Jaz Design

I’m trying to chose a new phone, thought I’d post some of my findings here. I’m trying to justify the expense of a smartphone – but I just don’t know if I need it. I’m doing my research anyway. The other half has an iPhone so I can test drive that, but I did want to consider my options somewhat. Aparently the Nokia N96 is the main contender, so I looked up some reviews for that.

TechRadar – iPhone wins.
TechDigest – comparisons of specs
LordPercy on the N96
LordPercy on the iPhone
Heated debate @ the Student Room

http://www.happiness-project.com/

I used to read this blog a lot about a year ago and then had to cull my ‘net reading to finish uni and whatnot. I poked my nose around Zen Habits’ door again a few days ago, and then decided to come back to this one as well. I don’t always gel so well with the personality of the author – but then the same goes for any of these blogs I read about personal development. It’s not the author’s fault at all, it can just be very hard I think to talk about these things without sounding patronising some of the time. Or maybe it’s just ’cause I know they’re right.

In any event, today Gretchen talked about spiritual masters and it got me thinking about who mine was. I’ve never particularly researched anyone. Obviously we idolise musicians and film stars and want to be like them, but I wouldn’t call them spiritual masters. A lot of them don’t tend to make good decisions, and half of them are famous for very little.

I can think of people who would be good choices, but they’re still not mine. Or maybe we should pick different aspects of different people and ball them all up into one super awesome person who we could aspire to be?

Looking at Gretchen’s post, she talks about biographies. I think I’ve read five auto/biographies, Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, Geri Halliwell, Anne Frank and Anne Frank’s cousin.

Depp and Burton aren’t really a surprise since I love them and the combination. Burton’s view of the world and Depp’s reactions to the world can be quite inspiring or quite depressing depending on which way you look at it. What I do know is the films they made together, and apart, were the main inspiration for a lot of my art a few years back, and whilst it did carry the goth cliche, I was fine with that and it helped me move forward and provides me with a great comfort zone when I’m feeling a need to assert myself artistically again.

Geri Halliwell I read when I was much younger. I think it came out just after her split from the Spice Girls and I was probably about 11. It fascinated me because they fascinated me, as they did many other 11 year old girl’s at the time. Reading about how they came to be took away the magic somewhat – it was my introduction to manufactured pop and removed the shine from those kinds of bands very quickly.

Anne Frank and her cousin’s stories were maybe even before that. We studied world war 2 when I was 9 or 10 and I quickly delved into my reading. They were amazing reads from what I can remember, and the things they went through were mind boggling and really showed how adaptive people can be.

I wouldn’t pick any of these to be honest. I’m running artists, authors, designers and not finding mine. Maybe I just haven’t found mine yet…

So much! So many ideas, plans, thoughts, things to do! The site needs a ginormous update. Some freelance work I’m doing will mean I’ll finally finish my content management system I was developing for my portfolio meaning that should finally appear in it’s full glory (bells, whistles, the works!)

I’ve also been investigating some good photo gallery software, since that’s something I really don’t have time to build from scratch. I want to keep my full photography portfolio on here, and hopefully link through to a print service. I’m thinking of going with Coppermine for now, gallery2′s back end didn’t seem particularly user friendly to me… but I’m still not completely happy with what coppermine offers, so any other suggstions are welcome.

I’m working on some freelance projects, one for the 3rd Guildford Guides, another for The Sporum (Spore and the Sims 2 forum) which involves fully reskinning an smf forum.

Work work is busy as usual. Lots of sites went live recently so I’ll have to update on that soon.

I went to the University of the Creative Arts on Saturday for an open day, to see about postgrad courses. I won’t be able to do a masters for a few years (gotta save up etc) so I’ve a few things in mind until then

I was having a hard time choosing birthday presents for myself when I had the idea of going to a spa. With just one manicure to my name I had no idea what to expect. My mum and I were booked in at the Dove Spa in Reigate, Surrey for a manicure, pedicure, hot stones massage and a facial with the skin analysis.

We started with the skin analysis where they basically measure your skin’s moisture, elasticity, tone etc. They then tailor your facial based on this and give you some information on how to improve these factors.

The majority of the visit was spent in a private room for the hot stones, facial and pedicure. The hot stones massage was enjoyable, but very peculiar. I found it quite hard to relax which made some parts a bit uncomfortable. I then had a 45 minute facial where I have no idea what she did but I thoroughly enjoyed it. My face felt lovely and clean afterwards, and during the facial I had a head massage (which was nice, but the noise of my hair rubbing together was a bit off-putting) and an eyebrow tidy. Having never had my eyebrows waxed that was a pretty interesting new experience :S

Following this she gave my feet a treat (I tend to forget about them, as I’m told a lot of women do), and painted them a snazzy pink to match my hair. I foolishly forgot to bring some suitable shoes to prevent smudging, and was provided with some little foam sandles, which lasted about two seconds once I got out the door, but at least they tried. The result was one smudged big toe, but the rest still looked beautiful. Word to pedi-noobs: take suitable shoes.

I was then taken downstairs for the finale – the manicure. I naturally have long nails, but unfortunately had lost one of them somehow, meaning the rest of them had to be taken down to be the same length. Because of this my French manucure was perhaps less effective than what it could have been, but I still really liked the way it looked. The one thing I will say is it didn’t last very long, however a lot of nail varnish doesn’t last very long now that I have to clean my own place, and am doing more active things at lunchtime and in the evening.

It was £268 for both me and my mum, who had a shorter facial. From what I understand, as a total noob, it was worth it and I’d recommend a visit. I did take a look at the products they used to see if I wanted to purchase any, but at £30 for a moisturiser I had to pass. One day

http://dovespa.co.uk

I can safely say yum! When we went to Avebury last week the pub had a “butternut squash and goats cheese lasagne” on the menu. I couldn’t afford it, but it did sound delicious. I googled and googled until I could google no more, but no recipes were found! A Sainsbury’s product was found which was a bit more descriptive and so on the basis of that I came up with a recipe. It’s a bit labour intensive and took about 2 hours to make and cook. But it was delicious! There will be a picture to follow!

Since it’s a made up recipe and all new, there are some kinks to work out. This is exactly what I made, however you might wish to double the tomato sauce to add more tomato layers, or change the order of the layers. Any suggestions for improvements are welcome.

Vital Stats

Serves four with a side salad or green veggies. I ate two servings and felt like I’d over eaten so it is quite filling.

Suitable for vegetarians

450 calories per serving. 25.4g fat – 15.2g saturates (this is high, but it’s a cheesy dish…). These are rough estimates gained by putting the recipe into a calorie countingmagig. I have more stats if need be.

The Ingredients

For the tomato sauce:
1 tbsp oil
227 g canned tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

For the veggies:
1/2 a butternut squash (chopped into 2cm cubes)
1 leek (chopped in half lengthways, and smaller if desired)
1 red onion (quartered, will spread out once roasted)

For the cheese sauce:
1 mug milk (around 300 ml based on Wikipedia)
1 tsp butter
1 tbsp flour
240g goats cheese (not all of this goes in the sauce, about 1/4 will be saved for crumbling on the veggies)

Extras:
3 lasagne sheets
Some grated cheese (I used Derby for it’s mild flavour)

Instructables

1. Preheat the oven to 220*C
2. Chop up the squash, onion and leek ready for roasting

3. Throw the veggies into a pan, coating with oil (jumble it up with your hands if you will) and roast for 45 minutes – checking every 10/15 minutes

4. In the meantime, heat some oil in a frying pan and add the canned tomatoes, garlic, tomato puree, sugar, salt and pepper, bring to the boil and then allow to simmer for 10 minutes. If you double the sauce, up the time to 20 minutes

5. While this is doing, chop up 3/4ths of the goats cheese as best you can (tricky stuff, unless you use the hard variety and can grate it) and put in a saucepan

6. Add the flour, milk, butter and any salt/pepper/paprika to taste. Heat on the hob and keep stiring until it’s thickened. Don’t allow to boil.

7. With all this preparation and sauce making the roast veggies should be done, put half in the bottom of the dish, crumble some of the remaining goats cheese on and cover with the tomato sauce. Put the lasagne sheets on top.

8. Put the rest of the veggies in, crumble the remaining goats cheese and cover with most of the cheese sauce, put lasagne sheets on.

9. Put the rest of the cheese sauce on top and add a bit of grated cheese.

10. Bake for about half an hour at 220*C

11. Enyoy the deliciousness!

My copy of Adbusters came today. Like every year they’re doing a TV Turn-Off week, only this time it’s called “Mental Detox Week” which makes more sense in that the digital explosion of the last few years means we’re hounded by more than just TV.

The premise:

“The idea is simple: take your TV, your DVD player, your video iPod, your XBOX 360, your laptop, your PSP, and say goodbye to them all for seven days. Simple, but not at all easy. Like millions of others before you, you’ll be shocked at just how difficult – yet also how life-changing – a week spent unplugged can really be.”

Find out more at this link.

Last night’s South Park, titled “Over Logging” actually highlighted some key issues surrounding always being “turned on” to the internet in particular. It’s really hilarious, but also a little disturbing. I won’t spoil it, but I did want to mention a few things that have tied into things I’ve read in Adbusters material. Not knowing how to behave in a face to face situation, feeling compelled to check and reply to emails etc, becoming numb to real relationships and sex, having too much information etc.

I’m all for the internet, I just thought it was funny and thought provoking and tied in well with Adbusters’ message. Check it out if you get the chance

I think in America you might be able to view the full thing where this clip is, if not, here’s a clip!

Updates! I’ve not been keeping up with my photo a day as well as I should, but I’ve been really busy. No excuse really I guess… lots of things going on. Updates run with the photos!

Or maybe not! Quick rundown I guess. I got a first for my dissertation. Saw Muse’s Wembley DVD at the cinema. The mister bought me flowers. Angel got delivered. A cat visited. It snowed. Aliens!

Lots of work to do. Exciting future things!

I’m all up to date since the last update I think, here are the thumbs. Actually this is going to turn into a massive post now that I think about it, interspersed with thumbs of my 365.

I had this photograph featured in a piece on NowPublic.com about the government maybe enforcing some kind of smoking licence scheme. I know it’s not that big of a deal, but it’s really nice that they asked to use my photograph. Also VOTE PETE for student support officer. This be him, pictured here.

I saw Sweeney Todd. Whever it was, with the Mister. I thought the movie was good. Not my favourite Burton, but it kept me entertained. Here I tried drawing with white on black paper, which is much harder than it sounds. I will post the finished piece, when I finish it, I guess.

The Mister’s mum sent us pressies from Egypt. This is the little wood camel we got. Name suggestions in the comments please!

-

My best friend came to visit that Friday. Haven’t seen him since Christmas so it was a blast. The Mister cooked us up a good dinner and good times were had by all. These are some of the flowers he brought me.

I honestly adore how in England going to the beach in winter isn’t a bad idea. I spent the best part of my day down at the beach whichever day this was, just listening to music and sleeping on the pebbles. It was awesome. The weather was nice too. I love this photo.

My Valentines present was oil pastels which I asked for. Expect an art in the next few weeks This is also the card I made for the Mister, the idea for which I stole from Dinosaur Comics. Check that out. Hilarity with dinosaurs. It’s hand painted anyway. Check me out. Little miss artist.

Valentines day itself, the Mister cooked me a lovely meal, we had lots of wine, and watched Lost in Translation. I quite liked the film, it kind of reminded me of Eternal Sunshine in the way it was formulated and how it was two people making a connection.

Selling my blue Olympus 410. Buy it here.

-

-

Massive emo moment, haha! I’ll post when I have the rest of this set up, I have a few of them. They’re sort of a sequel to my Descent themed set and part of my Self Elected project.

-

Today’s picture is about something so exciting, it’s getting it’s own post.

I have to bind it. On the deadline. KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED FOR ME.

And no lectures about time management either, there were issues with this project.

Just a note to say I do have my daily photos, almost all of them, I think I missed one. You can see them when I have time to upload them, maybe Thursday. Provided I don’t drink too much after hand in tomorrow and cease to exist.

I dyed my hair today. Tis black. Also, I’M SEEING SWEENEY TODD ON THURSDAY.

I’m just too tired to upload ‘em now. Dissertation madness and all that jazz. Maybe tomorry. Maybe. But I do have them, I’m still right on track