Carol

Spicy Peanut Dip

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:15:41 GMT

Spicy Peanut Dip was not bad, but it isn't perfect.

I followed the recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Ingredients:
1 cup unsweetened peanut butter
1 bunch scallions, including some of the greens, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
2 serrano chilies, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce
juice and zest of 2 limes
1 teaspoon turmeric

Mix everything, then blend in a food processor. Add warm water to thin the sauce if necessary. Stop while some flecks of green remain. Taste and adjust proportions of peanut butter and lime.

My results:
I don't have a food processor, so I used my blender. I had to add quite a bit of water to get the blender to blend. The resulting sauce tasted great when I tried it plain, but was so thin that it slid right off when I tried to dip a slice of green pepper in it. So I added more peanut butter to thicken it up.

But after I thickened it, I didn't like the flavor as well. Peanut butter was too dominant. I was out of limes, so I tried adding a little lemon. Still not perfect so I also added a little more soy.

At that point, I still thought the peanut butter flavor was too dominant, but I decided to stop.

I'll probably try this again. Two possibilities come to mind. One is just to leave everything chunky. I'm a little worried about biting in to a chunk of serrano, but Uly tells me not to be a chicken. The other possibility (Uly's idea) is to use a commercial or homemade chili paste so the hot parts are pureed, and leave the rest of the ingredients chunky.

Though it wasn't perfect, I did like it, so I'll probably make it again.

Tomato Temperatures

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:51:55 GMT

I just read that tomatoes will continue to ripen if kept at room temperature rather than in the refrigerator. This is exciting news; maybe it will lead to more flavorful supermarket tomatoes!

I feel silly; I should have known this. My family stored our garden-grown tomatoes on an oversized windowsill in the sun room to help them ripen. But my parents told me it was the sunshine that did it, and I never revisited that thought. I have occasionally thought about putting tomatoes on a windowsill, but never found it very convenient.

But knowing that the key is temperature, I can easily store tomatoes with the fruit.

Mmm, ripe tomatoes.

Food

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:39:34 GMT

LJ has been too quiet lately. Yes, I am in a lousy position to complain, since I am 99.8% lurker. But I enjoy my passive entertainment.

I have not accomplished much of anything useful lately except cooking. Don't know why, but I've been tired, burned out, and unmotivated for a while now. But I have done a lot of cooking. Well, a lot by my standards. The reason it feels like a ton of cooking is that I have tried a ton of new recipes.

I do better when I cook with a recipe. I don't always follow it religiously, but I am not yet a sufficiently expert cook that I can reliably turn out good food by winging it. Well, I can wing it with recipes that I know well, but I don't have a tremendously large stock of those. It is likely to grow, however, because I'm now the main cook and menu planner. Ulysses is still cooking, but our roles have reversed.

Because Uly used to be the one who was always trying new things and cooking complicated recipes, I used to be more conservative and less ambitious. He was the cooking aficionado and my role was to make sure we had something to eat. But recently I've been trying all sorts of things, and having a great time doing it.

It's funny; for a while I kept flipping between feeling impatient at how long it would take me to try all the new recipes I wanted to try (because we could only cook so much food), and being overwhelmed at trying to coordinate everything and wishing that we didn't need to eat _every_ night.

Anyway, since LJ has been quiet and I have cooking on the brain, I might start posting about it more.

What follows is one of my favorites of our new dishes.

Ingredients:

* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
* 1/3 cup cashews or mixed nuts, coarsely chopped (I used cashews)
* 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 medium onion, diced
* 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
* 1 teaspoon freshly ground coriander
* 1 teaspoon garam masala
* 1 cup water
* 1/4 cup raisins
* 1/2 cup chopped carrots
* 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
* 1/2 cup chopped fresh green beans
* 1/2 cup chopped zucchini
* 1 cup chopped potatoes
* 4 ounces paneer or tofu, cubed
* 1/2 cup coconut milk

Directions:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, and nuts to the skillet, cook and stir until the nuts are golden brown. Add onion, and cook until tender. Stir in tomato sauce, cayenne pepper, turmeric, coriander, and garam masala.

2. Add 1 cup water and the vegetables to the skillet. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until the potatos are soft. Then add the paneer or tofu.

3. Add the coconut milk, bring to a boil, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Continue to simmer until the mixture thickens. Season with salt to taste.

That long list of ingredients looks intimidating, but don't let it put you off. The veggies don't need to be measured or chosen according to the recipe, you basically just want about 3 cups of veggies chopped quite small so they'll cook well when simmered.

I use tofu in place of paneer, because I never have paneer. Paneer, like tofu, is high in protein, mild tasting, and doesn't melt.

The only annoying thing is that this recipe uses ~1/3 of a can of coconut milk. So far I've always dealt with that by cooking another coconut milk dish the next day. However, the original recipe says that instead of coconut milk, you can substitute 1/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup cream.

Eggplant Bharta take 1

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:06:35 GMT

Uly and I have resolved to cook more. That's a periodic resolution for us. It's one we always keep - for a while. Hopefully this time we will be keeping it permanently (because one of our motives is to cook healthier food than we tend to order when we eat out). I am actually quite excited, because I'm in a mood to try new recipes.

Last week canyonwren came to visit, and we went out for Indian food, and I tasted eggplant bhartha for the first time. I thought it was really tasty, and wanted to make it myself.

The recipe was as follows:

INGREDIENTS

* 1 large eggplant
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
* 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
* 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste (I used chopped fresh ginger and garlic)
* 1 tablespoon curry powder (I used garam masala from World Spice)
* 1 tomato, diced
* 1/2 cup plain yogurt
* 1 fresh jalapeno chile pepper, finely chopped
* 1 teaspoon salt (That seemed like a lot, so I didn't put the entire teaspoon in)
* 1/4 bunch cilantro, finely chopped

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. Place eggplant on a medium baking sheet. Bake 20 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until tender. Remove from heat, cool, peel, and chop.
3. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Mix in cumin seeds and onion. Cook and stir until onion is tender.
4. Mix ginger garlic paste, curry powder, and tomato into the saucepan, and cook about 1 minute. Stir in yogurt. Mix in eggplant and jalapeno pepper, and season with salt. Cover, and cook 10 minutes over high heat. Remove cover, reduce heat to low, and continue cooking about 5 minutes. Garnish with cilantro to serve.
____

I followed the recipe pretty closely, except for the marked changes, plus one more embarrassing one - I accidentally used vanilla yogurt in place of plain! But none of us noticed until after the meal. The dish had a slight sweet flavor, but so does a lot of Indian food.

The other issue was that the mixture started to stick and burn onto the bottom of the pan during the 10 minutes of cooking on high heat in step 4. Because of that, I reduced the heat a lot earlier than it said to. Maybe it's because the tomatoes gave off so little juice. My supermarket tomato remained in discreet tomato chunks and did not turn juicy or blend in even at the end of the process.

I was really quite happy with the results.

Moon

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:05:42 GMT

I went to see this movie based on Chris and Jessica's recommendation. It was an excellent movie, very cleverly, but good lord it was grueling. I don't want to say why, because I can't without spoiling things, so I'll just say that I found the main character's situation to be really emotionally wrenching.

Ex Nihilo Recycled Sculpture Garden

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:44:54 GMT

Ulysses and I went to visit Ex-Nihilo Sculpture Park a couple weeks ago. It was amazing. We took pictures, but a) the artist allows people to take pics but not to post them, and b) the website has better pics than I can take anyway.

Heavy Things

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:00:49 GMT

Uly and I could use help moving a heavy file cabinet, which we aren't confident we can handle with the two of us.

Uly is going up to Bellingham on Sat to help Sarah and James move... I'm not sure I will. I'd like to, but it's been a long spring and I'm really ready for a break. I'll see on Saturday morning.

-cjo

Moving

Sun, 31 May 2009 04:48:20 GMT

Uly and I are moving. Our landlady gave us notice that she planned to sell the house, so we started apartment hunting. Then, after we found one and put an application in, she told us she worked things out so she would be able to keep it, and asked if we wanted to stay. She's not jerking us around - just the opposite, actually. She's a realtor who has had financial trouble due to the market slump. She wanted to keep the house but wasn't sure she could swing it... but I guess she managed to do so. But by the time she changed her plans, Uly and I had already gotten excited about moving to the new place. It's quite close to where we live now, but it has two bedrooms and is even closer to Greenlake Park.

We moved a bunch of boxes today... are planning to rent a U-Haul in a week or two. We got off to a good start, but I crashed hard in late afternoon, probably because I'm just getting over being sick. We've slimmed down a lot compared to when we had our house, but we still have a fair bit of Stuff.

Watchmen

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 06:18:35 GMT

Uly and Jen Hopkins and I are going to see The Watchmen at the Cinerama at 8:10 Saturday. If anyone cares to join us, the more the merrier. I recommend buying tickets in advance.

Milk (the movie)

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 06:04:09 GMT

Uly, Jen and I just went to see Milk, a movie about Harvey Milk, first openly gay US politician elected to a major office. It was amazing - compelling and poignant.

Frost/Nixon on the other hand was... eh, not bad exactly, but pretty dull. Nixon was the only character of interest, really.

Shopping

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 06:25:43 GMT

I know it's coming up on Christmas, so I should be Christmas shopping... instead I bought myself a fancy coat.

A while back I retired my beloved green coat. It showed its wear in various ways; one of which was that the slight fuzz had worn away into dark shiny patches that made the coat look dirty even when it had just been cleaned.

Some time after that, I picked up a $10 jacket from Uly's favorite discount store, Steve & Barry's. Or maybe that's Steven Barry's, I forget. Technically it isn't a discount store, but it's priced like one. Now this jacket was a real bargain for $10, but it was, well, $10. It had various weak points, but the #1 flaw was that it did not have a warm fuzzy hood. It had some weird plastic thing that mostly wouldn't stay on, and didn't do much except flop down over my eyes when it did. I wanted something warmer.

Now left to my own devices, I'd probably have picked up something at the mall. But Uly lobbied for REI. He felt that anything available at the mall would be only a minor upgrade in warmth. Upon reflection this made a lot of sense. I hate being cold, and nice jackets tend to be pricey regardless of where you get them. Also, they last for years, especially if you are someone who hates shopping but becomes emotionally attached to jackets. So instead of paying $lots_of_money for a warmer jacket, why not pay 2*$lots_of_money for a MUCH warmer jacket? So we went shopping, and after 15 years of living in Seattle, I made my first ever really expensive purchase from REI.

And it's heavenly. I immediately put it to the test today, when I waited outside for a bus which never came. It is an enormous upgrade over my other jacket, and I am so glad I have it. Also, it's white. Black is lovely for certain things such as velvet dresses, but I hated wearing a black jacket. I felt so drab and invisible while I crossed streets in the dark.

Now I just need boots...

WallE

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:34:45 GMT

Some movies are fun but forgettable. Some linger on the mind. WallE proved to be one of the latter, and the more time passes, the more I realize just how much I liked it.

I hear that there's been a certain reaction to the movie by people who think it's derogatory toward fat people. I don't think the movie was derogatory. I do think it may unintentionally reinforce certain sterotypes, and that's unfortunate. But the movie had so many good qualities that I am easily willing to forgive this flaw.

"WallE" is in part a romance between two robots. But more than that, "WallE" is about the search for love and meaning. The movie tells us that we have forgotten how to love, how to connect, how to value life, but that we can remember.

At the start of the movie, WallE is lonely. He cannot help but be lonely, since he is entirely alone on a devastated planet, save for one small bug whose company he treasures. He longs for love and connection, but the closest he can come is the vicarious experience of an old video of "Hello Dolly." Over and over, he plays the moments showing the touch of a hand, showing a joyful dance.

When Eve (another robot) shows up, he immdediately loves her, simply because she exists. He persists in the face of her violent reaction and his own fears. After long pursuit, she responds briefly, but then becomes a victim of her own programming. Despite her violent, destructive responses, she is designed to seek signs of life on earth. When WallE shows her a lone surviving fledgeling plant, she siezes it and then shuts down. From there the tale spins off into space and into the efforts of humanity to reclaim the Earth, with a robotic remnant of the evil B&L corporation appearing as villain.

Most stories of environmental degradation offer a choice between two negatives. Either make sacrifices now, or suffer worse consequences later. Because humans are lousy at delayed gratification, we are often unwilling to make sacrifices.

WallE is one of the few stories which offers a different perspective. What WallE tells us is that to take action is not a sacrifice, because it is in our nature to act, and we gain fulfillment from doing so. Soon after his introduction, before he realizes he can do more, the ship's captain clings to his sole responsibility of making a daily shipwide announcement. Though he is well aware of how tedious and pointless this job is, he clings to it because, as he puts it, "It's the one thing I get to do around here." When he sees chance to take responsibility for more and act to accomplish something worthwhile, he embraces it eagerly. WallE tells us that work brings more true joy than play.

The joy of action shows itself in small ways as well as grand ones. In one scene, a blossoming couple learns how to splash in a pool. The simple joy of kicking their feet in water brings a giddy fulfillment they do not get from sitting passively.

The movie tells us that human fulfillment does not come from material luxury, but from the loving connections that we make with each other. The humans on the space cruiser have every physical desire met, yet they are bored, whiny, and apathetic. They stare at videoscreens even when the person they speak to is right beside them. They have forgotten how to reach each other.

Yet the love of touch, the value of a single moment, the treasured companionship that WallE craves are all human values. He learned them from humanity, albeit secondhand through an old video. WallE's gift to the people he meets is to remind them of this connection, to give back what they have forgotten. He reaches out to take the hand of a man who's path he crosses, and soon that man reaches out to hold the hand of a woman. The message is that we have forgotten, but we can remember.

The love of the fragile little plant which the heroes try to preserve, the love of two robots for each other, the love of humanity for the Earth, the love of an ordinary couple who learn to reach out to each other in ordinary ways, to join hands and meet each others' eyes, all forms a web of connections. EVE protects the fledgling plant because she is programmed to do so. WallE joins her at risk of his own life because he loves her. They touch the lives of the humans on the ship, and through their influence, people learn to act.

Where most tales of environmental degradation present only the potential for doom and destruction, WallE tells us that by taking action and responsibility, by loving and treasuring the earth, we can find our way to a richer, more fulfilling life.

That is a rare and wonderful message.

However, to accomplish all this, the story did have to take a couple of short cuts. These were dramatically necessary for the story; or at least, I for one can't think of a better route.

The first is that in a movie where humans have completely destroyed the earth, the story lets every living human off the hook in terms of responsibility. Since they were born well after the earth was trashed, this makes sense logically. Nonetheless, it rang a bit hollow to me. If humanity has enough gumption to restore the earth, it follows that they had (if they had chosen to use it) enough gumption to resist the influence of the corporate scumbags in the first place. Thus to me, hope for the future is logically tied to shame for humanity's past. The presentation of humans as innocent suckers of an evil corporation ignores that the corporate scumbags are in fact part of humanity, not to mention a more widespread responsibility that cannot be exclusively attributed to one megacorp.

The movie doesn't entirely duck this line of reasoning. It is reflected, though not stated outright, in the subdued shock the humans show when they first see what has become of Earth. That moment is quickly glossed over though, moving on to a hopeful and comic moment in which the Captain tells the children they will learn to grow all sorts of plants, like pizza plants.

The second short cut is that obesity is used as a visual metaphor for passivity and overconsumption. It is true that the humans are likable characters who rise to the occasion. It is true that they are visually endearing, since their appearance has been designed to be evocative of infants. I don't think the movie condemned the characters.

I do think, though, that it obliquely condemned their fat. We are not supposed to look down on them personally, but we are supposed to reject the life of passivity, complacency, and overconsumption which led to their obesity. The movie takes the view that they are misguided, not evil, for drinking cupcakes-in-a-cup, but it also takes the view that they should stop.

Yet in real life, obesity has little to do with overconsumption of environmental resources.

I don't think the moviemakers really wanted to condemn fat people. I think they simply needed a visual metaphor for a world where humanity was sunk into a state of passive apathy. Baby-like obese humans fit the bill. Yet as endearing as these fat baby-shaped adults were, I do think there was some potential to reinforce negative stereotypes about fat people as lazy and greedy.

To me this was a small fly in the ointment though. The movie was lovely, the message of love and responsibility was lovely, and I recommend it to anyone who likes visually beautiful animation.

I'd planned to finish with some reflections on RL environmental choices, but I think I'll save that for another day.

Comics Favorites

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:52:30 GMT

paulcarp asked about favorite comics, & I decided to make a separate post of it.

My all time favorites would be stuff everyone's already heard of - Sandman, other Gaiman/McKean collaborations such as Signal to Noise, Mr. Punch, McKean's solo work Cages. All stand out as being beautiful artistically and rich in content.

However, art does not have to be as rich and gorgeous as McKean's to satisfy me. There is a class of art which I think of as "standard comics art," and it can be done poorly or done well. mcjulie once did a fantastic deconstruction and reconstruction of a a comics babe which illustrated this beautifully. I couldn't find it on the http://gothhouse.org site though. By "standard comics" I guess I mean detailed panels, solid outlines, full color, mainly realistic presentation even when the subject is fantastic... I'm not sure how else to put it. As long as it is done well, I find it satisfying.

Other work I've really liked:

The Rabbi's Cat, Johann Safran?: a wryly funny story about a cat which learns to speak, and which (of course) promptly begins to tell lies, much to the Rabbi's dismay. Well, what do you expect from a cat? I put this one first because it's relatively recent, so you might stumble across it (or the sequel, which I don't have). I found it in Barnes and Noble, too. It was neat to see an artsy comic in B&N.

The Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons: I reread this recently. It stood the test of time remarkably well. It captures the teetering-on-the-edge-of-armageddon mood of the 80's, with the threat of nuclear war driving the story. The art is rich in detail, all of it story-relevant and not mere clutter.

Finder, Carla Speed McNeil. SF setting with a heavy emphasis on cultural conflicts. Her art sometimes gets criticized because it varies in the level of realism used. Personally I didn't consider that a flaw. Over time I think she drifted toward a more steady style, though. These stories are just plain fun, and they also are very "female", in that the male protagonist is designed to appeal to women (as compared to many male protagonists which are designed to appeal to other guys).

The Tale of One Bad Rat, Bryan Talbot. Simple but beautiful art, and a compelling story about a girl trying to overcome a difficult past.

Transmetropolitan, Warren Ellis: sf series with an insane journalist modeled after Hunter
S. Thompson. Believe it or not, I actually learned a little about political journalism from this. Not a lot, but a little. Again, detailed creative art.

Jamie Delano's Hellblazer stories: some fantastic work. Dave McKean did the covers, and also the interior of the final issue of his run. I forget who all worked on the others, but there's a set of three issues bouncing around in time which I loved for the combination of art and story. Unfortunately, I haven't much liked anything else I've read by Delano.

Mail Order Bride, I forget who. It's a bit more cynical than most of my favorites, but the lovely art and bizarre, compelling story kept me turning the pages.

There's more, of course... but not as much more as I wish there were. The comics industry seems dominated by two types of stories: superhero stories with gorgeous covers and solid interior art, and depressing slice-of-life stories with deliberately ugly art. I don't mind superhero stories, but they aren't a big passion. I don't care for depressing slice-of-life stories, nor for ugly art.

Oh, make that three types of story, the third being best summed up as "violent." I don't care for Sin City, for example, despite the lovely art. I think the art for Sin City is fantastic, especially in the earlier books. The story content, on the other hand, is just a bit much for me. Ditto for Stray Bullets.

The Three Stages of Comics

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:54:19 GMT

Stage one: finding them. When I'm in a comic store looking for something neat, my choice is heavily influenced by how beautiful or engaging the artwork is. If I already have a recommendation, it's different, but if I'm picking blind it will be based heavily on art.

Stage two: reading them. At this point, suddenly the beauty of any given panel of art matters much less, and the quality of the art as illustration matters much more. I'm in the grip of the story, and the purpose of comics art is to tell a story. Art which is gorgeous as art can be thin and dull in story content, whereas art which isn't so much to my taste can be compelling.

Stage three: rereading them. At this point, the allure of beauty and the quality of illustration matter about equally. Either will motivate me to pick up the work again.

The comics I love best are the ones which are both beautiful and which tell a complex, well-illustrated story. Comics at their best are rich in nuance and detail, so that even though the word count is low, the content is rich.

Entertainment

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:27:22 GMT

In Bruges (movie): ummm.... it was good, and funny, and well acted... and eeew. Not a feel-good movie. Not ultra-depressing, but it reminds me of why I shouldn't go see gangster comedies.

See, there's this hit man, and he's done something bad, and he feels really guilty about it. And he goes around all angst-ridden and puppy-dog eyed, and gets into trouble in Bruges where he's supposed to be lying low, but you feel sorry for him, because his puppy-dog eyes are so big... and his buddy is just genuinely a nice guy. Well, except that his buddy is a hit man too. But if you overlook that, he's really nice. So you feel sorry for them both. And then one thing leads to another, and both their lives are at risk... and it's just one big comedic tragedy. Except of course that they're hit guys and brought it all on themselves.

Well worth seeing if you are prepared to indulge a morbid sense of humor.

WallE (movie): lovely, poignant, and sad. It has lots of funny moments, but it's definitely not a comedy.

Circus Contraption (genuine big-top circus!): morbidly fantastic. Truly delightful.

HULK SMASH! or Why Bruce Banner is a Proper Angsty Hero

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:22:26 GMT

Uly and I saw The Hulk last night, and I enjoyed it quite a lot.

The fight scenes, to be honest, were a bit dull. I liked the first one the most, in which military personnel chase Bruce Banner though Rio de Janeiro as he attempts not to transform. Most of them, however, did not show much creativity or variety. Instead they settled into a rut: military guys shoot stuff at the hulk. Stuff bounces off harmlessly. Rinse and repeat.

What made the movie delightful was two thins. First, it was a sweet little romance. Second, Ed Norton was a delight as Bruce Banner.

I'm a sucker for angsty heroes who suffer nobly, but there's a fine line to walk. If the hero merely wallows in his own misery like a pathetic loser, what you have is not a hero but a whiner with superpowers. On the other hand, if there's no emotional component to his suffering, what you have is merely an action scene with no angst.

What you need for a proper angsty hero is someone who actively strives his best, who throws his heart into trying to succeed, but who can't because the deck is stacked against him. And who, knowing that, nonetheless never quits trying. In short, you need a story which makes the viewer feel sorry for the hero, not one in which the hero feels sorry for himself.

The Hulk set that up well. There's lots of gratuitous angst, with Bruce Banner shivering in shock after being traumatized as The Hulk, Bruce Banner collapsing in a shower, having flashbacks, overcome with emotion as he first approaches his beloved wife after a long separation...

But what you also have is this: Bruce Banner actively working to control his condition before the story starts. He is in hiding as a factory worker in Brazil, but he doesn't just resign himself to a doomed life of manual labor; he tries to fix things. He studies marital arts to learn to control his temper, he finds an anonymous source on the net to help him study his medical condition. Meanwhile, he gazes longingly at a photo of his wife, but he also studies Spanish and pets his dog.

As for his wife, the reason he doesn't go to her is that he correctly decides that it would be too dangerous. When circumstances change and they do come together, he's immediately proven correct.

Liv Taylor is also lovely as Banner's loyal wife Liz. Blessed with a loyal wife who's willing to put herself on the line for him, Banner does not tell her that he has become a monster and she must leave him. He does not tell her that she must return to safety because his is a life of danger which she cannot endure, and he must face it alone.

Instead, he hugs her and kisses her and is overjoyed to have her with him. He is blessed with a wife who will walk through fire for him despite seeing him turn into a monster. In turn he respects and regards her enough to accept her help.

In short, through the entire movie, there is never a moment where I thought "Why doesn't he just..." or "If only he didn't feel he had to..." because he is always seeking out solutions, not wallowing in self-pity.

The movie ends on a note of hope. It's a shame, though, that the final scene didn't get placed after the credits. Quite a lot of people stayed through the credits hoping for one last snippet which never came - because it had already been played.

Kucinich Pursues Impeachment of Bush

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:40:03 GMT

Last night congressman Kucinich spent around 4 hours proposing 35 articles of impeachment against George Bush. There has been little media coverage, and nothing much seems likely to come of it, but it's interesting nonetheless. What he had to say:

http://chun.afterdowningstreet.org/amomentoftruth.pdf

Sun, 11 May 2008 20:54:19 GMT

From last Saturday evening up until this morning, Uly and I have had friends visiting from out of town. One made it for a whole week, the other could only come for part of the weekend. It's been a blast. The only fly in the ointment is that Uly was sick during the early part of the week, and I am sick now.

Mostly the fun came from seeing two very cool people. Both were guys we met through Nexus (the online gaming server that Uly and I play on). One we had met before and one we had not. Both are great company.

In addition to just hanging around, chatting, and wandering the city, on Thursday we went on a gray whale watching cruise. I'd rather have gone to see the orcas, but we were just a few days early for the orca watching season. It was an amazing sight.

One of them is, among other things, a musician. You can hear some of his music at:

http://gearheadmusic.com/audio.html

We missed seeing much of MikeK, who was down for the weekend but was busy with family obligations.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:49:38 GMT

Sharkins loaned me "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke. I just finished it. It's a delightful, comfortable, engaging, endearing, just plain fun book. It's a quick read despite its length. I'm not sure what makes it quite so delightful, but it is.

Tai Chi

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:34:29 GMT

I've signed up for a tai chi class. I was inspired by the tai chi session that Steven Barnes held at Orycon. He does that routinely at local cons - holds a tai chi class at 9:00 AM which is usually the first bit of programming. I always think about going and never do. At Orycon I finally went.

We got a bit of tai chi, but we also got a wonderful inspirational lecture. That term (inspirational lecture) is riddled with connotations of cheesy slogans and high school pep talks, but that isn't what I mean. He spoke in a highly compelling and charismatic fashion about how strength begins in the mind, about developing a relationship with one's body, about generosity and honesty of spirit, and more things than I can sum up in this post.

All that wasn't exactly about tai chi, except that to him, it was. It related to how he learned these things, and the lessons implicit in the study of any physical art. I was sufficiently inspired that I sought out a tai chi class, though it took me some time to get around to it.

I'm not sure what I think yet, but I am glad I signed up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 17:38:23 GMT

See subject :)

Car Mechanic

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 04:38:00 GMT

Can anyone recommend a car mechanic? Our old mechanic closed up shop, and we really need to bring in our car for some long overdue preventive maintenance.

Bees

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 04:22:46 GMT

Cithra has been kind enough to pass on her issues of Science magazine for me to enjoy, and the latest (well, the latest to me, anyway) issue has two nifty articles about honeybees.

The first relates to the payoff of polyandry in the harsh and pragmatic realm of establishing new colonies. When bees swarm, a mere 20% of the swarms succeed in founding a new colony. The rest die of starvation during their first winter. This article presents evidence that polyandry gives bees a strong edge in this critical task.

Honeybees, like many social insects, are polyandrous. The queen bee mates with multiple drones, and some offspring result from each drone she mates with.

From the standpoint of genetic altruism, polyandry should be selected against, because it decreases the degree to which the hive members are related, and therefore the extent to which cooperative caring for offspring is rewarded.

From a genetic perspective, if an individual cares for a close relative who shares that individual's genes, and thus helps ensure that this relative successfully breeds and that the offspring survive, said individual helps propagate some of their own genes. In contrast, if an adult bee risks her life to protect young bees who are unrelated to her, she gains no genetic reward. This aspect of genetics should select against polyandry.

Yet since bees are in fact polyandrous, genetic diversity must benefit the hive in some fashion. To test how polyandry affected the ability of new swarms to establish successful hives, researchers artificially inseminated queen bees. Twelve bees received sperm from fifteen drones
from a mix of colonies, while nine bees received sperm from just one drone. After putting the queens and a retinue of worker bees through a process designed to simulate the natural swarming conditions and behavior, researchers then studied the behavior of the new hives.

The results? Genetically diverse bees built roughly 30% more comb (or hive). Within the first two weeks, genetically diverse bees had stockpiled 37% more food. When a brief period of abundant foraging opportunities came along late in July, genetically diverse bees resumed
building comb, while the more genetically uniform bees did not. Genetically diverse bees reared higher numbers of young, until by the end of August, the diverse hives had 26,700 bees per colony, while the more uniform hives had a paltry 5,300.

Half of the genetically uniform hives perished in a cold period in late August. All of the diverse hives survived. By mid-December, all the remaining genetically uniform hives exhausted their food supplies and starved. At this point, the more diverse hives too began to struggle, but three of them made it through the winter and survived until the study's end in May.

The next question on the table - why are the benefits so dramatic?
Part of the answer may lie in bee individuality.

Bees don't just get slotted into a role from birth. Rather, they move from one profession to another over the course of their lives. Young bees tend the queen, older ones construct and defend the hive, and finally, most bees end their lives as foragers. However, not every bee
follows the same precise career path. And the odds that any given bee will take on any given task in the hive have been linked to their genotype, or the specific genetic inheritance that bee receives. Given that, the authors found it natural to speculate that some bees just aren't much good at some tasks.

The second article related to learning. Yep, bees can learn. They're actually quite bright, in fact. Young bees, however, can't learn to sting. Mama drugs it out of them.

Queen bees emit a pheromone known as queen mandibular pheromone, or QMP. It has a whole slew of effects, and young bees get the privilege of not only feeding the queen, but licking her and distributing the pheromone to other colony members. Evidently, high concentrations of QMP are unpleasant. Left unsuppressed, the researchers speculate, the unpleasant stimulus could prompt a sting response from the bees who tend her.

Fortunately, one of the side effects of the pheromone in young bees is to suppress aversive learning; i.e., the type of learning which, in bees, leads to stinging. Meanwhile, learning related to food takes place through different brain pathways, and goes on just fine.

Fascinating creatures... though I still get a bit twitchy when they hover! (Not that I'd mind... with all of the talk about colony dieoff, I just wish I saw more bees around locally.)

Shakespeare in the Park

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 16:36:14 GMT

Uly and I are going to go see The Two Gentlemen of Verona at Lincoln Park at 7:00 PM tonight. A couple weeks ago we went to see Richard III and had a great time - and it's free! If anyone would like to join us, give us a call.

Free Bookcases

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:43:26 GMT

Hi,

Ulyh and I are getting rid of some bookcases in preparation for
moving into a smaller space. They're about 7 feet high, 5 shelves,
white pressboard, lightweight but quite durable and in good condition.
Our transportation options are limited - it would really help if anyone
who wants them could find a way to pick them up. That said, if anyone
wants them and can't get them, we will try to arrange something.