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Friday, December 17, 2010

Choklit Blog #74: 10 Things That Bother Me

  Even though these are all numbered, they are in no particular order. I just thought it would seem more dramatic and interesting if I counted them down as if I was slowly working my way to the one thing that bothers me more than anything in the world.  But no… that’s not how it works.
#10 People sitting on my bench.  There’s a bench at my school that I basically own.  I practically live on it, and I frequently get comments from people about how much time I spend there.  There should be a plaque over that bench with my name on it.  But some days, when I get to my bench to sit down, someone is already sitting there… and it’s never just “someone.”  It’s always several people who are quite large, with about a foot of space between each of them.  That way, they can take up my entire bench.
(Actually, sometimes it is just one person.  That doesn’t bother me, though.)
#9 Slacking off.  I’m sure anyone reading this has heard the horror stories of all the slackers I’ve ever met in my entire life.  I’m especially annoyed by people who slack off in college.  I honestly do not understand the mentality that says “This is going to count toward my grade.  I think I just won’t do it.  Maybe I’ll turn it in a week late.  Why come to class?  It’s just my grade.  I think I’ll walk in twenty minutes late every day.”  If you’re not going to do the work, don’t pay to go to college.  Please… for all of our sakes.
#8 Stupid questions.  My favorite stupid question was asked halfway through the year in my ninth grade spanish class: “Mr. Cancino, what does buenos dias [pronounced “byoonis die-us”] mean?”  Mr. Cancino had greeted us every morning so far by saying “buenos dias.”  Although it was funny, I felt like beating my head against a brick wall to cleanse my mind from the stupidity it had just endured.  I also just love when people use class time to ask questions that are answered in the syllabus, or questions that the teacher has just answered ten times.  And please don’t ask me about something you have no reason to care about, or about what I just said to someone else.
#7 Bad writing.  I know it’s cruel to be so aggravated by something that so many people can’t help, but if I was only bothered by things that people can help, then… well, I would still be annoyed by a lot of things.  Anyway, I’m always very greatly displeased when I attempt to read something, but I can’t because there’s no punctuation, half of the words don’t actually exist, and the writer has completely changed direction in middle of a sentence.  I also hate when someone writes a paper or a blog or something like that, and it has no direction, organization, or flow… it’s just a collection of random sentences about the same topic.  If you can’t write, please please please don’t write.
#6 Poorly written song lyrics.  This is, in fact, different from bad writing.  Bad writing applies more to things that are intended to be read, unlike song lyrics, which are intended to be put to music and listened to.  When someone writes a song that is completely uncreative and unoriginal, has no interesting words, has a boring rhyme scheme, and/or lacks any sort of substance, then that person should promptly throw their song lyrics into a really big fire.  That’s right, Ke$ha (I mean, Ket¢hup), your songs should be burned at the stake.
#5 Girls who insist that they’re ugly and fat.  Believe it or not, girls, I’m getting quite tired of going on Facebook to see you comment on every single picture of yourself that “ewwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!! like i luk sssoooooooo uglllyyyyyy heerrrr!!!! deleettteeee!!!!!”  Everyone is probably ugly in someone’s eyes.  Everyone is also probably attractive in someone’s eyes.  Ugliness is subjective and cannot accurately be declared as a fact.  If you think you’re ugly and you wish you looked like someone else, then you would probably still feel the same way if you looked different.  You’re not ugly- you’re insecure.  It’s not helping you any to let the whole world know it.
#4 People who beg celebrities to tweet them back or reply to them on Facebook.  It’s especially annoying when said celebrity replies and encourages such behavior.  Why don’t you have anything better to do with your time?  And don’t you think celebrities get annoyed by people who act like that?  Does it make you happy to think your favorite celebrity is sitting there going “WHY won’t this person just shut up already?!?!”  I think it’s hilarious, though, when girls who are like thirteen take a picture with a band, post it on Facebook, tag the band members, and then comment back and forth “aren’t they like super hotties??????” “yeah, they’re soooo hot!!!!” “i’m totally marrying all of them!!!!”  It’s not like they’re going to comment back “You’re hot too! Let’s get married!”  If they see your comments, they’ll most likely think you’re creepy and stay away from you.
#3 Improperly pronounced words.  When people say words wrong, it sounds to me like fingernails on a chalkboard.  Welcome to perfectionism.  If I correct you, it’s because I care too much about you to let you embarrass yourself in front of the entire world.  Or it might be because I’m starting to feel physical pain.
#2 Teenagers in “relationships.”  Now, I’m not saying I have a problem with people dating if they’re under the age of twenty... plenty of people get married when they’re eighteen and nineteen.  What I have a problem with is people (usually girls, and usually under the age of sixteen) who “date” someone (which doesn’t actually mean they go on dates since neither of them is old enough to drive), then go around saying they’re in love, they’re never going to break up, they promise nothing will ever change and they’ll be in love forever... and then a week later they’re with someone else, saying the same things about that person.  Just the amount of pure ignorance required to act like this blows my mind.  Please grow up.
#1 Confinement.  Being confined in any way, shape, or form scares me. The end.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Choklit Blog #73: Epic Accounts of Candy-Making, Week 13

November 23, 2010.

       Today we put together our pastillage centerpieces.  Now all we have left is our written final, which we’re not worried about, since we all know we’re going to fail.

       The first order of business today was to build a box out of dried pastillage and royal icing.  Then we had to find and mark the center of the top of the box, and, of course, Chef Gronert tried to tell me I was doing it the wrong way.  I didn’t listen.

       Then we had to remove our ornaments from the plastic sheet protectors we had piped them on by sliding a pallet knife under each ornament.  This wasn’t really a problem for me with my large ornaments, but even though I had made extras, I broke way too many of my small ones.  I ended up having to glue eight of them back together and use them anyway.  After we got the ornaments off the sheet protectors, we just had to glue them on top of the box with royal icing.  It was pretty easy.

       I ran into one problem that I could have avoided.  The colors on my large ornaments had run together, some pretty badly.  I was told by one of my other instructors, Chef Vein, that if I had let the outlines dry longer, then the black wouldn’t have run.  Let me rephrase that: If I had piped all of my outlines last Tuesday and had filled them all when I came back on Friday, then not only would my colors have matched much better, but they wouldn’t have run so badly and I would have saved money on food coloring.

       Overall it was a pretty good day, but then Chef Gronert had to ruin it by putting royal icing on my super expensive 54 cent sunglasses… twice.  My lovely classmates wanted me to put some royal icing in his briefcase while he was out of the room, but unfortunately, I’m smarter than that.

Choklit Blog #72: Epic Accounts of Candy-Making, Week 12

November 16, 2010.

       Remember that super fun final exam we had a few weeks ago where we got to experience the wonderful privilege of piping for an entire class period?  We got to do that again!  This time it was a little bit easier because we were pretty much just tracing pictures, and we didn’t have a time limit.  Well… we sort of did have a time limit.

       I was under the impression that we would be given enough time in class to complete this project.  Unfortunately, that assumption was the furthest possible thing from correct.  It was incorrect.

       Apparently, we’re all going to have to pipe most of our ornaments for our centerpieces at home.  Then we get to attempt the simple and enjoyable task of transporting our extremely delicate ornaments from our houses to class next Tuesday morning.

       Today I almost finished six of my large ornaments.  I started off just outlining all of the ornaments so they could dry thoroughly before I filled in the colors, but Chef Gronert told me that I had to fill them before class was over since I couldn’t take the outlines home and fill them there.  So I stopped outlining and started filling.  I finished just in time, so I was excited that I wouldn’t have to come by later in the week to fill them.  Then Chef Gronert told me I needed to fill in all the empty spaces with white, which means I’ll have to come back in sometime before next Tuesday to do it.  Well, if I had just done all of my outlines today and hadn’t bothered with the colors yet, then I could have just come in on Friday and done all the colors.  That way it would be much easier and actually possible to match all the colors, and I would only have to pipe my small ornaments at home.  If he would just let me do things my way...

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