What Happened to October?

Wow, October seemed to go by pretty fast. The latest episode of Miscellanea was uploaded during the first week of the month, then my video camera stopped working. I went on vacation the next week, and the week after that kind of flew by. I was sick for about half a week and I got better a few days before Halloween. I only uploaded one video during the month, and I didn't post any entries on this blog at all.

November is going to be different. I'm participating in NaNoWriMo again this year. I participated in 2007 and met the goal. I started it last year, but I didn't really get into it, and I gave up on it after a week or two. This year I'm excited about it, as I've mentioned in my vlog. That's right, I'm vlogging now. I frickin' hate that word, but it's popular, people online generally know what it means, and it's hard to avoid using it. It's interesting to note, however, that while 'blog' is recognized as a valid word by many spell check programs, 'vlog' tends not to be. I suppose that will change before too long. I digress.

The vlog is starting as a video log of this year's NaNoWriMo, but it may continue after the month of November. The main factors that that is dependent on are my comfort level with vlogging after NaNoWriMo, and whether I feel I have anything to ramble at a camera about. I'm actually kid of enjoying it. It's different from making videos like the Miscellanea series. I don't like it nearly as much as doing that kind of work, but it doesn't take nearly as much time, and it's more fun than I had expected. Here are my first two vlogs:





I wasn't expecting much of a response to these, but I have already gotten some feedback from various sources. I'll probably make one every few days during the month of November.

How I Spent My First Furlough Day

The library I work for, in the face of budget cuts from the state, has implemented rolling furlough days, which means that half of the branches in the system are closed one Thursday, and the other half are closed on the next Thursday, for ten weeks through November. That means that everybody who works in the system gets five unpaid Thursdays off. This is not an ideal situation, and it will put a bit of strain on most people's finances, but while the time off is not paid, it is still time off, and I intend to make the most of this situation. The branch I work at had our first furlough day last week, and the week since has been crazy busy. This is Banned Books Week, so preparing for that, dealing with the additional workload after the day off, and dealing with Banned Books Week, training and meetings this week have kept me pretty busy at work and at home. In any case, here now is a partial list of things that I did on my first furlough day:

-Stayed up until four o'clock in the morning the night before, practicing the keyboard.
-Slept until around eleven o'clock, which was later than I'd wanted to get up, but, you know, I'd been up until four AM.
-Did several loads of laundry.
-Removed a stain from a suit jacket.
-Did a great deal of cleaning.
-Made rice milk.
-Started a batch of sauerkraut.
-Made soup.
-Shot video for that week's episode of Miscellanea as well as some for a future episode.
-Watched the pilot episode of Freaks and Geeks, the complete boxed set of which I got for my birthday a few years ago and hadn't gotten around to watching yet. I'm enjoying it.
-Practiced the keyboard.

There were a few things I didn't get around to, like making bread, but sometimes overplanning your day can lead to being pretty productive. I got a lot of things done. Next week I might take more time to relax on my furlough day. I haven't been taking the time to read very many books lately, and I'd like to make some significant progress on my TBR list.

Two Kinds of Pretzel, Two Videos

I was going to make a post about each video I made as I uploaded them, but hey, I haven't made a post on this blog in over a month! I've got some catching up to do. I've made seven episodes at this point, and I'd like to have a record of the production of my projects to refer back to, so I'm going to gradually post about the episodes I've made in the meantime. These posts might only be interesting to me, but I'm going to post them anyway, so there!

This episode was the first, and the only so far, to be split into two parts. I had wanted to show the versatility of baked goods such as soft pretzels by making two different kinds, one savory, the other sweet. YouTube places a ten minute limit on user-uploaded videos. During the editing process, after I'd shot everything but before I'd done the voiceovers, I realized that this episode was going to surpass that limit by several minutes. There wasn't enough excess footage to make up the difference by making cuts, so I decided to make it a two-parter and insert an intermission as a transition from one to the other. Coincidentally, I'd already downloaded several public domain drive-thru theater intermission reels from archive.org, so I cut the beginning and end off of one and used that.



I finished the first part, then exported and uploaded it before I finished the second part.



It's not the most work I've ever done on a video, even in such a short amount of time, but I think it's been the most labor-intensive episode of Miscellanea I've made so far, and I felt justified in taking the next week off from the series, as I'd made the equivalent of two episodes in one weekend. This is the only episode I've put a teaser at the end of so far, but I'd like to do that more often.

Jeez, this post is wordy.

Candied 'Yams' Are Old Hat- Here's a Better Way to Enjoy Sweet Potatoes

This video took me two days to make, rather than the several weeks of the previous episode. Each of the two probably took a similar amount of time in terms of hours, but for this one I already had the microphone and the setup and stuff. I'm still trying to find the best format and settings for uploading to YouTube, but there are many variables to consider. I'll try something different with the next episode. I'd rather not have to spend several hours uploading a video, but for fairly high quality that would be unavoidable. I'm trying to find something in between. I'd like the uploaded videos to have quality somewhat higher than this one and the previous one, and I'd prefer not to spend more than an hour or two uploading.

How to Make Rice Milk in Your Very Own Home

I spent several weeks making this video. I ran into several minor problems in the process. I had some trouble with my microphone and had to order a new one. I had some rather unusual trouble with audio synchronization. I tried two different export formats and settings before I figured out how to optimize it (or at least make it a bit better) for internet streaming.

In any case, I've finished it and uploaded it. This is the first episode of a series of instructional and informative videos I'm making called Miscellanea. This is How to Make Rice Milk.

Save Ohio Libraries

If you care at all about Ohio's economy, the quality of education in Ohio, and the quality of life in Ohio, please contact the Joint Conference Committee immediately and let them know that slashing Ohio's library funding in half would be devastating to the state. Library usage has risen significantly during this recession. People need libraries now more than ever. Libraries offer more services now than at any time in their history. Ohio's library budgets are already stretched tight due to a twenty percent decrease in state funding. An additional thirty percent cut would force many to cut services, make layoffs, and even close. Ohio can ill afford to further cripple the job market, not only by putting so many library employees out of a job, but by taking away resources that so many people use to develop new job skills, create resumes, look for jobs and fill out online applications. Those are just a fraction of the services that libraries provide freely to people of all ages and backgrounds.

Contact info for the Joint Conference Comittee:

House Conferees:
Name Phone Number Email
Vernon Sykes 614-466-3100 district44@ohr.state.oh.us
Jay Goyal 614-466-5802 district73@ohr.state.oh.us
Ron Amstutz 614-466-1474 district03@ohr.state.oh.us

Senate Conferees:
Name Phone Number Email
John Carey 614-466-8156 sd17@senate.state.oh.us
Mark Wagoner 614-466-8060 SD02@senate.state.oh.us
Dale Miller 614-466-5123 sd23@maild.sen.state.oh.us

A Case of Spring Fever, a review

The following film is a harrowing tale of radical indoctrination, monopolization and technological dependence. The film starts with the protagonist fixing the springs on a broken sofa. In a moment of frustration, he carelessly remarks that he never wants to see another spring as long as he lives. He is overheard by a spring imp named Coily, who has the terrifying power to instantly remove all springs from everything everywhere! He does this, and our hero is soon faced with a grim dystopia in which nothing functions; not his sofa, not his watch, not his front door, not even his car. The wretched imp has revealed to him the awful truth of our world: that we are all slaves to the spring, unable to perform even basic functions without its ubiquitous presence.
Our hero soon finds himself in the grips of a powerful dilemma, torn between living in a world without springs, scraping out a meager existence as our springless caveman ancestors did, or giving in to the spring cartel and not only aiding in the proliferation of their monopoly but committing his life to the promotion of their coiled dogma. In a moment of weakness that nobody could slight him for, he chooses the latter.
Coily instantly returns the man to a seemingly joyful world that is simply loaded with springs, but our fallen hero is a changed man. We see him on a golf course with his friends. Instead of enjoying the peaceful simplicity of the game in the idyllic setting, he spends every moment of the outing logorrheically spouting the doctrine of the coil. His friends are at first simply bored by him and annoyed, but it is implied that they will ultimately abandon him, leaving him to a life of alienation and servitude. Now he belongs to the spring.

Great Lakes Blackout Stout

It is immediately apparent that this is no ordinary stout. Pouring out of the bottle not like a beer but like a thin, pure syrup, it forms little head, but what foam does gather on the top is a deep caramel brown. The aroma is intense, and all at once suggests dark black coffee, rich molasses, and the mineral tang that is not as much metallic as it is reminiscent of fertile earth. On the palette it quickly grabs you and asserts itself quite fully. This is a stout for stout drinkers. Those aromas present in the bouquet have their counterparts in the flavor, certainly, but there are many layers within a sip of Blackout Stout. There are bold tones of toasted grain, evoking visions of fields of barley. Coffee and dark chocolate cross the tongue and remain until the finish. The finish itself and the aftertaste are pleasantly bitter. There is always a hint of sweetness dancing around the flavors, or they dancing around it, but one would not call this a sweet beer. The balance is pulled off so well that the bitterness is nearly always present, but not overpowering for those who have a taste for it. At nine percent alcohol by volume, this is a powerful brew. It is not like a snack, something that you knock back a few of in the afternoon. It is a meal, or a dessert, to be savored on occasion, perhaps with a bit of dark chocolate or a cigar. Available seasonally, apparently only in February and March, pick some up if you can find it.

Great Lakes Blackout Stout.

I bet his lung smelled fresh

I don't believe this news story that just came out of Russia, but I want it to be true. There are just too many things wrong with it, though. At first glance, and even more so after repeated viewings of the photo and video, the "tree" looks more like a bit of a branch than a seedling. There are no roots visible, but I suppose those could have already been severed by the doctor. What of photosynthesis, though? It's not possible, is it, for a regular fir tree to grow in such an environment, totally dark, so constrained.

On the other hand, maybe it's not a normal fir tree. Unfortunately, it's probably a hoax.

A dark horse

Ethiopian Harrar Horse coffee is rather good. It does have a very complex aroma while grinding and brewing. Fruity, with a bit of funk. The scents do not lead one to expect such a mild flavour. That's not to say it's flavourless. It has a very pleasant taste, just not one so bold as its aroma. It is very smooth, and very easy to drink. It finishes nicely.

Ethiopian Harrar Horse

I was buying coffee this evening, and while perusing Boston Stoker's selection I spotted what I first thought to be something called 'Ethiopian Horror Horse.' I thought it was an interesting name to give a coffee, and it spoke of a wild, dark bean that cannot be tamed and must be brewed while wearing a wide brimmed hat and drunk while holding on tight to the mane. I also thought that I'd misread the label. I had. It is, in fact, 'Ethiopian Harrar Horse,' which also sounded interesting. I bought a small bag of it, and looked it up when I got home. It's said to have a very fruity aroma and flavour, and a bit of a zing without too much acidity. They say it has a dry finish like certain wines. One man, however, said that while the smell of it while roasting, grinding and brewing is incredible, the flavour in the cup is unremarkable. He said that he would give it another try, though. I look forward to trying it.

Scotch, neat

Just sipping a bit of Johnny Walker Red. I noticed a few weeks ago that it's the scotch they drink at the end of Dial M For Murder. It's pretty good.

A salty tang

My batch of sauerkraut is now three days old. Yesterday it was still just a container of salty cabbage soaking in its own juices. Today it has a distinctly sour flavour and aroma. Small bubbles appear on the surface. It looks like it is beginning to ferment nicely.

Movies about wine

Movies about wine make me want to drink wine. I just watched Bottle Shock, a movie based on the true story of a Napa Valley vineyard that won a blind taste test in France in 1976. I'd been planning to have a couple of scotch and sodas before and with dinner, but every few minutes, there on the screen, someone was drinking a glass of wine. So I opened up a bottle. I would have preferred a merlot, and that might have gone better with the seitan roast I'm having for dinner, but the chardonnay I had chilled in the fridge is very good nonetheless.

Sourdough with whey

The yeast in the sourdough starter seems to love the whey I used to make the sponge. It's nice and bubbly, rising up in the bowl, and it's giving off a nice aroma.

Sauerkraut, sourdough, and fresh cheese

Last night I made fresh cheese. I poured the whey into a jar and put it in the fridge. Today I mixed it with a bit of flour and some sourdough starter. The acid in the whey is supposed to contribute to a very tender whole grain bread, so I'll be putting some cracked wheat in this loaf.

I started a batch of sauerkraut, too. About one part red cabbage to two parts green. The mixture in the crock was pleasing to the eye, purple, white and green. I used my fist to bruise it, punching it down into the crock to encourage it to release its water. The salt will also draw the water out, making a brine in which the cabbage will ferment. It's already getting juicy in the crock. Every so often I press down on the jar I'm using to weigh down the terra cotta dish that covers the cabbage. It makes a squelching sound, and a little bit of liquid comes up over the dish.

In a few days I'll spread the cheese on slices of sourdough. In a few weeks I'll be putting the sauerkraut into jars.

Boil, add lemon juice, strain

Going to make farmer's cheese. Sounds like it would be delicious in lasagna or some kind of stuffed baked pasta. It will be even better when I have fresh herbs. Basil, oregano, maybe with some minced garlic.

Open window weather

Coming in with that gusting wind, the metallic tang of the rain, in the air before it comes and lingering for hours afterwards. Good weather for sitting out on the balcony with a glass of whiskey and a pipe, or maybe a gin and tonic, and reading.

Six handmade pizzas in the middle of the night

Made by hand, sourdough with a handful of stone ground wheat flour. One at a time, two in the oven, six in all.

An active starter

The dough will sit for awhile, and then the pizza will be made.

Two days later

I do not have to report for jury selection tomorrow morning. According to the message, I do not have to report until Friday.

There is darkness, too, and we do gain strength

When she told me what her Mother had said about Burn After Reading, that it was the darkest movie she'd seen in awhile, it reminded me of something I'd thought when I first started hanging out with her. I'd been thinking about her cheerful disposition, her slightly naive view of the world, and I'd thought that I didn't want to bring darkness into her world. She may have had a somewhat sheltered outlook, but her naivete gave her a charmingly innocent-seeming personality, a certain joy. After giving it more thought, though, I realised that in some ways hers is a world of darkness. There are dark things, sad, tragic things in this world. As there is light, so is there shadow. To shield oneself from those things is to blind oneself. We gain strength by confronting these things. Is there something that we lose in the process?

Olive, olive oil

I've just purchased an olive oil lamp. It is a moderately sized jar with a handle on the side and a lid. It contains a wire, bent and coiled in such a way as to hold the wick upright near the bottom of the jar, and also provide a handle with which to lift the apparatus. When in use, one removes the lid, lifts the wire, cleans and trims the wick if necessary, and lights it. It cost only a few dollars, but a similar one could easily be made at home with a jar, a wire and a proper kind of string. It provides more illumination than a candle, and olive oil burns cleanly, with almost no smoke. An inch or two of oil will provide several hours of use.