beansprouts – (pl. n.) tiny thoughts from the brain of a Tinabeans
This book was a comprehensive and thoughtfully composed overview of recent Middle East events and history. I picked it up to help me gain a better understanding of all that is happening in the Middle East, and as far as this goal is concerned, the book did a great job. From the budding efforts of…
So actually… not all of China was bad. In fact, the food was excellent. It is excellent every time I visit China, so I’m not sure why I am still surprised by this. It may be that since our last trip there, I’ve developed a better appreciation for the culinary arts. But in any case,…
I’ve made pork tenderloin before many times, but it was always hard to tell when it got done, and whether it would be juicy or a log of shoe leather by the end. I also could never seem to get a nice crust on the outside. So finally I decided to get down to learning…
I first learned of Krzysztof Wodiczko and his work when he came to speak at the MFA. A friend and I escaped the Museum School during our lunch break to hear him talk. At the time (I think it was the middle of junior year), I was having serious doubts (again) about art’s ability to…
Way to start New Year off, right? =) Actually, this is not so about me having an existential angst session about my chosen profession, as it is about some realizations that have come to pass over this recent holiday season. The main thing is this: design is not as important as designers think it is….
I love French onion soup in restaurants, the way they come in a little clay bowl all bubbling over with melty cheesy goodness. They can do that because they can stick the whole bowl in a hot oven and let it broil the bejesus out of the cheese. But we can’t, mostly because my mom…
Yumbox started off as a complaint. “There are no decent recipe managing websites out there,” I whined. It’s true. All of the popular ones are too bloated with so-called community features. Now I’m not a bah-humbug recluse type of Tina, but I do want to keep things simple. I simply want to be able to…
Today I tried to make a roll cake again. I think I know now why the cake wreck blog took off so quickly, and why it’s actually gotten popular enough to be made into a book. Cakes are immensely prone to wrecks. At every stage of the process, from mixing the batter to baking to…
Finally, we visited the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design today (after two failed attempts). And admission was free! Apparently they have invented some sort of “National Design Week” to promote itself. And design. Well, it was pretty much as I expected. Very… institutional. But still worth a visit. The first floor was an exhibition titled “Design…
So we have this client at work who is truly, madly, deeply obsessed with the idea of originality. Cue eye-roll. “Okay, waitasec,” you might think, “why someone who calls herself a creative professional pooh-pooh originality? Is that not the foundation of what you do?” Well, yes, to an extent. Sort of. Actually no, not really….