(no subject)
I've developed a fondness for cooking in the past six months. I'm a staunch recipe-follower, though. I'll make you something gourmet and unforgettable, but I'll follow the instructions meticulously to get there, because I do not have what one might call a discerning palate--or a good culinary imagination, for that matter. I get nervous at salad bars and Subway, trying to picture how things will taste together. It usually ends badly.
Which is why I surprised myself tonight with my inventiveness. I'm on a special cleanse/diet and it's quite restrictive, so creativity is a must if I want to feel remotely satisfied. Here's what I did: I cooked up some quinoa (added coconut oil, don't know if that changed anything). Then I fried chopped green bell pepper, onion, and tomato in oil at a really high temperature, adding paprika and cayenne pepper and a bit of salt. I combined the lot of it, then added--wait for it--cinnamon! And it was surprisingly delish. I didn't measure anything, though, so it's unlikely it would taste the same if I did it again.
In other news, the New Oxford American Dictionary editors named "refudiate" the 2010 word of the year. Sarah Palin inadvertently coined the word via Twitter while trying to say either "refute" or "repudiate" (then quickly deleted the tweet, then defended herself by saying Shakespeare used to coin words all the time, so why can't she?). I do not know how to feel about this. On one hand, I don't think people who are expected to communicate/be well-spoken for a living and then fail at it and then compare themselves to SHAKESPEARE (which, no! Just no!) should be encouraged. On the other hand, I sort of see the editors' point:
"From a strictly lexical interpretation of the different contexts in which Palin has used 'refudiate,' we have concluded that neither 'refute' nor 'repudiate' seems consistently precise, and that 'refudiate' more or less stands on its own, suggesting a general sense of 'reject,' " the New Oxford American Dictionary said in a press release.
I still stand by my view that she ruined Alaska, though.
Other news! I'm giving myself a challenge. I am going to read all the books on Time's All Time 100 Novels (which I assume is a reference to the name of the publication, not as in "since forever," because the list only goes back to 1923). I feel like I should give myself a deadline, but I can't decide when it should be. It would be cool to do it in a year, but I don't want to wait [for our lives to be overrrrrr] for New Year's to start. So for now I'm just going to say, full speed ahead, worry about a deadline later. I'm starting with Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion.
I am setting myself some rules, though; like, if it's been five years or more since I read something on the list, I have to reread it. Which will be good, because I didn't know shit in high school when I was reading some of these for English class.
There's also the fact that I'm really under-read in general. Or, I read a decent amount (I'm always reading SOMETHING), but I've never really known WHAT to read. It'll be good, for once, to stick to things that are nice and tidily in the canon, that are Very Significant. (I know, strange, right, that I have an English degree and I'm talking about being under-read in the canon? Well, I think I'm pretty well-versed [groan] in poetry, and I know a lot about American plays, but somehow I slipped through the system without learning much about fiction. We were required to take a Survey of American Lit class, and we just seemed to read random shit online and talk about the hegemony and the patriarchy and you know the story. Although we did read Leslie Marmon-Silko's Ceremony, which I loved and will always treasure.)
I am kicking ass at my job. I'm thinking about getting a blog on the side, though, because I find myself constantly repressing the weird things that go on inside my head. I just need an idea, something to hold it together.
I guess I don't count Livejournal as a blog. Although after seeing The Social Network, I realize it was once sort of the only blog out there. Around the time "Jenny From the Block" came out. Remember that?
Which is why I surprised myself tonight with my inventiveness. I'm on a special cleanse/diet and it's quite restrictive, so creativity is a must if I want to feel remotely satisfied. Here's what I did: I cooked up some quinoa (added coconut oil, don't know if that changed anything). Then I fried chopped green bell pepper, onion, and tomato in oil at a really high temperature, adding paprika and cayenne pepper and a bit of salt. I combined the lot of it, then added--wait for it--cinnamon! And it was surprisingly delish. I didn't measure anything, though, so it's unlikely it would taste the same if I did it again.
In other news, the New Oxford American Dictionary editors named "refudiate" the 2010 word of the year. Sarah Palin inadvertently coined the word via Twitter while trying to say either "refute" or "repudiate" (then quickly deleted the tweet, then defended herself by saying Shakespeare used to coin words all the time, so why can't she?). I do not know how to feel about this. On one hand, I don't think people who are expected to communicate/be well-spoken for a living and then fail at it and then compare themselves to SHAKESPEARE (which, no! Just no!) should be encouraged. On the other hand, I sort of see the editors' point:
"From a strictly lexical interpretation of the different contexts in which Palin has used 'refudiate,' we have concluded that neither 'refute' nor 'repudiate' seems consistently precise, and that 'refudiate' more or less stands on its own, suggesting a general sense of 'reject,' " the New Oxford American Dictionary said in a press release.
I still stand by my view that she ruined Alaska, though.
Other news! I'm giving myself a challenge. I am going to read all the books on Time's All Time 100 Novels (which I assume is a reference to the name of the publication, not as in "since forever," because the list only goes back to 1923). I feel like I should give myself a deadline, but I can't decide when it should be. It would be cool to do it in a year, but I don't want to wait [for our lives to be overrrrrr] for New Year's to start. So for now I'm just going to say, full speed ahead, worry about a deadline later. I'm starting with Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion.
I am setting myself some rules, though; like, if it's been five years or more since I read something on the list, I have to reread it. Which will be good, because I didn't know shit in high school when I was reading some of these for English class.
There's also the fact that I'm really under-read in general. Or, I read a decent amount (I'm always reading SOMETHING), but I've never really known WHAT to read. It'll be good, for once, to stick to things that are nice and tidily in the canon, that are Very Significant. (I know, strange, right, that I have an English degree and I'm talking about being under-read in the canon? Well, I think I'm pretty well-versed [groan] in poetry, and I know a lot about American plays, but somehow I slipped through the system without learning much about fiction. We were required to take a Survey of American Lit class, and we just seemed to read random shit online and talk about the hegemony and the patriarchy and you know the story. Although we did read Leslie Marmon-Silko's Ceremony, which I loved and will always treasure.)
I am kicking ass at my job. I'm thinking about getting a blog on the side, though, because I find myself constantly repressing the weird things that go on inside my head. I just need an idea, something to hold it together.
I guess I don't count Livejournal as a blog. Although after seeing The Social Network, I realize it was once sort of the only blog out there. Around the time "Jenny From the Block" came out. Remember that?