Half Awake

I’ve been taking a 14 week Intro to Culinary Arts class for fun, and it’s been… delicious. So far, I’ve consistently forgotten to bring my camera in to record the finished products every week, but I couldn’t resist snapping a cell-phone shot of the braised lamb shanks we made recently.

Our side dishes that night: Whipped potatoes with rutabaga, and French-style peas.

Other main courses served that night: Vegetarian Chili, Braised Moroccan-Style Chicken, Ragu Blognese, Osso Buco, Choucroute, Duck, Oyster & Artichoke Gumbo, Cioppino.

Here are a couple of the photos from the breakfast I mentioned.

More recently, our class had a media training workshop where we practiced constructing clear messages, using sound bites, and performing camera interviews. It’s sort of terrifying to be on camera speaking as an ‘expert’ about something that in reality you don’t feel that confident about.

We watched a number of examples of good and bad interviews. One excellent example of what not to do came from an interview of Bob Dole by Katie Couric during the 1996 presidential election (sorry, I can’t find a video of it). Dole was downright combative rather than focusing on the issues that were important to him. But it’s tough. I’d probably blow up at a reporter who accused me of anything, too.

I think I could do a good job as the journalist too, though. I like asking questions and being critical of the responses (in a constructive way, of course). I like listening. Maybe there’s a career in sci-comm or policy for me after all.

My Weighted Companion Cube moved in last week. After showing it around town we took some photos together. Here, it’s debating whether or not to go sledding in the last snowfall of the year (fingers crossed!).

Sadly, in the end, it chickened out. We went to my office for a bit, and it decided to read while I was getting my work done. It seems to have a huge interest in momentum, heat, and mass transfer. For some reason, it keeps asking me about conservation of momentum.

I tried to explain the Cauchy momentum equation, but it’s been sooo long since I thought about that stuff. We did have a productive convo about the most efficient way to cool high-powered Disk Operating Systems running Genetic algorithms.

Later, I caught Weighted Companion Cube playing Portal.

I think it’s about to euthanize itself. This is so meta.

Lower cover text reads: “Sex is the the most lethal weapon”

It reminds me of all things Christmas.

This looks like a nice place to grow up.

… then proceed to the nearest suitable source of water for irrigation.

Photo opportunity noticed by O’Foghlú.

Fox wears a ribbon for World AIDS Day.

A golden pothos plant turned calico, probably from lack of nutrition.

The collaborative Thanksgiving meal is ready.

A muddy pair of Nike Zoom Waffle XC Spikes on freshly fallen snow.