Fool For Love
Super Bowl Sunday? Eh, who cares about that? Oh, you’re a football fan… Well, you might not want to bother reading this then. Not that I’m bashing football or the Super Bowl, its just that I’m going to talk about something completely different than what you’d expect.
What would I be speaking of?
World of Warcraft’s Love is in the air event of course!
Yep, I’m working on yet another meta achievement for my wonderful Violet Proto Drake mount. Yeah, I could have done it last year and what not but I didn’t care at the time.
I was expecting something like the prior years of the event, however… Blizzard decided to throw us a bit of a curve ball and they made the event completely different. They’ve even added in, yet another, seasonal boss.
This year, we’ve got our wonderful seasonal boss as well as killing mobs for pieces to make lovely bracelets (which we need at least 120 pieces to make 12 bracelets for an achievement). And we’ve got daily quests giving us Love Tokens, which are then used to purchase particular items needed for other achievements.
I am about 50% through the meta achievement. I’ve Flirted with Disaster, had some Dangerous Love, thrown a metric ton of rose petals to earn A Fistful of Love, savored chocolates to pacify my Sweet Tooth, shared lovely bracelets with my faction leaders to show that we’re A Nation of Adoration, played with fireworks to see The Rocket’s Pink Glare, and sifted through a bag of candies to say Be Mine!
Its been a much more enjoyable event this year the prior years, while interesting, required a lot, and I mean a LOT, of time compared to the way that Blizzard has revamped this seasonal event. Its a bit more enjoyable and less frustrating. Its got a lot less to do with luck compared to prior years.
Anyways, my personal goal is to be finished with this event by the end of the week because on February 14th, Valentine’s Day, I’ve got Elders to play with for yet another seasonal achievement.
Fun times, fun times.
02.2.10Swing your razor high!
Musical Theater West a, Long Beach based, theater group has just recently opened their production of Sweeney Todd. I think this has got to be one of my favorite musicals by Stephen Soundheim. Its a story of a revenge bent barber who was shipped to Botany Bay on trumped up charges. This story is purely done in black and white there are no shades of grey in this story, evil is evil, good is evil and good is good.
Now, I remember watching a video of this show from the 198o’s with George Hern as Sweeney Todd and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett. Watching the video I didn’t quite get the whole story but I do remember that it scared me half out of my mind. Years later I picked up the original Broadway cast recording from my brother and I listened to it a little bit more intently and got a much better grasp on the story and I really found myself enjoying the story.
Recently there was a movie version of Sweeney Todd directed by Tim Burton. The story fits Burton’s repertoire very well. He got Johnny Depp to play Sweeney Todd and Helena Bonham Carter to play Mrs. Lovett. I did see the movie when it was released in theaters, it was good but there was too much handed to you too early in the plot. The other thing that kind of bugged me is that it felt more like a rock opera and less like a musical. I totally understand that they had to cut a large chunk of story out because the stage show is almost three hours and they were trying to do the entire movie in about 90 minutes (I’m cutting out the opening sequence and the closing credits). The story was told from start to finish and was rather complete but there were things that I really missed when I saw the movie.
So, now we come to the Musical Theater West production. I went on Sunday with a friend of mine who’d never seen Sweeney Todd before so it was rather fun for me to hear what he thought when it was all over. I was very impressed by the cast, especially considering that I’d never seen the show in person before. The ensemble was amazing, they were all great when it came to scenes like Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir. Nathan Large was great as Sweeney Todd, you really felt his disgust for the Judge and Beadle Bamford. The cast as a whole really made the show amazing.
I highly suggest going to see this show, especially since it closes on Valentine’s Day. Its a great great show too good to miss.
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Protected: Why I listen to my music
Blizzard sweetens the deal with Oculus
That’s right, the dungeon you hate is the dungeon you’re going to want to run until your eyes bleed.
“Why,” you ask?
Simple, Blizzard just sweetened the deal on the loot for the Heroic Dungeon. Now if you’re willing to stick through a random heroic group that happens to get Oculus and you defeat Ley-Guardian Eregos you’ll get your very own shiny new…
Loot Bag!
Complete with two extra Triumph emblems, rare gems, and a chance for the Reins of the Blue Drake (Formerly a Malygos 10 drop).
Oh, and since Eregos now has a chance to fork over the mount Malygos 10 will have a chance to drop Reins of the Azure Drake (Currently and still a Malygos 25 drop).
Oculus isn’t that bad to begin with, okay maybe it was… Well it was back before 3.1 nerfed the Eregos fight by making our gear affect the power of our drakes. After 3.1 Oculus was a cake walk. I think if anyone gets to bitch about a terrible dungeon that needed fixing its got to be, in my opinion, Shadow Labyrinth from the Burning Crusade expansion. Yeah you could do SL pretty fast, if and only, if you had a good group who knew how to keep the pulls coming. I remember spending 3 hours in that dungeon one night…. I shouldn’t be spending that amount of time in a dungeon unless I’m:
- Trying for Achievements
- In a Raid
Yes, taking new people through dungeons means that you’re clear time is increased massively but if people have played through the dungeons as one role the first time through as a different role should be fairly simple with just needing to remember certain bits so you don’t get your self splattered.
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So-Ra-No-Wo-To: First Impression
Sora No Woto Cast
So, I just watched the first episode of the new series So-Ra-No-Wo-To and is it just me or does anyone else feel like this is K-On! kind of re-written with new character personalities and the addition of a few new characters?
If you’ve not seen K-On! then this series will seem relatively fresh. The first episode was rather well written, you’re introduced to Sorami Kanata, the heroine (how she is the heroine is beyond me), as well as another major character Kazumiya Rio.
Sorami is very much like Hirasawa Yui, the heroine of K-On!, although their personalities are quite different they both wander. Yui spent much of her time doing everything except what she needed to do, like school work and learning how to play the guitar. Although Sorami seems much more disciplined, she, is very much like Yui in the sense that she wanders and eventually gets lost and needs to be rescued. Although I have a feeling her character will develop quite a bit before the end of the series.
Kazumiya Rio’s K-On! doppelgänger is Akiyama Mio. These two characters are almost polar opposites of each other; Mio, like Rio, is very disciplined in her work; she helped teach Yui how to play guitar and helped her with her homework. On the other hand Rio is not shy in front of a crowd, where as Mio is terrified at first and then loosens up and embarrasses herself at the end of it all.
| Posted in Anime & TV | No Comments »
Protected: How do you define it?
2009, the final hours
My brother, for Christmas, took me with him to Restaurant Omakase (Japanese for Chef’s Choice) for their New Years truffle tasting menu.
All that I can say after sitting through that is that it was an amazing 5 course meal.
The evening’s meal began with an amuse-bouche of a truffle gougère, which is a savory application of pate a choux.
The First course, for me, was a warm fingerling potato salad, with shaved black truffles, braised leaks, baby arugula, and a black garlic vinaigrette. The potatoes were cooked perfectly and still had a very toothsome bite to them, and the truffles gave an amazing earthiness and a little piquant bite to the whole dish.
Second Course, a pâté foie blond, with brioche, honey, and a perfectly cooked slice of a pear. Now, when I think of pâté I usually think of something very very rich in both texture and body; surprisingly this was not the case with the pâté foie blond at Omakase. And when everything with combined for a single bite it was an amazing juxtaposition of textures.
My Third Course, oh my god is all I can think of when I ate my first bite of it, was Pork Belly with apple and a mustard cream sauce. The belly was perfectly cooked through, perfectly seared on the skin/fat side and was amazingly seasoned. Simply to say, bacon never tasted so good; and yes I do know that Pork Belly on its own isn’t bacon however it is the cut of meat used to make bacon.
Savory truffle cheesecake with twenty-five year old balsamic, the fourth course for everyone who was dining that night, an amazing set of flavors. Sour cream, cream cheese, parmesan and truffles never tasted so good, couple that with the balsamic and it was a party in the mouth.
Fifth and final course of the evening was a chocolate mille-feuille with a slice of pear and a cognac truffle sauce. Decadence on a plate. The chocolate, although being a very dark chocolate mouse, was amazing against the sweetness of the pear and the cognac sauce.
The only thing I felt was clunky during the whole dining experience were the truffles, of the chocolate variety, that we got at the end of the meal. They were just too heavy on the chocolate and made you feel like you needed to drink a whole glass of water to just clear your palate.
Aside from the clunky chocolate truffle at the end, I would totally go back to Omakase for New Years next year and I would definitely try to go at some point during the year before 2011 is looming over us.
| Posted in Food | No Comments »
Beef Tenderloin and Wood Ear Mushroom Sauce
Christmas dinner this year, involved a new ingredient… Wood Ear Mushrooms!
So, here is the recipe I’ve devised for your own personal use.
1.75 – 2 Pound Beef Tenderloin (Tied)
2 Tablespoons Pure Olive Oil (NOT EXTRA VIRGIN, I’ll explain later)
Kosher or Sea Salt, to your liking
Freshly Ground Black Pepper, very light (it burns easily)
- Heat appropriate sized pan over high heat
- Coat the meat with the oil
- Season liberally with salt and lightly with pepper
- Sear on all sides for 30-45 seconds a side.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 (325 for convection) and rest meat for 30 minutes
- Roast meat to 130-135 degrees internal temperature
- Remove meat from pan and rest on a plate
- Keep pan hot on stove and proceed to making sauce.
Sauce:
1 Shallot, Minced
1/4 cup Red Table Wine
1/4 cup Chicken Broth, Low Sodium
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Basket (Yeah, I said Basket) Wood Ear Mushrooms, ~1/2″ cut wide strips
Salt and Pepper
- Continuing on from Step 8 above
- Sweat shallot
- Saute mushrooms
- De-glaze with wine and reduce au sec (almost dry)
- Add juices from plate where meat is resting
- Add chicken broth
- Season and taste the sauce
- Add butter and incorporate
- Serve!
So, why not use Extra Virgin Olive Oil? Its got a very low smoke point, we’re talking 325 degrees (oh wait we are cooking at 350, not good!). Pure Olive Oil, still has a low smoke point in comparison to stuff like canola, but its higher than EVOO by about 25-30 degrees, so less smoke. Which is good! When you’re searing the meat off, run your vent hood or open some windows there will be smoke!
Dear Activision,
Please make Acapella Hero!
KTHXBAI!
P.S. if you need some inspiration watch “The Sing Off”
| Posted in Gaming, Music | No Comments »
Entschuldigen Sie den Staub
Now, in English! (Pardon the Dust)
For some reason while updating the blogging software, my site decided to change to its German settings. Still trying to fix it. Sorry.
| Posted in Gaming | No Comments »