gmonkey42

I went to hulu.com to watch some SNL clips and I saw an ad for this reality show If I Can Dream. There's somebody on the show named Giglianne.

GIGLIANNE?

Is that a bastardization of my name? I think it is.



...OK, it's not quite pronounced the same: I thought it was jee-lee-ann (whereas mine is jill-ee-ann); it's actually jee-glee-annie. But still. I call shenanigans.

It's almost as bad as that time on Family Guy when Brian's dumbass girlfriend was named Gillian (or Jillian? I don't think we saw it written).

I AM KIND OF PROTECTIVE OF MY NAME OK?

I need to go to the lab tomorrow morning. To do science.

...The subject line pretty much says it all.

I'm going to eat some toast and read some Discworld before I go to sleep, though.

OH! Did you see? I Shall Wear Midnight is going to be released in September! Right before my birthday! :D

Read this thread on ontd_science. Then read the rest of the comments but read this thread first.

ETA: The comments are less fun now that someone replied to EVERY SINGLE ONE with the same totally unnecessary comment. Other people had already debunked it! Read the other comments before you post one! Or fifty! Oh well.*

You know what? I don't think anyone really 100% believed this. If we really believed all of humanity had six months to live, we'd start acting differently. Not sitting at our computers going "oh no, I'm so scared!" Which is good, of course; if people believed every doomsday prophecy they read on the internet and behaved accordingly, we'd all be in a lot of trouble. It's just annoying. A bunch of LJ users need to get their bullshit meters re-calibrated.

* EagainTA: Aaaaaand they've flounced. LOL.

I never watched whole episodes of Attack of The Show but I've seen clips and I saw her on this Daily Show episode. Her delivery just sucks. Her only line that made me laugh was, somewhat ironically, "I don't know what those words mean." Also there have been accusations that her geek persona on G4 was fake; that she doesn't know much about tech and video games and she was just reading the cue cards, whereas the other hosts were actually interested in and knowledgeable about the subject matter. The problem we have with her is not so much that she uses her looks to get her foot in the door. It's that once she's inside, it becomes clear that she didn't have anything else going for her. Stuff like this demonstrates that hotness is not only necessary and sufficient, having other qualities - like humor or talent - is actually a disadvantage.

Something clicked for me today: women who are clever and funny are automatically read as less attractive. See: Tina Fey. I suspect if there had been two finalists for the Daily Show job and the other one was equally attractive but better at doing comedy, they would have preferred Olivia. For example, Erin Gibson, the new Sarah Haskins with her Current TV show Modern Lady, is both very funny and very attractive. Why don't we see more people like her getting wider exposure? And every single joke about Liz Lemon centers around the premise that she's unattractive. Why does that work? Partly because Tina Fey is such a gifted comedic performer that she makes it work. But I suspect it wouldn't work as well with an attractive male actor playing a character that's supposed to be that physically unappealing (unless they do styling to make him look a lot more unappealing than usual, which is also partly how they make it work on 30 Rock).

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[Error: unknown template qotd]What does an Exit sign have to do with this question? Seriously, I can't think of any way for it to make sense.

I'm huuuungry! I'm going to enter the data for 5 10 forms (holy crap, we have over 100 forms to enter for June!) then I'm going to the farmers' market for ingredients to make me some gumbo.

The last time I made that gumbo, I also threw in some black-eyed peas from a can and that makes it more filling and protein-rich. I'm going to do that again.

I dreamed I was being chased by zombies. Except they were cartoon dogs. I was also a cartoon dog. WTF.

[Error: unknown template qotd]This is a weird question. So someone breaks into my house, sets it on fire, and then becomes trapped inside? And I'm supposed to decide whether to save them? Is this a trick question? The obvious answer would be "hell no." I guess it depends on who it is and how hard it would be to get them out. If it's a stranger who's big enough that I'd spend the entire 10 minutes trying to get them out, and risk injury myself? No, I wouldn't even attempt it. Have you ever tried to move an unconscious person (or someone pretending to be unconscious for the sake of training)? It's pretty damn hard.

This question raises a lot more questions: how do I know they set my house on fire deliberately? Why did they do it? How do I know I have exactly 10 minutes? Why can't I save the person AND some of my stuff?

Perhaps I am too literal-minded for these Scruples-types of questions to work on me.

I adapted this recipe from http://thaitable.com and it's super easy and delicious!

Sweet Sticky Rice
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup glutinous rice a.k.a. Thai sweet rice; you will probably have to go to an Asian market, I've never seen it at Safeway or similar.
- 1/2 cup plus a bit of water - enough to just cover the rice in a bowl
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- the fruit of your choice; mangoes are popular

Directions:
1. Put the rice in a microwave-safe bowl and get a plate that can sit over the top of the bowl.

2. Pour the water over the rice, put the plate on top and let it soak for an hour. Or warm up the water first and soak for 10 minutes.

3. With the plate still on top (the plate is important! or else the water will all evaporate and the rice will explode in your microwave! not that I discovered that the hard way or anything!) cook the rice in the microwave for 2 minutes.

4. Leave it for about 30 seconds to let the steam condense then remove the plate and fluff with a fork.

5. Loop back to 3 two more times or until the rice is squishy and translucent. Eat some if you're not sure. You might have to add a splash more water if it's drying out. My microwave is a super-badass 1.25kW. If yours is wimpy like 750W then two rounds of 3 minutes each should work fine, I have to check it more frequently so it doesn't get overcooked.

6. When the rice is done, leave it covered and get a small saucepan and heat the coconut milk over medium heat.

7. Add the sugar and stir constantly while simmering the coconut milk until it starts to thicken up, about 5 minutes. Or maybe a bit longer, I wasn't really paying attention to the time. Let's say 5-8 minutes.

8. When it's like a moderately syrupy sauce, turn off the stove and pour the coconut milk & sugar into the rice bowl. Stir it up and let sit for 5 minutes. Reserve some sauce for serving, if you like.

9. Serve warm with fruit & extra sauce on top. Makes two servings, or one if you're pretty hungry. I handled the fruit portion the super lazy way: just open a Dole fruit cup and dump it on. I should have poured off some of the syrup from the fruit cup, there was a little too much liquid but apart from that it was very nice.

[Error: unknown template qotd]Pretty often and yes. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's important to plan for the future. Planning for the future is what got me where I am today. And it's not all deferred gratification, I get to have some fun now. But I want to make sure I get to have fun later too.