The Shins, oh how I love you.
Truly and Purely.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Continuing education
The Brooklyn Kitchen, perhaps known to some of you as The Meat Hook, in Williamsburg offers cooking classes.
LV pointed this out to me and we signed up for the pizza making class.
The guys teaching (from Roberta's) were really great - funny, knowledgeable, friendly. As might be expected, they were passionate about pizza. It was a hands on class. We each had our own station and ingredients. Everyone had an apron. They served beer. You can't really ask for more.
We spent the first part of the class making dough and the second part taking dough that had been proofed and making pizza.
The pizzas were delicious.
Everyone took their dough home to make pizzas with.
Mine did not turn out nearly as well as the ones in class:
To begin, I think I should have divided the dough last night. Maybe coat it with a little olive oil to keep from drying out. And let it warm up to room temp before even trying to handle it. Tip of the iceberg.
Clearly I need LOTS more practice. My track record with bread type things is not so hot. Lots more practice. LOTS!!!!
Still, it was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I'm definitely interested in taking another class there.
LV pointed this out to me and we signed up for the pizza making class.
The guys teaching (from Roberta's) were really great - funny, knowledgeable, friendly. As might be expected, they were passionate about pizza. It was a hands on class. We each had our own station and ingredients. Everyone had an apron. They served beer. You can't really ask for more.
We spent the first part of the class making dough and the second part taking dough that had been proofed and making pizza.
The pizzas were delicious.
Everyone took their dough home to make pizzas with.
Mine did not turn out nearly as well as the ones in class:
To begin, I think I should have divided the dough last night. Maybe coat it with a little olive oil to keep from drying out. And let it warm up to room temp before even trying to handle it. Tip of the iceberg.
Clearly I need LOTS more practice. My track record with bread type things is not so hot. Lots more practice. LOTS!!!!
Still, it was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I'm definitely interested in taking another class there.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Easy things that are not
Warning, this post is very long and boring. We file it under, how I spent a lot of my weekend.
A while back I bought some recording software from Guitar Center.
The guys behind the counter advised me to buy the software on CD rather than download it online. So I did.
To borrow a phrase from Lyle Lovett, that is when I should have known that I had made my first mistake.
I took the box home and placed it in my living room with the intention of getting around to it. I respond to the things that I buy in one of two ways. I either tear the box open and muck about or I set the box to the side and get accustomed to its smell and presence before doing a thing with it.
With the second response, there is danger that I will set it aside forever, either because I get distracted by other things or because I never get over the newness and strangeness.
I waited my way into the new year and this long weekend, I decided that it was time to install the program. I could play with it and hole up for the rest of the winter.
I generally anticipate that a thing will either be impossibly hard, too difficult to even try, or easy peasy - a quicky jiffy,
When it comes to technology I always and incorrectly assume that it will be the latter.
First there was the long overdue maintenance that was needed for the laptop, the upgrades and scans and shuffling about of things.
After getting all of that out of the way, I got to the part where I put in the disk. The drive whirled and the start up menu displayed. All good signs.
Except that I had misplaced the piece of plastic on which they had printed my registration serial number. Which they would need to confirm that I had a legitimate copy of the program. I didn't put it in the box where I had found it. I had put it somewhere else. Somewhere visible to remind me that this installation was one of the things that I wanted to do. Only, it was no longer visible.
I turned the house upside down looking for it. For many months it lived on the coffee table, amidst a mass of papers and folders and books sometimes under, sometimes on top of or beside. But then my desire to see a clear surface in the house overwhelmed my desire for a visual reminder and prompted me to put it somewhere very safe. So safe that it took me three hours to relocate the card with the registration number.
Note to Self, cleaning, clearing and organizing are three different but related processes. None of which I am apparently that skilled at.
Now I was set. Except that the disk wouldn't install the program. I kept getting an error message. First I thought that this was because I was trying to install without having an active internet connection.
I couldn't get on the internet to save my life for a day and a half from the laptop that I wanted to use for this purpose. And then somehow while clicking around, messing with this or that utility flipping settings on and off, I found a wireless connection. YAY!
But it still didn't work. With a bit of Googling, I found a forum at the company website with a thread directly dealing with this problem. But could not read it without becoming a forum user. I registered and found out that there was an error in the box installer. I was going to have to download the demo and upgrade it.
Now, I don't know about you but if I were this company, Image Line, I would have put in a recall on those CD's. If I were Guitar Center, I would have pulled them from my shelves. MINUS POINTS. So after all that talk about getting the thing in the box, I had to download it online.
And then I lost internet access so I couldn't do a thing.
Now on the last day of my long weekend, I am sitting at the foot of the stairs in my building where I appear to have some internet signal, trying to download and install the program. I saw a note in one of the forums that of the four mirror sites where I can download the demo, two or three of them don't work. I tried to download from one of them to no avail. The second mirror site seems to be working. At least the download has worked. Now the demo is installed. I am trying to figure out how to use the registration key to convince the demo that I should be allowed to use the full version. I am downloading the files that should come up automatically in the hopes that if I install them individually they will figure out how to shake hands with each other. Having never used this software before, I can only hope that I will be able to figure out at what point I have downloaded and installed the product that I paid for.
And then I maybe I will get to play around with it for the remaining part of winter, that is, if I don't get distracted again.
Perhaps I should have gotten an analog 4 track with knobs and sliders.
:\
A while back I bought some recording software from Guitar Center.
The guys behind the counter advised me to buy the software on CD rather than download it online. So I did.
To borrow a phrase from Lyle Lovett, that is when I should have known that I had made my first mistake.
I took the box home and placed it in my living room with the intention of getting around to it. I respond to the things that I buy in one of two ways. I either tear the box open and muck about or I set the box to the side and get accustomed to its smell and presence before doing a thing with it.
With the second response, there is danger that I will set it aside forever, either because I get distracted by other things or because I never get over the newness and strangeness.
I waited my way into the new year and this long weekend, I decided that it was time to install the program. I could play with it and hole up for the rest of the winter.
I generally anticipate that a thing will either be impossibly hard, too difficult to even try, or easy peasy - a quicky jiffy,
When it comes to technology I always and incorrectly assume that it will be the latter.
First there was the long overdue maintenance that was needed for the laptop, the upgrades and scans and shuffling about of things.
After getting all of that out of the way, I got to the part where I put in the disk. The drive whirled and the start up menu displayed. All good signs.
Except that I had misplaced the piece of plastic on which they had printed my registration serial number. Which they would need to confirm that I had a legitimate copy of the program. I didn't put it in the box where I had found it. I had put it somewhere else. Somewhere visible to remind me that this installation was one of the things that I wanted to do. Only, it was no longer visible.
I turned the house upside down looking for it. For many months it lived on the coffee table, amidst a mass of papers and folders and books sometimes under, sometimes on top of or beside. But then my desire to see a clear surface in the house overwhelmed my desire for a visual reminder and prompted me to put it somewhere very safe. So safe that it took me three hours to relocate the card with the registration number.
Note to Self, cleaning, clearing and organizing are three different but related processes. None of which I am apparently that skilled at.
Now I was set. Except that the disk wouldn't install the program. I kept getting an error message. First I thought that this was because I was trying to install without having an active internet connection.
I couldn't get on the internet to save my life for a day and a half from the laptop that I wanted to use for this purpose. And then somehow while clicking around, messing with this or that utility flipping settings on and off, I found a wireless connection. YAY!
But it still didn't work. With a bit of Googling, I found a forum at the company website with a thread directly dealing with this problem. But could not read it without becoming a forum user. I registered and found out that there was an error in the box installer. I was going to have to download the demo and upgrade it.
Now, I don't know about you but if I were this company, Image Line, I would have put in a recall on those CD's. If I were Guitar Center, I would have pulled them from my shelves. MINUS POINTS. So after all that talk about getting the thing in the box, I had to download it online.
And then I lost internet access so I couldn't do a thing.
Now on the last day of my long weekend, I am sitting at the foot of the stairs in my building where I appear to have some internet signal, trying to download and install the program. I saw a note in one of the forums that of the four mirror sites where I can download the demo, two or three of them don't work. I tried to download from one of them to no avail. The second mirror site seems to be working. At least the download has worked. Now the demo is installed. I am trying to figure out how to use the registration key to convince the demo that I should be allowed to use the full version. I am downloading the files that should come up automatically in the hopes that if I install them individually they will figure out how to shake hands with each other. Having never used this software before, I can only hope that I will be able to figure out at what point I have downloaded and installed the product that I paid for.
And then I maybe I will get to play around with it for the remaining part of winter, that is, if I don't get distracted again.
Perhaps I should have gotten an analog 4 track with knobs and sliders.
:\
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
What I should be tweeting right now
I am wearing too much eyeliner today.
And I am still trapped at my desk at work.
These two facts are not related. Merely concurrently true.
And I am still trapped at my desk at work.
These two facts are not related. Merely concurrently true.
Monday, January 03, 2011
Sigh
Leaving denial is much trickier than one might think. It is so comfortable with all those fluffy pillows, all that cotton candy, and the wonderful way it takes the edge off of reality.
A last good bye to 2010
I've been trying to recall what happened in 2010. It's all so fuzzy. It was fuzzy as it was happening and now, even more so. But for some reason I am compelled to recap. I'm going to blame the Christmas letters that I received. (Let me insert here that they are delightful.) I am not so organized as to be able to do one, but if I were, what would be on it?
In 2010
1. I saw the Canstruction competition
2. I watched someone make stone tools at a wine and cheese reception at the NYAS
3. I saw a few really stellar science talks at the Secret Science Club, one in particular: Iain Couzin
4. I turned 40
5. I threw a Cougar Cotillion
6. I had jury duty, was selected and served, they settled out of court.
7. I accosted Malcolm Gladwell. He was so kind about it.
8. I was a mermaid in the Mermaid Parade
9. I went to a roller derby bout
10. I helped one friend move three times
11. I played a cafe show at the 92nd Street Y
12. I bought a bike
13. I played D&D for the first time ever
14. I met someone I like. He wasn't into it. Hey, them's the breaks.
15. I went to NEXT HOPE 2010
16. I went to the Open Video Conference
17. I worked for a week in the UK
18. I got to experience the Momofuku Bo Saam Pork Butt meal (amazing)
19. I caulked, weatherstripped and weatherized all the winders in my apartment and spackled a giant gape in the bedroom wall
20. I rode the 35 mile version of the New York Century ride
21. I went to a Moth Story Slam
22. I played Tranny Bingo
23. I took a pole dancing class
24. I saw the Magna Carta and a Guttenberg bible
25. I walked in the Greenwich Village Halloween parade
26. I worked in Germany for a week
27. I went to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
28. I reconnected with some very dear old friends
29. I went to Niagara Falls, Ontario
30. I saw BBFK get married (YAY!)
31. I crashed and burned in Nanowrimo Only got to 15,000 words.
32. Tried laser hair removal (hated it)
33. Prepped and printed 1500 name badges for one event
34. I got a smartphone
35. I attended SantaCon, as a Santa
36. I witnessed Santa-on-Santa violence
37. I won money in the office raffle and promptly spent it all on booze and nonsense
38. I baked an apple pie from scratch
39. I have come to terms with the fact that I am a hoarder and must monitor this tendency vigilantly
40. I attended the Hackers 15th anniversary party
41. I found an alternate way to get into a headstand in yoga. Now I can do a headstand!
It would probably look better if I used full sentences, threw in some pictures, and cut this list down to 10 items or less.
Mostly, Life led me around by the nose and to nowhere in particular. Perhaps I spent too much of it tortured and longing for love.
It happens. I've had worse things happen in a year.
And now on to 2011.
Wishing you all a Wonderous 2011. Let's kick some ass.
In 2010
1. I saw the Canstruction competition
2. I watched someone make stone tools at a wine and cheese reception at the NYAS
3. I saw a few really stellar science talks at the Secret Science Club, one in particular: Iain Couzin
4. I turned 40
5. I threw a Cougar Cotillion
6. I had jury duty, was selected and served, they settled out of court.
7. I accosted Malcolm Gladwell. He was so kind about it.
8. I was a mermaid in the Mermaid Parade
9. I went to a roller derby bout
10. I helped one friend move three times
11. I played a cafe show at the 92nd Street Y
12. I bought a bike
13. I played D&D for the first time ever
14. I met someone I like. He wasn't into it. Hey, them's the breaks.
15. I went to NEXT HOPE 2010
16. I went to the Open Video Conference
17. I worked for a week in the UK
18. I got to experience the Momofuku Bo Saam Pork Butt meal (amazing)
19. I caulked, weatherstripped and weatherized all the winders in my apartment and spackled a giant gape in the bedroom wall
20. I rode the 35 mile version of the New York Century ride
21. I went to a Moth Story Slam
22. I played Tranny Bingo
23. I took a pole dancing class
24. I saw the Magna Carta and a Guttenberg bible
25. I walked in the Greenwich Village Halloween parade
26. I worked in Germany for a week
27. I went to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
28. I reconnected with some very dear old friends
29. I went to Niagara Falls, Ontario
30. I saw BBFK get married (YAY!)
31. I crashed and burned in Nanowrimo Only got to 15,000 words.
32. Tried laser hair removal (hated it)
33. Prepped and printed 1500 name badges for one event
34. I got a smartphone
35. I attended SantaCon, as a Santa
36. I witnessed Santa-on-Santa violence
37. I won money in the office raffle and promptly spent it all on booze and nonsense
38. I baked an apple pie from scratch
39. I have come to terms with the fact that I am a hoarder and must monitor this tendency vigilantly
40. I attended the Hackers 15th anniversary party
41. I found an alternate way to get into a headstand in yoga. Now I can do a headstand!
It would probably look better if I used full sentences, threw in some pictures, and cut this list down to 10 items or less.
Mostly, Life led me around by the nose and to nowhere in particular. Perhaps I spent too much of it tortured and longing for love.
It happens. I've had worse things happen in a year.
And now on to 2011.
Wishing you all a Wonderous 2011. Let's kick some ass.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)