...and whatnot

Nothing new…

2009-02-09T06:05:00.001-08:00

I haven’t posted in a few days due to my illness, ha-ha. I caught the flue, or so I think, and I was incapacitated for a few days, but I’m hoping to draw new topic ideas.

I played more chess over the weekend, and I came home with a |
1-2-1 record, which I’m blaming on Nyquil and Tylenol. Absolutely dreadful. I will post the games later in the day. Thursday I’m leaving for the 2009 IHSA Chess Championship, where I will get pummeled by much better first boards; however, I’m hoping to win few games to support the team.

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2085537&size=lg

Chess!!

2009-02-04T20:39:00.001-08:00

Porsche

2009-02-03T16:43:00.001-08:00

I haven’t done a Picture of the Day in a few days so I decided to scrap a couple pictures together.

Week of the burger…

2009-02-03T16:41:00.001-08:00

Twice this week I’ve eaten burgers for dinner, once pork burgers and then all beef burgers. I made the pork burgers from scratch and they were better than beef burgers; I was very surprised.

I sautéed some onions, cut up some dill and threw it all into the meat. Salt and pepper to taste; heat up some olive oil and grill. They taste amazing.

Below are the pictures of beef burgers, which we bought from Jewel.

In the tin-foil are the best tasting onions in the world. I sautéed them for a couple minutes on the pan with olive oil/salt/pepper; then, I made a foil sleeve, and cooked them for about thirty minutes. These were the softest, sweetest, most delicious onions I have ever have.

TMCC February 1st

2009-02-02T15:33:00.001-08:00

This is my first USCF tournament of the year, I went
3-1. Three wins and a loss. Not too bad. Here are my games from the tournament.

Round 1 (1-0)

Position after 20…. Rxd4

I lost this game…

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.f4 dxe5 5.fxe5 Nc6 6.c3 Bf5 7.Nf3 e6 8.Bd3
Bxd3 9.Qxd3 Be7 10.O-O Qd7 11.b4 Nb6 12.a4 Qd5 13.Nbd2 Rd8 14.a5 Nc8 15.
Qe3 Bxb4 16.cxb4 Nxb4 17.Rb1 Nc2 18.Qd3 Nxd4 19.Qxd4 Qxd4+ 20.Nxd4 Rxd4 *

Round 2 (1-0)

Position after 18. Qf5; black resigns here.

1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.c3 dxc3 5.Nxc3 Bb4 6.Bc4 Nf6 7.O-O O-O 8.Bg5
h6 9.Bxf6 Qxf6 10.Nd5 Qxb2 11.Rb1 Qa3 12.Nxc7 Rb8 13.Nh4 d6 14.Ng6 Rd8 15.
Qh5 Be6 16.Nxe6 fxe6 17.Bxe6+ Kh7 18.Qf5
1-0

Round 3 (0-1)

Position after 19…. Qh2+

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bc4 e6 6.O-O Be7 7.Re1 O-O 8.c3 Nb6
9.Bd3 f5 10.Nbd2 dxe5 11.Nxe5 Nxe5 12.Rxe5 Bd6 13.Re1 Nd5 14.Nf3 Nf6 15.
Ne5 c5 16.dxc5 Bxe5 17.Rxe5 Ng4 18.Re2 Qc7 19.h3????? Qh2+

(0-1)

Round 4

Position after 15…b5

An interesting idea and very strong attack comes from Nxd6; white wins three pawns for the piece and can easily gain a mating opportunity. I did not see this, and neither did my opponent (great for me). I end up winning the game a little later after this, but I stopped notation here due to the time.

Delicious

2009-01-31T17:49:00.001-08:00

Fearsome Weapons…

2009-01-30T17:47:00.001-08:00

Comfort Food…

2009-01-29T18:16:00.001-08:00

I was bored and hungry at the same time, and as many people know this is a lethal combination. The hunger gets stronger and stronger with each bull second, and you begin to reach for junky-unhealthy items. But don’t fret bloggers I have just found an amazing sandwich. A concept that has been around for centuries has finally crossed my threshold: a fried egg and ham sandwich… (drools.) Add tomato, lettuce, mayo, and your favorite ham; place it all on toasted bread and dig in…

Politics… can’t live without them

2009-01-29T15:30:00.001-08:00

Oatmeal and raising cookies… but with cranberries

2009-01-29T13:19:00.001-08:00

Dear readers, this is the best cookie I have ever ate, or made for that matter. (except white-chocolate macadamia nut—my favorite.) I tweaked the recipe so that I could use the recipe with the stuff I had at home. It’s a Martha Stuart recipe, from her book about baking…. the recipe calls for maple syrup but I used honey, and it could not be better, or tastier. Baking really brought out the honey flavor. I’m not going to write down the recipe but I will post pictures of the procedure =D

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Tomato, garlic, onions, and pasta, from scratch…

2009-01-29T11:17:00.001-08:00

So today I decided to stay home from school on the account of my back… yes, you heard it right. I feel sixty-five at the moment; when I was picking up my backpack something must have moved or I might have pulled a muscle because it hurts when I move my head up or down. Yes, sixty-five would be a great way to describe this feeling. (No offense to those sixty-five year old bloggers.)

Well as I was staying home school, bored out of my mind and watching reruns on TBS, I decided to pull together what I had at home:

half an onion, sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 can of your favorite tomatoes. (Fresh wood work much better I think)

A fist full of pecans… just enough to taste them later…
Two leaves of basil
Two or three table spoons of olive oil
Half a cup of green onions.
Pepper/salt to taste
Half a pound of your favorite pasta

All these ingredients come out to this wonderfully light and quite tasty dish:

The procedure for this recipe (which I made on the spoof) is of the utmost simplicity. Heat up some oil, throw in the garlic, then the onions. Cook them till they’re soft. Then come come the green onions, basil, cook for about ten minutes. Throw in your tomatoes, pecans and cook them until they’re warm. Add the cooked pasta, and stir until it’s all cooked through. (You might want to keep a cup or so of the pasta water to add to the sauce incase there’s not enough to go around.)

And that’s it. Twenty to thirty minutes and you have a wonderful pasta dish. Keep it vegetarian or serve it with your favorite meat on the side.

Ingenuity

2009-01-28T18:11:00.001-08:00

First Chess Post

2009-01-28T18:08:00.001-08:00

Today I participated in a chess match through my high school. We won substantially though two of our guys lost; the third and seventh board lost. All in all it was a great match.

I didn’t not lose, I play first board. I dominated my opponent in about twenty five moves. (He resigned on the twenty fifth.) If anyone’s interested in the game, here’s the notation:

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.Nf3 dxe4 4.Qa4+ Nc6 5.Qxe4 Nf6 6.Qc2 g6 7.Bb5 Bd7 8.Qb3
Bg7 9.d3 O-O 10.Bc4 Na5 11.Qc2 b5 12.Bb3 Bf5 13.Be3 c4 14.Nd4 cxb3 15.axb3
Bd7 16.Na3 a6 17.O-O-O e5 18.Nf3 Be6 19.c4 bxc4 20.dxc4 Qb8 21.Nxe5 Nxb3+
22.Kb1 Qxe5 23.Qxb3 Rfb8 24.Qa2 Ne4 25.b3 Nc3+

Position after 25. b3 Nc3

*In order to view the game, copy the notation, save into notepad, save as a .pgn, and open with your favorite chess program.

One of those days…

2009-01-27T20:24:00.001-08:00

I did absolutely nothing today. I went to school, etc. Made mushroom soup with my dad, and watched a movie. Oh I took a nap; that was the highlight of my day. I don’t have anything new post about': no recipe or anything else. I’m hoping to have a few posts tomorrow. I’m traveling with the Chess Team, and I’m going to try and post my game. Maybe make some food. =D

So true…

2009-01-27T15:22:00.001-08:00

Cell

2009-01-26T18:15:00.001-08:00

Today in school I had a chance to read about 60 pages of the book due to the fact that there was only about 200 of us there. (us meaning the students who didn’t get a day off for selling raffle tickets.) In these sixty pages I fell in love with Cell. I couldn’t put it down. The characters and the plot, which I absolutely love (it now seems like a zombie spinoff novel—I love zombie novels/movies/etc.) 4.5/5. Everything is explained more in detail, and the story is super fun.

There’s a fifteen year old girl (Alice) with an AK, and a twelve year old boy (Jordan) with a semi-automatic pistol. This story really bring a zombie apocalypse into perspective; because real people have to suffer, fight, and conquer their world from these zombies, and not super agile-grease-monkeys with torpedoes strapped to their asses.

I’m about at the halfway point, and I’m hoping to have it done before the weekend, so I can move unto the five novels I purchased at the Waldenbooks closeout sale. =D

Cutest Picture of my Terrier!

2009-01-26T16:06:00.001-08:00

Leftover Pork with Fried Rice

2009-01-26T14:48:00.001-08:00

Today I came back from school at about 2:30; we had early dismissal, washed, and began preparing my delicious meal: Leftover Pork with Fried Rice!! It was amazing, at least to me. Here’s how I went about producing this recipe.

Ingredients:

1. About half an onion, peeled and chopped length wise. (No cubes)

2. A can of green peas. (Though, I think a half a can would have worked much better)

3. One cup (uncooked) of long grained rice, washed with cold water.

4. Sesame oil (table spoon), low sodium soy cause (enough to cover rice, maybe, 3-4 table spoons), olive oil (table spoon).

5. Three eggs or more depending on how much you like eggs.

6. Leftover meat. (I had “gulasz**” from the night before)

Alright, this is a pretty simple recipe to follow and make this:

First boil water and salt, and cook the rice. Second the heat up the pan with some olive oil (or butter), place the onions in the pan and sauté until the onions are sauce and a translucent (=tasty). When the onions are the right texture and taste (depends on how you like it), throw them in a bowl, keep the oil that gives flavor later. Next put your eggs in a cup or dish and mix them with a fork (like for scrambled eggs). Scramble the eggs (I made them dryer then usual just so they stay together in the rice.) Take the eggs out and toss them in the same container as the onions. When the rice is done strain it (unless you know how to make it, haha), throw it in the pan add the sesame oil and soy sauce. Fry for maybe five minutes; at the same time strain the green beans, unless they’re frozen then you can just them right in. Next add the onions, eggs, and peas and warm it up a couple minutes.

You can toss in your meat or serve it on top of the rice like I did. Either way… it’s incredible.

*This entire I used only one pan!! I was watching PBS the other day, and decided to try this out.

**”gulasz” is a Polish dish; it’s basically meat with sauce, haha.

Picture of the Day 2

2009-01-26T14:07:00.000-08:00

I thought this was absolutely hilarious. The comperisons are uncanny!!

Picture of the Day

2009-01-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

I'm bored again, and I've to decided to publish an interesting picture every day, starting with this one.

Just Bored

2009-01-25T17:35:00.000-08:00

I'm quite bored at the moment and I'm learning all about the hustle and bustle of becomming an everyday blogger.
This is my dog, Lucky, but he looks very cat-like in this picture. He's also lying on Harry Potter bed sheets. It was good to be a kid.

This is the first blog in Picasa. Like I said I'm learning the ropes. Tomorrow I'm going to be making dinner and I'm hoping to have some commentary on that. Yey!

First Post

2009-01-25T17:13:00.001-08:00

I am extremely new to posting my ideas, rants if you may, to the wonderful World Wide Web. This is my first post, ever. I was inspired by a show I was watching on PBS, and thought to give this a shot. Hopefully it all goes all well and I'll be able to pursue this blog at all times. But for now welcome to my blog.

Day1

2009-01-25T17:12:00.000-08:00

So this is the second blog in the history of all blogs... for me at least... for the time being. I've commandeered one of the two digital camera's my house, deleted the pictures, created a new folder on my drive, and prepared my blog.
I'm writing to tell, anyone who's listening, about a book I've begun reading. (I read a few books, and this seems as a good a place as any to vent about them.) This book is Cell by the beloved-best-selling-author of just about the scariest shit out there: Mr. Stephen King. (I'm sure many of you have read at least some of Stephen King's work; maybe you've read Cell, who knows.)
Well, the book starts out pretty casual, (I'm about a third done.) a man, Clay Riddel is buying an ice cream cone. Pretty standard stuff. When this "pulse" (also name of first section) emerges through the millions of cellphones and makes everyone go nuts... They're scratching and bitting, tearing each other limb from limb. And it's all because of a cell-phone signal... Really Mr. King. You wrote the Shinning (scared me shitless)!! And now you're writing a book about evil cellphone signals... Come on.
But all in all, the plot aside, the story is quite extraordinary. The characters are vivid and discriptive, and you really get the feeling of Boston burning. (when the cell carriers go awall it's survival of the fittest.)
It's a sort of zombie apocalypse filled with very smart, cell-phone carrying zombies.
This book reminds of that Family Guy episode where Stephen King pitches and idea about a "killer lamp."
Very riskey... Hopefully when I'm done with this book I'll have a better understanding from which Mr. King is comming from.
I'd give this book, at least so far, 3/5 Stars.