Random Stuff

Still enjoying my summer vacation here though it is rapidly coming to end. I still have several items on my summer projects list. Better get to them!

Since my last check in I've seen a few movies. I still don't get the zombie thing but I went to see World War Z anyway. Not great but not bad either. Redemption was interesting though I think the title really was in reference to the nun rather than the Jason Statham character. Just like I don't get the zombie thing I don't get the vampire thing either. Ooo look sexy vampires in the goth club getting all hot and steamy.  Zzzz... With that said I am not sure why I went to see Byzantium but I did. I thought the movie was slow but not terribly so. It was an interesting take on the vampire movie, though I really wish that there was more time spent on the origin story (told through flashbacks) and more about the Brotherhood that is part of the movie. Maybe these missing bits will be in the director's cut.

About a week ago I was invited to go to the Musical Instruments Museum in Phoenix. I wasn't expecting much but as the museum was shutting down for the day (they close at 5 pm except on Thursdays) I wished we had gone a little earlier so we could have spent more time walking around. There are areas in the museum devoted to different geographical areas of the world. Most cultures seemed to have developed very similar instruments, but there was some that left me wondering how in the world did anyone think up that???? My one quibble with the museum was the headsets. The plus side of the them is you get to hear song clips featuring many of the instruments displayed. The song clips were well-chosen and featured traditional and folksy songs. So the quibble, you have to stand very close to the screens that mark the different areas. Take one step in the wrong direction and you lose the signal. I understand why they do it that way but this made it difficult to look at the displayed instruments and listen to the song snippets at the same time.  Boo hoo. The museum's website suggests allowing two hours for your visit. I was there for about 90 minutes and barely scratched the US+Canada and Europe galleries (about half the floor space) so plan accordingly.

In the interest of time I didn't take too many pictures but below are photos of a few stringed instruments...

 and a Spanish clavichord.

K-12 educators! I assume it is on-going but you can get free admission to the Musical Instruments Museum if you bring some form of teacher ID with you. Ask at the counter.

It's summer so I took the opportunity to cook a load of vegetables to make Stufato.

 

Summer Movie Disappointment

So far I've been pretty disappointed with the movies I've seen this summer. Iron Man 3 was good, but not great, Star Trek Into Darkness was good but not great, Man of Steel was "eh", and The Purge was pretty stupid. I'm likely to see World War Z and Pacific Rim in the near future but don't think either will be particularly good. Hopefully I'll see something good this summer.

Last week when I stopped for lunch at Luncha Libre and stepped away from my quesadilla obsession and ordered a Sloppy Jose. This is basically a sloppy Joe but made from ground beef and chorizo topped with a habanero queso sauce on a toasted roll. Wow it was good! I'm starting to think about trying to recreate it at home.

A little more on the healthy side was the pasta and bean soup I made last weekend.

Not quite a traditional recipe-it has zucchini in in it-and I use a tomato topping (diced tomato and basil) instead of adding tomato to the broth. This version seems more summery to me. Also for some reason this soup tastes best to me when warm instead of steaming hot. Yes, the daily temperature is near 110 degrees where I live and I made soup for dinner. I see no problem with that.

Northern Arizona

I spent this past weekend in the area around Payson, Arizona. The last time I visited the area was when my Ph.D. supervisor invited a bunch of us to the cabin that he and his wife built. I call it a cabin but it has been referred to as the Chateau of Fun. On the recent trip I got to spend some time in the area seeing the Tonto Natural Bridge, the Strawberry Schoolhouse, Fossil Creek Creamery, and the Mogollon rim.

The natural bridge was awesome! Standing underneath it was like standing in a light rain shower as the water fell from the rocks above. The cold water felt good on such a warm day. It wasn't very strenuous to walk down to except for the little scary part where the rocks were very slick.

We walked the shorter Waterfall trail too:

 

After stopping for ice cream in Strawberry, AZ I took these pictures of the outside and inside of the Strawberry schoolhouse. This is "the oldest standing school in Arizona".

There were some amusing rules for teachers posted on the walls. Apparently men could only go courting one night a week, unless they were a regular church goer, in which case they could court twice a week.

The last stop of Saturday before returning to Payson for the night was the Fossil Creek Creamery. I've enjoyed samples of their goat cheese at a local store.

Goats!

We spent a little of Sunday afternoon at the Mogollon Rim. The rim offered splendid views of the Tonto National Forest.

I wish I could remember the name of the lake (Wood's canyon lake, I think). People were out fishing but don't know how much luck they were having. A fun weekend!

Geeking Out

Summer has finally arrived and I have the next two months off. Let's see what I can do this year.
Just as final exams were wrapping up in May I was able to attend Leprecon, a small, local science fiction convention. Due to its timing I haven't been able to spend much time there the two times I have gone, but I do like supporting the con. This year the author Guest of Honor was Jack McDevitt. There are two of his books in my library: The Engines of God (a novel) and Standard Candles (a collection). The con's meet the author session was pretty empty so he invited those present to pull up some chairs and talked with us for just over an hour. All present swapped stories about what got us reading science fiction. For me it was Star Trek, classic horror films, Japanese monster movies, and bad 1950s science fiction movies that were a Saturday afternoon staple. As mentioned elsewhere I was (and still am) fond of old radio programs. I didn't think of it at the time but as I write this I also have to credit my interest in science and the space program.

Star Wars was a big influence too but not really until The Empire Strikes Back was released and my parents spoiled the snot out of me with lots and lots of Star Wars Toys. That's where it really started and likely responsible for me reading somewhere around 1000 books so far. That said, I confess here to not reading much other than short fiction and comic books the past couple of years.

After the author panel I visited a few of the tables set up and took a walk through the art room. When I left for the day I felt inspired to try and find some novels to read. I promise to get on it as soon as I clear out the unread books on my shelves!

Someone could (and should) write a dissertation about why there are so few young people at these types of events. I am over 40 and I was on the lower end of the age range of the attendees I saw. There are many young writers so what will it take to get the young fans to attend a con?

I'll contrast the small science fiction convention with Phoenix Comicon, which I attended for the first time this year. Now I am not expecting Leprecon to attract over 40,000 people, but it was sad to me when only about a dozen people showed up to meet their guest of honor.

Phoenix Comicon was fun. I was able to attend some meet the author sessions and a few other panels. I was happy to take pictures of Stormtroopers and Darth Vader! Though I was very put out by the Mos Eisley cantina area where you could have your picture taken with Greedo shooting. GAH! Talk about revisionist history. I enjoyed just walking around and checking out all the costumes. These people need to share their talents with me. Please! It was also good see friends and even some former students during the weekend. Based on the positive experience I am likely to attend next year too.

So far, this summer vacation, I have attended a science fiction convention, attended Phoenix Comicon, and am registered for this year's Coppercon. This will be my first time at Coppercon which will be right before the fall semester begins. This means I will have attended a con just as the spring semester was ending and will attend a con just before the fall semester begins. The physicist in me finds the symmetry appealing.

Wacky Weather

I wish the Arizona weather would make up its mind. First it was cold, record overnight lows in many places. With the low temperatures I would like to thank my neighbors for blasting their heat and keeping my apartment at a fairly reasonable temperature that week. A week after this we broke record highs with temperatures making it in the low 80s.  I nearly had to turn the AC on!



With the cold leaves fell off many of the trees giving the area around where I live a fall feel. The picture with the bare trees and leaves piled up remind of September growing up.  While walking around someone shared that "It feels like Indian Summer back home." That it did.


Then the rains came. This is the pond near my office. It isn't supposed to be a pond.

 I played with the image a little by cropping it:

Then to be silly I rotated the image

 Then I cropped it some more

And I rotated it too. You can tell this is the reflection by the patch of grass visible at the upper left and the ripples in the upper right.

I've been pretty busy with classes and other administrative duties so I haven't been particularly creative in the kitchen lately. This weekend I did make tacos. There were plenty of leftovers so I will be able to properly celebrate Taco Tuesday this coming Tuesday. I usually make fairly dull tacos by browning ground beef and adding some kind of seasoning packet (Simply Organic's Southwest Taco this time). To make them less dull I pickled some sliced red onion and also added boiled cubed potatoes to the ground beef just before adding the seasoning packet.  The tacos turned out well. The melted cheese with seasoned ground beef and potatoes made for good eating. I ate my tacos with Amy's Traditional refried beans which I maintain are the best canned refried beans on the market.



While shopping I came across a can of beer that caught my attention. Ska Brewing Company (I'd add their link but it makes noise when it loads!) made a Mole' Stout as a seasonal release. The description sounded interesting so I bought a six pack to give it a try. Not bad as stouts go. I don't detect any chiles but I did taste the cocoa. Given that this stout is a little sweet and with the cocoa powder and the spices I have to say it tastes a lot like a cookie my mom makes at Christmas.  Yes a beer that reminds me of cookies! As long as they don't make a samoas beer I'll be okay.

The Year's Best

Since I am not that social or mainstream I don't have too many categories to name my favorites from the past year.

Most of my reading last year was various comic books, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and back issues of Physics Today. I didn't read many novels this year and there were no standouts that I will mention.  However there was a lot of graphic novel reading going on over here.  I am by no means a Comic Book Geek but a majority of what I read came from The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman and Birds of Prey written by Gail Simone.  Most of these volumes I found to be very well done.

Probably the best pickup of the year though was getting a copy of The Ship that Sailed to Mars. WOW! Thanks to Paul Di Filippo for writing a review of this book in a recent Asimov's (Jan. 2013) that made me want to pick up a copy. This is an illustrated children's book done by William Timlin and published in 1923. I thought the story could have used some help (you won't get any spoilers from me) but the art included is just amazing.  Did I mention how good the art is in the book? I am tempted to get a second copy of the book so that I can take it apart and the hang the illustrations on my walls. Thanks to the folks at Dover (their Calla imprint) for making this available.

For my favorite game pickup I liked We Must Tell the Emperor, part of the States of Siege series of solitaire games published by Victory Point Games, which allows you to run in an abstract way the Pacific Theatre during WWII from the Japanese perspective. The first part of the war is pretty easy going unless you have bad luck, but once the game takes you into the later periods of the war you get a sense of the hammering the Japanese took. Another game I liked was Onirim published by Z-Man Games in the USA.  Think of it as a type of solitaire. The object is to play a series of three cards of the same color but with different symbols on them to open a door. To win you need to open eight doors, two from each of the four different colored suits, to escape the labyrinth before the nightmares get you by depleting your draw pile. There is also two-player variant of the game. A good game but I'd like it a lot more if it weren't for all the card shuffling.

I didn't travel much this past year but I enjoyed walking through Cave of the Mounds and also Mission San Jose.

As much as I've cooked this past year I don't feel like I did enough.  At least I tried making some new things like dill pickles, purple cauliflower, and cranberry sauce to name a few.

Unless I've lost a ticket stub I saw 10 movies in the theatre this year. I saw nothing that was fantastic. Every movie I saw had some kind of flaw, but The Avengers was probably the most solid. I would have liked this movie a lot more if they deleted Bruce Banner and The Hulk from it. Puny human says Hulk bad. Prometheus seemed to be a flop but I liked it, probably more than I would have had I not saw it in 3D. It was cool to watch that way. I will say the same thing about The Hobbit. For some reason my eyes kept bugging out on me during the showing. I'll leave it to others to pick that movie apart. The movie that surprised me the most was Total Recall. I really was expecting to have two hours of my life wasted so I was surprised walking out of the theatre that I did not feel that way, probably because it wasn't exactly like the original. The effects were cooler too.

My best food find last year was Luncha Libre. Their quesadillas are very good and creative. I've had several different kinds: mushroom and roasted potato (the pot head), roasted potato and green chile (papa verde), bulgogi (the koreadilla), and steak and mushroom. (Why no special name??) Their tea and fruit drinks are good too. Thanks to ASU for inviting local food trucks to a spot near campus on Wednesdays. The Wednesday lunch time routine is to stop at Luncha Libre and then visit the nearby Pop Culture Paradise to see what new Comic Book Day brings.

That was 2012, what's in store for 2013?

Happy New Year

I write this at the end of my first day back in the classroom.  Winter break was far too short this year so I was unable to catch up on the to-do list. Hopefully this doesn't keep me from posting here on a regular basis.




The week before this I cooked batches of brown rice and farro to use.  The farro I used two ways: one was tossing it with roasted onions, mushrooms, and kale and the other was using it in a batch of soup. Both of these dishes turned out very well. I am a big fan of farro.












One of the uses I had for the rice was making a batch of fried rice. Normally I would add a bit of beef but having none at hand I didn't sweat it. My fried rice is seasoned with soy sauce and sake. I didn't miss the beef serving the fried rice with baby broccoli and a mug of green tea .










I had some potatoes hanging around too so I decided to make a batch of fried potatoes. I've experimented over the years with this and the best results have come from boiling the potatoes first and then frying them in a mixture of olive oil and butter. Near the end of cooking I added some rosemary and thyme that got crispy, but not burned. I named these The Best Fried Potatoes Ever! I was happy with the results. I don't save mine (I probably should) but bacon fat makes for good fried potatoes too.





To go with the potatoes (and the bread) I made some beans and greens.  When thinking about making it I knew I wanted it to be "soupy" so I added some chicken broth to the pot and let it simmer for a little while. The best beans and greens comes from using swiss chard and I like to boil the swiss chard and the stems first before adding them to the oil, garlic, and beans. Oh and don't forget the red pepper flakes, it is the magic ingredient here, even if you use just a little to add some zing. This time I made it soupy, but sometimes I will make it "dry" using a little of the swiss chard's cooking liquid to moisten everything. I also prefer using ceci (garbanzo beans), white beans tend to be a little mushy. If I close my eyes I can remember the sitting in the basement of my uncle's house with my father snarfing the beans and greens my uncle made from fresh-picked swiss chard. Good stuff and good memories.