every now and then i remember how anachronistic the name "Microsoft" looks next to companies like Alphabet (formerly Google), Meta (formerly Facebook), or Amazon (formerly Cadabra, and still technically AKA Relentless).
it's a very 80s name, being an abbreviation of "Microcomputer Software" -- and yet, in an era where the concept of a "home micro" (in contrast to a minicomputer or full-on mainframe) has long since been superseded by "desktop" or "PC" in everyday parlance, most people don't really notice its odd, fossilised nature.
Similarly have a thought for "International Business Machines" , another leviathan born in a bygone age, bearing still an ancient name ... I wonder who they're devouring currently...
Also reminds me of how a 1-ton "minigun" is called "mini" because "gun" used to refer to a full-on _canon_ . "Is that a gun in your ... tent, or are you... ah, nevermind"
Unlike other publishing sites’ approach to backups, our goal was to create a useful copy of your blog’s content that can be viewed on any computer, burned to a CD, or hosted as an archive of static HTML files.
Wherever possible, we use simple file formats. Our backup structure is optimized for Mac OS X’s Spotlight for searching and Quick Look for browsing, and we’ll try to use the same structure and achieve the same benefits on other platforms.
Release notes:
Sorry, there’s no Windows version yet.
The output is minimally styled in a plain theme to ensure complete backups, zero external requirements, and a consistent data structure. Custom theme code is included in the backup as a separate file.
To view the backup in a browser, open the index.html file.
Photosets are not yet fully downloaded.
The following are not backed up:
Private tumblelogs
Submissions
Notes
Feed-imported posts
Audio files from reblogged posts
You can launch the app every few days and re-run the backup in the same place, and it effectively performs an incremental media backup: image and audio files are only re-downloaded if they don’t already exist in the target folder. Text content and post data are re-downloaded in full every time.
If you have private posts, be careful if you make the backup publicly available. Private posts are included in a private folder, and their images or audio files are included in the standard images and audio folders.
Are you a programmer? Each post’s XML data, as specified by our API, is embedded inside an easily-parsed-out HTML comment in each post’s HTML file, in case you want to do anything cool with it.
"He implied that I was a fraud. He came up to me and made a statement having never met me just based on what I looked like in a Twitter photo and what I was wearing.
"Despite me working really hard on the content of my videos, I was being judged by how I look and how I dress.
"I thought that being a geek meant that anyone could join the club, regardless of if you were picked last in gym class in high school, or if you don't know how to dress exactly like society thinks you should.
"I thought that being entrenched in this sort of culture meant we weren't discriminated against, but now I'm not so sure."
SPOILER ALERT - this comes from the final section of the movie Summer Wars by Hosoda Mamoru, and this post gives away a minor plot point.
I love the movie for various reasons - the novel world with a futuristic social net, and the various character personalities of the Jinnouichi family - but the main one is about gathering together as a family, and the strength of character of granny Sakae.
Her final letter to her family shows that despite her formal overall demeanour, it was forgiveness and communion as a family that she held amongst her most important values.
As I have posted before, I consider of great importance to a household (of family or merely flatmates) the act of eating together daily, without any distractions like TVs, phones or radio talk shows.
Jinnouchi Sakae's emotional sermon, reminding the family to forgive her wayward son, her own husband's illegitimate child she adopted, and provide food, and reminds us all that in good times as in bad, coming together to share food is the bedrock of family bonds.
"To my family,
First take yourselves a deep breath. Crying and carrying on doesn't help anything. Make my funeral arrangement a simple affair, just our close friends - and then go back to your day to day lives.
I don't have anything to leave you by way of an inheritance; that said, I'm sure my old acquaintances will keep an eye on the Jinnouchi family. No need to worry my dears, you've always been hard workers and I know you'll keep it up.
And grant me this: if Wabisuke should ever make his way back home - he's been gone ten years and counting now, so who's to say if that day will ever come - but if he does, I'm sure he'll be hungry. He never took proper care of himself and probably wont be eating right! So let him have as many vegetables from the fields as he wants, and the grapes and peaches too, he always loved those the best.
I remember the day we first met even now its clear as a bell. His little ears looked just like my husbands definitely his father's son. We walked through the field of morning glories, and I told him he would be our child from that day forward. He didn't say a single word, but his hand wrapped all the tighter around my finger. I was so happy to be giving him the family he needed. I like to think he could feel the happiness radiating off of me.
Never turn your back on family, even when they hurt you. Never let life get the better of you. And if you remember nothing else, remember to find time to eat together as a family, even when times are rough - especially when times are rough. There is no lack of painful things in this world, but hunger and loneliness must be two of the worst.
Thanks to you my precious family, I didn't know a moment of either of those the last ninety years.
Love you all. Goodbye."
It seems incredible, but the IOC has decided to side with Russia’s stance by enforcing its rule against overt political expression - in this case, the stance that anti-gay legislation is politically wrong.
The IOC is meant to help foster better international relations via the organization of the Olympic games, but has dug itself a hole in deciding to not influence the politics of any host country in the aim of “not being about politics.”
It is however not merely naive, but seriously irresponsible to think that organizing an event involving nations - de facto headed by their government representatives - could ever possibly be apolitical, and that individuals would accept an institutionalized ban on expressing their political opinions in a global arena.
Whilst we may continue to petition the IOC against this ridiculous decision, it may be better time spent convincing LGBT-supportive athletes to not go, and vocally say why, and instead host a parallel event elsewhere; encourage sponsors to pull out of Sochi and help build a new Games event, founded solidly on the principles already set out in the Declaration of Human Rights.
It will start out small, it will go against the grain, but anything worthwhile does.
The story of a deli, and the need for coordination
A few weeks ago I was out at the local festival -- it was a warm, sunny day, and the entire town was out. Many second hand stalls were hawking their wares, and every so often along the corridor of pots and books and unwanted bric a brac, a catering van was feeding and quenching the crowds as the music in the centre stage clashed and blended with the make-shift alternative entertainment grounds' percussions in festive brouhaha. A great event altogether.
I decided to take a break with my friend however at a nearby delicatessen that we both enjoy, mostly. I say mostly, as this venue sometimes irks me -- not for lack of good produce (which is excellent) or for lack of pleasant service (they are delightful), but for lack of efficiency.
Situation
The last time we were there, it was nearing the end of the day, the shop was busy and customers were queuing out the door - ordering to take away, ordering to sit in, and buying various items of produce. I was sitting with my friend at one of the tables looking at the menu, and waiting for someone to come clear the table of the items the previous patrons had left.
During this time, I overheard a couple of complaints about mixed up orders, and another couple about still waiting for food or the bill. In the mean time, we had been up to order, and come back, and were still waiting for our table to be cleared and wiped. In the end we cleared our table ourselves to the sideboard, and when our food arrived (after a significant, but not yet unacceptable wait), the table had still not been wiped. We asked for a towel to do it ourselves when we realised it sill wasn't going to happen.
Clearly the onslaught of customers had caught the shop team off guard. There is always a risk of increased influx, that is a reality for any trade that is doing good business. This being a fact then, the handling needs to be thought out properly: a process needs to be in place at all times so that in times of stress, the business can operate at its fullest capacity.
Team Lead
Firstly, the absence of anyone keeping tabs on situations in the shop and coordinating everyone was apparent. Half the staff were taking orders and busying between counter and table, and half the staff were making sandwiches. Everyone was bogged down in their specific task such that nobody was keeping an overview of what was happening overall. Nobody was keeping an eye on the table still waiting for food to check the status with the sandwich makers, nor anyone with an eye out for the patrons still waiting for their money to be taken.
They needed someone coordinating them. It needn't have been the most senior, nor did the title need to be permamnent. But when opening for business, a coordinator needed to be appointed for the duration of the day or shift, and it clearly hadn't been done.
Communication
The lack of coordination meant that nobody knew what each other person was doing, thus how much time it would take to process any new order, or direct attention to the right places at appropriate times. Nobody could say how long service would be other than "we'll bring it as soon as it's ready/as soon as possible."
When there was a problem, the individual to whom it was reported would set about to try and solve it themselves. This might sound like a good idea initially, as a staff member actively attending to customers' needs, but what about the other tasks and orders she was meant to be processing? How was she keeping track of these? And would she easily know how to get all the information needed about the customer she was trying to resolve a problem for?
Communication between individuals of the team should be systematic. For any one question, there should be one best person to answer it, as and where applicable, and decide on the best person to act. The staff can have the best will in the world, but with no framework, they are easily snowed under and tugged a myriad different directions.
Reporting and Feedback Loop
As these complaints were being dealt with by individuals on the spot, there was no scope to step back and take in all the things that had gone astray, and how they were resolved, to build a better picture of how to run more smoothly in the future. There was no review, and without any coordinator, no reporting.
The waitresses were similarly probably not going to list to the rest of the team all the mistakes they'd made in the day, nor spontaneously draft a report to the deli manager -- nor should they be expected to. The lack of of process is the manager's concern. It should come to no surprise that whilst employees will honestly report their mistakes as part of a standard daily review process, they will likely not think to mention what they are not required to.
Team Lead as an Equal in the Team
Finally, it is essential to keep in mind that this reporting should be in the aim of improving the service overall, not singling out individuals. As such, the day's team lead needs to be on equal foot as the rest of the operating team, not above, or aside, but an integral part. They too will have had their share of mistakes, and once they've carried out the task of listing the issues of the day, they can draft a plan of action and tasks to improve operation.
Of course, all staff reporting at the end of the day is not optimal. The importance of the team lead coordinating throughout the day and keeping an eye on all issues here is reinforced. Her colleagues will have been keeping the lead up to date with the issues such that she can, at the end of the day, sum everything up without gathering the team to "confess" in turn in front of one another - which would be felt as demeaning and prove counter-productive.
Process is vital in running an operation of any significance. My most recent visit, last week-end, showed that nothing had changed in the months since my previous patronage. I enjoy the deli's produce, and the staff are always delightful to deal with. I just hope they'll have a process one day.
I've seen some of these, some of them are new to me and have put a couple of things in perspective... I'll check the full 600 at a later date, as it might take a while....!
If I had been there, I'd have probably written:
I need feminism because I still find myself making remarks which I realize in hindsight were sexist - and because of that, I often doubt I could ever be called a feminist.
Yep. I still have sexist knee jerks. I'm working on it though. We're all working on our own re-education. You can always try in earnest to be what you aren't - it's the only way you can change.
And that's why, in the end, I'm sure I'm a feminist. At the very least, it's what I'm determined to be.
Some interviewers hit hard with their questions, and ask real puzzlers. I was once asked, "How many bicycle tyres do you think are sold in China per year?" Wow. But it's not to see if you know the Right Answer (most of the time, there is none) - you're basically being asked to reason the question out loud, or demonstrate a bit of your character.
• "If your friend was seriously injured and you had to get him to a hospital, would you speed and go through a red light?" – Asked at Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (trainee solicitor candidate)
This one is fairly pragmatic. It asks whether you are willing to make exceptions to rules if a life is in danger. Well. Not really. It reveals whether you think things out before giving an answer. The red light is not just a rule - it's a safety precaution. Speed through the red light on a busy road, and you're likely to a) injure more people; b) kill your friend. Then, if you wait at the light, your friend is slowly dying. The crux of the question is another question: why are you driving in the first place? The worst case scenario is that you're somewhere unknown/hard to get to and you can't direct the ambulance service easily. Probably in the countryside.
My answer: call the emergencies service, and agree to meet at the nearest crowded place/well known location if needs be. This done, if on the country road there's a red light and great visibility, and no oncoming vehicles, then maybe at that point I'd expect to be overlooked a transgression for an emergency...
• "Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 100 duck sized horses?" – Asked at BHP Billiton (dry bulk marketer candidate)
I love this one.
A) Ducks can be vicious little buggers. Their necks can reach right round to their backs, and then some; they can fly; they are not afraid of chasing a full-grown human; and they can deal nasty bites. Bring that to horse size and what you've got is a flying raptor -- the famous intelligent killing machines of the Cretaceous, given wings.
B) Horses are fairly docile by human standards. They'd rather flee than fight. In a stampede, if they see something large, they'll work around it. I have yet to come across accounts of aggressive horses that aren't actually defending anything you can't distance yourself from.
The question essentially then becomes: would you rather face the fastest fabled killing machine known to science, or manage a flock of 100 scared puppy-like animals?
• "How many ways can you get a needle out of a haystack?" – Asked at Macquarie bank (senior Java developer candidate)
A perennial favourite and one that I answer thus:
Do you wish to keep the haystack in the form of a haystack? If you do, you'll find it very difficult. Even just sifting through the haystack upsets it some, but if you can get past it being dismantled, sift, sift and sift again.
If not:
1) Why not try spreading it over a pool? The hay floats, the needle drops, use a strong magnet to get it out.
2) If you don't even care about the integrity of the haystack.... trial by literal fire. Sifting becomes much, much easier.
Eventually, the answer becomes: two. Dismantle the haystack, or remove the haystack completely.
• "What makes you happy about work on a Friday evening?" – Asked at Tesco (international deployment manager candidate)
This is a more serious question. From my own experience, Friday evenings (read: after hours) at work are not usually my idea of a fun time, however when I know I have a solution to a problem, or I can see what steps need to be taken to resolve it, or I can guarantee that with a bit of brute-force man-hours the job will be done and dusted and 100% complete, then you can bet your bottom dollar that, provided I have enough tea and noodles, I'm there all night.
In the end I would look at the question as, under what circumstances would you face a Friday evening at the office with energy?
• "Why is 99% not good enough?" – Asked at Parcelforce Worldwide (delivery and collection manager candidate)
This one looks on the face of it as a measure of commitment. "I always want to deliver 100% or it's not worth it" kind of thing. I'd beware of saying anything anywhere remotely associated with that line. What if it's certain that there will be problems along the way? What if it's uncertain the rest of your organisation will be behind you? If you don't deliver 100%, what will you do, how will you take it? And what if you achieve far less than 99%?
99% is not good enough if that's where you set the bar up front. 100% is your target. "Good enough" here to me implies that that is a goal. "If we only deliver the basic features but leave out the bells and whistles we're fine" kind of attitude. This kind of approach wins no prizes.
To put emphasis on this, I would actually put this forward: if a project is handed over to you, and it is clear you can't make 100% because of whatever business reasons (as they happen in the real world) what do you do?
If it is impossible to reach the original 100%, and you must be very, very clear on why, then it is your onus to bring this out to stakeholders immediately and renegotiate a new 100%.
There are doubtless thousands of variations on this topic, and it could probably fill a PhD report. Single out some key ideas, and let your thoughts run with it.
My answer is: because it means you didn't deliver what you truly could.
• "In a fight between a lion and a tiger, who would win and why?" – Asked at Capco (associate consultant candidate)
We'll assume no knowledge of the combat abilities of a lion and a tiger in the wild, nor how or why they got there. We'll assume they have to fight, no other choice. A pit or something. Which one wins?
Well, to be honest, I think a majority would agree that there's a 50-50 chance of either one winning. But that's too short an answer.
Let's perhaps talk about Apple and Microsoft (I'm a techie, but use analogies from your own field at will). Each has assets, each has advantages, each has disadvantages, each has aspirations, plans, markets, user bases, loyalties and so on and so forth. What is true is that they are pretty much maintained at a nice little status quo where Apple has a very powerful niche whilst Microsoft is powerfully serving the masses. Linux has joined the fray, but that's like adding a leopard to our big cat combat -- agile but not powerful.
Or without diverting the conversation, just state plainly that each has their own abilities and that perhaps in certain conditions, one is better favoured than the other, and may gain an advantage. Concluding form the start that there is an evident winner is a disadvantage.
Then, if you have good knowledge of big cats, here's your chance. May the gods help you.
• "How would you explain Facebook to your Grandma?" – Asked at Huddle (sales executive candidate)
Imagine the town square, and everyone sets up a stall, with all their photos and home videos on display, voicing their opinions at the top of their lungs, or boasting how great their lives are.
Imagine the town square where Mrs Jones discusses with Mrs Smith the subject of Mr Brown's favourite pair of trousers -- through megaphones.
Imagine then a salesman roaming this town square, where everything is said out in the open, hawking his wares to anyone he overhears talking about something he can sell to them.
Imagine James Bond's colleagues gathered around, looking and sounding like everyone else, but taping everything and sending it all back to HQ.
That's what Facebook is like. With the exception that people love it, as if they were living a Monty Python sketch in real life.
In response to an article on Slashdot, about how too many smart people are chasing too many dumb ideas, a number of commentators digitally posted their shrugs and the hoots they did not give...
We're not leading the way to change the world, indeed we may not all be able to muster such energy when still trying to sort out our own... it's another thing altogether to say "why the hell should we try?" Some commentators even went so far as to suggest the "big problems" should not concern smart people.
One that stood out to me was the following:
The smart people don't really want to help the lower class. Ugh, have you actually met any of them? Shudder. If anything they should be vexed even more than they are already.
What the smart people want is to be seen as helping the lower class. This gives you fantastic social status (among other smart people, naturally) and ensures that you will be invited to all the right parties. The lower class will themselves not be attending these parties. Again, a five minute conversation with any of them is quite enough.
Why the HELL would you go out of your way to broadly sweep a whole section of population under "they don't deserve our good graces?" Are you actually in the 1% we've been squabbling with this past year-or-so?
Oh hang on, wait - there's also the widening 20-80 divide:
In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. As of 2010, the top 1% of households owned 35.4% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% had 53.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 89%, leaving only 11% of the wealth for the bottom 80%
(Prof. G. William Domhoff, Uni California Santa Cruz)
I added my 2 cents to the thread as follows. Now to see if I get that penny for the thought.
I'd expect nothing less from a 1st world culture in general that says "do what YOU want to do," "find YOUR dream," "YOU're the most important to YOU." Reading the comments on this thread so far, it is evident that we'd rather remain blissfully ignorant and shift the burden elsewhere.
It's gruelling work to sort out the world's problems, and with no one-right-answer, fraught with the possibility of failure, as some commenters here can attest: one commenter demonstrates the core attitudinal problem - it takes effort to connect with someone from a different social background, with different concerns, priorities and fears for continued livelihood, to try and understand the problem, and formulate some answer, ANY answer, but at least to give a damn and TRY; some of us just aren't up to the task (though we can't necessarily be blamed for that much so long as we're not in denial). It's much easier to cater to the quick-wins, the plugged-in smart-phone-wielding, TV-watching, internet-addicted, money-squandering market and keep them happy. Fast money, cheap glory.
The first commenters demonstate the very sentiment under fire, that rather than recognizing that there are much more worthwhile questions to ponder than how to make the next best cheap app on the most expensive phones to date, or how to make their privileged lives even more privileged, they prefer to suggest that Nnaemeka is the whiny my-problems-aren't-solved person. Thing is, privileged netizen, YOUR problems ARE being solved.
Thankfully I too know the kind of people "O('_')O_Bush" points out, those who are toiling away, and even setting up locally successful ventures, to make communities, environments and the Environment better; though it's either an uneven distribution, in terms of attention gained vs actual work being done and achievements being made. I suspect we all know some such people. But we'd rather comment on the "celebrities" than focus on the great things happening on our own street.
We've riled as the 99% against the 1% and the sheer injustice of it all, but we forget that we're still part of the upper 20% that are still quite plumply sitting on another lowly 80%. We are the 20%, and we are unashamed.
Some musings when reading a post on The Vagenda - original article concerning how Page 3 is not about social class, but about basic decency and how the continued practice of publishing such images has far reaching impacts on everyone - not just the girls in the pictures and the people actively viewing them.
---
I thought the censors were doing their job. I was going to suggest having The Sun (and similar rags) rated 18 and shelved out of reach. But I've seen magazine stands lately. There's no such thing as a "top shelf" or "porn out of reach of kids."
I know kids have access to Internet, but it's the difference between whether they seek out the titillation, or have it shoved in their faces
It's the difference between what is socially acceptable to be openly discussed and what is not.
Calling out that a girl could go on page 3 seems more acceptable than suggesting she could do webcam porn part-time.
Men in a pub can discuss page 3 girls openly, or comment on their copy of Nuts or Zoo, but none of them will be so open about what porn DVDs they rent or what XXX sites they have a paid subscription to.
Some very telling examples of why of "our" "lad culture" is so harmful is summed up in the original article:
Let me share a few experiences of The Sun from when I was growing up:
1) 1986 on holiday. I was six. My mum and I were forced to eat our sandwiches on the wall outside the Haven holiday camp café, because two men at the next table were holding up Page Three and loudly talking about how they wanted to 'do that.'
2) 1992 at school. I ran home in tears after a group of builders taunted me by saying, 'You'll be on Page Three when you're older and your tits get bigger.'
3) 1998 at work. A group of men in a pub I worked in compared my breasts to those of the model on Page Three, saying, 'It's difficult to tell - let's give 'em a feel, then we'll know how big they are', before trying to grab my breasts while I was serving a customer.
So much for the nation of gentlemen who are reputed for saying "sorry" all the time.
“There’s a tradition [in our dorm], where we have a hot pot party for anything special. Last year, we only had two or three; but this year we kept having more and more. Before we knew it, we were having one every week.
When we were all together around the hot pot, it made me think, maybe this was the taste of happiness…”
--excerpt from Mizaki's graduation speech, from Sakurasou no Pet no Kanojou
Food is important to me, and eating home-made food with friends and family especially so.
When at university, the last flat I lived in had a rule that each resident would cook food for the rest of the flat, and that we would all eat together. We were a fairly varied bunch, with attitudes, opinions and values quite different from one another. What allowed us to be nonetheless as close as we were, I believe, were these dinners. We all pitched in a bit of money, we all cooked, and we all ate together.
I think there could be no more important practice when living under the same roof as others, as to make a point of eating at the very least at the same time as your cohabitants, if not even sharing the same meal with them. It is around this activity that the rest of the living relationship can be both built and maintained.
I am fairly certain that it is a cultural trait that families in Mediterranean countries still make a firm point of practicing this, and I believe it is still common fare throughout most of Europe and Asia, but I fear it may be lost in Anglo-American society, and certainly forgotten or forgone in non-family cohabitations, amongst students, graduates and young professionals alike. Alas.
In the anime series Sakurasou no pet no kanojou, from which the above image set was pulled, hot pot has featured prominently, and with reason - it is a key tradition amongst the main protagonists, a bunch of highly creative and/or artistic students who live together in a dorm called Sakurasou, who encourage each other along the way, and have to deal with young artists’/students’ hardships, most predominantly contrasting how far natural talent VS hard work can get you, and of course, relationships. The final set of episodes sees them unite their efforts to preserve what they cherish most, and pull out all the stops to maintain their shared dream.
I went through the 24 episodes of the series to find all the hotpots I could. Some eluded me (no close up and no description) but those appearing above, and as described below, are the ones we get explicit knowledge of.
Hotpots in order of appearance in the series:
Shiina’s hotpot: spring onion and tuna
Aoyama’s hotpot (unnamed)
Sorata’s success hotpot: red bean rice and beef intestine
Yuuko’s hotpot: pork and cabbage
Sorata’s first hotpot (unnamed)
Newbies’ hotpot: spring onion and tuna (with head)
A very heart-warming monologue, from one of the protagonists, her graduation speech, recollecting the granted wishes, attained dreams of finding friends, and building trust in Sakurasou, is available here (Japanese subtitled in English) - spoiler alert: it’s from the penultimate episode.
True gravy, proper deglazing, and "cheat" sauces...
I have no doubt that a good gravy, or sauce, can transform a dish entirely. However, it's not all stock cubes and instant gravy powder. In fact, obtaining a perfect gravy is just as easy without those artifices - you just need to have prepared a tiny bit before hand.
This post will be divided into thee sections:
Gravy from roast meat
Deglazing after frying
Cheat sauces - when you've not roasted or fried anything
Gravy from roast meat
Obtaining a gravy from a roast is as easy as adding water to a pan. Nearly.
Before roasting, chop some tough vegetables, such as onions and carrots, and place these in the roasting tin. If you have a rack on which you'll put your roast, spread the vegetables out evenly in the pan; if not bunch them in the centre and rest the meat on top of the vegetables.
After the first 10 minutes of roasting, add boiling water to the roasting tin - about 1/4in or 1cm deep.
Every 20min or so, check on the liquid level, and keep it topped up with boiling water.
Once the meat is done roasting, remove the meat to a carving board/plate etc. Pour the liquid and vegetables into a small saucepan - you'll notice that there is fat from the roasting of the meat. This is a good thing. Therein is contained all the flavour from your meat, be it lamb, pork, chicken, beef or otherwise. Reduce this on low heat for about 5min, add salt and herbs to taste. I tend to add one or two tablespoons of crème fraîche to this to give it extra texture and taste, but that'll be up to you...
You now have a gravy. See? No instant stuff.
Deglazing after frying
This technique is a little more involved, but just as easy. Once you've fried your meat (steak, chicken, lamb, etc...) and it's out of the pan, you'll notice that there are charred remains and globules of oil and/or fat. These are what will make up the core flavour of our sauce.
Deglazing is about unsticking and bringing together the fat and charred pieces - and we do that by adding a liquid. Strictly speaking, boiled water - 50mL worth (about one or two shots, depending on what your measure are like) - should suffice. You can also use such things as red wine, sherry, or even rum to do this. Go wild. Use about 25mL for the spirits. Or whatever.
Bring the pan back onto a low heat and add the liquid, stirring and gently scraping the pan with a wooden spoon (avoid scratching non-stick pans - removing the teflon coating is particularly bad for your health if it gets into your food, and ruins your pan). When the liquid is coming to a simmer, add a knob of butter, and gently swirl this into the pan. Salt and pepper to taste, and reduce further until the liquid is not quite so runny.
Tadaa!
Tip: make yourself some pre-made sauces! I deglaze after frying anything (within reason - maybe not eggs). Specifically, I deglaze after frying bacon in the morning, but using crème fraîche instead of butter. Instead of using the sauce immediately, I keep it for later to pour on a pasta snack later in the day. Tastes like carbonara :-)
Cheat sauces - when you've not roasted or fried anything
One thing I used to do in pubs was to order chips ("fries") along with some pepper sauce that normally comes with a steak. I detest ketchup, and mayo is not really my thing. The question then is: how did they get a steak sauce without cooking a steak?
Now is the time to use the instant gravy. But not on its own.
In a frying pan or sauce pan, add a teaspoon of olive oil and about 50mL (one or two shots worth, again, depending on your standard) of liquid stock obtained however you wish - stock cubes, pre-packed stock, gravy granules. Bring this to a simmer and add a tablespoon or so of crème fraîche, and stir this in completely. Add herbs and pepper etc to taste.
It is now done. Serve in a dipping bowl next to fries, or simply pour onto pasta, rice, potatoes, refry bread in it... your call. It's already fairly unorthodox anyway.
Today I gave my students a quick presentation on some of the basic considerations for composition, which I am now sharing with you! I’ve given them separate talks about color and tonal value/contrast, which are also super important compositional concerns. (I’ll be sharing those presentations too once I properly format them)
I personally love learning about different compositional techniques. It’s fun to think about the ways that the brain views & sorts images, and how we can trick it into feeling a certain way or looking at certain aspects of an image first! It’s easy to fall into compositional ruts (which I am also guilty of) because a lot of art gets by with mediocre, though serviceable, compositions. If you can generally understand what’s happening in an image then it’s generally fine. However, it’s the truly great compositions, where everything in the whole image has been considered and ‘clicks’ together, that bump up an illustration to a visual slam dunk. NC Wyeth is one of my favorite artists for this reason: his compositions are rock solid, varied based on the image’s intent, and always enhance the mood or action he is depicting.
For extra reading, some online compositional resources that I’ve found helpful or interesting include:
Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis (download it for FREE. Such a great book all-around.)
Gurney Journey (check out the “Composition” tag, but really everything he posts is great)
The Schweitzer guide to spotting tangents
Cinemosaic (a blog by Lou Romano with some truly WONDERFUL compositions captured from various films)
Where to Put the Cow by Anita Griffin
Lainey's talk at TEDx screams bullshit at its finest. Trying to describe gossip as a so to speak "high-brow" occupation, Lainey tries to make gossip look intellectual by inserting questions about social acceptance of gays, approaching the topic of women's rights, and pointing out that even the ancient Egyptians were doing it
On the particular point of the Egyptians, she didn't even give a context for the text she was paraphrasing - it could have been a parable (so a warning tale - maybe even homosexuality was being used as an "evident crime" plot point), a biography (probably gossip then, or defamation), propaganda... who knows? And did the people aside from the scribes really give a damn? Because she then goes on to claim, from this, that gossip reflects the social more of society as a whole. I'd rather not be lumped in with her vision of what society is in its entirety...
The additional questions and discussion Lainey adds otherwsie are of course most welcome - but they are not found in the gossip rags and around the gossip tables. If anything, gossip rags reinforce our prejudices, sensationalize the mundane, and demonize people who we should be trying to understand. Gossip leads to (sometimes false) accusations and witch-hunts. Gossip amongst friends about other friends facilitates the spreading of misconceptions, if not lies. The examples Lainey gives are prime examples of that behaviour.
Below are some of the topics approached
Kirsten Stewart cheating on [Edward's actor] - Lainey claims that in this maelstrom, gossipers are discussing and sharing their morals -but it's more like gossip is reinforcing the woman-in-her-place ideal. "How dare she? She got the perfect guy." Good for him, he got a promotion. Shame the slut.
Celebrities with babies become massive talking points - taking jubilant celebrities' talk about being mom as reference points is... sad. This isn't information, it's gushing. From the celebrity side it's plain vanity. From the media side, it's a marketing opportunity.
Forgiving abusive men - again, the talking amongst the fans is reinforcing the prejudices rather than leading the discussion - witnessed again in the promotion of the violent men, shaming of women.
Travolta and the male masseuse - are gossipers really saying "let's reconsider our viewpoints on the meaning of being male?" Lainey clearly states that the discussion is focused on 1) potential loss of fan confidence in the image, 2) damage to profit and marketability. Acceptance of homosexuality? Who said that?
Lainey remains a subject, not an observer. I'm waiting for her sociological study. In the mean time, I call bullshit.
Now that I think about it, I'm no longer sure whether the joke is that it's obviously one or the other, or whether it was indeed intended to be an insightful jab at the idea that "balls do not a man make."
Given their penchant for the absurd, I still think they were pointing at the former idea (1970's awareness, folks!), but the Pythons being also the open thinkers and upheavers of All That Is Established, I think there's room for redefinition... :-)
Verses, Food and Tech @versefoodtech - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
dededos
areudirty
vaporwave
turnnoffyourmind
titsay
jacobvanloon
