It’s been a particularly busy week for reasons that I’ll be better able to talk about in the next blog post. In a small preview I’m able to say this much, one of the balls in the air finally landed, and I’ve been accepted into the Doctoral program at CSUN! I had pretty much given up, as I thought they would have decided towards the end of the semester, but I got the phone call on Thursday letting me know I was selected for the program. Still some other things to sort out, but this is pretty exciting!
Since I just finished my book for April last night (I know, I know, I’ll catch up), I figured it was time to give you my long overdue book reviews for March and April. Then Jess reminded me that I should talk about our little excursion to Westwood to see Much Ado about Nothing with a cast and crew question and answer session last week, so I figure why not make it a media week? (Actually, this is me from the future, and Much Ado will have to wait a week.)
So, to review, in January I read The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver, and in February I read The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer. In March I decided to go back to the real life analysis area and picked up a book I hadn’t read yet by an old favorite of mine Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell. I’ve read two of Gladwell’s other books (The Tipping Point and Blink), liking one (Tipping Point, not really my area of interest) and loving the other one (Blink was fascinating and Jess and I still talk about some of the concepts to this day). I’m pleased to report that Outliers landed much closer to Blink than Tipping Point on my scale. The basic idea of the book was to debunk our common narrative of successful people being self-made super-human mortals who do everything on their own. Rather Gladwell presents many examples that success is more often the product of fortuitous timing, cultural advantages, and/or many, many hours of practice at a given skill. You might have heard that it takes ten thousand hours to become an expert at a given field, and this book delves deeply into that idea.
A bit more commentary on writing style, as that’s going to be important when I talk about the April book. I find Gladwell’s style to be easy to read, informative, and usually pretty funny. I recognize the fact that he cherry picks his examples, but it’s hard after seeing the sheer number of them throughout the book not to agree with his premise. I would be curious to see if someone could put together a book of counter-examples. I also discovered the fact that Jess and my fathers were born at a prime time to be computer millionaires like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, but they spent their time surfing instead (okay, to be fair they didn’t have access to the early technology that Bill and Steve did). Actually, regarding that last parenthetical aside, you should read the book just to see how ultra-fortunate Mr. Gates was in his opportunities and training.
For my April selection I didn’t really have a book in mind ahead of time. There is another Gladwell book which is a collection of his articles, but I didn’t want to read the same author in back-to-back months. Seemed lazy. Nothing else really jumped out at me, and it was already a bit into April at this point. I finally took seeing the same book recommended in two different places as a sign I should give it a shot, which is how I wound up reading the entirely uncharacteristic (for me) Life after Life by Kate Atkinson. A fiction novel which follows a woman named Ursula Todd who is born 1910 and who is reborn every time she dies (and let me tell you there are a lot of ways to die in the early to mid-1900′s) with only a hazy, deja-vu memory of her previous lives), which I thought was an interesting idea. It wound up, for me, being a better idea in theory than in practice, as keeping track of what happened in various lifetimes turned out more to be a chore than something interesting and was part of the reason why it took me so long to finish the book. Well, more accurately, so long for me to pick up the book between sittings. I recognize that this is mostly due to a flaw in myself, one I’ll cover in more detail in the next paragraph. Overall though, I’d recommend the book if you have an interest in life in England during the early to mid-1900′s with a twist, but not if you’re intrigued by alternate-history Hitler assassinations, as you are teased with in the beginning of the book, as it plays almost zero part in the novel.
So why do I say there was a personal issue which hampered my enjoyment? Well, about halfway through I came to recognize a simple fact: if this book had been set in the United States I would have been far more interested. The constant references to England’s geographical areas and landmarks had absolutely zero resonance with me, from the rural area where the main character grows up to London during World War II. Also the English affections in the language of the book often pulled me out of many scenes as I tried to determine what they meant. I just found the book a little too meandering, as I wasn’t enjoying it enough to appreciate the exploring of the world. Also it didn’t seem that the “rules” about how things worked remained consistent, and I’m a stickler for rules. All in all I suppose it was a good experience to stretch out my reading tastes a bit, but not one that I’m going to repeat soon. It also put me behind on my schedule, but not nearly enough that I can’t catch up.
I have definitely been enjoying this reading resolution, as it’s let me get back into a good habit that I had largely transitioned to online materials. I feel it’s good to maintain some paper-based reading, there are some studies that indicate it just works better. I don’t know that I necessarily put that much stock into the differences being that great, but old-fashioned sometimes just seems right.
Weight Low: 226 Loss: 4 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 213.5 miles (+0 miles) Last year-to-date: 177.5 miles – Words-to-date: 41761 (+1092)
Last weekend, Matt and I went with a couple of friends to the Temecula Wine and Hot Air Balloon Festival. It was fun, ridiculously hot, but fun! We walked around, shopped, and sampled some local wines (Temecula is known, not just for Indiana Casinos apparently, but also for their wines. Who knew?). We waited for the hot air balloons to return for the evening Balloon Glow, where the balloons are inflated, but tethered, and they “fire up” together. After dusk, the flame lights up the entire balloon and it is really amazing to see.
One thing that they apparently added this year were Wine pairing and Beer pairing sessions where high-end chefs prepared dishes that were paired to local winery and microbrew selections. I would have loved to participate in one of these, but $75 a ticket was a little rich for my taste.
Like I said, it was oppressively hot while we were there, and we reached a point where we were melting so we decided to stop in a shaded, grassy area to rest a bit. As we all basically collapsed onto the ground, I started to read the little booklet they had given us when we walked into the festival.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that in that booklet were printed the recipes for the wine and beer pairings! I started to look through them and came across one I KNEW I had to make when I got home. Have you ever run across one of those? That you knew you just had to make? I couldn’t wait to try such an involved recipe that was from a professional chef that was brought to a festival such as this one…I have gained a lot of confidence in my cooking over the years, and with the recent conquering of frying, I couldn’t wait to challenge myself again.
Recipe #44
Sriracha Ketchup
As with any recipe, it’s important to gather everything you need….
As you can see I added in the ketchup, and then the sriracha…
I admit, I put my own twist on the recipe and decided to branch out a bit. I mixed it with a spoon instead of the rubber spatula that was called for.
After about 30 seconds, my hard work finally paid off!! And I was ready to impress Matt with my new culinary levels. I accompanied the sauce with hot dogs that were infused with cheddar cheese, encased in puff pastry shells.
The sauce was distinctly tomato with a hint of sweetness, followed by a distinct burn. It was … pretty darn good actually. And Dad, before you ask, it was to be paired with the Leffe.
So see, when you stretch and challenge yourself, cooking is a lot of fun!
It’s the beginning of June and I missed it in May, so it’s time for a two month catch up in the Resolution Update! This is where I get to tell you all of my resolutions are in the process of crashing and burning. Don’t worry, it should be more fun than it sounds (I hope).
1) One blog post (longer) every week this year – With a few new epics, the two-parter on Ragnar and “Why I Game” mainly, I feel I’ve been doing a better job at writing some of the longer posts for which this format was meant. Then I have other weeks were I just wrote a few paragraphs on Saturday night. And then I made the mistake of looking at Google Analytics today (or maybe my mistake was turning on the analytics) and I had to remind myself that I’m not doing this for the page views (thank goodness). I will say that Jess has been doing markedly better with her recipes, as people are actually finding them via Google. Maybe I should be writing a food blog too. And if you want to know why I’ve had James Brown’s “Living in America” stuck in my head the last few days, well you should go read her longest piece to date. – On Track.
2) Lose at least 20 pounds – Unfortunately the knee injury has take its toll, and I’m just recently getting things back under control. It turns out that having a runner’s appetite and not running will do bad things to you weight-wise. I had to shut down karate too as I just can’t jump or do a proper back stance with the way things are now. Next appointments are in mid-June, so I’m just going to have to focus on being really good until then. – Behind.
Current Loss: +3 lbs – On pace loss: -8.33 lbs
3) Run 400 miles – Thankfully I built a large buffer in the first few months, although that might have possibly caused my injury so maybe not. Hopefully whatever the problem is can be quickly cleaned up and I can get back on track soon. I actually did two short runs this week for the first time since Ragnar, a one mile run without tape and a two mile run with it. While I could complete them I’m not certain what I was doing could be called running, more of a speedy hobble since bending my right knee to any appreciable degree isn’t easy. As Jess has said often, I don’t do being injured well, but since the symptoms only really occur when I’m trying to run or go down stairs (basically put pressure or compress the joint) it’s been a little easier to deal with as it’s out of my mind a lot of the time. It has gotten bad enough that I’m considering swimming on a regular basis for exercise. – Ahead.
Current Mileage (Through May): 210.5 – On pace mileage: 166.67
4) Write an average of 500 words a day – Again, the epics helped and I am ahead of my modified goal of 250 words a day because of them. I don’t see reaching the 500 word mark, but who knows, maybe I’ll get inspired. Oh, and I wound up taking a No Credit in the online English class I was taking and blowing off the last two months. I just got tired of the lack of feedback, the lack of communication outside of the monthly couple thousand word screed complaining about his job and how certain students weren’t doing things the right way while then saying the majority were doing fine (then why complain to everyone, just deal with those students individually like a grown up), and the general lack of effort this professor put into his class. By the time I wrote the class off two months in I had gotten one grade out of seven projects (a perfect score, mind you) and I didn’t want to deal with it anymore. Not that the professor noticed, as doing any amount of work outside of posting the assignment and writing the occasional rant email was far beyond his interest. I’m just thankful that I had the option of taking it Credit/No Credit; I pity the poor students there that were taking the class for an actual grade and were hoping it would be useful in their life. Oh, and did I mention that in the two months I was in the class the professor did ZERO teaching? It was simply read this section of the book and then do this project. The man was basically stealing money from the University. Sorry, I should stop now . . . – Behind and Ahead.
Current Word Count (Through May): 39231 – On pace word count: 75000 – Modified on pace word count: 37500
Pardon me for the brief interlude here, but this seemed like the best place to put this aside since I just finished complaining about another professor. I got my latest evaluations back and think I scored my best ones yet as all of my scores averaged over a 6 (out of 7) with 95% of the class saying they would recommend me to their friends and that I was a very good instructor. In the past I have had a few comments and they have generally had a theme (one year was “I wish he taught all my classes”), but this year I got comments from half the class and they ranged to all areas of the class (mostly positive though). I did have one student who put all ones (I can infer this from the results sheet and the last comment in the packet, I don’t get their actual evaluations) and left a near unintelligible comment complaining about my lack of computing knowledge. I really have no idea what class they were attending, but considering every other student in the class gave me a 7/7 in “The instructor appears to know the subject matter well” category it’s obvious they were in la-la land. That being said, it is of course the one that is sticking with me, although the main thing that might be bothering me is that I didn’t pick up on this student or their attitude in class (although I had several students who didn’t attend class all that often, so it might have been one of them). I suppose I should just counter it in my head with the last part of another student’s comment, “He was never unable to answer a question.”
5) Read a book a month – Ah, now this one is totally on me. I’m almost done with my April book, which I went out of my comfort zone and have thus struggled a bit with setting the time aside for it. I have my May book all picked out and anticipate it going faster, but seeing as it’s June obviously I have a bit of catching up to do. Thankfully this will be the easiest one to catch up on, as I built a lot of buffer into this resolution. Oh, and as for why I’m having problems with the April book, I’ll keep you in suspense on that one until I do a book review on it. I’ll just say that it’s more a problem with me than the book for now. – Behind.
In all it’s been a rough two months for my resolutions. June might get a little better, but I don’t see things truly turning around for another month. I will say that I’ve certainly had an attitude adjustment and that these setbacks are not getting me down nearly as much as they might have in the past. Not entirely certain to what I should chalk that up, but I’ll be thankful for it anyway (and I’m sure Jess is too).
As for random updates, allergist appointment is also in mid-June as the next step in trying to figure out my esophagus issues, all the tests run by my regular doctor came back negative. I haven’t heard back from the Doctoral program but have to assume by this point that I didn’t make it in, there’s just not enough time left before the next semester that I can see them not having at least sent out the acceptance letters by now. And finally I have a new mystery opportunity that I would appreciate your prayers on, but I can’t say much more than that at the moment.
I don’t say it enough, but I really want to thank those of you that do read all of these updates. I hope to make them at least somewhat interesting and appreciate that you care enough to check them out regardless.
Weight Low: 226 Loss: 4 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 213.5 miles (+3 miles) Last year-to-date: 175.5 miles – Words-to-date: 40669 (+1438)
So, on Cinco de Mayo, I might have gone a little crazy… okay, really crazy. We love Chevy’s Fresh Mex, but the nearest one is a 30 minute drive from here, so we rarely go. I had found a bunch of recipes online months ago but hadn’t tried them… for some reason, instead of trying them, oh…one at a time… I went for 4 in one afternoon. I tend to go on cooking binges when I’m stressed and Cinco de Mayo weekend was at the start of pretty much most stressful month I have ever had at work….but that’s another post.
I mentioned in a previous post that since my mom’s stroke over 2 years ago, I’ve lost my taste for certain processed foods. Something that I’m sure is psychosomatic, but it’s there nonetheless. One of these has been canned refried beans. I found this recipe, and despite my lack of faith in the crock pot, I decided to try it. And I am so glad I did!!! These were delicious! All you need is dried pinto beans, water, chicken bouillon, half an onion, garlic salt, and several hours. Once the beans are soft, you add some butter and use one of my all time favorite kitchen gadgets, the hand blender, to smash them up. I also added a bit more garlic salt to taste.
These were the second best beans I have had (First belonging to Las Fuentes in Reseda, CA). I will absolutely make these again, reduced though as we had apparently refried beans for 50… we ate a lot of mexican food that next week. Also, I used what I learned from this recipe to make some awesome “refried” black beans using canned black beans. I only drained off maybe half the liquid and used the blender to smash them with some garlic salt and cumin. They were yummy and Matt really loved them.
This was very similar to another salsa recipe I tried last year, but less heat. You roast the tomatoes, onions, and peppers in the oven before pureeing them with some garlic, salt, and pepper. It was okay salsa, but it was missing something and seemed a little flat. Matt suggested some lime juice and that did brighten it up a bit, but it still wasn’t right. Chevy’s really does have the best chips and salsa, and while Tostitos Cantina Chips come close, I still haven’t found a salsa that can match Chevy’s.
Frying has been something that has scared me for many year. After gaining more experience and confidence, and Matt’s lovely gift of a heavy duty dutch oven for Christmas, I have slowly been trying frying, first making these wings (which were AWESOME. Highly recommended!). That had honestly been what was keeping me from trying this for awhile, that and the pepper jelly which was a necessary side dish.
Both of these recipes were AMAZING! As in, thinking about them right now is making me frustrated that I don’t have any to eat! The flautas were fairly simple to make, even with the scary frying. I added corn to the mixture because I thought I remembered that Chevy’s did as well and it wasn’t in the recipe. Correct or not, it was a good addition, adding some sweetness. Matt was SO impressed with these and said they were ever better than Chevy’s. We did make these again the next night since I had tortillas and filling left, this time though we brushed them with oiled and baked them. They were good, the filling is identical so you keep all those flavors, but they weren’t as good. For me, the appeal to flautas is the blend of textures, the crunch giving way to the more chewy when you bite into it. You don’t get that with baking them. So I’m very happy I have kicked my frying fear!
The jelly? Okay, totally honestly, the pepper jelly is WHY Matt and I order the flautas. It’s sweet, spicy, sticky, and all around amazing. We adore the stuff! This recipe, is a SPOT ON replica. My only comment is that it might have needed more gelatin as it was a little more runny than Chevy’s but that didn’t matter because it tasted AMAZING! I knew it was promising when I put it aside to cool and caught a whiff and it smelled SO GOOD. So good, that I called Matt over to show him how excited I was. Waiting for it to cool was a test in patience. Thankfully, having experienced the culinary napalm that is liquid sugar (that sucked, let me tell you), I was willing to take the time to make sure it was cooled sufficiently. Then I resisted eating it with a spoon! I really need to figure out what else to put it on!
I’m so happy that I now have these recipes. Matt said it was the best meal I have ever cooked for him! I can’t wait to make them again. Although, I probably won’t make them all at the same time again…except for the flautas and jelly because that is just required by law.
Here is the clip I was “in” on last night’s America’s Got Talent, “my scene” is from the 1:00-1:15 mark. I’m waving one of those little flags next to a really BIG flag on the right in the back. You can’t see me, but I am TOTALLY rocking that flag and the dance.
*****
While I am writing this on April 23rd, I’m not allowed to post it until June 5th… so I just want to get as much down now while it is still fresh!
Last week (mid April when you are reading this) a friend, Debbie, asked if anyone would be interested in doing a flash mob with her. (Side note, I met Debbie last year and she is so much fun. She is my friend Cathy’s T.’s sister and they were the reason I did my first mud run. So I don’t know how she learns of all these random fun things, but she does and she is truly a hilarious and beautiful person that I’m so glad that I met!) I answered her with a resounding….Maybe…. I have tried to do the flash mob thing once before and backed out. I have always been a behind the scenes person. Oddly enough, I have often been praised for my public speaking skills both at work and in school, even once being asked to represent in a speech tournament. My response, “I have to work.” “I didn’t tell you when it was.” “Oh,…I still have to work.” While I can apparently function, rather well supposedly, with only my blushing to the color of a tomato to betray my terror internally, I just mentally haven’t been able to handle the anxiety, losing sleep for days before.
While I waited for Debbie to forward on the information, I was thinking about the flash mob, about my backing out of one previously, about that struggle about how who we want to be differs from who we are. I want to be the type of person that does things like that, that doesn’t freeze up wondering what people are thinking, I always have. So why do I let me stop myself? In the middle of my self-psychoanalysis, a quote came to mind: “Do one thing that scares you each day” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt (While this quote is widely attributed to her, and she did have much to say on the topic of fear, there is no actual proof of her ever saying this. But it’s on the internet so it must be true.) And that was the point I decided that I would do it, what was the worst that could happen?
Debbie wasn’t sure she could find a sitter, so we ordered 4 tickets in my name, just in case. Sadly, the sitter did end up being a issue and she wasn’t able to join us. And this meant I had 3 tickets to find homes for. So I drafted my friends Laura, Caitlyn, and Gidget for the task.
Oddly enough, I have not seen Laura in several years. We went to high school together and I probably spent more nights at her house than any other than my own in those 4 years. She always gave the BEST parties and many of my happiest memories involve her. Her and her husband moved back to Cali a few years ago, but outside of a couple of dinners, we just haven’t made the time to see each other, but we were staying in touch on facebook. I don’t know why she popped into my head first as someone that would do this with me, but she did and I’m so happy she did. I also loved that she excitedly said “Sure!” before she even knew what she was signing up for. So our little reunion was certainly a random one.
Caitlyn is my “honorary brother” Ryan’s little sister, which in some weird way make her my little sister. At least that is how I feel about her. We have also become friends in our own right over the past several years, even if she does love to make me feel old. Caitlyn is a talented singer and does choreography for her church, so I knew she was in if she was free. My only worry was that she would make the rest of us look bad since she actually knew what she was doing!
Finally, I recruited Gidget, she teaches at CSUN and she has the honor of being the only person for whom I break my “No work friends as facebook friends” rule. She is honestly one of the most fun and creative people I have ever met. She truly loves life and that beauty comes through in everything she does, whether it is her teaching (at which she is truly gifted) or her little handmade cards and gifts that give Martha Stewart a run for her money.
All three of these women had one trait in common that I knew I needed. All three of them would pull the outgoing part of me, wherever it was, out into view. More importantly, none of them would let me back out, hide, or get lost in my own head. (It’s dangerous in there) So that was our little posse.
Laura, Caitlyn, and I met earlier in the morning for breakfast, knowing that with these things calories would be important and scarce at the filming. Gidget was meeting us down there as she had to book it to an evening class and we wanted to make sure she would be able to make it. We were supposed to all meet at the Universal Lot, after a little confusion on how to find the correct gate, we were finally in a growing line of cars to pull in to the lot.
I gave the security guard our tickets and ID, being somewhat familiar with lot security protocols after countless visits to my dad, but the guard seemed confused. Finally saying, “You’re part of this “flash mob thing?!” No one left anything for any of you, go park over there somewhere” and pointed to 5 minute parking. We parked illegally, because they ran out of actual 5 minute parking since they were just filtering everyone over to the same holding pattern, and I jumped out to go wait at the guard booth. We had a call time of 11am, but it was only 10:40 so I wasn’t worried yet. We also received an email that morning saying that we had until 11:30 to get to the location. Somehow, Gidget managed to get her pass quickly and was already parked.
It was becoming readily apparent that no one had made security aware of this event and they were not happy about it, trying to run the massive influx of visitors on top of normal studio traffic and executives needing to get to meetings. Finally, about 40 minutes later, we had passes in hand and drove off to find real parking. At this point, we were nervous that we might be cut but I was banking on the fact that everyone was held up, not just us. After going up 7 floors of a parking structure, we finally found a spot and it just happened to be right next to Gidget! So all 4 of us dashed off to the elevator and then our awaiting shuttle.
After some standard paperwork, we were given sun block and bottled water and told “It will be just a few minutes.” Again, being familiar with studio life, and theater, I knew this meant, get comfortable. Sure enough, around 1pm we finally started to move into position to be taught our dance routine. It was at this point I started to realize something…
There are two definitions of “flash mob”. 1) the videos you see on YouTube, where a group shows up in a public place, does a performance out of no where and then disappears again. Definition #2 is what it was originally used for, not necessarily a “performance” but just a way to call a large group of people to one spot at a certain time. We weren’t going to be in the park or even in the audience surprising people, we were a giant casting call of background actors. So, while I cannot now cross “Be part of a flash mob” off my bucket list, I can still cross off “Be on TV” and “Be part of a large choreographed routine”.
As an interesting side note, while we are speaking of lists and goals, going in I was trying to keep my head in check and have fun. That meant not taking myself too seriously. I told Matt, “My only goal for today is ‘Don’t end up on YouTube!’ ” As in, don’t go viral, don’t be on Good Morning America on June 6th as “Worse Flash Mob Dancer EVER”. That was my only goal. Amusingly enough, after we all met up and started talking, we found out that Gidget had said something nearly identical that morning as well!! It became our motto of the day, any time we messed up or something we’d yell, “Don’t end up on YouTube!” Later on, they gave some of us small US flags to wave while dancing, and the goal list was becoming “Don’t end up on YouTube” “Don’t stab anyone with a flag”. Then, later when we were asking to run as part of the dance, we were told by “our choreographer”, “When you run, go *around* the tumblers. Do not run into a tumbler, this is potentially deadly. Got it?!” Okay, list was then amended to “Don’t end up on YouTube”, “Don’t stab anyone with a flag”, “Don’t kill the tumblers”…at which point Caitlyn yelled to me, “Okay now this list is getting hard!!!”
The array of people there was astonishing. There were young college students, church groups, grandmas and grandpas, hipsters, etc. They wanted a diverse group and they certainly got it! We all loved talking to different people, listening to conversations, and just in general getting to know people you never otherwise would have.
For the next three hours, we danced, reset, danced again. Rehearsed it a little differently. Changed locations, did 4 more takes. We had technical difficulties and glitches, and lot of laughs. Sure, there were people getting cranky, it was a hot day, but PAs were handing out cases of water. The whole crew was awesome and took amazing care of everyone. I think as long as you understood that was what filming entails, countless takes and resets, then you had the right attitude to participate. That 15 second piece you “saw me” in took over 4 hours of filming.
Physically, though, it was EXHAUSTING. The routine we learned was maybe 30 seconds, we just did it over and over again. When you weren’t dancing, you were standing, which was worse. Not unexpected, but tiring and hard on the back. I have a new appreciation for people that do things like that daily. Oddly, the most exhausting aspect was the enthusiasm, we needed to be UP and smiling and cheering each time, despite the repetition. Even if you are having fun, making sure you really, really, really look like you are having fun every take isn’t easy. My cheeks hurt from smiling so long.
We finally “wrapped” at about 4:20 and Gidget dashed off to her class. Laura, Caitlyn, and I were starving so we hit the nearest In n Out. Can I tell you that a Cheeseburger Animal Style and a chocolate shake NEVER tasted so good?! I had to stop myself from eating every last bite, even if it was well earned. By the time I got home, I think I talked to Matt for about 20 minutes and then fell asleep. I was apparently out so cold that he decided to let me be and didn’t wake me for our Bible study that evening.
All in all, it was a great experience. I got to share it with 3 awesome ladies that all bring out something in me I wish I had more of. We got to be part of something completely random and unique. And hey, we were “On TV!” (for the right reasons). It wasn’t an easy day, and as I write this paragraph on April 23rd, every muscle in my lower body is cramping up, but it was worth it. And hey, I did something that scared me.
*************************
This part I’m writing on June 5th… and is my “reaction” to seeing it.
I got a little worried last night when I was telling a friend where to look for me in clip and I said “Nick is dressed like James Brown and we are dancing in a street” “I think I saw that last week.” “What? No, they said season premier?” “No, I saw that last week on the Voice.” So, even though I had been following the AGT website to see if they used it as a commercial, I hadn’t checked recently. Some quick Googling told me she was correct, it did air last week as a promo during the Voice. Watching it on ET’s website, I got a little deflated. They used a different camera angle so you couldn’t see anyone, not entirely surprising, but sad combined with the fact that it aired last week and I missed it. There was no promise it would air again last night. That was the most disappointing.
Originally, we’d planned to record it at Bible Study and watch it there after we ended, but now I wasn’t sure what would be there to watch. Even though Brian sweetly did record it, I didn’t mention it and left without reminding anyone to watch it. We got home and fired up the DVR, I was thrilled to find that it DID air before. I DID get to see myself on TV…sorta. I know I was there!
And while they didn’t use any of the aerial shots that would have totally included Caitlyn, Gidget, Laura, and myself, instead focusing only on the host (what? he doesn’t get enough air time as is!?), that wasn’t what this was about. It wasn’t about being seen on TV. It was about stepping outside of my comfort zone. It was about doing something I was scared to do and shutting down all those voices in my head that said “this is what other people will say about you.” It was trying to close the gap between the personality I sometimes wish I had and thinking I can’t have. And all of that was done that day before the promo even aired.
One final thought on being lost in the crowd: Talking to Belen, I told her, “There is an upside. They didn’t use that one take where I totally forgot to smile!”
So I got inspired by events from the past week and a presentation I saw today, so all those things I said I’d talk about I’m either working into this framework or putting off even more. Actually, the knee and the food allergy are both waiting on doctor’s appointments in June, so there’s not much more to update there anyway. So what caught my fancy, you ask?
One of the first blog posts I wrote when Jess and I founded this site was an article on why I run, a past-time that has taken up many hours of my life since then for all the reasons that I stated there. Sadly it’s been on the shelf for the last month due to my knee injury, though I think I’m tentatively ready to try a mile or two here and there again. Another interest of mine that I have not gotten to spend nearly as much time on, but has made a resurgence recently, came to mind and I just had to write down my thoughts about it. I looked back at the past year-and-a-half of blogs and realized that the same event prompted me to write a little bit about it last year, but Game Design is only a small portion of what I enjoy. So consider this a semi-sequel to my original running post:
Problem Solving, Risk Taking, and Mortality, or Why I Game
Much like I’ve been asked why I run by various people over the years, I also get the question as to why a (now) 33 year old man would enjoy playing board, card, and video games. Actually, that’s not entirely true, as the running question was often verbalized, while the game question often was conveyed more by look or sigh.
Since we just had my birthday I requested what is fast becoming one of my favorite traditions, a birthday game slash hangout day. Come when you like, leave when you have to, participate in various games if you want, and have good conversations if you don’t want to game. I, being birthday boy of course, got to sit in on all the game sessions (actually, this time, it was largely the same crowd that played games while everyone else talked). We played Space Fluxx, Forbidden Island, and the new DC Deck-building game I bought myself as a birthday present. I also got to play a few more games in the ensuing couple of days as we had house guests and one was willing to play a few games with me in the evenings (the DC game some more and the Star Wars card game that my parents got me for my birthday – yes, I asked for it specifically, that’s the whole point of this post, remember?). Actually, I’m going to detour for a paragraph here to talk about our guests, so if you’re just here for the games you can skip on by.
Yup, for two consecutive weekends (with a stay in Anaheim and Carlsbad in between) we had our friends down from Alaska with their two kids. I will say this, fitting four adults and two children into our condo worked far better than I imagined it would, and the cat actually behaved fairly well both with the visitors and at night when we had to sequester him in our room. We had a lot of fun, especially with the little ones, and it actually encouraged me to maintain a decent bedtime, although that quickly went out the window once they left. We got to spend some quality time with our friends, but also allowed for plenty of family time so Jess and I didn’t feel overwhelmed with constant visitors, and attended outings to Disneyland and the beach. The kids were adorable and well-behaved, even if the youngest one’s default setting seems to often be pout (although it is the cutest pout ever). We miss them a lot and were certainly glad for the visit!
So why do I like to play games so much? Why don’t I feel that games are beneath me; a childish pursuit? Whether they be board games, card games, or video games, it all come down to one things: problem solving. Games all have a set of rules (well, except Calvinball, that only has one rule “You can’t play the same way twice”) to play by and your job, as a player, is to use those rules to win the game. In a fairly new twist there are now games that require all of the players to try and beat the game itself, which are called cooperative games. We played one at my birthday party and had a blast as we barely beat the game and had some great moments of suspense and strategy.
What is it about problem solving that is so important? Well, for me, it represents a challenge to which I enjoy figuring out the answer. It’s actually the part of my day job that brings me the most fulfillment, when there is a problem and I have to figure out the solution. By bringing that experience out of a work situation and into one that is leisurely and generally involves some good friends, well one can hopefully see the appeal. When I draw my opening hand of cards, see my initial board position, or drop into the first few seconds of a video game, my brain instantly starts to analyze my options and formulating a game plan for success. Success does not necessarily mean victory, I play enough games that I know I can’t win them all (which helps me be a gracious loser), but I want to be competitive and put myself in the best position to bring home a victory. I have a couple of shortcuts that I’ve ingrained myself with so that I can play any game competitively the first time I read the rules.
1) Amass resources: This goes particularly for card games where you aren’t trying to be the first one with an empty hand (those obviously have the converse rule – dump as quickly as possible), when the goal is to achieve a certain combination of cards to achieve victory, the more cards you see the better. This has led to what have been dubbed “Matt turns” in games like Fluxx, where I play in upwards of twenty cards over the course of a couple back to back turns in search of the winning combination (this has been eased recently in light of I recognize how annoying it is and the newer versions of Fluxx have done a better job of mitigating my ability to do so – now it typically tops out at about ten to fifteen). In card games where I have the choice of my deck construction, I will generally put as many cards that say “draw a card” in addition to their regular text as they will let me in the deck. More is definitely better in these cases.
2) Be patient: Don’t just play cards or move simply because you have them left. If the game allows you to keep items from turn to turn, then save some for when they may better suit you in the future. You can’t have ten to fifteen card turns in any game if you don’t keep a way to get more cards in the future from hand to hand. The exception to this is the endgame, where you know that anyone could possibly win the game at any minute. This is the time to throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.
3) You’re going to lose: Some people just don’t seem to get this and this both makes them very difficult to play with (for the other players) and less likely to continue playing games (for that player). The funny thing about games is they are just like anything else in life, the more you practice, the better you are. It’s cliche now, but it’s still true: you learn more from defeat than you do from victory. Even if you win you can look at what happened with the other players, did they make any mistakes of which you were able to take advantage? If so, then you know to avoid those mistakes when you are playing. Sometimes going into a game knowing you don’t have a chance can take a large amount of pressure off and allow you to focus on enjoying the experience of the game, which Jess and I were able to do recently (uh oh, I feel a sidetrack paragraph coming on).
While we went to Disneyland with our friends last Monday and Tuesday, we were actually there on Sunday for an entirely different reason. After having asked me for the last several events Jess was able to convince me to sign up for one of the MouseAdventure scavenger hunts through Disneyland. Her usual partner-in-crime was unavailable due to having to take another leg of one of those nasty accounting tests, and Jess REALLY wanted to do one with me. You might remember from my secret project last year (and Jess’ birthday party a few years ago, although I’m not sure I’ve blogged about that one) that I am no stranger to scavenger hunts, and Jess wanted to see if my experience (as well as all the reasons in this post) would couple well with her Disneyland knowledge. About 900 people participate, some of whom are Disneyland Cast Members (MousePlanet, who hosts MouseAdventure, is not Disney owned, thus they are eligible to play), most of which play in four-person teams (Jess discovered the first time that she prefers playing with only two people, less personality conflicts that way), and some of whom simply have ridiculous amounts of Disneyland knowledge (much like my ridiculous amounts of other less-than-practical knowledge). Up against all of that we didn’t pressure ourselves to win, simply to do our best and to finish as much as possible. Well, actually, we did have a bit of a competition going, as two of Jess’ students played as one team, and one of her faculty members played with her family as another, so there is a bit of intra-departmental rivalry there. While the scores aren’t up yet (any time now), we were very happy with our progress and only yelled at each other once the whole day (this is where Jess’ first time-developed pre-apology worked wonders, you just apologize for everything at the beginning and then move on when that kind of stuff happens during the game). We managed to get an answer for every quest (although we think we were wrong on one of them) and completed a good portion of the bigger quests. It was a lot of fun and, if it wasn’t for their propensity for hosting these things on Sundays during church sports seasons, I’d consider playing again.
Ahem, where was I? Oh, right.
4) Look for combinations: Whether it is combinations of moves or card combinations, some things just work out to be better than the sums of their parts. If it is a game you are going to play often, take some time to look at the rules really closely and see how the game elements interact with them. Sometimes the combination isn’t on the cards or with the pieces, but how those elements interact with the rules that are so powerful. Generally if an element allows you to break one of the fundamental rules of the game, then it’s going to be a pretty powerful effect. When you can construct your own deck, look for combinations that compliment each other and further your goals. Our last go-round with the DC deck building game I had a character that let me draw one card a turn when I played equipment, which I then complimented by picking up several copies of an equipment card that let me look at the top card of my deck and destroy it if I didn’t like it. This let me see what my next draw would be and replace it if it was something I didn’t like, which allowed me to thin my deck to my most powerful cards and, when I picked up another few copies of an equipment card that made the victory conditions cheaper, quickly burn through to the end of the game. A couple synergies combined into one really powerful effect.
5) Don’t be afraid to take risks: You thought I just threw that into the title to make it match my running post? It’s a game! Couple this one with number 3 in the list, as there are generally no consequences to losing a game. It’s also why I can have fun at games where the accepted strategy for everyone else at the table is “Get Matt first.” Being the target leads to the development of more risky strategies, as you don’t have time to sit back and develop things when everyone is targeting you. It makes victory all the more gratifying and defeat all the more interesting. I’ve long since stopped taking that strategy personally by the way, because I realized it meant that I had been so successful in the past that I warranted the attention. Even if you are playing a game for the first time, or have been playing the same game for a long time without much success, adding some risky elements to your play makes you unpredictable and my open up some avenues that you had not yet explored and could potentially make you more successful.
I could probably go on at length, but without direction it might devolve a bit (no cracks about it already devolving). If there are more specific questions feel free to ask here or if you see me in person. Of course, that also assumes you made it this far. If you skipped down here from the middle, well, that’s fine too.
And that is why I continue to play games of all types even as I approach my mid-thirties, and will continue to do so for as long as I can. Each game is a puzzle, one that can bring great gratification while not exposing myself to unnecessary risk. We will often play games when we visit my parents for dinner, usually versions of Dominoes or card games like Hand and Foot, and we always have a lot of fun regardless of who wins and loses. In one of the games (we keep a record) I have both the lowest total game score record and the highest single hand record (like golf, high is bad, in fact the single hand record is higher than my lowest total game score record), and I’ve learned to take pride in my epic failures as well as my epic wins (just a little more in the wins, but only a little). As for the mortality part: well, the great thing is that in most games if you die (metaphorically of course) you simply get to restart, often just a little bit wiser.
Weight: 226 Loss: 4 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 210.5 miles (+0 miles) Last year-to-date: 168.5 miles – Words-to-date: 39231 (+2508)
The problem with being so far behind in blogging is that I’m having a hard time recalling specific things about certain recipes. This one, the only thing I can truly recall is what a royal pain it was…
I thought, *thought*, this would be a quick week night dinner to try. Basic pancake batter with a cinnamon-sugar-butter swirl, how hard is that? Pancakes were a piece of….nevermind, they were really easy. The cinnamon-sugar mixture wasn’t hard either, the problem came with putting it on the cake.
If you have ever made blueberry pancakes, then you know the easiest way is not to add the berries to the batter, but to put plain batter in the pan and as one side cooks, sprinkle some berries on the still doughy side, then flip. These work on the same idea. You put the batter in the pan, then do a swirl of cinnamon-sugar mixture, then flip. Sounds easy enough. Nope. She writes in the blog that you have to get the mixture just right, letting it sit at room temperature, mixing it up to keep the butter mixed in…all that. I still could not get the mixture to come out of the bag without glopping all over or clogging because it was too thick and not coming out at all. That was problem #1.
Problem #2. When you flip the pancake to cook the other side… well there is this thing called gravity. Flipping them is easy, but once you do… your lovely swirl that you work painstakingly hard to get out of the stupid piping bag then goes on to pan. Butter and sugar do one thing very well together… caramelize… which can be yummy and wonderful, it’s also approximately half a degree away from BURNING. This does leave you with a really, really cool gap in the pancake since it holds the “Swirl shape”. But this also means that my pan is now covered with burnt butter and sugar what was previously in my pancake. I mix cinnamon, sugar, and butter together, I want to eat it! Not spend 20 minutes soaking it off my pan.
Around the 3rd pancake…. while my kitchen is filling with smoke, (Keep in mind, the pancakes themselves are not burnt, they are quite lovely, it’s only the remnants of the butter and sugar that are trying to catch fire) I yell to Matt, “I do not care if these are the best pancakes we have ever eaten, I am NOT making these again.”
I made 6 in total, topped with the cream cheese glaze, and took a picture of the prettiest ones for the blog. Grumbling and cranky at the whole thing, I finally take a bite. They were good, and they did taste like cinnamon rolls despite the layer still on my pan. Texturally, the gap made by the escaping filling was actually pretty cool.
Matt turned to me and said, “You know, these are pretty dang good.” “No they ar… … …Yeah, they are dang it. Still, don’t get attached!!” Then I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning my kitchen….
It’s been a busy month of May! I’m glad I went on a cooking spree the first week because I have not cooked anything since! Sadly, that means I have about 8 recipes to write up and still no time to do so. Here is the first one:
Edamame-style Charred Peas
(original recipe here, although I have adapted it a bit)
I mentioned this on facebook a couple weeks ago, but this has become a favorite Saturday snack for Matt and I.
First you wash and “de-string” the peas (breaking off the end and pulling it down the side. It just makes them easier to eat). I throw mine on my grill pan, you don’t need to use any oil. I let them go for a couple minutes flipping them when they begin to char. You want them to be cooked but not soft/mushy, so don’t go too long. While they are cooking you make the coating. This is where I had to take some liberties. I remembered to buy the peas, but nothing else, so I had to use what I had on hand. Instead of lemon juice, zest, chili flake, and mint, I used lime juice and zest, chili powder, and cilantro. Once the peas are done, toss them in the juice/spice/herb mixture and season with some Kosher salt.
This is a perfect TV snack! You eat it like you would edamame, using your teeth to take the peas out of the pod, it slows you down so you aren’t mindlessly eating. They are salty, spicy, and acidic so they hit all those same flavors that our normal salt and vinegar potato chips would. You can eat the entire plate and it’s less than 200 calories (I’m guessing that I’m over estimating here honestly). Not to mention all those wonderful healthy things that green veggies have to offer. I started to make a joke about “vegging out” in front of the TV… but decided against it (you’re welcome), but I think that goes to show exactly how tired I am!
Last possible day, last possible minute, this is starting to feel like when I was doing the daily blog last year. I had my birthday this week and a lot of decompressing, including a great party with great people today. All that said, this is going to be another short one. I’ll catch up next week, as I have even more items to discuss, including my first Disneyland scavenger hunt (which is good, the results are due tomorrow). But for now I’m going to use the celebration of my birth (which I’ve kind of been celebrating all week) as an excuse to just take it easy.
Weight: 226 Loss: 4 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 210.5 miles (+0 miles) Last year-to-date: 165 miles – Words-to-date: 36723 (+118)
You might think that after putting together over 6000 words on Ragnar I might have burned myself out on blogging, and that’s why this post is so late (and probably short). Sadly, you would be mistaken, as I think I’d rather be burnt out on blogging rather than having zero time for it this week. Yeah, it’s been a crazy week at work and at home, and I just haven’t had time to sit down and write. Which is, of course, why I’m writing at 11:50 on Saturday night. I’m sure I’ll get into it more later, but we had a outside company coming in this week for a project to update our imaging software, so my work time was taken by that. My home time was taken up by grading twenty seven 2500 word papers for my class so I could get it back to them by the time they took their final yesterday. And the rest of the time was me being a zombie.
There’s several topics I’ve wanted to cover but haven’t had the chance to since I took the last two weeks for Ragnar and was slammed this week. I’m going to list the ones I remember here so that I have them and you can get a sneak preview of coming attractions:
-March Book Review
-April Book Review (Note: Finish April book)
-Knee injury
-Food allergy
I’m sure there’s more, but I’m running out of time and brain cells. Also, the May resolution update will be folded into the June one.
Actually, looking at the list above, it’s kind of sad, so maybe I’ll just jump to new topics anyway. Who knows, anything could happen.
Yeah, I think that seals it, I’m gone. Hope everyone is doing well!
Weight: 226 Loss: 4 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 210.5 miles (+0 miles) Last year-to-date: 158 miles – Words-to-date: 36605 (+289)
This is the blog of Matt and Jessica Worland, covering a wide range of topics from our marriage to our geeky habits. We met in high school and quickly became good friends, the best of friends, and remained that for many years. After 5 years of everyone else telling us that we were “perfect for each [...]more →
And if you want to know why I’ve had James Brown’s “Living in America” stuck in my head the last few days, well you should go read her 
Caitlyn is a talented singer and does choreography for her church, so I knew she was in if she was free. My only worry was that she would make the rest of us look bad since she actually knew what she was doing!
