Category: Personal Blog (Page 8 of 27)

4-Hour Chef

November 22, 2012 / Hoplite0352

Here’s what I cooked:

What I ate:

So I recently purchased “The Four-Hour Chef”. I can’t say that Tim Ferris is the superman people make him out to be, however, I do consider myself a fan. The guy is growing. He hasn’t stagnated the way most of us do. The purpose of the book is basically to teach you to learn. The bulk of the book uses cooking as a vehicle to show his techniques to teach yourself any skill.

The book teaches cooking with progressively difficult recipes, only the recipes are made grunt-proof. How well is it working?

Well, the above meal is called Osso Buko. It was terrible. The carrots were great. But I blame this terrible meal on two factors: 1) I don’t care for lamb and 2) I used a very poor wine choice for braising the meat. HOWEVER, I learned to braise! If I actually get a deer this year (it isn’t looking too hot) or when I next get a roast, I’ll know exactly how to cook it properly. I’m thinking this very technique would likely work just like a slow cooker.

Worst. Parent. Ever.

November 13, 2012 / Hoplite0352

So I’m at the store getting my daughter a book when my worthless brother texts me that he just got a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. At which point I look to see that lo and behold, today is it’s release date. Guess what I’m doing?

I’m reading her Green Eggs and Ham jerkoff! But I sure can’t wait for bedtime.

The Mating Call of the Douche

November 3, 2012 / Hoplite0352

Here are a few rules for life:

1) Hitting a guy in a wheel chair is a pretty big douche move.

2) If you wear your cammies as a costume, you’re really pathetic. Seriously, it’s really lame.

3) If you’re a 2-year non-combat army vet paralyzed in a car accident and acting all high and mighty about the incident while wearing your army uniform covered in blood as a costume you deserve to get your ass kicked.

Summary of the 3rd Presidential Debate

October 29, 2012 / Hoplite0352

All things aside, I’d perhaps have been willing to hold my nose and cast a ballot for either of these guys if they’d have just been willing to say that they want to scuttle the use of drones for overseas operations. It is undignified and inhumane to kill a man with a machine flown by a fat guy sipping a latte stateside. Truth be told, as I’ve said before, it diminishes us as a people to use such weapons.

(Simon: I’m trying to put this as delicately as I can… How do I know you won’t kill me in my sleep?
Mal: You don’t know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake. You’ll be facing me, and you’ll be armed.)

As anyone who knows me is starting to figure out, this entire post was just an excuse for my quarterly posting from Steven Pressfield’s, Gates of Fire:

“Man is weak, greedy, craven, lustful, prey to every species of vice and depravity. He will lie, steal, cheat, murder, melt down the very statues of the gods and coin their gold as money for whores. This is man. This is his nature, as all the poets attest.

Fortunately God in his mercy has provided a counterpoise to our species’ innate depravity. That gift, my young friend, is war.

War, not peace, produces virtue. War, not peace, purges vice. War, and preparation for war, call forth all that is noble and honorable in a man. It unites him with his brothers and binds them in selfless love, eradicating in the crucible of necessity all which is base and ignoble. There in the holy mill of murder the meanest of mean may seek and find that part of himself, concealed beneath the corrupt, which shines forth brilliant and viruous, worthy of honor before the gods.”

I can’t seem to help but think that I’ve addressed this issue of drones before. I recommend Article the Fourth, Section Four.

You’re a Pussy (here’s why):

October 28, 2012 / Hoplite0352

Here’s why:

5000 Hits, Woot!

October 26, 2012 / Hoplite0352

Now time, to share the winning!

Words For a Man to Live By

October 25, 2012 / Hoplite0352

Softly falls the light of day, as our campfire fades away.

Silently, each scout should ask, “Have I done my daily task?”

“Have I kept my honor bright?”

“Can I guiltless sleep tonight?”

“Have I done, and have I dared…”

“…in every way, to be prepared?”

I Have Discovered Phase 2 (or What We Do In Life Echoes In Eternity)

October 25, 2012 / Hoplite0352

Step 1: Weave Bacon into plate.

Step 2: Cook Bacon

Step 3: Apply Honey to Bacon Plate

Step 4: Mix Melted Butter and Brown Sugar with Pie Crumbs

Step 5: Apply pie crust crumbs to honey.

Step 6: Chili

I am so very, very good at life.

A meal fitting for my Washington plate.

Stupid Human Experiments

October 24, 2012 / Hoplite0352

I suppose this isn’t a specific experiment, but more or less a decision to begin to start tracking my life. I think the time has come to start a log of my diet, sleep, money expenditures, time expenditures. We’ll start there and see if we can pull it together for a month (this should be challenging).

The fact of the matter is that I’ve allowed myself to be an underachiever for far too long. Fortune and Glory do not go to the unprepared. Prepare, tweak, experiment. It has been my goal to become superhuman. I cannot do that by firing into the dark.

This Is Who We Are!

October 14, 2012 / Hoplite0352

My internal clock is wrecked. Over the past 2 weeks I have stayed up to watch SpaceX launch the Falcon 9. Then I stayed up to watch Dragon dock with the International Space Station. Then I stayed up to watch Red Bull Stratos postpone, then postpone, then postpone, then abort.

Last night I stayed up to watch Red Bull Stratos, postpone, then postpone, then postpone, then postpone, then, well, THIS!

So I watched the launch, the 2.5 hours it took to hit the ceiling, then I watched a man, 127,000 feet in the air (and I use the term air loosely). This man stepped out at the edge of space from a capsule…and jumped. I saw it live. When he pulled out of his spin and I got my breath it occurred to me that my face was absolutely covered in tears.

Friends, this is us.

Nearly once a month I watch the movie Vision Quest. In it, the protagonist Louden Swain trains to tackle his epic quest of defeating legendary high school wrestler, Shoot. His older coworker takes the day off of work to watch the match. The following scene sums up things perfectly.

Anyways, I then proceeded to go to sleep at noon. Now my clock is busted.