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Этот журнал раньше назывался leenercat и переименовался одновременно с владельцем/This journal was formerly named leenercat and has been renamed along with its owner.
Журнал ведётся по-английски и по-русски, иногда оба сразу, иногда вообще дребедень (с русским правописанием у меня плохо, поучения и советы приветствуются)/This journal is in English and Russian, occasionally at the same time, and sometimes it's just total gibberish.
Правила "взаимно добавляю/не добавляю" нет, если у вас интересно, буду читать/I may or may not friend you if you do or do not friend me, I don't have any steadfast rules on the matter.
Если мы - взаимные друзья и обмениваемся комментариями, скорее всего перейду "на ты". Честное предупреждение. Еще "на ты" буду называть незнакомых людей которых я не уважаю.
Ненормативная лексика приветствуется/My mommy taught me how to swear like a sailor and I do it all the time.
Оставляю за собой право послать подальше, банить без объяснения и вообще делать всё что приспичит/I reserve the right to tell you where to shove it, ban without an explanation, and do whatever I please in my own journal.
Фотки пока будут редко или вообще не будут - технические проблемы в комбинации с временным нежеланием фотографировать/Little to no photos for now - technical problems combined with a temporary lack of a will to photograph.
У нас недавно родилась ребенка - стараюсь не превращать журнал в мамский, но про нее наверно будет под замком/We have recently procreated - I'm trying not to turn this into a mommy-journal, but most things on this topic will be locked up.
Все вопросы сюда/Ask the Question Girl a question, the Question Girl is famous!
I was fairly active in all kinds of groups in DC, both because that's what a lot of people did at my school and for networking, but I also liked going to talks and meetings that were personally interesting to me. I did that too when I moved back to SF, but of course on a smaller scale since there are only so many things here related to international relations. I stopped when I got busy, and even though I'm busy now, I'm going to try to carve out some time to go to interesting events... after I carve out some time to work, natch. Not that I don't have enough friends I don't see often enough, nor am I exactly trying to climb the career ladder at this point, but I figure it can't hurt, and if it does, I can always stop again. I think I'm in a really good position in life where I have that much control over what I do and how much time I spend at it.
My friend's wife has her own business and a website to go with it. There, she states that she specializes, among other things, in proofreading, editing, video production, marketing and other things that require good grammar. Hers isn't bad enough to draw a lot of attention to it, but I would never let her edit me! I'm seriously thinking of writing her and in the nicest possible terms offering my help. Now, if I ask her to pay me, I'd feel like I'm insulting her; if I offer to do it for free, that's not a good use of my time. I could potentially ask her if she wants to hire me as an editor, but that might also be insulting and I don't know if she actually employs anyone other than herself in the business.
And on another note: I made Andy, my graphic designer husband, very proud when I pointed out that most of the photos on her website are in the wrong aspect ratio. That's one of his biggest graphic design pet peeves.
Приведу пример. Когда я только что приехала в Америку, я пошла в школу в плохом районе. Я там была не только единственная русскоязычная, но и почти единственный белый человек. Из-за недопонимания между культурами, меня регулярно обижали. Ну и что, думала я, это надо пережить, в советской школе меня тоже всегда обижали, и учителя мне говорили что надо не жаловаться, а самой разбираться. А в Америка моя counselor (школьный психолог, что ли?) увидила что меня обижают, наказала агрессоров и объяснила мне, что ее работа - мне помочь. Она также объяснила некоторые культурные ньюансы и я стала намного лучше общаться. Это самый яркий, таких примеров у меня много.
И вот один пример обратного. Я недавно переводила в одной большой международной организации - у них было двое русских партнеров которые между собой не ладили, не важно почему. Один из них уже давно работал там, и со многими "западными" специалистами, он при разговоре не присутствовал. А тот который присутствовал, работал там всего пару лет. У него были и другие "совковые" черты которые негативно отражались на его работе, но в тот момент обсуждался между ним и его начальником именно конфликт с этим коллегой. И вот, начальник очень вежливо просил этого чувака не продолжать конфликт, ибо он плохо влияет на рабочую атмосферу. Он просил чувака не общаться с "врагом", и в следующий раз, если ему не нравится как что-то происходит, сообщить начальнику. Я и видила как он ерзал и всеми фибрами души сопротивлялся этой мысли, этому стукачеству, мол, он сильный и умный, сам разберется. Начальник-то не первый день с бывшесоветскими работает, он в курсе, он знал что подчеркивать.
Да, и модераторам я жалуюсь. И мне как модератору жалуются, и правильно, система работает.
What are your special skills/abilities/habits/actions/talents?
I've got:
- The ability to fairly accurately gauge a good container for a given contents. Like, finding just the right size and shape of container for leftover rice, or luggage appropriate for the trip. On the other hand, I am completely unable to estimate time elapsed, or bring the right shoes to a vacation!
- I am unable to form habits. That can be good or bad - on one hand, quitting smoking and drinking was no problem, I just stopped one day and didn't want any more. On the other, I constantly forget to take daily pills, or take them at the right time. Joining anything is just not an option, guarantees that I will not complete a series.
- I have also recently rediscovered my talent to purchase and sell cars. Even the one time I thought I didn't get as good a deal as I could have, the friend that I helped still has this car, it's not in great condition but he loves it and won't get rid of it!
Getting a tattoo is like getting a really significant other (such as a spouse), or a child.
- Really good ones or really bad ones are usually a significant investment of time and money.
- All are awfully hard and often expensive to get rid of if you really don't like them.
Thereby, if ever I do get a tattoo, it will probably have something to do with my husband or children.
Piercings, though, are more like non-serious boyfriends and girlfriends, or distant relatives.
- If you really don't like them, you can usually get rid of them relatively easily.
- Definitely less of a time investment, frequently less of a financial one, too.
I have a significant number of piercings. Maybe not that many non-serious boyfriends, but enough to judge by, and definitely lots of distant relatives.
About 3 lbs of beef, salted and seared went into the slow cooker on low. I didn't want to go with my usual wine sauce, so I deglazed the pan with orange juice and poured a bunch more into the pot. Also added: cloves, 5 garlic cloves, juice of one lemon, rosemary, thyme, paprika, steak seasoning, about 2 tbsp of dijon mustard, a splash each of soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce, a teaspoon or so of tomato paste plus some crushed tomatoes I had leftover, 2 bay leaves, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting.
So almost 8 hours later, I'm going to eat that fucker with some broiled potatoes!
2. I am actually totally rooting for Santorum to be nominated! I think it would be hilarious, and also, I'll get to use this userpic even more!
2a. Have you noticed that all of the Republican candidates are using shortened version of their first names (and in some cases, middle names)? Is it that they're trying to be informal, folksy, just like us?
Today, though, apparently, was rich of crazy at the massage place. One guy, we think, was snoring. The music to relax by was "Hit Me Baby One More Time" and last but not least, some other guy in the room at first was saying "Ыыыыыыыыыыы", and then loudly moaning. At one point, he stated that he had to go to the bathroom and had to be assisted there. No idea what his issue was, but we were more amused than anything else. Other than that, awesome experience, highly recommend, plan on repeating soon!
( Plus I have 3 ideas that are on a burner so far back that it's a good thing they're written down, or I'd just forget. But just for the fuck of it, I'll list them here, in order from oldest to newest. )
And on a different, somewhat related point: Whenever I work on a project or a task, it happens with alarming frequency that I own some set of actions, accomplish them, send them on down the line, and there it all stalls. The cause could be a slow bureaucracy, someone who hasn't yet made up their mind on how and whether to proceed, funds, or even sheer incompetence. But it drives me absolutely nuts that people can say "yes" and "go" with such absolute resolution and then treat the situation as if there are options not to proceed or meet the deadline. Especially in a professional setting, to me, it's just unacceptable that I meet deadlines and accomplish tasks no matter what, frequently at great personal expense, and others just see the whole thing as a suggestion.
Now, what I said in the first part may sound contradictory to what I said in the second, but I think the big difference is that in the first case, these are projects for the soul, I'm responsible only to myself, and the arrangements with my friends are at this stage informal. In the second case, a job implies a contract to do certain things at certain times for money, and to me, there is little to none flexibility, save for special circumstances. Just saying.
( Under a considerate cut, but on the other hand, how can you not care about SF? )
My brand new MacBook Air won't charge. I've taken it to the Genius Bar who say it's a firmware problem, updated the firmware and sent me on my way. It still won't charge most of the time. Going back on Wednesday.
My camera won't connect to my computer. I'm actually kind of thinking it's the computer since it did connect to other computers, but most of the time I can find ways around that and it's kind of lower on my list of technology priorities.
My printer isn't pulling in paper properly. Yes, we've adjusted it. Is 8 years considered old for seldom-used printers?
My phone... actually my phones. Andy gave me his HTC MyTouch 3G Slide and got himself a 4G. It rebooted randomly and constantly. We purchased 2 more of the identical phone and installed logging programs on them before we finally figured out that it's the SIM card. Went to T-Mobile, exchanged it... now I'm contemplating which phone to keep. On one, inexplicably, Facebook won't load (it's on its factory ROM). On the one Andy gave me, rooted to Cyanogen, WiFi gets stuck in turning off mode and isn't fixed by anything other than a reboot.
My MP3 player refused to pause the other night. A reboot fixed that, but I haven't used it since and we'll see if that does that again.
My car's AC kept turning on. Granted, it's possible that I brushed against the button... but unlikely.
We did replace the hair trimmer, the old one just wasn't trimming.
What's next, technology universe?
Ну конечно, оказывается нужен номер моей кредитной карты что бы оплатить портовые сборы.
Я думаю что если я вообще не буду поднимать трубку то важные звонки будут пропускаться от сила раз в неделю. Моя жизнь все больше в Скайпе, Гуглтоке и Мордокниге, даже учитываю что я ненавижу общение по СМС.
В субботу к нам приходят друзья. Одна пара - он такой же еврей как я, а она как и я настолько забылась что мы договорились заказывать ужин в нашем общелюбимом ресторане (где мы берем бюргеры из буйвола), и только Андрюша напомнил нам что он, наверно закрыт и скорее всего придется заказывать, как мои родители его называют, китайский Chinese. Еще один наш приглашенный друг недавно перестал есть мясо и в воскресенье водил нас в парк посмотреть на буйволов, так что ему такой расклад и лучше.
На новый год планов совсем нет, но в последнее время я до полуночи и так не дотягиваю, телевизора у нас нет и на шар мне наплевать, а мужа я часто целую (хотя всегда можно поцеловать еще раз).
Все подарки купила на святом интернете, а муж мне вне праздников таки подарил массажер для ног. Он оказался таким же говном как и говорили мне на интернетах и в Амазонских отзывах, так что наверно мы его вернем, но сам факт сюрприза мне нравится больше чем сама штука. (Муж даже включил записку где он написал "надеюсь, это не говно!") Ему я подарю носки и выброшу все старые - но и это скорее подарок мне чем ему.
И вообще, я рада что в этом году мне не надо обо всем этом думать и что-то делать. Про прошлый год я писала тут, повторения я не желаю. В этом году пусть хоть одна сука попробует начать предложение в мой адрес с "а как же..." по отношению к празднованию того или иного. Считайте это вашим оффициальным поздравлением со всеми вам угодными праздниками!
Add to that a horrendous allergy attack. And I can't take all my favorite meds. FML!
The only other problem I foresee is that that room is painted avocado-green and green is also prevalent on the fabrics. Don't think they'll blend in, exactly, but I don't like things too matchy-matchy.
( Here are the pictures of the ones we got: )
To the stock I'm adding rehydrated dried mushrooms, fresh ones, pearled barley and potatoes. Most likely will season with garlic and shallots, maybe throw in some spices as the mood strikes me. Until then, feel free to comment and let me know what other things you've liked in your mushroom soup!
A couple of cups of this delicious brown and red rice that I found at the Asian supermarket, with mushrooms, a bit of breadcrumbs, onions, garlic, a little not-butter and dried cranberries. I can't fucking believe it, but after the entire time I've known him and earlier, Andy started eating cranberries whereas he didn't like them before! I also added rosemary, parsley, thyme, oregano, onion salt and lemon pepper. De-li-cious!
И вот поехали мы с родителями в Минск, а там каким-то образом попали то ли в их версию торгового центра, то ли на рынок. Вообще, по крайней мере в то время, в Москве торговые центры были более-менее визуально похожи на американские - стеклянные стены магазинов, центрально-расположенный зал с забегаловками, идешь по широкой аллее и видишь что к чему. А в Минске как-то непонятно - грязные полы как будто ты практически на улице, маленькие "норки" в узких лабиринтах, иногда вообще перегородки палаточного типа. Мы, кстати, и в 2009 году прошвырнулись по Минским магазинам, взбрела к нам в головы идея купить игрушку трактора или ему подобного, но обязательно по мотивам беларуских моделей нежели китайско-детских. Наивный Андрюша даже предложил подехать на завод и посмотреть в их магазине сувениров. А сами магазины и торговые центры по планировке хоть и приблизились к тому к чему я привыкла, но все равно как-то не то.
Еще одно отступление и вернемся к нашим баранам. В группе студентов Университетов Калифорнии с которыми я была в Москве была одна девочка Агавни. Я знаю что это нормальное армянское имя, но так как отношения у нас в конце концов не сложились, мне хочется над ней поиздеваться. Точно не помню чем я ей не понравилась, но когда у нее на третий день сперли из комнаты компьютер, она была мне очень благодарна за помощь, ибо все остальные запаниковали, а я хоть и плохо себя чувствовала подняла на ноги всю общагу (конечно, безрезультатно). Она была вся такая домашняя девочка, худющая, в вычурных одежках и ооочень высокого о себе мнении, хотя она всего боялась. Когда взорвали дома на Каширке она запаниковала и уехала домой, потом прислала письмо нашему согрупнику с просьбой "say hi to everyone except you know who". Я была горда собой. Так вот, в самом начале мы жили в общаге МГУ и она попросила меня помочь подвернуть ей воротник, и я запомнила ее штаны: короткие, узкие и с короткой какбудто-юбкой, она в этом прикиде была жутко похожа на официантку! Я ей ляпнула, она обидилась - может вот откуда ноги ростут!
Так вот, брожу я с моей матерью по минской версии торгового центра, настроение у меня более чем ироничное, но тем не менее штаны спадают, надо чего-то искать. Заходим мы в псевдо-палатку, стоит там какая-то баба, занавешивает меня в угол типа раздевалки и буквально швыряет мне штаны. Я тогда была очень приличного размера, наверно 6 или 8 американского, но тем не менее ни в одни местные штаны так и не влезла. И идем мы уже домой совершенно потерявши надежду и проходим мимо бабы с вешалкой таких официантских штанов. Моя мать решила что вот она, эврика, они точно на меня налезут! Я пренебрегающе начала рассказывать ей историю про Агавни и как эти штаны никому не идут, и тут вмешивается баба и говорит "а вот стройным девочкам идут!" Честное слово не помню что я ей сказала, но вы ж меня знаете, я не сдерживаюсь.
Штаны я, кстати, так и не нашла, но наступила зима и нижняя часть термобелья более менее удерживала джинсы на талии.
Almost totally gaffed recipe from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2)
milady_winter
Peel and slice thinly 4 leeks, put into a heavy-bottom pot in some vegetable oil on medium heat. Add 2 shallots and a half a head of garlic - I have a press that slices these things, otherwise you can make them small some other way. Cook until soft, de-glaze with a splash of vermouth, add about a cup of white wine and heat through. Add cauliflower and some baby carrots - in a less healthy version this would be potatoes. I had frozen, so I added hot water to cover. Season with basil, salt, pepper (I like lemon pepper from TJ's), nutmeg and other greens you may like. Heat through, blend (I love my stick blender!) and add cream (or my faux-cream - milk with a bit of cornstarch).
I'll let you know once it finishes heating!
ETA: As always, better with a little bit of lemon juice and some mozzarella!
ETAA: How do I get it not to be too sweet?
On the plus side, it was all delicious. I ordered most of the dishes myself and I'm please to say that everyone was very happy with my selections. The sampler of 6 seviches was fucking awesome, and because I ordered, I left off the ones with avocado and jalapeno and happily sampled all of them!
Хорошо живет на свете Винни Пух
У него жена и дети, он лопух
Если уши оторвутся не беда
Он их винтиком прикрутит,
Да да да да да!
Так и не поняла что в этой версии такого ужасного что надо было в угол ставить.
А еще я долго не могда вспомнить правильные слова и пела что-то про немцев, которые падали в лужу и Чебурашку-наводчика с Крокодилом-пулеметчиком.
Meanwhile, Andy doesn't usually like soup, but I do, so we compromise and I make it infrequently. Usually, he eats it on the first day and I have it for lunch for a few days thereafter - I tend to make a big pot.
Here are some soups I've been liking to make lately:
Avgolemono
Creamed spinach soups of various kinds (or kale, too)
Ochazuke
Easy borscht: store-bought borscht soup base plus diced beets, cucumber, hardboiled eggs and sour cream (OK, it's actually more like холодник)
And maybe some other ones I'm forgetting. Maybe my brain turned to soup, too.
ETA: Thank you
star_invention for reminding me of my other favorites:Miso (with tofu and rice or noodles to make a full meal)
Chicken soup with matzoh balls
Creamy tomato
Various kinds of mushroom
So NOT worth it!
If you're going for that ambiance, then sure. And when I say ambiance, I mean stupid, drunken tourists. One of the people I was with tried to argue that she's also drunk and not exactly local, but she wasn't remotely as stupid as the pubic I encountered there.
And the food wasn't worth the expense and the parking troubles, either. I've been dying to try the chicken with the 40 cloves of garlic - the thought of spreading sweet, gooey, melting roasting garlic on toast was more than I could resist. The notion of garlicky mashed potatoes was appealing. But alas, the garlic, although there were more than 40 cloves thereof, was merely warmed through. The bagna cauda appetizer was the spreadable quality of garlic I was looking for, and that's what I ate. And added to the mashed potatoes. The chicken was good, but hey, even I have recently mastered good chicken, so I wasn't impressed. And no toast!
Andy had meatloaf. It was OK and not that garlicky. He also added a shitlot of garlic to his mashed potatoes.
By the time dessert time rolled around, I was kind of wanting a tiramisu, but since we're at the fucking Stinking Rose, we should get garlic ice cream, and we did. I did like the savory caramel sauce, I love a good caramel. The ice cream was OK, but either my tongue was worn out from the other garlic, or all that was in it was a sharp aftertaste, but I wasn't impressed with that, either.
We should have known something was up when one of the first things the waiter pointed out was the garlic, parsley and oil relish that adorned our table. You know, just in case your food wasn't garlicky enough.
In other words, don't bother. I should have gone ahead with my original plan to experiment and make the 42-clove chicken my damn self.
Number Two: I love right-hand drive postal Jeeps! I was about to park to drop off some mail in the mailbox when my mailman pulled up next to me in one of those and I just handed him my envelopes.
marusja, royal_penguin, you know the incident I'm talking about!
This sucks.
I've come up with an ingenious idea, shouldn't be too difficult to implement. Can we have modular cell phones? It's not that hard to customize firmware if you're a programmer or you know one, but we can't customize hardware at all. I mean, I want to be able to go to a manufacturer's site (or, OK, let's face it, to a provider's site and pick a manufacturer) and then pick the aspects of a phone that I like. I want a slider, without a QWERTY keyboard, with a relatively nice camera and OK video, WiFi and GPS but no 3G or 4G or radio. I know that this kind of a customization may not be terribly economical, but even if we were to simplify it to what shape phone one wants and go from there, it would still be nice.
And, of course, it has been dying for the past year. First, I dropped it on the ground during a particularly hard day at work and the screen got scratched. Then the battery started being total crap. And now it's gotten to the point where in half the calls, the microphone works inconsistently at best.
I am at a total loss on how to replace it. For certain reasons, I need to stick with Verizon for now, and although I'm eligible for an upgrade, there isn't a single phone on their site that is a good fit for me. All I want is a small slider without a QWERTY keyboard (and hopefully without a touchscreen) that has a decent camera. I know I'm not going to get my Bluetooth dream, but fuck, I'll take call quality! I'm even willing to go for a QWERTY, as long as it doesn't make the phone massive. I don't text, I don't internet on my phone and I don't want any "features" from Verizon. I was kind of interested in the Kin ONEm - it is tiny and has WiFi, but it's got crap reviews, and come on, no calculator or calendar? Really?
I did look on eBay, but the only Decoys sold are not new, they're "new other (see detail)" and lack manuals. Suspicious, no?
I'll take your suggestions, as long as they don't involve me having to have a data plan.
Но я не об этом. С детства мне очень нравилось чувство провести рукой по пледу так, что бы маленькие волоски оного щекотали кожу под кончикам ногтей. Примерно понятно о чем я? Для меня это всегда был как тик, просто прохожу мимо пледа и рассеяно провожу по нему рукой. Мать моя, кстати, не поощеряла эту привычку - сама попробовала, заявила что ей неприятно и каждый раз как заметит, меня одергивала как будто застала меня за мастурбацией.
Зато сейчас у меня нет никаких угрызений совести по этому поводу - один клетчатый плед на диване в гостинной, другой на изножье кровати, и я почти никогда не пропускаю случая проходя мимо провести по нему тыльной стороной ладони.
My high school biology teacher, who taught me the only vestiges of science I remember, always told us that we can go dancing naked in the freezing SF rain and no illness will befall us if no source of infection is present. I believe him, and I say this as a person who caught their first cold in at least 2 years during the hottest days of the year.
Now, there are such aspects as brain-freeze headaches and the watering down of drinks that are perfectly valid reasons not to consume ice. It's also true that in many cities the quality of ice is at best uncertain and at worse certainly terrible. But this should not and does not apply to all things cold, which can and should be enjoyed by the people (provided their teeth are insensitive enough).
I really wanted to like you. In theory, you combine some of my favorite things: medicine, geopolitics, unconventional-looking hot people... but you lack, my dear, you lack. I was hoping for a mix of ER and M*A*S*H, but what you lack in sense of humor and interesting twists, you make up for in formulaic drama and predictability. You're as trite as you are unexciting.
Sadly, I may just keep watching. Although I'll never be a doctor, I do so like medicine on TV.
Speaking of which, Sirens is fucking awesome! Sure, we have to rewind every once in a while to get the British jokes, but at least it has real human relationships, nontrivial twists and dammit, really funny drunks!
Ganked from f3
Also, I'm going to try to say "feck" instead of "fuck" more!
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c |
| Moment of Zen - Michele Bachmann Loves Celery | |
