someday there'll be a computer program that recognizes songs stuck in my head from melody snippets
Lots of random stuff to post. This post will be recipes.

Incredibly Awesome and Easy Caramel Brownies

These are seriously almost the best thing I have ever tasted, and the only things that beat them require way more work to make. Apparently they were invented by styletax; I was provided the recipe by igor_47 via cruft.

2 boxes German chocolate cake mix
6 ounces chocolate chips
1 pound caramels (wrapped)
1.5 cups melted butter
1 cups evaporated milk

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix 1 box of cake mix with 1/3 c evaporated milk and 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) melted butter. Mix by hand (using a wooden spoon works best) until the mix takes on a doughy look.

Spread mix on the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan using your hands. Bake for 6 minutes.

Unwrap caramels and melt in saucepan with 1/3 cup evaporated milk until smooth. Take brownie pan out of oven after it has set and pour caramel evenly over the layer. Sprinkle on chocolate chips.

Mix second box of cake mix like the first and spread by hand over the caramel layer. The best way to do this is to make small flattened globs of dough and set them on top of the caramel layer, since the caramel will be too hot to touch.

Bake at the same temperature for additional 20 minutes. The top layer of dough will spread out as it bakes, though leaving some spaces will let the caramel peek through.

Delicious Georgian Recipes

These are from my friend John's copy of The Georgian Feast by Darra Goldstein, which apparently is a really awesome resource for Georgian culture as well as food, and is available at Bookfinder.com for $11 and up. Together, these recipes make a brilliant meal.

Garlic fried chicken

3 pounds chicken in piece
salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoons vegetable oil
10-12 cloves garlic
1 cup walnuts
1 cup water

Season chicken with salt and pepper.

Heat butter + oil in skillet. Fry chicken on medium high heat for 10 min; turn, fry 10 min more. Cover pan, continue cooking for 20-25 min till done.

Finely grind walnuts and garlic.

When chicken is tender, keep warm on plate; pour off all but 4 tbsp of drippings. Add ground stuff and water. Sprinkle on 1/4 tsp salt. Simmer 5 min. Coat chicken, heat, serve.

Ed. note: I made this with tofu instead of chicken, which works okay; I suspect chicken would be better. When making with tofu, you probably want more of the walnut mixture per pound of tofu, and more salt.

Yogurt spinach

1 pound spinach
2 leafy sprigs cilantro (we used fresh dill and it was delicious)
1 garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped
pinch salt
1 cup yogurt

Wash spinach and cook covered 5 min. Drain thoroughly, squeeze out extra moisture with hands, mince.

Mortar / pestle together cilantro, garlic, salt. Beat into yogurt, add spinach, serve chilled.

...

Science proves that men misread and misinterpret female interest!
Who knows whether this study is reasonable. It's pretty vague and has some possible interpretation flaws, so it may tell us more about "what researchers are looking to prove" than "what researchers can prove". It reminds me of one thing that drives me crazy, though, viz.: when guys tell me that "chicks hit on me so much more when I'm taken". Actually, my friend, what's happening is that women know that you're taken and think that they don't have to give you the cold shoulder. One of the biggest girl lessons is that men will interpret just about anything as a come-on, so if you want to be careful about not giving the wrong impression, you have to practically act like an ice queen. If the guy's taken (or the situation is otherwise one in which you think you can relax more), you think, "Wow, I can actually smile at this guy every once in a while!" Which is stupid, because then the guy goes home to his girlfriend thinking, "Man, if I just dumped my girlfriend that chick would totally fuck me!" I have seen this happen too many times. Argh. Okay yes, I know many men don't have this problem, including probably many guys who will read this; but the ones who do ruined it for the rest of you. edit I wrote a follow-up post to this statement! /edit

Hilarious decree: Chattanooga Sends Truck Load Of Water To Atlanta
The best part about this is the exact wording of the decree at the bottom.
from ejgrgunner I think.

How a carpenter got the highest Scrabble score ever
The first thing I thought when Mike sent me this was, it's sort of funny that Scrabble experts are so het up about this. I mean, Scrabble is not an incredibly hard game to master. Its probabilities are pretty straightforward; being kinda good at it is mostly a matter of a large vocabulary and some basic math skills, while being incredibly good at it comes down to memorizing huge lists of words. But people seem to be all upset that a more risky strategy than the boring orthodox one might set all these tournament records. I mean, what exactly is wrong with that again? They're mad because someone who took bigger chances than they would, and played a game less perfect than a computer, won big? In their world, only people who are lucky enough to pull the perfect variation of tiles and then play them with perfect strategy should score big -- not people who take risks? The whole point of taking risks is that sometimes you win bigger than you would if you played a perfect game.
from miketodd13.

Miss Bimbo: virtual "fashion" game
Welcome to Miss Bimbo. Enter the exciting world of the first ever, virtual fashion game! Become the most famous, beautiful, sought after bimbo across the globe!
* Find a fun job to pay for your needs and all the clothes a Bimbo could possibly want.
* Shop for the latest fashions and become the trendsetting bimbo in town!
* Become a socialite and skyrocket to the top of fame and popularity.
* Date that famous hottie you've had your eye on and show the Bimbo world the social starlet you are!
* Even resort to meds or plastic surgery. Stop at nothing to become the reigning bimbo!
Maybe the best part about this is that their iconic bimbo is shown in a wedding dress and Playboy bunny ears. Are bimbos like modern-day courtesans? Like, do you suppose they occupy similar cultural space? I always thought of bimbos as rather low-class, but maybe that's a bias from my upbringing rather than a general cultural bias.
from Conrad H., indirectly.

Comments on when you should give up on being a writer
The original post is mostly posing the "when should you give up?" question; the comments are the interesting part.
from alanajoli, I think.