Sigh. I was supposed to tutor today. This girl emailed me, saying that she's taking Math and Politics and is having trouble with it, and that the professor suggested me as a tutor. I've TAed this class twice, and I don't think any of the other grad students in the department have ever taught or TAed it at all, so I figured that was why I was recommended. She got to my office today, and showed me what they were doing in class and she needed help with, and it was completely different topics than were taught when I TAed it. It was game theory stuff, which I know a little bit of the basic ideas of, but I didn't remember enough to actually help this girl. So, after 10 minutes of trying, I apologized and recommended someone else that might be able to help her.

So I had an interesting day at work. Mostly due to severe weather stuff and some ...vague policies and it's not going to be pretty tomorrow I think.

Also my credit union sent out letters about new debit cards that were being sent out. I didn't get one, but I got a new debit card. Mom and I bank at the same place, and so she read the letter. And then called back to say she forgot to read the part about how PINs were being sent for the cards under a seperate letter and you had to go to the credit union to change it to a personal PIN. And it advised not to destroy your old card until you did this.

Of course I already destroyed the old card. So now I get to go to the credit union on my lunch break.

The last time something like this happened the credit union accidentally set the cards to deactivate on the day the letter explaining all this was supposed to be mailed out.

Cigars are MUCH stronger than cigs. I am a pretty hard smoker, and I smoke cloves. A couple of good puffs of a cigar and I am dizzy and kinda nasueous.

grammar help:

I said that something that went from 20.97% to 23.81% increased by almost 3 percentage points. Am I using the phrase "percentage points" correctly?

I swear I've been in the tax preparation equivalent of groundhog day, but I am done. Either the Georgia state instructions are stupider than I remember or I am. Still, telling you to fill in line 11 then line 12 and *then* telling you not to fill in line 11 if you filled in line 12 does qualify as stupid.

too tired to cook. Not hungry enough to order delivery. I was hoping to watch the game I dvr'ed. But twc didn't zap the box right, so I got 3 hours of "subscription service, call twc to order"

:: sigh ::

I'm making matzo balls. I'm trying the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. So far, seems to be working pretty well, but there's really no way to tell until they're done. Most times I've made matzo balls, I've ended up with something more like matzo blobby shapes. My mother has tried to figure out what I'm doing wrong, but she had no idea either -- I follow her instructions exactly, and end up with weird blobby shapes instead of spheres.

Ok, seriously, people are using live goldfish as centerpieces at events like weddings? [link] The hell?

Yeah, I went to one about 6 years ago with betas in vases as centerpieces. They were big vases, and there was some sort of greenery in it that provided an adequate oxygenated environment for the betas to continue living in the vases. (Water lilies? doesn't seem right but I can't think what it was. The roots were pretty, as was the green bit above.) They were gorgeous centerpieces, actually. I declined to take one when they were giving them away at the end of the reception. I wonder how long they live and if anyone kept one to the end of its natural life.

Vegan matzo balls, attempt 1, is definitely a success. The texture is slightly off, but I think that's because I didn't cook them for long enough, but the taste is absolutely perfect.

Bettas don't need oxygen supplements for their tanks. The wild variant lives in puddles.

Domestic pet store bettas usually live 1-3 years. I think the longest I had a beta in my years of beta keeping was 3 years? Maybe? I think. I kept some in a proper tank for about six months, but usually, they were in a small bowl. Poor oldest betta. My roommate was feeding him for the weekend and got concerned about the water level and added tap water.

Which, naturally, killed the old man.

Alas.