Life in Thesis-land : frivolity

Reasons I hate revisions, number 57

Karen.Hall — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 05:56:00 GMT

I had to delete 'evil Atlanteans had much more straightforward plans for world domination'. And they did, goddammit. And I had the footnote to prove it.

I came last in the Cup

Karen.Hall — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:16:00 GMT

Well, one of my office sweepstake horses did. And that means I have won a pile of (chocolate) gold coins - which, I must admit, is more my style of winnigns than any serious gambling.

It's been a while since I've posted a recipe, so in honour of the event, here's what I brought along for the celebration.

Caramellised Onions and Chorizo Puffs

Brown onions (about 3)
Sugar (whatever sort is in the cupboard)
Vinegar (I use red wine vinegar)
Olive oil
Puff pastry (frozen from the shops - there's no way I'm crazy enough to make this from scratch)
Chorizo sausage

Method: Chop up the onions in a fairly rough-ish dice. Cook them over a very low heat, with a good splash of vinegar, couple of tablespoons of sugar, and a large dash of olive oil. Stir occasionally, and keep cooking until they are well beyond translucent, though not burnt. Let onions cool, while preheating oven to 180 degrees. Cut out 5cm diameter circles of pastry (*** with a fork), then place on each circle a tablespoon of onionand two thin-ish slices of chorizo. Bake for 15 minutes or unitl golden brown, serve warm.

And the Potterstakes Chosen One Is....

Karen.Hall — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:03:00 GMT

I'm just going to ramble a bit so that any implied SPOILERS end up below the preview feed thingy on the main page, and so I will note that my devotion to the Harry Potter cause can be measured by the fact that I went to Whitfords on a Saturday morning to get it. The good thing about Whitfords being, of course, that one doesn't have to get out of one's round-the-house bogan clothes to go there: the downside is that I can't kill stupid-don't-know-how-a-carpark-works and incapable -of-walking-50-metres people with my brain.

I think that should be safe now. Sanna, you are the Potterstakes winner! Inform me of your choice of chocolate and I'll get it to you soon.

Overheard at my hairdresser

Karen.Hall — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:16:00 GMT

The final word on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: 'Won't the book spoil the seventh film?'

O the Evilness of Me

Karen.Hall — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:53:00 GMT

I've just gone crazy with this whole getting paid for doing work thing and have ordered 3 books and 1 DVD set - only gone of which could be even vaguely justified as 'research'. (And when your area is cultural studies, that's saying a lot.) That's isn't including the planned Potter purchase this weekend. O the evilness of me!

Potterstakes

Karen.Hall — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:58:00 GMT

In the spirit of the Popestakes, I bring you Potterstakes! JK Rowling has proclaimed that two important characters die in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (released in 9 more sleeps, or so my Dymocks bookmark says): who will they be? Nominate your picks for dead characters below, and I will award the winner with chocolate!

My picks are:

1. Dumbledore (back from the dead, then dead again)

2. Neville Longbottom (though I hope not, I like Neville)

(I would like Lindt creme brulee chocolate)

Random Bullets of Good Morning

Karen.Hall — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 01:06:00 GMT

I caught public transport to uni this morning. Getting to campus without the 78 buses sucks. Having your front numberplate fall off your car in the middle of the freeway sucks. I suspect that my interchange at lunchtime with the lisencing department will - guess what - suck.
Nonetheless, there is cheerful old-school jazz turned up loud somewhere below my window. And I have coffee.
I attempted to explain Grey's Anatomy to my parents last night, as they are staying at my/their house during their trip up to the big city. I think I lost them at 'dead fiance who is still around in spirit'.
But the Tour de France was well and truly worth staying up for! The prologue was great for 'I've been there!' place-spotting, and Robbie McEwan's win in stage one was amazing. And he thanked his team-mates for helping him get back to the peleton after the crash, which was just gorgeous. Yay for sharing and caring in sport.
I'm not talking about the football. Bloody East Fremantle bad luck bloody heritage jumpers. I might have to switch to the WAFL - go Tigers!
My office is tidy and shiny and new! I love having an office. Pictures to come soon.

Day in the Life 6: Tea time too

Karen.Hall — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 07:23:00 GMT

I'm just back from afternoon tea (one of the cute (not-so) little cupcakes over at Neds). Is it just me, or do postgraduates have an obsession with food? I know that my mother was quite shocked when, on her recent arrival at the house, I offered to introduce her to Pierre and Norman - Pierre and Norman being the two camembert cheeses that I'm in the process of making. They've been through the white and fluffy stage and are now wrapped up, waiting to mature and get eaten. Poor little things. Maybe it was a bad idea to name them.

Language and Opinions: Do You Really Want to Hear What I Think?

Karen.Hall — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:24:00 GMT

I am a sad person that fantasises that one day I will be called for one of those 'who will you vote for at the next election' and 'who is your preferred prime minister polls' because, goddamit, my opinion is important (a tendancy that I'm afraid has been exacerbated by teaching and postgraduate education). So when I recieved a call last night asking for my opinion on my local government I was, of course, delighted to share. The survey began by asking what concerned me about my local government (let's call them City of MLG) and the things it was in charge of. Well, I started listing things like the fortnightly recycling service, public spaces, libraries etc when the surveyor interrupted me to ask me what exactly concerned me about these things. My query of 'Do you mean 'concerned' as in worried about, or generally interested in?' seemed to only confuse things further. I wonder if this unrealised ambiguity says more about the responses that City of MLG usually gets from its constituents, or if it was my surveyors lack of familiarity with the OED. But I confined myself to numbers and strongly agree-strongly disagree responses for the rest of the survey, and avoided a long rant on how private security patrols only cater for law-and-order moral panics and what we really need is better designed suburbs. However, my name is now down as willing to be in focus groups - and if that happens, you can bet I have plenty of opinions to share.

And on a totally random note, it appears I missed the zombie apocalypse yesterday. I've already assessed my house for zombie attacked preparedness at home (location good, escape routes bad, number of windows bad, potential weaponry good - I have a decent chance of survival), but maybe we need a plan for the university?

Open Letter to My Brain

Karen.Hall — Wed, 23 May 2007 01:58:00 GMT

Dear Brain,

I'd really prefer if you didn't wake me up at 5pm in the morning to come up with lesson plans for the next day's tutorial. But if you must, would you mind actually holding onto the plan you come up with? I can tell you that staring at a page convinced that there were three more topics to include - death grip of the first coffee of the day, neccesitated by the 5pm start - is not fun.

Further, please keep focused while in classroom setting. You are meant to be working, not coming up with silly images of me as a performing seal bouncing a red ball on my nose while I try to model engaged scholarly inquiry.

Yours sleep-deprived grumpily,

Karen

not!Key Lime Pie

Karen.Hall — Mon, 07 May 2007 09:55:00 GMT

What do you do if you have a surplus of limes lying around the house? This is obviously one of the great existential questions in life, which I was forced to confront this weekend after I got suckered into the on-sale limes from the fuit and vege shop last week. They were looking yellow and rather miserable, so something had to be done. Normally limes equal gin and tonic, but I'm a seasonal drinker and despite the sunshine this really isn't gin and tonic weather - one of the good things about winter being that I end up with a bootle of red wine on the kitchen bench, on hand for drinking or cooking or both, following the Ian Parmenter school of wine should be drinkable if it is used in cooking. Luckily for my budget I have low standards of drinkability, though not as low as my grandfather and his $3.99 specials, which, pray god, won't be available soon because of the drought.

So, limes somehow word associated to key lime pie - obviously, I didn't have the extra special key times but hey, right type of citrus at least. The internet gave me 101 versions, so I went with the simplest version, ending up something like this:

Grate the zest of two ordinary limes. Don't grate your fingers, as having lime juice around will make this an even more painful mistake. Juice the limes plus another three. At this point I went out and did grocery shopping plus a visit to the plant nursery to get some native violets, a bay shrub (for my shrubbery!), and potting mix. That is obviously an optional part of the recipe.

Make a biscuit base by crushing about 8 granita biscuits, then adding enough melted butter that it starts to hold together when pressed. Cut out a circle of baking paper to fit in the bottom of a spring-form cake tin, then put the biscuit crumbs in and press down. Bake for 180 degrees celcius for 10 minutes-ish.

Separate 4 eggs. Take the yolks and beat until creamy and lighter yellow. Put aside the egg whites for something else, like egg-white omlettes. What do the diet-crazy people who live on egg-white omlettes and chicken do with the egg yolks? Most of the recipes I know using egg yolks and decadently evil dessert things. How does this fit? I've always wondered.

Stop wondering and mix in most of a tin of sweetened condensed milk. If I translated the American recipe right, you want 350g of milk, but the tins seem to all be 395g (again, why? This seems a very arbitrary number). If your house and family is like mine, the leftovers won't last long anyway. Then slowly drizzle in the lime juice, mixing as you go, and then the zest. The key lime pie websites all proudly proclaimed that the sweetened condensed milk comes from this recipe being invented before refrigeration, and presumably, there being no cows in Florida for on-the-spot milk delivery. It is comforting to know that when the apocalypse comes, and all I'm left with is my mothr's stash of canned goods, I will have dessert options. The other fact for the day is that the reaction between the acid in the lime juice and other ingredients 'sets' the mix, but in these days of food hygiene consciousness, we are supposed to bake the pie anyway. I went the safe option and put the milk mix on top of the pie base and baked for 12 minutes (12 being hygienically significant, apparently).

The pie actually ends up looking more like what I'd call a tart - but then I couldn't have wandered the house on Sunday going mmm pie.

Signs of Autumn

Karen.Hall — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 01:10:00 GMT

It must be autumn...

The northern suburbs are eveloped in a haze of wood smoke - rather pretty, but still alarming when you wake up to the smell of smoke (call me paranoid, but it is reassuring to go to sleep with your laptop in the same room so you can see as soon as wake up that it hasn't been burnt down somehow).

The excuse for 'five more minutes' before getting up is 'I'm warm in here' rather than 'I'm tired'.

An old blanket has taken up residence on the couch.

The dog is also referred to as a hot water bottle.

Random Bullets of Mondayness

Karen.Hall — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 06:00:00 GMT

My dog decided to do a reverse re-enactment of the standard WWII POW drama last night: he dug his way into the vegetable garden under the fence, then spent hours barking because he couldn't figure out how to get out. I found this out at 3ish in the morning. I am tired and unamused. The majority of the pumpkin seedlings survived.
I love reticulation systems. However, I am totally useless when it comes to putting them together or repairing them - though having the power on helps.
You can tell when I'm trying to get into writing mode: I use waaaay more colons and semi-colons than usual. That being said, there is nothing wrong with enjoying your punctuation.
Signs that you are shopping in a centre making a strong stab at gentrification: an advertisement for people looking for the perfect present for new mothers, which is - apparently - brie. I will bear that in mind.
When fashion says that sack-style short dresses made of grey t-shirt material are in, just say no to fashion. Please.
Obviously, I went shopping this weekend. I have now purchased all the Easter supplies I should need. This did not help with my attempts to cut down on chocolate consumption.
Mmmm, chocolate.

Okay, back to work.

Sometimes (TV) life requires cupcakes

Karen.Hall — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 07:06:00 GMT

In honour of my sister's new 'crystal-look' Tupperware cakestand (it is actually blatantly plastic and rather tacky) I made cupcakes on the weekend. I tried to be good and leave the majority uneaten so they could be displayed, but the various emotional traumas in Grey's Anatomy had to be redressed by cupcake consumption, and so the few survivors ended up looking rather forlorn.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup castor sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
good handful on white chocolate melts
8 frozen raspberries, crumbled

Cream butter and sugar, stir in egg then flour. Mix in the chocolate (sampling optional) and raspberries. Spoon mix into paper tins in muffin tray, bake in 200degree oven for approx 15 minutes. Makes 6 (or 10 if you go for mini-cupcakes). I iced the cakes by briefly microwaving 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp white chocolate melts (on a low setting), then mixing in about 1 tbsp icing sugar. Ice cakes before the mixture cools.

Sometimes Haraway fails me....

Karen.Hall — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 08:18:00 GMT

I tried to plug my earphone into my ear.

The plug end, not the earbud end.

I'm willing to think of myself as Harawayian cyborg, but this is ridiculous.