Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Where am I?

I had a pending blog post that I never published. Why? Because I've been busy.
I know I know, if I could count the number of times I user the phrase "I've been busy" with my blog world, you would want to kick me in the shin.
I get it.
But I really have been busy.
More and more responsibility have been piled on me at work. While at home I've been getting ready to potentially move.
Where?
Well about 3,000 miles across the US.
Yup. If all works out (which is still going to be A LOT of work) I'll be saying goodbye to the east coast and saying hello to the west.
I can get freakishly superstitious but I also know its a bunch of crap. So I'm just going to say it.
I may be moving to Portland, OR. (see how I wrote "may be" that's me being superstitious and not wanting to jinx anything. I just can't let it go)


YAY!
You have no idea how excited I am.
I can't wait, even though I won't really have any friends there, other than the person I'm moving with. So... um... anyone out there in Portland want to befriend a 30 year old (oh yeah I turned 30 this year! EEP!) Asian with a good sense of humor?
Anyone?


Anyone?

Sigh.....

It will be hard, and I'll probably miss my friends, A LOT, but I'll make more. Right?
Right?
Anyone?
I'm only a little bit strange?


One productive thing I did that I can show you (that I'm also proud of) is my newly designed website!

YAY!

I haven't touched it since I put it up for others to see (which I was suppose to add more to it), but at least its out there.

And on a similar topic, I enjoyed the uselessness of Homer Simpsons website from the beginning. It reminds me of geocities where all you would do is put up clip art all over your website and called yourself a web designer.
(Honestly I'm not mocking, I did the same thing)



Anyway, enjoy!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

um...

yeah... err... uh... I have nothing

Friday, May 21, 2010

holy cats

So I was in Etsy Find yesterday.

Did you miss me? I was there. Among some great sellers/artists, I was wedged inbetween Maid Of Clay's couples tattoo heart mug and Peoples Couture's chain mail body harness.

This is my first time in Etsy Finds so its kind of an exciting moment. Just like the first time I was on the front page. Its fun! However, this time, it led to many more sales. Which is fantastic! However now I'm going to be busy for the next couple of days. So if you don't hear from me, you don't have to worry. I'm fine.



On a new note, I have a new shirt design out in my store.



If you are wondering why my prices for some new shirts have gone up, I have switched over to alternative apparel tshirts. I decided to upgrade the shirts, since alternative apparel shirts tend to be soft and comfy.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

bbbrraaaiinnss...



If you pay zombies with brains, you can get them to be excellent employees.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

speaking of




the geek in me LOVES this!
Its not a canon lens. Its a canon lens travel mug.
No really!

And its mine, all mine!!!
bwwaaahahahahahaha

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

girl geek gear

so I decided that since my obsession of geeky items can get out of control, I decided to share it with the world by creating a girl geek gear blog.
Since there isn't a lot of sites or blogs out there dedicated to girly geeky gear, I decided to make one.
http://girlgeekgear.blogspot.com/

Suggestions? Let me know!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

cold brew iced coffee: Mocha Version

Here is the recipe.
Of course things can always be tweaked.
I use the cold brew coffee recipe that is pretty much everywhere via the internet and the recipes are all basically identical. I grabbed the recipe from NY Times. I figured the site is fairly reputable (sarcasm).

Now remember, the cold brew coffee is less acidic. So if you like coffee that puts hair on your chest and kicks you in the gut, I don't recommend the cold brew (did you just have an image of a cup of coffee grow legs, run over and high kick some unsuspected person in the gut? Yeah, me neither). This is for people who don't want the acidity, and wants to drink a more Isaac Hayes kind of iced coffee (mellow & smooth).

The caffeine amount on this has been mixed on the internet. Some say this is more concentrated so it has more caffeine. Others say this doesn't have as much as a hot brewed coffee. Either way it still has caffeine, so be careful how much you drink of this.

The cold coffee recipe:
Yields 2 drinks

1/3 cups or 5 tablespoons of ground coffee (medium-coarse grind is best)
1 1/2 cups water (preferable at room temperature and filtered)

In a jar (preferable a glass one since plastics can absorb tastes and smells) stir together the coffee and water, cover and have it sitting out (at room temperature) for either 3-4 hours (for the impatient person like myself) or 12 hours (if you want more caffeine and also a little more acidity). Really the brew/sitting time is personal preference. However I wouldn't go over 12 hours? I accidentally had it sit for almost 20 (I forgot about it! Don't judge me!) and it had an odd kick to it that I didn't enjoy. Also don't brew it for less than 3 hours. Obviously any less than 3 hours is not enough time.



Once it has sat for your desired time, you need to filter out the grinds.
I use the coffee strainer from my coffee maker with a coffee filter in it to filter out the grinds. You can use other methods, but make sure you filter out the grinds. You want it smooth, not chalky or crunchy. Because trust me, if you don't filter out the grinds completely, it becomes chalky.
So coffee strainer with filter and slowly pour in a little at a time and allow the filtered coffee to strain in a new clean container. Once again, I recommend using glass since plastics tend to absorb tastes and smells. So if you end up using the plastic container that was used for coffee, for some juice, it might smell funny.


Now the coffee is done, its now time to make the Mocha.
Just a note, I would wait to put the iced coffee in the fridge. Its easier to mix the mocha syrup that we will make, into room temperature coffee, rather than cold refrigerated coffee.

Mocha Syrup:
Why Mocha Syrup? Well puny mortal, when you just put the coco mix in with the coffee and stir or shake thinking it will all dissolve, it doesn't. It ends up being kind of chewy, chalky and clumpy. So instead, making a syrup maintains the smooth consistency that I enjoy out of a nice cold cup of iced coffee.

Yields for 2 drinks

4 Tablespoons hot coco mix
3 Tablespoons water (boiled or not boiled, that is the question)
4 tablespoon soy creamer

I use a fairly straight forward ingredients, kind of hot coco mix. I avoid partially hydrogenated oils like the plague so I found a decent hot coco mix. I also used soy creamer because I don't like milk. But you, of course, can use regular creamer and whatever hot coco mix your heart desires.


Take the hot coco mix and water and you can do either of 2 things. You can mix the water and the hot coco mix together, then throw it in the microwave. Or you can take boiling water and mix with the hot coco. I will microwave because I'm being lazy. I microwave it for about 1 min. My microwave sucks so it may take a shorter time for you.

Once your hear your microwave beep, (or if your kettle starts to whistle) take out of the microwave and mix the water and coco mix. Make sure to mix the hot coco and water thoroughly. No chunks for you! I want to see that mixture smooth like a baby's bottom or smooth like silk or smooth like, well you know, syrup.

Add the mocha syrup and the creamer into the coffee.
Stir thoroughly. The syrup may start to harden a little and create little coco floaties. Don't worry, its ok and normal. Keep stirring and eventually it will all go away.
Once you no longer see chocolate floaties in the ice coffee, throw it in the fridge and enjoy when you want. Hell, enjoy it now. Drink the delicious coffee! What do you mean its 2AM and you'll be up all night? Whatever. JUST DRINK IT!


If you still get some tiny clumps from the chocolate, don't worry, you will not notice them while drinking the iced coffee.

Now you don't have to throw the creamer into the whole iced coffee batch. You can add it in the individual servings. I make it this way so I can enjoy it right out of the pitcher. Kind of like grabbing a Starbucks frappachino that are premade off the shelf at the local Walgreens or CVS.

Of course you don't have to add in the mocha to the whole batch either. You can make individual servings of the mocha syrup. But once again, my recipe, my rules, my blog, my way. If you don't like it, then tweak it. I won't get offended. I may cry a little but whatever. Go ahead. Make a 29 year old girl cry. See if I care.

If you do add the mocha to the whole batch, then make sure to stir it or shake (if the container allows you to) to mix up the coco, since it will settle to the bottom, before you pour yourself a glass.

For an added tip, you can make coffee ice cubes to prevent diluting your delicious drink of taste and caffeine. Using the cold brew iced coffee recipe, pour the completed cold brewed coffee into an ice cube tray (a spare one perhaps), throw it in the freezer (Note: Do NOT actually throw the tray in the freezer!) and use them in your drink (once they are frozen). I would recommend just using black coffee as the coffee ice cubes (no creamer, sugar or coco).

Also I don't know for sure how long the coffee left in the fridge will stay good for. I've heard anywhere between 2 days - 2 weeks.
I would not wait 2 weeks, but I tend to keep it in the fridge for 5 days before I decide it may no longer be good. But either way, fresher is always better so enjoy quickly, maybe not all at once. Unless you want to OD on coffee and caffeine and be up for days. But yeah, I don't recommend it. (Same principal for the ice cubes. I wouldn't have them sitting in your freezer for too long)

So if you made too much have a caffeine party. Invite some friends and make them drink your iced coffee. Even if they don't want to, guilt them into it until you get rid of the excess coffee.

Who would have known this blog would have been this long.
My apologies.
Are you still paying attention?
Really?

Amazing!

iced coffee

So searching for the perfect cup of coffee, I stumbled upon a recipe for Cold Brew iced coffee. At first I thought it was load of crap, but apparently there are coffee connoisseur who swear by this and will ONLY DRINK cold brew iced coffee. Meaning it could be 100+ degrees outside but they would drink a hot coffee over a hot brewed iced coffee. Weird? Well, yeah they are nuts. Have an iced tea instead if you are going to be like that. Freaks.
Anyway, I decided to try the cold brew approach. Mainly because people said that cold brew coffee is less acidic. And lately my stomach has been very upset at me when I drink coffee, especially from places like Starbucks. The punch in the gut of the acidity is too much for me.
I followed the recipe online and right away taking a sip before adding anything else (sugar or cream) showed that it WAS less acidic. But I didn't want to just put sugar in it or make a simple syrup for it, so I choose to make it a mocha.
Wielding some hot coco mix and rice milk I tried but it was clumpy and grainy.
But I'm now trying again, this time I will melt the hot coco and use Silk Soy plain creamer. I'll be trying it tonight, if all goes well, I'll add in the recipe and I'll let you know the jittery results. If it goes bad, then you will never hear from me again.
Who am I kidding, I can't stop talking!
Plus you guys would miss me too much! I know I'm irresistible!



I hope it turns out well.

Friday, April 9, 2010

here...

I decided to switch over tshirts to alternative apparel.
So out with the old in the new(ish).
Some of my designs will be gone forever (once they sell out).
But some will still continue to be around.

For example, I am keeping my geek and crossbones design because frankly, I love it too much to let it go.
I am working on some new designs that hopefully will do well enough so that they'll stick around for a while too.

In the mean time, I'm going to slowly start to introduce the new shirts or at least newish shirts.

The shirts I am using are new (meaning I haven't use alternative apparel in my shop previously) but the design has already existed.
Get it? Yeah? No? Maybe?

Well, either way, enjoy.
The alternative apparel shirts are super comfy and soft.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

ideaz

I've had ideaz floating around in my head.


Will probably be on the right front chest of a shirt.


Exclusively on a tote bag.
Maybe I'll make (professional) prints of this?
Granted I need to fix it before I do that.

anyway.....
that's it for now.

Friday, March 26, 2010

I feel naked...

Its hard for me to believe that I got my first cell phone in 2002. I was 22. Especially when I see middle school and high school kids today carrying their cell phones with them. Most of my other friends had cell phones for a year (rarely 2) before I got my first, but they hardly used it. Everyone had landlines. So my friends only used it when calling long distance. Now, 16% of the population does not have a landline and its increasing.
Sales of landline phones are way down and I can safely say most of my friends don't have a landline.

Now you may be asking, why the crap are you talking about this and why is your titled "I feel naked..."
Well with the dependency of cell phones today, and the more uses cell phones have (texting, email, interweb, etc) when one forgets to bring their cell phone with them, well, the whole day is thrown off. So now here I am, without a cell phone, feeling lost and alone, oh and very naked. Plus I cannot go home and get it now.
Saying that I feel naked not only seems very appropriate to say, but also awkward, making it even better because, well, I like making a situation awkward.
So to avoid weird visuals, I'll give you this:


A sad iphone. Which is what my phone looks like right now because its not with me.
Either that or its happy that it gets a break for a day.
Doesn't the saying go "if you love them, let them go?" Maybe this day will allow me to love my cell phone even more than I did before.
*sniff sniff*
I know I'll love you more when we are reunited!

Please don't judge me...

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Ms. Fix It

I enjoy learning how to do things.
Most of the time I like to learn it with the help of my friend the World Wide Web. Sometimes the World Wide Web and I will have our disagreements or arguments, but we always make up. I can never stay mad at them.
Anyway, I taught myself or sometimes with the help of others (actual people, not the computer) how to do things. I have learned from watching my dad (he attempted to be a handy man sometimes successful and sometimes not) and watching my friends. I learned the inter workings of the computer through friends and my brother. So when it comes to calling up customer support for further assistance (when I cannot figure it out) it pisses me off when I tell them I have done everything they just told me to do, but they want me to do it AGAIN because they think I don't know. Grr... But this isn't about that (yet). Other things I learned, HTML, CSS and Flash. Nothing at an expert level or even advanced (and most Flash I have forgotten now), but enough to get by or expand on if I wanted to.
But learning all these things would just build up in me and then I NEED to know how it works. So I learn how to do it. I'll ask my friends who know about it, questions.

My need for knowing how either things work or knowing how to fix things has grown. I just recently learned how to fix an ipod. I researched it about 1-2 years ago because someone thought their ipod died. It ended up just needing an old fashion reset, but I learned how to replace the hard drive, thinking maybe it was that. So I learned how to do it. Step by step. It was fascinating to me. I sat on it because I didn't want to spend money on getting all the parts on fixing an ipod when there was a chance it wouldn't work. Well, the urge to do it was too much and I gave in.
I bought a used ipod video on ebay.
They said it wouldn't turn on.
They lied.
The audio didn't work.
At all!
Through headphones or the dock (which FYI, its VERY COMMON for Ipod 5G/Video!)
Plus, the guy clearly busted the front cover probably trying to fix it himself and failing. Miserably. (now I have to buy a new front cover too)
So what I originally thought was a battery or hard drive issue, turned out to be a logic board issue.
I learned how to do that, bought a new logic board, swapped it out and presto! It works. So now I have a used ipod 5G for cheaper than a refurbished one and roughly about the same price as a used one I can get off ebay.
I must say I'm proud of myself.
Now, I'm no expert, but I can always help and send you in the right direction if you decide to fix your ipod yourself.
Just let me know.

Fixing stuff

Thursday, March 4, 2010

photoshop

I'm still trying to learn.
Playing with textures.
I'm not impressed with this.
I should have played with this one a little more.
Oh well...

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Change

Change can be good.
Many people are afraid of change, which I don't blame them.
It is a scary thing.
I always admire people who can change things around in their life and continue to carry on in their life as if nothing happened.
Its been a while for me, but I think its time for some changes in my life.
I'm hoping it comes soon.
I also decided to make some changes in my etsy shop.
My changes haven't happened yet, but it will.
In the mean time I'm putting together a sale in order to make room for the changes that I want to make.
So check out my shop and enjoy.


I figured I should put up a picture relevant to what I am talking about.
They say its always good to have a picture up on a blog to make the blog entry stick out. So I searched and the best picture I figured was of a stencil artist's work (Meek).

Friday, February 19, 2010

Absent

Absent is a word that reminds me of elementary school. Its a word that I don't regularly use, but it was used so often as a child, it just stuck.

I was absent the beginning of this week.
Frankly it was a blur.
I got the stomach flu, which I have never gotten before.
I was out. I mean really out. I pretty much slept the first two days I had it and I don't remember much of what happened.
I'm finally much MUCH better but I'm still not 100% better.
Certain foods make my stomach feel odd.

Its so sad because I've been saying my Valentine this year, was my toilet.

(I would hate to use this toilet. Every time I flush, I would take away all the fish's water.)

But needless to say, I'm back.

Friday, February 5, 2010

giveaway

So remember in my last post I was going to giveaway some things.

Here is one.

Glass Slides.
No, not the electric slide. I can't giveaway a dance move.
But glass slides. They also include the images as well.
I originally bought these from Jasmine Sole when they were going out of business and getting rid of everything with full intention of doing something with them.
Well I didn't do anything with them.
But now I am selling my house and I need to get rid of things. So its the get rid of things giveaway.
(You will get 12 different slides)

Starting Today (2/5/10) until next week (2/12/10)

Leave your name and email address and I'll pick a random person.
Hopefully enough people will participate with this.
that means you.
Its free people!





Wednesday, February 3, 2010

sold?

I've been busy.
Between my full time job, my personal life and etsy, I am typically busy.
But now that I have a pending sale on my home, I'm even busier.
If the loan goes through, I'm out of the home in March. In the mean time, I have to pack up EVERYTHING of mine. As well as get rid of a lot of stuff.
Most of the bigger furniture I can get rid of. Its the smaller stuff.
The good part for all of you? I'll most likely be giving the stuff away, which will probably benefit all of you readers(?) out there.

So watch out for giveaways that I'll have to get rid of my stuff.
It will be miscellaneous stuff so keep a look out.
I have some glass slides that I purchased from Jasmine Sole. I'll be giving some of those away.
I also have some of my art that I'll give away as well.
I'll also be doing some Moving Out sales.
Hopefully the sale of my home goes through. Which means you will all benefit from it.

In the mean time, I just want to say I'll miss my condo.
I loved it like it was my own home. Because it was. duh.



Monday, February 1, 2010

remember remember...

Not the 5th of November.
Because its February 1st.
I never spelt February right as a child, which always made me feel dumb.
Well, there were many things that made me feel dumb.

But enough about me.


Here is my "heart sale" event.
From Feb 1 - 14 I have discounted my "hearted" items. I adjusted the price on the items in my etsy store.

stuff

your welcome.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

its coming



This is it.
Don't fret. Its coming soon.
Its not on all items but its on some.
The first of the month is the way to go.
Enjoy it while you can.
More details will come... soon.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

trading

I haven't really traded before.
Until now.
And my first experience was exciting and very worthwhile.
What's funny is that I've been looking for a new hat for a while but never found one.
Until now.
To my delight, Chelsea of birthdayeveryday.etsy.com hand knit a black hat, which looked awesome. Someone suggested how it would rock in red, like Steve Zissou in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.


Which I agreed too that it would be awesome in red. So I voiced out how I would love one. She said she liked my Honorable Mention tee. So the wheels of trading started to turn.

I got it and I'm in love.
Trading
Including my pets who wanted to sniff it for hours.
Red hat

I'll wear it all the time.
Maybe even when its not cold anymore.
Maybe when I'm inside.
Maybe I'll wear it as a night cap when I go to sleep.
But probably not.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

better. badder. best

What's better than an eye patch and Abe Lincoln?
Abe Lincoln wearing an eye patch.
Wallet

What's better than Abe Lincoln wearing an eye patch?
NOTHING!

The End.

Monday, January 4, 2010

20 years



Some of you may disagree, but with with 20 year behind them, the Simpsons are one of the "things that are awesome." At least to me.

Want proof? Who can say, they did not find the following things funny...


Dialogue between Homer and his brain:
homer: 20 dollars.....
brain: 20 dollars can get you more peanuts
homer: explain how!
brain: money can be exchanged for goods and services.
homer: woo hoo!


You pressed "you" referring to me. That is incorrect.
The correct answer is you.




Homer: No TV and no beer make Homer go... something... something....
Marge: Go Crazy?
Homer: Don't mind if I do!


This is not including all the Ralph quotes that always come up.
"I bent my wookie" or "they taste like burning!"

If you need more proof, well then, I don't know you.
Just kidding. I do.
Well kind of.
Unless I know you in real life. Not Internet life.