I saw an ad advertising veggie cakes by morningstar farms.

Veggie cakes, odd. Are they highly processed carrots and beets and such made into a confection, with tons of added chemicals? Do they come in flavors other than chocolate? What is this veggie cake?!

So I click on the link. Veggie cakes are not at all a confection, but everything American companies think of as "asian cooking" (or southwestern, but the ginger teriyaki sounded tastier for now, and kroger didn't sell the southwestern ones) tossed into a patty. Well, everything "asian" except for broccoli, sugar snaps, and cauliflower. Sticky rice, garlic, edamame, ginger, teriyaki, bok choy... water chestnuts...oh, and red peppers, if there's anything Asians like more than broccoli, it's red peppers... the capsicum kind, not the chili kind.

I spent most of today fretting over whether or not kroger sells these damn veggie cakes that are something I could probably make myself.

They did, and I bought them. I used my skillet, which now has a slightly burned bottom :( because the kitchen is disgusting. :(( They were rather small and looked like veggie burgers, but ricier.

After 15 minutes, it was done. No fragrant smells of teriyaki or ginger, sadly enough. Just... a plop of "Asian". It's like I walked up to random or Yan and sliced off a chunk and put it on a plate. >.<

It's bland... I really think I could make something better, especially if I used fresh ginger and more water chestnuts and more teriyaki. I'll have to try my hand at it. It'll be like a pan-fried-ish onigiri. I don't see what's stopping me, other than needing to go buy a new bag of rice.

I totally want a rice dispenser for my house.

Oh well, time to clean the skillet-pan.

OOooh I forgot I got a bike today. Bright yellow, it has a bell and a light and a book rack, and my feet touch the ground so it is perfectly safe for me! It was only 5 dollars. I'm probably going to ride it around town when I am bored. WHEEEE*dingding*

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So I went outside and hula hooped.

I was blowing bubbles, but people glared at me.

Hula hooping got a much friendlier reception. Some guy on a bike wanted to take my picture, and eventually, a Roanoke Times reporter came by and talked to me for a bit. I figured why not, he was coming off campus to avoid the craziness, and seemed like a decent guy. So I didn't yell at him. I figured the media could use some pictures of people "prevailing".

The picture. BTW, it's not my house, it's Dave's...

Hey mas, it didn't get spun! :D

It was a very nice day, I've spent the past year remembering, there's nothing special about today comparatively aside from being a year. Yup, time to go out, get dolled up in my "We will prevail" gear, and boohoo and sob like I am totally super affected. I mean, I watched so many people come and go, and it looked like they were just doing what was expected of them. Ok, something bad happened a year ago, let's go act like we are still totally torn up and such, put on some "we will prevail"/vt colored orange and maroon shirts. The same people who pull the "well, I'm buying the shirt because it's related, and I'm wearing it because I"m out of laundry..." (hypatia shirts? :D) Like I said in my last entry, most of the people I know who are one or two degrees away from a someone are staying away from most everything. Why people think shirts and candles and craziness are needed "to remember", I'll never know.

I'd really like a shirt that says "I'm prevailing, go away". This "we will prevail" business makes it sound like the whole school is in a funk and won't ever come out of it. Ok, maybe there is still some funk, it's a year later, no one knows anything, people still aren't really stepping up and saying "yeah, our bad"(even though I hate the phrase "<-pronoun-> bad"), and people are still attempting to demonize Cho and his family. Just recently there was a CT article that seemed surprised that NIU wasn't facing any lawsuits. Perhaps I'm odd, but there's a difference between a "oh shit guy stopped taking meds and suddenly did this" and "oh shit we totally let this guy slip through the system unchecked, and failed to act efficiently when there was 'fair' notice". Stupid CT.

April 16 in Blacksburg shouldn't turn into a day of shutting down/oh shit/wehhhhh, but it shouldn't turn into something like memorial day... hey! people died, let's grill! Though, this early afterwards, it seems the thing to do, just to stay away from the bullshit. Especially on a nice day. There's only but so much mourning to be done, and then it falls into reflection and such. When you're done mourning, you're done mourning. I should have told silly floral design girl that.

Also, I started to feel bad that the picture was "lookit me I am having fun!" but then there are girls tanning on a roof down the street. Then again, what better way to say "I am prevailing" than enjoying the day. Ok, at least the tanning girls have a ribbon... I don't even have that. I'm awful. :(

Sometimes I feel a bit tooly going on about "zomg it happened get over it move on", but at the same time, I'm not saying "zomg forget about it, don't remember", but "zomg don't let it hold you back, don't let it happen again". Like I said earlier, you're done mourning when you're done mourning, that's not going to change. Now that I think about it, I don't feel tooly about today. WTF TOURISTS!? MEDIA?! WHY?! I don't think tourists are needed because it's the anniversary of something awful... sheesh. Tourists. Now I'm annoyed. Tourists!!! ...GAH! This is really bothering me. I think this explains why I am so distrusting of people regarding this whole... set of events. Fucking tourists.

Today's shit list is short, as I have avoided most media. On my list is MSNBC for having a "how much do you remember?!" quiz, WTF (Dave told me about it, I refuse(d) to even look at it, I'm never reading MSNBC again), and floral design girl.

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Firstly, an amusement.

It amuses me that people claim offense at the fact that I am staying away from all of the hullabaloo of tomorrow and wish to stay away from it. I find it almost doubly amusing that most everyone I know that is either one or two degrees away from someone killed or injured is also staying the fuck away from campus and everything involved with tomorrow. Well, except for whatsherface, Donnell knows who I'm talking about (but he doesn't read this, oh well), you just KNOW she will be all over the telly.

I'm going outside to hula hoop. All day. Maybe I'll come in and do some homework and studying. Maybe I'll bake some brownies to give people while I hula hoop. I'm not going to wear any black. Nor any orange or maroon, or anything VT-related. I plan to yell at any media person that comes to talk to me.

smistasan thinks they will try to spin that I am hooping "in honor" of people. I will say to them "does my hoop LOOK like it says "we are va tech we will prevail? do I LOOK like a zombie?! no!!!"" It would be pretty funny if that happened.

Now for the tomorrow.

It's been a year. Woo. Time for the hullabaloo. Anyone who knows/pays attention knows that I strongly dislike the college newspaper, and have written more than plenty entries on the use of dates to mark an event, when they are used as just a date, nothing more. Sure, it means something to the people involved... but otherwise, it's just a date. They have a section labeled "April 16". This annoys me. The date happens every year. SPECIFY, DAMNIT. Beh.

Also, the hullabaloo. OH god, the hullabaloo. I've already said what I think of the hullabaloo, so now this post is over.

Oh! Now I've remembered another important thing. It's going to be a year later, and still... what is known? I want to know things, and knowing this damn school, I probably won't ever know them. Thanks.

Also, there are signs all on the buildings "zomg media stay away".

What good are these signs if they are obscured by window-bars?

I keep editing this, hence all of the stars... There's so much hullabaloo about tomorrow, when most all of the people died, but what about the next two weeks... there's funeral anniversaries... what about those?

Also, I've seen signs about town saying that tonight, hooptie ride is offering free rides until 3a. I imagine they expect people to go and attempt to drink their sorrows away? Again, I think most people are probably locking themselves away after they were done with classes today. Though surprisingly, I don't hear any drunks... go figure.

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Today is Dave's birthday.

I baked him a cake.

Not just any cake...

A Flame Cake!

I was putting the candles in, decided 23 would have been too many, and put in only 12 instead. Then I thought, hrm, if I am alternating candles, why not stick four together in the middle.

It started off kinda boring, then got to be like the first picture, and then it went FOOM like fires are wont to do. Ok, not quite FOOM but it was a healthy flame, as can be seen in the second picture.

There isn't much difference between white cake mix and vanilla cake mix... :/

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I ordered a shirt and it came today!

Woohoo! Now it needs to get warm so I can wear it.

I ordered the matching necklace, but it did not get here today.

My shirt also came with some random things, a pin and a set of those cheap-tacular monster/vampire fangs.

Raaah! *gnashes fangs*

Also, if I have a kitty and an office desk, I will need one of these.

It is me! in my shirt.

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I realize this post is long and rambly. If you want to "get to the point", as people like for me to do, you can search for the string "*****" (five asterisks, no quotes). Lemonbabies has six asterisks.

I've been wanting some bottled barley tea/drink the past few days, so I took a trek to the the local shop that caters more to Asians(of the Chinese/Japanese persuasion, it seems) than it does "The world", like the other local shop.

This shop has a $5 minimum purchase for using cards, and I figured the tea would probably be two dollars or so, and I would get two and a snack-thing, maybe some broadbeans (om nom nom. nom nom)

They only had oolong tea, so I got no tea. I got some mirin, because I see it in all of the recipies I'd like to try. There was was HUGE bottle of salted rice wine, but I decided that I probably didn't need that much. I'm sure it probably would have been much pricier in the "international" section of local "large" grocer, or even the "world" shop.

Anyway. They had some jelly mix, like the little cups of jelly from way back when that had the .5cm² chunk of coconut in them, but they got pulled off of the market when kids choked on them because their parents couldn't supervise them well enough. Grr. They remade them without that massive hunk of coconut, but it's not the same. Anyway, I bought this packet of jelly mix. I can't wait to make it.

At this point, I think I was up to about 4 dollars in purchases. I found some green tea pumpkin seeds, which sounded slightly awkward. Just a bit.

I go to the refrigerated section to look for the tea, and perhaps some other tasties (world food market will get the 1-up in that it has green tea mochi... it looks so tasty!). I see the little yogurt-milk drinks that are awesome, but I don't want any.

I eventually see "green bean ice milk bar". Green beans? What kind of green beans? I guess I could have read the ingredients... but green beans? Was it edamame and green tea? Was it generic flavorless bean dyed green in green tea? Was it... String beans? Peas? That would have been a bit awkward. Well, the string beans. Peas are almost always awesome. Having almost faithfully watched Jackie Chan Adventures, I wondered if it were mung beans... which I have never had, and was not willing to try in a confection just yet.

*****(What follows is the point of the story)*****

Then I see "sesame ice milk bar". Sesame done right is always tasty. Sesame done wrong makes me slightly ill. It was black, like sesame things are wont to be, and the idea was a bit offputting. Maybe there is someth... oooh, Red bean! AND jelly! This bodes well. (Okay, maybe not for that guy... but for me, yes. Then again... maybe not for me.)

I ask the clerk (who was exceedingly friendly when I came in) how much they were. $2.79, not horrid, not awesome either. A good price for an experimental try. I went to buy them, and he seemed surprised/impressed that I was buying something with red beans in it. Maybe people "like me"(non-asian, obviously) come in and don't like red beans? Who knows. I told him that I thought red bean stuff was pretty darn awesome, and he thought that was pretty cool. Go figure.

So on to this bar. I decide that it would be nice to have one whilst walking back to Dave's. I open the bar. It is red beany... and green. Green? Um, okay. It tasted like coconut and red bean, and there was a ton of beans in it. The green things were the jelly, where I'd expected the jelly to be worked into the texture of the bar. They didn't have any taste to them, and they reminded me of gummy worms. I guess they were there to break the monotony of beans and ice-milk? It would have been fine without the green-things, but they did make it a bit more fun to eat.

Maybe I'll be adventurous and try the "green bean" one next time. The beans on the package are the same kind of bean, so if anyone wants to offer a "wtf is this", go ahead.

******(Other point)******

Lemon babies. I think it is highlarious. Dave thinks I'm rather awful. I probably won't be a good parent at all, if I ever have kids... I'd be so mean.

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