Handguns and Tequila

Eating healthy doesn't have to suck.

nobody@vox.com(Wintermute) — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 23:02:56 -0500

I am admittedly a little bit obsessed with eating healthy, and tonight I made some pizza for my friends and I that came out absolutely bangin'. I started with a Boboli whole wheat thin-crust covered with a layer of organic Zinfandel Marinara sauce. A good amount of fresh chopped basil was added for flavor, then that was smothered in a thick layer of Veggie Shreds brand mozzarella and cheddar "cheese". After careful consideration, we kept our toppings simple, using generous amounts of roasted red peppers and sliced red onion.

Here's what it looked like before being cooked:

Pizzaoven

Here's the final product, moments before being devoured:

Pizzadone

If I ever make it again, the only thing I wil do different is to caramlize the onions first.

And finally, after reading a recent edition of [this is good] I just had to go out and buy a pomegranate. I just spent the last half-hour cracking that thing open, but boy was it worth it.

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Everything is better when it's free.

nobody@vox.com(Wintermute) — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 23:54:06 -0500

1068803

A few days ago I was given a coupon for "buy one get one" of the 22oz Housewarmer Candles from Yankee Candle. Their store in the mall sells those for almost $23 each, so I couldn't possibly pass up that deal. I ended up purchasing two from the fresh-scented section; "Ginger Citrus" and "Lemon Lavender". They both smell so amazing that I'm going to have a hard time saving them for Christmas gifts rather than just burning them myself. Word on the street is that you can get one of these coupons by signing up for their snail-mail catalog on their website. Here's the direct link to the request form:

http://www.yankeecandle.com/cgi-bin/ycbvp/catalog_request.jsp

Enjoy!

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File under "Things that are awesome."

nobody@vox.com(Wintermute) — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 11:34:15 -0500

I started reading a new book the other day and realized that I didn't have any bookmarks to keep my place with. Solution? Cut out the folded portion of one of those cologne samplers you find in magazines. It's thick enough to be durable, and your book will smell fabulous whenever you open it to start reading again. Sweet!

(PS - this is probably only awesome if you're a total fragrance-whore like me.)

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Remnants of the past

nobody@vox.com(Wintermute) — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 16:31:52 -0500

There is an old water tower in my town that is almost completely obscured by plants and trees. I've never actually gone onto the property to check if there is a ladder, but judging from the state of it I probably wouldn't want to risk climbing it anyway.

Oldwatertower

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DIY: Hipster PDA Protector

nobody@vox.com(Wintermute) — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 19:40:30 -0500

I've fallen in love with the Hipster PDA that I found over at 43 Folders, but if you lug it around in a backpack or messenger bag like I do, the cards aren't going to last very long! In the spirit of the very inexpensive Hipster PDA, I decided to make a protector for it using only materials that I found around the house.

Hpda01

Materials: Duct tape, colored electrical tape (optional), scissors, ruler, 2 unused checkbook covers, elastic band (optional), and the Hipster PDA!

Hpda02

The checkbook covers I had are made out of a durable, textured vinyl. I opened both covers, overlapped them, and placed the Hipster PDA on the center panel. I was lucky, and mine fit the PDA perfectly. I think they're all about the same size but you want to make sure that it's not going to be too small when you're done.

Hpda03

Next, I cut off a little less than half of what was to be the center panel of the protector on ONLY ONE of the checkbook covers. You'll see why in the next step; removing an inch or so is plenty.

Hpda04

Place the 2 covers facedown on your work surface and then overlap them. Cutting the panel in the previous step will allow you to attach the pieces down the back of the protector, instead of over the fold which could cause some loss of flexibility.

Hpda05

Use the duct tape to attach the two pieces together, leaving several inches of extra tape on each side.

Hpda06

Flip it face up and fasten the extra tape to the inside of the Hipster PDA protector. Pretty simple!

Hpda07

Now do the same thing with another piece of duct tape to finish covering the back entirely.

Hpda08

Once you fasten ths piece on the inside of the protector, you've now created a secret pocket in which you can store all manner of secrets and mysteries!

Hpda09

I used some strips of colored electrical tape to jazz up the front a little bit, but this step is entirely optional. You can go as crazy as you want decorating it, or just leave it non-descript. Place the PDA inside and close it up.

Hpda10

That's it! You're done! I used a rubber band to keep everything shut and it doubles as a pen / iPod / whatever holder. Enjoy your new, super-durable Hipster PDA that cost you next to nothing!

EDIT: Upon further thought, I ditched the elastic band and put short strips of adhesive magnetic material inside the front cover. It saves me the trouble of having to pull off the band every time I want to take a quick glance at my lists, and it's quieter than Velcro, which is always a plus when you're sitting in lecture hall. :)

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Ride the train

nobody@vox.com(Wintermute) — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 13:42:31 -0500

On the island where I live there is a great deal of military detritus laying around in various states of decay. There is a large Navy presence on the island, and there's all sorts of places to go exploring weird artifacts of past decades. A lot of these areas are tied together by a largely defunct railroad that goes from the very top to the very bottom of the island. The rails continue on the mainland, but the bridges are either long gone or hopelessly beyond repair.

The section of track that traverses the island has been converted into a tourist attraction, where you pay some amount of money to have a fancy dinner in the passenger cars while the train rumbles up the line and back. This past weekend a friend and I decided to explore a small side-yard down in the marina district to see what we could find. As an important sidenote, a lot of people take it upon themselves to vandalize these sites, but we're only interested in taking photos; we never damage any of the property we enter.

What we found was an old, abandoned school-bus that contained what looked like the entire set for a long-forgotten school play. There were even boxes of stage-lights strewn about, not to mention the giant cardboard battle-axe. We also found a train engine car inside a repair bay, fully unlocked and inviting us to play in the cockpit. Here are some of the photos:

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Windy day photgraphy

nobody@vox.com(Wintermute) — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 18:16:04 -0500

Brenton Point, Newport, RI this afternoon. Holy McF**k was it blowing out. We saw a woman walking her tiny dog along the roadside, and although it looked like it was desperately straining against it's leash it was really just being blown away; the leash was the only thing holding it from flying off over the ocean! Here are some photos of the amazing waves:

Waves1

Waves2

Waves3

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Halloween Party 2006

nobody@vox.com(Wintermute) — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 14:43:31 -0500

Last night I went to a zombie party at Kendra's house. The food was awesome, vegan chili, squash soup, and all sorts of goodies that people made. I brought a projector to play horror movies on the wall, and all the fixings for Bacardi O Cosmos, including "gummy body parts" and drops of red food coloring to make the drink look super-gross. They went fast and I didn't get to snap any pictures, but I got a bunch of fun photos of the evening.

In order:

1) Night of the Living Dead on the ceiling

2) The Danzig Pumpkin

3) zombie makeup

4) sweet vegan chili!

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Vox Hunt: Dangerously Cute

nobody@vox.com(Wintermute) — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 11:24:30 -0500

Show us something dangerously cute.
Submitted by Indy Bunny.

This picture was taken on a roadtrip to North Carolina this past Christmas. What happens when you try to cook dinner in a house filled with 3 spoiled dogs and 2 greedy cats? This:

DSCF0548

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QotD: Today's Top 5

nobody@vox.com(Wintermute) — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 10:57:10 -0500

Books, movies, music; what's in your top 5 right now?

Books - The last book I read that I really enjoyed was "Storming the Reality Studio" containing works by various authors in the two genres I enjoy most: Cyberpunk and Postmodernism. I particularly enjoyed the pieces by Bruce Sterling and Veronica Hollinger, the latter of whom I corresponded with regarding the upcoming release of "Queer Universes, Sexualities in Science Fiction" which is at least unique in it's concept.

Storming the Reality Studio: A Casebook of Cyberpunk and Postmodern Science Fiction

Also, while I haven't gotten too far into it yet, I am currently reading a collection of short stories by Alice Munro titled "Open Secrets", which is good since I rarely have time to sit down and read for any period of time. There is seemingly no particular theme to the stories, but I guess I will have a better idea once I finish it.

Open Secrets: Stories

Alice Munro

Music - Being a huge fan, I had to go out and buy the special 2-disc edition of the new Scissor Sisters album "Ta-Dah". It took me a few listens to digest it, but I find the more I listen to it the more I like it. It's certainly a bit of a departure from the first album in that all the tracks on the main album have a similar "feel" to them, but the bonus album has some really great, weird stuff on it - most notably the track "Transistor" which I'm in love with.

Ta-Dah

Scissor Sisters

Movies - I can't remember the last time I saw a movie that I really liked, but Josh is a movie MANIAC so I'll probably be seeing a lot of films in the upcoming months. How about I list my favorite director, Gregg Araki, who I love for his surreal and disturbing films. If you haven't seen any of the films in the Teenage Apocalypse "trilogy" GO DO IT NOW.

The Doom Generation

Other Reading - VOX! It's public release day today, woohoo! I'm super-excited about the fact that as of today support has been added for Firefox 2.0, which previously was causing all kinds of weird site errors. I came here from LiveJournal (another SixApart product) and I've all but abandoned it now, except to keep up with friends.

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