anwanórë

I cooked dinner tonight. I had fewer guests than initially intended (only two) so I ended up cooking way too much.

Menu:
1) Spaghetti. wheat noodles and spaghetti sauce (from packet)

2) Chicken. Skillet cooked. When the skillet gets sufficiently heated, I pour in some water to create water vapor, and then seal the top of the skillet w/ some foil and a round pizza pan. This heats things up quite well within the skillet and helps the meat cook more thoroughly on the inside. The water vapor also helps the meat remain juicy. It’s still a good idea to turn the meat over a couple times and redo the seal.

For flavoring I tend to improv: today, added salt, pepper, dash of oregano, one beaten egg, “bread crumbs” (fist-ground Ritz crackers), Parmesan cheese, and some spaghetti sauce. It tasted good for improv. (I was roughly following a recipe for Parmesan chicken.

3) Green beans. They come from a can, they were put there by a man.

4) French bread. Sliced, buttered on each side. Note: don’t broil french bread. It starting burning on top in less than five minutes. I need a better way to heat it up for the future.

Results: Although I didn’t have as many guests as intended, the two people who were able to make it had a good time. I had some decent discussion about Christianity, science, and community with Lion. Also discussed work situations and other topics. Nick got here a bit later.

We played a game of Carcassonne. It’s my current favorite board game. It’s tile based and you take turns putting out tiles and placing your pieces. You get points as you reach objectives and keep playing until you run out of tiles.

After Lion took off, played some PS3 w/ Nick for a bit, but I’m not enthralled by any of the multiplayer games I’ve tried so far (Gran Turismo 5, Armor Core 4). Then again, I’m not quite the fiend at video games I was in the late ’90s ;)

All in all, I’m glad I had people over and I’m hoping to do it again on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.

Tags: community, cooking, food

Yesterday, I upgraded three Wordpress blogs to 2.5.1. Had a good time at SaturdayHouse. After SH, Patrick, JDugan, and I were going planning to go to a teriyaki place. It was closed so we ended up at Denny’s.

Denny’s is great for several reasons: 1) food. 2) tasty food. 3) meaty food. 4) no rush - they’re used to people sitting around.

Zombies were discussed. I’d never thought about it before, but Patrick pointed out that zombie movies are an excellent vehicle for discussing societal issues. George A. Romero revolutionized the popular conception of zombies through his 1968 film “Night of the Living Dead” and following films. He did this by using zombies “to criticize real-world social ills - such as government ineptitude, bioengineering, slavery, greed and exploitation - while indulging our post-apocalyptic fantasies.” (Source)

Today, I went to church, cooked and ate several bratwurst, upgraded my laptop to Ubuntu 08.04 “Hardy Heron,” fought w/ multi-column CSS/XHTML design, converted six CDs to FLAC files, converted six albums of FLAC files to 320kbps MP3s for use on my iPod, updated my iPod catalog, and ate some cheese.

Now I’m going to go relax for a few minutes before sleep. Good night.

Tags: food, zombies

I’m feeling good. My immune system is finally back in gear so I can eat normal (microwaved food) again. Although I managed to add Cup O’ Noodle to my diet in the interim period.

Ran into snow today. The fortunate thing about typically getting to work 50 minutes early means that on days with bad weather I usually still make it on time. I’ve only been late to this job once by ten minutes and that was easy enough to make up on lunch break.

I’m keeping busy with lots of potential web projects. I’ve got MyTwitter that I’ve been working on and I’m also helping out with two other projects — one with my church and another one w/ some guys from Saturdays. It’s good times. Once I get a laptop I’ll be able to do even a little bit more hopefully, but this is still a hope and not quite reality.

Managed to sit in on a conversation regarding theology today. I know the term “Federal Vision” though I don’t have any grasp of the underlying theological concepts at this point. I intend to look at it more at some point, but that day is not today. Plus, due to either intellectual laziness or a more keen interest in other topics (punk rock, coding, etc.) I really am not all that interested. I’ll look into it a bit at some point though.

If I ever do read up on Federal Vision, these are the first resources I will check: Wikipedia: Federal Vision and Federal Vision and Theopedia: Federal Vision.

Tags: code, food, projects, theology

I just cooked one of the best meals I’ve ever done. I bought a huge, juicy steak at the grocery store after work tonight. When I got home and finished filling the refrigerator, I got down to business and begin cooking. Now, I don’t really use recipes. I called Benjamin for a bit of advise, but essentially all I did was cook the meat, flipping it every few minutes, until it looked done (slightly non-bloody, but plenty o’ pink). Oh, and I smeared a bit of oregano on it.

It turned out pretty good. After eating it I realized that steak has been a missing part of my diet for far too long, and I will be cooking more of it now.

For beverage, I drank the last Fat Tire in the fridge. For side-dishes, I cooked broccoli and French bread w/ butter. Mmm, mmm, good. It’s worth the effort to cook a good meal on occasion.

Tags: food

Mmm, turkey. It’s worked out that I won’t have to suffer my own cooking for Thanksgiving — I’ve been invited to be an extra at the dinner of a local family I know. Score one for the good guy! Yes, I am a good guy.

So work’s been fine so far. It’s nothing all that exciting, but I’m excited that they’ve actually got a well defined training program. The company is a lot stricter than others I’ve worked for in the past, but I can live with that. Being on time and having integrity aren’t undesirable qualities to attain.

I’m already planning for the future, and by “future” I mean career. It’s kinda cool how many opportunities I’ll have within the next few years in this respect. This is my first job that actually has any potential to lead somewhere. After one year to 15 months I can aim for my first promotion, and this could be as big as a 15% pay raise depending on which position I get.

This isn’t even taking into account other opportunities pending completion of related graduate school courses and deciding what I want to do with my life.

But regardless of all of that, I’m enjoying being placed in an environment where I can learn a lot about something interesting (holy crap does a lot go into wireless technology), knowing that I’m not in a dead-end job, and experiencing a different local environment than I’m used to.

The rain isn’t causing any nervous breakdowns yet, but it’s strange to adjust to. I realized today that the rain has me feeling like I’m in the wrong season — it’s not winter-like enough. But I’ll adjust as best as I can.

And heck, if I don’t like it I can move to California in a year to 15 months. I’ve always wanted to live in Paradise. California is my Eden with the major differences being that when I left it no angels with giant swords were posted to guard against my return. Therefore, I can return to California.

Oh, California…

Tags: California, food