Friday, February 13, 2004
Bangers and Mash, contrary to (possibly) popular belief, is simply Sheppard's Pie.
You have no idea how much I was let down when I found that out. It was like learning that there is no Santa, only a drunk old guy in a red suit. I had this fanciful mental picture of some incredibly arcane and obscure dish, known only to British pub-goers who wear strange hats. Something so bizarre and so English (nationality, not language) that it could only be described as "bangers", accompanied by this equally esoteric "mash". And in truth, it's simply ground beef, gravy and mashed potatoes all baked together. Don't get me wrong, it's a very very good dish, but I was still disappointed when I found out what one of my favorite foods that Mom made at home could also be called. The perplexing epilogue to all this is that I probably already knew that, since the whole bangers and mash thing popped into my head for no reason a couple of days ago as if it had a will of its own.
Moving right along, with only a very thinly disguised segue, I think I had the most lamerest, loserest supper ever. A hamburger on bread instead of a bun, and fries that weren't fried, but baked. I'm fully aware of the health benefits here, but it's still the culinary equivalent of the Go-Bots compared to the "true" burger and fries' Transformers. Yeah, that's right, you Go-Bot fan who somehow Googled your way here, Go-Bots suck and were for the lame kids who didn't know about Transformers! Ha, I say to you!
So I'm sure that only about 2 people here know what I'm talking about there, and I'm pretty sure they both reside in my skull. But I digress.
Swords rule
So, as I announced yesterday, I tried out this whole fencing thing last night. Turns out it was pretty cool, even though I mostly only did very basic footwork and stuff. I'll be going again on Sunday for more, since apparantly more people show up then due to the larger gym being available. I guess I'll be starting with only one rapier for now, but I hope to eventually move to the dagger and rapier styles or two rapier or rapier and cane stuff later on. It's my goal. Now the fact that those options exist may befuddle you momentarily, until you read the next sentence. See, this whole deal is put on by the SCA, or the Society for Creative Anachronisms, otherwise known as the weird medieval re-enactment folks. And I don't entertain any thoughts that these people aren't weird, because they are. Very much so, in fact. But the thing is that they happen to be the kind of weird that I can relate to, which is completely fine in my books. Plus, I still haven't decided if I will be participating much past the fencing or armoured combat bits. (It's like full-contact wailing on each other with huge wooden swords in full plate mail! How cool is that?) Besides, you get to fight with two swords!!! Come on!
On an only-slightly-related note, I did learn a very hilarious story about Crotchpunte (sp?). Turns out, in the Middle Ages, some knight took offense at all these "learned masters" of the combat arts that were making manuscripts of their styles and running extravagant schools to teach others and such, and decided to parody it. He wrote up his own manuscript about the fighting style of Crotchpunte, in which the sole goal is to kick the other man in the balls with a big green shoe. Try as I might though, the mighty internet refused to give me more information about this, so I have no link. But it would be quite amusing to see these brilliantly rendered, intricate 16th-century diagrams captioned with rhyming couplets in which the only color is the green of the shoe kicking the other man in the nards.
More miscellaneous ramblings
On the way home last night, I went by City Hall, and there were people making snow sculptures, and one of them was a 12-foot tall bust of Wolverine! For some reason, that's immensely nifty. As for the rest of the "sophisticated art", some of the ice sculptures haven't fared too well. Combination of the melting and probably some vandalism as well, many limbs have fallen off (such as the poor, poor Gundam), and a lot of the sculptures have certainly seen better days. They do look really cool at night though, when all lit up with colours and such.
I'm also convinced that the previous occupant of my apartment got deported. A phone bill arrived today for him. Now I don't know if this is simply a "last bill", or if he actually forgot to cancel his phone line before he moved, but the sheer amount of stuff I get is starting to make me believe he was simply kidnapped and whisked out of the country overnight. Maybe even within hours...
Last bit before I go to do some links, and that is that the Bear here in Ottawa really isn't as good as the Bear in Edmonton. Sure, we get Cubb Carson, but I don't listen to the radio enough for that to matter, and what I do hear is a lot less "rocking" rock, and more "pop" and "rap" rock, like Outkast and No Doubt. Sure, the music isn't bad, but for a "rock" station to be playing it... that just doesn't sit well with my ears. Unfortunately the only decent alternative to the lesser Bear was shut down within a week of my moving to Ottawa, so I'm stuck. Boo.
And now, something completely different
Monty Python plugs rule. So do other people's blogs, when said blogs are entertaining. Now some of these blogs include Porkfry (of PA fame), Hot Buttered Funk, SkullzDotOrg and Honey Bee Manor, authored by Porkfry, Butah P, Apok and Kitsune respectively. Now they've all teamed up to form a blog equivalent of the superhero team, entitled DuckDuckDuckGoose.com, or D^3G for short. Basically I think the general idea is to kind of segue from the last person's topic into one of your own, but whatever. The point is that it's good reads (all of them, not just the last one).
The best xylophone evar. Send it to all your friends.
While I really don't endore dressing up animals, mainly since it is stupid and only amuses the simple masses, it's still fun to say CATS IN HATS! Rats in hats comes in a close second.
Lastly, this is just a really really cool picture that I found somehow. I think it's taken from a kite, but it could just as well be from Superman with a digital camera.
And that's that. I am now going to think about doing the dishes, decide to not do the dishes and go play some Jak 2. Also, to all you paraskevidekatriaphobes out there, you're going to die. ¶ 4:26 p.m.
You have no idea how much I was let down when I found that out. It was like learning that there is no Santa, only a drunk old guy in a red suit. I had this fanciful mental picture of some incredibly arcane and obscure dish, known only to British pub-goers who wear strange hats. Something so bizarre and so English (nationality, not language) that it could only be described as "bangers", accompanied by this equally esoteric "mash". And in truth, it's simply ground beef, gravy and mashed potatoes all baked together. Don't get me wrong, it's a very very good dish, but I was still disappointed when I found out what one of my favorite foods that Mom made at home could also be called. The perplexing epilogue to all this is that I probably already knew that, since the whole bangers and mash thing popped into my head for no reason a couple of days ago as if it had a will of its own.
Moving right along, with only a very thinly disguised segue, I think I had the most lamerest, loserest supper ever. A hamburger on bread instead of a bun, and fries that weren't fried, but baked. I'm fully aware of the health benefits here, but it's still the culinary equivalent of the Go-Bots compared to the "true" burger and fries' Transformers. Yeah, that's right, you Go-Bot fan who somehow Googled your way here, Go-Bots suck and were for the lame kids who didn't know about Transformers! Ha, I say to you!
So I'm sure that only about 2 people here know what I'm talking about there, and I'm pretty sure they both reside in my skull. But I digress.
Swords rule
So, as I announced yesterday, I tried out this whole fencing thing last night. Turns out it was pretty cool, even though I mostly only did very basic footwork and stuff. I'll be going again on Sunday for more, since apparantly more people show up then due to the larger gym being available. I guess I'll be starting with only one rapier for now, but I hope to eventually move to the dagger and rapier styles or two rapier or rapier and cane stuff later on. It's my goal. Now the fact that those options exist may befuddle you momentarily, until you read the next sentence. See, this whole deal is put on by the SCA, or the Society for Creative Anachronisms, otherwise known as the weird medieval re-enactment folks. And I don't entertain any thoughts that these people aren't weird, because they are. Very much so, in fact. But the thing is that they happen to be the kind of weird that I can relate to, which is completely fine in my books. Plus, I still haven't decided if I will be participating much past the fencing or armoured combat bits. (It's like full-contact wailing on each other with huge wooden swords in full plate mail! How cool is that?) Besides, you get to fight with two swords!!! Come on!
On an only-slightly-related note, I did learn a very hilarious story about Crotchpunte (sp?). Turns out, in the Middle Ages, some knight took offense at all these "learned masters" of the combat arts that were making manuscripts of their styles and running extravagant schools to teach others and such, and decided to parody it. He wrote up his own manuscript about the fighting style of Crotchpunte, in which the sole goal is to kick the other man in the balls with a big green shoe. Try as I might though, the mighty internet refused to give me more information about this, so I have no link. But it would be quite amusing to see these brilliantly rendered, intricate 16th-century diagrams captioned with rhyming couplets in which the only color is the green of the shoe kicking the other man in the nards.
More miscellaneous ramblings
On the way home last night, I went by City Hall, and there were people making snow sculptures, and one of them was a 12-foot tall bust of Wolverine! For some reason, that's immensely nifty. As for the rest of the "sophisticated art", some of the ice sculptures haven't fared too well. Combination of the melting and probably some vandalism as well, many limbs have fallen off (such as the poor, poor Gundam), and a lot of the sculptures have certainly seen better days. They do look really cool at night though, when all lit up with colours and such.
I'm also convinced that the previous occupant of my apartment got deported. A phone bill arrived today for him. Now I don't know if this is simply a "last bill", or if he actually forgot to cancel his phone line before he moved, but the sheer amount of stuff I get is starting to make me believe he was simply kidnapped and whisked out of the country overnight. Maybe even within hours...
Last bit before I go to do some links, and that is that the Bear here in Ottawa really isn't as good as the Bear in Edmonton. Sure, we get Cubb Carson, but I don't listen to the radio enough for that to matter, and what I do hear is a lot less "rocking" rock, and more "pop" and "rap" rock, like Outkast and No Doubt. Sure, the music isn't bad, but for a "rock" station to be playing it... that just doesn't sit well with my ears. Unfortunately the only decent alternative to the lesser Bear was shut down within a week of my moving to Ottawa, so I'm stuck. Boo.
And now, something completely different
Monty Python plugs rule. So do other people's blogs, when said blogs are entertaining. Now some of these blogs include Porkfry (of PA fame), Hot Buttered Funk, SkullzDotOrg and Honey Bee Manor, authored by Porkfry, Butah P, Apok and Kitsune respectively. Now they've all teamed up to form a blog equivalent of the superhero team, entitled DuckDuckDuckGoose.com, or D^3G for short. Basically I think the general idea is to kind of segue from the last person's topic into one of your own, but whatever. The point is that it's good reads (all of them, not just the last one).
The best xylophone evar. Send it to all your friends.
While I really don't endore dressing up animals, mainly since it is stupid and only amuses the simple masses, it's still fun to say CATS IN HATS! Rats in hats comes in a close second.
Lastly, this is just a really really cool picture that I found somehow. I think it's taken from a kite, but it could just as well be from Superman with a digital camera.
And that's that. I am now going to think about doing the dishes, decide to not do the dishes and go play some Jak 2. Also, to all you paraskevidekatriaphobes out there, you're going to die. ¶ 4:26 p.m.
