Darkoshi

New trick: place a slice of cheese between 2 deli slices, folding the cheese corners in so they don't stick out, and microwave for ~30 seconds till the cheese melts.

Then you can put that on a toasted piece of bread, thereby having a melted cheese sandwich, without needing to microwave the bread too or needing to heat it in a pan or oven.

Of course, I use vegan cheese and deli slices.

..

I thought I posted about these already, but apparently not. Excluding pepperoni, these are the best-tasting vegan deli slices I've ever had. They're good enough to eat straight from the package:
From the Whole Foods brand "365 Everyday Value", Plant-Based Turkey-Style Deli Slices, Herb Roasted.

There is also another flavor, "Applewood Smoke", which I haven't tasted yet:

Wholefoods (USA) NEW plant based cheese slices, shreds, turkey slices

(I debated about mentioning this or not...)
Be careful with the cheese from that 365 brand, though. There was mold in an unopened package I had bought not that long ago, even though it wasn't near the best-by date. That has never happened for me with any other brands of vegan cheese slices that I've had. Hopefully it's an anomaly even for this 365 brand, but thought I should mention it in case it happens to other people too. If so, it's something that ought to be communicated to the company. Otherwise, it's not worth it for me, and I don't want to hurt their reputation.

This review makes me dubious about the veracity of the rest of the reviews too.

Hotel review:
Room was not very clean. Had bugs in room never came and cleaned room. had a very large snake in the sitting area outside. Lots of drug dealing and prosituites all hours of the day and night. Not a very safe place to stay.The worse Red roof I have evet stayed at. Will not stay at this one again and will not recommend it to anyone else. Very unsafe place.

These vegan Field Roast Frankfurters taste very good. They are very salty*, though. I think they'd work well cooked on a grill for a vegan cook-out, or sauteed, even though so far I've only had them microwaved.

The packaging is annoying. Each sausage is individually encased in a plastic film that you have to cut and peel off. So much work for a hot dog! I took the time to unpeel them all to begin with, and put them in a ziploc bag in the freezer, so that I could simply take them out whenever I wanted without all the work.

*If it weren't for that and the packaging, they'd be my new favorite. As it is, I suppose they're a tie with my other favorite, Yves hot dogs. For a while, I liked Tofurky Kielbasa the best, but over time I lost my taste for them, largely in part to them being so salty too. Which is odd, because in comparing them, the Kielbasa ones have the least percentage salt of the 3. My least favorite vegan dogs are the Lightlife ones; they seem bland to me.

'Maya Kaimal' Spicy Ketchup - Yummy; spicy but not too spicy. Like a mix of ketchup and red barbecue sauce but not as sweet as the latter. Surprisingly, the main ingredient (after water and before tomato paste) is onion, though it doesn't taste of onion to me.

In the past I had bought a bottle of German "Curry Ketchup" (probably the Zeisner brand, but I'm not sure as I no longer have it), hoping for a taste like this, but that one was thin and overly sweet. I ended up throwing it away. This Maya Kaimal version is so good that I may order more of it if I can't find it in the store again. When I bought this bottle, it was on the "discontinued" shelf at EarthFare.

'So Delicious' Cashew Milk frozen desserts - None of the brands of non-dairy ice cream for sale around here have appealed much to me since they stopped selling Tofutti and Soy Dream. Not even the 'So Delicious' soymilk ones. But these cashew milk ice creams are delicious, especially the Dark Chocolate Truffle and Salted Caramel Cluster.

On the other hand, I tried Silk's new Cashew Milk, and didn't care for it. (I don't remember if I had the regular or unsweetened one). It lacked creaminess compared to Silk Unsweetened Soymilk. And it didn't taste nearly as good as the cashew milk I used to make myself by simply blending up cashews with water (though it's been a long time, so my memory might be inflating how much I liked the one I made myself).

Jarhead - Good movie. Good soundtrack too, but the one on Amazon doesn't include all the songs that were in the movie. I can't find the version of "Jesus Walks" that played during the closing credits.

Battle Royale - Gory; not my kind of movie. Qiao watched it. I didn't intend to, but was intrigued every time I walked by, so probably ended up seeing about half of it.

.

Chicken-free strips by Beyond Meat - this product was discussed on NPR. I'm not convinced it's as innovative as it was described (there are plenty of other meat substitutes that I like), but pan-fried, the texture really is nice, chewy, and layered, and tastes good.

Carrot brownies - I had an inspiration to shred a carrot into my normal brownie mix. The brownies ended up even softer/gooier than usual. Beyond that, not a big difference in taste. I'll try them again after they've been chilled; they're usually better that way.

Verdict: undecided. (See Below)

It's a nice, light, quiet, and inexpensive keyboard.

But a defect with the Enter key on the keyboard I got makes it fairly unusable for me. I am returning it for a different model, rather than risking getting an exact replacement which might have the same problem.

The end portion of the video compares the loudness/quietness of typing on this keyboard compared to a laptop and a standard keyboard.


2013/10/13 UPDATE: I returned the defective keyboard and ended up buying another one of the same model, as I really liked it except for the defective key. The Enter key on the new one worked fine, but unfortunately the new keyboard had a different defect. The period (.) key didn't work unless pressed very hard. The Alt key also sometimes didn't work. As I got 2 bad keyboards in a row, I would advise against this model.

I have also tried out a different SIIG model - JK-US0412-S1. That one is more expensive, and the one I got does not have any defects. It is fairly quiet, but seems somewhat louder than the JK-US0612-S1. Key-presses on the US0612 sound thuddy, whereas on the US0412, they sound higher-pitched and "clickier". I'm not sure why, but typing on the US0412 doesn't feel as good to me, particularly when I happen to hit keys with fingernails rather than fingertips.

I wanted post reviews of 2 items I had bought from Target.com.

After writing the first review, I was informed that it was over 1800 characters, but only 1000 were allowed. So I had to figure out what to cut out while keeping the important parts. Then, after submitting it, it didn't even show up with the other reviews! Hopefully that is only temporary.

Now, after writing the 2nd review, the page keeps giving me an error message "Please modify your submission before continuing." It doesn't even say what is wrong with the submission! If I change the review to just "TESTING TESTING this is a test", then I don't get the error. So apparently, it doesn't like what I wrote in the review. But it doesn't say why!

I spend my precious time trying to be helpful by posting authentic reviews, and this is what I get for it.

Now I'm not going to trust any reviews I read on their site. Surely any other real reviewers like me would be similarly off-put by all this BS.

... after more fiddling around with my review, I've determined the error is shown whenever I include the word "pipe" anywhere in the review. If I remove the "pipe" word, no error. WTF???
The product has metal pipes! What is so bad about me mentioning something about the pipe!!??

After some thinking, I thought the problem might be because I used the words "knob" and/or "rubber" (as in "wood knobs" and "rubber band"). But "pipe"!?

Oh, looky. "Pipe" is not accepted, but "pipes" is. Well, maybe "pipe" should be my new 4-letter word. That pipe-dammit pipety piping site wouldn't piping accept my piping wonderful review.

One of the reasons I finally decided on this Yogachair brand of kneeling chair was that it comes in several different pretty colors. Another thing that appealed to me was the curved bottom which makes a rocking motion possible. The design appears to be very similar to the more highly priced "Variable Balans" chair by Varier.

I've been using the chair for about a month now, whenever I'm using my home computer, and haven't felt the need to switch back to my regular chair. Surprisingly, the lack of a backrest does not bother me. I like the yogachair a lot.

Sitting up straight in the chair is easier to do and much more comfortable than in a regular chair. I also like that you can rock the chair even while doing something stationary like typing. I suppose that might be giving my back some extra exercise. You can also put your feet down on the floor and change into various non-kneeling positions.

It is possible to slouch in the chair, and I find myself doing that fairly often - either slouching my back, or slouching forward while leaning my arms against the table.

Due to my tendency to rock in the chair, it tends to move around some, so I have to reposition it fairly often. But it's light-weight (ten pounds), and very easy to move.

Occasionally, I put a folded blanket on the seat of the chair. Doing that increases the angle
of my legs, and gives my back more of a stretch. When I do that, I have to raise my laptop/monitor height a little, as I'm then sitting higher.

I'm 5'4" tall and weigh about 110 pounds. The chair fits me fairly well. I think it would fit shorter people too, but I'm not sure how well it would fit heavier people, or people with longer legs.

The wood parts of the chair are thick and solid. Due to the design of the chair, with no front connecting bar, the knee rests aren't entirely steady - they can wiggle a bit side to side as you shift around. Since I'm a wiggly person, I see that as a positive thing. But it's one reason I'm not sure the chair would be good for a large and/or heavy person. The website says that the max recommended weight is 250 pounds, but I'm not sure that I would trust someone of that weight to safely sit in my chair.

The cushions are firm and comfortable. I'll have to see how well they stand up over time, but for now they are fine.

Depending on how I sit/kneel in the chair, my toes touch the bottom wood rails. With my houseshoes on, my toes can touch the ground This doesn't bother me, but it may be more of a problem for someone with longer legs and larger feet.

The instructions that come with the chair advise you to check the screws every once in a while and to re-tighten them when necessary. The chair has a built-in holder for a small allen wrench that comes with it. Reviews by other people mention that the screws have a tendency to come loose. After using my chair for about 2 weeks, one of the knee pads was a little loose, so I tightened its screw as well as the other screws. It was simple to do. If the screws were to start coming loose often, I might drill some more holes and add more screws. The seat and knee rests are attached with both dowels and screws, so it should be relatively simple to replace the dowels with extra screws.

After using the chair for a month, I haven't noticed any improvement in my back problems. It may be because I still slouch too often. Or it may be that my back problems aren't related to how I sit at all. Nevertheless, I like the chair.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMNtyesb4ag

I wonder why solar-powered yard lights are mostly sold with nickel cadmium batteries instead of nickel metal hydride ones. I seem to recall it being almost 10 years since NiMH started replacing NiCd for rechargeable batteries, due to being better for the environment, no memory effect, and higher capacity.

Ah, this page gives some possible reasons, such as NiCd batteries being less sensitive to temperature extremes and lasting for more recharging cycles.

I'd advise against getting the small yard lights which are sold individually and cheaply. I got 2 of them, and the batteries they contain are not standard sizes, so they can't be easily replaced. They don't look as water-proof as the LED crystal ball I got last year, either. Besides those, I also got a 2-pack of glass/metal stake ones, and a 4-pack of plastic LED lanterns which I plan to hang in a tree (I got those from Lowes - even Lowes has a nice selection of solar yard lights to choose from). The glass/metal ones look to be the best quality of the lot (although I am partial to real glass over plastic, so that may have me biased).

.

This HMDX Audio portable speaker case for an mp3 player is one of the things I got at Bed, Bath, and Beyond yesterday - I got a pretty purple one. The size is actually 6.5 inches wide, not what it says on that linked page. The sound quality is quite good, and it's louder than a different mini-speaker I got last year.

.

Dang it, LiveJournal is still returning this message:
Error updating journal: Client error: Sorry, there was a problem with content of the entry

when I try to save any post with a link to an ezinearticles page. I first noticed this was happening in January, and it is still happening. So I had to add an 'x' to the beginning of the first URL above.

Update: was able to get link to post using www. in front.

My handwriting is messy even when I'm purposefully trying to write slowly and legibly.

It's a new year, hurrah! Only a few months till the weather gets warm again.

My brother and his girlfriend/wife are immigrating to the U.S. from Germany.

Brrr.

Product Review: LinkSys WRT160N V2 Wireless-N Broadband router (N Ultra RangePlus).
Some minor problems installing it (following the instructions, we kept getting "302 Internal Error"). Configuring it manually worked ok, but we kept having problems with the internet connection. In the end, there seems to be some kind of issue with the router and DNS, as on both the wired computer and the wireless computer, we sporadically but frequently get page load errors... if we keep retrying to reload the page, eventually it works. Sometimes, one website would work and others would not. Sometimes, everything would work fine for a while, and then we'd start getting the page load errors again. This did not happen when connected directly to the modem, or when using the old router (which we've reverted to now again), so it is not a problem with the DNS servers themselves. Tried searching online for a solution to the problem, to no avail. It might be a problem with the latest firmware build, but LinkSys does not have the previous build available for download, so we could not try downgrading to it.
So, thumbs down on this product :(
Although, it does look nifty. Nice sleek shiny black plastic; looks sort of like a stealth bomber in comparison to the old router.