Paul’s Ramblings

The photographic drought has been broken; I have a new camera! After our last camera got stolen I went through the usual process of denial, anger, grief and so on, but then I decided it was time to move on and find a newer model to take it’s place. I settled on the Canon PowerShot G9. There was much debate in my mind over whether to make the move to an SLR, but I decided that the convenience of the compact format was more appropriate at this point in my life. More poignantly, I concluded that I’d rather a compact that has been designed to be the best can rather than an adequate, yet mediocre, SLR.

Perhaps absence has made this heart grow fonder, or caused the mind to wander, but it’s my opinion that Sega Lock-On is a decent game that was dropped before it’s time. On a few occassions some of us have discussed a DIY version of Lock-On but that’s as far as things went. Now that summer holidays are here my mind has had time to wander even further than usual and this time it has turned to the lofty subject of building a better Lock-On.

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This going to sound a bit strong, but I believe I have cracked the code on serving the best chicken fillet. If you can get past the sketchy photo, courtesy of my web cam, you might just stand a chance of learning how to prepare a chicken fillet that will rival that of many a top restaurant. Best of all, you don’t require any fancy or obscure ingredients, in fact you probably have everything you need already, with the exception of just one thing…

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I had just lied down to rest when no sooner did I discover that I was being untruthful.

This week, whilst teaching on the subject of past tense verbs, I discovered that nestled within my instinctive understanding of past participles there lay a dirty secret; I was lying.  The problem lies in the usage of the two differing verbs. A lie is of course an untruth, therefore one could say, “I lie when I say that I said I lied as I had not yet lied”. My error lay in the past participle of lie, to rest in a horizontal fashion, which should read, “I lie on the bed in which I lay before I had lain down at all”; clearly a lie, or perhaps a mere ambiguity.

I feel this matter has now been somewhat laid to rest.

In my old age I’m now discovering that not all advertising can be valued as highly as the Holy book itself. Take for example men’s shaving razors. As an informed consumer I know that two blades are better than one, three better than two, four than three and so on in an exponential fashion. I also know that the purpose of the extra blades is to lift hairs, as I shave, for a closer cut. I am also dutifully aware that the longer the title of the “shaving system” the better the shave and the smoother my face will be; “Mach 3 Turbo Extreme” obviously yields a better shave than “Men’s Razor”. So you can imagine how distraught I was when I recently discovered all of my shaving knowledge was utter bullocks.

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In this, the second instalment of Playing with Paradiddles, I continue to experiment with different variations of paradiddles used for fills across the drum kit. Additionally, I spend way too much time editing and tweaking this video when I could be sleeping instead. Clearly, the funky monkey needs no more Dr Pepper tonight.

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In this, the second instalment of Playing with Paradiddles, I continue to experiment with different variations of paradiddles used for fills across the drum kit. Additionally, I spend way too much time editing and tweaking this video when I could be sleeping instead. Clearly, the funky monkey needs no more Dr Pepper tonight.

I now have a new kitchen toy, for the balcony, it’s my BBQ. At the beginning of winter I saw these little beauties for sale and procrastinated to my own detriment. Now, months later, they reappeared and I snapped one up for $10. There’s nothing quite like a succulent pork loin grilled over hot coals of Carpathian hard woods on a cool night.

This is not a pasta dish, this is a coup! I was recently watching a video podcast from Jamie Oliver’s web site, it featured an Italian friend of his making pasta. As I watched I realised that making pasta is just too easy not to do, so I decided it was time to try; what a revelation!  Let’s just say that fresh, home-made pasta is going on the weekly menu.

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