 0119z 292deg 27kt 3060 9824

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5.12.2008

OMG! SPACE!

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Ladies, Watch for an important lesson



Oh my god, those poor dogs, I really can't condone this, but I can't stop watching!

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The real Puppy Bowl

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I've been busy

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4.27.2008

Only 248 days to go!

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, people.

Visit the website to learn more about initiatives and programs, etc.

Watch the trailer-style announcement:



I'm super excited!

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4.22.2008

Super Crazy! Russian Cover-Up, Shuttle Almost Burns Up on Re-entry

This is taken directly from Universe Today, article by Ian O'Neill (www.universetoday.com)

Soyuz Capsule Hatch Nearly Burned Up and Crew's Lives Were on a "Razor's Edge"

Written by Ian O'Neill

The blackened Soyuz descent capsule after re-entry (BBC)
First, Russian space officials tried to cover up the emergency landing of the Soyuz descent capsule on Saturday. Then they blamed the crew for changing their flight plan without communicating with mission control. Compounding the problem, an official cited a bad omen as a contributing factor to the hard landing. Within a couple of days, the truth behind the Soyuz "ballistic re-entry" began to come to light. Today, even more shocking revelations are being reported, including how the escape hatch nearly failed during the uncontrolled, fiery re-entry…

On Sunday, the Universe Today reported on the off-target landing of the Russian Soyuz descent capsule carrying South Korea's first astronaut, Yi So-yeon, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and NASA record breaker (for most time spent in space) American Peggy Whitson back from the International Space Station (ISS). The capsule had landed short of its intended target, 20 minutes behind schedule. The authorities later blamed the mishap on a change in flight plan and suggested the crew were to blame. Then, surprisingly, Federal Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov placed some of the blame on the female dominant crew, saying women on board space missions were bad luck.

Yesterday, I reported on some updates to the drama that had unfolded. Apparently, even before the rescue helicopters had located the capsule, the Russian space agency publicised the crew's safe return, covering up the fact they had no idea where they were. What's more, the helicopters had been sent to the wrong location, and it was by chance that the capsule's parachutes were spotted. The capsule had landed in a zone reserved for emergency touch-downs and the crew suffered a "hard landing". Not being able to send a signal to mission control, the crew remained upside down, strapped to their seats for 25 minutes. Malenchenko was able to unlatch himself to get outside to use a satellite phone. Some news agencies reported that the parachute had even caught alight and set the surrounding vegetation on fire.

Today, even more revelations have been reported. According to an unnamed Russian space official, the capsule had entered the atmosphere in an uncontrolled manner. Rather than the capsule's heat shield taking the frictional re-entry burn, the escape hatch became exposed and bore the brunt of the high temperatures outside. The hatch sustained substantial damage. The antenna was also exposed to the heat, completely burning it up, explaining why the crew were unable to communicate with the ground. A valve that equalizes cabin with atmospheric pressure was also damaged.

"The fact that the entire crew ended up whole and undamaged is a great success. Everything could have turned out much worse. You could say the situation was on a razor's edge." - Anonymous Russian space official involved in the descent investigation.

Russian Federal Space Agency spokesman, Alexander Vorobyov, continued to downplay the series of events saying that antennae were regularly damaged during capsule re-entries. He rated Saturday's event as a "3", where "5" on the scale would be critical.

This troubled landing has naturally raised questions about the safety record of the Soyuz capsules currently being used. This is the second time in a row (and the third since 2003) that there have been serious problems during re-entry of Soyuz capsules. The official continued to say that there can be no guarantee that this will not happen again:

"Considering that this situation has repeated itself, it is obvious that the technological discipline in preparing space equipment for a flight is declining. There is no guarantee that the crew of a Soyuz spacecraft landing a half a year from now would not face the same difficulties." - Anonymous Russian space official

During the confusion as to where the Soyuz capsule had landed, there are unconfirmed reports that the U.S. Defence Department tracked the off-target landing and pinpointed its location for Russian helicopters. NASA is reserving comment until the Russian Federal Space Agency finds the cause of the uncontrolled descent.

Investigators suspect that the ballistic re-entry was caused by an electrical short in the cable that connects the crew capsule's control panel with the Soyuz descent hardware. A short circuit in this cable can automatically trigger the ballistic re-entry mode and there is little the crew could have done to prevent it.

Sources: The Associated Press, New Scientist

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Crazy mad changes!

Look, to the left and down - I've discovered widgets and RSS feeds. Amazing.

What can I say, I'm a little slow.

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4.21.2008

Oopsy-Doodle!



Normal G-forces during re-entry during this day and age are about 1.5 g's. However, during the early NASA days of the Apollo missions, etc, normal re-entry g's were around 7 g's. Cosmonauts in 1975 had a problem with their Soyuz rocket in re-entry and experience 14-15 g's! That is crazy you guys, most people can't do anything with their body once they reach about 10 g's.

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4.20.2008

Haddaway and Dr. Alban

I love this video so, so, much. This is transcendent:

Life



Did you hear? He's working on a new album with Dr. Alban (two good videos of him below). I'm not sure when it will be released, but its title is Crucified. Good luck, Haddaway!

Hello Africa



No COke

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4.18.2008

This will make you laugh.

Miss L is stupid.

Before the new Cut Copy album came out, and before SXSW, I would listen to their songs on their Myspace page while I worked. I sort-of knew some of the words by the time I saw them play. So I'm there, second row, singing out loud with everyone else around me, "Got so horny/I fall in your dreams tonight." This was March.

Cut to today, I follow the Pitchfork link to AOL's music crap site, and here are some live Cut Copy performances (see below). I notice the song "So Haunted." He's SO HAUNTED, not SO HORNY. Geez, I feel like a dumbass. (BTW, they were a million times better than what you see below, but I still feel like I need to post it.)

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4.17.2008

Glasses

So I left my gym bag in my car Tuesday, and it kinda fried my glasses. Very strange - my glasses and lotion bottle are totally warped, but the shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer/sunscreen, and contact solution bottles are unharmed! Oh, and the contact solution in the contact case had mostly evaporated. Very strange - it was as if a sunbeam had concentrated itself on one corner of my gym bag.

I can no longer wear the glasses. Rather, I can wear them, but they don't stay on my face well, the lenses look like they will fall out, and I would def not wear them driving. But do not fret, for this cloud has a silver lining: I put on my old glasses and I love them! So cute. I forgot. I will probably spend the buckers (if required, which I think it will be because the damage is pretty extreme) to get the others fixed next month. Economic stimulus? Oh! Brain flash: maybe it is covered under a warranty - it has been less than a year, after all.

Here are my new plants:
They have yet to flower, but that's because I just planted them Monday. Here are the flowers my mother potted for my birthday gift:


There are wine cups and alysum and some kind of lupine, I believe.

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4.10.2008

A little animation for you...

From some of my fave old-timers.







I met the animator/painter/filmmaker of this one:



Her name is Joan Gratz and she was very sweet.

A scene from the oldest surviving feature-length animated movie (I believe this is true...)



And there is so much more!

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Jules et Jim

Can you believe I've never seen this? Tsk tsk. Well, I'm starting it in the next hour...



Oh no! God, how I love drama.

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4.08.2008




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Xiu Xiu video for F.T.W.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/49811-xiu-xiu-ftw-video-premiere

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