dance with dragons review

Enormous wait

I loved parts of it while I read it, and easily forgave its flaws.

But... 3 months after finishing it... reflecting back on it I am increasingly annoyed by it, and the lack of forward movement. I don't need pages and pages and pages of turtle talk, or stone zombie talk. The feeling I'm left with is that GRRM doesn't have an editor who can kick his ass and tighten up his story.


For epic fantasy... I'm much, much happier with the Malazan books. They are plenty annoying at times too. But, they've churned all 10 books out on a regular schedule and built a fascinating, complex world.

no updates for many moons

No updates. Been mostly venting on twitter / facebook recently.

In horrible movie reviews:

• Tucker & Dale vs. Evil : OMG. Great, funny, gory, awesome.
• Battle: Las Angeles  : WTF. This movie felt like it was 6 hours long. Meh.

TV reviews:

• Downton Abbey:  Where is the queue for the freaky threeway with Lady Sybil and Mr. Bates?
• The League : Best. Comedy. On. TV.
• Archer: Pretty freakin' great.

Books reviews:

• Books? What are books? 
• Also, how do I reconcile my desire for a Kindle with the fact that I've read ... 2 books this year?

Podcasts reviews:

• My Brother, My Brother And Me: I LOVE THE BROTHERS MCELROY SOOOO MUCH. Seriously. It may be unhealthy. Where should I turn for help?

religion

This post from John Scalzi's blog expresses so much of what I've struggled with trying to explain (both to myself, and to my family when I left the church).

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/03/14/reader-request-week-2011-1-children-and-faith/

A sample:

... 

But again, that’s not about me as an agnostic opposing those who have faith. It’s me as a person who knows the message of Christ pointing out a hypocrite, and me as a person with my own moral, social and political standards countering one whose standards differ. As it happens, I know a reasonable number of people of faith who feel the same way I do, and have many of the same moral, social and political standards as I have. Do I fear them? Discount them? Think them defective? No; I say “I’m glad to know you.” We believe many of the same things; that some of their belief comes from the teachings of Jesus, or from Allah by way of Muhammad, or from Buddha, to name just three examples, does not trouble me. Whatever steps we took to get there, we’re walking the same path.

i watch too much tv

Dish Network technician coming out tomorrow to deliver the new HD DVR. Excited? Perhaps.

But... now we need to enter all these timers in again. My dirty laundry:

• castle
• 30 rock
• the office
• the vampire diaries
• desperate housewives
• the gates
• lie to me
• chuck
• modern family
• glee
• america's next top model
• cougar town
• raising hope
• saturday night live
• bones
• no ordinary family
• human target
• parenthood
• parks and recreation
• community
• in plain sight
• it's always sunny in philadelphia
• bob's burgers
• the cape
• nikita
• ace of cakes
• the graham norton show
• warehouse 13
• project runway
• mr. sunshine
• eureka
• doctor who
• psych
• being human
• the inbetweeners
• house
• 'dexter'
• covert affairs
• episodes
• haven
• wipeout
• masterpiece mystery!
• the walking dead
• burn notice
• californication
• archer
• the big c
• the it crowd
• 'big love'
• top chef all-stars
• ugly americans
• the ricky gervais show
• justified
• white collar
• being human
• the venture brothers
• the league
• lights out
• top chef
• south park
• the ultimate fighter
• eagleheart
• shameless
• the daily show
• the colbert report
• bones
• anthony bourdain
• the soup
• web soup
• bully beatdown
• metalocalypse
• 'weeds'
• avengers: earth's mightiest
• royal pains
• rob dyrdek's fantasy factory
• what would brian boitano make
• tosh.0
• chelsea lately
• ncis
• kitchen nightmares
• torchwood

for bad bart

http://basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2010/12/19/how-to-criticize-someone-you-respect-deeply.html

apple and sausage stuffing recipe

Made this recipe for the family: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Apple-and-Sausage-Stuffing-107288 (go to the link to get a nicely printable version). It was a big hit.

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 pound spicy pork bulk sausage
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1 cup diced peeled cored apple
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh sage
• 1 bay leaf

• 8 cups 1-inch cubes French bread with crusts (from 1-pound loaf)
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup low-salt chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
• 3 large eggs, beaten to blend

Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add sausage; sauté until cooked through and brown, breaking into pieces with spoon, about 8 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer sausage to large bowl. Add celery and next 6 ingredients to drippings in skillet. Sauté over medium heat until vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Add mixture to sausage. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill. Reheat to lukewarm before continuing.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Add bread to sausage mixture. Whisk milk, broth, and butter in bowl to blend. Mix into stuffing; season stuffing with salt and pepper. Mix in eggs; transfer to prepared dish. Bake uncovered until cooked through and brown, about 50 minutes.

Details:

• doubled recipe
• used granny smith apples.
• didn't find any good fresh parsley, so left it out
• added some ground thyme
• used 2% instead of whole milk
• substituted apple juice for half the broth
• used Johnsonville bulk mild italian sausage (for this crowd, that was teetering on the edge of too spicy for some)

Next time:

• Double the apples. There wasn't a ton of apple flavor, despite following the proportions in the recipe and adding apple juice.

further pointless reviews

Movies:

• Hurt Locker. Wuh? Why did people love this so much?
• The Lovely Bones. Way too long and nowhere near as good as the book

Books:

• Finch, by Jeff VenderMeer. Fun, interesting, and a little gross at times. Reminded me of China Mieville
• The Dead-Tossed Waves, by Carrie Ryan. Zombie goodness. Teenage-angsty badness. Meh.

I've actually been listening to podcasts lately, rather than doing much reading or movie watching...

Podcasts (in alphabetical order):

• Being a Dudecast
• Chuck & Tina Spread TB & VD
• Comedy Death-Ray Radio
• Creeping with Armstrong
• Doomhouse
• Doug Loves Movies
• The Geek Show Podcast
• The Grandma's Virginity Podcast
• MicrobeWorld's Meet the Scientist Podcast
• The Nerdist
• NPR: Wait wait... Don't Tell Me! Podcast
• The Pod F. Tompkast
• The Robot's Pajama Party
• Savage Love Podcast
• Television Zombies
• This American Life
• Today in the Past
• WTF with Marc Maron Podcast

Looking at the list... The majority are either geeks talking about geeky stuff, or comedians talking about comedy.

Zucchini Bread

Made this tonight. Brought back lots of childhood memories.

Zucchini Bread

wet ingredients:

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

2 tsp vanilla

2 cup grated zucchini

dry ingredients

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 (heaping) tablespoons cinnamon. That's not a typo. 3+ Tablespoons

Beat eggs until light and frothy

Combine rest of wet ingredients with eggs

Combine dry ingredients and whisk together

Combine dry mixture with wet

Split into 2 greased loaf pans

bake at 325' for 1 hour

remove from oven when inserted toothpick comes out clean

cool on rack outside of pans

Freezes very well, I remember how happy I'd be when months after baking it my mom would pull a loaf out of the freezer for dessert after Sunday dinner.

Be sure to be the one to slice the bread, that way you can be greedy and get the crunchier heels. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.