gdp's Comments

The Toast : Needled: A Knitting Story

Tue, 26 Apr 2016 17:43:23 +0000

Your description of the first time you knit a sock heel is so spot on! It's the most magical experience, and I think why sock knitting is so much more addictive than sweater knitting--same number of stitches but so much cooler accomplishments! Also, I am shocked by Thomas; how could anyone do that with hand knitted socks! :(

The Toast : Friday Open Thread!

Fri, 8 Apr 2016 21:30:51 +0000

Home goods is literally my favorite store on the planet :) thanks for the advice about carytown, it definitely seems like my kind of place, and I have already found some awesome restored historic apartments in the Fan :),

The Toast : Friday Open Thread!

Fri, 8 Apr 2016 21:29:28 +0000

Thanks! Yeah I definitely want to commit to fully living in my new home. I was really depressed this fall, and pet of how I ended up pulling myself out of that headspace was by embracing my life in my hometown even bough it was supposed to be a short term living situation. Thanks, I'm really excited for me too!

The Toast : Friday Open Thread!

Fri, 8 Apr 2016 21:25:52 +0000

This is great advice and exactly he kind of attitude I want to be taking! Thanks

The Toast : Friday Open Thread!

Fri, 8 Apr 2016 21:25:11 +0000

I have definitely been doing color scheme planning. In case anyone else is interested, I found this website http://www.theviviennefiles.com/?m=1 (html is hard) to be really great for examples of building up a wardrobe and this one http://into-mind.com/blog/2014/08/25/how-to-choos... to have good advice about color schemes.

The Toast : Friday Open Thread!

Fri, 8 Apr 2016 16:37:08 +0000

If you are interested, here is my family's pelmeni recipe. Note that although this is the real deal from my mom's Cousin Vina, the proportions do not really work out--you will need to add a lot more flour to make he dough properly and probably make extra dough for this amount of meat. But they are totally worth it! (Also I like to eat them with vinegar rather than butter) "This recipe is from Ann's cousin Vina, who is from Minsk, in the former Soviet Union (now Belarus). Vina says, “Enjoy eating pelmeni!” 1 C+ flour 1 C cold water 1 egg 1 lb ground meat 1 onion, minced 1/4 tsp pepper 1/4 tsp salt I. Mix egg with cup of cold water. Add gradually to flour to prepare dough. Dough has to be soft. Take a piece of dough and roll out (before rolling put some flour on cutting board). II. Mix ground meat with salt, pepper and onion, add some spices (as much as you like). III. Put 5-10o spoonfuls (teaspoon) of meat at the edge of dough next to each other and fold. Take a small glass or a round cookie cutter and cut crescent shape. IV. Prepare a big pan with boiling water (add a little salt) and put pelmeni into boiling water for 5-7 minutes till they come to the surface. V. People eat them with butter and black pepper or with sour cream, or with ground pepper and vinegar. You may freeze raw pelmeni on plastic tray and boil frozen when ready. You can keep them into freezer for half a year."

The Toast : Friday Open Thread!

Fri, 8 Apr 2016 16:33:31 +0000

Toasters! After a year of post graduation employment I just accepted a job in Richmond! So I have the following questions: 1) any advice about living in Richmond? I'd like to live somewhere young and happening, preferably diverse and not too boogie? If such a thing exists 2) my first real job also means my first real work wardrobe; I'm planning on trying to make a capsule wardrobe type thing from scratch (my parents gave me a budget for work clothes as a graduation gift); but any suggestions/advice for how to get the most quality for my dollar? 3) also my first real apartment! Advice on nesting/furnishing/decorating? I will be on a bit of a budget starting out but I don't mind living out of boxes for a bit until my new salary kicks in, and engineering means I will have a bit of money to throw at home making 4) speaking of money, I want your boughs on budgeting! I have the basic ideas down but I never really had a steady income/I've always been dependent on my parents, so the actual implementation of my theoretical budget ideas might be a bit painful. But again I want to capitalize on the part where I'm still used to living like a student to eg max out my savings when I won't miss the money Any and all advice welcome, thanks in advance :))))

The Toast : I Know I Should Like Reading More But There Are Things About The Act Of Reading That Make It Very Di

Thu, 25 Feb 2016 21:06:24 +0000

yUP pretty much the only things I read my junior and senior years (of an environmental engineering degree) were georgette heyer and fic. I actually thought I'd lost my attention span/was no longer able to read, and then I graduated and it's like my brain unfolded again. I suddenly had way more available bandwidth.

The Toast : Cocktail Hour: Open Thread

Sat, 13 Feb 2016 12:57:27 +0000

not sure about your style and so on, but $5 in Paris (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/5-in-paris) was my first sweater. It is very easy and I get compliments all the time!

The Toast : Some Unorganized Mixed Race Thoughts

Wed, 10 Feb 2016 20:25:59 +0000

I...have never even considered myself as existing in a mixed race relationship. Even though all my relationships have been, and I've been very aware of being in an interfaith relationship. WEIRD.

The Toast : Some Unorganized Mixed Race Thoughts

Wed, 10 Feb 2016 19:52:08 +0000

I didn't explicitly realize it until around my junior year of high school, when I was talking about representation of people of color on television to my (white) boyfriend. And I realized suddenly––"oh, that's me. I've never had anyone that looked like me." It was part of the beginning of my identifying explicitly as non-white.

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Mon, 8 Feb 2016 20:23:32 +0000

I was a student. And knew her socially so it wasn't the end of the world, but still, very embarrassing at the time.

The Toast : Some Unorganized Mixed Race Thoughts

Mon, 8 Feb 2016 19:40:03 +0000

This means so much to me, as a mixed race, fourth-generation American. Especially this bit: "Why would I even expect to see my whole, exact self on TV?" I have been realizing lately how starved I am to see anyone remotely like me on TV, in books, or online. And yet, while I watch every single episode of Dr. Ken and Fresh off the Boat, and as a child I devoured all the YA books about the Triangle Shirtwaist factory...there aren't any narratives out there about Japanese-American Reform Jews, and I can't really expect there to be. Extrapolated to all the other aspects of being mixed race, and it becomes quite lonely. Reading this, recognizing and connecting to your experience is a great reminder that there's lots of us out there, and that we're not in fact alone.

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Mon, 8 Feb 2016 19:19:52 +0000

I once sent the head TA of one of my courses the 37k potterlock fic I was trying to send someone else with the same first name...

The Toast : Cocktail Hour: Open Thread

Sat, 30 Jan 2016 03:13:27 +0000

I was in a semi similar place recently, although somewhat younger. I graduated college and was long distance with my bf of 4.5 years and was just...tired of our relationship being so much work. It did not help that we were both struggling with depression, although only I was really treating mine at all. So I feel you on really loving the person and feeling like you're leaving them in a bad place, but also being relieved to end it. Something my therapist said that I found very helpful during the worst parts was this: She pointed out that this was my first big break up from a serious relationship, so I didn't (emotionally) know I would be OK afterward / that I would stop feeling awful eventually. I didn't have the experience to be able to predict what kind of emotional cycle I might go through. And that made it scarier and harder than it might otherwise be. But I can say now, six months after the big breakup, I am in fact, OK again. And dating casually, which I hadn't really done before, and enjoying that, and honestly, really quite happy that I did end the relationship, even though I'm still sometimes sad and miss him. So it gets better! And in the mean time, indulge yourself lots. I'm not in the Austin area, but I'm sending you good vibes.

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 17:17:49 +0000

those are my feelings preCISEly

The Toast : Open Thread!

Fri, 4 Dec 2015 22:55:47 +0000

Hi there! I am an atheist Reform Jew of interfaith parents who's slowly becoming more practicing. I'd be happy to chat if you're interested. Also I found this cool tumblr post with a roundup of resources that you might find helpful http://jewishhenna.tumblr.com/post/134545372420/c...

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 18:44:10 +0000

Wow. I have to disagree pretty strongly with you. I'm not going to deny that Israel's actions and attitudes towards Palestinians are quite often atrocious. However, the nation-state of modern Israel is not synonymous with the Jewish people, and it the conflation of the two is often deployed in hurtful and frankly anti-semitic ways. But regardless of how we may feel about the state of Palestinian-Israeli relations, implying that they are a product of the same "Judeo-Christian values" that led to the Inquisitions, the Crusades, and the KKK is to me, incredibly offensive. The term "Judeo-Christian" is generally used by Christians as a way to exclude Islam from the Abrahamic faith tradition while pretending to a commonality of background and theology between Christianity and Judaism that is near to non-existent. While Islam, Judaism and Christianity do share historical links and have undoubtedly influenced each other as they developed, modern Judaism and Christianity do not share some sort of exclusive set of values that promote oppression of others. Modern Israel is certainly in many ways, an heir to Western colonialism. Historically, that colonialism did not exactly favor Jews or draw upon their theology and practices as justification for its practices. To retroactively create some set of "common religious values" and apply them as a lens to understand both Israel's mistreatment of Palestinians and and Spain's expulsion of the Jews (for example) is, to me, reaching at best, and certainly unnecessary. There's no need to lump us in with Christians to condemn Israel's policies.

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 16:25:24 +0000

Yeah, I am pretty uncomfortable with this thread actually for that reason. Using "Judeo Christian" as a term to condemn various genocides and hate acts is pretty loaded, in my opinion. Especially considering the history of Jews as an oppressed diasporic people who were/still are often turned away as refugees... It leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth to lump them in with the Crusades or the KKK, as some people have done up thread, especially as Jews are/were victims of those _Christian_ movements, just as much as Muslims and other minorities are/were.