Friends, Random Thoughts

Book swap

Beauty & the Beast Library

The beautiful library in Disney's The Beauty and the Beast

As an avid reader, I have a lot of books. When I was younger, I asked my parents to buy me books all the time. My favorite book series were The Baby-sitters Club and Nancy Drew. (I even asked my dad to enroll me in a BSC book club where I would receive new books & BSC-themed merchandise per month! Nerd! :P) But, eventually, I ran out of space and my books are creatively stacked in different ways to fill any available space in my bookshelf, and to an extent, the corner of my closet.

I’ve read some of the books more than once, while some of them just need one reading and I’m golden. But, I always want new books to have. (It’s my neverending thirst for knowledge :P)

My friend, J.J., had the same problem. She accrued a lot of books, but had to get rid of many of them during her move from California to here. That’s when her friend told her about Paperbookswap.com, which she later passed on to me.

It’s essentially a book swap club, but on a massive scale. You post books that you want to swap and books that you want to have. When someone asks you for a book, you send it to her/him. In return, you earn a credit that you can use to ask for a book you want. So far, I’ve gotten rid of 5 books and have asked for 2 books. I’m still in the process of putting up all the books I want to get rid of. I like knowing that someone else will get something out of my old books, and in a way, I’m spreading the love

I’m not sure if it’s available outside of the U.S. yet. But, if it is, I think it’s worth a try when you want to get rid of old books in exchange for reading something new

Standard
Random Thoughts

I dream of… Vampires?

(First off, I didn’t realize how long I’ve dropped off the blog world radar. I took a small break to take care of some things and somehow it ended up being a month break. Oops :()

Last night, in Dream Land, I was battling vampires with Nolan from Revenge, played by Gabriel Mann. We were inside a dark & creepy house surrounded by vampires. As far as I know, Nolan & I were humans trying to escape. But, for some reason, I had a force field that surrounded me. It burned vampires to dust when they touched it.

Eventually I killed enough vampires that the leader, a woman, ordered that we were let go. We cautiously made our way out the front door into the sunlight, with their heavy door closing behind us. Nolan takes my hand and we walk down the street, laughing. Then, I wake up.

I wonder what that means. What is my subconscious trying to tell me? I wish I knew someone who was good at interpreting dreams. Any dream interpreters out there?

Standard
Family, Random Thoughts

A job in higher education

I’ve been looking for a job since I’m tired of doing freelance. Plus, I miss working in an actual work environment with coworkers to chat with.

I’d like to work in a local college/university. I like that environment and I’d love to be able to take classes for free or at a discount, since I’ve always wanted to eventually get a Master’s degree. There’s just something about the possibility of continuously learning that I love. I’m a perpetual student, always learning new things. Plus, most schools pride themselves on staying current, so I’d always have access to state-of-the-art equipment. Also, they get deep discounts on some software. In college, I got Windows XP Pro for $15, Windows 7 Pro 64-bit for $25, and Microsoft Office for $5!

When I saw a job listing for a designer at my brother’s uni, I promptly applied. My odds are probably slim because there tends to be a lot of competition with these things. (It’s a good opportunity!) Imagine my surprise (and delight!) when I recently got an email saying that my resume has been accepted and is getting reviewed. I’m glad my resume at least made it through that first step.

I don’t have any delusions about getting the job because the competition is probably fierce, but I thought I’d put it out into the universe that I would love to have that job. Maybe you guys can help me by collectively wishing me luck, or something, sending some positive energy out there I don’t know if that really works, but it doesn’t hurt to try, right?

Standard
Family, Food

Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti

After Jan canceled on our lunch (she came down with a fever), my sister and I did some baking. She’s been on a cooking & baking mood lately and marked off a whole bunch of recipes she wanted to try in the recipe book.

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Original Chocolate Almond Biscotti recipe

The Chocolate Almond Biscotti recipe both caught our eyes because the picture was beautiful and the directions were very easy. But, since I’m not fond of almonds, we changed it to chopped pistachios and vanilla extract, as opposed to chopped almonds and almond extract.

I went about peeling over a ½ cup of pistachios by hand. It wasn’t fun, but it went by fast as we chatted away. Originally, I was going to emulate the TV chefs and chop them by hand, but then I realized how much of an amateur I was compared to them. Plus, there was the big possibility of making a mistake and cutting myself… So, electric chopper it is!

She wanted to be in charge of doing everything herself, so I was just there as my sister’s helper. I ended up helping cut up the biscotti and melting the chocolate that went on top of them.

Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti
(Click the thumbnails for a bigger size.)
It turned up much better than we had expected, especially with the substitutions we made. Overall, we were very happy with the result. When Jan and I rescheduled our lunch, I brought her a bag of biscotti to try. She loved them!

Standard
Art, Friends, Random Thoughts

Inadvertent heartthrob

I was cleaning out the unused pictures in my Photobucket account and came upon these:

Acqua test 01 Acqua test 02 Acqua test 03 Acqua test 04 Acqua test 05
(Click for a bigger size.)

Those pictures were were from my test sheet in photography class. The object of the assignment was to choose a product—in my case, Acqua di Gio, as suggested by my model because I had no idea what to do!

Anyway, the above model, Mark, came to me by accident. My original model, Ken, flaked on me claiming he had forgotten that we had scheduled the photo room. Years later, I found out that he had told people that “some random Asian girl came up to me asking me to pose for her!” Jerk! :evil: We went to the same high school and college! Not only that, but he volunteered for it, upon hearing me discuss the project with my friends. He’s quite the classy guy :roll:

When Mark heard that Ken flaked on me, he volunteered to be my new model. I’m so glad he did! Though the photo shoot was early in the morning, we had such a great time and it became a collaborative process. (The crotch shot was his idea!) And, I didn’t realize how photogenic he would be! Continue reading

Standard