Staying in Harrm's Way
Slightly more bizarre posting tonight. You are forewarned. First things first though, I feel I should rectify my statement about Comic Book: The Movie! in last post. I said that you probably wouldn't get most of the jokes if you weren't well-versed in comic-dom. I was wrong. I thought about it today, and the movie would probably be quite hilarious even for the uninitiated, whether it be the dog humping Mark Hamill's leg, or just the Comic-con weirdos. To truly get everything though, a Ph.D in the graphic storytelling ways is recommended. Now go and watch this movie. Er, after you finish reading that is... heh.

Some of you may have seen this little post by my online compatriot Harrm, another of the FM mods. Now this next little bit will probably be above all those not on the board, but for those who know something about Harrm's style of humor, I found this to be a bit lacking. Yes, it makes fun of my blog, but it doesn't do it very well. Harrm, if you're reading, I'm disappointed. Other than the bloggish style of writing and the frequent cooking references, I didn't think it was anything like my blog at all. A very nice satire of blogs in general, but not of mine in particular. Still entertaining, but not the best stuff you've done. Making fun of Jedidude (another FMer, one of the reeeeeeally annoying forum trolls - you all know the type) was far better. Also, I'll be expecting a full payout from the investment of my "sponsorship". Increased hits, more traffic to the site, attention from the internet community, etc. Actually, scratch that last one. Those guys creep me out.

Why I do this. And souffle!
Actually, why I do this in the way I do would probably be more appropriate. As in the whole cooking thing, specifically. It has been brought to my attention that I may or may not be "entirely insane" from all the cheffery (sp?) (word, even?) I talk about. Such to the point that that may even be my entire existence. Well, it's not, and I think I have a decent reason to do so.

I think that food preparation is highly underrated in this society. We live in a culture where we eat out as often as we eat in, and when we do eat in, it's largely something frozen to be microwavedor heated up in the oven, like lasagna. Somehow, I find this lacking. Everyone needs to eat, and why would you want to eat something crappy when you can eat something good? Yes, I was for the longest time a large endorser of Michelina's and Cap'n High Liner's rice bowls, but that was when I had someone else making my meals for me. Now that I'm on my own, things are a little different. For one, frozen food is expensive, and second, it's not that filling. Fine for a snack, or if you're in a hurry, but otherwise quite lacking in the whole "meal" area. Hence, I'm doing my part in spreading the word about making your own food from scratch, almost the old-fashioned way, if you will. It tastes better, probably won't give you cancer as readily (not sure on that though) and tends to be more like "food" and less like "chemical-soaked cardboard".

Well, all that and the fact that I happen to like cooking. Since this little blog is my little soapbox, it's going to reflect my interests. Hence, the souffle mentioned earlier. Made a cheese and egg one tonight, completely on a whim, and I came to the following conclusions.

1. Those things are really good! If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's like a big, poofy, inflated quiche. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, it's like scrambled eggs mixed with cheese, mixed with big fluffy clouds. Despite all the light poofiness of it all though, it's really filling.

2. It was far easier to prepare (in theory) than I thought. For the longest time, (and apparantly the author of the cookbook I have shares this sentiment) I thought that souffles were this extravagant concoctions that could fall flat or explode if anyone in the immediate vicinity coughed. Not the case at all, and if not for the next point, I'd make them a lot more.

3. I'm never going to make this again. You see, there's a reason I said "(in theory)" in the above. See, to make a souffle, you have to beat eggs such that they form stiff peaks. This is very very VERY hard to do with only a fork, and involves much arm power. I mean, you'd have to jerk off until you have arms like Popeye to be able to do that efficiently. Took me damn near a half an hour! Until I get an egg beater (aptly named) I will probably shelve this one.

Anyways...
Sorry about that. See, there was about an hour gap between when I last typed that paragraph. I was involved in a very idiotic argument with Monk about who would win in a fight: Spawn or the Justice League. He sees it as him winning because I left, but in reality I have more pressing issues at hand, like this posting and some dishes. Now what was I going to talk about?

Oh yeah! How many of you remember the great old Warner Brothers cartoons? Well, by old, I really mean only a few years. See, I was going through the Toonopedia and found a few old friends. Everyone from my childhood was there, from Danger Mouse to Calvin and Hobbes (and to this day I admire Bill Watterson on his stand against the syndicates -- do you know he gave up possibly millions of dollars because he thought that merchandising the comic would ruin its spirit? Yeah that's right, anything you see with Calvin on it that's not the comic strip or a book of said strips is bootleg. Food for thought.) to Mighty Mouse to the best of the best of the best of them, the Animaniacs.

What I wouldn't pay for this series to be on DVD. Five seasons of the Warner Bros. (and Sister!), Pinky and the Brain, Chicken Boo, Mindy and Buttons, Rita and Runt, all at my command. Say what you will about Invader Zim and Family Guy and Futurama, and those shows are all great, but Animaniacs will always be one of the best cartoons evar. Close second would be Freakazoid! Another show by the same studio, this one made less sense, and I really don't know if it was as good as I remember. I guess I'd have to see the episodes again, but I have some fond memories of it.

Finally, some links!
Finish things off with a few spots on the 'net where the sun doesn't shine. At least not nearly enough, that is.

Here are some silly moments in business. You know, I think I was doing ok for a while, and then I realized how empty my life is without a copy of Ghettopoly. How a company thought it could release a version of Monopoly based around the Projects, with the top hat replaced by a weed leaf, and the shoe replaced by a crack pipe, etc. without getting hit with a lawsuit is obviously beyond my understanding. Would be neat to show off to friends though!

For those that have read the uber-comic Watchmen, (and if you haven't, you're really missing out on some great reading, comic or otherwise) this happy little blogger has written up a pretty decent analysis of it. Comparing the writings of Alan Moore to Shakespeare sounds pretty tenuous on the surface, but after reading this it makes a certain kind of sense. A well written article to say the least, but if you haven't read the comic (which you should really rectify...) don't bother with this one. It's rather spoiler heavy.

Lastly, the people who like Linux (like me!) may get a kick out of this. New desktops shown off at Linuxworld! Say what you will about Sun and Java, but the new desktop they have prepared looks quite cool. Everything is 3D rendered, so you can take windows (like the browser you're reading now) and turn them sideways, like a book on a bookshelf. How sweet is that?! I'll be keeping an eye on that one...

So yeah, that's that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have dishes to do and a lunch to make and some sleep to catch up on.  ¶ 6:47 p.m.