What with the current financial suck that has been my life I am considering selling my TV and my XBOX360. The problem is here in East Texas no one seems to use craigslist very much. Anyone have any suggestions? I was thinking the Sentinel but it turns out that's washout lane for classifieds. I was looking at peddlernet.com and that might be promising.
If you or someone you know if looking for a TV and XBOX360, lemme know.
As some of you fine folks may know I am a microcosm of the national debt right now. Subsequently, I no longer have a phone, which doesn't bother me in the least really. I also am circling on fumes both fiscally and mentally. This is part of the reason I rage quit FB (it was either that or smash the living fuck out of the monitor with the keyboard a la the ape in 2001) along with withdrawals from alcohol, cigarettes, and anti-depressants.
So this summer has been and continues to be a difficult one. My patience and empathy meters are very low. I am not economically viable.
Please do not worry, I know everything gets better and I'm not going to go apeshit and verbally or physically attack strangers (except for that one fat bitch who was giving the employees a hard time at Jack in the Box so I gave her a talking to). Once fall comes around I will probably be back to my regularly scheduled lovable curmudgeon instead of Howard Beale.
In the meantime enjoy one of my favorite scenes from the "Dude losing his shit" genre:
The Toybox was one of those movies I remember seeing on the shelf of the local Blockbuster back in the mid-aughts. The cover is a shot of a girl in pigtails and a school girl outfit holding a bloody hammer looming over a bloody toybox with the tagline that reads, "Some fairy tales can be deadly." I never rented it or even picked up the case for further investigation because I figured it was another cheapo OVA with minimal T&A and a shoddy story, etc etc. Basically like any other crappy horror movie that ends up dusty on a Blockbuster new releases shelf.
Last evening, bored out of my gourd and browsing hulu.com for a horror/thriller/suspense/anything bloody to watch I saw The Toybox was available for free so I figured, "Why the hell not?" The real selling point was that it is a British movie set in Norfolk so what with my predilection for British horror movies I started watching.
The basic premise is: a brother (Brian) and sister (Bernice) explore fairytales of the region (Norfolk and Suffolk) and build imaginary adventures and characters around those fairytales. Fast forward roughly a decade, sister is away at university and brother hangs out in the garage at home making music and being weird. Bernice is on her way home for the Christmas holidays with her boyfriend Conrad. Conrad is very nervous about meeting Bernice's family, primarily because he's extremely uncomfortable in family/group surroundings. Bernice tries to assuage Conrad's worries by telling him her family is normal, Mum and Dad are aging flower children, Nan's a sweetie, and Brian is Brian but he's a good guy. They arrive at her childhood home and then everything goes fucking mental.
I don't want to give away any spoilers but The Toybox has now entered my horror movies for Christmas playlist. It's not a good movie per se but it has many elements that make for a disconcerting cult movie experience. The best parts of the movie revolve around the holiday psychosis a la, "And you thought your family was crazy." It's not Motel Hell crazy but just, well you ever been invited along to Christmas or some other holiday by a friend or significant other and you get there and all you want to do is run screaming or are shell-shocked by the level of bile only family members can dish out to one another? Yeah, that's The Toybox. There's one scene that will stick with me for a long time like the New Year's party in Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun (1971). Truth be told thinking of Johnny Got His Gun makes me think of surreal/bizarro cult horror movies of the late 1960s early 1970s before the Craven/Carpenter explosion. Again, these are not excellent movies but they have a seriously high creep factor simply because of the sense of unease they cause.
The only actress I recognized from the movie was Suzanne Bertish who starred in The Hunger, Red Dwarf, and The 13th Warrior. She played the mother and was my favorite character. The rest of the cast was solid but made of either British TV actors or otherwise.
The Toybox is worth checking out. It's not brilliant but it's certainly better than a lot of teen scream, bullshit giant animal gone amok flicks and cheapie tits'n'gore stuff out there.
I plan to make and consume the sandwich I wanted to make and consume earlier but had to go to work. Curses! My sandwiching foiled! However I have had time to think of the sandwich I am going to create. We are all familiar with the Reuben or if you are not well tough titty for you. I love them though I refuse to put salad dressing on a fucking sandwich. So I realized I have the makings for not just a Reuben at home but a Reuben that I will dub, "The Bear Jew".
This is the plan:
1 18" loaf of bread.
1lb Pastrami
a shit ton of Swiss cheese
roasted onions and jalapenos
spicy mustard
sauerkraut
construct and place in oven
consume while half naked and wearing fat pants
Photos will be pending...of the sandwich not me in a disgusting orgy of sandwichian destruction.
As I posted last week I am attempting to rig/re-rig my tv, computer, monitors, and sound system* over the week I tried a few different set ups but nothing really worked for me. The current layout is pretty solid and I managed to run a HDMI from the CPU to the TV without much fuss. I did have to monkey with some settings on the TV to get the picture to fit right (mainly just went into advanced video controls and increased the V(ertical) and H(orizontal) settings until the image fit correctly). So far I have had the best results using Extend window to secondary monitor instead of duplicating, though I guess it would be pretty simple to just duplicate image and then just tweak the V & H.
I am very pleased with the image from the PC to the TV but there are a number of problems I am trying to figure out how to deal with:
The TV is plasma and while my model has a built-in screen cleaner to help defend against burn in, the TV is pretty much still only good for movies and the XBOX.
I'm having a difficult time imagining how distance is going to work, viewing and sound alike. Gadgetbench.com has some good advice that involves some math or something (joking aside it's an excellent site). The rule of thumb that I always stuck by was diagonal of screen * 1.5 - 2.0 = preferable viewing distance. So if you have a 32" screen then you should set up the viewing area 48"-64" away. This also helps you set up your sound system, that is if you have a sound system. Which I do, which causes an interesting set of problems concerning setting up a viable sound stage if I use a 32" center monitor and then a secondary, smaller monitor for other stuff.
An old friend of mine who's an actual blogger (and all educated and teacher dude and stuff) but has descended from ye olde 'zine tree (some of you younger readers might not know what a 'zine is. I don't have the time to waste educating you) has some excellent work on several sites the primary of which is Twenty-Four Hours.
The site leans towards interviews with artists, writers, people with tattoos, and articles about lefty politics. The writing is solid, though I have to admit that I internet skim articles instead of sitting down and giving the work the time it deserves. I hope that you folks take time to check out the site.
A while back I found out there was going to be an animated version of Cat Shit One, an anthropomorphic combat series based loosely on the manga Apocalypse Meow. I had forgotten about the series until I was reading through some of the HYR archives (favorite joke from the archives so far is, "John, 'Fly yes. Land no." Denver"). So I poked around online a little bit and found the episodes free, subbed, and in good quality. I will write a review after I get the chance to watch the series tonight.
after getting kind of fed up searching for the hats and clothing you are looking for but can't find you end up saying fuck it and going back to L.L. Bean and Orvis. Classics are classics for a reason.
It's only been during this summer that I've really begun to appreciate the value of a hat in my life. Normally I hate hats for the same reason I hate umbrellas, sure they serve a purpose but they seem like more of a hassle than they are worth (yes I am a crazy person). Walking around in the East Texas heat has been particularly bad this season and after a pretty grim burn I decided to bust out one of the ball caps I have in my closet. The one I wear is a Rangers cap I bought a couple years ago at a game. The problem is it's a fitted cap that works more like a sweatband than something that actually keeps the sun off of me (plus the sweat has turned the bottome of the cap white). So I'm looking at hats for summer. My current favorites are as follows (barring the fact I probably couldn't wear one or two of these without some asshole in a Hemi shouting shit at me).
"The Kolchak" from Baron Hats Classic Reproductions based on the straw hat Carl Kolchak wore on the show Night Stalker. Not only is the hat kind of bad-ass in a "I really don't give a fuck what kind of monster it is, I'm gettin' the scoop." way but it looks like it would be comfy.
Nón lá(leaf hat) the classic conical sun hat ubiquitous across Asia.
If I had the $500 to spend on a hat I would have to go for a Brent Black Panama. Now that's a class hat.
Since I am broke though I have the following two options:
The hat everyone will recognize - the white bucket hat that Gilligan wore and was featured in Fear and Loathing. I found one for about ten bucks.
A hat similar to one I think I was forced to wear when I was a kid at the beach and the flying field my grandpa took me to. Yes, the classic old fart flat top bucket hat,
Chances are I will go with the old fart bucket hat. If I'm gonna buy a hat I might as well buy one that will look classic even while fighting mutants for water in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Today's expedition to the grocery store was an epic win both in value and shopping experience. I love going to the grocery store during the day, usually early in the afternoon when all the old folks and regular (not normal - fuck normal) folks are puttin' around, getting a jump on the Friday/weekend specials. I loathe getting groceries home but that's a different thing all together. I figured I'd do a short run down of today's experience and some recipes I am putting together in my head.
While wandering the aisles an old lady (I mean old like stereotypical tiny woman, Coke bottle glasses, weird old lady smell old) parked her cart next to mine and we got to chattin about nothin really, small talk and I looked in her cart. Was it piled with cat food? Nope. In her cart were two thirty-packs of Old Milwaukee and a couple of food related items. I was kind of blown away. In my head I said, "DAAAAAAMMMMNNNN! Mee-Maw likes to drink!". I didn't say that though. I did feel like a sissy though, what with my six pack of High Life.
In the meat aisle where I picked up my "making fuck berserker" 13th Warrior steaks, I was considering picking up a brisket too. Hell I always consider picking up a brisket. This woman comes in, flips through the slabs of moo-cow, and we start chatting. She was kind of awesome in a stereotypical middle-aged country lady, the kind that is mainly held together with sinew, gumption, and Virginia Slim nicotine, wearing a t-shirt that has some kind of American Fuck Yeah logo on it (a la Dale Ernheardt riding a bald eagle, holding guns while draped in the Stars and Stripes). So we were bullshittin about brisket and the deals on steak and what not and how her old man smokes his brisket, etc. Then out of the blue I asked, "Y'ever wonder what would happen if you deep fried brisket?" I swear there was a rapture moment between us, like when you ask people, "Have you ever thought about deep fried bacon?"
While at the fish counter I was talkin to the guy asking what was on special but what was actually good, etc, etc. Then I asked him if they ever get shark in. He said no, the FDA decreed shark has too much mercury in it. I replied, "Oh horseshit." So yeah, if you haven't seen shark in the market lately it's because the pussweeds at the FDA don't want us to become the Silver Surfer.
Okay recipe ideas:
A pasta salad with feta, yellow tomatoes, scallions, capers, and roasted peppers.
My rojo slow cooked pork on blue corn chips with a sharp Mexican cheese with a cilantro/sour cream blend on the side.
My verde sauce using aloe juice.
And that's it for now. Hope you cats and kittens have a good weekend.
I was really bored last night and since I don't have Netflix anymore (for a few months now) I was trying to hunt up something to watch on the internet that wasn't just some crap on youtube. I recently started using hulu to watch stuff - mainly documentaries. As many of you may know, when I'm not watching horror movies I usually watch documentaries these days. I'm kind of surprised at the wide collection hulu has, especially when it comes to docus of the popular culture/sub-culture variety. After watching a docu about Star Wars fans I stumbled across Special When Lit: A Pinball Documentary (2009).
It was a fascinating look at the history and culture of pinball and its followers. One thing I learned was pinball was illegal for nearly thirty years in most of the United States because the powers that be thought pinball was a social ill. Another thing I learned is there is only one pinball company left in the USA, Stern Pinball. The thing that astounded me the most was learning the name of man who created the pinball games I truly love, Mark Ritchie. He worked for Williams Pinball and designed games like Getaway, The Twilight Zone, The Addams Family (a game I actually loathe), Star Trek: The Next Generation, and my personal all time favorite Indiana Jones(I've included a gameplay video I found online further down).
Watching Special When Lit was entertaining but also steeped in mono no aware. By the end of the docu I was on one hand inspired to run out and find a game but I was also depressed because of the fact I haven't seen a pinball machine in years. The last place I played was in a washateria in Austin back in the very early 00s (which had Indiana Jones but swapped it out for fucking Addams Family). There are only Tekken, Ms. Pac-Man, and The Simpsons in the laundromat near my place. The closest bar only has pool, ping pong, and some shit kicker hunting shooter. The dirt mall only has four crappy arcade games (one of which is The Simpsons). I'm not sure if there's a single arcade game on campus. You can't throw a rock without hitting a pool table, which is great if you're into that. So what am I supposed to do?
Well, truth be told, I think I'm gonna find me a pinball machine in Nac. Somewhere in town has to have one, I'm just gonna have to look. There's a bowling alley next to the movie theater and there's Skatarama. There's a couple of laundromats. If any of you folks in Nac know of a machine please let me know. Might be a fun little quest to embark on.
with all the game time I have been putting into EVE and the minimal amount of time I have used my TV (read none), especially since I dropped netflix and my 360 is pretty much acting as a DVD player now (the one DVD I watched).
I tried to rig up my 32" Vizio to the PC but couldn't get the settings right, got angry, and wanted to punch something. Additionally my Vizio is a plasma, it's a great TV and works like a charm but I know that if I tried to play something like EVE on it the screen burn would be almost instant. Aaaargh, hindsight is 20/20. If I had known I would get a kick ass computer...grah...coulda shoulda woulda...
So even though I don't have enough money to buy my "don't start shrieking at strangers" meds my stupid American consumer lizard brain wants to trade in my Vizio for a new LCD monitor. My current favorite and one that keeps popping up is the Acer AT3265, a 32" monitor that seems like it would fit the bill. Any of you folks heard anything about Acer quality?
I would have the 32" as the primary/gaming/movie screen and the rare times I would actually need to do some work I would have my regular monitor on the side. Another crack-pot idea is to simply buy two more similarly sized monitors as the one I have and triple screen the bad boy. For a game like EVE that would be fuckin' sweet and I've seen a couple of set-ups that gave me nerd envy.
Any of you fine folks have any input or two cents? Do you use your PC as your primary entertainment center or do you still go for the TV, dvd, etc etc?
EDIT:
I think what I am gonna try to do when I get home is to rig up the Vizio as a center monitor for image then all the other stuff I could put on the regular monitor. Hmmm...yes...
So an old friend of mine was in the East Texas region the other day and decided to stop by and see yours truly. We were catching up on movies and pop culture and the like and he asked me if I had heard of the "Witch House" genre he had just heard about. I said no and he described it as techno with a strong horror movie influence. I was certainly intrigued so I quickly looked up "witch house" on teh youtubes. Apparently these three bands are the main witch house bands (? maybe, IDFK). In all honesty I started laughing. It's just crappy dark wave that sounds like someone found it one their older brother's late 20th Century hard drive or stumbled across a promo CD of suck from Cleopatra Records, put it in a disc man and dropped it down a flight of stairs.
Now don't get me wrong I like really well done darkwavy, ambient , cinematic soundscapes with a super ominous sound to it. This stuff, well I guess I'm glad there are people still making this kind of music (at least it's not another fucking steampunk/pirate thing) but to call it it's own genre?
The last few EVE expeditions since the Yan Jung Smashstravaganza last week have been pretty quiet, primarily involving me doing cargo and supply runs and getting loot collected into central areas. There's not a huge amount to do while space truckin in HighSec so I decided to take some photos of schtuff. I'm actually enjoying the process and once I get back to exploring I hope to get some good shots of anomalies and the like.
Not sure where the hell this was taken.
Pretty.
My God, it's full of flare.
That speck out there? Yeah, that's one of my boats floating in a whole lotta cold death potential.
I didn't stop and ask for directions in this neighbourhood.
Some of you may know that I am obsessed with AFT. I don't know how to describe it to you, it's simply G.I. Joe figures in therapy, talking about their shitty lives (or not so shitty lives in some cases). Not every video is a winner (if it's a second stringer figure chances are...) but when AFT is on, it's fuckin on. My favorites feature the "Ranger" aka Beachhead (one of my top-five favorite Joes). The one posted below works best if you've familiarized yourself with the story arc but once you have it's hands down one of the funniest fucking things I have heard in...maybe ever.
WARNING: Contains harsh language that might offend pussweeds, Marys, sensitive ponytail people, church ladies, soft talkers, and roid monkeys.
Some of these posters are racist and/or offensive but please consider the historical contexts. The historical images are first, the fictional propaganda is further down.
Gronk is an awesomely adorable webcomic that has been around for over two years and has a solid archive. Ms. Cook has a really clean style of art that manages to combine cute with the whimsy required to bring Gronk to life (example, "Kitty Bath" and "Gronk Bath" . I might have to send some copies of her book to you HYR readers that done got themselves munchkins. Check it out but be prepared for an overload of dawwww.
Thanks Katie Cook, now I have to pretend to be grumpy all over again.
"Abuelita J! Again with pork?!?" I hear you say. To that I reply, "Fine then, be that way, I'll throw it away because it's not good enough for you. Then I'll sit here, in the dark, alone, waiting to die, while you kill yourself with fast food."
Seriously though, I love the piggie flesh. Swine is divine. Plus I'm skipping class because frankly I'd rather clean my kitchen and cook than schlep through the heat to sit in a class I don't want to take for two hours then schlep back. Plus I don't have work today. Winning.
Gonna take another crack at the verde, this time using more chiles, nopales, tomatillos, ginger, and a little from column A and a little from column B.
Here's the process of making the verde sauce. I'm trying something different and cooking it separately from the pork so I can do different things to the pork.
I know I was planning not to do another EVE post but the experience I had last night, I just have to write about.
I got conned. Yup. I had the feeling it was a set-up but hey, win some lose some. Now the funny part is not when the pirate lured me off the beaten path (he was posing as a fellow n00b who wanted to practice PVP plus he offered me candy and a puppy and puppy made of candy) and proceeded to SVU me, what amuses me to no end is what happened after he stopped shooting at me and tried to hold me for ransom.
The pirate demanded that I pay him 5mil ISK (the in-game currency) and he'd let me be on my way. Yeah, right. Besides the boat I was in with all the equipment wasn't worth 5mil. So I offered to pay half and the rest when I was safely out of harm's way. He refused, I don't blame him because I wasn't gonna pay him the other half. So we are at an impasse the pirate and I. Then I remembered something I saw during the EVE Tournament, you can set your ship to self-destruct.
"Then he got an idea. An awful idea. The Grinch got a wonderful, *awful* idea!"
What would happen if I set my ship to self-destruct and abandoned ship? So that's what I did. I Kobayashi Maru'd the motherfucker. Sure he could salvage the wreck but I had The Pork Chop Express insured for the full amount so no real harm done. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. What a cluster-fuck of a mugging. My hat was off to the guy though, I haven't fell for something like since I was underage and trying to get alcohol. I sent him a million ISK any way just for amusing me so much. At least I didn't get nabbed by these guys:
AND, to things even better, the schmuck (I was duped so I was a schnook) was part of the Browncoat Mercenary Corp, led by one Saffron Reanolds! I'm lucky I didn't end up naked on a rock in the middle of nowhere. I just wish I had been in "The Hero of Canton". I suddenly felt a slew of people sing, "The man they called Jane."
I love this game, in case you couldn't tell, because of shit like this and other stuff too. Plus they never make you pay for new content.
Scoville Bessler ends her fourteen day jaunt in New Eden on a high note, or least a fairly decent middle range note. I've learned the basics, picked up a few tricks, made some contacts, blew up and salvaged a shit ton of pirates, droids, and Caldari and a couple of Amarr ships here and there. As a member of the Gallente Federation, currently at war with the aforementioned realms, I haven't met any Caldari or Amarr yet but I don't like what they stand for - the Amarr in particular are a bunch of religious fanatics with a society based upon slavery (though there are also some Machine worshippers that make me happy in my 40K place). Caldari might as well be called Randians.
I've got a nice little system of mission grinding/salvage/and sales going on. I've starting saving salvage for a buyer who constructs her own ships and sells them. Yeah so I'm a sanitation engineer & junk peddler. What? My primary focus with Sco is getting her skills really up to skill before venturing too far astray. That way I don't have to waste too much money on new ships and gear.
Once I get my paycheck I might sign up for a month but I'll have to juggle finances first.
The interesting concept I began thinking about a day or two ago was a discussion I had in-game about my avatar Scoville. Someone asked me if she was a man or a woman. I replied that Scoville is a woman but that I was thinking of starting a male alt. The person joked that they weren't sure, in a very polite way, because Sco had both masculine and feminine qualities in her portrait. Then that conversation was over and we all started goofing off again. Yesterday, while I was out making deliveries, I was glancing at the conversation box and some people were joking about how few actual women played the game and a lot of women chimed in that they did but then some guy pointed out that a lot of men have female avatars (the guy who was joking with me about Sco) so I jumped in and quipped, "Yeah and sometimes you just can't tell." Then it kind of hit me that a society - so deeply based around clones and cloning would or could have radically different notions of gender, gender roles, sexuality, etc, etc. Granted these are still human societies and some rely on cloning and cybernetics more or less than others additionally humans can still be born naturally. It's not clear what direction I'm going with this, might be aimless rumination. In anycase I involved myself in the conversation about clones (in particular Sco) potentially not really being concerned about gender, I wanted to make an "Orlando" reference but people probably already think I'm a weirdo. Especially in the case when a clone in the case of capsuleers (pilots in EVE) have a clone waiting in case of pod death - you're grafting a personality into a body (read the article, it explains the concept much clearer than I can). So in any case now Sco identifies as herself first, clone-status and gender-status are other people's concerns not hers. How very Intaki of her.
And that's the end of EVE crazy talk for the time being. Classes start up soon. The weather is getting hot. Hope you are all well.
Recently having a conversation in The Spice Guild group on teh FB and we were talking about pulled pork and variations and whatnots and I started thinking about how I put together my normal version. Now we all know, or at least most of you know two things 1) I love pork the way a fat kid loves cake 2) I totally scammed this recipe from this in 2004:
Ah memories. Over the years my recipe has the fundamental elements of RR's but it's definitely taken on a life of its own (plus I can't afford to buy my shit from Central Market unlike some fancy ass Central Texans - jk) and I've learned to make it different ways for different people. So people like it more spicy, some like it sweeter. Here's a rough outline of the main recipe I use, kind of...sort of...
Here's one problem though - I don't know how markets are where you folks live so you might not be able to get Mexican stuff at your pinche Yankee supermarkets. No worries, just find your local Central/South American grocery store and go there.
To start:
Pork, butt, shoulder (loin is too expensive and not fatty enough) at least four pounds. Cut into bite sized chunks. Put chunks in a gallon zip-lock bag or pot or whatever (personally I've started using the dutch oven I'm gonna cook the dish in because I'm too cheap to buy zip-lock bags). Cover with:
Let sit for one disc of LOTR Director's Cut or two, whatever. Hell go take a nap.
Wake up from nap, watch Boromir's Last Stand while gathering ingredients:
1 small bag "cajun" mirepoix (ain't got no carrots in it) or make it fresh. I don't care. Personally I think the difference is marginal and besides we're not here for the mirepoix are we?
about half a cup of Abuelita J's Spice Mix
1 regular size bottle of real Coke - Mexican Coke if you can get it. To me this makes a difference because Mexican Coke is like Dublin Dr. Pepper - it's made with cane sugar and tastes awesome. If you can't then regular Coke will work too, like a 12oz can.
This depends on your taste but sometimes I will add one can of El Pato tomato sauce. Yellow or green can - green is jalapeno. I want to get my hands on some of their red enchilda sauce. I love El Pato. It's one of the things I buy at the grocery store whether I need it or not, though I always need it for something. If you don't have access to El Pato don't use Hunt's or anything like that, just forgo tomato.
Again, depending on your taste and your guests' taste, I'll add more heat. Usually in the form of a blend of dried chiles and if I'm feeling real froggy a couple of grams of ghost powder.
Throw everything into one pot, I use a Le Creuset 4-qt Dutch Oven for pretty much all my large cooking these days - not because I'm a snoot but because it's such a utilitarian item. You can also use a crock pot. I do not in anyway shape or form recommend using a soup or a stock pot. That's running the risk of burning your pork (or stew or chili) which will potentially ruin the whole thing and then you'll have quarts of frozen gross hidden at the back of your freezer or fridge until you just throw the whole container away because you don't even want to acknowledge what you've done.
You can use the oven but since it's above 90 degrees outside I don't wanna use mine so I use the range. Over a low-medium heat put your pot filled with porky goodness, cover. Once you smell what the Rock is cooking (love you Dwayne Johnson) or if you hear the pot bubble over go give it a stir. I usually check it every half-hour or forty-five minutes just because I'm paranoid about burning and I also have to work with an electric stove that's kind of persnickity. Usually for about, meh, three - four hours.
Now here's the biggest difference between my own and many other recipes - I take my trusty wooden spoon-atula (seriously I've carved and sharpened and shaped this thing over the years into some kind of freakish primitive multi-tool) and slowly smush all the pieces, not to a paste or anything but basically break down the chunks. Stir, cover, remove from heat and let sit while you make rice.
I generally serve mine over rice with a slice of lime and some cilantro. I've also eaten it plain in a bowl, on a bun, enchiladas, burritos, tacos, with or without sour cream, with or with avacado. So yeah. There's the general outline. Enjoy. As always, questions, comments, ideas, tips, and tricks are always welcome.
from: I Am Bored
Dear readers, I have to comment on this fucking thing. I remember when Insane Clown Posse was a fucking joke in the early-mid 90s. I just don't get it, Detroit has put out good music since the city lost Motown. But this, this isn't even white trash. This is like some kind of devolved post-apocalyptic sub-human gang roving the streets of Detroit fighting over scraps of rancid dog meat.
I might have to watch The Family Underground documentary to suss out more about these people. I mean, I can intellectualize white power fanatics, Prussian Blue fans (white nationalists), Heritage not Hate, Dirty South, and various genres of metal but dude.
If I have been - or if I continue to - maintaining radio silence for the next few days or weeks I'm okay, I'm addicted to EVE. I know that LA Noire came out yesterday and I've been waiting five years for it to come out and I'm still a Rockstar whore but it comes down to a financial decision. Plus I know that LA Noire will plummet in price soon enough, even if it's not a GOTY edition (I'm still waiting for the Fallout Vegas edition with all the DLC). Summer will be pretty slim with disposable income, as it will be for a lot of folks, and air conditioning is vital in Texas but you pay through the nose for it. Bastards.
In personal news I received my grades for the semester: 2 A's, 1 B, 1 D. I think D stands for "Didn't care." or "Didn't put any effort." into English class. Apparently analyzing poems and literature isn't my forte (nor do I give a fuck), though I did okay with drama. Throughout my entire life, if I don't care then I won't be bothered. History and Ethnobiology were the A's. Boo-yah. Besides I'm not going to grad school to analyze fucking Joyce. Not that there's anything wrong with that...
School news, whatever, whatever, EVE Online. I wish I had started playing this instead of WoW. I'm plugging along in the free demo, got through the roster of tutorials (there were about six or seven), have a good basic set of skills - still have yet to decide which direction I want to take - still leaning towards explorer/recovery/salvage/looter/courier/pirate hunter that I usually play. Yes I know it sounds like "Firefly" but I was playing this class before I saw it thank you. Pure Han "shot first" Solo scoundrel...this time I think I'm going for Lando as the ultimate goal. I've had a massive amount of fun so far playing EVE but I've also developed an appreciation for the pure monotony of space travel, especially in high security zones where you don't have to worry about pirates or PvP waiting for suckers to warp out of gates (I haven't encountered this yet thank god but I've been sticking to high security zones). I've managed to get a freighter that is pretty quick and cuts travel time by a third but still...whew. Fortunately even during warp travel there's a huge amount of stuff to do. Granted most of this stuff to do is logistical, doing business, mapping routes, planning what cool stuff to buy, etc., etc. so it's not like you're sitting there staring slacked jawed at a loading screen.
Now paperwork and shuttling gear back and forth isn't riveting stuff so where's the fun?
Are you the kind of person who will merrily spend hours building a ship a la Chromehounds? Do you like tweaking power levels, weight/speed ratios, weapon ranges, and more and more? Does the concept of creating the ultimate fitting for your bad ass ship, with off-market mods under the hood make you tingly in your bathing suit area? Oh yeah. I might not be a gear head, grease monkey in RL but in game? Fuck yeah. I usually spend about a hour at the beginning of each play session: checking my settings, doing a systems check, and seeing what new equipment might fit onto my ship of choosing.
A very, very important and humorous saying in chat that I've seen repeated - usually in response to a player lamenting the loss of their ship - "Never fly more than you're willing to lose" (or willing to insure). In EVE you will have your ship(s) destroyed (whether or not you get "podded" aka having your escape pod blown up is another issue). Most players keep a stable of craft for a variety of uses and often (if possible) more than one of the same craft. My current total of ships lost are - two rookie n00b ships, the freighter Miss Ska Tonic, and the freighter The Yellow Rose of Texas. So far I haven't been podded but I bought a back-up clone just in case. I also took out platinum full coverage insurance for my current boat named The Pork Chop Express which is a destroyer kitted out for survey, salvage, and mining. I'm working on tricking out a freighter for speed but will probably save my pennies for a rainy day.
The reason I have kept my losses low is because I haven't ventured into lowsec aka Low Security regions yet and chances are I won't for quite some time. Additionally since my previous losses I have become a lot more cautious warping into unknown space (I taught myself a trick to quick warp in and out of an area - hopefully I won't get caught with my pants down by rats with warp drive scramblers).
Deep space scanning EVE does it right. As many of you folks may know - I game for exploration and by proxy loot. One of the primary ways to do this is to find anomalies, hidden jump gates, gas clouds, deadspace, derelict space stations, space hulks and the like. You find those through a process of sending probes into space (right now I have basic probes) and through a combination of luck, skill, tri/quadrangulation, and profanity. Of course as you gain skills and better gear the process gets easier. There a certain amount of patience and delicacy involved as well as I had to trick myself in thinking (spatially) in three dimensions on the computer.
I also am learning how to target multiple bogeys at the same time. There's got to be an easier way because right now it's like trying to roller skate in a buffalo herd. I might have to map a controller for combat.
Amusing - tracking down a UFO in space. For some reason the idea just hit my absurdity button.
Hope you all are well. More news to follow soon. I promise I'll do some movie reviews ASAP. Promise.
EVE Online - the MMO set in space - that isn't Star Wars or Star Trek. I remember hearing about this game about the same time I was thinking of starting Warcraft but as we all know I ended up going with WoW until I got bored. I'm also bored with all the games I currently own and I have until Tuesday to wait to get my grubby paws on L.A. Noire (narf, narf, narf). So after some poking around on the world wide web I decided to give the free two-week trial of EVE Online a go.
After roughly forty-five minutes of installation (I watched an episode of SVU and ate take away in the interim) I was able to create my character. I went for my standard Scoville Bessler female template only in EVE Online I spent nearly an hour tweaking her look. I have to say that EVE has the best fucking character design template I have ever seen. Seriously. The level to which you can tweak your character's looks (including excellent scars, aging, and freckles!) is impressive but the ability to manipulate your character's expression is top-notch. I managed to give Scoville my common expression of the Red Hook brush-off combined with smirk. I hope I can a pic of her for you folks.
Now the downside of such awesome character design is that you are only creating your portait. Your in-game thingie you move around and interact with the 'verse with is the ship you helm. At the point I am at, I don't have much in the way of ship customization, so basically I'm driving around space in the equivalent of Plymouth Horizon. Wheeee! Sigh. However, I am also thinking of sticking with my crappy ship and just tricking it out with cool tech. Por la Raza!
So, how's trucking around space? I'm still in the tutorial but it's kind of cool. It's a gorgeous game, which is good because I spent a lot of time autopiloting back and forth on training missions. However that time in transit actually was pretty helpful because there is a galactic shit-ton of stuff to read, look at, and star maps to examine. I hope I can actually do some exploring with out total risk of being turned into space dust.
One thing I have to say I really dig about EVE is the openness of the class system in that, there is no class system, no levelling per say, it's all how you play the game. You build skills, talents in order to do what you want to do. Additionally EVE seems to be pretty solo player friendly, which is always an upside to me. I also dig the fact that the game world is player driven and created - to clarify a lot of corporations are player run and they dish out missions. Neat. I'm looking forward to playing some more tonight.
Add:
I've done a bit more searching around and reading of guides, watching official tutorials on teh youtube, and I'm starting to feel a little daunted by EVE. I think I might be getting that "this is gonna be addicting" feeling. IDK though, the monthly fee is $14.95.
Add 2:
Jesus - this Fleet Commander is awesome. This is watching South Koreans play Starcraft.
Impressive space combat:
New MMO new lingo, what the fuck is "carebearing"? I like "ratting" as a term for hunting NPC pirates.
Yeah, I think I'm just gonna stick to flying below the grid and not get involved with any intergalactic conflicts. Hmmm...now should I be a bounty hunter ratter?
"I think the rejoicing we are seeing today is not the celebration of a death, but the healing of a nation."
- Anon Internet comment
So bin Laden is dead thanks to the ass-kickery of the Navy SEALS. Americans rejoice. Teh FB is resounding with divisive "rhetoric". Bells have been ringing all day on my campus. Photographs of Americans bedecked in Stars and Stripes garb are plastered across the news and internet. America! Fuck yeah!
If this is the healing of a nation then it's akin to curing a death of a thousand cuts with a single Spongebob band-aid.
Ten years of war and for what? I'm not belittling our fighting forces and never will - my problem lies with US foreign policies and penchant for international cluster fucks. The SEALS kick ass and shoot the fuck out of a major terrorist - right on but earlier today a friend of mine said, "I didn't even know we were still hunting for him." In class today I didn't hear a single word about bin Laden, nor did I hear or see anything bin Laden related while walking around campus. Hell, I can't remember the last time I thought about bin Laden. Personally I'm more focused on Libya and the impending doom that awaits Africa at the hands of the West and the Chinese.
Perhaps what bothers me the most about the FB and general internet currents is the worrying celebratory bloodlust of an American demographic. It reminds me of the days when a fallen enemy's head would be paraded around on a pike through city streets, with uncivilized clods hurling shit and rotten vegetables at it. Perhaps it was best bin Laden was buried at sea.
I wonder how the fruitcake marketing machine will cash in on bin Laden's death. Are sales of toilet paper with bin Laden's face going to skyrocket? Will "I'm Proud to be an American." ring from sea to shining sea? How soon until a video game comes out documenting the operation?
And, as so many international news sources have asked, now what? After ten years of futile wars can our troops come home to their families? Turn their spears into ploughshares? Can the military spending be curtailed? Can we as Americans learn to focus on a new day in America? Can the right-wingers, tea-partiers, and assorted nutcases stop giving Americans of the Muslim faith shit?
I decided to try something a little different with my slow-cooked pork this last batch. Made a batch of green - not my standard red. It's not "green" per se but then again neither is this recipe - which is a good one and similar to how I made mine. The primary difference between onestopcook's, other traditional puerco verde recipes and mine is the amount of citrus I used. I might have used too much citrus actually or too many differeent kinds. I also didn't have some ingredients I thought I had and wished I had and also cooked it twice in order to get the flavour I wanted. My primary mistake in the first cooking was over-salting and over-estimating the chiles I had purchased. I fixed those two problems by re-cooking it with half a can of pineapple juice and adding a couple of diced serranos.
Step One: The Porkening
If you guys have followed my slow cooked pork recipe or others in the past the prep time is all the same. Carve up a couple lbs of pork loin or butt into chunks. Throw chunks into container suited for marinading. I've started using a six quart stock pot. Add salt, apple cider vinegar, a can of pineapple or mango juice. Normally I'd add Abuelita's but this is not going to be a red dish so none this time.
Leave in fridge. Go to step two.
Step Two: Roasted stuff
An assortment of green chiles - fresh. Whatever you want. I used serranos, cubanelles, and green finger chiles.
About a dozen tomatillos
Two bulbs of garlic - cloved
Two onions - chopped
Prep all these - throw in pan, throw in 350 oven, (I usually add a little water to the bottom of the pan so the stuff doesn't get too burnt), watch first disc of Fellowship of the Ring.
Now here came the experimental part. I've made verde salsa before but never in conjunction with cooking something. My theory was too make the verde salsa like I normally do but then I realized I don't own a food processer large enough for the amount of veggies I roasted. So I said fuck it, tranferred all the roasted veggies to my large Le Cruset, and set a low boil. I added the juice of a grapefruit, a lemon, lemon zest, a touch of white vinegar, and some salt (this is where the oversalting came into play I think). I then rendered the veggies into a mush that wasn't pretty but was pretty aromatic and tasty. Then, using a slotted spoon, I added the pork into the mush. The pork to mush ratio was almost 2:1 so I said fuck it again and just added the marinade to the pot until there seemed like enough liquid. Then I cooked it. Exciting right?
When it was "done" it just didn't taste right. It wasn't gross but it was as salty as an appetizer at Chili's. I left it overnight and then next day added the half can juice and serranos. I'm pretty happy with it now though once I get the recipe down I post it here. I also think I might start considering making a spice mix that can be used for non-red dishes. Hmmm...
Holy batshit fatman HYR is actually going to have some reviews on it?!? Fuck you Robin, I hope the Joker hits you with a crowbar.
TRON: Legacy directed by that dude who did that one thing...who the fuck cares? The Daft Punk score made this movie even before I ever saw the movie. The only way this score could be better is if it was a co-creation with Jesper Kyd. In all honesty TRON: Legacy gave me exactly what I wanted, lots of pretty colours, action that made my gamer reflexes kick in (during the grid race I caught my hands telegraphing the lightcycle paths), and a hot chick with short black hair. Compared with Galaxy 9999 I don't think TRON: Legacy is as good but I'm still gonna buy it as a Saturday afternoon throw in.
Easy A (2010). I enjoyed it. Basically one of those teen dramedies that is too smart for it's own good but for some reason I had a fun time watching it. Emma Stone is a cute lead, the supporting cast is excellent (and really makes the movie in my opinion), and for a movie self-referentially cut from the John Hughes cloth it works.
Doghouse(2009). This is one of those movies that I found at random, said fuck it and started watching it. A crew of blokes go on holiday to a shite village that is taken over by Zombie women ("zombirds" lol), mayhem ensues. Sexist humor, lots of gore, an absurd plot, Danny Dyer, Stephen Graham, gallow's humor, more gore, tits, one scene which actually kind of made me want to barf and laugh at the same time, and a mummified penis. I have to admit I loved this movie. The cast was having a blast, the effects are solid, and I found it very funny even when sober.
Mutants (2009) A small French horror film, well shot and well acted based around a couple facing a virus that turns humans into flesh eating monsters. Not a top notch film, the last act kind of falls apart, but the dynamic between the couple really works throughout the first 2/3 of the movie. Worth watching as an educational piece about not to act as a couple under crisis.
2010: Moby Dick (2010) Whew. Actually it was better than some of the Sci-Fi Channel crap I have seen. Hell it was better than some "films" I've seen. Barry Bostwick plays Captain Ahab in this modern "retelling" of Moby Dick. In a fucked up crappy way it worked - primarily because Bostwick just goes hell bent for leather. If you're a "fan" of giant animals attacking big boats and stuff grade-Z movies then I definitely recommend this. Don't expect much but it was better than Megashark Vs Giant Octopus.
Salt (2010) was fucking dumb. Granted it took a standard sleeper/mole 80s film and tried to bring into the modern era but it just didn't work. It's strange because all the elements were there, especially Chiwetel Ejiofor who is one of my modern top 5 favorite actors, but I think truth be told Angelina and Liev Schreiber dropped the ball. I just couldn't get into the movie. Everytime one or both of them was on screen I just got annoyed and waited to Chiwetel to show up. Skip this clunker and just look up the images of Angelina with a boy-cut on the web.
Zombie Women of Satan (2009). Why, oh why God did I watch this from start to finish? I don't like Troma movies and am not even a huge fan of camp! I feel dirty for watching this movie...and worse for enjoying it. Basic premise, a travelling freak/burlesque show goes to a remote location for a web-interview. Zombirds (yes another British Zombie-Chick movie) appear, mayhem ensues, and it's one of those movies you watch that draws you in because you can't believe it's actually kind of good and funny and it knows it's total shite so it just goes for it. Seriously, this one is bad but intentionally funny. A clown teaching a burlesque dancer how to use a baseball bat to smash in the head of a Zombird? Fucking funny. Just skip the "rock song" in the first section of the movie.
Master of Martial Hearts (2008) aka Zettai shôgeki: Puratonikku hâto - Hashiridasu shukumei. Well, huh. I watched this with my horror/bizarro movie buddy Agent M for funzies at first. OK, we watched the entire 5 episode season because there were big bouncy anime titties in the first fight of the movie and not just fanservice - I'm talking full on titty action! We cheered! It's a good thing there wasn't a titty drinking game we would have died. The basic premise is these anime chicks have to fight one another in order to win this doo-dad that fulfills their deepest heart's wish. Blah blah blah! Fight! Titties! Awesome! And then something happened in episode 4 & 5...a plot materialized out of thin air and the show got thematically dark and twisted. We were kind of blown away. Episode 5 goes waaaaaaaaay sideways. Master of Martial Hearts is fanservice junk but that unicorn rare really good fanservice junk.
Santa's Slay (2005) Oh yeah? You wanna fuckin judge me? Watch the first part of the movie. Beats the shit out of The Santa Clause, Jingle All the Way, or the modern botched-abortion of The Grinch. Is it bad? Yeah...is it awesome? Fuck yeah. Seriously, some of the kills in this movie are kick ass. The movie falters when somekind of plot gets cobbled together. The opening segment is priceless though and would make for a great mash-up with Elf.
Sam's Lake (2006) Meh. Skip.
The Possession of David O'Reilly (2010) A British shaky cam shocker that was literally shot in the dark. Disappointing because the movie had a lot of potential.
The Horde (2009) A French Zompocalypse movie. Cop and robbers vs Zombies. Satisfyingly gory, violent, kind of bizarre, kick ass Frenchies, and quite enjoyable (even though I am zombied out). Well worth watching and frankly it was better than the last few Romero dumps.
There are a few movies worth full review coming up that I want to watch/review including Miike's 13 Assassins which looks to be pretty paint by numbers Seven Samurai/47 Ronin knock off but hey there's a reason those films work.
I noticed my apartment was smelling...not so good. Since the weather has gotten warm here in Texas I haven't been able to have my windows open the way I did over the winter. Plus I spent the last couple of days in my underpants, unshowered, eating pizza on the floor, and playing video games. I'm out of Frebreeze (which does not double as cologne or anti-persperant) and I had one of those afternoons where I realized I'm teetering on the precipice of squalor.
I took out the trash, cleaned the kitchen, and came up with a brilliant idea. I changed my AC filter and taped a couple of dryer sheets to the filter. Now my place smells like Bounce dryer sheets. It's an easy trick and dryer sheets are cheaper than sprays or those stupid plug in air fresheners (both of which make me kind of ill with the chemical smell). I suppose if I had some Florida water or something like that I could just spray it on the filter but since I don't this is a pretty good option.
Apologies for falling off the grid lately folks. It's getting to be that time of the semester when I have a paper a week. I have some reviews in the pipe. Yup. Hope all of you are well and safe and happy. xoxoxo Joshua
I love a documentary that makes me confused in an intellectual way. Yoav Shamir's Defamation is one such documentary. Mr. Shamir is an Israeli man who made a documentary about global anti-Semitism and it gets a lot more complicated than that. A lot more complicated. A lot more fucking complicated. Crown Heights complicated. American Jewish way vs Israeli Jewish way complicated. Varying opinions of Judaism, left and right Israeli views...complicated. "Self-hating" (?) Jewish academics who are pro-Palestine.
What I love(?) about this documentary is Shamir talks to people from Abe Foxman (head of the ADL) to Rabbi Hecht to talking about Anti-Zionism vs Anti-Semitism. Granted, Shamir might be an Israeli Michael Moore, but as an leftie-American I seem to trust foreign views of America more than I trust American views of America and I trust non-American views of history a little more than Ken Burns specials.
Defamation is a difficult documentary to process. I wholeheartedly recommend this docu.
In case you didn't get my FB update, I went to the local grocery store today and picked up about ten pounds of beef for a similar cost. I just finished prepping/slicing the meat and have two experiments marinading as I write. I'll try to keep posting as the dishes progress but here is the current status:
I'm going to attempt to make my version of slow-cooked pork with beef. I was thinking of making carne guisada but I've had a couple of beers and already prepped the beef the same way I do my pork. I believe that the dish will turn out well though I'm not sure if the beef will have the same texture as my pork. The only difference is I used pineapple/guava juice instead of pear juice in the marinade.
The other bucket of meat is currently in one block with more stab wounds than Trotsky in it. I'm going to make first attempt at brining/corning beef. There's about a cup of ground sea salt, a cup of mixed peppercorns, two cups of cider vinegar, and a beer thrown in the mixture. After my brief blog break I'll probably add a bulb of garlic, just for fun.
Next step (aside from garlic peeling) is going to be prepping my rack of pork ribs.
I hope all of you, and yours are well and safe and fixin to eat something tasty.
