We've been taking part in Meatless Monday for the past few months (I can't remember if I mentioned that here previously).  One of the interesting side-effects of it is that we often end up eating better on Mondays than on any other day of the week, because I have to actually plan ahead for what we're going to eat rather than just pulling something out of the freezer and putting it in the oven.

One of my new favourite easy-to-make meatless recipes is sweet potato bake:

ingredients:

1 lb sweet potato

1 can of lentils

1 can diced tomato

½ onion (diced)

1 tsp rosemary

2 tsp parsley

1/3 cup frozen peas

1 cup grated cheese

 

1. Peel and slice sweet potato; steam until soft enough to be pierced with a fork.

2. In a separate pot, combine tomato, onion, and herbs. Bring to a boil.

3. Allow tomato/onion mix to simmer 5 minutes, then add lentils and peas. Cook for 2 minutes.

4. In a casserole dish, layer tomato mix, sweet potato, and cheese (2 layers of each).

5. Bake for 35 minutes at 350F.

 

I've also become really interested in trying to make ratatouille, because we watched the Pixar movie of the same name for the first time this week and I loved it, and became intrigued by the food:

Ratatouille

 

1 onion

1 green pepper

1 eggplant

2 zucchini

3 tomatoes

¼ cup olive oil

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

½ tsp basil

½ tsp oregano

½ clove garlic

 

1. Dice eggplant into 1 inch cubes and slice zucchini into ½ inch rounds. Chop onion coarsely and cut green pepper into squares.

2. Saute onion, garlic, and green pepper until soft.

3. Stir in eggplant and zucchini and saute a few minutes more.

4. Add tomato and seasonings.

5. Cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes or until all vegetables are well-cooked.

6. Uncover and turn up the heat to evaporate some of the liquid.

(Julia Child's version of this recipe recommended cooking the eggplant and zucchini prior to adding them to the other veggies, but I don't know how necessary of a step that is)

A man came by the house yesterday.  He was an interesting fellow - bit of an older man, bald, in a wheelchair, and possessed with an unshakable sort of vitality.  You could tell, just by looking in this gentleman's eyes, that he had done a lot of living throughout his years, and that he's seen things most people would never see.

He said he came to tell me that my child was special (as if there was ever a parent that needed to be told that, and didn't just know it in their heart).  He meant a different kind of "special", though, although he wouldn't really specify what he meant by that.  Only that it was a different kind of special, and that he had a school in New York state that he runs for special kids.  He wanted to stress to me that it's never too early to start thinking about how to have your child reach their maximum potential.

It's a difficult decision.  I mean, New York's not far, but it is, at the same time, and it's a private school, and I've always been a big supporter of the public education system on an ideological level.  But I did take his literature, and thanked him for coming all the way to talk to us.  Although now that I think about it, I'm not quite sure exactly how he found us?

He was also nice enough to give us a school shirt!



I wonder what the school's mascot is?

Long-time readers may recall that last summer I tried couch to 5k, and fizzled out at around week four, due to a variety of reasons.  I'm giving it another try this year (because the reasons I wanted to do it last year are still valid), and I think conditions might be a little more prime - if I can't do it this year, I have no one to blame but myself.

I'm keeping track of my progress on daily mile - feel free to cheer me on if you're so inclined :o)

Ten Lost Predictions

So, my main theory for the last season of Lost was rather spectacularly disproven a couple of weeks ago with the episode Across the Sea. I haven't tried to formulate a new grand theory, but did want to make a few predictions for the final episode which airs tonight. We'll see how many of these happen.

1.The opening scene features a closeup of someone's eye. This one's a bit of a gimme – the opening eye closeup has become a signature part of Lost's visual style, so I can't see them leaving it out of the finale.

2.Jack dies at the end. At the start of the finale, Jack stands to be the replacement for Jacob. I still think he's going to die, though, opening the protector spot up, because a) they revealed it too quick and too early for there not to be a twist, and b) you don't choose the island, the island chooses you.

3.Ben betrays the man in black. Last time on Lost, Ben got to kill Charles Widmore and the man in black told him that he needed him to kill some other people as well. What we've seen of Ben, though, is that since he was 11 he's been a master strategist. He's not just going to turn over and be someone else's lapdog.

4.We never learn the man in black's name. One of the biggest mysteries to come out of last season's finale was “Who is the man in black?”, which we've since learned is tied to the larger question of “What is the cloud of black smoke?” We've gotten most of that explanation, but one thing they've dodged around is giving him a name. Fans have supplied a laundry list of names for him (Adam, Esau, unLocke, fLocke, Smokey, Black Efron), and I've heard a lot of people being really interesting in getting his actual name. I don't think we're going to get it, though, because ultimately the man's name isn't important, and if they meant to reveal it they would have done so in Across the Sea.

5.Richard joins Isablla. Richard acted as Jacob's loyal servant for over a century, working on his behalf both on the island and off to advance Jacob's plan. He deserves a rest, now. He deserves to die, and to join his wife's spirit.

6.The man in black doesn't get off the island. Normally “the good guys win” wouldn't be that controversialof a statement to make, but Lost has been great at misdirection and surprises, sometimes to the expense of good storytelling (the deaths of people like Illyana and Ana Lucia, for example). But I've still got a gut feeling that he's not going to make it – his plan to use Desmond to get off the island will backfire, trapping him on the island long enough for a new protector to take charge after Jack's death.

7.Vincent returns. We haven't seen Walt and Michael's dog in a couple of seasons, I don't think, but they've been bringing back a lot of old characters this season and he's one of the few we haven't seen.

8.Hurley dies. It pains me to type that. I love Hurley; nearly everyone who watches the show does. They went so far as to title an episode “Everybody Loves Hugo”. But, I know my Lost, and I think they're going to want to start off with a shocking, Arzt-style death, and I think Hurley is the guy for the job.

9.Sawyer becomes the new island protector. Astute readers may notice this was part of my previous theory, and I hold by it. Last season's 1970s storyline did a great job of rehabilitating the character, and of establishing that he's ultimately a protector. He's also the one person who has no-one in his life, in either timeline, and therefore has no one to go back to.

10.You will be disappointed. I'm trying to think of the last time there was a universally-liked final episode of a dramatic television program. Star Trek: The Next Generation, maybe? Buffy, X-Files, Sopranos, Battlestar Galactica – all had at the least very vocal minorities of fans who hated it, and who flocked to the internet to register their complaint. With Lost it will be no different, regardless of the guality of the finale itself.

As long-term readers may already be aware, over the past several years I've become increasingly enamoured with Toronto indie rock band Metric.  I like their sound, I like their style, and their lead singer, Emily Haines, is an absolutely captivating frontwoman.  I know that rock and roll remains a really sexist place, and that female singers get needlessly objectified, and I generally try to not take part in that, but - well, as undignified as it might be, I downright *swoon* when it comes to her.
 
Metric's also one of the few local bands that I really like that I've never seen live, due partially to scheduling conflicts and partially to the fact that their shows tend to sell out REALLY fast.  Luckily for me, though, CBC recorded their last show in Toronto and put it online, so yay!   It's a *really* great sounding show, too - I'd recommend checking it out if you're either a fan of the band or are not familiar with them and would like a sampler.

Seriously, though, I can't look at a picture like this and not swoon:

When I was a kid, I learned to play chess from my paternal grandfather.  He was an excellent choice for teacher, he assured me, as he was the reigning North Irish Left-Handed Chess Champion - no small feat given that he had to overcome being right-handed to even play in the left-handed league. 

He gave me an appreciation for the game that I've had since then, although I fell out of the practice of actually playing chess by the time I finished high school.  I think that a lot of my ability to think rationally and logically come from the experience of learning chess - not that it's impossible to achieve those abilities without a knowledge of chess,  but I find the human mind learns best when you can trick it into thinking that it's not learning.

As part of now being a Father, I wanted to make sure I'd be able to teach my kid how to play chess - not that he has to become a regular, hard-core chess player, but enough that he would have the cognitive tools that chess encourages.  So I downloaded a chess app onto my Palm, and have been playing against the computer, as well as checking out some of the chess ebooks on www.chesszone.org.  I remember all the basic rules about piece movement and stuff like that, but beyond that I'm horrible!  I've completely lost my ability to analyze the board, and to think out a sequence of events that will stem from any given move that I make.  Which is kind of funny, in a way, because if you give me a Catan or Power Grid board, I can engage in that kind of thinking, but I've fallen sufficently out of practice with a chess board to do so there.

Even after a few days, though,  I'm starting to see some progress.  I used to lose to the computer in 10-15 moves; now it takes 20-25 :o)  If I can keep this pace up I'll be a Master by the time I'm 80!

And now, lest this post be too serious, we will finish with a BBC special on Chess Boxing:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOvZP5ylimo)

( This got a little long ... )

This weekend I did two things that I'd been thinking about doing for a long while, but had never really taken the plunge on before:

1) BREAD! I bought a breadmaker on a whim. Owning a breadmaker is something I'd thought about on and off for years, but had never done, because nearly everyone I knew that had ever bought one had the same story about buying it, making a few loafs, and then having it sit in the corner and collect dust until they eventually pawned it off on someone else they knew who wanted to own a breadmaker. I didn't entirely think that would be my experience with it, but these things routinely cost $150-200, so it seemed like a bit of a gamble. Then, Saturday we were in our local Value Village looking to see if they had any nice baby stuff, and I saw some breadmakers for $10. Bought one, made my first loaf on Sunday, and am so glad that I did - the bread was delicious and filled the entire house with a lovely aroma that lasted the entire day. I'll be making more on this weekend, I think, and am looking forward to trying out some different recipes and types of bread.

2) LINUX! I also installed a copy of Linux Ubuntu on my home computer on the weekend, which is the first time I've ever installed an operating system on a computer rather than using the one that came with a computer I purchased. Linux is something that I'd be interested about for years, as well, but I always assumed it was beyond my very modest computer skills. A little while ago I got a copy of Linux for Dummies, which did little to change my opinion, as it dealt primarily with Red Hat 7 and networking and servers and stuff like that, when all I need it for is desktop applications mostly, and maybe a bit of networking - it would be cool if I could access the files on the desktop from our netbook, now that I think about it.
I haven't had too much time to play with it, but so far it seems pretty easy and straightforward to use, although it didn't have a driver for my wireless adapter, which means I haven't had a chance to go online with it, or use any programs beyond those that came installed with Ubuntu (admittedly a lot of programs). We'll see how things go when I've had more of a chance to see what it's really capable of.

Had an epic night of board game playing last Saturday - it was supposed to be getting together for a game or two, but I hadn't played any board games in around 6 months, so it ended up being this incredibly long evening.  We gamed until two in the morning.

We played:

Zombiegeddon - I won this in a raffle at a gaming thing last year, and was really excited about it, because I love zombie board games.  Actually playing the game, though ... it has almost nothing to actually do with zombies.  Instead, it's a game where you run around the board collecting tokens with ugly artwork on them through two different phases, and then counting up the tokens you have to get points.  The entire zombie theme seems like it was slapped on at the last minute to sell more copies, which made me enjoy the game a lot less than I could have.  The fact that same essential game design also exists in everything from cavemen trying to survive the winter and penguins trying to collect fish says something about the role that the theme plays in the game, I think.

Pandemic - Pandemic's an interesting game to play amidst other games, as the people I game with usually end up rather antagonistic (in a fun way), and Pandemic relies entirely on people working together to play.  So it's fun to try to work together after working so hard to steal from and mess with each other. 

Power Grid - I don't think I've ever won a game of Power Grid.  I tend to either over-buy on plants, and not have enough money to develop my resources, or not buy enough plants and then not be able to power the resources that I have.  I think part of my problem as well is that I want to rely on green energy too much (due to my own political attitudes), and as a result try to avoid coal or nuclear plants and that ends up hampering me.

Shadows Over Camelot - I'd played this game once before, and didn't really care for it.  My thought at the time was that this was a shame, because I've always loved Arthurian myth, but I found it kind of obtuse.  After another couple of plays, though, I'm totally hooked on it.  It's epic, and varied, and there's deceit, and intrigue, and you really get dragged into the experience of being in the game that most board games don't accomplish (but which I think might be what D&D is like from what I've heard).  Part of this might be because I ended up being the traitor in one of the two games that we played, and that was a lot of fun, in spite of the tactical mistake I made in an early move that made people suspicious of my traitorness, and I had to spend half the game trying to cover my tracks.  My one complaint would be that the game still plays in a really slow, drawn out way, but as long as you're with the right group that's not really that big a problem.

Star Trek Scene It - This game's a trickier game than it sounds, because there are not many people familiar with all the Star Trek series to be able to answer trivia questions on them.  Also, you end up hearing people say things like "Voyager was a much better show than Deep Space Nine" and it makes you feel like a cranky old man. 

Submarine - A really simple game about collecting treasure under the sea.  Nice dynamic choices and an ever-fun element of screwing your neighbour.  We had only two people playing this, but I think it could get a lot of fun with more.

Seafarers of Catan - I'm a little torn on Seafarers.  On one hand, I like the addition of boats and islands to the Catan game, but the scenarios provided with the game end up making it a longer and more drawn-out game.  Still, it's Catan, so it's a fun experience, but it's been a long time since I've just played vanilla Catan and I kind of miss it.

So, my son's been going through a phase lately where he'll sleep really well ... as long as he's in somebody's arms.  This has led to a few Saturday mornings where I've gotten up fairly early and had a sleeping baby on my chest, so I end up watching TV.

Fun fact about Saturday morning TV: it is, generally speaking, a bit of a wasteland of fishing shows, infomercials, and annoying people.  I've found, however, that the CBC has some pretty fun, geek friendly shows on, including:

My Goldfish Is Evil - About a kid with a goldfish.  The goldfish is, as the title suggests, an evil, diabolical mastermind, and has designs to take over the world.  The kid knows this, but no one will believe him, because, well, it's a goldfish, so it's up to him to thwart the goldfish's plans.  The show's kind of like Pinky & The Brain crossed with the Polkaroo

The Happy Adventures of Yam Roll in the Happy Kingdom - Vegetarian sushi fights crime, and giant monsters.

Dex Hamilton, Alien Entomologist - the name kind of says it all there.  Kind of a Flash Gordon-esque show, but with a Clouseau-esque protagonist who has to research different types of alien insects living on Earth.

What's most amazing about this, though, is no commercials.  I know that whether or not CBC should show commercials in general is an oft-debated topic, and it's one that I'm not quite sure about how I feel on the issue, but I think that  having a place for kids to watch TV without commercials is a really good idea.  The programs are made with space for commercials, though (in case they're sold to other markets, I'm assuming), so they have 16 minutes to fill every hour - which they do by showing short films sent in by kids, which is all awesome and youtube-y.  This morning we saw some live-action stuff, what appeared to be hand-drawn cartoons, and stop motion stuff with Lego and Etch-a-Sketch.  Pretty cool to know that they're encouraging kids to get creative like that, rather than just having them sit and passively watching about sugary cereals and plastic toys!