hmatt's blog

When I was growing up my family would always say “pop” instead of soda. It wasn’t until I was older that I found out that some people say “soda” – which, if you think about it, is a longer abbreviation.

Pop is short for “soda pop” and it only has one syllable. Soda is two syllables.

At any rate, I designed a Pop shirt because it made me laugh when I thought of the idea:

It is available on amazon.

I’ll be putting more shirts up soon!

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hmatt.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com

I started creating my own t-shirt designs!

You can see them all on:

https://www.redbubble.com/people/hmattiam/portfolio/recent

“Ideas not coupled with action never become bigger than the brain cells they occupied.”

–Arnold H. Glasow

I just posted an invite to my pumpkin carving party… which I’ve done for years (except last year because I was in Australia, and in 2011 when Jacqui was visiting me from Australia)

A lot of the links were broken, but they should all work now.

http://hmatt.com/blog/tag/pumpkincarvingparty/

The years missing are 2010, 2012 and 2013.. all of which I DID tape, they just became one of those videos I never ended up editing. I’ll get to them someday. Probably release them as part of a Throwback Thursday series.

I know my invite for everyone is last minute, but my Back to the Future parties took precedent this year.

Whew! I have been meaning to update my blog posts on matthewhirsch.com/blog since March! I’m glad to have it done. Check it out if you want to see my acting career specific posts. = )

One of my goals is to start eating healthier. I have a jumble of places I keep my recipes, and this morning I thought I’d google the best app for keeping my recipes together.

Then I stumbled upon Paprika. Now, since the app stores don’t have try before you buy anymore, I had to take the leap of faith for that $5 (iOS version). I’ve spent LOTS of cash trying to find apps that fit the bill, and this one certainly does that! First off, the thing I always disliked about most apps is the re-entering in process. There are several amazing recipe websites out there and the copy and paste thing is so tedious. Then, and this is the amazing part, this app can scan the page you are looking at and put the information in the right places automatically! Hip Hip Hooray!

I have a few recipes in text files that came from somewhere online, and now I can collect them all in one place AND it remembers where you got the recipe too! Yay for giving credit!

So begins the process of grabbing recipes off of my pinterest pins (super easy) and finding the original sources of the little text files I have, or from times I attempted to create a database.

I’ve also contacted my family to get recipes my grandmother used to make.. yay comfort food!

Here are a couple linked recipes that I like (or think I will like):

https://web.archive.org/web/20091121035946/http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/cooking-with-kids/egg-fried-rice-683937

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/ginger-lemonade/detail.aspx

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/23429/harvest-pumpkin-tarts/print/

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Cream-Soda

http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/10/apple-cider-syrup/

http://www.childrensrecipes.com/baby_carrots_raisins.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20070822182250/http://hmatt.com/lists/recipes.html

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/watermelon-harvest-pie/?mxt=t06dda

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-sour-cream-raisin-pie/

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/green-tomato-pie

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chess-pie/

— http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/880255?page=2   — pies to try

I bought Banangrams and it is SO FUN! It encourages you to come up with your own rules. So I went online and found my favorites:

The variants that I like playing:

1. you have to know what the definition is of the word you are trying to use (which stops people from using memorized words like QI, when they’ve never looked up the definition)
2. when exchanging a letter, leave it face up so others can choose to pick it up or not. *source
3. choose a theme. One of the words has to be within that theme (example: colors – someone might have “RED” and another might have “GREEN”) *source
4. “chenanigrams” – once a player yells, “Bananas!” everyone else picks one word from their grid to act out like charades. *source
5. A version I’ve dubbed “Banana Drizzle” (until I figure out a better name) which I found on *source & *source. The variation goes like this:
   

   When someone says “peel,” every non-peeler quickly chooses one tile from their own area (maybe an X or Q that has you stumped), gives that tile to the peeler, then draws a new replacement tile from the center. So with 5 players, the peeler receives 4 new tiles (one from each other player) and everybody else has swapped an unwanted tile for a random new one.
   At the end of the game, whoever has the most placed tiles wins (which might not be the last person to peel).
   Trashing tiles (which normally increases your number of tiles) is not allowed. You just have to wait for someone else to peel.

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Convert from Banangrams to Appleletters

Appleletters is pretty much the same set of tiles. Although the appleletters version has thicker tiles, but I haven’t found it to be much of a problem.

to convert your Bananagrams set for Appletters remove the following tiles:

A-3, B-1, C-1, D-2, E-6, G-2, H-0, I-3, J-1, K-1, L-0, M-0, N-1, O-3, P-1, Q-1, R-1, S+2*, T-1, U-3, V-2, W-2, X-1, Y-0, Z-1

* Note you do not have enough ‘S’ tiles for the game. *source

I happen to own the WILDTILES version of bananagrams that has six monkey tiles. So I can just use two monkey tiles as the extra needed “S” tiles. = )

One day I’ll make a handy printout to move the letters quickly.

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Other useful variant links are:

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/forum/7729/bananagrams/variants

http://www.bananagrammer.com

http://brunanagrams.tumblr.com

http://www.the-open-mind.com/20-things-to-do-when-youre-30-that-will-make-life-better-at-50/

I read this article and it has some good reminders.

I still eat too much sugary cereal. :/