Off Topic Cafe

stacia @ 09:41 pm: the album cover meme
Meme! Courtesy a couple of users on That Other Journalling Site: make your own album cover.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.



Here's my attempt, which isn't great because I have sucky fonts, but is still pretty fun:



I may play with this all night.

pen @ 11:01 pm: HELLO!
It's nearly bedtime for me, and I am more stressed than I've been in my life.

What do you do for yourself for stress?

What do you recommend to me?

If you're new around here, HI! Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Do you have any questions about IJ?

aristoboule @ 10:57 pm: If you could visit any country in the world, where would you visit and why?

chickgonebad @ 09:15 pm: Toilet Paper
So here's the latest question that popped into my head. It might be sexist -- if it is, well, feel free to flame me or whatever. But here goes.

Why don't men ever replace the toilet paper? I mean especially if it's within reach of where they are, ahem, sitting. If they use it up, they should replace it, right? So why don't they?

It's of course possible that I was fooled all these years, and my husband actually was brought up in a barn...

tallblue @ 08:07 pm: Themes
You know what would be really cool for Insane Journal? Someone who can do some official IJ themes, at least a decent one with a bunch of color schemes and a easily replaced header graphic? that would be awesome. If you know how to do this and your out there reading this, I beg of you to think about doing a theme that is highly customizable for the IJ users *pretty please*

Edit: I meant layout themes for our journals.

forgetfulness @ 07:45 pm: LOST
Any LOST fans out there?

( Cut for spoilers in case people aren't caught up on the series )

chickgonebad @ 08:12 pm: Fracture
I am watching Fracture. I am finding it an interesting movie. Has anyone else here seen it? Did you like it/dislike it? Why?

I find Anthony Hopkins amusing as hell.

keieeeye @ 11:37 am: Fuds!
So there's been recipes posted, some specifically for healthy alternatives, and I just finished reading an article in this lame-arse magazine my health insurance company sent me. (Yeah, I really am that bored.) Anyway, it was about this woman who decided to spend one year living off the land, even though she lives in the city and doesn't have like a ten acre lot of fields or anything. Here we have lots of yard space but it's mostly lawn. We used to grow strawberries, we had raspberries growing wild behind the garage, I think we cut down a lemon tree at one point, we definitely cut down a cherry tree, and we still have a grape vine, tomato plants and a plum tree. My eldest sister does even better at her house, she has peaches and she's got a collection of other fruit and vegetable plants that are still pretty small.

I personally make my own ice cream, and I'm considering making my own bread - hell, I'm home most of the time, it's just a matter of laziness really. (Though admittedly if I shelled out the money for a bread maker I'd be more likely to.) I used to be on a diet, when I wasn't living with my parents, that cut out a lot of overly processed food, but it's too hard to have a radically different diet when you eat together. Even still I don't have much sugar, I go for things like licorice and popcorn as snack foods instead.

So, is anyone else all up with the healthy, DIY food? What sort of things do you do?

pen @ 06:56 pm: Baking Bunnies...
No really, I'm finally done with work, on my way home and baking a bunny cake.

Bunny cakes are a traditional dessert for the spring holiday in my family. What's is a regular treat for you at this time of year?

On the subject of baking... What do you people recommend for a cake carrier for a sculpted bunny who has to travel by subway and foot? Is the Wilton brand carrier the best?

PS: Thanks for keeping the content coming folks!

chickgonebad @ 06:41 pm: Monkeys!
If you could have a pet monkey, would you?

If yes, what kind of monkey?

Where would you keep your monkey?

How would you train him/her?

Would you walk up to people and demand that they touch your monkey?

This is not a monkey.

tallblue @ 04:58 pm: Photo hosting services, what is good out there?
Since I don't trust LJ, I have a lot of graphics I want to store online. I like making icons and I have some photos. I have a yahoo email that I pay for so I get a free Flickr pro account, however I was wondering if a paid account with Photobuket was better? With Flickr I can give out a guest pass in my friend's only journal for graphics I make but I hear in Photobusket I can have a password. I do hate the flickr photo stream, I like an album type of "look".

Also I noticed the flickr reviewed my content and gave me a rating of "safe", what is unsafe and what do they do with "unsafe"?

What do you think? any opinion on either service? either service would be the upgraded one, for some reason I feel more secure with paying.

Or are they are other services that people like better?

chickgonebad @ 05:28 pm: Interesting (?) fact
A Google search for the term "hobo semen" brings up LJ as its second hit. No, I am not making this up. Look for yourself!

chickgonebad @ 05:14 pm: A poll! Because one can never have too much poll dancing
Poll #1184 Ohnoes!
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

So there you are, minding your own business, trying to write a post on off_topic_cafe. Trouble is, you don't know what you want to write. You've already posted a recipe. Also, you've informed people about the technological wonder that is home moisturizing advice. You're grasping at straws, and you don't really want to start drinking yet. What do you do?

How about that local sports team?

bloodbeat @ 03:49 pm: I'm not on lj, but I wanted to contribute to giving striking lj'ers some content to keep them occupied, so .... I have no idea what to post, so I'm coming up with a generic question.

Who are your ten favourite bands/artists? It would be interesting to see if there are any people out there who have the same musical tastes as I do. I'll start with mine:

01. Patrick Wolf
02. Kill Hannah
03. The Academy Is...
04. Roxy Music
05. Elliott Smith
06. The Strokes
07. OK Go
08. Bright Eyes
09. Jeff Buckley
10. Depeche Mode

heiko @ 04:39 am: Themed days, y/n?
A suggestion for y'all:

Would OTC like themed days?

At LJ's sf_drama, there is Macro Monday, Off Topic Tuesday, uh can't remember what Wednesday, Frinkle Fursday (a lolcat meme) and Capslock Friday. Of course, OTT on OTC seems a bit redundant, but themed days may be good inspiration for us all.


Since IJ gives us so many icon slots, we can even have icon drama for those of us who don't have paid accounts (in which only icons are used to respond to comments, like in a drama series, except without any content in the comment). :D


Unrelated: Are there any socialists here that I could possibly fraternize with in equality and liberty? *cough cough*

tallblue @ 03:30 pm: Healthy Side Dish
Mock mashed Potatoes:

I wanted to cut down on starches and wanted to add more vegetables with each meal, so I replaced mashed potatoes with cauliflower. I steamed the cauliflower till it was very tender and put it in a food processor with a pad of soy butter and some sea salt and processed it till it was like mashed potatoes. I served it as mash potatoes and I received a lot of compliments. You can do butter and garlic or sour cream if you like.

One head of cauliflower = a good size portions for two servings.


Mock rice:
Steam cauliflower it but not till tender, put it in the food processor and process till it is the consistency as rice, from here you can stir fry it as you would with any rice dish.

chickgonebad @ 04:04 pm: "Sugar Free" muffins

I'm trying to cut the amount of processed sugars and starches in my diet, and experimenting with recipes that might sate my sweet tooth anyway. This morning I baked this recipe, and thought I'd share.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  (I used olive oil, but I imagine any sort would work)
• 2 eggs
  (You can use just one, but I prefer fluffier muffins)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp stevia extract powder
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup pineapple pieces, drained well
  (You could use apple pieces, blueberries, anything that you enjoy.)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease bottoms only of 12 medium muffin cups or use paper baking cups. Beat together moist ingredients. Sift together dry ingredients, then mix in until flour is just moistened (don't over stir this recipe, or you get dry bricks). Gently fold in fruit. Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake until tops are golden brown, 18-20 minutes.

Allow to cool a little before eating. Enjoy!

pen @ 07:45 am: Strike Plans...
Of those who voted, it was unanimous!

So here's the plan:

Starting today at 4pm EST and continuing on until the end of Friday EST, I want to shoot for one new post an hour. (MORE IS OKAY!) They can be on anything, whether it's the strike directly or cetaphil. (I love Cetaphil.) I'd like users on IJ to provide content to keep the striking/boycotting LJers occupied. All posts must be open so that Open ID can be used.

In addition to commenting in the posts as much as you can to generate conversation, please answer questions about IJ and encourage new IJers to post here if you can't answer.

For the Newcomers: Please respect the rules in our userinfo.

THANKS GUYS!

chickgonebad @ 09:50 pm: Through the miracles of SCIENCE and the intarwebz, myCetaphil.com allows me to electronically personalize my home moisturizing experience!

chickgonebad @ 09:58 am: I'm hungry!

I'm also not dressed. I'm feeling quite lazy.

Should I:

1. Get up and bake some damn muffins

2. Get dressed and go to Waffle House

3. Suffer and wait for the spouse to get up

4. Other

What do you think?