Why Your Printer Never Works Properly

I think we can all relate to this:

Did you know that the cost of printer ink is approximately $8,000 per gallon?? Think about that the next time you're pumping gas at the gas station. One reason that the price is so ridiculously high is that large printer manufacturers pressure vendors to squeeze out third-party ink suppliers and refillers, and also create their printers in such a way that they will have "problems" (or simply reject) ink cartridges from other companies.

This amusing comic, titled "Why I Believe Printers Were Sent From Hell to Make Us Miserable", points out that despite vast increases in computing power over the past decade, printers remain just as annoying and unreliable. Why, for example, do many printers refuse to print black-ink-only documents if the printer is low on color ink? Why do printer manufacturers insult consumers by selling printers for less than the cost of ink refills (making it more economical to simply buy new printers that include ink rather than buying ink refills)? Why are consumer "photo printers" so terrible at printing photos?

It seems that for some questions, the world is not ready for answers.

An Investment in Knowledge

~On Friday morning, I attended the grand opening of the new Orange County Main Library in Hillsborough:

^ It's a beautiful building adjacent to the main Orange County offices in downtown Hillsborough.

^ There was quite crowd in attendance for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Most of the Orange County commissioners were there, along with the State Librarian of North Carolina and State Senator Ellie Kinnaird.

^ I'm not sure who this guy was, but he wrote a poem about the library and read some inspirational quotes. My favorite was from Benjamin Franklin: "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."

Bread For Success

~For Christmas, I received from my parents (among other things) a bread making machine. I love bread, but frankly, I don't want to go through the bother of making it from scratch, so instead I have turned to modern technology to make life easier. Yesterday, I made my first attempt at bread baking:

^ The Machine: a Panasonic SD-YD250. And I thought Panasonic only made cameras...

^ The Ingredients: strong flour, sugar, salt, butter, active dry yeast, water, and powdered milk. I actually learned quite a bit about what exactly these ingredients are for in the baking process. For example:

• There are different kinds of flour: strong, weak, whole-wheat, all-purpose, and others, each of which creates a different kind of bread. For example, strong flour (used in all recipes for this bread machine) has a higher content of the protein necessary for the development of gluten; "weak" flour has less protein, and therefore creates bread with a lighter, crumbly texture (which is good for making cakes and pastries).

• Adding milk in baking adds to the flavor and nutritional content of the bread. You can use regular milk, but since baking takes time, it's best to use powdered dry milk to avoid spoilage (especially if you set the timer on the machine to make bread in, say, 12 hours from now).
  

• Salt strengthens the gluten structure, which makes the bread more stretchable. It does this by inhibiting yeast production. It's very important to use EXACT measurements for salt, even more so than with the other ingredients, because using too much or too little salt can easily result in "collapsed" bread with unpleasant texture.

• I was pleased to discover that I (mostly) remembered the chemical process that yeast creates when baking: it converts sugars to carbon dioxide (CO2) and alcohol (C2H6O). This gas production is what causes the bread to rise. The alcohol evaporates during baking, which is fortunate, otherwise humans would be drunk all the time on bread products.
  

^ The Result: a large preservatives-free loaf of soft, warm, delicious bread! If you listen hard enough while staring at this picture, you can hear the late Dr. Atkins screaming in his grave. But who cares what he thinks? It's time to break out the peanut butter!

Busy Busy Busy, Every Day...

~Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Boxing Day/Generic Holidays to everyone! In other news, I've officially graduated from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science. I'm now a Master of Library Science, or so they tell me. Of course, this also means that I have to look for a professional full-time job. I'm looking for something in either medical information or public libraries, but I'm not inclined to be overly choosy at this point.

Overall, going to UNC was a great experience. I met a lot of fun people and attended some interesting classes. I even got to go to Prague! I will always look back fondly on my time at UNC-SILS.

King Heron!

~On a walk around Symphony Lake in Cary last week, I saw the legendary heron that lives there, and took some pictures.



Usually, he (?) flies away when people approach, but he was in an unusually tranquil mood that day and tolerated my presence...barely. He was keeping an eye on me, and would have surely flown off if I'd come any closer:


Finally, here is a swan. Sorry, no breadcrumbs for you today:

A Walk in the Arboretum

~Last Sunday, I took my visiting parents for a walk around Coker Arboretum, a garden on the campus of UNC - Chapel Hill. This being mid-autumn, the arboretum was a bit bare but still had many interesting plants and trees. While I was there, I took a few pictures:

^ This plant has gigantic leaves. They're the size of an adult's head.

^ My parents. Aren't they adorable?

^ Me, underneath a tree.

^ This has nothing to do with the arboretum; Rascal is just here for your viewing enjoyment.

Remi Pac-Man

~I'm stuck in Thesis Hell right now, so this hilarious video, from French prankster Rémi Gaillard, was just what I needed. It made me laugh so hard I got hiccups: