Books I like

I had a little difficulty picking out the books I wanted to talk about for this but I narrowed it down to three. I was going to mention books like the Harry Potter series and The Hunger Games, I think they're great books but I don't think need any badly worded praise from me.

Looking For Alaska, John Green. I was going to try and stay away from John's books because it seem rather fangirly to mention his books in a blog which is basically about the community based around him but Looking For Alaska is my all time favourite book. I can honestly open this book at any page and start reading it and enjoy it as much as I had the first time I read it. Words cannot describe the love I have for this book.

Going bovine, Libba Bray. This is a fantastic book from start to finish. It's about a sixteen year old guy called Cameron who finds out he has a weird disease and is going to die. He ends up on a road trip with a dwarf and garden gnome. It's a really interesting book about living and dying. It also has one of the greatest opening sentences ever, "The best day of my life happened when I was five and almost died at Disney World."

The Second Coming, John Niven. I'm actually in the middle of reading this but so far it is fantastic. As the title suggests it is about the second coming of Jesus, basically the story is God goes on holiday, comes back to see the world the way it is and how messed up it is and decides to send Jesus back to fix things and spread the word. What I've read so far is really good but I think it's a rather controversial book due to the language used in it and the pot smoking in heaven. Still I think it's a great book, I know it's not published in the US but if you can get it online you should totally read it.

Top Reads

So our topic for this week is books that we like.  I was trying to find a good compromise between just making a list and actually writing something, so I'm going to make a list and write explanations for the things that I feel like need it, but leave other things to speak for themselves.  Hopefully that makes sense.  So here's a list, in no particular order:

The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien.


Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling.


The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis.

Discworld series, Terry Pratchett.


The Princess Bride, William Goldman.  This is my absolute favourite movie, and the book is even better.

The Gypsy Sings, Debra E. Talbert.  This is one of my very favourite books.  It's very short, less than a hundred pages, and it has beautiful accompanying artwork.  It's divided into three sections: "Gypsies," which is a series of letters between a woman and her muse; "Pirates," which is a story about dreams; and "Magic" which is a series of (very) short stories about love.  It's a beautiful book and a I tend to re-read it when I want to feel inspired and re-connect with my creative side.

This Cake is for the Party, Sarah Selecky.  I mentioned this book in the post I did a while back with photos, but it's really good.  It's a book of short stories and I don't really know how to describe them but they're all just so so good.  Every single one of them.


Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach.  This is a book about a seagull who spends all his time learning to fly better rather than scrabbling around on the shore like all the other seagulls.  It's a lovely story and I find it very motivational.

Anyway, those are a few of my favourite books.  There are lots of others, but these are some of the main ones.  I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of things the rest of you read! :)

Anti-recipe: Mexican pizza

I'm always on the lookout for quick, flexible, inexpensive meals, and I thought I'd show you one here. This is inspired by the Mexican pizzas I remember getting as a kid at Taco Bell (+1 to fat American stereotype), though you can make it into whatever you want.

You'll need a starch, some veggies, and at least one source of protein.

For this example, I used:

• two tortillas as my starch
• avocado and salsa as my veggies
• refried beans, cheese, tuna and chili as protein sources

(cheese not pictured, whoops!)

The first thing you'll want to do is toast your tortillas lightly so they're golden brown and just a little crunchy. I stuck mine in the toaster oven until they looked like this:
While your other tortilla is toasting, smear some refried beans on the first one and sprinkle some shredded cheese on top. Be careful to keep an eye on the one in the toaster oven though, so you don't end up with this:

Multitasking fail

Once the second one is toasted, put it on top of the refried bean layer, add some chili, a little bit of tuna, and whatever seasonings you like.

Microwave for about a minute while you slice up some avocado to put on top.

Once the cheese is melty and everything is warm, add the avocado, slice into pieces, and enjoy!

I was pleasantly surprised with how well this turned out this time. Lots of beans, tuna, and not a lot of fresh veggies, but it still tasted good, was very filling, and the tuna didn't make it taste too fishy.

I would have preferred to have some lettuce and fresh diced tomatoes and cilantro, but I've made some... dubious choices with my food budget this month, so I'm just working out of what's in my pantry. Just remember to think about what you should be put on after microwaving (i.e. lettuce)

Also, if you feel like mixing up the starch used, you could do a layered rice bowl or create a neat sandwich. There are tons of possibilities, that's part of the fun of this anti-recipe :)

How to Read a Book

Step 1: Select a book.  


You can find books in a variety of places, including libraries, bookstores (both new and used) and online stores such as Amazon.  There are many different criteria for book selection, including genre, author, title, critics' ratings, back cover synopsis, and reading the first page to test the waters.  You may find yourself tempted to judge a book by its cover, but this is generally regarded as a bad practice, and should be avoided.

Step 2: Designate a reading time.


Once you have selected the book you wish to read, you must find a time in which to read the book.  Some options are immediately after school or work, while you eat breakfast, during your lunch break, on the bus/train/ferry, or just before you go to sleep at night.

Step 3: Get comfortable.


Settle in.  Tilt your chair back, grab a blanket, put your feet up, or maybe make yourself a cup of tea.  If you are reading while in transit you may need to skip this step, unless, of course, the passenger next to you looks like they wouldn't mind cuddling.

Step 4: Open the cover.


Firmly grip the right edge of the front cover and pull it to the left.  You may wish to smell the book at this point, if you enjoy the aroma of paper.  You can also skip past any pages of publishing information, lists of the author's other works, or tables of contents, as these are not part of the narrative of the book.

Step 5: Begin reading.


When you find the first page of text, begin reading.  Start with the word which is furthest to the top left of the page and read toward the right.  At the end of a line, move to the next line down on the page and repeat the left-to-right method. ***Please note: This step will differ in certain languages.  If you are unsuccessful in completing this step, you may need to attempt a different method.


Step 6: Turn the page.


When you reach the bottom right corner of a right-hand page, you will find that you have run out of words.  At this point, you must grip the right edge of the page and pull it to the the left in the same motion you used to open the cover.  You may now continue reading from the top left corner of the left-hand page.


Step 7: Use a bookmark.


If you intend to read the entire book in one sitting, you may skip this step.  However, if you need to take a break during your reading, it is essential to complete it.  Insert your bookmark between the two pages to which your book is currently open.  Set the book down in a safe place until you can return to it, at which point you can start reading again where you left off.


Step 8: Finish the book.


Repeat steps 6 and 7 until you have read the final word on the final page.  At this point you will have completed the book.  Congratulations!  If it is a library book, you must return it when you have finished it.  If you purchased the book, you have several options.  You can place it on a bookshelf for safe keeping, pass it on to a friend, re-sell it, or a donate it to a used goods store.  You are now prepared to begin reading another book.

How To La

I think we're doing how-to blogs this week. Well, this is going to be a challenge considering I don't know how to do anything. I just do things and hope they won't result in death, serious injury, or awkward and embarrassing moments that will be ingrained into memory perpetually.

Hopefully I can find something to fill this post with.

So I can write about how not to do things like how not to clean your room. Or how not to be productive. I could talk about how not to do an Axel in figure skating, I'm quite good at not doing that. I could, however, tell you how to make all of the drinks in Starbucks exactly, but I'm pretty sure I'd get in some sort of trouble for that.

I think I'll talk about how to successfully not be productive. Number one, think a lot about a title or name if you're writing something. Once you have one, keep thinking about it. Like what I'm talking about now, how to not be productive. That sounds pretty negative, it needs to change and sound a bit more positive. "How to Lazy"? It has poor grammar, thus showing a lack of will to put effort into even the title, only a true procrastinator would come up with it.

Secondly, don't just rethink, take the time to justify rethinking your subject, title, or theme. An example of this is the previous paragraph.

Third, redundancy. Redundancy is a great way at allowing your mind to wander off and not have to truly work. Redundancy can help your writing look a bit fuller, while it may make the reader feel annoyed or bored, it looks nice from a distance.

Next, you can always just talk about whatever you're doing/working on without actually doing it. This let's you have the great feeling of being productive without actually having to work. You can see this used in the first three paragraphs of the post.

Lastly, Facebook. I'm not sure if I have to explain that one. I hate Facebook and despite that, I get distracted for hours by it.

In the end, you've waited until the last minute and have done nothing of value. Another example, it is Monday night and this post's draft just autosaved at 11:55 PM.

Those techniques, if you can call them that, don't just work for writing, they can work for anything.

But please don't do them. We all know what the stress feels like when we've waited too long. And we all know what it's like to do something and realize that it could have been so much better if you had just put some more time into it. We know the resulting stress or disappointment isn't worth the goof time and yet we can still find ourselves procrastinating, even though the feeling of accomplishment that comes with being productive and getting things done right is just as good if not better.

^ RUN-ONS I need to learn how to not make them.

Hi, I'm going to be gone now until July 6th, so I won't make the next one or two Mondays.

Thoughts From Suburbia

As a kid growing up in the middle of nowhere, I've often wished to live in the city. There is sometimes an overwhelming feeling that everyone else lives somewhere cool and I just got the short end of the geographical stick.

So when I was preparing to make a trip down to the Bay Area, even though I'd been warned that this particular place was boring, cookie-cutter suburbia, to tell you the truth I couldn't quite believe it. Because it's the Bay! Everything there is city! I mean, someone talks about that being boring in the same way that people anywhere talk about their hometown, right?

Nope. Not in this case. This was essentially a couple strip malls and chunks of residential areas plopped in the middle of farmland and given a name.

I used to think that if my hometown got a Wal-Mart or some other cool store suddenly everything would be more interesting, but as I looked out at a sea of chain stores I realized that there still wasn't anything to do. Lots of things to consume, but not a whole lot of activities to do with someone else.

We still found things to do in there somewhere - watching the new X-Men, buying foreign candy at World Market, and visiting a couple tabletop gaming stores (which was probably my favorite simply because of the ridiculously stereotypical responses one of the guys had; he had this stunned look on his face and I could almost hear him thinking "a girl? In here? A girl? WHAT?! DOES NOT COMPUTE!" and I had to turn away a couple times to keep from cracking up).

But most of the rest of our weekend was spent inside, reading, painting, and playing games. I wasn't too worried about that, since that's not far off from my normal routine (man I need to get out more...), but I'd venture it's safe to say that I won't be planning on moving to the suburbs anytime soon.

I realize I've been harping on relationships and people in my blogs a lot recently, so I apologize for being a broken record at this point, but...

I've been thinking about how what I'm looking for in a place to settle down isn't just an urban classification, but also having places around that encourage sitting down and spending time there. Places where you can sit and read a good book, or catch up with a friend, or people watch, and not feel bad for taking up a spot for another customer.

A place where there are things to do and people to meet, not just stuff to buy.

I was a prefect :D

I was pretty much going to the same thing as Katie did, I picked out some photos to show but I had to clean out my wardrobe and I found my old school ties and my prefect badge. I know that in USA you don't really have schools that have uniforms, I'm not too sure about Canada but I think it's the kind of the same, so I thought this would be some thing interesting to share.

These are the three ties I have, the one on the left is from the first primary scho

ol I went to, I was there from primary one to primary 3, the middle tie is from the second primary I went to because I moved house and it was closer, I was there from primary 4 to primary 7. The last tie is my senior high school tie which is still the same knot from the last time I wore it and it still has my prefect badge on it too. I'm kind of upset I that I don't have my junior tie any more, its like the other two ties it has stripes it was the same colour as the senior tie but with light blue stripes.

Here's a close up of prefect badge

I would like to point out that all the sixth years at my school got prefect badges, I'm not special in any way but I am proud to have gotten one. Another thing I think I should point out is that in my school juniors are first to fourth years and seniors are fifth and sixth years.

Anyway I hope you found my walk down memory lane at least a little bit interesting.

10 000 words.

So I left my post until really late and we don't have a theme and I wasn't feeling particularly inspired and so I just went through my harddrive and picked out ten pictures.  Here they are.

This is sunrise over the Halifax Harbour.

This was breakfast one perfect summer day last summer.  I loved living around the corner from both a bakery and a park.  Also, that  book gets my recommendation any day.

Yemista, which is tasty (although this batch is a little burnt).

These are my favourite earrings.  I don't remember why I was taking pictures of them,  but here they are.

This is a river near where my parents live/where I'm living right now.

Happy Tuesday!  

Stuff happened, happens, will happen, will have happened

VERB TENSE

We need to make a list of themes five weeks in advance. I also need a punishment for missing last week's post.

So I'm going to talk about recent events. Next week I'm going to Costa Rica. I got really sick a while ago and spent a week in the hospital, lately I've been going back and forth for visits. Anyways for me it's important because I'm going a couple more times this week for another test and to see if I can get an 'OK' for travel.

If I do get the doctor's permission to go I won't be able to post for two weeks here. I will take many photos and videos of what we do there if anyone would want to see them. I believe we're going to have more time to do service projects in Costa Rica, I don't know what they'll be, though. For Morocco we knew what our project would be, but in Costa Rica I think it's going to be whatever they need us to do the most, it's a bit of a mystery, I'm looking forward to it.

There isn't much else, I'll be doing some last minute shopping for the trip. I'll be making plans for summer activities and chilling, but not actually since it's hot and humid. And I'll be theorizing what's going to happen next in Doctor Who.

Nostalgia Cookies

Well, okay, that's not actually their name. But with these as a staple at all the family holiday gatherings and the sense of happiness just the smell of them baking brings me, they could just as easily go by the other name.

These cookies are dense and chocolatey without being overly rich, and are delicious whether they're covered in festive sprinkles or dunked in a morning cup of tea. The recipe itself is quite simple, and the only real time investment is letting the dough chill for a bit and, until you get the hang of it, rolling them out into pretzels.

Mom's Chocolate Pretzel Recipe

Makes 24 large pretzels or 36 small pretzels

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa and salt.

In a medium bowl, beat together the butter and sugar, then beat in the egg and vanilla.

In 3 additions, beat in flour mixture.

Divide into 2 logs, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours, or overnight.

When ready to shape the logs, take them out of the fridge (If chilled overnight, allow 10-15 minutes for them to thaw slightly) and set the oven to 350 F

Divide both into 12 or 18 pieces depending on how large you'd like the cookies to be.

Choose one log to work with first, and return the other to the fridge.

Shape each pretzel one at a time: gently roll out a piece into a 6-8 inch snake.

Take one end and bend it over toward the middle.

Repeat with other side, and allow the two ends to cross over each other.

You're welcome to stop here, but if you'd like yours to look a little fancier, twist the two ends over each other 1-2 more times.

And then position them so the bottom of the twisted ends is at the bottom of the pretzel, like so:

After each pretzel is shaped, place it on a baking sheet. Shape the remaining pretzels and place them on the baking sheet, leaving a couple of inches between each one. Repeat with the other log that was in the fridge.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until set.

Enjoy with a glass of milk :)

Crema

So, I don't have a recipe for my story but I don't really think it would be that hard to figure out. One of my favourite desserts is crema (I know that looks like I've spelt it wrong but it's right, I even double checked with my mum) and it's food with a lot of sentimental value for me. Crema is basically an Italian dessert, although not all of the ingredients are Italian, all it really is, is sponge fingers soaked in whisky and covered in homemade custard.

It's been a tradition for as long as I can remember that we would have crema for dessert on Christmas, it's one of the things I look forward to the most on Christmas day. I usually always have seconds of it. At Christmas it's my dad that makes it, he's not very good a getting the custard right but I still really like it.

I think it was for my Birthday last year my nonna made me a huge dish of it. My nonna makes the best crema. I shared some of this huge dish with my mum and my brother and ate the rest myself. Since it was my eighteenth, I had had some champagne too, and I should point out that when my nonna makes crema she really soaks the sponge fingers in whisky, like really soaks them, so I ate about half of the dish of crema. As you can probably tell from where I'm going with this, I was drunk because of the amount of alcohol in it, it was rather funny.

Anyway if I get hold of the recipe for this I will add it to this post.

Garlic Fingers?!

The recipe I want to share is for garlic fingers.  Since they're a food that doesn't really exist outside of Atlantic Canada, I feel like I should give a quick explanation first.  They're basically pizza dough topped with garlic butter and mozzarella cheese, and sometimes bacon or other things.  Their regional nature is part of the reason I thought it would be fun to share this recipe.

In addition to being delicious, garlic fingers are also a food with special sentimental significance to me.  During my first year of university I was having a potluck dinner with a big group of my friends.  We actually have this potluck every year now, and it's known as the Annual Christmas Miracle Potluck.  But this was the first year, when we didn't know it was a miracle yet and it was only associated with Christmas in that they both took place in December.  At the time it was just a potluck, but it was the first one, and it was special and magical and it's the one that all the ones we have had since have failed to leave up to.  Because we all lived in residence, we couldn't make any fancy dishes, so we went to the grocery store together and everyone bought $5 worth of food.  Then we went back to campus to cook it up in the kitchenette and eat it in one of the common rooms.  It was the most ridiculous meal ever.  I don't remember what all we had, but one person had bought about 12 packages of Mr. Noodles, and then there was a block of cheese and a loaf of bread and a small cake and a bunch of other stuff.  But the very last thing to come out of the kitchen was garlic fingers (you can buy pre-made frozen ones at the store the same way you can with pizzas).  Most of us didn't realize that they were there, so we were completely surprised when the person who had bought them brought them out to the table, and we all said "Garlic fingers?!" So now it's an in-joke of ours that whenever we're surprised and exclaiming about something, we just start going "garlic fingers?!" all the time.

This recipe is one that my roommate and I found online somewhere last summer when we had a garlic fingers craving, and wondered if we could make them ourselves instead of having to buy them.  We were so pleased with how well they turned out!  They taste surprising close to the ones you could get at a pizza place.

Garlic Fingers


Make pizza dough according to your favourite pizza dough recipe (Or buy it).  I can't find my pizza dough recipe just now, otherwise I would share it, too.  Spread on pan.

Garlic butter:

1 c. butter, softened
1 tbsp. minced garlic (2-3 cloves)
1/4 c. parmesan cheese
1 tbsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika

Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients.  When thoroughly mixed, remove from heat.  Spread enough butter on pizza dough to cover it (usually about half of the recipe).  Pour the remainder into a jar to save it for later!  It's also good on toast and pasta.

Spread grated mozzarella cheese over the dough.  Just enough to cover it in a single layer - if you use too much cheese it overwhelms the garlic taste.  Optional - sprinkle with bacon bits (or small pieces of freshly-cooked bacon).

Cook at 425F for 15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust is browned.

Starting off the summer

So I'm going to be honest here, I'm pretty brain-dead at this point - I've spent all week in eight hour training sessions for my new job, and all my coherent skills are pretty worn out.

But! I would like to tell you about my new job :) I'm really excited about it - it's working with kids with autism to alter their behavior (teaching appropriate behaviors to replace inappropriate ones - i.e. hitting - and teaching life skills) with the overall goal of helping them become independent (as much as possible). In other words: helping people learn to function on their own and work and interact with others.

Probably sounds a bit dry, and there's certainly a whole lot of data taking and knowledge to learn, but I'm really excited to start work in the field. I don't know quite when that is yet (probably in a week or two), but I have four kids to work with, and a whole lot to learn. But I guess that keeps life interesting, so I don't already know everything.

Now, I realize that isn't particularly interesting for anyone else, so now I have a question for you guys:

What would you recommend for a summer reading list? I need to find some good books to read; I'm already working through Terry Pratchett's books, I've read all but Looking for Alaska of John's books, and I have Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series on my list, but I'm drawing up a blank otherwise.

What are you reading? What would you recommend?

Summer!

The weeks where we have no themes are always the hardest. I'm just going to tell you about what's going on in my life right now.

So, tomorrow is my last day of college and then it's summertime. I'm really looking forward to be finished and having some time relax a little. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to be doing this summer. I'm trying to find a job so I can have a little money to maybe go somewhere but I'm having some trouble trying to find anywhere hiring, I think my best bet is going to be a new Mexican restaurant that's opening soon.

Until then, I'm still trying to figure out if I'm going to move back to my mum's for the summer or stay at my dad's. Right now I'm think of going back to my mum's because that way I can spend more time with my old high school friends who I haven't seen in a while and go to the beach a lot.

I'm really looking forward to the summer, I know I have a few things planned towards the end of it, such as a Nerdfighter gathering, my birthday and going to a music festival. I just hope to do a lot of other things too.