Julie & Julia

I went to see this film last night and can now emphatically recommend it.

Both leading ladies did an excellent job--especially Streep, whose impersonation was dead-on--but I have to admit I was a little disturbed by the extent of Julie's obsession with Julia. Ever so slightly creepy . . . though not weird enough to ruin the movie.

You will leave the movie hungry (for something more than popcorn) and itching to blog.

And visit Paris.


All in all, two thumbs up.

Brian Picks and Pickles a Peck of Peppers!

[Note: I actually did this almost three weeks ago, I've just been lazy with getting the pictures off my camera and onto the internet.]

So while I haven't been doing a good job of documenting the progress of my garden, I did think to grab my camera about halfway through the pickling process the other day. After picking a ridiculous amount of banana peppers in the yard, something had to be done, so I took over the kitchen for a day and created this assembly line:



When I first started, I had no idea that the pickling process would be so long and involved. It took me the better part of the entire day to process the peppers--from picking them in the garden in the morning to finally cramming them into the gigantic Mason jar in the late afternoon.

The whole thing left me feeling very domestic. In an 1895 kinda way.


The beginning of the line: the bucket that was full to overflowing when I began and the small jar where I saved the seeds. I figured that if I had to get them out of the peppers, I may as well save them and see if they could be planted next spring. Only time will tell.



Cutting board and bowl for sliced peppers! By the time I was done, the board was practically soaked full of banana pepper juice and the whole kitchen smelled rather strongly. Also, my hands. (In this picture you can also see the first of the eggplants in the background!)

The compost bucket for the unpickleable portions of the peppers. Also, the empty jar waiting to be filled.


The finished product! I packed the peppers into the jar with a vinegar and sugar mixture and sealed it up! They were supposed to be ready after two weeks (which passed this past Monday), but I haven't had occasion to eat any yet. I'll let y'all know how they are!

I'll also have to do another post on the scholarship issues (which were finally resolved . . . the day before yesterday) and yet another (or more) to cover the recent King family vacation to California and Arizona.

Oh, I'm so behind!

Update de vie III

I have really slacked off with this blog.

The plants are now huge and have provided several peppers and enough okra for a meal or two. I would post more pictures, but I am currently in Memphis . . . I will get on that when I get back to the Boro.

Other, more exciting, things have been happening, too!

Like losing my scholarships, for example.

At Memphis, there is a service hour requirement for many of the scholarships. However, if you are in the Honors Program, taking an honors course each semester fulfills that requirement. Unfortunately, last semester there were no honors courses that matched up with my schedule so I had to sign a contract with a professor for one of my regular courses--basically, I had to write a 15-page paper and he would contact the Honors Program to inform them that I had completed the "honors" work.

I wrote my paper.

He never contacted the Honors Program.

Who in turn never contacted the Scholarship Office, which then sent me a lovely little email informing me that my scholarships had been cancelled.

Haha.

In calling around to about every office at Memphis, I found out that there was no way to get the credit without the professor contacting the Honors Program and confirming that I received credit.

Nevermind that I made an A+ in the course. Or that I can show them a copy of the paper. They will only believe me with written confirmation from the professor.

A Russian professor who went home for the summer and is, quite literally, in Siberia. Indefinitely.

So I'm stuck in Scholarship Limbo. Yippee!

In other news, however, as of August 7th I will have an apartment! I went with Marvin to check the place out a couple days ago and we signed everything and put down the deposit. It's a really nice 2-bed, 1-bath townhouse with a kitchen! It is also situated right between Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and Kroger.

God made this townhouse. For me.

It practically glows.

I was supposed to take pictures of the place, but my camera died. When I move in a few weeks from now I will be sure to post some pictures, though. I'm excited!

Hmm, I think that's about it. I've been in Memphis all week taking care of scholarship/townhouse stuff and leave tomorrow to go camping with a group of friends.

Guess that's about it.

Good times. :)

Plants: Week 2

Woo! Another week without anything more interesting going on in my life than literally watching plants grow!


The most obvious growth here is probably between the parsley and the basil. Oregano and lavender are also doing well, but the rosemary is droopy . . . and I don't really know what could be wrong. The windowbox is well-watered, drains easily, and receives full sun. Rosemary is supposed to be a hardy plant. My best guess is that the huge parsley next to it is choking it out some or obstructing sunlight. I trimmed the parsley back a lot, hopefully that will help.

. . . Anybody want some fresh parsley?


Okra! Eggplant! The eggplants are finicky, so they got mulched . . . it seems to have helped them a great deal.


Peppers! The two huge ones in the foreground are yellow bell peppers . . . we squished everyone else in to fit them on the end because they're my favorite bell pepper variety. Woo! These have all grown a lot, I just don't know if you can tell from the picture.


Succulents! I got a new one this past week . . . I was planning to pot him in one of my yellow espresso cups, but came to find out that they have gone missing. Best guess at this point is that they are in the attic, so hopefully I will get a chance to search up there soon. Also, I don't think you can tell in this picture, but some jerk of a bird took a few bites out of the one in the middle of the big pot. I don't think it tasted too good because there wasn't that much gone . . . but if this is going to keep happening, I guess I will have to transfer them inside somewhere. Grr.

But yeah . . . haven't really had anything else going on. I moved some furniture, cleaned up my room, and am finally mostly unpacked for the summer. Yippee! I've been in one of those moods where I want to do something but just can't work up the energy to actually do it. Know what I mean?

I don't know what the deal is.

Oh well!

Ciao.

Plants: Week 1

I haven't really been able to come up with much inspiration to write recently, so I'm going to try doing a photo-oriented post. In the past few days I've been running around town grabbing up some herbs and vegetables to add to the family garden. I'm going to try do take new pictures of the stuff weekly or biweekly so that we can watch them grow!

So, without further ado . . . plants!



This is a handy window box full of herbs that I will be able to take back to Memphis with me in the fall. Yay, seasoned food! From left to right: basil, rosemary, parsley, oregano, and lavender. The lavender is not for food. Supposedly, if you infuse lavender in your shampoo or conditioner or something it is good for sensitive scalps. I'm going to try that out.



This is an establishing shot of the family garden in which I was so graciously given two beds. You can't really make out too many of mom's flowers or anything, but I may try to get a few better shots soon. She has one that is really cool . . . it looks like it came from outer space. I have no idea what it is called.


Bed Number 1! To the left of the divide is a row of okra (OKRA, OKRA, OKRA!) and on the right there are eggplants. We've never done eggplant before, but thought it could be fun. The plants are white because Dad dusted them with a pesticide kinda thing.


Bed Number 2! This picture was taken from the opposite direction, because see those flowers in the background? I almost stepped into them and realized they were full of bees. Yikes! Anyway, this bed is completely full of peppers. In the foreground are six bell pepper plants (three on each side of the divide) and there are banana peppers (my favorite!) on the right and cayenne peppers on the left. A couple of the cayennes already have blooms! I'm pretty excited.


This is my dog, Amber. She is not a plant, just an attention whore. She was being pretty cute, so she got her picture taken, too.


This is a pot full of mint (spearmint on the left, peppermint on the right). Though you can see the basil peeking into the picture, this mint was not in the previous herb photo because I was only able to find it yesterday evening. You would think that all these little plant places across town would have mint--I mean, as herbs go, it's kinda a staple. But no. Honest to Buddha, I went to every place in town and no one had any. Finally I went out to Valley Growers with Dad yesterday and they actually had it. Never would have dreamed it would be so hard to find in a million years.


These I got today! I've always thought that the puffy little succulent-things were fun, so I got a few. We'll see how they do. They're cactus-y, so they don't need much water . . . so how hard can they be to kill? Only time will tell. . . . (Note: Please disregard the decorative birdhouse and the potted fern in the background. Those are Mom's.)

Anyway, those are my plants. Don't know if anyone else cares, but I was pretty excited to get everything and look forward to fresh produce and seasonings in the future.

Brian out!

Swine Flu . . . Panic!

So the University Health Center at the U of M posts monthly fliers over the urinals for guys to read while they're . . . you know.

I think this is a brilliant idea.

Today's flier had a section entitled "How to avoid the Swine Flu." Point 2 was "Stay 6' away." Point 3 was "Don't share saliva."

I don't think that is a brilliant idea.

First off, there should really be qualifying statements on both of those. "Stay six feet away" . . . from whom? From an infected person? From everyone? From pigs?

I'd really like to know. Their generalities could be panic-inducing.

And "Don't share saliva." It's spit, not Grey Poupon, and I'd really like more specifics. Don't share spit with . . . friends? Acquaintances? Pigs?

I feel that these are all viable questions.

Be, Don't Buy

I recently read in the quotes section of someone's Facebook that "Freedom is having options."

While I'm not exactly sure that's what the Founding Fathers had in mind, it is very reflective of our consumer-focused culture.

One of my professors made a point a few weeks back that how we as Americans identify ourselves in the post-WWII period has shifted from "I am what I do" to "I am what I buy." We no longer identify with other people who hold the same job as in previous generations, but rather with those who consume the same things--clothes, music, movies, etc.

We've traded in being for buying.

Prime example: Bohemianism. Formerly, one was a Bohemian, denoting an intrinsic disregard for current trends and an artistic flair for the dramatic.

Today, one buys Bohemian in the form of flowing skirts and floral prints. The fact that the oxymoronic term "Boho-chic" even exists probably has everyone who lived in Montmartre at the turn of the 20th century rolling over in their graves.

Basically--to sum it all up--everything in our culture has gotten a lot more superficial, from our concept of freedom to the way we relate to others.

Freedom isn't the right to choose without regulation, it's the right to be without oversight. In abandoning the latter for the former, we've traded in actual freedom for perceived freedom and reduced human beings from complex people to rational-acting, self-interested consumers.

(Unless, of course, you live in the underdeveloped world, in which case you haven't been reduced from a person to a consumer but rather from a person to "labor." That's another post.)

I refuse to be reduced. I refuse to be a consumer. I refuse to bow down at the altar of selfish materialism and ambition and instead I choose to be.

Thank you for your time.