of cinnamon rolls, idols, and facebook converts

Last night I went to an American Idol/very-important-football-match party at Sal and Kai's place. I knew that I wanted to contribute some type of edible sustenance to the get-together (it was going to be a long night), and finally decided to try my hand at cinnamon rolls. Two months ago, I attended a little cinnamon roll tutorial taught by the cinnamon roll goddess herself, Mari H. But even with Mari's expert advice and recipe in hand, I still felt my usual yeast-induced nervousness (will the yeast work? will the dough rise?) .

Despite of my worries, the whole process (though quite time-consuming and a little messy) went very smoothly.

Here's a picture of the dough rolled out with all the appropriate tools and ingredients. Rolling pin, flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon, dental floss. The dental floss is a little tip from Mari -- you use it to cut off each individual roll. I wanted to take more pictures of each individual step in the cinnamon roll process, but found the dough a little messier than expected (my mom took the picture above because my hands were covered in flour). I was also afraid of shocking readers (especially those who actually consumed the rolls) with the inside knowledge of how much butter and sugar went into them... trust me, it's better to be ignorant on this...

Before baking.
After baking.

Jon and a hungry Sal.

Cinnamon roll with gooey frosting...

While waiting for the 11:30 showing of American Idol, those of us with Facebook checked our accounts.

And those of us without Facebook were persuaded to sign up for accounts.

I left before the champion's league game started (so didn't see Liverpool's defeat -- sorry Kai and Mike!). But with a successful cinnamon roll experiment, American Idol, and a couple new Facebook friends, it was a very good evening.

facebook loser

I had a weird Facebook moment just now. I was keeping myself busy with composing messages and writing on walls, and in the process lost track of time. The only way that I came to realize that it was after midnight, was that all of the day's history in the little "mini-feed" suddenly changed to read "yesterday," which took me by surprise, and also made me feel like somewhat of a loser.
I'm hoping to carry out a partial Facebook fast tomorrow, but we'll see...
Time to sleep.

favorite facebook feature

I've become [mildly] addicted to Facebook. I like how easy it is to keep track of a relatively large number of individuals. I like the distraction it provides when I'm supposed to be doing other things.

And I'm slowly learning the unwritten rules of Facebook too (i.e. writing on your own wall just isn't done... though I plan to challenge that taboo...).

But I think my favorite feature of Facebook isn't really a feature at all, as much as the absence of one. I absolutely love the fact that there is no clock counting the number of minutes, hours, and [soon-to-be] days that I'm spending in the name of "keeping in touch with everyone I've ever known." Yes, I'm allowed to remain happily ignorant of just how much time I'm "investing" in this process, and that suits me fine.

But seeing as I do have a few things that I have to get done in the next few days (i.e. assignments, applications), I think a Facebook fast is on the menu...

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I realize that this is my third Facebook post in a row. For anyone who lacks my level of Facebook fascination, please don't despair -- new non-Facebook posts are in order. In fact, this could very well be my last Facebook-related post... maybe.

not so scary..

Well, Facebook doesn't seem so scary to me anymore... and I'm beginning to think that "feeling exposed" is probably the least of my worries. A more fitting concern should be not wasting hours and hours writing on other people's "walls," and deciding which groups to join. So far, I've only joined one group -- one that I think my brother started -- The Pardini Club. There are a total of 34 members, and yes, you have to be a Pardini to join. Sorry all non-Pardinis.


One thing that I find funny/interesting about Facebook is how you're asked to tick a box to explain your relationship with each "friend." I guess with most people, you can think back to how you met them (i.e. at school, work, through a mutual friend, etc), but I find that with quite a few friends, I have a hard time fitting them into any of the categories. In fact, I don't like the idea of defining relationships by how I met someone... it just seems too cut and dried. Especially for people that I've known for a long time, it doesn't seem right to just say that we met at church or school. Maybe I'm just making this more complicated than it needs to be, but I think that I am not alone in finding this mildly frustrating/annoying. I guess it does leave lots of room for creativity though. I noticed that one of my Facebook friends filled in the info in an interesting way, so that when I view our friendship status, it says that "you dated for a short while from 1979 and 2007 but now you aren't speaking." I like the fact that that isn't even possible. And why would "aren't speaking" even be an option? Why would you add someone to your Facebook if you weren't on speaking terms?! hehe.

I don't think I've fully worked through my feelings about Facebook yet... I'm sorry to say that I might be blogging about this for a while to come...

facebook

I signed up for a facebook account about 2 minutes ago, and am already feeling quite a lot of social anxiety about being a member. There are of course a lot of people on it who I'd like to get back in touch with/stay in touch with, so it would help with that. But then I don't really like the idea of my information being so accessible... I think I'd just feel really exposed. I guess it's up to me how much I stuff I put on the site and how much I use it, but hmmm, am already considering deleting my account...