Spotted this on Consumerist recently and wanted to share. Should your GMail account get hacked and you would like to get it back, you may be up shit creek. There’s no real way for two people to prove which of them is the real account holder, and which isn’t. (Think back to how little account info Google collected from you when you signed up.) Cover yourself and add some alternate emails to your Google Account:

Associate other accounts with your primary GMail address. Do you have a work email? Tell Google. It will drastically improve your ability to verify your identity.

You can associate more than one alternate email address - I added my current work email address, as well as my old Hotmail, which is still kicking around and gathering spam (and emails from Travelocity since they don’t seem to believe in allowing you to unsubscribe, no matter how many times you try).

Today on the low-maintenance woman, we’re talking about undereye circles. And we’re talking about them from the perspective of someone who is practically see-through, and thus has them basically all the time. It doesn’t matter how well-rested I am, they’re never fully gone. When I’m tired or not feeling well, they’re really bad.

A couple of years ago, I went makeup shopping with Abby, my personal stylist. This was mainly because I was going to be a bridesmaid in my friend Jill’s wedding, and didn’t want to look like an idiot. One of the things I purchased that day was a tube of Pixi Undercover concealer. This stuff is fantastic, and believe it or not I am still using the same one now, and there’s still some left. (Yes, I know by the Laws of Makeup I should have tossed it long ago because there is probably some bacteria growing in it, but you know what? It’s bacteria that got on there because it was on my face to begin with, so I’m OK with it.) Until recently, they only sold in the US through Sephora, and not every Sephora seemed to carry them (as I was very snootily informed when I inquired at one in Philadelphia), and Sephora’s online store didn’t carry it either. Now they have a US website, and they are also selling some part or spinoff of their line at Target. Yay and yay!

Anyway, I use that almost every day (sometimes even on days when I’m not planning to put on any other makeup). It really does make a difference, which continues to surprise me.

This summer, after paging through Benefit’s catalog a couple of times, I got it into my head that using eye cream would also help to reduce my dark circles. I picked up a bottle of Aveeno Positively Radiant Eye Brightening Cream (links to drugstore.com — the Aveeno website doesn’t seem to have this posted). I would have gotten something from Oil of Olay, since that’s what I use for facial wash & daytime moisturizer, but theirs were mostly twice the price of Aveeno’s line. Sorry, but I’m just not willing to pay upwards of $30 for half an ounce of lotion. (Apparently I will pay $15, though.)

In theory this is supposed to reduce dark circles and puffiness. I’ve been using it twice a day since I got it in August, and to that claim I say “bah!” I have seen zero difference. The cream itself is a little sparkly, which might help refract some light away from the dark circles, but I see no noticeable difference. So I’ll use this up, but I won’t bother trying anything else, at least not for the next decade or so.

Here’s what I completed in September. Links below take you to my reviews on Goodreads.com.

• The Children of Húrin, J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel, Lisa See
• Him Her Him Again The End of Him, Patricia Marx
• Who’s Killing the Great Writers of America?, Robert Kaplow
• Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, Mary Roach
• Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts! Lacy Crochet: Lacy Crochet, Shufu-To-Seikatsu Sha
• As She Climbed Across the Table, Jonathan Lethem
• Sarah Canary, Karen Joy Fowler
• In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

(No, not the TV show, though you can still hear my Mom say “More power, Tim!” randomly.) Earlier this week, I installed part one of a two part system that I hope will improve life in my apartment this winter — adding lights and a curtain to the stairway/entryway.

For those who haven’t been here, my apartment is the top floor of a three-floor Baltimore row home (basement & first floor belong to the downstairs neighbor, and I have the second/top floor). I have my own entrance on the side of the house, and when I unlock my door I am at the first-floor level (the house is built into a hill, so there are steps up to get to that point). As soon as I open my door, I have a flight of stairs up to the top floor where all the living space of my apartment is.

Last winter, I discovered that the apartment is very, very drafty. There are (chintzy) double-paned windows (except in the bathroom, which is still an old single-paned), none of which have a complete seal. In fact, there is one in the kitchen were a strip of wood has been nailed on to the sill because the gap between sill and sash is an inch at one end. The door also does not seal completely. The windows were not shrink-wrapped last winter when I moved in, and so while I will certainly do that this winter, I can’t exactly shrink-wrap the door. Read the rest of this entry »

I tend to make a big batch of something and then eat from it all week. This week, in the spirit of my pantry challenge, I came up with a couscous-based salad. I started out by working from a recipe I found online — Mediterranean Couscous and Lentil Salad.

In place of arugala, I threw in a can of (rinsed) chickpeas, and I used less feta cheese than I normally would have becuase I only had a little bit available in the fridge. Overall it was good and I’ll make it again, though if I do I think I will modify the dressing a little bit to add some additional zip. A little bit of spice or zing would have improved the dish.

This Monday, the Potomac Valley and Catholic University Chatpers of ASIS&T had a National Meeting Preview Event, where four presenters gave a taste of what they’ll be talking about at the conference. I wasn’t able to attend, but thought I would share:

• Graduate Information Programs and Accreditation: Landscape Survey and Analysis - ASIS&T president Nancy Roderer presenting research by Samantha Becker of the University of Washington.

• FRBR Applied to Scientific Data - Joseph A. Hourclé, Virtual Solar Observatory

• JASIS&T Open Access Policy and the ASIS&T Scholarly Communication Survey by Margeaux Johnson - Margeaux Johnson, University of Maryland iSchool

• Extending Sense-Making Models with Ideas from Cognition and Learning Theories - Pengyi Zhang, University of Maryland iSchool

Holy smokes!

We’re thrilled to announce that in just three short days, you’ve
rallied together and propelled us beyond our $40,000 fundraising goal.
In fact, by the time we looked up from our computers, you’d already
donated $46,000! (Read more.)

That’s amazing. I still plan to send them some money after my next paycheck (I always think about it when I read their appeals each issue), but it’s fantastic that so many people feel so strongly about this magazine that they didn’t wait — they donated, immediately.

As I write this post (which will be auto-posted sometime tomorrow), they’re at $55,000.

The first half of September proved to be quite expensive, so I decided to do a pantry challenge and see if I could get through a week making lunches and dinners with what I already have in the house. I’m still buying things like OJ, milk, yogurt, etc. I also decided that if I needed to, I could buy one item for each meal (frequently I will eat the same thing for several days running, so this stretches farther than it sounds). That means something that’s required to make the dish — for example, I had a box of vegan sloppy joe mix (no, I am not vegan; yes, it’s pretty good) and that requires tomato paste, which I do not keep around. For $.50 and what I already had lying around, I had four dinners.

Anyway, for dinner tonight I just finished a bowl of shrimp scampi with a side of garlic ciabatta bread topped with tomatoes, mozzarella and black olives. Everything in this meal was something I already had in the house (or on the porch growing in little pots!). It wasn’t as good as I had imagined it would be — my own shrimp scampi never compares to what I get when I eat out, probably because I can’t bring myself to use an entire stick of butter — but it was still a good meal. Certainly not what you would expect when doing a pantry challenge, but that’s the great thing! I might not have hit upon even having this meal if I hadn’t been mulling over the ingredients I have on hand to see what kinds of combinations I could put together.

Given how easy it was for me to do this week — both lunches and dinners — I’m going to try for next week, too. Admittedly I haven’t been eating the most exciting things (unless faux oreos as the main entree counts as exciting), but that’s not so unusual. And also, lunches were easy. Three days of PB&J, with bread from last week, and the last two Lean Cuisines. Next week I will actually have to think about lunch, but that should be manageable. I’m pondering some kind of couscous and beans thing, but I could also do tuna. We’ll see how I feel on Monday.

Of course, this week I get a craving for takeout pizza. Usually I get takeout once every six months, and I wait until I really, really want something. I blame Beckett and Ellen.

The other night, I noticed a little link on my Flickr homepage — did I want to upgrade to the new interface? Why sure. I have to say, I like it. Given that there hadn’t been any big announcements that this was coming (a ala the new Facebook) I figured it probably wasn’t going to be that much of a change. But in some important ways, it is.

Now, the first thing I see when I hit my Flickr homepage is recent activity. That’s both on my photos (who’s commented, favorited them, tagged them, added a note, etc.) and on photos on which I have commented — that means I can more easily follow the developing conversation around a video that a friend took of new dining spaces at my library school. This information was available previously, but this change really puts the social aspect front and center. Of course, there are those of us who were already using it as a social tool to a certain extent, but I think this will make it more obvious to other folks. (The social aspect of Flickr is something that seems to puzzle people when I am explaining what it is and why it’s so much better than whatever online service is provided by your camera manufacturer.)

I can also see a small line graph of daily views of all my photos, and when I click through on that I get a more detailed breakdown of which photos have been viewed recently. Again, this was available before (I believe) but it wasn’t front and center. Now I know that a photo I took of a Loyola building in January was viewed 7 times yesterday. (Welcome, freshmen.) And I also know that this photo of a ballband dishcloth has been viewed more than 14,000 times since I uploaded it on 11/18/06. (I blame Ravelry, and also the incredible popularity of this pattern among a certain type of knitter.)

When I scroll down on my homepage, I can still see the 8 most recent uploads from my contacts (I believe previously on the homepage you only saw 6; that or the thumbnails were smaller). And below that, the four most recent photos from one of my groups are displayed. (Not sure how the group is picked - randomly? Last one I added to?)

There’s still a small box highlighting a recent post on the Flickr blog, and there’s another little box with a rotating announcement. The really neat thing is that I can manually refresh that little box and cycle through a handful of announcements and helpful info. I know this is not really an unusual feature, but I like the little icon they’ve made to indicate that you can do this. (In nerdspeak — I am fond of this design pattern.)

Anyway, that’s that. Flickr users should keep an eye out for that little link (not sure if they are slowly rolling it out or if it’s available for everyone). Oh, I should mention that there’s an entertaining little interlude while your homepage rearranges itself, too. I thought it really captured Flickr’s friendly/funny vibe.

Oh shit! Bitch Magazine needs $40,000 by October 15 or else they won’t be able to print the next issue. Sounds like they are working to figure out an alternative publishing model that will be more sustainable, but in the meantime they still need to get the goods out there.

I don’t know how many of you read Bitch, but if you do, I hope you’ll think about donating something. I will be (as soon as I get my next paycheck and feel a little less “ack!” about my account balances). It’s a fantastic publication, and I’ve read about all sorts of things that I otherwise never would have read about. As I feel like I often hear other people say, I don’t always agree with everything I read in Bitch, but I’m glad that someone’s out there doing what they do.