Month: November 2007

under the wire (or what I had for breakfast this morning)

Here it is, past 11:00 at night on day 3 of NaBloPoMo. And I’m (moderately) at risk of not getting out my requisite post of the day. There’s a conference I’ve been attending this weekend that is put on by my program, so I haven’t been home a lot.

Mind you, I did have a moment, whilst I was sitting on the floor at the back of a talk, when I considered whipping out my laptop to compose a post. I did manage to control the impulse, in large part because it would have seemed a terrible breach of etiquette. I felt a bit like a junkie, though. “I’ll just post this once. It’ll only take a couple of minutes. No one will notice.” After the talk, I went with some friends to visit a friend who is in the hospital with her new baby. As we sat and visited, I looked longingly at the ethernet cable hanging out of my friend’s laptop. Again, I controlled the urges. And I waited till I got home. I even talked to John and ate a bit of dinner before getting out the computer.

But now this means it’s late. And I’m tired. So I should post something. And seeing as people have been known to joke about having their daily posts degrade to the level of “what I had for breakfast this morning,” I thought I might take up that topic myself. Because this morning, I had a really good breakfast.

    Brown Rice and Berry Breakfast
    1-ish cup of cooked brown rice (short grain brown rice is best)
    1 third-ish cup of frozen berries (this morning I had blackberries)
    a drizzle of real maple syrup (I like Grade B, the darker kind)

    I usually use leftover brown rice, that has been cooked in a rice cooker with a bit of salt and oil (vegetable or olive oil). I take a serving of rice, put it in a bowl, and drizzle the maple syrup over it. I then pop it in the microwave, uncovered, for about a minute and a half. (It’s important to get the rice really hot all the way through, otherwise the texture will have that pasty cold rice texture.) After the rice is hot (and removed from the microwave) I next microwave the berries in a separate bowl for about a minute, or until the berries are thawed and juicy. I poor the berries and juice over the top of the rice, and let it stand for a minute or two to cool. Then I eat it.

The taste is a bit like a fruit cobbler, but with a somewhat chewy texture. It seems almost too dessert-like for breakfast. But it’s very filling and nutritious: high in fiber, low in sugar (depending on how much syrup you drizzle), with a decent amount of protein.

Is the glass half empty, or half full?

You are probably familiar with the age-old question, usually intended to determine whether you are the type to see things in a positive or negative light. The traditional answers are “half empty” (you are are a pessimist) or “half full” (you are an optimist). However, I find these traditional interpretations a bit too simplistic for the complexity of personality types and moods that individuals exhibit. Or that I exhibit on a given day. So I offer to you…

Alternative Answers to the Question
“Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?”

  1. Probably.
  2. Who drank half my drink?
  3. The glass is half full. But what is all that crud floating around in there?
  4. The glass is half full of ice so they can rip you off when you buy a soda.
  5. I think it was half full, but I spilled it. On your couch.
  6. I’ll take mine straight from the bottle.
  7. That’s no glass, that’s a sippy cup.
  8. Are you trying to poison me?
  9. The glass is cracked.
  10. There is no glass.

water_glass.jpg

squirreling away

squirrel_nutkin.jpgInspired by yesterday’s squirreliness, this week’s Themed Things Thursday is brought to you by squirrels.¹

A Stash of Squirrely Things

  • The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. A book by Beatrix Potter.

    This is a Tale about a tail–a tail that belonged to a little red
    squirrel, and his name was Nutkin.

  • Squirrel Nut Zippers a band. Takes its name from a candy.
  • For Squirrels. A band. Has a song entitled “Mighty K.C.”²
  • “Secret Squirrel,” a song by Marcy Playground

    Tune in next week and see
    Secret squirrel save you and me

  • The Flying Squirrel from The Tick (The animated series.) A superhero whose battlecry is “I like squirrels!”

    • rocky.jpg

  • Rocket J. Squirrel, aka Rocky, of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The clever one of the “moose and squirrel” pair.
  • Bubbles, the Powerpuff Girl, can talk to squirrels [clip on YouTube]
  • “Squirrel Boy” (2006-??) A Cartoon Network cartoon about a boy and his pesky squirrel friend.
  • Azqueeral. In a 2002 Daily Show episode, a man who has invented a birdfeeding hat describes a harrowing attack by a squirrel. Or by an azqueeral, as the subtitles show. It sounded a bit like “shquiddle” to us.
  • “I kicked Thumper’s ass” A t-shirt worn by a tough squirrel in Gary Larson’s book There’s a Hair in My Dirt
  • Squirrels have also been featured in American Hovel Magazine, the magazine dedicated to lowering acceptable neatness standards in the American home. See our featured interview, and the front cover of the April 2007 edition, below.

    • —–
    ¹ With apologies to KC.

    ² KC, I kid you not. Here’s YouTube proof, even.)

    ³ This footnote doesn’t match up with anything, but I felt I should toss out there that this marks my first official NaBloPoMo post. 1 down, 29 to go!