Super Jellyfish

• FON - Share your Internet with everyone
  I think this is an AWESOME idea, and I am going to sign up as soon as I move into my new place!
  (tags: cool internet community wifi)

• Drug Makers Pay for Lunch as They Pitch - New York Times
  What do you think? Are docotrs inappropriately influenced?
  (tags: drugs healthcaremoney)
• A Wall Street Exposé With an All-Star Index - New York Times
  Hilarious. Go Jonathan!
  (tags: books reading wallstreet)

• ‘Friendship,’ Joseph Epstein - The New York Times - New York Times
  All about your friends…
  (tags: relationships)

Since I got food poisoning a couple days ago, I’ve been steadfastly avoiding ordering room service. I’m still not 100% sure what caused me to get sick. It could have been a number of things. I went on a trip to a nature preserve this weekend and also whitewater rafting in a river.. according to our guide the river could “cause meningitis” if the water was swallowed. Hmmmm.

So what could’ve caused me to get sick?:

• Eating a garlic fish on Saturday night
• Swallowing toxic river water on Sunday morning when I swam in the river — however, I don’t remember swallowing any water
• Eating not completely safe homemade coffee ice cream after lunch at the lodge I was staying at
• Using a possibly dirty straw to drink my apple juice box on Sunday night
• Eating a rather gross barbeque chicken dish from room service on Sunday evening

I think it’s the last — the barbeque chicken dish — so I’ve been trying to refrain from ordering room service. Unfortunately, I am entirely tired of processed, canned food, so now I just try to totally fill up at lunch time, eating every last plantain and bit of rice, so that I won’t starve at night.

Last night, I ate a can of corn and a can of mandarin oranges for dinner.

Tonight, I was going to cook some spicy Nissin ramen noodles, but then I looked into the Rival Hot Pot Express I had purchased from an Ace store at the mall two weekends ago and I saw that it had rusted!! When I made ramen last Friday evening, I didn’t dump out the water immediately like I should have. I just let it sit and now, 5 days later, there’s orange rust on the bottom!! That’s never happened to me before!

I have a Hot Pot water boiler thing in my apartment in NYC and we would leave water in it all the time. Never once did it rust! I am guessing the one I have here rusted because I scratched up the non-stick surface with my wool sponge the first time I cleaned it???

Sigh.

So, left without any alternatives, I turned to the can of Underwood Deviled Ham that I had purchased a couple of weeks ago. I even tried to search on the Internet for some reviews (no luck there and who are we kidding, who wants to review deviled ham??) Then, of course, my Internet died, so I had to give up on research and finally just opened up the can and spread it on my “Bimbo” white bread.

Blech! I forced myself to eat one slice with it, and then just shred half of the second slice and flushed it down the toilet. I felt like I was eating salty puke!!

Sigh, so now all I have left are my mini-cans of mandarin orange fruit, a couple slices of bread, a wonderful jar of nutella and several packages of uncookable ramen.

Maybe I should invest in a hot plate and some pots after all.. or should I try room service again??? The first couple times I ordered it - I was fine. I had some chicken tacos the first time and huevos rancheros the second time. No problem and pretty tasty, too! It’s just that last time and one night of pure misery that makes me really hesitate.

Well, at least I guess I will be quite thin when I get back this summer… unless all the sodium I keep consuming puffs me up of course!

(As an aside, I wish I could find some chunky chicken spread. I used to love that stuff when I was a kid. I think I could eat those type of sandwiches for a while!)

• Airfare Predictions, Find Cheap Airline Tickets - Farecast
  This is totally awesome! And since I’ll be in Boston this fall, this will be perfect for figuring out whether or not to buy tickets home for holidays, etc.
  (tags: awesome cool)
• About StumbleUpon
  I should try this sometime… I dunno if I feel like adding another toolbar to my browser. Maybe if I could do it via bookmarklet?
  (tags: interesting useful)

• MAKE: Blog: HOW TO - Uni-Directional WIFI Range Extender
  pretty cool
  (tags: howto useful)
• Uni-Directional WIFI Range Extender
  And a link to the actual directions
  (tags: cool howto useful wireless wifi)
• OLPC will be powered by pulling a string - Engadget
  Pretty cool
  (tags: innovation)

• Grease Is the Word: Fill It Up With Fry Oil - New York Times
  Awesome… let’s use veggie oil to run our vehicles! It doesn’t have to be a complete replacement for regular gas, but having an alternate source of energy is important
  (tags: energy)
• Saving the World, One Video Game at a Time - New York Times
  Innovative medium to communicate messages and promote learning
  (tags: learning interesting mediatech)

• Chasing the Perfect Taco Up the California Coast - New York Times
  looks like fun! yum
  (tags: taco food travel roadtrip)

So what is the best way to learn Spanish? I searched around on the web and found this guy who learned French in 10 months. That’s pretty good!

To summarize, these are the steps that he took:

1. Pick up simple novel in Spanish and try to read
2. Review grammar text - skim
3. Study vocabulary with flash cards
4. Start doing grammar exercises
5. Listen to Spanish audio courses - repeatedly
6. Obtain Spanish version of U.S. sitcoms (e.g. Friends, etc.)
7. Watch in Spanish with English subtitles
8. Watch without subtitles
9. Find conversation partners

All the conveniences from the states that he utilized aren’t here though. I can’t order from Netflix to get films or use meetup to find other people learning. Although I guess I really don’t need meetup, since everyone here speaks Spanish anyway!

So I guess I need to find a bookstore so I can find a Spanish edition of Harry Potter. I’ve always wanted to read the series anyway, maybe this will be a good way to read it and learn at the same time. I also found a children’s book using flash in Spanish on the web, too. Aaah, pre-school, perfect for me!

Last night, a Spanish-dubbed version of the Titanic was playing on TV. I tried to watch it — it was the part where the ship starts sinking, but unfortunately, I couldn’t understand anything.

Sigh, learning a language is a slow, arduous process! I have to stay diligent! Basically, everything that I read says that it’s better to spend 20 minutes a day every day versus 5 hours on a single day. It’s too bad, since I get these bursts of energy and want to study and other times, I just don’t feel like it.

Hmm, I also want to learn Chinese. How will I learn both Spanish and Chinese? Gosh, I really admire people who can speak multiple languages!!

• …My heart’s in Accra » Remittance - the big business of sending money home
  Ugh, it costs so much money to send money overseas. 6% charges!!!
  (tags: ripoff money)