Signing Off Until Christmas

Hey everyone! I am leaving for Gary, Indiana on Friday. Just kidding :D I'm going to South Bend, IN, to spend Christmas with my family. So, I probably will not be posting again for a while until January, but I might pop in and tell you what I got from Santa ;) Merry Chirstmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, and a very happy new year!

~ROBO~

Cinnabon Recipe

I was procrastinating on Facebook the other day, and I found the recipe for the famous Cinnabon cinnamon buns!!! I saved it on my desktop for a while, but I thought that I would share it with you, my lovely readers. Here is the recipe:

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How to Make Cinnabon Rolls !!
Saturday, August 9, 2008 at 8:02pmMost Cinnabon places have a window or area that people can watch the workers make the Cinnabon rolls daily. Have you thought how to make them yourself ??

Ingredients : (rollz)
* 1/2 cup warm water
* 2 packages dry yeast
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 3 1/2 oz. pkg. vanilla pudding mix
* 1/2 cup margarine, melted
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 6 cups flour
* 1 cup of soft butter
* 2 cups brown sugar
* 4 tablespoons cinnamon

(Cream Cheese Frosting)
* 8 oz. cream cheese
* 1/2 cup margarine
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 3 cups confectioner's sugar
* 1 tablespoon milk
sTeps : (rollz)
1. Get a small bowl and pour the water, sugar, and yeast. Stir and combine the ingredients until the sugar has dissolved. Set the bowl aside for now.
2. Make the pudding mix in a large bowl. Read and follow the directions on the package. Mix in the salt, margarine, and eggs in the pudding. Add the yeast mixture afterwards and blend everything well together.
3. Add the flour to the mix. It's highly recommended to put in a cup, mix, and then put another cup in. It's easier to mix all of the flour in with this method rather than dumping the entire 6 cups of flour at once.
4. Knead the dough until it's smooth. Place and cover it in a greased bowl. Let the dough rise until it's doubled in size. Smash or punch the dough down and allow it to rise again.
5. Create a 34 x 21" size dough by rolling it on a floured board. Use the cup of softened butter and spread it (either with your hand or a knife) on the dough.
6. Use a separate bowl to combine and mix the brown sugar with the cinnamon. Sprinkle the mix on top of the butter. Grab one end of the dough and roll it up very tightly (like a sleeping bag). Use a knife to put indentations in the dough at every 2 inches. Go back and cut the dough in pieces, using your indentations as "markers".
7. Put each piece on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Lightly press down on each piece with your hand. Let the pieces rise one more time.
8. Bake the rolls for 15 to 20 minutes, at a temperature of 350 degrees F. Remove from the oven when they are a golden brown color.
9. Spread the cream cheese frosting on the rolls.
(Frosting)
1. Combine all of the ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Mix until you get a smooth consistency.
Tips:
* Be sure not to over bake the rolls. Burnt cinnamon rolls aren't tasty and could ruin the excitement.
* The amount of brown sugar and cinnamon determines the amount of "gooey"-ness appears after it's been baked.
* This recipe makes about 20 very large rolls.

enjoy it !!
(((BASEM EL KADY)))

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Not sure who this Basem El Kady is, but God bless her soul.

~ROBO~

Bureacrazy! - A Library Misadventure

A Facebook friend of mine, Sean Mills, wrote a note a while back describing a trip to the library:

I wanted to read Bill Eiland's book about Lamar Dodd, "The Truth in
Things."

I went to the library and found it, tried to check it out.

They told me I had to to go get a library card at the Main Athens Library
Branch.

I went there and they said they couldn't use my Student ID, I needed some
mail to prove my residence.

I went home and got some mail, and then proceeded to show my student ID to
another librarian and got a card.

I went to the UGA library, but now the book was missing.

I asked them where it could be, they said they had 3 copies all not checked
out...so I filled out a book search request form.

I get an email a few days later, saying, "I found your book, print out this
form and come get it before the expiration date."

So, I go in and they say the don't know where it is, I will have to wait
for a manager.

I wait for a manager and he says I can't check out my book, I have to go
back to the Main Athens Library and pay $10 in the basement to get interlibrary
privileges...

So, I just sat there and read the whole thing.

Lovely story, don't you think? He appropriately titled the note "Bureacrazy!" When I asked him if I could put this on Greek Fire, he responded:

Sure.. unlike the federal government I like to share information.
Incidentally, the last part of the story would be a smart move, except I AM
planning on paying that fee eventually so I can check out other books in the
future.

Library adventures are the sweetest kind.

Make sure to check out his website, http://www.seanmillshospital.com/.



~ROBO~

New Poem

TIEMBLO

tiemblo cuando oigo su nombre
pero no me siento nada en el frío
la imagen de Vd. me llena
con un emoción estrena
un emoción que no me he sentido antes
¿solo es amistad?
¿es lujuria?
¿o es amor?

solo el tiempo lo dirá

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And for those who are hispanically challenged, the translation:

TREMBLE

i tremble when i hear your name
yet i feel nothing in the cold
the image of you fills me
with a bizzare emotion
an emotion that i've never felt before
is it only friendship?
is it lust?
or is it love?

only time will tell

------------------------

There you have it, the newest amatuer poem from the mind of ROBO. Thanks to Rebecca for grammar help.

~ROBO~

High School and College

I was having a conversation with a friend (let's call her Lucy), and we came up with a few poetic nuggets of insight into the adventurous minds of teenagers:

"Highschool is just a holding pond where we all fester in our hormones until we have wasted more time than we can handle, and then we are allowed to go to college." - me

"I want it now. I want to recreate myself. I want to be around people who don't know who the heck I am and don't care about my past. I want it to be all new and unknown and unfamiliar...in an exciting, thrilling, breathtaking way." - Lucy

To any adults who read this, take heed. This is the train of thought for many, many highschool students. Not many people get to see this side of a person. (Unless you're Edward :D )

~ROBO~

New Cube + Petrus Solution

I bought a new cube a few days ago from an absolutely wonderful website, http://www.thinkgeek.com/. Great stuff. The official Rubik's Cube came today. The springs were a bit tight, so I had to lube the thing. It works fine now.

I figured that this would be a great time to try the Petrus solution again. I tried to use it with my old cube, and I found out that Lars Petrus's site is absolutely horrible. So I googled it, and up popped http://howtosolvearubikscube.weebly.com/petrus-method-solution.html. Not very in-depth, but his reasoning is a lot like mine so it worked out well. Sure enough, I solved the F2L in about an hour (stopping and starting due to laundry and supper). The old algorithms for the last layer work fine, so I just used those, and voila! Solved! I think it really does take a lot less moves than a layer-by-layer solution, so I'll start using the petrus from now on.

~ROBO~

Fantastic Fruit Juice!

I absolutely adore fruit juice. It's a lot healthier than soda, tastes fantastic, and gets you your daily share of Vitamins. Here, I'm going to start a list of my favorite juices EVER. This list is not all-inclusive, but it's all that I can think of at the moment.

> White Grape Peach Juice - Just the generic Publix brand, but absolutely fantastic. Just the right intensity of peach flavour, balanced by the evenness of the white grape.

> Cantaloupe Juice - I had this for the first time in a restaurant outside of the small town of Muna in Yúcatan, Mexico. It was freshly made from only water and cantaloupe. It was slightly pulpy, but in more of a melony kind of way.

> Pinapple Juice - This is my favorite juice of all time. I had a glass for breakfast in the Phantom Horse Grill, a restaurant in the Arizona Grand in Phoenix. It had almost no noticable pulp (the way I like it), and had the exact right amount of tang with it. I believe some apple might have been mixed in with it, but I'm not sure.

> Cranberry Juice - Pretty much any cranberry juice is great, except when it is extremely tart or sweet. Combinations with cranberry juice and another juice, such as apple or grape, are also pretty tasty.

~ROBO~

GObama!!!

I'm an Obama fan, and I am not ashamed to say it. I wouldn't be too extremely disappointed if McCain won, but I agree the most with Obama. We had a debate in class today, and unfortunately I got verbally raped. The odds were against me, it was pretty much me against two very well-prepared and sassy McCainer girls. I also misplaced my Obama pin that was pinned to my jacket :(

Anyways, looks like Obama's gonna win so far. 263 Obama, 168 McCain, and 15 ties when this post was written. We'll see how it turns out.

Edit: Yay, he won!!!

Cubes Are Fun...

I solved my first Rubik's cube over fall break. Fun stuff. Then I did it a million more times. I can usually get it in 2-3 minutes. I might go on to a faster technique later, but I'll stick with this one for now.

~ROBO~

Jack Johnson

I just bought Jack Johnson's new album recently. Fan-freaking-tastic. "Sleep Through the Static" is truly amazing. Of course, his other albums, "Brushfire Fairytales" and "In Between Dreams" are just as great.

~ROBO~

British Scientists are expected to use the F word...

Here is a direct quote from WebElements.com concerning the spelling of the element sulfer:

The spelling of sulphur is "sulfur" in the USA and now that IUPAC has decided it has jurisdiction over the British English language (as distinct from American English) as well as nomenclature, so we in the UK are expected to use the f word.

Just thought that last phrase was pretty funny. "...we in the UK are expected to use the f word."

~ROBO~

First Game Won!!!

Wow, our football team won its first game last night 40-6! It was 28-0 at the quarter. We've lost all of our other games this season, so this was a big deal. The band also did extremely well, as usual :D

~ROBO~

Strange Attractors

I'm going to put a few of my fractals on here soon, but I want to put my name on them first so they don't get stolen. I know, I sound paranoid, but better safe than sorry.

~ROBO~

Pablo Neruda

I have to write an essay for my final tomorrow on the poem "Oda a los calcetines" (ode to my socks) by Pablo Neruda. I'm not going to post the essay just because I don't want anyone plagiarizing off of me, but I will post the poem:

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Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder's hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them
as though into two cases
knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin.

Violent socks,
my feet were two fish made of wool,
two long sharks
sea blue, shot through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.

They were so handsome for the first time
my feet seemed to me unacceptable
like two decrepit firemen,
firemen unworthy of that woven fire,
of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation
to save them somewhere as schoolboys
keep fireflies,
as learned men collect
sacred texts,
I resisted the mad impulse to put them
in a golden cage and each day give them
birdseed and pieces of pink melon.

Like explorers in the jungle
who hand over the very rare green deer
to the spit and eat it with remorse,
I stretched out my feet and pulled on
the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

The moral of my ode is this:
beauty is twice beauty,
and what is good is doubly good
when it is a matter of two socks
made of wool in winter.



...y en español:

Me trajo Mara Mori
un par de calcetines
que tejió con sus manos de pastora,
dos calcetines suaves como liebres.
En ellos metí los pies
como en dos estuches
tejidos con hebras del
crepúsculo y pellejos de ovejas.

Violentos calcetines,
mis pies fueron dos pescados de lana,
dos largos tiburones
de azul ultramarino
atravesados por una trenza de oro,
dos gigantescos mirlos,
dos cañones:
mis pies fueron honrados de este modo
por estos celestiales calcetines.

Eran tan hermosos que por primera vez
mis pies parecieron inaceptables,
como dos decrépitos bomberos,
bomberos indignos de aquel fuego bordado,
de aquellos luminosos calcetines.

Sin embargo, resistí la tentación
aguda de guardarlos como los colegiales preservan sus luciérnagas,
como los eruditos coleccionan
documentos sagrados,
resistí el impulso furioso de ponerlos
en una jaula de oro y darles cada
dia alpiste y pulpa de melón rosado.

Como descubridores que en la selva
entregan el rarísimo venado verde
al asador y se lo comen con remordimiento,
estiré los pies y me enfundé
los bellos calcetines y luego los zapatos.

Y es esta la moral de mi Oda:
Dos veces es belleza la belleza,
y lo que es bueno es doblemente bueno,
cuando se trata de dos calcetinesde lana en el invierno.

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La obra es interesante, y a mí me gustan muchos las obras de Pablo Neruda. Voy a pedir prestado un libro de él.


~ROBO~

First ever blog...

Well, this is my first blog. I don't have anything important to say, so I will most likely just talk about my miniscule programming, school, art, biking, or whatever other stuff I have going on in my life at the moment. That's about it.

~ROBO~