Assorted random notes

[oyceter]

1. I finally downloaded IE 7. Tabs! Thank you! Also, yay for the IE FoxyTunes add-on, which made the entire upgrade completely worth it, even though I'm still weirded out by the fact that it appears on top. On the other hand, I snorted when I discovered that IE actually lets third-parties charge for add-ons and that there are nearly none that I want.
   
   Mostly I want IE to work like my now-customized-to-death Firefox. So I'll be keeping an eye out for something like Greasemonkey, the download statusbar (one of my newest Favorite Things Ever), the web developer toolbar, Super DragAndGo (my absolute favorite extension ever for all time), Focus Last Selected Tab, and, of course, good old Tabbrowser Preferences. IE, I just want my tabs on the bottom because I'm weird like that! That's all!



2. Went to a wedding over the weekend, which I generally dislike as it makes me feel extremely single. I am usually very comfortable and happy with my single-ness, so I wasn't all gloom and doom about it (gloom and DOOM?), but still. On the other hand...
   
   The table I was sitting at emptied very quickly, so much so that it was just me and a friend. This normally would be a bad thing, as I would be sad and lonely and glaringly single, but! All these people were foolish enough to leave before the lobster course, the squab course, and the fish course (all Chinese-style). MUHAHAHAHA! You really don't want to know how much I ate. It wasn't gourmet stuff, given that it was a giant wedding reception, but still! Lobster! For me! And a giant circle of little wee roasted squab in a ring around the edge of a giant platter. I ate two. And then grilled sea bass! And there were so many leftovers that the restaurant passed out boxes, so I have another squab sitting in my fridge, along with a ton of noodles!
   
   Free food. So exciting.



3. Also, I happened to be one of the only two Asian people (and the only Chinese person) at my table, which was sort of funny, as the wedding was mostly Asian. All my coworkers seemed to be very excited about the menu, except for a few things, like sea cucumber (which I don't even eat). I think someone asked me if all Chinese weddings were like this (food-wise), and I was very bad and scared them by gleefully telling them about the platter of rooster testicles served at my cousin's.



4. On yet another fooding note, rewatched some Firefly with cofax7, laurashapiro, P. and two other friends without LJs and ate a ton of tasty stuff, including Cofax's very good coffeecake and T's chocolate orange muffin cake things. I just sat there and sniffed at the strong chocolate-citrus scent for a while, it smelled so good. And there was veggie frittata (homemade) and pasties (not homemade but really good! Pasties with scrambled eggs inside! It was sort of like kolaches!) and mimosas and fresh-out-of-the-oven popovers (mmmmm). I brought cheese and chocolate, as I was too lazy to cook. OMG! World! There are Vosges chocolate bars at Whole Foods! Best thing ever! I've found I really love dark chocolate with a hint of spiciness, and that I particularly love milk chocolate with sea salt. It (the milk chocolate + salt) sounds so odd and is yet so tasty.
   
   I also splurged and got four kinds of goat or sheep cheese -- I like goat cheese, and when I found three of the cheeses I had already picked were goat or sheep, I decided to just go with the theme. Cheese included: tartufo cheese with little shavings of truffle and an incredibly wonderful smell, fresh goat chevre made locally, aged manchego, and drunken goat cheese (it was the name! I couldn't resist).



5. I noticed in the pilot of Firefly, there's a background scene with grilled dog being offered. Part of me thought, "Yeah! We eat everything!" and part of me thought it was true and part of me flashed back to Frank Wu's Yellow, in which he has a chapter on Chinese people being accused of being dog eaters as a mark of perpetual foreign-ness and otherness. I'm not sure what the majority of me thinks; must ponder more.
   
   It is so good to be able to watch stuff live with people who are not me commenting on assorted race and gender issues; most of my RL friends in the immediate area a) are not fannish and/or b) probably think I am a raving liberal maniac based on my politics.



6. I also finally dropped by Kinokuniya and picked up the latest volume of Nana. It's rather sad. I have been at vol. 5 for about three years now, and yet, I continue to buy them in Japanese and tell myself I will catch up. I also got the final volume of 20th Century Boys, as the final two chapters are not scanlated. I really doubt I'll be able to make any sense of it in Japanese, given the content, but I will go insane if I can't read the last two chapters!
   
   I learned that Urasawa Naoki is writing a series called Pluto sort of with Tezuka Osamu except not really because Tezuka is dead but still! Wikipedia tells me it is a re-writing of Tezuka's Astro Boy with robots and attacks and OMG! Urasawa Naoki gets to write Tezuka AU manga fic! It is a collision of genius! I am now tempted to hunt down everything Urasawa has written, particularly Yawara, which is apparently about a young girl learning judo.
   
   I also learned that I am shamefully incapable of walking past sales: "Self! You don't need a copy of Treat's collection of essays on Japanese pop culture, even if it is 50% off. It is still $10 and you are on a budget! And it's in hardcover. Also, most importantly, you own it already."

Comments

[hysteriachan.livejournal.com]

That chocolate site just broke my brain with ohwowwantnow. o_o (Have you ever had this (http://www.greenandblacks.com/uk/productdetails.php?pageid=27&cid=6&pid=10)? ginny_t introduced me to it, and it's ever so good... and looking at their site for the link showed me that they have a cherry chocolate bar, which I've never seen. ;_;)

Also, "chocolate orange muffin cake things" sound incredibly good. Why must it be Monday morning, with no source of yummy things in sight?

[oyceter]

Vosges is so awesome! Some co-workers gave me a few bars and got me hooked. I've tried the Barcelona, the spicy one, the wasabi one, the Himalayan one, the cardamon one and the Naga bar, and they're all delicious.

I've never tried Green and Blacks before! Those look so good!