Hey. People. Yeah, you, piling your groceries onto my belt.

Dividers. Learn to love 'em. They're a simple, convenient way for me to tell the difference between your groceries and the groceries of the person in front of you. While I realize the distinction is obvious to you, I honestly have no way of knowing what the fuck you're buying and what you aren't.

The dividers are there for a reason.

Use. Them.

Stop piling your groceries on top of someone else's and expecting me to read your god damned mind. Stop giving me a look like I'm the stupidest person on the planet when I start scanning someone else's items that are OMG OBVIOUSLY NOT PART OF YOUR ORDER. They were literally sitting on top of your order. If you want to glare at someone, glare at the person behind you. Or, even better, put a divider on the belt behind your groceries just in case the person behind you is a raging idiot. And odds are about 50/50 that they really, really are.

Also, unrelatedly: use your words. I mean, ones that make sense. "That's okay" in response to an "or" question is not helpful. Neither is giving me a dirty look when I ask you to please clarify WHAT THE HELL. Recently I discovered a hole in a bag of lentils one gentleman was buying; I offered to get him a replacement, but he refused, saying "no, it's okay, don't worry about it." So I scanned them, put them into their own bag, and placed them with the rest of his order. Apparently, this was actually Secret Customer Code for "I do not wish to purchase these lentils at all, but I will fail to notice that you scanned them until after I have paid." What the shit. Seriously. DO NOT DO THIS. And if you do this, do not act like it's my fault. I will kill you in my dreams.

Poll #1481205 The Gay poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 42

What makes people gay?

Can a gay person stop being gay?

Pimping my sister.
My little sister (not that little, 20) had a Halloween party at her apartment. She needed to make some party games and for college age that means BEER PONG, and when you are from our family it means FANDOM BEER PONG. Our family (3 sisters and our mom) work in a few fandoms. Youngest sister (Rachel) and I are the most alike and are both bigger HP fans than Mom and middle sister.

With that, I present you… Harry Ponger!!! Rachel painted each crest! I am totally a proud big sister.



( To see each crest )

I need black bubble gum for a photoshoot tomrrow -- is there any way to get this?
OR dye the gum in a way that doesn't make the person's teeth go black?

HELP?


(^o^)

I am getting into bands with girl singers and i need some suggestions on some new ones. i like stuff like Garbage and No Doubt before they went all  r & bish.

any suggestions??

I'm currently working as a substitute teacher. I don't consider the kids as customers, but their parents are. That said.

DO NOT send your 5 year old to school with a 101F temperature!!! WTF is wrong with you people? If she's throwing up and got that temp at 10 o'clock, there's no way you didn't know she was sick.

This video is so gorgeous and special, I just adore it-- please check it out:
http://pitchfork.com/forkcast/13511-stars/


A few of my shots of thm below -- I need to finish up on this batch this week.
Make Up by Blake Karamazov.

According to CNN, pot really is a gateway drug. Apparently marijuana serves as a gateway after all, feeding young people into the criminal justice system and on to a marginalized adulthood.

In what ways other than that one and the common one is pot a gateway drug?

On a scale of 1-10, how annoying are toll roads (1 being completely indifferent, 10 wanting to kill someone over it)?

Imagine this:
You are headed to an event and you are slightly behind schedule, but its nothing terribly important.
You take the toll road as it exits closest to this event.
At the exit, you pull up to the lane with a bill changer, since all you have is a $5.00 bill to pay the $0.50 toll.
The machine proceeds to eat your $5.00 and give you no change.  You have no more cash.

You back up and change lanes to the tenant booth and politely explain what happened.  He tells you he can't open the bill changer and that the only way I can get my money back is by pulling off to the side of the road and waiting (for who knows how long) for somebody to be "called in" (at 9pm on a Wednesday?!) to open the machine.  He will not refund your $5.00.  You ask if he will let you through the toll and he says "50 cents".  There is not a gate across the lanes, only a red light.

What do you do?

I am back after a temporary flounce.

Recap: Night supervisor dude (read: console monkey who drew a very short straw) in a convenience store/fuel station in Australia.

Okay, here we go. ( Read more... )

I have these beads with words on them, magnetic-poetry style, but I don't know how to put them together.
They have a different word on each side. The first picture is one side, the other is them all flipped over. Any of you brilliant and talented ladies have any ideas?
( pictures )

Thanks!

My boss left the organization in August. Since then, I've been promoted to a hybrid of her job and the things I liked about the job I was originally hired for. Her boss has become my boss.

We are soon going to be hiring a person to replace my old boss. This person will take on the remaining duties of my old boss not passed along to me, plus starting additional projects not yet tackled by other colleagues.

I am going to be a part of the interview and selection process. I've never interviewed anyone to be my boss before. I know that my questions during the interviews should focus more on the candidates management style and less on their qualifications. I also know that I do not want to appear to be solely focusing on finding the best fit for me, but on the best fit for our team, which includes me as this person's employee.

Anyone ever interviewed their potential boss before? Or have some sample questions I can ask?

Why is my mom washing her loofa in the dishwasher?

What are some weird habits someone in your family has that you just don't get?

A few weeks ago I had the most amazing dinner with friends at La Tavola in Little Italy. The service was friendly and the food was fantastic. I had an incredibly fresh bruschetta appetizer and the gnocchi with pesto. But by far the best thing I tasted all night was the tomato sauce that several of my dining companions had with their pasta. It’s amazing how the simplest things can have the biggest wow factor when done exceptionally well. Everyone was raving about it and when I returned home I couldn’t stop thinking about how I might possibly recreate it.

The sauce I’ve made doesn’t quite compare to theirs, but I really, really like it. Next time I plan to try this with my slow-roasted vine tomatoes instead of canned and cherry, but I wanted to see what I could do with the canned variety since winter is arriving. I’m also a big fan of using what I already have in the kitchen. (Tip: if you use larger tomatoes, blanch, skin and seed them first).

This recipe uses a lot of garlic. A LOT. But it’s not overpowering the way you might think. The sauce at the restaurant was good because it was so rich with flavor. Roasting the garlic and tomatoes in advance really intensifies the flavor so you don’t need a lot of ingredients. It works.

Ingredients

• 28 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 head plus 6 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup of grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/8 – 1/4 cup finely chopped basil
• Regular olive oil
• Good quality extra virgin olive oil such as Maussane-les-Alpilles Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425.

Using a knife, slice off the top of the head of garlic, exposing the individual cloves. Drizzle the exposed cloves with olive oil and a bit of salt, wrap in foil, place on a baking sheet and set aside. Carefully slice the grape tomatoes in half and toss with some regular olive and salt in a roasting pan. Place the garlic and the tomatoes in the oven. Keep an eye on the tomatoes to make sure they don’t burn and take them out after 12-15 minutes. Remove the garlic from the oven after 45 minutes.

Drain the canned tomatoes, reserving the liquid, and place in a saucepan on low heat with the chopped basil, some salt and pepper. Chop the remaining garlic and saute in a small pan on medium-low heat for 2 minutes then add to the tomatoes. Add the roasted grape tomatoes into the saucepan.

Remove the head of garlic from the foil and squeeze the cloves out of their skins. Use a mortar and pestle to make a garlic paste and then stir it into the tomatoes. Add a healthy splash of the extra virgin olive oil, 2 or 3 tablespoons, and stir. Use an immersion blender, carefully, and puree the sauce. You can use a regular blender for this step, if you prefer. Then leave the sauce on low, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 hours. The sauce will thicken up noticeably. When you’re about to serve, stir in a bit more extra virgin olive oil and some of the reserved tomato juice. Serve on pasta with freshly grated Parmesan cheese!


Check out more recipes at my blog! Savory Simple

(I hope this is okay to post here - seeing as it seriously affects my food supplies I figure it does)

Being a baking nut and a customer of bulk food stores, I've managed to get myself a rather bad pantry moth problem.

The sticky traps you can get from the supermarket work well, but they're $10 for a pack of 2 and I'd like to scatter more of these traps about the house because there are moths EVERYWHERE. (House rule, if you see a pantry moth, kill it).

Is there anything I can use to construct my own trap for these little buggers? I now freeze everything I buy from the bulk food place for one night before putting it in the cupboard and scatter bay leaves everywhere, but still they come and blight my rice and flour and various other baking goodies.

Help!

How do you act normally when around your close friends - are you reserved or loud?

How do you act when intoxicated? Is this different from how you act normally?

How do you act post-orgasm? Is it similar to how you act drunk?

Anyone know of any Bonfire Night related comms on LJ?

...I feel like my hair is all different types at once! So I'm sort of looking for advice, sort of seeing if anyone else has the same kind of problems...

my hair is:

-very greasy at the roots
-mainly straight, but...
-has short curly bits around my hairline (where a fringe would be)
-is dry underneath (in the bits would be at the bottom of my ponytail, near my neck)
-and therefore frizzy almost to the point of being wavy underneath, while being straight like I'd straightened it on the top!

I don't brush my hair when its wet, just comb it, never straighten it, don't blow dry it..I do usually tie it up when its wet, but if I don't and just let it dry naturally it goes more frizzy...aaah...

Its so frustrating...I can't buy "hydrating" shampoo for dry hair, as I don't want to get anything like that near my greasy roots...at the moment I use Body Shop Nettle Shampoo on the roots, and Aussie Long Hair conditioner on the rest of it, does anyone have any good recommendations for things to stop it being so frizzy, but also stopping it being so greasy! (both at the same time!) . Any ideas for "household" things to use would be useful as well! Even if I have to put up with having vinegar on one part and mayonnaise on the other part...or whatever you helpful people recommend! :)

ps Picture will be added when I get on my home computer :)

For context, I work at a tiny family-owned corner store in a reasonably sized city. We sell you wine and make you sandwiches to order. Neighborhood staple and all that.

Last night after locking up the shop my coworkers and I went out for a few drinks and recounted stories about horrible customers, which reminded me of this story, and I thought I'd share.

I'm the cashier at the store. I deal with the public and the money. This story takes place on my 3rd night of working there, back in February. I thought I had everything figured out about the job pretty quickly, and was feeling sure of myself. Then entered: Gerbil Guy

He had a thick middle-eastern accent that I couldn't really understand. He came in and asked me a question in very broken english. I had him repeat it 3 times, but still had no idea what he needed, so I gave him a shrug/nod/smile, which seemed to satisfy him, and he left.

What he apparently was asking me was "Hey, girl. Do you want me to leave for ten minutes, come back, throw a shoebox full of live gerbils at you, and then maybe I could run out of here screaming and waving my arms?"

'CAUSE THAT'S WHAT HE DID.

Shoebox. Stuffed. With. Live. Baby. Gerbils. My coworker and I were stunned. In retrospect I don't know why we didn't call the police or animal control, but we didn't. We just carried on and tried to find homes for the poor things. We managed to give away a few to customers, but the rest I wound up taking home because I had a cage and some food/bedding left over from my ex-boyfriend's hamster. Over the course of a few weeks I managed to give most of them away to friends over Facebook, but I couldn't find homes for the last 2 sisters, so my roommate claimed them, named them Butternut and Molly, bought them a fancy cage, and that's where they live today. When people ask where they came from she sighs and says "well, that's kind of an interesting story."

I never saw Gerbil Guy again.

Bonus: http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll167/lunacava/PICT0041-1.jpg
Photo of Butternut and Molly in their old cage, from when I was trying to get them adopted

http://www.reallivepreacher.com/node/1542

My daughter Shelby turns 17 this month. We have been through some hard times with her over the last few years. Shelby has read this and is fine with me telling you about what has happened. The name of her second grade teacher has been changed in this account.

My wife says that our middle daughter Shelby came into this world anxious and has been anxious ever since. She was a colicky baby who cried constantly. As a small child she was fearful of many things and hesitant to try anything new. She was most comfortable when she was alone and often played by herself. She spent hours in her room talking to her toys and creating her own magical worlds of imagination. Sometimes I would stand at the door and listen with a big smile on my face.

She was delightfully creative and smart as well. She asked all sorts of interesting questions about God and death and the meaning of life. She was fascinated by graveyards and tombstones, loved horses, and was afraid of just about everything else. I adored her. She was different from a lot of kids, but I liked that about her...

READ MORE at the High Calling Blogs website.

Archive of my High Calling Writing.

The High Calling is a site about Work and God.

I finally put my foot down and got myself a day off. A whole day just for me. =) Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Guess what?

I was awaken before 6am having been transformed into a fountain of snot.
My eyelids weigh a ton each, my feet are frozen solid and my forehead is molten lava.
I have a disgusting taste in my mouth, a sore nose and boneless arms.
My cats are doing what they always do when I'm sick: take advantage of the situation. I can hardly feel my legs or arse from being sat and slept on for hours with no energy to change position.
There isn't a single atom in me that isn't begging to be put out of its misery.

The Universe hates me.


(And yes, I'm wallowing in self-pity and paranoia. From where I'm sitting (due to not being able to stand without wobbling (SHUT THE HELL UP, SÓNIA!)), I'm bloody well entitled to it, thank you very much!)

Title: Fire Editor: Kristin Cashore Format: TC Available Formats: Kindle, Sony eBook, Audio Download, Audio CD Page Count: 461 Genre: Fantasy/Young Adult Publisher: Dial Pub. Date: October 5, 2009 ISBN-13: 9780803734616 Series: A novel in the Grace universe Rating: 10 of 10

Summary:
Fire gets her name from her hair. After all, the shade of her hair contributes to her terrible beauty. Fire is a monster and her unnatural beauty and coloring comes from that fact. Being a monster also ostracizes Fire from society. Of course, it doesn't help that her father was one of the most feared men in the kingdom, Cansrel. He had the ability to enter the minds of others and twist them to his own devices. So can Fire. But Fire does not want to be a second Cansrel...

TL;DR Version:
Anyone who loves unique, strong female protagonists must read this book. Both Graceling and Fire have raised Kristin Cashore up into my favorite authors because of her beautifully rendered protagonists (each unique from the other, both strong in their own way) and interesting world. Do not hesitate to read either book. Although, if pressed, I'd say Fire is a bit deeper than Graceling, I'd recommend reading in order all the same.

( Read the rest at Book Love Affair? )

There are two, count them, two events for NaNoLJers this weekend, check this stuff out and make sure to clear space on your schedule to be able to participate!

November 6 & 7
Weekend Word War Take One
Write as much as you can between 12:01am Friday the 6th and 11:59pm Saturday the 7th.
-Person with the highest weekend word count will win a NaNoWriMo halo. If you already have a halo you may donate it to someone else, or else a $10 donation will simply be made in your name.
-Everyone who writes over 5,000 words over the weekend will have their name entered into a draw for a Niteblade swag pack

November 6, 7 & 8
Word War One: Team Clio vs Team Calliope
The team with the most words written between 12:01am November 6th and 11:59pm November 8th wins. Last year Calliope won, will Clio turn the tables on them this year?
kibet is donating a copy of the Write or Die desktop edition to the winning team (who will then have to determine between themselves who on the team to give it to). Thank you kibet

Team reporters, I would like the individual word counts for all the members of your team (plus a team total please) as of the end of the day today (Thursday). If you could get those to me by Friday morning that would be fantastic -- I especially need them for the two teams involved in the word war this weekend.

...and by the power of ham, we have come to the eleventh month. Hooray for ham!

Ok, ham has nothing to do with this. Pudding does, though. Not ham pudding; that sounds unpleasant. But not as unpleasant as the unpleasantness that might unpleasantly occur should you skip out on this week's quiz of un-unpleasantness. Play it now! Before calamity strikes! Unless you paid Calamity to strike you, in which case, carry on.

Go. Play. Take Quiz.

This is the place to share excerpts of your work from day five :)

Don't give up!

A fair number of people who sign up for NaNoWriMo never see the finish line. A lot of them never see the end of week one. Don't be one of that number. You can totally do this, if you don't give up.

I know it's hard. It's hard to find the time, and when you think what you're writing is crap, it's hard to keep on writing, but do it anyway. Things that are hard are the ones worth doing. Truly. Stick it out, you'll be so thankful if you do.

Why am I concerned already? Well the comments on the word count posts look like this:

Day 1: 68
Day 2: 35
Day 3: 32
Day 4: 24

That is a disconcerting trend, my friends. It really is.

Check in today, share your word count -- even if it's lower than you'd like. Perhaps someone will have some encouragement to offer, and if your word count is good, or higher than you need to be on track, maybe you can be the one to offer some of that encouragement.

Remember, we're all in this together.

ETA: I meant check in when you're done writing for the day, but I <3 the enthusiasm people are showing in saying "I'm still here!"

Would you rather press '0' or stay on the line?

What's your favorite book series (if you have one.)

I like Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and the Stephanie Plum books.  Generally popular stuff.


Is there a movie adaptation of a book that you prefer to the actual book?

The Shawshank Redemption was better than the short story (from Different Seasons).  The movie was almost identical to the original story except for two major plot differences.

I saw a commercial last night for a game that supposedly uses your thoughts to move a ball. I THOUGHT it was called Mind Tricks, but can't find anything online about it. Does anyone have any idea what I'm talking about, and if so, what the hell is it called?! Thank you!

Edit: Got it. Thanks again!!

How many bathrooms do you have?

How often do you clean it/them?

Does this include scrubbing the toilet?

If you have multiple bathrooms, do you use one more than the other?

I know I ask for advice in here frequently, but really, its the best place to go for it!

( TL;DR )

Is it really logical and necessary for families to lose their husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers because they were busting a crack house?

Isn't the hero who protects people from hurting themselves the person who says "I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend"?

Who needs another martyr?

what was the most amazing concert you've ever been to and what made it amazing?
i saw 'the swell season' last night and it was so incredible i don't think anything will ever top it <3

on supernatural, what do sam/dean/denny do for money? they seem to have an endless supply of fake ID and rented suits.

most doctors and pediatricians do, so why did the hospital tell me that when I take my little girls temperature under her arm, do not raise it a degree?

Tickets available here!

How do you like your coffee/espresso/iced coffee? Do you make it at home or go to a coffee shop?

Do you reuse old Holiday decorations or buy new each year?

What are your usual themes/colors?

SF writers trying to describe an ET language in their fiction tend to lean toward languages made up of colors or smells or textures or musical notes or some such thing. But a Terran language could easily work that way.

What you need to identify a language as extraterrestrial is some feature never before observed in any Terran language. For example, suppose you encounter a language that has three basic classes of meaningful sounds: vowels, consonants -- and something else. The question then is: What could that "something else" be?

It couldn't be tone, by the way, or aspiration. Tone is just a way to modify vowels; aspiration is just a way to modify consonants. You'd still have only two classes of meaningful sounds.

Kitty Pics under the cut! Clicky Clicky!!

( Read more... )

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/11/sporty-spice-cakes.html

Here at Anything Goes Bakery, we specialize in cakes that have all of the appeal of your favorite sports activities.

Baseball:


Soccer:


Boxing:

Whatever this is:


And of course, Epcot:



Nicole N., Rachel L., Maryann G., Charlene, Dyanna, & Sarah C., it's almost like I don't know Spaceship Earth when I see it, huh?

- Related Wreckage: Introducing a Good Sport

Do you know anything about Avatar? I've heard people talk about it like it's a pop culture kind of thing, but I'd never heard about it 'til they started talking about this new movie.

Why are the Hindus upset about it? There was something on the radio this morning about some major Hindu group filing a complaint against James Cameron because it offends them or something. I don't really know the details.

*ETA*
Okay, they just played the blurb again, and it said something about "avatar" being the principle of reincarnation in Hinduism. They are wanting a disclaimer put at the beginning and the end of the movie saying that it has nothing to do with Hiduism or reincarnation. Sounds like they only bring it up because it's slated to be a major release in India.

What are you doing right this second?

What are you wearing?

What would you rather be wearing?

Are you sick?

Do you have any particularly awesome piercings?