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Wednesday, June 15th, 2005
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4:10 pm - Easy stuff
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2:46 pm - On the seasoning of Cast Iron cookware, and other things that make me think the house is on fire.
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I've recently passed the first of three Cuisine courses at Le Cordon Bleu. It is most pleasing.
In recent weeks, a number of things have happened. None of them are going to make a guest appearance in this entry, save for two. The first is my discovery that both sides of my toaster have become unreliable. The left side doesn't pop at all, and the right side sometimes neglects to pop. As I do not like my toast well done or my kitchen filled with acrid smoke, I've decided that I shall henceforth remain in the kitchen while toasting bread. Putting my fan in the kitchen window as a ventilator seems to have helped matters (and dealt decently with the quaint, imaginary, "turn-of-the-century" ventilation in the downstairs. The other event is only going to be inferred.
Seasoning Cast Iron Cookware
According to Tane Chan, from Gourmet, December 2004, Used without permission or a care in the world:
Unlike all other seasoning recipes, Tane Chan's unusual baking technique gives a wok a laquerlike finish. Each time the wok is removed from the oven, after it cools, scrub it witha stainless-steel scrubber as if you've made a mistake and are trying to remove the oil coating to restore the original metal. If the wok has a wooden or plastic handle, remove it before following this recipe. If the handle cannot be removed, wrap the wood handle in a wet washcloth. Then wrap the washcloth in heavy duty aluminum foil. Be careful, as the handle will get very hot and steamy. Check the handle from time to time to make sure the washcloth has not dried out. I do not recommend placing a plastic handle in a 450 degree farenheit oven, even when wrapped in a washcloth and foil.
- Preheat the oven to 450˚F. Wash the inside and outside of the wok with hot water, using a stainless steel scrubber and liquid dishwashing soap. Rinse with hot water. Dry the wok with paper towels. Dry over a low heat 1 to 2 minutes. If the wok has a wooden handle, follow the directions in the headnot. Open a window and turn the exaust fan on high.
- Using a paper towel, spread 1/2 teaspoon oil over the entire inside surface. Put the wok in the oven 20 minutes. Using potholders, remove from the oven and cool until warm to the touch, about 5 minutes [NOTE: Takes a hell of a lot longer with my skillet.] Scrub the inside of the work with hot water only (no detergent) 2 or 3 minutes, using a stainless steel scrubber.
- Repeat step 2 three or four more times. When the wok becomes bronze coloured, it's fully seasoned. Remove from the oven and cool 5 minutes. Wash the wok with hot water and scrub with a stainless steel scrubber. Dry over low heat 1 to 2 minutes. Do not coat with oil again. The wok is ready for cooking.
According to Ottawa's "Ma Cuisine" store:
CARE IF IRON OR STEEL PANS
- New pans should be seasoned before use. Wash well with water - DO NOT USE SOAP - and dry well on top of stove or in oven. Wipe the entire interior with a paper towel dipped in edible vegetable oil, making sure the surface is filmed. (Do not use olive oil, which will leave its essence in the porous metal [NOTE: They do not explain why this is bad.] Then pour a little oil into the pan, being careful not to use too much, and set it over moderate heat, or in the oven, for at least twenty minutes. Cool the pan and wipe with paper towel. The pan is now seasoned and ready for use. [NOTE: This advice comes from a store that seems to sell only pre-seasoned pans. I take it with a grain of salt. Do not season with a grain of salt, as that can break down the oil in a non-useful fashion.]
- Once the pan is seasoned, if you can avoid washing it, do so. After use wipe with a paper towel. However you may wash out with hot water, and if necessary scour with a little coarse salt. Wipe dry witha paper towel and set on stove at low heat to ensure no mousture remains. Wipe interior with paper towel dipped in vegetable oil. This procedure should be followed after every use.
- Should you not use your pan regularly, a little rust may appear. Use steel wool or a good rust remover, season as before and the pan will be as good as new.
You can tell a pan is properly seasoned when your food doesn't stick to it, and when it looks like something your grandmother once threatened your delinquent uncle with. If you don't have a delinquent uncle, it's because she didn't stop at just threatening, and you should probably avoid digging in her back yard.
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| Monday, February 7th, 2005
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12:54 am
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I am happy...
so darn happy...
so much happier than I was when I wrote my last entry...
or something.
Pretend I sang those first three lines. Kinda ren-and-stimpy like singing.
And then a hippo came out of the sky and exploded.
"You should really try to get your daughter on the pill. The way we're doing it now, it's not safe."
- Noah, age 12
current mood:  chipper
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| Thursday, February 5th, 2004
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5:44 pm - I hate anime - now in JOUR 1000 Lead form.
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Daphne in the Deep Blue Sea: In the future, a talented scholar and athlete fails to get a public service job, and is hired instead as a mercenary for Neres, whose uniforms consist of boots, bras and adhesive maxipads.
Yumeria: 16 year old Mikuri accidentally finds a lucid dream world where he is messiah to a harem of magical girls who happen to be mostly women from his real life, and whose jiggling curves he spends too much time admiring.
Samurai Deeper Kyo: After an inexplicable catastrophe fuses mortal enemies into one body, ideas are recycled from Kenshin and pacifism is ignored, leaving the viewer both confused and aggravated.
Ghost in the Shell Season 2: After opening the file, the number of programs that crash is entirely dependant on the number that were running.
Chrno Crusade: IT"S SPELLED CHRONO! CHRONO! I can't lead that properly.
Full Metal Alchemist: I don't hate this one. at all, so I'm not going to lead it.
Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu: Won't download. Curses. Okay, so I'm lazy.
Avenger: In a future without children, a girl fights for no reason with people who have no common sense, all while looking for revenge against the lords of mars.
Battle Royale 2: Once again, children are forced to engage each other in a world where time and sense have been warped into something unrecognizable, though this time they kill as an anti-terrorist action
Divergence Eve: Girls with preposterously large breasts fight in badly computer rendered robots to save humanity from a plot hole.
Gungrave: The bastard son of Vash and Brilliant Dynamite Neon battles with amnesia and his killers while a girl whose mother knew him mopes on the sidelines.
Heat Guy J: A man and his robot fight crime in the streets of New York in what looked like a promising series until it started to suck.
Lord of Lords Ryu Knight: In a show made for small children, a knight fights for something I couldn't be bothered learning about.
Evangelion: On second sober thought, let's not touch that.
Raimuro Senkitan: In a timeline unlike our own, a teacher finds himself unexpectedly in charge of a harem of annoying girls who remotely pilot robots.
Shinkon Gattai Godannar: ... Burning Virgin Road? I'm at a loss for words. Wait, here's some: If I wanted to see an underage girl getting her bridal gown ripped to shreds so the audience could see her cleavage and her underwear, I still wouldn't watch this.
Soultaker: pretension, pretention pretension. Fuck proper style, I hate this show.
Yami To Boushi To Hon No Tabibito: In a show converted from a popular Hentai game, a boy is somehow sucked into a plot involving Russians, a train and large breasts, and then I deleted it.
So yeah, I recently realized that there is probably three animes that I can still watch without hating every second of it, and the West Wing has won out over one of them.
[ED: I don't actually hate anime as much as I said, but man alive is fanservice starting to tick me off.]
current mood: Hungry
current music: Boiling Anger - Painful Painful Death
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| Monday, February 2nd, 2004
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10:12 pm
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Because they've got the only decent news program I've seen in years.
Why on earth does the potential to make money make people so eager to destroy something more valuable?
current mood:  annoyed
current music: Jimmy Smith - Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
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(comment on this)
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| Sunday, February 1st, 2004
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3:35 am - Last night == Serial nightmare madness
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in summary: I went for pirate gold and got put into a coma by the military. while in a coma, 5 billion people got killed in a global conflict. when I woke up, the military men drove me home after explaining that my whole family was missing or dead.
I woke up for real while I was running through the house, looking for lost family members. the dogs didn't cross my mind for a second.
the continuation when I drifted back to sleep had me finding my mother at her bungalow in the downtown (?) just before my father came to visit after his twin brother's failed attempt on his life. other than the murderous tendencies, they seemed to be getting along fine. it was odd. the global war didn't seem to phase them one bit, nor did the apparent divorce of my parents, or the floozie my dad was leading around... it was beyond weird.
so I woke up again.
it continuted again last night, but I'm happy to have forgotten it this time.
I just got back from a Pocket Dwellers concert.
They're bloody amazing in concert.
Gush gush gush.
and then I walked back along the canal with Iain and Laurel, which means I think my toes are frostbitten, and that I've discovered the rich and peculiar life of public employees in a town with a city long skating rink. Some of them are slightly hostile.
Last but not least, if you have the chance, see the pocket dwellers. they're fun.
I have to curl up and die now.
current mood:  content
current music: Pocket Dwellers - Lifecheck
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| Thursday, January 22nd, 2004
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5:26 pm - blah
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Why do I keep forgetting that romantic comedies make me uncomfortable? I keep hating them, and I keep watching them, and I don't seem to put one and one together at all, not even to make three; or tea.
In other news, a lot of people are creeped out by my stack o' beanie babie,. Just because they always seem to make eye contact. This knowledge is somehow more satisfying than knowing that I'm not failing most of my classes, despite my least efforts.
Totally unrelated to any of this is the idle wonderment that Hitler jokes are now apparently PC enough to have babies do them in movies (Eurotrip), and that 9/11 and its followup has not yet been loudly labelled antisemitic anywhere that I'm aware of, in any way.
current mood:  blah
current music: Alyssa - That song in Chasing Amy that she sings. Why am I watching Chasing Amy?
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| Friday, December 5th, 2003
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11:55 pm - cats
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I don't like them, and they don't like me, but I think if I ever managed to get a cat, I'd want it to be one that could dislike me with style, rather than crapping on my pillow or destroying my belongings. I want a cat that will start eating my face before I'm dead; not because it's hungry but because I am not something to fight or fuck, so I must be food. I want a Greebo, and thank heaven there's only one of him.
current mood:  apathetic
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| Saturday, August 16th, 2003
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11:46 pm - Quotes board revision II
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Now that camp is officially over and the alcohol is starting to come out, I think I'll put this up before the last wave hits.
( Quotes board crap. I never did get the ones from the afterparty. )
More later, probably. Also, I got a laptop. Whee.
Came to the conclusion today that I over analyze myself too much but never actually satisfactorily conclude that analysis, so I reach odd conclusions. I intentionally kill my own ambitions based on some conclusions I made, and that seems an odd and potentially unhealthy thing to do. I'm going to change that. Also, I'm slightly drunk and horny. A man told me today that I have more testosterone than he does, and that I'm rather masculine. That grates against my self image. Makes me go umm. Earlier in the summer I found out that some of the campers refer to me and my brother as the boys who were beaten with the pretty stick. I also find this funny. Makes me go umm. Also, and not because I'm exhausted or anything, I think I'm going to go have a nap. Until my alarm clock reminds the sun to rise. Should be good.
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| Friday, August 1st, 2003
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8:26 pm - Recording the Staff Quotes Board (pt. I)
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"I just mimed putting a screwdriver through someone. Like, out of a toolbox" - Alanna Balicki (After DDR)
"Don't swear or the tractor will go down on you" - Radar/Daniel
"It would be like sending a fireball to talk to a turtle" - Glenn, re: the idea of using Erin O'Halloran to deal with a shy camper
"Jordi's bum is one giant knot" - Celeste
"This couch is ... well ... orgasmic." - Blair
"Yay! Pants! I missed you!" - Warren, to his pants.
"I lost my pants." - Brittany
"Amy went to the doctor for her check-up. They messed up the charts and amputated her leg." - Alanna B.
"Who's Amy and why should we care?" - ?
"Amy is no one and Alanna is just silly" - ?
"Amen to that brother" - ?
"Welcome back! You now have seven kids! It's like copulation, but without the fun part." - Richard to Daniel
"Do you think God can't hear you?"
"This is the smallest roll of hemp I've ever seen."
"... that's thread." - Overheard
"As long as we don't get locusts." - Ken, re: Sloth Session
Jordi: B1 should be held in captivity while rehearsing.
Glenn: Captivity?
Jordi: Well, where they can't run away.
Celeste: Where are my knitting needles? Blair, did you take them?!
Blair: I didn't touch them. They're in your hand.
Celeste: Oh.
[ This quote brought to you by the coalition to get Celeste a Brain. Any brain.]
"Will you be the gatekeeper to my portal of joy?"
"No. Absolutely not."
"Your love gum is making out with my teeth!" - Jennie, re: gum.
Sarah: I burnt my boobs.
Jennie: That would suck. I've never had that.
Sarah: Had what? Boobs or a burn?
Jennie: Both.
"God said send ted an arm!" - derived from smarties.
"Alex! Put your clothes back on!" - Kate, outside butler at lunch time.
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| Saturday, December 21st, 2002
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9:40 pm
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I am an IDIOT.
I left my online university application passoword and login at school, in front of my alarm clock, where I knew I'd look if I was finishing my applications from school, but I had to pack and leave before I got around to that, so now it's there and I'm here and I'm a FUCKING IDIOT.
Reading slashdot yesterday, found out that LJ may not be the safest place to vent any more. This annoys me, though I'm not apt to do something legally actionable online - I'd still like the option, though. yeesh.
Also, metroid is the most addictive game series in the world. That is all.
current music: Counting Crows - Colorblind
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| Saturday, December 14th, 2002
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1:58 pm
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Random discovery of the week - While beer knocks me out like a light, and was starting to convince me I should just avoid alcohol at all costs, Kahlua seems to have the opposite effect. I drank a whole bottle of the stuff last night at Jess' usual friday-night timewaster. $15 bucks of alcohol in one go. Yeah, I feel really bloody proud of myself. At least I didn't get asshole or exhausted drunk, and I didn't have a hangover, which is nice.
Other things:
Oh yeah, I'm not supposed to be at home right now. Oops - I probably should mention that my school quarantined itself thursday. We all went home friday morning, and they proceeded to bleach the houses. The Norwalk virus has hit nearly everyone at the school, teachers, students, staff, everyone except the poor little three legged dog. I'm so disgustingly glad I'm as yet unafflicted.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, and I know I haven't mentioned it after we presented it to the school Monday and Tuesday, but this year (for the first time since '97) there was a school play, and somehow I ended up as the lead character. The play was called Blackrock. The two presentations went off with only small hitches, and despite the fact that I had to go around with my shirt off for far too many scenes for my comfort, we still got compliments after the show. Still getting compiments, actually. It's pretty cool. My family and my family and my girlfriend managed to get up there for the second showing, which was also pretty cool. What wasn't pretty cool is that after the show, my brother went into my room and stole the only working ballpoint pen I own, which left me fucked until the end of the week. I hate borrowing from others.
I need to find something to do tonight. There any good movies out right now?
current mood:  rejuvenated
current music: Kevorkian Death Cycle - Relax (Assemblage 23 Mix)
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| Sunday, December 1st, 2002
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7:15 pm
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Blackrock premieres at about this time monday of next week.
I still don't have all my lines down. Whee, panic. I wouldn't mind so much, but I somehow ended up as the lead role, and it's mighty annoying when you can't remember what order you're supposed to verbally/physically abuse your girlfriend in.
How's that for a strange concern?
Also, had my interview for Centauri yesterday + 2 +1/2 hours ago. Probably going to be assistant counsellor for B1 &/or B3. Failing that, I should begin looking for jobs elsewhere. Yay, pessimism! Yay, $1000 wage for more than 2000 hours of work! I am so not in it for the money!
Lastly, incredibly pissed off at myself. I'm on my computer right now. What else need I say?
current mood:  drained
current music: Morcheeba - The Sea
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| Tuesday, November 26th, 2002
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9:29 pm - When Small Worlds Attack
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Whoa. That was unexpected. Just ran into Andrew Freund (Shakespeare in Performance and Directing and Design director at Centauri) and Martin whose last name I do not remember but who ran the Omega Drama Program this summer. Talk about Random.
I know why Martin was there (He works in Gravenhurst, or wherever), but Andrew? He's supposed to be in Alberta right now, I thought. Cool.
For those reading this that don't know who the @#$% those people are, or why they should care, (Meaning, I think, everyone save Jewli) just chalk it up to small world syndrome and don't bother asking. I'll waste way too much of your time explaining.
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| Monday, November 25th, 2002
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8:55 pm
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| Friday, November 22nd, 2002
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3:10 pm
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Here's a question to the world, because I for one am lost in arguing against the point: Is knowledge inherently dangerous? Or is it just the use of knowledge that can make it dangerous?
If you believe that knowledge is not inherently dangerous, can you still argue that certain information (ie. government secrets, or the names of young offenders) should be controled because the population or the so called enemies of the population could use it for malicious purposes?
I've been trying to figure out a way to argue that knowledge is not dangerous, and to do it in *specific*, not general or abstract terms. Is there anywhere online I should look for relevant information?
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, November 20th, 2002
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6:58 pm
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Chain of thought for the day:
Even if light, sound and other sensations travelled instantly, it still takes time for our brains to process and interpret them into a useful picture of the world.
If it takes time for something to be interpreted, then by the time we percieve it, it is already in the past.
The past is history, (the collective memory of civilization).
The past is a memory.
Everything we see is already a memory. Branch here.
Branch one: Malleable memory
Memory is faulty and can be altered by will or suggestion.
Perception must be susceptible to the same.
It is already established that the brain is adept and willing to fill in gaps with what it assumes to be there. (The square test)
It is also known that people can forget things that should be immediately evident to them at any time, such as a missing limb, or the fact that they are blind ("An Anthropologist on Mars")
It seems possible then that people could be able to ignore things (like someone reading over their shoulder, eating off their plate, conspiring against them right in front of them) and not notice, as the part of their brain assigned to filling things in would be covering up for the part of the brain that makes things forgotten.
Therefore, the insane are just people who can't forget things properly (follow that tangent!), and I've watched Lain too many times to be healthy.
Branch two: Memory as experience
If everything we experience is a memory, then it follows that we should as easily be able to experience our older memories. Have you ever tried to remember a sound or a smell, just to have it appear at the edge of your senses? Near whispers, a faint whiff of something you shouldn't be able to smell?
I want to figure out a way to control that more directly. What would happen to a decayed memory pulled back to your senses? Too far gone, would it clash with how the brain expects to percieve things?
Branch Three: Goats
I'm afraid this branch never got that far before I scribbled it out and said "fuck it all, I need a drink." That's the problem with goats.
(Note: I wrote this down elsewhere, and have thought it over a few times since. I'm getting so used to it now that I probably skipped a few tangent points that would make sense of things. wheeeeeeeee.)
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| Monday, November 18th, 2002
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11:54 am
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Weird shit of the day:
Last English essay we had to do (Analysis of a theme in Antigone), I did the night before it was due, while half asleep. I *thought* I'd done a lousy job documenting it, and I couldn't even remember writing the last half of it when I read it after class today. I do remember, however, commenting to my self that it was unfocussed and weak and would probably pull my mark down into the pits of the abyss.
Teacher hands the essays back to us today. First words out of her mouth, "I'd like to commend Warren on his excellent job on this essay. After much deliberation, I decided to give him 100%. Congratulations."
I'm not bribing or sleeping with the teacher, I didn't even edit the essay once I wrote it, and... crap. For some reason, this is really pissing me off. I didn't earn that mark at all, and it's driving me nuts.
How's that for idiotic angst, eh?
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| Tuesday, November 12th, 2002
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4:40 pm
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I was listening to CBC radio today, and from it I learned something useless: one of Canada's prize winning novelists (damned if I know her name) wrote a story at some point called "The Day I Sat on the Library Steps Talking to Jesus and the Wind Blew Open My Kimono and He Saw My Breasts", or something like that.
I found this funny, for some reason.
Possibly because I misheard it and thought it was "The Day I Sat on the Library Steps Talking to Jesus and the Wind Blew Open his Kimono and I saw his breasts".
Possibly because I picture Jesus as looking exactly like this guy I know called Brad, and the idea of him with breasts and a kimono is too wrong to contemplate.
Possibly because I'm just weird.
I think I'm weird... It's hard to spend 45 dollars on Pocky in one go without being a little weird. Mmm... pocky. ... Men's pocky?! Huzzah?
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| Monday, November 11th, 2002
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11:21 pm
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Just got back from two days in Toronto. Three and a half cool things, in reverse order to how cool I hold them, except for the last one, which I just tacked on because I just learned it.
Cool thing one: Bowling for Columbine. There aren't that many documentaries that get applause in your everyday cinema. Went to see that in Toronto with Ryan Forde this weekend. There is nothing better than the "brief history of America" section. Yay to scared white guys.
Cool thing two; Illegal DVDs that are actually better and cheaper than the real thing. Boogiepop phantom in particular. I got the complete series, subtitled in coherent english with a *good* dub, for $45. That's $45 CANADIAN. I'm looking into ripping these (with or without the decent dubbage) just to put a version of Boogiepop 12 out on the net. Thank you Pacific Mall, for all you have given us, though not so much for Bubble Tea - that stuff just creeps me out.
Cool thing three: Gin's skipping school to come up to Hamilton tomorrow, because I wasn't able to get down to see her earlier this weekend. This is incredibly cool, and unusual, as she's one of those little miss scholarships. You know, the kind that slackers like me look at in awe and wonder how they can possibly do thirty seven freakin' extracurriculars *and* still maintain an over 95 average. And now I've convinced her to skip school for the first time, ever. I feel so evil. I feel so lucky. So yeah... despite a cataclysmic failure of planning, we still get to see eachother before I head back to school. This makes me smile.
Cool thing three point five: My brother's new falling-down-the-stairs simulator high score: 105372. He hit a major physics bug and the little falling guy snapped like an elastic band. It's the coolest thing I've ever seen. For the next hour or so, anyway.
current mood:  excited
current music: The New Deal - Receiver - 03 Receiver
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khamiel's journal
hungry