All Consuming : Laurel Fan

Consumed "Strawberries"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:55:34 GMT

WORTH IT!

A story about "Grapes"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:45:11 GMT

by nature

The concord grapes growing outside my building are ripe now. There are a ton of them this year, which is nice because otherwise it would be hard to leave them on the vine to sweeten up in the frost.

My all consuming summary of February, 2008

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:33:45 GMT

I consumed things!

A story about "The Grass Is Singing"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:04:54 GMT

The Grass Is Singing

by Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize in Literature this year, and I’d never heard of her so I borrowed some random books of hers from the library. The Grass Is Singing is a terribly sad and tense little book about people trapped in their roles ~~- both exploiter and exploited as master/servant, husband/wife, rich/poor, man/woman. The book is skillfully balanced in gray areas -~~ no character comes out as virtuous or as really evil, just struggling as best they can with the circumstances they were given (though at times I think it gets a little too close to the hopeless victims of fate end of things).

It’s roughly autobiographical too—it reads as kind of “what would have happened to me if I didn’t become an independent writer.”

A story about "The Neverending Story"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:05:07 GMT

The Neverending Story

by Michael Ende

I randomly borrowed this from the library because I remembered watching the movie of the same title as a kid. The book is a lot deeper than I remember the movie being—not sure if that’s because it actually is or simply because I’m in a frame of mind to notice recursion, metaphor, non-dualism, etc…

A story about "History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:35:43 GMT

History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History

by Dana Lindaman

It’s interesting to see how different countries’ textbooks differ about the same issues in US history. I think it would be even more interesting to branch out more into world history (maybe it would be too hard to find US textbooks that deal with non-US-related events…).

For example, in the US we learn that the Spanish American War started because the Spanish blew up the US warship Maine while it was in Cuba. However, the Spanish textbook claims that the Cubans blew it up to bring the US on their side against Spain, the Cuban textbook claims that US agents blew it up themselves to make an excuse for declaring war, etc. And of course the Philippines has a completely different opinion about the whole thing.

A story about "High Infatuation: A Climber's Guide to Love and Gravity"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 18:32:27 GMT

High Infatuation: A Climber's Guide to Love and Gravity

by Steph Davis

I went to Steph Davis’s book tour/slideshow when she came through Seattle, and bought the book there. Now I want to go to Indian Creek, and Yosemite, and Pakistan, and Patagonia… She writes like a very normal person, except for the occasional sentence about somethign like running an ultramarathon while taking a break from climbing.

Why it's taking me forever to finish consuming "913 King's Tea"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:53:09 GMT

913 King's Tea

by Ten Ren

It’s a 300g can! I resteep it 5 or 6 times, so a cup lasts me the whole day.

Favorite Salmon! (rated 5 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:14:35 GMT

Sockeye Salmon

by Other Sockeye Salmon

This is my favorite salmon. But I can’t order it in any restaurant except sushi places because I like it rare with the skin on.

A review of "Æon Flux"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 21:21:34 GMT

Æon Flux

by Karyn Kusama

The original shorts had a offbeat weirdness that the movie is missing. The ambiguously fetishistic entaglement between the two main characters turns into a conventional movie love story; many of the biotechnologically weird minor characters are cut out.

Pretty decent for a special effects driven action movie, but that’s not really the kind of movie I look for.

A story about "Sauerkraut"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 16:51:24 GMT

Sauerkraut

This was my first attempt at homemade sauerkraut. I stuffed two small shredded cabbages and some salt in a jar. I added about 3 Tbsp of salt for a quart of cabbage, but I tasted it today and I think that’s too much salt. Next time I’ll try 1.5.

A story about "Apple"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 16:48:07 GMT

Apple

by nature

Does anyone care that I ate an apple for breakfast?

A story about "quinoa"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 16:47:15 GMT

quinoa

I’ve just consumed some quinoa sprouts that I’ made for research for a raw food dinner I’m having on Wednesday. Quinoa sprouts pretty quickly (these were 2 days), and I think it tastes better then regular cooked quinoa.

A story about "Thinking In Pictures: and Other Reports from My Life with Autism"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 16:44:19 GMT

Thinking In Pictures: and Other Reports from My Life with Autism

by Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin is one of the more unique authors writing today. She’s autistic, and makes a living designing and implementing humans slaughterhouses.

In this book, she explains animal behavior by explaining how animals think. Autistic people have the interesting perspective of in some ways thinking more like animals than most people do. The title comes from the fact that she thinks in pictures (like animals probably do) instead of in language.

The book does include specific explanations of behavior, mostly of horses, dogs, and cows, and relates this to how they think and how this has been influenced by natural selection, human breeding, and learning. Some of the most interesting parts are when it explains how animals, autistic humans and normal humans are similar and different, and uses this to illustrate how unexpectedly similar we are to animals.

One of the major conclusions are how animals and autistic people have unique skills that the rest of the world usually overlooks. She gives examples of dogs that can predict seizures and blood sugar levels, and autistic people whose fixation on details make them do extremely well in quality control jobs.

A story about "A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 16:22:52 GMT

A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought)

by Vernor Vinge

Lots of interesting big sociological and technological ideas, with a nice layer of double-crossing cat-and-mouse spy-chase plot on top.

A story about "Man Versus Himself"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 16:22:51 GMT

Man Versus Himself

by Erik Keith Benson

A story about "Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 15:59:52 GMT

Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

by Nick Park

We saw it after watching Creature Comforts and the first three Wallace and Gromit shorts over a potluck dinner. Getting the self-references and inside jokes definitely added to the experience.

A story about "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Laurel Fan) — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 15:45:59 GMT

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

by Mary Roach

After visiting a medical school gross anatomy class in college (it was halfway through the semester, so parts were definitely well laid out) and seeing the rows of plastinated tumors, parasite infections, and 18th century gunshot wounds at the Royal College of Surgeons Museum in Edinburgh, I wasn’t sure a purportedly humorous book on the subject had much to add. Fortunately, I was entirely wrong. Mary Roach has dug up several fascinating (and yes, humorous) stories of what happens to people after they’re dead. She not only explains the science and history behind everything, but somehow manages to convey the absurdities of the process of dying (or post-process?) in a completely respectful way.

The chapter on head transplants was the most striking. I hadn’t realized how far along head transplant technology has come, and this is one instance where I’m actually grateful for our society’s religious hangups.