The Secret of Being Numb

Music

2011-06-11T23:49:00.001-04:00

So I had some spare time today, and decided to catalogue some music. So here's the list of important things in my iTunes. Basically it's either bands/artists that I would actively say I'm a fan of, or bands/artists that I listen to at least somewhat-regularly.

Oh, and I haven't undertaken the task of being more specific with a lot of the genres - especially in my very very vague 'Metal/hardcore' catagory.

10,000 Maniacs	Alternative
Anberlin	Alternative
Billy Corgan	Alternative
Cake	Alternative
Chris Cornell	Alternative
Cobbler	Alternative
Dashboard Confessional	Alternative
Embrace	Alternative
Further Seems Forever	Alternative
Guster	Alternative
Hoobastank	Alternative
Incubus	Alternative
Jars of Clay	Alternative
Jimmie's Chicken Shack	Alternative
Jimmy Chamberlin Complex	Alternative
Kings of Leon	Alternative
Lifehouse	Alternative
Lucerin Blue	Alternative
Monday In London	Alternative
Morningwood	Alternative
Pearl Jam	Alternative
Queens of the Stone Age	Alternative
R.E.M.	Alternative
Spin Doctors	Alternative
Sublime	Alternative
Switchfoot	Alternative
Taking Back Sunday	Alternative
The Academy Is...	Alternative
The Almost	Alternative
The Apex Theory (now Mt. Helium)	Alternative
The Juliana Theory	Alternative
Three Dog Night	Alternative
Weezer	Alternative
A Perfect Circle	Alternative > art rock
Radiohead	Alternative > art rock
The Smashing Pumpkins	Alternative > art rock
Thom Yorke	Alternative > art rock
Zwan	Alternative > art rock
Morphine	Alternative > jazz fusion
Electric Six	Alternative > new wave
Coheed & Cambria	Alternative > progressive
Muse	Alternative > progressive
Phish	Alternative > psychedelia
The Flaming Lips	Alternative > psychedelia
Tiger Army	Alternative > punk
The O.C. Supertones	Alternative > ska
Jeff Buckley	Alternative, folk
Dave Horton/Novus/Old Machines (haha)	Alternative, hard rock
Gorillaz	Alternative, hip-hop
Eve 6	Alternative, pop
Panic! At the Disco	Alternative, pop
Paramore	Alternative, pop
Say Anything	Alternative, pop
The Shins	Alternative, pop
Yellowcard	Alternative, pop
Morrissey	Alternative, pop rock
The Smiths	Alternative, pop rock
Five Iron Frenzy	Alternative, ska
Alison Krauss & Union Station	Bluegrass, folk
Christopher O'Riley	Classical, Instrumental
Twelve Girls Band	Classical, Instrumental
Taylor Swift	Country, pop
Aphex Twin	Electronica
Daft Punk	Electronica
Dieselboy	Electronica > drum & bass
Serart	Experimental rock
Madison Greene	Folk
Neil Young	Folk
Mumford & Sons	Folk rock
Tom Waits	Folk rock
Ben Harper (& the Innocent Criminals)	Folk, alternative
City & Colour	Folk, alternative
Jake Shimabukuro	Folk, jazz
Bob Dylan (& the Band)	Folk, rock
Grateful Dead	Folk, rock
Iron & Wine	Folk, rock
Bootsy's Rubber Band	Funk
Fishbone	Funk
George Clinton (& the Parliament Funkadelic)	Funk
30 Seconds to Mars	Hard rock
Bush	Hard rock
Chevelle	Hard rock
Dead Poetic	Hard rock
Deftones	Hard rock
H.I.M.	Hard rock
Stabbing Westward	Hard rock > industrial
1000 Clowns	Hip-hop
B.o.B.	Hip-hop
Blackalicious	Hip-hop
Bruno Mars	Hip-hop
Busta Rhymes	Hip-hop
DMX	Hip-hop
Eminem	Hip-hop
Gym Class Heroes	Hip-hop
Kanye West	Hip-hop
Lil' Jon	Hip-hop
LL Cool J	Hip-hop
Ludacris	Hip-hop
Lupe Fiasco	Hip-hop
Mac Miller	Hip-hop
Master P	Hip-hop
Mo Thugs (Family)	Hip-hop
Mystikal	Hip-hop
N.W.A.	Hip-hop
Outkast	Hip-hop
The Streets	Hip-hop
Timbaland	Hip-hop
TLC	Hip-hop
Travie Mccoy	Hip-hop
Tupac Shakur (2Pac)	Hip-hop
Twista	Hip-hop
Warren G	Hip-hop
Wyclef Jean	Hip-hop
Cee-lo	Hip-hop > neo-soul
Common	Hip-hop > neo-soul
Gnarls Barkley	Hip-hop > neo-soul
Mos Def	Hip-hop > neo-soul
The Roots	Hip-hop > neo-soul
N.E.R.D.	Hip-hop, alternative
Craig David	Hip-hop, R&B
Drake	Hip-hop, R&B
Jamie Foxx	Hip-hop, R&B
John Legend	Hip-hop, R&B
Ne-Yo	Hip-hop, R&B
Usher	Hip-hop, R&B
Sean Paul	Hip-hop, reggae
Animal Collective	Indie
Arcade Fire	Indie
Bad Books	Indie
Band of Horses	Indie
Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution	Indie
Battles	Indie
Belle & Sebastian	Indie
Black Kids	Indie
Broken Bells	Indie
Broken Social Scene	Indie
Circa Survive	Indie
Craig Owens	Indie
Deerhoof	Indie
Dressy Bessy	Indie
Fun.	Indie
Jenny Reeve	Indie
Klaxons	Indie
MGMT	Indie
Minus the Bear	Indie
of Montreal	Indie
Pedro the Lion	Indie
Rilo Kiley	Indie
Silversun Pickups	Indie
Sufjan Stevens	Indie
Tattle Tale	Indie
The Bravery	Indie
The Divine Comedy	Indie
The Domesticated	Indie
The Good Life	Indie
The Murmurs	Indie
The Pierces	Indie
The Temper Trap	Indie
The Violet Burning	Indie
The xx	Indie
Tony Bullard	Indie
Travis	Indie
Twothirtyeight	Indie
Yeah Yeah Yeahs	Indie
Hot Chip	Indie > electronica
Psalters	Indie > folk punk
Chairlift	Indie > pop
Cinematic Sunrise	Indie > pop
Eisley	Indie > pop
Element 101	Indie > pop
Florence + The Machine	Indie > pop
Pomplamoose	Indie > pop
Reverie Sound Revue	Indie > pop
Tegan and Sara	Indie > pop
The Early November	Indie > pop
The Format	Indie > pop
The Ting Tings	Indie > pop
Under the Influence of Giants	Indie > pop
Do Make Say Think	Indie > post-rock
Explosions in the Sky	Indie > post-rock
Godspeed You Black Emperor!	Indie > post-rock
Mogwai	Indie > post-rock
Sigur Ros	Indie > post-rock
The Polyphonic Spree	Indie > psychedelia
AWOLNATION	Indie, alternative
Brandtson	Indie, alternative
Cool Hand Luke	Indie, alternative
Copeland	Indie, alternative
Death Cab for Cutie	Indie, alternative
Dustin Kensrue	Indie, alternative
Eels	Indie, alternative
Jimmy Eat World	Indie, alternative
Mae	Indie, alternative
Manchester Orchestra	Indie, alternative
Modest Mouse	Indie, alternative
Moros Eros	Indie, alternative
Mute Math	Indie, alternative
Big Sir	Indie, electronica
Cursive	Indie, post-hardcore
Miles Davis	Jazz
Nina Simone	Jazz
Thelonious Monk	Jazz
Holy Blood	Metal > black, celtic
Dragonforce	Metal > power
Galneryus	Metal > power, japanese
Syu (of Galneryus)	Metal > power, japanese
Dream Theater	Metal > power, progressive
Queensryche	Metal > progressive
Tool	Metal > progressive
A Skylit Drive	Metal/hardcore
Alesana	Metal/hardcore
Alexisonfire	Metal/hardcore
Arch Enemy	Metal/hardcore
As Blood Runs Black	Metal/hardcore
As I Lay Dying	Metal/hardcore
Atreyu	Metal/hardcore
August Burns Red	Metal/hardcore
Beauty to Ashes	Metal/hardcore
Becoming the Archetype	Metal/hardcore
Before Their Eyes	Metal/hardcore
Beloved (US)	Metal/hardcore
Blindside	Metal/hardcore
Bring Me the Horizon	Metal/hardcore
Cadaveria	Metal/hardcore
Chiodos	Metal/hardcore
D.R.U.G.S. (Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows)	Metal/hardcore
Dance Gavin Dance	Metal/hardcore
Demon Hunter	Metal/hardcore
Destroy the Runner	Metal/hardcore
Dimmu Borgir	Metal/hardcore
East West	Metal/hardcore
Emarosa	Metal/hardcore
Emery	Metal/hardcore
Enter Shakari	Metal/hardcore
Escape the Fate	Metal/hardcore
Extol	Metal/hardcore
Finch	Metal/hardcore
From Autumn to Ashes	Metal/hardcore
Haste the Day	Metal/hardcore
He Is Legend	Metal/hardcore
Hopesfall	Metal/hardcore
I Killed the Prom Queen	Metal/hardcore
In Flames	Metal/hardcore
Isles & Glaciers	Metal/hardcore
Iwrestledabearonce	Metal/hardcore
Kekal	Metal/hardcore
Killswitch Engage	Metal/hardcore
Krallice	Metal/hardcore
likeDavid	Metal/hardcore
Living Sacrifice	Metal/hardcore
Maylene & the Sons of Disaster	Metal/hardcore
My Chemical Romance	Metal/hardcore
Narcissus	Metal/hardcore
Nightwish	Metal/hardcore
Nodes of Ranvier	Metal/hardcore
Norma Jean/Luti-kriss	Metal/hardcore
Of Mice & Men	Metal/hardcore
Oh, Sleeper	Metal/hardcore
Opeth	Metal/hardcore
Pantera	Metal/hardcore
Pierce the Veil	Metal/hardcore
Poison the Well	Metal/hardcore
Project 86	Metal/hardcore
Remission	Metal/hardcore
Scary Kids Scaring Kids	Metal/hardcore
Serj Tankian	Metal/hardcore
Showbread	Metal/hardcore
Silverstein	Metal/hardcore
Sky Eats Airplane	Metal/hardcore
Soilwork	Metal/hardcore
Spoken	Metal/hardcore
System of a Down	Metal/hardcore
The Agony Scene	Metal/hardcore
The Beautiful Mistake	Metal/hardcore
The Bled	Metal/hardcore
The Number 12 Looks Like You	Metal/hardcore
The Used	Metal/hardcore
The Word Alive	Metal/hardcore
Training for Utopia	Metal/hardcore
Underoath	Metal/hardcore
Virgin Black	Metal/hardcore
Zao	Metal/hardcore
Beanbag	Metal/hardcore (later alternative)
Embodyment	Metal/hardcore (later alternative)
Rites of Spring	Metal/hardcore > emo (original usage)
Rise Against	Metal/hardcore > hardcore punk
Ministry	Metal/hardcore > industrial
mewithoutYou	Metal/hardcore > post-hardcore
Receiving End of Sirens	Metal/hardcore > post-hardcore
Saosin	Metal/hardcore > post-hardcore
The Cinematic Orchestra	Indie > post-rock
Thursday	Metal/hardcore > post-hardcore
Thrice	Metal/hardcore > post-punk
(hed) P.E.	Metal/hardcore > rap-metal
Flight of the Conchords	Musical comedy
Stephen Lynch	Musical comedy
Tenacious D	Musical comedy
3Oh!3	Pop
Avril Lavigne	Pop
Ben Folds (Five)	Pop
Cobra Starship	Pop
Fall Out Boy	Pop
George Michael	Pop
Hall & Oates	Pop
Jason Mraz	Pop
Katy Perry	Pop
Ke$ha	Pop
Lily Allen	Pop
Metro Station	Pop
No Doubt	Pop
Owl City	Pop
Scissor Sisters	Pop
The Cure	Pop
The Higher	Pop
The Hush Sound	Pop
The Killers	Pop
Shiny Toy Guns	Pop > electronica
Tears for Fears	Pop rock
Barenaked Ladies	Pop, alternative
Clinic	Pop, alternative
Counting Crows	Pop, alternative
Maroon 5	Pop, alternative
AFI	Pop, punk
Dogwood	Pop, punk
Against Me!	Punk
The Buzzcocks	Punk
The Clash	Punk
Jesse Powell	R&B
Justin Timberlake	R&B
Prince	R&B
Bob Marley (& the Wailers)	Reggae
Matisyahu	Reggae
Bruce Springsteen	Rock
Creedence Clearwater Revival	Rock
Fleetwood Mac	Rock
Jefferson Airplane/Starship	Rock
Jimi Hendrix (Experience)	Rock
Led Zeppelin	Rock
Pink Floyd	Rock
Styx	Rock
The Beatles	Rock
The Black Keys	Rock
The Doors	Rock
The Rolling Stones	Rock
The Who	Rock
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers	Rock
Frank Zappa	Rock > progressive
The Mars Volta	Rock > progressive
The Moody Blues	Rock > progressive
Uriah Heep	Rock > progressive
Depeche Mode	Rock, electronica
Elvis Costello (& the Attractions)	Rock, punk, indie
Billy Paul	Soul
Jonny Craig	Soul, alternative
Earth, Wind, & Fire	Soul, funk
Joss Stone	Soul, R&B

Truth

2011-04-23T23:06:00.000-04:00

I used to have things to say. I used to write; blogs, poetry, letters, words. I'm out of words. Literally. Everything is just empty. And as much as I'd love to say it's because this happened or that happened or because my childhood had this or that... there isn't a reason. It's just the overbearing realization that everything is meaningless. Maybe there is substance to be had out there for the lucky few, but for most of us we're just floating in a stream of nothingness. Brief moments of amusement aside, there is neither any sense of happiness that I've experienced nor anything to lead me to believe that any such sensation truly exists. And at the end of it all, I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated that ten years ago I was touched by something larger than myself and that now I can not deny the existence of the God of the Bible because that means that my only true means of escape has effectively been stolen from me. Not looking for sympathy, not looking for anything. I don't expect there to be substance, but I guess there's still a tiny part of me that foolishly hopes that in writing this I'll at least feel some sense of relief or lessening of my burden. I guess I haven't completely learned better yet. I'll have to work on that.

2010-12-16T09:55:00.001-05:00

We're having our first "real" snow of the season right now.

Children.

2010-07-30T13:56:00.000-04:00

I think that if you have more than three children, you are being a irresponsible human being, and potentially a liability to the world. The obvious exception here of course being multiple children births (such as quintuplets and whatnot) - excluding the women/couples who supposedly take treatment to increase their chances of multiple children births. Related note, I think all of the various hundred TV shows about people with tons of kids are equally disgusting and irresponsible. I'd say I'm sorry about feeling that way, but I'm not. It really is irresponsible, and really exemplifies the selfish attitude of today.

Famous People Who Play(ed) D&D.

2010-07-02T10:18:00.001-04:00

I didn't write this list up, but I've heard most of the names thrown around in D&D circles, so I have no trouble believing that it's accurate.

1. Stephen Colbert (also went to Gen Con (a dnd/comic/roleplaying convention))
2. Vin Diesel (Wrote the introduction to a book about DnD)
3. Mike Myers
4. Dwayne Johnson AKA The Rock
5. Matt Groening
6. Dame Judy Dench (Introduced to the game by Vin Diesal)
7. Jenny McCarthy
8. Glenn Danzig
9. Edwin McCain (Not sure if he still does but did when he was a kid)
10. Wil Wheaton (played on the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Still plays to this day)
11. Daryl Hannah
12. Robin Williams (Plays both the Online DnD Game and the Tabletop one)
13. Lexa Doig AKA Rommie and the computer AI from Andromeda
14. Ben Aflac (Forced to play by Kevin Smith on a set once and fell in love. Prefers to play Wizards over fighters.)
15. Matt Damon (Forced to play by Kevin Smith on a set once and fell in love. Prefers to play Fighters over Wizards.)
16. Matthew Lillard (Said so on G4's attack of the show then stole all of thier D&D Minatures Models)
17. Jon Stewart (He also sneaks sutile D&D jokes into his show that only us D&D nerds get to laugh at.)
18. Jim Breuer
19. Brian Warner AKA Marilyn Manson
20. John Carmack and a good portion of the original id Software crew (Some of the characters and story elements in Quake were based off of D&D session iirc)
21. Sebastian Bengtsson
22. Joakim Bengtsson
23. Robert P. Olsson
24. Björn-Erik Karlsson
25. Daniel Antonsson
26. Tommy Karlsson
27. Kevin Smith
28. Eddie Izzard
29. Johnny Vaughn
30. Michael Greco
31. Dave Gorman
32. Charles Manson (He actually ran a game in prision! That is to say until California banned the running of Tabletop RPGs in prison.(This might actually be just a rumor but I don't mind))
33. Scott Edgar (Found the actual quotes! "I also play Dungeons and Dragons with my mates, which everyone reckons is tragic, but I reckon is heaps of fun.")
34. Jon Favreau (Another one with a quote! "I'm a very lazy person by nature. I have to be really engaged, and then I go straight from lazy to obsessive. I couldn't study chemistry, but I could memorize all the books for Dungeons and Dragons. It was ridiculous.")
35. Curt Schilling from, I think, the Red Sox or at least use to be.
36. Todd Pratt from, I think, the Braves or at least use to be.
37. Jimmy Wales (One of the starters of Wikipedia)
38. Jacques Villeneuve (Use to drive race cars. Ironicly he prefers to play Monks in D&D which move faster then all other characters)
39. Rivers Cuomo from Weezer and, it is rumored at least, the rest of the band.
40. Everyone in Marcy's Playground (They even wrote a song called "A Cloak of Elvenkind" Which is a Major Magical Item in Dungeons and Dragons)
41. Everyone in Flashlight Brown (They even wrote a song called "Ready to Roll" which references 20-Sided Dice and A LOT of other D&D related things)
42. Gary Gygax (He was famous enough to play a character on Futurama(himself) so I put him on the list)
43. Seth Greene (Even made a Robot Chicken episode that refenerced THAC0 which was part of the Advance DND (or 2nd Edition) rule set)
44. Trey Parker
45. Matt Stone
46. Patton Oswalt (even talked the Reno 911 guys into doing a DnD part on the show. It was very funny)
47. Stephen King (And certain things from dnd are referenced in The Dark Tower series)
48. Steve Rune Lundin AKA Steven Erikson
49. Joss Whedon (Director of Buffy The Vampire Slayer)
50. Jack Black (He also references DND in the song "Wonderboy")
The following people stole DnD stuff from the teen choice awards. I included pictures when I could find them:
51. Ryan Cabrera
52. Nick Cannon
53. Jon Heder
54. Jesse McCartney (http://i5.tinypic.com/477z19v.jpg)
55. David Boreanaz
56. Lauren Graham (http://i4.tinypic.com/2uhq1dk.jpg)
57. Hulk Hogan (http://i7.tinypic.com/2mzlevt.jpg)
58. Metallica (At least they played Call of Cthulhu and Dungeon and Dragons before Hetfield went into rehab)
59. Conan O'Brian (Use to play at least. He has mentioned it on his show)
60. Darby Conley (though he is C-List at best)
61. Andrew W.K.
62. The band Amon Amarth (Can I get a Wha wha from all my metalheads?)
63. My Chemical Romance (They played with Thrice during the Vans Warp Tour. My Chemical Romance's lead singer Gerard Way plays a Half-Elf Ranger)
64. Thrice (Played with My Chemical Romance during the Vans Warp Tour.)
65. Alice Cooper Played D&D (And even replayed the events of a game on an episode of That 70's Show)
66. Some/All of Barenaked Ladies
67. Raymond E Feist (He Actually uses a self created world in his books that was originally created for his Dungeons and Dragons game back home)
68. Kari Byron (Played DnD and has thought about getting Adam and Jaime to play with her.)
69. Brian Posehn
70. Jason Mewes (Though when asked about it he says "DND IS FOR FAGGOTS" then turns to Kevin Smith and starts laughing)
71. Robert Jordan (And his sons which he taught how to play)
72. Weird Al Yankovic
73. Mastodon's Drum Brann Dailor
74. Neil Fallon and MAYBE the other members of Clutch (They even wrote an unreleased song called 24 Earth Years which mentioned playing AD&D back in the day)
75. David X. Cohen (In David's piece in the 30 year D&D hardback book, he says he never had time to play during Futurama, but most the writers did, and they kept D&D books in the office as "referrence" material.(He did get to play while working on The Simpsons though))
76. Alexis Cruz (He also LARPs. HAHAHA Nerd)
77. David Cross (He also mentions a group of comedians he plays with but wouldnt name them.)
78. Billy Crystal (He also plays 40K With Robin Williams)
79. R.A. Salvatore (Though I guess he would have too)
80. Some of the members of Dragonforce (And DND themes have worked their way into Dragonforce songs over and over)
81. David Duchovney (actually mentioned it on Conan O'Brien not too long ago)
82. The band Dayglo Abortions (Even wrote a song about it called Dragons)
83. Donald Faison (He plays Monks)
84. Insane Clown Posse
85. Emilio Estévez

2010-03-08T13:23:00.001-05:00

I woke up a couple days ago. Things were different. Maybe better.

2010-02-24T14:37:00.001-05:00

Oui, j'ai le grand poulet de un cheval.

The Storyteller.

2010-02-18T13:52:00.004-05:00

I write songs. Frequently in fact. Many of them are actually good - quite good to be honest. But you see, the problem is that I do not actually write them. The most common place I put these songs together is in the shower. Typically they start as a sort of stream-of-consciousness bit of nonsense thought I engage in while waking up, but eventually a thought here or a line there will stick out and I'll spend the rest of the shower refining, polishing, and eventually singing that little piece into a full song (or at least the majority of one). It's a fun mindless activity that helps me keep my mind stimulated and off of the various other pressures and disappointments that could otherwise occupy my thoughts. Unfortunately though, I almost never actually write the lyrics down or otherwise record them, so an hour or two later I find myself humming an otherwise unfamiliar tune with only broken fragments in place where lyrics once fit. Yesterday morning I wrote a song in the shower that wasn't just good, it was utterly epic. I had the lyrics, the vocal arrangement, even the vast majority of the instrumentation down perfectly... but as I write this today, all that remains is a couple of lines (and only estimations of what they once were) and the general melody of the chorus. It's very, very frustrating.

....maybe if I can ever learn to stand the sound of my own voice, I'll pick up one of those portable voice recorders to remedy the situation.

Culinary Discovery

2010-01-05T11:07:00.002-05:00

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.

2010-01-01T22:06:00.003-05:00

Food Networking.

2009-12-30T11:38:00.003-05:00

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.

2009-12-29T14:29:00.004-05:00

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.

2009-12-29T11:49:00.003-05:00

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.

2009-10-31T15:07:00.003-04:00

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

2009-03-30T22:32:00.001-04:00

...is delicious.

A quick post on Foie Gras.

2008-02-01T15:01:00.001-05:00

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.

2008-01-17T16:49:00.000-05:00

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.

2008-01-09T13:38:00.001-05:00

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.

Hottie of the Month - December

2007-12-19T21:36:00.000-05:00

Continuing the tradition I started last month with my post on Lucy Pinder, it's time for the December Hottie of the Month! This month we have one of my favorite actresses from one of my old 'guilty pleasure' TV shows. Best known from the O.C. where she played the complicated and high-strung Taylor Townsend, it's the beautiful Autumn Reeser.

Autumn Reeser is sadly a still fairly unknown actress in Hollywood. Aside from her role as one of the four leads in the final season of the O.C., she has starred in a only a small number of low budget and/or indie films and had the occasional small role on various other TV shows. She's a phenomenal actress though, and easily the strongest actor of the O.C. younger group. She's just about the total package - she's smart, she's playful, she's funny, and she's drop dead gorgeous. Her figure is fantastic, but honestly everything that sets her apart is in her face. Autumn might just have the perfect face - her hair is always incredible, her eyes are as deep and inviting as any could be, her lips are just full enough and let her beautiful teeth show through while smiling, and even seemingly smaller things like ears and neckline are somehow incredible attractive on Autumn. I look forward to seeing her in bigger and better things in the future, but for the time being I highly recommend watching the third and fourth season of the O.C. to check this girl out. You won't be disappointed in the show, and you certainly won't be disappointed in the girl.

(click the pictures for larger versions)

...Unfortunately I spent way too much time tracking down interesting pictures of Autumn that I didn't leave much time to find decent videos... But here's a little taste of her playing her O.C. character Taylor Townsend:

As always, I hope you guys enjoyed this entry as much as I did - and let's all keep hoping the girlfriend never starts remembering to check my blog!

Disgusting.

2007-12-17T16:59:00.001-05:00

I learned something new today: Coca-cola mixed with cream soda tastes like ass.

Dirty ass.

D&D pdf preview: classes

2007-12-13T23:36:00.000-05:00

I know nobody cares about my D&D stuff, but since I don't really have any readers anyway, I'm still going to post about it.

My next game is good while away still (a couple months at least), but I'm putting together a campaign pdf for my players this time. Hopefully it will go over well enough. If anyone is interested, I'll post a preview of the class section of the file.

Hottie of the Month - November

2007-11-28T10:52:00.000-05:00

I'm starting a new feature here as per the request of a friend of mine. He liked my post on Casey Bachelor so much that he insisted I do similar on a regular basis. Thus, a new hot girl shall be posted each month. And to ring in the tradition (and since it is starting on the month of my birthday) I figured I'd start with a woman that just might be the single hottest girl alive. The one and only, Lucy Pinder.

Lucy is a British glam model known for her frequent appearances in various lad mags (the term the British have coined for magazines like Maxin, FHM, and Stuff). Unlike a lot of the models in her field, Lucy never actively sought her position. She was just discovered by a photographer that happened to catch her sunbathing and was almost instantly signed based solely on the photos he took that day. Also unlike others in her field, Lucy had originally chosen not to fully expose her chest in her shoots (British lad mags allow frontal nudity). She has since signed an exclusive deal with Nuts magazine for topless shoots. Anyway, speaking physically, Lucy is just about as perfect as a woman can be. Of course her breasts stand out as the most prominent feature, but honestly everything about her is amazing - her hair, her eyes, her lips, her nose, her hands, her feet, hell even her teeth are beautiful. If she has any flaw at all, it's that she often wears the same expression on her face in her photos (though I've tried hard to find good pictures of her for this post so you won't see as much of that here). Her more candid shots are always incredible though. Anyway, enough text - enjoy the pics!

(click the pictures for larger versions)

...isn't she incredible? Anyway, I can't let you leave without taking notice of one of my favorite things about Lucy... ...her voice. Watch the videos below to hear it.

Video 1 features Lucy talking about her boobs. I love this chick.

Video 2 is some tech segment from some British show where Lucy talks about her Motorola KRZR.

Video 3 is from some British sketch comedy show, but damn does Lucy look amazing in it.

Finally, video 4 is Lucy reciting a part from War of the Worlds. Seriously.

Hope you folks enjoyed today's entry - it was definitely fun to put together for you. Let's all just hope the girlfriend doesn't find time to read it!

Recipe: hoisin chicken eggrolls.

2007-11-26T10:02:00.000-05:00

(heavily adapted from a recipe that appeared in Gourmet magazine)
I'm not a big fan of eggrolls at most places... something about mystery fillings just bother me. So when the girlfriend was in the mood for some, I decided to make my own. This recipe started as a mu shu recipe from Gourmet magazine, but I think lends itself well to this super easy take on eggrolls. And trust me, they're way better than you'll get at your local chinese takeout joint.

HOISIN CHICKEN EGGROLLS

Ingredients
1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
1 (16-oz) bag coleslaw mix
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 packages of eggroll wrappers
2 1/2 to 3 cups coarsely shredded cooked chicken, without skin (from a 2-lb rotisserie chicken)

Preparation
(I like to begin by mixing about a tablespoon worth of soy sauce, another tablespoon of teriyaki, a teaspoon worth of fish sauce, and a pinch of salt into the chicken and stirring it around until the chicken has absorbed everything. Then just set the chicken aside covered with plastic wrap until you need it later. You're more than welcome to skip this step though.)
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook eggs, stirring, until just cooked through. Transfer scrambled eggs to a plate. Add remaining 3 tablespoons oil to skillet and heat until hot but not smoking, then cook garlic and red pepper flakes, stirring, until garlic is golden, about 1 minute. Add coleslaw mix and 2 tablespoons water and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until coleslaw is wilted, about 5 minutes.

Stir together soy sauce, sesame oil, remaining 2 tablespoons water, and hoisin sauce in a small bowl. Add to coleslaw mixture along with eggs and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Place about a spoon full worth into each eggroll wrapper, fold and seal with water. Deep fry in enough hot oil to submerge until golden brown. Serve with additional hoisin or soy sauce, and enjoy!

From there you can edit them as much as you like - last time we made them we added some leftover corn niblets to the mix and they turned out better than ever. So experiment with it all you want. And if you do try the recipe, please come back and let me know what you thought!

You may not know this, but I'm an old man.

2007-11-21T09:41:00.000-05:00

Wow, more than 10 days without an entry... I committed a blog-sin. I apologize to my readers (yup, both of you) for the absence. In my defense, a lot has been going on lately - some of which I'll be writing about today.
First and foremost, I have the body of a 60+ year old man. I'm serious. In 2003 I missed the first half of my high school graduation because I was in the emergency room. What was I there for? Kidney stones. Kidney stones, a problem most people never have to think about until they're much older. And I've had quite a few of them by this point in my life. Now I have yet another old man condition. I have shingles. I shouldn't even be at risk for it until I'm much older - hell, the vaccine isn't even recommended until you turn 60! To quote the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: "About 25 percent of all adults, mostly otherwise healthy, will get shingles during their lifetimes, usually after age 40. The incidence increases with age so that shingles is 10 times more likely to occur in adults over 60 than in children under 10." Ridiculous, isn't it? Anyway, shingles is basically a resurgence of the chicken pox virus that stays dormant in your body (yup, the pox never actually leaves you after you've had it), only this time it attacks your nerves specifically. So when you get shingles you don't get the characteristic spots all over your body, just concentrated in a few batches or as a band around a single nerve cluster. Additionally you can't spread the virus through the air (by sneezing, coughing, talking, or anything else) because shingles doesn't infest your respiratory system like chicken pox does. The only way to spread it is through direct contact with the sores (or obviously by touching your sores and then touching somebody else before washing your hands). And you can't infect somebody with shingles - you can only give them chicken pox, and then only if they have not had them before. They say shingles can grow to be quite painful along the infected nerve. It's also not uncommon to end up with long term or even permanent nerve damage due to the infection. But honestly, so far it hasn't been that bad. I'm a little more than a week into the infection and it's been fairly manageable. I rarely itch and my spots (a large patch on the small of my back and smaller patches on my inner thigh, butt cheek, and shin) only hurt when something accidentally bumps or brushes against them. The medication is kicking my ass though. I'm taking Acyclovir and almost immediately after taking a pill I always feel weak, woozy, kinda silly, and get a fairly harsh headache. Ah well, I can handle it. Supposedly shingles typically last around 5 weeks or so, so I've still got a fairly long journey with this stuff. Sucks that it has to be at Thanksgiving though - it's my favorite time of the year!
Speaking of the holiday season, we reach my second point for today... my birthday. Being born between Halloween and Thanksgiving, my birthday has always sort of marked the beginning of the winter holiday season for me. For birthdays and Christmas in my family, we always do wish lists. I usually try to put at least 5 or so items on the list and range the prices from 10 bucks to about 60 or so. This year I think I got everything I asked for on my birthday (man, what am I going to ask for on my Christmas list?)! My list was fairly modest, but that's excited none the less. Here's a quick list of my relevant loot:

Large book-style cd wallet, holds more than 200.
7in high-quality santoku style kitchen knife.
A couple of heavy-duty high-quality nonstick pans (nice to have finally have a few that aren't just cheapos).
D&D core book set to replace those lost and/stolen by the moving company a year ago (technically I got a Borders gift card, but that's what it was for).
Neverwinter Nights 2 (PC game).
Enough money to buy a new graphics card that can actually play my new game.

All in all, I was pretty happy with my birthday. Not only did I get some fantastic presents, I also had some incredible food. Duck a l'orange special ordered from this great little gourmet marketplace down here, almost-free crab legs at the Jolly Roger seafood joint, and many helpings of Brenda's ever-incredible chicken cordon bleu. I couldn't have asked for more.
The final point worth mentioning today, is the upcoming move. I'm not sure whether of not I've already mentioned it here, but come early 2008 we're moving away from our dreary little town of Currituck, NC and heading back home to the DC metro area of Northern Virginia. We've officially told my parents (we're renting the top-floor apartment from them) and now we're looking for places and starting to put in applications for employment. We miss the convenience of life of there, and more importantly we really miss our friends. But the rent prices are much higher - so every pray or cross you fingers that we'll be able to find a suitable place that we can really afford. As for jobs, I put in an application to the work in a Marriott kitchen with a recommendation from a friend who works there. It may not be my long-term career choice (eventually I'd like to go into something in finance, preferably as a financial planner), but the culinary world is hobby I'm fairly passionate about so I'm still excited about the prospect of learning as much as a I can in a commercial kitchen. Once we're settled and I can afford it, I'm plan on taking some classes to work more towards my goal in finance.

Well folks, that's it for now. Sorry about the lapse in updates. I'll try to get better about that. I know I have at least two more posts I want to make before November is over - a really good eggroll recipe I created by adapting a slightly similar recipe from Gourmet magazine, and a hottie post starring a woman I think is probably the single most attractive lady alive. So look forward to those and thanks as always for taking the time to read!

23

2007-11-10T07:50:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday to me,
now I'm 23;
I got a pink monkey,
gonna name him Louie!

Unabridged version.

2007-10-30T14:00:00.000-04:00

In case anyone is wondering, I also don't know why I can't post an entry on a real topic without severely exceeding a 1000 word count. Apparently I'm pretty long-winded.

Damnit.

It's true, I'm a dice roller.

2007-10-30T13:23:00.000-04:00

After this post I'll probably have lost any "cool" that I may have acquired, but I'm okay with that. I've mentioned previously that I'm a gamer... but I didn't quite explain to what degree. My name is Brian Williams, and I'm a Dungeons and Dragons player. It's okay, don't run away. Whatever your various notions about D&D are, they're probably wrong. So let's just get the misconceptions out of the way right now.
Things that D&D is not:

Any form of Satanism, witchcraft, or any other such silly paranoid excuse for evil. D&D does not promote the actual worship of any form of evil, teach you to "cast magic" of any sort, or involve any sort of animal and/or virginal sacrifice.
A children's game. Not to say that kids can't play it - many do. But D&D is a fairly complex, rules-heavy game that ends up being a fairly expensive hobby as well. Most D&D players are at least 18 or older.
Against the teaching of the Bible/Torah/Quran/etc. Honestly, unless you're in some strange faith that believes that all forms of creative imagination are sinful, then your religion shouldn't have a problem with D&D. I'll go into more detail about what D&D is later in the post, but really it's just playing pretend at worst and group-storytelling at best.
A game where you wear costumes and pretend to fight each other. No, no, no. Yes, there are people who dress up in silly costumes and go out into the woods to beat on each with fake weapons. But that game is not D&D. That is called LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) and has absolutely nothing to do with D&D. None of the many many official D&D books gives rules for or suggests LARPing. You know what I wear when I play D+D? Most often it's a pair of jeans and one of my many T-shirts purchased at a rock show. Same thing I wear to do anything else through the day.
Perverse in nature. D&D is all about whatever you want it to be - it's that open ended. Your games can include giant robots, or pirates on the open sea, or building homes for impoverished people, or even all of the above. Anything you can think. As such, your games can include sex, rape, or any other questionable content that you choose. But the game does not require those things be a part of your game to play, and frankly the books subtly imply recommendation against such topics.
Something only "nerds" do. Now obviously your definition of what makes a nerd could be very different from the next person's, but let's just work with the typical socially-inept geek here. People from all walks of life play D&D. I've talked to and/or heard of players that are rock stars, actors, college professors, wall street businessmen, farmers, clergymen (honestly), computer repairmen, and literally hundreds of other sorts. Vin Diesel has famously admitted to playing the game. Sure, some traditional "nerds" play the game, but they don't make up the entire demographic. Also, what's so wrong with nerds anyway?

That should cover most of the negative assumptions about the game. A few years back the "D&D is a game of Satan!" concept was fairly popular - led by a massive campaign of paranoid misinformation. Perhaps the most famous anti-D&D propaganda is Jack Chick's 'Dark Dungeons' tract. It's silly, frankly. You can find hundreds of parodies of this tiny little tract online, all based off on the joke that it's simply so far from reality that it can't possibly be taken seriously. But unfortunately, to somebody who has absolutely no previous knowledge about the game, they don't have much reason not to believe it. Jack Chick certainly makes a compelling case for being afraid of the game... too bad it's all wrong. First off, let's talk about the real "culprit" of this tract - the witches' coven. Even if we take this tract to be factual, it seems that the game is at worst just a tool these "witches" are using to gain familiarity with potential new recruits - thus they are the problem, not the game. But as I mentioned above, D&D is not a game of witchcraft. Many more players (at least in the US) consider themselves Christian than Wiccan, just as more people in the US consider themselves Christian than Wiccan. There are no rules or instructions for actual magic in any of the D&D books - heck, they'd probably be much more popular if there was. 99% of players don't belong to witches' covens, and if there are any actual witches' covens still out there they probably have much better ways to recruit people. Secondly, the players typically don't "become" their characters (unless they're serious method actors) - they simply act as them. If that's wrong, then every single actor through all of history is wrong. Finally, let's talk about the hardest part to dismiss in the tract - the girl named Marcie's suicide. This is hard rumor to diffuse, that X person from X town on X dated killed themselves because their character died. Well, as I said, D&D players are basically just actors, and since actors don't typically commit suicide when the character they're portraying is killed off... there doesn't seem to be much weight to the argument. But honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if once, maybe twice in the entire history of the game a person has committed suicide because of some negative thing that happened to their character (be it death or something else). The issue there isn't with D&D though, it's with the person being unstable to begin with. The sort of people that would kill themselves over that is just as likely to kill themselves because their favorite character in a book or TV show died off, so the fact that it happened to be D&D that set them off is utterly meaningless. So what does the tract get right? Well, not very much. The only thing worth any merit is that the Bible does say not to practice witchcraft. But we've already discussed how D&D is not witchcraft. So is writing fiction or acting the part of a character who practices magic sinful? Well, according the Bible murder, stealing, and lying are all sin... is it sinful for an actor to play a character that murders, steals, or lies? Is it sinful for an author to write a character that engages in murder, theft, or deception? If that's the case, then basically all works of fiction are evil - and that seems pretty silly to me.
So we've discussed what D&D is not and we've broken down the concept of the game itself being sinful/evil. So now we should quickly tackle what D&D is.
D&D is:

A game. The point of D&D is the same as any other game - to have fun. And while some people do take it very seriously, it's no different than being very serious about watching football or anything else. It's still a game, and no matter how serious it's treated, the goal is as simple as just having fun.
Social. D&D is a group game. The average D&D game is typically played in a group of 4 to 8 people, including the Dungeon Master (consider him the main storyteller). The game doesn't exist without the social aspect - a bunch of people spending time together in a group with nothing but their imagination and conversation to fill the time.
A game of pretend. The "rules" of D&D isn't what makes the game - they're just there to add some structure. When you were a kid, did you ever play cowboys & indians or pretend to sword/gun fight with other kids? It's fun until you get to the "I shot you dead" "No you didn't, I dodged!" part. Well D&D is basically the same thing as those basic games of pretend just with some structure to prevent disagreements. Instead of fighting over whether or not you did in fact shoot your friend, now you roll a dice and do a quick equation and can say for certain whether or not you hit him.
Group storytelling. For me, this is the most compelling part of the game. It's really not very different from sitting in front of a typewriter working on a fictional novel. Except in D&D you're not the only writer. It becomes a massive group effort to craft your story, with the Dungeon Master being the lead writer in charge of creating the world, and the players getting to be solely responsible for writing the parts of the main characters.
A good activity for children. Bear with me here for a minute, I'll explain how. First off, the rules of D&D aren't simple. At all. Sure, the basics can be picked up pretty fast, but there is an insane number of rules in the game (don't worry, you don't need to memorize or even use all of them). Playing D&D is like an exercise in critical thinking - you need to apply some serious thought to figuring out some of the more complex rules. D&D is also a pretty math heavy game. The dice are the real key function of D&D, working as the variable for basically every conceivable action. Trying to hit that troll? Roll the dice, add any additional bonus modifiers, subtract any negative modifiers from armor or other circumstances, works out the percentile likelihood of success with the troll in question hiding partly behind a tree, etc etc etc. Want your kid to get a great head-start in math? Get them playing D&D. The level of English in through the books is basically college level, but it's presented in a fashion where kids can work out the meanings of any words they don't know. D&D is like a vocab lesson on steroids. The social aspects of the game are certainly a bonus for children that might otherwise be watching TV or playing video games by themselves as well. Additionally, the very concept of how the game is played is that the players are confronted with a series of problematic situations that they need to figure out solutions for... which is really the very definition of problem solving, a skill anyone would argue is important for everyday life. And as far as I'm concerned, encouraging creativity is one of the best things you can do for your children - the world of D&D that exists only within your own imagination is an amazing tool for expressing and developing creativity.

I think once you're willing to remove your pre-conceived notions about the game (almost all of which come from misinformation) and take a look at the game for yourself, you'll see that it isn't some vile creation of evil or merit badge of complete nerdiness. You'll see that it's just a silly, fun hobby that arguably could even be said to carry some real world benefits to it. Truth be told though, I didn't write all that to convince or convert anyone... I wrote it because I'm going to be posting some D&D related stuff I'm working out for an upcoming game and wanted to defend my playing the game from any unfair prejudice before I did so. Hopefully I've at least succeeded in that. If my post did happen to make the game sound appealing to anyone who hadn't really seen it as such before... well that's even better. As always, thanks for reading.

(side note: for whatever reason it won't let me put an ampersand '&' in the tags, so D&D entries will be listed as "d+d" in the tag section.)

Pinup girls have never been so hot.

2007-10-24T10:48:00.000-04:00

Here's one for the gentlemen in the crowd... Her name is apparently Casey Bachelor, and she's a British model-slash-video girl. I don't know why I hadn't heard of her before today, you'd think she'd be more popular with a shape like hers. Anyway, enjoy you feisty young men!

(click the pictures for larger versions)

Below are a couple of music videos you can see her in. The first is "Flathead" by The Fratellis - Casey is the pinup girl in red in that one. The second video is for the terrible song "Hear Fear" by the equally terrible band HENTAIGENE - Casey's the main girl in that one, though it's kinda hard to tell... so just look for the first girl to take over her over-layer of clothing and dance around (jiggling happily as she does so).

Flathead

Hear Fear

Well men, I hope you enjoyed that - I'm sure I'm going to be hearing from my girlfriend over this post once she finds it!

Found this video from earlier this year while looking through old files.

2007-10-20T10:30:00.000-04:00

Old video - not sure what my purpose was when I made it. Still makes me laugh though. From back when I was rocking the burly beard. I'll do a new real post some time later.

October Potpourri

2007-10-16T15:28:00.000-04:00

Just a few things here I wanted to make quick mention of but don't quite merit a full post all on their own:

Salmagundi is a fantastic word. Apparently it is some sort of salad dish, but the word also functions as "a mixture or assortment; a potpourri or grab bag." Other cool words with similar meanings are pastiche, gallimaufry, and mélange. I really love silly words.
I've decided my career path - I'm going to be a financial adviser. Now I just need to start working towards that goal.
Amazingly there is a lot of good TV on lately: House, Bones, Heroes, Scrubs, Family Guy, the Daily Show & the Colbert Report, Gossip Girl, Bionic Woman, Chuck, The Next Iron Chef (I really needed something to hold me over until the next season of Top Chef), Pushing Daisies, and Samatha Who? Sucks for CBS though... not a single one of their shows interests me.
Spoken, one of my old favorite bands, recently released a new album. Unfortunately the first few songs blend together unmemorably, but the rest of the album is very solid. If you're into the melodic rock with a touch of hardcore sound, you should check it out.
Reading the "World" news section of Google News is always horrifying. The whole planet is falling apart, isn't it?
Cool as the wireless connectivity features of the new touch iPod are, I don't think it's worth paying more for a touch version that holds considerably less data than paying less for a larger capacity "classic" iPod. Also on the topic of Apple - the company is reducing the price of it's iTunes Plus songs to their standard $0.99 price they're set for regular iTunes store purchases.

Here are a few free to enter online contests and sweepstakes for anyone who is interested, as well a few free sample offers:

Vacation at Great Wolf Resorts
Instant win game from Pepperidge Farm
Room organization plus $3000 in merchandise from The Container Store
L'Oréal hair supply free samples (click "free samples" near the bottom of the page once it's finished loading)
Free Cottonelle flushable wipes from Walmart
Free map offer from the National Scenic Byways Program

Enjoy the free stuff, and wish me luck on the contests!

I was really into blood-based imagery for awhile...

2007-10-15T00:17:00.000-04:00

In case you're interested, I just re-discovered a whole chunk of old poetry I had written a long time ago (thanks to my friend Teri)... It's kind of fun to go back and laugh at how serious I used to take myself. A lot of it is bad, and most of it is about the same few topics - but honestly there are still a few good pieces hidden in there. Anyway, if you are interested by chance, you can find it all posted on my Sticks & Stones myspace page under the blog section.

Rainbows are visions, but only illusions, and rainbows have nothing to hide.

2007-10-14T16:30:00.000-04:00

If you follow music news at all, you've probably heard about the newest album from the art rockers Radiohead. Their seventh studio album is collecting quite a bit of buzz, although very little of it seems to be about the actual music. What people are really talking about, is the band's innovative approach to releasing this record. An excerpt from Time magazine:

"In Rainbows will be released as a digital download available only via the band's web site, Radiohead.com. There's no label or distribution partner to cut into the band's profits — but then there may not be any profits. Drop In Rainbows' 15 songs into the online checkout basket and a question mark pops up where the price would normally be. Click it, and the prompt "It's Up To You" appears. Click again and it refreshes with the words "It's Really Up To You" — and really, it is. It's the first major album whose price is determined by what individual consumers want to pay for it. And it's perfectly acceptable to pay nothing at all."
-Time magazine

You can see why the music world would have a lot to say about this news - we're looking at a move that could potentially help change the entire industry. A quick google search will find hundreds of people discussing and debating how much money the band has already made on their Oct 10th release (which I bought on the 11th for a little over $5). Some are even subtly implying that this may be their most profitable album yet - and we're just 4 days into the release!
As fascinating and incredible as their new business model (for lack of a better term) is, I can't help feeling a bit worried. Not about whether the album will be profitable for them or not - I'm certain it will be - but rather on whether or not all this talk of their method is overshadowing their music itself. Honestly, I think that what I've heard of In Rainbows (the download only offers the first disc - the additional 8 songs currently need to be purchased as an expensive boxed set) is probably the best Radiohead has ever composed. The entire album is solid - not a single track fails to impress. I'm just afraid that years from now this album won't be talked about for how awesome it is - but rather for it's gimmicky sales approach. More people need to talk about the music itself than the pay as you'd like scheme. So anyway, I highly recommend heading over to the In Rainbows website and purchasing the album for whatever you think is fair. Not because I believe in the method (I do, btw), but because this is a fantastic album that really shouldn't be missed out on. If you're only going to own one Radiohead album - it really should be In Rainbows.

Oh - and listen for the Little Mermaid reference at the end of 'Nude,' it makes me smile every time I hear it.

Ignore This Post - It's Not For You.

2007-10-13T10:51:00.000-04:00

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On Gaming or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace The Revolution. pt.2

2007-10-12T17:46:00.000-04:00

(This is the second part of a 2 part series on gamers, the game industry, and the Nintendo Wii. If you haven't yet read the first half, you can do so right here.)

In the last installment on this topic, we discussed the new "gamer" and the potential problems for the games industry in targeting that demographic. Now let's discuss what Nintendo is doing to rectify the situation.
With the release of their newest console, the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo was taking a big chance. Their system wasn't designed to appeal to the core gaming market, risking the favor and attention of the people shown to spend money on the video game industry. Core technology-wise, the processor used in the Wii isn't much of a step up from the previous generation of game systems - it's fairly comparable with the Gamecube, Playstation 2, or regular Xbox. As such, the potential game capability is lower than that of it's current competition - more importantly the Wii simply can't handle the quality level of graphics that the other two can, and ever-increasingly "better" graphics have become one of the more important aspects in successful game sales. Even the actual games were decidedly not focused on the frat-gamer - the pseudo-shooter Red Steel was the only gamer game with even a little bit of hype around it back during the Wii launch period.
But none of those things could hold the Wii back - despite all the potential negatives, there was just too much to get excited about in the little white box. The key aspect of the Wii is obviously the new motion sensor control style. Gaming isn't just about hitting buttons anymore. You don't play Wii Baseball by hitting the 'swing' button at the right time - you get out there and swing the bat like you were really out there standing over home plate. You bowl by going through the motions you would at any bowling alley, you deliver that backhand just like you've seen Serena Williams do it to return the ball in Wii Tennis, and you stand ready in your gold posture to score that hole in one in your simulated gold game. As a matter of fact, if I remember correctly, the entire Wii Sports game (which comes with the console and includes Wii Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Bowling, Boxing, and a variety of really fun training games) can be played only touched two actual buttons on the Wii Remote - a striking departure from the standard of Xbox/Xbox360/Ps2/Ps3 games typically requiring the use of at least 8 buttons as well as analogue sticks and/or directional pads. The Wii Remote has more buttons, but the idea is that it isn't about figuring about button configurations but rather just getting out there and playing. And while the sensor isn't perfect (problems vary a lot - mostly depending on the distance from and size of your television and the amount of infrared light in the room), it's pretty damn good - the remote can really detect amazingly subtle movements with fairly great accuracy. Here's the great thing about this - no longer do you have to have some familiarity with gaming to competently pick up a game and enjoy it. Can you swing a baseball bat? You can play Wii Sports! Can you hold a marble in your hand and tilt to move it around your hand? You can master Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz! Can you use your finger to point at the TV screen? You can play Red Steel or Farcry or any other shooting game on the Wii! It's really that simple. The Wii is the system made for people who don't play video games. You've probably heard these stories thrown around a lot as Wii-buzz, but there are elderly grandparents who have barely touched a computer, much less a video game, out there buying Wii systems because they had so much fun playing them with their grandchildren! The Wii isn't just new user-friendly for it's controls either - the Wii is the system most likely to appeal to new gamers because it comes in at the low price tag of $249.99 currently compared to the Xbox 360 at $349.99 for the cheap version of it's real system (you can buy a cheaper version called the Xbox 360 Core edition, but it's basically an incomplete system) and the massive price tag of $449.99 for the cheapest version of the PlayStation 3! That doesn't even take into account Nintendo's decision to keep first-party published games under $50 whereas Xbox360/PS3 first party games are averaging close to the $60 mark these days. So the choice becomes pretty clear to the potential new gamer looking for a new hobby to pass the time - either invest a lot of cash into a system that looks complicated, or spend a more manageable wad of cash on a system that seems easy to learn and has a lot of positive buzz from fellow non-gamers out there who gave it a shot. This is why Nintendo is winning the console war. Rather than go with the strategy of fighting with their rivals over the X number of people who spend money on the gaming market, they made a machine for the much larger number of people who weren't gamers already - knowing full well that the gaming scene by it's very nature would display interest in the machine no matter what they did. So the Wii sells to the gamers that support Nintendo and it's system, it sells to the new breed of casual gamers, and it still sell to a large chunk of the "hardcore" gaming community because a large chunk of that populous are multi-system owners who will consistently buy all of or at least most of the major gaming systems on the market. Nintendo does a nice little happy dance on it's way to the bank.
As fantastic as it is to draw new people to gaming (theoretically more gamers means more money into the game industry which means a stronger, better industry), that's not even the part that makes me excited about the Wii. It's that we get to experience a new sort of gaming for the first time in a long time. Games like Trauma Center, where you use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk attachment (both come with the sytesm) like surgical tools to save the lives of your patients, wouldn't exist if not for the innovations made by the Wii. Heck, even sports gaming, perhaps the absolute least innovated genre in video games, has the potential to feel fresh and new on the Wii - supposedly the Wii version of Madden's long-running and always-exactly-the-same-damn-game football series actually plays like it's something totally original! Even shooting games can really be reborn on the Wii. While I think shooting games are fun, I've long thought that they're basically just an endless chain of clones of each other. Up until now they're been basically interchangeable at least in their gameplay dynamics. But now with the Wii, we're not just facing out enemies and pushing the buttons - we're actually aiming the remote and firing at every nook and cranny on the screen like we were really there in the moment! So the Wii isn't just bringing new gamers - it's bringing a new way to game. And as a long-time gamer, I really think that's just what the industry needed.
Long live Nintendo!

DAMNIT.

2007-10-11T21:54:00.001-04:00

Okay, so I've been a little bit busier than planned - I should finish the second part of my in progress post tomorrow. Sorry to all 3 of my readers.

Please enjoy my drawing of a pink Elmo as a way of saying I'm sorry.

"I'm sorry!"

On Gaming or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace The Revolution. pt.1

2007-10-10T09:49:00.000-04:00

(This is going to be a long entry and since it's really about two separate topics, I'll be dividing it into two parts. If you're not very interested in my analysis of the modern gamer and how he's hurting the gaming industry, you may want to skip ahead to why the Wii may be the salvation gamers need. You'll find that in part 2.)
I know I touched on what a modern "gamer" is a lit bit already in my previous gaming post, but let's go over this one more time... What sort of person is the modern gamer? Well sadly, he's not a hard character to describe - at least he's not a hard character to make somewhat vague but most likely accurate generalizations about. Of course this is going to be just the worst stereotype of the most generic gamer, but I think you'll get the idea I'm trying to get across pretty clearly. Let's start with the physical, starting from his head and ending at his toes:
If he's a lucky gamer then he has naturally brown, curly hair which he cuts just short enough to still curl and styles to look entirely unkempt. If he didn't get the curly hair gene, he's likely wearing a trucker or baseball cap. His head is further covered by either a Xbox Live headset if he's playing console games, or another very similar headset if he's playing World of Warcraft. He's not smiling - gaming is a serious affair to this type of gamer, so he's either staring with a bored-but-serious expression, or rambling incoherently into his headset. At best he may give the occasional snooty chuckle. He may or may not be wearing either a hemp, puka shell, or wooden bead necklace. His T-shirt either has some just slightly artsy band like Coheed & Cambria or some vague gaming/vague meme (internet phenomenon) reference on it, worn over his just slightly overweight midsection. Studded belt or faded leather belt with silly buckle is a must. He wears jeans that he pays far too much for, but so does everybody, so that's not all that important. His shoes are typically either Converse or Vans brand - though he may be wearing overpriced leather sandals as well. If he's on the computer (and thereby playing World of Warcraft), he's slouched back as if trying to recline in his computer chair. If he's on his Xbox, he's probably leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees. Proper posture is a faux pas for this gamer. Yes, the modern gamer is basically the worst stereotype of a slacker frat boy.
His mannerisms are the really distinct part of the frat-boy-slash-gamer however. He acts nonchalant about as much as he can, throwing in the occasional bit of "randomness" to appear cool. He speaks in l33t (click the link if you're not familiar with it), despite the fact that it was popular way back in '98 in Ultima Online (and elsewhere) and is totally played out now. 75% of his speech is made up of the words "Pwn" and "Newb." He may or may not own a few different gaming consoles, but he definitely owns a Xbox 360, or at least a 'classic' Xbox. The only game he plays on his PC is World of Warcraft, or Guild Wars - which is basically Warcraft Lite. He may own and occasionally buy a PC game, but he doesn't play it frequently enough to matter. As referenced above, he most likely listens to pseudo-art rock - nothing too artsy or intelligent, just enough to be a little bit deeper than standard radio fare so he can look down his nose with a sense of musical superiority (Coheed & Cambria, Cursive, Dragonforce, maybe even a little Cobra Starship). He does not actively listen to rap, but occasionally uses hip-hop slang for weak comedic effect. Most importantly of all though, is that he doesn't play games for fun. At least it's not the game itself that gives him the most enjoyment. Gaming is a giant pissing contest for this sort of gamer. It's about being the best, the fastest, the first. It's all about justifying in themselves their sense of superiority. He strives to be the best PvPer (player-vs-player in game fighting, for the non-gamer), the first person to reach level [x] in whatever new game comes out, the first person to beat/discover/win/obtain whatever, etc, etc, etc. It's not about being good at this or that game - it's all about being better than somebody else at it.
Looking for something to self-affirm your own superiority really isn't all that bad in and of itself. Stupid, but not much else. The problem is such - this new gamer demographic isn't looking for the coolest new games - they're looking for the coolest slight variation on games they've already played. They want BioShock to be Halo-esque because Halo was fun and is familiar to them. They can pick up BioShock and get into it like a pro quickly. And thus they can win fast and dominate others fast. Random gamer X may only be the 24th best killer on Counter-Strike, but maybe if they pick up whatever the next clone game is before the 23 other players better than they are, then they could master it faster and become the best. And so innovation dies. Games are clones of successful games before them because the new gamer just wants to keep playing the same games they're good at - just with new levels and better graphics (graphics being the most important aspect to the modern gamer). Furthermore, the gaming world is becoming less and less welcoming to potential new players. The games are made for these "hardcore" gamers. Watch somebody who has never played a video game before try to play BioShock. Sure, they might eventually get it - but it will be a long, frustrating, and frankly not very fun journey that they'll probably quit long before they become a competent player. The new player problem is even worse in games that emphasis player vs player competition. How is the guy who's first game is Halo 3 possibly supposed to keep up with the gamer that has played, beat, and dominated the previous two installments as well as the endless Halo clones on the market? Simply, he can't. And since a lot of the "fun" in these new gamers games is in succeeding in the competition setting - that new player misses out... and ultimately gives up.
But don't lose hope just yet. Obviously there are still a few games and game companies coming out that appeal to more than just the hardcore gamer. Katamari Damacy, most "party" games, any of the Sims-type games, and a few other of the quirky 'take-a-chance' type games manage to be fun, inviting, and utterly refreshing. But there is no bigger champion of reinvigorating the gaming world than the Nintendo Wii. Call me a fanboy all you want, but frankly I'm still giddy over the Wii's willingness to rethink not just the games we play, but the way in which we play them. But this post is getting pretty big already... so stay tuned for part 2 of this post where we discuss what it is that makes the Wii worth such reverence.

Vacation Report!

2007-10-06T23:05:00.000-04:00

I don't have a whole lot of time, but here's my quick vacation recap (fair warning - long post ahead):

First off I had to go to TX to be the best man for my brother's wedding. Texas sucks. It's boring, it's hot, and it's ugly. But we weren't there for vacation so we get everything set up for the wedding, and decide to spend the night (Friday) before out drinking - apparently the only worthwhile spot is some crazy honky-tonk bar called Whiskey Town or something like that. It's huge, pretty cool, and while I definitely am not a country fan - I was glad to hear them playing moderately listenable 'authentic' country rather than the terrible country-rock crossover stuff that is so popular amongst country fans and stations these days. Then the drinking starts. Now, I wouldn't say that I have a drinking problem. I don't drink often - honestly I drink 'for real' less than once every other month. My problem is that I only seem to be able to have two drinks or two hundred drinks. So I'm fine when I decide to just have a couple - I stop there and I'm happy. We were partying though. I won't go into some of the details but something set me off and after being already way too smashed for my own good, decided to angrily go and order a double shot of Bacardi 151 (those of you who care about alcohol tolerance may want to note that I'm a very infrequent drinker and I only weigh about 140lbs, so I'm the very definition of a "lightweight")... The 151 is the last thing I remember. Next thing I know I'm being woken up in a puke-soaked bed being told to jump in the shower to get ready for the wedding. I was later told that I not only drank the 151, but also had another 6 or so drinks that night - not including the additional ones I ordered for myself (and I know I did since my CC statement shows me closing out not one, but TWO more tabs). I had apparently been thrown out of the TX bar after falling off the stool with such force that I scraped the entire right side of my face and trying to get into a fight with one of our friends. Story goes that I was puking pretty much non-stop from that point on until 5 am, and puking up blood at that (there was talks of taking me to the hospital but apparently none of them knew whether or not I had insurance and they didn't want me to get charged). So anyway I'm puking nonstop literally until one hour before my brother's ceremony (and it's worth noting that I have never ever thrown up from alcohol in my life - heck, I haven't thrown up at all in about 15 years), but I was so determined not to ruin it for my brother that I summoned all my resolve and toughed out my role as best I could - supposedly I did well enough that nobody could tell I was still drunk. On to the reception I sat quietly saving my strength for my speech/toast, delivered it as I hoped, then went to sleep in the still-somewhat-puke-scented rental car. We spent one more uneventful night in TX before getting on our morning plane to Vegas...
So early Sunday morning we arrive in Vegas - I'm still so sick from drinking that I can't even handle food - I couldn't even manage to drink water until just now. But I'm in good spirits (an unintentional pun! ha!) - we're in Vegas and the lobby to our hotel (the new Planet Hollywood - formerly the Aladdin before the restoration) looks absolutely beautiful - trendy and cool and not at all cheesy like we were expecting (have you ever been to a Planet Hollywood restaurant? Super tacky - thank God the hotel/casino felt NOTHING like that). We sign up for early check in and they tell us they can have a "great room" ready for us in 3 hours. Cool. We leave our bags and head into the casino.... Wow. I mean, wow. This is far from my first trip to Vegas, and I'm been in a lot of casinos - from the sleazy Sahara to the luxurious Wynn... and honestly the casino level of the PH is the best I've seen. It's open, welcoming, and almost too trendy-cool for it's own good. We're instantly in a good mood. This place definitely isn't for everybody, but Theresa and I really felt like it was right for us. We gamble a little bit, but I'm more of a table player than a slot guy, and it's too early for most tables to be open - so we explore some more. The entire public area of this place is gorgeous. Even the parts still under renovation with their obviously Aladdin influences somehow manage to fit in and look fantastic. Seriously kids, next time you're in Vegas, be sure to stop by. Anyway, we eventually get our room which is also beautiful, despite the two Stallone pictures adorning our walls, and I am totally ready to get some sleep. Napped, energized, and finally ready to get some food we set off for this Ellis Island Brewery and Casino I'd heard about which was off the opposite street corner one road behind our hotel.... and we proceeded to have one of the greatest meals we've ever had. Seriously. This place is off the strip, so they need to use classic Vegas tactics to get people in to gamble: put out some really fantastic food for unrealistically cheap prices. I had a gigantic roast turkey dinner (the special) with mashed potatoes, corn salad, and gravy that could have easily fed myself, my girlfriend, AND a guest all on it's own. It also came with the uncontested best bowl of chicken noodle soup on earth. Now I know that chicken noodle is boring - I think so too - but this soup was so amazingly fantastic that my eyes were rolling back into my head while I ate it. The single best thing I ate in all of Vegas. And I ate at Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak!! But I'll get into that later... My whole dinner cost me $6.99 plus about a buck for micro-brewed root beer. The girlfriend had a $5.99 burger that was plenty good, but not really special enough to warrant saying much about it. She did say the Ellis Island in-house brewed hefeweizen beer ($1.50 for a pint) was really good, but I was no where near ready to taste anything alcoholic. Also, we got to watch some old lady in the restaurant almost die from choking. Seriously somebody was giving her the Heimlich for like 4 minutes before this 18 year old looking kid came up and finally got her throat clear after another couple minutes of Heimlich. Seriously, she was turning blue - we were certain we were about to watch her die. It was really, really intense. Not much else happened that night though - pretty much all of our time was spent winning money at the video roulette machine back in the PH. Monday was our "big" Vegas day: the only day we were there morning till night, the day we were eating at Craftsteak, and the day of our ridiculous timeshare tour. Yes, we had to do a tour - but hey, I only paid $100 bucks total for both nights for a 4 person room (our friends decided they couldn't make it) in a newly renovated hotel! The tour sounded great and honestly if we had any money to spare we really might have purchased a timeshare there (it was currently being built, literally as a part of the PH - the only timeshare with a casino inside!), but of course the overly aggressive final sales push at the end was horrible. But I'm immune to pressure sales anyway, so we just sat there and said no the next 30 minutes worth of varying offers they threw at us. Lol. After that we gambled a bit more, had an utterly amazing chicken florentine sandwich at the Earl of Sandwich in the PH and went back to our room to rest for a bit before our big dinner (hey, I was still feeling drained from my bout with alcohol poisoning... and the gf had been drinking early that day - we were both in need of some napping).
...Now you remember way back when I mentioned the desk clerk getting us a "great room?" Well here's a tip for you - any time a hotel desk clerk happily gives you a "great room," be wary and ready to demand a different room - because she's probably happy to be unloaded the crap room on a rube like you. We get into a room and just lay down for the much needed nap when we're awoken by a sound that you should never have to hear in any hotel you're staying at... a jackhammer. I'm not kidding. And no, the jackhammer isn't outside working on the timeshare construction... IT'S IN THE VERY ROOM NEXT TO US. Turns out they're still renovating a few rooms on the one side of our floor... And they put us in the absolute worst room they could. The gf calls down to the front desk to complain about the noise and they respond not with apologies, but rather with "they'll be done soon." Unbelievable. Frustrated and not yet ready to deal with making a larger issue out of it, we change into our dinner clothes and head towards the MGM Grand and Craftsteak. We gamble to kill time, but gambling in and of itself isn't very interesting - so on to dinner. Honestly, I was so looking forward to eating here I could barely contain myself. The place is beautiful. Probably the best restaurant atmosphere I'd ever seen, and I've eaten at my fair share of nicer establishments. We get one of those inset somewhat-private booths along the wall where we can look out into the whole of the place. We place our orders and enjoy the bread and delicious imported butters while waiting for the first course. The a la carte style salad arrives - we ordered the mixed lettuces and the artichokes... Ug. I am so disappointed. I'm an artichoke fanatic - I like them on everything and prepared just about any way you can... but these were terrible. The artichokes themselves were unrealistically bland to begin with, but then they came completely drenched in some odd cream dressing that would have been strong enough to drown out the most flavorful 'choke, much less these poor excuses for the heavenly vegetable. I was so disappointed I honestly felt like crying. I ate about three mouthfuls of salad and a total of about 4 of the tiny artichoke quarters. Then the entrées hit the table - knowing that the two of us aren't the biggest eaters we had agreed to simply split the 16oz grilled T-bone with the a la carte side order of wild mushroom risotto. The steak... wasn't spectacular. At all. I have a sort of food pet peeve - I want the main component of any dish I'm eating to be the main flavor I'm tasting. The steak (which was served 'warm' at best) was covered in a small forest worth of rosemary and tasted of nothing but the herb even after I scraped all of it off the steak the moment it arrived on the table. Admittedly the texture was superb - the T-bone was more tender than any cut of filet I have ever had - but the damn thing was just so damn rosemary tasting that I couldn't help but feel somehow robbed. Thankfully my gf's mushroom risotto saved the meal. It was perfection - silky and creamy but still al denté enough to give you a nice almost-crunch. And the massive portion (honestly, it was large enough that it alone could easily have fed three or four people) was topped with what seemed like close to a pound of absolutely perfectly sautéed mushrooms. We actually ended up leaving a bit of the steak on the plate in favor of getting our fill of the risotto. All in all, I feel almost heartbroken over my Craftsteak experience. Somewhat downtrodden, we headed back to the PH and gambled on until bed time. Tuesday was our last day in Vegas and started out with us being woken up by what sounded like plumbing work in the under-construction room next to us (oh I had forgotten to mention all of the concrete dust footprints we saw heading in and out of that room from the point of the jackhammer on) and a second call to the front desk to complain (we mentioned the many various little problems in our room as well - none of them major, but there was really more issues than should be acceptable). This time they offered to extend our 11am checkout to 2pm, to make up for lost sleep. Wow, how very generous. Ug. So we headed down far earlier than intended to get breakfast and spent the next many hours gambling. Up to this point we were pretty much breaking even on our gambling money. About an hour and a half into our Tuesday gambling (mostly roulette and video roulette) we were up over $200. Two hours after that however, we had lost not only the $200+ but also the roughly $160 combined we had set aside to gamble with before the trip. Ah well, c'est la vie, non? We did accrue a lot of points on our PH player's club card though - at this point enough for three of the four potential "first 48 hours" rewards - $5 in free slot play, $10 off the award-winning buffet, and another $10 in free slot play. We'd also accrued a whopping $7 in cash-back money. Woo-hoo. We instantly blew threw our free $15 and very much enjoyed the extensive upscale buffet for lunch. Then we checked out and headed out to the Venetian - I'd never been and really wanted to see it more than any of the other casinos. Eh. It's cool, but nothing is really cool enough to write about. We came back to the PH to get our bags, realized we had another hour to kill, and gambled some more. Didn't really lose or gain any more than we already had, but we did happen to get enough player's points to earn the final of the four rewards - $25 in free slot play. And this time the player's club clerk pointed out that we'd been earned food comps as well - we didn't even know about that perk. So our very final act in Vegas before heading to the airport to head back to DC (via Newark airport in NJ - ick) was spending our $20 comp coupon at Earl of Sandwich getting yet another delicious sandwich and plenty of snacks for the plane.
Not much else to note after that - I seem to have gotten sick on the flight to Newark, which I attribute to my alcohol-weakened immune system - and we spent another couple days back in our old hometown of Northern Virginia (it's always easier to just say DC, but really I'm actually from about 45 minutes outside of the city proper). Had a really great time all in all, even despite my silly drinking mistake and my major food disappointment... but I am glad to be home!

Still have a lot of unpacking and such to do here (alright fine, really we just need to watch all of our new TiVo'ed shows before they get deleted to make room for even more junk), so I think I'm done with this entry for the night. Sorry if my story was somewhat less than interesting, I just wanted to be sure to include all the relevant parts.
And don't worry Smartie, the Wii post is still coming - I'll probably get it up tomorrow.

Texas bad, Vegas good.

2007-10-06T17:28:00.000-04:00

Woo, just got back in from my vacation at roughly 1am this morning. I'm exhausted. Too exhausted to make a real entry. The Wii post IS still coming, but I wanted to point everyone's attention to the right side bar... I added a few links, most notably to my new forum. Of course it's silly for a blog to have it's own forum, but I've always been a forum junkie, so I just couldn't resist. Oh, and if you're interested in finding me on either Snacksby or Epicurious, I'm there on both as 'numbvox,' though I am honestly more of a spectator on those two sites than a participant. Check them out though, as well as the rest of the links.

Before anyone gets offended: Not all pigs are record execs.

2007-09-25T17:28:00.000-04:00

(click the picture to see the full-sized version.)

This is what I did today while trying to play tech support for my company. Sat in front a computer running through an endless series of scans... and doodled. What I've learned: Pig faces are as fun as they are easy to draw. Frog bodies are easy, but I have no idea what a frog's face looks like. Sesame street, yo. Owls just suck. And the pig faced jolly roger will be the perfect tattoo for me once I embark on my culinary career.

Anyway, I'm leaving for vacation tonight. I'll be back sometime around the 6th of October, hopefully with a Wii-centric blog entry as per special request from Smartie! See you then!

I also haven't seen 300 yet; I'm a pop culture outcast.

2007-09-24T19:30:00.000-04:00

You probably haven't heard this anywhere yet, but there's this new gaming coming out called Halo 3... Ha. In the real world, advertising and publicity for Halo 3 is literally everywhere - you can't even fill your gas tank without seeing it ads for Halo themed slurpees.

...

Actually, before I talk about Halo, let's discuss my gamer credentials. I am a gamer in the truest sense of the word. I grew up gaming. Honestly - I grew up with somewhat inattentive parents in an area with no other children my age. Video games were pretty much my babysitter and best friend for my early life. I've had damn never every system that came out, at least until recent years: Atari, NES, SNES, Genesis, Gameboy, Game Gear, N64, Virtual Boy, Playstation, Gameboy Advance, Gamecube, PS2, Nintendo DS, and most recently the Nintendo Wii. I've probably at least played every system not on this list as well. Once I was older and had kids around me, I was always the kid the other kids asked to come over and beat this level or that boss for. I've always been a completionist - I can't just beat a game, I have to get every item, uncover every secret, read every line, and watch every cut scene. I was playing games online before playing games online was the massive industry it is now. From Diablo to City of Heroes and many many games inbetween, most notably World of Warcraft and a very long history with Ultima Online long long long before the Trammel split. Hell, I was playing MUDs online in middle school. So all in all, I think it's safe to say that I'm a gamer. I'm a serious gamer.

Now back to Halo 3... The hype-fest that is Halo 3. The game finally comes out tomorrow and gamers all over are practically salivating, just waiting to devote the next month of their lives to the game. But you know what? I couldn't care less about this game. Honestly. Despite all the mass-advertising, I am so apathetic that I didn't even know when it was coming out - I had to look up the release date before writing this to make sure it wasn't actually out yet. I've played Halo. I'm played Halo 2. Sure, they're fun for a little while... but they aren't anything to get this worked up over. It's a shooter. Like every other damn shooter out there. Halo = Half-Life = Doom = Far Cry and so on and so on. Honestly, aside from cosmetic differences and what passes for storyline in those games, they're almost completely interchangeable. Halo isn't even the best in the genre! Half-Life and it's derivative games (namely Team Fortress) are unquestionably superior games! But the sad part is that Halo has somehow helped to created a new type of gamer. The term means something entirely different now - it's used for the douche-baggy, frat boy, "no kiddy game" playing, xbox-fanboyish dicks in the gaming world. The people that can actually say "newb" with a straight face and are intellectually empty enough to actually think Ctrl+Alt+Del is the best webcomic on the 'net.
It's disgusting, and unfortunately seems to be a growing trend. So sadly, we're going to have to slowly say goodbye to the real games of the world. Traditional RPGs, the genre I would argue belong to the real gamers, are already on their way out. Quirky, inventive games will continue to sell only as minor novelty items. And the "next-gen" systems will only more and more keep to their winning tactic - "better" graphics and more guns.
Thank God I got the Wii. Nintendo is where it's at. The Wii's unique gaming perspective and the DS's recent leaning towards RPGs makes them the two most stand out systems on the shelves today. Nintendo may just be the last hope for the real gamers left in the world. Frankly, I look forward to Nintendo reclaiming their rightful throne.

Yo Ho Ho!

2007-09-19T21:35:00.000-04:00

Ahoy thar, me heartys! It be a fine day fer talking like a pirate! Ye would do well ta be hearing me midi file as ye read, ya lily-livered landlubbers!

Me an' me saucy wench!

What be a pirate's favarite fast food stop fer getting a roast beef sandwich?
...ARRRby's!

What be a pirate's second job choice?
...ARRRchitect!

What sort of sock be a pirate's favarite?
...ARRRgyle!

How do ye know when ye be a pirate?
...ye don't, ye just ARRR!

What do dyslexic pirates be saying?
...RAAA!

What Star Wars character secretly be a pirate?
...ARRR-2-D2!

Where do pirates be getting thar drinks?
...StARRRbucks, fer cARRRamel apple cidARRR!

What rating be the new pirate movie?
...ARRR, fer all the booty!

How many pirate jokes be lame?
...most ARRR!

Me first mate!

A good Talk Like A Pirate Day to ye!

"We don't have a cow, we have a bull."

2007-09-17T22:42:00.000-04:00

The girlfriend and I did something very uncharacteristic for us this Sunday... we actually went out. Our one-year-old residency in northern most part North Carolina has turned us into slugs. Our typical Sundays sadly consist of the two of us lying in bed all day either watching television or playing video games. But we decided we would fight our depression-like urges and join my sister's family and our father for a day of cheap bowling at the Navy base bowling alley. We all had to ride together in my sister's new van since they were the only ones with the clearance to get on the base, but that just gave me and Theresa an excuse to make faces at my 11 month old niece and take pictures when she made funny faces in return...

Wow, that's one excited baby!

Seriously, how cute is she?
Anyway, considering our lack of social interaction as of late, we were actually pretty excited... and I really don't go out of my way to hang out with Dad as much as I'd like, which is extra sad since he really is one of my favorite people. We get to the base and thereby the bowling at about noon and stay there till roughly three-ish, bowling a total of four games throughout. We're a bit of a bowling family (arguably lame as that may be): I took informal bowling lessons when I was young, and both Dad and my sister are former league bowlers. And Dad is actually pretty good. As in, he has bowled a perfect 300 game before sorta good. So my only goal when bowling is to beat him in at least one game... It's looking pretty good at the end of game two, he's only a few points ahead and so I'm feeling pretty confident about game three... and then beer comes in. You see, bowling is a drinking sport. That's kind of what you do. If you're bowling and not drinking while you're doing so... well, you're not really bowling. Not all the way at least. Originally the plan was to have a beer or two while we were there, but when I went to go pick one up at the little food counter, I saw the magic word: Pitcher. Oh, the irresistible pull of the beer pitcher. It is as wonderful as it is reputedly low-class. How can I really justify paying $3.00+ for my little bottle of beer when I could pick up a whole pitcher of frosty Yuengling for Theresa, Dad, and I for a mere eight bucks?

Oh Yuengling, you're my best friend.

I didn't beat Dad that third game. I'd like to blame the beer, but I wasn't intoxicated at that point (yet). No no no, I just dropped the ball on that game. When it comes to sports/games/etc that I actually care about, I'm a notoriously competitive person. And while I don't usually lose my temper at other people, I get mad very quickly when I think I'm not doing something as well as I should be. So the first couple frames of the third game were harsh... Seven pins total in the first, and zero in the second. I can't remember the last time I've gotten two gutters in a row before then. I have excuses of course (I slipped once, and bent my thumb nail way back on the release on the second), but I still posted zero none the less. So anyway, I was pretty pissed at that point. Blood boiling, cussing up a storm, and all that. And that is where my friend beer really came in. Beer turns losing into a much more tolerable state. And since I was losing hard, I upped my drinking pretty well. I scored possibly an all time low that game - a 92. Theresa, who is blessed with incredible luck in all games but bowling, even beat me that game (albeit by one point).
But the bowling isn't really all that interesting, all that worth sharing. What is worth sharing, is my new culinary adventure. The modest food counter at the bowling alley had a pretty decent selection of dive-style food at ridiculous prices... and I just couldn't pass up the chance to try fried chicken livers for $3.75. I'd never had liver of any sort, and I am embracing the mentality of my culinary heroes as of late - that food, no matter how odd or unfamiliar (obviously excluding anything of any real danger), should be dove into bravely and treated rightfully like the adventure that it can be!

Damn these things are ugly, and they smelled just about as bad.

Chomp!

Okay, so honestly, they aren't that bad. And they definitely aren't at all what I expected. Texturally I expected something more 'organ-like,' chewy and gooey and all that. Not at all. Admittedly a little bit gritty, but most they were just like an exceptionally tender cut of meat (yes, the texture seemed more like super-tender beef than any chicken part). The flavor was a real shock though. Very flavorful, and definitely chicken-like, the only real off-putting part was the ridiculously strong saltiness of the livers. I mean it was salty like nothing should ever be. Flavor-wise, it was a lot like eating just the flavor packet from a package of chicken flavored ramen. So edible, and actually not bad, but sickeningly strong and saltier than any piece of meat should ever taste. The taste did linger for quite awhile though - had to end up ordering a Miller Chill to kill the taste...

Cheers!

So we bowled another game that I paid very little attention to and headed home. I know this will be far from the most interesting blog entry you'll ever read, but it was an uncharacteristically good day in my rather drab life and it seemed worth sharing with everyone. Not to get too touchy-feely on everyone, but I really think sometimes it's important to just take a moment out of life and share it with the people who matter most. Long as you have a good attitude and willingness to enjoy yourself, pretty much any activity can turn itself into a worthwhile day. It was nice to spend the day with the family - I really don't do that as often as I should. And again, I know this is a pretty boring entry, but hey, at least it's an excuse to post some cute baby pics!

Thanks for reading!

Don't Smoke The Broccolini!

2007-09-13T13:47:00.000-04:00

Oh sweet joy of joys, how I do love Bravo's Top Chef! Even more than usual when my culinary idol Anthony Bourdain appears as a guest judge! Last night's episode was great, just like the week before. Honestly, I got a little worried about the show around the 5th ("Latin Lunch") through 8th/9th ("Restaurant Wars," 9th episode if you include the talk-show non-episode) episodes. But thankfully, it would appear that my favorite show is back to form! I never really wanted this blog to be a play-by-play rehashing of whatever I'm watching... but hell, I just have to talk about this show. On with the PBP!

So Padma wakes our remaining contestants up at the ass-crack early hour of 6am. Cuteness and giggles and all that, I definitely think this was the most likable I've ever seen Padma. That one little scene did loads for my image of her. Surprisingly everyone seems more excited than upset at their early morning wake-up, CJ's even ready to invite Padma under the covers - he's awesome. Also, damn is Casey stacked. She should fall over more often, the way she's built. I love it. Lol. The quickfire was surprisingly straight-forward this episode. No odd ingredients, methods, budgets, or anything. Just utilize a blender while making breakfast for Padma (damn that girl has an awesome job). I predict next week's quickfire is "go get coffee for Tom C." Anyway, the chefs pretty much make decent looking breakfast. I mean, nobody is really inventing the next big thing here, but everything looks tasty and at least slightly more impressive than what's on the Denny's menu. Casey made a pretty good looking savory french toast with a terrible looking salsa (though it may be worth noting that I pretty much hate all salsa) that seemed fairly good if not boring. Sara made egg-in-a-whole. Seriously. That's not chef-level food, that's the kind of shit country mothers make to "cutesy-up" their bland breakfast offerings. Dale made a fancy looking frittata, and I'm happy to see him actually attempting a chef-level breakfast item. Hung went classic on this one with steak and eggs with Grand Marnier shake to kick it up. CJ (aka, the MAN) made incredible looking crepes by applying a little bit o' CJ logic: all girls like crepes, Padma is a girl, so Padma likes crepes. Best part is that Padma, of course, does in fact like the crepes. Hehe, good stuff. Brian just bores me now so I can't even remember what he made. Not too much exciting during the meal - Hung breaks a bottle of truffle oil, everyone runs around like always, and I was afraid that Casey was going to burn herself with the pan that kept falling off her little kerosene burner. Hung wins with a help from the almighty power of booze. Fun to watch, but damn is breakfast food boring. Ah well, least Casey looked as hot as ever. It's worth noting also that by this time, I already know who will be going home tonight. Not because of anything to do with the quickfire, but because Top Chef is very formatted show, and I've seen enough not to be able to pick out the pattern pretty easily.
Breakfast over, Padma delivers the big news: Sara and Brian are eliminated for being boring and being replaced by Sam from season 2 and Tre! No? Ah well, I can dream, can't I? Real news is that Top Chef is hitting the road, headed to Manhattan! Little do our chefs know that they won't even get to New York the state, much less into the city before the next elimination. Soon as they land in Newark Airport in NJ, Padma's waiting to let them know they're spending the night in Jersey so they can cook in the airport tomorrow. Ouch, being stuck in Newark is definitely not fun. Newark is like the New Jersey of New Jersey. Think about that for a minute. Anyway, the chefs are next tasked to prepare better version of the business class reheatable meals. Airline food. Now I've flown First Class on United airlines quite a few times in my life, and I've had a couple very decent meals, so I know that airline food can be made edible, but it's still a pretty difficult challenge. Hung's quickfire prize comes in here, he gets first choice on the protein and nobody else can use what he picks. Hung's definitely thinking about the challenge and picks moist, resilient chilean sea bass. It not only holds up to the unfriendly airline oven, the judges agree that it's pretty much perfectly cooked. Hung's a bi-polar competitor - some days he produces ridiculously horrible dishes, and some days he really knocks it out of the park like this. Dale also plays it smart by choosing an already tender chunk of filet mignon and combating the standard plane food complaint of blandness by serving it aggressively au poivre. He miscounts his portions by one, but honestly his dish looked so could that I'd certainly forgive his slip-up. Sara serves up a disgustingly over-cooked excuse for salmon with bland looking couscous... with random figs thrown in. Brian is again fairly forgettable, but he plates an oversized sirloin that is WAY bigger than any real airline would ever serve and puts rubbery lobster with trendy potatoes on the side. CJ slightly overcooks his halibut, tops it with a weird mint sauce that Anthony Bourdain says tastes like toothpaste (on his blog), and sadly serves broccolini that's so messed up that Bourdain and Tom joke that it looks like cheap, dried up ganja. Casey, rockstar that she is, wins the day with a daring and delightful meal of veal medalions and gruyére cauliflower. Looked as delicious as it sounds. I love this girl. Hot, sweet, and a hell of a chef.
Sadly, as my favorites never make it to the end on these shows, Top Chef's resident giant goes home. Turns out that broccolini was simply intolerable, CJ's sent packing and Tom says it's the worst dish of all three seasons. I was really hoping that Sara was going because... well, because she's a dumb bitch that seems to cook at about an Applebees level. I'm gonna miss CJ. He seems like the kinda guy you just wanna go out and get a beer with, ya know? I hope the one-testicle wonder has a bright future in this industry ahead of him, he deserves it. But at least Casey won - if my #1 has to leave, it certainly helps to see my #2 take the victory. Now if only they'd air some of that bikini footage during the show that they briefly flashed during the previews.... Grr.

And to finish off, I just want to say that all the negative attention Casey's been getting is bullshit. A lot of folks are talking about how's she's only on the show because she's hot. Ridiculous. Yes, she is hot. But she can cook, so who cares? Wouldn't it be more ridiculous if they only chose ugly people for the competition? Why the assumption that just because she's pretty, she has to be relying solely on that fact? Weak. I'd still be supporting her if she didn't look like she did, and I'm pretty sure Padma is already there to cover the sex appeal aspect of the show, so lay off the girl.
That being said, I will continue to happily drool whenever she's on screen. lol.

Damn, looks like she's about to pop out of that jacket.

Heavenly.

If you aren't already watching Top Chef, I highly recommend it. Even if you aren't much of a foodie, it's still a fierce competition that I really think most people can get into. Keep your eyes open for marathons on Bravo, they seem to run them fairly often for Top Chef.

Till next time friends!

Forget the lights and camera, let's get down to the action!

2007-09-05T15:00:00.001-04:00

Anyone out there in the little part of the blogosphere that my blog may inhabit happen to know anything about independent film making? I've certainly done some fun little projects on my own at home before, but nothing like an actual indie flick... But frankly, I have a great idea, a background in theatre, and decent cinematographic chops - so I'm pretty interested. The question comes in the simple matter of selling the film and other financial matters. The idea is of a film that appears to be a sickeningly sweet romance flick with darker undertones entitled "The It Girl."

So if anyone out there catches this post and knows anything at all about self-produced indie flicks - drop me a line, I'd love a chance to chat with you.

Records, Toasts, and Trends.

2007-08-28T10:45:00.000-04:00

Wow, what's this? Four posts, all in the same month? Sadly, that's practically a record for me. You should all join me in a little toast to my minor achievement...

...Speaking of toast, let's talk food! Food trends, to be precise. Anyone who doesn't really pay attention to the food world may not even realize that our overall eating habits move in trends just the same as any other cultural fashion, but trust me, food trends certainly do exist. I wasn't even alive in the 70s, but I've heard many tales of the fondue-filled fun of the 70s disco decade. It wasn't that long ago either, that sushi was a strange and often off-putting concept, rather than a practical standard dish for anyone of decent culture. And I'm sure everyone remembers the scarcity of bread items during the protein-heavy Atkins diet wave. The examples could go on indefinitely...
But it is a few of the modern food trends that are of particular interest to me. First let us discuss the totally tantalizing thistle that adorns my 'food entry' image, the globe artichoke. I know I'm a little bit behind the curve here, as the 'choke invasion has been happening for quite some time now, but I still couldn't be more excited about artichokes. While there are still some of the more rural parts of America that may not get too much exposure to them, artichokes are everywhere these days. It's almost impossible to find a metropolitan restaurant that doesn't have an artichoke dish of some kind. And for good reason - artichokes are hot sellers these days. Heck, even I can barely overcome the magnetic draw given to a menu description added by the simple words "with artichokes." Artichoke dips, grilled artichokes, deep fried artichokes, stuffed artichokes, artichokes in pasta, and on and on.... Artichokes fit into almost any application you can think of. Great news if you're like me and typically shy away from eating most vegetables. Do yourself a favor and try making an artichoke dish or two at home from fresh ones - they're pretty damn easy to handle once you understand how they're put together.
The other food trend I want to talk about is the pomegranate. Man, is this fruit popular right now. It's showing up just about everywhere in every form aside from home kitchens as a raw, whole pomegranate. It's become especially popular in the drink world. Not only is the juice of this fruit touted as nothing short of a super-healthy miracle elixir, the juice has become the best friend for trendy bartenders at upper-casual restaurants. It makes sense though, the super-strong sweet and tart juice pretty much plays well with anything. Pometinis are already becoming a classic, pomegranate margaritas turn the otherwise blasé drink into an exotic treat, and pomegranate mojitos are an ultra-modern marriage of two hype-heavy drinks. Of course it's not just the juice that's popular, but it's certainly the main attraction. Enticingly-crafted bottles of POM brand juice are a common sight at damn near any grocery store these days. As far as I'm concerned though, those bottles can keep sitting there. Talk about expensive! Yes, they're pretty. And yes, they're popular. But really folks, you can get the same damn stuff for literally half the price in the ethnic section of some upper-scale grocery stores, or for at least slightly less under the Archer Farms imprint at Target stores. You also can always just buy your own fresh pomegranates. A good one will have plenty of natural juices ready to leak out on it's own, and it's not too difficult a venture to further juice one - though I will admit that it's not the easiest thing in the world... It'll even share a little secret for getting the good stuff out of the fruit with minimal damage to it:

If you've never seen a fresh pomegranate before - that's what they look like, inside and out. The waxy red outer hull as well as the pale yellowish-white "walls" inside the fruit are both basically inedible, so the trick is to get the red seed-looking pods (they're called arils, and they're actually seed casings around a small hard seed inside each one) out of the fruit while taking as little of the walls with them. If you search online you'll find a lot of different ways to accomplish the task, but probably two the first as well as most common answers you'll come across are threading and submersion. I've never tried threading, and honestly, I never will. The basic idea is that you sew with a needle and thread through all of the arils and pluck them out on the thread, thus leading all the walls behind. I can't think of a more ridiculous waste of time, so no thanks on that one. Submersion is certainly a good idea, so much so that even Alton Brown (a minor hero of mine) recommends it. It's certainly easier - just get a large bowl of water and crack your fruit open while it's under water. Then gently scoop out the arils with your fingers, and don't worry too much about any of the membrane that breaks loose. The membrane walls will float to the top, ready to be skimmed off, while the tasty arils sink to the bottom. Pretty good, and certainly easy enough... but I'm still not happy with it. Why? Because just think of all that delicious juice that normally would be dripping out now being subtly washed away. Okay okay, so without actually breaking into the arils themselves you're not going to get more than just over half a shot glass worth of juice anyway, but that's more than enough for me to want to save it! So I use the speedy trick I picked up watching Iron Chef and a few other professional chefs - the wooden spoon beating. Couldn't be easier. Cut a pomegranate standing up in half horizontally (you should have a top and bottom half, not two sides) and place one half cut side down on top of your left hand, with your left hand hovering just slightly over the top of a large bowl. Now using your other hand, firmly hit the skin side of the fruit opposite your hand with the flat of a wooden spoon repeatedly. Continue until you've gotten all of the arils and juice out, and then move on to the other half. Bam, there you go. A bowl full of arils, juice, and with about as little pieces of membrane as possible. Yes, it is a little bit messier, but if you're careful and you practice at it, it won't be that much trouble. In the end it's all just a matter of preference of course.
Of course there are plenty of other minor and major food trends I could mention here, but that isn't exactly the point of this entry... I just want to draw attention to the existence of food trends as a whole. Not only to help you get excited about what's happening in the food world out there, but also to help you to not miss out. Food trends are like any other sort of trend - no matter how hot they are now, they eventually fade. Sure, we'll always be eating artichokes and pomegranate and even fondue somewhere in the world, but if you miss out on a food trend that may have tickled your fancy, your potential access to whatever it was may suddenly become considerably less. And then there is the potential to see some new food innovations and have an effect on the market - the food industry is willing to experiment with buzz-worthy items to a point of risking loss, but if you find something you love and actively support it, that once-novelty item like pomegranate ice cream may just make the jump into everyday standard! Most important of all though, is just that following food trends, silly as it may be, is a chance to really get excited about food. I don't know about you, but I'm not content to just consider food the necessary means to life... I want food to be a part of actually experiencing that life. Hope you'll agree, and keep your eyes open and your mouth ready for something new! Happy eating!

Webcomic Drama!

2007-08-21T13:12:00.000-04:00

Damn you Websnark! I truly miss what you once were. The provided link pinpoints exactly why I've fallen out of love with you, but here's a snippet for those who aren't interested in reading two long-winded blog posts today:

"Which brings us to the meat of the subject. I'm not talking about the Webcomics community much these days. I'm not talking about who hates John Solomon or Joey Manley or Scott Kurtz or Penny Arcade or Robert A. Howard and who's defending any of that list to others or who's doing anything like that. I'm not diving into the fray giving my two cents on it or talking about who's being mean or who's being thin skinned or who's right or who's wrong or any of that stuff. And the core reason why is, as stated above, I just don't give a shit any more." -Eric Burns

Well damn... You see, I absolutely love webcomic drama. Hell, I love any stupid drama - I'm a drama hound. Of course I hate to actually have any drama in my life (I've actually spent a lot of effort removing drama-laden people from my world), but it's still one of my favorite spectator sports. And the "webcomics community" has some of the most ridiculously over-blown drama you can find. Am I shallow for this interest? Hell yes I am, I'll admit it. But don't think that I'm any more shallow than most people. Frankly, anyone who watches 90% of what's on television is watching it for the exact same reason I am: because it's fun to spectate on the silly meaningless conflicts and stress in other people lives from a safe distance outside. Whether you watch(ed) 90210, The O.C., Desperate Housewives, House M.D., Bones, Scrubs, or damn near any other non-documentary show, you're into it for the same reason that I thrive on the webcomic scene. Stupid drama. Which brings me back to Websnark. You see, I am what I'd describe as an actively casual webcomic fan. I read quite a lot of them (though I read a good number of those in one monthly digest-like fashion) and have at the very least have some experience with most of the names you'll hear thrown around in the world of webcomics. But, I don't really do the webcomic communities. I don't follow the artists, I don't post and/or read the forums (with only a very few exceptions), and I even most often only skim the accompanying blog posts just in case there is any good drama that catches my eye. But, what I did do was read the webcomic-related Websnark posts. Websnark was my drama-radar. Not only did Eric Burns point me to the juicy fights and hissy fits and whatnot of the comics I cared about, but since he has considerably different tastes than I do, he would even write about the drama over comics I didn't read and thereby would have missed out on entirely! Admittedly, most often Eric had enough tact to not post that much of the actual drama, but he certainly gave me enough info to go and seek out whatever the issue du jour was. But, as Mr. Burns said, he just hasn't been talking about it lately. I understand his aversion to it all - as somebody with a bit of standing in the webcomic world and whose blog has a pretty terrific number of readers, I can imagine that the drama often times encroached into his actual world rather than just being there for him to view from the outside. So I understand him decision to stay out of it, and I respect it. But that doesn't mean I'm not still sad about it. I'm sad not only about missing future stupid drama, but also about knowing that I have already missed plenty. Oh, how much I miss the days of Kris Straub (of Checkerboard Nightmare and Starslip Crisis) delightfully mocking the shit-pile that is Tim Buckley and his trite excuse-for-a-comic Ctrl+Alt+Del (google it if you have to, I refuse to link it). Ah well, I still read all of the webcomic tagged entry at Websnark, even if they are a little less frequent or satisfying. Sorry for such a long post saying so little. But hey, if anyone out there hears any tasty bits of webcomic gossip - don't hesitate to send them my way!

...also, maybe I'm less sad about Websnarks change and more sad about not having Checkerboard Nightmare around anymore. That comic wouldn't have even existed had it not been for drama and other trivial shit out there. Alas.

Let's Talk Politics!

2007-08-17T15:52:00.001-04:00

Let's talk about the two-headed beast for awhile today. You know, the twin monster that is the American political machine. Republicans. Democrats. Interchangeable. Honestly, when the political actors from either side are at their best, I can hardly tell the difference between the two. You may as well not even vote since the result is the same either way. Even when parties are at their most polar, such as during the 2000-2008 elections, having only two options is hardly acceptable in my mind. I mean, most of the time it's like choosing between being punched in the face or being kicked in the groin. The populous of America simply can not be truly represented in a two-party system. There are just far too many variables for it to work. For example, probably the two most important issues to me politically are abortion and the death penalty. I'm against the act of murder in both cases, and I'm not willing to compromise on the issues that mean the absolute most to me. Yet voting either Republican or Democrat is being forced to utterly give up on one front to support the other. It's silly. So what does that leave us? The third party vote. You want to make hotheaded political speakers really passionate? Get them to talk about the third party. Political leaders on both sides of the equation are afraid of the third party because it represents a change in the game. As it is now, whether either side comes out slightly ahead at any given point is pretty meaningless - in the long run each side is still going to enjoy the benefits of the power of their positions. Third parties aim to take that comfortable power away from them. Republicans and Democrats both would most often much rather have someone from the opposite party win an election than have a third party take it. So they use the best tactic they can - they act like the independent cause isn't even a threat. They propagate terms like "throwing your vote away" and attempt to undermine independents as silly joke campaigns. And sadly, it works. Most people don't fall in line politically with the two parties, and I'd honestly be willing to bet that most people would find themselves more likely to line up with one of the various additional parties if they were to compare themselves on an issue to issue basis. Yet most people would never be willing to vote third party because they have it in their head that it's a meaningless vote, a throw away. "Obviously Nader's not going to win, so why even waste a vote on him?" Well damnit, of course we're not going to win at first. We have years and years of institution to fight through, and it's going to be an uphill battle. But here's the secret: every single additional vote the third party cause gets makes it that much more of a legitimate option. Some people wouldn't consider voting for a third party unless it already had a rough 10% estimated support. But once it hits that number, they'll willing. And then they take that 10% and with their votes raise it all the way up to 12%. Then the people who weren't willing to "throw their vote away" for a cause with less than 12% of the public supporting it suddenly see it as a viable option, and add their support bringing it up to 15%... You see, all we need is to make tiny advances. Every single time the third parties of America get just a little bit more of the vote than last time, it's a victory. And it's one step closer to finally getting rid of the ridiculousness of our very broken two party system.

And just so you don't think I'm alone in being against the two party system - here's a chunk from George Washington's Farewell Address as our nation's first President:

"I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another."

Sorry About This

2007-08-17T15:03:00.000-04:00

This is just the standard "first post testing" post, the one where I post just to see how a post will look on the site... Sorry if you were expecting something more. To be frank though, knowing my blogging track record, I probably won't ever make it past this first post. Somewhat sad, don't you think? All too-often I find myself with these grand ideas of being a real, honest-to-irrelevance "blogger," only to find my attention as well as my available free time far too short. I can't say for certain, but I'm thinking some of the blame may fall on 'themes.' You see, I consider myself an altogether complex person (though I imagine that if you were to ask anyone, they'd probably consider themselves the same), with interests in an extreme assortment of topics and categories. And as far as I'm concerned, almost all of the best blogs I've ever read have been fairly focused: Tales From The Pantry is fantastically devoted to the everyday life of a somewhat forgotten vocation, Josh In Japan would be nothing were it not entirely based in Japanese topics, An Obsession With Food and Orangette get read for covering perhaps my most favorite of topics, and even not-entirely focused Websnark is absolutely at it's best when it zooms in solely on the drama-laden world of webcomics. Bearing that in mind, why shouldn't I be interested in narrowing my focus? So time and time again I've set out to start a highly focused blog to outlet my desire to get my word out into the world. But you know what I've learned? I can't just sit down and write continually on food, or politics, or religion, or music... I get bored and find myself more interested in writing about something altogether unrelated. So let's give this a shot. This is just going to be me. I can't promise it will be good, and I certainly can promise you it will be unfocused and far from any real sense of organization. I wouldn't even really even expect to see more than a few entries here, sadly. But (and yes, I know you shouldn't start a sentence that way), I need to give it a try. I used to run a moderately popular website which highlighted blog-esque rantings, and I've missed the feeling I get from putting my thoughts into text ever sense it's collapse. So if you somehow found yourself here, stick around and give it a chance - hopefully it will be a worthwhile time for you and me both.