I only just found out that my last post (the hot dog) was my 100th post on Mirth! But since its too late to celebrate that milestone, I decided to celebrate this 101th post instead=) woot woot! Here's to many more useless ramblings, annoying obsessions, and obnoxious over-analysis!!
Oh, and to my 2 readers, hello and thanks for reading =) [haha I delude myself into thinking there are even two readers of Mirth!]
anyway, no updates lately simply because I've been too busy. School kicked in and is kicking me down--I've got to be DONE with my thesis by the end of this year, that's like only like 15 weeks left or something! :o I also started my TAship, which has its better days, and quit my job as a numba one barrristaa baby. But its a crazy situation with the universities (as with most everywhere else), and I'm only barely getting used to how things work.
I planned the transition between jobs poorly, I have to say, because I'm basically living on like, no money whatsoever. Hello cup of noodles, why that kids meal is looking mighty tasty, etc etc etc. I even have a running list of the things I will buy when I get my first pay check (that is, after paying off some of that credit card debt I've been racking up since my income ran out): haircut, shoes, paperclips, those big clips for large stacks of paper, sweaters for when it (finally) starts getting cooler, snacks for my office, large, wall-sized maps for my classes, a couple books... as if my paycheck were even something to cover all of that! I know I have to be better about budgeting my money because its the kind where I get paid only once a month, and knowing me, I'd blow it all in two weeks :(
well, that was a rather pointless post, but there you go anyway.
MIRTH:
Blogging the delicious, the inane, the delightful, and the laughs of a twenty-something.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
That's some hot DOG!
I know this is definitely a controversial picture, but I find it extremely funny, in a cute, to-die-for kind of way:
Taken from my filipino friend's FB with a caption that reads, " with bacon, grilled onions, sauerkraut and honey mustard." If you are filipino, this is extra special =]
p.s. no I do not condone the eating of precious pooches--or hot dogs for that matter!
Taken from my filipino friend's FB with a caption that reads, " with bacon, grilled onions, sauerkraut and honey mustard." If you are filipino, this is extra special =]
p.s. no I do not condone the eating of precious pooches--or hot dogs for that matter!
Monday, August 17, 2009
French Feast for the Senses
Whenever I get asked what my favorite food is, my mind goes blank. I am at a complete loss for words. I adore chocolate, but I don't have a particular dessert-type food that I love more than anything. When I go out to eat, I usually choose a western-style restaurant/eatery simply but I also know that I can't live without the tastes of Asian cuisine [I can't give up my rice bowls...which is why I can't go on those no-carb diets haha]. Anyway, so while I can't say what my favorite kind of food is, I do love myself some french food. And have a new culinary hero: Tyler Florence. Excusing that stint he did for, what was it, Applebees?, everything he makes looks delicious and the way he describes ingredients and flavors is just beautiful--this is his take on french food.
Images courtesy of Foodnetwork.com, go there for these recipes.
French Onion Soup.
Coq au Vin.
Next on my to make list: this scallop in puff pastry with a beurre blanc sauce.
As well as this: steamed lemon pudding with fresh berries. Salivating yet? ; )
Friday, August 14, 2009
Guilty Pleasures and M.I.A.
no, not the singer.
I've been Missing In Action from my blog for a while now. Last week, I got ridiculously sick--summer colds are the worst because not only are you feverish and congested, but its also 95 degrees out as well! Talk about being comfortable. I even had to call into work sick--my first time taking a sick day ever. EVER, in all of my 7 years of working, I had never ever called into work. I guess there's a first time for everything. Needless to say, all last week I pretty much did nothing but sleep and watch Tv.
oh, and this brings me to confessing a secret of mine. I spent the hours between long naps last week reading 116 chapters of the korean manhwa Goong, then watching 24 episodes of the drama. It was perverse and addictive and silly and unproductive and lovely and fun. I will be the first to admit that I am slightly obsessed with aspects of royalty, so of course this was right up my alley. So there, my guilty pleasure is confessed!
I'm heading off to vegas in about two weeks, but I am terribly, terribly, broke at the moment. The money I manage to save up I always end up spending on ingredients! Since I am eating my investments, it always feels like I have nothing to show for the work that I do, which is why I sometimes go crazy with online shopping because it makes me feel better that I have something tangible to show for the money I've spent. This, I know, is not very smart or financially sound, especially while I've got credit card bills to pay, so I must learn how to curb my wants to concentrate on the needs.
School is fast approaching as well, and I am also in my last two weeks at my current job. At the end of the month I start a new job at school (hurray!) but I am a bit worried that my first paycheck wont be until early/mid october--we get paid monthly. This means I won't have any cash flow for at least a month! I really hope thats not the case, because I don't know what I'd do in the meantime :(
Since I've been a bum recently, I'm determined to be good today. I made my first meal in days, a simple potato, cheese, red pepper, and onion omelet with fresh berries and mango nectar. Now, off to do laundry, grocery shop, hit the gym, and get so useful reading before the day is out!
[p.s. I am in love with Bath and Body works' Pink Grapefruit lotion/soaps. After using them, I smell my hands all day =) ]
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Breakfast
yesterday after a fabulous, home-cooked dinner at sonyas house (sorry no pictures!), I had left over eggs that I tried to pass off to sonya but she suggested I take them home and make a quiche, to which I responded, "I don't make quiches because they don't go well with tea in the morning." But Lo and Behold! This morning I made a quiche for breakfast =) [p.s. it's not that I haven't ever made quiche, no that I don't like eating it, its just I prefer to eat bread-y carbs in the morning hahahaha]
mini-crustless spinach quiches with home-made lox & cream cheese spread over an everything bagel with tomatoes and a glass of orange juice. and not a tea cup in sight!
mini-crustless spinach quiches with home-made lox & cream cheese spread over an everything bagel with tomatoes and a glass of orange juice. and not a tea cup in sight!
On another note, I can't believe school is starting in less than a month. I've got so much to do before then! and where did july even go? will. not. freak. out. will not.
My throat has been really scratchy lately, so now that I think about it, a cup of tea sounds delightful=)
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wish List
I'm so over summer...Fall can't get here soon enough!
On another note, my $947 traffic tickets have been brought down to just $152! =]
Saturday, July 25, 2009
The Big Picture & a side of feminism
It's friday night, and my inability to decide what I'd like to do tonight has lead me to do, well, nothing. No no, I shouldn't say nothing, but I am staying in and reading up for my thesis.
I don't know if I've talked about this here before, but I need some perspective, so here it is: this post will be about my thesis (disgruntled readers, turn away now! this is bound to be uninteresting for nearly everybody!). For those curiously-minded, I am a graduate student in history--especially ancient roman history--specifically women/religion in the ancient roman empire. I'm nearly done with my MA program; I just need to finish up that pesky thing called the thesis. What, pray tell, am I writing this tome about? What is it that I spend days and nights dreaming, thinking, crying, praying, typing away at, scratching my head over? What is the topic that I've dedicated the last year and one-half to?
Well, it goes something like this (taken from a writing exercise from Kate Turabian's Manual of Style):
I am studying the topic of female priests/patrons in the first 3 centuries of the Roman empire, because I want to find out how women across the roman empire were obtaining public power/status in their communities through their works as both priestess and patroness, so that I can help others understand that women in ancient rome were not simply mothers and wives, that their influence was not merely in the domestic sphere, and that they could have power in their own right, as women equally able to change the face, customs, behaviours, way of life of their cities as any man--something that history in general seems to forget or overlook.
I will be the first to admit that I recognize that I, myself, am overwhelmed by what I'm arguing. I won't go into very much detail (because this post is already riveting as it is), but let me just say that it is a daunting task, and I am easily intimidated. Hence the laggy-ness on my part over the course of this summer to make any sort of real progress on my thesis.
However, when I come across a statement as such as this: By erecting large-scale structures, women effectively inserted a feminine voice, an alien prescence, into a predominantly masculine culture (Margaret L. Woodhull, "Matronly Patrons in the Early Roman Empire: The Case of Salvia Postuma" [I wish this thing had footnotes lol]), which, on the surface seems like a rather ordinary statement, but is really a comment on extraordinary behavior of women in a time that was so overtly masculine, and what a remarkable position these women were in to be able to stand right along side their male counterparts, and how important it is to recognize the efforts of these women, my heart bursts into a firey passion that screams out that THIS, this, is why I do what I do.
Women are so neglected, so marginalized, so downplayed in the history books, in the social studies books in schools. I think back to my own education, and how I didn't get an appreciation of a woman in history until I was in 7th grade, when I did a presentation of Eleanor of Aquitaine. I read the book, Of Scarlet and Miniver, a supplementary reading because I can't even remember if there was even a biographical slip of Eleanor in that social studies book, and through that book, forgiving all its romanticizing and character illusions, I found myself, for the first time, admiring an historical woman. And I mean, I really really admired her. But what, I was 12? 13? at the time? And I found that I did not have that feeling of admiration, of witnessing a woman's experience of history, for the rest of my middle/high school education. And how unfortunate is it that young girls are made to study the history through the eyes of men, and how they could potentially go through all that education without even once understanding her own self through that history, of not being able to see her own existence in the pages of that history because women are not taken seriously. And for all those haters who think that women do not have a place in their type of history because they didn't participate in wars, or politics, I just have to say that that means nothing because women were there too. Woman have always been there.
okay, enough of that. I didn't mean to rant on about feminist history haha.
On a completely different note, I got my office assignment and my office number for the semester <3 I was completely giddy, but it won't feel official until I get my KEYS. Oh, but, there are 9 TAs for the course, 7 boys and 2 girls, and get this, they paired off all the boys together, and put me with the girl, and all the boys are together at one end of the floor, and me and this girl are on the opposite end! Also, because the number of boys just far exceeds the number of girls in our department, I just happen to know all the other boys, and the girl that I'm sharing an office with is a complete stranger to me. Figures, right?
I don't know if I've talked about this here before, but I need some perspective, so here it is: this post will be about my thesis (disgruntled readers, turn away now! this is bound to be uninteresting for nearly everybody!). For those curiously-minded, I am a graduate student in history--especially ancient roman history--specifically women/religion in the ancient roman empire. I'm nearly done with my MA program; I just need to finish up that pesky thing called the thesis. What, pray tell, am I writing this tome about? What is it that I spend days and nights dreaming, thinking, crying, praying, typing away at, scratching my head over? What is the topic that I've dedicated the last year and one-half to?
Well, it goes something like this (taken from a writing exercise from Kate Turabian's Manual of Style):
I am studying the topic of female priests/patrons in the first 3 centuries of the Roman empire, because I want to find out how women across the roman empire were obtaining public power/status in their communities through their works as both priestess and patroness, so that I can help others understand that women in ancient rome were not simply mothers and wives, that their influence was not merely in the domestic sphere, and that they could have power in their own right, as women equally able to change the face, customs, behaviours, way of life of their cities as any man--something that history in general seems to forget or overlook.
I will be the first to admit that I recognize that I, myself, am overwhelmed by what I'm arguing. I won't go into very much detail (because this post is already riveting as it is), but let me just say that it is a daunting task, and I am easily intimidated. Hence the laggy-ness on my part over the course of this summer to make any sort of real progress on my thesis.
However, when I come across a statement as such as this: By erecting large-scale structures, women effectively inserted a feminine voice, an alien prescence, into a predominantly masculine culture (Margaret L. Woodhull, "Matronly Patrons in the Early Roman Empire: The Case of Salvia Postuma" [I wish this thing had footnotes lol]), which, on the surface seems like a rather ordinary statement, but is really a comment on extraordinary behavior of women in a time that was so overtly masculine, and what a remarkable position these women were in to be able to stand right along side their male counterparts, and how important it is to recognize the efforts of these women, my heart bursts into a firey passion that screams out that THIS, this, is why I do what I do.
Women are so neglected, so marginalized, so downplayed in the history books, in the social studies books in schools. I think back to my own education, and how I didn't get an appreciation of a woman in history until I was in 7th grade, when I did a presentation of Eleanor of Aquitaine. I read the book, Of Scarlet and Miniver, a supplementary reading because I can't even remember if there was even a biographical slip of Eleanor in that social studies book, and through that book, forgiving all its romanticizing and character illusions, I found myself, for the first time, admiring an historical woman. And I mean, I really really admired her. But what, I was 12? 13? at the time? And I found that I did not have that feeling of admiration, of witnessing a woman's experience of history, for the rest of my middle/high school education. And how unfortunate is it that young girls are made to study the history through the eyes of men, and how they could potentially go through all that education without even once understanding her own self through that history, of not being able to see her own existence in the pages of that history because women are not taken seriously. And for all those haters who think that women do not have a place in their type of history because they didn't participate in wars, or politics, I just have to say that that means nothing because women were there too. Woman have always been there.
okay, enough of that. I didn't mean to rant on about feminist history haha.
On a completely different note, I got my office assignment and my office number for the semester <3 I was completely giddy, but it won't feel official until I get my KEYS. Oh, but, there are 9 TAs for the course, 7 boys and 2 girls, and get this, they paired off all the boys together, and put me with the girl, and all the boys are together at one end of the floor, and me and this girl are on the opposite end! Also, because the number of boys just far exceeds the number of girls in our department, I just happen to know all the other boys, and the girl that I'm sharing an office with is a complete stranger to me. Figures, right?
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