Cursor Flicker and Computer Dying / Suffocating / Girl Scout Cookies Thin Mints

I just checked my phone for any calls I might have received while being out all day. Who the heck is calling me from the 204 area code? I know nobody in Manitoba! Man, I deleted THAT one really fast. Wish I hadn't, so I could post the phone number on the Internet. Then again, am I really THAT evil? YES! (sort of... muhahahaha)

Damn, I think my computer's slowly starting to die. The cursor has just started to flicker, which I noticed when I got home. I think the problems with the browser suddenly closing (which happened three times since I got home tonight!) could be related to that as well as the Firefox extensions. Then again, what do *I* know about computers? It's true that the hard drive has sounded like it's dying for some time... yikes. Not sure what to do on this one, but I *should* go to bed since I have Awana tomorrow. I'll think about it then, haha.

Here's a pre-emptive RIP for my computer, though. (just in case I should get up and find it totally dead...) RIP, Computer Hard Drive. :(


Today's Suffocating Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Following the capture of British-held Calcutta by native rebels on June 20, 1756, some sixty-four British prisoners were locked up for the night in a small prison cell, measuring just eighteen feet by fifteen feet, with only two small windows for air. The crowding and oppressive heat proved more than the men could stand, and they soon began to suffer from lack of air, as well as dehydration. One by one they began to drop, and by morning, all but twenty-one had suffocated to death in the cramped prison cell. The incident gained widespread attention at a time when British colonial rule was expanding in India. Originally the number of men crowded into the cell had been put at 146, but that figure was later found to be exaggerated.

Culled from: The Pessimist's Guide To History

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Ghastly!

Now here's a stunt that even the Jackass boys won't try. A determinedly suicidal man stuck an M100 firecracker (which packs a punch equivalent to 1/4 of a stick of dynamite) into his mouth and lit the fuse. Only those with an iron stomach should bother clicking these links:

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4

Thanks to Ericka for the pics.

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Wretched Recommendations!

marilyndale has a fiction recommendation for us:

"Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is a novel made up of stories: twenty-three of them, to be precise. Twenty-three of the most horrifying, hilarious, mind-blowing, stomach-churning tales you'll ever encounter -- sometimes all at once. They are told by people who have answered an ad headlining 'Writers' Retreat: Abandon Your Life for Three Months,' and who are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of 'real life' that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them. But 'here' turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theater where they are utterly isolated from the outside world -- and where heat and power and (most importantly) food are in increasingly short supply. And the most desperate the circumstances become, the more extreme the stories they tell -- and the more devious their machinations become to make themselves the hero of the inevitable play / movie / nonfiction blockbuster that will surely be made from their plight."

"Chuck Palahniuk's six previous novels are Fight Club, Survivor, Invisible Monsters, Choke, Lullaby, and Diary. He is also the author of a profile of Portland, Fugitives and Refugees, and the nonfiction collection Stranger Than Fiction. I have read Fight Club, Choke, and Lullaby, and would highly recommend his work to anyone."

Thanks, marilyndale. By the way, I am familiar with this book only because its cover struck me as one of the most beautiful covers in the history of novels. If you CAN, in fact, judge a book by its cover, then Haunted is a true masterpiece.

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk


Girl Scout Cookies Thin Mints

If those cute little cookie peddlers aren't posted outside the market, it may be tough to get your hands on these the most popular cookies sold by the Girl Scouts each year. One out of every four boxes of cookies sold by the girls is Thin Mints. This recipe uses an improved version of the chocolate wafers created for the Oreo cookie clone. That recipe creates 108 cookie wafers, so when you're done dipping, you'll have the equivalent of three boxes of the Girl Scout Cookies favorite. (See? That's why you bought those extra cookie sheets.) You could, of course, reduce the recipe by baking only 1/3of the cookie dough for the wafers and then reducing the coating ingredients by 1/3, giving you a total of 36 cookies. But that may not be enough to last you until next spring.

Chocolate Cookie Wafers
1 18.25-ounce package Betty Crocker chocolate fudge cake mix
3 tablespoons shortening, melted
1/2 cup cake flour, measured then sifted
1 egg
3 tablespoons water
Non-stick cooking spray

Coating
3 12-ounce bags semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
6 tablespoons shortening

1. Combine the cookie ingredients in a large bowl, adding the water a little bit at a time until the dough forms. Cover and chill for 2 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out a portion of the dough to just under 1/16 of an inch thick. To cut, use a lid from a spice container with a 1 1/2-inch diameter (Schilling brand is good). Arrange the cut dough rounds on a cookie sheet that is sprayed with a light coating on non-stick spray. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the wafers from the oven and cool completely.

4. Combine chocolate chips with peppermint extract and shortening in a large microwave-safe glass or ceramic bowl. Heat on 50 percent power for 2 minutes, stir gently, then heat for an additional minute. Stir once again, and if chocolate is not a smooth consistency, continue to zap in microwave in 30-second intervals until smooth.

5. Use a fork to dip each wafer in the chocolate, tap the fork on the edge of the bowl so that the excess chocolate runs off, and then place the cookies side-by-side on a wax paper-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until firm. Makes 108 cookies.