didn't fuck this up

I don't usually cook whole birds, other than the game hen I made a few weeks ago and quails I actually like to eat often. but at the st. Lawrence market on saturday, there is this dude selling organic chickens from his farm (turkeys too). when I walk by his stand every weekend, it reminds me of the excellent roasted chicken meal I had at the tropps' right before I moved to toronto. I have been wanting to get one and roast it, but cooking a whole bird for one person is just not as fun.

but yesterday I decided to give it a go, I bought the smallest one he got, about a 3 and 1/2 pound bird. they are not cheap, about 60% more than a china town bird, and they don't come with the head or the feet, but they do look more plump and healthier. following jim's protocol (I had a brief conversation with him before I did it), I have to say, it came out as well as one can expect. The skin can be a little more crisp, but dude, did it taste good. The whole thing was juicy, nice full chicken flavor. the quick sauce I made from the pan juices was pretty unnecessary. I inhale half of it in like 15 minutes. I think I pass out while reading probably an hour after that.

i don't think it can be said enough about how much pleasure can be derive from things that are extremely simple, if you are open to it.

we are the losers

my beloved huskies just lost the apple cup to the hated fucking cougars. and we are 0-11 so far this season with one more game to go. if it was any other year, I would be really pissed off, don't get me wrong, I am bummed, but with so much else is fucked in this world, being a loyal fan to a shitty team is not the worst thing.

a good thing

two serious post in a row, sorry, it is winter.

thousands of Iraqis protests on the streets of bagdad yesterday against the security pact that Iraq is signing with the US.

there is no question that the war has been a fucking disaster, even worse than my friend joe disaster, that is saying a lot. but at times like these, you have to find something that doesn't smell in the shit pile.

the fact that the Iraqis were able to peacefully and freely demonstrate against something they didn't agree with, I think is a small step towards progress. There still might be a civil war, there is still possible of total collapse of peace, but I really hope they are headed towards something better.

25 billion for what?

listen to some of the clips of the hearing happening on capital hill in which the CEO of the auto makers trying to beg for cash in a surprisingly defiant tone, like we owe those guys for fucking up their company. I have all the sympathy for the workers, after all, we all need jobs to feed our families. But how was this the right way to beg for money? it is like they have all taken lessons from the homeless people in san francisco.

I don't know the details of the american history, but hear me out. before the construction of the great interstate highways, the railroad companies were like the car makers today, Big, powerful, profitable and employed tons of people. But over time, with the cheap gas, the romance of the open road, and actually good cars being made for their time, the car makers became the railroad companies. I am not sure if the CEOs of the railroad company went to congress to beg for cash, but big rail company went away eventually. A portions of the goods are still transport across the land on rail and we still got amtrak and regional commuter trains and they were all probably subsidized by the federal or local government. But the big railroad giants were no more. The car companies didn't or refuse to evolve with the time, and it pass them by, now tons of people have to suffer for the mistake of the few who were supposed to know what the fuck they were doing.

I am to dumb to offer you a solution, I am just saying we have seen this before, and I believe we will come out okay. We may not be able to enjoy the things we once did as god given rights, but we will survive.

shit, this sort of talk is way to heavy for this blog, I need to get out more, but it is freezing outside.

......

so the value of canadian dollar has gone down about 30% in the last six month, the temperature has not crack above freezing in three days, and I currently can't run experiments (the magnet is getting an upgrade), I heard it was 80 in san francisco just a week ago. fuck, what is wrong with this picture.

there is one good thing I can think of when it is this cold, you can chill your soda or beer by simply leave them outside for a while, oh, wait, I live on the 51st floor and I don't have a balcony.

I need a drink

fuck this

there were a few flakes on sunday, but it is snowing for real right now. People said winter in toronto is not that bad, or you get use to it after a while, bluh bluh bluh .... fuck those people. I don't care how you look at it, this fucking blows.

lisa and chuck

Had them over for dinner last night, not for any reason in particular, but sort of celebrating their recent engagement,

thus I wanted to pour sparkling for the first course (curry squash and leeks soup), LCBO has truly horrendous selection of sparkling wine. No grower champagne I saw, no American sparkling of any kind. The champagne they had were all pricey shit from big houses that don't really interest me, especially not at upwards of $100 a bottle. A couple of Australian, one or two procesco and that was it. Then I spotted this ontario rose sparkling from Henry of Pelham that was not too expensive, and it turned out to be quite nice, if fairly straight forward.

we then had a alsatian riesling with roasted monk fish and a super Tuscan with the wild mushroom risotto (great chantrelle, yellow foot and gypsy mushrooms from the saturday market at st lawrance, not fucking cheap though). I thought the meal turned out well, mostly because I didn't get drunk until after the risotto was served.

congratulation once again, chuck and lisa.

McMahon Hall

the place I live in right now reminds me a lot of the dorm I lived in during my freshman year in college. Both places have pretty good views of a lake, both places are really high up (only on the 8th floor in McMahon, but the building itself is on a pretty steep hill), and a lot of really inconsiderate and immature fucking people live in both buildings.

back then, the building was occupy by 18 and 19 year olds, so it wasn't much of a surprise that the place was a fucking disaster. but this place, people pay decent amount of money either to buy or pay rent to live here, I assume they are responsible adults who got jobs and shit like that. but obvious I am wrong. I am sure there are a lot of nice clean people live in the building, but there are definitely quite a few douche who don't have any respect for other people or shared space and resources.

I feel old

ismrm

for the last like 7 years, a wednesday in mid november has been somewhat more notable than other wednesdays. It is the deadline to submit abstracts for the scientific meeting attended by MR geeks in the following spring.

the meeting next year is in hawaii, to be honest, as much as I love hawaii, it is not that great of a place for conference, honolulu is just too much of a tourist trap for one. That being said, how the fuck do you pay attention to anything in a meeting when you are in hawaii.

plus, this meeting is just getting a little too big, too many presentations, too many posters, it is just really tiring.

don't tell anyone, but I wouldn't mind if my abstracts are not accepted .....

new day

if the country is a person, today will be the beginning of the rest of his or her life,

if the country is a person, he or she is waking up from a really bad, bad nightmare, you know the kind that cover you in sweat,

if the country is a person, he or she if emerging from a nasty divorce from a abusive spouse, someone who is violent, deceitful, dishonest, and someone who spends way too much money on useless shit and steals from you, basically an all around douche,

if the country is a person, he or she is quitting he or her dead end job, finally after 8 years of discontent, decided to start over, doing something that he or she will be much happier doing, even if making a little less money,

if the country is a person, today is the day the exterminator coming to the house to take care of the problem that has been bugging you for a long time but too lazy to deal with,

i am out of ideas already, but you get the point,