Watch

Thousands of watch alarms screaming in the night, as if to beg utterance to the horrors of night went un-witnessed by the inhabitants of this abode. The shrill piercing of the alarm drives deep into my soul suddenly, at much the same time it always does each night. However, with each watch found, there is another, in some deep corner of the house, which remains hidden, despite all mortal effort. Beep, Beep, Beep. Their tones are equivalent, but their mournful songs are innumerable. Each face broken, arms crushed, displays in shambles, but still crying out in the same ululating dirge for what seems like ages. It makes one consider, however fleetingly, how they got there. Who, if anyone, wore them? How their appendages were broken and left to scream in the darkness until their last gasp of H2SO4 within the battery carries charge. It quickly draws one to the human condition. Crying out simply to be heard; to give utterance not so much to a thought, but to be known, to be watched. To be known of, to be cared for, to be useful to someone other than themselves. A small malfunction separates the lonely device from the universe for the sheer reason that greater powers have decided that a watch is for nothing but to be watched. But the consistent answer is one of rage. The watch, they say, is beyond repair. Far too cheap to justify repair or individual attention. So the watch goes forth once again. Is it really any wonder why they are forgotten? It is set upon a table and forgotten, by all but the one who listens; who hears their sad, nocturnal pleas There is no solace for this listener of watches, for this listener would rather be a listener to television than to mournful watch alarms.

holy updates, batman!

Huh, I've lost all capacity to write about things...Logged onto blogspot and end up with nothing interesting except describing my thought process. I have been reading alot lately. Read both Brave New World and The Emperor of Scent basically in the space of my last update. Both turned out to be great reads. The first I read out of a curiosity, the second I was effectively forced to read, with my mom pestering me nearly every day, I really had no choice in the matter. What I found remarkable with The Emperor of Scent is that it gives a detailed description of the scientific peer-review process. The book is about a man called Luca Turin who advances his theory on how the nose detects odors. His theory is that the nasal receptor proteins act like electron-tunneling microscopes in that they take a molecule and pass electrons through its bonds. The amount of energy the electron looses can be read as a wave number, thus rendering a unique smell. This is contrary to the well established theory that our nose contains receptors for each smell conceivable: one smell to one receptor. His scientific pursuit along with the common personal references and humorous dialog make this a great read. Brave New World was great, as I am a man of dystopian fiction. I feel as though I was connected with the 'savage' character in that I picture myself as a person between established societal extremes of solitude and communal-ism. In the old society in the book, the exclusion from community activities is looked upon as punishment, whereas in the advanced society, solitude and independent thinking is eliminated in favor of continuous activities involving more than one person. That alone horrified me about this dystopian novel. Being forced to be with people all the time under threat of expulsion from the community? Quashing all novel thought with mindless entertainment? Well, that is already on its way, its not being imposed through drugs and public policy yet, but it seems believable to me. That, my friends, is truly terrible. To me, at least. There, that was a pretty beefy update, I am quite proud of myself, readership. Until next time.

"daily"

The whole 'updated daily' thing has turned out to be more of a subjective item on this blog. Hey, but who's complaining? I sure am not. No complaints from abound, so we're good. Well, I've been cooking the last few days. I made a mean stir fry dish for the family, I plan on making it again tonight. I'll post pictures of that later tonight I think. Other plans for the near future are camping on Tuesday, no idea where, and the tour of saints bike ride on sunday. The Tour of Saints is a 50 mile bike trip around the area and every so often they have food and drink breaks, which are usually very well staffed and stocked. That being said, I should probably get back to work...yes...that would be favorable.

Black Beans, White Rice.

I made good on my previous post's promise. I have made black bean and white rice soup without using a recipe, save that I refereced a few ingredients off of the uncle ben's recipe. Taste-wise, it turned out great. The combination of spices I added really helped you forget you were eating something with absolutely no meat. But anyways, here is my recipe I have just developed for a very cheap and simple, meatless, hearty soup.

Zip's Black Bean and Rice Soup
1 cup dried black beans
1 cup dry white rice
2 tablespoons salt
2 cubes chicken bullion
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon cilantro (dry or fresh)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/2 onion

First, rinse black beans well, they come from the ground so they sometimes still have dirt on them. Using at least a 2 quart pot, add 8 cups of water, black beans and white rice. Bring mixture to a rapid boil. Maintain for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently and uncovered. After this, bring the soup to a gentle boil uncovered, this will cook for around 40 minutes, stir occasionally. You should add all the other ingredients ten minutes into this process, including the bullion, salt, oregano, cilantro, garlic and onion. The onion should be very finely chopped. Then, as before, allow the mixture to cook for the remaining 30 mins. Test the bean's texture for softness at the end of the 30 minutes, if they are still tough, add a cup of hot water and continue heating, but cover the pot, continue stirring and checking until desired texture.

Well, thats exactly how I made it this time, the cooking time may be cut down by soaking the black beans overnite in water because I found myself cooking the mixture for a long time specifically due to the beans' toughness. The rice held up very well, and in the end, though it was very soft and squishy, it seemed to fit the bill for a soupy dish. Like I said before, this is a very inexpensive dish, and I'll bet the amount that I made could feed 4-5 people, just with a cup of rice and beans.

Mother Russia

Ate some borscht today, otherwise known as beet stew. It typically isint served as strictly beets, however. Most of the time a selection of vegetables are added, including carrots and tomatoes. The borscht itself turned out to be a fairly bright magenta color until you added a good dollup of sour cream, then it turned a vibrant pink color. With this meal, my brother who had spent the last year in Russia, insisted we take a shot of vodka and chase it with a pickled mushroom, as is traditional in mother Russia. The whole meal was really great, if you havent tried borscht, I reccomend it. In addition to the Borscht, for lunch I had a bowl of Uncle Ben's black bean and rice soup. The box was probably older than I am, but that did not seem to have any effect on the end product. It was quite delicious, which was very suprising, considering it needed no meat in order to accomplish this feat. I decided I need to find a decent recipe for this on my own, as its a very inexpensive and can be a very tasty meal. I might repost the recipe I find...maybe. If you deserve it...Oh of course you deserve it, loyal readership. Adieu!

UPDATE
yes, well, I guess im going to come up with something myself. Its pretty much impossible to find a strictly black beans and rice soup recipe on the interwebs. Maybe ill call up Uncle Ben...