This is probably my favorite ever brownie recipe. In fact, it is HERSHEY'S BEST BROWNIE RECIPE. Kachow!

Best Brownies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 9-inch square baking pan.

2. Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add eggs; beat well with spoon. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in nuts, if desired. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.

3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into squares. About 16 brownies.

Easily doubled, easily delicious.


I should mention some things, probably.
1) It's really important that the butter is totally melted, and that the directions are followed in order.
2) Make sure it's the unsweetened cocoa powder that's in the brown squarish box.
3) The batter will be slightly gritty. But that's okay.

I think that's it. I don't mean to be a jerk about brownies.

Starbucks Vanilla Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar, or vanilla sugar
5 tablespoons organic, unsalted butter, cold
1 cup full-fat sour cream
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Scrapings from a 1/2″ piece of vanilla

Preheat oven to 400º.

Combine the cold butter into the dry ingredients until flour is crumbly.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, egg yolk, vanilla scrapings, and vanilla extract until blended.

Add to the flour mixture and stir with a fork until dough forms a ball.
Dough will be sticky.

Place the dough onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and pat into a disc about 1-inch thick.

Cut the dough into wedges but do not separate.

Sprinkle tops with sugar and let stand twenty minutes, so the gluten can relax.

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

Make the glaze:

1 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
enough heavy cream to make a thick glaze
Mix all ingredients and spoon over warm scones.

SERVE WARM and with Chai Tea. ;)

This is a short film called "Validation". It's sweet, and a little bit sad, but altogether lovely.


This has ukuleles and kittens and attractive men and you really don't need much more than that.



Ugh. I wish I could find a good video of Where Do They Make Balloons. D:

Here's the first one we did, waiting for Anna's plane at LAX. The blue pen is Anna's. The drawing skills of an autistic child are mine.



Again. After we got kicked out of Starbucks.

Amy, Anna, and I were bored whilst waiting in line at Disneyland. Here's how it went down:
(The form we did was article adjective, noun verb, prepositional phrase. None knew what the other had written until it was unfolded and read aloud.)

The lavender
rock band dances
in the same fashion

A copacetic
finch snatched
after the bombs went off

A notorious
blenders exploded
outside the brothel

Twenty-five tragic
chimney sweeps flirt
around the castle grounds


And then Amy and I played again:

The magnificent
Adirondacks loomed
around the studio

The reminiscent
kittens traipse
in Pandemonium

A desuetudinous
Neil Gaiman bathes
as the band played Waltzing Matilda

The unlikely
minions of the 6th Dimension flailed
through The Mall

One (or several) fortuitous
Amanda Palmer twirls
of several varieties

(The last one made no sense which is EXACTLY AS SURREALIST GAMES SHOULD BE PLAYED)
We also did two drawing Exquisite Corpses which shall be posted at a later date.

That is all.
http://www.exquisitecorpse.com/definition/About.html

This is "The List According to Marty Beller" Some of these are historic, some more recent, some contributed by other They Might Be Giants band members and Pat Dillett.

These are all things we are not allowed to say within the band:

game changer
crackberry
phone tag
that's how we roll
I can't work under these conditions
playing the (whatever) card
throw under the bus
drinking the kool-aid
LOL
phone tag
don't go there
it's all good
it is what it is
talk to the hand
think outside the box
off the reservation
oh no you didn't
one hundred and ten percent
IMHO
no worries*
It's all good
jumped the shark
voted off the island
(anything) on acid
(anything) from hell

Of course the list itself is now on the list.

*No worries enjoys a unique "workplace dispensation" where it can be
used with a co-worker to help decompress a work situation.
---------------------------------------
This is why I love TMBG.

I have no idea what this song is called, but it's by Yann Tiersen and I'm madly in love with it.
THIS SONG IS CALLED ASHES.

So, just as I had initially expected, it appears that Yann Tiersen's live show will be a lot like his LIVE ALBUM. Which I totally enjoyed.

BUT APPARENTLY I'M IN THE MINORITY.
I've been hanging around last.fm for a bit, getting really excited for his concert, but all that's on the show pages is people bitching about how "he didn't play anything from Amelie! OMG rock music it sucks :(("
Okay yeah so admittedly, when I FIRST heard of his U.S. tour I imagined him sitting at the House of Blues at a piano playing like, Comptine D'Une Autre and whatever. But then I'm like, Hey, he's got this live album that came out in 2006, and live albums are generally a pretty good indication of what an artist live is going to sound like. And I'm TOTALLY COOL WITH THAT. Because I LIKE Yann Tiersen. He's got mad skills and enjoyable music, whether it be minimalist piano/accordion melodies or avant-garde rock.

It's really kind of annoying me how volatile people are getting, asking if they're any interviews about his "new" sound and how they walked out because it was not what they were expecting. Granted, if one is HEAVILY into the Amelie soundtrack, one is probably not going to enjoy his On Tour album. But if one is enough of a fan to want to go to a concert, then one should at least KNOW about the live album, and know how different it is.
I really haven't any point to this (as is SO much of what I post) other than this quote by the man himself:

Tiersen himself is noted for cutting across musical genres with gay abandon. "It is not my job to define my music," he says. "To keep the enthusiasm for creating, an artist should not care about genres."

Basically, people should just give the man a break.

He is French, after all.

That is all.

This whole being an aunt three times over is really weird. Well, weirder for my mom, probably, who is a grandmother three times over. What kind of name is Bodhi Wicklander anyway? ;P Just kidding. I'm sure he'll be a sweet kid. His parents are dolls.

Anyway... where was I...
OH
So Mark Salzman is an author dude and I heard him lecture at my school last night. I think I was the only person in the auditorium who was there of free will.
He said some things that I really liked, one of which being "Chicks did literary salons" and something about how he writes, because he thinks of a situation and he makes up characters and puts them through it to see what they think and I'm like MY SENTIMENTS EXACTLY.

Especially everything with tragic mood!

Okay so back to what I was talking about... Thinking of situations and writing characters to see how they'd react. Call me morbid (call me pale), but I find death really REALLY fascinating. The emotional aspects of it... dealing with the death of a loved on at the aftermath. Even a not so loved one, maybe just a close relation. I've been to a lot of funerals in my 19 20 years of being, and they were all basically the same. But the events leading up to and the events immediately afterwards are the most interesting. When my step-grandpa died in 2001, my grandma's friend from work (a black lady) told her husband not to bring any fried chicken to the after funeral potluck, because that was "a black person thing". Then, someone lamented the lack of fried chicken and he, being a gentleman, drove out to get some. At the time I thought it was terribly funny.
So anyway. Yeah. In all the Tragic Things I've written, I've only written about the actual funeral like, twice. Maybe. Yeah. But they were both DREAMS and thus DIDN'T COUNT. Because that's just not very interesting. Everyone sits around feeling upset while some religious authority says nice things about someone they probably didn't know.
I don't want to get all literary analysis, but that's where a lot of things come from.
Well. Or dreams. Like Danny in staggering into a restaurant drunk and in drag....
Man I'm having such a hard time focusing..
I think too much about things. Is that a good thing? And that reminds me that I haven't written anything in a while and it is SPRING TIME so let's think of something HAPPY and NOT Danny's last words to his family before he left to go play a show was hit and killed by a drunk driver afterwards.

Death is only the beginning, and yet
I fear that never again shall we meet.
You left in the fall and said "Do not fret,"
"We shall meet again in heaven, my sweet."
For I did love thee more than thou didst know
And I hope thou didst love me in return
Now life is cold and how fierce the wind blows!
I wait for thee, but ne'er again you'll return.
I wish upon countless bright stars for thee
I send prayers upwards, hoping thou hears.
I hope that thou still thinks fondly of me
Live is unbearable without thee near.
How I'll live without thee, I'll never learn,
I wait for thee, but ne'er again you'll return.

--------------------------------------
It's old. I apologize to those who have read it already.

This one's by e.e. cummings. I thought it was lovely. =)


i carry your heart with me (i carry it in

my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

- e. e. cummings, i carry your heart with me

I found this from a 'news' article about Twitter. And celebrities. But mostly Twitter.

(Blah blah blah something about Lily Allen) But psychologists aren't so sure. Dr. Judy told Musictoob, "It could be for people who feel isolated and alone. Twitter's a replacement for true intimacy. If people don't have love in their lives, this could be what they do instead."

Dr. Oliver James, author of Affluenza, said, "Twittering stems from a lack of identity. It's a constant update of who you are, what you are, where you are. No one would Twitter if they had a strong sense of identity."

Alain De Botton, author of Status Anxiety, said, "Twitter is a way of making sure you are permanently connected to somebody and somebody is permanently connected to you, proving that you are alive. It's like when a parent goes into a child's room to check the child is still breathing. It is a giant baby monitor."





Oh why is life so empty and meaningless. *bitter sob* ;D

THAT IS ALL.

First, some background:
In my CDES class we've had to do several "interview" with children to see where they are cognitively, etc. and for the students to learn exactly what Piaget and those dudes are talking about in child development.
Anyway, the issue here is verb tense.
I'm working on one of them now, and it is written in the past tense. (Jacob conserved on liquid, Jacob answered_____, etc.) except, Jacob is 7 years old and has blonde hair, etc.
I got marked off points on my last interviews because my tenses didn't agree.

Now here's the thing. Yes, I did the questions and games in the past, and wrote them as such.
Jacob is still 7, he still has blonde hair, and he still has hazel eyes. Just because everything else happened in the past, it doesn't change that Jacob's physical qualities should be past tense, right?

I think my instructor is wrong, but I will admit to not knowing everything.

That is all.

Marie (a dear lady friend of mine) at http://bounce-marie.blogspot.com/ wrote this last week, and I felt inclined to share it. I hope no one minds, because it is very good.

Penelope at the Loom

Today she will entwine red
the color of sunrise.
She pulls over and through vertical
Threads- packed hard down with the
Shuttle leaving tight neat knots.

This is how she always spends her days
She thinks of her husband gone twenty years
Their infant son now a man. How bitterly
Those hours spent arranged in colored weave
that shows no time, like the shore
licked nightly clean by tide. She craves
Odysseus to float to her front door
heralded by seagull cries- a piece of driftwood
dropped, joyously, at her feet.

A freshness in the air and she recalls last night's
buffet of rain that crushed out suitors' revels-
left olive leaves strewn over hard packed ground.
All summer gone in those leaves
all sundrench all dew. Gaia giving
then destroying
what took eternity to grow.

Her days weave nights and nights unravel days
The tight weft of hours built up and loosed
Ceaselessly storing moments like coins.
Dawn's rosy finger streak the dark

Light has streaked her hair
By the rythm of some loom.

Nature is a delicate thing. Thus, is it our responsibility to take care of it? To an extent, yes. We must be sure to make certain that what we do does not make environmental situations worse, whether it be deadly bacteria, global warming, or simply scientific advances that have the potential for growth and disaster. Science can both help and hinder nature. Unfortunately, it seems that science has been doing far more harm to nature as of late.
It can be argued that science is a destroyer of nature. Many things invented or made easier or better by science have succeeded in destroying nature by making the very problems it hoped to solve worse.

In the article titled "Deadly bacteria defy rugs, alarming doctors" the author Mary Engel mentions several diseases that have become strongly resistant to many of the antibiotics used by doctors. This suggests that science is influencing nature and not necessarily for the better. There are so many medicines and antibiotics designed to make things better and people healthier that many of the so-called "good" bacteria are being killed in the process and the "bad" ones become stronger and more resistant to the antibiotics that are available. One such of these is Acinetobacter baumannii, which is often contracted by the weak in hospitals and is multi-drug resistant (Engel). In order to fight these super-infections, doctors are turning to older drugs such as colistin, which was abandoned in the first place due to its side-effects of kidney damage and deafness. In this case, it's choosing a lesser of two evils. Should a patient be giving a drug that could potentially leave him worse off in order to fight a disease that could have been prevented in the first place? Granted, there is nothing to be done about some of these new bacteria. But with all the advances in science and medicine, something should be done to be making these problems better, not worse.

Charles Darwin has long been a describer of nature through his theories of evolution, and his idea of "survival of the fittest" and natural selection. The idea of natural selection is more relevant today than ever due to global warming and different environmental concerns. Species are being forced to evolve more quickly in order to adapt to the warming planet (CNN, staff writer). The increasing industrialization of society has long been to blame for problems such a global warming, and scientists are finding that this is having an adverse effect on the environment; forcing many species into extinction and forcing others to adapt. Again, this goes back to the idea of science as a destroyer of nature. Many factors have contributed to global warming and nearly all of them preventable. If nothing is done about it, there could be many more adverse affects, more species extinct, and more environmental problems than we started with.

Sara Teasdale's poem and Ray Bradbury's short story are both entitled "There Will Come Soft Rains" and both heavily allude to themes of self-destruction through warfare (and thus, science). In Bradbury's story, an automated house keeps going on despite the fact that the family that inhabited it are long dead due to some sort of nuclear holocaust. Irony comes at the end when the house is destroyed by fire, save for one wall, which still repeats what it was programed to do. In Teasdale's poem, she suggests that nature will carry on as it has always done, with us there or not. It's an interesting theme to think about; that we will eventually destroy ourselves and nature won't really seem to care. Teasdale herself says "And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn/ Would scarcely know that we were gone."
The issue of science destroying nature in both of these literary works is rather self-explanatory. It's not as explicit as other themes, but the basic idea is still there. There is a potential for us destroying ourselves and destroying nature in the process. However, once nature has recovered, it will carry on without us and "scarcely know that we were gone".

The question now, is what is to be done about it. Should we protect nature at the risk of inhibiting scientific breakthroughs that could potentially make the lives of everyone better? Not necessarily. We should, however, take responsibility for our actions to ensure that we do not completely destroy nature and ourselves in the process.



(THAT IS GOOD ENOUGH. It's only a rough draft, after all.)

Dear Sir:

Thank you so much for sending us your query.

We have received numerous offers similar to yours in the past, and unfortunately, your offer is not suitable for us at this time.

Because this business is so subjective and opinions vary widely, we recommend that you pursue other agents. After all, it just takes one "yes" to find the right match.

Good luck with all your endeavors.

Sincerely,
Korinne Kopp
AKA Literary Agencies

IT'S HODGMAN AND COULTON. GRADUATING, APPARENTLY.



JoCo hasn't changed much, has he?

(Just warning you, there's a lot of obscure Mormon references, so my apologies. If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask.)

I was asked to give a talk on one talk that particularly stood out to me from the October Conference issue of the Ensign. I chose President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk "The Infinite Power of Hope".
President Uchtdorf said that hope is one leg of a three-legged stool, together with faith and charity. He goes on to say that these three things help to stabilize our lives regardless of trials or bumps in the road we may face.

Hope is also a gift of the Spirit. In Moroni 8:26 it says "And the remission of sins bringeth meekness, and lowliness of heart; and because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with hope, and perfect love, which love endureth by diligence unto prayer, until the end shall come, when all the saints shall dwell with God."

President Uchtdorf states that "This kind of hope is both a principle of promise as well as a commandment, and, as with all commandments, we have the responsibility to make it an active part of our lives and overcome the temptation to lose hope." I know in my life there have been many times when I've thought about giving up. "School is too hard, it would be easier if I just dropped and concentrated on finding a job", or, "I can't find a job so I'm just going to stop trying."
Satan uses feelings of doubt and despair to blind us and lead us away from, "all that is vibrant and joyful".

Hope encourages us to trust in Heavenly Father, who loves and cares for us. Despair "kills ambition, pollutes the soul, and deadens the heart".
President Uchtdorf goes on to say that "Hope is not knowledge, but rather the abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us". Alma 34:41 says "But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from your afflictions." Hope allows us to have patience to endure to the end.

Another point that President Uchtdorf makes is the difference between things hoped for, and things we hope in. The things we hope for are things to happen in the future. We hope for eternal life and being able to live with Heavenly Father again some day. President Uchtdorf says, "No matter how bleak the chapter of our lives may look today, because of the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we may hope and be assured that the ending of the book of our lives will exceed our grandest expectations." I really like that because it makes me think, why would I want to spend my life miserable and depressed with there is so much to make everything worth it? Things we hope in help us get through our daily life, whether it be trials, temptations, or sorrow. President Uchtdorf says this hope is hope in "Jesus the Christ, the goodness of God, in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, in the knowledge that prayers are heard and answered. Because God has been faithful and kept His promises in the past, we can hope with confidence that God will keep His promises to us in the present and in the future."

The things we hope for lead us to faith, while the things we hope in lead us to charity. The three-legged stool of faith, hope, and charity lead us to do good works. Alma 7:24 goes along with this saying, "And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works."

The last point President Uchtdorf makes in his talk is Hope From Personal Experience. He mentions his mother losing her children on the train during WWII, and growing up during those difficult times. One experience from my own life is moving to California. When I first came out here to live with my grandma, she had to leave to Colorado to take care of her mother and sister, so I was left alone. I was scared being in a "big city" by myself and not really knowing my way around and not knowing anyone, but I had faith in God and hoped that things would work out if I kept staying involved in church and doing the things I was supposed to do.

One last thing President Uchtdorf says that I especially liked is this:
"And to all who suffer—to all who feel discouraged, worried, or lonely—I say with love and deep concern for you, never give in. Never surrender. Never allow despair to overcome your spirit.
Embrace and rely upon the Hope of Israel, for the love of the Son of God pierces all darkness, softens all sorrow, and gladdens every heart."

There's a poem by Emily Dickenson that I'm fairly certain everyone's at least heard of, and it goes along with this.
"Hope is the thing with feathers-
That perches in the soul-
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all-
And sweetest in the Gale is heard-
And sore must be the storm-
That could abash the little Birth
That kept so many warm."

In closing, I'd like to bear my testimony. I know this church is true, and I'd be so lost without the gospel in my life. I'm so thankful that God speaks through his counselors to give us hope and guidance in our lives. These things I say in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

President Utchdorf's original talk "The Infinite Power of Hope" from the October General Conference can be found here.