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Day 250 - An Aside

2/27/2013

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Day 250 - An Aside: I recently saw a promo for HBO's "Game of Thrones", the wildly successful series based on the writings of one George R.R. Martin, in a series that is officially called "A Song of Ice and Fire", but which everyone in the world actually refers to as "The Game of Thrones Series", drawing its name from the first book in the series, as does the television show, which is now closing in on the plot of the third book.

And upon hearing that the third series is imminent (I'm not affiliated with HBO in any way, but it premieres on March 31st, 2013, and if they'd like to pay me for that plug, they're welcome to!), I began to go back in time...

It is 1997-ish, and I'm working for a toy soldier company.  My responsibilities literally include selling tiny knights and dragons and castles to our independent retailers every day.  I am surrounded, constantly, by an epic medieval fantasy world.  It is not surprising, then, that a fantasy series pops up onto my radar before the rest of country is really aware of it.  A friend loans me the first book, and it is AMAZING: "A Game of Thrones" remains one of my favorite Sunday afternoon-nothing-to-do reads, along with "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "Starship Troopers" (side note here: the novel of that last has no relation AT ALL to the movie, so go read the book, because it's just wonderful.)

I was a young man, then.  A child, really, still learning how the world worked. 

A few months pass, and this friend (one Marty Ruark) manages to snag an early copy of the second book from England (the company which employed us both was British, which may have helped there), and so in 1998 I dove into "A Clash of Kings".  It does not disappoint, and manages to change my feelings about some of the reprehensible characters from the first book, and I am eager for more.

By the year 2000, I had left the company, but still fondly remembered my time with Martin's series, and was just delighted to find the third novel, "A Storm of Swords".  It is BY FAR the best book of the series, and I was eagerly looking forward to the next installment.

As of 2005, I had since completed a degree in theoretical mathematics, and was earning a (very meager) living as a high school teacher in South Carolina.  The fourth book FINALLY popped up in my local bookstore, and I dashed home to devour it.  Sadly, it tasted like boiled squash...which is not a good taste.  I was forlorn.  Yes, I had gotten to venture back to Westeros, the imaginary land where the novels are set, but all of my favorite characters were absent, and the ones that were present... didn't do anything.  One character spent the entire book searching for another character, frequently asking herself, "Is she in THIS village?"  The problem with this "mystery" is that we knew darned well that the young girl being sought was half a world away, as we were following her in other chapters.  So the first character's "search" chapters were just tedious, because we were absolutely sure she wasn't going to find what she was looking for, and... I mean, for cryin' out loud!

In 2011, the fifth book was released, and it is much better than the fourth, but still nowhere near the standard of the first three.  In the interim, I have changed careers yet again, been married and divorced, and lived and worked in three different states.  I have grown older, wiser, more handsome, and yes, some would say, more humble. 

Ahem.

It's now 2013.  I have recently celebrated a birthday which makes it pretty ridiculous for me to even approach undergrads, or, being entirely honest, even grad students for dates.  Le sigh.  I have a few hairs on my head that are, I insist, really, really blonde.  I used to have just the one, but now it has returned, and it has brought friends.

I do not in any way but one feel old, though, and the one way in which I do feel old is this:

I have been waiting for the conclusion to this story since I was 23.  TWENTY THREE.

Please do read the first three, and, if you are inclined, the fourth is required to get to the good stuff again in the fifth.  But George RR Martin has also aged over that time, and writes ever slower... and goes on Pizza Crawls.

These are like pub crawls, except he and his fellows go for pizza at many different joints over the course of one evening.

It is my fervent hope that this health-nut lives long enough to finish the series.

Or, hell, that I do.

Tomorrow, ADVENTURE!!  :)


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Day 250

2/27/2013

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Day 250: Whoa.  250 days in Sacramento!!

I've been watching a lot of serial television lately, and I wanted to take an aside and note the remarkable similarities between "Homeland" and "The Dukes of Hazzard."

NOTE: This is spoiler-free.  For both shows.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: I am, obviously, talking about the beloved and wonderful television show about two honest, brave, and resourceful southern cousins, their hot cousin, their wise uncle, and their magic car.  I am NOT talking about the movie, where every single character was dumb, up to and including Daisy, Bo, and Luke.  Bo and Luke were made dumber than everyone else.  It's like they never even watched the show!

Anyway, I know what you're probably thinking: "THAT WAS A TERRIBLE MOVIE!  Jim, I completely agree with your analysis thus far, so I am willing to continue on, confident in the fact that you will not lead us astray!"

I thank you for your faith, and trust that you will not find it misplaced.

Homeland and The Dukes of Hazzard are basically the exact same show, though one does, admittedly, have a magic car.

To wit:

Both feature heroes who are so good at unraveling the carefully laid plans of the villains that it nearly strains credulity.  Both shows feature protagonists who are almost always correct in their assumptions about what's really going on.  In both shows, the alleged "authorities" are just as likely to be complicit (inadvertantly or... advertantly*, I guess...) in what the "bad guys" are doing.  The authorities are completely incompetent, and would never get anywhere near any actual criminals if it wasn't for the actions of our heroes.  In both shows, we are regularly treated to the POV of the main antagonist, and, gosh darnit, sometimes we even feel for the guy; he's mostly a pawn anyway, and we know that he performs his duties out of a genuine, if misguided, loyalty to his superior. 

This superior, in both shows, acts as sort of a father figure, and speaks to his vaguely mentally-handicapped subordinate using small words, short sentences, and really quite a lot of patience.  He is the mastermind, and he typically has out-thought both his underling and the forces that oppose him, and he is mildly successful.

But our heroes are always, always, always one step ahead of this evil man, and his minion, because they just have a sense of what he's going to do next.  And how.  And where.  And what kind of car he'll be driving (okay, that last one is restricted to the magic car show).

And we love our heroes.  We cheer for them, when they win. We agonize with them, when they suffer setbacks.  We know that, in the end, they will win out, for the forces of goodness cannot be stopped by the stupid, baseless, evil criminal bad guys.

And in both shows, we have a mentor figure for our heroes, an older wiseman, complete with grey beard, who always believes that our heroes will do what is right.  Despite massive, documented, overwhelming evidence to the contrary, these wise sages know, in their hearts, that our heroes can do no wrong, and that they will emerge victorious.  The wisemen believe, and so WE believe.  We WANT them to be right.

Of course, some of you are wondering how I'm going to get around the Daisy issue.  There's no corollary to Daisy on the more recent show (some of you are probably thinking I'm going to lean towards Morena Baccarin, who is definitely the eye-candy on Homeland, but she doesn't really LOVE Brody, and we all know that Daisy really loves Enos...).

No, the secret here is that the creators of homeland put ALL THREE DUKE COUSINS into the body of one character.  She's at turns playful, snarky, witty, brilliant, and, when it is called for, she can vamp it up with the best of them.

And when you think about it, this totally explains her schizophrenia.

See?  Your faith in me was totally justified.

Tomorrow, ADVENTURE!!  :)

*Looked it up. Real word. Means the opposite of inadvertantly.
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Day 278

2/27/2013

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Day 278: I don't typically link pictures that I didn't take myself, but this is a good shot of "Both Sides of Sacramento".  I'd offer accredidation, but I don't know who exactly to credit.  It's an EXCELLENT shot of Sacramento's diverse nature.
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I cooked dinner for the young lady, and thought I might share the recipe for the sauce.

Quick Alfredo sauce:

Three Cloves of garlic, minced fine
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
7 tsp butter
1 cup shaved parmesan cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
2 cups heavy whipping cream

Put 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil in a sauce pan. Melt butter over medium heat.
Add garlic, and cook until garlic starts to brown.
Add cream, and slowly add parmesan and mozzarella cheese, stirring continuously.
Add remainder of butter.

Cook until all butter is melted, over medium-low heat.  Cook pasta, and, instead of pouring the pasta on a plate where it will get all cold and terrible, throw drained warm pasta into the sauce.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add diced cooked chicken if desired (we desired). 

EAT IN FACE.

All in, this takes about 10 minutes, assuming that the pasta water is already boiling.

And it's AWESOME.

Tomorrow, ADVENTURE!!  :)

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Day 248

2/25/2013

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Day 248: First of all, you should be watching "Homeland".  Yes, Claire Daines is hysterical pretty much all of the time, but it's a perfectly wonderful reaction when you realize that she's also RIGHT pretty much all of the time; it's enough to make you crazy just watching it.  Plus, it has some really great reveals, which I will not spoil here yet.  Good times.

Secondly, last night I cooked mushrooms with a light butter sauce, and tonight I had no mushrooms. I thought to myself, "Could I cook the same sauce over some delicious chicken thighs?"

It turns out that I can (and you can, too!).  Butter, oil, garlic, capers, all as before, but now poured over chicken thighs.  Bake at 350 degrees until cooked through on one side, then turn and bake until carmelized on the other side.  Pour the drippings over the chicken, and EAT IN FACE.

Oh, also, Downton Abbey:

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Not cool, supposed-to-be-uplifting-Christmas-episode (in the American version, episode 7).  Not cool at all.

The last shot... I don't even know what we're doing here anymore. 

If there is a central tenant to this melodrama, it is clearly: "REPRODUCTION BAD"

Bah.  Humbug.

Tomorrow, ADVENTURE!! :)
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Day 247

2/24/2013

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A long day, as my eyes are acting up again (bah!), but I did have Dim Sum with my peeps, which was amazing (especially after we learned to wait for the steamed dishes, and to never, ever, order beef tripe).  I spent the balance of the day cooking (which is what I do when I'm feeling down, because it gives me something to do instead of feeling down, and then I get delicious food for a free added bonus!).

I cooked these steakhouse mushrooms, and you should, too.  I ate the entire half-pound myself, so, if you have other people eating with you, you might want to increase the recipe.

BECAUSE IT'S DELICIOUS

Steakhouse Mushrooms

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

To start:

1/2 pound white mushrooms, cut in half
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp capers
1 tbsp garlic cloves (or crushed garlic)
1 good pinch salt
2 good grinds pepper
1 1/2 tbsp butter

To finish:

Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp parsley, chopped

Put the cut up mushrooms, oil, capers, garlic, salt, and pepper into a mixing bowl, and mix well, until all of the mushrooms are covered.

Transfer into a baking dish (I used a bread dish, but a ceramic or glass casserole dish would be better), cover with thin slices of butter, and roast for 15 minutes.  THEY WILL NOT BE DONE YET.  Now set your timer for 2 minutes, and check to see if the butter is starting to blacken and bubble around the edges.  If it is not, set your timer for another two minutes.

Once you have the thickened, black-around-the-edges, bubbly, garlic-y goodness, transfer to a warm plate.

Add more butter if you like.  Because BUTTER.

Finish with lemon juice and parsley.

EAT IN FACE.

Tomorrow, ADVENTURE!! :)
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Day 246

2/23/2013

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Day 246: First, let me say a big "THANK YOU" to the penguinians out there that check this blog every day.  There are, inexplicably, about 35 of you, and I will endeavor to get back to posting daily.  Just for you.  Other peeps can enjoy it, but know that when there's new content everyday, it's for you.  :)

WHAT an amazing Saturday!

Get up, go to the gym with R, where he barely even beat me every single time at racquetball, which is probably misspelled, depending on your country of origin.

Go get Gus (for the uninitiated, Gus von Gusterson is my 1996 Jeep Cherokee), and head over to help MH move, with help from R and P. 

Head over to EG's place with R, and help measure various things for symmetrical decoration purposes.  Nap (slightly) on the couch.

Adjourn to Burgers & Brew for dinner.

Head to R's place for a group screening of "Serenity", which is just as emotional as ever (especially as one of our number had not seen it before, but had seen all of Firefly...)

A really wonderful Saturday with my dear friends.  Who asks for more than that??

Life is amazing and wonderful and full of joy around every little corner.

Tomorrow, ADVENTURE!! :)
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Day 242

2/19/2013

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Day 242: OKAY, THIS IS HUGELY SPOILER-IFIC. IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE THIRD SERIES OF DOWNTON ABBEY, SKIP THIS ONE AND COME BACK TO IT LATER!

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Eh, you've been warned enough.

So, during all that work, I had series three of Downton Abbey playing, which was fun, except for one big plot point, which played directly into Jim's Biggest Pet Peeve About Television And Movies:

The pregnant chick died.

Now, look: people do die during childbirth.  I know that is true.  However, when a pregnancy is presented as a plot point in television and movies, somehow writers think they are being both original and entertaining by making it an awful experience.  I can count on one hand the number of times a pregnant woman in media has given birth to a happy healthy baby, with both mother and child alive and well.  In real life, this is really very rare, but still the evil writers decided to smack me in the face with what MIGHT happen once again.

I really do think it's a concerted effort to prevent me getting a woman with child, and, so far, WELL DONE, you sick bastards...

So Sybil, the strong, independent, fashion-forward, defiant, wonderful woman, got preggered by some chauffeur, and now she's dead, because drama.

Bah.

The season did see Mister Bates exonerated (as we all knew he would be), and we saw Downton Abbey once again saved by a magical influx of cash from an outside source, which is getting a little tedious, but I was still happy when it happened.

The second subplot that happened that I'm a bit cross about is the "Let's Feel Sorry For Thomas" storyline.  It bothers me that the only homosexual character on the show is a TREMENDOUS JACKASS.  It does.  But he IS, and I hate that the writers made me feel sorry for him, even a little bit. 

However, it does bring to mind one of the most insightful bits of advice I ever got from CMS: "People should not deny how other people feel.  BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT MAKES THEM CRAZY."

Once you internalize that, and embrace empathy as a guide to life, it does make you notice when it happens, and Lord knows it happens to Thomas quite a lot.  So, we should feel sorry for him; he's been denied at every turn, which would certainly make a person crazy.

But but but... he's JACKASS crazy!!  GAH!!

I hate that guy. 

In a related note, I'll point out that if you're watching "The Following"...

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The ONLY homosexual character in the cult is also completely psychopathic.

I have a lot of gay and lesbian friends, and they are simply not psychopaths.  At.  All.

So, come with me, writers of televison and movies, let's venture out into the real world, where pregnancy and homosexuality should be celebrated rather than feared.

People are people, and ALL OF THEM started life with wide, curious eyes, wondering "What's that?" about everything. 

The worst in us comes from telling our fellows to think as we do, and the world would be a significantly better place if we could learn to let our inherent curiosity about the nature of the world around us lead us instead.

Plus, a lot more people would enjoy math, which would be SO FUN!!!

Tomorrow, ADVENTURE!!  :)
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Day 241

2/18/2013

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Day 241: Oh, terrific.  Now B23 has formed his own team, and we're now facing off against not one but TWO teams from work at Monday night trivia at DeVere's!!  We had a mediocre night, earning only 20 points, and missing a physics question, which I didn't fight hard enough for, though we did get some really good pulls from the team, and everyone contributed at least one big answer, including E's roomie, who helped us out with a question about Dancing With The Stars. We utterly face-planted on all of the sports questions, though, without CJ there to bolster our decidedly non-sports team.

E came up with our new, and utterly amazing, team name:

Lucky Fluffy Clucking Flock

The trivia master had a hard time with it, which means we're DEFINITELY sticking with it!!

I've not been posting a lot recently, mostly because I've been working as we head into a go-live release tomorrow.  I like the company I work for, and the people I work with, so I don't mind putting the pedal down and working the long days during crunch-time, but it does make for limited ADVENTURE opportunities!

I missed out on two adventures this weekend: first, I was supposed to join IK and his daughter MK in San Francisco for an overnight at the California Academy of Sciences, called "Penguins+Pajamas".  I WAS LITERALLY INVITED TO COME SLEEP WITH THE PENGUINS.  Unfortunately, work happened, but also there was the little matter of the wording of the invite; after checking with the academy, they really, really didn't want adults there without children of their own.  They were nice enough to give me a refund for my ticket, thank heavens. 

I then planned to pop down on Sunday to SF, to catch up with a post-penguin IK and MK, along with MH and her friend M (whose last initial I do not know), and genuine dim sum in Chinatown.  Sadly, my work took me into the wee small hours Saturday night, and I had so much work to do on Sunday that I had to decline.

I had rented a car for the weekend (using points, so it was free), and I had to return it without actually going anywhere.  I logged a total of THREE MILES. 

Ahem.

I do hope all of you are well, and I wanted to take a second and thank you all for the happy birthday wishes!

Tomorrow, ADVENTURE!!  :)


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Day 237

2/14/2013

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Day 237: Happy Valentine's Day! 

MH took me out for sushi to Ju Hachi, and TRIED TO STAB ME WITH CHOPSTICKS when I tried to pay.  I pointed out that people were staring.

"I don't care!  You're NOT paying for this one!"

STAB STAB STAB

I put my wallet away.

STAB

She was just checking with that last one.

STAB

For good measure.

I also finally watched "Dream House", starring Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz, who are now married in real life, playing a husband and wife in an absolutely trippy murder mystery.  It was promoted as a horror movie (which it is NOT), but for what it actually is, it's really a decent flick.

Good friends are good.   I hope you all had a wonderful day with wonderful people, and tomorrow, as ever,

ADVENTURE!!  :)

NOTE: Everyone knows that Tuesday was Mardi Gras, and Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, and that tomorrow is Good Friday.  I wanted to note that, for Catholics, today was Maundy Thursday, or "Holy Thursday", and so, to my Catholic peeps, great and wonderful grace be with you on this day.  I wish you peace and joy!!
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Day 236

2/13/2013

1 Comment

 
Day 236: From a facebook post:

Words of wisdom for the zombie apocalypse from the 5yo girl:
Ghosts sound like this: ooooooooooo!
Zombies sound like this: uuuuhhhhhhh!
A zombie mermaid is called a mermie.
  • 7 others like this.
  • Me: i am now compelled to do zombie mermaid art.
And now, a mermie:


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