I'm not watching Top Chef this season. I freely admit I got bored of it, which seems weird because I really do love cooking shows. Maybe I just like them better when there's less manufactured drama. I find Iron Chef (the real one, not the American version) and Alton Brown pretty entertaining, for instance.
That doesn't mean I'm totally disinterested, though. I'm reading the recaps over at Television without Pity, which I do for shows I've seen as well because they're frequently really funny and point out things I missed. Right now, because I'm bored, I'm noodling through some of the old recaps, and I just got up to season 3's "reinvent a classic home dish as an updated, healthier dish" challenge, which I really liked.
Now, I'm not a professional chef and never will be, but I do like to cook, and I'm fairly good at it. I'm actually a lot more familiar with the classic home dishes than upscale food, in fact, and cooking healthily is usually a goal of mine (nothing wrong with occasional unhealthy food, mind you). So when they did this I thought about what I would make, and I'm thinking about it again now that I'm reading the recap. I don't know if I'd be able to come up with this stuff on the fly, but then, I'm not aiming to be a contestant. I haven't tried any of these (though some use elements I've used before). I actually am planning to try some of them since typing it up made me hungry. :D I think, though, they'd work reasonably well.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Gun-toting delusional people
I don't really like to discuss politics much. It tends to start fights I just don't have the energy for. But there are just some things that I can't ignore.
See, here's the thing. I don't mind if you don't really like Obama, if you disagree with his policies, if you think he's the wrong guy to be the President. I probably won't agree with you much if you think that—I don't think he's by any means the perfect President but so far I don't really dislike him, either—but if you're just expressing your opinion in terms of, well, your opinion, that's fine.
But if you start doing things like talking about some conspiracy to elect a foreign-born President or faking his birth certificate or insisting he took his oath of office on the Quran or how he's going to march your grandmother and your disabled cousin to death camps, I'm going to think you're a loon or a liar.
And even if somehow you convince me you're not, that you're just misled, I'm going to know you hang out in the company of loons and liars. Dangerous loons and liars, seeing as how the same people who believe that sorta thing (or who pretend they do) are showing up to the so-called 'town hall' meetings about health care with guns, and thinking that's okay.
It ain't okay.
I admit I don't like guns, but even if I did, I'd know there's a time and a place for them, and an allegedly civilized discussion meeting (and they haven't really been, but that's not the point here) is neither of those. The only threat at those meetings is the one the people with the guns represent, a threat that they themselves made. A bunch of loons and liars with guns is not a discussion group; it's a mob. Next it'll be pitchforks and torches.
I'm not even going to get into how I don't understand how anyone could be against the idea of everyone having access to health care, or how people just don't seem to get the idea that providing basic health care to the population is likely to result in costs going down what with the number of ED visits for conditions left untreated until dangerous it'll cut down on, or all the other reasons why I can't see how anyone could be opposed to the notion. Because that doesn't really matter. What matters if that you do oppose it for whatever reason, you aren't going to convince people by spreading lies and misinformation and waving guns around. That's what crazy people do, and no one wants to be on the side of the loons.
See, here's the thing. I don't mind if you don't really like Obama, if you disagree with his policies, if you think he's the wrong guy to be the President. I probably won't agree with you much if you think that—I don't think he's by any means the perfect President but so far I don't really dislike him, either—but if you're just expressing your opinion in terms of, well, your opinion, that's fine.
But if you start doing things like talking about some conspiracy to elect a foreign-born President or faking his birth certificate or insisting he took his oath of office on the Quran or how he's going to march your grandmother and your disabled cousin to death camps, I'm going to think you're a loon or a liar.
And even if somehow you convince me you're not, that you're just misled, I'm going to know you hang out in the company of loons and liars. Dangerous loons and liars, seeing as how the same people who believe that sorta thing (or who pretend they do) are showing up to the so-called 'town hall' meetings about health care with guns, and thinking that's okay.
It ain't okay.
I admit I don't like guns, but even if I did, I'd know there's a time and a place for them, and an allegedly civilized discussion meeting (and they haven't really been, but that's not the point here) is neither of those. The only threat at those meetings is the one the people with the guns represent, a threat that they themselves made. A bunch of loons and liars with guns is not a discussion group; it's a mob. Next it'll be pitchforks and torches.
I'm not even going to get into how I don't understand how anyone could be against the idea of everyone having access to health care, or how people just don't seem to get the idea that providing basic health care to the population is likely to result in costs going down what with the number of ED visits for conditions left untreated until dangerous it'll cut down on, or all the other reasons why I can't see how anyone could be opposed to the notion. Because that doesn't really matter. What matters if that you do oppose it for whatever reason, you aren't going to convince people by spreading lies and misinformation and waving guns around. That's what crazy people do, and no one wants to be on the side of the loons.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Cocktails
I'm reading a book in which a PI is posing as a bartender. The author was careful to note that she had experience, which is good as the waitress-to-bartender ordering shorthand she depicts is a bit opaque, even to me, who was once fairly interested in cocktails and thought about being a bartender.
I never did it, though. I decided that customer service in general wasn't for me (I waitressed for the longest 6 weeks of my life once—never again). But I used to know what a lot of those drinks were, I'm sure of it. Not so much anymore.
See, over the years, I've pretty much... not exactly stopped drinking, but I don't really do it much at all (and these days the meds I'm on mean drinking in any quantity's a bad idea anyhow). I maybe go through couple bottles of Kahlua a year (some of which ends up being drunk by my SO), plus the occasional other drink if I'm going out, and by "occasional", I mean, really, honestly. It adds up to maybe a drink a month.
All of which means I can't really play 'stump the bartender' anymore. Chances are if I go for a drink it'll be something mundane like a margarita, or at least not entirely uncommon, like a Sloe gin fizz. I used to be able to come up with slightly more obscure drinks that I genuinely liked (I once stumped an admittedly fairly young bartender with Brandy Alexander), but the thing is, if you're going to do that, you should know what's in them, and I don't remember anymore.
I don't know if I actually care about that or not, but it does make reading a book with a bartender in it a little odd.
I never did it, though. I decided that customer service in general wasn't for me (I waitressed for the longest 6 weeks of my life once—never again). But I used to know what a lot of those drinks were, I'm sure of it. Not so much anymore.
See, over the years, I've pretty much... not exactly stopped drinking, but I don't really do it much at all (and these days the meds I'm on mean drinking in any quantity's a bad idea anyhow). I maybe go through couple bottles of Kahlua a year (some of which ends up being drunk by my SO), plus the occasional other drink if I'm going out, and by "occasional", I mean, really, honestly. It adds up to maybe a drink a month.
All of which means I can't really play 'stump the bartender' anymore. Chances are if I go for a drink it'll be something mundane like a margarita, or at least not entirely uncommon, like a Sloe gin fizz. I used to be able to come up with slightly more obscure drinks that I genuinely liked (I once stumped an admittedly fairly young bartender with Brandy Alexander), but the thing is, if you're going to do that, you should know what's in them, and I don't remember anymore.
I don't know if I actually care about that or not, but it does make reading a book with a bartender in it a little odd.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Oh hai
I suppose if I'm gonna have a new blog, there ought to be at least one post.
Hmmm. Let's see. What shall I write about?
*crickets chirp*
Okay, you got me. I just made the blog because I was thinking that if I did want to post about something random, none of my other blogs would work. I don't know why I didn't wait until I had something to say.
...
Hrm, no. Still nothing.
I'll get back to you.
Hmmm. Let's see. What shall I write about?
*crickets chirp*
Okay, you got me. I just made the blog because I was thinking that if I did want to post about something random, none of my other blogs would work. I don't know why I didn't wait until I had something to say.
...
Hrm, no. Still nothing.
I'll get back to you.
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