Category: Consciousness

Retail therapy

I’m back at work. I’m still a bit sick. With my camp induced man flu. And I’m feeling a bit of “cold induced blues”. The best treatment for this condition is to buy something stupid. Like a novelty shirt. Or an oversized coffee machine.

I’m open to suggestions.

Polar expedition


Last weekend Hilton and Justina (Robyn’s sister and her husband) came up to visit. It was a surprise (for Robyn).

We went to Magnetic Island for a day.

Stopping at the region’s best restaurant – the Barefoot Art Food Wine, and getting all tropical with a coconut… Here are some photos – and here is a photo summary of the day.

How to eat a coconut

Step 1. Find a coconut

Step 2. Find a big stick and whack the coconut to remove the outer shell

Step 3. Remove the husk – this is a three person job

Step 4. Retrieve your big stick and split the coconut. 

Step 5. Eat the coconut

OCC Episode 2

I was asked in the last post whether I was aware the audio was so out of sync – no, I wasn’t. But I don’t think it makes much difference given the production values are what they are…

Also, I make no apologies for the terrible voice overs – we were on a budget.

YouTube Twosday: Turtle power

Little sister number 2 is 21 today. It’s her actual birthday. She is contemplating a pet turtle as a present from the parentals – here’s a little bit of persuasive multimedia propaganda… featuring our crazy ninja turtle Frankie.

Camp photos

It seems I can’t go anywhere without my camera these days.

I’ve decided I’m far too excited by sillhouette photos and photos with the sun in shot. And clouds. Clouds are fun too.

I also, strangely, find this picture of shoes compelling enough to make it the “album cover” for my Picasa album.

Block party

It seems my blog-off rival, the dazzlingly insightful Ben McLaughlin knows which side his blog traffic is buttered on – he’s joined the Tetris loving fun – pointing to Google’s 25th birthday tribute… which looked a little like this

Higher heights

Well, I was expecting to see a spike in visits thanks to that bookofjoe linkage so I checked my stats. And there was a spike – though not from bookofjoe – instead it comes from this German? site (translated). 777 visitors. From an article about Tetris featuring this translated passage:

“Even a Tetris Olympics is on the way.Real Tetris fans will Gesumse not all that upset. They sing the song to the peddlers.And wait for the next block. (Detlef Borchers) / (It / c’t) “

I’m the “Real Tetris Fan” linked there. Bookofjoe has so far produced nine hits.

New heights

I feel like I’ve hit blogging gold. After all these years of meaningless toil it appears that the “World’s most popular blogging anesthesiologist” over at bookofjoe has visited my site – because I’ve scored a link.

Awesomeness.

Check it out.

Blog Off: Update

Simone now has 19 posts (including a post that essentially amounted to her reposting my Sizzler toast recipe…)
Ben has 26 posts. All of them original.
I have 50. I’m going away for the long weekend though – so I suspect the others to put on a bit of a lead (remembering that I’m now on 0 after knocking over the 50 post handicap).

Stylised Sarcasm

Interesting idea. I’m going to recode my website so that when I am being sarcastic I can use HTML and CSS to indicate it. Sarcasm will, when I’m ready to launch it, come out in blue. Or something.

Someone suggested that a Sarcasm tag be included in the next HTML standard.

Big red A

This symbol is not an indication of quality on the blogosphere but a declaration of atheism.

Just so you know. I found out because “The Barefoot Bum” deemed my propositions on atheism worthy of his attention. And ridicule. His link to my post read “another mole to be whacked”…

Another Something…

Is it cheating/not in the spirit of things/unethical to flag your opponent’s blogger blogs as having inappropriate content? 

The joys of self hosting…

Vanishing Vanishing Point

Some blogs rise to the occasion – some fall apart at the first sign of pressure…

Blog off: Running Tally

I’ve just checked out the competition in this little blog off, and I’m quietly confident. Well, loudly confident if the truth be told.

Simone: 9 posts

Ben: 14 posts

Me: 28 posts (29 including this one)

Do check out the competition – and as far as the rules are concerned I’m on -22. They get a 50 post head start.

How to make Sizzler’s Cheese Toast

It’s winter. Winter in our house means soup. Soup needs bread. The best bread for soup is Sizzler’s Cheese Toast. The best cheese toast is the stuff you make at home. Here’s a handy guide to making Sizzler’s Cheese Toast at home.

I was a Sizzler employee for some 16 months and gleaned some little bits and pieces of information that will make emulating the trademark toast possible (though it’s never quite as good).

I took these photos with my iPhone so they’re a bit grainy.

Ingredients

  • Frozen thick cut bread – and I mean really thick cut… doorstop style
  • Enough butter – softened but not melted to put a 2mm thick spread on each piece of bread you intend to cook (Sizzler’s website says they use margarine).
  • Parmesan Cheese (quantity depends on how cheesy you like things). I used 200g of powdered Parmesan with 500g of butter. You can also make acceptable “pan bread” by skipping the cheese, if you don’t like Parmesan.
  • A frypan heated to around 160 degrees

Directions

  1. Keep the bread frozen at all times prior to cooking – this is seriously important.
  2. Mix/beat/stir the Parmesan cheese into the butter until you have a smooth paste with an even texture.
  3. Spread the butter/cheese mix on the bread – and when done put it back in the freezer, you might think it’s a good idea to store them butter sides together in the freezer. It’s not. Your best bet is to separate them with greaseproof paper.
  4. Heat the fry pan – use either a non stick pan or a pan treated with some sort of cooking spray – oil and butter are out, they’ll throw out the balance. You want a moderate heat, the bread is thawing on the pan and you want the cheese to be a golden colour. I’ve settled on about 160 degrees on the electric frypan and three quarter power on the stove.
  5. Put the frozen bread spread side down on the pan.
  6. Cook the bread on one side until the uncooked side is thawed, squishy to touch, and slightly warm.
  7. Your cheesy toast should now be ready.
  8. Repeat.