Ulysses Somers

10:00 am: Omelettes

Omelettes

My mom called, and said, "Turn on channel 9 now, they're showing Julia Child making omelettes."

Oh, yeah, I have TV now, but that's another story.

Anyway, I switched to the TV input and watched the episode, it was really inspiring. For the plain omelette, she mixed the eggs with some parsley, pepper, salt, and water. She got a pan hot, then added about 1 tablespoon butter, it sizzled and foamed, and she added the "2-3" eggs. After about 4 seconds, she started swishing the omelette around in the pan, and then some number of seconds later, she flipped half of it over onto itself. To flip it, she did these little jerks where she pushed the pan away from herself, and then pulled it back sharply.

Once it was flipped, she scooted it around and then flipped it onto a plate by putting the plate over the pan, and then flipping them around. Then she fiddled with it a bit to tuck the edge under. She showed how to tuck it under using two forks, or, "If you're in the kitchen alone, you can just use your fingers like this."

Then she sprinkled the top with more parsley.

She showed putting various fillings in, and ended with a nice omelette party setup.

Since watching, I've tried a number of omelettes, both with and without fillings. And they're delicious! I used to think that I didn't like omelettes, because I don't like firm, leathery sides. These aren't like that at all, they're fluffy and flavorful. And even if you mess them up, they still taste great.

Here's some tips:

• Volume is very important, it's really easy to put in more eggs than the pan can handle
  
• The pan has to start off fairly hot. The butter should start sizzling and foaming immediately. If the butter doesn't start foaming up right away, it's really easy for it to start to brown or burn. If it does, just wipe it out of the pan and start over.
  
• Get the fillings set up so you can put them in quickly. If I'm putting in more than one thing, I premix it, because you don't actually have a lot of time.
  
• The top of the omelette stays runny, you have to have faith that it'll finish cooking once it's flipped in half.

09:32 am: Tom Kah Kai
I made this last Wednesday:

Tom Kah Kai

Ingredients:

• 3 cups chicken stock
• 8 large slices Siamese ginger (galanga or kha) or other ginger (about 5-1/2 ounces)
• 1 large stalk lemon grass, outer leaves discarded, trimmed and slant-cut into two-inch sections
• 12 fresh kaffir lime leaves or peel of one lime
• 2 14-ounce cans unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1-1/2 tbs chili-tamarind paste
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2-1/2 tbs coconut-palm sugar or golden brown sugar
• 2-1/2 tbs fish sauce
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
• 5 small Thai chilies, stemmed and lightly crushed

Directions:

Put the stock, ginger, lemon grass, and lime leaves or lime peel in a stock pot. Gradually bring to boil over medium-high heat. Boil for one minute, then add the coconut milk. Return to boil, then add the chicken. Return to boil, and then add the chili-tamarind paste, the lemon juice, sugar, and fish sauce. Stir until the paste and sugar are dissolved and blended, then add the mushrooms. Simmer until mushrooms are tender, about 1 minute.

Float chilies on top and turn off the heat. Serve.

Notes:

This is from one of my favorite cookbooks, True Thai by Victor Sodsook. I've now made it twice, and it turned out delicious both times. This dish is among both my favorite Thai foods and my favorite soups.

I used the lime peel option, the galanga, and palm sugar. The only place I've managed to find galanga is Uwajimaya. Both times I've been a bit heavy on the chicken, just because that's what the package was.

I've deviated from and modified the above recipe in the following ways.

Instead of chili-tamarind paste (which I couldn't find, and didn't feel like making), I used a mix of sweet chili sauce and tamarind extract. While this seems to work well for flavor, I'm thinking about adding something to make the dish hotter.

Since I used stock from bullion both times, I made up the stock first, and added the galanga, lemon grass, and lime peel to that pan, and then let it sit while I prepped the other ingredients.

Similarly, I prepped the sugar, juice, fish sauce, chili sauce, and tamarind extract into a bowl ahead of time, though I'm not sure that actually saved me any effort.

The second time I made it, I used the juice from the lime instead of lemon juice, and it worked fine.

The Siamese ginger, lemon grass, and lime peel/leaves aren't meant to be eaten. Eating the chilies is an option for the hardy.

10:02 am: ValhallaCon and PAX
I'm really glad I went to ValhallaCon -- it was a great convention. Small and cosy, with a really high percentage of pros and semi-pros. Only one track of programming, but it was really, really good. Good hospitality, too, with plenty to munch on and a constant stream of discussions popping up.

I'm also kind of glad I avoided the swine flu at PAX. They've also posted a list of flights out of Seattle with confirmed cases.

12:50 pm: Valhallacon Game Day

Yesterday was Valhallacon's Game Day at Eagles. It was a lot of fun.

I ran 2 sessions of Paranoia, and played in a game of Corporation that Echo ran. I enjoyed Corporation quite a bit. It's a somewhat combat-oriented intrigue/special-ops RPG, which wouldn't be my first choice for a campaign to play in, but the session was fun.

The two Paranoia sessions were fun, for me at least. The first session in particular had some episodes where I could just sit back quietly and listen as the players harangued each other, which is one of my favorite parts.

I'm still a little sad, though, that Quina-R-IAN stopped the field lobotomy.

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01:52 pm: Amazon Kindle and 1984

Amazon pulled 1984 and Animal Farm from the Kindle.Not just from the kindle store, but from individual kindles.

I generally oppose buying DRM-limited copies of media that I might want to use multiple times, such as books or music, because I'm worried that the DRM service will stop running and I'll lose access to the media. This has happened several times with music, where the site that verifies the DRM content gets taken down.

However, it never occurred to me that whatever service I purchased it from would reach into my device and delete it. I've been wrestling with the idea of buying a kindle for awhile now, mostly to try to reduce the number of physical books we have in the apartment -- or at least to keep it at the current seven bookcases level (which was quite difficult to achieve). But now -- no. Oh well, someday I'll find a reader I'm happy with.

Discussion in the forum gave this explanation from Amazon:

The Kindle edition books Animal Farm by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) & Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) were removed from the Kindle store and are no longer available for purchase. When this occured, your purchases were automatically refunded. You can still locate the books in the Kindle store, but each has a status of not yet available. Although a rarity, publishers can decide to pull their content from the Kindle store.

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05:32 pm: New Orleans

I can't quite put my finger on why I like New Orleans so much.

( cut for length and New Orleans fanboyism )

04:50 pm: Race for the Galaxy

So, we've been sick ever since Norwescon. It's not been all bad though, because last weekend we picked up Race for the Galaxy, and have been playing it incessantly ever since.

It's a really fun and really fast 2 to 4 person game. There seem to be a lot of different strategies to pursue, depending on which cards you draw. It's competitive, but there's almost no interaction between players, and you do your moves simultaneously. (There is a given order to go in, if timing becomes an issue, but it rarely comes up.)

There's only been one thing that's come up that we've disagreed on, that we couldn't settle by the rule book. That's how the card Gambling World works.

I couldn't find an errata sheet for the game, but I finally tracked down some game designer comments, which cleared the matter up. I'm putting it all here so it'll be easier to look up in the future.

• The two consume powers are totally separate. You can do them both in one consume phase.
• There is no cost associated with the "name a number from 1-7" power. You just name a number and flip the card.
• If the number you name is the same as the cost/defense of the card, you get to keep the card. The chart is provided for reference only, and gives the distribution of costs and defenses of all the cards in the deck.

The game designer was Tom Lehman, posting to this BoardGameGeek forum thread.

Here are the three relevant comments:

• Yes, you can use both of the Gambling World's consume powers in a single Consume phase (that's why the note on the power in the rules mentions that this card has an "additional" consume power).
   
• Nope, you keep it if the number you name (1-7) equals the build cost or military defense. The chart is just a reference.
   
• No, the first of the Gambling World's two consume abilities (Draw if Lucky) does *not* require a good to activate (the standard consume 1 good for 1 VP chip power does).
   
  So, for example, if you settle this world on the first turn and another player consumes, then you can name a number, flip a card, and see if you get lucky even if you have no goods in your tableau.

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09:54 am: The Watchmen
8:10 PM. Was raining. Went to Cinerama. Saw Watchmen. Was good.

09:45 pm: The Spirit

So, we went and saw The Spirit at the Pacific Place today.

It's the latest Frank Miller movie, with all that that entails.

( Mild to medium spoilers behind cut. )

05:55 pm: Movie quote
"It was a nice little house, he'd probably paid four or five thousand for it before houses went up. From all I hear it'd probably bring 15 Gs by now." -- Humphrey Bogard, "Dead Reckoning" (1947)

11:04 am: Cthulhu fhtagn
We're going to the Lovecraft play at the Open Circle Theater tonight. 8 PM, $15, 2222 Second Avenue, 2nd Floor.

05:22 pm: Slacker
Just finished watching Slacker. A day in Austin, Texas, listening to a long string of really annoying people.

I liked it.

01:47 pm: Ironman VS Batman
I enjoyed this detailed comparison of Ironman and Batman.

11:07 am: VCON 33
Going up to VCON this evening. So should you! I GUARANTEE* that you will have a great time!

I haven't been to VCON in a long time, I'm looking forward to it! And looking forward to getting out of here...

*Guarantee: if you should not have a great time at VCON 33, present yourself in front of Ulysses Somers on or before December 31st, 2008, and he will give you an insincere and nonexclusive apology in compensation. Void where prohibited. Cash value 1/20th of 1 cent.

05:20 pm: Cleaning
So, I've been cleaning and sorting my office. This always kicks up a bunch of dust, so now my sinuses are stuffed, I have an incipient headache, and I'm a bit woozy.

Yes, it's true -- I am allergic to cleaning.

10:34 am: Making money
Why am I still stuck in my current job? I guess I'm not creative enough.

10:06 pm: Comic
Well, I kind of fell off it for awhile, but I finally posted to it again:

Uly's Comics

04:46 pm: Yay! Summer!
It's hot and sunny today, and scheduled to remain so for several days. Yay!

Maybe it'll stay sunny through my birthday!

02:35 pm: Bumbershoot
Went to Bumbershoot yesterday, the highlights were Vince Mira and the Roy Kay Trio, Mark Pickerel & His Praying Hands, the Offspring, and Black Eyes and Neckties. Lots of fun all day, by the end of the evening I was beat.

Probably won't be going to it next year, though, as the North American Discworld Convention is Labor Day weekend.

06:09 pm: Bumbershoot
Here's a tentative schedule of bands we're planning to see Monday at Bumbershoot. The 3:15 and 9:00 overlaps are because cjot and I are seeing different bands at those times -- can you guess which is which?

We almost certainly aren't going to see all of the bands on the list, both because if there are other people we know there we might go see whoever they're seeing, and because at some point we're going to leave for food.