Sassy Black Friend

Learning something new

I wanted to share two new things I learned about this week.

1. There are over 30 varieties of Sunflowers. They are: American Giant Hybrid, Arikara, Autumn Beauty, Aztec Sun, Black Oil, Dwarf Sunspot, Evening Sun, Giant Primrose, Indian Blanket Hybrid, Irish Eyes, Italian White,Kong Hybrid, Large Grey Stripe, Lemon Queen, Mammoth Sunflower, Mongolian Giant, Orange Sun, Peach Passion, Red Sun, Ring of Fire,Rostov,Skyscraper, Soraya, Strawberry Blonde, Sunny Hybrid, Taiyo, Tarahumara, Teddy Bear, Titan, Valentine and Velvet Queen.
2. Computer Aided Design or cad drawings is the use of computer technology to create and design real or virtual objects. It is especially used for computer animation and special effects.

I learned both of these things in a single meeting. My job is weird.

Cooking for the unappreciative

My mother is not a person who likes to try new things. Especially when it comes to food. She likes what she likes, and has no real interest in finding new exciting foods to love. I love trying new things with cooking, and do so often. Because my mom doesn’t enjoy cooking, I am in charge of food preparation while I’m staying here. Given the above, that’s fine with me.

Since it’s just the two of us I usually cook something for dinner twice a week, the rest of the days are leftovers or eating elsewhere. If I left it up to my mother we’d have spaghetti every week. I couldn’t take it. I’ve tried making safe but slightly more interesting things, and so far her favorite is sauteed spinach. Yawn. Tasty, but yawn.

This week I made what she referred to as a “fancy elaborate” meal of the spinach, skillet roasted potatoes, and pork chops. For me that’s just fine comfort food. Nothing fancy about it. Here’s the details, you tell me who’s right. Read more »

What’s the difference between gaming and playing games?

The post title is an innocent question I asked the boyfriend last week. It occurred to me that he refers to what looks like playing games online with his friends as gaming. Asking got me a sigh, rolled eyes, and no answer. It kind of made me feel like my mother. Which made me laugh so I told him that, which made him laugh. But I never did get an answer to my question.

On the sadly all too rare occasion that I indulge my love of Scrabble, I don’t call it gaming. So I thought maybe it has to be online? If it doesn’t involve my trusty Linksys router does that make it just playing games?

Like most seekers of shallow knowledge, I looked it up on Wikipedia. And found:

While the term gaming relates to game (any of a number of structured activities), it usually implies participation in particular kinds of games.

As used in the gamer subculture, the term can refer to participation in activities such as:

* Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, known as MMORPG, in which players assume fictional roles, as in an RPGs, but unlike RPGs huge numbers of players interact with each other in an online virtual world.
* Role-playing game, known as RPGs, in which players assume fictional roles, the term Role-playing game implys that the game is offline, whilst other people may play it there is no way for users to interact from the game.
* Tabletop game, any game played on a flat surface (often a table)
* Video game, any electronic game with a video interface
o see also Video game culture

Really not helpful. Thanks, Wikipedia!

Brazil and Beauty

Racialicious is starting a three part series about beauty and Brazil. You should read it.

My boyfriend’s ex-wife is Brazilian and we’ve talked a bit about beauty standards and how it seems recently all American’s think about Brazil is that every woman there is “model hot.”

Go, learn.

Summer Vacation

Not that I’ve been around much, but I’m going to be completely gone for the next week and a half. I’m going on vacation with my family (shudder). I’ve scheduled a few posts so you all have a little content because I think J is really busy right now too. More soon.

Oh, before I go I wanted to let you all know that I’m trying desperately, and failing, to think and talk about other things than the new house. I’m obsessed, and having a great time. This weekend I spent four hours online shopping for outdoor pillows and a fire pit. Maybe my next career will be interior design. Except I’d make everyone have things I like. Perhaps not. Anyway, enjoy the weather if it’s summer where you are, and spend as much time as you can with fabric swatches, they’re soothing.