liz

You're not as special as you think you are. And that's okay.

What are your little quirks that you think no one else does? Maybe you always put all the same numbers on the microwave or think that your appliances talk to each other when you are gone just like The Brave Little Toaster.

My parents took me to Jurassic Park when I was 5 so to be honest I can tell you which door handles are on every door in a building because raptors can't turn knobs.

What are your little quirks? I bet someone else shares them. :)

I need brains, not in the zombie sort of way but in the brainstorming sort of way. This is a baseball diamond in the pool. For my final project in Civil and Environmental Engineering Design (i.e. my capstone) we need to construct the pitchers mound for a home run derby inspired by the poem Casey at the Bat. It can rest on the sides of the pool or on the bottom or is can float and be tethered so it doesn't float away. The hard part is that there needs to be some sort of way for the pitcher to get to the mound without getting in the water and pitch a ball without falling off... He is 6'6" 300 lbs.

We are encouraged to ask friends for ideas and it's good for us to learn how to do the math required to prove ideas that aren't ours in the first place because it is good practice for real life.

So there's the background and problem statement, what i am asking from your is ideas. I have a few of my own but it is always nice to get suggestions from people who are not trained engineers. I am also looking for help thinking of things that float that we could use to float our raft if we go that direction. I would love something unique and quirky like 2 liter pop bottles of hundreds of balloons made from condoms to make our raft really stand out.

Also we are interested in making jerseys for our group to wear when we test so if you are creative and could help me out with that the course number is 12401, the title is Civil & Environmental Engineering Design and we want a baseball theme.

Dad is in Quebec this week for business but has a few days off. Anyone know something fun for him to do or a good place to eat specifically seafood if one knows of such place?

XKCD is super spiffy today. RIP Geocities.

It's amazing how much can change in an afternoon.

I have a movie idea, Freddie or Jason or one of the old school scary movie leads kills Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers, and possibly the Edward and Bella from Twilight as well.

it was raining when I walked out of my apartment this morning. Not hard, sort of a fine mist that made me feel like a vegetable at the super market. Not so much when I got off, I seriously thought about riding the bus downtown and back to see if it would quit raining in that time, but alas, I had class. By the time I got to my class I was soaked but I have my gym bag so i pulled off my wet overshirt and slipped on a t-shirt so I am cold but not as cold as I could be. I did leave my jacket at home so at some point I may borrow a friend's ID and ninja into a dorm to use the dryer.

I have started going to the gym again, for those of you who think the gym means 20 min on the treadmill... not so much. I go for 2 hours or 20 miles, whatever comes first on the bike and watch ESPN while I bike. We'll see how my knees hold out, they have historically been really bad but I bought a pair of braces last night. I do have a greater incentive now to go to the gym as I signed up for a 2 mile run for charity with my sister and a mutual friend in a few weeks. It does have the caveat that we must split a dozen donuts after mile one. Our goal is not to win as much as finish without vomit in our hair and have fun. :)

So I have been buying local produce from Giant Eagle because they have been great about stocking fresh, local produce. As part of this I have been making an attempt to cook the seasonal veggies that I tend not to like and have no idea how to cook. I bought zucchini and accidentally a summer squash because I didn't know zucchini didn't come in yellow. So I just pretended that it was a potato and made a breakfast casserole. I finely grated my yellow squash and drained the excess water, then I mixed in an egg and put it in my mini casserole pan with a layer of bread crumbs and cheese (i had parm, cheddar and goat cheese.) The result is really good, I don't typically like squash but I think I will make this again.

I propose a trade:

My sister's computer was running Vista for a while but doesn't have the ability to do so well however when she reinstalled XP is has no wireless. I don't know if that is the only problem but it does make it much more difficult for her to fix other problems. I told her I would find someone to help her fix it or fix it myself because I go to the nerd school and know all the computer oriented people. I however think computers run on hand waving, magic black smoke and possibly the ego of the computer science people I know (not all of you, most of you are pretty cool but you all know what I am talking about.) So if you help me I will offer to do something for you that I am good at in return. I will make you dinner. I have been cooking alot using the local produce of Giant Eagle as a guide so this week it will most likely include some combination of zucchini, tomatoes and yellow wax beans but I am not above making you pretty much anything you want within reason or something for later like cupcakes (I make a mean espresso cupcake with dark chocolate frosting) or something similar. I just want my sister's computer to work so if you have the time and expertise post a comment and we'll work out a time.

p.s. If you have an external CD/DVD player so I could put Office on my netbook you would win at life and possibly score even more delicious food.

p.p.s. sk4p can vouch for the tastiness and healthiness of my food and my ability to cook for just about any dietary restriction.

So there were some requests for the reciepe for the goat's cheese tomato pie I made last night so here it is.

Crust
1 1/2 cup flour
3 1/2 oz of cold butter
3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese

Filling
3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
3 tomatoes sliced
3 oz goat cheese
2 tablespoons of basil leaves
olive oil

Directions
1. place butter, flour and parmesan cheese in the food processor and process until crumbly, add 1/2 tablespoon of salt and 3-4 tablespoons of water, blend in short bursts until the dough comes together. Turn out mixture on a floured surface and quickly bring together into a ball. Cover pastry in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 min.

2. Preheat oven to 350 F, roll out pastry into a circle about 14 inches in diameter, roll the pastry around your rolling pin and transfer it to a greased baking pan, carefully unroll it.

3. Brush the dough in olive oil and sprinkle the breadcrumbs. Arrange slices of tomato on the breadcrumbs overlapping them but leaving a wide border. Crumble the goat cheese over the tomatoes and turn the edge of the pastry in over the tomato and brush with olive oil.

4. Bake for 30 min or until the pastry is golden and the cheese is melted. Season well with salt and black pepper and sprinkle with chopped basil.

There is a time and a place for everything... except Comic Sans.

( I hop onto the soapbox... )

Enough of the angst for now, here is a picture of a giraffe.

Went and saw Van der Graf Generator last night. Had an amazing time once I got over that I was easily the youngest person at the show by about 20 years if you don't include the people I went with. Really liked the band that opened, The Strawbs as well and I think overall the most supprising thing from the concert was the amout of evergy coming from everyone on stage. It's still not my favorite type of music but it was a good night.

Does anyone know if/where I can get this in Pittsburgh or surrounding area?

I have been following the events in Iran via Huffington post and the English Twitter feeds of people in Iran.
I want to know who persiankiwi is.

Started a new job for the second time this month. Still waiting for my boss to get here... programmer hours ftw. I am no longer an Admissions Ambassador (tour guide) for Carnegie Mellon as I have been for the last three weeks. Now I am a Student Assistant at Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. My workgroup is National Resource for Biomedical Supercomputing Center and my sub-group is Minority Access to Research Careers... whatever all that means. In addition to my new job I am also attempting to write a research project with a friend about the government regulation of the disposal of nanoparticles and their impact on the environment and playing way too much WoW but seeing as both the job and the paper are getting done whatever.

Summer has been interesting to say the least, I have not been particularly busy but I still think I have done more this summer already then I did last summer.

I just watched sk4p graduate, it was amazing.

I've really gotten into gardening and yard work in the last few weeks. The weather has been nice and my window sill is full of pots. This all started with my roommate and his plant from the Wall-E booth. Now I have basil, marigolds, and cubanelle peppers and plans for chives and mint. Also Shawn and I have been doing yard work on the weekends, mowing and clipping the overgrown bush in the backyard. There is something satisfying playing in the dirt of bundling hedge clippings.

Summer is looking like I will be working on a research paper with a friend and having a bit too much free time unless I can find a part time job. We shall see.

Life has it's ups and downs but overall I feel pretty positive. Honestly right now I'm mostly tired, I was out late last night celebrating my 21st birthday with friends and that was great but I think my favorite part of the afternoon was wandering around Barnes and Noble with Shawn.

Level up!