Sunday, November 25, 2007

Sunday Roast

Just some of my Sunday thoughts on Sunday roasts.

Roast chicken for a family:
  • Gas 8 or 9 - 240 Celsius - 20 minutes
  • Turn down to Gas 5 for 20-25 minutes
  • Flip the chicken over
  • Roast for further 20-30 minutes at Gas 5
  • Take out, rest for 15-20 minutes before carving
Suggested marinade for roast chicken
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1 sweated off onion and 4 cloves of chopped garlic
  • Fresh herbs (thyme is good)
  • Salt and pepper

Roast leg of lamb (family size)
  • Brown off the lamb on a high heat in a skillet or heavy based frying pan
  • Cook for 2 hours at 150 Celsius (Gas Mark 2 to 3), turning after two-thirds of time.
  • Rest for 30 minutes (or ideally allow to cool in the oven with the door open for ages)

Suggested marinade for lamb
  • Finely chop lots of garlic and rosemary. Add salt and crushed pepper (not too crushed).
  • 1 tsp Marmite, splash of Worcester sauce, splash of balsamic vinegar
  • Glug of olive oil
  • Rub into lamb
Roast potatoes
  • Parboil for 10 minutes. Ideally use floury potatoes, and leave unpeeled.
  • Drain water, peel skins (if you want conventional potatoes. I personally leave them on)
  • Add salt and pepper. Gently fluff the edges of the potatoes by shaking them gently in the pan.
  • Heat skillet to smoking with oil. Fry potatoes lightly and quickly.
  • Roast around the joint of meat.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Climate change

Damn that Stephen Fry.

He's summarised my frustrations about the nay-sayers in the global warming and climate change debate in his latest blessay - Getting Overheated (for the impatient, you can skip the first half of the blessay which is about inadvertantly irritating Terry Pratchett fans). Being erudite and articulate though, he manages to convey it in a persuasive and well thought out, reasoned manner.

This is someone who professes an ignorance in all areas scientific, whereas I have enough scientific background to find the whole thing terrifying (especially the inaction and indifference of so many people over this issue).

It makes me feel even more inadequate, even though he's a legend.

Dammit.

AcidCat

Friday, November 16, 2007

Advice to Young Men from an Old Man

Pinched from scribd.

Advice to Young Men from an Old Man

1. Don’t pick on the weak. It’s immoral. Don’t antagonize the strong without cause, its stupid.

2. Don’t hate women. It’s a waste of time

3. Invest in yourself. Material things come to those that have self actualized.

4. Get in a fistfight, even if you are going to lose.

5. As a former Marine, take it from me. Don’t join the military, unless you want to risk getting your balls blown off to secure other people’s economic or political interests.

6. If something has a direct benefit to an individual or a class of people, and a theoretical, abstract, or amorphous benefit to everybody else, realize that the proponent’s intentions are to benefit the former, not the latter, no matter what bullshit they try to feed you.

7. Don’t be a Republican. They are self-dealing crooks with no sense of honor or patriotism to their fellow citizens. If you must be a Republican, don’t be a “conservative.” They are whining, bitching, complaining, simple-minded self-righteous idiots who think they’re perpetual victims. Listen to talk radio for a while, you’ll see what I mean.

8. Don’t take proffered advice without a critical analysis. 90% of all advice is intended to benefit the proponent, not the recipient. Actually, the number is probably closer to 97%, but I don’t want to come off as cynical.

9. You’ll spend your entire life listening to people tell you how much you owe them. You don’t owe the vast majority of people shit.

10. Don’t undermine your fellow young men. Mentor the young men that come after you. Society recognizes that you have the potential to be the most power force in society. It scares them. Society does not find young men sympathetic. They are afraid of you, both individually and collectively. Law enforcement’s primary purpose is to suppress you.

11. As a young man, you’re on your own. Society divides and conquers. Unlike women who have advocates looking out for them (NOW, Women’s Study Departments, government, non-profit organizations, political advocacy groups) almost no one is looking out for you.

12. Young men provide the genius and muscle by which our society thrives. Look at the Silicone Valley. By in large, it was not old men or women that created the revolution we live. Realize that society steals your contributions, secures it with our intellectual property laws, and then takes credit and the rewards where none is due.

13. Know that few people have your best interests at heart. Your mother does. Your father probably does (if he stuck around). Your siblings are on your side. Everybody else worries about themselves.

14. Don’t be afraid to tell people to “Fuck off” when need be. It is an important skill to acquire. As they say, speak your piece, even if your voice shakes.

15. Acquire empathy, good interpersonal skills, and confidence. Learn to read body language and non-verbal communication. Don’t just concentrate on your vocational or technical skills, or you’ll find your wife fucking somebody else.

16. Keep fit.

17. Don’t speak ill of your wife/girlfriend. Back her up against the world, even if she’s wrong. She should know that you have her back. When she needs your help, give it. She should know that you’ll take her part.

18. Don’t cheat on your wife/girlfriend. If you must cheat, don’t humiliate her. Don’t risk having your transgressions come back to her or her friends. Don’t do it where you live. Don’t do it with people in your social circle. Don’t shit in your own back yard.

19. If your girlfriend doesn’t make you feel good about yourself and bring joy to your life, fire her. That’s what girlfriends are for.

20. Don’t bother with “emotional affairs.” They are just a vehicle for women to flirt and have someone make them feel good about themselves. That’s the part of a relationship they want. For you it is a lot of work and investment in time. If they are having an emotional affair with you, they’re probably fucking someone else.

21. Becoming a woman’s friend and confidant is not going to get you into an intimate relationship. If you haven’t gotten the girl within a reasonably short period of time, chances are you won’t ever get her. She’ll end up confiding to you about the sexual adventures she’s having with someone else.

22. Have and nurture friendships with women.

23. Realize that love is a numbers game. Guys fall in love easily. You’re going to see some girl and feel like you’ll die if you don’t get her. If she rejects you, move on to the next one. It’s her loss.

24. Don’t be an internet troll. Got out and live life. There is not a cadre of beautiful women advertising on Craigslist to have NSA sex with you. Beautiful women don’t need to advertise. The websites that advertise with attractive women’s photos and claims of loneliness are baloney. All they want is your money and your personal information so that they can market to you. The posts on Craigslist by young “women” seeking NSA sex, and asking for a picture are just a bunch of gay troll pic collectors. This is especially true if the post uses common gay lexicon like “hole” as in “fuck my hole” or seeks “masculine” men, or uses the word cock (except in the context of “Don’t send a cock shot.”) There are women on Craigslist. They are easily recognizable by their 2-5 paragraph postings. Most are in their 30's or older.

25. When you become a man in full, know that people will get in your way. People who are attracted to you will somehow manage to step in your path. Gay guys will give you “the look.” Old people will somehow stumble in front of you at the worst time. Don’t get frustrated. Just step aside and go about your business. Know that these are passive aggressive methods to get you to acknowledge their existence.

26. Don’t gay bash. Don’t mentally or physically abuse people because of who they are, or how they present themselves. It’s none of your business to try to intimidate people into conformity.

27. If your gay, admit it to yourself, your parents, your friends and society at large. Be prepared to get harassed. See rule 14. If someone threatens you or assaults you, call the cops. Have them arrested. You have no obligation to self sacrifice because of who you are. As a gay person, you’ll have more social freedom than straight men. Use it to protect yourself. Be prepared to get out of Dodge if your orientation makes your life unbearable. Move to San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, or New Orleans. You’ll find a welcoming community there.

28. Don’t be a poser. Avoid being one of those dudes who puts a surfboard on top of their car, but never surfs, or a dude with a powder coated fixed gear bike and a messenger bag, but was never a messenger. Live the life. Earn your bona fides.

29. Don’t believe the crap about the patriarchy. More women are accepted and attend college. More degrees are awarded to women than men. Women outlive men. More men commit suicide. Men are twice as likely to be victims of violence, including murder. If you consider sexual assaults in prisons, twice as many men are raped as women (society thinks prison rape is funny). The streets are littered with homeless men, sprinkled with a few homeless women. Statically, women are happier than men. The myth that girls are being cheated by are educational system is belied by the fact that schools are bastions of femininity, mostly run by and taught by women. Girls outperform boys in school. It is the boys in school getting fucked over, and prescribed ritalin for being boys. Real wages for men are falling, while real wages for women are rising. Just because someone says something enough times, doesn’t make it true. You have nothing to feel guilty about.

30. Remember, 97% of all advice is worthless. Take what you can use, and trash the rest.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

GAMSAT results...

They were published at midnight today...

I managed to get an overall mark of 80%. Very pleased with my science mark (95%!), relieved about my essay (64%, didn't know how well it went and not strong with writing).

Top 1%!

I'm likely to at least get an interview with the one GAMSAT uni I applied to...

To anyone who sat GAMSAT, I hope you got the marks you needed/wanted.

AcidCat

Thursday, November 08, 2007

If they were me and I was you...

Thoughts for the day
  • Even if you don't care about your birthday, it's really nice when people remember it (and think of you).
  • Facebook birthday greetings aren't as good as those that have come from people who gave a damn and actually remembered, and didn't need telling by an automated computer program.
  • The new Spice Girls song ("Headlines") is depressingly bad. This is coming from someone who loved their old stuff. The video is trashy. Geri, we get the picture - you're proud about being thin. Now put it away please. (And you looked better when you were curvy and voluptuous in the days of the Union flag dress anyway).
  • It's pretty depressing when you read information that was available over a decade ago, which if you had found out about it a year or so ago would have made your life easier. My final year of practical work should have been easy. Damn.
  • I'm employed as of January. I have to get a move on and write faster now...

AcidCat

Monday, November 05, 2007

Charity begins at home... Do it!

Hi everybody,

Today I came across a site called Project Download.

The gist is: A young woman has a serious debilitating and life-threatening illness. Being from the USA, she can't afford healthcare.

She's signed up to a scheme where she's paid $12, and if she can get a file downloaded 5 million times by the end of November, the company will pay her $10 000, which will go a way towards treatment.

I've downloaded the file (you can download once per computer per day), and checked it out. It's a tiny (3kb) text file, which is totally virus free (the content is just a blurb explaining the project again).

It won't cost you anything.

Please do it!

AcidCat