strange radiation: the pool of radiance archive
Adventures with an unreliable narrator.
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Jan 28 03: paging Miss Austen
I was coaching tonight, so I missed the “President’s” big speech. Frankly, that man puts me into such a state of high dudgeon that it’s just as well. (Although sooner or later Mom will call to discuss it and, having missed it, all I’ll be able to say is “uh huh…right, I…uh huh…mmm.”)
Wait, why was I writing about this? Oh, right. Because Neil Gaiman said a funny thing in his entry for today (1/28/03). If you’re one of the seven people who reads this journal, and you don’t read Neil’s, well, you should. He is an author and general clever guy: wrote some groundbreaking comics, a TV series for the BBC, the English screenplay for Princess Mononoke, a number of award-winning pieces of fiction for adults and for children, and all kinds of other things. He is one of my Big Heroes.
pole positionsI’ve changed my mind. Newest first.
am I blue
Oh, and it’s seriously, ridiculously, unspeakably cold here in New York. As I type this it is 9° F, but the wind makes it feel like -3°. Every time I leave the house, I find myself thinking about Paul’s tales of Oberlin, Ohio and “five-minute flesh freeze” warnings on the radio. The landlords have compensated by cranking up the boiler, so we could probably raise prize orchids in the living room. But outside the air is crystalline and all you can feel of your face is your eyes, which hurt.
Jan 27 03: ten days
Right, where were we? Major data points of the past ten days: film (Adaptation, structurally brilliant and narratively satisfying, even the bits that were unsatisfying on purpose; Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, structurally less mind-blowing but a better movie). viruses (“GI Joe,” a 36-hour site-specific work by N. Fluenza). swimming (the One Hour Swim, in which given item two on this list I did not expect to participate, but ultimately I achieved 4,335 yards in 60 minutes, just under two-and-a-half miles, which may even be a personal record). work (some freelance stuff to various sources, and further developments towards work for the AMNH, stay tuned). farscape (yes, I’m a geek. but it’s one of the best things going at the moment and I curse the suits at Vivendi, if they’re reading this).
all I ever wanted
Paul and I are planning possible getaways after the Britten War Requiem performance in early April. Thinking about the UK, because we can do it more cheaply than we could do, say, the Greek Islands. And that remains a plus.Perhaps a tour of these? Hmmm.
deeper and deeper levels
I’ve been meaning to post a link to this page for ages. Yes, okay, Michael Jackson’s face or lack thereof is old news, again, but this page is frankly hilarious.The weirder stuff featured by the same site took me longer to find. Once you leave the MJ pages (don’t miss the hate mail), you discover the rest of it, and then everything starts to feel all sadly. I mean, the bit about the Mysterious Sky Jellyfish is good. But. Once you find the extensive sections on the mysterious secret agendas of Denver Airport, on ‘chemtrails,’ on the many many secret underground bases maintained on American soil by the military / the other military / the alien-military-industrial complex, et al…well.
There’s a part of me that loves to wander these particular alleys of the internet. (Remember, I knew the Raelians back when.) I would love it if the world were revealed to be bigger and scarier and weirder and more beautiful than it officially is. I mean, we all kind of know that it is. On some level. It’s why we maintain websites about the known gateways to hell in the UK. The gateways themselves may not exist, but the act of cataloguing them acknowledges some sort of otherworld, whatever its form may ultimately take.
In light of that, I find it tragic that now all our fantasies about the secret strangenesses of the world are permeated with consipiracy; with the knowledge that none of us will be safe from the knives that are being sharpened even now for our throats; with the conviction that all the secret powers not only wish us harm but can do us harm, have done us harm, and that ultimately they will win. If Lovecraft were alive today, he would love this stuff. But he’s not alive, not really; his body has been sold to the alien conspiracy and his brain screams in its jar nine levels below Dulce, New Mexico. And soon it won’t matter, because they’ll come for the rest of us.
Who knows. Maybe there is the occasional nugget of truly true truth in amongst all that stuff. But I think mostly it shows the broken-hearted quality of this age. Someday our stories will be about better things.
Jan 18 03: endurance
Today I finished a project for the folks back at Clever Island—which means that I get to pick up a check on Monday! Hurrah. And I did another round of work on NYCD, which means…well, which means that I can someday hope to get a check for a little bit more, I guess. Sigh.
But I can endure. I was thinking about endurance today. One thing that you learn as a swimmer is how to survive really long swims, when all you can think is how you’d rather be back in bed or on a beach or reading a book or watching Farscape or anything other than doing a series of 400s in cold water at seven in the morning. What you do is you break it down. Here, you tell yourself. I’ve just gone halfway to the halfway point. Hey, and now I’m a third of the way there. And now I’ve gone halfway through the thing, which means that it’s all downhill from here, right?
Congratulations, folks. We’ve just passed the halfway point for the Bush administration. It’s all downhill from here.
Right?
right
No, I’m not sure I believe it either, which is why a healthy dose of escapism was exactly what I needed. Tonight’s Farscape was fabulous, one of the best in ages, and if you don’t watch it then you need to come over next Friday and watch it with me. Appreciate what you’ve been missing.Jan 13 03: heavy-lidded happiness
Greetings from Post-Prandial Languor, NY. Andrew Chandler came over for dinner tonight. (The delightful Yuri Tanaka was apparently home alphabetizing her 2002 receipts, or something. Her loss.) We made my mom’s semilegendary Chinese Chicken Salad. And, because there’s really no other way to eat mom’s semilegendary Chinese Chicken Salad, we each packed away about three pounds of the stuff. I am swimming in a haze of sesame oil goodness and nonsoluble dietary fiber. Oh, yes.
recipe corner!
Mom’s Semilegendary Chinese Chicken Salad —from Brooke Gieda, and who knows where she got it. Serves three to six, depending on how hungry you are.Wash and dry well:
- 1 head Romaine lettuce
Put in a large bowl—it should have plenty of room left over. (Or put half of it in a bowl, and set the other half aside for seconds.)
Boil:
- 1 full chicken breast, or 1 1/2 if you’re hungry
…until the meat is cooked all the way through. Shred the meat off the bone with two forks. Toss the chicken in with the lettuce and refrigerate.
Fry in vegetable oil:
- 1/2 pack of won ton skins (about 40?)
Won ton skins are generally found next to the tofu in your supermarket’s produce department. Fry them in a shallow frying pan, turning them over one time; they should go from their original floury beige to puffy, crisp, and golden brown in no more than 15 seconds. If you take much longer than that to cook them, they’ll end up pretty greasy, so be sure to get the oil hot enough.
As you have probably gathered, this bit requires vigilance. You can’t multitask while frying the won tons. The skins will keep frying for a moment even after you pull them from the oil, so err on the side of caution. You’ll probably need to ruin a few before you get the hang of it, but no worries: they’re cheap. As they come out of the pan (you’ll only be able to do 3 or 4 at a time), place them atop a sheet of paper towel on a plate to cool and drain.
Once you’ve done that, prepare the dressing:
- 1/4 cup sesame oil
- 1/2 cup salad oil (nothing fancy here; plain old vegetable oil)
- 6 tablespoons white vinegar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 4 teaspoons sugar
Put it all together, stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved, and set aside. It separates quickly, but don’t worry.
When you’re ready to serve, crush the won ton skins into the salad, and add:
- 1/2 cup sesame seeds
- 3 scallions, sliced into thin rings
…to the mix. Now re-emulsify the dressing and dress the salad. Toss vigorously—unless you haven’t been using a big enough bowl, in which case you’ll have to toss with extreme caution or risk covering the kitchen counter (and floor and walls) with salady goodness.
Serve to waiting family and/or friends. Be prepared for everybody to demand seconds and then fight over the good bits left at the bottom of the bowl.
Fall somewhere soft. Achieve state of bliss.
Jan 9 03: panic and hedonism
Well, now I really really need a job. With no Games to focus on rather than considering the material world, I’m now realizing how close to the bone I am coming. Scary. But! The never-ending e-commerce project has grown by leaps and bounds of late, and may even be about to let fall a check; and I dropped off a resume with…well, I won’t jinx it, but with a potential source of intensely cool freelance writing work (okay, it’s the AMNH’s education dept…cross your fingers); and heck, even Clever Island has come knocking.
But while I wait for those things to bear fruit, I might as well go drinking with near-strangers. Those crazy Dopers were back in town this weekend. The Dopers being the denizens of the Straight Dope Message Board, and beyond saying that they frequent the message board affiliated with the Straight Dope, you’ll have to do some research for yourself to understand. First weekend in January is the annual NYCDopeFest, which puts a highly eclectic bunch from around the world into a major metropolitan area and shakes well. Dinners, museums, long discussions, hijinks, beer. What’s not to like?
imagery
The gallery is now open. It still takes longer than I’d like to get the pictures prepped, because iPhoto exports its jpgs at such lush quality that I have to dial them down using something else until they’re small enough to transmit. But that being said I’m excited at how it’s turning out. There are no photos of the DopeFest, for reasons best left undiscussed.There are two albums in there so far; the one with top billing is a thank-you of sorts. The stars thereof are still in the exact same condition they were on the day they were purchased, which was more than a year ago. I keep them on my desk in the event that I feel like adding to the project.
spring ahead
Okay, so I have no money, but that’s not stopping me from considering taking a trip this spring with some friends. I hear the Greek Islands are nice in late March, for instance. Hmm.Jan 1 03: post fest
Final attendance at our New Year’s bash stood at 18. The fun officially began at 7pm, when Peter & Robin called us from Oxford to trumpet 2003’s arrival in the UK. (Hi, guys.) And things only got better from there. Two people brought cucumber salads, for instance. At midnight we went up onto the roof, drank Champagne, and watched the fireworks fountain up above the buildings of Times Square. Somebody left behind a lovely cream-colored fleece scarf. In the kitchen are 34 juice/wine/champagne/manhattan glasses which we will wash tomorrow. Also six unopened liters of tonic water. We’re going to bed now.
What the hell are we going to do with six liters of tonic water? There’s a great deal of delicious leftover snacky food in the refrigerator, too.
next year
Paul muses that his ideal 2004 New Year’s party features only moderate amounts of alcohol and a simple meal. And that we should all be left with a feeling of exhilaration as though we’d come in from a bout of nighttime cross-country skiing through dark woods lit by torches.Anybody with ideas on how this can be accomplished without involving actual woods, torches, or skiing is invited to contact the editor.