Potpourri

Exclusivity. I'm against it. Never condoned it never will. Why? Because it feels a lot like discrimination. I will not be discriminated. Not by age, not by sex, not by status, not by race. I treat everyone as my equal and I expect people to do the same.

Some people are, no, scratch that, A LOT of people are Narutards. I, on the other hand, am infected by the Hanta virus. Oh, I'm loving it like I'm twelve again. It inspires me, keeps me up at night, I have plans like you wouldn't believe. And most of all I am very happy.

The Yoshimoto Cube just blows my mind.

I'm showing signs of recovery from EGD aka Excessive Gashaponing Disease. Haven't been back since the 21st (but for some weird reason I'm still broke). Although I don't think that I will really rid my self of EGD, I mean just look at them all lined up:

Pay close attention to the middle four...OOOHHHHHH, YEEAAH!

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

For some reason the story that's suppose to accompany the picture never materialized so instead I'm just gonna write down stuff that used to be a part of the piece that never was.

The cookie is five inches in diameter. Almost as big as my face and could possibly end world hunger.

Didn't use chips. Instead I melted a block of dark chocolate, chilled it and chopped it. Now, you don't actually chop chilled chocolate because when you try and do it they shatter. And that is wonderful. I had big chunks and I had fine chocolate sand.

I wanted my cookies to look lumpy and crack-y. I want them stop turning out like that thing up there I mean they look good but they always look like that.

Still searching for that perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. This one is not it. They got great feedback from the family but not from me. No, not horrible just not IT.

Tried chilling for a long time like that New York Times article suggested and recommended. The funny thing is I've done that before without realizing it. Because for me that wasn't ooh this would give the eggs time to get to the flour. It was just left over dough from last night. But why did I not think that chilling would make a difference? Because it really did. When I baked it the following day it was certainly better.

Why do people always say that I "have a good command of the English language" or "magaling mag-English" when they've only heard me speak it once or twice their entire lives?

Being made to be one of the frontliners--what's that you ask, well, a frontliner is someone who gets shot first when things go horribly, seriously wrong, hence the name-- for the upcoming ADClash gives me the heebie jeebies. It's flattering that these people entrusted me this important task on being one of the voices for everybody, and this might just be the thing to help me get over my crippling fear of public speaking. But that is the very same thing that I hate the most about it, for the defense and presentation wouldn't happen in front of a panel of judges consisting of maybe 5 or 6 big shots. Oh, no, we're too flashy for that! Instead this will happen in front of the entire Advertising student body plus a few more curious people who have absolutely no idea of what's happening.

Did I mention that it would also be documented? I'm talking videos and pictures and if possible, holograms!

Well, if you hate it so much why don't you just quit? You're a big fan of the No-one-can-make-me-do-anything-I-don't-wanna-do movement so quit! I can't. There we're three people before me who were forced into it as well but they didn't say anything. Not a pip not even a "what the fuck!"And then me who even underwent a voting process had the nerve to be a diva and say hell no. I can't. I just have to deal with it, suck it up.

Yep, I already accepted the fact that come ADClash I will be sweating under uncomfortable clothes in front of hundreds of kids trying not to sound stupid.

But still this is all ridiculous! Just as ridiculous as the ridiculousness that was going on in my head while the whole ridiculous voting process was happening ridiculously.

"Well, I have nothing to worry. There's only two more slots left and there are, what, eight, nine ten people to choose from. What are the odds of me being one of the two?"

"Okay, so the fourth one is Angelique..."

"Crap! And what a landslide fail too. Man, so all the theories of probability or whatever doesn't really apply to me. Great!"

Capsule toys

Did it for the first time yesterday. I got lucky I guess because I got who I wanted first time doing it. I got Kurapika! Wooop! And then from the next machine I got Nobita. I got all the critters I wanted. Okay, from the Doraemon gang anyone would have been okay, they were all cute but still. Anyway, when I got Kurapika I have to admit I squealed a lil bit. Never really thought I would get him I'm really unlucky when it comes to things like that. There could all be nothing but Kurapika's and I would still get, I don't know, Barney. Yes, unlucky like that.

Maybe it's just me being a weirdo or me just missing out on a lot of things but doing the capsule toy thingamajig was really fun. Sure it rendered me broke and I probably could have gotten them for half the price in Divisoria but then I wouldn't have had the pleasure of turning the knob.

What I have been doing

I was cooking. Not really shocking but here's something that sounds hardcore: even up to the last minutes before '08 becomes '09 I was making frosting for the cake my aunt asked me to do. Fifteen minutes before midnight exactly was the time I pronounced that cake done and done. Good thing too because after all the fireworks, which were considerably less this year, and the jumping, and the "Happy New Year"-ing the relatives ate the the cake. About two-thirds of it. They said it was good, I say it's okay. Here's a photo:

This wasn't the exact cake the kids devoured the cake pictured has marshmallow frosting the cake that got eaten by the family has Swiss Buttercream . But they look similar.

Other things I've been cooking:

S'mores bars

Chocolate Chip Pecan Bars of which I also made in cookie form

and most recently Butter cookies. I used my gingerbread men cookie cutters and added some color to make it a little more interesting. This took a while to do because of the cutting and freezing and rolling and transferring. I was working on it for two hours and there's still some dough left.

I worked with fondant too for the first time. No picture though. Didn't take one. It was okay the family even oohed and aahed because it was "beautiful and artistic." They were mesmerized by the roses and leaves. Yep, it was a painting of a garden full of roses alright if the artist who did it happen to be on acid.

Cooking wasn't the only thing that kept me busy during the the holidays. I was also reading. Here's my reading list:

1. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
2. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
3. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
4. Cell by Stephen King
5. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Don't ask how Gaiman happened he just did. Gone are the days of "King still better than this guy". I actually thought at one point that he replaced King. I thought about it again and came to the conclusion that yes, he did. I still like King but Cell was bad. I gave it a chance I was like this for a while:

Me 1: Oh, this is bad!

Me 2: Yup, it is.

Me 1: Who am I kidding? It's King it can't be bad.

But it was. It was overwritten. What could have been said completely and perfectly with four words he used ten. It had its moments(King and I--ha!--have the same zombies in our heads, not really the walking dead just kinda cuckoo) but not enough to redeem itself.

I spent a buttload on books. It's cool they keep me happy. Happier still because I still have The Graveyard Book and Nightwatch to look forward to.