I heart Amy Sedaris

and I heart houserabbits even more.

Narcoleptic Powerbook

My 15″ 1.5ghz Powerbook G4 was narcoleptic. That means it had a faulty track pad temperature sensor which told the powerbook that it was basically on fire (212 degrees), when in fact it was not. This caused over temp signal which put the computer to “emergency sleep” whenever it damn well felt like it. Very annoying and very hard to work with! So after two years of research and $25 of screwdrivers I cut the damn thing out.Before reading any further – attempt this scary surgery at your own risk, you could break stuff and have a dead powerbook on your hands. I’m not sure if that is better or worse than having a powerbook that shuts off all the damn time with no warning…

exciting pictures at my Flickr – click here

I opened the top case with directions from ifixit.com and taped all the screws to a piece of paper. After I disconnected the cable connecting the top case to the logic board located the bastard sensor on the top case with much help from the pictures at the blog posts at the end of this story. I used cuticle nippers to cut the connecting legs of the sensor off the ribbon it was soldered on to. A note to anyone else who decides on the cuticle clippers, make sure you cut the legs really far down close to the ribbon – I had some errant legs that shorted out the computer a bit and it wouldn’t boot (just ran the fans, black screen, hardware was not working at all – very scary), even when they were covered with lots of tape. I think they may have been touching under the tape which would explain it, but I can’t confirm. Trimmed down and retaped and everything is working great, knock on wood! I just screwed back on the top case and all is well. Now I just have to replace the power Jack and it will be like having a new computer again!

I attempted the surgery after reading the following experiences – I owe all of them enormous thanks!

Dina’s Story
Rick Cameron’s Story
Sai’s Flickr Story

My new WordPress Blog

I am trying out WordPress. So far so good, except you have to pay to edit your CSS, wha?

I may migrate some of my old posts over at blogger here, if I figure out how to.

Carmelized Onion, Roasted Tomato and Blue Cheese Frittata

I made the best frittata in the world last night. Here is the recipe

Ingredients:
4-5 plum tomatoes
1 Large white onion, thinly sliced
8 eggs
1/4 cup skim milk
3 tbs olive oil
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

The Process
take out the gross stem part of the tomatoes and cut into quarters. Put them in a baking dish and cover with 2 tbs of olive oil, a bit of salt and a bit of pepper. toss them around so they are all coated. Pop those bad boys into a preheated 450 degree oven for 40 minutes. Check on them at 20mins and shake the pan around so they don’t get too burned on just one side.

Meanwhile heat up the remaining Tbs of olive oil in a 12in oven safe frying pan. Add the onions and turn the heat to medium/medium-low. Now cook them stirring every few minutes for 45 minutes or until they have the most pretty caramel color and have become sweet and delicious.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and add the milk, some salt and pepper. Beat them until frothy.

When the tomatoes are done and the onions are caramelized add the tomatoes to the frying pan and stir with the onions until well mixed.

Turn heat up to medium. Add the egg mixture and gently stir while keeping the onions and tomatoes well distributed.

Sprinkle Blue Cheese on top of egg mixture. keep using a spatula to gently agitate the mixture and moving any cooked egg that forms.

When about half of the egg mixture has set up (about 5 min) place the whole pan into the oven which has been turned down to 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or until egg mixture has set up completely.

Place it under the broiler for about 1 minute until golden brown on the top.

Can be served immediately or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Finding a proper presentation case

So the first time I interviewed for graphic design jobs I was just starting my junior year of college. I wound up getting two interviews for the same day, alright! And they wanted to meet with me tomorrow, awesome! And then the realization that they would probably want to see printed pieces of my work at the interview organized into a portfolio, oh crap! I was also broke at the time so I reused a plastic bound book from freshman color theory class that actually had some pages in the front damaged by rubber cement. I dumped out all my color theory work, turned it around so now the back pages were in the front (and the opening to the sheets was on the bottom – not so good of an idea…) and spent the rest of the evening filling the pages with my bestest of the best work. It was frightening and exhilarating. I got both of the jobs I applied for. It was a great couple of days.

But now two years later I not only have to reassess my work since I have actual produced pieces now and have grown considerably as a designer, but I also have to find a new book to put them all in. The plastic broke down $9.99 presentation case is no longer going to do it. Crap.

I am having a dilemma. Do I get a really nice kind of jazzy portfolio whose aesthetics speak to me, or do I get a classy, but plain black case so that any compliments will be directed at my work, not my presentation case. Also it has to not be made out of leather for ethical rather than aesthetic reasons.

Here are my finalists:
Panodia Premium Refillable Presentation Book – 11″ x 14″
http://www.jerrysartarama.com/art-supply/catalogs/0081545000000

Pina Zangaro Bex 14″ x 11″ Screwpost Covers, Black Bookbinder’s Cloth Finish
http://www.adorama.com/FSBSC1411.html

Pina Zangaro Machina Screwpost Presentation Books
http://www.dickblick.com/zz152/26/

Pina Zangaro Vista, 14″ x 11″ Screwpost Cover, Coal Acrylic Finish, Portrait Format.
http://www.adorama.com/FSVSC1411CO.html

But I may be overthinking this. I don’t want to be that idiot that spends more time picking out the look of their portfolio than picking out what goes in it. Meh. I’ll let you know what I decide bloggie.

I love…

… the Subservient Chicken. If you haven’t used it, you should. It will make you a better person.

Here:

http://www.subservientchicken.com/

Keeping busy

They didn’t have the glasses I wanted to try on. But I did score a pair of blue glasses that are pretty awesome:

and they made them in about an hour! I also picked up another pair of glasses, but they had to special order the super blind lenses for me. Those will come in a week or two. Look!So I’m pretty stoked about that.

Another Monday Sans Work

Hello Bloggie! Today I actually have a lot planned. I am going to the eye doctor for the first time in 2.5 years. For someone who is legally blind, that is a long, long time. Against my better judgement I have picked the eye doctor who is nestled in the Lens Crafters so I can immediately pick out some glasses and get them, in about an hour! I really want to get some cool looking glasses, I am ready for a change. I am also going to get a hair cut, also something cool. Since I am probably going to have to go out and go on interviews (gack) I want to feel easy breezy beautiful covergirl, which currently I do not. I feel like I looked during school, over worked, over tired, and a little bit boring, especially for a creative.

Lens Crafters sent me this brochure right after Christmas with these awesome blue and green glasses that I really want to look excellent on me. I’m afraid they will not. But I’m bringing the brochure and telling the salesperson to bring me those damn glasses! I also have a dilemma, do I wear my glasses which means I won’t be able to see very well when I try on glasses, do I wear my contacts that I should have thrown out 6 months ago and get admonished by the eye doctor, or do I wear my glasses, but bring my contacts and change into them after the eye appointment? I think I’m going to wear my contacts and suffer the wrath of the eye doctor! plus I’m going so I can buy glasses that I can wear until I can afford contact lenses.

Love,

Sarah

Thoughts on being unemployed

I have not been unemployed since January of 2001. So being without work has been pretty weird. Here are some things I have learned about being unemployed in the last week.

Moping about it is fun for a few days. After that you just have to find something to do. Anything. And watching TV doesn’t count. Especially with the writers strike.

I still really like sleeping late. it is awesome.

I would make a really bad housewife. This week I set a casserole on fire. It was actually flaming, leaving smoke and burn marks on the outside of my oven. Really. Once you scraped off the burnt part it was pretty edible though.

I like my house being clean. When I go back to work I am going to hire a housekeeper.

That’s all for now – I have to go watch some TV.

My Hyphen

I feel like I’m about to bang my head against the wall. I should have just never changed my name at all. My Boss told me not to do the two last names thing. And boy was she right, I haven’t even made it 5 months.

I was Sarah A. Stevens. Then after much soul searching and realizing I wanted to be a little sexist and take my husbands name, sort of, I became Sarah Stevens Morling, where in the Spanish language tradition my surname actually consisted of two names with a space in the middle. Like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or even Vincent Van Gogh. Not a big fucking deal right? Wrong. I have never had so many people stare at me blankly before, ever! It was getting painful trying to get people to understand that while my name was different from what they may have encountered before, no need to panic, just put a fucking space in it! No my name is not Sarah Morling Ass-tard! No there isn’t a hyphen! And the State of CT and the US Government will not let you have a space in your last name. Apparently, even in 21st century no amount of computer programming will ever let you have a space in your last name, WTF. From what I can find on the internets it is to combat terrorism. Really? really.

So I’ve decided to hyphenate, and have been trying it out. I figured it would be a lot easier because I could just put it out there “My name is Sarah Stevens Hyphen Morling” and everyone would get it, they would put my actual name on things, and no one would be confused. Unfortunately this is not the case. I was at the pharmacy where my name had to be hypenated because their computers couldn’t handle the dreaded terrorist last name with a space in it, and I asked for my perscription “It’s under the last name of Stevens Hyphen Morling” and the lady looks at me like I’ve got two heads. “It’s a hypenated name” I say. She scurries off, can’t find it, asks the pharmacist who says she has filled it, and then she says to the pharmacist “Well you know its a hyphenated name, those are always hard.” and gives me a dirty look. WTF bitch all you have to do is alphabatize it by the first three letters STE. Jesus fucking Christ! Hasn’t anyone ever written a bibliography before.

Anyways, I’m going to keep on with the Hyphen so all my documents will match even thought it is ugly, and then when the computers can handle it I’ll go back to my last name with the space in it. But seriously, this is ridiculous.