Solipsistic Drivel

Hello Livejournal. It's been almost a year and you're still around so I thought I'd pop on by and see if something has happened recently.

No?

Oh, well then...

Yes, it's sad but true - I'm still not done school and I still work as a lifeguard with the only differences being that now I only have to finish two papers (i.e. no classes to attend) to get my degree and I'm also the most senior staff member at my pool.

To be fair, though, with this 'world economic crisis' fully underway, I'm not so sure staying at the pool is a bad idea. The delayed school thing is what everyone who gets mildly nervous about actually finishing something significant feels. Or maybe it's just me. That's why I changed the title to 'Solipsistic Drivel' isn't it.

I never really discontinued doing the word of the week for myself. I'd write down words here and there that I'd reserve to look up (even though I knew vaguely but not definitively what they meant) and then tell the swim club kids whenever they remembered to ask me.
Anyway, the obvious word of the week - even if I've already done it before because it's to that point where it's a possibility - is 'Solipsism':

sol⋅ip⋅sism

  <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/audio.html/lunaWAV/S07/S0705600" target="_blank"><img src="http://cache.lexico.com/g/d/speaker.gif" border="0" /></a>  /ˈsɒlɪpˌsɪzəm/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [sol-ip-siz-uhm]
–noun

1.	Philosophy. the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.

2.	extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.

(taken from Dictionary.com - though I've run across some questionable entries... I should really buy an OED - or maybe find an out of print COED)

Rather appropriate for a Livejournal title despite being completely unoriginal.

Anyway, I hope to add more cooking adventures as I have picked up two Martha Stewart cookbooks and bought (or received as presents) lots of cooking and baking supplies! And I don't mean comfort food basics - I mean decent dinner meals. Why just the other day I managed to improvise and whip up a pork roast with mashed potatoes, green beans and a peppercorn sauce. Heh, that's a pretty big improvement from Mac and Cheese, eh?

Hopefully I'll remember to write it all down.

It sure is an Honour to be this stressed out right now. I can't wait until July!

sa·lu·bri·ous   /səˈlubriəs/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[suh-loo-bree-uhs] –adjective
favorable to or promoting health; healthful: salubrious air.

The amount of cheese that Ian put into his 'macaroni and cheese' was not exactly salubrious.

The tofu that Ian used in his stirfry instead of meat was particularly salubrious!

So I thought I was really cool the other day when I bought groceries because I planned ahead and thought that I'd make Macaroni and Cheese tonight. So I went ahead and bought a block of cheddar and a block of Havarti (to mix things up a bit) and all the other stuff I needed (as well as stuff for the stirfry I did that night).

Tonight, I told Brandon on MSN at 752pm that I was going to make macaroni and cheese.

It is now 928pm and I /finally/ have made it out with something that's passible for it.

I've seen my mom and Alex cook Mac and cheese ALL THE TIME, and I had vaguely paid attention so I thought it couldn't be that hard (and it really isn't). Plus Emma had said that she would help me. I shredded the cheese, cooked the pasta, etc etc.

Then came the time to begin the process of making the sauce - Emma had vanished, conveniently. I added a copious amount of butter to the empty pot. I then proceeded to put about 1 cup of milk in, and stirred like crazy because I didn't want it to burn. Then I slowly put in the cheese!

And that's all you need, right?

Well, about 15 mins later I have a very liquidy milky buttery thing with melted cheese on the bottom. 'oh well!' I thought, 'I'll just add the pasta and it'll all come together!' (the exclamation marks do not denote a happy-go-lucky naivete, but more a slightly-panicked 'why-can't-I-do-this' tone). I put in the pasta and started stirring and folding.

Consequentially I ended up with greasy pasta with a ribbon of melted cheese running through it.

Failure.

I was crushed. I actually almost started to tear up because I felt embarassed for myself that I couldn't make a simply mac and cheese. I was really grateful that no one else was around to laugh at me.

So I take the 'mixture' out of the pot and put it into a bowl. I had to salvage this because I put a whole lot of expensive cheese in there and it was NOT going to waste.

I come down to my computer and I look up Macaroni and Cheese on Google. I find a recipe right away. It turns out that I wasn't too far off of the mark, I had just forgotten to put flour into the milk/butter mixture.

I went back upstairs and hoped Emma hadn't come up to check on me (wishful thinking really) when I heard a hum of conversation outside the house. It was Emma's birthday on Wednesday (the 5th) and friends were coming over to party. Seriously, of all the people who I didn't want to see, they came in and Emma came up just as I was starting to 're-make' the food.

I wasn't going to stop and talk, though. So in the pot, I mixed up more butter, milk, and this time, flour and stirred it about. It started turning into the typical... I don't even know what you'd call it... sauce? sauce that I know you're supposed to put the cheese in. That's when I started slowly stirring in the pasta avec ribbon du fromage.

Thankfully it worked and I ended up with very sticky mac and cheese... but I was still disappointed that I was so dumb not to look at a recipe beforehand.

Emma had come up with her friends and noticed the previous error. She even tried some of it (which, technically speaking, wasn't bad because it was just pasta and cheese). I told her to go away and she just laughed at me. I suppose there's no disappointment like your own.

Anyway. Like I said, I managed to salvage the macaroni and cheese. I quickly fried up a hamsteak (to the protest of one of Emma's friends who said that raw Ham Steak was delicious - honestly... what the fuck) and chopped it into it. Added a dash of pepper and some chili powder.

Now, roughly two hours later, I am eating my 'comfort food'.

Inspired by Emma's documentary (and that it's been in various theory articles I've been reading) - though it's technically German:

Zeit·geist      /ˈtsaɪtˌgaɪst/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[tsahyt-gahyst] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –noun German. the spirit of the time; general trend of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period of time.

jPod (by Douglas Copeland [I hope I have the last name right, I can never remember if it has a 'u' in it somewhere]) captures the zeitgeist of Vancouver quite well in it's heteroglossia of cultural and pop references. The part that caught me unawares (and still has me mildly troubled, though I find it hard to explain why) was the death of Mark Jacobson (or whoever) who died by breathing directly from a helium tank. I'm not sure whether that was the real name of the REAL guy who did actually die from doing the same thing, but I remember the article in the paper being stuck up at work to deter staff members from thinking of doing the same. Maybe it's just that that event in the news seemed so... local that I never thought I'd see it in a novel, let alone something I would study in a fourth year english class. Either way. It's quite enjoyable if mildly alarming and frantic. I mean... isn't it alarming that jPod is the zeitgeist of Vancouver? I think it somewhat is.