15.7.10

Waking Up On The Wrong Side

 I had a bad dream right before waking up this morning. Here's what it got me thinking about...

Firstly, the my inner superstitious Greek couldn't help but start stressing about whether or not the dream had some significance I should notice. Maybe it was a sign? Or maybe it was just more psychological evidence that I'm crazy? I just thought myself into circles and gave up, realizing that it's all in my head either way. But none of that made me feel better. Because (and secondly), I'd awoken to a shitty mood. Would it set the stage for the entirety of my day? Was it a premonition? Am I just psychotic? Will this feeling fade or will the whole day feel awful?

Nightmares suck in the morning.

12.7.10

Working hours

Working from 10 am till 4 pm is so much harder than I'd imagined it would be. It's really not that much more than a school day, but something about the combination of an acclimation to my "summer schedule" (or lack thereof) with my general shortage of actual tasks to do, today at my internship was painful. I edited and uploaded new YouTube content, transcribed some customer testimonials, documented some of my progress, updated the clinics facebook, and looked up and saw I still had THREE HOURS LEFT. The rest of the time was spent trying to look productive while gradually realizing how unproductive I was truly being. Overall, not pleasant.

I sort of redeemed the day by getting some good Indian food after work. But only sort of.

11.7.10

I made hummus today.

       Note: the following post is coming from someone who is slightly obsessed with hummus, so I talk about it a lot (like, a lot a lot). As in, a disproportionately large amount in comparison to the actual importance of the topic of discussion. But understand, that is because hummus is the best fucking food ever. Idiot. But...if you don't care to read about hummus, this is just your official warning that is what I intend to talk about. For this entire post. 

      Hummus making is a project I've wanted to do for a while but kept getting stumped by this one ingredient it required: Tahini. Tahini is basically peanut butter made from sesame seeds instead of peanuts. (although upon sampling I found the two taste so similarly they could basically be interchangeable.) But anyway, Tahini is a staple of hummus dip, and I had literally no idea where to buy it. But because I am incredibly thrifty (and good at googling things), today I finally went out and bought some. And so commenced the hummus making.


        Now, my holy grail of hummus is the kind they sell at Trader Joes. I love hummus in general, don't get me wrong, but the Trader Joes one is basically how hummus would taste if God and every top chef on the planet joined forces to try and make the perfect bowl of it. So with that as my starting point, I researched recipes. Here's the one I actually used:
  • 1 16 oz can of chickpeas
  • liquid from can of chickpeas (added as needed)
  • 1/2 cup lemon juice
  • 4 1/2 tablespoons tahini
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • (Garnished with olive oil and paprika)
Instructions: Basically, you put everything but the chickpeas into a food processer, puree those, and then slowly add in the chickpeas and blend them till they're the texture you want. It's stupidly easy...but completely delicious.

Now, I'm gonna be straight with you here: it wasn't as good as the Trader Joes hummus. It just wasn't. Maybe it was tasting each ingredient, freshly knowing what it was that threw me off, but first it tasted too lemon-y, then too tahini-y, and then not salty enough. And I would change one thing, but still find myself dissatisfied with some other aspect of it. Granted, I am a picky hummus eater. As far as hummus at large is concerned, this recipie was pretty damn good. But next time I will a little less lemon and Tahini, a tiny bit less garlic, a lot more salt and hope for the best.

But yes, I finally made hummus, and it was awesome.


10.7.10

Missing the Motherland

      I've gone to Greece almost every summer since I was 3 years old. It's expensive as shit to get there, and it is a painful flight (about 24 hours of traveling), but my grandparents have lived there since the 60s, my dad grew up there and it is absolutely wonderful,  typically the most relaxing part of my entire summer. I adore it.
      But this summer, due to 'financial issues' (three cheers for vague parental excuses...), I have been informed that we are not going to Greece this summer. The effects of this change didn't hit me immediately. At first I was a little dejected but not all that concerned. I have friends, a boyfriend, an internship, concerts, San Francisco, and a ton of summer homework. I wasn't sure I'd have wanted to go had the opportunity actually presented itself anyway. But as the days went on, I'd find myself thinking about it; the smells, sounds, and people I was missing out on. I can only say it's been getting progressively worse as summer's gone on. The more I think about it, the more ridiculous the idea of not going seems. I feel like summer and this annual trip to the Mediterranean are synonymous and one can't completely exist without the other. I am legitimately torn up over this, which weirdly enough, surprises me a lot.
      But anyway, I guess the ultimate point of this particular post was to share some pictures I took there last year that I came across during one of my more recent fits of Greece Nostalgia. I guess they wont really have the same effect on other people as they do on me, but at least my obsession with this little European country will now be accompanied by some visuals. Without further ado:

Marketing Posture

This summer I've started interning for a clinic that, in essence (and to avoid the longer explanation) cures back problems by teaching its clients good, more natural, posture. My job as their intern is to help them grow an online following, by maintaining their facebook, twitter, youtube and various other accounts. It's been an interesting experience so far, but not what I had expected...at all.

The job description sounded like a very formulated commitment, but from what I've seen so far, the reality of this internship has been -- dare I say it -- unorganized. There's this general mindset at this place it seems that because I am a teenager, and thus well-versed in the language of social media sites (i b on fb errrday, yeeee XP) that I have some mystical knowledge of the internet's inner workings. Let me just clarify: Yes, I can create an account on facebook. And yes, after a month of use my site navigation will seem pretty much second nature. But by absolutely no means does this "competency" (I mean, I said 'a month') indicate that when faced with the task of getting page hits for a program aimed at middle aged women, will I have the slightest clue what the hell I'm doing. They basically gave me passwords to preexisting networking accounts, a copy of their book, and a pat on the back, calling out "own it, sister," as they walked off. Either they are severely understaffed, or completely insane, but I have been almost completely clueless as far as how to help them . I've googled everything from "how to become popular on the internet" (recommended google ads) to "how to get facebook fans" (also, google ads). (Yes, I asked them about ads, and the idea was shot down. Ah yes, no one is safe from stinginess.)

My original plan was to use primarily facebook, just because I'm already a pretty frequent user and feel the most comfortable with it. But after posting a few articles and painstakingly getting them a couple dozen more fans, I realized a program like this does not come across well solely through articles. So now my current goal is to use YouTube to post some video content and see if we can traffic an audience through that. Unfortunately my video editing knowledge is ridiculously limited, but then again, so is that everyone else in the office. I'm optimistic.

For the time being. It's an interesting, unique opportunity. But it's also a very good opportunity for a very miserable failure. Fingers crossed.

Revamping the bloggity

Hey there,

I feel like I've really been neglecting my blog lately. It's this awesome tool that I am completely under-utilizing. I walk around all high and mighty as though I'm this accomplished writer, when all I really do is journal and write essays for school. Being in journalism doesn't even help all that much because its just this never ending strangulation of creativity. There are so many rules that have to be followed to write a journalistically "good" article. Admittedly, I'm getting incredibly good at reciting those rules to reporters and finding deviations from these rules in their articles, but that is definitely not going to make me a better writer overall. My whole justification for this blogging, despite how lame it often feels, is based on the theory on expertise stating that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert. Writing is unique in that there's so much variation, and possibility inherent in it simply because it can be about anything. And I like doing it to boot. So basically, my overall point here is I'm hoping regular blogging will serve as good writing practice, and just generally a healthy outlet for self-expression for one very angsty teen... (These are the jokes. Right?)



And I mean, why not? It's the summer. Not like I've got better stuff to do.

(That's only half true... haha)

Stay tuned.