Proof of Life

I'm still here.

For Miller

BLUF, aka TL;DR -- Mixing and matching cuisines within a single meal. Thoughts?

I forgot I had this site out here.  This might work better than the wall o' text messages. So anyway, here's where my head's at this morning:

I've recently started following a couple of YouTubers.  Tokyo Kitchen and Joshua Weissman.  If you don't know Joshua's story, I recommend you look it up. I think he'd be a GREAT asset to team up with NerdFitness, if possible. He's just as extra as the rest of us and has a great weight loss story. But it was actually a Tokyo Kitchen video that got me thinking.

In her recent post about Torijaga (a fairly simple chicken/potato stew from what I could tell), she ended it with a suggested meal plan that includes the main dish (stew) two sides, a soup, and rice. Her suggestion checks out with what we know about meal planning and plate composition -- she's just doing it with multiple plates. She is actually where I got the idea of including a soup with every dinner, by the way. Bagged salads have gotten us to include one of those with each meal. I think keeping a simple "soup of the week" in the fridge might go a good way towards creating another filling, low-calorie side with each meal.

ANYWAY -- it's the pickles she mentioned that really got the ol' gears spinning. She was counting them as a side dish when I normally would have thought of them as a garnish. How very American of me, right? I like Asian-style pickles, don't get me wrong, I like all styles of pickles if I'm being perfectly honest; pickles are freaking delicious, but as a side dish? This sent me down the rabbit hole of "If I make a big batch of daikon pickles, would I be able to include them as a side dish in multiple meals throughout the week? I don't have a lot of room in the fridge to store them long term. Would I need to do a whole week of Asian food just to make sure they get used? What would happen if I started mixing up cuisines? How much cognitive dissonance is there if I make a vegetable fritata with salsa, with roasted broccoli and Asian pickles as the veggie sides, a small dish of leftover pesto pasta for my starch, and a cup of tomato bisque? Does that fit together? That's not a meal -- it a leftovers night. Is there anything wrong with that?"

I get that dietarily, for weight loss specifically, I really only need to be looking at the caloric loads and portionings. But meals are about flavors, textures, smells, sounds, and experiences. Is there a way to take these kinds of hodge-podge meals and create something culinarily cohesive out of them? I have a chef buddy that works for Publix Aprons, maybe I'll ask him.

In the meantime, I'll go have my snack of kimchi (1/4 cup), followed by cottage cheese (1 cup), followed by beef jerky (1 oz).

Hello? Is this thing on?

*tap tap tap*

Testing, testing. Mic check one two. Mic check one two. I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts. I found the pineapple. The black flamingo flies at midnight, but the white raven doesn't see the moon.

Willful -- Jacket Blurb and Premise Statement

He can alter reality through sheer willpower alone.

He doesn't remember when it started or how old he actually is. What he does know is that he has been a wizard, a messiah, a superhero, a sociopath, a warrior, and a lover. But of all the things he's been, he's happiest with what he is now: a suburban husband and father.

He doesn't use his abilities much anymore. He might save a beloved pet or keep the neighbor's kid from falling out of a tree. However, recently something has changed. Reality is becoming harder to control. Changes that he made are unravelling, snapping back to their previous form, sending ripples through the fabric of reality and shaking-up his carefully crafted existence.

What frustrates him the most is the feeling that these failures aren't random. It's as if reality itself is fighting back with a purpose. but purpose belies intent and intent belies consciousness. 

What is this force opposing him and does he have the will left to fight it? Or, does he even want to?

---

Reality-altering husband and father wants to maintain his idyllic suburban life. But when his powers start to fail and pieces of reality begin to snap back into their original design, he has to choose between maintaining his diminishing control on reality or living his destiny.

Strength

You can lift twice your body weight over your head? You can run 26 miles? You can balance on one foot at the top of a pole as tall as you are? Is that so?

Well, I can hold the woman I love for 4 hours straight as she sobs every last ounce of pain and frustration out of her body, all while smiling and proving to her how beautiful she really is.

I can cook, shop, clean, and maintain a house while the daughter I adore coughs in my face, sneezes on my food, and drinks from my cup when I'm not looking.

I can feed, burp, and rock back to sleep, an angel only days old while having no sleep, no food, a distraught wife, and a sick kid -- yet still revel in the awe and wonder a newborn baby can bring.

So, tell me again how strong you are ...


(Editorial Note: This is intended as a motivational message, not a literal account of events.)

Pains in my neck -- April 2013 edition

Closures, Deferred Objects, Promises, and the ideological differences between Serena Dimensions and Git.

The ONE Comparison You Should Make Today

The only person you should compare yourself to is yesterday's version of you.
(Paraphrased with thanks to Steve Kamb from NerdFitness.com)

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2013/04/04/comparison/