Culinary Discovery

So inspired by Alton Brown and his some-what scary weight loss, I decided to try some canned sardines. Turns out, sardines are pretty damn tasty. They're basically like really good canned tuna. Boring post, I know. But still.

Bacon Explosion Pictures.

Food Networking.

For some reason I can't sign up for an account from where I am now... but soon as I'm home I'll be signing up at grouprecipes.com. What a cute little idea, myspace meets allrecipes.

Following up pt 1.

Since I've been on hiatus for so long (and sadly, probably will be again), I thought it would be nice to do some updates to my previous posts. Since there have been a somewhat decent number, this will probably be a multi-part series. That said, here is the first:

Let's Talk Politics!
My philosophy has actually changed here, to be honest. While I still do support the need for a legitimate third party option, I no longer view the Republican and Democrat parties as interchangeable. To be clear though, I think it is the parties themselves that have changed, not my perception of them, but that's mostly irrelevant. The major change is this: until Republicans can learn to play fair, I cannot support them, and will actively vote against them. I still don't even really disagree with them on "the issues" across the board, but the way the Republican party as a whole conducts itself is frankly appalling. Misinformation, deception, and praying upon paranoid/undereducated/naive. It's disgusting. When they're ready to act like grownups, I'll be ready to listen to them. (Just to be clear, I do not have issues with voters that vote for or consider themselves Republicans. The issue is with the party and its leaders.)

Webcomic Drama!
Well, simply put I stopped reading Websnark shortly after this post, and the number of webcomics that I read has been slowly dwindling ever since as well. Now, I pretty much read Questionable Content and Penny-Arcade regularly, and occasionally drop in and read a bit of Least I Could Do, Girls with Slingshots, VG Cats, Xkcd, and Dueling Analogs. Once every couple of months I check and see if SMBC or The Perry Bible Fellowship have had any worthwhile updates, but that's about it.

Forget the Lights and Camera, Let's Get Down to the Action!
Apparently none of my readers had anything to contribute. That's mostly what I expected though, since I'm pretty sure I have less than 10 readers. Still have the same concept rolling around in my head though, and maybe someday it will see the light in some incarnation. I don't think I described it well the first time around though... in re-reading the idea sounded much more "light-hearted" than intended.

"We Don't Have a Cow, We Have a Bull."
Nothing to really updaet here, I just still like looking at the cute pictures of my now 3yr old niece back when she was a baby. So cute!


Those are the updates for now, more to follow later.

Starting off the New Year with a bang.

Bacon explosion, it's coming.

If all goes according to plan, I shall be making this for dinner on New Year's Eve. If by chance not, I may have to adjust and serve it on New Year's Day instead. What better way to ring in the new year than with a gut-busting, artery-clogging, fat-coma-inducing send off to the previous (and let's be honest, after the hell of a year that 2009 was, we all deserve some serious indulgence)?

Side note, due to a recent discovery, this blog may suddenly be getting updated more often. Of course, I have said that time and time again in the past... so don't hold your breath.

Broke hiatus for this Healer Survey thing.

Post this questionnaire, with your answers, on your blog. Pick the healing class you know most about (or is the focus of your blog) for the questionnaire, and then send it over to another healing blogger you know and love who heals with a DIFFERENT class. Include a link to the blogger who sent you the questionnaire, as well as a link to the blogger to whom you are sending it.

* What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?
Beladin, Holy Paladin/
* What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
10 mans & heroics at this point (same guild - 25 mans are left to Pugging)
* What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?
Beacon beacon beacon. This spell alone makes Pallys an incredible choice for tank heals. Just beacon the tank and heal the rest of the raid as needed (or yourself) and the tank will constantly be getting showered in delicious heals.
* What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?
Well I use most of my spells pretty often - but I guess Flash of Light would be the least used. Pallys really shine with the big meaty heals of Holy Light, and when glyphed it provides us with out only real aoe heal... so most of my time is spent casting that instead of the weaker FoL.
* What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?
Big meaty heals. Pallys are probably the best choice for tank healers. And thanks to beacon - we can even be assigned to heal two tanks in the same encounter so long as they're within range.
* What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?
Aoe healing. With the exception of the less than stellar Holy Light glyphed, we simply don't have aoe healing... so being put "on raid duty" is pretty rough.
* In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?
Tank healing, definitely.
* What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?
I don't really have a preference so long as they're able to handle the raid heals.
* What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?
Paladins. While raiding, we really need somebody with aoe healing (and HoTs are nice too). Aside from that, occasionally healing with a priest can be frustrating because some priests automatically assume they should be on tank heals and I should raid heal... which is wrong. lol.
* What is your worst habit as a healer?
Getting too close to mobs so I can start beating on them with Seal of Wisdom for mana regen. I'm trying to get better about staying back UNTIL I need to regen, and THEN moving into to swing.
* What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?
Tanks that either over-estimate how many mobs they can *really* take at once, or rush from fight to fight and keep me close to being out of mana all the damn time.
* Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?
I absolutely think we have our place, yeah. I would like to see a real aoe heal spell brought into our arsenal, but honestly for balance sake I don't think it should be a very powerful one (if our aoe was as good as the other classes, we'd be way too overpowered) - just a tiny little thing we can drop every so often for moderate healing.
* What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?
"First thing's first, I check to make sure no one is dead. That's the best indicator of healer skill!" The original poster of this survey has it right. That's the most important item by far. Secondly though, I *do* check the various healing section of Recount... but I ignore overhealing for the most part. Why? Because I always have the tank beaconed... but if I'm healing somebody else while his life is full - that's a TON of overheal, but the heal on the target was still necessary.
* What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?
Hmm.... I guess the idea that Pallys should be "backup" heals for in case you can't find a disc priest - but to be honest that doesn't come up too often.
* What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?
You don't need to heal the tank. Beacon the tank. Honestly, the key to healing this class is beacon - so you really need to learn to maximize it. Aside from that - mana management is a bit rough, but I'm sure it's the same story for all healers (haven't played any other healing classes in the end-game, so that's just an assumption).
* If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?
A pretty high chunk of overhealing - for the reasons specified above. Aside from that, they'd likely see me very high in the other heal stats.
* Haste or Crit and why?
Balance of course, but I'm a haste-monkey. I want my heals to be FAST. My little Flash of Light doesn't do quite enough to justify being used that often, so I really try to shave down the casting time of my Holy Light as much as possible so I can still use it as a good reactionary spell.
* What healing class do you feel you understand least?
Resto Shammies by far. Hell, aside from chain heal I don't even know what spells they use. That being said - shaman is the only class that I've tried that I'm not good at and don't enjoy playing... so I may be biased.
* What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?
Grid+Clique. I'd tried Healbot, but I keep getting a strange bug with it that nobody else in the world seems to. I'm pretty happy with Grid+Clique though, so it's no big deal.
* Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
I do tend to focus pretty heavily on Int and Haste. Aside from the crit bonus from Int, the larger my mana pool the better... Divine Plea restores 25% of my mana instead of a fixed amount - so the more I have, the more efficient the restoration is.


I got this survey directly from the source, and I'm not linking to anyone's blog (I'll email the healers I know though). Track the result of the survey here!

Wine

...is delicious.

A quick post on Foie Gras.

Let's talk liver. For those unfamiliar with foie gras, wikipedia describes it accurately as: "the liver of a duck or a goose that has been specially fattened by gavage (as defined by French law)."
Basically it is the swollen, decadent liver of a force-fed duck or goose. It is one of the most popular French delicacies, as well as one of the oldest (the ancient Egyptians were creating similar items more than two millennium ago). Foie gras is in danger though. Many US cities/states are looking into passing bans on the sale and production of foie. California has already passed a law that will ban the dish starting in 2012. Chicago has already passed a ban on selling the food, complete with a $250-$500 fine for breaching said ban. Trouble is brewing overseas for the dish as well. France (which produces almost 80% of the world's foie gras) is equally under attack by various animal rights groups who view the force-feeding process as inhumane. The European Union has already disallowed production of foie gras in any country that isn't already producing it.

You can read more on the issue here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foie_gras_controversy



Anyway, I'm curious what everyone else's opinion on this topic is.
Me personally? I hate to sound cruel, but I don't see the problem with it. We're just a part of the food chain, eating a critter lower than us on the chain. Maybe it's not the most humane of conditions, but honestly I'm not bothered. But, I am very interested in this topic as I have not yet had a chance to try this legendary dish. So my new mission in life is finding a good place that offers foie and getting my fill while I still can.


Thoughts on the topic or even on foie gras itself?

I promise someday I'll have a full-sized entry again.

My friend Danny is a rockstar. He upgraded his computer massively so recently, and was nice enough to give me his old RAM - which I was in desperate need of. Upgraded my computer thus from 512 worth of RAM to 1GB. Between this and the new video card I put in, I feel like I'm finally caught up. Well, caught up with 2004 at least.

I should update more often.

I don't really have a lot of time right now to say much, but I thought it was worth mentioning that the more I read and hear about republican candidate Ron Paul, the more I like him. Of course doesn't align with all of my views perfectly, but I don't think I'll ever find a candidate that will. He's probably as close to total agreement as I've seen yet though - and that says something.

More on the upcoming election later - hopefully including a concise breakdown of the candidates positions on key issues.