Saturday randomness

[yendi]

There's a nifty vocab quiz over here. I scored 173/200, but that's because I probably got half my guesses right (figure I had another 27 potential mistakes). Some of the questions required knowledge of Judaism, Christianity, or various other mythologies, and at least one word was purely a foreign word.

Over here, you can find John Kovalic's preview artwork for Creatures and Cultists. Consider me very psyched.

Wired has a nice article on how information spreads throughout blogs, which also mentions Blogpulse, a sight whose database I really wish I had access to.

And my cat just spent twenty minutes attacking the area of my shelf that has Kinder Egg toys (mine were real German ones, not the Canadian ones). I assumed he had something against them, only to be surprised when he finally got past them and grabbed my Action Masters Catwoman instead. Guess it makes sense, in a weird way. And it's better than attacking all my loose change, like he'd been doing.

Finally, last night volta and I took shadesong out for her belated birthday dinner (thanks to bheansidhe for last-minute babysitting). We went to The Melting Pot, and gorged ourselves on yummy fondue. Have I mentioned how perfect gruyere is as a melting cheese? mmmm, gruyere. And the lobster tail for the main course didn't hurt, either (especially since I was the only of the three of us who ate it). Of course, the chocolate marshmallow Oreo finale was a great way to finish, too. :-)

Comments

[cissa.livejournal.com]

wicked_wish has a cat who likes attacking her action figures. She takes pictures and makes up storylines. :)

That fondue sounds fabulous....

[snippy]

I scored 176; most of my guesses were wrong.

I think high scoring on a vocabulary test is more closely related to being an avid reader than to high intelligence (although I think most "IQ" tests are more measures of learning than intelligence, whatever intelligence is).

[aki-dreaming.livejournal.com]

I just noticed that the title of your livejournal is "Exploding Whale of Happiness". What's that little round thing coming up so fast?

Anyway, Melting Pot is a thing of joy and beauty and as soon as I'm anything resembling solvent again, I'm going there. Woo Thanks for reminding me!

[zerbie.livejournal.com]

I've never understood the appeal of fondue restaurants. I go to restaurants to have someone else cook my food. And if I'm going to have to cook it myself, I'd like to not pay quite so much for it.

[luis-mw.livejournal.com]

175/200, with 2 unanswered (which I couldn't spot when I went back to look).

In Hong Kong, I encountered an interesting variation on fondue... Circular table with pot inset in the middle, divided into two halves - one with the basic "chicken" stock, the other with "satay" stock. Then you ordered a variety of things to throw in the pot - slices of beef, pork, chicken, vegetables, fish-balls, slices of elephant clam (a very strange creature that looked as though it would be more at home in a shop with darkened windows and a bead curtain across the door), dumplings of various sorts... By the end of the evening, the broth got very interesting and would probably only need a lightening strike to start developing life.

There were many interesting looking things available to throw in the pot, but I had to pass on the chicken testicles.

[justanotherg33k.livejournal.com]

You are still leaving the most tedious part of cooking (the prep work) to others, and fondue isn't exactly cheap even if you prepare it at home. Also, the ambiance in most fondue places is what really makes the experience. But of course, your mileage may vary.

[zerbie.livejournal.com]

Hrm. We do have a fondue pot, but we've only used it for chocolate. That, at least, is much cheaper at home. (Pretty much like all desserts at all restaurants.)

I think part of my problem is that I'm not a very adventurous eater, particularly when it comes to sauces, so the prep work involved in my fondue would be: cut up the chicken. Heat up the oil.

:)

[yendi]

Well, the oil (or broth, in this case), was in many ways the least interesting part (other than the lobster tail). But the cheese fondue (and not having to worry about cleaning it) was wonderful, and well put-together (I'd not have wanted to chop the garlic, shred the cheese, buy the wine, etc). As for the dessert, it wasn't a terrible deal -- considering that the dipping items included good strawberries, a slice of cheesecake, and other stuff, I figure we got our money's worth (especially with not having to clean it up).

[yendi]

Yeah, I draw the line at chicken testicles, too.

[correspondguy.livejournal.com]

179, and I could easily see that varying by 10 or so on a retest.

[yendi]

It was actually a reference to the pic of the exploding whale that was going around a few weeks ago (although with a HHGttG subtext of course).

[aki-dreaming.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remember the exploding whale bit... Poor 'song caught quite a bit of flack over that one as I recall.

[yendi]

*nod* agreed on both counts. Some IQ tests measure some level of deductive reasoning as well, but this was purely a vocab one (with very few instances in which a word's meaning could be deduced).