shudder.

“and the whole world has to answer right now just to tell you once again…”

i knew he was crazy. i didn’t actually realise he should be in an institution.

try and make it through the michael jackson auction without a jaw drop or look of concern on your face.

he’s bad.

cheers, bb.

eat.

before - after

they’re so crunchy. i’ve got at least sixteen left and they still taste good a couple of hours later.

i also have a buttload of mixture,  so i might make spring rolls tomorrow.

its the same recipe as before, but i used the proper wonton wrappers instead of trying to make my own pastry this time. i’d recommend it.

it took a while but i put on a jared diamond lecture and it went smoothly until the scaldings during deep frying. for some reason about a minute in they really start fizzing and bubbling. i stood most of the way across the kitchen after that and just turned them a couple of times before slotted-spooning out.

i should have done the dipping sauce though.

cheers, gastronomy domine, bb.

[update: what do you think about jared diamond, wemp and isum? cheers, io9]

“chicago’s shedd aquarium admits panda exhibit a ghastly mistake”

its old, but exactly what i needed this dreary morning.

cheers, onion.

be interested in this

cheers, bb.

teach.

my notes from this morning.

as you probably could have guessed i did nothing over easter in terms of work. well, not enough to actually make a dent in what i need to do anyway.

it all started again on monday with a lesson given by shit sandwich and some idiot called karen.

here’s a quote from shit sandwich early into the ‘lecture’:

“its not just weighing the pig, its feeding the pig“.

me either. welcome back to college.

be interested in this.

the rape of lucretia by titian

i was trying to find the quote for twat so looked up rape on wikipedia, thinking it might be in the ‘history of’.

i skimmed through it and then started back from the beginning. it’s an interesting article.

did you know that “in ancient history rape was viewed less as a type of assault on the female, than a serious property crime against the man to whom she belonged“? or that in fourteenth century england the “victim of rape might be expected to gouge out the eyes and/or sever the offender’s testicles herself“? or that in the us, a woman is more likely to be raped by the man she is dating, and a man is more likely to be raped by his ex-girlfriend?

anyway, the reason for this post was that i got to the bit about ‘rape in war’ and came across two words i’ve never seen together: “enforced sterilisation“.

read it.

[edit - and make sure you look at the full size version of the 'bulgarian martyresses' on the rape article.]

cheers, wiki.

twat.

john henry wigmore

i was listening to the today programme this morning and there was a story about rape.

“the psychic complexes of errant young girls and women coming before the courts, led them frequently to contrive false charges of sexual abuse by men as a result of women’s probably universal fantasies of being raped.“

cheers, today/wiki.

eat.

if anything, they were too big.

these are chinese dumplings version 1.1 and they weren’t great. in fact i had to throw half of them away, and the half i did eat almost made me phone my mum. it all started not last sunday, but the sunday before…

be interested in this

stop the press. ha.

i missed this from charlie’s diary, but i’d recommend reading it.

“there is no general model for newspapers to replace the one the internet just broke.

with the old economics destroyed, organizational forms perfected for industrial production have to be replaced with structures optimized for digital data. it makes increasingly less sense even to talk about a publishing industry, because the core problem publishing solves — the incredible difficulty, complexity, and expense of making something available to the public — has stopped being a problem.“

cheers, antipope/wiki.

happy anniversary.

a gift.

just realised that today is the one year anniversary of no plan.

this time last year, i was unemployed i think. i checked my palm and i don’t have an entry so i was either working at the pub, or had quit and was looking for another.

it was also about the time i stopped posting photos and probably started thinking i should really get a proper job or career or something. i hadn’t even thought of teaching yet i think.

happy april.

on this day…

eat.

the belly

what to say.

i might have a belly problem. i’m on about a kg every couple of weeks. i went to the meat counter and asked for another on thursday, the guy said “do you just want the 2.5kg piece?”. i hesitated before saying no.

its so good. its so easy. its so cheap.

i’ve been sticking to the crisp recipe (right) so thought i’d go for some braised yesterday. i knew it was going to be about three hours cooking time but it took me about six hours before i ate.

i got the recipe from chez pim and prepped the ingredients. it calls for a dutch oven which i’ve taken in other recipes to mean casserole dish. i’ve never put my porcelain one directly on the flame before and within about five minutes i heard a massive crack. apparently you can’t do that. its in the bin. i ended up going to tesco and buying a cast iron one (£35) and eventually ate around seven last night. i didn’t have it with noodles though (because i was so hungry and the dish took up most of the stove) opting to have it on wooden board. it was great, but doesn’t look as nice as pim’s.

oh – and in worst.meal.ever. news i had another go at making that kung-ish po. instead of the chilli bean lee kum kee sauce, i tried the chilli garlic sauce. petrified of saltifying my blood even further i just put chicken in cornflour and when browned, added the sauce. nothing else. it looked gross, but i thought – it comes in a jar and the hoisin sauce i used for the pork was nice.

it was the second saltiest thing i’ve ever tasted. next time i go to the supermarket i’m going to talk to mr. tang about it. the bad news is as a leaving present from school they got me a few more jars of the stuff.

cheers, chez pim.

pron

i’ve seen the office parody, bewitched and a couple of others. this trailer is classic, and sfw.

i’ll keep an eye out for the seinfeld and scrubs trailers too.

cheers, fleshbot.

play.

godfather two, hitman, company of heroes

i got a call from iamthedemonamon the other afternoon and he asked what i was up to, my reply was something like “sitting in my boxer shorts playing godfather”.

it was one of those beautiful spring afternoons, the kind we rarely get, and my first instinct is to close the curtains and play videogames. its a guilty pleasure but something i’ve done since i owned my first pc. today is overcast, and i’ve played a few games but the feeling isn’t the same – i’m not robbing myself of something.

i can’t wait to look back on these salad days.

godfather isn’t even that good. the first few hours are okay, but it gets tedious. i think i finished it in ten.

the latest company of heroes expansion (everyone loves killing nazis) is pretty much the same as the last two games, didn’t really play much of that.

but hitman will always have a place in my heart.

the easter holidays have come and gone, but the memories will last until monday.

onewordreview

the wrestler

good.

tyson

interesting.

paprika

great.

(also realised it was the poster i got from 4scrape a while back)

cheers, wiki/imdb.

eat.

i was in london for a few days last week and ate very well.

"...was so good, wish i was eating it right now"

i’d recommend:

* the burger at the swimmers

* the ginger beef and calamari side at busaba eathai

* everything at mien tay

* the pork board and steak at the princess victoria

* the dumplings and everything else at leongs legend

cheers, justathought

teach.

the bye bye board

ah, the last day of the easter holidays (apart from the weekend). but this is the last day i know other people are at work, and hence a real holiday (not the weekend).

i wanted to put an end to the previous placement before i go back to college and get bored. its hard to sum up, a mix of good and bad. but to be honest one of the main reasons i wasn’t posting so much about it when i was there was because it was so exhausting. i did things i didn’t want to (ie shout a lot), i found things i liked (bossing kids around) and things i needed (the support of other teachers).

but when i think of the few children that ruined, and i do mean ruined, lessons or whole days, i’m glad i’m not going back.