Well. I didn’t realize I’d gone so long without writing. Part of it was just “stuff”; part of it was the holiday weekend.

Traditionally in Indiana this is “Race Weekend”. It’s the weekend of the Indianapolis 500, and it takes over the state. Or so it seems here in Bloomington, anyway. I continued my personal tradition of not watching or listening to the race. I don’t know who won, and I don’t really care much. Not a racing person.

What we did do was hang out with Megan and Joey a couple of evenings, and Jess and Benwa for a little bit, and go to a family picnic on Sunday. Monday we did… Absolutely nothing. I played Suikoden IV all day, Tim watched martial arts flicks, and we went out to dinner. That was it.

Family picnics are always interesting. This one was on Dad’s side, so it was smaller than some others. (Dad’s side: 16 people with one on the way in a couple of weeks, if everyone’s there. 13 plus the bun in the oven at the picnic, I think. Mom’s side: 30, if I count right, and a memory.) Tim baked Whole Wheat Spinach Swirl bread for our contribution. It’s whole wheat bread in long, oblong loaves with feta, spinach, and walnuts swirled in. You can make it with white dough too. Either way it’s tasty and nutritious. The rest of the food was pretty good too. I discovered the joys of Black Pepper Jack Doritos, much to my diet’s dismay. I also ate a lot of fresh fruit and veggies, though.

I was somewhat puzzled, though, to note that Uncle Jeff (who was grilling the meat) was salting the hamburgers. I thought it was just the burgers, but Tim said later it was everything… Odd, especially for a family with a history of heart disease. Of course, this is also the same guy who was telling us in a very disbelieving tone of voice about how some people, when they cook steaks, only cook them for a couple of minutes on each side. My response: I’ll take some please! I hate steaks that have been cooked to the point that there are no juices left.

(My method, stolen shamelessly from Alton Brown: Put a cast iron skillet in the oven and preheat to 500 F. Bring steaks to room temperature. Oil both sides of the meat, sprinkle with kosher salt–to help form a crust, not just to be salty–and fresh-ground pepper. Take the skillet out of the oven and put it on the stovetop. Sear the steaks for 30 seconds on each side. Then finish in the oven, baking 2 minutes on each side. This gets it about medium to medium rare, depending on the steaks themselves. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yummy.)

Well, Uncle Jeff has always been a little different, I suppose. Love ‘im anyway.

No Comments »

(…as Tim and I were going to sleep. This might not be the conversation verbatim, but it’s at least close.)

Him: I’m going to change my name to Raven Darkflame Spirit.
Me: (giggles) Don’t you dare.
Him: What? Don’t you think I’d make a cute goth?
Me: I don’t think it’s really your style.
Him: Why not?
Me: Well, for one thing, you don’t meet the minimum requirement for eyeliner.
Him: Well, I am in bed, you know.
Me: There’s no eyeliner in this entire house.
(pause)
Him: Oh. Well, I’m a closet goth then.

(I dunno, maybe you just had to be there… It was funny at the time.)

No Comments »

Yup. I’ve seen it. Twice. In my defense, the second time was kind of a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing; we just all sort of decided to get together and watch Episodes I and II, and season 2 of Clone Wars, and then go see Episode III. (And Tim and Jen made homemade pizza. And it was yummy.)

I don’t want to say too much, because although obviously the biggest events in the movie are fairly well-known and expected, I don’t want to spoil the specifics or any of the smaller details for people. But of course I have to put in my two cents just like everyone else.

I will begin by saying that, of the prequel trilogy, I think this was the best. Having watched I and II just before seeing III last night, I have absolutely no qualms about saying it blows The Phantom Menace out of the water–but then I guess that really didn’t take much. (One big improvement: Although the hated Jar-Jar Binks does appear, he only gets a few minutes of screen time and no lines.) Attack of the Clones was somewhat better, but I still think Revenge of the Sith beats it out for the “Best in Trilogy” title. I’ll reserve comment on how it places in the series overall for now; it’s been too long since I’ve seen the originals.

Complaint #1, though, is dialog. Occasionally the dialog just gets so stiff and stilted that you just want to lock up Lucas’ computer and forbid him from ever attempting to write a script again. This is particularly true of romantic scenes between Padme and Anakin. (Said scenes also just don’t play well in general. Hayden Christensen doesn’t carry them off that well, the dialog sucks, and I don’t feel as much chemistry between the two of them this time around.)

Complaint #2 goes to the character of Padme. What the hell happened to her backbone? In Episodes I and II she’s a fine example of a strong female character. In Episode III she just sits around being worried and crying, and occasionally doing really stupid things. (I won’t say much there for fear of spoilers, though.) I don’t think it’s any big secret at this point that she’s pregnant pretty much throughout the movie, and I can understand hormones playing a part here, but that really doesn’t excuse the extent to which her helplessness is taken. She’s a good, strong woman. She’s better than this.

I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the acting in this one. I’m going to be different, though, and say I don’t agree. I thought Hayden in particular did a good job–with the exception of the aforementioned love scenes. I thought he did well with the whole transformation into Darth Vader. Of the other principals… Ewan McGregor was fantastic as usual, of course; Natalie Portman did OK for what she was given to work with, I guess, but not as well as I would have expected from her; Ian McDiarmid did pretty well, but again I think he might have been constrained by the writing.

And then there’s Yoda. I heart Yoda. He’s great in this one. Yay Yoda!

And ILM special effects. Do I need to say more? There are certain companies you just know are going to deliver spectacular effects–ILM is one of them. And Star Wars is “what they do”, as it were.

I’m running out of non-spoiler things to say, so I’ll hush up now. This one’s definitely worth the money to see it on the big screen, though, despite the problems with it.

No Comments »

Well, Yahoo is reporting that CBS has officially cancelled Joan of Arcadia. Pbbbt. Just when things were really getting interesting, too. I wanted to see where they were going with the events of the last couple of episodes! I’d feel better about it if the new season didn’t include a series in which Jennifer Love Hewitt (blargh) talks to dead people. Somehow that just icks me.

Story here:
CBS Cancels ‘Judging Amy’, ‘Arcadia’

No Comments »

So I actually recorded this in the sidebar a couple of days ago, but didn’t have time to write an entry about it. And then I forgot.

I have officially passed the halfway point. According to my weigh-in on Monday, sixteen out of the thirty pounds I set out to lose are gone! They’ve gone quicker than I thought they would; I was expecting about a pound a week. (Supposedly every 3500 calories you either cut from your diet or burn off is a pound lost. 500 calories per day should mean 3500 calories, or one pound, per week, and that’s what I was going for.) But here I am at sixteen pounds lost and it’s been… *checks* …nine weeks as of today. That’s almost twice as fast as expected. I feel like I should be concerned, but I feel just fine, I seem to be doing all right. And I’ve been keeping an eye on nutrients to be sure that I’m not just starving myself. Not sure what’s going on there.

So hopefully by late July I’ll be looking at where to go for the new tat, I’ll still have time this summer to show it off by wearing a tank top. *G* (I intend to get it on the upper arm, where it will be covered by short sleeves.) I’ll get Tim to take some pictures so that I can show y’all what it looks like when it happens. But we’ll see how things go. For all I know, I could slow down after this point. Of course, that’s what I said at this time last month, too–but it might actually happen this time.

So excited.

No Comments »

And by the way… What is it that makes it so difficult for people to walk a few feet and drop their recyclables in the recycle bin instead of in the trash can? At work the collection thingy for cans is, like, maybe fifteen feet from the trash can, and yet I keep seeing cans in the trash. I sort of understand throwing it out if there’s no collection bin available (although, myself, I take plastic bottles home to recycle them), but when it’s right there… What is the problem?

No Comments »

Tim’s picked up baking bread lately. Totally by hand, from scratch, I mean–no bread machine or anything. Every time he’s all, “Oh, I don’t know how this will turn out… It probably won’t rise…” etc., etc., but every time it’s come out very, very well. He’s been sharing it with friends and such, and they’ve given rave reviews as well. He’s been using the aforementioned Father Dominic’s recipes, although also using his trusty Alton Brown cookbook for hints about technique and such, I think. So far my favorite is probably the whole wheat he made yesterday, although Sara B is raving over the honey oatmeal from last week. And–hell, it’s all good.

Aside from the taste, what’s also incredible is how cheap it is. Yesterday we paid around $7.60 for ingredients to make two loaves of whole wheat, a pizza crust, a loaf of foccacia, and a loaf of soda bread. Dude, you definitely can’t buy high-quality bread for that–we’d pay at least $8 just for the two loaves of whole wheat. And that does include some things that won’t be completely used–had to buy a quart of buttermilk, but it will also be used for pancakes, for instance. It’s great.

And yeah, baking yesterday included pizza. We’ve discovered a new topping to replace the sauce with, courtesy of Father Dominic. It’s basically just tomatoes and onions chopped up and combined with olive oil and herbs. Then you top it with shredded mozzerella as usual. Sooooo good. And the pizza recipe makes enough for two pizzas, so we used the extra to make foccacia with.

The list to date includes white breat, “herbal encouragement” (a braided white dough with onion, sour cream, and thyme in it), honey oatmeal, and then the stuff from this week. (Although the soda bread hasn’t actually been made yet.) I almost can’t wait until this Sunday to see what he comes up with next.

No Comments »

I think that the idea of a perfect world is a paradox.

The thing about perfection is that it implies a static state, where everything is as good as it can be. The sun is always shining, everyone is always nice to you, whatever. But… Whenever I think of that, I remember a skit I saw a Christian acting group do once upon a time in my younger days. This guy had died and found himself in the midst of… perfection. He had a huge mansion, and everything he had ever wanted, and it was always the perfect day for golf, and all that. One day, he complains to his servant that he’s bored. The servant goes through a list of things he could do, and basically he’s just gotten bored with all the things he always thought he could do for forever. He complains: how can he be bored? This is Heaven, isn’t it? If it’s Heaven, and therefore perfect, how can he be bored? The servant, of course, replies that this isn’t Heaven. In other words: A world at the peak of perfection, preserved for an eternity, is not perfection at all.

The perfection of a perfect world therefore lies in its ability to change and adapt. But doesn’t change and adaptation require some imperfection to improve upon, something that needs to be changed? The perfection of a perfect world, therefore, is imperfection. A paradox.

Of course, then you get into whether a perfect world is really all love and lollipops. Is it? I think we like to think that it is, but ultimately I think maybe the truth is somewhat different. In order for our world to function perfectly, certain things are necessary which we might find make our personal world somewhat less than perfect. Death and destruction are not, after all, inventions of mankind; they happen perfectly naturally without our interference, and they happen for a reason. One might argue that in a perfect world, such things would be unnecessary. But a world without death is, frankly, going to be missing a lot of other things, and I think the lack of those things would seriously detract from the perfection of said world. For instance, if you wanted to have a deathless world, you would also have to chuck out birth and childhood. You would have to give up eating, because to eat is to kill–even vegetarians kill plants to eat. Not to mention that the plants themselves would have to give up procreation too, which robs us of a number of foods in the form of seeds and fruits. A world without good food is not a perfect one, IMHO. But if death happens, it has to happen to someone–and sometimes that someone is us, and that makes our world less than perfect. Still a paradox.

And there’s another thing: Whose definition of “perfect” are we using? This is the biggest reason why a perfect world cannot exist. Because what is a perfect world? We, as a whole, cannot define it; it varies too much from person to person. My perfect world might exist, or Jenny’s, or Judy’s, but because there is no one definition of it, a perfect world cannot exist in general terms.

And at this point I don’t know where I’m going with this, but I got out what I wanted to say, so I’ll shut up.

No Comments »

Yeah, so can I shut up today already? Three entries in two hours? Last one today, I hope.

I was just wandering through my Blogger dashboard (not to be confused with my Mac dashboard) and re-discovered my NaNoWriMo blog from last November. I just had to take a peek, of course. The character of Akumiko, the dream sequences, the whole idea of the story, reached out and grabbed me again. I’m really interested in pursuing this, I think… But I don’t know where to go with it.

…And what the fuck is it with my iPod? I swear the thing is psychic or something. It keeps popping up appropriate songs. A particular song just started up which normally has other connotations for me (which–connected here? I dunno; I don’t think so, but it’s always hard to tell) but which gave me a little bit of direction with Akumiko; somehow, she is connected to the main character. They are somehow the same, although I don’t know how literal that is.

Problem is, of course, I don’t need help with Akumiko’s character right now. I mean, I probably will, but what killed the novel in the first place was the total lack of any idea where the plot was going. No, that’s not true; as I was basing it on an earlier concept, I did have some idea–but so fuzzy and vague it did me no good. And it wasn’t revealing itself as I worked, either.

No Comments »

Tim passed this along to me. He has lately become interested in the breadmaking of Father Dominic, a Benedictine monk who used to host a cooking show on PBS about baking bread. This quote is from one of Father Dominic’s cookbooks. I felt somewhat inspired by it and thought it was worth sharing.

On Thursday nights my monastery has a community social called ‘haustus’ (which comes from the Latin for ‘to be filled or satisfied’). We play cards or board games, listen to music, and enjoy food and drink, including my homemade pizza. Sometimes people are surprised to hear that monks have pizza parties, or that we play cards or watch sports on TV, or any number of activities like ‘normal’ people. But monks need relaxation time as much as anyone, as is illustrated by the following story from a 5th-century monastic text: Once a hunter came upon St. Antony relaxing with the brothers. The hunter was shocked to see them just sitting around. The abbot said to him, ‘Put an arrow in your bow and shoot it.’ The hunter did so. Then Antony said, ‘Shoot another,’ and again the hunter complied. Then the old man said, ‘Shoot yet again.’ The hunter objected, ‘If I keep bending my bow I will break it.’ Abbot Antony replied, ‘It is the same with us. If we stretch the brothers continually, without measure, they will soon break. So sometimes we must relax to meet their needs.’

The wisdom of the ancient monks is as pertinent today as it was then. We all need time for rest and relaxation, time for ‘holy leisure.’ Unfortunately, we often fill our free time with more busy-ness–clubs, sports, hobbies–all of them good in themselves, but not if they keep us from ever slowing down. I’m often guilty of this tendency, too, which is why I appreciate baking bread so much. It makes me slow down, stick around in one place longer, and spend quality time with my confreres, my family and friends, my students. Periodically in the course of making bread, one has to let the dough rest. The same is true for the baker.

– Breaking Bread with Father Dominic 2, Father Dominic Garramone, OSB

Hrm. Two posts about food in twenty minutes (probably less). I think I should go eat lunch now…

No Comments »